Best way to play Devil May Cry 1-3 on PC ?

[Bahamut]

Play 3 first anyway cause it's a prequel and then really realize how much better it is than 1 (do not play 2 at all it's complete garbage, and also apparently canonically at the end of the timeline.)

5 is last in timeline

 

[janior]

Play 3 first anyway cause it's a prequel and then really realize how much better it is than 1 (do not play 2 at all it's complete garbage, and also apparently canonically at the end of the timeline.)

 

[J_C]

Play 3 first anyway cause it's a prequel and then really realize how much better it is than 1 (do not play 2 at all it's complete garbage, and also apparently canonically at the end of the timeline.)

Thanks for posting this clip. This looks worse than I ever thought.

 

[Cat Dude]

DMC is technically better than Devil May Cry 4. It has better graphics and more realistic animation. Even running animation looks unrealistic in more recent ones Devil May Cry 5.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

It also has shit bosses, shit enemy design, it's easier than DMC1, it's campaign is higly less fun than DMC4 (even despite 4 being an unfinished game) and a gameplay mechanics much more shallow than DMC3.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Play 3 first anyway cause it's a prequel and then really realize how much better it is than 1 (do not play 2 at all it's complete garbage, and also apparently canonically at the end of the timeline.)

Thanks for posting this clip. This looks worse than I ever thought.

To be fair, you could make most games look just as retarded with the same kind of editing. God Hand is a fantastic game, but it'd look pretty shite if you just showed clips of enemies standing around doing nothing on the lowest difficulty.

 

[Sjukob]

Battle with Phantom in DMC1 might have the worst camera I've ever experienced in video games.

EDIT: Alright, I got to the second fight with griffon and it's even worse. Were they even trying ? Or at least thinking ? How is this shit acceptable ?

 

[Damned Registrations]

Well, that was pretty much the start of this sort of genre. I think there was even initially an attempt to use tank controls in it, because resident evil devs or something.

 

[Sjukob]

Well, that was pretty much the start of this sort of genre. I think there was even initially an attempt to use tank controls in it, because resident evil devs or something.

Oh that's not the first time I'm reading something like this, but what about Severance then ? It was released even earlier than DMC1 and didn't have such problems. To me it seems like the root of all the troubles is that DMC is a console game, that's why there's no free camera, firearms have to be switched via menu, enemy encounters are extremely limited etc. I like the game, but everything good about it is caught in a tight clutches of said issues, it's even more annoying to deal with it when you know that it could've been better if the developers weren't set on making it a console game.

 

[Momock]

Oh that's not the first time I'm reading something like this, but what about Severance then ? It was released even earlier than DMC1 and didn't have such problems. To me it seems like the root of all the troubles is that DMC is a console game, that's why there's no free camera, firearms have to be switched via menu, enemy encounters are extremely limited etc. I like the game, but everything good about it is caught in a tight clutches of said issues, it's even more annoying to deal with it when you know that it could've been better if the developers weren't set on making it a console game.

It's also because japs couldn't deal with free camera, they have motion sickness far easier than caucasoïds. So they had to find ways to make 3D games with fixed cameras or minimal movement/tamk controls.

 

[J_C]

Well, that was pretty much the start of this sort of genre. I think there was even initially an attempt to use tank controls in it, because resident evil devs or something.

Oh that's not the first time I'm reading something like this, but what about Severance then ? It was released even earlier than DMC1 and didn't have such problems. To me it seems like the root of all the troubles is that DMC is a console game, that's why there's no free camera, firearms have to be switched via menu, enemy encounters are extremely limited etc. I like the game, but everything good about it is caught in a tight clutches of said issues, it's even more annoying to deal with it when you know that it could've been better if the developers weren't set on making it a console game.

DMC originates from Resident Evil. When Capcom was developing RE4, they pushed it in an actiony direction. But when they saw that it won't work as a Resident Evil game, they continued its development as a separate game, thus it became Devil May Cry.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Well, that was pretty much the start of this sort of genre. I think there was even initially an attempt to use tank controls in it, because resident evil devs or something.

Oh that's not the first time I'm reading something like this, but what about Severance then ? It was released even earlier than DMC1 and didn't have such problems. To me it seems like the root of all the troubles is that DMC is a console game, that's why there's no free camera, firearms have to be switched via menu, enemy encounters are extremely limited etc. I like the game, but everything good about it is caught in a tight clutches of said issues, it's even more annoying to deal with it when you know that it could've been better if the developers weren't set on making it a console game.

Severance came out a few months before DMC, by that time they were pretty much finalizing the game. So they wouldn't have changed the camera on such a short notice, and let's not forget that using free camera controlled by an analogue back in 2001 wasn't the standard common sense that it is today. Plus unfortunately even back then Severance wasn't in anyway a popular game, adding to that the fact that PC as a platform was still years from being a serious thing in Japan, and most likely Severance just went by completely unnoticed.

Also when it comes to Hack 'n' Slash games IMO you can divide them into 2 categories: the ones with relatively slow movement speed and high commitment attacks wich punish the player for being careless and impatient (like Severance, Dark Souls, Nioh, Mount & Blade, Mordhau, For Honor, Dark Messiah, etc...); and the ones with fast paced combat and low commitment that reward aggressiveness and speed (like DMC, Ninja Gaiden, God Hand, Bayonetta, etc...).
So while before Severance there were already some games like it, there was nothing like DMC before DMC.

The camera system in that game plus the emphasis on athmosphere and interconnected level design is also a relic from the game's early development as a Resident Evil game.

But yeah, most of problems the game stem out from it being the first in a new type of action genre and hardware limitations (or the devs inexperience with the PS2 hardware since DMC was of the first games for the PS2).
For example haven't you noticed that when enemies spawn, they are always enemies of the same type and not different (for example you never see marionettes and shadow cats in the same room, you only see either marionettes or shadow cats). It's because either the PS2 had some weak memory, or the devs just weren't yet good enough to to optimize the game for the PS2. This is also the reason why DMC1 is still the only game in the series were all enemies have both ranged and melee attacks. It was the devs way of going around this memory limition to make sure every enemy has a diverse enough moveset to challenge the player.


ninja edit:
wow holy shit, I got so carried away by this I didn't even notice how fucking long the post got

 

[Sjukob]

DMC originates from Resident Evil. When Capcom was developing RE4, they pushed it in an actiony direction. But when they saw that it won't work as a Resident Evil game, they continued its development as a separate game, thus it became Devil May Cry.

The camera system in that game plus the emphasis on athmosphere and interconnected level design is also a relic from the game's early development as a Resident Evil game.

Yeah yeah, I know this and that certain RE features made it into DMC. And to this day I still don't understand how did developers think it was ok to make controls and camera like that. It's probably the biggest reason why I'm never touching any Resident Evil or Silent Hill game.

For example haven't you noticed that when enemies spawn, they are always enemies of the same type

That's what I meant when I said

enemy encounters are extremely limited

In the end I think that there might've been reasons for those implementations and since it's an old game it's pointless to complain now. If you do some digging you can find that making games for older consoles was putting a lot of restrictions on them, developers even mentioned various "technical tricks" they had to do to make the games work. But I've never been a console player, so I don't understand why would anyone be willing to work with inferior hardware, just fucking make your games for PC, man. And of course there is that dumb stereotype that certain genres are better suited for consoles and gamepads, huh. It always sounded like a complete bullshit to me and I have yet to see something that could've proved me wrong.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

But I've never been a console player, so I don't understand why would anyone be willing to work with inferior hardware, just fucking make your games for PC, man. And of course there is that dumb stereotype that certain genres are better suited for consoles and gamepads, huh. It always sounded like a complete bullshit to me and I have yet to see something that could've proved me wrong.

Again, PC has only in these last 4/5 years become a legit gaming platform for japs. Until this point the PC for them was a work tool, only westerners and guys that played those hentai games used PC to play games.
Also fightining games are definetevly better on gamepad than kb+m (you don't see any of the pros playing with kb+m).

 

[Cat Dude]

But I've never been a console player, so I don't understand why would anyone be willing to work with inferior hardware, just fucking make your games for PC, man. And of course there is that dumb stereotype that certain genres are better suited for consoles and gamepads, huh. It always sounded like a complete bullshit to me and I have yet to see something that could've proved me wrong.

Again, PC has only in these last 4/5 years become a legit gaming platform for japs. Until this point the PC for them was a work tool, only westerners and guys that played those hentai games used PC to play games.
Also fightining games are definetevly better on gamepad than kb+m (you don't see any of the pros playing with kb+m).

Pros only play fighting games on arcade fighting joystick. For me it feels much easier to pull combo using keyboard than gamepad.

 

[Damned Registrations]

There are pros that use gamepads as well, though it's not as common. None use keyboards AFAIK.

Gamepads really shine in games with obscenely complex controls like Armored Core. You can put a dozen different commands in reach without having to take your fingers off anything. With a keyboard you'd need to stop turning, or strafing, or firing or hovering or backpedaling or something. With a gamepad you do all that shit at once and also eject a weapon or use the overboost or fire chaff etc. KBouse excels for something like an RTS or FPS where you need precise control of your cursor and quick access to many other controls but only a few at once. And most games it doesn't matter because the dexterity ceiling is way below what either type of control can provide.

 

[Sjukob]

Well, if you say so, can't argue about fighting or armored core games due to inexperience.

Anyway, back to DMC1. Fighting nightmare made me want to kill somebody, all thanks to camera. The boss is just a pile of vomit with very predictable attacks, but camera makes the fight really annoying, and sometimes when you want to attack the runes Dante turns around and focuses on the boss instead. I ate like a million hits, but still survived without using any items somehow. It was the most disastrous boss battle so far.

When I was at mission 10, I thought that I liked the game enough to try and play through all the difficulties without using items, but it seems like hard and dmd increases enemy's damage to such an extent that you can be killed with 2-5 hits or even just 1 combo and that is with fully upgraded health. Having to restart the level because camera decided to fuck you up is not fun.

 

[Great Deceiver]

PCSX2 has terrible input lag and I'd never recommend it for any action game.

I finished God Hand on it. There was no noticeable lag. Source?

There are countless threads on the PCSX2 forums complaining about input lag; of course measures of input lag vary wildly according to display and other variables, but my own estimation there is a delay of at least 150-200ms in most cases (which is 9-12 frames per second), which I consider unacceptable.

Here's a completely unscientific and methodologically questionable video, but nonetheless it gives a general ballpark idea of the problem.



I've tried every video plugin under the sun, every setting, and every input plugin (including the obscure ones such as Pokopom Pad which ostensibly include a "high priority" mode).

This sort of delay might have been acceptable 10 years ago, but nowadays with things such as Run-ahead in Retroarch bringing emulation delay under actual hardware (1 frame as opposed to 2 frames), it's very difficult to overlook. I play RPGs and less demanding games on PCSX2, and while it is possible to play action games (I don't doubt you finished God Hand, the human brain is very good at adapting to circumstances), I just find it extremely distracting.

Try playing DoDonPachi: DaiOuJou on PCSX2 and comparing it to, say, FBA under Retroarch with 1-frame runahead. The difference is night and day.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

Here's a completely unscientific and methodologically questionable video, but nonetheless it gives a general ballpark idea of the problem.

Here is me testing the same on a knock off brand wireless controller on a piece of shit laptop. The lag is minimal, I am sure if I switch to a wired controller even that will be fixed.
Excuse the quality of the vid as it's on my rubbish phone.

 

[karoliner]

Just play 5.

 

[Ivan]

Goddamn I want God Hand on pc....

 

[flyingjohn]

Goddamn I want God Hand on pc....

Just use a emulator,even toaster pc can run it well.

 

[Ivan]

Goddamn I want God Hand on pc....

Just use a emulator,even toaster pc can run it well.

False, I had big FPS problems with it. YMWV. Fingers crossed Capcom brings it over

 

[Sjukob]

I finished DMC1 normal mode, it was pretty much a faceroll, 98% of time you can tank attacks with your face or just be stupid and still live, only a couple of places require you to not be dumb. A cool game overall that is screwed over by camera, there are a couple of dumb design decisions, but I don't think they really spoil the game. I might write about my experience if I have enough time and autism, but for now I want to mention that if you decide to play DMC1 you should roll with PS2 emulator. Fuck that HD collection ! It has issues with graphics, sound (check out video link in OP) and also it doesn't support old AMD processors (I just happen to have one), which means that the game won't start at all unless you use SDE emulator, which in turn adds a lot of other problems - lagging cutscenes, FPS drops and some other shit (like massively increasing flow of game time and fucking up your mission rank). Using PS2 emulator is also much more convinient, since you will have access to savestates in case you want to practice fighting certain enemies or bosses without having to restart the whole level. I'm definitely playing it one more time to see what hard mode can offer.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

I finished DMC1 normal mode

Good. Now play DMC3 already. Whether you want to use style switcher or not for the first playthrough is upto you.