3 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About the Devil May Cry Series

Loosely Based on The Divine Comedy

The Devil May Cry HD Collection launches today for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The special package contains the first three Devil May Cry games from the almost 17-year-old franchise, so here are some cool facts about the series you may not have known about.

Something you may not have realized is that the series is loosely based on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, a 14th century Italian poem which is considered one of the greatest works of literature. The poem follows Dante, the protagonist, and his journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. While Devil May Cry does not retell its story, it does allude to it through the characters and enemies. For example:

• Dante – named after the author
• Vergil – Virgil
• Trish – Beatrice Portinari
• Lucia – Saint Lucy
• Trismagia – Satan
• Furiataurus – the Minotaur
• Geryon
• Cerberus

Originally a Resident Evil Sequel

The first Devil May Cry began as one of the earliest incarnations of Resident Evil 4. Hideki Kamiya, now co-founder of Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames, became the director of a planned Resident Evil sequel for the PlayStation 2 with his development team, dubbed “Team Little Devil,” after Resident Evil 2 shipped for the PlayStation in 1998.

Kamiya’s idea was to make the new entry a more “cool” and “stylish” action game with a dynamic camera system, rather than the prerendered backgrounds and fixed camera perspectives of past titles. The team even traveled to the United Kingdom and Spain to take pictures of Gothic statues and buildings. Producer Shinji Mikami eventually nixed the idea for straying too far from the survival horror genre, and opted for the project to become its own game.

Devil May Cry launched for the PlayStation 2 in 2001, while Resident Evil 4 launched for the Nintendo Gamecube on Jan. 11, 2005 with a PlayStation 2 port later that year.

There Was Almost a PlayStation Portable Game

The Devil May Cry series first began on the PlayStation 2 for the first trilogy of titles, then released for PC and Xbox systems with Devil May Cry 4 and DmC: Devil May Cry. The series has always been a big console affair with its fast-paced action and quick combo timing, but a handheld entry was initially planned.

The PlayStation Portable, Sony’s first handheld console, launched in 2004 for Japan and 2005 for other territories. Sony revealed a list of Japanese games coming to the PSP at E3 2004, with the Devil May Cry series making an appearance on the list. No official title was given, though other games in the same list had tentative names as well.

No other details were given about the portable devil hunter until 2009 when it was apparently cancelled. While no screenshots or bits of gameplay ever surfaced, Capcom did release Devil May Cry 4, as Devil May Cry 4 refrain, for iPhone and iPad in 2011. Dedicated buttons are not the same as virtual touch screen controls, but is the closest to mobile devil slaying one can get.