Devil May Cry

Devil May Cry is an action-adventure game franchise created by Hideki Kamiya, and succeeded by Hideaki Itsuno for every game after the first until Devil May Cry 5. The hack and slash series introduced the new subgenre of character action games that ranked style used in combat. It is primarily developed and published by Capcom. The series centers on the demon hunter Dante and his efforts to thwart various demon invasions of Earth. Its gameplay consists of combat scenarios in which the player must attempt to extend long chains of attacks, avoiding damage and exhibiting stylized combat by varying their attacks to express creative, freestyled action choreography in real time; this combat, along with time and the number of items collected and used, are considered in grading the player's performance from rank D to SSS.

The series alludes to Italian poet Dante's Divine Comedy. Hideki Kamiya created Devil May Cry after a failed attempt to develop a Resident Evil game, with the first game originally being conceived as Resident Evil 4. Kamiya wanted to create a game with more action features, which Capcom felt the series did not need, but still showed confidence in the end product as standalone. The later games were directed by Hideaki Itsuno and writer Bingo Morihashi.