Devil May Cry (Japanese: デビル メイ クライ Hepburn: Debiru Mei Kurai) is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed and published by Capcom, released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2. While the game primarily focuses on swordfighting, the player gains new weapons after beating the game's bosses resulting in a variety of combos to perform.
Set in modern times on the fictional Mallet Island, the story centers on Dante, a demon hunter who uses his business to get his revenge on the demons after losing his brother and mother. He meets a woman named Trish who takes him on a journey to defeat the demon lord Mundus. The story is told primarily through a mixture of cutscenes, which use the game's engine and several pre-rendered full motion videos.
The game was originally conceived in 1999 as Resident Evil 4. Due to the staff feeling it would not fit the Resident Evil franchise, the idea was scrapped and was made its own story. Devil May Cry received prominent coverage in the video game media due to the impact it had in the action game genre, its high difficulty and the high overall scores which many professional reviewers concluded to be one of the best and most innovative video games of all time. The game has sold more than two million copies. and spawned multiple Capcom-developed sequels and prequels.
