"Devil May Cry," representations of hell, and trends in storytelling

There have been a lot of different kinds of media that pull on different stories/interpretations of hell, the underworld, hades, whatever you want to call it. I wrote earlier about Hades, and it certainly pulls on Greek Mythology in how the game chooses to represent this place of the dead. Devil May Cry, for some reason, does believe in some kind of underworld as well, but it is a bit different than what can be seen in the more common stories. In Devil May Cry, demons are invading Earth, and you have to chain ridiculous beat-'em-up combos together to just... absolutely obliterate them.

https://devilmaycry.fandom.com/wiki/Dante, Dante and Vergil in their iconic "Jackpot" pose.

In terms of campy-ness in games, the Devil May Cry series really stands at the front. It's so over the top, to the point where you can use a motorcycle to juggle enemies mid-air, all the while a meter on screen will let you know that that combo you just pulled off has earned you a style rank of "Smokin'!" This game really does not take itself seriously in the slightest, even up to its latest game being released in 2018. It is a fast-paced, action-packed, gun-slinging, sword-swinging, just insane game that oozes flair.

So it may be a little bit surprising that this game takes a lot of inspiration from the Italian poet Dante Alighieri--specifically, his work the Divine Comedy.

In Devil May Cry, you mainly play as the main character Dante as he goes on his way killing demons--a bit different than the Dante we know in the Divine Comedy. This Dante isn't trying to ascend and meet God. Quite the opposite, this Dante is pretty much motivated by pizza and trying to find the demon that killed his family (Dante's brother's name is Virgil, by the way). Seemingly, besides the similarities with the names and the demons, the Divine Comedy doesn't have much else to do with Devil May Cry. But I'm not so sure.

The nature of a lot of action-adventure games is representative of something akin to a hero's journey. Epic poetry, similar to the contents of the Divine Comedy, is marked by similar themes--we follow Dante as he makes a treacherous trip through hell (sort of), and as a result he becomes stronger and more resolute. In both cases, a hero goes on a journey and faces conflict and becomes stronger. Not to say there aren't differences of course--one of these Dante's uses guns and swords to kill demons, and the other kind of just gawks at the misery of sinners (I'll let you guess which is which). There's a difference of setting and a difference of personality. I'm sure if these Dante's swapped, the Divine Comedy would probably have gone a lot differently. And the Devil May Cry series probably would've ended a lot sooner.

So what's the point of having these small ties to a classic piece of literature? Well for one, its probably to draw the audience in with familiar names and concepts. There's also the argument of something that is so widely reinvented/retold (like Hell, as a concept) that it just becomes a sort of set-dressing to tell different kinds of stories. Personally, I lean towards the latter. Its a fascinating trend that something similar to a stereotype with characters can also be applied to the setting of a story.

Hell, rather than a concept to be feared (eternal damnation and all that), has transformed into something more akin to a conventional method of telling a story. Devil May Cry, despite its differences in story, connects to a larger category of religiously connotated environments in all kinds of media.