As the very first installment in the Devil May Cry series, there are many aspects that would be changed, reworked or phased out in the future games. A few of these also apply to Devil May Cry 2 as stated, especially because it's only until the Franchise Codifier, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, where the series showed significant consistency.
- The manual lock-on doesn't have any visual indicator over the target.
- This and Devil May Cry 2 are the only games in the series that don't have any meter or gauge near the Stylish Rank displayed on the HUD.
- The Vitality Gauge in this game and Devil May Cry 2 aren't segmented, making it difficult to gauge how much meter is added for each Blue Orb.
- In New Game Plus playthroughs, previously-collected Blue Orbs or Blue Orb Fragments within the environment are replaced with Yellow Orbs, unlike in later games where they are replaced by either Red Orbs or nothing at all in subsequent playthroughs.
- The only Real-Time Weapon Change is between Alastor and Ifrit; you must go into the pause menu to select anything else, particularly guns. Switching between the two weapons also triggers a lengthy animation in-between.
- Ifrit is just a pair of gauntlets, as opposed to later Devil Arms like Beowulf, Gilgamesh, or Balrog, which are gauntlet/greave combos. Ifrit's held Charged Attacks are also released automatically when they reach their maximum charge, unlike Beowulf and Gilgamesh's charged attacks which can be held indefinitely.
- Ifrit's Launcher Move, Magma Drive, is a typical uppercut done on the ground. From 3 onwards, the launchers of the later gauntlet-type weapons rise up like Shoryukens as a part of Devil May Cry paying homage to its fellow Capcom franchise, Street Fighter. The grounded version are similar to Magma Drive, so they are not completely different.
- This is the only Devil May Cry game where you cannot upgrade your guns or buy any new skills for them.
- This game contains elaborate monster descriptions (called "Enemy Files") which grow more detailed as you fight them, recording every attack they use against you. The sequels also have Enemy Files, but they only have short descriptions, paragraphs or Flavor Text, and by nature, are static text without the gimmick of recording every attack information.
- The platforming sections don't mix well with the movement physics or static camera. Unfortunately, the movement mechanics and controls are also too sluggish (you could only "dodge" by jumping or rolling sideways, whereas later games from Devil May Cry 2 onwards give Dante more evasive options other than those), or not that expansive (two of the face buttons do the same attacks).
- The game has a few sections where your movement controls are reversed. The swimming sections around the middle of the game puts Dante in a first person mode and his only mode of attack is with the Needlegun. The other two take place at the end of the game, specifically during the first phase of the Final Boss fight and the biplane escape sequence of the final mission.
- There are a total of 23 missionsnote , though some of the levels are very short. Two missions also have an intermission period between them.
- There is no level select, so you cannot conveniently redo previous missions once you cleared them in case you want to improve your rank or missed out on powerups. Even if you do save a different mission per slot, there aren't enough individual save slots for this 23-mission game. However, your orbs carry over upon saving and resetting a mission, making this the only method to grind in the game.
- The revival item in this game is called a "Yellow Orb", while its counterpart in the sequels is called a "Gold Orb" instead. Devil May Cry 1 also handles its game over options differently than its sequels. The lack of a convenient level select and a non-restrictive checkpoint system means that you either have to reload a previous file or return to the title screen if you died without a Yellow Orb in hand, unlike later games where you can easily retry by continuing from a checkpoint if you don't have a revival item. You are also forced to use any available Yellow Orb upon death, unlike later games (from Devil May Cry 3 onwards) where you can choose not to use a revival item. Reviving with a Yellow Orb also takes you back to the previous room, checkpoint, or the beginning of a mission, unlike the Gold Orb in later games that revives you on-the-spot.
- Once Hard Mode is unlocked, you can't go back and do Normal Mode on a New Game Plus until after the former has been beaten. Only then will the game allow you to play on a lower or higher difficulty. It makes Easy Automatic mode even worse because you can't do New Game Plus for the harder difficulties after beating the game in the easiest difficulty, since it defaults on your save file to that mode every time.
- The Super Dante and the Sparda Costume have to be played in a new game, meaning you have to buy moves all over again.
- There are no white orbs to regain Devil Trigger, but Dante can get a full a meter of it back after defeating certain mini bosses or sections when Phantom attacks Dante in a hallway.
- Some red sealed doors have to be unlocked by spending red orbs, while doors that require enemies to be defeated to open are white/gray instead. The games from Devil May Cry 3 onwards would consistently use red doors or barriers for their "kill enemies to open" encounters, and would completely drop the Cash Gate requirements.
- Even though there are 4 melee weapons, Alastornote , Sparda, and Force Edge all share mostly the same move set, only differing in special abilities, damage, or Devil Trigger. Or lack thereof.
- The Force Edge itself is much weaker than a Devil May Cry 3 or 4: Special Edition newcomer will expect after witnessing Vergil's use. Before becoming the Sparda, it lacks many moves like Round Trip and Stinger which Vergil can use with the Force Edge, which Dante had no problem using with any other melee sword weapon. As even Arkham's use demonstrated the Force Edge has immense power even without becoming the Devil Sword Sparda, it's jarring how quickly the player's expected to bench the Force Edge once they get the Alastor.
- When Devil Trigger is active, gun attacks are replaced with elemental projectiles depending on what melee weapon is equipped. None of the later games retain this exact mechanic (Devil May Cry 2 has a similar feature, but it's determined by what's equipped on the Amulet instead of a weapon).
- Devil May Cry 1 is the only game in the series that has unique fatalities performed on Dante when at critical health.
- Devil May Cry 1 has a gimmick wherein the enemies' attack at the end of their Mook Debut Cutscene actually transitions into an immediate attack in-game that damages Dante if he doesn't dodge. Although this is a neat cutscene-to-gameplay transition technique, it is no longer present in later games.
- This and Devil May Cry 2 are the only ones to have no camera control. Devil May Cry 3 and Devil May Cry 4 allowed some control of the camera while DmC: Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 5 allowed full control of it.
- The jump button (X) being switched in the US and EU version of the game. This was later fixed in the HD Collection.
- When standing still, pressing the gun button does nothing on its own. Instead, the lock-on button must be held first in order to fire your guns. The Easy Automatic mode simplifies this by removing the lock-on restriction, which then became a staple mechanic in the later games.
- Dante's DMC1 moveset doesn't include "Rain Storm", an aerial technique where he shoots his handguns downward while falling. In later games starting from DMC2, it becomes one of his trademark / recurring moves, and even his DmC counterpart can do it.
- There is a timer for some rooms when playing on Dante Must Die to let the player know how long they have before enemies enter their Devil Trigger state.
- The game doesn't have a Bloody Palace modenote .
- This and Devil May Cry 2 placed heavy emphasis on gunplay; guns are much stronger in this game and Devil May Cry 2 than in the later games, and the wide variety of guns available to the player creates incentive for them to use it. Devil May Cry 3 made gunplay less important by giving the player more tools to close the gaps between Dante and his enemies and the style system made melee combat more important to maintaining a high rank.
- Dante's trademark sword, Rebellion, is absent.
- The bosses' health bars are located on top of the HUD above Dante's health bar. Later installments moved it below the HUD. This is also the only Devil May Cry game that makes the enemy health bar display exclusive to bosses, unlike most of the next games that display the health bar of any enemy you're locked-on to.
- With the vanilla version of Devil May Cry 3, this is one of the only two games where Dante is the sole playable character.
- The final mission is extensive, consisting of some backtracking before the actual Final Boss fight, followed by a rail-shooter biplane escape sequence in the end. This is in contrast to all of the next games' final missions which are Boss Only Levels.
- At the end of the game, Dante renames his agency "Devil Never Cry". This is ignored in all sequel games where the agency reverts back to "Devil May Cry" without even giving a Hand Wave.
- Within the original continuity, this is the only game where Dante can remain in his human form while in Devil Trigger state; he gains a Battle Aura but temporarily shifts into a demonic appearance only when attacking or performing weapon-specific moves, and then shifts back to his human form when idle. In later games, Dante's Devil Trigger state persistently shifts him into his demonic appearance for its entire duration.
- This game doesn't use the words "twin" or "twins" when it brings up Dante's relationship with Vergil. Instead, Vergil is just referred to as Dante's "brother" in this game. Devil May Cry 3 is the first game that describes Vergil as Dante's "twin" via some dialogue lines and Vergil's Boss File. As the latter game also served as a Soft Reboot to the franchise, it retconned several plot points in the process, most notably the revisioning of Vergil's character.
- Perhaps as a result of being a retooled Resident Evil game, this game has a darker and spookier atmosphere than any of the sequels with Dante being on his own for the bulk of the adventure, the haunting soundtrack and the presence of Apocalyptic Log in the castle. While the horror is present in other installments, it mostly gets overshadowed by the campiness.
- The Game Over text of DMC1 is "You Are Dead", which is based from the recurring "You Died" game-over texts of the early Resident Evil games. Ironically enough, most RE games released since 2002 also use "You Are Dead", while the next DMC games have their own distinct phrases that separate them from the RE origins of the first; there's "Your soul is doomed." for DMC2, "Rest in peace" for DMC3, "Abandon all hope..." for DMC4, "The last judgment draweth nigh..." for DMC5, and "Game Over..." for DmC.
- Another element of Resident Evil that made the transition was its surprising reluctance to using coarse language. Dante's "Flock off, feather face!" is seen as a clever pun of the F-word because he's talking to a giant bird, even though DmC: Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 5 outright mention the word "fuck". The word "Hell" is also used in the rest of the series, and is an alternate name for the Demon World. In this game, the demon world is instead referred to as just "the Underworld".
