10 Video Games With Bizarre Origin Stories
3. Devil May Cry Started Off As Resident Evil 3
Veteran games director and Twitter block button master Hideki Kamiya’s first experience at the head of a project was the 1998 version of Resident Evil 2. With such success under his belt, Resident Evil figurehead Shinji Mikami tasked him with helming up the next game.
Set in a Spanish castle on a mysterious island, Kamiya’s intentions for Resi 3 starred a pair of twin brothers. Tony and Paul Redgrave - superhumans implanted with biotechnology - would discover they were the sons of Oswell Spencer, the mastermind behind a large part of the Umbrella Corporation’s evils.
It wasn’t just a departure for the story, but also on every other level. Mikami had told Kamiya that the next Resident Evil needn’t necessarily be a horror game.
Kamiya’s use of the words “stylish action” to describe his hopes for a new combat system would end up being a key phrase to define the new franchise that this idea germinated into. The concepts were worth exploring but perhaps were not fit for the Biohazard franchise.
Side-game Resident Evil 1.9 became RE3 to hold fans over as Kamiya pursued his fresh, exciting new world. Tony and Paul became Dante and Vergil as the game found its own identity as surprise success Devil May Cry, paving the way for Kamiya’s high-octane action style.