3. Devil May Cry Started Out As Resident Evil 4
CapcomYou may be well aware of the arduous development cycle of the eventually ground-breaking Resident Evil 4: it went through several incarnations before series creator Shinji Mikami finally intervened and got to work on the version that was eventually released. What's less-commonly known is that Capcom's frenetic action game Devil May Cry was in fact originally created as Resident Evil 4, but due to its sharp artistic departure from the franchise, was eventually re-purposed as a new flagship franchise which, of course, went on to enjoy enormous success. The game's developers struggled to make their hyper-cool, somewhat tongue-in-cheek tone fit in with the serious-mindedness of the Resident Evil franchise, and with some changes here and there (such as changing the protagonist's name from Tony to Dante), Mikami eventually convinced them to convert it into an entirely new IP, again highlighting Mikaki's superb knack for shrewd creative decisions. With Capcom's history of scrapping numerous half-finished Resident Evil games, we're glad that Mikami saw enough promise in it not to deprive gamers of it...