After the release of Resident Evil 2, Capcom began development of a new game in the Resident Evil franchise under Hideki Kamiya. This entry would take place afterResident Evil 3: Nemesis which was already in development and would be set in Spain. During the development of this game, it became apparent that what they had created was far too action oriented to be a Resident Evil game. Rather than scrap the project, they decided to go ahead with development and the game became Devil May Cry while development began anew on Resident Evil 4. From this point on, development fell to Shinji Mikami and his "Team Little Devils".
During the early development of Resident Evil 4, the team visited Spain for research. During that time, they visited various castles and other areas for ideas on architecture. This research can be seen in both Devil May Cry and Resident Evil 4. Because of it's Resident Evil herritage, you can find many things that carried over. For instance, when the player dies, you are presented with a "You Are Dead" screen and Dante resembles Leon Kennedy (particularly his hair).
Devil May Cry is currently on its second iteration with the reboot entry, DmC: Devil May Cry. After four games, Capcom decided that they wanted to go in a new direction with the Devil May Cry series while still staying true to the things that makes the series a leader in its genre. To this end, they decided to bring Ninja Theory in to develop the game from the ground up.
The main character, Dante, is the son of the demon Sparda and the angel Eva making Dante a Nephalim. As a child, Dante and his family were in hiding to protect themselves from the Demon Lord Mundus. Eventually, Mundus found their hidden residence and killed Eva. Sparda managed to escape with Dante and his twin brother Vergil. To protect his children, Sparda split them up and erased their memories.
While the core mechanics of the game and Dante's smart attitude remain in place, many other aspects have changed. Dante's mother is now an angel rather than human and at the start, Dante is not aware of his brother's existance. His hair, style of clothing and voice have changed but much of his personality remains. Finally, another dimension has been added called Limbo. This realm is where most demons appear and where most of the combat takes place.
