The game started life as Resident Evil 4. After realizing that the game was beginning to take on its own unique style, the decision was made to abandon the Resident Evil premise and develop a new background as story for the game. The Original title was "Devil May Care" after the saying.
The names of the two demon children born from Sparda, Dante and Vergil, are based on the characters Dante and Vergil from Dante Alliegheri's the Divine Comedy- specifically the Inferno book.
This PS2 game has worldwide sales of 2.2 million copies.
Dante shares a few character traits with Marvel Comics' "Deadpool." Both are know as "The Merc with the mouth", both wield swords and guns, both wear an excessive amount of red and both have healing factors.