I remember seeing a footage of Dante launching a Marionette into the air then keeping it afloat with guns. I thought it was insanely cool. It was on the old show "Extended Play" (X-Play now I think?).
Got a PS2. Tried to get the entire series but only found 2 and 3

A. I thought I should play chronologically with what I have so I started with 2. It left a VERY bad taste in my mouth. Something with the music, the repetitive environment and the floaty physics made me feel ill.
Tried 3. The intro blew me away. I got my ass kicked over and over by Cerberus so I got prompted with Easy and went with it. I remember cheesing Gigapede with Lv2 E&I. I remember being happy when I got Beowulf since I thought it gives a damage boost to all weapons. I had a very difficult time playing but somehow enjoying it. When I finally beat the game, I felt like a champ after conquering the game. Continued on Normal while farming M2 on the side. It just clicked. I "got" it. I was stringing combos between weapons.
Suddenly, HSID was released. I WTF'd at how he was chaining the same moves over and over so I went to GameFAQs to look around. I learned and practiced how to JC. I was getting addicted to watching combo vids. I remember some vids like Azure Macabre, Vermillion Phantasm, Twosome Time, Deadly Eclipse, etc... I got to know a lot of people. Some names might ring a bell: EthSky, Pokey, Alexx, Joch, xarugas, integsta, Oreo, Brea, DMA, Versailles Merchant, etc. I witnessed the birth of TrueStyle Tournament. I invented DWD as a joke challenge but Pokey took it seriously. I eventually did the challenge myself, including on BP with Vergil. I was addicted. I maxed out the clock on DMC3 twice, then twice more on SE. I never bothered trying to SS everything though, since I think it's just tedious to do.
I eventually found DMC1, which I also really liked. It was different, and it kinda scared me too. I didn't like the underwater segments though.
Upgraded my PC to play DMC4. VERY disappointed. Big boring stages, dice puzzle (which you don't easily naturally figure out) lots of nerfs to things I liked (JC Shotgun, RG rage buildup, etc), story that went nowhere, Nero's existence, Vergil's absence, Agnus' stupid face, the Shakespeare cutscene, etc.. It just lacked the style and snappy action of DMC3, which was topped with classy banter.
I bought DmC for my PC, which I liked more than DMC4. DmC Vergil was an awesome upgrade to DMC3 Vergil. I dug the new take on the same lore. I liked the different kind of presentation, which felt like watching a TV series. Playing 60FPS from the start was nice. I got to try the PS3 version much later and I hated 30FPS.
Gonna pre-order DMC4:SE so I can finally fulfill my old dream of playing DMC on a handheld via remote play. RIP DMC PSP, the reason I bought a PSP in the first place.