Let me first start by saying i love God of war, Devil May Cry and the Hack'n'Sash genre.

Me and my friend just had a pretty heated discussion about God of War, Devil May Cry and in general, the Hack'n'Slash genre. It first started when i told him about my frustration at the term "God of War clone" used to describe games such as the upcoming "Dante's Inferno" etc, the term kind of implies that God of War single handedly coined the Hack'n'Slash genre. However i refuse to accept that God of War is the single inspiration for the genre, and that other games such as Devil May Cry have played a larger role in the genre than God of War will ever do. This is were the shit hit the fan and we continued to compare each of the games best aspects against each other. 

He started by claiming that God of War is by far the best Hack'n'Slash game there is, describing to me how cinematic the game feels, with its epic story. He then went on to describe that the combat system is the best used in the genre and that if a poll was made of the best games from the genre God of War would win.

To counter his argument i started by describing the impact Devil May Cry 1 had on the genre (we will forget 2 ever existed) and that God of War was infact a Devil May cry Clone  so to speak (GOW even uses souls to upgrade weapon) to which he denied. Furthermore i stated that Devil May Cry 3 boasted  more robust mechanics than any God of War to date, and that its weapon and combo system have yet to be matched by any game.

We continued at this for at least an hour.

I guess this post has no real meaning, but my frustration comes when other games which have made a larger more valuable impact on the genre are forgoten (similar to modern FPS's like Halo, Killzone 2 an so on being called the best in the genre and the truely legendary games such as Doom,quake and Goldeneye being looked over and their influence forgotten.

I also wanted to find out what the larger community thought about God of War (does it really diserve all the credit?) and Devil May Cry. Including their personal view on other games in the genre and influences which are looked over. What do you also think of the term "God of War clone"