Didn't know about DMC until 3 came out. I was at one of my cousin's birthday parties. Her brother always plays video game and I loved to watch him play them (I wasn't crazy about it at the time though, just looked cool). He had a bunch of his older friends in the room too so it was kinda awkward (note: I was 10 years old and they were 18 or so).
Just my luck, he was playing DMC3. The only thing I remember was watching him play Mission 3 because of Lady in the beginning of the cutscene (and hearing one of his friends yell "That was so badass!" when she burnt the hell prides) and seeing Vergil slice the Grim Reaper. I remember the first enigmas he went against too. He was only shooting them from afar, walking from left to right.
He got a "D" on it but he was probably on normal mode (was when the game first came out).
I don't know why, but the game just stuck to me. A news report on video game violence (lol) came on TV sometime later and I was able to immediately recognize the game and exclaimed "That's the game AD was playing!" because of the Enigmas. Watching my cousin play the game had left some kind of impression on me that made me remember the title for 5 whole years (didn't care about video games in 2006-2008, but I still remembered it). When I finally got a ps2 earlier this year, it was one of the first games I bought, and it is my favorite.
DMC has made my life both for better and for worse (not gonna say why). It was just something that stayed with me.
I don't even know how I remembered the title!
Crap, I feel no nostalgic now.
I think this is why DMC3 holds such a special place in my heart.
It introduced me to the series, and doesn't ever want to leave my mind~
Congratulations to whoever read this far xD