wow, not even one mention of Onimusha 2?

Ok.. here we go.

1. Onimusha 2: Samuirai's Destiny
2. Ninja Gaiden 2 (xbox 360 version, not the mickey mouse version)
3. Bayonetta
4. Devil May Cry 3
5. Metal Gear Rising

Onimusha 3 is a fantastic game, no two ways about it. would have given it 3rd place overall just behind Ninja Gaiden 2.

But because i wanted to go with one game from each franchise, Onimusha 2 edged out 3 due to having 5 playable characters....... and it also had Gogandantes "The Greatest Swordsman of all Demons" :)

1. God of War 2
2. God of War
3. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
4. God of War: Ghost of Sparta
5. God of War: Chains of Olympus

I guess it did. May have started the genre, but G.O.W. did it beetter, imo.  I've just always been bored with DMC games for some reason. I've still played them all, they just never held my attention as much as G.O.W. did. 

I don't agree. I think Far cry is an open world game more than an FPS.

FPS i categorise the somewhat linear first person shooter experience.

The thing is, this trying to say they are expanding the genre is a huge mess. It just makes everything difficult to categorise and you are calling FPS's RPG's at the end of the day. We have to be more specific on our scrutiny or we end up with one category for all of them (wich action-adventure is becoming), wich just defeats the purpose.

1. Devil May Cry
2. Bloodborne
3. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
4. Devil May Cry 4
5. Bayonetta 2

As a general rule, whenever you're unsure on how to classify a game, I think the best advice is to take the approach Nintendo took with classifying Metroid Prime and look at what the core focus of the gameplay is. For Metroid Prime, it was adventuring, hence it was given the title "First Person Adventure," despite being played from a first person point of view and having almost all of Samus' offensive capabilities be firing projectiles.

So I agree with Nem here; hack and slash was a phrase that originated in order to describe the original Devil May Cry when it released, so it's obviously referring to the type of gameplay found in Devil May Cry. Which begs the question: "What does Devil May Cry focus on?" Hitting people with swords, yes, but more than anything it's about fast paced combat with an emphasis on juggling, long combos, and encouraging the player to be stylish. Perhaps most of all, it was about encouraging the player to be on the offensive as much as possible, which was something of a phenomenon for 3rd person action games at the time. Onimusha has none of these; the combat reminds me of a slightly faster Dark Souls more than anything.

1.God of war 3
2.God of war 2
3.Devil may Cry
4.God of War
5.God of war Ghost of Sparta

1. God Of War 3

2. God Of War 2

3. Bayonetta 2

4. Devil May Cry 3

5. Bayonetta

I have a few more, but I understand the rules here. :( Love hack and slash games.

Think people might be picking GOW 3 based on memory. It's good but it's nowhere close to the best, even if I'm not biased.

1. Devil May Cry 4
2. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
3. Onimusha 3
4. Bayonetta
5. Hyrule Warriors