Deception/YMMV


 * Audience-Alienating Premise: You play a dyed-in-the-wool Villain Protagonist in service to evil who tortures and kills numerous victims, while the games take great pains to show you that they're actual human beings with lives of their own that you're gleefully ending. Not hard to reckon why the series' mainstream appeal has been a bit limited.
 * Cult Classic: Now going five games strong, and none of them have had a particularly strong following.
 * Evil Is Sexy: As befitting for servants of the Devil, the main characters of every game may not be very nice in personality, but they look very nice in appearance.
 * It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Early reviews for Blood Ties bemoan the fact that Tecmo has not done anything to evolve the franchise's gameplay, instead opting to just allow the same format but with more content.
 * The Scrappy: Nicole, Nicole, Nicole.
 * Scrappy Mechanic: The first game's save files eat up 9 blocks. That's 3/5ths of an entire memory card.