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Ninja Theory on Why Dante is Such a “Dickhead”

Dante Deve Morire

Dante Deve Morire

Trapped in Limbo
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If there’s a single thing Devil May Cry reboot detractors criticize more than anything, it’s Dante’s controversial character changes. The initial uproar was caused over the redesign in appearance, but since then the single most community abhorred aspect of Dante has easily been his “trying too hard to be cool” personality.
Edge interviewed Ninja Theory’s technical art director, Stuart Adcock, along with their concept artist Alessandro Taini, and rather bluntly asked whether Dante is a dickhead, to which Alessandro responded:
When it comes to character, especially one like Dante, we think about his past. If he’s a little bit of a dickhead it’s because, in the past, he’s been through a lot of things. We’ve been looking at a lot of movies about attitude – characters like Fight Club’s, for example. The way they speak and pose – it’s better not to have an argument with them. The eyes, the look. So we really concentrated on that for Dante. He has to be a believable character. If this guy walked into a club with a big sword and leather jacket, it wouldn’t work in our game.​
Ninja Theory’s art director Adcock added:​
We are giving the boring answer which is that it’s character progression. To do that, we had to strip a lot of things off the preconceived Dante to fit him in this world and tell that story. See how you feel about him after you’ve been through the cool moments with him and seen the story as he does. Also, if you see one extreme then it’s more effective when you come to gel with him, when you have those story moments when you see genuine feeling and emotion on him. Like a lot of things it makes that more apparent.​
Alessandro Taini then threw in a wonderful web-slinging reference:
I like the example of the last Spider-Man movie. When he’s just realized his power and you see him standing on top of that building with just a bag and a mask he took from a shop, and his trainers. When I saw that I was like: this is kind of our Dante because that progression is there. And the last Batman movie, even Chronicle. It’s not new what we’re doing. Many movies now try to tell stories in a more human and realistic way.​
Stuart Adcock went on to directly address his issue with the jaded online gamers, and how they’re not giving Dante a chance:​
I think that was the only thing we felt about the reactions [from forum posters]. We put all this effort into figuring out a good story arc and good character development for Dante, peeling everything back on the conceptual level and just feeling it in his eyes, in this youthful kid that had fight in him but was also tired of trying to escape Limbo and not knowing why. We have such a big investment of time into the character of Dante that to be getting into conversations about his hair was, I dunno… just wait and see.​
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http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2012/12/07/ninja-theory-on-why-dante-is-such-a-dickhead/
 
I would say its a broader version of DMC3 which tried to show Dante's past and how he "awoke" to justice. This just takes it further by giving you more context for his life.
 
I knew all of this from the moment i have seen the trailer where he is being held captive. We are learning about dante from a more personal angle and not wondering what started it all. This new dante is going to be improved to me cause the last dante was hard to know or relate to, making it kind of bland
 
So true.

DMC3 Dante wasn't much compared to other anime male cocky leads.

Good to see more in Dante's life.
 
Darigion said:
The last Dante played the whole "boring invincible hero" trope to an abso-f*cking-lute TEE. Drove me up the wall with that sh*t.

At least now we'll get to see him be more, y'know, believable. I appreciate that, NT.
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After he defeated Mundus there is virtually nothing to beat Dante...which makes the story without a drop of thrill.
 
crush said:
After he defeated Mundus there is virtually nothing to beat Dante...which makes the story without a drop of thrill.
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Well, he did need his fathers power to beat Mundus. So, who knows... maybe there's still a demon that could give Dante a ruin for his money without Sparda's power. Dante seemed to have become massively more powerful from DMC1 to DMC2, but could he have actually gotten more powerful than Sparda?
 
DarkSlayer54 said:
but could he have actually gotten more powerful than Sparda?
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I really don't take griffith's words seriously. When mundus battled dante, he was in the human world and as a rule any demon/devil in fiction, their powers are halved if they are not into the demon world. Sparda defeated mundus and his legions in the demon world itself with mundus being in full power and like you said, dante needed the sparda just to hurt mundus. He can't defeat mundus with his own powers.

So no. I really don't think dante is stronger than sparda.
 
Sieghart said:
I really don't take griffith's words seriously. When mundus battled dante, he was in the human world and as a rule any demon/devil in fiction, their powers are halved if they are not into the demon world. Sparda defeated mundus and his legions in the demon world itself with mundus being in full power and like you said, dante needed the sparda just to hurt mundus. He can't defeat mundus with his own powers.

So no. I really don't think dante is stronger than sparda.
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Oh jeez, that just made me realize how screwed Vergil was at the end of DMC3. He was hurt, and weakened... in the demon world, fighting against Mundus. Hah... must of been a damn short fight.
 
Sieghart said:
I really don't take griffith's words seriously. When mundus battled dante, he was in the human world and as a rule any demon/devil in fiction, their powers are halved if they are not into the demon world. Sparda defeated mundus and his legions in the demon world itself with mundus being in full power and like you said, dante needed the sparda just to hurt mundus. He can't defeat mundus with his own powers.

So no. I really don't think dante is stronger than sparda.
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But...Dante defeated Mundus in the Demon World...and then he tried to drag his broken-ass after Dante, and got Jackpot'd. Dante did defeat Mundus in the Demon World, the Jackpot was just sort of a mercy kill :p
 
TWOxACROSS said:
It's all about the character's growth and potential, but people want instant gratification all the time, so it's like they don't want to give this Dante a chance because they actually have to wait, and watch him grow into what they want :/
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I was the exact same about Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII. FFFFFFFUUU she was annoying! It took 2 discs and 50+ of playing to even really like her. Then by the third disc she was awesome. I guess character development has to be in the trailer or it sucks.
WE ALL LOVE YOU GORDAN FREEMAN WHO HAS NO VOICE ACTING OR DEVELOPMENT OTHER THAN BEING TOLD WHERE TO GO AND WHAT TO SHOOT! Character of the year...EVERY YEAR!
 
8BitHero said:
I was the exact same about Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII. FFFFFFFUUU she was annoying! It took 2 discs and 50+ of playing to even really like her. Then by the third disc she was awesome. I guess character development has to be in the trailer or it sucks.
WE ALL LOVE YOU GORDAN FREEMAN WHO HAS NO VOICE ACTING OR DEVELOPMENT OTHER THAN BEING TOLD WHERE TO GO AND WHAT TO SHOOT! Character of the year...EVERY YEAR!
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I actually like Lightning from the start, and then liked her more as the game went on. Maybe it's because she was a tough as nails gal who wasn't also the game's "eye-candy." She was totally a b*tch, but yeah...who wouldn't be in that type of situation for a while?
 
Are we really back onto the topic of the HAIR, Ninja Theory? I thought you had matured by now.

But really guys. Yes, we want to play as a Dante who isn't an asshole from the BEGINNING of the game. I don't want to start to like a character, just for the game to immediately end as soon as I do. I don't want to see him bare resemblance to original Dante, just to see the game end as soon as he does.

I could give less of a **** about story if the character I'm playing as is an unlikable dick.
 
mrrandomlulz said:
Are we really back onto the topic of the HAIR, Ninja Theory? I thought you had matured by now.

But really guys. Yes, we want to play as a Dante who isn't an asshole from the BEGINNING of the game. I don't want to start to like a character, just for the game to immediately end as soon as I do. I don't want to see him bare resemblance to original Dante, just to see the game end as soon as he does.

I could give less of a **** about story if the character I'm playing as is an unlikable ****.
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Okay, I'm sure you've been asked this many times probably, but what exactly don't you like about the new Dante? And don't give me "I just don't like him." as an answer. There is ALWAYS a reason for someone to like/dislike something, because then that's just incredibly unreasonable and in general cases, unacceptable. I'm not saying you should change your outlook on it or anything, but I definitely want something that gives me a better understanding as to why you feel this way. Like seriously, I just want to understand what it is about one element that could hold so much over you that you'd be unwilling to give leeway to the rest of the game.
 
TWOxACROSS said:
I actually like Lightning from the start, and then liked her more as the game went on. Maybe it's because she was a tough as nails gal who wasn't also the game's "eye-candy." She was totally a b*tch, but yeah...who wouldn't be in that type of situation for a while?
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The developers also said that she would be a lot sweeter in FFXIII-3. *faints*
 
TWOxACROSS said:
But...Dante defeated Mundus in the Demon World...and then he tried to drag his broken-ass after Dante, and got Jackpot'd. Dante did defeat Mundus in the Demon World, the Jackpot was just sort of a mercy kill :p
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Mundus would have killed Dante in the last confrontation, if Trish hadn't shown up, since Dante had left the Sparda sword as a gravemarker in the Demon World like a sentimental dillweed. (That was one of my favorite parts of DMC1, that they took the tired "woman captured/killed to motivate the hero" thing and averted it into "woman resurrects to saves the hero's butt like a total BAMF".)

Anyway, yeah, it's a pretty tried-and-true storytelling method, having a hero start off unpleasant so that his moments of not being a tool stand out (especially when he's dealing with a girl he likes) and can be increased to show his character progression. The Jerk With a Heart of Gold trope, I think, and I've seen such characters who never do enough to progress from nasty to decent, so that by the end you still want to punch them in the mouth. But I don't think Dante will be one of them, since his jerk traits are rather mild and easily shifted, all told: Womanizer (who doesn't seem to actually hate women), brute (who doesn't do permanent harm to anyone unless provoked), and selfish (who appears willing to invest in those who return the favor).

Still, I think the way they belabor the point gives the impression Dante is worse than he is - we never needed gross shots of naked girls crawling at his crotch, him antagonizing random strangers, or screaming at a mirror to understand that he sleeps around, has anger issues, and has had a crappy life. Kind of like how we never needed DMC4's Dante to jig around like a lunatic to understand he wasn't taking anything seriously, or DMC1's Dante to howl about dark souls and light to understand that losing Trish hurt him. Overemphasis is an easy target for mockery. But it's certainly not unique to DmC in the franchise.

Ultimately, I just hope Kat dying isn't the major turning point of his development. Trish already did it better.
 
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