I have noticed several times people have mentioned that Vergil would have realistically won the final fight, and, looking at the practicality of Vergil's combat actions, I find it difficult to disagree. Dante swings his sword, it goes far and the weight and momentum mean changing direction mid swing would be slow and unwieldy, Vergil's basic three hit combo has him smack the sheathed weapon once, it doesn't go quite as far as Dante's sword, and easily comes back for the final fight, striking his foe again along the way.
I'd like to put forth a thorough possibility for what this story means.
Dante challenges Vergil in the final fight after accepting both his human and devil side, as evidenced by his choice of fist for the final challenge, moments again he was using his sword and he tied with Vergil, as happened in the second fight.
Narratively, this represents Dante's new ideals and his strength of will, he has improved in some way and has learned, while he has been updated mechanically, despite the acquisition of more power, Vergil, as a person, is the same. Vergil represents the idea of power to westerners, enforced by recruitment drives in America in times of war, that anyone can become a hero, that anyone can become Sparda and take his power, Arkham's corrupted transformation further highlights this.
Dante has improved, and like a warrior training, has achieved spiritual improvement, his strength comes not from an external source (Sword of Sparda), such as a gun, but from an internal source (The blood of Sparda that has flowed inside him all along) , such as the technique required to correctly utilize a sword, internal improvemen gives Dante strength.
The meaning of the fight comes from the ludonarrative dissonance of the more powerful warrior being defeated by the warrior with more conviction, defeating Vergil is rarely done first try, the player must practice and improve, on DMD mode, most if not all power increases on the player's part are not mechanical at all, but come from the player's understanding of the mechanics, as they already have all the external power they need (Or in this case, can acquire without hacking).
The brother's choice of weaponry also reflects this, Dante's every swing is from an impractical and overly weighty sword opposed to Vergil's faster, lighter and more practical weapon. The restrictions on the player, the disadvantage created by this gives them more room to improve and encourages them to become similar to Dante and improve despite permanent weaknesses when compared to an opponent (No matter what you do with Dante, Vergil has more power in the final fight, he has the sword of Sparda).
The final fight of the game, intentionally or not, reflects a clash between western and eastern philosophies of power, if the game was made by western developers, perhaps Dante would lose, the situation would be flipped, Dante's final challenge of Vergil with the strength inside would be replaced with him taking the other half of Sparda's power. Perhaps the final fight would emphasize Dante's mechanical gains, Dante owning enemy step would be the extra power needed to defeat Vergil, rather than the benefits of enemy step not being owning it (Gun) so he can defeat Vergil (Turrists), but being the mastery of it so he can attain greater internal power
The ease of use of enemy step in DMC: Devil May Cry reflects this.... hopefully, otherwise the game was crafted by being focus tested by monkeys who wanted to be empowered without any actual training or effort...wait, those are the same things.
Also, yeah, I'm back. I've got another dmc3 post planned, also about the final battle, so I'll be sticking around for another day at least.
I'd like to put forth a thorough possibility for what this story means.
Dante challenges Vergil in the final fight after accepting both his human and devil side, as evidenced by his choice of fist for the final challenge, moments again he was using his sword and he tied with Vergil, as happened in the second fight.
Narratively, this represents Dante's new ideals and his strength of will, he has improved in some way and has learned, while he has been updated mechanically, despite the acquisition of more power, Vergil, as a person, is the same. Vergil represents the idea of power to westerners, enforced by recruitment drives in America in times of war, that anyone can become a hero, that anyone can become Sparda and take his power, Arkham's corrupted transformation further highlights this.
Dante has improved, and like a warrior training, has achieved spiritual improvement, his strength comes not from an external source (Sword of Sparda), such as a gun, but from an internal source (The blood of Sparda that has flowed inside him all along) , such as the technique required to correctly utilize a sword, internal improvemen gives Dante strength.
The meaning of the fight comes from the ludonarrative dissonance of the more powerful warrior being defeated by the warrior with more conviction, defeating Vergil is rarely done first try, the player must practice and improve, on DMD mode, most if not all power increases on the player's part are not mechanical at all, but come from the player's understanding of the mechanics, as they already have all the external power they need (Or in this case, can acquire without hacking).
The brother's choice of weaponry also reflects this, Dante's every swing is from an impractical and overly weighty sword opposed to Vergil's faster, lighter and more practical weapon. The restrictions on the player, the disadvantage created by this gives them more room to improve and encourages them to become similar to Dante and improve despite permanent weaknesses when compared to an opponent (No matter what you do with Dante, Vergil has more power in the final fight, he has the sword of Sparda).
The final fight of the game, intentionally or not, reflects a clash between western and eastern philosophies of power, if the game was made by western developers, perhaps Dante would lose, the situation would be flipped, Dante's final challenge of Vergil with the strength inside would be replaced with him taking the other half of Sparda's power. Perhaps the final fight would emphasize Dante's mechanical gains, Dante owning enemy step would be the extra power needed to defeat Vergil, rather than the benefits of enemy step not being owning it (Gun) so he can defeat Vergil (Turrists), but being the mastery of it so he can attain greater internal power
The ease of use of enemy step in DMC: Devil May Cry reflects this.... hopefully, otherwise the game was crafted by being focus tested by monkeys who wanted to be empowered without any actual training or effort...wait, those are the same things.
Also, yeah, I'm back. I've got another dmc3 post planned, also about the final battle, so I'll be sticking around for another day at least.
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