Ok as far as looks go, i cannot decide which i like more. Alastor has the clean deadly look but Sparda just looks more vicious. I recently went back to DMC 1 after playing 3. On normal mode i liked using Alastor and Ifrit (the quick swap made those two so good together ). But on DMD which was the next one i went to i actually perferred Sparda, its fun to go through it without using devil trigger and you dont seem to recharge at all in DMD anyway. Plus the damage really is incredible, its like ifrit but fast.