I doubt in times of intense crisis Dante will think to himself "Hmmmm I need to get a haircut and shave first".
Here's hoping you're wrong.
You clearly don't understand how modern fashion works these days.
Being fashionable isn't exactly what I had in mind. It's about presenting an image.
And depressed as hell, it seems. Not a quality I'd associate with Dante, either.
Yeah but Dante isn't a ruler or a king (or royalty). He is a dude who kills demons for a living and barely gets by (considering he is always in debt).
That was just an example to illustrate that appearances are, indeed, important. If that correlation was too indirect and the only examples that don't fly too far off base are ones that are more direct then take fighters and warriors. The Samurai dressed as demons to scare their opponents. The Māori would make faces and possess to intimidate their opponents, and it often work. Football players make threats or act overly aggressive to psych out the other team when they're face to face at the line. MMA fighters talk big to each other before a fight to try to get into the other's head, to shake their confidence. It's not just for the press and audience. And so on and so forth. Dante's appearance is his shield. His way of presenting himself against his opponent.
If you're referring to the DMC1 novel like isn't that not canon anymore since DMC3's existence heavily contradicts it.
And yet we have a huge reference to the novel in Nico. The events might no longer have happened as the novel says anymore but clearly it still holds merit.
Also that is written by someone who hasn't been with the DMC writing staff after DMC1.
He wasn't actually ever a staff member. He was an independent writer. He also did the DMC2 novel.
Besides he doesn't look all that bad.
There are a thousand and one memes about how he looks like a hobo. Yeah, it's that bad.
His clothes look fine and stylish (a lot less over the top and flamboyant than usual but this game is going for a more realistic look) and clean....mostly.
His coat is supposed to be red and it's brown. His face is clearly dirty and his hair is shaggy. That does scream clean to me and I'm surprised it does to you.
Bottom line, I don't like it. He looks off in so many different small and large ways and it's unappealing to me, especially since I'm this thing for Dante, not Nero or V. When your favorite characters gets a makeover that's basically the opposite of a makeover you can bet people will say so and, well, this is me hoping in two weeks I'll be changing my tune because I don't want to be saying so till release and beyond.
Edit:
Just as a side note. Dante's outfit is actually a leftover from the production of DMC4: