So there was dicussion in the definitive edition thread that had me thinking of Dante's character through out the ages and I didn't want to drag it out on that thread, so I decided to make another one to talk specifically on Dante's character from DMC1-DmC and compare and contrast.
Try to play nice children. It's only a game.
Now let's begin with Kamiya's Dante of DMC1
Not only that, but new Dante's character was not only like DMC1 Dante, but also like Bayonetta's character growth from the first game. Bayonetta also had her own difficulty discovering who she was and also had her own turmoil to deal with while being hunted. After she discovered who she was, Bayonetta rose to her role as an Umbran Witch and fought for her life and the rest of the world as another unsung hero just as New Dante did.
So in conclusion; this is all just an evaluation from how Dante's character has been handled from my perspective and seeing him become what he was to what he is now. If we ever get a DMC5 or DmC2, I'd like to do another evaluation and see how far the character grows then.
Try to play nice children. It's only a game.
Now let's begin with Kamiya's Dante of DMC1
- DMC1 Dante had a fairly simple construct of his character. He was cocky, but not overly cocky. He had style that was both subtle but also unique of its time to hit Japan. He was cautious of his surroundings, would still be caught off guard every now and then, and wasn't afraid to let people know how he felt about things. He kept himself fairly transparent when it came to people close to him (specifically Trish) and cracked a joke for every occasional boss demon. But when things called for him to be serious, he had risen to the challenge to do so and as such, used aggression and no hesitation to get the job done. DMC1 Dante wasn't a perfect beacon of style and was actually, to the bare minimum, a dude whose seen a lot to be cocky about, but also enough to be cautious about to keep him grounded from being too cocky .
- DMC2 Dante was like DMC1 Dante, only with that special spark gone and dry. DMC2 Dante was suppose to be a more serious Dante with the series still trying to find it's footing as to what it wanted to be. DMC2 was one direction that Capcom pushed and it featured Dante's character going from emotionally ranged to the silent hero who barely has any emotion in him. DMC2 Dante was nothing more but a blank canvas with words as far as character went and this held on until like the last half of the game where he actually starts using one liners like King? Yeah. Here's your crown. THAT was a good line and it worked as a very good small atom bomb for Dante's dreary personality. But alas, his character was so far off from what DMC1 had made him, that I would've thought him to be another vampire stone cold dude who didn't smile and was barely a fun guy to hang out with.
- In DMC3's time, Capcom had decided that in order to drown what Dante had become in DMC2, they would need to not only bring back his fun loving side, but boost that trait because that was the trait people liked most. And as such they decided to go back on the hands of time and bring Dante back to his younger days before DMC1 in the game that both brought the series back, but also changed it forever. With Dante,he's loud, crude, lewd, and super arrogant for his own good. He cared for no one, barely let fear get to him, and wasn't cautious over anything. Anything he wanted, he would get it by force if he needed to. Though most loved this version of Dante (with good reason) I felt this Dante was a step down from what Dante was all about back in DMC1. It feels like Capcom only took the most lovable parts of Dante from DMC1, and slapped those on to DMC3 Dante and gave it a bag of sugar. With DMC3 Dante we lost a bit of that cautious but cool persona to a walking atom bomb of nothing but action and one-liners. Not saying it's bad but it is glaringly obvious. Even near the end when he finally has actual building towards better characterization, it still seems to fall flat on its arse when he just becomes the arrogant kid again like nothing changed. But that doesn't mean he didn't grow. In the beginning he was just a party loving goof who wanted to waste time with some action without a care in the world for protecting the human race. But his interactions with Lady and learning more of her issues slowly made Dante see his own family in a different light. Once he finally confronted Lady in a fight with her, he now began to see how important humanity is and how far humans will go for family. He finally decided to be a proper Devil Hunter near the end, but even so he barely showed it at all and went back to his "party" bravado. He kept his emotions hidden under one liners and frat boy arrogance that he didn't really feel like a character and more like a walking trope of anime cliches and Japanese delinquency turned up to 100.
- Anime Dante was a bit like DMC1 Dante mixed with DMC2 Dante. But it made sense for him to be a bit lazy and laid back due to there being no challenge anymore with the demons he's been killing so easily. After a while it seems like a chore and it barely gets his juices flowing like it should. The most he's been stimulated in a fight was with Sparda's apprentices and even then they weren't much either. Despite how much **** it gets, the anime Dante IS in fact the DMC1 Dante but just on lazy days. But he suffered from what DMC3 and DMC4 Dante suffered; no character and just walking action and tropes galore.
- Now DMC4, in my opinion, where Capcom finally said "**** all to characters and emotions! More STYLISHU ACTION AND COOL POWER BABY!" when it came to Dante's character. in DMC4, Dante is at first shown as a mysterious new enemy who speaks softly and carries a big sword. A little bit close to his DMC2 counter part that people didn't appreciate very well. As the game continued on and Dante begins to speak more and more, it's not until Nero finally fights him and he displays his silliness that we truly begin to see how his character is. And after Nero gets swallowed up and it's Dante's time to shine does it click that this Dante wouldn't be much of a character but just another walking cliche of style, cool, and one-liners. And then it was at the Lucifer weapons and the hamlet act with Agnus do we truly see Dante's character in it's bare. This Dante was nothing like DMC1 Dante until like one scene. And that one scene was where he explained to Agnus what humans posses that demons don't. You could hear it in his tone as to how he explained it that not only was it a concept he felt raw about but also something that called for him to be serious. But besides that scene and the beginning of the game, it's all one-liners here, and lame cliche lines there. It showed that Capcom tried way to hard to make Dante both look and talk cool, but instead felt more like they tried too hard to make him relevantly cool and showed it with all the Final Fantasy esque clothes. This was very far from DMC1 because most of his character and subtle charm was replaced with nothing but cool and show-off tendencies. And the fact that this was made to appeal to a female audience was one reason why Dante's character lacked in DMC4. One thing that sells well in Japan when it comes to anime related things, is Shoujo. And for those who don't know, shoujo is PILED HIGH with cliche bad boys and cold-hearted loners who treat the heroine like crap sometimes and are usually hiding their emotions with one-liners. DMC4 Dante is what I'd like to call a "shoujo character on steroids" because hiding his emotions behind one-liners, and having no discrepancy for anyone but himself while trying to be a loner is just what DMC4 Dante was. And that sells in Japan with a large majority of women. For me it's just sad that Dante's character had to go such a route and leave from its roots.
- Now with the initial trailer back in 2010's TGS, it had appeared that this "new" Dante would be a bit more darker and more edgier compared to his original incarnation. He'd smoke, get into fights, be a scrapper, and generally be on the streets for the majority of the game. His character was described as a straight up rebel who was for disobeying the law and doing his own thing no matter how dangerous. But he was also the type to have black humor and a foul mouth to boot. Ad more info came out about him, we find out that he's not just some punk who wants to do bad cause it's fun, but he's a guy whose lived through hell and demon killing for his whole life and was raised on the streets of Limbo while he was only ever going to survive by being crud, loud, and arrogant. Sound familiar? (DMC3) But when we finally got the game in hand, we begin to dive deeper into Dante's character. At first he's an arrogant punk who drinks, has sex, and is a loner who doesn't work with others. He basically cared for nobody and no one at all and let his actions and one-liners speak for himself. However it's isn't until he visits his old home that we see another side of Dante. This side being a man who is lost in the world he thought he knew and wanting to know more about himself then to throw it all away in beer and women. After informed of what to do, he begins to actually work with these people as oppose to telling them to go screw themselves. At first with Kat, he treated her with ill care and just another conquest to be his once he got those short shorts off of her. However as the two continued working with one another and learning more about Kat, Dante's opinion of her slowly begins to change from just another woman to bone, to a good companion to keep him company. And finally after Dante here's her story, he has a new form of respect for her and wants her to be safe as seen when Vergil says Kat can't follow Dante to Bob Barbas with alone is fine. She's done enough. His character continues to grow as he learns more from Phineas on Mundus and his child. He was trusting Phineas and realizing that not all demons are evil by looking at things from a different perspective. A life lesson to be frank. We also see that despite Dante's hate for demons, he still didn't have it in him to kill Lilith or her child in cold blood. After Kat was shot and captured, Dante's character was seen when Dante tried desperately to convince Vergil to rescue Kat from Mundus but also not try to kill Lilith or her kid. the Dante from the beginning would've wasted no time in killing Lilith or her giant demon baby, but instead went for a more safer approach for everyone with a simple transaction. This showed Dante's honor and even chivalry in making sure no one got hurt or killed. (of course Vergil ****ed that up but that's for another thread) Another note of Dante's growth was when Vergil finally said that he once didn't give a **** about all of this. And it's true. Dante didn't want anything to do with all of this or humanity's battle against demons since it was none of his concern. But he later decided on it and as such became a unsung hero of humanity. And then finally came the battle between Vergil and Dante and the aftermath of Dante having his white hair and powers grow, he too begins to realize that he is the protector of the world while also questioning what he truly is anymore.
Now that begs the question; How is Kamiya's version of Dante like Tameem's Dante?
Not only that, but new Dante's character was not only like DMC1 Dante, but also like Bayonetta's character growth from the first game. Bayonetta also had her own difficulty discovering who she was and also had her own turmoil to deal with while being hunted. After she discovered who she was, Bayonetta rose to her role as an Umbran Witch and fought for her life and the rest of the world as another unsung hero just as New Dante did.
So in conclusion; this is all just an evaluation from how Dante's character has been handled from my perspective and seeing him become what he was to what he is now. If we ever get a DMC5 or DmC2, I'd like to do another evaluation and see how far the character grows then.
