Well, more of thinly veiled ripoff that was made more obvious from teh fact is teh the same english VA for Ichigo as both voice and Motion caption...Kyrie is pretty much just Orihime with a different name, right down to voice and HAIR color
Yeah, i agree that that Capcom seemed to have influence on VD, or it may be that NT crew have read and watched Bleach. I am not japanese, and i read and watch Bleach.
And NT is known for ripping off ideas but implementing it different.
Same is Capcom.
What is funny is that both VD and DMC 4 was rushed project:
- the cartoon cutscenes
- the weak story (extremely generic) (DmC)
- DMC 4 was also very generic
And my theory is that rip offs is more prone to happen when you have a deadline on your head. Then you may WITHOUT REALIZING IT rip off things uve read, played or watched.
The contrast is when you rip off and you know you are.
Anyhow Capcom is known for taking ideas from Bleach. Though in Vergil's case they didn't exactly rip off Bleach, they merely were inspired by it. Look DMC 3 Vergils gameplay and Byakuya from Bleach:
http://static.zerochan.net/Kuchiki.Byakuya.full.1204777.jpg
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs11/i/2006/191/5/a/Sword_Summoner_by_LunaticSupernova.jpg
On top of that both Byakuya and Vergil are very calm and collective and cold.
So i wouldnt calling the summon swords idea that DMC 3 implemented into Vergils gameplay a rip off, because:
1) It's implemented differently
2) Byakuya gameplay is not like Vergil's gameplay (if Byakuya bankai gameplay ever existed).
And then you have Komamura and Nero ability similarity (off the charts):
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081017160821/bleach/en/images/0/04/Komamura_bankai.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OBTh40-8zRk/Ty_Svhg64WI/AAAAAAAAARU/5rhzRTx-XRo/s1600/NDT_DMC4.jpg
Even their swords are somewhat similar in shape:
http://www.swords24.eu/images/products/en/Devil_May_Cry_Red_Queen_Sword_of_Nero_UC2596.jpg
http://salon.mieczy.pl/images/KomamuraSajinBankaiZanpakuto.jpg
In Zanpakuto arc in Bleach, Komamuras sword spirit was portrayed as a fire entity. And Nero's sword has a "fire" ability.
Anyhow it seems like Byakuya and Komamura abilities were ripped off by DMC 3 and DMC 4, but i wouldn't call it a rip off. They saw "This is awesome", and they implemented the abilities differently and into a game.