What would you change about Nero

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

As the title suggests, how would you rewrite or reimagine Nero?

For me personally, i would make him more educated and tactical since he was raised by the order, i would also change his look since he is less demon so i would give him different coloured hair

Personality wise i would make him more stoic and calculated, but while retaining his playful side when fighting like dmc1 dante.

Most of all though i would remove the cry baby immature side, as it is what makes me dislike him as a character so much.

 

[V's patron]

I'd replace him with V and scrap the Vergil's humanity angle. V is not Vergil is a big trend within fanfiction so I'd just lean into it.

V is just a summoner who crosses paths with the others from time to time. If Dante is Thor, Vitale is Dr. Strange.



Art by Christian Ward

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Each of his summons have a personality and act as odd roommates.

Instead of a cane, I'd give him a staff. He can fight but it's a last resort. Often he and his summons would fight together and one would follow him around per mission. It's his versions of Dante's Styles.

I'd make Vergil a spirit Vitale tries to use for his own ends but it backfires. So they are stuck with each other.

 

[Lain]

For my sins, I genuinely enjoy 4 and think that its plot and characters are salvageable. The biggest change I would make is that Sanctus is Nero's foster father after he "saved" the boy when Nero's "parents" were killed by demons. Nero would have a strained relationship with Sanctus as he's more interested in "degenerate" things like rock music and courting Kyrie than religion and being a knight.

Honestly Nero's actual introduction works just fine - He's late to Kyrie's recital because he had to protect the city from demon attacks but makes sure she sees that he made it by the song's end. Then afterwards he tries to tolerate the sermon by listening to music on his headphones but can't stop fidgeting and so tries to remove himself but his arm senses Dante's approach.

Then after Dante shoots Sanctus is where I would start to make some changes. Instead of focusing on Kyrie, Nero tries to evacuate all the townsfolk out of concern and only when the blood soaked Dante is looming over Kyrie does Nero go berserk and start the battle. However Nero is very reluctant to use his Devil Bringer and is still uncomfortable even after having to resort to it in order to survive against Dante. This is because in my vision Nero is still an adherent of the Order's teachings even if he can't stand the ceremonial aspects, and he doesn't understand what is happening and how he can cure himself. Then when Dante reveals himself to have not died from being impaled and says that they're the same, Nero is hyper inquisitive as to how Dante appears fully human and if there's a way to reverse his arm, but Dante is cryptic and leaves. Nero volunteers to lead the charge after Dante as Credo assigns him Gloria (Trish as a deep cover agent) as a partner to keep an eye on him.

Then you actually try to integrate the levels with the story as through environmental storytelling Nero finds bits and pieces in the old frozen castle and later Agnus' laboratory that suggest Sanctus was involved in some shady business involving researching demons and a mysterious man named Vergil who appeared in Fortuna one day. All the while Gloria slowly tries to pry Nero's true feelings out from behind his "badass" persona and make him question the absolutes of the Order's teachings. Eventually Agnus reveals that Nero is actually a clone of Vergil created from his DNA from when he came to Fortuna badly injured after losing the battle with Mundus, he sought sanctuary from Sparda worshipers (hence why they had the broken Yamato) but Sanctus betrayed him and Vergil fled before recovering which led to Mundus' mooks capturing him leading to DMC1. The Devil Bringer is a result of the imbalanced hybrid genes that Nero was born with, not some kind of infection after he was injured by demons. But now that Sanctus has ascended to "Nelo Angelo" status after enough syphoning of Nero's DNA and so Agnus tries to eliminate Nero. Nero in grief and anger awakens his DT, Agnus escapes and Gloria reveals to Nero that she is also a demon and so she knows he's not some kind of monster. Nero decides to settle things with Sanctus whilst Gloria tries to meet up with Dante and steer him back to help Nero but is too late as Nero gets overwhelmed by Sanctus' new powers and gets absorbed into the Saviour.

Dante's side of DMC4 I'm less interested in fixing right now so just assume that it plays out mostly the same. Credo doesn't actually die just yet and acts like Gloria did in Nero's campaign in that he aids Dante through the levels in an attempt to atone for being complicit in the deception of Nero as he was installed as the boy's "older brother figure" and always knew what he was going through. Then the big climax happens and Dante launches Credo carrying the Yamato into the Saviour who cuts free Nero and delivers the sword to him. They make up and go to save Kyrie together. But Sanctus' angelic form is breaking down and he's turning into the true demon he really is inside (I've excised the Sparda sword from this version). Whilst inside the Saviour, Sanctus is still too strong for both Nero and Credo to defeat and so Credo sacrifices himself to create an opening for Nero to cut down his "father". Credo asks Nero to look after Kyrie for him in her stead and Nero tearfully exits with the semi-conscious Kyrie. Then cut to epilogue I guess...

TL;DR - Nero suffers from being too much like DMC3 Dante for my liking. It would have been better if he were meant to represent a possible version of Vergil that didn't turn evil and so he has several of his traits such as a more stoic demeanour but also a warm heart underneath a prickly exterior. My vision of him would be something close to Tatsuya Suou, from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment whereby he's trying too hard to grow up because he thinks that "being a man" means being a tough guy who doesn't open up to other people.

 

[V's patron]

@ef9dante_oSsshea

My problems with Nero are a bad first impression. 4 didn't do the best job selling him. He felt like a wannabe Dante with a lame love story. Granted that's more of a me problem as I lost interested in anime around the same time I played 4.

So here's how I would redo 4-

C) Instead of the DMC crew, Nero has to team up with V and Nico to fight Sanctus-

This is more risky than a solo Nero game. I liked Nero in the later half of 5 when he dropped the juvenile tryhard routine and became a idealistic team player. So I'd just get to that sooner- he starts the game as a lone wolf and ends the game as a team player.

Vitale is part of the local coven in Fortuna and they are fighting back guerrilla warfare style against Sanctus's regime. In this story the Order is a theocracy that runs Fortuna. So he and Nero start out as rivals in the first half fighting the other faction before teaming up in the second half.

Nico is the tritagonist- she's assisting Agnus because she wants to revive her dead mom. This is an optional playable campaign with Nico using an exoskeleton like C.Viper's and its shorter than the other two.

Outside of his connection to Vergil, his strongest selling point is Fortuna. It feels more distinct than Dante's nameless city. So I'd develop Nero from outcast to home town hero.

I don't mind cutting the Vergil connection and making him a regular human that got turned into a demon by the Order. He's still an orphan whose mother is suspected to be a prostitute.

His relationship to Kyrie is downplayed- she's more of a big sister.

I'd probably retool the anime as a prequel to 4 and set it in Fortuna. We'd get to see Nero's early days at the Order before he becomes a half-human.

4 and the anime are two parts of a whole. They push him to care more about the people of Fortuna. Despite the setbacks and betrayal he pushes forward.

His fighting style and demeanor in 4 is like Shinjiro from Persona 3.

5 is still Dante versus Vergil. The opening levels are in Fortuna before Vergil arrives for Yamato.

In 5, he doesn't have an arc but he acts as a moral compass for Vergil. 5 is where he meets the crew and acts as a mediator between Vergil and the others.

This is Shinjiro fanart for Arena so i thought it be a good fit for 5's take on Nero.

https://www.deviantart.com/xmakedamnsurex/art/Shinjiro-Aragaki-P4U2-Poster-478310036

If people wanted a Nero only game this is my pitch.

 

[V's patron]

@ef9dante_oSsshea @Lain

Lain's comment of Nero being more Vergil-like made me think of this Young Xehanort fancomic.

Young Xehanort by Mobis-New-Nest on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

Demo Cover by Mobis-New-Nest on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

Nero and Patty both have a cliche feel to them so a better angle was needed. Nero ends up working as a foil to the Sparda brothers but i wis it was more up front. In my writing class, i was thought "use your best ideas first" so leaning into his relationship with the Spardas would've been better. There was a way to do that in 4 and doing that through Dante's campaign would've been the way to go. Having Dante test Nero because he's worried about Nero's similarities to his father is doable. It also would work if Nero was human turned demon in my take but also if Nero had a more obvious similarities to his father. But you would also have to explain that to the audience too so having Trish and Dante retrace Vergil's steps in Fortuna would've helped too.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

I would kill him off as a character if i could lol

Just keep him playable in bloody palace, he just doesn't have the charisma or appeal to continue the series solo

At least for me anyway, so the biggest thing i would change about him is just his entire personality and qualities as a character.

 

[V's patron]

I would kill him off as a character if i could lol

Just keep him playable in bloody palace, he just doesn't have the charisma or appeal to continue the series solo

At least for me anyway, so the biggest thing i would change about him is just his entire personality and qualities as a character.

I don't mind retooling my Nero reimagings as a new character. Here's another one I posted in the DMC6 thread. Retiring Nero after 5 and keeping as a guest character feel like the way to go. He could be a foil for these new characters.

Berto's comment in the other thread madec me think of Nero as an antihero. So having a character more like Sho from Persona Arena would be great. I would've had Nero go through a stronger character arc so this is a way to do that here.

Sho had ties to Strega a villianous group of teenagers from Persona 3. So i'd bring in a group like that as well too. Nero never had no real interest in the order but having a character turned back on their friends for a greater good would be my pitch.

I'm hoping the upcoming animated series really reinvents him.

Castlevania nocturne would be a good example of how they would handle nero.

 

[Dante's Stalker]

His age.

That is literally the only thing I would change.
But alas, that wouldn't work either.

 

[V's patron]

His age.

That is literally the only thing I would change.
But alas, that wouldn't work either.

Do you want him to be older or younger?

 

[Dante's Stalker]

Do you want him to be older or younger?

Older

 

[V's patron]

Older

Would he be around Dante's age or still younger?

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

I don't think maturing him in years would be enough, his traits need changing.

He is still a giant drama queen. Making him older may tone it down a bit at least i guess.

 

[berto]

I've made this point more than a few times but I'd change the same thing about Nero that I would about Dante.

In the first game's concept Dante did not show his true feelings because he knew the demons would exploit any weakness in a heartbeat so Dante put up a front of bravado. The thing is, he also showed heart. Dante, as he became after 3, never showed respect for his father like he did in 1, for example. He stopped acting like he cared. The anime was especially bad about this. The idea is that he's hiding his true intentions but they took it way too far and they hid this even from the player. In 1 they also described him as someone who never lost his cool, no matter the situation. I think the exact phrasing was that he never got nervous; Dove into danger head first. They took that to mean that he looks like nothing bothers him and the difference is significant.

Nero has the same problem except that he acts like only selfish things bother him, which is worse. My go to example for this is the scene in 4 where we see the villagers getting slaughtered and Nero isn't phased by it. It's not till he sees that it bothers Kyrie that he decides to act leading to the question: what would he have done if she hadn't been there? If she hadn't rushed to that little boy would he have bothered saving him? The issue stems from the fact that the game needed to go out its way to show that Kyrie had to be involved for him to do anything one would label as heroic. It's almost as though the people making it think we wouldn't understand why he does heroic things when he doesn't have a motivation beyond being heroic. Similarly, in 5 Nero isn't shown to be interested in saving the world for the sake of that fact but rather because he lost his arm and because he was called dead weight. These are the only motivations he shows throughout the game. One of the interviews for the character back in the days of DMC4, whoever it was that was being interviewed, said that Nero had no attachments to humanity outside of Kyrie and if she died he'd probably wonder off to hell. That would be fine, if that's what we're supposed to take from the character, but we're not. We're supposed to see him as the hero.

That's what Dante in 1 has that he and Nero don't beyond DMC3. Yeah, Dante did it for vengeance but they also showed him having an air of nobility. They took the time to show him being caring; caring about his mother, his father, his brother and even his enemy. Yeah, it was cheesy as all hell, no doubt, but it was a good way to show more sides to the character than just being a badass. The closest thing Nero has to something like that is the soldiers cheering him in that photo and that isn't out of direct intention but as a side effect. That scene where he offers what he thinks is a homeless man food was severely needed because outside of that Nero does not seem like he cares enough to qualify as a good person. He's a good person adjacent (depending on how far away Kyrie is or how much the bad guy pssd him off).

 

[V's patron]

@ef9dante_oSsshea
Ironically Jake from RE6 feels like Nero but better.

He avoids alot of the same problems but needed a stronger villian than Carla.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

Shame capcom didn't give nero the same treatment, and decided to make a whiny teen with attitude that grew into a grown man with it.

 

[V's patron]

Shame capcom didn't give nero the same treatment, and decided to make a whiny teen with attitude that grew into a grown man with it.

Jake isn't much older or mature than Nero, he just gets called out for his issues more.

Sherry spends most of her time confronting him over being callous or using Wesker's genes as a justification for his problems later on. So it's more believable when he's pragmatic/selfless later on.

So I don't mind Nero being immature or callous, I just wish those traits were explored better.

Ironically Nero feels like a first draft of Jake. Both DMC4 and Re6 shared the same producer.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

I just think nero needs a full rewrite, his dialogue and actions need to be more like dmc1 dante imo.

 

[V's patron]

I just think nero needs a full rewrite, his dialogue and actions need to be more like dmc1 dante imo.

I don't disagree but him being stoic like DMC2 dante might be better.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

He hasn't been through enough hardship, or done enough to be stoic though lol

In both games he was in, dante cleaned up his mess for the majority, and even at the end of 5 dante beat urizen and he and vergil took then down the tree.

 

[V's patron]

He hasn't been through enough hardship, or done enough to be stoic though lol

In both games he was in, dante cleaned up his mess for the majority, and even at the end of 5 dante beat urizen and he and vergil took then down the tree.

I meant from the start. Having him be more of an introverted character gives him a different style to Dante being a showoff in 3.