I would say your contradicting yourself in this quote
DmC Dante is a character that's shaped mostly on DMC Dante's character. But he's not DMC Dante. So how are you not saying that he's not the same character as DMC Dante when your saying Dante's looks have been changed.
DmC Dante has not been in any other DMC game. His first time as character is in DmC. So how is his looks been changed?
It's a bit of a tonguetwister, isn't it? I will try and explain myself as well as I can, but it might get confusing:
Original Dante and new Dante are meant to be basically the same character, but from two different worlds and are therefore not directly related. However, the person that is Dante remains in both of them, being one with otherworldly powers, demon hunters, gunslingers, swordsmen, coat-wearing, snide and laid back personalities and so on. As individuals, they are two persons, not the same person, but what makes them both Dante is the way they are as characters. New Dante have some features about him that makes him unique from the original Dante, to show that he is indeed not original Dante, that they are two seperate characters, yet they are still so alike due to the fact that they are both carved out from the same wood, but with different carpenters (just throw that analogy in there. ), Hideki Kamiya (was that spelled right?) made the original Dante, Ninja Theory made the new Dante.
The new Dante is the original Dante from another world, from an alternate plane that runs parallel with the original plane, carved from the same wood but formed differently from one another to befit the target group of gamers.
They aren't the same character, yet they are. It really is a contradiction in itself which I guess is what confuses so many people. I see them as two different individuals though. Original Dante and new Dante. Like Megaman and Megaman.EXE, two different characters, but still the same on so many levels. (I know, I love using Megaman as an example, but I just think it fits so perfectly with the issue at hand.)
You might disagree with all of this, but that's how I see it anyways and Capcom hasn't given me reason to think otherwise.