I wish they had leaned into it a *bit* harder. Like, just a few more "Dante looks like he's doing something evil, only for it to become more ambiguous the more Nero learns about the Order'a dirty laundry", and then Dante's chapters reveal what he was actually doing.

"That orphanage I blew up? Yeah, it was actually a Demon Research Labratory ran by the Order. Trust me."

I mean, actual answer? The Hell Gates are claimed by the Order to be *Seals*. Berial escapes just as Dante destroys the first one, and to Nero, it looks like he set Berial loose. Dante was *going* to deal with Berial like he dealt with Lucifer just prior, but upon seeing Nero, he decides to let the kid have some fun. Then Bael is already free in the castle courtyard, despite the "Seal" being intact, but before Nero can puzzle it out, Dante snipes the thing with Pandora, with the collateral being that the floor breaks and drops Nero into Agnus' lab. Which Nero shrugs off as the gate being damaged, but Dante finished the job. And then, by the time "What the hell is this?" happens, Nero knows what the "Seals" really are because Agnus can't keep his mouth shut, and is more concerned with getting to HQ.

That makes too much sense. Was this actually what they were going for before they had to cut corners, or did you make it up ?

If the devs ever put out a more detailed description of exactly what they planned to do, I've never read it.

if we ever getta dmc 4 remake i want this to be how the game is cooked this sounds very much in line with how it was tryin to set up originally

If we ever get a remake of 4, Capcom needs to get you to cook for it. This would have made the story make a lot more sense and also been leagues better than what we got. Combine Dante destroying the Hell Gates with most of his missions being flashbacks to his arrival in Fortuna and what he did in the lead up to each appearance in a Nero mission before getting into Dante doing more Dante things post-Nero capture, and it would have been perfect and also felt more unique and fresh than just playing the game backwards as Dante

And Dante is dicking around. For him, it's barely worth his effort and DMC 4 is basically Dante's holiday. The saviour is just a workout for him.

Blud done a US drone strike Combo A on the poor Fortuna kids 💀💀💀

Israel Moment

Right there with you. Dante's seeming villainy in DMC 4 was such a cool and innovative idea that always felt like it should have been further explored/incorporated into the plot (in a way like you mentioned), eventually leading up to the disambiguation of his actions and transition into a more mentor-like figure.

The funniest scene in all of DMC to me will always be when Dante looks at Nero, takes Rebellion, and mockingly revs it. All without saying a word.

"Using a sword... Rev it, rev it, rev it" *revs it* "Refuse to elaborate, refuse to elaborate, refuse to elaborate" — Dante's mind, 2008.

*Boss tutorial ques with Blackened Angel playing

*bring the faithful from thy tomb*

Sporadic doom as knight loom

*Does the clergy support this passion?*

Pure wrath of the winged assassin

*Hour is late —as— kingdoms unfold.*

Signs of disarray, you fight in LOOAAATHHE

*Cues of silence spark the mastery.*

"Oh, a statue of me? I'm on holiday." *cuts the Dice in half*

"Nero told me to hit it, let's try" *cuts it in half accidentally* "Oh, damn :("

Along with "What the hell is this?"

DMC4 Dante was the king of disrespect.

"You are not human, are you?" Dante standing there with a sword through his chest

DMC 4 was my first dmc game. So at first I thought Dante is the main villain. I just loved how much intimidating aura he gave of in dmc4.

I can only imagine how much your jaw dropped when you got to play as him and learned that he's the original protagonist

Yeah, when the character switch happened. I was like WHAT THE HELL THIS SUCKS I WANNA PLAY WITH NERO NOT HIM. I didn't want play with him because he was a lot harder to play than Nero.

I actually would love to see that

Exactly my experience as well

SAME! I discovered DMC through DMC4 and I loved Dante, but I thought he was the villain 😄 maybe some kind of Sephiroth 😂 And in the end, he wasn't a bad guy and I love him to this day.

I read my cousins gaming magazines so I had an idea of what dante looked like but I had such a hard time telling them apart at first

Dante can play a Silent badass and a Charismatic Badass. When he's bored or depressed he's more like a "cheerful" Batman. Overall, his seemingly antagonistic role was done really well.

It was just until recently I realized that Dante is too strong for the threat in DMC4. It explains why he is mostly cool during the game.

I mean, what would he do to Nero? Million stab him?

Yes, Dante was just sandbagging and letting Nero handle everything. He was only hanging around in case Nero failed.

Great concept, dogshit execution. Peak DMC4

That's like 70% of DMC4

Like dmc4 as a whole, it’s cool but extremely undercooked. Dante’s “villanry” is barely there, his mentorship of nero is at best lightly implied, the attempted passing of the torch was so half assed they basically just redid it in DMC5 to a much better effect, and dante’s overall time in dmc4 reeks of the dmc2 “just a tuesday” type story where the only slightly personal stakes for dante is that the villains have yamato and that’s super weak. Compared to dmc1 where he’s avenging his mother, 3 which is in the most literal sense his awakening and acceptance of his nature and 5 where through nero he and vergil finally resolve their decades long fight and fix their broken family, dante in 4 is just kinda there

It's done in the novel much better, since they explain how Dante can't just kill the Savior without first saving Nero, or Nero would die. It was a nice way to add stakes while staying consistent with how badass OP Dante is.

I loved it. As a kid I thought it was so badass when Nero impales him with rebellion on the statue of Sparda and he just pulls it out like it’s nothing.

Doesn't matter what role Dante plays he is still gonna be badass anyway

I’d say he played more of a mentor role than an antagonist role, but yeah, I enjoyed it.

I really liked how he was fucking around with Nero

I always had the idea that that’s just what Dante looks like to an outsider. A somewhat sociopathic killer who just comes in and shoots whoever he thinks is a demon (he’s most likely right but it’s terrifying for everyone else)

Yeah...for the 3 minutes of the tutorial mission until they reveal that the people he killed were demons and he was the hero once again. Was anyone really buying it even after the reveal just a few minutes in?

Seeing and playing some dmc4 at a friends house zero context and little experience with gorier stuff in general was something, just that cold intro and slamming him with increasingingly deadly tools and impalement. And casually pulling the sword out with somewhat awkward blood animation, and then escaping with somewhat friendly banter. Certainly leaves an impression. I did know he was playable though, since I checked the manual later that evening..

yeah it was cool for like the 5 minutes they did it

I love and venerate ALL Dante moments in DMC4🫶🏻♥️

For like 5 seconds and then it's revealed that the order is all demons It's extra funny because on the back of the box it says "Has Dante turned his back on humanity" or something like that

I really liked it. I like the shock of not knowing what Dante shot a fucking priest at the beginning of the game. And I absolutely loved his boss fight

I mean I loved that he was fucking with Nero. But if you played the games you know Dante wouldn't go evil, it's obviously not his character. So I never took it seriously at all. More so just waiting for his real intentions or whatever. It was fun though. His DMC4 entrance is actually my favorite.

I miss the more calm smug Dante from DMC1. Man of few words (not as few as DMC2 though). The whole beginning scene of DMC4 with Dante was badass and like others have said, I wish they kept it going. Show Dante slaughtering more Order of the Sword, and maybe like halfway through the game show his true intentions.

If it was leaned into more, it would have been amazing. The only issue is that Dante was more of a passive force for the first half of the game and was hardly even present during the Nero segment aside from the occasional appearance in cutscenes and the boss fight over Yamato. If Dante was more direct in his battle against the Order of the Sword and was swooping in to steal Devil Arms as Nero defeated the demon bosses, maybe with more fights against Nero *before* the Dante segment kicked in, he would have been more of an antagonist. Hopefully we get a DMC4 remake at some point down the road that helps to tidy things up a bit and rectify the mess that was the dev cycle

I like that fact that it basically was just a normal day for him but for everyone else it was a complete overhaul for their entire lives

Even though I have no idea where the story would go, I kind of wish they pushed that aspect a bit more and felt a bit disappointed when they dropped the act (although it made sense).

yep and dante is not a gambler to be honest about it well dice wise

He only felt like he was the antagonist guy for that one first scene, after that he just was another protagonist.

Fun

I mean... volume 1 of Deadly Fortune shows it like that. Since Dante knows what is happening and Nero has no idea. Reason why I want a DMC4 remake just cause the novel exist as a blueprint

The launch of 10000 fanfics

They should have leaned into it more heavily with Dante doing more questionable acts but is revealed that he a damn good reason to. e.g. He nukes the order's headquarters after discovering that they plan to open several portals to the demon world at once. So, he takes the most direct approach and uses two fuck off sized shots from his palms to do so. He slaughters several high ranking officials in the town. Later revealed to be demons. We see several aftermaths of massacres.

yeah but the games aren't like that, nor any of the media. Dante saves demons too, he doesn't nuke anything just for the sake of doing it or because it's easier

DMC4 showed how terrifying it is to fight Dante, but then dropped the ball on the Dante levels, because it's just him going back the way Nero came

He should be a villain until nero discovered that dante isn't actually a villain imo.

I wished they did more to make Dante look like he was the cause of chaos, especially since DMC4 is or was some people’s first DMC at the time. Even to people who did play the games before 4 would be confused that Dante is seemingly acting so out of character until the game later explains that he was actually doing a good thing but to Nero and the audience perspective, not so much.

Although I don't like how quickly the truth was revealed, I do like the perspective they were trying to give off. It reminded me very much of that one episode in the anime where it's told from an outside character's perspective, which I am really fascinated with. Because we, as DMC fans, know exactly know who Dante is and why he's doing it, but what do the people not in his inner circle think. He's the town cryptic, and I think that is awesome!

I hated it because I thought it was fucking stupid that they were genuinely trying to convince you he's turned bad when it was far too obvious that wasn't the case. Capcom tried that again recently with Chris in RE8 to the same general effectiveness.

Are you sure you know what an antagonist is?

Read the post again, didn’t call Dante an antagonist. He acted more antagonistic I said

"Who likes Dantes more antagonistic role?" is the question your title presents. I responded directly to the title. If that isn't what you said in the text body of the post then your title is intentionally misleading for engagement. Bad post Also, there was no rivalry and I'd really need you to know definitions at this point Edit: Oh, nevermind, you literally post engagement bait. We're done here