The fact that various Devil Breakers are placed across the field might come across as Acceptable Breaks from Reality. However, it is perfectly possible that Nico simply launches the ones with rocket functions and has them land at random spots in Red Grave City and later within the Qliphoth tree for Nero to find them.
The Devil Breakers being fragile due to Nico packing a lot a power into such a small thing is within possibility. Before the Nightmare adds further Brilliance in that they're all rush jobs when taking into account the one-month time limit before the Qliphoth completely takes over the Human World, and that she has to make the new ones on the fly throughout the entire game. Additionally, Nero is using them very frequently in extreme combat situations, which would only accelerate how quickly they'd start to fall apart from overuse.
When all Devil Breaker "Magazine" slot upgrades are purchased, Nero can have up to eight Devil Breakers stocked in his inventory. The base game has eight types of Devil Breakers (Overture, Gerbera, Punch Line, Helter Skelter, Tomboy, Buster Arm, Rawhide, Ragtime), so it possible for the player to have exactly one of each Devil Breaker at their disposal.
Nero can fire up to three shots for each Color Up reload, which is indicated by his HUD having three bullet icon slots. If you observe closely, each individual icon is drawn like two bullets stacked on top of each other (for up to six bullets when the gun is fully loaded). This isn't just a stylistic design choice because it neatly ties with how his Blue Rose revolver works according to its Flavor Text and lore. The gun is customized with a six-slot cylinder, and it fires two bullets every time Nero pulls the trigger.
The visual effects make it easy to notice which part of a demon's body is struck by your attacks. If Nero or Dante is shooting a Hell Caina while both of them are standing still, most of their shots will hit the Hell Caina's face or forehead, reinforcing the implication that the devil hunters actually aim for the demons' heads if possible. This "shoot-the-head" tactic was already demonstrated a lot in the cutscenes of the previous games, but DMC5 made it obvious as a gameplay aesthetic.
In "The Void" training area, the player can determine how much damage is dealt by a combo or attack thanks to an HUD element that shows a numerical counter. This small, yet neat feature can provide additional context to some attacks and mechanics:
Nero and Dante's standard firearms deal more damage the closer they are to the target, and if they're very far away from what they're shooting, the damage values are essentially halved. This can justify why Nero decides to shoot a Hell Caina at point-blank range during his Buster animation against it.
Nero's Devil Trigger doesn't directly boost the damage of his Red Queen's attacks; the extra, supplemented damage comes from the slashes/swipes made by the spectral projections.
Vergil's ability to teleport to an enemy impaled with a Mirage Blade might come off as an application of a Utility Weapon at first, but the spectral blades actually deal minimal damage whenever he impales targets using his "Trick" techniques, so it's possible to pre-emptively kill the target you're teleporting to. If the Heaven or Hell mode didn't make it obvious enough, then The Void's damage counter will.
It might seem odd at first that V would read a quote by poet William Blake as though it were religious scripture. But that's actually the point, since the specific quote is from the Proverbs of Hell, which Blake intended to be a counterpart to the Biblical Book of Proverbs. Essentially, he is reading religious scripture, just that of Hell (or Blake's vision of Hell).
V isn't just reading random William Blake poetry in cutscenes; his quote is relevant in one way or another to the circumstances he's currently facing. For example:
When he introduces himself to Dante, V quotes "I have no name, I am but two days old..." and passes it off as a joke. However, it is a Foreshadowing and V isn't actually kidding. He came to Dante's shop on May 3, exactly two days after he and Urizen were split off from Vergil on May 1.
He says "The cut worm forgives the plow." when he finishes off Nidhogg. He might've likely used "worm" to allude to Nidhogg being a parasite to the Qliphoth.
He says "The hours of folly are measured by the clock, But of wisdom: no clock can measure." when he kills the Elder Geryon horse. The "clock" and "hours" reference the concept of time, and the Elder Geryon is a demon horse that can manipulate time.
He says "While thy branches mix with mine, and our roots together join." as an obvious Five-Second Foreshadowing to his plan of merging back with Urizen to form Vergil.
Nero falls asleep with a magazine covering his face as he waits for Nico to arrive at the Qliphoth. It can be attributed to having Shared Family Quirks, as his uncle Dante was also shown with a "habit" of having his face covered by a magazine in Episodes 3 and 8 of Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.
Dr. Faust is a Devil Arm that takes the form of the hat worn by the Fausts in Devil May Cry 4, and it attacks by using your Red Orbs which serve as currency in-game. Given the game has microtransactions so you can easily get Red Orbs, it's possible for it to not just cast from Dante's money, but YOURS as well!
As Dante destroys the Qliphoth Blood Clots in Mission 12, he quips "When in doubt, smack it" as if it's their family motto. This might come off as a random one-liner at first, but it's a subtle reference to a recurring element in the series wherein a character hits or attacks an object to make it work or to solve something. In DMC3, Dante hits his jukebox to make it play music, strikes a puzzle box to move it forward, and kicks the ornamental spear that activates a mechanism. In DMC4, the jammed drawbridge controls only worked after a frustrated Nero shot it with his revolver, the Gyro Blades are manipulated by weapon strikes, and Dante managed to skip the Dice Game by cutting the die in half.
When playing as Dante in Mission 13, he will comment on the smell of the environment and concludes that they are going down the right path, or that Urizen already went down the Qliphoth. These dialogue lines are likely subtle references to a similar event in DMC4 wherein Dante was able to detect Dagon hiding in the fog just because of the latter's stench. Later in Mission 16, Dante also remembers Cerberus from DMC3 as a "stinky little pooch". Putting the three scenarios together creates the implication that demons in the world of Devil May Cry emit a foul odor.
It's obvious that V's playstyle is a bit slower than Dante or Nero's. Physically, it might be due to him being physically weaker and requiring his familiars to attack for him, but let's consider another thought. He's seen commanding his familiars to take complex or different forms. It might not be too much of a stretch to say it's not just because V's physically slow, but that he requires time to command his familiars or speak any incantations he has before the attack comes out.
There's also his nature as the human half of Vergil to consider. For much of 3, Vergil despised his being part-human, believing it to be a source of weakness. This is reflected in V lacking the style and brute force Dante and Nero possess, and he's hindered even further by his rapidly decaying body.
V decides to try nearly stabbing Dante in the head with Sparda to wake him up, because he knows whenever Dante's unconscious, he always wakes up just before someone tries to kill him.
V playing the opening for Niccolò Paganini's Caprice No. 24 for a taunt isn't just because it's a famously difficult piece, or an arbitrary choice - it's a reference to how Niccolò Paganini was rumored to be associated with the devil due to his skill in his lifetime.
The number 5 is associated several times with V, as it's made obvious by his debut on the fifth game of the main continuity, and his One-Letter Name being the Roman numeral version of 5. His first playable segment is Mission 4, which is actually the fifth mission if the Prologue is counted separately. One of the first quotes that he reads from his book ("He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.") is the 5th proverb from William Blake's Proverbs of Hell.
Nightmare's "Illegal Move" skill allows it to instantly teleport to the target. Although it was named after a chess terminology as a part of V's general Chess Motifs, the skill's name can also make sense in a different way. Nightmare is essentially a Mighty Glacier; something that hits hard but moves very slow. Having a teleportation ability eliminates the "moves very slow" part and subverts the trope. If the enemies expect this giant golem to remain slow, its ability to suddenly appear right in front of their faces can be deemed "illegal" from their perspective.
In contrast to Shadow and Griffon turning into V's Power Tattoos when they're not yet summoned, Nightmare turning into the black coloration of V's natural white hair makes a lot of sense because Nightmare is a liquid-based creature. Becoming a hair dye, of all things, is both within the realm of Nightmare's abilities, and is also practical for V.
V has to sacrifice his Devil Trigger gauge in order to keep Nightmare summoned on the field. Not only does this serve as a Necessary Drawback because Nightmare is an invincible ally, it also subtly alludes to some details from DMC1; the original Nightmare "tank" boss that Dante fought in Mallet Island has the ability to drain his Devil Trigger runes, while the Nightmare-Beta gun can fire more powerful shots by consuming his DT runes. These tie into the more obvious similarities between the Nightmare familiar of this game, and the "tank" Nightmare of that game, such as having a core inside their liquid body, and their ability to fire a huge laser beam.
The original Nightmare demon fought by Dante in Mallet Island can be damaged and killed. When the familiar Nightmare is under the player's control as V's Limit Break, it's completely invincible. This can be justified as the original Nightmare was so powerful that even Mundus was disturbed by its potential and had to impose mechanisms to make it vulnerable, whereas V's own Nightmare is only restrained by his Devil Trigger gauge. Inversely, there are also reasons why Dante can kill these familiars (including the previously-invincible Nightmare) in Mission 18.
Gameplay and Story Integration may apply when you realize that the familiars can't be killed only when V is around (Nightmare can be summoned again and again for as long as V has enough DT gauge, while Griffon and Shadow can recover health even if they're "stalemated", much more so if V is near). But without V, their chances of reviving in Mission 18 became limited, which makes them killable.
As the entirety of their boss fights in Mission 18 serves as a reference to the original three demons from DMC1 (to the point where Dante even says it's like being back on Mallet Island), it makes sense that if Dante killed the original three in the past, he should be able to kill their familiar counterparts as well.
Dante needs a new power up to beat Urizen. Solution? Stab himself in the chest with Rebellion! After all, getting stabbed in the chest with a sword unlocked a new power the last four times it happened! In this case, Dante is finally accepting his demonic heritage inherited from Sparda, not just focusing solely on his human heritage from Eva; he even absorbs Sparda (the sword). He's facing the family portrait because it symbolizes that acceptance as he absorbs both Rebellion and Demon Sword Sparda to form his own, Demon Sword Dante. It also symbolizes how Rebellion was the opposite of Yamato — where Yamato has the ability to split demonic power apart, Rebellion has the ability to unify demonic power together. Dante overcame the mental "rebellion" that had been holding him back since 3.
Was Dante stabbing himself with Rebellion to awaken his Sin Devil Trigger really a shot in the dark? Before doing so, he openly ponders why Sparda gave him Rebellion - Yamato clearly has the ability to cut through dimensions and separate man and devil, but what kind of special power did the Rebellion have? He recklessly tests it out by stabbing himself, discovering that Rebellion's power is to unify man and devil.
This entire scene is also an inversion of Vergil becoming Urizen. Before Vergil stabs himself with Yamato, he turns his back on the family portrait, reflecting that he is trying to abandon the link to humanity he so despises.
There's a certain irony in how Dante and Vergil reach their full power. Dante reaches his full power by truly embracing his demonic heritage, while Vergil reaches his full power by embracing the humanity he had discarded.
In Devil May Cry 4, Kyrie's song in the prologue, "Out of Darkness", is a song of praise for Sparda (whom the Order of the Sword worships) as a commemoration of his legend and deeds. But with the events of Devil May Cry 5, some lyrics can now be interpreted as subtle hints to Dante unlocking his full potential, and the eventual resolution to his Sibling Rivalry with Vergil at the end of this game. To wit:
Hear the devil's cry of sin, note Refers to the potential Sin Devil Trigger that Dante can obtain. Always turn your back on him. note Refers to how Dante was unable to realize the true power of Rebellion (being able to absorb his true demonic heritage) for a long time. With the wind you go, Still I dream of your spirit leading you back home.note Dante returns to their foster family home. I will give my gifts to you,note While standing in front of their father's portrait, Dante stabs himself with the Rebellion to unlock Sin Devil Trigger. Grow your garden, watch it bloom. The light in your eyes an angel up high,note The angel being referred to in the song is Eva, the inspiration for both Sparda and Dante. Fighting to ease the shadow side.note As Mundus becomes the dark rival of Sparda, Dante's rival is his brother Vergil. The word "ease" might mean that Dante does not truly intend to kill his brother. Hearts will grow though having to bend,note Refers to the twins' sibling rivalry, and their numerous fights. Leaving behind all things in the end.note The sibling rivalry is halted, the twins reconcile in the end.
Alternatively, it foreshadows the ending of the game, with Kyrie's words (listen to my voice calling to you) being enough to give Nero the resolve to save both Dante and Vergil (hear the devil's cry of sin) atop of the demon tree Qliphoth that Vergil helped create (Grow your garden, watch it bloom) and how Nero has to use his newfound Devil Trigger to ease the long standing rivalry (The light in your eyes, an angel up high, fighting to ease the shadow's side) and how Vergil's journey as V brought his humanity literally back to him, they both reconciled with each other (hearts will grow through having to bend, leaving behind all things in the end).
The Qliphoth needed to harvest human blood in order to produce the fruit that grants immense power to a demon. Later on, an in-game document file reveals that human blood is in fact a source of demonic power. Retroactively, this paints another significant meaning on the entire franchise's focus on Hybrid Power – Dante, Vergil and Nero are stronger than the "pure" demons because their own human blood empowers their demonic nature!
"Qliphoth" means "husk" in Hebrew, potentially justifying why the game's Qliphoth turns its victims into husks when its roots drained their blood.
The giant Gilgamesh demon's weak point being a suspicious red soft spot on its back makes sense after the boss is defeated. Nero and Nico realize that the giant is actually just a mass of Qliphoth roots fused with the "Gilgamesh" metal from the Underworld. Prior to this boss fight, you've been destroying Qliphoth roots by smashing their red "blood clots", thus the similar red spot on the boss isn't a coincidence.
It may seem odd that Vergil was able to cut himself into two beings; his demon half becoming Urizen and his human half becoming V. However, one might recall that Vergil's favored weapon is Yamato. Rebellion and Yamato were said to be swords of Sparda with special capabilities. What is Yamato's? The ability to cut through dimensions! This power has been used to separate, as well as combine the Demon and Human World (Remember the Hellgates from DMC4, for example?). Therefore, Vergil using it to split himself into his demon and human sides, as well as them eventually converging back together, is quite possible when one considers its abilities to do so.
Dante and Vergil Offhand Backhanding Nero at the same time isn't just for a comedic scene, it also goes to show that they truly are twin brothers. There's a common belief that twins in real life tend to have the same thoughts and do the same thing at the same time. Even though Dante and Vergil have different ideologies, they would still share some of the same habits.
Also take a look at Nero's face in the following scene; he's visibly injured on the side of his face that Dante hit, but not the other side. Did Dante hit him a little harder in an act of playful revenge for Nero having hit him earlier? Or did Vergil go easier on Nero because he now knew that Nero was his son?
When V offers Dante the job at the beginning of the game's events, he introduces their target as "your "reason"... your reason for fighting." Clever pun using the name of Urizen, while also letting Dante know that it's really Vergil.
Part Fridge Brilliance and other Part Fridge Horror. V's nature as a whole makes a lot of sense (and consequently becomes very disturbing) when one considers the connotations between his nature as Vergil's Human Side and his Familiars being representations of his trauma as Nelo Angelo. Whenever V uses his powers, it noticeably wears him down and makes him die faster, and as noted, his powers are centered on his Familiars. One could easily connect V's dependence on his familiars as being akin to dwelling on one's own trauma for too long, which undoubtedly damages the person mentally and emotionally. Consequently, V reading his book of poems to revive his Devil Trigger Gauge could be seen as Vergil trying to take solace in what few happy memories and fantasies he had from Eva, but of course, due to the reliance on his familiars, it only ends up prolonging the inevitable deterioration of his form.
The Familiars being described by V as being like dreams, as in they can inflict pain but cannot truly kill anything, which is why V needs to give the finishing moves, is also disturbing. It can easily be linked to how mental or emotional trauma can cause pain to people, but it doesn't ultimately kill them. It's the people themselves who have to end the misery.
A consistent theme throughout the series is the duality of humanity and demons, and how humanity's desire for justice and ability to love for others channels demonic powers better than the will for domination does. This is why Dante overcame every foe he came up against, even the likes of Vergil, because like Sparda, love gave his blade an edge that malice alone could not muster. Nero manages to overcome Dante and Vergil's malice against each other because in that moment, love for his father and uncle mattered more to him than anything else, and that singular desire gave him the power he needed in that moment to pursue his justice. Dante, for all his human qualities, was fighting on Vergil's level and operating on hatred, whereas Nero's Devil Trigger was backed by a purity of intention that both brothers were lacking at the moment. Sparda would be proud to know that his grandson learned the lesson he wanted to impart on his sons, and by proxy, had to beat it into them to remind them of its value.
V's outfit does seem a little strange, with many people pointing out how gothic and/or edgy it is. Chapter 2 of the Visions of V manga reveals that V was completely naked after he and Griffon escaped from the twins' childhood home. Griffon attacked a random mugger when he was distracted by V, thus providing the gothic-like clothes V wears throughout the game.
The themes for the characters' fights can be fitting for them if read into by the game's plot.
Nero has "Devil Trigger":
The first and second set of Verses talk about difficulty in restraining one's own rage and anger, and embracing one's own inner darkness in order to survive and kill others. This would fit in perfectly with the entire plot of 4, as well as a comment made by Nero near the end of the game to Kyrie on how all he had was her and Credo in Fortuna. It's been said that he was a bastard child and treated as such there, so it would make sense that he'd feel some self-loathing issues. But by the time of 4, he essentially embraces his nature as part demon if it would mean it'd protect others. It could also refer to the beginning of his frustrations with Dante and Vergil, the former calling him dead weight and the latter having ripped his arm off.
The third set of lyrics talk about the singer being a wildfire that can't be tamed and a refusal to hold back anymore. It could refer to the first time he got his Devil Trigger, as well as not letting his lack of an arm get in the way of exacting vengeance on Urizen. It could also illustrate his use of the Devil Breakers being his view that he has enough power now. It can also refer to how he sets off after Dante and Vergil given his rage at the latter despite the fact that Vergil is his father. The girls are telling him not to go after and kill him, in which he refuses to listen because he won't be tamed.
The final set of lyrics talk about how even when the darkness is gone, the rage isn't over and fighting to get closer, as well as the idea of "like a silver bullet piercing through, I throw myself into you". It could refer to how the closest to family bonding Sparda's family has is beating the living hell out of each other. It could also refer to how Nero is trying to settle the feud for once and for all, and trying to get Vergil to accept him. What's even more poignant is that it's these specific lyrics that are used the most in the final boss theme.
Dante has "Subhuman":
The first set of verses talks about the struggle with inner demons, the difficulty to keep one's power under control and the pain that remains hidden behind a facade. Dante could easily become a ruthless killer to take his revenge upon the demons that ruined his life not caring whether they're truly evil or not, but his humanity still allows him to discern between good and malice. His devil form is a devastating weapon, but the sheer rush of power it grants Dante makes him far more susceptible to going berserk and harming his friends and loved ones, hence he tries to keep it under control. Finally, Dante carries a baggage of hurt after all these years, having experienced a number of personal tragedies, that he tries to hide behind his devil-may-care attitude.
The chorus indicates that Dante still has issues with his demon side, only using it reluctantly when the situation requires it. Because of it, he considers himself an "Omega", "subhuman" due to his mixed heritage, shunned by full-blooded humans. His self-loathing stems from his hatred of demons who made his life a tragedy. Only after accepting himself as both demon and human, Dante finally overcomes his limitation and reaches his full potential.
V has "Crimson Cloud":
A particular recurring line is "Savior! Bloodstain! Hellfire! Shadow! Heaven on a landslide!" Aside from the parallels to some of the story, it also mirrors parts of the entire saga. As noted by a Youtube comment, Savior is Dante, Bloodstain is Vergil's defeat by him, Hellfire is his subsequent entrapment in the underworld, and Shadow is his corruption into Nelo Angelo. Heaven on a landslide refers to the Sparda familial home, and how it was abandoned after great destruction e.g the attempted murder of the entire Sparda family.
Another, non-recurring, pair of lines is "Split myself in two, death is all around. Summoning the power, drag myself through pain!" This obviously refers to Vergil's splitting of himself into Urizen, who brings death to Redgrave with his summoning of the Qliphoth, and V, who summons his traumas and forces himself to fight as his body slowly decays.
Vergil has "Bury the Light":
For one thing, the entire track is filled to the brim with callbacks to previous DMC games. The first few seconds of the song (at the 0:27 mark) are similar to Ultraviolet, Nelo Angelo's theme from the first game. Around the 6:38 mark, the motifs are similar to Devils Never Cry, the end credits theme to 3, and then, of course, the final minute or two of the song is similar to Nero's theme, Devil Trigger, as noted below. And then the line, "You want this power? / Then come try and take it", is a reference to Vergil's Badass Boast to Dante before their fight here as well as him embracing his humanity as his greatest power much like how Dante embraces his demonic side in this game. "Disappear into the night" is also a reference to his Disney Villain Death in 3.
The line "I am the storm that is approaching" is a Continuity Nod to Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, when Arkham tells Vergil that "a storm is approaching" in reference to the coming conflict with Dante and Lady.
Fittingly, the song's chorus sounds very similar to the chorus of Devil Trigger. This is brought to a head in the final chorus, which begins with "Bury the light deep within!", a mirror phrase to "Embrace the darkness that's within me!" While Nero's arc is about learning to embrace his weaknesses and his demonic nature, Vergil is fruitlessly trying to bury his decency and his human nature. The entirety of 6:38 to 7:30 in the song also solidifies Vergil's Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds status since this is a reference to the day his mother died, which is further accentuated by "Cast aside, there's no coming home! / We're burning chaos in the wind! / Drifting in the ocean all alone!" during the breakdown at the end. Ouch. Casey Edwards explained that this ending was not only the final summary of Vergil's story, but also as his final love letter to Devil May Cry as a whole during his final piece on the game.
Interestingly, Bury the Light is over twice as long as Crimson Cloud — the former clocks in at nine minutes and forty seconds while the latter is four and a half minutes. So, in a sense, much like V being the human half of Vergil, Crimson Cloud is only one half of Bury the Light! Oh, yeah. And then this:
(Crimson Cloud) Split myself in two / Death is all around
(Bury the Light) Two souls once lost, / And now they remember
It also connects to "Devils Never Cry" through its theming of light. In both songs, light is synonymous with humanity, and reflects the brothers' outlooks on their human half. Vergil, who sees his humanity as nothing but a source of weakness, desires to "Bury the light deep within", rejecting and abandoning it, while Dante's perspective is that humanity is a gift, reflected in the line "Bless me with your gift of light", showing that he believes his humanity is a gift that must be embraced. It also shows that, in contrast with Nero who is more focused on his demonic heritage, the Sons of Sparda are more concerned with their human sides, despite having conflicting views on it.
Why does Vergil mellow out so easily compared to his past self? Because even if he doesn't admit it, part of Vergil has already accepted that Dante is just as good as, if not better than him. Why else would V come to Dante for help if he doesn't believe that Dante is stronger than his demonic half?
Artemis and Cavaliere Angelo carry Lady and Trish as Living Batteries respectively. Which makes sense. Artemis was a gun in the previous games so Urizen would want an expert in Gun Fu to wield her power, thus, Lady, who is even nicknamed The WalkingArsenal, was chosen for her. Cavaliere, on the other hand, has the ability to control electricity and wield his giant sword like nothing. Thus, Trish, who wields Sparda (ironically, the name of the man Cavaliere hates) and uses electricity as her main ability, powers the big purple demon.
Trish is a doppelganger of Vergil's mother Eva who was created by Mundus for the purpose of duping Dante by playing on his grief over their mother's death while Lady is the daughter of Arkham, the human who tried to manipulate Vergil to attain the power of Sparda and Lady herself was also a thorn in Vergil's side during 3. Urizen using them in the manner he did could be seen as revenge by proxy against Mundus and Arkham, as well as punishing them for their respective trespasses against Dante and himself. If one assumes Trish also helped torture and brainwash Vergil into becoming Nelo Angelo, Urizen sticking Trish in an Angelo also seems like poetic justice from his perspective.
The design of Artemis evokes the appearance of a Seraph – having six wings with several eyes dotted within them. Other angelic allusions include Artemis's affinity for light-based attacks, while its shockwave-inducing screams can be likened to a Seraph's literal Earth-shaking voices.
Cavaliere Angelo translates to "Knight Angel" in Italian. But if one goes deeper into etymology, "Cavaliere" is derived from the Latin word "Caballarius" which means "mounted knight". Therefore, it makes sense for Cavaliere Angelo to be introduced riding the horse demon Elder Geryon.
Cavaliere Angelo's first act upon meeting Dante is to throw a motorcycle at him, and once Dante defeats him, he gets a motorycle Devil Arm out of him. The thrown motorcycle might've came out of nowhere at first, but there's actually another meaning to it. Considering he's powered by Trish, it's a very nice foreshadowing and callback to not only who's powering the Angelo, but also how Trish and Dante first met (in DMC1, she rammed a motorcycle to enter Dante's shop and threw it at him).
V reacts to Cavaliere Angelo with bitter amusement, realizing that it's holding Trish and joking "Don't worry, I'll be gentle." But when V meets a Proto Angelo with Nero, he is completely disgusted and resolves to destroy it. The difference is that Proto Angelo is a soulless abomination even closer to the image of Nelo Angelo than Cavaliere, possessing similar horns and a longsword, showing that Urizen is now weaponizing his own trauma against V.
V noticeably has a much more personal and sadistic kill for the Angelo series of enemies than most other demons, where he grabs their heads to hold them still as he slits their throat. This makes a lot of sense later when we learn his origins and why he probably dislikes these enemies more than others.
They could also reflect that he's disgusted that, as Vergil's Human Half, that Urizen would be willing to essentially make use of the trauma as Nelo Angelo to be his foot soldiers. In essence, they reflect that without any morality to him, Vergil's ambitions could lead him to be as bad as Mundus, the guy who enslaved him.
Itsuno has confirmed that Cavaliere Angelo was a new design of Angelo made by Mundus, but it had been abandoned because it required too much power. When you think about it, Mundus' creation, Trish, happened to be the perfect "battery" for Cavaliere Angelo, implying that by putting Trish in Cavaliere, Urizen just did what Mundus planned on doing to her eventually anyways.
Vergil's Boss Subtitle being "The Alpha and the Omega" makes sense in several different ways, all pertaining to its overall translation as "The First and the Last" or "The Beginning and the End".
Timeline-wise, Vergil was the first final boss Dante fought, hence the Alpha. Now he's the last final boss Dante fights, thus, the Omega.
V is the one who kicks off Dante's adventure. Urizen is the one who waits for him at the end. The "Alpha" V and the "Omega" Urizen come together to become Vergil.
The demon invasion in Red Grave City started because Urizen took advantage of the Qliphoth tree's appearance in the human world. After being defeated by Nero, Vergil agreed to resolve the issue with the Qliphoth by diving down the Underworld (alongside Dante) to sever its roots. The "beginning" part can also be traced further back, as Vergil's act of taking the Yamato from Nero in the flashback was what kickstarted the plot in the first place.
He's the firstborn brother (being the elder of the twins) as well as the first one to delve into the Demon World, which all of the playable main characters seem to do at some point in game. He's also the first to delve into his demonic nature the most, supposedly getting his Devil Trigger before Dante. He is also the last one to escape the Demon World (given his time as Nelo Angelo), the last one to figure that humanity does have some meaning (compared to Nero and Dante who embraced it first), and, of course, the last Boss in Devil May Cry 3 and 5.
In every DMC game, Dante and Vergil's duels go in three steps. In 3, Vergil easily defeats Dante in their first duel, the two fight to a draw in their second duel, and Dante wins the third duel. This pattern repeats in 1 against Nelo Angelo, and also with Urizen in 5. Urizen easily defeats Dante, Dante fights Urizen to a draw, and then Dante defeats Urizen.
Trish is the only person whom V tells his complete origin to, and when finished, asks her if he made the right call in the end. She quips by telling him, "I'm not your Mommy, V. You're a big boy." This has significance on multiple levels because V is the human half of Vergil, and just two missions previously, V admitted to Griffon that the current adventure makes him think about his mother a lot. As anyone who played 1 knows, Trish is a doppelganger of Dante and Vergi's mother, Eva. In that game, Dante eventually realized that Trish only looks like Eva, but the two are very different people. Vergil never had the chance to come to that conclusion and probably wanted some validation from his "mother" after all these years. Especially considering that he thinks Eva chose to save Dante and to let him die.
Speaking of which, Dante saves Trish in the first game despite her betraying him because she looks like his mother. In 5, Trish saves V from falling into a chasm. In short, Trish has fulfilled the deepest wishes of the Sons of Sparda through her appearance; she fulfills Dante's wish to save his mother (as well as aiding him in defeating the demon responsible for her death) and she fulfills Vergil's wish to have been saved by his mother.
Notice the difference between V and Urizen's fighting styles, they have their own significance when taking into consideration their status as halves of Vergil:
V keeps his distance, comes in for a quick kill with his singular weapon, and uses magical canes to hit multiple enemies at once. Urizen, in his final clash with Dante, fights like a brawler accompanied by Summoned Swords-like projectiles. V fights like Vergil using Yamato, representing his more classy yet threatening demeanor, cutting apart the air even from afar, while Urizen fights like Vergil using Beowulf, acting like a savage man using his fists and feet to get close and deal large amounts of damage. Combine the two and, well, it's still Vergil, it's just that he's a master of both.
V and Urizen are incomplete beings. V has all the skill and finesse of Vergil but none of his raw power, hence his reliance on his familiars to do most of the fighting. Urizen has all of Vergil's demonic power enhanced to an absurd degree, but he fights like a savage when facing Dante, which is why he lost to his far more skilled opponent when Dante got the power to turn the tables. Now combined as Vergil, they're finally on the same level as their true foe, but in exchange, they lost their freedom of being their own person.
It's only until Mission 17 where Nero learns that Urizen is actually Vergil (V narrates the revelation to him, albeit leaving out the specific part about Urizen being a "half of Vergil"). This coincides with the Wham Episode of the firstDevil May Cry game; it's only until Mission 17 where Dante realizes that Nelo Angelo is his brother Vergil.
Nero doesn't get Devil Arms like Dante does. Instead, Nico uses the remnants of the demons he kills to make his Devil Breakers. But some potential Fridge Brilliance comes into play when you realize that the Devil Breakers are demon-powered robot arms. Nero acquires literal Devil Arms throughout the game.
At the end of the game, Dante trying to kill Vergil may come right out of the blue, considering how well he was getting along with V and seemed to treat him well enough. However, V had just reformed into Vergil right before Dante's eyes, rather than V trying to be the one to kill Urizen. To Dante, it could easily open up old emotional wounds of how Vergil was willing to pay plenty of high costs to himself and those around him to attain power. In 1's prequel novel (which may be canon given Nell Goldstein was mentioned), he killed plenty of Dante's mercenary friends and is responsible for Nell's death; in 3, he's responsible for bringing forth the Temen-ni-gru and the Inferred Holocaust it entailed; and here, he (as Urizen) is responsible for the Qliphoth invading the human realm and killing thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people! It wouldn't be much of a stretch for Dante to believe that Vergil has caused another catastrophe for the sake of his goals (which isn't far from the truth), only made worse by betraying Dante's trust yet again, which also makes it plausible why Dante is dead set on killing Vergil: to not let him be able to cause any more trouble ever again. It's really a good thing that it seems Vergil had finally realized how far he's gone and how much anguish he's caused and wants to attempt making up for it, and a bitchslap from Nero and subsequent pounding from Nero to Vergil to actually end the rivalry and set the record straight.
Dr. Faust is unlike any Devil Arm that comes before it, using red orbs as ammunition. This makes sense when you realize that, unlike every other Devil Arm, Dr. Faust wasn't created from a Devil, but a common demon. A powerful demon, but still pathetic compared to the likes of Goliath and Cavaliere. It makes sense that a weapon created from a being of lesser power needs something to compensate for its inherent disadvantage.
Dante's disheveled and weathered appearance in this game can be attributed to him not being able to afford to properly groom himself and having his water and electricity turned off. You can also notice that his hair has grown slightly longer after the month-long Time Skip.
Going along with why Nero's Devil Trigger lets him stop Dante and Vergil and beat down both of them, we see that Vergil's new super move is to use the Yamato to change himself into V. Given that positive human emotions channel devil powers better than anything, V, the personification of Vergil's human morality with all of Vergil's post-Qliphoth Fruit devil power makes him a veritable tornado of destruction.
Certain consumable items from past games, such as Holy Water, are not available in-game. With Nico remarking how the Qliphoth has reached all parts of the world, it's only natural that Holy Water is being stocked by churches to defend people during Urizen's reign of terror.
To those who have read the Devil May Cry 1 Prequel novel and Before the Nightmare, there are a few:
The Qliphoth Tree and its connection to Dante and Vergil's past when they were still going by Tony and Gilver. Dante's partner Grue had a daughter named Jessica, who was fused with a demonic tree that used her pain and despair to grow a path to the human world. In order to save her Dante had to kill her. The fact that there is concept art of Gilver as a potential enemy for V for the game also ties in the connection to Dante's past as Tony Redgrave. The first time Dante wanted to kill Vergil was because of a demonic tree and the last time they fight is because of a demonic tree as well.
Dante is almost always broke because a majority of his money goes into a bank account he set up for Tiki and Nesty, Grue's surviving children. It is revealed that they used the money to by Bobby's Cellar and rename it after their father, hence Grue's Cellar.
Dante and Vergil's conversation before destroying the Qliphoth (in the epilogue of the Special Edition) says a lot about how much Vergil was affected learning he has a son. He's oddly grumpy considering he was just smirking at Nero moments prior, and avoids Dante's prying remarks about the reunion. When Dante jokes that his attitude will make him an unpopular grandfather, it hits a sore spot, as Vergil threatens him with Yamato and Dante uncharacteristically flinches, understanding that he went a bit too far. Vergil's delivery of "Now... don't get in my way" is subdued and melancholy, and Dante gets the hint and goes back to cheesy battle talk.
When Dante jokes that Vergil was Compensating for Something with the Qliphoth, the latter rebuts that it was to compensate for Dante's idiocy. This has a double meaning: Vergil summoned the Qliphoth to gain unlimited power, a desire which indeed stems from the childhood heartbreak that he fails to let his brother repair.
When Nero fights Urizen in Mission 8, he manages to damage Urizen's crystal enough to break through his shield, prompting the Demon King to angrily rip himself from his throne and fight Nero on foot. However, if Nero manages to break through the shield in the Prologue, Urizen not only remains seated, but looks winded until the shield comes back. Why is that? It's because Urizen is still weak in the Prologue. Much like V, Urizen is living on borrowed time, and he was only able to remain so strong because he was hooked up to the Qliphoth like it was an oversized demonic IV. In the Prologue, Urizen was only sitting in his throne for a few days at most, and the Qliphoth hadn't truly started its harvest of the population of Red Grave. The fight in Mission 8 takes place a whole month later, and Urizen had been juicing himself on human blood the whole time. It's no wonder he's able to stand and fight on his own by that point!
Both V and Urizen claim to have no name, yet V acknowledges this as a joke while Urizen states it in total seriousness. Furthermore, V is responsible for what they're both called throughout the game, giving himself a One-Letter Name and the Big Bad a Punny Name associated with a villainous god from his favorite books. This highlights their connection as two opposite sides of the same person: namely the fact that Vergil's code of honor, memory, cunning resourcefulness, depth of personality, and the tragedy-driven, refusing-to-die aspect of his power obsession, all came from the humanity he sought to repress and was thus retained by the perpetually sickly V, whereas the towering abomination that is Urizen and his use of the Qliphoth for sustenance embodies the corrosive horror of his demonic nature's fixation towards power and victory at any and all costs. Thus, V being the one to strike a death blow to an incapacitated Urizen in order to reform a much physically and mentally stronger Vergil is no accident either. All that indulging the devil's thirst and denying his own soul ever did for Vergil was repeatedly make Dante stronger than him and leave him alone at death's door; the only way he could return from the brink, move forward from his scars, or stand on par with his brother all the way through as opposed to falling at the end, was to fully accept himself and all the parts that make him.
The Proto Angelos say "It's over!" and "Go to hell!" before performing their charge attacks. These lines are both said by Vergil when he performs Drive/Overdrive with the Mirage Edge, referencing his past as Nelo Angelo.
The arrival of Urizen and the other demons is accompanied by the mass genocide and slaughter of the citizens of Red Grave City. Given that Dante and the gang got their asses kicked in the prologue, and the fact that the city has "gone through hell and back, taken over by the underworld" in the aftermath, imagine what might've happened if Nero and V didn't manage to escape, it might've been the closest to an End of the World as We Know It scenario for the franchise.
It is revealed that the Angelo armours were created by Machiavelli, the creator of Artemis and Pandora, by the order of Mundus. However, Trish has claimed that Machiavelli is dead by the time of the DMC Anime. This can only mean that, once he perfected the Angelo armour with Nelo Angelo, Mundus likely killed him. If the Visions of V manga is to be believed, then the Nelo Angelo armour already was created by the end of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, meaning not only was Mundus preparing for his war against the Sons of Sparda long before he had Vergil enslaved, Machiavelli was likely long dead by the time of the first game.
The Easter Egg joke ending you earn for beating Urizen in the beginning of the game is funny... until you realize that Urizen is one half of Vergil. Between Urizen's destruction and V's subsequent death due to being separated from his other half for too long, Nero killed his own father. That goes double for the fact that Nero's allies never wanted him to kill Vergil.
And even if V figures out how to merge with a dead Urizen and survive as Vergil, he'll still miss out on all the character development he would have had during the game, and end up re-absorbing his trauma from the familiars as well. Odds are, Vergil won't be as calm or reasonable as he was in the last chapters of the game.
The effects of the Qliphoth on normal humans of Redgrave is brushed over in-game, with a few shots of people getting stabbed by roots and demons, and that's it. Generic monster movie destruction. But the dry husks the player encounters all throughout Redgrave tell a wide variety of stories; a couple on a walk, a parent near a balloon stand, a metro car of people commuting home. Not only the citizens were destroyed, but some of their buildings hardly resemble structures anymore. It's almost Hiroshima-like. This sort of widescale destruction is truly horrific, arguably worse than all other series catclysms such as Temen-ni-gru from 3, but it's all hidden under the "Wacky Woohoo Pizza Man" adventures. Take a quiet moment to breathe in the environmental design and it feels like a completely different story.
Dante gains Sin Devil Trigger by stabbing himself with Rebellion with Sparda on his back. Horror kicks in when you remember that Dante based this choice on a guess, hoping that his father gifted him and Vergil swords based on them being Polar Opposite Twins, and remembering that his Devil Trigger first activated when he was stabbed by Rebellion. If he had been wrong, there would have been another demon, probably stronger than Urizen, rampaging around.
To be fair, Dante had been stabbed by Rebellion before without much trouble - Nero throwing it at him in DMC4 comes to mind (which didn't transform him because he didn't have the Sparda). So he knew nothing terrible would happen if he were wrong.
Alternatively, it could've wound up doing nothing productive, which would mean Dante wouldn't be capable of matching Urizen; without him to take on Urizen, Nero would die, and there goes the entire plot, and probably the world itself. Yikes.
Mission 12 reveals that there's a statue and shrine dedicated to Sparda in Red Grave City, implying that prior to the demon invasion, the locale is a Town with a Dark Secret wherein demon worship happened long ago (and Sparda is most likely a patron deity). But what's more unsettling is that the hidden path underneath the statue needs a lot of blood before it can be opened. Assuming that this mechanism was active prior to the demon invasion (wherein the Qliphoth's Blood Clots aren't present in the area yet), where's the blood coming from?
Nico's Report on Malphas notes that the grotesque giant demon chick serving as Malphas's lower half hasn't reached maturity yet and could become an even more horrifying monster if Nero didn't kill it.
, is a song of praise for Sparda (whom the Order of the Sword worships) as a commemoration of his legend and deeds. But with the events of Devil May Cry 5, some lyrics can now be interpreted as subtle hints to Dante unlocking his full potential, and the eventual resolution to his Sibling Rivalry with Vergil at the end of this game. To wit:Hear the devil's cry of sin, note