Vergil is the most heavily debated character in the series. Is he a Well-Intentioned Extremisttrying to atonefor his failure to protect his mother, or is he just a nefarious bastard with no care in the world for the repercussions of his goal to attain the power of his father? Is the fact that he had a son a glimmer of light in his life, or just another way for Vergil to be as similar to dear ol' daddy as possible? Kamiya's original vision was that Vergil had been kidnapped as a child (when Dante lost a mother and brother to evil twenty years ago), and was never anything but a good guy who managed to break loose to help his brother. The author of the first novel decided to ignore that, and wrote Vergil as an evil badass who was around during Dante's teens. One of these Vergils was obviously much cooler than the other, and 3 made the novel's version of the character canon. 5, however, seems to use shades of both with Poor Communication Kills as the excuse.
Eva as well. Silk Hiding Steel or Action Mom? Dante saying that Trish, who is an Action Girl, lacks her "fire" implies the latter, as does the fact that she was able to keep Mundus from getting her children in the attack that killed her. Except in the original version, she didn't: Vergil was kidnapped and Dante was killed. None of this even accounts for what is brought to the table if Viewtiful Joe and Bayonetta are taken as canon to DMC lore. For starters, the latter all but outright states that Eva is an UmbraWitch, while the former retroactively elevates her to Chessmaster-level Guile Heroinewho plays the role of Big Good throughout the entirety of the original game. The 2 prequel novel, whose canonicity is still in question, shares a similar view, the only difference being that she explicitly takes command of her husband's army after his death in an alternate timeline.
Trish and Lady, and specifically, their relationships/feelings for Dante. According to canon sources, both of them care deeply for Dante but it's left ambiguous whether these feelings are platonic or sexual. Trish states in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 that looking like Dante's mother makes things awkward between them, but that game is non-canon. In the anime, Lady says that Dante's irresponsible attitude is a turn-off, but Morrison also says that she'll bail Dante out of financial trouble whenever he needs it (although not without complaining). In an epilogue of 4:SE, the trio watch Nero and Kyrie kiss off-screen, then Trish says "At least someone knows how to get the girl.", seemingly poking fun at Dante not having a romantic partner. In the ending of 5, both girls come back to Dante's shop on the hope that he'll return, but when he hasn't been seen in almost a month, the two cheerfully make plans to take over his shop, only to be stopped by Morrison because Dante knew they'd try to do that and left the shop to Morrison.
How much do the devil hunters care about protecting humanity? Things like Dante and Trish cracking jokes while Fortuna is being overrun by demons in 4 and the characters' general nonchalance regarding the devastation in 5 has led some fans to conclude that the characters care more about killing demons than about saving people from them. While the ending of 5 shows that Dante and Vergil remain in the Underworld to spar and kill demons while Nero is left to guard the human world, fans believe that the brothers stayed because they want to fight more demons even after severing the Qliphoth. After all, they have escaped the Underworld before.
Lady's characterization and plot-relevance across the games were so different, they were open to interpretations. Her motivations were fueled by deep personal drives (because of her father in 3), or tangentially related to her (because the Order of the Sword in 4 "even have butted in on some of her jobs"), yet she suffers from a Badass Decay in 5 when she's happily marching alongside Trish towards Urizen's throne as if the latter is just a bounty to catch... and then she loses. Perhaps after her father's death, she doesn't have anything serious to worry about anymore? Is her playfulness simply influenced by Dante and Trish? Or is it a case of both? Because of these changes, Lady also became a Base-Breaking Character.
Awesome Ego: A handful of characters, but none more so than Dante, who spends nearly every encounter with enemy bosses (including when the player finds themselves fighting against Dante) mocking and belittling them at every turn, then proceeds to back it up, both in cutscenes and under the guidance of a skilled enough player.
Base-Breaking Character: Fans are divided on Lady's personality shift between 3 and 4. It's justified, of course, with Dante's influence rubbing off on her and her having put her traumatic family drama to bed, and some are fine with that since it exemplifies Character Development, but some still lament the loss of her more active, aggressive and standoffish personality since they found it more compelling. The latter reaction became more prevalent once Lady suffered a Badass Decay in 5.
The biggest point of contention in the fandom (DmC notwithstanding) likely comes from the canonical status of Devil May Cry 4: Deadly Fortune, a two-volume light novel written by Bingo Morihashi, the scenario writer for 3, 4, and 5, and his assistant Yasui Kentarou. Bingo considers the novel to be the definitive version of 4's story, but it deviates from the game's plot at multiple points and was written after he had left Capcom's employ. Because of this, it's been questioned if the novel can be considered anything more than semi-canon at best, and not all fans (for example) are on board with certain portions of the narrative, such as Nero's mother being some nameless prostitute that Vergil had a one-night stand with when he visited Fortuna less than two decades prior (to learn more about Sparda's legacy). 5 confirms that Vergil did have a one-night stand that resulted in Nero, but never knew about Nero until Dante spells it out for him in the climax, Bingo once again as the scenario writer.
Overlapping with Fandom Rivalry since two separate continuities are involved, fans of DmC say that it was more accessible, had better art direction, a far easier story plot to follow, and a protagonist that contained character development. Fans that loved the original DMC titles criticized the many changes that was implemented, the arguments ranging from criticizing how DmC Dante was so drastically different compared to original Dante, DmC's story being too on the nose and missing the point of the original games' primary themes of how devils can learn to love like humans as well as subtly touching on the theme of family, and the gameplay mechanics that had been overly simplified and lacking 3 and 4's mechanical depth and complexities, just to name a few game-related points. In short, some consider DmC worth playing, while others feel it simply doesn't match up to the legacy of the older games. The rivalry somehow subsided after the 2015 releases of both the Special Edition for 4 and the Definitive Edition for DmC, mostly because the playable Vergil in 4:SE incorporated some moves that originated from DmC Vergil, while the latter's Definitive Edition addressed several criticisms in order to make the gameplay of DmC evoke that of the classic games. Unfortunately, the rivalry flared up again after the announcement and release of 5. While fans of the classic DMC games were glad that Capcom returned to the original continuity's story and characters, there were still DmC fans who wanted a continuation of the alternate continuity's storyline.
The games frequently change the camera angle mid-jump, which makes some boss battles or platforming sections harder than intended. The key to your survival is that the game doesn't realign your controls until you land, so you need not jerk the controller around. The third fight with Griffon in 1 is nearly unwinnable on higher difficulties because of this.
The Fixed Camera angles in the first four games can be confusing depending on where they are placed, but usually, the camera faces the door where you just came from, so you have to walk several steps further when you enter a room before knowing what you're about to deal with.
The camera in 2 is particularly bad. You'll often find yourself shooting away at enemies the camera seems to have no intention of showing you.
2 and 3 contain some sections where the camera is so far away your character becomes a little figure almost indistinguishable from the similarly-colored objects in the environment, or is hidden by a foreground object. Fortunately, moving your character around reveals their position or shifts the camera to a nearer perspective.
Cargo Ship: To those who aren't onboard in shipping Dante with either Lady, Trish, Lucia or his brother Vergil, Dante is instead shipped with Pizza, Strawberry Sundae, or the mop in the DMC3 manga that he proposed to when he was drunk. Nevan is an oddball since even if she has an attractive humanoid succubus-like form, her guitar form is sometimes used to pair her with him.
Nero's debut in Devil May Cry 4 as that game's main protagonist saw him facing an uphill battle with fans who preferred the original protagonist Dante, who filled the role of Deuteragonist. While Nero's gameplay gained him some fans, it was the controversial reboot DmC: Devil May Cry that caused most fans to feel the hatred towards Nero was ill-placed, accepting that he was at least an original character rather than Dante in the reboot, whose appearance and personality were very different — and considered much less likable — from the original Dante. The thing that completely pulled fan approval into his corner was Devil May Cry 5, which differentiated him from Dante even further and gave him a lot of development, as well as an excellent theme.
Lucia debuted in the much-maligned Devil May Cry 2, which very much colored fans' reaction to her back then and still does to an extent. In addition to feeling she took Trish's place as Dante's partnernote While Trish is playable in the game, she doesn't appear in the game's story, many disliked her for her inscrutable accent and subpar voice acting. As time passed, opinion towards Lucia began to soften, with many praising her story arc, her design, fighting style, and even her gameplay. A lot of fans have come to see Lucia as having a personality that would work quite well as a Foil to the more boisterous and extroverted characters of the Devil May Cry series and see her as a decent character who had the bad luck of being in a poorly made game. It's not unheard for fans to express hope for her to return in a future game or even a Devil May Cry 2 remake that fixes the flaws of the original.
In general, a common tactic for DMC players is to replay the first few levels of the game over and over again and slowly Level Grind and farm Red Orbs until they can buy all of the playable character's Health and Devil Trigger upgrades, and max out all of the weapons and abilities they've acquired up to that point, then repeat the process whenever new abilities, weapons, or skills are available. This is considered an acceptable, but boring way to play the games even by the developers, which is why there are features that allow players to retain their currencies and farmed items while retrying the levels, such as Mission Select, manual saving, or autosaves.
If you have a lot of Red Orbs to spare, you can stockpile Holy Waters and spam them at the boss that's troubling you, or stockpile Vitality Stars and Devil Stars to keep on refilling your Vitality and DT meters even if you don't have any Gold Orbs left. The games discourage this by tanking the mission's Style points for every item used, but if you don't care about points anyway, it's a last-resort tactic that can work. Vitality Stars, Devil Stars, and Holy Waters are no longer present in 5, though that doesn't stop players from stockpiling the daily Gold Orb login rewards and collecting enough Red Orbs to keep on reviving in that game anyway.
Vergil's Summoned Swords are sometimes mistakenly thought as daggers because of their small and thin size. But as their name suggests, they are swords, specifically smaller spectral versions of the Force Edge.
Anyone with a passing knowledge of the series thinks that Vergil's ability to create portals to other places by slashing the fabric of space is named "Judgement Cut". However, "Judgement Cut" officially refers to Vergil's signatureCharged Attack with the Yamato where he quickly unsheathes his katana in order to briefly distort space and produce slashes in front of him, dealing damage to his target. And while it has sub-variants named "Judgement Cut End" (Vergil's Limit Break) and "Slash Dimension" (Dante's slower, yet wider version in 4), none of these three named abilities involve creating portal shortcuts at all.
There were people who believed Hideki Kamiya was still involved in the Devil May Cry games past the first one. This actually annoyed him at some point, since he had to repeatedly clarify on social media that the only DMC game he worked on is DMC1.
The series discourages this via the optional Stylish Rank meter (which goes up as you hit your enemies, but sees diminishing returns from using the same moves over and over, and eventually won't increase it at all), but that still doesn't stop players from overusing the Stinger move which makes Dante dash forward and likely knock back enemies on contact (mechanics that became staple since 3 and onwards) when they'd rather not bother with the whole variation and complex combos. Other characters can perform Stinger as well or have their own version of it (i.e. Nero's Streak and Vergil's Rapid Slash). It got to the point where fans have memes about "Stinger Spam" and the sound effects associated with the move.
A common strategy with Vergil involves spamming his Judgement Cut ability with the Yamato. It can hit enemies from a distance, is executed rather easily (you just need to hold down and release the attack button), and has a stronger version if it's perfectly-timed. Because of its simple input method, Judgement Cut is also used to end combos, or to cancel the long recovery animations of some attacks if the player prefers an aggressive method over the sheathing animations' bonuses.
Since everything dies in one hit when playing on the "Heaven or Hell" difficulty mode, players just tend to use their ranged attacks to kill the enemies as quickly as possible, and greatly reduce the risk of getting hit in return. This strategy trivializes the mode, but at the expense of scoring minimal Stylish points.
Giant Elite Mooks and bosses aren't easily knocked back, so players developed a common strategy of abusing the Jump Cancel trick when performing aerial combos to maximize their damage output whenever possible before the target could retaliate.
Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: Arkham, seemingly working for Dante's brother Vergil, is revealed as a sinister, power-hungry man who sacrificed his own wife to become a devil himself, as his alter ego Jester. Arkham manipulates everyone to lure them into a battle, resulting in Dante, Vergil and Arkham's own daughter Lady — who Arkham has no issues brutalizing or even trying to kill — weakened enough for Arkham to step in and seize the power of Sparda for himself. When he unlocks the power of Sparda, Arkham plans to, as he puts it, "welcome Chaos" all through the world. When Lady confronts him at the game's end, Arkham angrily demands to know what he's done wrong, declaring he wants to be a God, and asking if sacrificing "one miserable human being" to do so was "really so awful".
Devil May Cry 4: Sanctus, while appearing to be the benevolent head of the Order of the Sword, is in fact a vicious monster. Sanctus covets the powers of Sparda and Vergil and plans on using their swords to control the power of a giant godlike golem, The Savior. To do this, he feeds Nero and Kyrie to it, and had Dante not intervened, they would have both been digested alive; he also murders his own loyal servant Credo for daring to defend his sister Kyrie, even mocking Credo for his love while impaling him on Yamato, claiming that the only thing that matters "is absolute power". The demons that have been killing people throughout the game have been released on Sanctus's orders. When Nero fights Sanctus, Sanctus uses Kyrie as a Human Shield. Despite his holy trappings and grandfatherly appearance, Sanctus was an evil monster and one of the worst villains the series had to offer.
DmC: Devil May Cry: Bob Barbas, owner of the widely successful Raptor News Network, is secretly the face and voice of the demonic regime. Using his corporation as a front for monitoring and spying on the human population to prevent any opposition against Mundus, Barbas also hosts a popular news program where he blames the resistance movement for the chaos and destruction caused by demons. In his spare time, Barbas is the cruel warden of the Central Penitentiary, a domain in Limbo where so-called traitors and other enemies of the regime are condemned to suffer for eternity.
Sid is a cowardly lesser demon who will do anything, including murdering children and fellow demons, to rise in the ranks of Hell. Killing a man, Sid wears his skin to manipulate his friend, Nina Lowell, and later threatens Nina's life to force her daughter, Patty, to activate his ritual to summon the great demon Abigail, to absorb his power. Summoning a demon army to slaughter everyone on Earth, Sid cares nothing for the death and destruction as long as he gets to rule Hell, just to eradicate his own inferiority complex.
"Not Love": Mayor Mike Hagel's butler is a seemingly well-mannered servant whose true loyalty lies with the demon Belphegor, wishing to sacrifice the entire human population by condemning them to be Eaten Alive. Working alongside the good-hearted demon Bradley in making the preparations for their master's arrival, the butler stabs the mayor and uses his body in a ritual to summon Belphegor for him to devour the entire city while claiming that they would eventually destroy the human world. A human who stood in contrast to his benevolent and demonic partner-in-crime, almost driving his own race into extinction to satisfy his master, he served as an example of how some humans are even worse than demons.
(Light Novel prequel): The vicious swordsman known only as Gilver — revealed in Before the Nightmare to be an Evil Knockoff of Vergil — is an ice-cold mercenary who shares the elegance and arrogance of the son of Sparda but none of his noble qualities. Rising through the ranks of Bobby's Cellar, Gilver cemented himself in the criminal underworld by slaughtering everything in his path, leaving trails of mutilated corpses in his wake. Gilver's massive body count and sadism inspires many other hitmen to return to the old days where wanton destruction was the norm. While initially a nasty rival obsessed with beating Dante, Gilver is in truth a demon supremacist who has been summoning them to wreak havoc around the city and personally murdering Dante's friends to isolate him, showing his true colors by feeding the entirety of Bobby's Cellar to demons as his way of starting a plan to merge both worlds and let the hellish dimension consume all of humanity.
A Devil May Cry entry would usually reference something (either a Call-Back, a Continuity Nod, or a Mythology Gag) from the previous entries. These can either be minor and manageable, or it could affect the player's views on the plot. DMC5 was hit hard with this; its main story and countless franchise-wide references assume that the player is already familiar with the lore of the previous games and their supplementary material, so it can be confusing for those who started with 5 as their first DMC game.
Some plot points are explained better or established in the spin-offs than in the games themselves. For example, the anime adaptation shows how Lady and Trish met, its Audio Drama CD explains how Dante's shop was renamed back into "Devil May Cry" from "Devil Never Cry", and the Visions of V manga covers a lot of V's characterization and backstory that weren't given focus in 5. Since several spin-offs or side materials are never released outside of Japan, many fans are "locked-out" of the lore unless those get translated by others.
Both franchise creator Hideki Kamiya and the director of the series since he left, Hideaki Itsuno, have been practically deified by fans of the classic series. Itsuno, in particular, has garnered a lot of love and sympathy after the revelations of the Troubled Production that was 2, with people marveling that he managed to bring out a working game at all under such circumstances. His stellar work on 3, which redeemed him spectacularly in the eyes of fans, has gained him a sterling reputation, more so after the release of 5.
On the topic of Devil May Cry 5, producer Matt Walker has been seen as a godsend for his approachability and sincerity with the fanbase online as well as reasonable responses to fan concerns, his professionalism and love of the franchise coming through in every interview. It's common for fans to state that this is how Ninja Theory should have handled PR instead of arrogantly flipping off anyone who was disgruntled and then expecting DmC to sell well regardless.
The Sons of Sparda are also paired with Morrigan Aensland from Darkstalkers. In Dante's case, it was helped by their appearance together in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It was followed by Vergil when he became playable in the Updated Re-release of that game.
It's also became increasingly common to pair Vergil with Power from Chainsaw Man, namely due to the inherent pun potential thanks to Vergil's various power-related catchphrases about wanting or needing more power.
The idea of Devil May Cry and Bayonetta blending together is a Crossover dream, but some fans believe that both franchises exist in the same multiverse. Related fan theories and Alternative Character Interpretations are affected by this, as some DMC players believe that Eva is an Umbra Witch. It's expected because both have Friendly Fandoms, Hideki Kamiya directed both Devil May Cry 1 and Bayonetta 1, and Kamiya himself has hinted that his games are "all connected". This became implausible after Kamiya left Capcom for PlatinumGames, while the next DMC games aren't directed by him and don't reference Bayonetta lore at all. Bayonetta also has several references to DMC1, but it's been debated if those are canon or not. However, supporters of this theory also claim that an Alternate Continuity might be considered on the side of DMC (because Capcom acknowledged DmC: Devil May Cry as an alternate continuity game separate from the classic games). This still persists even a decade later, but on a more light-hearted note as fans memed that Vergil is the white-haired figure at the end of the Bayonetta 3 trailer on September 2021.
Some fans believe that the zweihander Nelo Angelo wields is actually a corrupted version of the Yamato; in 3:SE, Corrupted Vergil's Devil Trigger has him become Nelo Angelo, with the Yamato replaced by Nelo Angelo's sword. Similarly, they believe that Nelo Angelo's death factors into the Yamato's broken appearance in 4, and point out Deadly Fortune as another source to support it; the light novel mentions that a broken Yamato and fragments of Nelo Angelo's armor ended up in Fortuna. However, it's still a question if the Yamato and Nelo Angelo's sword are the same or not because some factors made it more confusing; the Yamato isn't originally described as Vergil's memento (In DMC1, only Sparda is mentioned as its wielder, and it's only until DMC3 where we learn that it was passed to Vergil), the canonicity of the novel has been debated for a long time, and 5 reveals that the Proto Angelos' greatswords are very similar to that of Nelo Angelo's.
According to the in-game lore, the Red Orbs that are used as currency are actually crystallized demon blood. That's reasonable enough when you get them from slain demons, but chairs, statues and other inanimate objects drop them too, as a way for the games to implement the Rewarding Vandalism trope. There's no concrete lore that explains why Red Orbs should drop from ordinary objects, so some fans who are into myths and folklore came up with one - Obviously, the "objects" are Tsukumogami hoping to avoid Dante's wrath by pretending to still be inanimate. It's the only way to explain them dropping crystallized demon blood.
Dante. A witty, snarky, badass Half-Demon Hunter of His Own Kind who does all kinds of ridiculous over-the-top stylish stunts in both gameplay and cutscenes and runs his own kickass Demon Hunting business. Who wouldn't want to be as cool as him?
The Devil May Cry series uses many tropes and concepts that are common in anime, so Vergil is the usual escapist character for DMC fans who are also into anime. His spiky hair, stylish blue longcoat, and flashly Japanese-based Iaijutsu fighting style with the Yamato are common factors for this.
Estrogen Brigade: Dante, Vergil, Nero, Credo and V attract a lot of fangirls. This results into Slash Fics within the fanfiction and fanart communities. Capcom has also acknowledged the female fanbase of the Devil May Cry series, as a character artist for DMC3 specifically states in the Note of Naught artbook that coatless Vergil "was designed to give our women users huge nosebleeds.", and recurring series director Hideaki Itsuno also mentioned his surprise that "V is quite popular with girls" while he was being interviewed for Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat.
The Advancing Wall of Doom sections in 3 and 4 have their camera facing the thing that's chasing you from behind, which makes it a bit hard to anticipate the path ahead.
Some fights against gigantic bosses are made more challenging because of the camera angles, especially when you're locked-on. In 1, the camera would look down when you fall off the platform during the second phase of Mundus's fight. In 3, the camera might not properly show Cerberus when he charges forward. This is more prevalent in 5 because the camera would always face and focus on the boss, so your character can be off-screen when fighting Nidhogg, or the camera would look down when you're jumping near Urizen during his third boss fight.
Evil Is Cool: Even though he usually gets canonically defeated in the games that feature him, Vergil seems to have more than, if not equal to the number of fans that Dante has. This is likely because Vergil and Dante are badasses but on different scales. Dante's the carefree badass, while Vergil's the refined badass with a katana, a slick outfit, a more distinct hairstyle, a fighting style with a more deadly precision, and a more formal attitude.
It's mostly about acronyms. To the fans, DmC is different from DMC. The former refers to the Alternate Continuitygame developed by Ninja Theory, while the latter refers to the franchise as a whole, but especially the classic continuity. Getting them mixed up during discussions isn't a nice thing as it can cause confusion.
Misspelling Vergil's name as "Virgil". It initially started as an easy mistake due to the character's name being thematically derived from the historical poet. But as the series became a long-runner and had more online exposure after the release of DMC5, the other spelling also became more widespread. Since the late 2022s, it's such an enraging misconception to the point where the Devil May Cry Subreddit allowed a "foolishness" bot that would detect posts containing "Virgil", and then remind the poster that the DMC character's name should be spelled "Vergil".
Fandom Rivalry: Devil May Cry and God of War are similar in a way because they are Hack and Slash franchises with some puzzles thrown, but set on different ends of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism and the former running on Rule of Cool and the latter best described as Rule of Brutal. Comparisons and debates between them can become volatile, but there had been more vitriolic points of contention which are mostly instigated by the more provocative fans. Some point out that DMC is older by 4 years so GoW just followed the Hack and Slash niche that it started, but others ignore that otherwise. The most strutted examples surfaced a decade later because gamers have been comparing God of War (PS4) and Devil May Cry 5. It's still heavily-debated on which game has a better combat system or story. The public or critical reception of both only fueled the fire, as GoW had a higher Metacritic score than DMC5 and it won Game of the Year on 2018 when the latter won a more specific Action Game of the Year on 2019. The debate is sometimes rekindled by gaming journalism, such as a review on the Nintendo Switch version of DMC3 comparing it to GoW.
Fandom VIP: There are several "Combo MAD" content creators (those who showcase flashy, flawless and stylish combo videos) on YouTube, but for the long-time players of the series, one of the most popular among them is Donguri (a.k.a. Donguri990), who usually gets recommended to newcomers wanting to watch high-level DMC gameplay.
Patronymics such as "Sparda" or "Spardason" for Dante and Vergil. The idea of using patronymics mostly comes from the other characters' habit of calling Dante as "Son of Sparda". A dialogue line from Mundus to Dante in the first game is attributed to support the former patronymic choice.
Mundus: Again, I must face a Sparda... Strange fate. Isn't it?
Only Dante has used the "Tony Redgrave" alias in the past, yet it became common for fans to use "Redgrave" as the surname of Vergil and Nero as well.
One of the most popular fan theories is that after DMC3, Dante spends much of the series suffering from depression because of the idea that he already lost his last remaining family member, Vergil. This would then justify his more moody behavior in 2 and the anime spin-off. Afterwards, meeting Nero in 4brought him back to his usual self from the brink of depression because he realized that he still has a family. This idea was originally derived from an early Alternative Character Interpretation for Dante, but more fans were on board with it when the series timeline became 3 > 1 > TAS > 2 > 4 > 5, especially since TAS now takes place right before Devil May Cry 2, where Dante was moodier than in any games made before and since.
The series' Anachronic Order was updated to make DMC2 take place between the anime and 4, a decision that was better received because Dante's personality in 2 is more cohesive if it follows the anime. However, it can be argued a few plot holes still exist if the events of 4 are considered; the biggest one likely being why Dante didn't use the Ultimate Devil Trigger in 4 if he already had access to it in 2 (A "Double Devil Trigger" was actually conceptualized for 4 before being scrapped). A common fan explanation mentions that neither 2 nor 4 depict Dante activating his regular Devil Trigger for combat purposes as opposed to the first and third games. (The closest he comes is when he partially transforms after his first fight with Nero in 4, seemingly an involuntary reaction to Nero's Devil Bringer.) This suggests he was at a level of power where the threat of either game didn't necessitate his full strength, which would be in line with 4's claim that Dante had surpassed Sparda.
One humorous idea common in the fandom is that Nero initially thought Dante was his father before Dante told him it was Vergil.
Fanwork-Only Fans: There are those who admit engaging with the Devil May Cry series because they like its fan-made content (such as memes, gameplay showcases, mod demonstration videos, cosplays, fanfics, fanart and song covers), but without even having played any of the games just yet. There are factors that contributed to this, such as the first three games being exclusive to the PlayStation 2 during the franchise's early days, the Newbie Boom brought by online exposure to DMC-related content ever since Devil May Cry 5 was released, or due to DMC fans being spread out to other related fandoms.
Fountain of Memes: Dante and Vergil. Their most iconic lines and conversations have been memed to hell and back by the DMC fans, and those are mostly sourced from DMC3 and DMC5. For example, Dante is remembered for "This party's getting crazy! Let's rock!", while Vergil is remembered for "Now I'm a little motivated!" among other memetic quotes.
DMC fans upset over the reboot support Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for its fast gameplay and Raiden's appearance, which is closer to the original Dante than the reboot's Dante.
Most Devil May Cry fans are also fans of the Bayonetta series due to Bayonetta being the Creator-Driven Successor of the Devil May Cry series.
The series also tends to share some fans with the Like a Dragon series, both being Japanese Stylish Action franchises with mostly serious narratives and incredibly over the top, comical gameplay.
Considering the first game's origins as a possible version of Resident Evil 4, there's a natural overlap between the Devil May Cry and Resident Evil fanbases, despite both series being polar opposites in terms of gameplay. It also helps that Resident Evil 2 (Remake) and Devil May Cry 5 both came out in the same year, were both considered to be a return to form for their respective franchises, and both used the RE Engine that was introduced in Resident Evil 7.
Although Devil May Cry, Street Fighter and Darkstalkers are all Capcom IPs in the first place, it mostly took the arrival of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the fanbases to notice a significant merge of interests, causing some fans to try out or familiarize themselves with the other two IPs. MvC3 is also attributed as the reason why more DMC fans explored Fighting Games even up to several years later, which includes titles like DNF Duel, as evidenced by the DMC-related Fan Nicknames and mods in the latter.
With Dragon's Dogma fans simply due to both Capcom franchises having a similar recurring director, Hideaki Itsuno. This became more apparent when Itsuno immediately began working on Dragon's Dogma II as his next major game project after Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition.
The Devil May Cry fandom has an overlap of gamers who are also interested in anime, particularly fans of other Demon Slaying and/or supernatural-related Urban Fantasy media such as Inuyasha, Bleach and Chainsaw Man, or a specific action-oriented series such as Fate. This was first evident when the DMCanime arrived on 2007. The shared fandom is the reason why Dante and Vergil are respectively compared to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, why DMC4 had a fan nickname of "Bleach May Cry", and why there was a trend of palette-swapping Vergil and Archer Emiya.
Speaking of anime, there's a great deal of DMC fans who also play certain Animesque games such as Honkai Impact 3rd, Genshin Impact or Punishing: Gray Raven after being aware of the other games' references or similarities to the DMC franchise (such as a Stylish Action gameplay, or third-party characters having identical animations to DMC characters). Aside from those, shared memes also contributed to the fandom overlap with DMC and other non-Stylish ActionGacha Games such as Arknights.
With fans of Doom, as the protagonists of both series slay troops of demons as their everyday jobs, and both series have Rock 'n Roll and Heavy Metal soundtracks. Since the late 2010s, there seems to be some crossover between Doom Eternal and Devil May Cry 5 fans. Thereis quite abit of fanart portraying Dante and Doomslayer as friends.
Many fans of Devil May Cry became well-acquainted with the Best Friends fanbase near the end of the latter series' run, when Devil May Cry 5 was announced and Pat and Woolie played through the entire series (except for 2).
Most No More Heroes fans will also likely be fans of Devil May Cry as well, due to both series' being part of the Hack and Slash genre. It also helps that Travis and Henry are semi-parodies of Dante and Vergil.
Fans of Power Rangers get along well with Devil May Cry fans because Reuben Langdon (Dante), Dan Southworth (Vergil), Johnny Yong Bosch (Nero), and David de Lautour (DmC Vergil) were in that franchise prior to Devil May Cry. It was further evident when Dan Southworth reprises Eric Myers/Quantum Red Ranger in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid and drops numerous Vergil references in his battle quotes.
High odds are fans of Hi-Fi RUSH also fans of Devil May Cry due to them being fun, over-the-top action games with a goofy, yet endearing storyline and characters.
Game-Breaker: Playable Vergil is always overpowered, mostly because he has mechanics and moves that the other playable characters can't easily replicate. Some of these recurring mechanics allow him to quickly teleport to the target, fire his Summoned Swords while performing melee attacks (the Summoned Swords also equate to an "Instant Death" Radius on "Heaven Or Hell" mode just like other ranged weapons), or refill his Devil Trigger gauge whenever he sheates the Yamato. Other mechanics are game-specific, yet are still game-breakers, such as his Concentration Gauge in 4:SE and 5:SE making him stronger if he performs well in combat, or his "World of V" skill in 5:SE allowing him to instantly recover some health at the cost of his Concentration. He is Difficult, but Awesome to effectively play as because you have to juggle a lot of mechanics, but you don't need to reach such high-level gameplay to realize that most of his basic mechanics trivialize a lot of fights. And even if Vergil has drawbacks, those are usually minor and easily overshadowed by his strengths.
Gateway Series: The generation of gamers who grew up in the 2000's often cite the Devil May Cry series as their introduction to the Hack and Slash/Beat 'em Up games.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Interview excerpts with the staff once confirmed that the Devil May Cry series was intentionally marketed towards Western and Japanese gamers. However, the series has its fair share of vocal fans from other specific nations.
Spain and Russia, judging from the comments, memes and video content made by them on sites like YouTube.
China, as there are DMC memes and video clips that were originating from BiliBili. It also got to the point where an interview with miHoYo's co-founder, Forrest Wei Liu, confirmed that Devil May Cry and Bayonetta were two action series that served as gameplay inspirations for Honkai Impact 3rd. And then on the late 2010s, Capcom is collaborating with Chinese developer NebulaJoy to create Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat, an upcoming Gacha Game spin-off of the franchise.
Good Bad Bugs: Though commonly mistaken to be actual bugs, there are several unintentional exploits in the series: Jump Canceling in 3 and 4, which allows for infinite aerial maneuvers; roll cancelling out of the Grenadegun's firing animation and Shotgun Hiking in the first game, etc.
For over a decade, Vergil's last canonical appearance in the first Devil May Cry saw him outright exploding. Yet, the fandom refused to believe that he was dead even when his signature weapon Yamato was inherited by Nero and the Angelos were created by his body/armor being experimented on in Devil May Cry 4. And then suddenly, this reaction got resolved when Devil May Cry 5 showed Vergil alive and retaking Yamato to heal himself. However, there is no real explanation for how he was still alive to begin with.
Sparda. The Narrator from the first game stated that he died Excerpt"His name was Sparda. Later, he quietly reigned the human world, and continued to preserve harmony, until his death.", Arkham in the third game's manga stated that he died, but for some reason, the fans insist that he only "disappeared" (and is likely to return one day), basing it on a misinterpreted line in Devil May Cry 2 or Modeus's musing in the animated series. No one ever bothers to answer the question of just what Sparda might be doing if he did simply just vanish.
Vergil's katana, Yamato, has its name written as 閻魔刀 in Japanese. 閻魔 ("Enma") is the Japanese name of the Buddhist god of the dead, Yama. The weapon's etymology is even acknowledged In-Universe in Devil May Cry 5 under "The Legend of Sparda" library file; the Yamato was a devil sword of Sparda and is intentionally named to "embody a god of death". In the hololive fandom, Ina's stream manager, ENMa-chan, also happens to be named after the same god of the dead, she became infamous for killing a Tank in Left 4 Dead 2 with a katana, and is therefore commonly depicted as a katana-wielder. Devil May Cry fans who are also into hololive found it interesting that there are now at least two characters who associate the god Enma with a katana, and thus compare ENMa-chan with Vergil.
The "Berried Delight" meme only becomes funnier when you realize it uses strawberries in its recipe (and strawberry sundaes are one of Dante's favorite foods). Looks like the Sparda brothers aren't so different after all).
2 took away much of the challenge of the first game that made it so popular.
Compared to the classic DMC games, the reboot's reworked style system, Devil Trigger, and weapons systems make it a breeze for series veterans.
Magic Franchise Word: Due to Vergil saying it a lot in his Boss Banter, the word "Motivation" is engraved enough in the Devil May Cry community as a meme for more than a decade, so mentioning it will evoke a reaction from any DMC fan especially if the topic is about Vergil, or simply related to katanas and iaido.
Dante, although his playable version is not entirely memetic. The real badass though, is the Dante portrayed in the over-the-top cutscenes, also called by fans as "Cutscene Dante", someone who can perform feats that can't be replicated in actual gameplay. Because his Ebony & Ivory can One-Hit Kill bosses in cutscenes, some fans joke that he can also destroy galaxies with one shot.
Vergil as well, for being a motivated storm that is approaching who is a Game-Breaker in every game where he's playable, even outside ofDMC. While he was already considered a memetic badass ever since DMC3, his reputation and related memes even grew further with the release of DMC5 and its Special Edition. His weapon, Yamato, is also affected by this trend; while he can create portals out of thin air by slashing with his weapon, some fans and memes joke that Yamato also allows him to create portals to other alternate universes or third-party video game IPs.
Memetic Hair: Vergil's slicked-back silver hair became iconic as his quotes, it turned into a memetic hair on the Internet. Simple meme edits crop his hair from any of the DMC games and put it on top of other pop culture characters should the meme make a DMC reference. Other edits have the character slicking their hair back. DMC fans also label anything that closely resembles Vergil's hairstyle with nicknames such as the "Motivated Hair". Somebody also made a Salon Tutorial for the DMC5 version, while a Mortal Kombat 11 developer even noted Fujin was "motivated" when showcasing his slicked-back pointy hair cosmetic.
Misaimed Fandom: While Vergil is sympathetic, he's still a villain, and willing to unleash a demonic invasion on a town by opening Sparda's seal if it will get him power. Some fans gloss over this. The revelation in 5 that V is Vergil's human side, cast off from his now-unrestrained demon half and ashamed/horrified by his previous lust for power, as well as the revived Vergil making amends for the destruction he wrought as Urizen in pursuit of the Qliphoth's power by sealing himself in Demon World to destroy the demonic tree from that side seem to be the writers' attempts at correcting this notion.
My Real Daddy: The franchise may have been the brainchild of Hideki Kamiya, the majority of its direction from both a lore and gameplay perspective for all sequels to the original game were under the direction of Hideaki Itsuno. Given that two of the games he's personally directed (3 and V) are regarded as being the series' highest points, not to mention his near-universal enthusiasm and willingness to interact with the community more, to say pockets of the DMC fandom credit Itsuno as more influential than Kamiya isn't too surprising.
Narm Charm: The DMC franchise practically runs on silliness and usually doesn't take itself too seriously. Even if the locale is overrun by demons, the heroes' playful reactions in combat are understandable because they know that they are stronger and more powerful than most of the demons they're up against. After all, why should you fear something that's weaker than you?
Almost any other video game character who fights using quick-draw slashes with a katana/nodachi usually gets called a "Vergil reference" or expy. However, Vergil's general fighting style is called Iaijutsu, it's a pre-existing style and not a new trend invented by Capcom. Nonetheless, certain third-party characters are still considered as Vergil expies if they are similar to his characterization, aesthetics, if they copy his flashy attack animations and iconic moves (such as his Judgement Cut spawning sharp distortions at a close range from rapid-fast unsheathes), or if the developers themselves admit using the Devil May Cry series as an inspiration.
Although this franchise's title primarily serves as a wordplay on the English idiom "devil may care", the Pop-Cultural Osmosis, Video game culture and the Internet helped in specifically associating the phrase "Devil May Cry" with this Capcom franchise ever since the early 2000s. This includes any variant mentioning the possibility of a "demon" crying, including the longer Title Drop from DMC3 ("Even a devil may cry when they've lost a loved one") However, the phrase "Even a demon can shed tears" was also attributed to the story of Hattori Hanzō, a Japanese Samurai Shinobi from the 1500s.
Only the Creator Does It Right: There's a Vocal Minority that believes any installment beyond Hideki Kamiya's involvement in the series is not worth paying attention to anymore aside from their gameplay. These people note points such as Dante's occasional Butt-Monkey attributes and bad luck as being disrespectful to Kamiya's original portrayal, ignoring that Kamiya himself presented Dante in a similar way with Trish needing to sell his Devil Arms for money in Viewtiful Joe. Others believe that he's too lighthearted, not taking any situation seriously and overplaying his attitude shown in the original game to the point that they decry Dante from 3 onwards as a caricature of himself. However, as mentioned on this page, Kamiya's successor Hideaki Itsuno is adored by almost the entire fanbase for shaping the franchise into what it is today, with fans loving the complex and heartwarming way Dante is presented in throughout the series.
Periphery Demographic: Dante has attracted a large fandom who enjoy him for not just his wacky cutscene antics, but also for the hints that he suffers from depression following the events of 3 alongside his attitude in 2 and the anime. He's often said to be one of the better understated representations of depressed individuals in modern media.
Player Tic: Thanks to Dante's real-time Style Switching mechanic in 4 and 5, players developed a habit of amusing themselves by quickly cycling into all of Dante's Styles one after the other and listen to him rapidly declaring the initial parts of the Styles' names. This is the basis of the "TRICKSWORDROYGUN" trend of memes. Although the Nintendo Switch port of 3:SE uses clanging sound effects instead of Dante's Style name declarations when it integrated Style Switching, the player tic still lived on and created the "CLANGCLANGCLANG" jokes as an alternative.
Play the Game, Skip the Story: There's enough backstory and lore that explain the motivations of the playable characters and why they have to fight demons. The series also has a Central Theme about fatherhood or legacy, and a recurring topic of humanity and The Power of Love being stronger than pure demonic power. However, there's a lot of Continuity Lock-Out involved (among other game-specific story-related issues), so the general public mostly just remembers the Devil May Cry games for their main selling points; the fast-paced gameplay, the characters' attack animations, and the stylish techniques gamers can pull off with enough practice.
Replacement Scrappy: Many fans saw Nero as one before the fourth game finally came out, under the idea that he would completely replace Dante as the main protagonist. However after the release of DmC and then 5, most agree that the hate was ill-placed. The general complaint about DmC is that Ninja Theory and Capcom somehow managed to make the rebooted Dante a Replacement Scrappy to himself, or specifically, his classic counterpart, by having him take Nero's brash attitude and foul-mouthed behavior and amplify them to obnoxious levels. Furthermore, 5 would flesh out Nero's character and show his true heroic depths while lining up his attitude as being more akin to both his father and uncle but with a reasonably cruder tongue.
As soon as people learned that Nero was going to replace Dante as the lead for 4, they hated the new character, but grew a soft spot for him when seeing him in action. 5 has helped Nero come into his own more than ever, with his fresh new haircut, fashion sense, and robotic arm widening the gap between him and Dante even further; this Nero's hardly the same character as before. Nero was also accidentally rescued from the heap when DmC was released. For example, the Gaming Brit took back every negative comment he said about Nero after seeing Dante's characterization in the reboot.
There's also a meta example in the post-Hideki Kamiya games. The director of 2, Hideaki Itsuno, was also the director of 3 and 4, and currently is the director of 5. To wit, in an interview for the artbook 3142 Graphic Arts, Itsuno revealed that he had been brought in as director just six months before 2's deadline, explaining the less than stellar end result, whereas with 3, he was given control right from the start, explaining the sheer improvement (as well 3 being a form of an apology). This surprisedmany fans.
Some players choose to use only the character's default equipment, such as not bothering with new Devil Arms with Dante, or having Yamato-only runs with Vergil. It also goes along with the challenge of clearing harder modes without using the upgrades carried over via New Game Plus. The specifics of the latter can vary between the games. For example in 3:SE, clearing the game on Normal mode allows you to start a fresh Vergil playthrough on Hard mode, while in 4, you can reset and refund the skills unlocked with Proud Souls. Another related challenge involves players ignoring collectibles such as Blue Orbs, Blue Orb Fragments and Purple Orbs in order to play the harder modes without any Vitality Gauge and Devil Trigger Gauge upgrades.
Fighting enemies or bosses while staying in the air all throughout, a.k.a. "The Floor Is Lava Challenge". The games have an emphasis on aerial combos and movement, while the "Kick Jump" / "Enemy Step" mechanic just makes this feasible by letting you jump off the enemy to maintain altitude. The difficulty varies depending on the target, as some can teleport away or knock you off the air.
Sequel Difficulty Drop: Blatant between 1 and 2. Also happens between 3 and 4, although in the latter case, it's more due to the Western release of 3 being infamously difficult.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: There are debates on which character could Dante end up with, so there's a division between those who ship him with Lady, Trish, and Lucia (usually in that order of general popularity). Many fans are squicked out by the fact that Trish looks like Eva, so Dante probably wouldn't want to fall in love with someone who resembles his mother, making Lady a safe choice since they have some Ship Tease moments in DMC3. A counterpoint to that one mentions how Lady is turned off by Dante's irresponsibility when it comes to money. The two girls' ambiguous feelings for Dante doesn't help matters, which further leads to fans interpreting their love for him as either sexual or platonic. Pairing Dante with Lucia is not as common due to DMC2 not being all that popular. Another group ships Dante with the demon Nevan as a possible choice, while the Yaoi Fangirls bring up the pairing of Dante and Vergil as another possibility.
Spiritual Successor: To Metal Gear. Devil May Cry is also a Japanese action game series with many nods to American action cinema, and where twin sons fight over their inexplicably missing father's legacy. Some comparisons have been discussed among fans, which may also have helped in forming Friendly Fandoms between the classic DMC games and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the Metal Gear series' take on a Stylish Action game.
Star Trek Movie Curse: 2 is widely considered to be a step down from 1. 4, while quite well-liked, is also considered a little step down compared to the beloved 3. DmC is more controversial and divisive than 4, although that game is set on an Alternate Continuity and still had its fans. Years later, 5 is highly-praised, and well-acclaimed critically and financially. The classic continuity games alternate between being generally praised, or being criticized for their issues and Troubled Production.
"Stop Having Fun" Guys: Some players criticize those who use Easy Automatic mode, partly because they are seen as unwilling to learn the game in depth. Another reason is that (in 3 and 4) it results in a loss of precision as combos are largely random. As noted on the Wiki, the mode restricts what the controls can do, rather than simply making a real jumping-on point for beginners. Other players don't mind either way.
Lucia, after being one of the two main protagonists in 2, has not returned in any of the games since. Only the prequel novel to 5 has even mentioned her again, and even then she didn’t get to appear in the game proper. Ever since 4, the games have made a point of keeping all of the series’ secondary protagonists as a part of the story, including Trish from 1, Lady from 3, and Nero from 4, and yet Lucia gets left out. While this is understandable to an extent due to 2 being the least popular entry in the series, and one that many fans like to put under Fanon Discontinuity, Lucia herself was not at all seen as a negative aspect of the game. Almost all of the game’s biggest complaints centered around either Dante being Out of Character (portraying him as The Stoic rather than the fun and theatrical Large Ham that he usually is) or the poorly-designed gameplay. When considering Lucia as a character on her own, she has plenty of potential between her interesting origin story and unique personality that is not very similar to any of the series’ other leads. For example, as a more serious and played straight Nice Girl, in contrast to the Deadpan Snarker and Large Ham characters that the series usually runs on, she could easily be used as The Straight Man or The Comically Serious to still contribute to the goofy tone without losing her character in the process. And for bonus points, being a dark-skinned redhead with a French accent gives her a unique visual and vocal style that is unlike any other character as well. While it remains to be seen if she will be brought back in a later game, 4 and 5 left her out despite her potential as a character.
Trish and Lady have been met with similar criticism in their appearances after their respective debut games. Despite having fairly strong hooks for character development — Trish being one of the only pure demons who is a hero and Lady being a Badass Normal with a very troubled past that led to her becoming a devil hunter — and the Madhouse anime being a decent showing of their Action Girl chops, the games don't seem interested in giving their characters the exploration they deserve, instead mostly relegating them to being Dante's sexy sidekicks who mooch off of him and don't contribute to the plot in any significant way (or, in the case of Trish in Devil May Cry 4, in a negative way by giving the villains the Sparda sword). This reached its nadir in Devil May Cry 5, where Trish and Lady are defeated by the main villain Urizen in an offscreen battle, with neither even getting a chance to redeem themselves in a later fight against one of his minions or being shown helping civilians. Unlike Lucia, Trish and Lady haven't been left to the wayside, but Capcom only seems to feature them because of their popularity and the fact they debuted in less infamous entries of the series. The fact they only have three playable appearances between the two of them is just the cherry on top (2 and 4: Special Edition for Trish and 4: Special Edition for Lady).
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: When DmC was initially announced as a reboot, this was the reaction of many fans towards several plot threads that were left hanging within the original continuity (i.e. the full extent of Sparda and Eva's tale, hints that Nero is Vergil's son which were later confirmed by one of the producers and subsequently in print in one of the artbooks, the Sequel Hook for Nero at the end of 4, etc.) But with DmC later being rectified as an Alternate Continuity and 5 returning to the original games' setting, this sentiment reversed itself in due time, especially when the latter game does cover most of the aforementioned plot points.
Watch It for the Meme: From the late 2010s onward, the newer generation of gamers who never heard or played any Devil May Cry game before sometimes show interest in the franchise because of its memes. The Newbie Boom effect of DMC5 since 2018 helped with this, as it gave more memes and buzz on the Internet compared to the previous four classic DMC games. Some DMC memes also spread into other related fandoms and piqued the curiosity of newcomers, such as Dante's "What the hell is this?" being used in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character announcements, or the Vergil-related quotes being used by the anime fans in certain games with Iaijutsu Practitioners. Getting into the older DMC games to know the memes directly from their sources is also another reaction from fans who started with the newer games.
3 is seen as this after the questionable 2. The combat was reworked to be closer to the tighter feel of DMC1 (with a vastly expanded system that included varied weapon types and a "Style" system that allowed players to come up with creative approaches to battles) and the tone of the game was made considerably more jovial and flamboyant compared to 2's more reserved feel.
5 also charts a similar path for revisiting the original continuity after DmC: Devil May Cry took the series in a grittier, harsher direction via an attempted Continuity Reboot.
) are on board with certain portions of the narrative, such as Nero's mother being some nameless prostitute that Vergil had a one-night stand with when he visited Fortuna less than two decades prior (to learn more about Sparda's legacy). 5 confirms that Vergil did have a one-night stand that resulted in Nero, but never knew about Nero until Dante spells it out for him in the climax, Bingo once again as the scenario writer.