| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dmc3_cover.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:"''This party's gettin' crazy! Let's rock!''"]] |
| 3 | ->'''Dante''': So this is what they call a heartwarming family reunion, eh?\ |
| 4 | '''Vergil''': ...You got that right. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ''Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening'' is a StylishAction HackAndSlash video game for the Platform/PlayStation2, developed and published by Creator/{{Capcom}} in 2005. The game is the second {{Numbered Sequel|s}} in the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' series after 2003's ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry2''. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Several years before the events of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry1'' and ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry2'', a young and haughty Dante is visited by a strange man named Arkham, who notifies him that Dante's brother is looking for him. A great tower named Temen-ni-gru suddenly ascends out of the ground soon after, unleashing hordes of demons upon the city. Dante, always ready for a fight, sets off to conquer the tower, encountering swarms of demons, monstrous bosses, a gun-toting lady who refuses to give him her name, and the mysterious Arkham himself, all coming to a final confrontation with his estranged twin brother Vergil. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Gameplay is a more advanced form of the combat from the previous games; Dante is able to wield a great number of both melee and ranged weapons, beginning with his trusty sword Rebellion and dual pistols Ebony and Ivory, and can execute dozens of moves to stylishly eliminate enemies. He also has access to a number of Styles that allow him to [[StanceSystem focus on certain aspects]] of his techniques, such as evasive maneuvers, defensive maneuvers, or extra attacks with his melee and ranged weapons. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Later in 2005, Capcom announced that they would release a [[UpdatedRerelease "Special Edition"]] of the game that added more features and content -- most notably the ability to play as Vergil. This Special Edition was released in early 2006. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Aside from the main game, there are also supplementary materials and spin-offs for ''Devil May Cry 3'', such as a two-volume {{Manga}} prequel published in 2005, and a 2007 pachislot machine that uses the in-game assets. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | This game is also a part of the ''Devil May Cry HD Collection'' featuring upgraded resolutions of HD 720p (for [=PS3=] and Xbox 360) or HD 1080p (for [=PS4=] and Xbox One) and other optimizations. Achievements and Trophies were also added. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | In February 2020, the game was ported over to the Platform/NintendoSwitch. However, rather than being a straight port like its predecessors, the Switch version of ''Devil May Cry 3'' added new gameplay features under the exclusive "Freestyle" mode, like Real-Time Style Switching and the Irregular Full Custom Weapon Switching, features that wouldn't be introduced until ''4'' and ''5'', as well as the addition of Local Co-Op Bloody Palace with Dante and Vergil, a first-ever for the series. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | This game was followed up by ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'' in 2008. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | ---- |
| 23 | |
| 24 | !This game and its spin-offs contain examples of: |
| 25 | |
| 26 | * AbilityRequiredToProceed: In Mission 14, a white-flamed Combat Adjudicator blocks your way to the main path, ensuring the player to pick up and use the Beowulf nearby to destroy it. |
| 27 | * AchievementMockery: |
| 28 | ** The game has a mild example of this on the completion screen for Easy difficulty. |
| 29 | ---> Prequel doesn't mean you can be a newbie. |
| 30 | ** While the game compliments players for SS ranking all missions on Normal and Hard, Very Hard (Special Edition) and Dante Must Die instead reward them with biting remarks: |
| 31 | --->'''Very Hard:''' All this, and you didn't break the controller! |
| 32 | --->'''Dante Must Die:''' Man, you need to get out more. |
| 33 | * ActionBomb: Hell Wraths carry organic bombs, which they detonate after receiving sufficient damage. The explosion deals heavy damage to both the player and other enemies, including the Wrath itself, who inevitably dies. They're best handled with guns. |
| 34 | * ActionInsuranceGag: When the demon attack on the city destroys Dante's shop at the start of the game, he taunts the involved demons by shouting "I hope you all have enough to cover all of this!" |
| 35 | * ActuallyPrettyFunny: Dante and Arkham's meeting in the bowels of hell has Dante remark that Arkham needs some hobbies over messing with the Sparda family's issues. Arkham starts laughing at this with Dante joining him shortly after, but both for different reasons: Dante at his own joke and Arkham over how much power that meddling has given him (and how he plans on making Dante eat those words in a second). |
| 36 | * AirDashing: Dante's Trickster Style grants him the ability to perform a dash in the air. This is manifested as a red, circular incantation that he bounces off of. |
| 37 | * AirborneMook: |
| 38 | ** Blood-goyles are flying enemies that come to life when blood touches one of their statues in Temen-ni-gru. They generally stalk Dante from up above, swooping down occasionally to attack. |
| 39 | ** The Fallen enemies are angelic-looking headaches that love to fly just out of reach and swing their explosive javelins around. A good taunt might persuade them to come within bashing distance, however. |
| 40 | * AKA47: The "Spiral" is actually a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahti_L-39 Lahti L-39]] anti-tank rifle. |
| 41 | * AlienBlood: Some of the demons are made of and bleed sand. |
| 42 | * AllMythsAreTrue: The legend of Sparda became an InUniverse tale. As Lady narrates it in the prologue, she originally thought that it was just a story told by her father, then she realized that the legend is actually true when she personally met the two sons of Sparda. |
| 43 | * AllSwordsAreTheSame: The ''[=DMC1=]'' Dante and Legendary Dark Knight costumes change the model of Rebellion into Force Edge, but it's a downplayed example as the sword is also a {{BFS}} and still functions the same as the original. |
| 44 | * AllThereInTheManual: According to the ''3142 Graphic Arts'' artbook, Arkham got the [[GoodScarsEvilScars scars and the disfigured left side of his face]] when the ritual that sacrificed his wife ended up failing. |
| 45 | * AllWebbedUp: When you first discover the Arachne, numerous human-shaped cocoons can be seen hanging upside-down from the ceiling and from webs. |
| 46 | * AlmostKiss: Lady turns her head the other way when Dante seems to lean in for a kiss after their heart-to-heart. She probably wasn't very inclined to kiss a guy who just beat her in combat. |
| 47 | * AlternateCharacterReading: Vergil's katana, Yamato, is officially spelled as é–»é”刀 (meaning "Sword of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} Enma]]") but is a homophone of 大和 (an old name for Japan, meaning "great harmony"), symbolizing his traditionalist view as opposed to Dante's Rebellion sword. |
| 48 | * AlreadyUndoneForYou: For most of the game, Dante tries to reach Vergil and Arkham who are already at the top of the tower, yet all obstacles and puzzles are untouched. Vergil and especially Arkham seem to know a great deal more about the Temen-ni-gru than Dante however, so it's possible that they found their own, safer way around. |
| 49 | * AlwaysIdenticalTwins: |
| 50 | ** Dante and Vergil are identical twin brothers, [[ColorCodedCharacters distinguished only by their respective colour schemes]] (red for Dante, blue for Vergil) and their different hair styles. |
| 51 | ** Agni and Rudra are twin [[LivingWeapon living demon swords]] that have identical designs, including their headless bodies. They are also color-coded; Agni is orange-themed while Rudra is turquoise-themed, fitting for their respective fire and wind powers. |
| 52 | * AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: In the finale, you fight [[spoiler:a blob-shaped Arkham]] in some kind of shallow pool of various shades of purple and pink with a lot of black spots thrown in (Said black spots are the eyes and mouths in the faces of the souls of the damned that make up the pool). The blob-like Legion demons he summons as backups are also writhing in purple technicolor energy. |
| 53 | * AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: For some reason, the {{Creator/Tokyopop}} translation of the manga has Dante drinking beer instead of tomato juice. Apparently, a fondness for tomato juice is too quirky a trait for Dante to have. |
| 54 | * AnachronicOrder: Though it was the third game released, ''Dante’s Awakening'' is actually the first in the timeline, focusing on Dante’s origins. |
| 55 | * AnimatedArmor: The Dullahans are animated armor sets with [[ChainsawGood buzzsaw-edged]] [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe shields]]. |
| 56 | * AntiFrustrationFeatures: Since Dante's health gauge is slowly depleted because of the Haywire Neo-Generator, all enemies in Mission 12 drop Green Orbs to help him recover until the generator serves its purpose. |
| 57 | * ArcWords: Throughout the game, Dante and the other characters allude to their gathering at the Temen-ni-gru tower as if it was a party, hence "party", "invitation" and other related words are being mentioned a lot. Assorted examples include: |
| 58 | -->'''Mission 1 Title:''' A crazy party |
| 59 | -->'''Arkham to Dante:''' From your brother. He sent this invitation to you. Please accept it. |
| 60 | -->'''Dante:''' This party's getting crazy! Let's rock! |
| 61 | -->'''Mission 4 Title:''' The uninvited one |
| 62 | -->'''Dante to Lady:''' Are you going to the party? What's the hurry, didn't ya get an invitation? |
| 63 | -->'''Dante to Vergil:''' You sure know how to throw a party. No food, no drinks, and the only babe just left. |
| 64 | -->'''Dante:''' Well then, let's wrap up this crazy party. Shall we? Got to clean up the mess father left behind. |
| 65 | * ArmedLegs: Vergil, and later Dante, obtain these as parts of the Beowulf Devil Arm alongside a pair of {{Power Fist}}s. |
| 66 | * ArtShift: The high-quality character illustrations in this game look very different from the actual models used for the gameplay and cutscenes. At least the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 first game]] used the same style for the covers and models. |
| 67 | * ArtisticLicensePhysics: While the series does its best to ignore physics completely, it does at one point mention how Dante is too cool for the law of conservation of momentum. The description of Spiral's "Reflector" skill states that Dante ricochets the bullet off nearby surfaces to ''increase'' its speed and deal maximum damage, even if collisions of that kind should've reduced the kinetic energy. |
| 68 | * AttackItsWeakPoint: |
| 69 | ** The Gigapede's most vulnerable part is its head. |
| 70 | ** Attacking Beowulf's eyes causes him to flinch and be stunned for a short while. |
| 71 | ** Cerberus' heads are the most prominent parts of his body; but his front legs are also vulnerable and attacking them can cause him to collapse allowing you do massive damage. Each individual head can also be completely destroyed with enough damage and doing so locks out one of his attacks. |
| 72 | ** The Leviathan's Heart is basically an entire boss consisting of this, the heart and lungs you beat down being the weak point of the much larger Leviathan. |
| 73 | * AudibleSharpness: Dante and Vergil's weapons are particularly fond of this trope; the slightest movements of Rebellion and Yamato before the twins' fight produce high-pitched sounds for dramatic effect. It's jarring for Rebellion because it isn't drawn from a sheath unlike Yamato. |
| 74 | * AwesomeButImpractical: [[ThePowerOfRock Nevan]] is surely awesome, but ridiculously difficult to use effectively since its attacks are less straightforward or slower than all other Devil Arms; summoning bats that home in on enemies and doing singular AreaOfEffect attacks instead of having combo strings you smack them with. It is also complex and rather unclear in terms of holding and releasing buttons, and most of its attacks involve moving the left stick in a precise direction (not just forth or back as with other weapons). In the middle of a fight, Dante's position is usually compromised if he's surrounded while [[ChargedAttack charging]] Nevan, yet constantly moving around makes inputting controls quite tricky. However, this weapon becomes [[ThisLooksLikeaJobforAquaman near essential]] against specific enemies in higher difficulties, notably the [[DemonicSpider Enigmas]], as this is the only weapon that can effectively block their deadly red lasers while attacking at the same time. |
| 75 | * BackToBackBadasses: |
| 76 | ** Lady and Dante have a back-to-back shooting moment against the demons that surround them in the opening cutscene of Mission 9. |
| 77 | ** Dante and Vergil pull this one against a huge blob-shaped [[spoiler:Arkham]] at the conclusion of Mission 19. As Dante's Ebony is swatted, Vergil catches it and they do a synchronized, flashy gun-spinning sequence ending with the two back-to-back, with Vergil holding Ebony sideways over Dante's Ivory, forming a 90-degree angle and tossing off a one-liner as they blast their enemy. |
| 78 | --->''(Dante draws Ebony and Ivory to finish off [[spoiler:Arkham]] but has Ebony swatted away. Vergil catches it.)''\ |
| 79 | '''Vergil:''' I'll try it your way for once.\ |
| 80 | '''Dante:''' Remember what we used to say?\ |
| 81 | ''(They assume the position and stack their guns on top of each other)''\ |
| 82 | '''(In unison):''' JACKPOT! '''*BANG*''' |
| 83 | * {{Backtracking}}: Temen-ni-gru's lower levels apply this, but those were the well-done variants that change something in the environment and/or open a path to a new area. |
| 84 | * BadassBoast: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v-9BBiC0VU "Taste the Blood"]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj7oRNCld4s "Suffer"]] fit, by way of IShallTauntYou. |
| 85 | * BalanceBuff: The properties of Dante's [[DashAttack Stinger]] are mixed from the best parts of its previous versions; it has the fast dashing thrust animation and long distance from ''1'', combined with the heavy knockback from ''2''. It's a huge step up over the slower and clunky version from the previous game. |
| 86 | * BarehandedBladeBlock: |
| 87 | ** Inverted by Vergil after he trounces Dante in their first duel; Dante's Devil Trigger awakens and he throws a fierce punch at Vergil, which Vergil blocks with Yamato's edge, causing Dante's hand to bleed as the latter attempts to move the Yamato away. |
| 88 | ** Played straight by Jester clapping his hands to catch the Yamato when Vergil attempts to attack him. |
| 89 | ** In the opening cutscene of Mission 20, Vergil attempts to deliver a vertical downward slash to Dante [[spoiler:via the Force Edge]]. In retaliation, Dante pulls the same attack with Rebellion, and the twins simultaneously catch each other's swords with their off hands. Granted, those hands bleed profusely, but [[HalfHumanHybrid these are the sons of Sparda]]. |
| 90 | * BattleInTheRain: The first Dante vs. Vergil battle has the twins fight on top of Temen-ni-gru while it's raining. In true over-the-top form present in the series, the rain serves as a handy visual of how ''fast'' the Sons of Sparda are; their blades are moving so quickly they are creating a dry bubble around the two as their swords swat away every individual raindrop. |
| 91 | * BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: Subverted in the final fight, where Vergil picks up the Force Edge, Sparda's other [[{{BFS}} broadsword]], to use against Dante who mostly fights using a broadsword, particularly the Rebellion which he inherited from Sparda. In the actual boss battle, Vergil starts fighting almost exactly like Dante, going from a GlassCannon to a full-fledged PerfectPlayAI, but the cutscenes, especially the [[SingleStrokeBattle final clash between the two]], make it evident that Dante was far superior with broadswords. |
| 92 | * BelligerentSexualTension: This game introduces Lady as a potential love interest for Dante, but their relationship starts off vitriolic because she initially doesn't trust him due to his demonic nature. When Arkham has been dealt with in the end, they become business partners in demon-slaying, but not an OfficialCouple. |
| 93 | -->'''Dante''': I'm beginning to think I've got rotten luck with women. |
| 94 | * BellyMouth: [[FallenAngel The Fallen]] normally appear to be angels with six wings; two on their back, outstretched, two covering (or acting as) their legs, and two acting as arms, the latter wings hold a divine sword and act as a shield, protecting the Fallen from attacks. You can break their shield-wings to reveal a grotesque belly mouth, which, aside from looking pretty [[BodyHorror horrifying]], also serves as the angel's [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak spot]]. |
| 95 | * BifurcatedWeapon: Agni and Rudra, a pair of serrated scimitars that Dante can combine into a DoubleWeapon for certain attacks. |
| 96 | * BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Dante finally triumphs over Vergil, but is unable to save him from plunging into the abyss of the Demon World or from his own ambitions of power. Lady finally works up the courage to [[ThatManIsDead proclaim herself free of the name Mary]] and [[SelfMadeOrphan shoots her own father]], avenging one parent by killing the other. (A conclusion made even more bittersweet in ''[=DMC5=]'' when it's revealed this action haunted Lady for the rest of her life.) If you kill a hundred enemies during the credits, you get a cutscene where Vergil appears in the Demon World, with three glowing [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] arranged like [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 Mundus]] leering over him, before [[BolivianArmyEnding Vergil rushes into battle, screaming.]] If you've played the first game, [[ForegoneConclusion you know how that battle ends poorly for him.]]]] |
| 97 | * {{BFG}}: |
| 98 | ** Dante can acquire the Spiral, a colossal Lahti [=L-39=] anti-tank rifle which has a noticeable recoil due to its size, yet its shots pack a punch. |
| 99 | ** Lady's trademark BFG, Kalina Ann; a rocket launcher with a rather large bayonet attached. It's about as big and tall as she is, yet not only does she lift it easily, she can also whip it out in time to [[BladeBrake stick the bayonet in a wall]] after being dropped off the tower. [[spoiler:She temporarily gives it to Dante after their fight, hoping that it could help him defeat Arkham.]] |
| 100 | * BigBadEnsemble: In a curious application, [[spoiler:Arkham and Vergil]] only joined forces to OutGambit each other, but [[spoiler:Arkham]] is the villain who manipulated all the other characters to suit his own ambitions to open the portal to Hell and then get rid of anyone who can stop him from getting Sparda's power. Unfortunately for him, he cedes the actual FinalBoss position to [[spoiler:Vergil]]. |
| 101 | * {{Bizarrchitecture}}: In the Netherworld, the Lost Souls Nirvana is a pristine white version of Creator/MCEscher's ''Relativity'' stairways. You get to walk up, down and sideways to find gateways leading to the boss battles. |
| 102 | * TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn: |
| 103 | ** In the climatic fight against Vergil, the Rebellion stabs the ground after it flies off from Dante's hand. |
| 104 | ** Agni and Rudra fall on their pointy ends when their respective demons are damaged enough and after they are defeated by Dante. |
| 105 | ** In the final battle, the Force Edge falls on its pointy end twice; first when it lands from the portal, and second when it's knocked off from Vergil's hand in the aftermath. |
| 106 | * BladeBrake: Lady uses the bayonet on her rocket launcher to keep herself falling off the tower at one point. |
| 107 | * BladeLock: Commonly seen in cutscene fights between Dante and Vergil. During their first encounter, they were pushing against each other with so much force that the blades visibly heated at the contact point from the friction. |
| 108 | * BleedEmAndWeep: Happens in the intro of Mission 20. As [[spoiler:Arkham]] falls from Hell to the top of the Temen-ni-gru tower, he is approached by Lady. He tries to talk her out of killing him, but she goes ahead and shoots him dead. Then she stumbles back and starts [[CryLaughing laughing and crying]], in one of the saddest moments of the game. She's killed entire armies of demons up to this point, but it's still a shock to kill [[spoiler:her father]]. |
| 109 | -->'''Lady:''' Here I thought I wasn't gonna cry. |
| 110 | * BlockingStopsAllDamage: |
| 111 | ** Dante's Royal Block skill can negate ''anything'' if properly done, including explosions, traps, and giant demons clawing at him. Mistimed blocks can break, causing Dante to take damage. |
| 112 | ** The Fallen can use their wings as shields to negate your attacks, but they can still be broken if damaged enough times. |
| 113 | * BloodIsSquickerInWater: The second time [[MonsterClown Jester]] pops up, he causes a nearby stone fountain (adorned with seemingly decorative gargoyles) to overflow with blood, awakening the now demonic [[OurGargoylesRock Blood-goyles]] to attack Dante, who isn't very intimidated. |
| 114 | * BloodMagic: [[spoiler:Arkham used the blood of Dante, Vergil, and Lady to open up the portal to the demon world. He needs this because the portal was sealed by Sparda (Dante and Vergil's father) using his own blood and the blood of a mortal priestess, Lady's ancestor.]] |
| 115 | * BlownAcrossTheRoom: When Lady starts fighting some lesser demons [[https://youtu.be/QgDcaKjz9ks?t=3137 in a cutscene]], her rocket pushes a Hell Pride all the way towards the wall before exploding. |
| 116 | * BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: The boss fight cutscenes in Mission 5 present Agni and Rudra as the comedy duo, along with ''Dante'' as the StraightMan, having this routine in their conversations. The subversion comes from the fact that the two weapons aren't entirely stupid (although Agni apparently doesn't know what a sigh is), but are ''extremely'' chatty instead, [[HypocriticalHumor much to Dante's annoyance]]. |
| 117 | -->'''Rudra:''' Look brother, it's been ages, but we finally have company.\ |
| 118 | '''Agni:''' I see that.\ |
| 119 | '''Rudra:''' We must entertain our guest.\ |
| 120 | '''Agni:''' You're right. We have to be gracious hosts.\ |
| 121 | '''Rudra:''' Brother, what should we do?\ |
| 122 | '''Agni:''' How do I know? We need to come up with something.\ |
| 123 | '''Dante:''' *sigh*\ |
| 124 | '''Rudra:''' Brother, our guest is... sighing.\ |
| 125 | '''Agni:''' SIGH? What is... SIGH?\ |
| 126 | '''Rudra:''' Well a sigh is when -\ |
| 127 | '''Dante:''' Enough already! How long are you two gonna keep carrying on like this? In case you didn't get the hint, I'll spell it out. Your guest wants to go through. Got it. |
| 128 | * BolivianArmyEnding: The last cutscene featuring Vergil has him falling into Hell, severely weakened by the battle he just had with his brother, and right in front of the demon king Mundus. He then declares that if his father beat Mundus, he could as well. The scene cuts right as Vergil charges towards Mundus and the fight is never shown. This is a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] however, since the events of ''Devil May Cry 3'' [[{{Prequel}} happened before]] the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 first installment]] where he's been transformed into Mundus' slave; [[ForegoneConclusion he obviously lost]]. |
| 129 | * BookEnds: The game begins and ends with Dante in his office, using the force of a kick to knock the phone into his hands so he can answer a call. |
| 130 | * BossAlteringConsequence: |
| 131 | ** If you kill either [[DualBoss Agni or Rudra]] but leave the other one alive for too long, the remaining brother will pick up his dead brother's sword, starts DualWielding, and gains access to new, deadlier combos. |
| 132 | ** The Leviathan's Heart fight can become easier or harder depending on which adjacent "lung" should the player focus on (you cannot attack both at once). If you haven't attacked the left lung for a while, it will absorb the Red Orbs dropped by slain Hell Envies. Inversely, the right lung will drain your Devil Trigger gauge if it's left unchecked. |
| 133 | * BossBanter: |
| 134 | ** Vergil repeatedly insults Dante, calling him "scum" who is "not worthy of being (his) opponent". The other lines you hear depend on how you're faring, ranging from [[LetsGetDangerous "Now, I'm a little motivated!"]] or [[IAmNotLeftHanded "Don't get cocky."]] if you're doing well in the fight, or "Where's your motivation?" if you're performing [[YouFightLikeACow poorly]] otherwise. |
| 135 | ** Apart from his grunts, Beowulf has dialogue lines when he performs his GroundPunch, and when he TurnsRed. Both are simply about wanting to kill or crush Dante. |
| 136 | ** In between its attacks, Doppelganger can taunt you by imitating Dante's trademark brand of TrashTalk, no less. |
| 137 | --->'''Doppelganger:''' Come on, wimp. |
| 138 | ** Nevan spends the whole match seductively taunting Dante. |
| 139 | * BossRush: Mission 18 consists of refights against every previous boss except Vergil and Lady. You're able to proceed and finish the level after defeating a few (any arrangement that ends up creating a ring on the monolith that you appear in front of after defeating anyone), but defeating them all rewards you with a Blue Orb Fragment. |
| 140 | * BottomlessMagazines: |
| 141 | ** Though she is often shown reloading in previous cutscenes, Lady plays this straight during [[spoiler:Mission 16 when Dante picks a fight with her]]; she is never seen reloading her Kalina Ann rocket launcher. |
| 142 | ** Dante never has to reload during gameplay, but after firing shots from his shotgun, the trope is subverted as he does have to eject the empty casings at least most of the time. |
| 143 | * BraggingRightsReward: |
| 144 | ** Completing the Very Hard difficulty or Bloody Palace mode unlocks the standard "Super Costume" for your character. It grants unlimited Devil Trigger meter, but certain abilities that ordinarily consume the DT gauge still drain it regardless. |
| 145 | ** In the [[UpdatedRerelease Special Edition]], completing the "Must Die" difficulty gives Dante and Vergil additional Super Costumes that have more benefits than their standard Super Costumes, such as health regeneration and unlimited usage of DT-reliant abilities. |
| 146 | * BrickJoke: |
| 147 | ** ''3'' follows up on the "Jackpot!" brick from ''1'', with Vergil getting in on the action as he and Dante deal the killshot. The subtext is that Dante and Vergil started out in the demon slaying business together, and "Jackpot!" was something they liked to say. |
| 148 | ** After the CarFu segment, Dante discards the handlebars of Lady's bike. One of the unlockable Game Clear artworks shows her holding them, giving Dante a DeathGlare while he casually walks away. |
| 149 | ** In the first mission, Dante is pissed at the demons who wrecked his shop, and one of his reasons include the fact that he hasn't named his shop yet. In the epilogue, Dante finally decided for a name, "Devil May Cry". |
| 150 | * BulletCatch: |
| 151 | ** Vergil's spinning Yamato move allows him to catch bullets mid-air and launch them back at Dante like a makeshift sling. |
| 152 | ** Dante catches one of Lady's bullets with his teeth and then spits it out. |
| 153 | * BulletDancing: Jester loves doing this as a parody, especially when he [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introduced himself]]. Dante shoots at Jester's feet when he's becoming annoying, then the clown breaks into the Charleston as he dodges the bullets. In his boss fights, Jester does this whenever you attempt to shoot him, though after a few shots, he's tired out and left wide open for some melee hits. |
| 154 | * ButtonMashing: "Crazy Combos" are activated by button mashing during the execution of certain moves. All of them are variations of hitting the button repeatedly as fast as possible. This isn't so much the "spray-and-pray" button mashing as it is just hitting one button rapidly to execute a secret move. Exactly how fast you need to mash to trigger the move is determined by your current [[AwesomenessMeter Style ranking]]. |
| 155 | * CainAndAbel: Starting from this game, the sibling rivalry theme is primarily focused on Dante and Vergil's differences in regards to which side of their nature they embraced. Dante chose to go with his human heritage, Vergil with his demonic side, and the two never met peacefully again. |
| 156 | * CallForward: |
| 157 | ** Vergil uses Beowulf's power to create gauntlets, bringing to mind that Nelo Angelo knocked Dante's sword out of his hands and almost defeated him with his hand-to-hand skills. |
| 158 | ** When the second fight with Vergil gets to its halfway point, Vergil does Dante's old weapon switch animation when pulling out Yamato. |
| 159 | ** Vergil still holds onto his amulet even as he dives into the Underworld. In the first game, said amulet is the reason why Dante [[spoiler:recognized Nelo Angelo as his brother Vergil]]. |
| 160 | ** At the end, when Lady sees Dante, she asks him if he is crying and he says "Devils never cry", reminiscent of the words that he would say to Trish and Lucia at the end of ''1'' and ''2'', respectively. |
| 161 | * CameraScrew: At best, you can only slowly rotate the camera left or right, not up and down and it often "locks-on" to bosses during fights, this can screw over the directional inputs for certain moves since they're relative to Dante's facing and cause you to perform moves/jump or roll instead of what you actually intended to do if it changes just before you tried to perform that action. |
| 162 | * CapeWings: Dante's Devil Trigger form with either Nevan or Rebellion turns his [[BadassLongcoat coat into wings]], though only Nevan grants him the ability to fly in this state. |
| 163 | * CarFu: Dante uses Lady's motorbike to drive up Temen-ni-gru's outer wall, falls towards it for a short distance, and then is besieged in midair by Blood-goyles. So he beats all of them up with the motorbike which explodes shortly after he lands, leaving only the handlebars. |
| 164 | * CatchAndReturn: Vergil shows the ability to block bullets by [[SpinToDeflectStuff spinning the Yamato really fast]]. In a {{cutscene|PowerToTheMax}}, he also [[BulletCatch catches the bullets]] with his katana and lays them down on the ground before knocking them right back to Dante. |
| 165 | * CaveBehindTheFalls: The Limestone Cavern is located behind the waterfall in the Subterranean Lake. The level design makes it obvious that you have to go there; a stone bridge specifically connects to the waterfall, and the cave's entrance has a few Red Orbs that are [[NoticeThis visible]] behind the waterfall. |
| 166 | * CharacterInTheLogo: The game has a silhouette of Dante in the logo. |
| 167 | * ChargedAttack: For the "Hold" type: |
| 168 | ** Dante can charge his guns for extra damage while in Gunslinger Style. |
| 169 | ** In the tradition of gauntlet-type Devil Arms, most of Beowulf's basic combos can be held to deal more damage. |
| 170 | ** Certain attacks (e.g. [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks Round Trip]], [[SwordBeam Drive]], [[IaijutsuPractitioner Judgement Cut]]) require you to hold a button to perform them. |
| 171 | ** Nevan's primary gimmick consists of holding down the button to summon more electric bats or launch stronger variants of its attacks. |
| 172 | * CheckpointStarvation: Playing with the original yellow orbs requires you to have one to load a checkpoint, considering how rare/expensive these are and how long the missions in the game can last (20-30 minutes and have a boss fight at the end sometimes) this massively increases the game's difficulty. |
| 173 | * ChekhovsGun: |
| 174 | ** The Soul of Steel key item is first found inside a cage. In a later mission, you lift the cage and obtain said key item to walk across a chasm. |
| 175 | ** Some statues resembling human-sized chess pieces are suspiciously scattered in the early parts of Temen-ni-gru, albeit inanimate at first. Then you realize later on that they're Damned Chessmen, a common threat throughout the tower, and [[spoiler:in Mission 18, you finally square off with the entire chess board, king included]]. |
| 176 | ** Dante and Vergil's halves of the Perfect Amulet are used to undo the seal of the tower. |
| 177 | ** The bells you see strewn throughout Temen-ni-gru are later involved in the ritual used to open the gate to the underworld. |
| 178 | * ChessMotifs: The Damned Chessmen are life-sized enemies named and modeled after chess pieces. Initially you find them scattered around the tower's areas, but Mission 18 lets you fight against the entire set in a [[AstralCheckerboardDecor chess board arena]]. |
| 179 | * CloseRangeCombatant: Swordmaster is a Style for those who like using Devil Arms at close range. Sacrificing most ranged options for pure, brutal swordplay or melee attacks, hitting the Style button will allow you to perform a move tailored to the Devil Arm, and can change up how a weapon functions. Leveling it up unlocks more moves. |
| 180 | * ClothingDamage: Dante dodges Lady's bullets with ease, but looks down and is annoyed to find his jacket is now full of bullet holes. Also during his initial fight with Vergil, one of the sleeves on his coat gets ripped, resulting in him yanking the torn section off completely. |
| 181 | * ColorCodedCharacters: [[RedOniBlueOni Dante wears red. Vergil wears blue]]. Thus, you can tell them apart when it's raining and their hairstyles are the same. |
| 182 | * ColourCodedForYourConvenience: |
| 183 | ** The three paths in the Chamber of Echoes all have differently-colored doors to help you a bit when you have to backtrack to this area. |
| 184 | ** The Combat Adjudicators have color-coded flames that help you determine which specific weapon are they vulnerable to. |
| 185 | * ColourCodedTimestop: When the Quicksilver Style brings enemies to a screeching halt, everything except for Dante has a reversed color filter. |
| 186 | * CombatTentacles: Soul Eaters (the luminous tentacled {{Personal Space Invader}}s) have these. Disturbingly enough, they always attack from behind, giggling and screaming, and when they snatch Dante up with their tentacles to drain his Devil Trigger Gauge, it looks [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything like something else]]. |
| 187 | * CombinationAttack: In the penultimate mission, [[spoiler:Dante and Vergil]] hack away at Arkham then repeat with each other's swords, and then blast the hell out of him with a WaveMotionGun attack from Ebony & Ivory. |
| 188 | * TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Boss Vergil stays in [[SuperMode Devil Trigger mode]] far longer than playable Vergil ever can, especially on harder difficulty modes. And once you [[TurnsRed knock him below half health]], it lasts even longer. |
| 189 | * ConflictKiller: The animosity between Dante, Vergil and Lady is toned down once [[spoiler:Arkham]]'s true intentions are revealed, as they all consider killing him to be the top priority. When [[spoiler:Arkham]] becomes a monster in the penultimate mission, the [[RivalsTeamUp brothers team up]] in one of the franchise's many awesome moments just to defeat him. Vergil also [[LampshadeHanging lampshades it]] when he arrives. Immediately afterwards, the brothers go back to dueling each other over the power of Sparda stored in the Force Edge. |
| 190 | -->'''Dante''': Look at you... making a big dramatic entrance and stealing my spotlight.\ |
| 191 | '''Vergil''': Well, you don't possibly believe that ''he'' deserves to be our main event, now do you? |
| 192 | * ConservationOfNinjutsu: |
| 193 | ** In the final fight against Arkham, Dante fights him until he's down to half health. Then Vergil shows up, and suddenly you can't use the Devil Trigger or your style moves. This is because the game creates Vergil using the basic mechanics of the Doppelganger style. Since the style requires Devil Trigger to create the Shadow, the player can't use it during the fight. After beating Arkham, Dante and Vergil fight each other, and can once again use their Devil Triggers and style attacks. |
| 194 | ** The Agni and Rudra boss fight is a justified example: when one of the brothers is defeated, the survivor grabs the loser's sword and starts DualWielding, gaining access to a few combo attacks. |
| 195 | * ContentWarnings: The game always opens with a warning about the explicit violence and gore... then Dante shows up and destroys that warning screen. |
| 196 | * ContinuityNod: Being a {{prequel}}, ''[=DMC3=]'' has some details that connect to the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 first game]]: |
| 197 | ** When starting a fresh playthrough, the Yellow Orb from ''[=DMC1=]'' can be selected as the player's preferred revival item instead of its Gold Orb counterpart that was introduced since ''[=DMC2=]''. |
| 198 | ** When Arkham visits Dante's shop in the beginning, Dante assumes he wants to use the bathroom and tells him "the toilet's in the back." [[CallForward He makes the same assumption about Trish]] when she storms the shop in the first game, [[AnachronicOrder several years later]]. |
| 199 | ** This game goes back to calling Dante's melee weapons as "Devil Arms" just like in ''[=DMC1=]''. This is in contrast to ''[[VideoGame/DevilMayCry2 DMC2]]'' which instead called Dante's melee weapons as mere "Swords". |
| 200 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68SSsn8xMt8 Hell Vanguards]] have the same creepy laughter (alongside other recycled sound effects) as the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEwqRjIwM3Y Sin Scissor]] demons from ''[=DMC1=]''. This is easily noticeable in a certain room that you have to backtrack and one of them spawns in; the demon will appear while this familiar sound effect plays. Apart from the audio, both demon types also share a lot of visual and gameplay-related similarities. |
| 201 | ** Vergil's Summoned Swords are the same weapons that he used as Nelo Angelo in the first game. In here, he breaks them out as well during his boss fight on Dante Must Die mode. Nelo Angelo can also FlashStep, which makes sense because Vergil can do it too via his "Trick" technique. Finally, the bonus post-credits scene shows an exhausted Vergil [[spoiler:facing off against Mundus]], which would subtly explain how he ends up becoming Nelo Angelo against his will. |
| 202 | ** After fighting [[FinalBoss Vergil]] in the Underworld, Dante took the Force Edge to his shop. The old context from the first game (the Force Edge was originally handed down by Sparda) got {{retcon}}ned in the process, but this new scene still justifies why he is in possession of that sword in ''[=DMC1=]''. The [[TheStinger post-credits scene]] also shows Dante in his ''[=DMC1=]'' outfit, and Eva's portrait is clearly visible in his desk, both referencing the prologue cutscene of the first game. |
| 203 | ** Dante's ''[=DMC1=]'' outfit can be unlocked in-game after completing Normal mode. Apart from equipping Force Edge in place of Rebellion, his [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] form also changes to Sparda's demonic appearance, a reference to the FinalBoss battle of the first game wherein Dante takes on the demonic form of his father after the Force Edge awakened as the Sparda sword. |
| 204 | ** In the bonus post-credits scene, [[spoiler:Mundus makes a cameo appearance via his three glowing red eyes which are the same ones that signify his early appearances in ''[=DMC1=]'']]. |
| 205 | ** Vergil has an unlockable costume that shows him with nasty-looking scars all over his face, which are the results of his corruption as Nelo Angelo. |
| 206 | * ContrivedCoincidence: In the [[CarFu stylish motorcycle riding]] cutscene of Mission 14, Dante just happens to be at the right place and the right time when he spots Lady's motorcycle about to fall off near the base of the tower's exterior. If he was a few moments late, that motorcycle would've fallen among the rubble on the street. |
| 207 | * CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel: This game is set before ''[=DMC1=]'', yet the controls, {{combos}}, mechanics and weapons are significantly more elaborate in here, leaving Dante — by comparison — positively arthritic in the original. |
| 208 | * CouldntFindAPen: After Dante bursts forth from Leviathan's eye and lands on a higher floor of the tower, the nearby pillar has a "''Welcome''" text and Jester's portrait below it, both written and drawn in blood. The camera also focuses on it for a while during that cutscene. |
| 209 | * CounterAttack: Used with Royal Guard to completely nullify damage taken and drastically increase damage dealt. |
| 210 | * CreativeClosingCredits: Where you have to kill as many demons as possible as a timer winds down while the credits roll. If you kill at least 100 enemies before the end, you are rewarded with a secret scene where [[spoiler:Vergil faces off against Mundus]]. |
| 211 | * CripplingOverspecialization: Doppelganger is the last Style obtained by Dante over the course of the game, and summons a doppelganger of Dante on command to fight with him. While the extra Dante takes a load off your back (and even unlocks a 2-player mode), it forces you to use the clone frequently while relying on the non-specialized movesets, causing it to become a hindrance in boss fights where faster dodging, enhanced swordplay, better ranged combat, or blocking would work better. |
| 212 | * CrucifiedHeroShot: Dante, when impaled on his own sword by Vergil. |
| 213 | * CrystalSkull: A door leading to the top of Temen-ni-gru requires two of these to open; one is already in its pillar, while the other has to be found in a certain room. |
| 214 | * CurbStompBattle: Though the demon was already weak and blind from its battle with Dante, it's still impressive how Vergil manages to slay Beowulf in exactly one slash. He then proceeds to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown punch apart the demon's corpse]]. |
| 215 | * CutsceneIncompetence: |
| 216 | ** Even if you beat Vergil on top of the tower without getting hit once, the cutscene makes it look like you were losing the whole time, with Dante panting and barely keeping up while Vergil calmly deflects most of his attacks. Then Vergil stabs Dante through the guts with his own sword. |
| 217 | ** In cutscenes, Dante mostly never uses other equipment apart from the default Rebellion and Ebony and Ivory. Even if there are cutscenes wherein Dante demonstrates a new Devil Arm after acquiring them, they never appear again in other segments or aren't used for combat. Likewise, Dante and Vergil never use Devil Trigger in most cutscenes except for the one where Dante acquires his. |
| 218 | * CutscenePowerToTheMax: |
| 219 | ** Dante pulls off several moves and killshots in cutscenes that are nigh-impossible in gameplay (though there is one cutscene move that he ''can'' actually do in normal gameplay; surfing on downed enemies). In the prologue, he shrugs off horrific injuries to [[LodgedBladeRecycling kill his enemies with the pieces of their own weapons]] embedded in his body. After defeating Cerberus, he [[HighSpeedMissileDodge casually dodges and surfs on a rocket]] fired by Lady. Special mention goes to the various cutscenes where he travels down or up the side of Temen-ni-gru, usually slicing and shooting apart hordes of demons with tons of flashy moves that he can't quite pull off when you're controlling him (and that's not even mentioning his feat of using the motorcycle as a melee weapon). |
| 220 | ** Cutscenes turn the Yamato's AbsurdlySharpBlade factor up to eleven, making it seem like everything else dies of being in the same room with it even without showing a direct contact with the blade. This is demonstrated by Vergil when he jumps on the head of Beowulf, then after slowly sheathing his katana, the demon's face is sliced in half. There's also that time when Vergil lined up bullets from Dante's handguns, then tossed them back at him. |
| 221 | * DamnYouMuscleMemory: |
| 222 | ** Switch between ''[=DMC1=]'' and ''[=DMC3=]''. The first game had vastly different controls from the ones codified later; notably, jump was assigned to Triangle and melee attacks were done with the Circle button. Thankfully, the latter game lets you remap the controls to your liking. Better yet, try going from ''3'' back to ''1''. Again thankfully, the ''HD Collection'' remaps the controls of ''1'' to make them similar to the other games. |
| 223 | ** Certain moves that used to be regular gun button combo strings in ''[=DMC2=]'' (Rain Storm, Twosome Time and Fireworks) are now associated with Dante's Gunslinger Style, resulting in revised control inputs. For example, the Rain Storm in ''2'' is performed by pressing the shoot button after a {{double jump}}, [[GoombaSpringboard kick jump]], or [[WallRun wall hike]]. Here, it can be performed by pressing the Style button any time as long as Dante is in the air. |
| 224 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: |
| 225 | ** Dante and Vergil's mother was murdered by demons, while their father Sparda disappeared and died from unrevealed circumstances. |
| 226 | ** Lady has a supreme asshole of a father who murdered her mother and used her in a horrible plan to open the Hell Gate that Sparda closed. |
| 227 | %%* DeadlyUpgrade: Seen in a rather painful way. |
| 228 | * DeathByOriginStory: Kalina Ann is killed by her husband in a ritual that was intended to give him demonic powers. Her daughter, Lady, became an ActionGirl for the specific purpose of avenging her and ridding the world of all demons. |
| 229 | * DeathOrGloryAttack: |
| 230 | ** The Royal Release is one risky CounterAttack. With the [[JustFrameBonus proper timing]], Dante can unleash a powerful punch. Mistime it otherwise, and it will just be a regular Release. Missing this attack completely can also make him briefly vulnerable to whiff punishes. |
| 231 | ** The Devil Trigger explosion qualifies too. If simply used, it's a teeny burst that mildly inconveniences enemies. If charged up fully, with a maxed-out DT gauge, it will OneHitKill ''every minor enemy in the game''. However, using it this way leaves you with only a few seconds of Devil Trigger time, so you better hope you got them all. |
| 232 | * DefeatMeansFriendship: |
| 233 | ** After an entire game of butting heads, Dante and Lady finally come to terms with each other when he beats her in proper combat. |
| 234 | ** Dante must defeat the Devil Arms in their original forms as guardians of the tower before he can use them as weapons. Agni and Rudra in particular are very enthusiastic about this trope, practically begging Dante to take them with him after their defeat. |
| 235 | * DegradedBoss: |
| 236 | ** The Hell Vanguard. The first one encountered serves as the WarmUpBoss of Mission 2. More of its kind reappear later on, but are relegated to mere {{Mini Boss}}es or {{Elite Mook}}s. Even if the rest lose a dedicated boss lifebar, they can still gain a potential Devil Trigger ability under specific circumstances, or in the [[HarderThanHard Must Die]] difficulty mode. |
| 237 | ** The first Gigapede you fight has more abilities (plus a health bar) and is harder to defeat. The ones you meet after that are much easier to deal with and completely optional to kill. |
| 238 | * DemonicVampires: The demon Nevan has some vampiric elements in her design. She is associated with bats, has a seductive personality, and can drain the player's health. |
| 239 | * DenserAndWackier: While this game has a more complex plot than ''1'' and ''2'', Dante himself begins to showcase his [[FranchiseCodifier now-trademark]] irreverent sense of humor here, likely as a response to ''2'' where he was constantly [[TheStoic dead-serious]]. Compared to ''1'' where he mostly had a few one-liners and stunts to demonstrate the RuleOfCool, ''3'' features over-the-top scenes such as Dante [[ItMakesSenseInContext fighting off demons shirtless while eating pizza]], riding a missile [[RocketRide like it was a skateboard]], and using a motorcycle [[CarFu like a set of nunchucks]] to fight demons while riding up the side of a tower. |
| 240 | * DesecratingTheDead: Done very casually by Vergil. He tests out the gauntlets and greaves he acquired from Beowulf by smashing the Lightbeast's corpse around and then [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bisecting]] it. |
| 241 | * DiegeticSwitch: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onwIcZt0-g4 "Dante's Office (7 Hells Battle)"]] starts playing from Dante's jukebox and then becomes the battle music for the first mission. |
| 242 | * DifficultButAwesome: |
| 243 | ** Royal Guard. If you do manage to pull it off though, it looks [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kitFV4F8hbM amazing.]] Using Royal Guard to cancel Spiral and Kalina Ann is also difficult but rewarding to master. The style lets you completely nullify damage by pressing block at the [[JustFrameBonus right instant]] just as an attack hits you. This also boosts Style rating, Devil Trigger energy, and lets you save power for monstrous counter-atttacks, but you'll have to memorise enemy attack cues and patterns to get the timing right. |
| 244 | ** Nevan seems all but useless at first, but when you actually master it, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZXwA65yE0s it will kick a lot of butt.]] |
| 245 | ** With precise timing, you can deflect some of the bosses' attacks (such as the Gigapede's orbs and Beowulf's cages) with a melee weapon. This tactic deals significant damage to the bosses but it can obviously backfire on you when mistimed. |
| 246 | ** The Nintendo Switch port's Freestyle Mode and unrestricted weapon switching ramp up the learning curve for Dante, just like his iterations from the later games. These additions require some dexterity to master, but they open up more combos and possibilities. With enough practice, Dante can decimate bosses faster compared to the older ''[=DMC3=]'' ports. |
| 247 | * DifficultyByRegion: The game is infamous for this. The Japanese release wasn't easy to begin with, but the initial Western release took the Japanese Hard mode and labeled it as the ''Normal'' mode. |
| 248 | * DivinelyAppearingDemons: The Fallen appear to be winged angels, but receiving enough damage destroys their protective wings and reveals hideous [[BellyMouth demonic faces in their bellies]]. |
| 249 | * DoomedHometown: Dante wrecks his shop with a '''sneeze''' in the second mission, making it impossible to go back inside for the rest of the game. Played for laughs given its ridiculousness, especially since the shop's been torn to hell by the fight with the invading demons from the previous mission, and the sneeze is just the last straw. |
| 250 | * DoorToBefore: In Mission 8, obtaining a key item opens one of Leviathan's intestines that leads you back to its stomach, the starting point of the mission. |
| 251 | * DoppelgangerAttack: When Dante uses his Doppelganger Style, he can create a single duplicate of himself. The duplicate will mirror Dante's movements and attacks, but the player can choose to increase the lag between the command inputs and the duplicate's response -- or a second player can take control instead. |
| 252 | * DoubleJump: Air Hike makes its return, but it must be bought on three separate weapons for 20,000 Red Orbs each and isn't available at all for Cerberus or Nevan. |
| 253 | * DownTheDrain: The Chamber of Sins is a small sewage area of the tower, first accessed in Mission 5 if you fall down the chasm without the Soul of Steel item. After defeating the enemies, a portal sends you back to the previous room. |
| 254 | * DramaticNecklaceRemoval: Played with in the manga. Dante's amulet ''is'' very important to the plot, and when the chain holding it breaks, his efforts at a quick fix don't work out very well. |
| 255 | * DrivingUpAWall: Dante drives a motorcycle up the side of Temen-ni-gru. On the way up, he's attacked by a swarm of flying demons, so he fights them off in midair using said motorcycle as a club. |
| 256 | * DualWielding: Dante and Vergil know how to fight with two swords simultaneously. The former does so with Agni and Rudra, and the latter with Yamato and Force Edge. |
| 257 | * EarlyBirdBoss: The Hell Vanguard in Mission 2. On your first playthrough, the real difficulties of this fight come from the playable character's lack of upgrades as early as this point, and the Hell Vanguard's gimmick of parrying your own melee attacks to execute a CounterAttack on you (which deals significant damage). That being said, they later on become [[DegradedBoss just another elite enemy, spawning along other enemies and even along other Hell Vanguards]]. Once Dante does re-encounter them, he's got plenty of arsenal and upgrades with him, and will generally dispatch of them more easily. However, the higher difficulties and Bloody Palace instead turn them into [[BossInMookClothing bosses in mook's clothing]], especially when you have to fight against three of them at the same time, as in Bloody Palace. |
| 258 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This is the first game in the franchise with [[StanceSystem Styles]], but the system works differently here than in later titles. In ''3'', only one Style can be used during a mission and new skills are acquired through levels and grinding for {{experience points}}. In ''4'' and ''5'', Styles can be switched during missions, and skills can be bought before missions or at Divinity Statues. The Switch version adds Style Switching, which works similarly to ''4'' and ''5'', but keeps the original level grinding system. |
| 259 | * EasierThanEasy: Heaven or Hell is really not as hard as it sounds. As long as you use your guns, it pretty much becomes "Press Shoot to Win mode." |
| 260 | * EasterEgg: There is a hidden two-player co-op mode, albeit under strict conditions; a second player can press Start on a spare controller to control Dante's shadow clone whenever Dante uses his Doppelganger Style. The same trick can also be used to control [[spoiler:Vergil during the twins' battle against Arkham.]] |
| 261 | * EldritchLocation: The Underworld's depiction is the most varied in the series thus far, with the majority being a vast white expanse of floating stone, shattered temples, and oddly-structured stairs (as a [[ShoutOut reference]] to Creator/MCEscher's ''Relativity'' stairways) where gravity is whatever the geography needs it to be, there are parts where time repeats itself, a dark room resembling an enormous chessboard to simulate a game of HumanChess, and an endless sea of blood with ruins and statues of angels. However in most areas, you can see a swirling vortex of darkness and lightning that resembles an eye watching over demon kind. |
| 262 | * ElementalPowers: All over the place with the Devil Arms, ranging from ice (Cerberus), to fire/wind (Agni & Rudra), to thunder (Nevan) and light (Beowulf). |
| 263 | * ElevatorActionSequence: There are elevator fights with an emphasis on speed. {{Mooks}} drop down from above, and if you don't knock them off or kill them quickly enough, the elevator will falter and send you back down to the bottom of the shaft. It's the main challenge of Secret Mission 4, but the Hell Prides are in their [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] state by that point. |
| 264 | * EnemyMine: Dante and [[spoiler:Vergil put aside their hatred for each other and join forces in the final battle against Arkham]]. |
| 265 | * EnergyWeapon: Artemis shoots out lasers. |
| 266 | * EnvironmentalSymbolism: Dante's first battle with Vergil is on the top of the Temen-ni-gru tower in the moonlight and rain. It's obvious since the sun isn't rising any time soon and the rain isn't stopping either, Dante won't be winning. Their second fight is in a much grimmer and dingier area because neither is going to win. Their final battle in a river of the Underworld is completely climactic ([[OminousLatinChanting Orchestra and Latin music is playing in the background too]]) as the losing twin [[spoiler:Vergil]] decides to [[spoiler:dive down from atop the "waterfall"]]. |
| 267 | * EquipmentUpgrade: Red Orbs are spent to directly upgrade Dante's guns, up to a maximum of Level 3. The upgrade's effect varies depending on the weapon; for example, Ebony & Ivory's upgrades increase its firepower, upgrading Artemis increases the maximum number of locked-on targets, while Kalina Ann's upgrades increase its firing speed. |
| 268 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: |
| 269 | ** This game manages another one for the younger Dante in its first cutscene, just before the fighting starts -- with multiple demons' scythes shoved through his torso and one of his handguns in easy reach... Dante grabs the slice of pizza right next to said handgun instead. He's ''that'' unconcerned about the demons and the various scythe blades in his body. |
| 270 | ** Vergil's very first appearance has him silence Arkham who [[EvilIsHammy hams up]] about the Temen-ni-gru, showing his [[TheStoic serious nature]] and how much he just gets straight to the point. Right after, when the Hell Vanguard that Dante previously likely had trouble with shows up on the top of the tower, Vergil easily kills it with just one strike without even looking at it coming from behind him, showing how big the initial gap in power is between Dante and Vergil. |
| 271 | %%* EvilPlan: Vergil's is to gain the power of his late father and become the WorldsStrongestMan. [[spoiler:Jester/Arkham's is after the same goal, but to [[AGodAmI gain the power of a devil]]]]. |
| 272 | * ExperienceMeter: ''[=DMC3=]'' is the [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness only game in the series]] where you are required to grind for experience points in order to level-up your main [[StanceSystem Styles]], so there's a dedicated meter in the upper-left HUD showing how much you've accumulated so far. [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience The meter's color also changes]] depending the currently-selected Style. |
| 273 | * ExtremelyShortTimespan: ''Devil May Cry 3'' has the first few missions seemingly taking place as the sun sets, the action in Temen-ni-gru happening at night, and the end credits during the following morning. |
| 274 | * EyeScream: |
| 275 | ** Dante leaves Leviathan's body by bursting out of its eye. |
| 276 | ** Beowulf had his left eye sliced out by Sparda in the past. In the present, Dante takes out the right eye after their battle. |
| 277 | * FallenAngel: The Fallen, which look like angelic creatures but have a disturbing demon face. |
| 278 | * {{Fanservice}}: |
| 279 | ** Dante's primary outfit leaves his chiseled chest bared for all to see. The first mission makes him fight [[ShirtlessScene without his jacket]], but one of his unlockable costumes goes even further and makes him shirtless all throughout the game. |
| 280 | ** The character artist specifically states in the ''Note of Naught'' artbook that coatless Vergil "was designed to give our women users huge {{nosebleed}}s." |
| 281 | ** Lady is a very attractive young woman who wears violet spats and so the [[MaleGaze camera makes sure]] you get a lot of looks at her legs and butt. |
| 282 | ** Nevan. The type of demon she is justifies this, but still, she says stuff like ''"Sugarrr"'', makes [[OrgasmicCombat orgasmic sounds when she takes a hit]], and [[KissOfDeath kisses Dante]] to replenish her health. |
| 283 | * FingerTwitchingRevival: |
| 284 | ** After Vergil stabs him, Dante does this. He promptly gets stabbed again with his own sword. |
| 285 | ** After Vergil stabs him, Arkham does this, causing Lady to speak with him in his [[spoiler:supposed final moments]] when she just found him previously unconscious on the floor. |
| 286 | * FinishingMove: Wild Stomp, a Gunslinger move that has Dante stomp on a downed foe and riddle them with bullets from Ebony and Ivory. |
| 287 | * FlamingSword: |
| 288 | ** Agni is a fiery sword wielded alongside the wind sword Rudra. |
| 289 | ** Abyss demons wield flaming scythes. |
| 290 | * FlashStep: The various "Trick" techniques of Vergil and the "Air Trick" of Dante (after maxing Trickster Style) allow them to teleport at short distances. Vergil occasionally takes this to TeleportSpam levels in the second and third boss battles with him. |
| 291 | * {{Flynning}}: Subverted after the second battle with Vergil; the twins appear to be Flynning, until one notices the copious amounts of blood on the floor, which demonstrates that their inhuman speed is actually letting them land hits. |
| 292 | * ForDoomTheBellTolls: |
| 293 | ** The Hell Vanguard makes a bell-toll sound whenever it uses one of its {{teleportation}}-based attacks. |
| 294 | ** The suspicious-looking bells hanging on top of Temen-ni-gru ring loudly when [[spoiler:Arkham finally opens the gate to the Demon World]]. |
| 295 | * ForegoneConclusion: In the bonus post-credits scene, [[spoiler:Vergil tries to take on Mundus alone. If you've played the first game, you'll know that it will end badly for Vergil and he will become Nelo Angelo]]. |
| 296 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: |
| 297 | ** In the opening narration, Lady mentions how her father used to tell her stories of Sparda's exploits. [[spoiler:It turns out that said father, Arkham, is obsessed with obtaining Sparda's power to rule as a god.]] |
| 298 | ** The weird face-ball thing that Jester spawns [[spoiler: has a red eye and a scarred face just like Arkham. For that matter, Jester's own heterochromia hints at his relation to Lady.]] |
| 299 | * FranchiseCodifier: The ''Devil May Cry'' series has always focused on StylishAction from the beginning, but since the first two games have a lot of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, it's only until ''Devil May Cry 3'' that the series showed significant consistency. Subsequent games would all derive from the gameplay design, mechanics and features of this game; from having 20 numbered missions, the [[IdiosyncraticComboLevels Stylish Ranks]] capping at SSS, an expansive main menu, a [[ConceptArtGallery gallery]], RealTimeWeaponChange for both ranged and melee weapons, StanceSystem, recurring combo animations, and even simple HUD elements such as the gauges being segmented into bars. Story-wise, it also set the foundation for Dante and Vergil's characterizations that are followed by the next games within the main continuity, even if it had to {{retcon}} some plot points from the first game. |
| 300 | * FreezeFrameBonus: The introductory cutscene to every Mission incorporates the mission number somewhere, often very briefly such as the 9 on a fallen 9mm shell case or a 20 in the clouds above the level. Some are fairly obvious, such as the corpses of the demons killed by Lady's bike exhaust in Mission 3 forming the number 3, or Mission 5's intro fading out on a spray of blood shaped like a 5. Looking at the stills for each cutscene in the Demo Digest theater feature will most likely reveal all of these instances. |
| 301 | * GameBreakingBug: |
| 302 | ** Due to a (highly possible) memory leak issue, playing the game for an extensive amount of time could result in a Vergil player data leaking into all of Dante's save data, corrupting them almost entirely. All of Dante's Devil Arms and Style upgrades are gone (with the game incorrectly giving him Dark Slayer Style, which is exclusive to Vergil), he is stuck T-Posing, and depending on how far you got with him on [[NewGamePlus repeat playthroughs]], then Dante's mission progress will be all messed up. The only way to counter this is to reset the game entirely in between missions if you want to continue or switch characters. Thankfully, this has been fixed for the Platform/NintendoSwitch version. |
| 303 | ** The Platform/PlayStation3 release of the game also has, for unknown reasons, Kalina Ann's grapple not working most of the time. The game will also randomly crash on menus and cutscenes, forcing a hard reset of the console itself. |
| 304 | * GameMod: Apart from the various cosmetic and gameplay-focused mods, there's a Style Switching Mod which gives you the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin ability to switch styles on the fly]] ''[=DMC4=]''-style and makes the questionable PC port of this game run better. The Nintendo Switch port incorporates an official Style Switching feature into gameplay (known as Freestyle Mode), as well as the ability to swap through all weapons on the fly with the right control stick. The option to play with the original fixed loadout for your style and weapons is also available. |
| 305 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: A minor example. During the ending cutscene, Dante returns the Kalina Ann rocket launcher to Lady. But then we have the [[CreativeClosingCredits playable credits]]; if Dante had the rocket launcher equipped during the FinalBoss battle, he can still use it despite Lady visibly wielding it alongside him. |
| 306 | * GangstaStyle: |
| 307 | ** How Dante holds Ebony & Ivory when firing and strafing. Also when he executes the Honeycomb Fire move, which somehow [[RuleOfCool enables him to shoot faster]]. |
| 308 | ** Vergil, who usually doesn't use guns, does this [[spoiler:with the Ebony handgun when he and Dante momentarily team up to finish off Arkham]]. |
| 309 | * GateGuardian: |
| 310 | ** [[HellHound Cerberus]] is the guardian of the entrance of the [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Temen-ni-gru]] who prevents humans from getting in. |
| 311 | ** [[RedOniBlueOni Agni & Rudra]] guard a specific door inside Temen-ni-gru to prevent further progress of anyone who got past Cerberus. |
| 312 | * GiantMook: Although all Arachne are giant spiders, their green variants are larger than their standard blue-and-white variants. A single Green Arachne can tower over the playable character when it lifts up its upper body for an attack. |
| 313 | * GiantSpider: The Arachne are giant spiders with humanoid features. They were [[WasOnceAMan souls of female humans who transformed into monsters upon entering the netherworld]]. |
| 314 | * GoodHairEvilHair: Vergil's slicked-back 'do is there to differentiate him from his twin, complete with two cutscenes showing him slicking it back after it gets messed up. |
| 315 | * GoodScarsEvilScars: Lady has the scar over the bridge of her nose, while Arkham has the disfigured side of his face, which is actually seen moving along that side in a few cutscenes. |
| 316 | * TheGoomba: The Hell Prides, fodder demons that are introduced by wrecking Dante's shop in the first mission, but are actually the weakest among the seven Hell types. |
| 317 | * GoombaSpringboard: The ability to jump off enemies' heads already existed in the first game as "Kick Jump". Although the implementation is the same, and the ability is still tied to the WallJump mechanic just like in ''1'', this game officially named it as "Enemy Step". There's also a Secret Mission centered around this. |
| 318 | * GrapplingHookPistol: Kalina Ann has a Gunslinger move that impales and grapples the enemy with its bayonet. |
| 319 | * GroundPunch: |
| 320 | ** Beowulf the Lightbeast is fond of punching the ground to create light-based shockwaves during his combos, which justifies why Dante and Vergil inherit ground punches in their Beowulf Devil Arm moveset. |
| 321 | ** Dante's Volcano ability with Beowulf (which is an offshoot of the Ifrit's Inferno ability from the first game), has him smash the ground with his fist to create a blast of HardLight. |
| 322 | ** As a boss fight, Vergil switches to his Yamato katana after punching the ground with the Beowulf gauntlets. |
| 323 | ** Doppelganger also has two variants of mimicking the "Volcano" ground punch of the Beowulf Devil Arm; one that turns the shockwave into a ranged attack, and another that serves as its desperation move to force a blackout if all lights are turned on. |
| 324 | * GuideDangIt: |
| 325 | ** Secret Missions need some effort or a walkthrough to find since they aren't easily indicated by cues. For example, Secret Mission 1 is accessed by entering a non-conspicuous door in the road leading to the Temen-ni-gru's entrance. |
| 326 | ** In the fifth mission, you acquire an item called "Soul of Steel", with the description "The essence of a powerful and fearless soul. Its possessor need not fear hell nor oblivion." What this does exactly is unclear at best, and it's only with either a guide, curiosity, or some luck that you'll figure out it lets you [[NotQuiteFlight walk across the pit]] separating you from your next objective. |
| 327 | * GunFu: Dante's [[TheGunslinger Gunslinger]] Style and Lady's entire arsenal emphasize their proficiency with firearms. The two have a fight against each other in a cutscene that's basically [[{{Film/Equilibrium}} Gun Kata]]. |
| 328 | * HeadsIWinTailsYouLose: Vergil will always canonically win the first fight against him, no matter how well the player does. |
| 329 | * HealingFactor: Dante and Vergil take tons of damage that would kill normal human beings (notably, Lady shoots Dante in the face four or five times over the course of the story), yet shrug it off like it's nothing. This also comes into play during actual gameplay, where activating Devil Trigger slowly heals them. |
| 330 | * HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Vergil decides to fight alongside Dante to defeat Arkham, who had manipulated them both to gain the power of their father Sparda. Immediately after the villain is defeated however, Vergil goes right back to fighting to the death with Dante over that same power. |
| 331 | * {{Hellgate}}: Temen-ni-gru is more of a Hell''tower'', but it is still a link that opens a portal between the Demon World and the Human World. |
| 332 | * HelpfulMook: [[ActionBomb Self-detonating demons]] such as the Hell Wraths also deal massive damage to their fellow demons when they explode. They tend to "accidentally" help you clear out a room of enemies provided they are closely-packed with the rest. |
| 333 | * HowWeGotHere: The game's opening cutscene shows Dante and Vergil dueling at the top of Temen-ni-gru, with Vergil winning by apparently killing Dante. The first seven levels lead up to that point. |
| 334 | * HumanChess: The game has you fighting an entire demonic chessboard set in Mission 18. Each life-sized Damned Chessmen piece behaves in ways appropriate to their real-game counterparts. |
| 335 | ** The Pawns take small steps (though they can change direction) and attack not only to the front, but to the back diagonally (as a reference to how a pawn attacks diagonally and the move "en passant." They can also be promoted. |
| 336 | ** Knights can jump over the pieces and attack by landing on Dante (other pieces will try and fail to move through other pieces). |
| 337 | ** The King can only attack in his immediate area, and killing him [[KeystoneArmy destroys every other piece on the board]], but if he's attacked while the Rooks are alive, he'll switch places with them when hit, as a nod to castling. |
| 338 | ** The Queen can move diagonally and horizontally the full length of the board (though, ironically, this, along with the cackle she makes when she moves, allows her to be the most easily avoidable). |
| 339 | ** Rooks and Bishops also only move and attack along their normal counterparts' paths. |
| 340 | * HumanPincushion: In the Mission 1 cutscene, Dante is interrupted in eating a slice of pizza by a large group of scythe-wielding Hell demons warping in around him and turning him into an inhuman "scythecushion"... up until Dante ''grins'', walks a few steps dragging the demons still holding onto their scythes, and proceeds to kill every single one of his attackers with the scythe blades that are still stuck in him! |
| 341 | * HurricaneKick: With the Beowulf Devil Arm, there's a move that's literally called Hurricane Kick (or Tornado, depending on the version) and involves spinning kicks in mid-air. For bonus points, it's a follow-up to Real Impact, a {{Shoryuken}} move that involves [[ArtisticLicenseMartialArts stopping in mid air twice while ascending]]. |
| 342 | * ICallItVera: While almost every weapon in the series has a proper name, Kalina Ann, Lady's rocket launcher, is special for being named after [[spoiler:her murdered mother]]. |
| 343 | * IdiosyncraticComboLevels: This game's Stylish Ranks are: "Dope!", "Crazy!", "Blast!", "Alright!", "Sweet!", [="SShowtime!!"=] and [="SSStylish!!!"=]. ''[=DMC3=]'' is the one that introduced SS and SSS ranks which are carried over in the next games. |
| 344 | * IdleAnimation: |
| 345 | ** Dante would scratch his head in annoyance, cross his arms, and tap his foot impatiently. |
| 346 | ** Vergil would wipe the side of his coat and re-adjust his collar. |
| 347 | * IKnowYourTrueName: The manga says that a demon's name is so important to him that by taking it away, the creature can be sealed for eternity. |
| 348 | * ImpactSilhouette: Just before Dante completely blinds Beowulf during their post-fight cutscene, Beowulf punched Dante down strong enough for the latter to leave his human-sized silhouette on the stone floor. Dante takes a while to pull himself out from being stuck, but he's nonetheless fine afterwards. |
| 349 | * ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: |
| 350 | ** Dante gets approximately eight scythe blades through his body in the first cutscene. He's not really bothered that much by them. |
| 351 | ** After their first duel, Vergil manages to stab Dante through the chest with both his own Yamato and Dante's own Rebellion. |
| 352 | * ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Although clothes repairing themselves has been a thing in the series, ''3'' plays with this trope when Dante disgustedly glares at Lady for shooting holes in his coat. The holes are not present once gameplay resumes, though. |
| 353 | * ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: Alongside the fairly standard giant swords and demonic gauntlets, there is Cerberus, a three-pronged nunchuk made of ice, and Nevan, a literal electric guitar that summons bats and lightning. |
| 354 | * ImprobableAimingSkills: Amongst many examples that could be given, in the intro, Dante both flips a billard table over and proceeds to shoot the cue ball, initiating an aerial game of pool to take place which knocks out a couple of demons when the balls hit their heads. At a later point, he also deflects bullets by shooting them out of their trajectory path, and there is one cutscene where he propels Rebellion through the air by shooting its pommel. This also becomes a ''gameplay mechanic'' during the battle with Lady, where Dante can block her pistol shots by shooting them out of the air with Ebony & Ivory. |
| 355 | * ImprobableWeaponUser: Dante when using Nevan, the scythe-equipped electric guitar which sees more use in combat as a guitar than a scythe, shooting bats, sound waves, and electricity. |
| 356 | * InkSuitActor: The game's cutscenes were filmed using motion capture, and if you find the behind-the-scenes videos of the recording sessions, you'll notice that the voice actors (particularly Creator/ReubenLangdon for Dante) look very much like their assigned characters. |
| 357 | * InstantDeathRadius: |
| 358 | ** Vergil with his Spiral Swords (only on Dante Must Die difficulty), will lay on the hurt if you let Dante get hit by them. |
| 359 | ** Inverted with Beowulf, whose feathers of light will punish you for staying too far. |
| 360 | * InstrumentOfMurder: Nevan, a guitar that shoots lightning, controls bats, plays loud enough to kill demons, and turns into a scythe. |
| 361 | * InterfaceSpoiler: The ''[[CompilationRerelease HD Collection]]'' introduced an AchievementSystem for the first three ''Devil May Cry'' games, but these also include unhidden spoilers such as the names of the bosses, or the existence of unlockables and extras such as additional weapons or alternate playable characters. |
| 362 | * IronicHell: As represented by all of the 7 Hells jailers: |
| 363 | ** {{Pride}}: Being the most basic jailer, Pride awaits the prideful, whose minds get full of themselves and think they are invincible. |
| 364 | ** [[GreenEyedMonster Envy]]: Because they stand out with Leviathan's fluids as jailers not of sand, Hell Envies prey on the envious of how their hell is "unique" than the others, being in the stinking and infernal bowels of a hell beast. |
| 365 | ** [[UnstoppableRage Wrath]]: Carrying a bomb, they blow up the wrathful to show the consequences and chain reactions of violence and anger. |
| 366 | ** {{Lust}}: With great speed, they chase after the lustful, who lust and chase after what they can instinctively indulge themselves with. |
| 367 | ** [[VillainousGlutton Gluttony]]: Their blowing breath are meant to keep the gluttonous away from comfort and indulgence. |
| 368 | ** {{Sloth}}: They are able to teleport to catch up with the slothful, who do not improve themselves. |
| 369 | ** {{Greed}}: Because Pride, Lust, and Gluttony are root sins for Greed, Hell Greeds summon fellow jailers to help keep the greedy in place. Their massive coffin pillars are also wide range deterrents to sweep away the greedy, which implies that they make up a massive portion of hell. |
| 370 | * IsThatWhatHeToldYou: A variation. Vergil questions and mocks Lady after [[spoiler:she confronts him in Mission 13 over her father Arkham supposedly [[BlatantLies being manipulated by "a Devil named Vergil" when he murdered her mother Kalina Ann]], tricking Lady into going after Vergil to get revenge. Lady begins to start piecing together the facts for herself after realizing this.]] |
| 371 | -->'''Lady''': You forced him into this!\ |
| 372 | '''Vergil:''' Is that what you think? Foolish girl. |
| 373 | * ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: Zig-zagged. The game revolves around Dante ascending [[spoiler:then descending then ''re-ascending'']] the Temen-ni-gru; a giant demon tower. |
| 374 | * ItsOkayToCry: After his brother Vergil [[spoiler:lets himself fall into the Demon Realm]], Dante tries to pretend it doesn't bother him and pretends his tears are the rain in his eyes. His friend Lady quickly figures it out and assures him that "even a [[TitleDrop devil may cry]] when they've lost a loved one". |
| 375 | * ItWasAGift: Yamato and Rebellion to Vergil and Dante, passed down by Sparda. Their amulets, on the other hand, were passed down by Eva. |
| 376 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: |
| 377 | ** Dante begins the game as a cocky and arrogant self-centered jerk clearly only in it to show up his brother. While his demeanor doesn't change hugely by the time things hit the fan, it becomes clear that his ''reason'' for fighting changed to something far nobler. |
| 378 | ** Lady starts off as a jerkass, with bad first impressions to Dante and all, such as shooting his face when he just rescued her from falling, and fighting him simply because he's a half-demon. Over time, Lady had a CharacterDevelopment after Arkham has been dealt with, becomes one of Dante's trusted allies, and acts more carefree than before. |
| 379 | * KeystoneArmy: In Mission 18, you have to fight [[HumanChess a demonic chessboard]] set. If the Damned King is destroyed, the rest of the board pieces self-destruct. This is harder than it sounds; not only do the other pieces continually attack you, but both of the Damned Rooks must be killed first or the King will simply switch places with one (as a nod to castling) every time you try to hit him. |
| 380 | * KillItWithFire: The Arachne are vulnerable to fire, making Agni & Rudra the best Devil Arm against them. |
| 381 | * KungFuProofMook: |
| 382 | ** Hell Wraths shrug off and are impervious to most melee attacks, encouraging the player to use ranged attacks, projectiles and firearms to damage them. |
| 383 | ** Hell Envies are functionally identical to the most basic Hell Prides except for their nigh-immunity to launches and knockbacks. |
| 384 | ** If they are still in their "blood" forms, striking the Blood-goyles with melee attacks will just cause them to split and multiply. They also [[DamageReduction resist a significant portion of your melee damage]] in that state, so while it's possible to brute-force them with melee attacks, it will take a long time. The "proper" way to deal with them is to petrify them first with ranged attacks, as they'll receive normal damage from your melee attacks only when they're turned to stone. |
| 385 | * TheLadysFavour: Lady handing Kalina Ann to Dante [[spoiler:with the request that he "free" her father]] is a platonic variant of this. |
| 386 | * LagCancel: |
| 387 | ** You can cancel the after-shot lag of the Spiral rifle and Kalina Ann rocket launcher by either switching to Ebony & Ivory immediately afterwards or properly timing a Royal Guard pose. |
| 388 | ** Cancelling short hops and rolls into the guarding animation of the Royal Guard style is a very effective defensive tactic. |
| 389 | * LameComeback: When Arkham calls Vergil an "incomplete being" due to his HumanDemonHybrid heritage, all Vergil can muster up is a "shut up" before [[spoiler:seemingly offing Arkham]]. |
| 390 | * LetsYouAndHimFight: To an extent. [[spoiler:Jester/Arkham was playing Lady, Vergil and Dante, and trying to get them to fight and weaken each other so that he could come out on top when they're exhausted, and open the gate to hell using their blood.]] |
| 391 | * LightAndMirrorsPuzzle: Shows up in several levels, wherein you have to destroy certain unnecessary mirrors in addition to moving a ray of light around the appropriate ones. |
| 392 | * LightIsNotGood: Beowulf and the Fallen enemies are light-elemental and have angelic themes, but they're actually demons. |
| 393 | * LightningBruiser: |
| 394 | ** Beowulf is a towering behemoth who is surprisingly agile and loves to beat you down with nothing more than his claws. |
| 395 | ** The Quicksilver style causes Dante to slow time to a crawl, allowing you to beat on your foes with utmost impunity. The sheer usability of the style, combined with its relatively easier-to-sustain cost - constant drain of the DT Gauge - means that Dante can spam this all he wants, and experiment with new strategies. |
| 396 | * LiteralMetaphor: Vergil's attempt at unsealing Temen-ni-gru fails and he assumes that he needs more of a Sparda descendant's blood, specifically his brother Dante's. Upon realizing this plan, Dante mentions that his brother literally "wants a piece of [him]" to summarize things up. |
| 397 | -->'''Vergil:''' Why not? After all we share the same blood... I'll just use more of yours to undo daddy's little spell.\ |
| 398 | '''Dante:''' So, you want a piece of me, literally. Okay bro, come and get it. If you can. |
| 399 | * LivingStructureMonster: The sealed doors would attack Dante or Vergil if you got too close, but otherwise left you alone until you got rid of them by solving a puzzle and/or killing some enemies. |
| 400 | * LogicalWeakness: Almost all of the bosses and even a few enemy types are weak to the elements used by Dante's weapons; if they are hit by attacks from the appropriate weapon(s), they take more damage - usually indicated by an element-based visual cue pertaining towards their weakness. |
| 401 | * LongRangeFighter: Gunslinger is a crowd-controlling style that uses ranged weaponry. While the lack of any up-close-and-personal moves is a weakness, the sheer power your guns have more than makes up for it. Using the style requires a good sense of surrounding, as all the style focuses around using your guns to hit multiple opponents. Leveling it up unlocks even more solutions for enemies ganging up on you. |
| 402 | * LyricalShoehorn: The main theme song, "Devils Never Cry", has these lines which mention "of a" consecutively: |
| 403 | -->Yearning more to hear the suffer (of a) |
| 404 | -->Of a demon as I put it under |
| 405 | * MacrossMissileMassacre: Kalina Ann's "Hysteric" move sprays a cluster of missiles. |
| 406 | * MalevolentArchitecture: The entire tower of Temen-ni-gru was basically built to be as demonic as possible, justifying the prevalence of traps, and doors locking you with ambushes. The most appropriate examples are in the hallways; if you thought those wall-saw-blades were annoying during fights, expect to see a lot of them in puzzles and platforming sections as well. |
| 407 | * MarathonLevel: This game's iteration of the Bloody Palace mode is mostly similar to that of ''[=DMC2=]'' in terms of their mechanics. There are 10,000 levels here, but you can skip up to 100 levels at a time by choosing harder fights. |
| 408 | * MeaningfulName: Yamato and Rebellion, the keepsake swords of Vergil and Dante. The former is a Japanese term referring to the people and traditional nationalistic spirit of Japan, and in the past to the nation itself. It fits with Vergil's aesthetic and commitment to tradition and power, while the latter is more representative of Dante's resistance to said commitment. |
| 409 | * MeleeATrois: Between Dante, Vergil, and Lady after Mission 13, until [[spoiler:Arkham]] shows up and forces them all to work together. |
| 410 | * MeleeDisarming: The opening cutscene shows the BattleInTheRain between Dante and Vergil. After an intense fight, Vergil manages to knock Dante's sword Rebellion off him with his katana and finishes the fight by [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling Dante]]. |
| 411 | * MercyMode: Once you die three times, you unlock Easy mode. |
| 412 | * MetalScream: Immediately after Dante acquires Nevan as a literal electric guitar, he channels ThePowerOfRock, does a metal scream, then follows it up by screaming the lyrics of "Taste The Blood" as its music plays during his performance. |
| 413 | -->"The flinch in your eyes calls your bluff! Feel free to die when you've had enough!"\ |
| 414 | "Useless cause is breaking your back! Your life will end when you attack!"\ |
| 415 | "Make your move, make your stand, make the win, like you can!"\ |
| 416 | "See the war, see me rule, see the mirror, you'll see a fool!" |
| 417 | * {{Metroidvania}}: ''[=DMC3=]'' shares a lot of similarities with 3-D ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'' games in terms of level design, due to being primarily set inside a gothic tower, featuring lots of backtracking and puzzles, items or power-ups opening up new paths or locked doors, dedicated map interfaces for each area/floor, and having you fight monsters and demons during your adventure. |
| 418 | * MidfightWeaponExchange: Used in a cutscene when Dante and Vergil are forced into an EnemyMine battle against Arkham. Usually, Vergil's weapon of choice is the [[KatanasAreJustBetter Yamato]], and Dante fights with the [[{{BFS}} Rebellion]], but they switch weapons briefly during the fight and are just as capable of fighting with the other's sword as their own. |
| 419 | * MinimalistCast: Discounting the bosses, who are fought once and killed with very little impact on the story, there are only four major characters in total: Dante, Vergil, Lady and Arkham. |
| 420 | * MirrorBoss: |
| 421 | ** Though Vergil's Yamato moveset shares no similarities with Dante's Rebellion, the two battle on perfectly equal ground regardless. In the second duel, both characters can activate a [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] state, and Vergil performs moves with Beowulf that Dante can also do when he picks up the gauntlets later. In the third duel, Vergil wields Force Edge alongside his Yamato, which allows him to pull off, at the very least, a Helm Breaker-to-Stinger combo very similar to Dante's moves with the Rebellion. |
| 422 | ** Doppelganger takes on Dante's form, initially adopting his Devil Trigger state and mimicking his attacks with the Rebellion and Beowulf Devil Arms as well as his Trickster Style, but resembling his normal state when exposed to the light. |
| 423 | * MonsterAndTheMaiden: A variation with Dante and Lady. The former is half-demon while the latter is fully human. Both are on the heroic side but are antagonistic towards each other for most of the story due to Lady's prejudice towards demons. The climax shows them fighting demons side by side after both undergo CharacterDevelopment and come to see each other as allies if not friends. |
| 424 | * MookMaker: The Hell Greed spawns enemies of three varieties (Hell Prides, Lusts, and Sloths). |
| 425 | * MoreDakka: Upgrading the Gunslinger Style lets you shoot faster in general, plus you can use Kalina Ann's Hysteric move. Also, the Artemis has multi-target-lock. |
| 426 | * MorphWeapon: Nevan, the electric guitar Devil Arm, can morph into a sickle when swung. |
| 427 | * MundaneMadeAwesome: The first cutscenes have dramatic flair over simple acts, serving as Dante's EstablishingCharacterMoment. For example, Dante sits on his chair and answers a phone call with style by using the force of a kick. He then eats a pizza in slow motion during battle with demons and while scythes are sticking out of his body. He also does the most epic instance of ''putting on a coat'' ever by throwing it up, then catching and wearing it immediately at the same time. |
| 428 | * MundaneUtility: The Soul of Steel is said to contain the brave soul of an immortal and invincible hero. Its in-game purpose? To open ONE door. |
| 429 | * MusicalNod: Destroying a jukebox in Mission 3 will inexplicably incite it to play a few notes from a remix of the battle theme in ''[=DMC1=]''. |
| 430 | * NemesisWeapon: Dante's sword Rebellion and Vergil's katana Yamato used to belong to their father, Sparda. The two twins are bitter enemies. |
| 431 | * NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight: |
| 432 | ** Although the second fight with Vergil starts with him using the Beowulf gauntlets and greaves, [[SubvertedTrope he pulls out his Yamato katana]] ''after'' he finds out having the hand-to-hand weapon isn't stopping Dante from kicking his ass. |
| 433 | ** [[spoiler:Jester/Arkham]] easily managed to beat and knock [[spoiler:Dante, Lady, and Vergil]] with some close-quarters-combat, martial arts, and a sweeping kick despite having up to three bladed weapons pointed at him. [[JustifiedTrope He even points out]] [[spoiler:Vergil was weakened enough]] when he performed a BarehandedBladeBlock, so he took advantage of their prior exhaustion. |
| 434 | * NeverBringAGunToAKnifeFight: During the [[RecurringBoss fights]] with Vergil, he's able to block Dante's pistol shots by [[SpinToDeflectStuff spinning his sword]]. |
| 435 | * NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: In the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 first game]], the [[KatanasAreJustBetter Yamato]] is only available when playing with the "Legendary Dark Knight" costume, and although the lore on its description mentions that it has "will and the power to divide and wipe out the darkness", it [[AllSwordsAreTheSame functions identically]] to the Alastor. In this game, Vergil uses it to enhance his {{Iaijutsu|Practitioner}} moves, he can create slashes from afar by quickly unsheathing it ([[SignatureMove Judgement Cut]]), and its Devil Arms File mentions that its blade [[AbsurdlySharpBlade can cut through anything]]. |
| 436 | * NintendoHard: The initial Western release removed the Easy mode and the other difficulties all ranked down in name to compensate; so Normal mode was actually the Hard mode from the Eastern release. When the ''Special Edition'' was released later, the difficulties were kept the same as the Japanese release. As the Western "Hard" difficulty had no analogous equivalent in the Japanese version, it was given the new title "Very Hard" in ''Special Edition''. |
| 437 | * NoCutsceneInventoryInertia: No matter which weapons you bring with you on missions, Dante will always be using Rebellion and his pistols in cutscenes. Outside of the cutscenes in which he acquires new weapons, the only other time he uses something different is one time he uses Cerberus as a grappling hook. |
| 438 | * NoRangeLikePointBlankRange: One of Dante's signature moves is the "Stinger", a charging stab with his broadsword that closes the distance between him and his target. This game introduced the "Gun Stinger", the same move performed with a [[ChargedAttack charged]] shotgun blast in order to invoke the trope of shooting the target at point-blank range. Against smaller targets, {{knockback}} ensues from the blast. Its [[ButtonMashing Crazy Combo]] variant is even aptly named "Point Blank", as Dante follows up with more blasts. |
| 439 | * NostalgiaLevel: |
| 440 | ** The Leviathan's WombLevel is basically a throwback to the Mission 22 Underworld level from ''[[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 DMC1]]''; both are made up of fleshy and organic structures including a giant beating heart, large vessels serving as passageways, flesh doors that must be struck to open, and a lot of platforming. This area also contains living doors that are opened and closed by moving "tusks", behaving just like a completely identical door that you have to backtrack in the first game. |
| 441 | ** The Netherworld in Mission 19 contains mirror portals that have the same appearance and functionality as the late-game mirror portals that appear in the castle from the first game. {{Backtracking}} is involved again, and you also need to find an item that lets you activate a portal leading to the final sections of that area, just like how a late-game ''[=DMC1=]'' mission played out. |
| 442 | * NotTheFallThatKillsYou: |
| 443 | ** Lady falls several dozen stories, then is caught by the ankle with no ill effect. |
| 444 | ** [[spoiler:Arkham falls back from the portal in the sky to the top floor of Temen-ni-gru, but he's still alive despite that. Lady killed him with her gun instead.]] |
| 445 | * NowThatsUsingYourTeeth: Lady shoots Dante in the head, but his HealingFactor lets him survive. While he's complaining about how much that hurt, she tries to shoot him again, but this time, he catches the bullet with his teeth. |
| 446 | * NumberOfTheBeast: In the ''HD Collection'' and Platform/NintendoSwitch versions, you earn the "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" achievement for passing the 666th floor of the Bloody Palace mode. |
| 447 | * OffhandBackhand: |
| 448 | ** Dante does this in many forms in his [[https://youtu.be/F0DbezQV8Gk?t=318 intro]]. Some notable ones include kicking a mook that is being dragged with him because said mook's scythe is stuck in him and another blade by cutting down a ceiling fan onto the mooks below using a scythe blade lodged in his chest. All that and he's just walking over to his jukebox. |
| 449 | ** Vergil pulls an incredibly badass one of these on a Hell Vanguard, delivering an inhumanly fast DiagonalCut with Yamato. |
| 450 | * OminousLatinChanting: |
| 451 | ** The second and third battles with Vergil feature battle music that ends in a foreboding chant. |
| 452 | ** The song "Stage Music 9 (Demon World)" by Tetsuya Shibata begins with nothing but such chanting. |
| 453 | * OnceIsNotEnough: Subverted by Vergil after the BattleInTheRain with his brother. After having beaten down Dante, Vergil initially turns his back on his brother's body, but then instantly and remorselessly stabs him ''again'' as soon as he notices Dante beginning a FingerTwitchingRevival. |
| 454 | * OneHitPointWonder: This game introduced the "Heaven or Hell" difficulty mode to the series. In it, ''everyone'' dies in one hit - the player, enemies, and even bosses. |
| 455 | * OneLinerNameOneLiner: Vergil says this after winning against Dante in their first fight: |
| 456 | -->'''Vergil:''' Foolishness, Dante. Foolishness. |
| 457 | * OneWingedAngel: In addition to Devil Trigger transforming Dante and Vergil into their demonic forms as usual, Arkham initially manages to take on a form identical to Sparda at his full power, before the power corrupts him and he becomes a giant blob monster instead. |
| 458 | * OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: There's the aptly-named Trial of Wisdom with multiple doors that are each marked with a different number of lights. To proceed, they have to be entered in a certain order, and your only clue to figuring that out is a reference to the RiddleOfTheSphinx. Easy enough to solve for those familiar with it, and utterly baffling for anyone who's not. However, this section can be optional if you only wish to proceed to the next area (as only two out of three Trials must be passed to break the rubble blocking the gate), but it's mandatory only if you wish to acquire the Artemis weapon. |
| 459 | * OpenDoorOpening: Mission 1 ends with Dante kicking his office door open to go outside, Mission 2 begins with said door ''flying outward'' from the impact with Dante walking out shortly after it. |
| 460 | * OpeningMonologue: The game begins with a monologue from [[CharacterNarrator Lady]], first explaining the legend of Sparda, then about how she never believed it until she met his two sons. This monologue is spoken over a BattleInTheRain between Dante and Vergil. |
| 461 | -->'''Lady:''' You've heard of it, haven't you? The legend of Sparda? When I was young, my father would tell me stories about it. Long ago, in ancient times, a demon rebelled against his own kind for the sake of the human race. With his sword, he shut the portal to the demonic realm and sealed the evil entity off from our human world. But since he was a demon himself, his power was also trapped on the other side. I never believed it. I thought it was just a child's fairy tale. I discover that the so-called legend wasn't a myth at all. Sparda existed. How do I know? Well... I met the sons of Sparda - Both of them. Though the same blood of their father flow through their veins, the two battled each other fiercely like arch enemies. It seems as if they drive some twisted pleasure from this brotherly fighting. But in the end... only one was left standing. |
| 462 | * OrphanedSeries: The prequel manga prematurely ended due to the artist quitting before Volume 3. |
| 463 | * OurGargoylesRock: The Blood-goyles are flying demons made out of blood, but can turn into stone. In "blood" form, [[DamageReduction they significantly resist melee damage]] and would [[AsteroidsMonster split into more Blood-goyles]] if you strike them anyway. It's possible to kill them by brute-forcing your melee attacks, but it takes a long time. The game recommends you to forcibly turn Blood-goyles into stone using ranged attacks before you can properly smash them with your melee attacks. |
| 464 | * OurSoulsAreDifferent: |
| 465 | ** The souls of defeated demons turn into Devil Arms/combat Styles for use by whoever gets them, but it's never known what exactly happens to a human soul once their bodies are destroyed. |
| 466 | ** In ''[=DMC1=]'', devils are pretty much referred to as having no souls at all to speak of. The same concept is said about humans that "become devils" in ''3''. |
| 467 | * PalmBloodletting: Vergil uses his katana Yamato to slash his palm as a part of the BloodMagic ceremony to break the spell on the Temen-ni-gru tower. In his case, it's doubtful the wound slows him down because he has an innate HealingFactor. |
| 468 | * PaletteSwap: Vergil fights a red copy of himself in the ''Special Edition''. |
| 469 | * ParryingBullets: |
| 470 | ** Dante usually prefers to block enemy fire by [[ShootTheBullet shooting it]], but Vergil can [[SpinToDeflectStuff deflect bullets by spinning his katana]]. |
| 471 | ** Dante and Vergil both slice up the rocket fired by Lady's Kalina Ann when she steps in between their duel. |
| 472 | ** The Enigmas' projectiles can be shattered by well-timed melee attacks. |
| 473 | * PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: You receive a lot of experience points for your Styles whenever you defeat a boss. This makes Mission 18 the best place to level grind because it's a stage where you [[BossRush fight most of the previous bosses]]. |
| 474 | * PercussiveMaintenance: |
| 475 | ** Dante smashing his jukebox to make it work in the beginning, although he does leave a dent in it. |
| 476 | ** In Mission 5, Dante needs to operate a machine to open the cage containing the next plot coupon. The machine's key is actually an ornamental spear, so he stabs the machine with the spear. When nothing happens, he kicks it and it works. In the ''Special Edition'', playable Vergil also does the same thing because the same animation of Dante is reused when Vergil also interacts with the machine. |
| 477 | * PinballProjectile: |
| 478 | ** In a cutscene, Dante hurls a pool table into the air, then shoots the white ball. This causes the white ball to rebound off ''every single other ball'', which then [[RuleOfCool hit and kill]] a {{Mook|s}} each. |
| 479 | ** The special Gunslinger attacks for Spiral lets Dante ricochet the bullets on what seems to be thin air around a certain area. |
| 480 | * PlanetHeck: The endgame levels are set in the Demon World. |
| 481 | * PoorCommunicationKills: Dante gets ''a lot'' of heat (literally!) and animosity from Lady for implicating himself as [[spoiler:her father]]'s killer. |
| 482 | -->'''Lady''': That man... did you kill him?\ |
| 483 | '''Dante:''' So what if i did? |
| 484 | * {{Portmanteau}}: The Blood-goyle demons' name is a mash-up of "Blood" and "Gargoyle". |
| 485 | * PostClimaxConfrontation: After Arkham's plan to bring Hell to Earth is brought crashing down by Dante and Vergil, the final battle of the game is between the two sons of Sparda, with Sparda's sword Force Edge as the prize. [[spoiler:Dante gets the sword, but Vergil retrieves his half of the Amulet belonging to their mother, which is required to transform the sword]]. These then [[{{Prequel}} set up]] the events of the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 first game]]. |
| 486 | * PowerAtAPrice: The Haywire Neo-Generator locks Dante in Devil Trigger mode for the majority of Mission 12, but at the cost of [[CastFromHitPoints slowly depleting his HP]]. |
| 487 | * PowerFist: Beowulf, when slain, relinquishes light-empowered gauntlets and boots that can be used by Vergil and Dante. |
| 488 | * ThePowerOfRock: Nevan's Devil Arm form is a weaponized, literal [[ShockAndAwe electric]] guitar which Dante can play to summon bloodthirsty bats and electricity every time he shreds on it. |
| 489 | * {{Pun}}: Upon meeting the horse demon Geryon, Dante immediately brings up a horse-related wordplay. |
| 490 | -->'''Dante:''' Talk about Horse Power. |
| 491 | * PunchParry: After defeating Doppelganger and obtaining its power, a clone of Dante is summoned in front of him. [[FearfulSymmetry Like a mirror]], their simultaneous punches land on each other's fists. While they followed it up with close-quarters kicking, their mirrored attacks still cancel each other out just like the initial punch. |
| 492 | * PurposelyOverpowered: The Super costumes grant infinite Devil Trigger (with the exception of Devil Trigger explosions, which does use up the gauge) and are acquired by [[BraggingRightsReward beating Dante Must Die mode]]. Then there's the Legendary Dark Knight/Sparda version, which removes even that limitation on Devil Trigger explosions. |
| 493 | * PuzzleReset: |
| 494 | ** Picking the wrong doorway in the [[RiddleOfTheSphinx Trial of Wisdom]] forces you into a fight against some demons, then requires you to start all over again. |
| 495 | ** A red switch mechanism is always present in a LightAndMirrorsPuzzle just in case you messed up destroying the wrong mirror(s) and want to start again from scratch. |
| 496 | * RankInflation: Unlike the previous games, your Style rank don't cap out at S; they now cap out at SSS. This gets carried over to the next games in the franchise. |
| 497 | * RapidFireFisticuffs: The "Hyper Fist" move of the Beowulf Devil Arm throws blinding-fast punches at enemies. |
| 498 | * RealTimeWeaponChange: This has technically always been part of the series, but this entry allows Dante to swap between two specifically-chosen Devil Arms and firearms in a more dynamic and freeform way, truly amping up the possible style combinations. The Platform/NintendoSwitch port implemented a "Freestyle Mode" which emulates the unrestricted real-time weapon and gun switching of the later games. |
| 499 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Vergil gives one out to his brother Dante after stabbing him and defeating him in their first battle. |
| 500 | -->'''Vergil:''' Foolishness, Dante, foolishness. Might controls everything. And without strength, you cannot protect anything. Let alone yourself. |
| 501 | * RecurringRiff: Bits of "Devils Never Cry", the main theme, tend to work their way into music for battles involving Vergil, and into some dramatic cutscenes. |
| 502 | * ReducedToDust: Most of the demon mooks (particularly the Seven Hells) dissolve into sand upon defeat. {{Justified|Trope}}, as the lore states that they're indeed using sand as a conduit to manifest in the human world. |
| 503 | * ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: The Seven Hells are named after each of the SevenDeadlySins. |
| 504 | * RepeatCut: In the cutscene where Dante and Vergil play around with the Neo-Generator sphere like a soccer ball, the kick is repeated at least thrice in quick succession. |
| 505 | * ReplayMode: The ''Special Edition'' has a "Demo Digest" feature where the player can replay the cutscenes of completed levels. |
| 506 | * {{Retcon}}: This game retconned most major plot points introduced in the first ''Devil May Cry'' game and its prequel novel: |
| 507 | ** In ''1'', Force Edge was originally a memento handed down to Dante by his father. ''2'' changed the sword to Rebellion and Force Edge was stuck in the Demon World in ''3'' until Dante takes it back with him in the end. |
| 508 | ** In ''1'', Trish remarks that Dante "lost a mother and brother to evil twenty years ago." This game's story has Dante encounter his brother a decade or so after Eva's death, and Vergil's [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor status as an antagonist]] is very questionable. Kamiya's concept was that Vergil was kidnapped when Eva was killed, which explains why Dante didn't recognize Nelo Angelo in ''1''; why would he connect an evil demon trying to kill him with a little kid who was never anything but a good boy? The memory the amulet triggered was one of his most recent of Vergil. The author of the first novel decided to ignore this and make Vergil free, evil, and badass, meaning that Dante should have had more recent, not just memories but good memories of him [[spoiler:since they were temporary partners]]. Then ''3'' decided to copy the first novel's Vergil and the second novel's plot. |
| 509 | ** Vergil was never referred to as Dante's twin by the script of ''1''. Instead, that game just calls him Dante's "brother". Any in-game mentions of Dante and Vergil being twins started from ''3''. |
| 510 | ** Dante's speech to Trish in ''1'' implies that he and Vergil never actually knew Sparda, and all the twins had to go by were the stories Eva would tell them of him. Vergil apparently reminds Dante of Sparda, but [[CainAndAbel the kind of guy]] that [[AloofBigBrother Vergil is]] just makes that comparison mind-boggling. |
| 511 | ---> '''Dante:''' My mother always used to tell me that my father was a man who fought for the weak. He had courage and a righteous heart. |
| 512 | ** The name "Devil May Cry" came from Enzo Ferino's testimony in the handbook (in reference to Dante: "He glares at a guy, and even the devil may cry!") but this game changed it to the TitleDrop by Lady ("Even a devil may cry when he loses a loved one"). |
| 513 | ** In ''1'', Trish was the first to know about Dante's quest for revenge. In the manga for this game, the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit (and by extension, Arkham) knew as well. |
| 514 | * RiddleOfTheSphinx: Used in the Trial of Wisdom, where you are supposed to walk through the doorway with the right number of glowing eyes (in the context of the game's riddle, the glowing eyes are allusions to legs). Picking the wrong doorway leads to a fight against several demons and causes a PuzzleReset. |
| 515 | -->Your wisdom will be put to the test in the chamber ahead. Use your lifetime experience: from the crawling infant; to the man standing tall; and finally to the old man leaning on his cane. |
| 516 | * RivalFinalBoss: Near the end, Dante and Vergil defeated the BigBad together, then promptly turn their swords on each other to duke it out over who [[SiblingRivalry inherits their father's power]]. |
| 517 | * RocketRide: In one of this game's many memorably zany moments, a disinterested and mildly irked Lady fires her Kalina Ann rocket launcher upon [[CasanovaWannabe an annoying flirty]] Dante, who proceeds to ride the rocket like a surfboard through the air, whooping and laughing all the while. |
| 518 | * RuleOfSymbolism: Although subtle at first, the seven bells of Temen-ni-gru are meant to represent the SevenDeadlySins. This is later made obvious when the bells ring just as [[spoiler:Arkham enumerates the sins while opening the gate to the Demon World]]. Series illustrator Daigo Ikeno also explains this symbolism even further on page 207 of the ''3142 Graphic Arts'' artbook; the bells also have "tortured angels" nailed to each of them, and their ringing sounds symbolize the angels' pained cries. |
| 519 | * SadlyMythtaken: |
| 520 | ** Beowulf, a human folk hero from Denmark/Germanic myth, is reimagined as a giant vaguely lion-looking light demon with four wings, a scorpion tail, claws and talons, akin to Pazuzu. |
| 521 | ** Cerberus, known for being the three-headed attack dog of the Underworld in Myth/ClassicalMythology, is an ''[[OxymoronicBeing ice]]'' elemental, making him more of a MythologyUpgrade to his ''Divine Comedy'' counterpart. |
| 522 | ** Geryon, in Greek mythology, was a hideous giant that looked like [[BodyHorror three men fused into one]]. In [[Literature/TheDivineComedy Dante's]] ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Inferno]]'', he is a serpent-like creature with wings and a human face. There's never been a depiction of him as a horse, though the Greek version was a horse ''owner'', so it's not entirely without precedence. |
| 523 | ** Agni and Rudra are no longer the [[Myth/HinduMythology Hindu]] gods of fire and the storm respectively, but instead sentient scimitars wielded by headless brutes. While Rudra in Hindu mythology ''does'' have a secondary rubric in storms (and thus connected to [[BlowYouAway winds]]), his primary shtick is as an archer. The Hindu god of wind is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vayu Vayu]]. |
| 524 | * SandInMyEyes: In the game's final cutscene before the credits, [[spoiler:Dante starts to cry over the loss of his brother]]. When Lady notices, he quickly replies that "It's only the rain." |
| 525 | * SceneryAsYouGo: Just as you enter [[spoiler:the Demon Realm]], you might expect a jumping puzzle... and then the oblong FloatingPlatforms slam together to form a path as you approach. |
| 526 | * SchizoTech: Temen-ni-gru displays the "clockpunk" variant of {{Steampunk}} very well, having elevators and monorail trams despite having been built two millennia ago and not touched until its unsealing in the present day; then again, [[AWizardDidIt it was built by demons]]. |
| 527 | * SealedBadassInACan: Sparda's power, symbolized by the Force Edge sword, has been locked deep in the Demon World. Acquiring it is both Vergil and Arkham's main objective. |
| 528 | * SecondHourSuperpower: Dante acquires his [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] ability after his first battle with Vergil, where he's defeated and impaled with his own sword, Rebellion. |
| 529 | * SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:Lady ends up killing her father Arkham at the beginning of Mission 20 in order to avenge her mother's death.]] |
| 530 | * SequelEscalation: [[InvertedTrope Prequel, technically]], but the moves are greatly expanded and flashier, Dante has more weapons, the controls are better, and the stakes are sky-high than in the first and second games. |
| 531 | * SerratedBladeOfPain: Agni and Rudra take the form of serrated scimitars when defeated. |
| 532 | * SevenDeadlySins: |
| 533 | ** The game's most common enemies are called Hell, followed by the name of a sin: Hell Prides, Hell Wraths, Hell Envies, etc. |
| 534 | ** The demon guardians are all related to a separate sin themselves through expression of their personality or powers. Cerberus: Pride, Agni & Rudra: Greed, Leviathan: Gluttony, Nevan: Lust, Beowulf: Wrath, Geryon: Sloth, and Doppelganger: Envy. |
| 535 | * SexIsViolence: The boss battle with Nevan. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything The pre-fight cutscene looks more like a prostitute propositioning a john in a brothel]], she taunts Dante by calling him "sugar", [[OrgasmicCombat makes noises that sound like she's climaxing whenever she takes a hit]], can replenish her health by kissing Dante and after being defeated, compliments him while he holds her in a lover's embrace. |
| 536 | * SharedUnusualTrait: Lady and Arkham have heterochromia, which indicates [[spoiler:that they're blood-related, and that relation is why she is even ''there'' in the plot]]. Similarly, [[spoiler:Jester and the moon-like face object in his boss fights also having heterochromia foreshadows his identity as Arkham. The "moon face" even has similar burn scars like Arkham.]] |
| 537 | * ShieldBearingMook: The Dullahans are equipped with [[ChainsawGood buzzsaw-edged]] [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe shields]] that make them impervious to all frontal attacks. |
| 538 | * ShieldedCoreBoss: |
| 539 | ** Cerberus is covered in ice armor over his body that needs to broken through to attack his body parts, which he'll restore after at least one ice covering is fully destroyed with some time. |
| 540 | ** Leviathan's Heart is encased in a hard shell that opens up for a short time when one of two adjacent organs is destroyed. The other organs recover quickly and you are also constantly swarmed by {{mooks}} that make it difficult for you to directly attack the heart. |
| 541 | ** Nevan has an electrical shield that drops when all of the bats surrounding her are destroyed. And then you must instantly attack her at least once or else she'll immediately regenerate the shield to full. |
| 542 | * ShirtlessScene: The game begins with Dante shirtless and just coming out of the shower. He remains shirtless for the first mission, and you can later unlock an alternate costume that lets you play the entire game with this character model. |
| 543 | * ShootTheMedicFirst: The Bishop Chessmen can heal their fellow chessmen, so better flail on them first and fast since they can also spit out lightning and create a localized explosion. |
| 544 | * ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon: Kalina Ann is atrocious about this. Its rockets explode automatically after a short ways from Dante even if there's nothing to hit! |
| 545 | * {{Shoryuken}}: One of Beowulf's moves is named Rising Dragon. Curiously, though, Dante only [[CallingYourAttacks shouts "Rising Dragon!"]] for a ''different'' move. |
| 546 | * ShoutOut: |
| 547 | ** According to character designer Daigo Ikeno, Lady's appearance was inspired by [[http://adaru32.tumblr.com/post/131470725562/devil-may-cry-3-1-4-2-graphic-arts-interviews "the black-haired Julia Volkova of the Russian girl group"]] Music/{{Tatu}} |
| 548 | ** As confirmed by lead motion manager Hiroyuki Nara in page 207 of the ''3142 Graphic Arts'' artbook, the "hand-to-hand combat" of this game pays {{homage}} to the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series. This trend of referencing the other Capcom franchise would eventually be retained by the next ''Devil May Cry'' games. |
| 549 | ** Arkham's name is a reference to the fictional town [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Arkham Massachussets]] from the works of Creator/HPLovecraft. |
| 550 | ** Jester is an [[PracticallyJoker expy of]] ComicBook/TheJoker from the Franchise/{{Batman}} franchise. A convention also revealed that Jester was named "Joker" when the game was still in development. The re-releases of the game eventually added more Batman and Joker references surrounding Jester and [[spoiler:Arkham]] - The Jester boss fights in the ''Special Edition'' include a voice clip where he refers to himself as "Joker" instead of Jester. In the ''HD Collection'', the achievement for defeating Arkham is titled "Asylum", referencing the Arkham Asylum which is [[PopCulturalOsmosis more commonly associated with the word "Arkham" in pop culture]]. |
| 551 | ** The series' ThemeNaming [[ShoutOutThemeNaming borrows heavily from]] ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''. |
| 552 | *** Dante - Writer and main character of ''The Divine Comedy''. |
| 553 | *** Vergil - Dante's guide through Hell and Purgatory that was based on a real Roman poet [[Creator/{{Virgil}} Publius Vergilius Maro]]. |
| 554 | *** Lady[=/=]Mary - Refers to the Catholic Madonna ("Our Lady" in Italian), otherwise known as the Virgin Mary. |
| 555 | ** The manga has a "dungeon" that is practically a nightmarish version of ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', as well as characters named Alice and Mad Hatter. |
| 556 | ** The beginning of Arkham's speech at the end of Mission 15 is based on a part of the poem "Au Lecteur" [[note]]"To the Reader" in English[[/note]] by French poet Creator/CharlesBaudelaire. |
| 557 | ** In the Netherworld, the Lost Souls Nirvana is a pristine white version of Creator/MCEscher's ''Relativity'' stairways. |
| 558 | ** In the ''HD Collection'', finishing the game on Dante Must Die mode earns you the "Hell Hath No Fury..." achievement, named after a quote from the 1697 play, ''The Mourning Bride'' by William Congreve. |
| 559 | ** The Clear Bonus Art obtained from getting SS ranks on all Normal mode missions is a reference to the ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' series. Model designer Jun Ikawa confirmed it in the ''3142 Graphic Arts'' interviews, as it was he who made that wallpaper. |
| 560 | * ShowsDamage: Damaging the Damned Chessmen enough times causes a part of their model to break, such as a Pawn piece's sword tip disappearing. |
| 561 | * SiblingTeam: In the [[spoiler:second half of the penultimate BossBattle, Dante and Vergil put aside their [[CainAndAbel differences]] and subject Arkham to the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle. Unfortunately, it doesn't last for long; the brothers fight each other again after defeating Arkham]]. |
| 562 | * SidetrackBonus: Mission 17 has a platforming puzzle where you have to jump into floating cubes to reach a door in a ledge, but it's obvious that this room has two ledges; one is an optional path that contains a Blue Orb Fragment. |
| 563 | * SinsOfOurFathers: Beowulf was sealed by Sparda 2000 years ago. When Dante arrives, Beowulf recognizes him as Sparda's son by his scent and goes on a rampage. It's lampshaded by Dante as he's getting sick of it. |
| 564 | -->'''Dante''': Why do I gotta take the heat for my father? |
| 565 | * SmashingHallwayTrapsOfDoom: The Trial of Skill is a hallway surrounded by countless spears that extend and retract on specific intervals or patterns. Apart from knocking you back, these traps don't deal significant damage anyway thanks to Dante and Vergil's SuperToughness. There are free gaps that you're expected to take advantage of if you want to cross safely. |
| 566 | * SmokingBarrelBlowout: Dante blows away the smoke from his handgun Ivory's barrel after finishing off Nevan with a bullet to the gut. The full act is not directly shown because the camera changes angle, but Dante can be heard doing it off-screen. |
| 567 | * SneezeOfDoom: Dante's sneeze in the Mission 2 cinematic brings down the entire front of his shop. Whether it was a gale force sneeze or [[TheLastStraw a normal one that was]] ''[[TheLastStraw just]]'' [[TheLastStraw too much for the fragilized structure to take]] is anyone's guess. |
| 568 | * SoftReboot: This is the first game in the franchise to be fully directed under Hideaki Itsuno's watch, and given its nature as a {{prequel}}, it features plot points that contradict or {{retcon}} those from ''[=DMC1=]'' (directed by Creator/HidekiKamiya), most notably the revisioning of Vergil's character. |
| 569 | * SpamAttack: Crazy Combos -- some of Dante's weapons allow him to rapidly pummel a foe with high-speed repeated attacks instead of the normal finisher. |
| 570 | * SpoilerOpening: The intro to the ''HD Collection'' spoils key plot points for each game, ''3'' in particular is spoiled the most, as it shows [[spoiler:Arkham taking the form of Sparda, Vergil's supposed suicide, and even has Dante's final line from the game]]. |
| 571 | * SprintShoes: Dante's Devil Trigger has alternate forms and buffs depending on the currently-equipped weapon. While both Rebellion and Cerberus increase Dante's movement speed in Devil Trigger, Cerberus provides a faster boost than the former. |
| 572 | * StabTheScorpion: In the opening cutscene of Mission 9, Dante points his handgun to Lady while they were having a conversation. The camera then adjusts itself to reveal several demons surrounding them, and Dante was actually aiming at one of them all along. Lady moves her head out of Dante's gun and she returns the favor by shooting another demon behind him. The two then briefly go {{back to back|Badasses}} while shooting some more. |
| 573 | * StabTheSky: Dante briefly raises Agni and Rudra above his head just after he acquired them in their scimitar forms. |
| 574 | * StanceSystem: The series was one of the first to use a straightforward stance mechanic in an action game form thanks to ''[=DMC3=]'' and its Styles system; Swordmaster allows advanced use of melee weapons, Gunslinger grants new techniques to ranged weaponry, Trickster adds advanced dodging and aerial abilities, and Royal Guard allows you to stop nearly any attack cold. Dante later obtains [[ColourCodedTimestop Quicksilver]] and [[DoppelgangerAttack Doppelganger]] as spoils for defeating Geryon and Doppelganger. Dante is restricted to only one Style at a time, which can be swapped at a Mission Start screen or Divinity Statue. In the Platform/NintendoSwitch release, there's an option to use a Real-Time Style Switching feature that was implemented in later games past ''[=DMC3=]''. |
| 575 | * StandardPowerupPose: When Dante enters his [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] form, he tends to strike a pose like this. |
| 576 | * StartOfDarkness: A decade before for Vergil, with the game showing how it turns out. |
| 577 | %%* SteamPunk: Clockpunk for Temen-ni-Gru. |
| 578 | * SticksToTheBack: |
| 579 | ** Vergil almost averts this entirely, as he always carries Yamato's scabbard in his left hand, but then he has to go and pick up Force Edge in the final battle, which does this. |
| 580 | ** Though Dante's weapons have a habit of doing this in the series, there are actually some straps on his default costume that look as if they manage to hold weapons like Rebellion and Cerberus. |
| 581 | * TheStinger: Killing at least 100 demons during the CreativeClosingCredits unlocks a bonus scene which shows Vergil in the Demon World about to challenge Mundus, the BigBad of the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 first game]] and the demon king whom Sparda previously sealed. |
| 582 | -->'''Vergil:''' It would be fun to fight with the Prince of Darkness. If my father did it, I should be able to do it too! |
| 583 | * AStormIsComing: There is an impending rainstorm during the events of the game, and it's thematically highlighted or given relevance at certain points. Arkham says this phrase almost word-for-word as he walks off to deal with Lady at the beginning of Mission 4, the heavy rain is present just in time for Dante and Vergil's first encounter (which turns it into a BattleInTheRain), and Lady points out how the "rain already stopped" in the ending. |
| 584 | -->'''Arkham:''' A storm is approaching. |
| 585 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: |
| 586 | ** Obviously with Dante and Vergil as they are identical twins, but this becomes really noticeable when Vergil is caught in the rain and his hair is slicked down just like Dante's. |
| 587 | ** If the Legendary Dark Knight costumes are any indication, Dante and Vergil inherit their similar looks from their father Sparda. |
| 588 | * SubliminalSeduction: Those [[HearingVoices "whispering voices"]] that you hear in the background music of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0AgUytAkA4 Mission Start]] screen? Some fans have found out that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y34Y5jf2yk playing said music in reverse]] brings out lyrics from "Devils Never Cry" and "Divine Hate". |
| 589 | -->Life of vengeance, a passive test, Until the grave I will rest, Engage the pressure until it crumbles |
| 590 | -->The existence of the lifeless black souls, Onward to the sacred battlefield, Where justification and limits are revealed |
| 591 | -->Hail to a father of divine, To the son the light will shine, From the angst of lost memories, A just revenge to cure misery. |
| 592 | * SuperMode: Devil Trigger, which Dante and Vergil both have, recovers their health and boosts their defense and attack power. |
| 593 | * SurprisinglySuperToughThing: |
| 594 | ** The "Red/Blue devices" (Basically, switches in the form of a pedestal with an intricate circular object layered in its surface) can only be activated by the playable character's only means of interacting with the environment: attacking it. They won't break even if you use the character's strongest attack, though they'll activate faster if you do that. |
| 595 | ** Combat Adjudicators react to melee weapon attacks but not firearms. They are also ImmuneToFlinching unless you use the proper weapon against them. But even so, they would only shatter when you reach a certain Stylish Rank while attacking them. |
| 596 | * SuspiciouslyCrackedWall: |
| 597 | ** In the puzzle room containing the statues crying TearsOfBlood, one wall has a crack with an odd white light in its center, indicating that it can be broken. |
| 598 | ** There's a notable moment where you enter a room that doesn't seem to have anything in it, but there's a glowing crack in front of you. Turns out that there's a wall ''almost immediately in front of the door'' that you destroy to carry on. |
| 599 | * SwipeYourBladeOff: Vergil does this quite a few times with his sword, Yamato. In the climax, he does it intentionally to spread his blood on a mechanism after cutting his palm in an attempt to undo the BloodMagic spell that Sparda cast on Temen-ni-gru. |
| 600 | * SwordBeam: Rebellion's Drive move sends these out. |
| 601 | * SwordOfPlotAdvancement: |
| 602 | ** The Rebellion [[spoiler:revived Dante and allowed him to enter his Devil Trigger state]]. |
| 603 | ** The Force Edge [[spoiler:allowed Arkham to temporarily assume Sparda's form before the power corrupted him into a hideous blob monster. Dante and Vergil fought over it with the former emerging as the victor]]. |
| 604 | * SwordSparks: Happens most often when Dante and Vergil clash. In the first battle, the brothers lock swords so hard that not only do sparks fly, their weapons start glowing red-hot from the produced friction. |
| 605 | * SympatheticVillainDespicableVillain: The BigBadEnsemble formed by Vergil (Sympathetic) and Arkham (Despicable) follows this structure. They are both selfish men obsessed with power, but while Vergil has [[NobleDemon a strong sense of honor]] and is primary interested in gaining power to make sure that he doesn't get hurt again, [[DarkAndTroubledPast like it happened in the past]], Arkham [[spoiler: (also known as Jester)]] is a ManipulativeBastard who wants to become a god for the sake of it, and is fully willing to kill his wife and harm his daughter Lady to achieve his goals. Towards the end of the game, [[spoiler: Vergil [[EnemyMine forms a temporary alliance with Dante to stop Arkham.]]]] |
| 606 | * SympathyForTheDevil: Arkham manages to use his status as Lady's [[spoiler:father]] to manipulate her into moving into the place he needs her. He tries it again before the final battle when [[spoiler:he's kicked out of the demon world by not being able to handle Sparda's power.]] He's near death at this point, so he loses and lets it slip that [[spoiler:he saw absolutely nothing wrong with killing his wife to become part-demon.]] Lady finally has enough. At the same time as the latter scene, Dante obviously feels similar about Vergil since the two are brothers. He doesn't feel good about having to fight him, but has to due to Vergil's ambitions being dangerous towards humanity. [[spoiler:He even cries for a moment thinking about Vergil's fate when he meets back up with Lady in the epilogue.]] |
| 607 | * TakeMyHand: Happens in the cutscene after Dante finally defeats his [[EvilTwin brother Vergil]]. As the portal to the demon world closes and Temen-ni-gru begins collapsing, Vergil chooses to stay in the demon world "where the battle took place". He allows himself to fall off the top of the waterfall where they fought. Dante attempts this trope, but is cut by Vergil's blade one last time as his brother falls into oblivion. |
| 608 | * TauntingTheTransformed: Arkham steals the power of the AscendedDemon Sparda and uses it to transform himself into a demon, taking on a form mimicking Sparda's appearance. He asks Dante, Sparda's son, what he thinks of his father's image, to which Dante responds, "It's like staring into a backed-up toilet!". When the transformation mutates Arkham again, this time into a hideous BlobMonster, Dante quips that he thinks this shape suits Arkham better. |
| 609 | * TearsOfBlood: One of the puzzles makes you force three [[TearsFromAStone statues to cry]] blood. |
| 610 | %%* TenMinuteRetirement: Lady. |
| 611 | * TechnicianPerformerTeamUp: Dante is the performer, preferring to defeat his enemies in a spectacle of gunfire, swordplay, and whatever Devil Arms he can pilfer in the game. On the other hand, Vergil is the technician, being an IaijutsuPractitioner who uses precise and proper katana strikes, while also having an [[DoesntLikeGuns aversion to firearms]], thinking [[GunsAreWorthless they are worthless]]. The [[TagTeamTwins twin Sparda brothers end up working together]] to take down [[ConflictKiller Arkham]], who is denying the brothers their ultimate match. Arkham by himself managed to give Dante a run for his money, but with Vergil's help, the two manage to overcome him. The two are even able to effortlessly trade swords and use their individual styles, before finishing him off with a combined "Jackpot" attack using Dante's guns. |
| 612 | * ThirdTimesTheCharm: Dante has this pattern with his fights against his twin brother Vergil. Dante [[HeadsIWinTailsYouLose loses the first fight]], the BigBad reveal of [[spoiler:Arkham/Jester]] in the mid-plot interrupts the second fight, then after they dealt with the BigBad, the twins have [[PostClimaxConfrontation one more fight]] in the end, with Dante defeating Vergil. |
| 613 | * TheThreeTrials: In Mission 6, you enter the appropriately-named Chamber of Three Trials and are presented with three challenges representing strength (Trial of the Warrior), skill (Trial of Skill) and intelligence (Trial of Wisdom). These trials reward you with their respective "Essence" key item which can be slotted in the previous room, the Mute Goddess' Chamber. Passing one of them gives you nothing, passing two breaks the rubble blocking the gate in the previous room, and passing all three nets you the Artemis Devil Arm. |
| 614 | * ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: |
| 615 | ** Dante cuts off Beowulf's remaining eye by throwing the Rebellion right at his face. |
| 616 | ** Level up your Swordmaster Style enough and Dante will unlock the "Sword Pierce" skill which lets him throw his sword and stick it into an enemy for a few seconds before returning to him, doing damage while it's in contact. |
| 617 | * ThrowTheSheathAway: It isn't focused on, but it is noticeable that Vergil disregards his sheath while running at [[spoiler:Mundus]] at the end of the [[TheStinger bonus post-credits scene]]. Despite his brave words, it's easy to interpret that he is well aware of how insane this challenge is and how unlikely he is to make it out alive. With this game serving as a prequel game to the first one, it serves as a ForegoneConclusion of him [[spoiler:losing the fight and being enslaved as Nelo Angelo]]. |
| 618 | * TitleDrop: |
| 619 | ** Though Dante has a habit of dropping the phrase "Devils never cry" OnceAnEpisode, it's not until the end of this game (during his SandInMyEyes excuse for crying over his [[spoiler:brother seemingly dying]]) where Lady tells Dante in response to that, "Even a devil may cry when he loses a loved one." [[AnachronicOrder Chronologically]], this would be the first time the phrase is mentioned. |
| 620 | ** In the epilogue, Dante finally names his demon-hunting business as "Devil May Cry", and both he and Lady say it in unison just as the latter narrates in the background. |
| 621 | --->'''Dante:''' Now I can start my business.\ |
| 622 | '''Lady:''' Oh, speaking of a kind devil, he finally decided on a name for his shop. It took him quite awhile to pick one. Want to know the name?\ |
| 623 | '''Dante and Lady:''' "Devil May Cry" |
| 624 | ** "Devil(s) Cry" is a {{Downplayed|Trope}} derivation of the series title. The main theme, "Devils Never Cry", has verses ending with the line "Praise to my father, Blessed by the water, Black night, dark sky, The devils cry". |
| 625 | * TornadoMove: Dante can do this with Agni and Rudra. It actually makes sense since one sword has a fire element and the other has a wind element. When spun at superfast speeds, this creates a tornado of fire. |
| 626 | * TheTower: The majority of the game takes place in a massive demonic tower named Temen-ni-gru, which suddenly rose up in the middle of a city. In addition, the challenge levels take place in an ever-ascending version of the same tower. In a bit of a discussion regarding the tower's etymology, Arkham also explains that Temen-ni-gru means "The foundation that brought out fear". |
| 627 | * TryingNotToCry: |
| 628 | ** After Lady [[spoiler:shoots and kills her father Arkham]], she breaks down into tears. Before the cutscene ends, she notes that she was not expecting to cry and tries to recover. |
| 629 | ** Dante sheds a single tear during the final cutscene before the credits, but stops himself from showing any further display of emotions because Lady is watching him. |
| 630 | * TurnsRed: |
| 631 | ** If you try to take on more than one head at a time, Cerberus will literally turn red and you will have a serious problem on your hands, as his attacks become faster, more aggressive, and gain more devastating properties, while he becomes stunned less often. Woe betide if you manage to trigger this near the beginning of the battle, although this will also occur when his health gets low enough. |
| 632 | ** Agni or Rudra become more vicious once the other twin has been slain, attacking with both swords and gaining new moves in the process. |
| 633 | ** Nevan's offensive and defensive capabilities are directly linked to her health; she summons more bats and lightning bolts in the same move, and her bat shield requires more hits to be destroyed when she gets low on health. She also gains access to a [[KissOfDeath kiss attack]] that [[LifeDrain heals her]]. |
| 634 | ** Beowulf moves aggressively faster and uses light-based attacks once his health has been whittled. |
| 635 | ** During the final fight against Vergil, bringing his HP down to a certain threshold would make his Devil Trigger form last longer than usual. |
| 636 | * UpdatedRerelease: |
| 637 | ** In the form of a "Special Edition" that renamed the difficulty modes, added the Bloody Palace arena mode, a Turbo mode that speeds the game up, three successive boss battles with Jester, and Vergil as a playable character. |
| 638 | ** The ''Devil May Cry HD Collection'' is a compilation of ''[=DMC1=]'', ''[=DMC2=]'' and ''[=DMC3:SE=]'', featuring upgraded resolutions of HD 720p (for [=PS3=] and Xbox 360) or HD 1080p (for [=PS4=] and Xbox One) and other optimizations. Achievements and Trophies were also added. |
| 639 | ** Taken a step further with the Nintendo Switch port, which adds a Free Style mode that allows Dante to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin freely swap between his Styles]] and gives full, unlimited switching between every single gun and Devil Arm in the game. This version also adds unrestricted, local 2-player co-op in the Bloody Palace, with one player as Dante and the other as Vergil. |
| 640 | * {{Understatement}}: Jester's reaction to Dante pointing a gun point-blank at his nose during their first encounter. |
| 641 | -->'''Dante:''' "Zip it. Or I'll pierce that big nose."\ |
| 642 | '''Jester:''' "... That could be a problem." |
| 643 | * UnexpectedGameplayChange: Mission 17 has a jumping puzzle that requires you to get on top of cubes that move around and rotate, a PlatformHell segment not seen anywhere else in the game, made more difficult by the cubes' small size in relation to the playable character's model. |
| 644 | * UnlockableDifficultyLevels: Apart from the series' recurring trend of unlocking the next difficulty mode upon clearing the previous one, this game also puts a twist or add more to that pattern. |
| 645 | ** The game unlocks an "Easy" mode if you [[MercyMode die three times on the Normal mode]]. |
| 646 | ** In the ''[[UpdatedRerelease Special Edition]]'' of ''3'', beating "Hard" mode unlocks "Very Hard" (a mode that's not present in the original version), which further unlocks the "Must Die" mode, and so forth. |
| 647 | * UseTheirOwnWeaponAgainstThem: |
| 648 | ** Dante and Vergil's first battle concludes with Vergil stabbing Dante with his own sword Rebellion. However, not only does Dante survive as usual, it unlocks his [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]]. |
| 649 | ** Lady also ends up being a victim of this. After subduing Dante, Vergil and Lady, [[spoiler:Arkham reveals that the blood of the mortal priestess Sparda used to seal the Temen-ni-gru tower is needed to complete the ritual. And it just so happens that Lady is a descendant of said priestess. Arkham stabs Lady in the leg with her {{BFG}}'s bayonet and her spilled blood activates the tower.]] |
| 650 | * VengeanceDenied: Demon hunter Lady swears retribution against her father Arkham for sacrificing her mother to demons in a bid to become a god. When she later finds Dante standing over her father's corpse, she wrongly assumes he killed him and attacks him for interfering in her vengeance. [[spoiler:Subverted later in the game; Arkham was FakingTheDead, and Lady gets to kill him after all]]. |
| 651 | -->'''Lady''': This was my father, ''my'' family. This was all supposed to end by ''my'' hand! |
| 652 | * VictorGainsLosersPowers: This game started the trend of obtaining weapons and/or powers based from defeated bosses. In Dante's case, it's either an afterthought, or the boss willingly offers their power after acknowledging him as a {{worthy opponent}}. On the other other hand, Vergil intentionally steals Beowulf's power after killing him. |
| 653 | * VictoryByEndurance: [[spoiler:Arkham/Jester]] waits until Dante, Vergil and Lady [[WorfHadTheFlu exhausted themselves]] fighting [[MeleeATrois each other]] before he could attack them. [[spoiler:Jester]] pulls a BareHandedBladeBlock on Vergil and [[LampshadeHanging comments]] he would not have been able to do that if Vergil was fresh or in tip-top condition. |
| 654 | * VillainousBreakdown: |
| 655 | ** Through most of the game, Vergil acts as an AloofBigBrother and EvilTwin to Dante, remaining menacing and softspoken even as he ''shoves a katana'' into Dante's gut. He then tries to open the portal to the Demon World with the Perfect Amulet and his own blood. When that fails [[spoiler:since Lady's blood is also needed, something Arkham left out on purpose]], Vergil's composure cracks. |
| 656 | --->'''Vergil:''' Why isn't this ''working?!'' |
| 657 | ** [[spoiler:Likewise, Arkham after he's defeated by Dante and Vergil and left severely wounded. He comes across his daughter, Lady, and rants about he should have the power of a demon and that what Sparda did was no different from his actions (namely, sacrificing a human woman. However, Sparda did it out of reluctance since he loved his sacrifice, and she went with it willingly and it was for the good of mankind. Arkham did it purely for his own selfish ends). He begs Lady to help him, and she responds (much to [[ItsAllAboutMe his shock]]) by putting a bullet in his head.]] |
| 658 | * WakeUpCallBoss: |
| 659 | ** Cerberus, the game's first proper boss battle after the [[WarmUpBoss Hell Vanguard]], is no pushover, as he's fought at the end of Mission 3, when the player has limited health, little to no upgrades/items, and no Devil Trigger yet. Worse yet, recklessly attacking Cerberus will cause him to activate his TurnsRed phase early, which can easily tear an early-game player apart. |
| 660 | ** If Cerberus didn't send the message, Agni & Rudra will as they're the game's first DualBoss, fought at the end of Mission 5 when a player likely still has limited health, little upgrades, and still no Devil Trigger, and once one of them is beaten the other whips out an ''even stronger'' moveset via DualWielding, making it clear this where the game stops holding your hand. |
| 661 | * WardrobeWound: Lady shoots some holes in Dante's coat. He then gestures at them while looking annoyed at her. |
| 662 | * WeaponizedExhaust: In the opening cutscene of Mission 3, Lady kills some demons behind her on her motorbike by roasting them with the bike's exhaust backblast. |
| 663 | * WhamEpisode: Mission 13. [[spoiler: Jester is Arkham, [[ManipulativeBastard and he's been playing everybody like a violin from the beginning.]] He steps in after Dante and Vergil are too weak from their prior battle to stop him, using their blood and Lady's to undo the final seal needed to open the portal to the Underworld so he can claim Sparda's power for himself.]] |
| 664 | * WhamShot: The ending cutscene of Mission 11. [[spoiler:Arkham's book is left flipping its pages on the ground, and his body is nowhere to be found when he was previously assumed to be dead after Vergil stabbed him.]] |
| 665 | * WhatTheHellAreYou: This exchange after Dante beats [[WakeUpCallBoss Cerberus]]: |
| 666 | -->'''Cerberus:''' You are not human, are you?\ |
| 667 | '''Dante:''' Who knows? I'm not even sure myself! |
| 668 | * WhyAmITicking: Hell Wraths are passive {{Action Bomb}}s at first, and by default, they'll only detonate themselves when you're in close proximity, or if the fight has dragged long enough. However, you can force them to detonate prematurely by shooting at them, as indicated by their explosive sacks glowing orange the more you shoot them. The brighter the glow, the sooner they're about to explode. |
| 669 | * WingShield: The Fallen use their wings to cover their weak spots and negate some hits, though these can break if damaged enough times. |
| 670 | * WolfpackBoss: Sixteen pieces of the Damned Chessmen all team up in the Damned Chess Board area of Mission 18 to "simulate" a chess game while fighting you. They are overseen by a Damned King piece that is difficult to defeat with everything else swarming around it (including the versatile Damned Queen piece), but doing so will [[NoOntologicalInertia take out the whole set]]. |
| 671 | * WombLevel: In Mission 8, you must carve your way out of the Leviathan's body after it just swallowed you. The game also labels each room as a specific organ (you start in "Leviathan's Stomach", for example). After you defeat Leviathan's Heart, [[spoiler:Dante makes his way through its body to the head and cuts his way out of the eye to start off the next mission.]] |
| 672 | * TheWorfEffect: |
| 673 | ** The Hell Vanguard is fought as a boss by Dante. But when that very same Vanguard shows up in Vergil's first appearance, he just kills the demon in one cut. This should let you know that he's not one to be messed with. |
| 674 | ** The Abyss are faster and more aggressive {{elite|Mook}} variants of the scythe-wielding Hell-type fodder demons. In Vergil's campaign from the ''[[UpdatedReRelease Special Edition]]'', he just effortlessly defeats a crowd of them during his opening cutscene. |
| 675 | * WorfHadTheFlu: [[spoiler: Jester/Arkham's entire plan hinged on guiding Dante, Vergil and Lady up the tower and keeping them at each other's throats; that way, when it came time to make his move, they'd be too exhausted to stop him.]] |
| 676 | * YellowLightningBlueLightning: |
| 677 | ** The demon Nevan has white and purple-colored lightning powers. |
| 678 | ** Dante's Devil Trigger form emits lightning sparks around him just like a BattleAura, and their colors vary depending on which Devil Arm is equipped. |
| 679 | ** The [[PowerAtAPrice Haywire Neo-Generator]] emits black lightning sparks around Dante in Mission 12. |
| 680 | * YouAreAlreadyDead: At least in cutscenes, Vergil's SignatureMove involves {{Diagonal Cut}}ting his opponent, then waiting several seconds before sheathing his [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana]] (with an audible "click!") and only then, the enemy goes asunder. Three victims are subjected to this trick, but to slightly varying degrees: |
| 681 | ** When the Hell Vanguard that attacked Dante in Mission 2 retreated near Vergil on top of the tower, he impales the demon behind him [[OffhandBackhand without looking back]], it froze in place, and then explodes after Vergil sheathed his katana. |
| 682 | ** Due to the delay, [[LightIsNotGood Beowulf]] actually managed to ''speak'' to Vergil before [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath his head went in pieces]]. |
| 683 | ** Vergil also impales [[spoiler:Arkham]] and pulls his sword out, but [[spoiler:Arkham]] doesn't seem to react and starts yelling at him while Vergil slowly sheathes his sword. It's only when his sword is completely sheathed with a "click!" that [[spoiler:Arkham]] screams in pain and falls over. |
| 684 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Vergil [[spoiler:attempts to dispatch Arkham once the door to the final lock has been opened. Unfortunately for him, Arkham anticipated this and [[FakingTheDead used it to his advantage]] to manipulate Lady and catch Vergil off-guard later]]. |
| 685 | * YouRemindMeOfX: Nevan comments how Dante reminds her of Sparda, but more in the flirting fashion. |
| 686 | %%* YouWillNotEvadeMe: Kalina Ann has such a move in Gunslinger style. |
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FollowingContext VideoGame / DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening
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