Trivia / Devil May Cry 2

• Ascended Fan Nickname: Originally, Dante's secret Devil Trigger transformation now commonly known as "Majin Form" had no official English name as opposed to being called the "Ultimate Devil Mode" (真魔人モード, Shin Majin mōdo) in Japanese materials, leading to the corresponding Fan Nickname of Desperation/Desperate Devil Trigger (or DDT for short). A member of the Devil May Cry Wiki would be the first person to coin the term "Majin Form" in 2007, and despite "Majin" (魔人) being the terminology used for a character who has transformed using Devil Trigger, this name would see wide use throughout the fandom. When the English version of the 3142 Graphic Arts artbook was released in 2015, the name would be canonized, made more noticeable by how the same "Ultimate Devil Mode" terminology was used to describe a scrapped second transformation for Dante in Devil May Cry 4 yet was translated as "Ultimate Devil Trigger" for that section.
• Flip-Flop of God: In regards to 2's placement in the chronology of the numbered titles. While the placement of 3's manga, 3, 1, TAS, and 4 were easy enough to arrange, Capcom was so wary about 2 that it wasn't until the Devil May Cry: 3142 Graphic Arts artbook that gave fans a resemblance of a timeline. With 5's announcement at E3 2018, it was initially stated that the order was 3 > 1 > TAS > 4 > 2 > 5, but later on, Capcom streamed a summary recap on February 6, 2019 that changed the order of the timeline to 3 > 1 > TAS > 2 > 4 > 5 instead.
• Inspiration for the Work:
  • According to the Devil May Cry 3142 Graphic Arts artbook, the "flaming bull" design of Furiataurus was based on the Western woodblock depictions of the Brazen Bull, a "bull-shaped stove in which people were thrown and roasted alive, all for demonic rituals".
  • In page 204 of the 3142 Graphic Arts artbook, Capcom artist Daigo Ikeno mentioned Arius' aquiline nose being an homage to Lee Van Cleef, specifically citing his role in the film For a Few Dollars More.
• Multi-Disc Work: There are two DVDs. The first one lets you play as Dante, the main protagonist of the series, while the second lets you play as Lucia, who'd only appear in this installment.
• No Dub for You: Like the previous game, Devil May Cry 2 was released in Japan with the original English dialogue.
• The Other Darrin: Though credited under Special Thanks, Matthew Kaminsky voices Dante instead of Drew Coombs due to the game's English dialogue being recorded in Los Angeles this time around. As an Easter Egg, Dante's unlockable DMC1 outfit switches most of his voice clips to those of Coombs, downplaying this slightly.
• Prequel in Another Medium: The DMC2 light novel takes place before the events of the game, detailing Dante's encounters with the red-haired demon hunter Beryl, and the novel's Big Bad Chen. It also briefly involves the concept of an Alternate Universe.
• Refitted for Sequel: Some concept arts from DMC1 show Dante wielding unreleased weapons such as a submachine gun and a cannon. This game reuses those old ideas in a way since Dante can acquire Submachine Guns and a Missile Launcher as optional firearms.
• Troubled Production:
  • While this is the first game of the Devil May Cry series with Hideaki Itsuno as its director, he wasn't the original director. In fact, he wasn't the director at all for most of the game's development. Worse, this game wasn't even made with the original team behind Devil May Cry at all — Hideki Kamiya didn't find out DMC2 was being developed until months before release. The original director's name remains unknown, but they left the game a year and a half into production. The game itself was in a state where it wasn't even functional. Most of the animations weren't implemented, save for Dante's horribly nerfed Stinger animation. Itsuno's part was basically to course-correct the game and make sure it didn't come out a complete disaster. By that point, the game was only months away from release, meaning Itsuno had to do a lot of legwork in half a year◊. The fact that the end result is even playable is a minor miracle in itself, but Itsuno demanded to be allowed to make one more game so he wouldn't be The Scapegoat that made DMC2.
  • In Devil May Cry: 3-1-4-2 Graphic Arts, an interview by long-time Capcom artist Daigo Ikeno revealed two additional reasons for the game's turbulent history. First, Capcom was so sure of the then-fledgling franchise that they greenlit 2 before the first game even finished production, a decision vindicated by DMC1's runaway success. Second, said greenlighting prompted a partial restructuring of the company, diverting manpower from Capcom's arcade games division into their console games division. Since the arcade division's work experience came from games like Street Fighter and Power Stone, they were ill-prepared for the genre shift to DMC, especially when nobody on 2's development team even knew what 1 was supposed to look like due to its incomplete status, leaving them without much guidance. Ikeno also claimed that several members of the dev team didn't understand or appreciate 1's game design and tried to go too far with the creative liberties Capcom gave them — among other things, Dante was almost a new character in a green jacket and his drastically different personality happened because the unnamed producer didn't like Dante's attitude in the first game.
• Uncredited Role: Hideaki Itsuno is the sole credited director, but he wasn't such until the final six months of development. The original director is unknown.
• Word of God: In a 2012 tweet, Hideki Kamiya (the director of DMC1) believes that Trish has an actual Devil Trigger form other than donning sunglasses and manifesting a Golden Super Mode in this game, implying A Form You Are Comfortable With is in effect.

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