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Demons, superhumans. Meh. Same crap, different day.
Dante
Dante is the main character of the Devil May Cry series. In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Dante is seen wearing his attire from Devil May Cry 3, which chronologically, is the first game of the series.
Backstory
Dante is the main protagonist in the Devil May Cry series. He is the second son of Sparda and Eva, and the younger twin brother of Vergil. As such, he is a half-demon/half-human hybrid. Dante is a mercenary dedicated to exterminating demons, a mission he follows in pursuit of those that killed his mother and corrupted his brother.
Appearance
Like his father, the Dark Knight Sparda, Dante has naturally white hair and cyan eyes. As for clothing, he wears his Devil May Cry 3 outfit which consists of a red trenchcoat, black fingerless gloves, brown pants and brown boots. In Devil May Cry 3 he's shirtless, but in the rest of the series his shirt is closed.
Personality
Throughout the Devil May Cry series, Dante is incredibly cocky and flippant, mouthing off to even the most powerful demons, and generally enjoys rubbing people the wrong way. He does mature somewhat as time goes by, becoming much more calm by the time of Devil May Cry 4, but never really loses this attitude. Dante is seemingly totally unafraid at all times, or is at least stoic in this way, whether being attacked by the Seven Hells in his office or being swallowed by a giant serpent demon. His brother also shares this similar calm-and-fearless disposition.
With the exception of Devil May Cry 2 (which most fans ignore anyway), Dante rarely shows any seriousness. He can be serious when the situation calls for it, but can still remain calm during such situations and is never without a witty taunt or comeback. Dante can seem at times to be uncaring or even callous, but actually has a very strong sense of justice and prefers to fight fairly. He can be counted on to do the right thing, even if he makes cynical quips about it the entire time.
Unusually, while he has issues with his own demonic side, and was at one point totally unwilling to accept its existence (going as far to say he didn't have a father). Dante has little qualms about accepting demons who choose to be good, such as Trish and Bradley. Though Dante is quoted to believe that "humans are often worse than demons" in the anime, he refuses to kill full-blooded humans.
Dante values family and friends very highly, and always hides this behind his insincere, jokey attitude. He cared deeply for his mother and, even despite their extreme differences, also cares for Vergil. Even after 3 boss fights worth of fighting over the course of Devil May Cry 3, Dante still tried to save his brother when he was falling into the Demon World, and even shed a tear over losing him, hence inspiring the name of his demon-extermination agency, Devil May Cry. As of recent, the brothers seem to be rekindling their relationship and making up for lost time and huge differences, as per canonical events of Devil May Cry 5.
Theme Song
Dante's theme song is a remix of Devils Never Cry the theme song of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening.
Trailer
Trivia
- Dante has, according to Capcom, no references for his original color schemes, though it was assumed they were based on his Diesel clothing from Devil May Cry 2, Trish (Blond hair and black coat and pants), and Ryu from Breath of Fire III. In Ultimate, he gets a Vergil alt. and an orange alt. based off Taskmaster's Frightful Four color. His DLC costume changes him to his father, Sparda, complete with Sparda's demon form as his Devil Trigger.
- Also, his Devil Triggered form changes color, depending on the used color scheme.
- One of his intro quotes is, "Let's rock, baby!", which is something of Dante's trademark Pre-Asskicking One-Liner. He also caps off his Million Dollars hyper with, "Jackpot!". This is Dante's personal Catch Phrase, used as a Pre-Mortem One-Liner before finishing off the Big Bads of the first and third games.
- At the end of his Million Dollars hyper, Dante fires two bullets made out of pure demonic energy, alluding to his finisher on Mundus in the first game and his combination attack with Vergil in the third to defeat Arkham, both which involved attacks of similar caliber being fired from Ebony & Ivory. This could also double as a nod to Dante's ability to charge up his own bullets with his demonic energy.
- His Level 3 is named Devil Must Die, a nod to the notoriously difficult "Dante Must Die" mode in the DMC games.
- His intro quote against every female character (minus Trish, Amaterasu and Morrigan) is "How come I never meet any nice girls?" This most likely references Dante's second meeting with Lady in DMC3, where he tries to woo her and ends up receiving a bullet to the head (Dante ends up lampshading this with the line "I'm beginning to think I've got rotten luck with women.").
- He was confirmed early May in Game Informer's May 2010 issue, also featuring Captain America, Deadpool and Felicia.
- Deadpool is set as Dante's in-game rival due to their many similarities. They are both wisecracking mercenaries who wear red and are adept in the usage of both firearms and swords. They both also have regenerative abilities, and the fact that both their names start with the letter "D" is little more than coincidence. They even have a very similar hyper combo where they continually shoot their guns at the enemy, with Dante firing rounds cooler, more fashionably and "stylishly". They are dissimilar in two respects, however - he isn't deformed, thus needing no mask, and isn't mentally deranged. Because of the latter, he cannot match Deadpool's humor and unpredictability, nor his constant breach of the fourth wall, being less ridiculous in fights.
- Dante's rivalry in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite appears to be Hawkeye (As both were seen fighting in the MVCI variant cover comic for Hawkeye Vol 5. #9). Both are wisecracking combatants who love taunting their opponents and have an affinity for projectiles. Both were also competing with each other in the beginning of story mode.
- He has the most moves of the MVC3 roster, with a whopping 41 moves, counting his Hyper combos. This is explained by the sheer amount of weapons he has and can use in-game. To balance his innate versatility, his moves were made evidently less damaging compared to other characters, and there is already his naturally high execution requirement, as well as his weak zoning via his slow projectiles.
- In game, most, if not all, of his special moves were derived from Devil May Cry 3's different Gunslinger and Swordmaster style moves. When the player activates a special move, rings of light flash around Dante, similar to when one activates a Crazy Combo in DMC3. Additionally, when he guards, he is seen doing so with the Royal Guard style. The Air Trick and his air dash are from the Trickster style.
- Dante's playstyle can be easily compared to Ragna the Bloodedge from BlazBlue; they both seem to be rushdown characters with powerful combo extensions and moves that share similar positions: from diving moves, to forward dashes, energy attacks (though Ragna has no true projectiles or overly swift movement), diving strikes, powerup states and even a huge focus on combos and corner carry. It is worth mentioning that they also share a similar button scheme featuring a light, medium and heavy attack button (both their jumping medium attacks can even crossup), and that the BlazBlue Material Collection features artwork of a shocked Ragna holding Dante's signature sword, Rebellion, and both have a rivalry with a brother clad in blue skilled with Japanese blades (BlazBlue's Jin Kisaragi to DMC's Vergil). Dante like Ragna are both on terms of low health levels, though Dante has more health than the latter (Ryu in his Jack of Trades/Shoutoukan fame has more higher health than average oddly in comparison).
- Funny enough, both characters have even used large swords that can transform into scythes, though Dante's weapon of that kind (the Sparda, named after his father) is used mainly by Trish in future DMC media.
- His victory pose is lifted directly from the one he does at the end of Devil May Cry 3 when he and Lady were about to fight a horde of demons, in which he takes out his pistols Ebony & Ivory out, and swings them before pointing them at the screen. And according to this video, Dante's original victory pose was different, similar to his Devil May Cry 4 artwork.
- Dante's pose in his MvC3 artwork resembles the artwork of Date Masamune from Sengoku Basara (specifically his Sengoku Basara 2 alternate attire artwork). Curiously Date Masamune's English voice actor is also Reuben Langdon, with Dante's seiyuu voicng Masamune's retainer, Katakura Kojuurou.
- Several references in the Viewtiful Joe series (and in MvC3) imply that Joe and Dante know each other and are close friends. They were both created by former Capcom member, Hideki Kamiya, who created and directed both games as well. Also in the Playstation 2 version of the game Viewtiful Joe, he is a playable character with some of his moves from Devil May Cry along with the "Bangle of Time" (V-Watch), which was a hidden item in that game.
- He, along with Ryu and Chris Redfield, were featured in majority of the earlier gameplay video trailers, due to the fact that Capcom showing more of Felicia and Morrigan, the other 2 of the first 5 confirmed for Capcom could've raised a few corporate eyebrows from ESRB. Another reason could be that Devil May Cry, Street Fighter, and Resident Evil, are Capcom's three most successful video game franchises.
- In the end of the opening movie, one can see Dante in his pose from Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.
- Morrigan appears to have some level of seduction hold over Dante, as evident by his win quote against her that he 'loves it when a girl gets violent'. Notable similarities can be drawn between these two Capcom characters, such as each of them being related to powerful, but now deceased Demons (Belial and Sparda, respectively). Nevan from Devil May Cry 3 also seemed to have some hold over him as well.
- Dante's Devil Trigger form was designed by Kazuma Kaneko of Atlus fame, originally for Devil May Cry 3 as a present for Dante's inclusion in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
- His win quote vs. Vergil is taken straight from Devil May Cry 3, when Dante defeats Vergil in his last boss battle.
- Ghost Rider has the same gameplay style of Devil May Cry's terminology on his movie based game. This makes his in-game rivalry even stronger.
- Dante's seiyuu Toshiyuki Morikawa was a long time seiyuu in the whole vs. Capcom series (by voicing Ryu and Charlie pre-SF4 and MVC3/TVC). Dante is Morikawa's fourth different character role in the whole vs. Capcom series (He reprises his role from the DMC anime; Tekkaman Blade, Morikawa's debut role was in Tatsunoko vs. Cacpom: Ultimate All-Stars).
- A casting gag involving that also made Morikawa act as a Japanese dub to the original Dante in an adaption of Dante's Inferno.
- Ironically, his second outfit with black coat and white hair scheme somewhat resembles Sephiroth from the Final Fantasy series, one of Morikawa's other known roles (this is mainly a coincidence).
- While Dante wears his Devil May Cry 3 clothing, his age seems to be closer to his Devil May Cry 1/4 appearance which may explain why Dante knows Trish.
- Dante has an infinite where it's possible to spam his Cold Shower on the foe in the corner for a repeated "OTG juggle". This requires no X-factor, but takes a lot of patience to fully K.O. one character due to damage scaling. In UMVC3, this is no longer possible in X-Factor due to the new speed buff ruining the flow of the timing.
- A glitch with a Team Hyper Combo/Variable Combination/Crossover Combination involves Dante performing an attack on the right frame of it enables him to freeze his partners in place while he is able to spam the screen with continuous attacks almost as time has stopped. This was discovered by player Rogueyoshi and is conned as the "Quicksilver glitch" (after the original style from DMC3). Ironically enough, the Quicksilver style itself in the original DMC3 game has a glitch as well.
Artwork
