Note: spoilers of the series (including DMC 5) below.
This is an old tale of two worlds at war: the Demon World (or Underworld) and the Human World. The former was ruled by Mundus, the Prince of Darkness, while the latter was protected by Sparda, the Legendary Dark Knight. Sparda defeats Mundus and seals the underworld and his own demonic power -because his power was getting “too strong”. He becomes the ruler of the human world but in a gentle and fair manner (it seems he had a strong sense of justice).
After these significant events, Sparda falls in love with Eva, a human. He gives her “the Perfect Amulet”, a red relic which is needed to enter the Demon World. Why? Who knows. Maybe it’s cheaper than a Gucci necklace. Moving on, Sparda dies and Eva has twin boys and they become two of the main protagonists of this story: Dante and Vergil. Eva splits the Perfect Amulet into two halves, and gives one of them to each child. Unfortunately, Eva passes away while her children are still young, murdered by Mundus’ demons -yes, he’s back. Dante was hidden when this happened, but Vergil whereabouts were unknown. As a result, Dante thinks both of them are dead. He has lost all his family.
So far, you may have felt a sense of duality in the franchise; good versus evil, light against darkness, demons, and humans, etc. Luckily enough, this isn’t just a plain story without a little bit of moral ambiguity. Sparda was a demon and he chose to save mankind, for example. You may have also noticed this in the title of the game: Devil May Cry. Why would a demon cry? Perhaps these guys aren’t pure malign beings.
A more important question: how many times was Dante stabbed with a sword? Luckily he’s part demon, so he always rises up like it’s no big deal. He’s also a demon hunter, who just want to exterminate evil and supernatural forces with his guns Ebony & Ivory and a series of swords. While Dante’s a stylish killing machine, he refuses completely to kill pure humans: he wouldn’t be better than any demon.
Chronologically, the first important female character he meets, apart from Eva, is Mary. A peculiar woman with eyes of different colors, she lost her mother when she was a young kid. She let her rage and seeking of vengeance guided her path as a grown up. She carries Kalina Ann, a rocket launcher named after her mother. Her objective is Arkham, a human who made a ritual to become a demon and sacrificed Mary’s mother in the process.
The first time Mary meets Dante is at the tower summoned by Arkham, Temen-ni-gru (the tower in which Sparda closed the gate to the Demon World). She just shoots at Dante as soon as she sees him -her hate is for half-demons, too. Of course, Dante doesn’t die, and they choose different paths. A lot of nightmarish creatures appear in the journey, like Cerberus, a giant Horse that controls time and a sexy Dearg dul called Nevan. Oh, I didn’t tell you: Vergil is alive! He allies with Arkham, and he beats Dante a couple of time – he even kills him!
After these events, Mary apparently succeeds in killing Arkham. The only problem is that she finds out that Arkham is her father. These demons guys are bastards, without a doubt. Not only that, but Arkham appears later, disguised as his clownish alter-ego, Jester. Arkham uses the blood of Sparda, the Perfect Amulet (which Vergil got) and the blood of a priestess (which he gets from stabbing Mary’s leg). He “activates” the tower and he’s trying to gain Sparda’s power. He succeeds, but Vergil is angry, because he was tricked by Arkham. He always desired his father’s power. He allies with Dante and they destroy Arkham – quipping “Jackpot” at the final combined gunshot. One climactic showdown is needed, and the twins fight once more. Dante is victorious but his brother falls to the Underworld, something he didn’t want to happen.
After watching all this mess, Mary learns that demons can be as good or as bad as humans, so she starts hanging out with Dante. What’s more, Mary’s name becomes Lady, because Dante called her like that. They open the agency, baptized as “Devil May Cry” by Lady, because Dante cried for Vergil.
Some years later, Dante meets another relevant female figure called Trish. Smart, powerful and sexy, she has a task for Dante: they go to Mallet Island, where Mundus awaits – yeah, he’s alive, kinda. There are giant lava spiders, marionettes, a mysterious knight -who is, in fact, Vergil, corrupted by Mundus- and speaking statues on the way.
Later on the adventure, Dante is betrayed by Trish, who is revealed to be a demon created by Mundus – man, this Mundus likes to do stuff. However, Dante later forgives her, because of her resemblance to Eva. Mundus created Trish with this physical aspect on purpose, so she was able to manipulate Dante. The interesting part is that Trish feels remorse and saves Dante when Mundus is going to kill him. Then Dante kicks the hell out of Mundus’ ass. Trish comes back to life, because reasons, and they change the agency names to Devil Never Cry. Because of course, Trish does.
Some years later, a young man, who strangely looks very similar to Dante, is seen fighting demons in Fortuna, an isolated island. He later confronts the real Dante, after the latter killed the defenseless priest Sanctus and some members of the “Order of the Sword” at a church. Dante’s kicking Nero’s ass until Nero reveals he has a demonic right arm called “Devil Bringer”, full of power. Now the battle is more balanced, but it was never Dante’s intention to kill Nero, so the fight is over by him.
Later, we know that the Order of the Sword is a religious organization which worships Sparda, and its main objective is to eradicate all demons. One of the issues with this plan is that members of the organization are creating portals to the Demon World, in order to capture demons and create their own weapons. Another problem is that this is all a cover to become a powerful organization which can control the world.
After discovering this conspiracy, Nero, who was a Holy Knight of the Order, allies with Dante and a lot of crazy things happen: his girlfriend Kyrie -who’s only a plot device, zero character development here- is kidnapped; a huge sexy serpent lady called Echidna tries to kill our boys; the Yamato, a katana wielded by Sparda and later by Vergil, is taken by the Organization and used to open a Hell Gate; a mad scientist who turns into a demonic moth performs a surreal -and stupid- opera segment with Dante.
Above all of these events, Sanctus is revived and he plans to summon “the Savior”: a huge statue of Sparda, similar to what happened with Mundus. Dante and Nero join forces and destroy this piece of marble. Also, Lady and Trish do appear here, but they do nothing relevant. A shame.
Years later, Vergil -he’s alive!- recovers Yamato, by cutting Nero’s Devil Bringer. He also stabs himself and divides his soul in two: a demon half called Urizen, the Demon King, and a human half called V – such a creative name. V comes to Dante’s agency to ask him a favor: to stop Urizen, who has created an enormous tree which will exterminate human life. Nero and his friend Nico, an expert craftswoman, joins the gang. Trish and Lady appear here, but they do nothing useful, again.
Our lovely characters try to beat Urizen but they fail. They try again and after a long journey of leveling up and purchasing abilities of their skills tree, they succeed. Or not really, because V merges with Urizen and surprise: your boy Vergil is back to the show. Also, a revelation is made: Vergil is Nero’s father. Who’s the mother? No clue at all.
Moving on, Vergil fights Dante, and before the fight ends, Nero stops the fight revealing his own “Devil Trigger”.
(Oh, I never told you. Dante and Vergil can transform into their demonic half, for a brief moment. That is called Devil Trigger).
Nero doesn’t want them to kill each other, and he stops Vergil because Nero is now overpowered. The conflict ceases, but like Urizen’s plan is still on the march: the gigantic tree is still alive, its roots are contaminating the Earth and they reached the Demon World. Both Dante and Vergil go down to the Underworld, to save the Human World. Sadly, they have to seal the gate between worlds from the Demon World, so they apparently they will remain there.
And here concludes this piece. No, I’m not saying anything about the mediocre DMC 2. Only that Dante seems to be trapped in the Demon World until the very end of the game, but that last shot with the sound of his motorbike engine may show something else. Wait, I have something more! Here’s a pic of a cool looking skyscraper demon.
