Observe as grandpa Dante kicks all sorts of ass.
Loooots to talk about here, so let’s try being concise. First, Nico’s reaction to Dante is just all sorts of cute and geeky. She really is a spiritual successor to Scooby Doo’s Velma, isn’t she? Second, Dante returns with his iconic repertoire of moves, featuring all the great ones, like the Thousand Stings and Koyote-A Fireworks.
On that note, he seems to be wielding Gilgamesh again, a weapon we saw in Devil May Cry 4, which originally used a slightly changed moveset of Beowulf from Devil May Cry 3 (which in itself was a rework of Dragon Fists of Devil May Cry 1… There’s a pattern here). And the core of that style is still there, though it seems a bit more acrobatic. And we also get to see his Motorcycle weapon in action, which is just fantastic.
Third, Nero says that “he has all the power he needs” to which I can only respond with: Foolishness, Nero. Foolishness… Such words are definitely unbefitting of the son of Virgil. Although it does serve to highlight how Nero is more than his ancestry and he really is his own person, which I definitely do like.
And finally, we get to V. Enigmatic and handsome, he certainly caused a lot of stir in the community. We have absolutely no concrete evidence on who he might be, but there is multitude of clues here. First, his name is just the first letter of Vergil’s name, but that’s the easy, obvious one. More interesting are the facts that he is very similar in design and deamonr to Arkham, the villain of Devil may Cry 3. Much like Arkham he also starts the plot going by being Nero’s client.
We know that certain demons can change their forms and move unnoticed by humans, even humans who specialize in demon hunting, and the best example we have of this again comes from Arkham, who used the Jester alter ego to manipulate Dante. In fact this “a character pretends to be somebody else while also being that thing” is actually something of a theme and an example of this can be found in every single Devil may Cry game.
So who is he? No idea. He could be Vergil, using tricks of his old ally-turned-foe (Vergil was never above using enemy’s tactics against them), but as of now we don’t know what his motivation in this show of pretense would be. He could also be Vergil, but with amnesia. Now there’s a plot-twist. He could even, maybe, possible be Arkham, but that would require a lot of further explanation.
Either way, I’d bet he’s more than he seems and there’s a different person beneath that twinky boy mask. I also don’t believe they would introduce a completely new member of the main cast this late in the franchise’s life. Then again… They did introduce a new protagonist in Devil May Cry 4. The rule of thumb is that it only matters if it’s cool and it just might be cool.
We’ll certainly know more if we get videos of his fighting style as Itsuno loves to convey mannerisms and personality through style and they remain consistent and evolve with the characters.