Nice Try.
Welcome to A LINE THROUGH T⌛ME, where I take the time to look through your favourite
franchises and work out how it all lines up.
This time, we're discussing Capcom's baffling blunder of a reboot, DmC. If you want to see
me discuss the real Devil May Cry, here's a separate video for you to check out. I work
out how old Dante is in that one.
Before we really get started, though, I need to make one thing clear: no, DmC is not a
canonical prequel to the main series. It's a separate continuity. If you think otherwise,
you're an idiot. Dante's weapons are completely different. The world the game takes place
in is completely different. Dante and Vergil's designs, powers, personalities and goals are
completely different. Sparda's characterisation and history are completely different. Eva's
design and race are completely different. Angels now exist for some reason. And, oh
yes, DANTE AND VERGIL KILL MUNDUS IN THIS GAME! How goddamn stupid do you have to be
to genuinely believe DmC is a prequel to DMC3 in the face of all this evidence to the contrary?
Now that we've established irrefutably that DmC is its own thing, we can get down to explaining
the timeline. First, we have January 2013's DmC: Devil May Cry, which was announced only
three years after DMC4. The reason Capcom felt the need to reboot the franchise, especially
under western developer Ninja Theory, eludes me to this day.
The game follows an antisocial, homeless man-whore and his twin brother, Anonymous, as they seek
to end the secret Orwellian control the Demon Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, has over the entire
planet. They succeed in murdering the Kingpin's self-proclaimed bitch, their unborn child
that can leave and re-enter the womb at will, and demon Bill O'Reilly- sorry, Bill O'Reilly
- with help from Anonymous' follower Kat, who jerks off squirrels. In the end, they
kill the Kingpin, only for Anonymous to turn out to randomly be evil at the last minute
without any build-up, because there was another game about half-demon twins where the older
twin is the final boss that Ninja Theory apparently drew inspiration from, and Anonymous flees
to the demon world because the other game had the older twin say he needs more power
and stay in the demon world.
In addition to the main events, there's also the copied backstory with their parents, but
it's quite different here. Rather than humans, the demons were in conflict with angels, even
though the only angel we know about is Eva. Sparda is Mundus' blood brother, whose betrayal
is now just getting it on with an angel, not rebelling against him. He isn't a warrior
at all, so instead of fighting off the demons for two millennia alongside his angelic wife,
he goes into hiding until Mundus finds them and personally murders Eva. Sparda hides his
sons in new homes with amnesia before Mundus finds him and locks him in a rape dungeon,
never to be heard from again. If classic Sparda is the Dark Knight, is this Sparda Zack Snyder's
version that could get sodomised in prison?
Now that that image is stuck in your head, let's move on to The Chronicles of Vergil,
a two-part comic prequel that released in January and May of 2013. Vergil's name is
really just for marketing reasons, as Kat is the real star of the comic. It's a shame
too, because it's clearly supposed to be that we have the game, comic and DLC, each with
a different protagonist from the main trio. Kinda like the DMC3 manga... which was unfinished.
Just like the Dreamwave DMC1 adaptation. And the comic series Wildstorm was supposed to
be making. Which means the only DMC comic project that saw completion was tied to the
fucking reboot. Good job, humanity. I see now why the demons want us dead.
The only DMC comic project ever completed details how Vergil and Kat first met, with
sporadic cameos by Dante getting in trouble with the demons. The most significant thing
we learn is that Kat and Vergil are in love until Vergil erases both of their memories
of it, which is a pointless addition, given Vergil's utter disregard for her safety in
the game. The comic's approach to dialogue, even when directly adapting part of the cringefest
Poison encounter,
Dante: "I'm your prom date, you ugly sack of shit!"
is more like Playstation All-Stars, where they write Dante closer in tone to his classic
self than to some fourteen year old's edgy fanfiction.
Then, in March, the game received a DLC, Vergil's Downfall, which follows Vergil right after
the game, as he dies and acquires greater power in hell by ripping off Bleach harder
than Marvel did. Vergil becomes the new Demon King and prepares to go back to Earth to face
Dante again in the sequel.
Only, there is no sequel. The game sold the worst of the entire franchise, prompting Capcom
to greenlight DMC5 instead. The only acknowledgements of the reboot Capcom have made since are with
the Definitive Edition, and this Dante appearing as a DLC costume for the real Dante in Marvel
vs Capcom Infinite. The former improved the gameplay, made Lilith not a self-proclaimed
bitch, and removed Vergil's stupid hat; while the latter is arguably the best character
model in that game, which is probably a greater injustice to Dante than that game's terrible
writing.
Dante: "Hey, we're awesome guys."
Tony: "Hm."
Dante: "Yeah!"
Tony: "Nice."
But, let's get back to the timeline. Can we work out Dante's age here? Well, both Dante
and Vergil acknowledge their childhood amnesia as happening when they were seven, which was
presumably only a few days after their mother died and a few before their father's capture.
During the Bob Barbas fight, Bill recaps Dante's life. From this, we learn two things:
He was 8 when he ripped off Caravaggio's David with the Head of Goliath in the orphanage
Sparda put him into.
He's at least 17 now, since that's where the recap ends, but we get nothing more specific
than that. He's old enough to get into clubs and drink, at least. The game seems to take
place in America, but without any specific state given for Limbo City's location, it's
probably best to assume he's at least 21. You know, he might have a fake ID, but that's
just pure conjecture. Based on his design, I don't peg him for anything above 23. They
did base his second design on his voice actor, Tim Phillipps, but I can't find any information
about how old he is, so we can't use that either. So without anything firmer, I'll use
the soft age of 21 for the game and DLC.
The comic is set three months before the game. The Dante portion is set a few months prior,
allegedly coming one year after his fight with Poison in the game? It's probably a slip-up
like when MK4 claimed Liu Kang was the ancestor of the Great Kung Lao from 500 years ago.
My best guess is that the Dante portion is set a year prior to the game, with the rest
of the comic coming three months before the game, and roughly nine months after the Dante
part. So yeah, same year. And that's as good as we're gonna get, I think.
So without further ado, the DmC: Devil May Cry STANDALONE timeline goes a little something...
like this.
And, again, Before Dante and After Dante.
0AD - The demon Sparda falls in love with an angel named Eva, producing twin sons, Vergil
and Dante. Sparda's blood brother, the Demon King Mundus, is enraged by this, and Sparda's
family goes into hiding.
7AD - Mundus finds the family and personally murders Eva. Sparda separates his sons and
erases their memories, shortly before he is found and imprisoned by Mundus.
8AD - Dante kills the demon in charge of the orphanage he was placed in and begins moving
between various institutions and foster homes throughout his childhood.
20AD - Dante begins to awaken his demonic powers.
21AD - Vergil recruits a wiccan name Kat into his anti-demon organisation, The Order. The
two recruit Dante, who kills Mundus in battle, exposing the existence of demons to humanity.
Vergil challenges Dante to take Mundus' place, but Dante defeats him. Mortally wounded, Vergil
flees. He acquires new power in Hell and becomes the new Demon King, vowing to return and seek
revenge on his brother.
Do not tell me not to make fun of this game, because its story, world, aesthetic and dialogue
are fucking terrible. And it's conception isn't much better.
Mundus: "Me, a god. Versus you, a piece of shit."
As I discussed in the episode on the real Devil May Cry, Capcom thought rebooting a
series three years after the last instalment, under the direction of a Western developer
whose games were never on par with DMC in the first place, was somehow a good idea.
Even when fans immediately cried foul, Capcom pushed ahead with the project rather than,
I dunno, rebranding it as a new IP? Like when Street Fighter '89 became Final Fight and
allowed the seminal Street Fighter II to get made? Or more relevantly, when the equally
seminal Resident Evil 4 got made because the first attempt at RE4 became Devil May Cry?
I mean it's not like there's a precedent for this kind of thing working out really well
or anything...
It's a real shame the original vision for the game couldn't have just been its own thing
instead of being warped into a Hollywood bastardisation in video game form. Still, we've got DMC5
on the way and no sign of this thing ever continuing. Well, unless Ninja Theory's new
overlord Microsoft funds the smash hit of an exclusive, DmC2. But the world already
has one DMC2; it hardly needs another.
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