Devil May Cry/Characters/Villains
Vergil
"Foolishness, Dante, foolishness. Might controls everything. And without strength, you cannot protect anything. Let alone yourself."
The older of Sparda and Eva's twin sons, Vergil strongly resembles Dante... in appearance, and appearance only. When it comes to their personalities, they are complete opposites: while Dante is hotheaded and cocky but ultimately fights for humanity, Vergil is cool and collected and out for his own gain.
In Devil May Cry 3 and its prologue manga, Vergil joined forces with Arkham to release Temen-ni-gru and open the portal to the demon world. However, circumstances first led Vergil to kill Arkham (or so he thought), and then to team up with his brother to stop Arkham. After he was dealt with, the brothers fought over the Force Edge, with Dante ultimately winning. Vergil chose to stay in the Demon World, and decided to try and fight Mundus.
Devil May Cry reveals what happened to Vergil afterwards: somehow, he had become a servant of Mundus under the name Nelo Angelo. After several more clashes with his brother, he was defeated and vanished. Whether he survived is unclear, though given various hints in Devil May Cry 4, it seems unlikely.
In Devil May Cry 3, Vergil wields Yamato, a katana he inherited from his father, and later dual wields it with the Force Edge. As Nelo Angelo, he wields a very large sword.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: To the point that it can tear through dimensions.
- The Ace: Yes, a villainous version of the trope. It's how he's presented at the beginning of Devil May Cry 3, although this is later subverted, as Dante later is able to fight him to a draw in their second fight and then finally outright defeat him at the end of the game.
- Aloof Big Brother
- Always Identical Twins: Him and Dante.
- Anti-Villain (Type I): He's honorable enough to seek out a fair duel with his opponents and know when to draw the line (i.e. Arkham), but not enough to prompt a true Heel Face Turn.
- Badass Cape: As Nelo Angelo.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: As Gilver. Interestingly enough, concept art for Devil May Cry 3 depicts Vergil in a black suit with a Scarf of Asskicking, not unlike that of Gilver.
- Badass Longcoat
- Bandaged Face: As Gilver in the novelization.
- Batman Gambit: In the first novel, he sets Nell up to willingly perform a Heroic Sacrifice on Dante's behalf, in order to awaken Dante. It worked.
- Beat Them At Their Own Game: Inverted when he uses Sparda's other broadsword (Force Edge) to fight Dante at the end of Devil May 3. It doesn't work.
- Big Bad:The most recurring at that.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Arkham for the third game.
- Black Knight: As Nelo Angelo. Fittingly so, his name (if Nelo was spelled as Nero) is Italian for "Black Angel".
- Boss Banter: Chock full of it in Devil May Cry 3. The lines you hear depend on how you're faring, ranging from "Now I'm motivated!" to "Don't get cocky".
- Brainwashed and Crazy: As Nelo Angelo.
- Cain and Abel
- Cannot Spit It Out: Supplemental materials state that Vergil still has a great deal of respect for his younger brother. This is perhaps best seen at the end of Devil May Cry 3, where Vergil tells Dante to not follow him and tells him to escape from Demon World before the portal closes.
- Character Tics: His Hair Flip, which gives his hair its characteristic spikiness and reveals his forehead. This is done to further differentiate himself from Dante, as their hairstyles are identical when his hair is wet. In homage to his brother, when Dante obtains the Yamato in Devil May Cry 4, he runs his hand through his hair in the same manner as Vergil while entering Dark Slayer style.
- Cool Sword: Yamato, which covers...
- Audible Sharpness
- BFS: It has the length of a nodachi, which are long, two-handed Japanese blades. Additionally, there's Nelo Angelo's zweihander, which is sometimes brandished with only one arm.
- Chekhov's Gun: Factors heavily into the plot of Devil May Cry 4 (including some Sparda-related backstory).
- Clean Cut
- Dark Weapon
- It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": "Ya-ma-to", not "Ya-MA-to".
- Meaningful Name: Yamato is a word used to refer to the Japanese ways of old. True to form, Vergil has a very samurai-esque code of honor, right down to his dislike of guns.
- Alternate Character Reading: The full name of the weapon is 閻魔刀: 大和 or Enma Katana: Yamato. Literally "Devil Blade: Yamato". The 閻魔 (Enma, lit. "Devil") in 閻魔刀 (Enma Katana) can also refer to the judge of the afterlife, Yama, and 刀 (Katana, lit. "Blade") may also be read as とう (Tō). Thus, 閻魔刀 can technically be read as "Yamatō".
- Named Weapons
- Single-Stroke Battle: Rapid Slash.
- Spin to Deflect Stuff: Doubles as Bullet Catch.
- Unorthodox Sheathing
- Cryptic Conversation: The above quote, which led to a metric ton of Alternative Character Interpretation.
- Deflector Shields: In Devil May Cry 3, he'll put one up to signify one of his deadlier moves (Devil Trigger in the second battle, Super Devil Trigger in the third, Judgement Storm in the third, and, in Dante Must Die mode, Spiral Swords and its derived moves in all three fights).
- Different As Night and Day: Him and Dante. Guess why.
- Doesn't Like Guns: Is stated to think that firearms are dishonorable weapons. He gives them a shot near the end though. Let it be said that this does not stop Vergil from using his Summoned Swords, which have no difference in functionality from guns. They look cooler.
- Dual-Wielding: When he combines Yamato and Force Edge.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Notice that when he's finally defeated by Dante in Devil May Cry 3, the first thing he reaches for is his half of the Perfect Amulet. It can also be inferred that Nelo Angelo's pain when seeing Dante's half in Devil May Cry 1 is due to the memories of childhood with Eva and Dante.
- Evil Albino: His CGI-rendered scans in Devil May Cry 3 have Vergil significantly paler than his bro. Nelo Angelo's skin is also of a ghastly pallor.
- Evil Twin
- Final Boss: In Devil May Cry 3.
- Fingerless Gloves
- Flash Step: Does this a lot. It loses some of it usefulness as Nelo Angelo, considering that he rarely uses it to his advantage and you can see where he's going.
- Good Hair, Evil Hair: His slicked back 'do. If wet, he looks exactly like Dante.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Half-human, half-demon, like Dante.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The first fight against him in Devil May Cry 3.
- Instant Death Radius: His Summoned Swords as Nelo Angelo and especially during Devil May Cry 3's Dante Must Die mode. Hope that you wrote your will.
- Is That What He Told You?: Inverted. Lady is under the impression that Vergil is manipulating her father, Arkham, and was the reason he murdered Kalina Ann. In reality, it's the other way around. Appropriately, Vergil calls her a foolish girl, and Lady begins to start piecing together the facts for herself.
- It Was a Gift: Same deal as Dante, only replace "Rebellion" with "Yamato". It originally belonged to Sparda.
- Katanas Are Just Better
- Killed Off for Real: As if fans couldn't take the hint that a person exploding signifies their death, Capcom had to specifically state in Devil May Cry 4 that the Angelos were made from Nelo Angelo's corpse.
- Fridge Logic: Explosions that flashy do not leave corpses, and neither should they when an entire island explodes in the same fashion.
- If an explosion twice over doesn't cut it, The History of DMC states that Mundus destroyed Vergil's original body long before the first game even happened and put him in a construct body similar to Trish's (or that his body was destroyed and that Mundus skipped the whole "creation of a new one" thing, and took the soul and shoved it in an empty suit of armor), so... the Bianco Angelos were made out either of the corpse of a corpse, or a non-existent corpse, which again, completely disappeared upon explosion leaving nothing but an amulet. No, not even the sword was left, but the Order inexplicably found that mostly intact too. Have fun trying to make sense of it.
- Lost in Translation: Do not bring up the topic of Nelo Angelo vs. Nero Angelo if you value your life.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: And before you ask, YES: It's been confirmed!
- Malevolent Masked Men: As Nelo Angelo. And as Gilver, in the first novel (although it's not entirely his fault).
- Cool Mask/Cool Helmet:
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic... Villainous?: The third battle with Nelo Angelo has him revealing his face before the fight.
- Cool Mask/Cool Helmet:
- Man of Wealth and Taste
- Mirror Boss: Especially as Nelo Angelo, where his entire moveset consists of stronger versions of Dante's moves with longer range.
- Mr. Fanservice
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast
- No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me: When Nelo Angelo reveals himself to be Vergil, Dante doesn't seem to recognize him. Most likely, this is chalked up to the series' Anachronic Order. Or it could be chalked up to the Retcon brought about by Dante having met Vergil in Devil May Cry 3. Had they never seen each other since they were children (resulting in Vergil being Mundus' slave for twenty years as opposed to just nearly a decade), there would have been enough time for Dante to not recognize/forget about him/consider him dead and gone.
- Nonchalant Dodge: Does the Type 1 variety in the cutscene where he fights a pack of Abyss.
- Not So Stoic: During his brief Villainous Breakdown. "Why isn't it working?!", indeed. He cracks a few more times later on.
- Oedipus Complex: Played straight: Vergil's entire goal in the third game is to gain power and be like/surpass his father, and he's stated in the manga to dislike Dante (as a substitute for Sparda) simply because he thought Eva favored him more.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: Same as Dante.
- Parental Abandonment
- Perfect Play AI
- Power Glows: Nelo Angelo's zweihander is surrounded by some sort of blue fire as he swings it, while his armor pulsates several different colors to show the player how much life he has left. The latter was removed for Vergil's DT in Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition.
- Power Makes Your Voice Deep: As Nelo Angelo, complete with Power Echoes.
- Razor Wind: Judgement Cut. Taken Up to Eleven in the final battle with his Judgement Storm.
- Recurring Boss: You fight him three times in Devil May Cry 3. Factor in his appearances as Nelo Angelo in Devil May Cry 1, and you have a whopping total of six or seven battles against him, the most in the entire series.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Nelo Angelo after his unmasking.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue Oni to Dante's Red Oni.
- Secret AI Moves: Obviously, the playable version is severely toned down.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Yin to Dante's Yang.
- Sizeshifter: For some odd reason, Nelo Angelo grows to be about 1.5x the size of Dante when he unmasks and powers up for his final duel with Dante.
- The Slow Walk: All part of his aforementioned Perfect Play AI status. If Vergil is going to kill you, you had better believe that he's not going to actually run up to you. Teleportation is perfectly acceptable, though.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Many have a habit of misspelling his name as Virgil. While this is true of his namesake, the Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil/Vergil for short), this Vergil is spelled with an "e".
- The Stoic
- Theme Naming: In Devil May Cry 3, his special moves with Beowulf are all named after astrological and celestial bodies (Starfall, Rising Sun, Lunar Phase, Meteor).
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The implications are everywhere, from his former sibling bond with Dante as children or the happy times he spent with his family in the past.
- Villainous Rescue: In the second-to-last mission of Devil May Cry 3, he shows up in the nick of time to help Dante battle against Arkham.
- Voice Grunting: And an Evil Laugh. That's about it.
- The Voiceless: As Nelo Angelo.
- "Wake-Up Call" Boss: While he's only the boss of Mission 4 in the first game, Nelo Angelo is a tank and will crush players who think that they can aimlessly combo him to death. He also happens to be only a few missions after the fight with Phantom, the first "Wake-Up Call" Boss of Devil May Cry.
- White-Haired Pretty Boy
- Wild Card: Complete with the obligatory Enemy Mine and Heel Face Revolving Door.
- Worthy Opponent: Sees Dante as one. Subverted in several lines, especially when he Devil Triggers in the second battle ("You are not worthy as my opponent!"). As Nelo Angelo, Vergil seems to be motivated by the same general mindset to have a good fight with Dante above anything else.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Arkham opens the final gate in the Temen-ni-gru, Vergil offs him, saying that his services are no longer needed. Of course, Arkham wasn't actually down for the count...
Mundus
"Again I must face a Sparda... strange fate, isn't it?"
Two thousand... several thousand... a really long time ago, the human and the demon worlds were at war, and the dark emperor Mundus was at the head of the demon side. His plan was to rule both worlds, but Sparda defeated Mundus, sealing him and a number of portals to the demon world away. Needless to say, the Prince of Darkness was not very happy.
He serves as the main villain of the first Devil May Cry game. Planning to use a portal on Mallet Island to return to the human world, he used Trish to lure Dante there and sent his generals, particularly Nelo Angelo, to kill him. They all failed. Trish too failed him, but Mundus decided to try a trick instead of outright killing her.
Once Dante arrived in his lair, Mundus used Trish as a hostage ("Blink, and she dies!"), and took advantage of Dante being distracted to attack him. Trish took the killing blow for Dante, which wound up making Dante very unhappy.
So the two fought a legendary battle. As Dante was trying to escape Mallet Island afterwards, Mundus showed up again, this time falling apart. Trish then showed up, and helped Dante send Mundus back to the demon world. As he disappeared, he promised that he would return.
Mundus uses his considerable powers in combat.
Plot points throughout the first game and the series in general seem to imply that Mundus was the one responsible for the death of Eva, the mother of Dante and Vergil. Nothing has officially been disclosed.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Mundus, Round 3.
- Agony Beam: If you're not up to par, expect to receive this.
- Beard of Evil: His older form sports one.
- Bigger Bad: Of the series, more or less. A lot of events can be traced back to his battles against Sparda back in the day.
- Big No: Both after you defeat him the second time and when Dante seals him away with help from Trish.
- Blob Monster: His true form is implied to be a slimy orange mass with a lot of arms and eyeballs.
- Not just implied: his marble outer shell slowly but surely crumbles as you face him in mortal combat. By the time you'll vanquished him for good, most of his grotesque, fleshy true form—nothing more than a writhing mass of living tissue, complete with three eyeballs dangling from their eyestalks and hundreds of arms—is exposed.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: The third and final battle with him.
- Eviler Than Thou: Some of the cast in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 like to deride his ability or diminish his accomplishments (that is to say, being The Devil in the Devil May Cry universe) by saying they've faced worse or are worse.
Ghost Rider (intro to Trish): "I eat demons like Mundus for breakfast."
Phoenix (when beating Vergil) "Perhaps if I'm not too busy, I'll take care of Mundus, too."
Dormammu (win-quote against Dante) "As you can see, not all demons are created equal. Stick to fighting Mundus, boy!"
- Evil Sounds Deep
- Eye Beams
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: Besides the eye-like core that is his weak spot, there's the whole Blob Monster with three barely-connected eyes thing...
- Final Boss: Of the first game.
- Grandpa God: His old man form definitely invokes this, but he's really more like Satan than anything.
- Large and In Charge
- Light Is Not Good: He looks like an angel (with three eyes, but still), and even has his lair in what looks like a church, for crying out loud!
- Load-Bearing Boss: Defeating Mundus for the second time results in the gradual collapse of Mallet Island. Not that Mundus can take a hint to stay down...
- Physical God: The best Sparda and Dante could do was kick his ass and then seal him away. Mundus proclaims vengeance; Dante tells him to give his regards to his son.
- Red Baron: The Dark Emperor and The Devil King. In Devil May Cry 3, Vergil also refers to him as the Prince of Darkness before rushing in to face him in a hopeless battle. Inscriptions in the first game also call Mundus by the name of Pluto.
- Sadistic Choice:
Mundus (holding Trish captive): "Don't even think about it. Blink, she dies."
- Satan: Unquestionably, he is the Biggest Bad to grace this series. Mundus harbors many parallels to Satan. He fancies himself as God in his throne room, which is filled with light and made of perfect white marble, and appears as a multi-winged angel who fell from the heavens. Of course, those images are a mask to his true Blob Monster form.
- Sealed Evil in a Can
- Third Eye
- You Have Failed Me...: He kills Griffon for failing to kill Dante, and dialogue implies he's done the same to others that failed him in the past. Dante doesn't approve of this.
Phantom
"Ack... argh... You... you're not just any ordinary human... What are you?"
The first of Mundus' servants, he attacks Dante in a chapel in the castle at Mallet Island and later on the roof, as well as appearing as an Advancing Wall of Doom in certain areas. He appears again for some reason in Devil May Cry 2 as a boss when you attempt to open the gate to the demon realm.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: In some areas.
- Breath Weapon: He can shoot heat beams out of his maw.
- The Dragon: One of Mundus' generals and apparently his right-hand man. Whether or not he was Co-Dragons with Sparda before the demon knight's defection or became Mundus' general in Sparda's absence is unknown.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Has a deep, harsh voice. So deep and harsh, the game turns on a closed caption feature to make sure the player understands what he's saying.
- Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: In the second game, he literally falls from the sky. And no explanation is given.
- Giant Spider: He's basically this. Made of stone and lava, that is.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He eventually falls from the ceiling and gets impaled on the Knight Statue's spear.
- Magma Man: He manifests via earth and magma.
- Recurring Boss: With five appearances (four in Devil May Cry and one in Devil May Cry 2), he's second only to Vergil as the most recurring boss in the series. He also holds the record of having the most recurrences in a single game.
- Scary Scorpions: He has pincers and can turn his fat back into a long scorpion-tail.
- Time Travel: An excerpt from the Guidepost suggests that Phantom was brought through some "door to the past" for his appearance in Devil May Cry 2.
- The Voiceless: In Devil May Cry 2. Possibly Justified Trope, as he was only there for one boss battle.
- "Wake-Up Call" Boss
Griffon
"You! Are you the human, the son of Sparda, who challenges the Darkness Mundus?"
The second of Mundus' servants to face Dante, appears as a huge demonic eagle which attacks Dante several times in his journey. He's eventually defeated and destroyed by an angry Mundus. His death prompts Dante to become more serious.
- Cognizant Limbs: For your final battle with Griffon, he loses his left wing once he's down to about 2/3 of his health, permanently grounding him for the remainder of the battle.
- Evil Sounds Deep
- Feathered Fiend
- Giant Flyer: Emphasis on Giant.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Is pinned to sacrificial pentagram by a giant pointy rock sent by Mundus when Griffon pleas for his master to aid him after Dante defeats him the final time.
- Recurring Boss: He attacks Dante three times.
- Shock and Awe: With red lightning.
- You Have Failed Me...: Mundus eventually fries him when he's defeated for the third time.
Nightmare
A bionic demon-weapon built by Mundus who's sent after Dante. It appears as a large Blob Monster with a lot of nasty powers. Dante will require the help of some special platforms to make it solid and hurt his cores.
- An Ice Person: In "slime" form, Nightmare sends out little black slugs that latch onto Dante, freeze him, and explode into ice. In "solid" form, standing directly in front of it will prompt it to fire a high-damaging ice beam with a long duration from its "mouth".
- Attack Drone: Sends out several to cover its core, as well as make life for Dante hell in general.
- Attack Its Weak Point: The cores.
- Blob Monster: The most obvious one.
- Boss Arena Idiocy: Whenever he appears, there will be blue stones to keep him solid.
- Combat Tentacles: Which can become spears.
- Frickin' Laser Beams
- Nigh Invulnerability: Whenever it's a writhing pile of gloop. You have to activate the pedestals located in the room in order to force Nightmare to turn solid and reveal its weak point.
- Nightmare Sequence: If it absorbs Dante, he is trapped in a dream world (really just a smallish arena with floating skulls), and must beat a (much weaker) hallucinatory version of a previous boss.
- Recurring Boss: It's fought three times, all towards endgame (Missions 16, 18 and 20).
- Won't Work On Me: As the Nightmare-β was designed in a similar fashion to the real Nightmare, its lasers (which are game-breaking if even three runes of Dante's Devil Gauge are Charged Attack) are ineffective against its brother bioweapon. Presumably, the same applies for Trish's Nightmare-γ in Devil May Cry 2.
Arius
"The world is already warped. Everything that belongs to the demons will eventually revert to its original form."
The president of an international public corporation named Uroboros, he wishes to revive the demon king Argosax the Chaos and absorb his power. To complete this task, he travels to Dumary Island in search of the Arcana, magical artifacts necessary for breaking Argosax's seal.
It is revealed that Arius is the creator of Lucia, a "defect" who he abandoned long ago.
In the end, his ambition is thwarted by Dante's trickery, who sets up Arius by switching the Arcana Medaglia with his own lucky coin. While defeated by Dante, Arius is revived as a demon... who is ultimately destroyed by his own faulty creation, Lucia.
- Affably Evil: He's quite polite and refined... until the Villain Decay kicks in.
- Badass Arm-Fold: Does a smug little one to signify his teleportation spell.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: He wears some pretty snazzy formal clothes, with a fur-lined longcoat over that... with a cape attached to that.
- Badass Mustache
- Barrier Warrior: Can create a dark barrier to deflect attacks, although he only does this randomly.
- Beard of Evil: That is one sinister goatee.
- Bodyguard Babes: In your second fight against him as Dante, Arius is flanked by various women (according to files, these are his Secretaries). They all happen to be artificially-created demons based off of the same template. Lucia also happens to be one of them.
- Body Horror: Possessed Arius and Arius-Argosax, especially the latter.
- Breath Weapon: One of Arius-Argosax's attacks (besides his Prehensile Tail) is puking on you. Eww...
- Chest Blaster/Frickin' Laser Beams: Possessed Arius has two varieties: a burst of several covering a large area in front of him and a longer-lasting beam that follows you. Both can be avoided pretty easy by running under Arius when he leviatates and flanking his side/back.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Upon somehow gaining some of Argosax's power, Arius returns to fight Lucia as a demon. He's bigger, vastly more powerful, and resistant to most of your attacks (and he gets a deeper voice too), but he's also extremely clumsy and many of his attacks can be seen coming from a mile away, making them easily avoidable. By the time you face his second form, he's a painfully ridiculous and laughable cakewalk of a Final Boss.
- Combat Tentacles: Possessed Arius has two.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive
- Dark Is Evil: See Evil Sorceror below.
- Diabolical Mastermind
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Done in a roundabout fashion.
- Evil Sorceror: Has magical prowess, having dabbled in the dark arts. Included in his arsenal are portals of dark energy that swallow up his enemies and send them crashing down to the ground in another location, spires of darkness, and--of course—his Summon Magic.
- A God Am I: At first. When the Villain Decay hits, it then pulls a 360 and plummets straight into Drunk on the Dark Side.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The result of Lucia's battle with him. Dante's first fight against Arius subverts this as Dante is clearly the victor, but Arius gains a second wind, effortlessly dodges Dante's attempted deathblow, and then blows up his tower.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Lucia ends up being the one to finally vanquish him.
- Hostage for Macguffin: Demands that Dante hands over the Arcana in exchange for Lucia's life.
- Life Drain: Possessed Arius has an odd variation. One of his attacks has him slide across the ground and capture Lucia with the pulsating red orb found on his chest cavity. It drains Lucia's healthbar, but doesn't restore any of his own.
- Large Ham: Sweet Jeebus. Mission 17 of Dante's disc firmly cements him as this trope, complete with a bout of chewery-scening laughter, Milking the Giant Cow numerous times, and an odd squealing battlecry right before Dante fights him.
- Lucia... I Mean "Chi," I Am Your Creator
- Mad Scientist
- Man in White
- Man of Wealth and Taste
- Revolvers Are Just Better
- Smoking Is Cool
- Summon Magic: Just loves to summon various Mooks during his Boss Battle. It becomes grating when coupled with his Bodyguard Babes for Dante's second fight. Also, he summons one of the game's bosses (Furiataurus) to fight Dante in his stead.
- Villainous Breakdown: He was already loopy by that point, but with lines like "Wheeeooooooooo!" and "I was meant to be the KEEEEEEEEEEEEENG of the this world!", yeah... And then Dante "crowns" him. When he returns as a demon to face Lucia, he's even worse.
- Villain Teleportation: Tends to warp around the field using portals of dark energy.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Subverted. He starts going insane before his ritual to take Argosax the Chaos's power even begins.
The Servants of Arius
A series of powerful demons met by Dante and Lucia during the course of the game in many locations, they're powerful monsters serving Arius. The most noticeable are Orangguerra, Jokatgulm, Infestant, Nefasturris, Furiataurus, Tateobesu, Bolverk, Noctpteran, Tartarussian & Plutonian and Trismagia. Nefasturris, Orangguerra, Jokatgulm and Furiataurus reappear later merged in Argosax's body.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: The Infested Chopper. It chases Dante through a burning building and across several rooftops.
- All Your Powers Combined: Trismagia's strongest attack is to recombine and then fire a blast of powerful magical energy utilizing all three elements.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Nefasturris, which was brought to life from a skyscraper.
- Big Badass Wolf: Bolverk's pet demon wolves, Freki and Geri. They're actually the reincarnated forms of his battle-mates.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Noctpteran and her larvae.
- Blade on a Stick: Bolverk's weapon of choice is an extendable spear with a huge blade. It also further cements his status as a Shout-Out to Odin (see Meaningful Name below).
- Body Horror: Trismagia, Tartarussian & Plutonian and Nefasturris. Trismagia, in particular, literally rips himself apart in order to separate (complete with blood splashing into the air). And then there's Nefasturris continuing the battle as the deformed head known as Nefascapitas...
- Boss Arena Idiocy: To an extent, Trismagia. Every once in a while, the white head will summon four pillars of ice to land on the platform you're fighting on top of. Hacking away at and breaking these icicles is a good method for building your DT meter, which is the fastest way to shave off good chunks of health from his lifebar.
- Breath Weapon: Nefasturris can shoot a devastating laser beam. Orangguerra, Furiataurus and Trismagia all can spit projectiles (or in Furiataurus' case, a jetstream of flames) from their mouth as well.
- The Brute: Orangguerra.
Enemy File - Orangguerra: "A giant and hostile monster that possesses prodigious strength and agility."
- Bullet Hell: Trismagia attacks randomly and without discretion, usually having his heads fire upon you in quick succession. Prepare to dodge... a lot.
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Noctpteran, who's more like a moth.
- Casting a Shadow: Bolverk. Comes complete with a dark-purple fume cloaking his upper body.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: Trismagia's blue head always sports this. Creepy is an understatement here, folks.
- Cognizant Limbs: Target Orangguerra's arms and you can eventually lob them off. Jokatgulm's tentacles need to be eliminated from the equation if you want a clear shot at her head.
- Color Coded for Your Convenience: Trismagia's heads: the happy one is blue and controls lightning, the angry one is red and controls fire, while the sad one is white and controls ice.
- Combat Tentacles: Jokatgulm.
- Death From Above: Orangguera will latch onto the ceiling to move around the arena and then pounce on Dante/Lucia with a rolling spin. Bolverk will also perform a diving slash if Dante tries to attack him while he's deflecting bullets with his lance.
- Deflector Shields: Jokatgulm can errect one to protect herself should Dante or Lucia make it ontop of her belly. It has a nasty habit of sending them flying across the room.
- Degraded Boss: Orangguera shows up as an enemy a few missions after your boss fight with it in Dante's disc. He also shows up randomly as a Mini Boss in a corresponding mission of Lucia's.
- Dem Bones: Bolverk's body is skeletal in appearance.
- Drop the Hammer: Furiataurus' weapon.
- Eldritch Abomination: Nefasturris. Nefascapitas isn't much better in this regard.
- Enigmatic Minion: Bolverk is an odd example in that he never speaks, so his personality and motives are very hazy. However, it's never clarified if he's actually a follower of Arius or just lurking around Dumary Island and Arius' HQ in wait for Dante.
- Epic Flail: Tartarussian and Plutonian have huge spiked balls in lieu of hands.
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: Orangguerra.
- Everything's Better with Spinning: Tartarussian and Plutonian tend to flail their maces around in wide, sweeping arcs.
- Evil Laugh: Trismagia has a very creepy one.
- Extra Eyes: Orangguerra and Tateobesu. Four to be exact.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: The Infested Tank and Infested Chopper, being techno-organic monstrosities, sport a single eye. Naturally, these are the demons' weak points.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Trismagia's powers.
- Flat Character: Unlike the bosses of the other games, they lack personality and charm, except maybe Bolverk and Trismagia.
- Flunky Boss: Bolverk is backed up by Freki and Geri, Plutonian can summon Agonofinis demons to aid him, Orangguerra does the same with the Msira, and Noctpteran continually lays eggs that hatch into Larvae which continue to attack even after their mother's death.
- Fog of Doom: Jokatgulm tends to spew a poisonous mist that saps away your strength if you stay on her belly for too long.
- Frickin' Laser Beams: Nefasturris and Nefascapitas, full stop.
- Gatling Good: Infested Chopper.
- Get Back Here Boss: Trismagia loves to hang back just outside the range of your firearms and only one of the three heads is vulnerable at a time.
- Giant Flyer: Noctpteran.
- Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Many of them, including Orangguerra, Noctpteran, Jokatgulm and Nefasturris.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Tateobesu. It actually uses their glow to temporarily blind Lucia before their fight.
- Hellfire: Furiataurus is made of it: it even bleeds lava when attacked.
Enemy File - Furiataurus: "Haunted by death, agony, and resentment of the condemned, its four limbs are still in flames."
- Horned Humanoid: Furiataurus, to complete its classic Devil-inspired look.
- Invisible Monsters: Tateobesu is an odd variation. It can become invisible "by assimilating its body to water", but you can still see it as clear as day. While in this state, however, you can't lock-on to it. Naturally, it's stuck in its invisible state in Dante Must Die mode.
- Just Eat Him: Tateobesu tries this frequently as you battle it.
- King Mook: Orangguerra for the Msira enemies and Tartarussian and Plutonian for the Finis enemies.
- Laser Blade: One of Bolverk's more potent attacks is empowering his spear and then performing a Stinger-like attack where a blade of energy extends from his (already long) weapon.
- A Load of Bull: Furiataurus.
- MacGuffin Guardian: Tartarussian guards the Arcana Spada and Plutonian guards the Arcana Medaglia.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: Orangguerra can fire a bubble-like projectile of concussive force from its mouth.
- Meaningful Name: Nefasturris (Tower of Sin), Nefascapitas (Head of Sin), Furiataurus (Bull of Fury), Noctpteran (Night Wing), Trismagia (more or less, Three Mages; could also draw comparisons to the Magi). Tartarussian and Plutonian come from Tartarus and Pluto. Bolverk is an alias Odin once took while masquerading as a human, while Freki and Geri were two wolves who accompanied him in tales.
- Mini Boss: Infested Tank. You face three as Dante and one as Lucia.
- Mismatched Eyes: Orangguera. Three are yellow, one is blue.
- Mix and Match Critter: Jokatgulm. She has the head of a cobra, the body of a jellyfish, and the tentacles of an octopus.
- Multiple Head Case: Tartarussian and Plutonian.
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: Perhaps the only way you can discern Jokatgulm is one of the few female bosses in the game.
- Playing with Fire: Trismagia's red head and Furiataurus.
- The Power of Hate: Bolverk, possibly. According to his enemy file, "his single eye possesses both knowlege and malice."
- Punny Name: Oranguerra is a play on orangutan and guerra, the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese word for "war."
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Trismagia gives one to Dante. Dante, unfazed, counters with a Shut UP, Hannibal (see his entry above).
- Recurring Boss: Bolverk and his wolves.
- Religion Is Magic: Trismagia is the oracle of Demon World. Overlaps with Evil Sorceror.
- Rooftop Confrontation: Infested Chopper and Furiataurus.
- Shielded Core Boss: Jokatgulm subverts this. You can go straight for her head, but it's a lot easier without her tentacles in the way.
- Shock and Awe: Trismagia's blue head. Plutonian can also call forth electric beams to shoot out of the walls in its arena in order to attack Dante and entrap him by limiting his area of movement. Tateobesu's Prehensile Tail appears to be electrified.
- Spin to Deflect Stuff: Bolverk.
- Surprise Vehicle: Infested Chopper.
- Taking You with Me: When drained of all his health, Trismagia reforms to deliver one final blast that bites a chunk out of your lifebar. You need to survive or (more preferably) dodge it so that Trismagia can finally die. If it kills you (and given the length and structure of the battle, you'll probably be low on health at the time), you have to fight him all over again.
- Tank Goodness: Not exactly in the case of the Infested Tanks.
- Third Eye: All three of Trismagia's heads sport these.
- Trick Boss: Nefasturris --> Nefascapitas. Have fun.
- Underwater Boss Battle: Tateobesu, exclusive to Lucia's disc.
- Voice Grunting: Bolverk at times. Jokatgulm also delivers a screechy wail as a death cry.
- The Voiceless: All of them, barring Trismagia (who gets maybe three lines).
- Won't Work On Me: Averted. Trismagia, whether whole or separated, is not immune to his respective elements.
- The Worm That Walks: Nefasturris is composed by swarms of lesser demons called "Nefasverminis" (Worms of Sin).
- Worthy Opponent: Bolverk fought Sparda in the past, and now he wants a rematch against his son.
Argosax the Chaos/The Despair Embodied
The king of Demon World, Argosax is ancient demon who was defeated by Sparda with the help of the Vie de Marli and sealed using four magical artifacts. Arius seeks the Arcana to undo the seal, revive Argosax, and then absorb his power.
Despite Dante and Lucia thwarting Arius' plans, the resurrection ceremony commences anyway, opening a portal to the Demon World. Ultimately, Dante volunteers to go forth and defeat him. Argosax then assumes a sleeker and more powerful form, The Despaired Embodied. After a long and tenuous battle, Dante is ultimately victorious, blasting the former Demon King to bits.
- Ambiguous Gender: The Despair Embodied is said to be a he, but appears as an androgynous horned being made of fire whose sex changes depending on its Weapon of Choice; the male uses a Flaming Sword, while the female brandishes a Whip It Good.
- Back from the Dead: This one shouldn't come as a surprise.
- Bigger Bad: Is the cornerstone of the plot, but doesn't actually do much to affect it (being dead might have something to do with it). He only appears in the final chapter of Dante's story and his influence possesses Arius in Lucia's final mission.
- Bishonen Line: The Despair Embodied resembles a transparent human with indistinct features. It is vastly more powerful than Argosax's base form.
- Blob Monster: When confronted by Dante, Argosax is presented as a macabre amalgamation of severals bosses faced by Dante previously (Phantom, Furiataurus, Nefasturris, Jokatgulm and Orangguerra, as well as Griffon from Devil May Cry 1).
- Eldritch Abomination
- Flash Step: A specialty of The Despair Embodied is disappearing from sight and then blindsiding you with one of its attacks.
- Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Not the slightest mention was given to The Despair Embodied in the story. It simply bursts out of a cocoon that ejects from Argosax's withering husk and challenges Dante.
- Glass Cannon: The Despair Embodied has much less health than Argosax, but zips around the place and hits like hell.
- Horned Humanoid: The Despair Embodied.
- Marathon Boss: Argosax has a ton of health, but most of its heads can be safely blasted with the rocket launcher from outside their attack range.
- Mega Manning: See Blob Monster above. Notably, some of the bosses that comprise Argosax skip their Turns Red phase and whip out their more powerful attacks from the get-go.
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast
- No, I Am Behind You: How Dante finishes off The Despair Embodied. He charges at the entity with his sword, and Dante's opponent counter attacks. When the dust clears, the Rebellion falls into the ground and Dante is nowhere in sight. The Despair Embodied then checks his surroundings. Cue Dante, standing right next to him with his gun pointed at the side of his head. Dante smirks and then pulls the trigger, right as The Despair Embodied gives an Oh Crap reaction (well, as best as a being with no eyes can), and the shot shatters the Demon King into millions of pieces.
- Physical God: Unlike Mundus, Sparda actually did manage to kill him though.
- Playing with Fire: The Despair Embodied, albeit in the form of combustions.
- Power Gives You Wings: The Despair Embodied looks like a fiery angel. It even has an attack where it fires a volley of its feathers to rain down on you.
- The Voiceless
- Voice Grunting: The Despair Embodied. If you listen closely enough, the voices for The Despaired Embodied seem to be that of Dante (male) and Lucia (female).
Arkham/Jester
"Let's welcome chaos!"
Lady's father, who helped Vergil release the Temen-ni-gru from confinement. He's well-versed in the knowledge of the dark arts, even going so far as to sacrifice Lady's mother to gain more power and knowledge for himself.
He manipulates Vergil, Lady and Dante, bringing them together, as all three characters were necessary to break Sparda's seal and open the portal to the Demon Realm. He often disguises himself as Jester in order to weaken them and keep all of them alive at the same time. He tries to claim Force Edge and Sparda's power, only to be mutated in a giant blob-like mass, which wasn't the power of Sparda, but in reality a reflection of the evil in his heart. In the end, after being severely weakened by the Sparda brothers and being thrown out of the demon realm, he meets his end by Lady's hand.
- Archnemesis Dad: To Lady.
- Badass in a Nice Suit
- Bald of Evil
- Barehanded Blade Block
- Big Bad: Of Devil may Cry 3.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: He goes into a Bond villain-style monologue in Mission 13 detailing his plan in manipulating the twins and his daughter into spilling their blood to undo the seal. He undid the final part of the seal by stabbing Lady with her bayonet through the leg, but it was just as easy to stab her somewhere vital and kill her, which would have prevented her from getting up and turning her weapon on him... It also would have stopped her from killing him at the end too.
- Bullet Dancing: Inverted, and then mocked when Jester starts doing the Charleston. Jester does this frequently in his boss battle too.
- Card-Carrying Villain
- Conflict Killer: Subverted as the Dante-Vergil sibling rivalry picks up immediately after they team up to kick his ass.
- Double Entendre: Calling the Temen-ni-Gru tower a "thick shaft that causes women to shudder."
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: His final tantrum before Lady blows his head off.
- Expy: His Jester form is an expy of The Joker.
- Gag Nose: Jester.
- A God Am I
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The burned, pulsating side of his face.
- I Let You Win: The additional Jester battles in Special Edition.
- It's All About Me: Rationalizes all of his evil deeds--including the murder of his wife--as necessary steps in his goal to become a god right before Lady kills him.
- The Jester: Uses this guise to manipulate Dante.
- Large Ham: One of the hammiest characters in the whole series.
- Laughably Evil: Jester.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Assuming it isn't a part of his anatomy as Jester.
- Mismatched Eyes: Used to hint both at Arkham's connection to Lady as well as the fact that he's Jester.
- Monster Clown
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Seriously, you thought he was The Dragon to Vergil, didn't you?
- Obviously Evil: Does a guy with half of his face pulsating and one red eye look like a good guy to you?
- One-Winged Angel: That blob thing he turned into.
- Power Makes Your Voice Deep: Both his regular voice and his voice as Jester are reasonably pitched, but the moment he absorbs Sparda's power, his voice drops considerably.
- Recurring Boss: Both subverted and played straight. You're only required to fight him twice: once as Jester and once as his Blob Monster One-Winged Angel. The extra fights added in Special Edition are optional.
- Shout-Out: To Batman. He shares his name with the famed mental institute in the comics, while his alter-ego is an Expy of The Joker.
- A Storm Is Coming: Says this almost word-for-word.
- Treacherous Advisor: To Vergil and Lady. Jester is something of a Stealth Mentor to Dante.
Guardians of Temen-ni Gru
The various high-level Devils that guarded the Demonic Tower, a passageway between the human world and the demonic domain. Many of them fought Sparda in the past. All those who are defeated are turned into Devil Arms (or powers) for Dante to use. They are Cerberus, Agni & Rudra, Leviathan, Nevan, Beowulf, Geryon and Doppelganger.
- Achilles' Heel: Cerberus' heads, Leviathan's hearts, Beowulf's eye, Geryon's carriage (if you manage to hit both him and the wagon), and Doppelganger's aversion to light.
- Affably Evil: Agni & Rudra and Nevan. The former pair muse about how they've been bad hosts for their visitor (Dante) and act quite cordial towards him. They only attack when Dante expresses his desire to pass through the gate they're guarding and then show admiration of his skills. As for Nevan, well... it sounds like she's working at a brothel and asking for Dante to invite her into his pants.
- An Ice Person: Cerberus is covered in ice and can manipulate it.
- Bare Your Midriff: Nevan.
- Boring but Practical: Having trouble defeating Cerberus? Stand in the corner and shoot him. Jump when appropriate.
- Boss Banter: Nevan and Beowulf.
- Bullet Time: What happens if you're hit by Geryon's time orbs.
- Casting a Shadow: The Doppelganger. Bonus points for actually appearing from Dante's shadow.
- Dance Battler/She Fu: While most of Nevan's attacks use lightning to strike Dante, she has two attacks that send a dark wave of energy at the Son of Sparda: the first has her gyrate multiple times and while the second shows that Nevan is very flexible.
- Defeat Means Friendship: With the possible exceptions of Leviathan and Beowulf.
- Doppelganger: Made of darkness, can replicate Dante's Devil Trigger at will.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Poor Beowulf.
- Dual Boss: Agni and Rudra. When one is defeated, the other picks up his fallen brother's sword and resorts to Dual-Wielding.
- Eldritch Abomination: Leviathan, whose body is a living gateway to the Hell of Envy.
- Elemental Powers: Ice for Cerberus, Fire and Wind for Agni and Rudra, Lightning for Nevan, Light'Em Up for Beowulf, Time Master for Geryon, and Darkness for Doppelganger.
- Evil Laugh: Nevan has an epic, hammy laugh.
- As do Agni & Rudra during the Million Slash combo. As a Call Back to their agreement to remain quiet while traveling with Dante, Dante will yell "SILENCE!" as the combo finisher.
- Evil Redhead: Nevan.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Cerberus (who apparently uses some sort of Telepathy), Agni & Rudra, and Beowulf. Nevan's voice is not that deep and the remaining demons don't speak at all.
- Extreme Omnivore: In Leviathan's stomach, you can find several ships, a bus, some skyscrapers, and the remains of a bridge.
- Eye Scream: Beowulf had his left eye sliced by Sparda, and after his fight Dante takes care of the right one.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Beowulf attacks Vergil and ends up having his head bisected... trisected... diced by him.
- Giant Flyer: Leviathan is probably the largest boss of the whole series.
- Godiva Hair: Nevan.
- Hellish Horse: Geryon is a demonic horse wreathed in wisp-fire and pulls a large wagon.
- Hell Hound: Cerberus.
- Horny Devils: Hi there, Nevan... (it should be noted that she may be a Leanan-Sidhe or a Baoban Sith and not a succubus like most think; regardless, this she-devil still counts).
- Hot Witch/Evil Sorceress: Nevan, most likely. Her title is "The Lightning Witch", and the profile for the mission you fight her in refers to Nevan as "the sorceress of the abyss."
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Probably inside Geryon's carriage, since it can conjure and fire a large amount of missiles and spears.
- I'll Kill You!: One of Beowulf's lines as he Turns Red.
- Just Eat Him: Leviathan does this to Dante. Backfires when Dante sliced apart the heart of the behemoth from inside.
- Kiss of Death: Nevan has one that steals a sizable portion of your lifebar to heal hers. You should do your best to either avoid her or immediately Devil Trigger when she latches onto you, as its result tends to be fatal.
- Light Is Not Good: Beowulf may wield the power of sacred light but is still a devil.
- Living Shadow: Doppelganger.
- MacGuffin Guardian: Most of them, if not all. Cerberus guards the main gate, Nevan stands between you and the Stone Mask, and Beowulf's room contains a fault generator you must take.
- Mary Elizabeth McGlynn: The voice of Nevan... Suuuugar....
- Ms. Fanservice: Nevan. A nice chest, Stripperific outfit, Ship Tease/Foe Yay moments with Dante both before and after their battle (her comments imply that she also lusted after Sparda at some point in the past), and a very sexy voice.
- Puzzle Boss: The Doppelganger. You have to make him weak by turning the lights on as he approaches (if you're too fast he will step back and avoid the light blast; if you're too slow, all the lights will shut off automatically).
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: More like quirky boss squad, really.
- Red Baron: Cerberus the "Ice Guardian", Agni & Rudra "The Firestorm", Leviathan "The Great Beast", Nevan "The Lightning Witch", Beowulf "The Lightbeast", Geryon the "Time Steed", and Doppelganger "The Deathvoid".
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: All them barring one of Cerby's heads and Rudra.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Agni and Rudra. Moreso literally (complete with appropriate color coding), as both are seen to be quite levelheaded and calm (outside of battle, at least).
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Beowulf is simply pissed at Sparda for gouging out his eye.
- Sadly Mythtaken: Let's see...
- Cerberus is still a demonic three-headed hound, but has ice powers (may be a nod to The Divine Comedy).
- Agni and Rudra are no longer gods but two sentient scimitars held by headless brutes.
- Beowulf greatly resembles Pazuzu or a little Grendel. Probably they thought that Beowulf was a cool name for a weapon.
- Geryon is a fiendish horse, while in Myth he was a grotesque giant with three bodies.
- Sinister Scimitar: Agni and Rudra.
- Time Stands Still: Geryon's powers.
- Tron Lines: Beowulf has them.
- Turns Red: Cerberus and Beowulf.
- The Vamp: Nevan, who is overtly sexual but also overtly nefarious.
- Vapor Wear: Much like Morrigan and Lilith, Nevan's "clothes" are made from bats. You actually need to carve through some of them in order to damage her.
- Violation of Common Sense: Beowulf has an attack where he fires the feathers from his wings at you. Dante needs to be close to Beowulf to avoid 'em.
- "Wake-Up Call" Boss: If it's not Cerberus, then Agni and Rudra will do.
- Woman in Black: Nevan, a much straighter example than Trish.
- Womb Level: Leviathan.
- Your Head Asplode: We assure you that Cereberus will only have one head left when you defeat him.
Credo
"You jest so lightly in a time of crisis?"
The well-respected Supreme General of the Holy Knights of Fortuna, a position he gained through his incredible skill with a blade and his unwavering loyalty to the Order of the Sword and its ideals. Likewise, he holds the same loyalty for Sanctus and his teachings. He is the older brother of Kyrie and treats Nero as family despite not agreeing with Nero's lifestyle habits. When demons attack Fortuna, Credo leaves the task of demon-slaying to Nero.
Behind the scenes, he is plotting with Sanctus as well as overseeing the situation regarding Dante. He also expresses mixed concern behind the motives of Gloria. Eventually, he is charged with the job of defeating Nero. In the conclusion of their fight, Kyrie is kidnapped by Agnus, a move that shakes Credo's faith in the Order. He makes one final charge against Sanctus later on to free Nero, but things end bleakly. In his dying plea, he requests that Dante save Nero and his beloved sister.
- Badass Beard
- BFS
- Big Brother Instinct: Towards Kyrie. Oddly enough, he's not vehemently against Nero and Kyrie's mutual attraction.
- Big Brother Mentor: It's implied that he plays this role to some degree in regards to Nero.
- Disappears Into Light
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: No one, not even Kyrie, mentions him by the game's close.
- Hero Antagonist
- Informed Ability: His swordsmanship. You do get to see it, but by that point, he's not even human.
- Knight Templar: Shades of it. When ordered to go kill his friend Nero, he just goes and does it. Or tries, anyway...
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Supposedly, the shield also symbolizes his willingness to remain loyal to the Order of the Sword.
- Mirror Boss
- Mr. Fanservice
- Not What I Signed on For: When he finally sees the folly of his actions, he denounces Sanctus. See This Is Unforgivable! below.
- Not What It Looks Like: Used to dramatic effect in the aftermath of his fight with Nero.
- One-Winged Angel: Angelo Credo, the One-winged Dark Knight, who doubles as an Expy of Nelo Angelo, right down to a BFS and a similar sounding theme. For bonus points, he's a literal One-Winged Angel.
- Redemption Equals Death
- Tennis Boss: Complete with grabbing his swords and hurling them right back at him.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Subverted. While furious and appalled at how Sanctus used his sister as bait in his plans, thus shaking Credo's unwaivering loyalty to the Order, he utters this line after he was wounded by Sanctus. Things only get worse from there.
- The Unfought: His human form. See Informed Ability above.
Agnus
"Humans, they are but stubborn and foolish. It takes a journey to Hell for them to accept and praise their God!"
The Chief alchemist of the Order of the Sword, he is the one responsible for artificially creating several of the game's Mook enemies, such as the Cutlass, Gladius, Basilisk and the Angelus Armors. He even takes credit for creating the Hellgates that the bosses and other enemies use to enter the human world (since he had to use many of their souls in the creation of the armors), but due to his shut-in behavior, few among the order know of his existence.
Deserves a mention for that scene where he tries to out-ham Dante.
- Barehanded Blade Block: Against Nero. With pinkies extended.
- BFS: The Gladius Demons he uses as his swords are not exactly small.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: His demon-form is a humanoid insect.
- Chewing the Scenery: No, seriously...
- Dirty Coward
- Energy Absorption: One of his attacks.
- Everything Is Better With Spinning: One of his attacks has him spin around on the battlefield while two Cutlasses are attached to his arms.
- Evil Genius
- Flunky Boss: Puts a spin on it as his summoned creatures act as his weapons instead of attacking independently.
- Large Ham: Did we mention he tried to out-ham Dante? He had a good try at it too, what with the posturing, and pausing every word or two...
- Mad Scientist: Everything he does is For Science!!
- Moe Greene Special: How Dante kills him. With the added effect of destroying all of his written research.
- One-Winged Angel: Angelo Agnus, the One-eyed Dark Knight.
- Verbal Tic: His s-s-s-stutter, which Nero naturally mocks.
Berial
The Conqueror of the Fire Hell, is a huge, centaur-like devil who's wreathed in flames from hell. He fights Nero in an abandoned mine village but is defeated. He later reappears but is stopped and slain by Dante. His Hell Gate was powered by the Lucifer Devil Arm.
- BFS: In this case, F can also stand for Flaming Sword.
- Continuity Nod: He's said to be the conqueror of the Fire Hell, from which the devil Furiataurus (met by Dante in Devil May Cry 2) probably came from (but remember, Devil May Cry 4 takes place before Devil May Cry 2).
- Evil Sounds Deep
- Flaming Hair: A Balrog-like mane.
- Flaming Sword
- Large Ham
- Playing with Fire: Obviously.
- Recurring Boss: He's fought three times in total.
- Spell My Name with an "S": It's supposed to be "Belial" but is mispelled Berial.
- Taking You with Me: Attempted on Dante but failed.
- After sacrificing most of his body and using his flaming, flying head for one last Desperation Attack, Dante finishes him off with one pistol shot.
- Villainous Valor: He wanted to avenge all the fellow Devils slain by Dante (which, by now, are quite a lot).
Bael and Dagon
Two twin devil toads from the coldest inferno. Bael attacks Nero in the castle on Fortuna but is slain by Nero. Later his brother Dagon assaults Dante but meets the same fate. Their Hell Gate is powered by the Devil Arm Pandora.
- Achilles' Heel: Their tongues.
- Alluring Anglerfish: Can use the pretty Rusalka demons on his feelers to lure his opponents. Of course, Dante is not fooled.
- An Ice Person: They can use ice and conjure blizzards.
- Biological Mashup: They look like a hybrid of a toad and an anglerfish.
- Combat Pragmatist: Tend to lure in the darkness and use sneak attacks.
- Fat Bastard
- Half The Devil He Used To Be
- Horny Devils: The Rusalka twins.
- Just Eat Him: Can try this on Nero/Dante.
- Me's a Crowd: For some reason, there are many Dagon-like demons.
- Twin Threesome Fantasy: The imagery the Rusalka twins give off, sensual embraces and everything. Dante, ever the cunning fox, decides to go along with it to toy with Dagon.
Echidna
A huge demon who has infested the forest on Fortuna Island. Appears as a huge serpent-like Dragon, but hides her true body in the mouth and can appear as a part woman-part serpent devil. She's laying a bunch of eggs which gives birth to the hellish Chimera. Her Hell Gate is powered by a Devil Arm, the Gilgamesh.
- Absolute Cleavage
- Giant Flyer: She hovers over the forest the whole time.
- Green Thumb: She seems to have some relationship with plants.
- Just Eat Him: Attempted again on Dante.
- Mama Bear: She gets pissed when Dante starts kicking her eggs around like footballs.
- Meaningful Name: Named after the monster from Greek myths. Echidna's name meant "she-viper", and she was the mother of various other monsters including the Chimera and (humorously enough) Cerberus. This explains her appearance and Mama Bear tendencies.
- Snakes Are Sexy: Her humanoid form, maybe?
- Vagina Dentata: It doesn't help that the mouth of her serpentine form folds back to resemble a Venus Flytrap when she reveals her true self.
- Villainous Valor: She really cares for her children. And her forest.
Sanctus
"2,000 years ago... the Dark Knight Sparda, turned against his demon bretheren and took up his sword for the sake of mankind. Though despite his brave efforts in our names, I fear some have forgotten the great truth of that great sacrifice."
The Vicar of Sparda, Sanctus is the leader of the Order of the Sword (and by proxy, Fortuna). He is a kindly and benevolent man who is praised and loved by his subjects. In the middle of one his Sparda-centered sermons, Dante swoops in and kills him, setting off the events of the game.
Shortly afterwards, he is revived via the Ascension ceremony. It is revealed that he is mastermind of the Order's plot to conquer the world using the vast power of The Savior. He lures Dante to Fortuna by using the Yamato to open up Hellgates so that he can use Dante as The Savior's core, but switches his plans when he kidnaps Kyrie to instead goad on Nero. While he does gain immense power thanks to the Sparda sword, Dante and Nero work together to quell his goal of world domination.
- Back from the Dead: Thanks to the Ascension ceremony which enfuses its participants with demonic energy.
- Barrier Warrior: One of the more frustrating tactics Sanctus employs during your battles with him.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: As the False Savior.
- Corrupt Church: And he's the head of it.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: He's the head of a seemingly Roman Catholic church, resembles the Pope (and is even called "His Holiness"), and worships a statue in Sparda's image known as The Savior. Need we go on?
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: See his merciless stabbing of Credo when Credo is pissed by the use of his sister in Sanctus' plans. The man's reply? "Love...? For a sibling? How foolish. All that is needed... is absolute power."
- Get Back Here Boss: Ayup.
- A God Am I: "A Savior is among you!"
- Informed Ability: His swordsmanship. You might be surprised to find the Data File of the game saying he used to be a Supreme General of the Holy Knights. Why use swords when you have barriers and fire powers?
- Light Is Not Good
- Obviously Evil: Not his human form, but as Sanctus Diabolica.
- One-Winged Angel: Sanctus Diabolica.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Briefly when he is revived. His eyes become red for good when he becomes Sanctus Diabolica.
- Teleport Spam
- Villain with Good Publicity: Is absoluted revered and adored by the inhabitants of Fortuna. Of course, this was probably made null around endgame, where the dwellers of Fortuna see him on top of The Savior, cackling as demons swarm the city. According to the tie-in novel, some of the citizens had a hard time believing Nero's words about Sanctus's true nature until Kyrie vouched for him.