Characters of Devil May Cry - Character Conception and Influence

Character Conception and Influence

Series creator Hideki Kamiya stated that the titular character from the manga series Cobra by Buichi Terasawa served as the basis for Dante. He stated that Dante was designed with a cloak to make the character's intense action look more colorful. The reason behind Dante's red clothes is that in Japan red is a traditional color for a hero.

Devil May Cry 4's producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi noted prior to the release of that game that they wanted to make Dante seem significantly more powerful than the game's other protagonist, Nero. This was done in order to create an evident difference between the strength of a "veteran" when compared to a "rookie". Another reason for this portrayal is based on the series' continuity, which dictated that Dante display the power he would possess after the events of the first game and its prequel, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. Kobayashi said that "When creating a sequel, you don't want to make a character weak again from the start for no good reason. Everyone wanted to see Dante be just as powerful as they remembered him," emphasizing that playing as him without his previous abilities would otherwise feel "very strange." The abilities for both main characters were chosen and designed in the early stages of development.

Several of the series' weapons are made and personalized for the specific character that wields them. An example of this is "Pandora", a firearm designed by Kobayashi, who noted that he wanted to include a "transforming, multi-purpose AWD in Dante's arsenal. Something that could be used as an over the shoulder rocket launcher, or a crossbow, etc. In its final form, I wanted it to transform into something that would be even bigger than Dante himself." The weapon's creation took inspiration from anime series such as including Macross and Gundam. When developing a game, Capcom's production team makes several alterations to the character's weapons until they complete designs that satisfy them, although the results are limited by the memory available for them.

Character designer Tatsuya Yoshikawa has stated that "When working on this sort of game, the design doesn't come from just one person, it is necessary to take the history of the series and the feelings of the fans into consideration." Before commencing the designs for the characters in Devil May Cry 4, Yoshikawa consulted with several members of the staff that had worked in the series previously, in order to become familiar with previous elements. The characters were designed in order to emphasize their moves, which made the staff controlling their motions vital in the design. Some of the demonic forms of the antagonists in Devil May Cry 4 resemble angels. These were designed to be "cool" while providing a contrast when compared to other demons in the game. Yoshikawa noted that several of the boss characters presented some difficulty when creating them, but that Nero's design was one of the biggest challenges he had experienced in his career, based on the fact that the character would have to be accepted by the public and fit in the series' universe.