Devil May Cry V: Spoilers and Speculations

The awated Devil May Cry V is coming out on March 8, only 6 (six!!!!) days left until we can finally play Dante’s and Nero’s adventures again after 10 long years. A lot of leaks have been posted online recently, however, so we could already read some plot related spoilers, fan theories and generate our personal speculations.

Warning: As the title suggests, the following informations will contain plot related spoilers and chances are they may not even sound new to you it you’re already up to date with the leaks.

Let’s take a step back.

Capcom released the first Devil May Cry game in the far 2001 for PS2 and it was initially intended as the fourth installment for the Resident Evil series. The develoment went so far with its new tones that it wouldn’t have worked properly as a RE game, reason why the company decided to simply create a completely different, unrelated title.

DMC 1 became a cult thanks to its dark-gothic design, combat style and heavy metal soundtrack. Chronologically speaking the game is intended as the second chapter in the Sparda brothers storyline; Devil May Cry 3 is in fact a prequel that features a younger Dante fighting against his twin brother Vergil and awakening his demon powers for the first time.

An animated series of 12 episodes has been produced in 2007 and Capcom has located it right before the events we saw in Devil May Cry 2 (2003).

Devil May Cry 4 then continued the whole story in 2009, but received a lot of conflicting reviews due to the new male protagonist, Nero, introduced from the prologue. While Dante still remained as a playable character from the second portion of the game, Nero’s origins remained unknown through the entire plot even if we could recognize him as another member of the Sparda family (and somehow directly connected to Vergil and his katana sword Yamato).

A two-volume graphic novel, Deadly Fortune, was published the same year and only available for the Japanese audience. The story covered the entire DMC4 plot, but also revealed Nero is supposed to be Vergil’s son and the nephew Dante didn’t really know to have. While at first these novels weren’t considered particularly canon due to some inconsistencies and odd time frame (it takes place 10 years after DMC3), Capcom confirmed they are officially part of the Devil May Cry storyline.

Vergil became a playable character in the Special Edition of DMC4 where he received his own special campaign. His actions in Fortuna City took place decades before DMC4 and shorty before DMC3.

In 2010 a new DMC game has been announced with a teaser trailer by Ninja Theory for what looked like a collaboration between the UK Studio and Capcom itself. Such a reveal created a lot of chaos among the Devil May Cry fans, who were waiting for a direct sequel and received a rebooted story instead. The final version of DmC: Devil May Cry came out in 2013, but it failed to sell as much as Capcom hoped because of the overall disappointment and dislike for Dante’s new look and revised plot (the sales weren’t bad, they just didn’t seem to meet the original expectations, reason why Capcom had to cut ties with the West).

The real Devil May Cry 5 has been rumored since 2015 and unofficially advertised as a possible title scheduled for a launch during Capcom’s E3 conference two years ago. In the meantime, a photo featuring Dante’s and Nero’s voice actors popped up on Twitter out of nowhere, followed by a lot of confusion and endless questions. The photo has been taken down soon after, proving that something was indeed coming down the pike and nobody could say a word about it unless properly instructed.

Finally, the reveal trailer arrived during E3 2018 and we could once again find Nero and Dante as main characters (even if we only saw little of the Sparda Uncle at the end of this video) with an additional female figure and a new demonic threat.

One thing looked extremely different at first glance though, apart from the photo realistic design the game received this time. In DMC4 Nero had a devil arm in place of his originally human right limb, which simply triggered out of nowhere during an attack little before the events of DMC4 as he fought to protect the girl he loved. That arm was mysteriously linked to Yamato (it magically repaired the sword that got previously split in half), but at the beginning of this first DMC5 trailer, Nero suddenly appeared to have a robotic arm instead.

In fact, the scenes switched to a different moment then and we could clearly notice a hoodied figure ripping his arm off. It turns out the game will take place 10 years after DMC4 and it will most likely be about the reason Nero’s arm was taken in the first place.

This time, the game will have THREE playable characters: Nero, Dante and a new entry called V. Many people immediatly thought this unseen guy could be Vergil and also the one who took Nero’s arm. However, V was soon advertised as a third character with unknown origins, covered in tattoos and with very curious triggering powers. They actually remind me of Dante’s Devil Trigger in DmC… 🤔

About Vergil, Capcom confirmed his presence with a final trailer released two days ago (2/28), but the leaks posted online until now already sorta confirmed he was supposed to be the main villain. First of all, during an interview video people could spot the concept design for a very familiar character, but what managed to convince us about the Vergil theory once and for all before the reveal, was this cutscene about how Nero lost his arm, from the very beginning.

Second warning: Spoilers ahead!

Speaking of Devil Bringer (Nero’s demonic Yamato arm), what’s going to happen with it? Is Nero forced to permanently use robotic implementations (Devil Breakers), or will he somehow retrieve the demonic arm or even grow the limb back?

Dante can regenerate his deadly injuries, so an arm regrow wouldn’t be too impossible if we think about how strong the Sparda blood can be.

For example, the previews displayed in this video surely look like something odd. A human arm that resembles a prosthesis, yet doesn’t really feel like one at all? While that could be an additional design for one of his Devil Breakers, it doesn’t strike me as right considering the concept behind these custom made arms. Someone says that might just be a placeholder for something else in order to not spoil the real deal we are getting in the game. Said secret element could be the Devil Bringer, because another leak showed the limb into the gear selection and I don’t see a reason to unlock it unless Nero gets it back.

In DmC: Devil May Cry, Dante permanently unlocks his full power at the end of the game and the dark hair becomes fully white and slighly longer. You can then unlock this new look for the whole playthrough if you decide to start over, which makes me think it might also be the case for the Devil Bringer. What if Nero really retrieves or regrows his arm back and you can then pick the devil arm from the arms selection in your second playthrough?

Another thing that made me believe he may regrow his arm indeed, is a comment I found on YouTube from a user who apparently translated a few bits found on a Japanese forum. According to this person, the cyber arm will break down leaving Nero completely defenseless (as we saw in the prologue already), reason why Dante will turn him down saying he’s just dead weight at this point and the only thing he can do is protect himself by going somewhere safe. These words will hit Nero home pretty badly, raising his anger and need to prove the man differently. The moment he will be near Yamato again, his inner power will fully explode thanks to the rage Dante ignited and that burst of power will basically heal Nero’s arm completely. I am not sure if he’s going to get a fully human arm and the possibility of triggering Devil Bringer when needed (since it previously was in a permanent DT state) or just the Bringer again by reattaching it or growing it back.

I usually try to take everything with a grain of salt unless I’m offered proof of what is stated, but someone else played 90% of the game and confirmed the return of Devil Bringer on Reddit, with no further details written down. The user also explained we are going to see the Yamato Ghost again, with improved design (full body instead of upper part alone) and bigger in size. Sounds like a pretty legit outcome to me by now.

This is the ending scene from the 4k final trailer. The Breaker’s fingers are starting to glow and Capcom strategically censored this part by switching moment and placing the huge DMC5 logo in the middle of the screen. Could this be when Nero unleashes his true Devil Trigger?

In that thread you can also read more informations about the gameplay and storyline. Vergil is trying to become Demon King, but he is also on the verge of death after spending so much time in hell before coming back.
V is an orphan seeking truth about himself and his real identity is mentioned as a major reveal although the poster is intentionally keeping it secret to let us enjoy it at the right time.

While at first I didn’t know how to feel about the new game, I really can’t wait for it to come out now! Devil May Cry V will be released for PC on Steam, PS4 and XBox One. I highly recommend to check the Fanatical Preorders to get the game with a -20% discount.

I also highly recommend to listen to the full “Legacy” track from the final trailer on Soundcloud. It’s rather short but worth the listening 😉