He wasn't supposed to be the main character. When Capcom dropped the first trailers for the fourth installment of their gothic action franchise back in the mid-2000s, fans were legitimately confused. Who was this kid with the glowing arm and the attitude problem? Where was the white-haired pizza enthusiast we’d spent three games mastering?
Devil May Cry 4 Dante is a fascinating piece of gaming history because he plays the role of the antagonist for the first half of the story. He’s the veteran. He’s the guy who shows up, kicks the new protagonist's teeth in, and makes it look like he's barely trying. Honestly, playing as him after spending hours learning Nero’s "Snatch" mechanic is a total system shock. It’s like switching from a precision tool to a Swiss Army knife that’s also a chainsaw.
The Stylistic Whiplash of Switching to Dante
The transition is jarring. You spend half the game as Nero, getting comfortable with the Red Queen and the Devil Bringer. Then, suddenly, the game hands you the keys to the Ferrari. But here’s the thing: the Ferrari has sixteen gears, three steering wheels, and it refuses to drive straight unless you're pressing four buttons at once.
Dante in this game is defined by the Style System. Unlike DMC3, where you had to pick a style at a statue, DMC4 lets you swap on the fly using the D-pad. Trickster, Swordmaster, Gunslinger, Royal Guard. You can switch these mid-air, mid-combo, or even mid-animation. It’s a level of depth that, frankly, most players never actually fully grasp. You see these "True Style Tournament" videos on YouTube where Dante is hovering in the air for five minutes straight, never touching the ground, and you realize the ceiling for this character is basically in orbit.
It’s not just about the styles, though. It’s the weapons. Rebellion is the bread and butter, but then you get Gilgamesh—the heavy hitters—and Pandora. Pandora is literally a suitcase that turns into a gatling gun, a bazooka, and a flying laser turret. It’s ridiculous. It’s peak Capcom.
Why the Level Design Fails Him (And Why We Forgive It)
We have to be real here: the back half of Devil May Cry 4 is a bit of a mess. Because of budget constraints and development timelines at Capcom during that era, Dante’s campaign is basically Nero’s campaign played in reverse. You run through the same forests, the same castle, and fight the same bosses. It’s backtracking in its purest, most frustrating form.
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But people still play it. Why? Because the mechanics are just that good. Handling Devil May Cry 4 Dante feels like playing a different game entirely. Even if the environments are recycled, the way you engage with them changes. A boss that Nero had to grapple with becomes a playground for Dante’s Royal Guard parries. There is something deeply satisfying about timing a "Release" perfectly against Berial the Fire Hellhound and watching his health bar evaporate. It’s a reward for technical mastery that few modern action games even try to replicate.
Breaking Down the Advanced Tech
If you want to understand why the hardcore community still obsesses over this specific version of the character, you have to look at "Inertia" and "Guard Flying." These weren't necessarily intended features, but they became the backbone of high-level play.
- Inertia: This is a physics quirk. Certain moves carry momentum. If you use a move like "Sky Star" (the mid-air dash) and then immediately cancel it into another action, Dante keeps that sideways speed.
- Guard Flying: This is the big one. By rapidly switching to Royal Guard and buffered inputs during certain frames, you can make Dante "fly" across the arena at high speeds. It looks glitchy. It looks broken. It’s also incredibly hard to do consistently.
Most casual players will never use these. You don't need them to beat the game on Son of Sparda or even Dante Must Die. But the fact that they exist gives the character a lifespan that lasts decades. It’s the "Melee" of character action games.
The "Uncle Dante" Vibe
Beyond the frame data and the cancels, there’s the personality. This is arguably the most "relaxed" we’ve ever seen him. In DMC3, he was a cocky teenager. In DMC1, he was a stoic hero. In DMC2... well, we don't talk about DMC2.
In DMC4, he’s the cool uncle. He knows he’s the strongest person in the room. When he fights Nero, he’s clearly testing the kid. When he fights the Savior, he’s cracking jokes about being late for a date. The voice acting by Reuben Langdon really solidified this version of the character. There’s a specific scene where he performs a Shakespearean monologue before exploding a boss, and it shouldn't work. It’s incredibly cheesy. But it works because the game is fully aware of how absurd it is.
Is DMC4 Dante Better Than DMC5 Dante?
This is the eternal debate in the DMC subreddits. Devil May Cry 5 undoubtedly refined the character. It gave him more weapons, the "Sin Devil Trigger," and generally more "weight."
However, many purists argue that Devil May Cry 4 Dante is more "snappy." The physics in the fourth game are a bit more floaty, which allows for more creative air combos. In DMC5, the gravity is slightly stronger, making certain "infinite" combos harder to pull off without specific setups.
Also, there’s the "Distorted Real Impact" (DRI). In DMC4, you can activate Devil Trigger during the frames of a specific punch to multiply the damage exponentially. It’s a bug that became a feature. It’s one of the most satisfying things to land in the entire series. When you hit a DRI on a boss and their health bar just... disappears? That’s a high you can’t get anywhere else.
The Learning Curve
Don't go into this expecting an easy ride. If you’re coming from modern games like God of War or Elden Ring, the control scheme will feel alien. You have to hold a lock-on button for most of your moves. Your direction relative to the character matters for what move comes out.
It’s high-maintenance. It’s "sweaty" gaming. But the payoff is a sense of expression. Most games have a "combo list." DMC4 has a "physics engine" that you happen to be fighting inside of. You aren't just following a script; you're improvising.
Actionable Steps for Mastering the Devil Hunter
If you're booting up the Special Edition today and want to actually get good with Dante, stop trying to mash. It won't work. You'll just get frustrated by the "clunky" camera and the fact that you keep getting hit.
- Master the Style Switch: Spend ten minutes in the Bloody Palace or an empty room just switching styles. Get the muscle memory down so you don't have to look at the D-pad. You should be able to go from Trickster to Swordmaster in a heartbeat.
- Focus on Royal Guard: It’s the hardest style to learn but the most rewarding. Start by "jumping" into attacks. You have more I-frames during a jump, which makes the parry window slightly more forgiving.
- Abuse the Shotgun: Dante's "Coyote-A" is incredibly strong in this game, especially when used with "Gunstinger." It’s great for crowd control when things get chaotic.
- Learn to Jump Cancel: This is the "secret sauce." Buy the "Enemy Step" ability immediately. It allows you to jump off an enemy's head mid-air, which resets your animations. This is how people stay in the air forever.
Devil May Cry 4 Dante remains a gold standard for technical depth in action gaming. Even with the repetitive levels and the weird pacing, the character himself is a masterpiece of design. He’s a reminder of an era where games weren't afraid to be unapologetically difficult and mechanically dense. If you can move past the 2008-era jank, there is a nearly perfect combat system waiting to be deconstructed.
To really see the potential, look up the "DMC4 Dante MAD" (Music Action Data) videos. They show what's possible when someone spends a decade learning a single character. It's not just a game at that point; it's a performance. You might never reach that level, but even getting 10% of the way there makes you feel like the legendary Devil Hunter himself.