Vergil (Devil May Cry)

Vergil (バージル, Bājiru) is a fictional character from the Devil May Cry series created and published by Capcom. He was first introduced in the first Devil May Cry as a boss called Nelo Angelo (ネロアンジェロ, Nero Anjero). Vergil is one of the two hybrid sons from the famous demon knight Sparda and, as a result, possesses supernatural powers. He has appeared in two video games as an enemy opposing his twin brother Dante, as well as in a novelization and a manga of the series. As many characters in the series were named after those of the Italian poem Divine Comedy, Vergil was named after Virgil.

Vergil is voiced by Daniel Southworth in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and the Special Edition of Devil May Cry 4, and by David de Lautour in DmC: Devil May Cry. Nelo Angelo is voiced by David Kelley in Devil May Cry. The character has been well received by video game publications with several of them praising his role as boss as one of the best ones from the series, as well as his inclusion in the Special Edition of Devil May Cry 3.

Characteristics

Vergil is Dante's identical twin brother. The two are sons of Sparda, a demon, and Eva, a human. Vergil is half-demon, which gives him superhuman abilities. Unlike his brother, he is more serious about his training. His personality is also the opposite of Dante's, having a cold, calm, and introverted demeanor as opposed to Dante's cocky, thrill-seeking, and outgoing nature. Nevertheless, the two highly enjoy the fights they often have.^[1] He values the power from Sparda considering that without it is impossible to protect anything.^[2] When fighting, Vergil's main weapon is a katana named Yamato which he inherited from Sparda.^[3]

Appearances

Original series

Vergil appears in the first Devil May Cry game as Nelo Angelo, a dark knight brainwashed by the Demon King Mundus who controls him to kill his brother, Dante. Dante encounters Nelo Angelo three times. In their final encounter, Nelo Angelo uncovers his face to reveal that he is Vergil.^[4] In the end, Nelo Angelo appears to explode, leaving his half of the amulet his mother gave him and Dante as children behind.

Vergil has a bigger role in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening where he is depicted as a man in his late teens wishing to have the power of his father, the demon Sparda. Allied with a man named Arkham, Vergil seeks to have Dante's amulet in order to open the gate between his world and the demon world. Vergil defeats Dante when he refuses to assist him and takes his part of the amulet. However, when Dante challenges him Arkham betrays Vergil to take Sparda's power for his own. In order to stop Arkham, both Vergil and Dante join forces before the two have their final one-on-one. As Vergil is defeated he chooses to stay in the Demon World and fight Mundus there.^[5][6] In the game's updated version, Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition, Vergil is a new playable character and can participate in Dante's missions.

In Devil May Cry 4, The Order of the Sword uses fragments of Nelo Angelo in order to create the Alto and Bianco Angelos, artificial demons consisting of a suit of armor powered by a human or demon's soul.^[7][8] Vergil's sword, the Yamato, is used by another descendant of Sparda, Nero, in having been restored when Nero's inner demon awakens. He is a playable character in the Special Edition of the game.^[9] Vergil's appearance in the updated of Devil May Cry 4 is that of prequel to the third game. Vergil goes to Fortuna out of curiosity about the order of the sword, and mentions this in the prologue cinematic. After being satisfied with the knowledge he gained there, Vergil leaves Fortuna.

Reboot

In the series' reboot DmC: Devil May Cry, Vergil appears as the leader of The Order – a rogue vigilante group trying to free the world from the demons. He also turns out to be an accomplished hacker. He brings Dante back to their childhood home to reveal their connection to each other and convinces him to help destroy Mundus. While Vergil completes his part of the plan in the human world, he has Dante battle his way through limbo. Eventually, Vergil uses the power of the Yamato to seal the Hell Gate and cut off Mundus' source of power. After defeating Mundus, he reveals his true intention: to have Dante and himself rule the world together. Vergil is fought as the final boss of the game. After being defeated, Vergil escapes through a portal. Vergil is also a playable character in DmC: Devil May Cry through the Vergil's Downfall DLC. The DLC takes place after the events of the main game and follows Vergil's quest for power where he makes his way through Hell and replaces Mundus as the new Demon King.

Other appearances

In the novels by Shinya Goikeda, Vergil appears as a mercenary with the alias of Gilver, a tall man swathed in bandages. He becomes a partner of Dante as both hunt multiple demons; however, in the novel's climax, he confronts Dante and perishes in their duel, with Dante learning in his final moments that Gilver was his brother.^[10] In the second novel Vergil appears as Nelo Angelo leading a revolution against Mundus in an alternate dimension. The Devil May Cry 3 manga by Suguro Chayamachi follows Vergil a year before the events of the game with the same name as he is told by Arkham a way to go to the demons' world and starts his plans. Vergil is also mentioned in the novel adaptation of Devil May Cry 4 several times; Dante is often reminded of his brother when seeing Nero but states that Vergil is dead. He is also the leading character in Guillaume Dorison's two-part comic series DmC: Devil May Cry: The Chronicles of Vergil that follows Vergil prior to the reboot's beginning.

Vergil also appears as a playable character in the crossover fighting game Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.^[11] He is also a character card in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter DS. His Devil May Cry 3 outfit will be available in Capcom's game Sengoku Basara 4.^[12] He appears as a playable character in the tactical role-playing game Project X Zone 2 with Dante as his partner, and his present-self, Nelo Angelo appeared as a boss unit, as the Vergil whom partnered with Dante is actually a time-dispaced Vergil from prior Devil May Cry 3 event, and whether a time-displaced Vergil meets Nelo, his devil's power is lingering to Nelo's presence, although Vergil isn't aware of Nelo is in fact his present-self, despite both presences are actually the same.^[13] In the Sengoku Basara vs. Devil May Cry stage he will be portrayed by Shōhei Namba. Tomokazu Yoshida will act as Nelo Angelo.^[14]

Creation and concept

Vergil's name was taken from Dante Alighieri's poem Divine Comedy.^[15] The alias Nelo Angelo is a mistranslation of "Nero Angelo" ("Black Angel" in Italian). The misspelling has been maintained across the series such as the novels due to Nelo Angelo becoming popularly known.^[16] While his character was designed by Daigo Ikeno for Devil May Cry 3, his Devil Trigger form was made by Kazuma Kaneko.^[17]

When his character was made playable in Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition Capcom had to remove some of his moves due to space limitations. They still tried keeping the moves he uses when being faced as a boss in Dante's campaign. His moveset was made to reflect his calm personality that contrasted Dante's cocky character. When making the characters, Vergil was made stronger than Dante but harder to control as the player learns more moves. Vergil became a popular character within the game's development team with Hideaki Itsuno noting he was also popular in the United States because several characters from Hollywood films wield katana. His popularity resulted in Itsuno discussing with his producer ideas for a game focused in Vergil.^[15] Additionally, Itsuno planned to add Vergil to the original Devil May Cry 4 in the same way he was added to the previous game. However, upon reconsidering whether Vergil would be a re-skin, the staff thought the fanbase would not like it.^[18]

Vergil was voiced in Japanese for the first time in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The actor, Hiroaki Hirata, was chosen both by the Devil May Cry team and the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 team. The producer of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ryota Niitsuma, and Hiroyuki Kobayashi found the actor's voice suitable for Vergil. Similar to Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition, Vergil was designed to play like Dante, albeit with several differences to make both characters unique.^[19]

Reception

Vergil has received praise by video game publications. His debut as Nelo Angelo stood out as one of the best bosses within the Devil May Cry series with both GamesRadar and PlayStation Universe commenting on his skills and his impact on Dante.^[20][21] His role in Devil May Cry 3 gained similar notes with UGO Networks listing him on their "Top 50 Hardest Boss Battles" article based on the difficulty required to defeat him and his relation with Dante.^[22] IGN listed him as the best boss in Devil May Cry franchise taking into account all of his appearances in the series.^[23] In 2008, IGN's Jesse Schedeen compared Vergil to Gray Fox from the Metal Gear series as "two formidable warriors from the videogaming realm" who both "met their unfortunate ends in the games."^[24]

Vergil's inclusion in the updated version of Devil May Cry 3 as a playable character was also the subject of discussion. PALGN appreciated how different Vergil's moves were from Dante's, making the former's scenario a different experience. He was also noted to be more powerful than Dante, which could either make a positive or negative impression on the player due to how playing as him lowered the game's difficulty.^[25] IGN's Jeremy Dunhan also praised Vergil's unique moves but criticized how powerful he was, as it reduced the challenge behind the boss fights—one of the game's strong points.^[26] GameSpot considered playing as Vergil was not as interesting as Dante, as Vergil begins with multiple abilities leading to a lack of improvements across the game. GameSpot lamented how Vergil fought the same bosses as Dante and did not have a story of his own.^[27] Vaughn Smith from Cheat Code Central viewed Vergil's inclusion as one of the updates' strongest points, also commenting on how different he is from Dante.^[28] Although sharing the other reviewers' opinion that playing as Vergil made the game easier, 1UP.com noted how "bad ass" it was to play as him since the character stays quiet during most of the game.^[29] Similarly, GamePlanet's reviewer Syed Mahir Hussain viewed Vergil's inclusion in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition as one of the title's greatest strengths based on how "unique" his fighting style is.^[30] When giving the pros of the same game, GamesRadar's writer Tom Senior said one was "The way Vergil saunters casually through combat."^[31]

For the reboot of the series, Chris Carter from Destructoid felt that Vergil was a more entertaining character than DmC: Devil May Cry's Dante despite some issues he found with the character's gameplay.^[32] Dustin Chadwell from Gaming Age liked Vergil's gameplay finding it superior to Dante's, but was confused with his storyline due to the lack of explanation of his survival.^[33] On the other hand, Angelo M. D'Argenio from Cheat Code Central liked Vergil's story and, like previous writers found his gameplay superior to Dante's.^[34]

References