About

DmC Dante, also nicknamed as Donte, is the name given by the Devil May Cry fanbase to the version of Dante seen in the 2013 reboot, DmC: Devil May Cry. This character is notable for its vulgar and aggressive personality, that differs greatly from the original Dante's more calm and cocky attitude.

Origin

In 2010, Capcom and Ninja Theory revealed DmC: Devil May Cry. This game was essentially a reboot of the beloved action series Devil May Cry. However, the trailer was not well received by fans of the series, who thought that the new design of Dante was an insult to the fanbase. Not only because of its punk look, but also because of the drastical change in his personality. Another criticized aspect was the ambientation and overall look of the game. Notably, in this trailer Dante smokes, but in the final game he doesn't.

Donte

The nickname Donte is mostly used by longtime fans of the series, due to the fact he doesn't look or act like the original Dante. Same fans also don't want to call this a Devil May Cry game, and would have rather it not existed, or at least changed to be more like the source material. In some forums, it is listed as short for Don't call him Dante.

One particular scene in the game showed Donte with a white wig for a brief moment, as a short reference to the original Dante, however Donte removes the wig and says "Not in a million years".

This moment is considered as Capcom's response towards all the hate the reboot received, and essentially a big "fuck you" to those who hate the new Dante.

Fuck You!

During the game, Dante always shows an agressive behavior and swears on almost every opportunity. When he doesn't, he tries to be "cool" and appeal to the player, failing most of the time. This quote also became a notable part of the character because of how many times he says it during the game. One notable scene (before a boss battle) is shown below.

Fans criticized this Dante's attitude in this particular moment, as the original Dante would never answer like that. This pretty much summed up how the fanbase felt about DmC: Devil May Cry.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

It's worth pointing out that this Dante also appeared as a guest character in the PlayStation 3 game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

While fans reacted negatively to Dante's look at first, they were surprised as they found out that his personality was left intact; he was still the DmC Dante but acted and talked like the classic Dante from the previous DMC games (particularly, DMC4). However, people still wanted the original Dante as an alternate costume, which never came to be.

Post-Release Reception

After DmC was released, it received positive reviews praising it's gameplay. While most fans still hated the character, some ended up liking the game as a whole, at the cost of ignoring the story, and others stopped hating the character that much.