Dante (Shin Megami Tensei)

Dante

Canon

Reboot

Shin Megami Tensei

Puzzle and Dragons

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Dante

Devil May Cry

Puzzle and Dragons

“	...I'll give you ten minutes to decide. Which would you rather end up in... a coffin or a dumpster?	„
	~ Dante to Demi-Fiend

Background

Dante is a recruitable guest character from the Devil May Cry franchise appearing in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.

This dropdown contains the synopsis of Dante’s story. Read at your own risk as you may be spoiled otherwise!

Dante is one of several new additions to the Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Maniax re-release. In the later Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Chronicles re-release, Raidou Kuzunoha the XIV from Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon replaces Dante as the recruitable character. In the HD Remaster editions Raidou is the default, but the player has the option to have Dante reprise his role with the purchase of the Maniax Pack DLC. Dante is first mentioned in pre-Conception Tokyo, where he is described by a passerby as a "strange foreigner wearing a red cloak and carrying a big sword." After the Conception, he survives, and his role of being a demon slayer comes into light. Dante makes his first formal appearance after the Demi-fiend escapes the Shinjuku Medical Center, where he observes how different Tokyo looks from what he originally heard (according to him, the current state of Tokyo doesn't look like a place where one would get sushi). He would later show up in Ikebukuro, territory of the Mantra demons. After the Demi-fiend prevails in the Mantra's court of strength, the Candelabrum of Sovereignty starts to flicker wildly. Noticing the change, the Demi-fiend soon sees Dante, who leaps down from the highest level of the tower and suddenly forces him into battle. After a brief exchange, Dante loses the drive to fight for the moment and takes an interest towards the Demi-fiend, as the latter doesn't seem to be like any demon he has encountered before. Dante reveals that he was hired by an "old man" to hunt down some demons, including the Demi-fiend. He also holds a Candelabrum in his possession, but was never told what it was for. Dante then proceeds to tell the Demi-fiend to keep himself alive, as the former would like to experience the thrill of the hunt again when he becomes stronger. Dante slowly became suspicious of his employer's motives, and begins investigating the Labyrinth of Amala on his own. Upon venturing to the Third Kalpa, the Demi-fiend will encounter Dante once again, and the latter attempts to convince him to turn back. If he says no, Dante will begin to chase and attack him throughout the Kalpa, playing a practical cat-and-mouse game where he resets door switches and guards exits for the next two levels. If he catches the Demi-fiend, Dante will attack him or his minions, then retreat. The Demi-fiend would then find himself back at the entrance hall, where Dante will taunt him from afar. He would then engage him in another battle should the latter slip through his fingers. Following a final encounter, Dante launches one last attack but intentionally avoids stabbing the Demi-fiend, instead impaling the adjacent wall. After explaining his reasons for doing so, Dante hands over the Candelabrum in his possession, dismissing it as "nothing but junk." He would then go on ahead to resume investigating the Labyrinth of Amala. Upon the Demi-fiend's entry to the Fifth Kalpa, Dante will be waiting within and would begin explaining the details he gathered about the old man's actual intentions. He would then offer his services to the Demi-fiend, as he no longer feels like continuing to perform the dubious tasks asked of him by his former employer. If he decides to hire Dante, the latter would flip the same double headed coin from Devil May Cry 2. Should the Demi-fiend call tails, Dante would take half of his total Macca. But if he calls heads, he will only have to pay Dante a paltry sum of 1 Macca. Dante will remain on standby at the entrance of the Fifth Kalpa if the Demi-fiend decides not to hire him just yet. Dante's presence is permanent upon joining the Demi-fiend's ranks. He can never be fused with any demon, and despite having an entry in the Demonic Compendium, Dante cannot be summoned from there during a New Cycle. After joining the Demi-Fiend's party, Dante effectively no longer has a role in the story other than being another party member and his ultimate fate is never shown in any of the endings.

Statistics

Tier: Low 1-C, possibly higher

Name: Dante

Origin: Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, originally from Devil May Cry

Sex: Male

Age: Mid-30s (Nocturne's version of Dante is based off his Devil May Cry 2 self)

Classification: Half Human/Half Demon, Son of Sparda, Demon/Bounty Hunter, Devil Hunter, Party Member

Alignment: Possibly Chaotic Good (While Dante is a bounty hunter, he hunts mainly demons, and moreso evil kinds of demons. When he realized Demi-Fiend wasn't this kind of demon he refused to carry out Lucifer's plan)

Dimensionality: 3-D

Attack Potency: Low Complex Multiverse level (Can harm and ultimately defeat Kagutsuchi, who as an avatar of The Great Will, it is easily stronger than the likes of Metatron, who was being amped by them by the time he fought Demi-fiend. YHVH is a being who created infinite universes that are infinitesimal in size compared to him, and exists as an incomprehensible transcendent being overseeing everything in his creation. Able to contend with end game Demi-fiend wielding the Masakados magatama, but ultimately lost. Created and sustains the Vortex world, which was resulted from him erasing the past, present and future of the universe, in order to construct the Vortex World in its foundations. Exists as the light that encompasses and administers all of creation within the Amala universe that is said to contain countless worlds along with being the source to creation with his defeat causing the destruction of the Amala universe. Can harm a late game Demi-Fiend, requiring him to run from Raidou for a good duration of their chase. Demi-Fiend implied to have fought YHVH during the True Demon route, who effortlessly created infinite universes that are infinitesimal in size compared to him, and exists as an incomprehensible transcendent being overseeing everything in his creation), possibly Low Complex Multiverse level+ (Can harm a late game Demi-Fiend, and ultimately defeated him and was holding back. Demi-fiend should be comparable to himself in Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse where he fought Stephen, who could gain a small glimpse of The Axiom through transcending the infinite Cycle of Transmigration, which would make him comparable to Matter Lucifer who transcended into a higher plane of existence beyond even YHVH)

Durability: Low Complex Multiverse level, possibly Low Complex Multiverse level+

Striking Strength: Low Complex Multiverse Class, possibly Low Complex Multiverse Class+

Lifting Strength: Unknown

Travel Speed: Superhuman (Can keep up with Demi-Fiend who can keep up with Raidou Kuzunoha the XIV, (shown in the intro to outrun Goutou at full speed. Traveled across large sessions of the town on foot in under a day)

Combat Speed: Extra-Temporal (Can tag Demi-Fiend, who can move in a void without time or space. Can tag demons who are natural residents of The Expanse, a place that transcends the past, present, and future of the multiverse)

Reaction Speed: Extra-Temporal

Stamina: Limitless (Due to their innate physiologies, demons naturally do not need to breathe, eat, or sleep. Demons such as King Frost can passively produce magic for years upon years even while fighting enemies without tiring)

Range: Standard Melee Range, Extended Melee Range with Sword, Hundreds of Meters with Guns, Cross-Dimensional (Demons passively create adecoherence field, that is essentially a special dimension of quantum fluctuation that they exist in, where humans cannot see them, and can attack from there. Demons can also create mirage realms, that shroud an entire area in mist, with them being able to attack from inside said illusion without being capable of being attacked back, requiring the user to go inside of their illusion to fight them)

Intelligence: Genius (Dante is an incredibly skilled demon hunter, to the point that even a massively stronger Demi-Fiend [could not defeat him)

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Powers and Abilities

Has Demon Physiology (Low to High Tier level) which gives:

Low Tier Demon Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics (Demons can casually rip out a man's throat. They can also casually eat fully grown humans), Immortality (Types 1, 3, 7, & 8. Demons are the descendants of the gods of old. Many demons tend to be undead beings and humans that die and become ghost become demons. All demons are reliant on the observation of humans to keep them existing, including even nonexistent demons such as The White, allowing them to come back even if they’re erased from existence and nonexistence. Along with this, all demons that die return to The Axiom and reincarnate), Abstract Existence (Type 1. Demons embody the phenomena and beliefs of humans, with their physical forms only being created due to humanity's observation locking them into these forms, and their true forms existing as the phenomena and beliefs they reside in), Null Existence (Type 3. The home of the demons is the expanse, which the Monochrome Forest exists within the expanse, a place that is eerily still, having no sound or smell, where even the ground itself feels unusual, which demons naturally exist in. The Forest also holds the White’s realm, which is a vast, white space), Incorporeality (Demons are beings made of data, that exist in a virtual world, along with being pure information. With even the most basic of objects in the verse existing as data. Even if a demon's physical form is lost, their residual MAG can still remain, allowing one to infuse them within one's weapons or objects), Nondualism (Everything within Megami Tensei is one, with one simple word binding all togehter, oneness), Regeneration (High-Godly. All demons are reliant on the observation of humans to keep them existing, including even nonexistent demons such as The White, allowing them to come back even if they’re erased from existence and nonexistence. Along with this, all demons that die return to The Axiom and reincarnate. This allows demons to die and come back in a short timeframe due to their continuous existence from The Axiom and the observation of humans. This means even if all of reality were to cease existing, the Axiom would still exist within it, allowing demons to regenerate back), Acausality (Type 5. Demons are natural residents of The Expanse, a place that transcends the past, present, and future of the multiverse, demons such as Ishtar are capable of going into separate multiverses, along into the "real world", demons such as Demi-Fiend, can exist in different universes asides from the original SMT 3 universe, demons can exist even when the flow of time itself collapses and there is nothing left but a void), Self-Sustenance (Types 1, 2, & 3. Demons can naturally exist and breathe within the vacuum of space without any adverse effects done to them. Due to their innate physiologies, demons naturally do not need to breathe, eat, or sleep), Accelerated Development (Level;Physical Stats and Abilities. Demons and Humans are able to grow from battles, allowing them to enhance their level of strength, magic, agility, luck, etcetera. Additionally, they can learn new skills and abilities from battles and further increase their HP and Magic capacity, and get strong enough to the point that they can fight end game tier demons), Reactive Adaptation (Demons as they grow in battle form changes around their body until they transform into a higher level with newer stats and newer abilities to learn), Precognition (Types 3. Demons have the ability to see into the future, with the likes of Eligor being able to see things to come), Extrasensory Perception (Demons are able to tell who is actually a demon in disguise and who is an actual human. Demons can sense the power of an opponent and compare it to the power they sensed of others), Corrosion Inducement (Demons can shapeshift into a blob, allowing them to melt areas), Duplication (Demons can make duplicates of themselves. With them being completely disconnected from the demons, thus killing or defeating the clones in no way affects the original and they can endlessly spawn more), Invisibility & Perception Manipulation (Demons are naturally invisible to humans, and can do actions such as make noises and fight without humans noticing), Quantum Manipulation & Intangibility (Spatial. Demons passively create adecoherence field, that is essentially a special dimension of quantum fluctuation that they exist in, where humans cannot see them), Non-Physical Interaction (Demons can interact with each other and Gods, despite their physiologies and existences), Sealing (Gods and Demons cannot kill each other, thus resulting in them needing to seal each other), Soul Manipulation (Noted by a soul that demons can eat souls), Size Manipulation & Statistics Amplification (Demons can grow in size to grow strong enough to fight Messiahs), Shapeshifting (Demons can shapeshift into humans to trick others), Hacking (Demons can hack into various servers and set up firewalls and "digital traps"), Necromancy (Demons can raise people from the dead and turn them into zombies), Personal Domain & BFR (Demons can pull one into alternate dimensions where coordinates and direction are different. Along with pull entire areas such as mansions into pocket dimensions. High level demons such as fiends can create personal realms to battle people in. Alice created her own personal domain that she could freely control. Demons can also freely teleport people to other locations), Pocket Reality Manipulation (Demons can warp areas into alternate dimensions such as the inside of a school. Once one is in said dimension the demon will keep it's hold into the dimension until it's defeated), Subjective Reality (Demons are able to take the thoughts of people and materialize them into something real), Information Manipulation & Matter Manipulation (As demons can make pocket realms and higher level demons can make universes, they are by extension they are creating areas entirely made of data and information down to their sub-atomic level), Illusion Creation & Perception Manipulation (Type 3. Demons can create mirage realms, that shroud an entire area in mist, with them being able to attack from inside said illusion without being capable of being attacked back, requiring the user to go inside of their illusion to fight them), Teleportation (Demons are capable of teleporting around usually through manipulating their own Magutushi or Magnetite), Telepathy (Demons are able to speak telepathically to others. Demons such as Aogami speaks telepathically with Nahobino), Power Bestowal (The memories of a demon's techniques can be passed down into weapons), Absorption (Demons can absorb lifeforce and Magutushi out of another. Demons can feed off the lifeforce of people to manifest themselves into the real world), Healing Negation (Demons can inflict wounds that only spiritual magic can heal), Power Absorption (Demons can absorb the remains of other demons to gain their abilities), Dimensional Travel (Demons can feed off the lifeforce of people to manifest themselves into the real world), Healing (Demons naturally have healing properties, allowing them to heal other people), Fusionism (Demons can latch on with a humans negative emotions, fusing with them to become a far more powerful demon. Demons can fuse with humans to become a Nahobino), Telekinesis (Higher level demons can telekinetically affect the entire environment to cause the Earth to shake, cause fissures, and affect mountains), Existence Erasure (Type 4. Demons can kill humans, which in the process erases said beings from memory and existence), Invulnerability (Type 2. Demons even when brought into corporeal forms cannot be harmed by conventional weaponry, along with military grade weaponry), Invulnerability Negation (Demons are capable of harming each other, and are viewed as valuable tools to get past other demons invulnerability), Possession (Demons can possess one’s body), Creation (Demons can create Shikimi no Kage's that are unable to be put down for good and will regenerate even from observation users who can negate regeneration and immortality), Resistance Negation (Shikimi no Kage have specific weaknesses that cannot be exploited by Raidou's gun or other things to do with their specific elemental weakness, requiring Raidou to get a demon's elemental magic to affect it), Regeneration Negation (Unknown. Demons can create Shikimi no Kage's that are unable to be put down for good and will regenerate even from observation users who can negate regeneration and immortality. Which they themselves can negate the regeneration of), Limited Resistance to Observation (Demons to an extent can resist some humans abilities of observation as shown with them being immune to conventional weaponry and higher-dimensional demons not being able to be percieved by some observation users), Resistance to Cosmic Radiations, Biological Manipulation, & Gravity Manipulation (Demons can naturally exist and breathe within the vacuum of space without any adverse effects done to them), Death Manipulation (Demons can naturally exist within the vortex world which kills all humans who enter), Disease Manipulation, Corruption, Data Manipulation, & Petrification (All demons are unaffected by the Cuvier Syndrome, a state where corruptive data came out of the black sun, irreversible petrification), Sealing (Demons naturally have a resistance to sealing if they’re stronger then their target, and their sealing resistance gets amplified during the full moon), Forcefield Creation (Demons can pass through tainted barriers that humans cannot pass through), Elemental Manipulation (Shikimi no Kage have specific weaknesses that cannot be exploited by Raidou's gun or other things to do with their specific elemental weakness, requiring Raidou to get a demon's elemental magic to affect it), Resistance Negation (Demons can create Shikimi no Kage's that are unable to be put down for good and will regenerate even from observation users who can negate regeneration and immortality)

High Tier Demon Abilities: Power Bestowal (Demons can grant others their powers and strength), Reality Warping, Space-Time Manipulation & Creation (Demons such as Loki can create and sustain his own universe. Demons such as Morax can create their own personal realms, with it being noted demons create their own space-time sectors by quantum tunneling, that have stack of space-time layers on top of each other. Demons such as Set with enough Magnetite gathered can merge entire worlds), Immortality (Type 5. Higher tiered demons exist beyond death itself), Sheer Will, Resurrection, & Transformation (Some fiends are born from men that die in competitive sports), Curse Manipulation (Gods such as Anahita can remove curses), Resistance to Physics Manipulation (A god's divine energy isn’t bound by the laws of physics)

Weapon Mastery (Outskilled Demi-Fiend with his sword, can fire at all angles and can still hit his targets with his gun), Passive Statistics Amplification (With Son's Oath, passively adds pierce damage to all attacks and increase attack by 50%), Power Nullification (With Holy Star, negates all stat debuffs), Electricity Manipulation (With rebellion, has electricity within his sword), Air Manipulation (With whirlwind, a force attack that causes a massive whirlwind on all enemies), Status Effect Inducement (Can cause paralysis on his foes), Statistics Reduction & Empathic Manipulation (With Provoke, drastically decreases one's defense and causes rage), Resistance Negation (His attacks can deal pierce damage pierce allows the user's physical attacks to bypass all resistances, except for Repel), Explosion Manipulation, Resistance Manipulation, Power Nullification, & Law Negation (With Stinger, a medium physical almighty damage attack. Almighty damage is done to all foes by producing a large explosion. Almighty skills in Persona bypasses all barriers and reflectors, invulnerability, and resistances. Almighty attacks are able to hurt someone wielding the Omnipotent Orb, which bends the rules of reality to defend the user from attacks), Evasion Negation (With Bullet Time, an undodgeable attack), Resistance to Physical Attacks (Has an innate resistance to physical attacks), Magic (Has an innate resistance to magic), One Hit KO (With Never Yield, will survive any attack with 1 HP left), Light Manipulation (Completely voids light elemental skills), Death Manipulation (Completely voids death based skills), Status Effect Inducement (Completely voids status ailment based skills)

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Standard Equipment

His sword & his guns

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Notable Techniques

• E & I: Small physical damage to one foe. Hits four times.
• Rebellion: Medium physical damage to one foe. High critical rate.
• Never Yield: Passively equips survives one fatal blow with 1 HP remaining per battle.
• Provoke: Buffs physical attack and decreases defense both by 2 levels, all foes and restores user with some MP.
• Holy Star: Removes all debuffs from all allies.
• Intimidate: Urges an indecisive demon to accept the deal. Works best for user who is 10-level higher than the target or adult/adolescent to child target.
• Roundtrip: Heavy electric damage and 15% shock to all foes.
• Whirlwind: Heavy force damage to all foes.
• Bullet Time: Medium physical damage and 30% panic to all foes. Undodgeable.
• Stinger: Medium phys-almighty damage of high critical rate and chance of instant kill to one foe.
• Son's Oath: Passively multiplies all damage dealt by 1.5.
• Showtime: Heavy almighty damage to all foes.

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Other

Standard Tactics: Dante will usually use attacks such as bullet time, rebellion, and holy star to negate debuffs. When he gets serious he starts spamming whirlwind, stinger, and showtime.

Weaknesses: Nothing notable.

Trivia

• Dante's artwork in the game is based on his appearance in Devil May Cry 2, presumably because Devil May Cry 2 was the most recent game in the series coming around the time of Nocturne.
• When Dante uses his Showtime attack, the B, A and S style prompts from Devil May Cry 2 ("Bingo!," "Are You Ready?" and "Showtime!" respectively) appear onscreen.
• Dante's unique Provoke skill acts much like Taunt, but is also a subtle allusion to taunting in Devil May Cry. Taunting in Devil May Cry will raise Dante's current Style rank as well as replenish a portion of his Devil Trigger gauge. Similarly, using Provoke in Nocturne will restore some of Dante's MP along with the usual Taunt effect.
• For unexplained reasons, Dante avoids using his Devil Trigger transformations throughout the game. In Devil May Cry these represent his true demonic powers and drastically enhance his strength, speed, agility and vitality regeneration. He also neglects using the Majin Form available to him in the (at the time) recent entry Devil May Cry 2, which channels his ultimate, demonic potential.
• Consistent to his appearance in Ikebukuro, after Dante has joined Demi-fiend and is summoned to the party, he is the only one who will remain unscathed if the Demi-Fiend leaps off from 60/F to the ground at the Mantra Headquarters.
• In exchange for Dante's presence in Nocturne, Kazuma Kaneko was brought into the Devil May Cry 3 project to design the Devil Trigger forms of Dante and Vergil. This design of Dante's Devil Trigger would later be used in both versions of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 while Vergil's Devil Trigger would also appear in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Project X Zone 2 and Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition, with Kaneko being credited appropriately. In addition, Dante and Vergil's Sin Devil Triggers in Devil May Cry 5 seem to be based loosely on Kaneko's original designs.

Gallery

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  Concept art from Devil May Cry 2 in the Nocturne Maniax artbook

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  Dante in Nocturne

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  Dante as he appears in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne

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  Dante in Nocturne

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  Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2 crossover Devil May Cry summon

Battle Records

None.

None.

None.

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