Trivia / Devil May Cry 5

• Acting for Two:
  • Trish and Eva are voiced by Atsuko Tanaka and Wendee Lee in both languages.
  • In the English version:
    • Dan Southworth provides the motion capture for Morrison as well as the voices of Urizen and Vergil.
    • Faye Kingslee provides the motion capture for Nico and Trish, as well as the voice of the former character.
    • Griffon and Nightmare are played by Brad Venable.
    • Morrison and Goliath are both voiced by Joey Camen.
    • Patrick Seitz voices one of the heads of King Cerberus, as well as the Soldier whom Nero nicknamed "Crew Cut".
    • Nobody and Baphomet are both played by Todd Haberkorn.
• Approval of God:
  • Casey Edwards (the composer of the main theme, "Devil Trigger") left a comment on the Triple-Q mash-up, "Love Shack Trigger", claiming to love it.
  • A fan rewrote the lyrics of Vergil's "Bury The Light" Image Song to focus on the meme about Vergil not paying child support, which resulted into "Bury The Guilt". Victor Borba (the singer of "Bury The Light") was amazed at the parody cover, he gave it his approval, which is also pinned at the top of the video's comments.
    Victor Borba: wow... honestly can't believe a full 9 minute parody was made for this song and done so well... you've got a great voice dude and the creativity of all of you who wrote out these lyrics is amazing LMAO great job
• Content Leak:
  • There was a huge leak on November 2017 that revealed some development and story details of a Devil May Cry 5 project, and it was covered by several news websites such as this one. At first, the leaked information was taken with a grain of salt and identified as a rumor, but it was proven true, much to the excitement of fans who anticipated it.
  • Years before the game was ever announced, its existence was accidentally uncovered by Dan Southworth (Vergil's actor) in a panel between himself, Reuben Langdon and Johnny Yong Bosch. Southworth accidentally spoils that they're making a new game, only to casually then ask if he could say that while Bosch, horrified, just tells him "No!"
  • The first trailers never actually revealed any information on the third playable character apart from Nero and Dante. But since September 2018, various leaked screenshots of the prologue cutscenes popped online, including V's name and a close-up of his face. This happened a few weeks before V officially made an appearance on the TGS 2018 trailer.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: During IGN's preview of the Special Edition, calling Legendary Dark Knight as a "new difficulty mode unlike anything the Devil May Cry series has ever seen" caused confusion, sometimes interpreted like they were mentioning how LDK is first introduced in DMC5:SE (when it already existed way back in the PC version of DMC4). A pinned YouTube comment was written to correct this. The other fact that IGN got wrong was calling Vergil's spectral Force Edge as "Miracle Edge" when it's supposed to be "Mirage Edge".
• Directed by Cast Member: Wendee Lee (Trish and Eva) and Stephanie Sheh (Kyrie) are two of the three voice directors for the game (Liam O'Brien is the third director, but does not have a voice role).
• Dummied Out:
  • If the user changes a single value in the game code (done easily with a cheating tool in the PC version), it's entirely possible to play as Vergil in the base game, using a few techniques that he doesn't use in his boss fight. Granted, doing this will likely lead to technical problems (and your character won't have a complete moveset), so attempt at your own risk. A later Game Mod attempted to make this a more complete experience with better hitboxes and fewer oddities. With the Special Edition elevating Vergil to fully playable, what was left behind were actually remnants of a system used to test Vergil's moveset in his boss version.
  • Three of the DLC Devil Breakers have their own Weapon Reports, but those can only be accessed by digging through the PC version's files, and are not accessible in-game. Interestingly, Nico's Reports on the Gerbera GP01 and the Mega Buster contain some Leaning on the Fourth Wall; In the former, she acknowledges Shoji Kawamori (the designer of the Devil Breakers) as "another legendary artisan". In the latter, Nico reveals that Mega Man is one of her favorite games, and her report ends with "Think you got what it takes to rock it, man?"... which is a Stealth Pun because Rockman is the Japanese name and a Market-Based Title of the Mega Man series. Her Weapon Report on the Pasta Breaker also hilariously recounts an incident wherein Nero had a hard time eating pasta.
  • There are several unused voiced lines for Cavaliere Angelo in the game files.
  • Nero has an unused taunt where he says "I'm gonna take this hand... and shove it up your ass!" while detaching his Devil Breaker arm and showing it to his opponent. Some players managed to dig it up and "re-implement" it in the game as a mod.
• Fake American: Australian Faye Kingslee as Southern-Fried Genius Nico Goldstein.
• Hey, It's That Sound!: Sharp-eared players and those with audio editing skills noticed how the intro chime at the start menu sounds like a slowed down version of Capcom's old splash jingle.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition:
  • Japan had three Ultra Limited Editions available for pre-order from October 22 to November 19, 2018, which consist of either an Xbox One or PS4 copy of the game and a replica of either Nero's, Dante's, or V's jackets. The bundles run the pricing gamut of 600,000 yen (V's jacket) to 750,000 yen (Nero's) to 900,000 yen (Dante's). On a lesser and cheaper note, there's also an e-Capcom Limited Edition bundle that has a "classic cut" work shirt included that's priced at 11,852 yen.
  • For the Special Edition of the game, Japan also has an "SSS pack" edition exclusively available on e-Capcom, released on December 22, 2020. It comes with a 94-page artbook, a soundtrack CD, an original t-shirt, and a replacement cover.
• Meme Acknowledgement:
  • Itsuno and a multitude of franchise fans got down at PAX West 2018 with the Devil Trigger Dance in pretty much the exact same posture.
  • Graffiti can be found in the game's city environments which reads "We want memes!"
  • Balrog's voice actor re-recorded some lines for modders to use. This led to a Balrog Style Rank Announcer mod which replaces the "Dismal" Style Rank with the memetic "Dead Weight".
  • A video in a post from the official Devil May Cry Twitter account subtitled Vergil's Concentration gauge feature as "For When You Need More Power", calling to mind the memetic popularity of Vergil declaring "I need more power!"
• Meme Role Reprise: On separate occasions around the release of Devil May Cry 5, some DMC fans convinced Reuben Langdon, Johnny Yong Bosch and Dan Southworth to say in-character lines (respectively as Dante, Nero and Vergil) based on the "Dummy Thicc" memes. The most commonly used voice clip out of this trend is from Southworth when he repeatedly played along with it during a 2019 AMA livestream.
  Dan Southworth: "Dante! Listen man, I'm trying to fight these demons, but I'm dummy thicc and the clap of my asscheeks keeps alerting them... I understand you and Nero have the same problem."
• Newbie Boom: This game helped spark interest in the whole Devil May Cry franchise for the new generation of gamers, given that the last mainline entry was more than a decade ago, while the reboot often received mixed to negative fanfare. It was a common reaction for DMC5 players to try the older games in order to understand the characters and lore better. Shortly after, there's another wave of newcomers due to the additional memes and online exposure brought by the Special Edition featuring Vergil and his Image Song "Bury the Light".
• No Export for You:
  • The Collector's Edition included a miniature version of the van seen in-game and a small artbook. Unfortunately, it was restricted to Amazon US and Canada, and the US Capcom online store.
  • The prequel novel Before the Nightmare has never been translated from Japanese.
  • The Visions of V spin-off manga tells V's point of view prior to the events of the game, but the online manga service it's being released on is region-locked behind Japanese ISPs unless one uses a VPN.
  • The Devil May Cry 5 Official Art Works artbook provides additional lore, backstory or commentary to some concepts and characters from the game, but so far, it's only published in Japanese.
    • Not the case now, as Udon Entertainment has translated and released it for purchase on their website.
• No Port For You: The Special Edition is available only for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S platforms. Playable Vergil was later released as a Downloadable Content for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC users, but those latter ports lack all the other new features and content.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Wendee Lee takes over for Danielle Burgio as Trish ^note which is curiously the only recast here from the English version of 4:SE. As Trish shares her voice with Eva, Lee also fills in for Sarah Lafleur, who voiced the two characters in the first game.
  • Joey Camen provides the voice of Morrison, who was previously voiced by Rob Mungle in Devil May Cry: The Animated Series. Fitting given Morrison's Race Lift.
  • For her brief, over-the-phone cameo, neither of Patty's voice actresses from TAS (Misato Fukuen and Hilary Haag) return. Instead, Yu Shimamura and Haviland Stillwell assume the role. Justified, as Patty's older now so her voice would naturally change — Stillwell's performance sounds very much like an adult version of Haag's.
  • An odd example in the Japanese version. Both Dan Southworth and Hiroaki Hirata return as Vergil. Urizen, who is Vergil's demonic half, is suitably voiced by Southworth, albiet under a heavy filter to disguise his voice, but in the Japanese version, Hirata's voice isn't used and Urizen is played by a completely different actor, Shunsuke Sakuya.
• Prequel in Another Medium: There is both a novel (Devil May Cry 5: Before the Nightmare) and manga adaptation (Devil May Cry V - Visions of V) that take place before the events of the game proper. Notably, the former is the first official appearance of Nico and depicts how Dante acquired Balrog.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends:
  • There were anticipations for "Ladies' Night", a hypothetical/rumored DLC campaign that made rounds on the Internet which claims Lady and Trish might become playable in a post-launch content, running the main Devil May Cry business branch while Dante is still in the Underworld with his brother. This is based on The Stinger of the game where Morrison hires Lady and Trish for a job. Another part of the rumor claims that Lucia from Devil May Cry 2 will return in playable form as well. But as years passed following the release of the Special Edition and playable Vergil, the game hasn't been updated with more content ever since. Who knows if "Ladies' Night" will eventually come true? As it stands, it's still a wishful thinking from fans.
  • It was commonly believed that Michael Schwalbe, the voice actor of Balrog, also voiced the default Style Announcer. However, Schwalbe himself debunked this, as quoted from a Devil May Cry subreddit thread which he participated in.
    I thought it might have been me (since the session was so long ago, it was hard to remember) but hearing this, I can confirm that this is not my voice.
• Production Nickname: When the three-and-a-half-hour-long official Bloody Palace stream reached Floor 90, Matt Walker and Hideaki Itsuno revealed the Fury demon was nicknamed "Red Arremer" during production, taken from a similarly-named character in the Ghosts 'n Goblins series.
• Production Posse: Despite the long Sequel Gap and an attempted continuity reboot beforehand, Director Hideaki Itsuno stated in an interview at E3 2018 that he gathered most of the old team members that had previously worked on DMC3 and DMC4 to recreate the feel of those two games for DMC5. Producer Michiteru Okabe in a Famitsu interview added on gathering the DMC2 members as well.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • The initial, unused concept Hideki Kamiya had for Dante's character was of him being British. With this game's reveal that Dante and Vergil grew up in Red Grave City, which looks to be in the UK gauging by the city architecture and phone booths, it seems like this concept may have become canon.
  • Among the various concept arts for unreleased demons, DMC1 would've gotten a "Griffon Baby" monster that looks like a fleshy demon bird chick. This game revisits that idea via the lower-half of Malphas being a giant grotesque demon bird chick, made more horrifying thanks to Capcom's RE Engine.
  • According to a Famitsu interview, series director Hideaki Itsuno wanted to implement a motorbike weapon into the series as early as the second game, but was limited by time and struggled to return to the idea until Devil May Cry 5 with the weapon Cavaliere, which acts as a motorbike and splits into dual buzzsaws, and is a fan favourite weapon.
  • The Sin Devil Trigger, Dante's new four-winged demon form, takes elements from the unused "Perfect Devil Trigger" design created for 4, alongside elements of the Majin Form from 2.
  • Nero was originally intended to wear a white Order of the Sword uniform in Devil May Cry 4, and it would've took the slot of his "Prototype" costume in that game's Special Edition (the inclusion of the Prototype costume was a personal choice of Director Hideaki Itsuno). This game goes back to that by making Nero's EX Color costume white-themed, aside from evoking Credo's appearance as an Order of the Sword knight and his Angelo Credo form's color palette.
  • One of the early concept designs for DMC4 Nero depicted him wearing a hood, as mentioned and shown in page 214 of the 3142 Graphic Arts artbook. DMC5 eventually returned to that idea and implemented it in-game; Nero's unlockable taunt from completing Bloody Palace allows him to put the hood of his jacket on.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: In a sense. When "Subhuman", composed by Cody Matthew Johnson featuring Suicide Silence, was first unveiled, it received an ice-cold reception due to many factors such as the bad audio mixing and the incomprehensible screamed vocals, but what ultimately caused this trope was the discovery that lead singer Eddie Hermida was in an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship with an underage fan. The resulting PR disaster forced Capcom to delete the song from their YouTube channel, and distance themselves from the collaboration. Ultimately, Capcom kept the song and its instrumentals, but hired Michael Barr (of Volumes fame) to redo the vocals.
• Role Reprise:
  • On the English side: Johnny Yong Bosch and Reuben Langdon return as Nero and Dante, respectively, as well as Kate Higgins (Lady; credited as Kate Davis) and Stephanie Sheh (Kyrie).
  • On the Japanese side: Toshiyuki Morikawa and Kaito Ishikawa also return as Dante and Nero, respectively, alongside Fumiko Orikasa (Lady), Atsuko Tanaka (Trish), Saori Hayami (Kyrie), and Akio Ōtsuka (Morrison).
  • You can also throw in Dan Southworth and Hiroaki Hirata both returning as Vergil.
• Sequel Gap: Released in 2019, 11 years after the last numbered entry (4 back in 2008), and six years after the last game overall (Ninja Theory's DmC: Devil May Cry in 2013). That being said, the Special Edition of 4 was released in 2015, followed by a PS4/XB1/PC port of the previously released HD Collection in 2018, filling the gap somewhat.
• Similarly Named Works: Before the Nightmare can either refer to the prequel Light Novel spin-off of Devil May Cry 5 from 2019, or the ending theme song of the Black★★Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall anime from 2022.
• Throw It In!:
  • Devil May Cry 5: Official Art Works reveals some interesting tidbits about some of Nero's Devil Breakers:
    • The falling animation used when Nero falls off of a flying Punch Line was recorded from a genuine fall by Nero's motion capture actor, not a pratfall.
    • Monkey Business, a banana-themed Moveset Clone of Helter Skelter, originally started as a prank by one of the developers, who added random bananas into Helter Skelter's model without notifying anyone. The rest of the development team found it funny, so they eventually turned it into a real Devil Breaker.
  • According to this development video, Nico was originally meant to be a solely "badass" character with no silliness to speak of. Nico's final portrayal was actually ad-libbing on Faye Kingslee's part (Nico's actor), which amused Itsuno enough to officially incorporate the silliness into her character.
  • An interview in Devil May Cry 3142 Graphic Arts revealed that Nico's heritage as the adoptive granddaughter of gunsmith Nell Goldstein and orphaned biological daughter of DMC4 antagonist Agnus were actually two seperate ideas at one point in development, with the former being Itsuno's idea (albeit with Nico as Nell's biological granddaughter) and the latter being lead writer Bingo Morihashi's. The two of them liked the other's idea, so both of them were written into her backstory.
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to a Dengeki Online interview, Hideaki Itsuno would've wanted two separate weapons for Dante's punching and kicking attacks, but since it would've created too many weapons in total, Balrog was designed to handle both at once via its Stance System.
  • V's design went through some interesting changes or concepts early in development.
    • He initially had a "strong-looking" appearance due to character illustrator Tatsuya Yoshikawa being used to drawing "strong" characters.
    • Daigo Ikeno presented a female V design named "Angelo" and she would've been introduced as Nero's younger sister.
  • Vergil's World of V Limit Break was originally a Dummied Out move in the original release exclusive to V named Kiss of Death. The skill functioned largely the same as World of V does, except its duration was determined by how much of V's Devil Trigger was spent.
• Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: The only platform the game was released on that didn't get a demo version was the PC, most likely because of Capcom's justified fear of dataminers digging through the game's files for gigantic spoilers like they did with Resident Evil 7.
• Word of God:
  • The black man smoking a cigarette in the E3 trailer (and the prologue cutscene of the game in post-release) is the same J.D. Morrison from Devil May Cry: The Animated Series. Director Hideaki Itsuno confirmed it (meaning the character had a Race Lift from Caucasian to black), which ended some early pre-release fan theories claiming the existence of "multiple Morrisons" who serve as Dante's agent/broker.
  • So why is Nero more or less, the central character in DMC5? Hideaki Itsuno explained that the decision really comes down to seeing Nero in his prime as an adult (as opposed to his teenage self from DMC4), and it's also a way to test how the player would react if the Devil Bringer gets taken away from Nero and there's something new to try out instead.
  • Nico's Report on the Cavaliere Angelo explains that it was designed in an attempt to create a perfect version of Nelo Angelo (a.k.a. "Black Angel"). To lore-minded fans, it's still a bit vague. However, Hideaki Itsuno elaborated in a Famitsu interview that Cavaliere Angelo is actually a "faulty" creation of Mundus, one that needs a "base" to function.
  • Fans have pointed out that V looks like Adam Driver, which naturally led to jokes and memes comparing V to Kylo Ren. Capcom acknowledged the resemblance, but stated that they had designed V before Episode VII had even come out and any resemblance was unintentional on their end.
  • It's also been assumed that "Bury the Light" has callbacks, references, or Musical Nods to theme songs from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. Composer Casey Edwards himself has Tweeted that "There are no references to pre-dmc5 songs."

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