first up, "old Dante is just a gay cowboy (derogatory)"

which, frankly, Ninja Theory WISHES they could make something that comes anywhere CLOSE to how important Brokeback Mountain was

and also, hell yeah Dante's a gay cowboy

he's a man's man

next up, Dante in fight club

and tbh, I'm not sure what's going on with this message, I know the idea that their game is supposed to be cool, western, and stylish, unlike "old Dante", but I don't know if Fight Club is there to represent the idea of cool western stylish or if it's an example of uncool and unstylish places Dante would be

both possibilities are hilarious to me for different reasons

also, "grounded" is a hilarious description for any game with fucking magic demons

also, some ~design esthetics~ slides

starting with an example of how to NOT make design choices if you want your character to be memorable

wait is this how we got meth addict white rapper dante

yes

it is

the fun thing is, neither of these really match the character or musical mood of "old Dante" either, he's more metal than Jrock, but that is neither here nor there

and the most hilarious slide I have ever seen:

for those not aware, the boy on the left is Andrew, from a 2012 movie called Chronicle, he gets psychic powers and decides he's now an "apex predator" who gets to just use his powers on people weaker than him

which, uhhh, isn't a great thing to put on your character design moodboard for a protagonist who is a hero

the rest of the slides I've seen are mostly concept art, some of which is fine, others are, uhhh

edgy as all fuck

also, there is just so much sexy lady ass in these "Rebellion" slides

can't have people thinking we're gay cowboys!

this one's mostly funny to me because the guy who did the OG Dante designs is on record saying he wanted to make a character that was too cool to smoke

Lady likes her scruffy old man Dante. TYVM

yeah, like... Capcom told Ninja Theory to go their own way, and then NT proceeded to show exactly why they were the worst people to do that...

not only in picking the blandest most basic edgelord shit for their aesthetic, but in actively putting down everything OG Dante was as "lame" at the same time

yeah, the marketing they did was Not Great, had some excellent ideas for level and gameplay design though

yeah, some of it was interesting!

shame I couldn't stand their version of the main protagonist enough to enjoy the good ideas

yeah, the walking disaster is more my cup of tea too, both as a feral teen yeeting himself off buildings and as a scruffy old man doing stupid tricks with new toys

feral teen Dante is wild and I love that ridiculous boy

Dante went from having a visually distinct design to being every single generic white guy of the era

yeah, that's why I was kind of nervous when I saw the designs for DMC5, because Dante is rather drab in comparison to previous games, but the spirit is still there

also in the context of the game I'm pretty sure most of the outfit is "laundry needed to get done a week ago and I still haven't done it" cloths, which is just very funny to me

Yeah, I think the drabness fits how dark the colors are most of the time so it still sticks out but like. Not like fucking fire engine red would?

He still has a distinct design.