Lovers of the demon-hunting wahoo pizza man rejoice! Or... maybe not quite yet.
While fans of the Devil May Cry series have seen a lot of love in recent years, one corner of gaming has continued to hurt them. Although Super Smash Brothers Ultimate seems to have almost everyone and the kitchen sink in its roster, one big name that has not yet appeared is Dante. With recent switch ports of Devil May Cry fans hoped for Dante to make his appearance, but unfortunately, these dreams were dashed away with the reveal of more Fire Emblem characters.
Dante has a decent chance of showing up in Smash Brothers if Bayonetta was able to gain a spot into the beloved series. Fans of Dante might also be happy to know that recent news of DLC might have potentially leaned towards the Son of Sparda, making his debut.
GameRant writer Quinn Mathys broke down recent hints that point towards Dante possibly being in development for DLC. In an interview earlier this month with YouTuber GameXplain, Platinum Games director, and former game director of Devil May Cry, Hideki Kamiya was questioned about who he would like to see in Smash Ultimate.
While Hideki Kamiya listed some exciting names like Viewtiful Joe, he did not mention Dante at all. This would not be noteworthy if it were not for the fact that, in a now-deleted tweet, Hideki Kamiya asked fans in 2018 about who they would like to see in Smash, with Dante being a choice. So Hideki Kamiya is aware of the fan hype.
Another clue pointed out by Quinn Mathys is tied to Hideaki Itsuno's director of Devil May Cry, comments in 2019 that stated Smash Bro characters needed to have some tie in or connection to Nintendo. Recently, Devil May Cry has received Switch ports, so this now links the series to Nintendo. The last bit of evidence that we have is an interview from January of this year with Brian Hanford, the voice actor of V from Devil May Cry 5, on JoJo Wifi's YouTube Channel.
Roughly six minutes into the interview, Brian Hanford started talking about his experience playing Devil May Cry and said that “This is what kills me about it...I’m not in the DMC lore enough to ever be considered for Super Smash.” Brian then goes on to say that “To be part of Marvel vs. Capcom or Super Smash Bros would be huge, which is what Dante is going to be.” These comments could be a slip or just Brian speculating on what seems like an obvious choice.
While numerous data miners have disproven Dante's inclusion in previous DLC updates, there seems to be a stronger case for Dante coming to Smash in a new update in the second iteration of the fighters pass. Fans will just have to wait and see.