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“You gotta be you. Only one in the world.” -Hideki Kamiya

Dante, Devil May Cry’s stylish devil hunter.

Clive Rosfield, the First Shield of Rosaria from Final Fantasy.

Every action hero has a reason for fighting malevolent forces, and for these two monster slaying badasses, it’s the tragedies they suffered. Both coming from a special kind of upbringing and losing their families at a young age, they swear vengeance against beings of evil by using their special gifts passed down to them. But when Demon meets Dominant, only one can emerge victorious, and even Ryota Suzuki, combat director of both Devil May Cry V and Final Fantasy XVI, has placed his bet. The question is, will he be right? Will Clive really make this devil cry for the last time? Or will Dante show the Archduke that his victory is nothing but a mere fantasy? Let’s find out in a DEATH BATTLE!

Before We Start…

Dante has had a lot of history over the years, so of course figuring out what to include is somewhat complicated, but he’ll get the games, novels, the 2007 anime, audio drama, the mangas, Japanese and certain English guides, and the artbooks. All these are canon as part of a single timeline and you can find all the media accessed via Divinity Statue. A small elephant in the room is the 2025 Netflix show. While it’s technically a different continuity, Itsuno himself has supervised the show, so we’ll at least give it a look for supplemental info (regardless how most of us feel about its quality).

A bigger elephant in the room is of course the Peak of Combat mobile game. While it was supervised by Capcom, the game’s canonicity is very weird and is a parallel universe set after DMC3. It also has numerous contradictions (examples would be Vergil from 3 getting his Sin Devil Trigger from 5 and Nero from DMC4 encountering DMC3 Dante despite that being impossible). The original Chinese version of the game has also shut down, so uhh…yeah, even accessing it is a hard task for our volunteers. While we cannot predict if the DB team will use it, we have decided to leave it to the side for today. We also humbly ask that you leave any fake scan jokes or shots at the door. A lot of us are big DMC fans that want to represent Dante as best as we can. There’s also been plenty of G1 blogs about Devil May Cry in the past, so we’ll be referencing Galacta Knight vs Vergil a lot here (but also do a fresh look/take on things to see if opinions have changed since).

Clive is fortunately, a good deal more simple than Dante. His primary material is his own game, Final Fantasy XVI. Notably, FFXVI was developed with the English dub as a high priority. The English voice capture was recorded before the Japanese dub, to the point that Japanese players were recommending the English dub because the lipsyncing was off in the Japanese dub. Furthermore, while the game was originally written in Japanese, it was reworked after the localisation to match with the English translation more closely, and the team worked with the localisers on the game’s lore and worldbuilding. This is further cemented in FFXVI’s Ultimania. The Localisation director contributed to “every aspect of the game”, and key scenes were aligned with the atmosphere as dictated by both the game’s director as well as the localisation director and the actors. All this to say, the English dub of FFXVI was prioritised heavily in the game’s development, and is at least on par with the Japanese dub. This means that we can rely on statements and descriptions featured in the English translation. We are also including Final Fantasy XVI’s Ultimania, translated here by blog member Kaiser. Finally, there is also a lore book for Final Fantasy XVI called LOGOS… sort of. The book has not been released yet at the time of writing, however Square Enix has a few preview pages of the book available, which are usable here.

And since Final Fantasy XVI is only a two year old game as of the time of this writing, we thought it’d be fair to say that this blog will contain spoilers from the game (as well as the entire Devil May Cry series), so fair warning. But with all that being said, let’s get this party started.

PS: Given the episode was promoted to have a lot of flips, Cyber made sure the community member Flip was on the blog you are reading today.

Background

Background images by Flip.

Dante

“This party’s getting crazy…let’s rock.”

You’ve heard of it, haven’t you? The story of Sparda, a demon that rebelled against his own kind to fight for the side of good and protect humanity. It was always believed to be a child’s fairy tale…but it’s in fact real, evidenced by his twin sons, Vergil and of course, Dante. He originally had a somewhat peaceful life living with his brother, father and human mother, Eva. This all came crashing down when his father disappeared from his life and the evil demon king known as Mundus sent his forces to hunt down the Sparda legacy. Though Dante managed to survive, his mother ended up being murdered and his brother Vergil went missing. Dante was alone.

Dante tried his best to keep his chin up, hiding his pain behind banter and showing off and despite all that happening to him, he did his best to make his mission to hunt down demons to the point he opened up his own business. In doing so, this led to him finally reuniting with Vergil, but perhaps not on the terms he wanted. Dante didn’t want to acknowledge the demonic side of him, but Vergil absolutely embraced it, to the point he resurrected a demonic tower to open up a portal to the demon world. Understandably having mixed feelings, Dante would eventually accept that demonic half of him, awakening his devil trigger and defeat his twin brother at last…but he couldn’t save him as Vergil stayed in the demon world. Still, that renewed Dante’s resolve to open his demon hunting business so other people wouldn’t have to experience what he did he finally titled: Devil May Cry.

It definitely earned him a reputation when news spread and Mundus was back once more. Dante would travel to Mallet Island where the demon king was waiting for him. Dante fought through his army and even had another faithful reunion with Vergil, only this time corrupted as Nelo Angelo. Having no other choice, Dante ‘killed’ his brother and finally took his revenge against Mundus for destroying his family, sealing him for good this time. Dante finally had his revenge against the demon king… but in the end, he was still alone.

Dante may have tried to hide his feelings from the outside by being an arrogant showoff and enjoying pizza and sundae, but deep down, he always had to hide his pain as he got older. He got revenge, but his family was still gone. Demons still absolutely hate him because of his Sparda and human bloodline and humans like Lady saw him as a monster at first because of his demon side. It never felt like he truly belonged to either side, but he still did his best to keep moving along, trying to save the world in his own way.

Despite everything he went through, Dante always came out on top on stopping evil demonic forces and did help out a lot of people. He gave Trish a better life, helped give Lady some closure with her own family matters, saved Lucia’s life, helped Patty grow up happier and reunite her with her own family and so much more. Dante would finally start smiling a lot more once he found out about his nephew, Nero, the son of his brother he never knew he had. Dante cheered up and was really happy to see that he still had a family out there and willing to fight for the side of good. He even entrusted Nero with his brother’s keepsake, knowing there’s still someone out there besides him.

He would reunite with his twin brother one more time when Vergil had decided to discard his humanity to become Urizen and while he did struggle with his brother’s new found power at first, he would do the opposite of what his brother did, this time accepting both halves of his human and demonic counterpart to defeat Urizen. Even when Vergil reunited his own halves too, Dante would never let his brother have his way. Only this time, instead of being forced to kill each other, his own nephew, another part of his family, was able to intervene, stopping the Sons of Sparda feud for good and helped make peace with each other.

Dante always had a hard life, but he always made the people around him happy with his charm, optimism and unique kindness, and being able to push through hardship no matter how tough it was. He’s a man worthy of being a hero for humanity and that’s always worth fighting for. Sparda and Eva would be proud of their son and can rest easy knowing the world is safe thanks to him.

Clive Rosfield

“On this, my sword, I swear… To shield the firebird’s flame forevermore!”

In the year 845 of Valisthea, the Archduke of Rosaria, Elwin Rosfield and his wife Anabella bore a child who would inherit the lineage of the Eikon Phoenix, Clive Rosfield. Or at least, that was the plan, for Clive never manifested the ability to summon forth the Phoenix, instead going to his younger brother Joshua when he came of age, leaving Clive to bear his mother’s contempt as a supposed failure. However, Clive, now 15 years old, was more than happy to serve as Joshua’s First Shield, a royal knight in his own right, and took up training under the Lord Commander Rodney Murdoch to become a fine protector of his younger brother, joined by his friend Jill Warrick and a wolf pup he adopted as his companion, Torgal. However, it was not to last, for in the year 860, after a mission at the Phoenix Gate, an infiltration force from the Holy Empire of Sanbreque sought to kill everyone within the Phoenix Gate, and in the process of mustering defense of Joshua, Clive began to experience a horrible headache and a voice in his ears, a hooded figure wreathed in flame calling for him even as Joshua manifested the Eikon Phoenix out of panic, and as he blacked out, a second Eikon of Fire manifested to do battle with the Phoenix, Ifrit!

Rousing again after hearing Torgal’s cries, Clive was greeted with a horrific sight as Ifrit tore Phoenix, and Joshua with it, apart, begging the Second Eikon to stop and spare his brother, only to watch helplessly as Ifrit dealt the killing blow and engulfed the Phoenix Gate in an inferno, swearing vengeance against the monster as he fell unconscious once again. As his mother Anabella, the mastermind behind the Imperial attack, arrived to survey the carnage, in her cruel mercy she had the soldiers in her retinue take Clive as a slave for the front line, a final act of spite toward her late husband. For the next thirteen years, to the Year 873, Clive would be forced to fight at the Empire’s behest under the pseudonym Wyvern, his quest to kill the Dominant that had taken his brother was the only thing that sustained him through the battles and horrors he endured.

One day, however, his unit was tasked to eliminate the Dominant of Shiva, who was presently fighting alongside the Iron Kingdom as their own pawn. Said Dominant, however, turned out to be his childhood friend Jill, and Clive refused to follow his orders any further, cutting down his commander and the Ironblood who escorted her, until he was saved at last by Cidolfus Telamon and his childhood companion Torgal, who brought him to Cid’s hideaway to nurse Jill back to health and continue in his own purpose now that he was freed of the Empire’s shackles. Cid reasoned then that it would be best to join him as his best chance to find Joshua’s killer, and together they took the fight to Benedikta Harman, Dominant of Garuda, who had been rumored to have captured a Dominant of Fire, Clive demonstrating a never before seen ability of absorbing Garuda’s Aether, claiming the Eikon’s power for himself!

Soon after, however, Benedikta raged out of control as her Eikon Garuda, forcing Clive into a desperate situation and, in his peril, primed into Ifrit and tore her apart! Brought quickly to heel by Cid’s own Eikon, Ramuh, Clive now realized that he had to find the truth of Joshua’s murder and return to the Phoenix Gate, where this had all began, with Jill now at his side. Looking upon the ruins below the Phoenix Gate, Clive soon felt a splitting headache, just like before the night Joshua died, and when he awoke he was confronted by the memory of the Night of Flames, forced to accept the truth: He was the Dominant of Ifrit all along, and with this acceptance, came full control of his monstrous Eikon. No longer would Ifrit be a mindless beast, but instead a weapon that would see Cid’s dream of a world without slavery to fruition.

Cid, however, would not live to see his dream fulfilled, as he would be fatally wounded in the quest to destroy the Mothercrystals and give both his name and Ramuh to Clive, who would take the title of Cid the Second. For the next few years, between 874 and 877, Clive would keep a low profile defending Bearers from his enemies, before resuming his destruction of the Mothercrystals in 878. Clive would fight every Eikon from the mighty Titan to the radiant Bahamut, soon learning that the one who pulled the strings and desired to destroy the world, Ultima. With a resurrected Joshua at his side, Clive would confront Ultima in their lair, Origin, where a pitched battle for the fate of Valisthea would take place!

The final battle in Origin would prove to be a grueling one, as Ultima revealed that Ifrit was their optimal form, and Clive now their perfect vessel, having gathered the power to serve them and awaken their kin. Joshua, having put everything into slowing Ultima’s awakening, would not survive, using his last moments to give Clive the full power of the Phoenix, and with it Clive would reaffirm his vow as First Shield, renewing his attack on Ultima with the power of his bonds! This time, Ultima would be surpassed as Clive drove both flame and fist through his foe, claiming Ultima’s power for his own to reshape the world as he saw fit, and with it, Clive would erase magic from the world with Origin itself, and thus the Blight that was eating away at the world with it. Washing ashore with the moon shining clear in the night sky, Clive would close his eyes at peace as his body began to turn to stone, content that he and his companions’ journey was finally at its end…

Experience & Skill

Dante

From the very beginning of his series, Dante has showcased a natural aptitude with each and every devil arm he comes across, often displaying a variety of techniques the moment he obtains them, and this fact has been consistent across every point in his life. Although the exact reason for this isn’t known, it is said that Dante and Vergil both “inherited” their father’s swordsmanship abilities, having been taught when they were children. In particular the weapons he has seemingly mastered are a variety of Swords, Nunchucks (which also transforms into a Bo-Staff and a Three-Section-Staff), Gauntlets and Greaves, a Motorcycle that doubles as Chainsaws, a (literal) Electric Guitar, a Briefcase with over 666 different transformations, whatever the hell Lucifer is, etc. He’s also proficient in a wide variety of Firearms including Pistols, Shotguns, Rocket Launchers, Grenade Launchers, Rifles, Submachine Guns, and Needle Guns, to the point no human could handle pressing the trigger as fast as him. But of course, this is only scratching the surface of how good he really is. Even after only briefly seeing Vergil’s Swordsmanship for three fights, he was still able to replicate it (albeit imperfectly) from memory over 20 years later while wielding Yamato for the first time.

When it comes to other swordsmen of the human world, Dante easily outclasses the most skilled fighters such as the Holy Knights of the Order of The Sword, in particular a young boy named Nero (at least his DMC4 self), who consistently shows great observation skills. He regularly fights Demons such as Mundus who are at least thousands of years old, and by the events of Devil May Cry 4, he should have surpassed his father who is stated to be the greatest swordsman in the demon realm, claimed to be a necessary force for Mundus to be able to claim the throne in the first place, and was capable of defeating the entire Underworld by himself. He once encountered Sparda’s apprentices Modeus and Baul, who were both taught their swordsmanship skills by Sparda himself, and were stated to be capable of slaying one to two thousand devils in an instant with a sword in hand.

Modeus in particular was considered a swordsman so great who could shake the demon world. Despite their at minimum two thousand years of combat experience over Dante he was capable of defeating both of them without any effort. Dante has also kept up and defeated Gilver, someone who analyzed, adapted to and copied Dante’s fighting skills, but he still defeated him. If such glazing wasn’t enough, he is so strong that Berial thought he could rule the Fire Realm. Perhaps in the greatest display of skill in the entire series, Dante was capable of keeping up with Chen the Cannibal, who after absorbing the Beastheads attained Precognitive powers that gave him knowledge of all time and space, and with this ability he gave himself supreme knowledge of Swordsmanship and began mimicking Sparda’s fighting style. Despite that? Dante still held his own. Against other users of the Beastheads even, despite their temporal clairvoyance, they start sweating and losing their confidence upon noticing Dante predicting their every move, and it is perhaps this capability that let him compete with Chen in the first place.

In regard to a more in depth look at his marksmanship, his most impressive showing is when he managed to shoot Yamato through the Savior’s core with Ebony and Ivory by precisely stacking his bullets atop each other from a large distance. His aim in general is really impressive though outside of just firearms, like when he kicked a couple giant seeds perfectly to have them ricochet through a forest and all hit a demon right in the face. Overall, it’s hard to imagine Dante missing a shot when he really wants it to land. With this talent for aiming, and his countless successes in close ranged combat, there is no doubt that this son of Sparda is a master warrior despite his attitude.

Clive Rosfield

From a young age, Clive was trained to be a Shield of Rosaria, essentially the nation’s royal knights. More specifically, he was to be the Shield of his brother, also known as the First Shield. For this purpose, he was personally trained by Murdoch, the Lord-Commander of the Shields, particularly in swordplay and magic. Ironically, Clive doesn’t tend to carry a shield himself, instead mainly relying on precise dodging and parries to avoid taking damage in combat. His training was sufficient to keep up with the Lord Commander in a spar, as well as take on goblins, Gigas, and even a massive Morbol. He’s quite agile as well, being able to climb onto the Morbol, leap off it using its own momentum, strike it, and leap off with ease. Perhaps more impressively, he was able to fight off numerous Royalist Knights on the night of Phoenix Gate, despite them being much older and bigger. This includes not just regular Knights, but also mages and even a fully fledged Dragoon, the Knight of Blinding Dawn. And of course, this was all when he was but a young knight.

After the fall of Phoenix Gate, Clive was kidnapped by the Empire, “recruited” to serve in its army. This led to him spending thirteen years as a knight-slave, fighting for the Empire on threat of death. Initially, he fought on the frontlines, by his word he killed more men than he can count. Eventually, his skill and magical prowess lead to him being specially trained and put in a unit (Called the Bastards, no joke) tasked with taking out Shiva’s Dominant in an ambush after a battle between the Ironblood Kingdom and Dahlmekian Republic where Shiva faced off against Titan. While she was weakened from that battle, Jill put up a great fight against Clive, using a wide array of ice magics against him. Clive would then betray his unit to save her, killing Tiamat, his squad leader.

Before long, Clive would be fighting alongside Cid and his Hideaway, battling not just soldiers, but other Dominants in the hopes of freeing the world from the Mothercrystals. This includes Benedikta, Dominant of Garuda, where he Primed for the second time in his life.

After a run-in with Ultima, and the untimely demise of Cid, Clive took up his mantle and spent 5 years leading the Hideaway himself. During this time, Clive would not only spend time fighting as himself, but as the leader of the Cursebreakers, a group dedicated to liberating Bearers across Valisthea. However, it wouldn’t be long before his journey would bring him into battle with more powerful Dominants such as Dion Lesage and Barnabas Tharmr, commanders of their respective nations’ armies with more power than Clive had yet contended with, yet Clive proved himself their better through grueling battles. Perhaps most impressively, Clive would face off with Omega, an artificial Eikon made by the Fallen over 1500 years ago to overthrow Clive’s final opponent, Ultima, a being who had existed for five millennia across multiple bodies in a hivemind, both of whom Clive proved to be their better.

Equipment

Dante

Devil Arms

Dante’s weapons aren’t ordinary as they contain the power and souls of various demons. Demons usually need to be either convinced, subdued or sometimes killed, but once they do, Dante can claim their souls to use as weapons (remember Mega Man? It’s like that), all Dante seems to master using as soon as he gets them. Depending on the weapon, Dante can use these Devil Arms to modify his Devil Trigger for all sorts of various effects. They all have sorts of powerful effects and can regenerate from damage should the worst happen. Even more, it’s continuously stated in Deadly Fortune that any Devil Arm can power an artificial hell gate.

With Devil May Cry’s huge history, Dante has collected a lot over the years. He has sold some of them to afford living costs (I mean…come on we get it), but we’re obviously going to include them all because he’s had them for years, are iconic parts of him, consider them standard (unless specified) and to be thorough for one of Capcom’s most beloved characters.

Rebellion

The main sword Sparda left for Dante and his main weapon in the series for many years, it’s a large magical blade that’s the manifestation of Dante’s power and contains Sparda’s power, embodying retaliation, making it a powerful sword. Dante can throw it like a boomerang with Round Trip and fire shockwave blasts with it. Dante was once stabbed with and it unlocked his inner devil trigger powers. It’s strong enough to match Vergil’s Yamato whenever they clash without fear of breaking, which is important since it can cut through space and dimensions. Fitting given the Rebellion is itself capable of cutting through space.

While it doesn’t seem to have as many powers compared to Sparda’s other weapons (dang dad, really?), it does have one important one in that it being the opposite of Yamato, it can fuse man and demon together. Dante would use this power to absorb the Rebellion and the Devil Sword Sparda later to develop a special new weapon…which we’ll explain soon.

Force Edge

Another one of the swords of Sparda, it’s actually the dormant form of the Devil Sword Sparda. It can home in on opponents and create a whirlwind when tossed. Dante mainly used this sword in Devil May Cry 1 in place of Rebellion. Upon combining both his and Vergil’s amulets, it’ll awaken into its true form…

Devil Sword Sparda

The true form of the Force Edge, if the name wasn’t apparent, was used by the legendary Sparda himself and is much stronger now. It has a large range, can extend into a large spear and even take the form of a scythe. It can hold the sealing of the demon world in place and hid Dante’s presence while he was in danger of being discovered. It can even slash through space and time, as evidenced by Trish herself, supported further being able to open gates of hell, giving Dante an alternative form of spatial manipulation.

It also lets Dante access the special Sparda Devil Trigger, which is stronger than his normal one, giving him the power of flight and being able fire runes and a huge dragon. Thanks to the power of Rebellion, Dante would absorb the Sparda into himself to get access to…

Devil Sword Dante

With the power of Rebellion being able to fuse man and demon together, Dante would absorb it and the Sparda, being composed of both, to create the Devil Sword Dante. Dante doesn’t wield it on his back when not in use, but rather can seemingly call it whenever he needs it, which makes sense considering it was made from Dante’s own body. Considering it’s the combination of all the swords above, it likely contains all their special powers and then some. Even if you think he’s locked out though (which wouldn’t make much sense), Dante also has access to Irregular Full Custom, which lets him use all his past swords without issue anyway. It gives Dante access to his new Sin Devil Trigger form (which we’ll explain later) and lets him use the Sword Formation ability.

The Sword Formations will let Dante summon glowing red swords, an obvious nod to Vergil’s own summoned swords ability, greatly increasing Dante’s offensive options. The swords will copy Dante’s melee moves and have been used in various ways such as extending Dante’s reach and as projectiles. It’s also a versatile defensive weapon too, blocking attacks with ease and can fire spinning beyblades homing into his enemies.

Needless to say the Devil Sword Dante is one of Dante go to’s and one of the most powerful weapons in his arsenal.

Alastor

A sword similar to that of Rebellion and Force Edge, only it has more emphasis on lightning fast speed. It also gives Dante’s Devil Trigger electrical powers and makes his movement faster. It can even summon lightning bolts down from the sky and is still effective on electric based enemies like Griffon. The weapon also seemingly alerts Dante to nearby danger given it flashes in the presence of enemies.

Ifrit

(Say that again) A pair of gauntlets that gives Dante fire based powers. According to the inscription on them, it states that the wielders who awaken them will pay dearly with the fires of hell, meaning the flames that come from the gauntlets are literal hellfire. These gauntlets even have enough firepower to even bypass fire resistances from Frost Demons, who are impervious to volcanic fire. With these equipped, Dante’s Devil Trigger gains fire powers and can also shoot meteors from his hands.

Merciless

Introduced in Devil May Cry 2 is this often forgotten sword and well, for good reason really. It’s basically a longer reaching but weaker version of Rebellion. Not much to say here.

Vendetta

This rather thick looking sword also introduced in Devil May Cry 2 is also rather unremarkable. It’s stronger, but has a shorter reach than Rebellion. Yeah, you’re probably noticing a trend with DMC2 weapons.

Cerberus

A triple nunchaku that utilizes the power of ice. What it lacks in damage, it makes up for in fast attack speed. It’s also a good defensive weapon, with moves like Windmill being ideal at blocking frontal attacks. With Swordmaster style, Dante can use moves like Crystal or Million Carats to create ice pillars in front of him or surrounding him respectively. Last, but not least, is Ice Age, where Dante creates a large ice mass that defends him from all attacks, while doing damage to any opponent who touches it.

Additionally, the chain of Cerberus can be useful for latching onto objects from a faraway distance.

Agni & Rudra

A pair of living twin swords that specialize in the elements of fire and wind, perfect for crowd control. These weapons can also be combined together and essentially become a staff. With Swordmaster style, Dante can use them in the air with a move called Sky Dance, where Dante rolls back down to the ground with both swords, hitting any enemy on the way down. Dante can also use a move called Crawler, where he strikes the ground and fires a line of flames. Lastly is the Twister move, where Dante creates a vortex of heat that surrounds him, and he can further prolong this move with Tempest.

Nevan

An electric guitar that’s literally electric. By playing a good tune (which is Shoot The Works from DMC2, fun fact) Dante channels electricity and can also summon bats from the guitar to attack his foes. With Swordmaster style, it can also become a scythe with certain moves like Slash and Feedback. While in Devil Trigger with this weapon, Dante can fly and use moves like Vortex and Thunderbolt to shock his enemies.

Beowulf

A set of gauntlets and grieves that utilize the power of light. What it lacks in range, it makes up for in devastating blows and quick combos. The moves with these weapons also tap into Dante’s inner Street Fighter fan, with moves like Killer Bee making for an effective dive kick and Rising Dragon making Dante do Shinryuken’s or Tatsumaki’s when in the air. With Swordmaster Style, Dante can further utilize Beowulf’s power of light with moves like Zodiac, which fires a projectile that’ll launch enemies away, and when Dante slams his fist into the ground, he does a move called Volcano, which creates an explosion that damages any nearby enemy.

Gilgamesh

A weapon that gives Dante steel armor across his arms, legs, and face, with the steel being converted from organic metal. With thrusters engineered throughout the tool, it allows Dante to deal supercharged punches and kicks, with drills on the arms and saws on the legs to make blows even more painful. The thruster detail is extra important as Dante can power up specific blows for way more damage, at the cost of a bit of charge time. Along with general attacks however, Dante can perform a variety of specific combat techniques with Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh Combo A: A standard punch punch kick combo, ended with a brutal axe kick.
Gilgamesh Combo B: After Combo A’s first two punches, Dante pauses for a brief moment before delivering a flurry of kicks which ends with a spin kick.
Full House: While midair, Dante can propel himself downward to deliver a RIDA KICK.
Draw: A non-offensive maneuver, Dante is propelled backwards out of enemy reach.
Straight: A follow up attack to Draw, Dante immediately jumps forward to deliver a brutal forward punch to get back on the offensive.
Kick 13: Dante unleashes a devastating flurry of kicks before finishing with a major upward stomp to the face. Try and guess how many times he kicks the enemy for this attack.
Flush: While Dante has the gear equipped, his normal flip jumps are now damaging attacks.

Pandora

A seemingly normal demonic briefcase, Pandora has the ability to transform into at least an astonishing six hundred and sixty six different weapons, but the novelization goes even further and describes that it has no limit fixed appearance, and can take the shape of any weapon, limited only by the wielder’s imagination. Of course, showing off that many murder methods in a single game would be a game developer’s second worst nightmare, so Dante has only ever shown seven different forms of Pandora. The four primary ones are the following:

PF013: Epidemic: A standard one-direction double barrel rocket launcher packing massive fire power, weirdly shaped like a crossbow.
PF124: Hatred: By spinning Epidemic around a bit, Dante can turn it into Hatred for a single shot. Hatred is a triple barrel rocket launcher, boasting 1.5 times the firepower of Epidemic.
PF262: Jealousy: A six barrel gatling gun perfect for firing a storm of bullets, Dante weirdly only likes using it midair to rain death from above.
PF398: Revenge: By shaking around Hatred twice as much as he shakes Epidemic, Dante can transform Hatred into Revenge. Rather than a rocket launcher, Revenge is more like a temporarily stationary cannon that fires an uber destructive energy blast. Much more powerful than Hatred and Epidemic, and by far the most damage Pandora can deal without resorting to the Disaster Gauge. As for what that is:

Dealing damage with any of Pandora’s weapons will gradually build up the Disaster Gauge, a separate meter that is required for utilizing Pandora’s strongest forms, with the three Dante uses being as follows:

PF422: Grief: An oversized triple blade ninja shuriken, Dante can toss it out onto the battlefield. From there, Grief can fly anywhere until the Disaster Gauge runs out, turning into a sharp spinning stage hazard for all of Dante’s foes.
PF594: Argument: A circular vehicle like form, Dante sits in the cockpit of a sphere of death. It has a primary rocket turret that costs a bit of the Disaster Gauge to fire, as well as five additional turrets which can all be activated at once for a plethora of booms at the cost of half of the Disaster Gauge.
PF666: Omen: The strongest weapon Pandora can be is ironically its normal briefcase form, which is stated to be its true form and can easily kill off powerful Angelos. If Dante has a full Disaster Gauge, he can open the briefcase itself directly to unleash a brutal light across the entire battlefield. Dealing massive damage to all enemies in the surrounding area at the cost of his full Disaster Gauge. It is a bit risky though as Dante will be stunned himself due to the overwhelming power, leaving him temporarily vulnerable.

Lucifer

Any nearby Umbra Witches should watch out for this one. A spider-like metal backplate, Lucifer has the ability to produce an endless number of demonically charged blades. No exaggeration, as Dante can go on and spawn as many as he wants to stab away at enemies, or suspend the blades in the air to act as spiky hazards. Lucifer has a couple special combos, but they all accomplish the same deal really of leaving a lot of swords in every spot you can think of. As a bonus note, Dante can also summon more swords than normal if utilizing Devil Trigger. The special detail about Lucifer however is that with a touch of its rose or a clap from Dante, he can make every currently present sword go kaboom to deal devastating damage to whoever is either next to them or stabbed into by them. And yes, Dante killed the demon Lucifer, the episode preview was right… Learn to research your character smh.

Yamato

Note: While Dante used it for some time in DMC4, he technically no longer has it, so including it as standard for him is somewhat questionable. That being said, he still has a fragment of it, which we’ll explain in a bit.

Yamato is one of the three swords Sparda used and is Vergil’s main weapon. Only Sparda and his descendents have the power to use Yamato. It has spatial cutting abilities that let it, well, cut through space and dimensions, letting it ignore conventional durability (letting it cut through matter and space-time). It can also seal dimensions as Sparda used it to seal the Hell Gates and Vergil/Dante used it to close the demon world in DMCV. While Devil Arms can be used to power artificial hell gates, only the Yamato (at the time of DMC4) had the power to open the main Hell Gate in Fortuna.

It’s not limited to cutting through space though, as it can also separate “power from heart” and “man from devil”, such as when Vergil himself used it to separate himself into Urizen and V or where Dante used it to save Nero from Savior, definitely similar to how it can keep the Human World separate from the Demon World. A stab can even nullify power, shown when Sanctus used it to stab Nero’s arm, depowering him shown by the lack of glow on his arm, even though a few seconds prior he was still able to fight back with his Devil Bringer.

When Dante wielded it in DMC4, he seemed to have used it effectively despite only having it for a short time, doing the same kind of dimension cutting, which used to cut a huge hell gate from hundreds of meters away and gained the Dark Slayer style. Dante let Nero keep the Yamato at the end of DMC4, thus no longer having it. However, he still has a fragment of it that he used to escape the demon world. This isn’t small talk, because even when broken, the Yamato still holds immense power. Even splinters from it are sharp enough to pierce the boundaries between worlds, and the broken sword also managed to revive Nero from a stab in the heart, which unlocked Nero’s Awakening (as it also repaired the sword).

Balrog

The right hand man of the Demon King Argosax and King of Fire Hell, when Dante utterly overpowered and killed Balrog in the Devil May Cry 5: Before the Nightmare prequel novel, he was transformed into the Devil Arm you see above. A set of gauntlets, greaves and shoulder pads, it imbues Dante’s strikes with fire, and has two separate styles of attacks: Blow Mode and Kick Mode.

Blow Mode takes cues from boxing, focusing on short, sharp punches and allowing Dante to execute swift dodge maneuvers with the Welter Move. Kick Mode takes inspiration from capoeira, incorporating flips and cartwheel kicks, allowing Dante to be a lot more agile in this style. Additionally, through the Ignition Mechanic, Balrog can be cloaked in fire to deal additional damage to enemies, and activates automatically after ten hits are landed (Blow Mode), or Dante performs the “Heat Up” dance (Kick Mode).

The perfect Devil Arm for combos, it has an extensive list of maneuvers and abilities like flaming bullet punches, rising uppercuts and devastating spin kicks. Furthermore, these are enhanced with Swordmaster Style, gaining new techniques Dante can access. A full list of each technique can be found here.

Cavaliere

After defeating Cavaliere Angelo in Mission 11 of Devil May Cry 5, Dante turned him into one of the most kickass Devil Arms in the series, the saws that sunder evil; Cavaliere. A motorcycle which splits up into a pair of giant buzzsaws, it trades off slow attacks for massive damage output and wide AOE reach. It can also be ridden like a regular motorcycle, useful for quick traversal.

As buzzsaws, Cavaliere operates using the Gear Wheel mechanic, activating when Dante strikes an enemy to burst with energy and deal additional damage. During this period, Dante can trigger the Low Gear, Top Gear, and Overtop Gear states, which increase its speed and power significantly.

In its motorcycle form, Dante can also use it to attack in Swordmaster Style, performing doughnut car spin outs, wheelies, straight up ramming it into enemies, and swinging the whole bike itself by the handlebars. A full list of all techniques can be found here.

Dr. Faust

Very much not the guy from Guilty Gear.

Created by Nico and based after her father’s old work, Dr. Faust is a hat that allows Dante to fire Red Orbs, which according to Nico, are literally bullets made of crystalized demon blood. But this comes with a catch: Dante is limited with how many Red Orbs he can fire depending on how many he has on him. But with moves like Set Hat, Dante can get bigger Red Orb payouts by attacking enemies that have the hat on them. Dante can also use this opportunity to his advantage with a move called Hat Trick, where he yanks any enemy with the hat over towards him.

Dante can also use the Red Orbs to create a forcefield that surrounds him called Man In The Red. This forcefield can do continuous damage to enemies and Dante can throw the surrounding Red Orbs at them. With Gunslinger style, Dante can use moves like Mad Hatter, where he spins the hat around him as it strikes multiple surrounding enemies. With Magic Hat, Dante lets the hat do its own work as it comes to life and attacks the enemy with Red Orbs. Last, but not least, is Red Hot Night, where Dante spends multiple Red Orbs to charge up a devastating meteor strike.

King Cerberus

While it may look like the original Cerberus at first glance, this version of the weapon has way more depth than it did back in DMC3. Unlike its original counterpart, King Cerberus specializes in three elements, Ice, Lightning, and Fire. With Ice being the same triple nunchaku, Lightning being a Sansetsukon weapon, and Fire being a Bo Staff.

Ice pretty much has the same classic moveset the original Cerberus had, so we’ll just tell you to refer to that section of this blog. It should be noted that King Cerberus’ ice powers in particular can freeze at absolute zero temperatures by effectively cooling energy. But as for the first of the two new forms of this weapon, the Lightning Sansetsukon utilizes long ranged attacks, with moves like Long Barrel, Thunderclap, and Long Revolver providing some good coverage from a distance. With Swordmaster style, that’s where the second of the two new forms comes in, the Fire Bo Staff. This new form of the weapon allows Dante to pull off some new quick combos, whether on the ground with moves like Rock Back and Hot Stuff, or in the air with Pole Play. Another thing to note is that the Fire is said to surpass even Berial.

Swordmaster Style also allows Dante to use new moves with the Lightning Sansetsukon, including Revolution, King Slayer, and Percussion.

Guns

Ebony & Ivory

Designed by Nell Goldstein and crafted by Dante himself, Ebony and Ivory are Dante’s signature semi-automatic pistols. Regular handguns couldn’t keep up with Dante’s devil hunting profession and were either crushed or exploded from overheating, but Ebony and Ivory have none of those problems. These dual pistols specialize in rapid firing bullets with demonic power within them, with Ebony being all about accuracy, while Ivory is more about rapid fire shots. These guns usually make for good long distance shots or juggling demons in the air. Speaking of the air, with Gunslinger style, Dante can even perform a stylish move with them while airborne called Rainstorm. A special ability with Ebony and Ivory that Dante can also use with Gunslinger style is firing charge shots.

Coyote-A Shotgun

This double barreled sawed-off shotgun was custom made by Dante himself, modified to take on demons. Much like a normal shotgun, it’s better suited for close quarters rather than long range shooting. With Gunslinger style, Dante can use a move called Fireworks, where he wields this weapon like a pair of nunchucks and spins it around him, blasting any nearby enemy. Dante can also utilize this shotgun in the same vein as some of his previous weapons. Similar to Ebony and Ivory, Dante can fire charge shots with this shotgun and just like his signature swords, he can use Stinger, where he dashes towards the enemy and delivers a blast upon impact.

Grenadegun

Found within the castle of Mallet Island, this revolver-style grenade launcher fires explosive shells with shrapnel contained within them, perfect for splash damage.

Needlegun

Found on the ghost ship of Mallet Island, this is a burst-fire weapon that fires six rounds of needles. It only works underwater and has never been shown to work on land.

Nightmare-β

This otherworldly weapon modeled after the Nightmare demons can fire green legitimate lasers that ricochet off walls. When combined with Ifrit, it will make Dante double his attack power against enemies. It can also be charged to fire multiple lasers at once, though it does consume a bit of Dante’s Devil Trigger.

Missile Launcher

This launcher fires heat-seeking missiles, which packs a lot of firepower. Though a drawback to this firearm is that it has low accuracy and firing speed.

Submachine Guns

These dual firearms have high accuracy and speed, but the firepower is pretty weak. The DMC2 firearms sure are firearms alright.

Artemis

An otherworldly gun that fires purple arrows imbued with demonic energy. With Gunslinger style, Dante can charge the weapon to fire multiple arrows at once that lock onto one or multiple enemies. Additionally, Dante can also use a move called Sphere, which simply put, fires out a laser in the form of a sphere. Sphere can also transition into an additional move called Acid Rain, where Dante fires the Sphere laser upwards and it rains down lasers around him.

Spiral

This massive rifle fires high-penetration bullets that can stagger foes. But a drawback to this is that the recoil when firing is massive and pushes Dante back. This makes Spiral rather limiting in terms of mobility in the heat of combat. With Gunslinger style, Dante can use a move called Trick Shot, where the bullets can ricochet off walls and enemies. Dante can also snipe a foe’s weak point with a move simply called Sniper and this is extended further with a move called Reflector, which snipes the foe, on top of having the ricochet of Trick Shot.

Kalina Ann

Note: Similar to Yamato, this weapon doesn’t exactly belong to Dante, since this is Lady’s primary weapon. But Dante has utilized it more than once, and despite it being questionable on whether or not it’s standard, we see it in the preview… so yeah 👍🏼. We can’t be sure about Yamato tho.

This weapon is Lady’s signature firearm, which fires a rocket that does a devastating amount of damage and has good AOE thanks to the explosion. With Gunslinger style, Dante can use a move called Hysteric, which fires a barrage of mini missiles that home in on the enemy. Finally, this weapon has a move called Grapple, where the blade on it impales the enemy once shot and pulls them towards Dante.

But that’s not all. Since Lady lost her initial Kalina Ann after the battle against Urizen, Nico created another one for her that’s basically the same as the original Kalina Ann. But there are some new additions to it, like High Explosive, which fires a charged rocket. With Gunslinger style, there are extensions to the homing missiles from the previous model.

But Dante did end up finding the original Kalina Ann, and also got to wield the second one, which allowed for some devastating combo moves. One example being Cascade, where Dante combines both of them and fires an energy beam that pierces through enemies. With Gunslinger style, Dante can use moves like Multiple Twins and Hysteric Twins, where he fires homing missiles out of both Kalina Ann’s. Finally, there’s Mega Cascade, where Dante fires a supercharged energy beam that lasts for a good while.

Beryl’s Rifle

Given to Dante by Beryl herself at the end of the novel, this anti-tank rifle is one hell of a weapon. This rifle contains special bullets that can absorb and destroy magic. Dante himself thought if he was hit by them, it could cut his links to the demon world and weaken him severely. It can even create a large hole that can swallow magical energy in a powerful vortex. Earlier on, Beryl used it to tear apart the Beastheads, which threatened the entire human realm, with just a few shots. This weapon should not be underestimated; especially against magic users.

Items

Vital Star

A set of alchemically produced healing items, Dante can carry several of three different variants respectively in the form of small, medium and large Vital Stars. Small versions heal a quarter of his health, mediums a half, and large Vital Stars are a full 100% heal. Dante can carry 30 of each.

Devil Star

Special more magical based stars that let Dante recharge his Devil Trigger gauge (more on this later). A small star restores half of it while a large variant is a full recharge, letting Dante jump back into fights at full power without having to build his strength first. Dante can carry 10 of each.

Untouchable

A super powerful item, it grants Dante temporary invulnerability and unlimited Devil Trigger for a short duration. Dante can carry one at a time.

Holy Star

A medical item that cures any poison status effects applied to Dante.

Holy Water

This isn’t merely some enchanted anti-vampiric refreshment like the glorified water bottle the Daywalker and Slayer use. The version of holy water containers Dante has access to serves more like a giant aquatic grenade, shooting out a damaging flash of light against all nearby enemies when popped. Dante can hold up to 5.

Smell of Fear

A vial that contains a magic once drunk that can shield Dante for three hits. Dante can hold up to 3.

Gold Orb

Unlikely as it is, should Dante fall in battle, he can use a Gold Orb to fully restore his health and demonic energy, letting him continue the battle right away. Dante can only carry up to a maximum of three, but that’s usually enough time for him to finish the job before running out. Gold Orbs are stated to have the power to “recall lost souls”, indicating they are a true form of resurrection.

Yellow Orb

Similar in a sense to the Gold Orb to the effect that it activates upon death and serves as a “resurrection”. The difference with this item however is that it “reverses time to a previous state”, placing Dante at the room prior to his death, and despite the time reversal occurring, it is implied Dante’s memories aren’t affected as he keeps any upgrades he purchased prior to activating the Yellow Orb. Even if Dante is completely disintegrated the Yellow Orb will activate automatically.

Bangle of Time

Yes, this is a JoJo reference. With this special artifact, Dante can stop time completely, stopping enemies dead cold in their tracks. It uses demonic energy, so Dante can’t just spam it, but since he has a vast pool anyway, his enemies are likely dead before they know what hit them. Specifically, the Bangle of Time sends an enemy’s spirit into the rifts of time according to the Japanese text, but it does not affect those with a strong mental fortitude.

The Amulet

Throughout the events of Devil May Cry 2 both Dante and Lucia can use this amulet to equip Devil Hearts, magic stones containing demons and gods from within that give their Devil Trigger forms unique elemental attributes, a boost in mobility and aerial flight, and other kinds of support like healing. Below is a list of Devil Hearts Dante should have access to:

Aerial Heart: Once belonging to the heart of a flying demon bird, this magic stone grants Dante flight while on Devil Trigger.
Quick Heart: Grants Dante rapid movement while on foot.
Flame Heart: Surrounds his attacks and bullets in flames that can burn the opponent, prolonging the damage. He’ll also heal himself from fire damage, even standing on magma will.
Frost Heart: Let’s Dante use ice for any of his attacks, this lets him slow his enemies on impact.
Electro Heart: Imbues Dante’s attack and guns with lightning and gives him a much longer melee reach to shock his foes.
Chrono Heart: Slows time down to a crawl for every enemy except for Dante
Offense Heart: Increases Dante’s attacks by a ton.
Healing Heart: Enhances Dante’s devil trigger healing

Clive Rosfield

Swords

A master of the blade needs an equally badass blade to swing around in battle, and Clive has no shortage of weapons. While he’s deadly with whatever blade he can get his hands on, he has an entire armory’s worth of powerful swords to make him even deadlier. Among these are his personal sword, Invictus, which is part of a series of swords passed down the Rosarian royal family for generations, previously used by Clive’s mentor Lord-Commander Rodney Murdoch. He also has blades like the Coral Sword, said to be so sharp its blade rivals that of Odin’s swords. Gotterdamerung, named for the “twilight of the gods”, is his strongest base-game weapon, with a titanic 375 attack stat. And while the Ultima Weapon is technically only available in a New Game + mode, Clive’s Omega Weapon can actually match its 700 attack stat when upgraded, making it his strongest blade within strict canon. This sword is made of a combination of flesh and synthetic bone, animated by the same spirit that powered Omega himself.

Clive also has access to free DLC weapons like the Onion Sword that once belonged to the, well, Onion Knight and the Buster Sword from Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy VII fame (we’ll never truly escape from that game huh?). Before you too starry eyed, they don’t seem to have any special effects or attributes from their original games and get power crept pretty easily as Clive gets stronger weapons in the game. They are likely just for fun replicas and nothing more.

Armor

While Clive doesn’t typically wear a tremendous amount of armor, he does tend to wear some in order to weather blows against him. During his time with the Imperial Army, he wore a bog-standard mass-produced set of gear, the same as all other Branded slave-knights. But after meeting with Lady Hanna, he gained some of his father’s old clothes, in signature Rosarian Red. Interestingly, he’s either kept his old chainmail, or his father’s gear happened to include some, because it’s visible under his gear on his arms. The gear also includes prominent knee protection, as well as armor to protect his elbows and upper arms without restricting his movements. Furthermore, his cloak comes with a convenient hood for a simple disguise. Most importantly, he wears it tactfully unbuttoned in order to draw as much attention to his massive chest as possible. Additionally, Clive has various Belts and Vambraces he can equip for additional defenses and max HP.

Eludium Belt has the highest base HP + defense boosts, (70 HP and 125 defense), Circle of Heaven +4 has more defense but less HP (54 HP and 158 defense)
If counting “Reforged” gear (exclusive to New Game+) then the Reforged Ouroboros belt is the strongest again (70 HP and 170 defense)
Vambraces have the Sun Bracelets +4 (56 HP, 159 defense) and the Eludium Wristlets (125 Def, 70 HP)
Reforged-wise, The Founder’s Grasp (100 HP, 165 defense) and The Sons of Ouroboros get (64 HP, 170 defense)

Accessories

Alongside his defensive gear, Clive also has a host of available accessories which can enhance his stats and abilities further.

Consumables

Clive’s got a bunch of concoctions to aid his chances in battle, and was even gifted the morganbeard extract to boost their effects.

Potion: Heals Clive for 20% HP. Can carry up to 8.
High Potion: Heals Clive for 40% HP. Can carry up to 5.
Stoneskin Tonic: Increases Clive’s defenses by 30% for a minute and a half. Can carry up to 4.
Strength Tonic: Ramps up Clive’s attack power by 10% for a minute. Can carry up to 4.
Lionheart Tonic: This fills Clive’s Limit Break Gauge gradually for half a minute. Can carry up to 4.
Elixir: Fully restores Clive’s health. Can carry up to 2.
Last Elixir: Though it only triggers if Clive’s depleted of health, it fully restores him automatically, fills out his Limit Gauge, and buffs his attack power by 10% and defense by 30% for a full minute. Clive only has access to one though, better make it count!

Brand

Clive, like all other known Bearers in the Twins, was marked with a Brand when he was taken to be a slave of the Empire. Not only does this clearly mark him as a Bearer to anyone who sees him, the brand itself is a special tattoo made from the extremely poisonous Wyvern Tail flower. This makes attempting to remove it dangerous not only because it requires cutting part of your own face off, but also because improper removal means injecting that directly into your bloodstream. Fortunately for Clive, removal isn’t impossible, especially under the hands of the Hideaway’s own Tarja.

Abilities

Dante

Demon Physiology

Being the son of the Legendary Dark Knight Dante possesses half of his demonic power, and within his Devil Trigger state he ascends into full demon state. Being one of two of the strongest demons in the entire setting, surpassing even Sparda himself, Dante should naturally be capable of using or replicating many of the generic abilities associated with demons, and has even displayed a fair number of them himself. Dante can also breathe both underwater and in space without issue.

Dante can also get stronger via training. Nero got a lot stronger after one month by simply killing demons (something Dante and Vergil do on a daily basis) and was able to be the first one to land a hit on Urizen after a month of training. Dante has also shown good adaptation such as when he could barely hold his sword, but a few seconds later on, renewed his strength completely.

Fear and Madness Manipulation: A signature trait of demons is that their mere presence can induce crippling fear and insanity, in one instance causing groups of people to enter a bloodlusted frenzy. Dante himself has been shown using this ability without needing to tap into his Devil Trigger, and more notably even V was stunned by his aura, despite V himself being capable of withstanding the presence of demons and journey through the Underworld without issue.
Empowerment: Demonic power waxes by feeding off despair and human blood, and the pain which one both inflicts and receives. However for Dante, who is very much in touch with his human blood, he is also capable of drawing energy from positive emotion such as love and righteousness and it is said this very power is what allows Sparda and his Sons to overcome Mundus.
Willpower: If the sons of Sparda are anything, it’s that they’re stubborn, especially with their willpower. They can wield the Sword of Sparda which normally requires great willpower to do so. Its weaker form, the Force Edge, previously transformed Arkham into a deformed blob because he lacked the willpower. Even Vergil resisted mind control and enslavement from Mundus even after he was corrupted, only giving in once Mundus gave him his amulet back.

Demonic Energy

Devil May Cry’s main universal energy system is Demonic Energy, often referred to as magic in the series. Every demonic power shares the same source of energy, physical or magical. This is how Dante amplifies his power, speed and durability. Of course, losing demonic energy can weaken him, such as when he felt reflexes and speed get slower while he was being drained, forcing him to use his guns as they don’t run on demonic energy. Thankfully for Dante, his Demonic Energy can restore itself at a rapid rate. A strong human spirit can amplify demonic power. A good example of this is when Nero found the resolve to reawaken his demonic power, constantly being fueled with demonic energy during his fight with Vergil (pay attention to his DT gauge).

Dante has used his demonic energy to power his attacks in all sorts of ways, such as with Rebellion, and his handguns for much more power and accuracy. He can use his demonic energy for all sorts of ways such as when he made an explosive energy with his sword, create a platform that lets him double jump, putting his energy into a motorcycle to make it go faster somehow, amp the guns up to create powerful seals, let him summon energy swords with them and so much more. Finally, Devil Trigger can completely reenergize Dante, boosting his stats with even more demonic energy, giving him a second wind. Considering his incredibly impressive stamina and numerous items that can restore his energy, he has a lot to use and then some.

Regeneration

One of the most famous things about the Son of Sparda is that no matter how many stabbings and hits he takes, he always seems to shrug it off and regenerate his wounds (which…include his clothes which doesn’t make much sense, but okay). Try as demons might, from multiple impalings, to a bullet in the head, hell not even a stab through the heart can put Dante down, as he usually shrugs it off like a mosquito bite. In the Netflix anime, he recovered from a bomb exploding in his neck (graphic warning). Even his twin brother Vergil was able to ‘stay together’ after Dante sliced clean through him, after a long tiring bout that put the Sons of Sparda to their limit.

All these are already impressive showings, but it was Dante’s nephew Nero who would show the limits of descendants of Sparda regeneration when he regrew his arm after pulling his Devil Trigger, reawakening his demonic power. The strongest example of how good it really is when in DMC4, in both the game and novels, Nero had his body melted by the Savior, who is made from physical and spiritual matter. It’s also stated that Nero’s body has dissipated into mist to combine with Savior. Nero had lost his entire body and sense of being, but once he was given the Yamato, this let him separate himself from the Savior with its power to separate man from devil. This let Nero reform his body from his memories alone after reawakening his demonic power.

Why Nero couldn’t regenerate before is because Sanctus had previously turned off his demonic power with the Yamato and of course he was still fused with the Savior. After regenerating, Nero was able to keep his stamina up without a notable drop in power and later fight Sanctus within the Savior. This was when Nero was still inexperienced and young, so Dante’s healing factor should be at least comparable if not stronger. It’s unlikely Yamato itself was solely responsible, but even if it was, Dante wields both the Sparda and Rebellion, two other of Sparda’s sacred swords literally inside him, so he can replicate this regardless. Demons being able to regenerate from just their soul is also nothing new.

It’s also possible for demons to return from death, such as when Nelo Angelo died and Vergil was confirmed to be completely destroyed. Years later, Vergil was able to return from death, though of course he was on death’s door and this was a long time frame, making this regeneration inapplicable in combat. The main ‘drawback’ to all of this is of course Dante’s stamina, as it’s possible to overtax and wear down. However, this mainly would apply to opponents that can match him which very rarely happens, so Dante usually has nothing to worry about and likely could regenerate from being turned to near nothing at least once or twice before fatigue starts kicking in.

Stamina

Dante’s stamina is often joked about, but it’s more impressive than people might give him credit for. He’s even stated to have lied about being tired before, implying that he sometimes fakes fatigue rather than actually experiencing it. An early-series Nero was also completely outclassed by Dante in terms of endurance. Dante has shown he only needs mere seconds to recover his stamina and his Devil Trigger replenishes him instantly at a rate faster than Agnus can drain his demonic power.

Some of his most notable stamina feats include the day-long fight against Urizen, though it’s important to note that Urizen was taking the fight extremely casually during this stretch. He didn’t even bother to get out of his chair for most of it. Once Urizen decided to actually take the fight seriously, he promptly one-shotted Dante, making it clear the earlier clash was more a test of endurance than a real back-and-forth battle.

Another major example is the time he fought Vergil in the Underworld, while also being occasionally interrupted by hordes of demons for nearly 40 consecutive days. This one has its caveats too, it wasn’t a continuous non-stop brawl, but rather a drawn-out confrontation with breaks, where the two kept clashing intermittently while also fending off hordes of demons in the Underworld. Even with downtime, keeping up that level of intensity and readiness for weeks on end is no small feat, especially considering both fighters were evenly matched.

(Possible) Regeneration Negation

The Sparda heritage has a possible argument of being able to halt someone’s regeneration with their attacks, but the argument is stronger than you might think. Firstly, Sparda was able to permanently injure Beowulf’s eye for years and it never healed. Dante does the same to his other eye in the boss. Normally we wouldn’t think anything of it as it is possible Beowulf simply doesn’t have a healing factor despite being a demon, but more evidence exists as Dante was also able to permanently destroy Cerberus’ heads. Furthermore, Nero was able to injure Berial, forcing him to retreat to the demon world, but when he came back, he stated he’s not completely healed from his bout.

All these are mainly for supporting evidence for the biggest example of Dante’s bout with Chen. For context, Chen has 70% of Sparda’s power. This is important as Chen was able to break Dante’s arms with said power, even though they should have regened normally quickly. Dante had also recently replenished his energy with the Beastheads, so it’s not because of lack of stamina. Dante was also able to permanently injure Chen with a split to the head (he was still alive after and only died later after having his magic drained by Beryl’s anti-magic rifle). It should be noted Dante’s arms do seemingly heal much later after the fight concludes, but it is simply possible the negation is temporary rather than permanent, which is still incredibly useful in the middle of a fight.

Control Over Names

The Names (like literally) of a demon are an important aspect of a demon as it’s part of their soul. Afterall, the soul possesses the power of the demons and as demons are spirits, the Name (confusing we know, but bear with us) acts like a translator, which includes their demonic power.

Demon Names are stated to be a fundamental part of their existence. They can change the value of everything and the world. Demons like the Frosts, Nightmare and Plasma are good examples of how the Name not only embodies a demon’s power but their very form (the Plasma is literal embodiments of electricity).

Dante has used this on himself as a teen to rename himself as Tony Redgrave (a human) after Rebellion told him to. He later on took his true name once again, regaining his memory and power and his inner Sparda power was suppressed no more.

Sparda himself has used this Name taking power such as when he removed the names of seven demons, leaving them powerless. Upon receiving a name, a demon can regain form. Vergil himself has used this power to undo the first set of Sparda’s seals by giving names to Sloth and the other sins and it’s implied Dante could have done the same if he wanted. Dante and Vergil explicitly have the same power, so Dante could definitely do this if he wanted. It likely would pertain to demons only as the only time it was used on a human was himself (Tony Redgrave) but being able to depower demons with just a name strike is something deadly indeed.

Supernatural Senses

From his demonic heritage, Dante has inherited supernatural senses far greater than that of a human, and even other demons. He can sense the presence of living beings, both human and demon, and is thus rarely caught off-guard; able to know without sight that within his building and around it, there were teams of heavily-armed mercenaries locking down several vantage points (Devil May Cry Netflix Anime Episode 2: Our Lady of Sorrows). He can stretch his senses out across the geography to locate targets and figure out whatever is going on, sensing the presence of demons concealed underground when nothing else was amiss or instinctively avoid traps without any physical indication, even when weakened. He’s been able to know a telephone was going to ring before he was called, dance around demons, gunfire and explosions by sensing where they will be, and perfectly telegraph and shoot Beryl’s bullets out of the air, among many other similar feats.

Furthermore, Dante is shown to have increased smell, as well as being able to sense both Demons and Devil Arms close to him. He can even sense when someone related to him by blood is in danger with a good radius of distance. Of course, his senses have a variety of applications, such as sensing the power level and capabilities of his opponents with a glance, Even his brother, while very young, was able to sense Lady entering the Temen-Ni-Gru while in an entirely different part of the tower, and as V (who had very little demonic power left) could detect the power levels of demons relative to others.
Additionally, Dante’s senses were able to accurately and precisely gauge the individual and collective strengths of every demon in Shadow’s army during the DMC 2 prequel novel, match the enhanced aura of Chen using the Beastheads, and was able to sense and predict his moves even when Chen had infinite combat knowledge and could literally see the future, including Dante’s own moves. He was able to keep up despite all of this and win.

Sealing/Jackpot!

And jackpot! The Sparda family has shown the ability to create seals to defeat enemies they couldn’t kill normally. The most famous example is at the end of DMC1, where Dante sealed Mundus away for good, into the gap between the human and demon world where no one could ever reach him, making it very powerful. Sparda himself had placed a seal in the realms over 2000 years ago, locking Mundus in a subjection of the Demon World, forcing Mundus to slowly regain his powers for that very long time frame. He also had created a seal to lock the Demon World away. This is impressive when you realize Dante has surpassed Sparda, especially when it comes to sealing powers. DMC4 even states Dante sealed Argosax away with a single shot.

Dante’s shop has sealed demon spirits in them. While unclear if this sealing, Dante and Vergil have used Jackpot to separate Arkham from the Force Edge, detransforming him and sending him back to the human world. Dante also doesn’t need to specifically use his guns to seal as he sent Belphogor in the anime back to the Demon World with a stab with Rebellion. Dante has also separated a demon possessing a woman by throwing Rebellion, killing the demon but the woman is unharmed.

Fear Aura

Dante can inflict fear and despair onto his enemies, especially if they piss him off by mentioning his (thought to be) deceased brother’s name. This immobilized V, preventing him from doing anything out of fear and another example is when Urizen did the same thing to him. This is important as all demons gain power from fear and even further, misery and despair can vastly amplify a demon’s power, granting them an “aura of decay.” The insanity given can be so potent, it can make humans tear out and eat their own eyes.

This can affect humans like when Beryl fell into despair and fear with just Void Mundus’ laugh. However, even though despair is considered a human emotion that demons cannot feel, Dante himself has been able to instill fear into those same demons. Fear auras can even inflict said despair into inanimate objects supposedly (though this might be prose). It should be noted Dante has only used this fear aura against people who have made him angry such as when V mentioned Vergil’s name or Chen making a mockery of Sparda’s name. However, the fact that Dante can inflict such a thing and grant him even more power is definitely a scary thing for anyone that doesn’t resist it.

Telekinesis

In cutscenes, Dante has a tendency to telekinetically pull Devil Arms towards himself. Though this seems to be more of an ability tied to his mastery of them rather than him actually having used it in battle to- wait how the fuck did he do that what the hell? Uh so yeah, he can use telekinesis to redirect projectile attacks.

Styles

When he wants to focus on a specific fighting style, Dante literally can change his current fighting style to gain new abilities. He has shown six primary ones throughout the series, which we will go in depth on. He also showed a seventh unique style called Dark Slayer in Devil May Cry 4, though this style was only used when Dante had access to Yamato and its focus is more so just utilizing Yamato efficiently, rather than the style being some specific way of fighting like the others.

Trickster

A fighting style all about speed and evasiveness for avoiding attacks and blitzing foes for brutal combos. Dante utilizing it gives him a dash ability for quick narrow dodges, which doubles as a general burst mobility tool. This dash can also be performed mid air for more versatility, done off of enemies for a vertical boost, done on enemies midair to push them to the ground, and can be done up to three times consecutively. Heck, Dante can even use it to move so fast he outright disappears from sight in order to get the jump on enemies from above or below. He even gains access to moves like Air Trick that lets him move so fast, it might as well be teleportation.

Swordmaster

The simplest of Dante’s styles, Swordmaster expands Dante’s offense as it enables an extra attacking technique for all of his melee weapons during gameplay. Technically speaking the style does not add anything special to his repertoire, but it’s good to switch to when Dante wants to focus on a top-notch offensive combo.

Gunslinger

Gunslinger acts as the projectile version of Swordmaster, being used when Dante wants to enhance his ranged approach to combat by utilizing his ranged options in new ways. As a fun aside, Dante can cancel the recoil and reload time after a shot by switching to a different weapon before switching back to the gun he was using. Though this is more of a gameplay mechanic exploit rather than a canonical ability, so don’t take it seriously.

Royalguard

Royalguard! Dante’s defensive stance requires high skill to use effectively, but is extremely rewarding when used properly. The Royalguard stance will allow Dante to prepare a block, which when raised will either reduce the damage Dante takes from an attack or nullify it entirely at the cost of partially reducing the Devil Trigger gauge. If he perfectly times a block just before the attack lands however for a Royal Block, the damage will be completely nullified as the enemy is staggered back due to the parry. It is worth noting that if the incoming attack is strong enough and Dante did not pull off a parry, his block can be overwhelmed and Dante will be staggered back as he takes full damage.

Dante has used RG to block all sorts of attacks, going from Vergil’s infamous Judgement Cut End to Berial’s huge fire AOE. He can even block unconventional attacks like Agnus’ energy sucking attack. It’s really hard to figure out what Dante CAN’T block with Royalguard, but we know one thing: it can’t block grabs, because Nero’s Snatch and Buster completely ignore Royalguard. Dante’s especially vulnerable if you catch him in the air, and he can’t escape a Buster at all when Nero’s in Devil Trigger. When he switches to Royalguard Style, you can freely Snatch and Buster him without any chance of retaliation, even on Dante May Die mode. He can still use a Release to escape the extra hits tho.

Dante can also utilize an alternate form of Royalguard called Ultimate, where successful blocks will cause Dante to heal equivalent to the damage he would have normally received. The drawback is that attacks traditionally strong enough to break his guard will bypass and deactivate Ultimate.

Successful blocks and parries will also build up power over time for a separate energy gauge, which Dante can expend in different ways. He can unleash his current amount of power in a single hit, unleashing all of the energy for a devastating blow, or convert all the energy into a counterattack version of Royal Block which will also deal massive damage. He can also assume a form called Dreadnaught, where Dante will be completely invincible as the Royalguard energy gauge is slowly depleted, with him being able to traditionally move around and attack, though he can no longer run. This powerful defense makes Dante able to tank attacks that would have originally reduced him to ashes.

Quicksilver

A more distinct style than his other powers, it’s much more of an outright ability than a simple fighting style. This style allows Dante to release a dimensional time-rift from his body, slowing down the flow of time for everyone but himself. This lets Dante blitz anyone that could match his speed, though at the cost of draining his Devil Trigger gauge overtime. It seems to affect the entire screen, which makes sense since it’s his world when he activates it and it’s stated to affect the entire space. In gameplay, Dante can have this last at least 10 seconds with full DT gauge, but it has lasted a full 15 seconds while Dante was barely exerting himself in cutscenes.

Doppelganger

Same case as Quicksilver in that it’s more of an ability than a fighting style. At the cost of reducing the Devil Trigger gauge while the copy is present, Dante can manifest a shadow-made copy of himself to help him in battle. This copy has his whole moveset and can recreate his abilities, essentially making it so Dante has a partner in the form of a second Dante as long as he has enough remaining Devil Trigger gauge to keep him present.

Essence Cutting & NPI

A relatively esoteric power that Dante has exhibited on a few occasions is his power to seemingly target the more fundamental parts of one’s being, such as the Soul. He first showcases this ability against the demons Shadow, Griffin, and Nightmare who can all regenerate from a “Core” which serves as their Soul / Life Essence by attacking it directly. Later he also displays the power to forcefully evict souls from bodies, such as when he forced a demon outside the body of a human woman by tossing Rebellion at her. Later on when facing Void Mundus, an alternate version of Mundus who’d become one with the Underworld itself, he was capable of cutting his very consciousness causing his sense of being to shatter and collapse entirely.

Resistances

It should be noted while some of these are resistances Dante himself has done, he’ll also scale to Nero and Vergil who have resisted the following effects because of their similar hybrid demon human physiology. Vergil and Dante are of course literal twin brothers, so effects they resist should apply unless specified.

Extreme Pain Tolerance: I mean c’mon he gets stabbed every other day and shrugs it off
Extreme Heat: Dante can withstand Ifrit (the weapon)’s flames as it was trying to kill him. This is important as they can melt Frosts, despite them being beyond absolute zero and are immune to the demon world’s volcanic fire normally. Dante can also sit on the tail of the Lord of the Fire Hell Berial without issue, despite Berial’s heat being stated to be hot enough to immediately melt bullets and even vaporize people that get too close.This resistance goes to the point that Dante has noted he’s met plenty of fire monsters that he’s withstood the flames of.
Absolute Zero: Speaking of, Dante can also take hits from the Frosts without freezing even though they attack at beyond absolute zero temperature.
BFR: Dante still owns a fragment of Yamato that he used to escape the demon world.
Deconstruction/Matter Manipulation: Dante can withstand the effects of the Beastheads, who assimilates human mass/souls by deconstructing them into magical energy. They can also transmute human matter and soul to stone.
Soul Manipulation – Dante can withstand his soul being sucked from the aptly named Soul Eater that does exactly what the name implies and he can break out with Devil Trigger. Dante can withstand the Beastheads effect as well as linked above.
Life Force Absorption: Alice was trying to suck Dante’s life away, but he Devil Triggers to stop exactly that and do the same to her. Shown again against Nevan.
Spatial Manipulation: Dante can take hits from Yamato all the time, which is notable considering Vergil hitting him with the thing so much during their fights and its space cutting properties as a weapon. Royalguard can also block Judgement Cut End.
Transmutation: Dante can get impaled by Qliphoth roots without fear of transmuting/petrifying, which affects normal people and turns them into pollen for the tree.
Power Nullification: In regard to taking hits from Yamato and being fine, the blade was able to nullify Nero’s Devil Arm powers by stabbing him, same for Credo. He also gained a resistance to Chen’s special magical nullifying gel.
Time Manipulation (Debatable) – Nelo Angelo AKA Vergil adapted to being immune to the Bangle of Time’s timestop and several other bosses in DMC1 are immune to it as well. Vergil has also broken out of Nero’s time bubbles from Ragtime immediately even though they normally slow down enemies. However, Dante has shown some anti-feats of being affected by time slows and while it’s possible it’s likely just gameplay, Vergil himself got stronger as his time as Urizen and eating the Qliphoth fruit, possibly letting him get a special resistance Dante would not share. Also, the Time Bangle explicitly can be resisted with a strong mind, making it an unconventional resistance.
Mind Manipulation: Vergil could resist Mundus’ mind control despite his current corruption, with him only failing in the end due to Mundus giving him his half of the amulet. Earlier in the series Vergil had broken past a weaker demon’s illusions, and Nero once resisted the effect of stones that put V in a hallucination world
Corruption: Capable of remaining within the demon world for an extended period of time without suffering any adverse effects, while a human can be transformed into a demon merely by breathing demonic air.

Clive Rosfield

Swordplay

Clive has a ton of sword techniques at his disposal beyond simple swings. After all, he dedicated himself to mastering the blade to become appointed First Shield of Rosaria even before he unlocked Ifrit’s powers. He can use these techniques to take down any foe…sometimes with style if he needs to like a certain devil. These include but not limited to:

Lunge: Charges sword first at his target, good for covering distance between Clive and his enemies.
Extreme Lunge: An enhanced Lunge used at especially long ranges, has Clive enhance his blade with flames, dealing more damage than before.
Burning Blade: A simple sword slam charged with fire magic for a massive blast ahead of him, capable of smashing through enemy guards. Can also be used in the air for a rising burning slash that can keep foes airborne for longer
Downthrust: Clive plummets earthwards sword first, plunging it into any unwary souls in his way. Clive has mastered it since to infuse the blade with even more fire.
Stomp: Clive jumps off his enemy’s heads to gain more height, useful for getting into range for air combos.
Mortal Blow: Clive attacks downed foes, whether it’s with sword stabs, kicks, kicks into sword slashes, or just magic, dealing massive damage and often instantly killing weaker foes.
Precision Dodge: Nice try! At the right possible moment, Clive can dodge attacks for an immediate counter attack with his sword. He usually requires careful timing (unless you’re wearing an accessory to make it easier like a baby), but since Clive is so skilled, he can often do it a lot and avoid damage during a fight.
Parry: Should Clive clash against an opponent’s attack at the right time, he’ll parry the attack and time will slow down temporarily, giving him a chance to land strikes of his desire.

Aether

Aether is a natural energy seen throughout the world of Valisthea, the energy that sustains life itself. By absorbing Aether out of the atmosphere, Bearers and Crystals can cast Magics. As you’d expect, spells that are more powerful require more Aether, which is also why the Mothercrystals are far more powerful than the crystal shared harvested from them. This is also how the Mothercrystals accelerate the Blight, as they absorb massive amounts of Aether from the planet, draining the energy that sustains life and leaving literal dead lands in their wake. Using Aether for magic is a technique invented by Ultima long ago. Additionally, while Aether is present everywhere, there are areas with higher concentrations of Aether, particularly in underground areas like mines. In these areas, not only can Aether become visible, it can form into what is known as an Aetherflood. These floods can and will corrupt living beings into Akashic, mindless beings that lose all free will and become raging monsters.

Magic

Clive is naturally proficient with fire magic, especially so after receiving the Blessing of the Phoenix. He can shoot Fire and charged Fira spells in combat, create short ranged shockwaves with Magic Burst, and even wreath his sword in flames to enhance his strikes, such as his Burning Blade and Extreme Lunge attacks. He doesn’t even need a sword to wreath, as he can do the same to his own damn hands if he feels like it. He’s also used flames to finish off downed foes, immediately charring them to ashes. Outside of direct combat utility, Clive can also use magic in other, more simple ways, such as creating small fire-lights to see in dark places. Aside from fire though, he also has access to wind, ice, lightning, stone, dark, holy and non-elemental magic depending on which Dominant he’s currently using (which we’ll explain later).

Dominant Traits

Dominants get a fair number of inherent bonuses due to their Eikons. Not only are they generally physically superior to regular fighters, they have a stronger resistance to Aether. As noted earlier, Aetherfloods can turn people Akashic. While some have kept a semblance of self in this state, most people who turn become mindless monsters. However, Bearers can resist this transformation, with Dominants being even more resilient. A particularly interesting showing is the case of Edda. After Ultima cast Primogenesis and covered the lands in Aether, everyone in Edda’s village turned Akashic… except for her. Edda is not a Bearer, but at the time she was pregnant, and it is likely that her child is a bearer, and managed to protect her from the Aether.

The Curse

Bearers and Dominants alike all have a Curse. While they can use magic, the more magic they use the more they risk their very flesh turning to stone, not unlike the Blight that ravages the world. While the amount of magic isn’t exactly clear, we know that Dominants are not immune largely because of Joshua. His spell to keep Ultima sealed within the crystal on his chest caused the curse to spread quickly across his body, where using his magic extensively posed a serious risk to his life. Clive himself started succumbing to the curse after using the power he absorbed from Ultima to attempt to revive Joshua, but even after doing so and using Ultima’s power to do all of this, he didn’t immediately go full stone. The most we see is his hand slowly turning before he… goes to sleep.

Pain Tolerance

As noted, Clive had his Brand removed by Tarja when he took up the mantle of Cid. Unfortunately, at the time he underwent the procedure, the Infirmary lacked anaesthetics, meaning Clive went under the knife feeling all of it. And as noted, a slight misstep would result in grievous injury or fatal poisoning, so the fact that Clive got through the procedure without dying or losing his face means he endured it basically without flinching.

Regeneration

Both Dominants and Eikons in FFXVI display decent feats of regeneration. Starting with dominants, Barnabas is capable of straight up ignoring a stab through his chest and healing it instantly. For Eikons, both Garuda and Ifrit showcase regeneration in their fight. Garuda is able to regrow entire limbs after they’re ripped out, and Ifrit instantly heals entire chunks of his torso in addition to growing back his arm after it was blown off. Hugo, while primed into Titan, is able to regenerate both of his hands. In all of these instances, the wounded area glows blue and regenerates alongside blue dust-like particles, likely indicating the use of Aether to pull these feats off.

Eikonic Feats

On top of the Phoenix’s blessing and the powers of Ifrit, Clive can actually take Eikonic powers from other Dominants, both on purpose and by accident. While this doesn’t take the whole thing, doing so lets him use their abilities, accessing their elemental magic as well as their Eikonic feats. It also generally weakens the Dominant he stole from, making it much harder for them to use magic or Prime. While this doesn’t prevent them from priming entirely, as both Benedikta and Dion have shown, they tend to be in a much worse state than they would be normally. When Benedikta primed, she was basically out of control entirely. Clive has gathered numerous Eikons, including Garuda, Ramuh, Titan, Bahamut, Shiva, Odin, and Leviathan. He’s even picked up a portion of Ultima himself, channeling the power in the same way he channels his Eikons.

Phoenix

The Eikon that belonged to Clive’s brother Joshua, Clive initially inherited some of its powers when Joshua gave him his (literal) blessing. Later, Clive would obtain the Phoenix in full, after Joshua gave him his (figurative) blessing. As an Eikon of fire, the Phoenix has numerous abilities relating to flames.

Phoenix Shift: This may look like a teleport, but it’s actually an extremely quick dash, which Clive uses to close the gap between himself and his enemies in the blink of an eye. This even works against enemies in the air, whether they’re there naturally or sent flying by Clive’s attacks. Clive can strike with his blade or with his magic while Shifting, resulting in enhanced attacks
Heatwave: Clive creates a wall of flames immediately ahead of himself, then sends a flaming sword beam towards his foes. The initial blast can destroy enemy projectiles, and when he does so Clive will follow with an additional slash. Notably, the Ultimania notes that “The flow of time stops for everyone except Clive” with the powered-up version, although only while he’s still attacking.
Scarlet Cyclone: Clive summons the Phoenix’s wings to his back, then spins rapidly, creating a swirling vortex of fire around himself that hits multiple times. Clive can also use it while staggered, although not knocked down, to immediately recover, which also gives the move invincibility.
Rising Flames: Clive summons a single Wing to his back, and uses it to strike foes ahead of himself, sending them flying into the air for easy follow ups.
The Flames of Rebirth: Clive dons both of the Phoenix’s wings, then summons enough flame to scorch everything in the area, hitting repeatedly, before unleashing a second, even stronger, fiery vortex. Similar to Heat Wave’s powered-up version, it is noted to stop time when used, as well as having the added bonus of healing himself and his allies a significant amount.

Ifrit

The second Eikon of fire, the Warden of the Inferno, and the Phoenix’s counterpart, he is the Eikon that Clive was born with and uses his powers in battle. His attacks include the following:

Will o’ the Wykes: Summons a swarm of fireballs around Clive that absorb damage and hit nearby targets. Clive can use this effectively as an extra way to do damage as he uses other techniques.
Limit Break: Elaborated on below under Clive’s abilities.
Ignition: Clive charges forward wreathed in fire and can pin certain enemies to his sword to keep stacking damage on them. Better get out of Clive’s way if you wanna avoid getting hurt.

Those are the main Ifrit skills Clive can use in base, but that’s not the limits of Ifrit’s power as…we’ll explain later in his forms.

Garuda

Eikon of wind, formerly used by Waloed soldier Benedikta, Garuda provides Clive power over wind magic gaining access to the Aero to Aerora spells in place of his fire ones, as well as the ability to summon her talons for various attacks, including the following:

Garuda’s Embrace: Garuda’s Eikon Feat has Clive simply summon one of her talons and reach out with it, covering a great distance. He can use this to pull himself towards enemies, or pull smaller enemies towards him. Notably, against enemies he can Stagger (i.e. most stronger enemies and bosses) Clive can use this feat when they’ve lost half their Will, and force them to temporarily stagger.
Rook’s Gambit: Clive dodges backwards, then leaps forwards while slashing with Garuda’s talons. If he evades an attack with the initial dodge, Clive will then slash the opponent repeatedly with Garuda’s talons.
Wicked Wheel: Clive leaps into the air swinging Garuda’s talons around himself, hitting repeatedly and doing a ton of Will damage.
Gouge: Clive rapidly strikes with twin talons, able to attack up to 24 times in one self-contained combo.
Aerial Blast: Clive summons a massive vortex of wind ahead of himself, trapping enemies within and dealing massive damage to them.

Ramuh

The Eikon of Thunder, formerly under the command of Cid the Outlaw, allows Clive to perform various lightning based attacks in battle, summoning his staff to do so. He can Thunder to Thundara magic in place of his Fire spells with Ramuh equipped. His powers include the following:

Blind Justice: Clive summons Ramuh’s staff and locks onto his targets. He can lock on up to 6 times before firing off a barrage of lightning magic at all the targeted foes. Notably, while he’s locking on, the flow of time slows for everyone but himself.
Pile Driver. Clive summons Ramuh’s staff and immediately plants it in the ground, blasting lightning magic around himself. A very quick attack, useful for clearing space.
Thunderstorm: Clive pulls out Ramuh’s staff, then calls down bolts of lightning onto the targeted foe multiple times.
Lightning Rod: Clive summons an orb of lightning magic ahead of himself. Anytime it’s struck, by Clive or otherwise, it creates a blast of lightning magic around itself, damaging any nearby foes. While it’s in play, Clive can immediately reposition it whenever he wants.
Lightning of Judgement(?): Clive once more pulls out Ramuh’s staff, but this time he throws it above his target, using it to call down a titanic lightning bolt upon them, dealing massive damage. Again, this is noted to stop the flow of time until the end of the attack.

Titan

The Eikon of Earth, formerly belonging to the Dhalmekian Republic Economic Advisor Hugo Kupka, and allows Clive to perform various earth-based attacks (including Stone to Stonera magic) in battle, including the following:

Titanic Block: Clive uses one of Titan’s arms to form a shield ahead of himself that can defend against attacks. While he’s vulnerable from behind, Clive can hold this ahead of himself indefinitely, while continuing to jump and move around as normal. It is notably not indestructible, and will fail against particularly strong attacks. That is, unless Clive pulls off a Precision Block. As the name implies, this is activated by activating Titanic Block right as an attack would land, making it difficult to pull off, but the reward is massive. Not only can this protect Clive from basically anything, he can also use Titan Counter to immediately retaliate with a powerful attack of his own.
Windup: Clive summons Titan’s arm, rears back and charges forward. This attack can plow through enemies with ease, especially as Clive can enhance its power by charging it, with a precise charge making it drill through enemies with multiple hits.
Quake: Clive punches the ground with Titan’s arm, creating a shockwave around himself which launches enemies into the air. Similar to Windup, Clive can charge this attack, with a precise charge causing the shockwave to hit in a far wider area, dealing far more damage. Unlike Windup, Clive can also enhance this move by using it in mid-air, with the further Clive descends before striking the ground causing it to strike in a wider area without needing to precisely charge the attack.
Raging Fists: Clive can unleash a flurry of earth-based fists forward, and if he happens to block an attack right as it’s cast, his attack barrage will last even longer.
Wrath of the Earth. Clive creates a massive shockwave ahead of himself, similar to Quake but with far more range and power. Oh, and it also pauses time during the windup of the attack.

Bahamut

The Eikon of Light, formerly under the command of the Crown Prince of Sanbreque Dion the Bold, it allows Clive to wield light based powers in battle (replacing his Fire magic with Dia to Diara spells), including the following:

Wings of Light / Megaflare. Wings of Light is pretty simple on the surface. Upon activation, Clive dons Bahumut’s wings on his back, floating just off the ground. This prevents him from jumping or using other abilities, but he can still move and dodge. So what’s the benefit? Well, while floating like this, Clive charges up Megaflare. This spell launches light magic into the sky, which rains back down upon enemies, prioritising targets Clive is focusing on. He can charge it up to four levels, with the maximum level calling down 128 shots. However, it takes quite a while to charge on its own, especially if Clive is moving while in Wings of Light. Fortunately, Clive can circumvent this process with Megaflare Dodges, using the wings to evade attacks directly. These precise dodges immediately fill the gauge by a single level, so pulling off multiple dodges in quick succession will fill the gauge extremely fast. Oh and while launching the magic, time stops for everyone but Clive.
Impulse. Clive summons twin magic orbs of light and fires them forwards. Unlike his normal spells, these bounce off enemies after hitting them, striking multiple times. As they bounce off targets, they grow in size, becoming more powerful. Additionally, Clive can detonate them at any time, with the explosion dealing more damage the larger they’ve become.
Flare Breath. Clive breathes… light… fire… stuff… from his mouth, dealing damage rapidly ahead of himself. While doing so, Clive can continue moving around, and can interrupt the attack with another to cut it off quickly. Specifically, Clive can nullify incoming magic attacks as the attack fires.
Satellite. Clive summons a small magic orb above himself. This will attack alongside Clive, firing magic bullets when he fires spells and creating shockwaves when he uses Magic Burst. Fairly simple, but it has hidden utility in that this allows Clive to continue attacking while in Wings of Light, as it will keep firing without cancelling out of the feat.
Gigaflare. Clive focuses magic into a single massive beam, dealing massive damage in a line ahead of himself. Simple, effective, powerful, cool as hell. Oh, and while the beam is being fired, time slows down. It’s also described as a beam of overcharged light that burns, making this likely a lightspeed attack.

Shiva

The Eikon of Ice, commanded by Jill Warrick, Clive was gifted its powers and given the ability to wield ice-based attacks in battle (with Blizzard to Blizzara magic replacing his fire ones), many of which can freeze opponents solid, as you’d expect. These include the following:

Cold Snap. Clive freezes a portion of the ground, allowing him to slide across it with ease. When used in the air, he simply dons Shiva’s cape and dashes. Works as a sort of enhanced version of his regular dodges, travelling much further much faster. Additionally, Clive can cancel this move with Frostbite, creating a small magical ice blast ahead of his travel path that freezes enemies it hits. Not only is this useful for its freeze effect, Clive can also use it to weave in and out of enemy range quickly, as he’ll bounce back while using Frostbite. Finally, should he precisely evade an enemy attack with the initial slide, Clive will activate Permafrost, a large icy blast that freezes all enemies in the surrounding area, with the effect lasting longer the stronger the attack he dodged was.
Ice Age. Clive creates a wave of icicles that travels forwards across the ground. On its own, it’s a simple damage dealer with a good amount of range. However, Clive can enhance its power by charging it. This massively increases the range, power and size of the attack, in particular a precise activation has a colossal final pillar that will also freeze enemies. Its range is quite strong, but the main power of the attack is located at the very end of the wave.
Mesmerize. The most simple of Shiva’s blessings, this attack has Clive fire off 8 icicles around himself. These deal damage and pull enemies towards Clive while knocking them over.
Rime. Clive fires a bit of magic that coalesces into a large ice crystal a short distance ahead of himself. This releases a constant storm of ice magic around itself, trapping enemies within its swirling vortex and dealing constant damage while also leaving them wide open to further attacks from Clive himself.
Diamond Dust. Clive releases a blast around himself, similar to Permafrost, which freezes anyone nearby, then unleashes a mighty blast of Ice that blows them away, with the upgraded version releasing multiple massive blasts one after the other. A nice, simple, powerful AoE attack perfect for clearing out large amounts of enemies. Oh, and it also stops time.

Odin

The Eikon of Darkness, formerly commanded by the King of Waloed Barnabas Tharmr, Clive is able to wield his power through the Zanketsuken, a deadly sword that can cut through anything and use Dark to Darkra magic. Though Clive only got a portion of Odin’s power, it should be noted that Odin has been hyped to ‘sever the threads of creation.’ While that doesn’t mean much on its own, The Ultimania also expands that it cuts through space, meaning Clive can likely do the same as well with Odin’s sword (and it’s likely supported by previous FF Odins doing similar things). Its techniques include the following:

Arm of Darkness / Zanketsuken. By channeling Odin’s power, Clive can transform his current sword into Odin’s blade. This blade is less directly powerful than Clive’s weapons, but not only does it have a series of unique combos and attacks, landing attacks with it will charge Zanketsuken. Similar to Bahamut’s Megaflare charge, Zanketsuken has multiple levels of charge, up to a full 5 levels, with each level being more powerful than the last. The full charged version hits in an absurdly large area, deals tremendous damage, and looks cool as hell. Once again, time slows while Clive uses Zanketsuken. While using Odin’s blade, Clive’s usual precise dodge is replaced with Flash of Steel, a counterattack that has Clive quickly dash through his target while slashing them, immediately charging Zanketsuken by a single level.
Gungir: Clive summons Gungir, Odin’s spear, and twirls it around to strike multiple times. Deals a lot of hits, and charges the Zanketsuken gauge when it connects.
Rift Slip: Odin’s only ability that doesn’t charge Zanketsuken. Instead, Clive can use this move whenever he’s locked into any other animation. As in, this lets Clive cancel out of almost all of his other attacks, Eikonic abilities and even hitstun from enemy attacks, letting him extend combos, deal extra damage during a stagger or escape enemy combos. Cancelling out of an animation like this slows time around Clive until he can act again.
Heaven’s Cloud: Clive dashes through enemies while slashing them, and if he connects the attack he can repeat it up to four times, quickly building Zanketsuken.
Dance of Steel: Clive summons two blades to his hands, and slashes with them with a powerful self-contained combo. While it’s not as strong as other “supers” seen from other Eikons, it rapidly builds the Zanketsuken gauge. Oh, and also stops the flow of time around Clive.

Leviathan

In the Rising Tide DLC, Clive would gain access to a portion of Leviathan’s powers after he absorbed the Aether from the Dominant, Waljas. This would grant him access to use the power of water, being able to fire it like a rush or fire waves of it and use Water to Watera magic. This would also include the following:

Serpent’s Cry: Clive will summon a water serpent into his arm, acting sorta like a mega buster, that can fire long ranged but strong water blasts. Clive can even take a moment to charge it for an even more powerful blast. He does need to reload every so often, but he can usually do it pretty fast with correct timing.
Deluge: This attack is where Clive lets loose a rapid-fire of long-range bullets of water, capable of knocking back smaller enemies and shredding an enemy’s stagger.
Abyssal Tear: Ripping open a small but slowly expanding gateway to the ocean, when timed right, Clive will let loose of homing water blasts at his opponent from said gateway. It can charge all the way to level 4 though it does take some time.
Cross Swell: Clive will create twin waves in front of him, that’ll rush inward and be able to drag weaker enemies to the center.
Tsunami: The most powerful move of Leviathan that Clive has access to will conjure a huge wave of titanic waters, swallowing up every enemy on screen and spit out with great damage. This has the longest cooldown of Leviathan’s skills, but the payoff is usually worth it.

Ultima

_{(damn he looks so cool)}

Note: This is specifically the portion of Ultima’s power that he gives to Clive after the Rising Tide DLC. Clive does manage to absorb Ultima in full at the end of XVI, but this power-up is largely non-standard, as Clive only obtains it directly at the end of his game, and then immediately destroys it.

Interestingly, not only does the DLC add Leviathan to Clive’s kit, he also gains a portion of Ultima’s power as part of their goal to use Clive as the perfect vessel…if only Clive didn’t plan on keeping it for himself and using it against them. Mechanically, this functions as an additional Eikon, but unlike the others, Ultima’s holy magic is non-elemental, turning Clive’s magic attack into the Ruin to Ruinra spell. He can also teleport with it.

Ascension. Clive frees himself from his earthly bonds (direct quote), which transforms his basic moveset into one that is suitably divine. He also gains the ability to levitate and fly, changing his moveset temporarily into being able to fire volley of holy arrows and strike further away with his wings. He can attack with all sorts of Ruin spells and can even teleport.
Voice of God: Clive will call upon a ray of pure Aether from the skies to scorch the land. Though it’s unclear if it can turn enemies Akashic like how Aether does in the story (likely not since it’s more about scorching the land, dealing holy damage), it is a pretty damaging beam that Clive can also use in midair.
Dominion: Emitting an Aetherial shockwave that goes in all directions, Clive will do the impossible and see the invisible and then give rise to eight magicked blades that will rise up and pierce the heavens (row row, fight the power!)
Proselytize: A simple but effective move, Clive will send a river of divine energy in front of him, dealing damage to all enemies in his path and can be used in midair.
Ultimate Demise: Fittingly, the strongest attack Clive has access to from Ultima. He’ll draw in his enemies around him, then overwhelm them with a singular eruption of magicked force. Though it has the longest cooldown, who cares when they’re already likely dead?

The Power of Creation/Logos

Clive, as what Ultima describes as Mythos, was supposed to be a vessel for him and absorb the power of other Eikons to achieve perfection. However, he strayed from his original purpose, becoming Logos. Logos is a “corrupted state” of Mythos, a being empowered not by Ultima’s soul, but by his own willpower and bonds of consciousness. Before Joshua’s death, he notes Ultima will never be able to take over Clive, because Clive steeled his bonds, making him truly strong. Ultima rejected the one thing that would have made him truly strong because he believed in nothing but himself, but Clive clinged to the bonds of love that kept his grip on his will. Yes, Clive’s strength literally comes from the power of friendship.

This isn’t just just a cool theme that the game presents to us, because Clive’s willpower can significantly boost his power during the course of a single fight. A notable early example would be shown during the fight against Bahamut as Ifrit Risen. At the start of the fight, Joshua wonders how they will beat Bahamut while he’s empowered by a Mother Crystal. Clive answers that it’s going to be by trusting in their own power. At the end, when Bahamut is about to unleash Zettaflare, his strongest attack, and burn the entire world, Ifrit Risen is able to hold back the beam and overpower it despite being weaker prior.

Another example would be against Odin’s Dominant, Barnabas. At first, Barnabas was able to defeat Clive without priming despite the fact that Clive was in full Ifrit mode, forcing him to power-down. Despite this, Clive manages to lock in, and not only go on to beat Barnabas without Ifrit, he regains the strength he needed to prime again when Barnabas primed as Odin. Odin then put his all into one massive strike, and Ifrit not only caught the massive blade, he broke it into pieces. As Clive is forced to power down into his base again, he once more clashes with Barnabas, now not holding back anymore. It is notable that base Clive not only manages to fight Barnabas, who kicked his ass as Ifrit a few minutes prior, but also straight up overpower him in his semi-primed state, and even damage him while primed into Odin despite needing Ifrit before to clash with him. During the fight, as you can see, Barnabas asks: “Have you the strength? Have you the will?”. This is relevant because the entire point of this battle is a duel of wills. Previously, he says that Clive managed to make a weapon out of his weakness, referring to his bonds, something that Barnabas rejected for strength. At the end, Clive’s will prevailed, because his bonds were a source of strength that Barnabas lacked.

This is all to bring us to the most important instance of all: the final fight against Ultima. Let’s go back to Joshua’s death. After he dies, Clive absorbs Phoenix and reaches perfection. However, Ultima attempts to erase his sense of self to empty the vessel and possess his body. Clive withstand it, with Ultima noting his will yet endures. As the fight goes on, Clive is still standing, with Ultima noting it’s not due to mere will, but the fact he became Logos, a vessel empowered by the will from his bonds. Ultima is enraged and turns into his ultimate form, when he clashes with Ifrit Risen but is ultimately overpowered once again. Enraged, Ultima fuses with the other members of his species, becoming Ultimallius. It’s important to note that fused Ultima transcends any previous version of Ultima, logically including his form where he clashed evenly with Ifrit Risen. During this last fight, Ultimallius uses his Limit Break to become even stronger, and yet Clive’s will endures and keeps pressing on, overpowering him while in base. Clive berates Ultima for rejecting bonds, saying they are what makes one truly strong, as Ultima retorts that he doesn’t need anyone. In the end, Clive puts a hole through Ultima’s chest and kills him with a punch to the face.

In conclusion, Clive’s willpower and bonds grant him a form of zenkai boost, greatly enhancing his strength during the course of a fight to the point he can match enemies in base that he previously needed priming to deal with.

Power & Soul Absorption

Speaking of Ultima, when Clive ultimately defeated him and took his power for himself, he absorbed Ultima completely. This is important as Ultima himself is repeatedly noted as being a soul without a traditional physical body. Interestingly, given instances like Benedikta saying Garuda was “gone” after Clive had absorbed her powers, it’s possible this is how he absorbs the Eikons of his fellow Dominants as well, although it’s generally noted that he’s generally absorbing their Aether directly. Given that Ultima isn’t a Dominant nor an Eikon himself, it’s likely that this isn’t inherently limited to just Eikons either. However, Clive has never used this mid-battle. More specifically, he seems to generally only be able to absorb the powers of people while they’re weakened. He absorbed Garuda after beating Benedikta, gained Titan after cutting Hugo’s arms off, etc. Even Ramuh and the Phoenix were given to Clive when their Dominant was on death’s door. The biggest exception would be Shiva, but like Cid and Joshua, Jill gave Clive her Eikon voluntarily, making this instance largely insubstantial in the long run.

Tekken Exclusive Moves

As we all know Clive is the guy that’s from Tekken 8, so it’d make sense that he could use moves from Tekken 8. More specifically, he has a ton of attacks he can use, many are direct pulls from XVI, but he also has quite a few unique moves as well, building off his existing swordplay and magic, adding in some hand to hand options to round out his kit. For a full list check here.

Resistances

Extreme Heat: I mean come on, the guy is literally the Dominant of Fire, what do you want from him.
Electrocution: Though it knocked him out, he was able to survive an extended period of lightning bolts from Ramuh as Ifrit
Freezing: Able to survive ice magic spells without freezing, particularly notable as Clive’s ice spells he gains from Shiva can freeze not just targets far larger than himself, but also Ultima himself.
Spatial Manipulation: Can take hits from Barnabas, even when he’s primed as Odin, being able to grab his Zantetsuken with his bare hands as Ifrit and snap it. Odin’s sword is able to cut space itself and was stated to be able to cut everything in creation by Ultima, including severing its very threads. Odin’s power can also create the Glazeim Wall, a magic construct that consumes anything that touches it. In addition, Clive can withstand Ultima’s Event Horizon, a move that opens a rift in space.
Possession/Mind Manipulation: Can resist Ultima taking over his body and mind, due to his willpower and his connections with his allies, regaining his sense of self when it’s attempted to be erased. Ultima implies that he’d need to “empty” Clive of his will in order to take him as his vessel, and it clearly doesn’t work.
Life/Magic Overload/Crystallization/Willpower Draining: Clive can operate without trouble within an Aetherflood, an area overloaded with Aether that normally transforms living beings into Akashic, mindless beings. It strips you of your free will and Akashics are noted to be under Ultima’s influence as his soulless servants.
(Limited) Internal Attacks: Barnabas, through the power of Odin, can attack his foes’ internals directly. The first time he does this to Clive, it fully incapacitates him. Later, when Barnabas does it again, while it still takes Clive down, not only does he remain conscious, he manages to escape with Jill. While he’s clearly not immune, he is clearly much more resilient in this second showing, and would potentially have a stronger resistance down the line, especially considering he can take several normal and spatial slashes from Zantetsuken in his fight with Barnabas, and even snap the sword with his bare hands as Ifrit.

Forms

Dante

Devil Trigger

Bang bang bang, pull my Devil Trigger WRONG ONE DONT PULL A NETFLIX

ANYWAY, this originally awoke inside Dante when Vergil stabbed him with the Rebellion, awakening the devil within. Whenever Dante feels like he needs to get serious, he can tap into his inner demonic heritage for the classic Devil Trigger. This increases his strength, defense, speed AND improves his regeneration. It can even free him from certain attacks such as the Beelzebub’s vomit that normally attaches to Dante like maggots and prevents him from firing his guns. In terms of a multiplier, the most consistent number is at least two times stronger and faster, making it a force to be reckoned with. It should be noted the DMC2 English guide does say when Dante is amped with the Quick Heart, it increases his speed by tenfold and power increases by two times with Offence Heart. However, though these English guides have developer input, it’s still an English guide and not terribly consistent in the game; we’ll talk more in the verdicts about our stances on multipliers.

Not only do his stats increase, he also gains the ability to fly, an explosion of massive energy whenever he activates it and new abilities for whatever weapon he currently has equipped. The main drawback is that it does require demonic energy the longer Dante is in it, but since Dante usually has such a vast pool anyway (especially with items), he can usually last a long time in it. The Netflix show has Dante lasting for a solid 6 minutes when Dante was still learning how to use it. One debatable application is using it to counter energy absorption, as he transformed to counter Agnus draining of his energy, but we didn’t find consistency with it.

Another useful technique he can utilize exploiting the nature of his Devil Trigger is something which has been called by fans of the Series “Distortion”. By transforming in and out of Devil Trigger upon the moment an attack lands, Dante can multiply the damage inflicted by 4.6 times. With the right circumstances this technique can be used to oneshot enemies entirely. This has been confirmed by the developers to be an intended feature as of DMC4SE, and has even been present in the series as early as DMC1.

He also has access to Devil Trigger ‘branches’ for his DMC1 and DMC3 weapons that grant them all even more powerful effects. These include:

Cerberus: Dante’s Devil Trigger gains a more light blue aesthetic and moves faster than his normal Devil Trigger.
Agni & Rudra: This branch will give Dante more power and expands on how Dante uses the fire and wind elements.
Nevan: With this electrical branch of Devil Trigger, Dante’s regeneration improves further, giving him another access to flight and can perform all sorts of powerful lightning attacks.
Beowulf: Now with a white motif, Dante’s defense increases while in this branch.
Alastor: Whenever Dante activates this form with Alastor equipped, he turns into winged demonic form with electrical powers. His speed is increased even more, his gunfire is charged with electrical power, gives him an alternative way to fly and has access to even more lightning powers, such as being able to throw lightning bolts and use Vortex as a twisting diving attack.
Ifrit: Dante brings the heat even further with this Devil Trigger branch, with Dante’s power increasing even further and his guns gain a fire element to them. He can fire a powerful projectile called Meteor and has access to Inferno, a powerful AOE.

Sparda Devil Trigger

With the Sparda sword, he can gain access to this special Devil Trigger to transform into a figure very similar to his father. Dante has long since surpassed his father, but it’s worth mentioning as an important moment for him as he used it in the fight against Mundus and can technically still access it if he wants. He can fire a freaking dragon, runes and fireball and fly interstellar distances with it. We technically can’t really quantify how strong it is aside from it being stronger than his normal Devil Trigger, but it seems to last however long Dante wants, staying in that form for the entire first phase of the Mundus fight.

True Demon/Majin Devil Trigger

When on the verge of death, Dante’s devil trigger becomes even more powerful than it once was with this form. The form fuses all his weapons with his body and has the same benefits as the standard Devil Trigger, which includes flight, health restoration, enhanced strength and speed, only much stronger, plus Dante is also completely invincible in this form. Dante’s height increases in this form, reaching a maximum height of 7.58 meters. Additionally, Dante can use the red wrist-mounted spikes for melee attacks and can shoot fireballs known as Crimson Bolide from his hands. Finally, Dante can expend all the remaining energy of this form into an AOE Shockwave called Doomsday or a concentrated beam called Leviathan. The form would have appeared in DMC4, appearing closer in design to Sin Devil Trigger, but was cut due to time constraints.

Sin Devil Trigger

After Dante stabbed himself with the Rebellion, using its power to fuse man and devil, he absorbed it and the Sparda sword to not only unlock the Devil Sword Dante we mentioned earlier, but also unlocking the Sin Devil Trigger form for him, finally reuniting his human and demon halves fully together. This is Dante’s strongest form, much stronger than his ordinary Devil Trigger. It let him defeat Urizen after not standing a chance before and go even with Vergil’s own Sin DT. Also come on, it looks really freaking cool. Dante can grow large enough to stand equal to Urizen, who is 5.7 Meters tall.

Dante’s time frame in this mode is limited, but it can depend on his demonic energy like before. Vergil has lasted at least two minutes in the form in his boss fight against Nero. Its longest known time frame is after Nero defeats Vergil, they fly to the demon world sometime after 4:27PM, the tree gets cut around 6:26PM, implying at least an hour as they were in Sin DT during the whole flight (of course flight time doesn’t necessarily equal combat time, but it definitely can last a while). Dante can also exit the mode whenever he wants in cutscenes and he can use the ability Quadruple S to use it in short bursts without extending too much energy, preserving the SDT gauge. It’s shown that he uses this ability in the final boss fight when you’re playing as Vergil, so it’s not just some gameplay gimmick abuse, but an actual canon ability.

It’s not clear if Dante loses access to some of his other abilities while in this form or if that’s just for gameplay balance (especially since Vergil can still use his other weapons like Beowulf in his own Sin DT), but he still gains access to other powerful abilities to make up for it regardless. These include:

Shift/Advent: Dante can use these abilities to teleport, allowing him to dodge swiftly and home into his enemies, reaching them within a blink of an eye.
The Ombra: Dante can fire powerful balls of darkness, giving him a powerful ranged option in place of his guns.
Sin Stinger: Dante turns into a drill pretty much, as he charges straight forward into his enemies. He can lock in and drill for a long time depending how much he wants.
Sin Inferno: Dante slams the ground for a powerful AOE, unleashing hellfire.
The Luce: Dante can send several homing demonic energy blasts at his enemies, rapidly damaging and he can keep doing it indefinitely until he has to exit Sin DT.
Judgement: Dante’s strongest technique in Sin Devil Trigger as time slows down as he summons a demonic sigil, unleashing massively powerful slashes to destroy his opponents before unleashing a final detonation of demonic energy. The move uses all of Dante’s power at once (though he can keep fighting after, so it’s not a suicide move or anything) and has matched Vergil’s signature Judgement Cut End. Dante is actually referencing Sparda’s katas shown in the opening of Devil May Cry 1.
Demolition: Another one of Dante’s most powerful techniques in Sin DT is when he summons a black hole of sorts. Any enemy caught will have their internals attacked with a massive explosion. Weaker enemies will die in one shot but even bosses won’t get away unscathed without a chunk of their life bar gone. Truly an attack you really don’t want to get hit by.

Clive Rosfield

Limit Break

Also referred to as “Semi-priming”, this form has Clive draw on Aether from the surrounding atmosphere in order to super-charge his own abilities. While doing so, not only does his skin glow with magical energy, he gains some of the healing powers inherent to Eikons, as his HP will quickly restore itself over time. Clive is of course stronger in this form, incorporating Ifrit’s claws into his attacks and improving his magic abilities. He’s also faster and his sword attacks all count as critical hits. Clive also does not recoil should he take a hit while in this form and cannot die mid-Limit Break (though this is likely just a gameplay mechanic.) He can’t stay in this mode forever, but it’s such a strong powerboost, it’ll usually get the job done…though if that’s not enough, he does have access to other beasts within…

Ifrit

The second Eikon of Fire, Ifrit, is a massive monster that Clive can freely turn into when the situation calls for it, referred to as “Priming”. He mainly uses this to fight other Eikons. While his first uses of it resulted in Clive losing control and going on violent rampages, Clive has since mastered the power, letting him apply it as he needs it without fear. Which is fortunate, because Ifrit is insanely powerful. At a base level, Ifrit is bloody massive, and a physical powerhouse to boot. Most directly, Ifrit was strong enough to split Titan Lost, a goliath who was the size of a bloody mountain range. And despite Ifrit’s size and stature, he’s also surprisingly nimble, able to maneuver around Titan Lost and do swift dodges.

As the Warden of Inferno, Ifrit has numerous abilities to control flames. Even just by priming Clive summons large pillars of flame, so hot they can immediately vaporise people nearby. Ifrit can shoot flaming spells, create barriers that explode, enhance physical strikes with firepower, boost around with flames, and even use Hellfire, conjuring a ball of flame that makes absurdly massive booms. He can even manifest fiery blades should he feel the need to go hands (claws?) off. All Eikons also have a notable healing factor, and Ifrit is no exception. Arm sliced off? No problem. Eye gouged out? Easy. Lost both of your arms? They’ll come right back. Impaled? that’ll barely phase you.

The most extreme example of this sheer survivability would be Ifrit’s first encounter with the Phoenix. In this, Ifrit spares no quarter viciously tearing into the phoenix, ripping its limbs off and beating him mercilessly, biting into his neck and engulfing him in flames, before finally driving his fist through the firebird entirely. Despite all of that, Joshua survived, suffering little to no lasting damage from all of that. He can also use Firelight to heal himself for 30% of his health should he take damage (though can only do so about eight times during a fight).

Ifrit Risen

A combination of the powers of Ifrit and the Phoenix, Clive could initially only achieve this form when fused with Joshua’s Phoenix, after Clive fully obtained the Phoenix for himself he could use this form just fine on his own. Not only does this form retain all of the powers of Ifrit, the Phoenix’ flames are added to the mix, as well as its wings, letting Clive fly freely, dash around at lightspeeds, shoot barrages of flames as well as fiery beam attacks. This ability, Spitflare, notably has the slow slowdown effect seen with moves like Gigaflare, meaning it’s likely slowing down time like Gigaflare itself does. In its first outing, Ifrit Risen pursued Bahamut into outer space above Valisthea, both Eikons displaying no need to breathe in the vacuum as well as flying at rapid speeds to combat one another.

In addition to being cool as hellfire, Ifrit Risen resembles Ultima Prime, a body that Ultima discarded in order to operate from the shadows. This is because Clive, as Mythos, was supposed to gather the power of all the Eikons into himself, including the Phoenix, as part of Ultima’s grand plan to raise their fellows. However, even as Clive and Ultima battled in the space of Origin, Clive’s Risen state would prove too much even for Ultima Risen, and the fight would conclude between their regular forms, Clive none the worse for wear.

Support

Dante

Agni & Rudra

(yeah…)

The twin blades are a pair of demon swords Dante acquires after defeating them in the Firestorm Chamber. Named after deities from Hindu mythology, being Agni, god of fire, and Rudra, god of storms, they embody those same elemental powers in battle. More than just weapons, the swords are alive and constantly chatter, often talking over one another and testing Dante’s patience. Though courteous and oddly hospitable compared to most demons, Dante only accepts them as Devil Arms after making them promise to keep their mouths shut, a promise they have a hard time keeping as the game goes on.

Clive Rosfield

Torgal

He’s not really showing up in the animation, but it’s impossible to make a Clive blog and not talk about the goodest boy. Torgal is a faithful hound that’s accompanied Clive since his days as a kid, the two were separated after the attack at Phoenix Gate, but on the same fateful day that Clive would be freed of his shackles and meet Cid, he was reunited with Torgal, who had been looked after by Cid and his group all that time. As is expected of a hound, Torgal has a keen sense of smell, which can lead Clive in the direction he needs to go, and even sense intent to harm or kill others, which he often warns Clive of with a growl.

In combat, Clive can command Torgal to attack with Sic, which lets Torgal lunge at enemies, or Ravage, which lets Torgal toss enemies up in the air, or slam them down to the ground. He can even unleash a rejuvenating howl, which heals Clive and other party members. But that’s just his power in his base form. In truth, Torgal is a frost wolf, and by bonding with powerful Dominant masters, he’s able to use Eikon abilities, even being capable of accessing a semi-Primed state known as Fenrir. In this form, he gains access to several new attacks, as well as a huge boost to his physicality.

Millennial Decay: Torgal launches several charged elemental orbs at one distant target
Ecliptic Howl: Torgal howls and creates a healing aura, alleviating the wounds of his party
Howling Moon: Torgal is projected in front of an enemy, creating a damaging shockwave
Smite of Rage: Torgal creates several explosions that throw enemies caught in the blasts into the air
Banish: Torgal concentrates the moon’s light on an enemy and smashes it to the ground

Ambrosia

A white feathered Chocobo that Clive rides in order to travel long distances faster. Ever loyal and brave, Ambrosia has been with Clive since he was a youth, and has even saved him once when Joshua went berserk during the attack on Phoenix Gate. Ambrosia would survive the attack, and would go on to form a flock of her own and spend the next thirteen years protecting the people of the Rosarian countryside from bandits, earning the nickname “Whiteheart”. After reuniting with Clive, their bond would still remain strong, and Clive would be able to call on Ambrosia from anywhere just by whistling. While riding Ambrosia, Clive moves much faster than he can on foot, and can even command Ambrosia to kick forward.

Feats

Dante

Overall

Defeated Arkham, Gilver, Mundus, Abigail, Chen, Arius, Argosax, Urizen and Vergil
Started up his own shop with Devil May Cry
Accepted both his human and demon halves to attain greater power
Helped give Nero, Patty, Trish, Lady, Lucia, Beryl and so many others better lives
Prevented demonic invasions multiple times
Escaped the demon world even though it seemed impossible
Avenged his family by sealing Mundus for good
Discovered he still had a family and entrusted Nero to protect the human world
Eventually finally made peace with Vergil after years of fighting
Alongside Vergil, surpassed his father Sparda
Managed to keep his series from not dying after DMC2 and the reboot thank god
That costume from Tekken 7

Clive Rosfield

Overall

Defeated Phoenix, Garuda, Titan, Bahamut, Odin, Leviathan, Omega and Ultima
Was able to break free from being a slave and start living his own life again
Finally reunited with Joshua even though he thought he killed him at first
Responsible for giving Jill, Gav, Mid, Waljas and many others at the Hideaway better lives
Took on Cid’s name after his passing and still helps people around the world
Has a really wholesome and healthy romantic relationship with Jill
Was able to accept himself as Ifrit with help from Jill
Accomplished his goal at the very end to remove magic from Valisthea
Holy shit we finally got a non-7 Final Fantasy rep on Death Battle
The guy from Tekken 8

Power

Speed

Durability

Even when he was young, he was able to survive almost getting eaten by a Morbol
Though heavily injured, survived Barnabas slicing through him with his blade
- Later on was able to take hits from Barnabas’ sword again without getting cut up, despite Barnabas being able to slice through space
Survived getting caught in Garuda’s grasp (and later broke free by turning into Ifrit)
Stopped this giant meteor by semi priming (though he has help from Joshua later, he implies he could have done with Ifrit if he wanted)
Ifrit withstood Phoenix diving at him from above and destroying a large portion of the ground
Ifrit, after a long battle with Garuda, took one of Ramuh’s Judgement Bolts, with Clive only being knocked out from the blast
Takes a blast from Bahamut’s laser after it absorbed an Mother Crystal core as Ifrit
Ifrit withstood being impaled by one of Titan Lost’s tentacles and getting sent by it above the clouds
Ifrit survived Ultima Risen sending him crashing down with a single punch

Scaling

Images by Flip, TWILTY and PasBros.

Dante

Dante has fought all sorts of demons in the Devil May Cry world and no matter what odds were stacked against him, he always came out on top. Various standard demons, to demon kings like Mundus who could threaten both the human and demon realms, and even his twin brother who has gotten even stronger and stronger as his time as Urizen, he’s defeated them all. To not waste too much time, Dante clearly scales to every feat listed as one of the strongest characters in the series, especially impressive since he’s only gotten stronger since the end of Devil May Cry 5.

Vergil & Nero

Dante was much stronger, much faster and more skilled than a DMC4 era Nero, and even during DMCV he is still comparable to his nephew. He also fought his brother several times.

Nero crushed the Savior’s head back to hell (5.3 Tons of TNT)
Nero flew to Dante and Vergil’s location in only a few seconds (Mach 1877.3 to 9386.51)
Nero has reacted and jumped in-tandem to Artemis’ (the demon) laser, which is called a laser (also goes in straight line and consistent speeds) and she’s called the goddess who commands light (0.6c – 1.55c)
Nero sees Credo in slow motion
Vergil easily reacts to DMC3 Dante’s bullets and fires them back
Vergil’s signature Judgement Cut End moves so fast, it looks like he’s in multiple places at once
Vergil cut the Qliphoth tree (16 Megatons of TNT)
Vergil as Urizen had gotten to the Qliphoth tree to grow so large, it can be seen from space (877.25 Megatons of TNT)
- The Qliphoth fruit is more powerful than the tree itself and Urizen eats it, so the scaling checks out
- The tree had spread out through the whole Earth, making this feat even more impressive (82.78 Teratons of TNT)

Various Demons

Cereberus froze the gate to Temen-Ni-Gru (48.6 Tons)
Echidna made a large storm (6 – 9.6 Megatons)
Gilver cuts off four mafiosi heads with a single stroke of his katana
The Beastheads shook the world
Bael creates a blizzard
The Savior can kick REALLY freaking hard (4.24 Kilotons of TNT)
Berial can light up mountains on fire (1.1 Kilotons of TNT)
Abigail opened a huge portal to that dispersed clouds beneath it (1.12 – 7 Gigatons of TNT)
Nightmare has the powerto destroy the Demon World (Universal)
- Main reason it doesn’t is because Mundus restrained and controlled him, forcing him to obey his every command

Mundus & Argosax
(Demon Kings)

(I really want a DMC1 remake if only because it’d be nice if Mundus had more than 1 render…)

Mundus made a universe in only a few seconds (587 Quadrillion times FTL/Universal)
- To avoid making another long BTV about it, here’s confirmation he did create the space. It’s not an illusion as the scene was intended to be in space and it’s even called Demon Emperor’s Space. It spreads to infinity like a normal universe would and it’s described as a realm beyond human knowledge. This feat has been discussed to death but we do in fact buy the feat as a universal creation. We recommend going to Galacta Knight vs Vergil’s blog if you really want a more in-depth breakdown.
Mundus turned the Earth into a second Demon realm before Sparda interrupted him (Planet)
Mundus’ defeat near the end of the game was going to collapse the demon realm (Universal)
- It would also include the Mirror World. It has its own dimension and reality. (Low Multi)
Void Mundus, an alternative timeline version of Mundus, collapsed a merged version (proof here) of the human and demon world (which is something he planned to do himself) together with his death upon his defeat by Dante. Void Mundus was considered the Heart of the Demon World and the Nexus of its energies and Void Mundus was a, well, void. (Low Multi)
Argosax is stated to have the power of all demons and an equal to Mundus
An eclipse was likely caused as an effect of Argosax’s ritual (Debatable) (65 Zettatons of TNT)
Argosax was in the process of merging the Human and Demon World together (Low Multi)

Clive Rosfield

Clive has battled basically every powerful beast under the watchful gaze of Metia. Dangerous monsters, ancient magitek robots, and (almost) every single Dominant in the realm, and has come out on top every time. His status as Logos, and the fact that he managed to defeat and absorb Ultima, cements his position and the strongest character in Final Fantasy XVI bar none, so he should scale to all of these feats.

Eikons, Dominants,
& the Eikonklast

Benedikta, while Semi-Primed, could tear off chunks of a castle and throw them at Clive
While Priming, Garuda created a massive tornado
Phoenix dove at Ifrit and destroyed a large portion of ground (57.46 Tons of TNT)
Phoenix can fly and save Ifrit faster than Bahamut’s beam of light
Titan can use Rock’s Toss, in which he… tosses a gigantic rock at Ifrit
Garuda dodged a lightning bolt
Leviathan can use Tsunami, forming a large tidal wave and sending it forward
Leviathan is also capable of swallowing entire cities
Bahamut’s Zettaflare would have burned the world if not stopped (183-646 petatons of TNT)
Odin could split the ocean
Omega’s Dimension Compression could “constrict all of creation” (Universal,10.9 – 245 Quadrillions of times FTL) (See Before the Verdict)
- Omega is capable of ‘warping the very geometrics that define our world’

Ultima

Created a storm to rain Aether over the realm (1.73 – 2.72 Teratons of TNT)
Created the dimensional Rift, the world between worlds (Low Multi, see Cosmology for details)
Potentially warped the entirety of the Dimensional Rift with an omnidirectional wave – (294 – 490 Quadrillions of times FTL) (Debatable)
The Ultima collective had gathered Aether through the Mothercrystals in order to cast Raise and revive the rest of their kin, Aether they harvested over 5000 years

Weaknesses

Dante

(Source)

While Dante doesn’t have any notable physical weaknesses, he is not invincible. Least of all, is his cocky and sometimes overconfident attitude, potentially dragging out any matches for entertainment value. While he does get serious when he needs to (example are any of his Vergil bouts), if he feels any opponent is too weak to take seriously, he’ll sometimes get hit on purpose just to show off.

While Dante’s regeneration is certainly impressive, it’s tied to his stamina and can be overtaxed, such as when Urizen knocked him out cold for a month. Dante’s stamina is very impressive and can be recovered quickly, but against an opponent who’s an equal or stronger, it can tire him out and gets weaker in a fight should it drag long enough. An example of this is when Mundus’ Demon World collapse was considered fatal to him while he was too tired and weakened after a long bout with the demon king.

Also bro struggles to keep the lights on dang (relatable tbh).

Clive Rosfield

As noted earlier, Clive is susceptible to the Curse that all Bearers, well, bear. Should he overuse his magic, and especially Ifrit, he risks advancing the curse and turning into stone. However, given he only came under its effects after fully absorbing Ultima and pouring a ton of magic into Joshua, he’s got a good bit of time on his hands. Potentially more notably, some of Clive’s abilities are reliant on being able to draw Aether from the air around him. When in the deadlands, areas consumed of their Aether by the Blight, he cannot use Magic, nor can he semi-prime. At the same time however, Priming is not reliant on this, instead reliant on his own supply of Aether. While this does mean that Priming has a greater risk of advancing the Curse, he can do it basically whenever he wants to.

Cosmology

Both: What’s the deal
with “Bulk Spaces”?

GIF made by Pas

A Bulk Space, for the intents of this blog, will be accepted as a cosmological structure higher than the rest of its cosmology, acting as a container or intersector for the whole. Since it would have to contain and/or connect every single dimension, it should be naturally considered bigger than the sum of its parts, similarly to the concept of the Bulk in Brane cosmology. Obviously, we are not considering either truly “higher dimensional” in the DT sense, as they do not follow all the standards for infinitely higher sized spatial dimensions, so no, we do not think either is 5D.

Dante/Devil May Cry

In the Devil May Cry universe, there was an original darkness before it was split into two, called the Human and Demon World. Given they are separated, they can’t be crossed normally, unless something functioning as a gate connects the two. While the full scope of them is hard to tell, both have their own celestial bodies, are separated by space and time and the laws of the underworld are different from ours. There’s also a dimensional wall that acts like a net between the two worlds and both are referred to as dimensions in the novels. There exists an example of an alternative world of the two worlds fused called a parallel universe. Finally, in the Netflix show, both the human world and demon world are referred to as their own universe. Though unlikely to be their own universe, the Demon World should be noted to have their own subsections called Nirvanas.

There also exists the Mirror World, which is basically a copied version of the Human world and acts as the entrance to the Demon World. It stands between the Human World and the Underworld and represents the evil in humanity’s hearts. In addition to seemingly having its own moon before entering, it also has its own sun, a mirror to the real world, and is referred to as its own dimension.

There are a couple of feats that affect both the Human and Demon World, making them a low multi/2x universal feat, potentially 3x if you think the Mirror World is valid.

Clive Rosfield/Final Fantasy XVI

Final Fantasy XVI is set in a universe much like ours. It has celestial bodies like stars, the sun and the moon, and everything you’d expect. However, this universe isn’t the only part of the cosmology, and things start to become more complex from here.

By touching the monoliths known as the Arete Stones, Clive can be transported to another dimension known as the Hall of Virtue, where he can train his combat skills without having to worry about time constraints. Similarly, he can touch the Chronoliths to be transported to a similar dimension, where he can face more deadly challenges. Both of the realms Clive is transported to are described as “realities parallel to our own” and “worlds beyond worlds”, but are noted to be distinct from each other. The fact they have a different flow of time from the normal universe, as supported by the fact the experiences inside the Arete Stones are stated to “not be bound by the fundamental laws of time”, indicates that they are fully fledged different space-times.

Kairos Gates are similar in concept, pulling Clive into a realm described as “the circles of hell” through interactions with the Arete Stones. The Kairos Gates, however, are not the Hall Virtue, making it reasonable that they are a completely different parallel reality like the Chronolith dimensions.

The Interdimensional Rift, made by Ultima, is both “beyond space and time” and a “rift between worlds”, supporting that this realm (showing multiple stars and nebulae in the fight against Ultima Prime) would be higher than the rest of the cosmology, acting as a bulk space that simultaneously intersects and is above every other dimension in FFXVI, being worth more than the sum of its parts.

This brings the total number of parallel realities within the Final Fantasy XVI cosmology to at least 4. The Interdimensional Rift acting as a bulk space would make it so it by itself is worth 5 universes.

Before the Verdicts

Images and GIF by Flip

Omega Scaling? Isn’t it wack?

When it comes to Omega, there’s two big questions when it comes to scaling. One is how much stuff Omega compressed, and two is how Clive can scale despite the fact that Omega’s compression seems to kill him. Question one is fairly simple to answer. It’s “constricting all of creation” and the move is called Dimensional Compression (even in the Japanese version). And again, the English version of FFXVI is reliable for statements like this, see the Before We Start section for more details about that. One could argue Omega is merely warping the pocket dimension that he transported the party to, but that’s not very sound. Joshua blatantly states it’s constricting “ALL of creation”, not “its creation”, and Omega is described as “warping the geometrics that define OUR world”, not its world. Assuming that Omega is only capable of compressing a tiny pocket dimension has no support in the game.

So what about scaling Clive to this when it kills him? Well, to start Clive does not only defeat Omega (in base, mind you), he also shatters the Crystal that was powering Omega. This is actually fairly important, namely because of Aether, the energy the crystal channeling. Aether in FFXVI is the energy that fuels all magic, including magitek, it’s how Clive uses all of his spells, it’s how Eikons work and even how Ultima does his magic as well. So basically, it works as a classic Universal Energy System for FFXVI. In Omega’s case, it uses the Aether of the Sagespire, a man-made Mothercrystal, noted to draw on a ton of its Aether for the Omega Protocol, which includes Dimensional Compression. This largely means that Clive beating not only Omega itself but also overpowering the Sagespire crystal means he should be stronger than Omega’s compression.

It doesn’t end there however, as Clive has destroyed regular Mothercrystals as well, which is notable as the Sagespire is stated to be palpably inferior to the Mothercrystals made by Ultima, not even considered enough to be decent. This also applies to other beings powered up by exposure to the Aether of real Mothercrystals, as Omega is noted to be an artificial Eikon. This is also how Clive can compare to the speed of this compression, as it would naturally also be powered by its Aether, the same Aether used for Omega’s other big attacks that Clive can swiftly dodge. For the fact failing the DPS check kills Clive… every DPS check in FF16 kills you. In the case of another DLC Eikon instance, failing with Leviathan makes its Tsunami kill Ifrit. Later in the fight, Ifrit no diffs the Tsunami with Controlled Burn and beats Leviathan. Leviathan is also stronger than Omega, because, as previously mentioned, Clive and his party beat Omega in base, while as for Leviathan, he sends them off and primes into Ifrit to fight it, as he’s not confident they can deal with him in base.

In conclusion, Omega performs a solidly Universal and Quadrillions c feat using a weak Mothercrystal, and Clive scales to him in his base state. Eikons such as Titan, who is powered by a real Mothercrystal, would upscale this vastly, which is consistent with the game. Clive scales to its energy output and speed thanks to the universal energy system of FFXVI, that being Aether.

Can Ultima beat the allegations?

So, the big question with Ultima is “how can Ultima be Universal if he needed Mythos to recreate the planet?” This is a valid question, and very worth addressing. Ultima’s ultimate plan is to cast Raise on the planet, returning the Ultima collective and remaking the world in one fell swoop. And Raise is the big fish here. This spell requires an absurd amount of Aether to cast, requiring Ultimas to absorb Aether through the Mothercrystals over literal centuries. Notably, the Eikconcast Omega drawing power from a man-made Mothercrystal could get enough power to collapse “all of creation” as noted above. Ultima was drawing from multiple Mothercrystals for over 5000 years, far longer than Omega even existed. And Ultima needed all of that power to cast Raise.

This on its own paints a pretty plain picture. While restoring the world was a large part of Ultima’s plan, restoring the rest of the Ultima Collective was the bulk of their plan, as the 16 Ultimas we see are the only remaining survivors of their species. Reviving the dead is repeatedly considered basically impossible within FFXVI, and Ultima is planning on reviving multiple deific beings at once, hence the absurd amount of Aether required for their plan. It’s also worth noting that “remaking” the world isn’t literal here. By reviving their brethren, Ultima seeks to bring about a new age of reason

Ultima is credited with creating multiple alternate worlds, including the parallel realities seen within the Arete Stones and Chronoliths and the Interdimensional Rift. He uses attacks named after types of neutron stars, “Stellar Xyston” essentially means a “star spear” and so on. These show that, even by narrative intent, Ultima is pretty clearly intended to have a “cosmic” scale.

With that in mind, what about Ultima’s Debatable speed feat? Well, opinions on the feat have been fairly mixed from the blog team, but we’ve included it to be thorough. What exactly Ultima is doing in this scene is fairly vague overall, so there’s multiple ways to interpret it.

Against

While it doesn’t use the same fade-to-white transition as the other dimension hops in this boss sequence, it does resemble other similar effects from other Final Fantasy titles, particularly the shatter effect used in VII. The area that is “destroyed” during this wave even seems to come back after, implying this may not be a literal destruction. Ultima’s other attacks in this phase are either basically impossible to verify they travelled a notable distance or visibly don’t travel particularly far at all. Even Purgatorium, an attack Ultima will only use if you fail a DPS check, does not visibly travel across the rift. Most likely, this is merely a stylised jump between different parts of the Rift.

For

The transition between the previous area and the starry space does not resemble any warp or teleporting visual that previous dimension hops do, as noted by the previous section. More importantly, the debris of the destroyed area is still visible while Clive floats in space if you pay attention, supporting that this is more of an intended physical transformation of the Rift than pure warping from one point to the other. The rift notably does not show any celestial body before that scene, including when Clive is transported there to fight Typhon, so it would make sense to assume Ultima manipulated the whole thing to look like that. The starry area also disappears when Ultima Prime is beaten, which would make no sense if they were just consciously teleporting from point A to point B.

Does Clive Scale to
Final Fantasy XIV with
the Crossover Quest?

As many of you are aware, Clive appears in the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, which if fully applied to him, would give him a far wider scaling chain to work with than his default material would otherwise via the Warrior of Light, to say the least. However, looking at the context of what happens in the crossover quests, and at the time this quest takes place, we believe that it is ultimately not applicable to give Clive any reasonable scaling to the Warrior of Light. To explain our reasons why, we’ll break it down into three factors.

For starters, the only fight Clive participates in is a manifestation of his Ifrit within a mental world, aided by the Wandering Minstrel (stand-in for Yoshi P himself!) and Warrior of Light’s own memories of Ifrit, the first Primal they ever fought before their most notable feats, to create a battleground focus. The second factor working against this fight is the time that this quest is set in, or rather the level cap of 50. This means that the crossover quest would be taking place at an indeterminate place in time around the first FFXIV storyline, A Realm Reborn, a time before WoL would truly come into their own as a champion of the realm. For the final factor working against Clive to receive any cross scaling, Clive’s own timing of when he arrives in Eorzea is as much a factor as WoL’s, because he arrives at the moment he accepted the truth of being Ifrit, before he himself would reach his full power, making it nearly impossible to determine a concrete scaling chain with how little either hero does in the quest. As such, Warrior of Light will not be playing a factor in the verdict for this blog.

Art Section

(Kaiser and Flip)

(bbralvin and lana_choui)

Verdicts

GIF by TWILTY, Team Images by Flip, Category Images by TWILTY and Flip

Alright STOP RIGHT THERE and read. There’s going to be a double verdict because this MU is surprisingly complex. Both sides agree this matchup is close and while you the reader are free to choose who you favour more, please don’t just skip the end of the vote tally and assume one side definitively won when that is very much not the case. Both sides put a lot of work and time into this, so from everyone on the team, we really recommend properly reading instead of just skipping to the end. Thank you if you do.

Even a Devil May Cry

Stats

Starting with power, it’s true that Clive’s on-screen feats visually dwarf anything from Dante. But that’s far from the limits of either’s power, as they have fought all sorts of powerful godlike beings that can threaten the universe. Starting with Dante, he’s defeated the Demon Kings Mundus and Argosax; the former being able to create a universe within mere seconds, while the latter can merge the human and demon worlds together. With the way the cosmology works (including the Mirror World), it’s at least a 3x Universal feat. It has the potential to be higher though due to Devil May Cry’s cosmology, since they were originally all one big universe. But 3x is safer as a result, so that’s fine for now.

Clive’s power is surprisingly similar. He’s defeated Omega and Ultima, the former of which was able to cause dimensional compression and the latter of which created the Interdimensional Rift, which contains 4 universes, as explained above. And of course, there’s potential for higher scaling since it’s a bulk space. 3 vs 4 universes is honestly really close and within the margin of error. However, it’s important to note that both of these characters heavily upscale from these feats, so let’s take a closer look at these chains. Brace yourselves, bit lengthy here.

Dante’ upscaling chain: Nightmare =/< Argosax (The Chaos) < Mundus / Abigail / Argosax (Despair Embodied) < Sparda DT Dante < Anime Dante (defeated Abigail with ease) < Void Mundus < Base Dante (DMC2) =/< Chen < DT and Majin DT Dante (DMC2) < DMC4 Dante < DT Dante (DMC5) < Base Urizen < Fruit Urizen < DMC5 Dante < Sin DT Dante by the end

Clive’ upscaling chain: Omega using an ‘inferior’ MC < Clive < Titan using normal MC < Ifrit < Bahamut using MC < Ultima < Ultima Risen <= Ifrit Risen < Ultima after he fuses/Ultimalius < Clive by the end < Ifrit Risen

Surprisingly similar chains right? Well, there are things to consider here. For example, DMC 2 Dante kills Void Mundus in base, without too much effort. But Ultima has been using Aether from the Mothercrystals for thousands of years. You could argue Dante’s scaling is a bit better, but considering the length of both’s upscaling chains, we’ll just say they tie in terms of power for safety’s sake rather than overcomplicate arguments.

Speed is a similar story. Mundus made a universe with his demonic energy in only a few seconds, clocking in at 587 Quadrillion times FTL. Dante has defeated him and upscales this feat heavily, as seen above. Clive scales to Omega, whose dimensional compress can range from 10.9 to 245 Quadrillion times FTL. Both feats are in the Quad C range, but even at the highest end, Dante’s is over two times faster. There’s also the Ultima feat to consider that gets 294 to 490 Quadrillion times FTL, where he supposedly warps the dimension rift with some sorta directional wave… supposedly. We won’t spend too much talking about why the feat is debatable, but we have zero confirmation that that’s what Ultima is actually doing and that he didn’t just teleport him and Clive.

But let’s take the feat literally and assume he did indeed warp the reality of the Dimensional Rift. That would be a lot closer to Dante’s speed, but there’s a problem. Ultima did the feat as Ultima Risen, so Clive would actually be upscaling the feat less than Dante would still with Mundus’ feat, giving Dante the speed advantage regardless. For the sake of argument, since both their best speed feats are in the Quad C range, we’ll take into consideration where they tie, but also the likelihood that Dante is faster.

There is one more elephant in the room we have to address though: Multipliers. These aren’t really anything new to the VS scene, especially if you’re a Dragon Ball fan. If there’s anything these characters can do, it is that they can always get stronger via their transformations in the middle of a fight. With Devil Trigger and Ifrit, without getting too crazy into multipliers, they definitely upscale their feats by a good amount. There’s some confirmed ‘multipliers’, but they have context. There’s a lot you can say about the issues of using multipliers in general such as inflating stats and getting into calc stacking territory, but let’s focus on the multiplier arguments themselves.

Starting with Clive’s first since he has a big one, he can potentially get 51x stronger once he turns into Ifrit, which would hypothetically AP stomp Dante… hypothetically. Let’s take a look more at where the multiplier itself comes from. First off, it comes from the gameplay/battle system section of the FF16 Ultimania, and it’s entirely possible it’s just talking about the specific gameplay set piece rather than it being a literal multiplier. Which would make sense when you look at the translation in more detail.

◆ Their maximum HP is 51 times Clive’s, while all other stats match Clive’s values. However, increases from accessories are not applied.

◆ If Clive equipped a support accessory, the summon beast also gains its effect (※1).

◆ Damage dealt to enemies is 51 times the normal amount (damage received from enemies is also 51 times greater)

◆ In specific situations, you can perform “Learning” to acquire enemy techniques, increasing available abilities. Learned abilities can be used in subsequent battles and are carried over in “New Game+” (→P.200)

◆When controlling a summoned beast, battles typically feature massive enemies like other summoned beasts. Depending on the situation, battles may unfold in unique ways not seen in standard combat, such as flying through the air or running long distances.

There’s a lot to nitpick here, but starting with, it states that Clive’s other stats match his original values even though his HP is 51 times bigger. That’d include his strength. Why is that? It’s likely just in reference to the Eikon sections having more bloated HP, rather than a literal multiplier. Notably, “Damage dealt to enemies is 51 times the normal amount (damage received from enemies is also 51 times greater)” is the one part where you can argue Clive gets 51x stronger as Ifrit, but he also takes 51x more damage too. Again, it’s likely just in reference to the gameplay section rather than a legitimate multiplier. You could argue since he has 51x more HP, it means he’s also 51x tougher, but that’s in a separate section technically, and it’s odd they aren’t more straightforward with his multiplier if that was the intent. It’s likely not meant to be a literal multiplier and they’re just talking about the gameplay shift to Eikon setpieces.

To be fair, Dante’s multiplier arguments are in a similar boat; being more gameplay orientated rather than straight lore based one. Taking them literally, Dante would get at least two times stronger in both power and speed, potentially up to 10x speed with the Quickheart. For this approach, we think it’s best to discard both multipliers and focus on them upscaling their feats, which would tie out again. That being said, taking both literally, Clive would get stronger once he goes Ifrit for sure, but Dante would definitely be faster into the blitzing range. We’ll try our best to acknowledge what Dante can do with the speed, but mainly focus on if their stats are relative.

Arsenal & Abilities

There’s a lot to cover here, so please bear with us. Fitting, since both of these characters are action game heroes with lots of tools to use.

Starting with an important one: their regeneration and how long they can even last in a fight. And this one isn’t really a contest. Dante can regenerate in his base form from stabs to the heart, multiple impalings, losing limbs, etc. His healing factor is even more impressive when scaling it to Nero, who can come back from being melted /misted at least once or twice. Dante, of course, can’t spam this as it’s dependent on his stamina, but he has a lot of it; fighting for hours, sometimes days, only needing a few seconds long breaks if he needs it, especially when you compare him to Clive.

Firstly, Clive cannot regenerate in base. Dominants can’t regenerate in general in base (see Hugo getting his hands chopped off and they only healed fully after fully transforming). Clive can regenerate thanks to Limit Break, but it can only last so long before he runs out. Clive can regenerate limbs and eye gashes through Priming, but it’s nothing compared to Dante’s regeneration. Also, Dominants can be overtaxed and overwhelmed; Clive himself has exited Ifrit mode due to being tired. To be clear, Clive can fight for a long time, most notably in the final Ultima fight, but it’s hard to quantify. We also really have no proof if Clive could survive, say, a decapitation, while Dante can survive his whole body being melted.

Their healing items paint a similar story. Dante can carry up to 30 Vital Stars of each type; being the small (quarter heals), medium (half heals) and large (full heals). He can also carry 10 Devil Stars that recharge his demonic energy via small (half charges) or large (full charges). Dante can also revive instantly with 3 gold orbs, each will fully heal and fully recharge his Devil Trigger. Compared to Clive, who can carry 8 potions (20% heal), 5 high potions (40% heal), 2 Elixirs (full heal) and only one Last Elixir that’ll revive him with full health and Limit Gauge. He also has the revivement bit that’ll prevent him from dying, but only when he has a max Limit Gauge. He also has access to 8 Firelight heals (40% heal) as Ifrit Risen… but yeah, you’re starting to see the issue here. Clive’s healing options just do not compare to Dante. Dante wins survivability/the war of attrition, and this gives him a lot of time in this fight.

Going into their arsenal, and it really should come to no surprise who’s winning. Dante throughout Devil May Cry’s history has gotten all sorts of weapons from his signature swords, to ice nunchucks, Pandora’s 666 different forms, an electric guitar, a backpack that shoots laser sticks, a sawblade motorcycle weapon for some reason, loads of different guns, and so much more. Compared to Clive who… mainly has swords. Pretty good swords, mind you, but none of them really stand out. To be fair to Clive, he also wears armor that… also doesn’t really do anything special aside from better defense, but it’s nothing game changing with how cracked their abilities are. Clive also couldn’t reliably break Dante’s weapons if he wanted to, since his devil arms can repair from damage.

But weapons aren’t the only thing in this debate, and Clive does have a good amount of abilities thanks to his Dominant powers. He has access to Fire, Ice, Water, Dark, Holy, Stone, Wind and Lightning magic. He can block with Titan, the Will O Wisps acts as a protective shield, he’s got a long range grab with Garuda, Phoenix can help him close in distances, he’s able to freeze with Cold Snap, cut space with Odin, etc.

However, Dante has his own space cut with the Sparda/Devil Sword Dante, hellfire with Ifrit, Fire and Wind with Agni and Rudra, Dr Faust summoning huge meteors, absolute zero with King Cerberus, Beryl’s Anti Magic Rifle, multiple and more flexible ways to affect time, sealing, his fear aura, increased mobility with Trickster, Royalguard’s incredibly powerful defense, Doppelganger helping with numbers, Demolition attacks Clive’s insides, and more. It’s easy to look at this and say Dante’s abilities are more numerous, but we need to fully dissect them to see if he truly comes up on top in terms of quality.

Both have options that counter each other well. For example, both of them have access to spatial cutting manipulation with the Sparda and Odin, but equally resist said properties, so neither can cheese a win like that. Dante has a lot of mobility with Trickster and flight, but so does Clive with Phoenix. Dante likely can’t, say, separate Clive from Ifrit with Rebellion’s essence removal ability because of him resisting Ultima’s will break, but conversely, he couldn’t really absorb Dante’s soul either due to the latter’s experience with life force resistances and the soul eater (not to mention, it wouldn’t be in-character for Clive to do so anyway in the middle of a fight, and it’s possibly only related to Dominant/Eikons in FF16).

Both of them have a lot of counters to each other, but we need to start talking about when it starts tipping the other way, starting with… time, huh? Firstly, neither of them resist time shenanigans; both have been slowed down and stopped before. It’d be easy to say both just counter each other and cancel out, but let’s look more at the nuances. While the Time Bangle would likely be resisted by Clive’s strong willpower, it’s not the only time shenanigans he has, as he also has Quicksilver and the Chronoheart. Both use demonic energy, but Dante has a lot of it, and is pretty flexible with both. Clive’s time shenanigans in comparison are via a couple attacks, notably Rift Slip. These attacks are timing (hehe) specific and Clive can’t spam them because they require recharges between uses. Specifically, Rift Slip lasts only for a second before it goes on cooldown, compared to Quicksilver lasting at least 15 seconds, possibly more, and Dante is more freeform with it. Even if Clive did slow down time with Ring of Timely Focus…it’d just make their time slow even again and Dante would be faster and more skilled to react. Clive’s time abilities are simply far more contextual and not as easy to use as Dante’s, giving him the edge here.

Clive’s Shiva abilities normally are incredibly potent and freeze enemies easily. After all, it can even stop lava. However, Dante says no to this by surviving absolute zero due his experiences with the Frosts, and Shiva weirdly lacks such a statement in FF16’s world. More importantly, Dante has his own absolute zero weapon in King Cerberus, which he has shown to freeze characters like Vergil. Clive has access to a couple attacks like Heat Wave and Cyclone that can ‘nullify’ incoming magic attacks. Dante uses demonic energy for a couple and it’s compared to magic a lot, so you can say Clive could probably nullify those. The issue would be that these attacks operate on a cooldown, so Clive can’t just block them forever, and he specifically can ONLY nullify incoming projectile magic attacks (for example, he can’t nullify Quicksilver because it’s not a projectile). He can’t shut down Dante’s magic in general. Dante also doesn’t have to use projectiles, he can just amp himself with Demonic Energy for physical attacks.

In comparison, Dante has Beryl’s Anti-Magic Rifle which has bullets that absorb and destroy magic. It can sever links to magic and even create a large hole that can swallow magical energy in a powerful vortex. Clive has been power null’d before by Ultima, and there’s been examples of Dominants having their links cut off from their Eikons (like with Benedikta), so the Rifle would be very potent in general. Heck, when there isn’t Aether around, even Clive has admitted he couldn’t use magic. Cutting off Clive’s supply of magic/Aether would be huge, losing out on many of his options. He might not even be able to prime into Ifrit, losing one of his biggest advantages.

Clive has one literally big advantage of course, and that’s Ifrit (Risen), where he gains even more power and huge fiery AOEs. Ifrit once vaporized a person after turning on his fire (and Clive couldn’t control it at the time). He can also vaporize a whole tidal wave, just showing how impressive his range is. Dante can approach Berial with ease though, who can also vaporize a human by them simply being close to him. Dante can sit on his tail with no issues, and King Cerberus has stated that Berial’s flames are inferior to his and Dante can handle him with no problems as well.

What about other ways for Dante to handle Ifrit’s AOE heat though? Well firstly, it’s important to know ‘spamming’ AOEs isn’t really Clive’s playstyle. He likes to get up close and personal a lot. He really does his big AOEs as a final attack of sorts anyway, which Dante has a good shot of surviving.

Royalguard is kind of a meme, but also like… yeah? Royalguard has blocked all sorts of attacks, regardless of size or whether they’re traditional or not. The fact he can nullify it with proper timing (helped by his speed advantage mind you) and potentially using the energy for himself is really good. Dante can also use Royalguard to say no to a lot of Clive’s kit, while giving himself even more demonic energy. Heck, can skip the parry requirement with its powerful Dreadnaught form, making him invincible to nearly all attacks. But most importantly, Dante has used it to block the Savior’s light beam that was going to reduce him to ash… even though he can already survive heat strong enough to vaporize humans easily, so you can just imagine how much heat he can actually tank.

Also, it’s true that their reaction speeds are similar… but not so with travel speed. Dante has flown at least 28c to Millions C compared to Clive’s lightspeed statement at best. Dante has experience with fiery AOE users before (such as Berial and King Ceberus) and could just fly away to avoid danger if needed. Even if you want to really assume Clive’s AOE heat is moving at Quadrillions of times FTL (kind of an insane statement, but hey, it’s versus debating) because of universal energy systems, Dante can use demonic energy to amp up his travel speed as well, pulling him ahead once again.

An underrated aspect of the debate is the Flame Heart from Devil May Cry 2. This’ll let Dante absorb all fire damage and heal himself, including Ifrit’s fiery AOE, potentially. Though Dante has shown to resist Ifrit’s heat, Flame Heart’s best heat absorption is technically just magma, so your mileage may vary on this argument.

So Dante has plenty of ways to deal with Ifrit’s AOE heat, but there’s also a problem with Ifrit Risen. While Clive certainly gains great power and range from it, he loses access to a lot of his other powers (Odin, Shiva, Bahamut, etc.) while in this form. No space cutting, no freezing, no time manipulation, he’s mainly focused on his fire powers and hitting really hard as Ifrit. To be clear, he’s really powerful in that form, and has huge AOEs thanks to it, but whatever versatility Clive had is dramatically decreased in this mode.

To be fair, Dante’s Sin DT has the same issue… sorta (his regular Devil Trigger has no such versatility issue to be clear). Dante mainly uses just Devil Sword Dante. However, he can also fly, attack internals with Demolition, use a lot of homing projectiles, hit really hard with Judgement (with a slowdown effect too), and he can also enter and exit the form more freely in cutscenes and Quadruple S, showing his mastery of the form. Dante’s defence is more versatile with his forms and Clive loses out on so much in Ifrit mode in comparison.

Of course, one powerful argument for Clive is his willpower and ability to get stronger as the fight progresses. This is Clive’s best argument for winning. With Clive’s sheer force of will, he can get stronger during the fight and potentially flip the tables on his opponent, which is dangerous when stats are relative. He does this asserting how strong his will is and making his opponent’s will waver (represented by the stagger bar). This would absolutely be dangerous for Dante should the fight progress far enough. So despite all of Dante’s answers, Clive could score a win through brute force, right?

Not exactly. Firstly, just to address it, Dante would know when to get serious. He has supernatural senses and could recognize that Clive is a threat. All the times he played around (example, vs Nero) have context, and would be inconsistent with his serious fights against Mundus and Vergil. Dante would know to take the fight seriously. With his supernatural senses, it would help him avoid a lot of dangerous moves from Clive’s kit, and he would definitely figure out Clive was gaining more power as the fight progressed, doing whatever he can to end the fight as soon as possible. Heck, even if you accepted the pretty shaky 51x Ifrit multiplier, Dante would know Clive was a threat immediately and use his superior speed, regeneration and one-shot options to end the fight. If his life is on the line, Dante can get pretty ruthless in battle, like when he crippled Void Mundus’ version of Trish and executed her before she could escape or land a devastating blow.

Dante has exceptionally strong willpower of his own. The Sword of Sparda is stated to require a strong will to wield it, and even Vergil had the willpower to withstand mind control for years, even after being corrupted by Mundus. So Clive breaking Dante’s will is somewhat questionable to gain power. Dante also draws power from human emotions like love and righteousness too, and that’s what makes him stronger than Mundus to defeat him in DMC 1. So Dante has the tools to grow stronger and adapt in his own way too, or he can use the way demons grow stronger, such as feeding off human blood and through both the pain he inflicts and receives, meaning Dante isn’t a sitting duck in battle and can improve himself through two different methods very consistently.

Moreover, Dante has shown numerous times that when faced with such attempts to manipulate his emotions or cause his will to waver, he’s been able to resist without much trouble. Like during his first fight against the Beastheads, which was passively exerting control over nature and the laws of physics. It was flooding Dante and Beryl with negative energy and emotions, trying to crush their spirits, directly putting fear and despair into their minds to the degree that Beryl couldn’t even stand, but Dante was able to press on. Or during his battle against Void Mundus, where just being in his castle would drive a regular human insane with feelings of primal dread and despair, but Dante was able to resist demonstrably better than Beryl was.

Dante can end the fight before things get out of hand in several ways. We already addressed absolute zero and the Anti-Magic Rifle, both of which would debilitate and heavily limit Clive’s options for winning even further, but what about Dante’s own winning options? The main one is of course his good old signature Jackpot! Or, being able to seal enemies away. Specifically, he can BFR enemies like Mundus to the gap between the human and the demon world, and he has done so while weakened (though Trish recharged him), so it can be used to get past an AP gap. Clive does not resist and specifically has been BFR’d before. If Dante lands this, he wins the fight.

Clive absorbed Ultima’s power at the end of FF16 and could theoretically teleport out of the BFR with said power, but there’s a couple issues with this. Clive only had it for like a few minutes before giving it up, so saying he should get it is dubious. Even if he did get it though, it’s specifically stated Ultima’s power is too much for him as a vessel, so even if could do this, it’s potentially a death sentence, and it’s questionable if he’d last much longer before turning to stone. This might not even matter, considering that Dante’s sealing has acted as power nullification; the easiest example is when Mundus could previously teleport between the human and demon realms, but could not escape from the gap between the worlds. When Sparda sealed him, he even had to wait over 2000 years for his power to fully return.

Being blunt, he can also just hit Clive really hard with a one shot move like Faust’s Red Hot Night. It can one shot every boss in the game, heck even Vergil on the highest difficulty. Though it requires some charge up, Dante can always find the opportunity with his time slows, distracting with Doppelganger, and being a smart and experienced fighter in general. There’s also Sin Devil Trigger’s Demolition move, where he could target Clive’s insides and potentially one shot him, if not at least do severe damage. The first time Clive took an attack like that, it knocked him out cold. He does seemingly fair ‘better’ during his second time with Odin, but pay closer attention to the scene. Odin mocks Clive and doesn’t display surprise for Clive ‘surviving’ it. It’s more likely that he just controlled the potency of the move, ultimately showing that this resistance just likely isn’t one. Even then, it still hurts like hell.

There’s also the simple answer of wearing Clive down and defeating him normally. Straightforward, but legitimate. Clive lacks the regen Dante has and it’s unlikely he’ll just avoid all of Dante’s hits while he adapts. If you buy that Dante has healing negation (which definitely has a solid argument), Clive would struggle to heal from his wounds at all. Dante has more versatility with all sorts of tricks to throw out, better regeneration, and he’s more skilled. It’s entirely possible for Dante to just beat Clive normally before he adapts and gets stronger.

Overall, Clive certainly holds his own, but it’s far more likely that he will falter before he gets the time he needs to adapt to the extent that Dante can’t keep up. He’s basically relying on raw power exclusively here, whereas Dante just has all the trump cards he needs to end the fight sooner rather than later apart from just hitting hard. With sealing, anti-magic, and his more lethal moves, the Son of Sparda takes this field.

Tertiary Factors

This’ll be quicker. In terms of experience, neither of them have a super distinct advantage. Both of them have fought thousands-year-old godlike beings and came out on top, and both have been at this for similar periods of time. You could say Clive has more hands-on training while Dante has shown more so to adapt, but Dante has kept with well trained swordsmen too like Modeus and Baul, who were trained by the legendary Sparda himself. Dante’s older (40 years vs Clive’s 33 or so) and has been fighting for longer, so you could say he has the edge here, but it’s hardly overwhelming. For all intents and purposes, the safest bet is to say that they tie.

Skill however is when things favour one character, and it’s definitely Dante. To be clear, Clive is absolutely a skilled swordsman in his own right and adept at using magic, but he’s also never shown the precision and accuracy Dante has shown with, say, Ebony and Ivory shooting Yamato through the Savior’s core, or having to shoot each of Beryl’s bullets out of the air, dead-on, with little time to react. He’s also kept up and defeated Gilver, someone who can analyse, adapt and even copy Dante’s fighting skills.

Most impressively, Chen attained precognitive powers that gave him knowledge of all time and space, the ability of supreme knowledge of swordsmanship and Sparda’s fighting style himself… and despite that, Dante held his own and came out on top. Dante’s also a master of several different weapons from his swords, nunchucks, an electric guitar, gauntlets, buzzsaws, and several different guns, compared to Clive’s more limited sword skills. While Clive certainly is skilled in his own right, Dante takes the edge here.

Conclusion

“Lady: Oh, speaking of a kind devil, he finally decided on the name for his shop. It took him quite a while to pick one. Wanna know the name?
Lady & Dante: “Devil May Cry.”“

Advantages:

Likely a bit faster; definitely superior travel speed regardless
Far better regeneration and healing whether ‘normally’ or with items
More versatile, which only gets better once Clive goes Ifrit
Experienced with and has good defenses against Clive’s AOE
More flexible time based abilities
Supernatural senses would clue Dante into Clive’s power to finish him off quick
Several ways to finish Clive off before things get out of hand (Sealing, Absolute Zero, Anti-Magic Rifle, simply wearing Clive down with superior attrition, several one shot moves like Red Hot Night and Demolition attacking Clive’s insides)
Resists or counters all of Clive’s relevant hax
More skilled and experienced
THE most popular Capcom character according to YOU (based)

Disadvantages:

Could get outdone in power if Clive adapts in time, or if Ifrit’s 51x multiplier is accepted
Inferior range thanks to Ifrit’s AOE
American Idiot
That Mii costume in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (sigh…)

If you couldn’t tell by this really long post, this matchup was a puzzle to figure out and has so much going on. Clive will be giving Dante one of the biggest fights of his life, and to his credit, the advantages he does have are really scary. He can match in stats, counter several of Dante’s options, have the advantage at range with Ifrit’s AOE, and Clive being able to get stronger should the fight progress could spell disaster for Dante should he let it. Thankfully, Dante won’t, as he has several counters of his own and all the answers he needs to take the win.

Dante likely being faster, which only gets improved with Devil Trigger, and his superior regeneration lets him stay in the fight more than long enough to figure Clive out. His supernatural senses would clue him in on danger as soon as possible, especially given the accuracy with which he can analyse his target. Plus, his Quicksilver is way better than Clive’s own time manipulation options, only further increasing the speed gap between them. He has far better versatility, which only gets worse for Clive when he goes into Ifrit, losing access to his wider arsenal. Dante has numerous options to deal with Ifrit anyway and has plenty of strong tools like absolute zero and the Anti-Magic Rifle that would do serious harm to Clive. He also has a powerful battle ender with Jackpot, Red Hot Night and Demolition, and that’s all if you don’t think Dante couldn’t just defeat him normally with his superior skill, regeneration and versatility.

There’s likely several scenarios that Clive could come out on top here, as while Dante takes a lot of miscellaneous advantages, Clive’s key ones could be very problematic under the right circumstances. But Dante’s superior regeneration, versatility, consistent powerful options, resistances, greater skill, and relative stats (with potentially better speed) add up to a win more often than not in a very close fight.

Finally, the devil won’t be crying tonight, but as Dante awakens to his victory, Ei Kon’t believe Clive’s Fantasy will end here. The winner is Dante.

To Be Its Final Witness

Stats

As expected, these two are very powerful. While Clive shows clear superiority in direct feats like shattering entire mountain sized stone bodies and evaporating a tidal wave thousands of meters wide, it becomes surprisingly close when you consider their cosmic scaling. Dante is able to scale to Mundus creating a whole Universe, as well as Argosax being able to merge the Human and Demon Realms together, comfortably putting Dante at Low Multi. There’s also the Mirror World, a potential third universe in the equation. And he has gotten a lot stronger since this point, upscaling these numbers to an incredible degree. However, Clive doesn’t fall short. Omega could pull power from the Sagespire, a man-made Mothercrystal, and use that to perform an Universal feat, and Clive is able to beat him and shatter the Mothercrystal in base. Since then, Clive has only grown stronger over time too, being able to surpass that level many times.

He’s fought numerous Eikons that have absorbed the powers of stronger Mothercrystals, such as Titan and Bahamut, but most critically, he’s battled the Ultima Collective. Not only did Ultima create the Interdimensional Rift, a bulk space containing at least universes, collectively the 16 Ultimas had been collecting Aether from all 8 of their Mothercrystals for thousands of years. And more Aether means more power. As in, Ultima had more than 8 times the Aether than Omega did when it compressed a dimension, and Clive beat his teeth in. While Dante massively upscales his own 2-3 times universal, Ultima massively upscales this. Not only was Ultima actively drawing power from all 8 Mothercrystals for all of that time, far longer than Omega pulled from the Sagespire, the Sagespire is also notably far weaker than the true Mothercrystals.

And that’s not even the end of the story. Clive has a bit of an ace up his sleeve when it comes to power. Multiple times during the course of FFXVI, Clive has come up against a foe that he struggles to beat, but over the course of the battle starts demolishing them. Against Barnabas, he initially struggled against him even while primed as Ifrit. But, over the course of the battle, he locks in and overpowers Barnabas repeatedly, even coming to the point of defeating his Eikon Odin while in base. To reiterate, Clive goes from losing to Barnabas’ base as Ifrit, to overpowering Odin in his own base state. And this isn’t the only time. When Clive, Joshua and Dion make for Origin, all three of them Prime and face down Ultima Prime. Despite all three of them working together, even putting their all into Tri-Disaster, Ultima largely clowns on them, walking off their combined efforts. Then, after Ultima recombines with his fellow Ultimas, Clive manages to take him down in a one on one fight. Again, Ultima combined himself with 15 other Ultimas, one of which was previously beating Clive down when he had Dion and Joshua by his side, and Clive took Ultima down by himself. All of this is credited to his incredible will, his bonds of love and his status as Logos. He can and will simply become multiple times stronger due to the sheer force of will over the course of a single battle. And the same would likely happen here. Even arguing that Dante’s upscaling chain means he can match Clive’s higher base numbers, Clive will always end up far stronger than Dante by sheer force of will. Row! Row! Fight the Power!

But what about the multipliers? Devil Trigger is a 2x boost right? Well, yes, at least according to the DMC Bradygames guide. However, factoring in this 2x boost actually makes this far worse for Dante. According to the Ultimania, Ifrit multiplies Clive’s power output and HP by 51 times, far higher than Dante’s own multiplier. Quite frankly, saying the multiplier isn’t literal seems very weird to us. The major nitpick is that the description mentions that Clive also receives 51 times greater damage from enemies, which sure, isolated it could look a bit problematic, but there is context to this sentence. The context being that it is a game mechanic, because you only fight other summons when you’re playing as Ifrit, who are clearly stronger than the enemies Clive can face on base. Basically, the whole reason he gets 51x more damage is because said summons should have the same AP boost multiplier, which is on brand with Newton’s Third Law.

But even ignoring that, the debate over semantics to disqualify said multiplier comes out as weird to say the least, because while Ifrit receives 51x damage, he also deals 51x damage and gets 51x HP, which just means he can take 51x the damage now. It’s consistent that Eikons make you stronger and the gameplay gives you a number, this is quite honestly no different from taking move descriptions from guidebooks. Especially since the Ultimania is so specific with numbers as you have seen from the blog, giving detailed range numbers in meters for several attacks and the time for their cooldowns. There is no reason to dismiss it because there is basically no contradiction.

So overall, while Dante is incredibly strong, Clive will always end up with the edge in Power, whether that be through greater raw numbers, bigger multipliers, or his sheer willpower picking him up and making him go stronger.

Speed is pretty dang close, but Dante does have a bit of an edge. Mundus’ universe creation is about twice as fast as Omega’s compression, so it’s not the largest gap in the world, but it is worth noting. And while Clive can be argued to be around 490 Quad C via Ultima, but not only are opinions split on the feat itself, Dante would still be slightly faster, and would have a relevant speed edge regardless. Dante can fly 26 times faster than light, whereas Clive can only dash at Lightspeed. And frankly, with Multipliers in mind this actually gets worse for Clive. Ifrit does make him far stronger and tougher, but is not noted to increase his speed to nearly the same degree. While it likely does to some extent, Dante gets a much more explicit boost from Devil Trigger, something that would only get bigger when accounting for factors like the Quick Heart giving him a 1.2x boost to his combat and movement speed (according to the official DMC2 japanese guide, and it lines up with in-game depiction). This makes Dante have a 2.2x advantage over his base speed scaling, which is pretty good. Generally, Dante takes Speed, even if he’s not blitzing.

Arsenal & Abilities

To head things off at the pass: Dante easily takes Arsenal. His versatility is simply massive overall, with a variety of gear and options that Clive hasn’t encountered before, like Lucifer’s endless blades or… firearms in general. That’s not to say Clive isn’t impressively versatile himself, with the myriad of abilities he has access to via the Eikons he has absorbed, but Dante takes an easy edge in sheer quantity…

However, it’s not just quantity that’s important here, especially as both fighters are highly skilled and great at adapting. Most prominently, this category needs to reckon with who has the easier time actually killing the other. To start, let’s look at who has the better healing. and it should come as no surprise that Dante’s pulls ahead. Dante can recover from wounds that would kill any mortal man even without accessing Devil Trigger, unlike Clive whose regeneration is almost solely tied to Ifrit. Even beyond that, when compared to his nephew, Dante can recover from being completely turned into mist, far better than Ifrit being able to recover from being impaled and having limbs lopped off. To add onto this, Dante has a far larger set of healing and revival items. In addition to the Gold Orbs, which can fully revive him on the spot, he also has Yellow Orbs that turn back time before death, and Flame Hearts, which reduces his fire damage and outright heals him from it. This makes Dante much harder to kill overall compared to Clive, who only has a single Last Elixir capable of bringing him back from defeat and the Revivement Bit, capable of bringing him back if his Limit Break Gauge is full.

However, that’s not to say he’s invincible, his regeneration and items have limits. The Gold Orbs, for example, can only be carried up to 3 in the most recent game. As for Flame Heart, the highest temperature it heals from is magma, which is way below the heat Ifrit produces and is not noted to heal on the same level of damage that Clive can dish out. And should he become too exhausted or overextend himself, even his healing factor can fail him, leaving him vulnerable. Dante’s healing via his own regeneration and items is pretty good, but it’s merely delaying the inevitable against an opponent that’s not going to stop getting stronger and is not that far behind in options. Still, Dante’s regeneration gives him a lot of time to fight back against Clive. But as it stands, he’s most likely going to end up too weak to deal damage via conventional means, either via Ifrit multipliers or simply by Clive amping himself over time, meaning he’d be far more reliant on his hax than he normally would be.

So what options does Dante have that could kill Clive? Not a ton actually. To start, his latest signature sword, the Devil Sword Dante (DSD) should have the same spatial cutting powers as the Devil Sword Sparda. Fortunately for Clive, he has resisted spatial cuts from Odin, making this fairly null. What if Dante tries to use DSD to “separate man from demon”, aka, Clive from Ifrit? It’s likely not going to work. Remember, Ultima tried taking over Clive, needing to empty his will in order to take him as a vessel, and it still failed, as Clive was able to summon the will to resist the process, regaining his sense of self before it was erased.

Let’s move to elemental weapons. Talking about the oddly same named weapon, Dante’s Ifrit gauntlets are super hot, but Clive is literally the warden of fire, battling both the Phoenix and Ultima, whose flames should be comparable to his own. What about King Cerberus’ absolute zero? Well, while the weapon is undoubtedly AZ itself, this doesn’t mean it can immediately drop Clive to AZ with a single strike. It could cool the Qlipoth, but there’s no timeframe for this feat, nor does it specify if it was even cooled to AZ at all (reminds us of another CAPCOM character). More importantly, in the King Cerberus boss fight, one of his moves is instantly cooling the arena with his AZ with a massive cold wave, but these temperatures can be countered by the extreme heat from his own flame attacks, so it’s questionable that it would be able to freeze Clive at all given it’s much more likely that Ifrit can keep shrugging off the elemental nunchuck with its own flames. Especially when the weapon’s method of freezing enemies is way less effective than the demon’s frosty attack, relying on short waves of icicles or constant contact, not to mention that you can’t prove Dante can freeze a target as large as Ifrit. But assuming it works, Clive can still defend against this with Titanic Block or Brimstone, so it wouldn’t be a permanent solution for Sparda’s son over here.

What about Demolition? You could make an interesting case for it being a wincon, but it’s unlikely it’d kill Clive either. Not only it doesn’t one-shot bosses in gameplay, dealing a set amount of damage to them, but Clive has also survived internal attacks before, and could almost certainly recover with Ifrit’s power and regeneration. Given it’s not an instant kill, it would likely do less and less damage to Clive over time thanks to his adaptation.

There is another weapon that is actually surprisingly important for something that has only appeared in a single DMC novel and never again: Beryl’s Rifle. This thing can destroy magic, and even Dante himself was worried it could weaken him should he get hit by it. And Clive doesn’t have a ton of options around this weapon, outside of attempting to break it or block it with Titanic Block. However, this likely wouldn’t be as devastating as this sounds. Primarily, this would only really affect Ifrit; Clive’s other magics all rely on external Aether, rather than his own internal magic. While this wouldn’t be good for Clive, don’t forget that his ridiculous power boosts also apply to his base form, so getting knocked down like this isn’t a big issue, and he’s even re-primed after being forced out of Ifrit within a single battle before.

This brings us to Dante’s single best option in this battle: Jackpot. Dante’s sealing is quite strong, more than living up to his father’s lineage. He’s sent Demons out of the human world with ease, and managed to seal Mundus in the space between worlds. So what does Clive have to counter that? Well, surprisingly little, but he isn’t completely out in the dark. Notably, similar to his healing, Dante’s sealing clearly requires a ton of energy. When he sealed Mundus, he needed a boost from Trish’s demonic energy in order to actually pull it off, otherwise his plan was basically to fight Mundus the best he could. So if Clive can reliably keep Dante’s energy down, he could prevent him from sealing him all together, especially given how much stronger Clive would be getting as the fight goes on. Additionally, Ultima was able to simply power through a seal placed on him by Joshua. Put together, it’s possible that Clive would essentially be able to directly overpower Dante’s ability to seal him away, preventing himself from being sent into the space between worlds in the first place, as he inherited a portion of Ultima’s powers too in the DLC.

It’s worth noting that Dante doesn’t really rely on sealing that much even on hard battles. For example, why didn’t he seal Urizen? If it’s because he had portal powers, so did Mundus. Even if you argue he knew it was Vergil all along, it’s still too much conjecture. Dante specifically used that ability against Mundus (who was previously sealed by his father with a ritual), and only after Mundus already started opening the gate to the Demon World. Dante maybe opens a portal that sucks him in, so your mileage may vary on this specifically. Regardless, we don’t really believe he would try something like this in canon all the time. At the very least, it’s extremely out of character even for the current bloodlusted Dante. The only instance when it happened was against an extremely weakened Mundus, and we never see him pull it off in the middle of combat once in the entire series. Not only that, but Dante’s sealing with his sword relied on a portal to the demon world already being opened as well, and assuming he could or would use it in character against Clive is a pretty flimsy possibility. Argosax’s instance of sealing sounds good on paper, but context matters. Both were already in the demon world, and Dante had to completely destroy his body. The scene also differs greatly from the time Dante sealed Mundus with no glyphs involved at all. So again, it’s hard to justify Dante pulling it off against Clive even if it’s valid, which doesn’t really hold up when you consider the context behind how and when he’s used it.

Additionally, Dante does have access to Quicksilver, an ability that he ~~also doesn’t use anymore~~ can slow time for 10-15 seconds. Surely this lets him overwhelm Clive, or deal damage he can’t recover from? While it’s true Clive doesn’t resist time manipulation, and in fact has fallen victim to it in the past, this likely wouldn’t be a game ender either. It could let Dante get hits in… if Clive didn’t have his Ring of Timely Focus, something that passively slows down time when he’s in danger, pushing Dante back into reactable range. It also wouldn’t help Dante land attacks like Red Hot Night, as the charge time on that move is itself most of Quicksilver’s duration, likely meaning Clive would be able to act before the attack actually arrived. And again, with Clive getting stronger than Dante, it’d be really damn hard for Dante to deal any real damage even with time being stopped like this. Bear in mind, Clive has been capable of dealing with people outright capable of stopping time before, not merely slowing it, so it’s not like it’s spelling the end for Ifrit’s Dominant so easily.

So with all of that in mind, can Clive kill Dante? Well, yes. But it’s not going to be easy. While Clive has his own arsenal of hax, most are pretty ineffectual. Dante has also survived space cutting, has survived both extreme cold and extreme heat, etc. But what Clive lacks in hax win-cons, he more than makes up for in sheer power. Remember, again, that Clive will simply be getting stronger as the fight progresses, and will quickly overtake Dante in AP. This gives him exactly what he needs to wear down Dante’s stamina quickly and efficiently. He has a ton of abilities that have the range and AoE to annihilate Dante, something that he can only come back from for so long. And while Dante’s stamina and defenses are extremely sound, and techniques like Quadruple S would help Dante to use forms like SDT without depleting much of his gauge, Clive has solid workarounds.

Particularly, while Royalguard would normally let Dante defend against attacks like these, the fact that many of Clive’s strongest attacks freeze or slow time around him, would mean Clive could take any moment that Dante isn’t actively blocking, and fire off a Judgement Bolt, or Flames of Rebirth, or Gigaflare, or Spitfire. Not only that, Royalguard is susceptible to grabs, and Ifrit not only uses grabs in boss fights, like when he battled Garuda, Clive has an ability that is perfect for grabs, which is Deadly Embrace, meaning Dante doesn’t have a perfect counter to the AOE disparity. And of course, even his attacks that aren’t completely destroying Dante immediately would still hurt a ton given the eventual AP steamroll, potentially being able to overcome Royalguard or even Dreadnaught by simply busting through it, as crazy as that would be.

But wait, you might ask. Wasn’t Dante noted to have direct regeneration nullification? Couldn’t that inhibit Ifrit’s regeneration? Well, only potentially, and those of us on team Clive largely don’t think it’s that sound. To start, while there are some notable instances of what could be regeneration negation, Dante has also fought a lot of people who have regenerated from his blows just fine. Vergil has famously survived being cleaved in twain by Dante for instance. In the case of Dante getting his arms broken by Chen in the DMC2 Novel, while he had recently gotten a power boost from the Beastheads, he also says himself that he’s making mistakes because he’s tired, and notes that the energy he got from it was completely gone by the end of the fight, so his healing factor was likely just overtaxed here.

The other feats have their own problems. Berial hadn’t made a complete recovery from his bout with Nero, but he was still making one, killing any idea of permanent damage. Dante breaking the heads of Cerberus is noteworthy, but Cerberus was putting Dante to the test, and immediately gave his soul over after the fight, making the idea that Dante dealt permanent damage pretty vague. Dante splitting Chen’s head is notable, but not only does this not actually kill the guy, the Beastheads transform his head into a new shape immediately after. And not long before this, Chen recovers from Dante breaking his leg. This largely leaves Beowulf, who lost one eye to Sparda, and another to Dante. But this also leaves only Beowulf, meaning it’s likely a skill issue on his part, as it’s entirely possible his healing factor is simply weak or inexistent. All this to say, Dante’s potential showings of negating regeneration are too inconsistent and / or flawed in the long run.

There’s still two final topics to discuss before finishing this section off. The first point is about Clive succumbing to the Curse. We don’t believe it’s likely to happen here. In canon, this only came about after his entire journey. Multiple decades of training, warfare, fighting dominants, eikons and Ultima before he succumbed, and that was not only after he absorbed Ultima’s full power, but attempted to use Raise, a spell that requires a frankly absurd amount of Aether to use. It’s simply not that likely that Clive would die before he managed to bring Dante down.

The second point is that, and this is very important, most of Dante’s important abilities rely on his weapons. Be it sealing with Ebony and Ivory or Magic Draining with Beryl’s Rifle, he requires a weapon. Unluckily for him, Dante’s weapons are consistently shown to be breakable if sufficiently damaged. The original Cerberus from DMC3 broke while clashing with Balrog’s fist, alongside the fragment of Yamato. Even Rebellion, Dante’s ol’ reliable sword, shattered in pieces with a single punch from Urizen at the start of DMC 5. Conversely, Clive, when presented with the opportunity, snapped Odin’s Zantetsuken with his bare hands while primed as Ifrit. You see where we’re going with this, right? While Dante has powerful weapons at his disposal, nothing really stops Clive for taking them away with his brute strength, which is in character for him to do. While Dante’s regeneration can bring him back from mist, nothing implies that would apply to the weapons he has on hand at the time, meaning that all it would take is obliterating him once for Clive to wipe out all of his toys.

In short, Dante simply lacks a way to reliably take Clive out for good. In comparison, while Clive would need to fight for a damn long time to keep Dante down, especially with revive items and regeneration, it would only get easier for him as time went on to overpower the devil hunter, as he’s just stalling the inevitable. Dante might have good abilities, but Clive’s resistances and possibility of taking away Dante’s arsenal in addition to the unlikeliness of Dante pulling his wincons off make Clive the winner in this category. Clive easily takes Abilities.

Tertiary Factors

A relatively important factor that’s not often discussed in these matches is Area of Effect, or Range. This one is a no brainer. Dante has basically no significant feats of range, while Ifrit’s flame blasts can vaporize areas of almost 3 kilometers in diameter and blow up entire mountain sized giants almost 4 kilometers wide. The beam of energy Clive fires at the end of the game also destroys a 60 kilometers tall Crystal, and opens a hole in the clouds at least 175 kilometers wide. Conversely, while Dante’s Quicksilver can slow down time around the area (usually the same room), Clive’s temporal abilities can slow down or stop time as a whole. It’s a no-brainer that Clive has better range, especially as Ifrit.

In terms of skill, Clive has far more actual combat training given he was preparing to be a Shield of Rosaria. However, while he has less formal training, Dante has shown an absurd level of skill. He has quickly mastered every weapon he’s come to use, has a large swath of sword skills and has fought various master swordsmen. That’s not to say Clive is tremendously behind however, as he himself also quickly masters all of the Eikonic abilities he gains in much the same way that Dante does, as well as being a master swordsman himself, taking on the likes of Barnabas. However, Dante likely does take this edge because of his battle with Chen. As noted earlier, Chen gained the power of the Beastheads, giving him precognitive abilities that allowed him to not only mimic Sparda’s swordsmanship, but also literally see Dante’s moves coming. Despite that, Dante not only keeps up, but is able to predict their own moves in return via sheer skill. Clive is a master of the blade, but he doesn’t have that kind of skill feat on his side. Dante takes Skill.

Experience is a bit of a different story. You’d expect Dante to have way more given his much wider media pool, but Clive has a surprising amount under his belt. Both have been fighting monsters for a long time, and quite wide pools of monsters. Both have fought master swordsmen, hand to hand fighters, and both have fought millennia old deities like Mundus and Ultima. Dante has fought large fire demons like Ifrit before, but Clive is much more complex than Berial even as Ifrit, and Dante has never encountered someone with his level of adaptability. Clive has fought enemies with wide arsenals, but none quite as wide as Dante’s, despite Barnabas’ multitude of weapons or Ultima’s myriad of magics. Both fought ice users, time manipulators, blades that cleave space and wannabe gods. While Dante is a bit older, relevant experience here is basically the same. Generally, Experience is a Tie.

Moving to Endurance, this is more nuanced than it appears initially, and also pretty important. While it’s true Dante fought Urizen for a lot of time at the start of DMC 5 (about a day), the Demon King was merely toying with him, and a single attack put Dante out of commission once he got serious. Similarly, while Dante and Vergil fought demons for weeks in the Demon World, said demons are absolute fodder compared to the Sons of Sparda at that point, and both took breaks between their sparring sessions (in which they obviously aren’t trying to kill each other). Considering this, it’s hard to gauge how much time Dante can last fighting a serious opponent that’s trying to kill him and will not give him time to rest. The longest fight like that we could find for him was his last duel of Urizen, which lasted about an hour. Not bad, but in Clive’s last outing with Ultima, we have a greater feat. At the beginning of the last part of the game in the raid against Ultima, it is daytime. By the end, it is already night time. While no precise timeframe is given, it is reasonable to assume at least a few hours passed. This is important because Clive did basically nothing but fight the entire time, and every time he was getting overpowered, at the very end he adapted and got even stronger, meaning it will be very hard for Dante to get him tired or vulnerable. His superior stamina paired with his insane adaptability means Clive takes Endurance by a lot.

Conclusion

“Ultima: The world you imagine is but a fantasy!”

Clive: “The only Fantasy here is yours. And we shall be its Final witness.”

Advantages:

Would be stronger than Dante no matter what standards, and will keep growing stronger thanks to his willpower
Has an easier time putting Dante down, ironically enough
Resists almost all of Dante’s instant win-cons…
Time stop moves let him land big hits regardless of the speed gap, something he can do in both base and Ifrit
AoE is ridiculously big, especially as Ifrit
Better endurance and adaptability allows him to win the war of attrition
Can destroy Dante’s weapons
Ben Starr
Ryota Suzuki knows his shit

Disadvantages:

Generally slower, even with debatable ends
Much less versatile arsenal
…though he could potentially be sealed with Jackpot, even if very unlikely
Doesn’t know what cosplay is
Victim of the Death Battle Community’s shallow reference pool

Overall, this fight is quite close, but Clive’s advantages are just more meaningful. He has an edge in raw power, and will only get stronger as the match goes on, making it basically impossible for most of Dante’s arsenal to actually hurt him, forcing him to rely on his hax… which Clive can resist, block or overpower. Combined with his own moves and abilities that lets him work around Dante’s higher travel speed and Royal Guard, Clive can and will wear through Dante’s regeneration. Clive’s wincons are simply way more straightforward and reliable, while Dante needs to pull off a very specific combination of abilities he has never used before without getting overwhelmed. His chances to do so also will constantly decrease, as Clive will keep growing stronger and potentially breaking his weapons, leaving him with virtually nothing to defend himself with.

In the end, this battle turned into a deadly misfortune for the demon hunter, for it was the Dominant who had risen, and the flames of Ifrit burned so fiercely, they became the very warden of Dante’s Inferno. The winner is Clive Rosfield.

Final Tally

Seriously, read both Verdicts first. If you skipped to the end to see who won, we highly advise going back through the blog to check stuff out. Both sides agree it’s super close and respect each other a lot. Thank you for reading if you legitimately did, and thank you to the great cast of volunteers who joined for this project.

Dante (7) – TWILTY, Kira, Brobuscus, Dek, Soma, Igneous, Riley

Clive Rosfield (VIII) – Kaiser, Flip, Cammy, Hilda, Luz, T0m, Pas, bladeworkmaster

(Gif by Pas)

Before We Go…

As you may or may not be aware, we at the G1DBFB have been working for some time now to repost all of our past blogs. However, we have avoided reposting our Dante VS Bayonetta rematch blog, as it regrettably incorporated numerous scans from the Devil May Cry mobile game that later turned out to have been fabricated. It is important to us that we avoid perpetuating misinformation, thus we have elected to keep that blog down.

However, given Dante’s return to the show, we have decided to use this opportunity to revise it from the ground up, fully removing any fabricated information and updating the arguments accordingly. We will be posting the remastered version soon, so look out for that!

6 responses to “Death Battle Predictions: Dante VS Clive”

The Dud

November 8, 2025

Glad it wasn’t a tie here

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1. Hames
  
  November 8, 2025
  
  it also wasn’t a clear cut unanimous vote either . Clive got it by one point . So it coils go either way. Also keep in mind bayonetta didn’t end in a tie with the original blog post and Dante won that one
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  
werewolfspookyc505040095

November 8, 2025

What no mention of the Netflix anime under Dante’s weaknesses?

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1. James
  
  November 8, 2025
  
  it wasn’t canon. That’s a non canon series
  
  LikeLike
  
2. unadulteratedpleasantly9a00d80f6b
  
  November 8, 2025
  
  They mentioned “American Idiot” in the disadvantages section, which is a reference to the Netflix show
  
  LikeLike
  
Dante vs Clive – Review & Response – TWILTY Thoughts – TWILTY's Thoughts

November 13, 2025

[…] know why I added the Y at the end there) and I actually wrote the majority of Dante’s verdict in Dante vs Clive’s g1 blog (much thanks to Soma and Blue Igneous for helping out and proofreading as well). Thank you if you […]

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Gear	Name	Description
	Ring of Timely Assistance	When equipped, pet commands are executed automatically and Torgal’s actions will adapt to Clive’s. The Ring of Timely Assistance’s effects are included in the Ring of Timely Strikes.
	Ring of Timely Evasion	Makes Clive automatically dodge attacks, as long as they can be dodged. It is also said to grant the user “Lightning quick reflexes”, among other things.
	Ring of Timely Focus	Slows down time when Clive is about to be struck by an avoidable enemy attack. Like, actually, the description says it can “effectively slow time”.
	Ring of Timely Healing	Causes Clive to automatically use healing items when his HP is low. The enchantment on the ring was originally made by a battlemage who forgot to use his potions in battle, and was so effective that it caused him to heal so subconsciously he didn’t even remember doing so afterwards.
	Ring of Timely Strikes	Makes Clive automatically pull off complex combos with a single button. Mostly a meta item to make the game easier, but it is said that it can turn any swordsman’s “awkward jerks and jabs into a veritable dance of precisely executed flourishes”.
	The Breath of (Element)	Clive has a range of accessories that reduce the Cooldown of his Eikonic abilities.
	The Favour of (Element)	Clive has a tooooooon of accessories in this vein, all enhancing a specific Eikonic ability. Each one is supposedly an Aether crystal of their respective element.
	The Will of (Element)	Finally, these accessories increase the Will damage of specific Eikonic abilities, making them Stagger foes more quickly.
	The Pull of Darkness	Similar to the above, but exclusive to Dark abilities, as it increases the rate they build the Zanketsuken gauge.
	Adamantite Gauntlets	Increase Clive’s max HP
	Cavall’s Fang	Whether this is literally a fang from the in-world equivalent of King Arthur or not, this Fang increases Torgal’s attack potency when equipped.
	Kestrel’s Beak Braid	Named for a predator-bird species of Northern Storm, this increases the Power of Clive’s own diving Downthrust attack.
	Griffin’s Head Braid	Increases Clive’s Burning Blade damage.
	Bull’s Horn Brain	Increases Clive’s Lunge damage, like that of a charging bull.
	Talisman of Priming	Increases the duration for Lionheart tonics.
	Stoneskin Cuffs	Increase the duration for Stoneskin tonics.
	The Eye of the Warrior	Increases the duration of Strength Tonics.
	Ring of the Swiftshot	This lowers the charge time for Clive’s charged magic blasts.
	Ring of the Marksman	This increases the Will damage of all of Clive’s spells.
	Ring of the Demolitionist	This increases the damage of Magic Burst.
	Cleric’s Medallion	A medallion made with light crustal dust, a potent catalyst for healing magics. This increases the potency of Clive’s potions.
	High Cleric’s Medallion	A light crystal medallion used by local churches for healing “prayers”, this increases the potency of Clive’s High Potions.
	Dire Wolf Jess	This increases the damage of Clive’s combos, similar to how dire wolves deliver a flurry of attacks to injure prey.
	Blood Hawk Jess	Increases the damage of Clive’s Aerial combos, not unlike the blood hawks of the air.
	The Wages of Warcraft	A series of writings from Rasset the Younger, someone said to have trained over ten thousand soldiers. Clive earns ability points more quickly while he has this equipped.
	Channeler’s Whispers	These earrings are designed to store aether drawn from the environment around them, allowing the user to draw on that pool of magic rather than needing to hold their own charge. For Clive, this means automatically charging his spells when he’s not using them.
	Cobalt Tassels	The colour of the blade that feeds your pain, this makes Clive’s Limit gauge fill faster when he gets hit.
	Crimson Tassels	The colour of the blood that fuels your rage, these make Clive’s limit gauge fill faster when he hits foes.
	Scholar’s Spectacles	These nerd glasses increase Clive’s EXP gain.
	Cait Sith Charm	This kitty cat charm increases Clive’s Gil gain.
	The Golden Testament	A scroll containing the writings of a mute prophet, full of prophecy about Gilbard the Lender. When equipped, Clive earns more money.
	On Fortune and the Heavens	A treatise (AKA a formal piece of writing) about astrology, constellations, and how that can fortify your spirit. Clearly there’s something worthwhile in here because it makes Clive earn EXP faster when equipped.
	Badge of Mettle	Typically awarded to city guards for their stewardship, when Clive uses one it increases his defence stat.
	Badge of Might	Typically awarded to soldiers for acts of courage, this increases Clive’s attack stat when worn.
	Berserker Ring	Special rings imbued with Aether that berserkers would wear to induce madness in non-bearers, this increases Clive’s attack potency after he executes a precision dodge.
	Shiva’s Kiss	Shiva’s frosted lips bring Oblivion according to Northern legend, but this simple accessory reduces the cooldown of Diamond Dust by 7.5 seconds.
	Bahamut’s Mercy	A special ring made under the orders of the first ever Sanbreque emperor, this ring has been passed down the bloodline for generations until it eventually ended up in Clive’s hands. During that time, it has actually absorbed Aether from them, making it easier for future Dominants to wield Bahamut’s power. It reduces the cooldown of Gigaflare by 6 seconds.
	The Serpent’s Worth	A magical ring designed by the Motes of Water and imbued with Aetheric energy, this reduces the cooldown of Tsunami by 8 seconds.
	Genji Glove	The glove of a fallen soldier, this increases Clive’s damage by a flat 5%.
	Revivement Bit	This special bit of Fallen tech increases the potency of Clive’s Limit Break form, notably increasing the rate it restores his HP. Additionally, should he take otherwise-fatal damage while he has a full Limit Gauge, he will immediately semi-prime and prevent his defeat.
	Assailment Bit	Another piece of Fallen tech, this increases the rate at which Staggered enemies will take more damage from Clive’s attacks, as well as increasing the maximum multiple to 200%, meaning he’ll do triple damage to Staggered foes rather than double.
	Disengagement Bit	Once again, a piece of Fallen tech. This one indicates when an enemy’s attack can be perfect-parried by changing the colour of their name on the game’s UI. On top of that, it also makes the reward for parries greater by 20%.
	Bombardment Bit	Fallen Tech that increases the damage of Clive’s aerial attacks, as well as letting him bounce off enemy heads 6 times instead.
	Nourishment Bit	Fallen tech that increases his HP regain potential when taking damage, and automatically restores his HP regain gauge.
	Escapement Bit	Last of this set of DLC Fallen Tech, this one reduces the cooldown of Clive’s abilities and restores a bit of his HP regain gauge when he dodges precisely. And, the more powerful the dodged attack was, the more potent the effect is.