How the Sex Pistols, Fight Club and James Dean made the new Dante
The new Dante – Ninja Theory’s Dante – is an arsehole.But then why shouldn’t he be? He’s had a tough life. The memory of his dead mother, fused into a pendant he wears around his neck, weighs on him like a ball and chain. His father, disappeared, is a mystery. As a teenager he was stabbed in the heart during a fight, a moment that made Dante realise – while jabbing his thumb into the open wound – that he cannot die, that he is not human, that he is something else. Maybe he’s a monster. He is often dragged into the demon city Limbo. He is truly alone, troubled, confused, angry, selfish – caring for nothing but himself.This is the new Dante’s story, created by a UK developer in Cambridge for a Japanese publisher in Osaka. We’ve never cared before. Capcom Japan’s Dante, with trademark blood road trenchcoat and striking white hair, is an anime rockstar with few complications. He is super cool, stylish, sword and guns firing bullet hell at nightmarish demons. But we never cared why. We grabbed the pad to slice demons into little pieces, each cut cooler than the last, agog at the smoothness and responsiveness of the carnage.Read more…
