REVIEW: Play Arts KAI Devil May Cry 3 Dante and Vergil

Ah, winter is on the verge of making us all miserable. But with winter comes Christmas, and with Christmas comes toys. Not that these two are necessarily on any kids' Christmas lists this year, but I digress.

My first Play Arts purchase was a character I know and love from the Devil May Cry video game series, Dante. I was impressed with the scale and articulation on him even a couple years back, and if not for that "impulse" buy, I wouldn't have jumped on some of their future offerings this past year (like Batman) or sought out older ones from Square Enix (Nero, also from DMC4, and the ever-elusive and expensive-on-the-aftermarket Bayonetta and Ichigo). Overall, Dante and Nero are pretty impressive figures. How do Dante's younger self and his infinitely cooler, evil brother stack up now that Square Enix have had time to improve?

Pretty fucking well, actually.

I'll start with Vergil, my obvious favorite. When I first laid hands on DMC4 Dante, I wanted a Vergil. DMC3 is easily my favorite of the series (thus far, I should say; I have yet to play through DMC4 and I am a horrible person for not doing so), and Dante's twin with a mean streak and a giant katana deserves to be immortalized in plastic. It only took 'em seven years, but here he is, the bastard.

Every little detail from the game is present on his coat, painted nicely in most areas, though the paint is extremely light in some spots. I'm not sure if it's a sloppy paint job or a shitty white paint; if I had to guess I would say a little of both. It doesn't stand out much, really, unless you really get nosey. I'd say it's a pretty damn good paint job, and the airbrushing really brings out some of the sculpted textures even more. People have already complained about the overspray on the face, and I like it. It's not as extreme as the Joker's or even Kratos, but just enough of a dark color around the chin, jaw and cheekbones to bring out the features, and a very nice darkening around his eyes that gives him an appropriately sinister look.

I do have a problem with his face sculpt, though-- on mine it seems that something went wrong in assembly, and one side of his face is broader than the other. I tried to take a "before and after" shot of heating the head and trying to get the plastic to take on its original shape, and I'm not sure how well it worked. I think his head is more symmetrical now, but it could just be me.

Before Heating & Re-shaping

The flaps of his coat, like Batman's cape, are on clicky ball hinges and give him a great range of posing options, especially if you're going for the "coat flapping in the wind" look that just... well, it looks fucking cool. There are three sections to his coat, and the side segments are sturdy, but softer plastic was used on the center part, so it droops. Why not use the same type of plastic for all three? With some futzing around you can prop the center part up with one or both of the sides, though.

Vergil includes two sets of hands, one set open for gesturing, and the other for holding his weapons. Both weapon hands, for some reason, have the index finger in the "trigger finger" position...

JACKPOT!

Oh, right, he used one of Dante's guns at the climax of the game. And man, was that picture a pain in the dick to get! Anyways... It was a cool moment, though it's a little head-scratching that they would make both hands able to hold Dante's guns for something that literally had two seconds of screen time in the game. His grip, as you can see, does not really suffer for having the trigger fingers out, which is great.

Vergil's weapons are both swords inherited from his father, Sparda. The first, and my favorite, is his giant katana, Yamato. Why he named it after a WWII-era battleship or any number of things that are just generic for "Japanese" when Sparda supposedly sealed the Demon Realm eons ago is irrelevant. What is relevant, is that they did a good job representing it in plastic and in scale with Vergil (historical katana are not almost as tall as their wielders). I have two nits, one minor and one not so minor: the first is the lack of a hamon, or a curving, uneven line toward the edge of the blade. This is mainly because I'm a sword dork, and Japanese swords are fucking artwork, that I know or care about this. But-- given that most simulated hamon look like shit, I'm glad they went without.

The second gripe is much larger. Either the packaging or the assembly process is responsible for this, and I think it's inexcusable, given how much these cost. Yamato's handle is bent, and not flush with the rest of the blade. This isn't instantly noticeable if you have him holding the sword, but it irks me and I'm getting more wary of their Quality Control, especially with prices continuing to go up and more of these figures on pre-order. I should mention the packaging, as well: they've forsaken the typical deep, tall window box and replaced it with a wide, flat box that has a velcro flap you have to open to see the figure and its accessories. While this looks nice, it's hardly an excuse for a price increase (most other Play Arts still run you $60-$65, these are going for $70), and while I love not fucking around with twist-ties like any other dork, the black plastic trays holding the figures in place are unforgiving and can lead to warped accessories if you're not careful removing them.

The other weapon is the key to the Demon Realm, the Force Edge, which is a fucking stupid name for a sword unless you're Japanese. It's thick and sturdy, and looks spot-on to the model in the game. I only just posed him with it when I started taking pictures for the review, and I do believe Verg will be a double-wielding badass on the shelf for a few days, at least.

Vergil is an absolute blast to pose and play with, and small touches like the soft plastic used for Yamato's ribbons and the fact that his skin tone is unsettlingly pale compared to Dante's really make him pop even more. If I had to only recommend one of these, it would be Vergil, hands-down. Not that his more famous brother is without his merits...

Dante has his shirtless look, and while this isn't my favorite design for him (my fav being his DMC4 look), it's executed very well here. His face sculpt is devoid of his trademark smirk, which is another thing that has bothered some but not me. In the context of the game, Dante is just starting his Demon-Hunting career, and while much of the game displays his cocky attitude, a more neutral or grim expression is appropriate, especially to have him face off against his brother on the shelf. His hair is in his eyes, which is again game accurate, and is a very stark white to contrast Vergil's, along with his healthier-looking skin tone. The grey wash or overspray is again present on his eyes, which I think they could have done without, but it doesn't look terrible.

Dante's signature red coat is on display here, and has a very glossy, shiny look to it, looking more like pleather than leather, but it also has a lot of nice details in the buttons, clasps and zippers, including a studded strap on his left shoulder. A HUGE plus of this Dante compared to his DMC4 predecessor are the holsters on his back for Ebony and Ivory, his two big semi-auto pistols. Now, I would argue that the placement of these holsters is hardly practical, but it's certainly on-model to the game and the guns fit snugly. And while it's nice to have holsters, the jacket segments stick out a bit from his ass, almost making it look like some weird man-bustle, and the two clicky ball joints on his torso under the coat just seem to make the holsters stick out more. Hrmph. Both Ebony and Ivory are detailed sculpts with detailed paint, and fit nicely in his hands, albeit a tad loose in some poses.

Another point he gains of the DMC4 version is the lack of pegs in his palms for his accessories. The pegs were nice several years back, as the hands weren't necessarily sculpted into a firm grip, but you had to fight with them sometimes, so pegless seems like a good call.

Dante only has one extra hand besides his trigger-fingered grasping pair, an open gesturing hand, which I assume is supposed to be used with Nevan, which I'll get to momentarily.



Dante comes with his signature sword, Rebellion, which is a huge broadsword that defies logic (as does much of the goings-on in the game). It has an intricate skull and ribs motif around the hilt, and a small hole about halfway up the hilt to house the peg that allows you to fit the blade on his back (like Kratos, Dante's weaponry magically adheres to his back when not in use). With DMC4 Dante, there were two pegs for his back: one that looked like a button on his coat, and another that acted as the post to hold the sword. His newer counterpart is not so fortunate: there is only a small, black peg (the perfect size and color for losing in my ugly black-and-orangey-red carpet) that doesn't fit very well into the hole in his back and falls off, A LOT, when posing him.The sword fits pretty well in either trigger-fingered hand, although the joints on his wrists like to droop under the blade's weight.

Also included is Nevan-- one of the bosses in the game is a topless vampire chick, who, when defeated, becomes a purple-demon-y-looking, lightning- and bat-powered guitar, which is either the dumbest thing about the game or the most awesome, depending on how you look at it. Nevan is well-sculpted, and has an "action feature," of a sort: pieces swing out and unfold into a sort of Grim Reaper-esque scythe. It's cool, I suppose, but I don't get all the love this weapon has seen. The Revoltech DMC3 Dante also included Nevan, and I would have preferred, in both instances, that they included other weapons from the game, namely Agni and Rudra.



Poseability, is, again, what you would expect from Play Arts. The only fault I can find with their continually-improving articulation schemes is that these new ratcheting hips are a little funky to deal with at first, moreso on Dante. He just feels spindly and liable to fall at the slightest touch. With the older ball joints, there was a really good, unrestricted range of motion, but nothing to stop them from sagging or splaying out over time if you happened to get a loose joint. With these, it seems they're trying to ensure that loose joints don't happen, but they can be a little frustrating until you get used to them. Also new to these two are mid-foot swivels, which are incredibly handy for when you want their feet to lie flat but can't get the heel to do so.

So, in summation:

The Good: These are fantastic toys. I honestly haven't stopped playng with them since they arrived. The scale is nice and shows off the detail, the poseability is off the charts, and the weapons, paint and accessories are well-done, despite some of my misgivings. If you can afford them and have the room, and are a huge DMC fan, I highly recommend at least Vergil.

The Bad: The price increase is NOT justified, especially considering the continuing QC issues Square Enix seems to be having. Maybe I got the bad luck of the draw here, but for $70 apiece I shouldn't have to do ANYTHING to these to make them better or deal with fucking weird QC issues. But if you get luckier than me, and can justify the price, they're well worth it, especially in Vergil's case, who's been begging to have an action figure made since DMC3 dropped over seven years ago.

Til next time, kids.

-Swift