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"Well what about Nightmare he's totally different there's no way he-" Inconsequential.
Nightmare is also telling of Vergil's subconscious aspirations and regrets.
First of all Nightmare's name contains the word mare which is associated with horses, Vergil as Urizen himself deliberately forgave Geryon - a horse - for being such a meh boss fight and let it return in DMC5. Vergil imitates Geryon's time slow ability at every opportunity. Not helping his case.

Now the design. You think of DMC1 Nightmare and you think of a big oddly shaped tank merged with the Venom symbiote. Not what happens in DMC5, instead it's a bipedal golem that focuses on bludgeoning things and shooting beams out of its eye. Sounds like Vergil's exercised some creativity at long last considering he didn't just paint the original design red right? Nope.
If you'll play Devil May Cry 2, you'll encounter a lot of golem enemies with the same design as DMC5 Nightmare. They were fairly sturdy, they were dark colors, they were slow moving. It's basically 1:1.

But why would Vergil style his trump card after something from DMC2 you ask? This really isn't hard to figure out. What does Vergil want? Power. What do you get in DMC2? Overwhelming power. Press the gun button, you will win. Devil trigger and shoot, it's over. Use Majin Devil Trigger, might as well unplug the enemy's controller and give him a headstart on his path to wherever he goes to mope and rethink his life.

Nightmare is the embodiment of DMC2, a game that's all about prioritising building meter then shooting things that can't fight back. Nightmare's slow, he's invincible, he shoots beams. When you summon Nightmare, the thing to do is get on his shoulder, initiate the giant laser move and de-activate devil trigger so the beam still fires but you don't deplete meter. This was the core of my V gameplay on all difficulties about half a week after DMC5 came out because it really is the thing to do. As with DMC2's melee options, letting Nightmare melee things is an option but who cares? It's all about the ranged attack.

There's more. Nightmare isn't just a DMC2 enemy sporting DMC2 Dante's playstyle.
-He emerges out of the ground or out of walls just like Nefasturris. You know what Nefasturris did after his health was depleted unlike Nightmare though? Got up and at least tried a second form.
-His build is also similar to Oranguerra. Except Oranguerra could jump.
-Just like how Phantom re-appeared in DMC2, Nightmare is following suit and reappearing in a later game.
-DMC5 Nightmare is a mix of previous enemy designs. You know who else was? Argosax The Chaos. Except Argosax on DMD actually lived up to the chaos part of the name while Nightmare in his DMC5 boss fight had no nightmarish qualities, was filling in for Vergil, catching meteors with his face while Vergil was hiding at the top of a tree.
-Nightmare is a demon tank and Infested tank was an improved version of the original Nightmare. Better than the DMC5 version too.
-Nightmare challenges you in mission 18 as a boss fight alongside his two critter friends, sounds like a Bolverk imitation to me.
-Nightmare and the other two Happy Tree Friends rejects are described as Vergil's trauma physically manifesting. Well DMC2's final boss is called Despair Embodied. What a coincidence.

There is nothing Vergil envies more than Devil May Cry 2. See it's hard for him to re-write DMC1 because he was in it and it's traumatic for him to think about. 3, 4 and 5 though? He's confident he can bend facts to suit him, he's not fooling anyone but he tries.
DMC2 though? He can't get a foot in the door, he can't try to tell a story about how he was the one to effortlessly walk through everyone and cause Arius to mentally fall apart from mere exposure to his magnificence without breaking down and cursing his every waking moment.
Everyone knows what happened in DMC2, everyone knows Vergil wasn't there because it was specifically Dante's victory lap after defeating Mundus, Vergil and Vergil's Route 1 Pokemon team that he struggles to beat the first gym with. Well, provided they even liked him before he re-imagined them as Funko Pop versions. DMC2 is a joy forever lost to Vergil and he will never get over it.

Summoning Nightmare and watching dejected from a distance is the closest Vergil can ever truly come to emulating the time Dante had power, the time Dante protected who or whatever he wanted easily and did it all without needing to express an ounce of motivation.

You know why Vergil never calls himself a king? Ask Arius how that went for him. Or ask Vergil, he clearly knows exactly where it'll get him.