LogFAQs > #971191176

In memory of what could have been, the fully realised Non-Weak Vergil we never got to see manifest, we must review the long lost positives and squandered potential he once had. To further put his shortcomings into perspective.

We have to solemnly look back on the Devil May Cry 3 final boss fight on DMD.
-Screaming Souls: Cast off your pride and embrace your fate it says at the start. The opposite of what Vergil would go on to do.
-The setting appears to be a location similar to the pale stone, almost heaven-like areas at the start of mission 18. Near the end of mission 19 you see this area in a more tempestuous state. By mission 20 the sky's gone dark and the giant searing void in the background serves as Dante and Vergil's only remaining witness. There's a shallow river running through the middle and rivers are great at dividing things in two. The game names every location and this one is called Unsacred Hellgate which is an eyebrow raiser but it was oddly memorable. This stupid, over the top, mean-spirited and gratuitously stylish things Dante and Vergil have perpetrated against each other over the 17 years this game has been out make this place stand out like few others. Where do you fight Vergil in DMC5? The same generic tree you've been climbing for half the game. And they use the same location twice in a row. Even more if you wanna point out that Griffon/Nightmare/Shadow's fights are all in pretty much identical places.
-The song. Vergil Battle 3 is the one. This isn't Vergil telling recounting his tale while you button mash your way to a triple S, this one is for the gameplay. There's part for the cutscene. There's the start of the song which is a high note and then goes all frantic, it's the neutral, your scramble to get the fight under control fast. There's the part where it turns into the Jaws theme, this really goes with Vergil piling it on, DT active, sword belt equipped, threatening to do Judgement Cut End yet again. There's your eye of the hurricane moment, the bit with the chorus, every now and then Vergil will finish a Judgement Cut End and just stand there while the quiet chorus is playing, it's hard not to notice the sudden moment of levity you've been afforded. The last stretch of the song feels like your final climactic push against Vergil's super armor, moments of invulnerability and HP regen. It's the best.
-The moveset they gave Vergil in this one. If Vergil's feeling nice he will give you an easily deflected Round Trip or exploitable Judgement Cut which is like the best case scenario here. If he's not, Vergil will warp to you and now it's time to react. The Vergil combo. Slash, slash, launcher, helm-breaker, stinger. I know you can see and hear it as I recite it. Slash, slash, heavier slash, another heavier slash. CUTOFF BLAST BEGONE. The dreaded surprise stinger. The only good rapid slash in any DMC game, the one where he goes SCUM or DIE as he does it. After rapid slash Vergil will be extra quick to parry your attacks and instantly transition into another attack, a far cry from DMC5.
-The DMC3 summoned swords. In this game these only come out on DMD difficulty, he saved them until it mattered. He is invulnerable while summoning them, this doubles are your brief window to sound the alarm because Vergil has equipped his big laser sword belt. If you don't get rid of them fast, he might warp right next to you with it on, there's a chance you'll have all 6 consecutively firing at you from above and below as you try to dodge tracking helm breaker spam. In 5 one tap of anything will break or reflect them. Not today, Zurg. Lots of people either fully commit to Quicksilver, bring Kalina Ann or learn the Jam Session timing just to mitigate this.
-The escalation of this guy's moveset. He busts out the super Devil Trigger, now he's unlocked his real moveset and DT or no DT he keeps it for the rest of the fight. 5 Judgement Cuts in a row is no longer enough, you get a stinger on the end. You get 5 helm breakers in a row, you can dodge them sure but if he's in DT that's free healing time and it keeps him moving around. You get the DMC3 Judgement Cut End, the MMmMMmMMmMMmMMM itself. What does he do in 5? A one time plane impression, misses with rapid slash then tries the move over a few times like he'll save face and summons a clone, simultaneously imitating Dante and the reboot.
-Before style switchers you had to commit to something, after playing DMC4 and coming back every Vergil fight is like a restricted challenge run. There's the Gunslinger/Nevan/Artemis one where you try barraging him with projectiles. There's the shirtless Dante, Cerberus and Royal Guard only thing like it's an old kung fu movie. There's the one everyone knows where you keep dive kicking him. There's the endless play session, the one where you're just there to play the fight because the weirdly meditative state you can achieve through it is so satisfying, the fight you giddily waste your day away repeating with slight differences each time until the sun abandons you to the late hours, disgusted at how you shun it, only to come crawling back next morning to find that you are nothing if not unyielding in your yearning to repeatedly say "Cuhrayzee!" while standing near a mentally exhausted Vergil.
-Vergil has his lucky space rock with him. The only time this Vergil will be in the air is if he is in the process of breaking a helm.
-Vergil will sometimes cut himself off, he will attempt to say "This may be fun" but end up going "Th-Don't get so cocky." Possibly him showing awareness that he says the same things repeatedly and attempting to say something different instead.
-It's easy to mock Vergil for losing Force Edge almost as soon as he got it, but in this fight as soon as he got it, he'd also worked it into his moveset. DMC3 is the first in the chronology so considering Dante was using Drive and Sword Pierce and unless Sparda was using it, Vergil might be the first person (Or at least the first person in centuries) to use the Round Trip move.
-Vergil had every right to expect to win. He defeated Dante in their first fight. Arkham and Lady broke up their second encounter. Dante did all the heavy lifting in their 2v1 against Arkham in mission 19 and should have been tired. Vergil still put the effort in to win instead of assuming it would be easy.
-Accepting of defeat. There was no "Ooh I'll pick a fight I can't possibly win with Nero and try to pretend I beat Dante that way.", no "I won't lose next time", no throwing books. He recognised the defeat for what it was and told Dante to go back to his world while he could.

It's a shame we never got to see this Vergil again.
It's an even bigger shame that even though he was always saying "You will not forget this devil's power", he himself did exactly that.