Most Devil May Cry mainline games showcase characters with a single Devil Trigger form, but the first Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening stand out. In these titles, Dante and Vergil wield multiple forms that shift based on their equipped weapons. The designer of DMC 3’s Devil Trigger, Kazuma Kaneko—who is also renowned for his work on the Shin Megami Tensei series—revealed that these demonic forms were his solution to a common issue he observed in anime and tokusatsu, such as Super Sentai and Ultraman.
Kaneko explained that he always found it peculiar when heroes in tokusatsu and anime transformed while fully clothed, as the transformation power should logically stem from the character, not their attire. To address this, he crafted Dante and Vergil with the ability to integrate parts of their clothing—those touching their bodies during transformation—into their Devil Trigger forms. Consequently, their human coats morph into demonic armor, while the coattails and hems become wings.
Dante and Vergil’s Devil Trigger forms were inspired by Capcom’s original weapon designs. Dante’s Rebellion Devil Trigger features plates resembling a coat (similar to his human attire) and can extend to allow short glides. Vergil’s Yamato Devil Trigger includes a sheath on his left arm for his katana (a detail absent in his Beowulf Devil Trigger form).
Kaneko also added personal touches to his designs. Beyond the coattails influencing the number of wings in their Devil Trigger forms, he aimed to emphasize the visual distinctions between the twin brothers. As a long-time fan of the franchise, even before working on DMC 3, he believes all his designs are “really cool.”