#dmcv v

Like after DMC1 and 3, we don't see much in terms of real content with Trish or Lady aside from them obviously helping out our main heroes (Dante and Nero). There's maybe pinches of character development following the main games they're featured in but in terms of everything else...? Hell, for all of DMC2's problems, we're lucky if we get any reference of Lucia in the novels (i.e. the Before the Nightmare Novel) and certainly not in the other games.

-cue DMC4 Lady and Trish outfit and "design" flashbacks-

Yeahhhhh....

Beyond the games they first feature in, there's not much done with them to put it nicely. And even then there's the matter of how they would have handled other aspects beyond the writing and her character design (assuming the character design we see in the art would have even been the final one mind you).

(God don't even get me started how we still know literally nothing on Nero's mother, who is only MAYBE the woman in red. Which honestly until we have even that officially confirmed, that is just theory for me).

Hell, I was even surprised when they mentioned Nell from the DMC1 light novel, Dante's old gunsmith, and confirmed her to be related to Nico. Glad to see she wasn't forgotten at least.

Personally, I'm fine with keeping V as a guy, especially as it also is not just a look into Vergil's humanity but arguably also into his own inner child, memories, and trauma by extension as we learn Urizen ultimately doesn't have any of those--not counting obviously knowing Dante and his undeniable thirst for power. We especially see this with the Visions of V manga as we see things through V's eyes and perspective of both the then and now.

Even with this being the "debut" game for V, I think we probably would have seen somewhat less of V if they made him a woman instead of the V we have now. And by less, I mean more so in terms of how much we see of Lady in DMC3 compared to either of the twins. Like definitely still there, but how much of her would been seen and played probably would have been a matter entirely. Granted I could be wrong about this theory entirely, but this is purely going based on past trends with DMC games and their female cast.

And as for Nero's orphan thing you mentioned, I think we see more of that with Visions of V anyway with seeing Vergil's childhood and the incident with the demon attack that started it all. I think that works just fine with developing and showing that aspect of not only Vergil's severe trauma and thirst for power and how it coincides with his starved and repressed humanity, but also showing how he relates to Nero and his orphanhood. I don't think V being a woman would have ultimately made that much of a difference despite its very interesting concept.

I personally wouldn't have gone with the fem!V choice just for my own preferences on the matter, especially if i didn't wan to risk making the narrative more complicated than it needed to be based on what the story's main focus was about.

I.e. Vergil/V realizing how badly he fucked up in his quest for power and needing to make shit right and also Dante and Vergil's "story/vicious rivalry/feud" (whatever you wanna call it) coming to an end.

Would absolutely be interesting to see if it was done well without being misconstrued and interpreted into something else entirely unrelated? Sure, absolutely. Do I think Capcom, Itsuno, and the writers would be able to as effectively pull it off? Ehhh, not particularly.

Much as I love to encourage people to experiment with their art, do their research and try new things with their writing, when it comes to pieces like DMC and Capcom, I'm kinda glad they stuck with what they knew would definitely work for them when making V. Its very much the case of sometimes it is best to write what you know, especially when you wanna work with a story like DMC's and its overarching lore.