The Ophion is an alternate form of the Rebellion in DmC: Devil May Cry. Earned once Dante first journeys into his soul, Ophion is an extremely resourceful tool for both combat and exploration, and has both a Demonic and Angelic form.
Description
Ophion has two distinct designs: While in Angel mode, it resembles a white chain with a snake-like head coming out of Rebellion's grip, complete with a jaw that clasps onto targets. While in Demon mode, it resembles a grappling hook made from a black chain-like cord with a red, claw-shaped head, which is connected to a spool near Rebellion's grip.
File
DmC: Devil May Cry
- Devil May Cry: A Divine Comedy[1]
- Ophion
- A grappling hook that Dante uses in his demon form to seize objects or enemies, or to project himself towards them in his angelic form. Ophion is a divinity of Greek mythology having the lower body of a snake.
Gameplay
Ophion's primary use is as a tool for movement in both combat and environment traversal. By facing an enemy or colored object, you use the Ophion's main abilities, the Angel Lift and Demon Pull. Angel Lift will pull Dante towards the target, while Demon Pull drags targets to Dante, and can also be used to tear away enemy shields or rip out set pieces in the environment to use as platforms. A perfect tool when an enemy gets too far away, either by escaping or when Dante's attacks send them flying. The claw is also helpful in pulling the eyes out of the demon-infested CCTV Cameras situated throughout Limbo City. It can be used on the ground and in the air, and even during combos.
When using Ophion's Payoff uppercut, the sky is literally the limit, as it can be used to keep Dante away from the ground and help set up enemies for environmental kills by knocking them higher into the air. By using the Kicker ability, Dante can strategically pull foes in and kick them around for environmental kills.
The best way to remember how to use Ophion is by thinking of the Shoot button as a "ranged ability" key, for both shooting and using grappling abilities.
Attempting to Demon Pull an enemy that is very nearly above Dante results in a special animation in which he slams them into the ground instead of elbowing them. When attempting to perform Kicker in this situation, the move will glitch, the animation will clip, and there will be no visual effect on the move. In addition, the move will generate an odd vacuum effect that keeps the enemy directly next to Dante and in the air until his next action, even though the enemy will appear to be on the ground.
An alternative effect of the above glitch, after knocking an enemy down, if they are Demon Pulled from directly above Dante, any charge move such as Eryx's attacks, or Aquila's Roundtrip will cause the enemy to be stuck in midair, repeatedly bouncing off of Dante until they are able to slowly drift forward to the ground. The animation will very clearly indicate a glitch, but it does allow the full charging of moves on a single target should the need arise. The easiest way to perform this is to use Payoff on a downed enemy immediately followed by Demon Pull, then charge a move as they are pulling toward Dante.
Movesets
Holding 
/
and 
/
will access Ophion's abilities. They are always available, regardless of what firearm is currently equipped.
| Action | Command | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ophion Angel Lift | PS: +  Xbox: +  PC:  + 
|
Fire a grappling hook at enemies, or points in Limbo, and lift Dante to them. The airborne version of this move is capable of refreshing single-use air abilities after interacting with an enemy.
|
| Payoff | PS: + (During Angel Lift, just before impact) Xbox: + (During Angel Lift, just before impact)PC: + (During Angel Lift, just before impact)
|
Follow up a successful angel lift with a timed uppercut that launches the enemy into the air. Level 2 - Increases the damage. (Note: Timing is important to execute the move successfully). Also changes the punch effect from blue to orange. This is a Just Frame-only move. |
| Ophion Demon Pull | PS: + Xbox: + PC:  +
|
Fire the Ophion whip to grapple enemies or objects, and pull them towards Dante. The airborne version of this move is capable of refreshing single-use air abilities after interacting with an enemy.
|
| Kicker | PS: + (During Demon Pull, just before impact) Xbox: + (During Demon Pull, just before impact)PC: + (During Demon Pull, just before impact)
|
A timed kick, following a successful demon pull. Level 2 - Increases the damage. (Note: Timing is important to execute the move successfully). Also makes the flash effect after Kicker bigger and brighter, and changes the color of the flash from red to orange if Kicker is performed on the ground. This move can be optionally Just Framed for an alternate animation and more damage. |
| Leap | PS: During Angel Lift or Demon Pull, just before impact  Xbox: During Angel Lift or Demon Pull, just before impact  PC: During Angel Lift or Demon Pull, just before impact 
|
On arrival, Dante leaps off his Angel Lift or Demon Pull target. The animation for this move changes depending on which Ophion move was used on the enemy. |
Other Appearences
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
While Dante doesn't ever use the Ophion whip itself during his appearance in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, he can still perform Ophion's grapple attacks, Payoff and Kicker, through the use of his up-throw and forward-throw. These two throws in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale have identical animations, and are named indentically to their Ophion counterparts from DmC, only without the actual whip itself.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale also changes a few of Dante's existing Ophion moves.
- Payoff - Dante grabs his opponent, and launches them into the air with an uppercut. In PSASBR, Dante does this without using the Ophion whip, and does the uppercut with his right hand instead of his left.
- Kicker - Dante grabs his opponent, and swings around with a roundhouse kick to knock them away. In PSASBR, Dante does this without the Ophion whip, and does the kick with his left leg instead of his right. The animation mimics the animation for Just-Frame Kicker from DmC.
- Hammer Punch - Dante leaps off his opponents face, ending with a landing overhead punch for a hard-knockdown. In PSASBR, Dante starts this move with Ophion's Demon-Pull Leap animation, even though he doesn't actually have the whip, and ends the move with Eryx's Stomp, despite also not having Eryx.
Background
Ophion (Ancient Greek for "serpent") was an aquatic deity in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a snake or other serpent-like creature. Ancient writings told of a great battle between Cronus and Ophion, that whoever was able to force the others into Ogenos would claim Heaven.
Trivia
- Ophion is very similar to the Devil Bringer in Devil May Cry 4.
- In the Japanese release, Ophion's demon form and angel form are given two separate names, Ophion (オピオン) for the angel form, and Hunter Claws (ハンタークロー) for the demon form. This is likely a reference to the similar claw weapon that Hunter demon uses during the first boss fight.
- Internally, the game also names the two Ophion forms differently: Ophion's angel form is referred to as "Angel Whip" and Ophion's demon form is called "Demon Chain".
- According to multiple devs, earlier builds of the game had a mechanic for Ophion where the whip could also interact with the environment during combat, e.g. Dante's ability to throw cars in the TGS 2010 trailer. Apparently the targeting system for the environment didn't work in conjunction with enemy targeting, and the physics of the object throwing also broke enemy path finding, so the mechanic ended up being scrapped before the final release.[2][3]
References
- ↑ Devil May Cry: A Divine Comedy, p. 140
- ↑ https://devilmaycry.org/threads/so-i-worked-on-dmc.18074/post-546961 - VD dev: "Yes, there were a few mechanics and weapons scrapped during development. Just look at the reveal trailer, <...> He [Dante] could also grapple and kick objects in the environment (the car in the trailer was an example of this)."
- ↑ https://www.neogaf.com/threads/lttp-dmc.1172250/post-193060079 - NT designer: "There was a lot of stuff that didn't work. I personally spent about 6 months work on the ability to throw cars with Demon pull, but it just didn't work. It was hard to target anything and the physics involved caused all kinds of hell for the enemy path finding. So it was scrapped."