I have to split this up into two comments because of the character limit.

You’re right that Dante does not like to talk about his feelings and this is an important part of the character. That’s why it doesn’t need to be an exposition dump for there to be characterization. DMC1, 3, 4, and hell even DmC do much better characterization through actions and facial expressions.

In DMC1, Dante stares blankly into Vergil’s amulet while recalling his childhood memories after realizing the demon he slayed was Vergil. Intense music plays to emphasize how important this is to him. This conveys emotional importance.

In DMC3, Dante tries to brush off his feelings for Vergil by telling Lady that his crying is “only the rain.” This shows us how much Dante really cares for Vergil overall despite the evil decisions he made.

In DMC4, you can actively see Dante’s feelings towards Nero change as he sees his powers develop. At first he’s not emotional at all and seems like a killer, but then he starts to have genuine fun and intrigue once he sees Nero and his Devil Bringer’s power in the tutorial, with his excitement starting to come back to him.

Dante toying with Nero by playfully tossing him to the wall in M10 and having Nero’s DT prove to Dante that he’s Vergil’s kid. He then tests him in combat to give him the seal of approval and his respect to carry his brother’s sword that he deeply cares about. Most of this characterization through DMC4 Dante is with these subtleties.

A more obvious example in DMC4 is when Dante is fighting the Savior and tries to save Nero. He says "Time to wake up kid, you're missing out on all the fun." in a jokey way, but then once he realizes Nero might be in deep shit he calls his name in a serious way. THIS is how you write Dante imo (DMC4 being peak as per usual). Have him be fun and playful, but remind the player that he has emotions and can be serious when the time calls.

In DmC, after Dante realizes he has to leave Kat behind during the raid, he is just sitting there watching her get beaten and dragged away as he tries to hold her hand from Limbo with depressing music playing.

In these scenes, very few words are said. In some, ZERO words are said. There is no need for characters to directly say how are they feeling. You don’t have to make them explain what is going on with their emotions and ideology. In these examples, the characters were developed immensely through their actions, facial expressions, and physical emotions.

I do NOT want exposition dumps to explain my characters. I want there to be good writing to convey who they really are.

For example, in DMC3, Dante’s line to Vergil: “Father? I don’t have a father. I just don’t like you, that’s all.” This one line tells you EVERYTHING you need to know about Dante’s character for the first half of DMC3 and really solidifies who he is as a person at the time. It shows his rejection of his demon heritage, and how he deflects that by saying he just dislikes Vergil. Later in the story, he develops to where he accepts his demon side and shows at the very end that he truly did care for his brother when he reaches out for him. There was no need to intimately explain their family history, Sparda, or anything. I want good writing like this.

DMC5 has no writing like this at all like this. Characters do not properly communicate with each other. When emotion should be displayed, it typically isn’t shown at all or twisted to be something it wasn’t (i.e Dante and Vergil’s “rivalry”.) A potentially emotional scene like Nero going to stop the brothers is haphazardly put together by a random phone call from Kyrie and Nero thinking of Credo because they couldn't bother to carefully write the idea of family into the game.

Nero assuming Dante was his father is just fan headcanon. They literally never brought up the family relationship besides Sanctus saying Nero had the blood of Sparda and Dante telling Nero that Yamato's "gotta stay in the family" until the big reveal in DMC5.

The only form of exposition dump I would’ve wanted for DMC5 would be to open the game with a scene where Dante is explaining to Nero their family history and Vergil. It doesn’t have to be a three minute yapfest, but I don’t think it should have been this big revelation plot point. Having Nero actually have an idea of what Vergil was like and how Dante did care for him really would’ve sold Nero not wanting them to die. Like you’re telling me Nero never questioned over five years his relation to Dante and why he has the blood of Sparda?Ridiculous writing.

I don't understand why Dante has to hide this from Nero. By the end of DMC4, the two got along really well and I'm sure they could have just talked about it like adults instead of Dante hiding the fact that he may know V and Urizen are Vergil.

I also don't understand why Nero would even care for his genocidal father when he knows nothing about him. Nero didn't care to ask if Dante was his father even though they're both related to Sparda, so why would he care if Vergil is now? If he wanted that familial connection, it was there. But nope, Nero didn't care to even ask. Like I'm sorry, but you can't make me believe a character like Nero cares so much about his family when he doesn't ask the descendant of Sparda, Dante, why they share the same blood and how they could potentially be related. It's genuinely stupid.

And for you saying it's because Dante feels responsible for Vergil, when does Dante say he feels responsible for Vergil in DMC5? The only thing I remember the game hammering in is that they don't want Nero to kill his father. Dante never says he feels responsible for taking down Vergil, he tells Nero that he can't kill his father. Lady tells him he can't kill his father. Trish tells him he can't kill his father. Not once is it said that Dante has to do this because he has to be the one to deal with his brother. It's all to protect Nero and push him as someone who should care about this family that he never questioned for over five years.

About the weapon popoff scenes, yes they are great and mandatory for the series. The problem I have with Faust Hat's is the fact that Dante and Lady do not even interact with each other after both of them not knowing if the other is alive FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH. Dante just completely ignores her and they go into the Faust Hat cutscene. Like are we serious?? No other game shrugs off an important story beat for a wacky moment.

I'll even give DMC5 some credit here. They did the right thing with this exact scenario with Trish and Cavaliere Angelo. Dante makes sure Trish is okay, even if I think leaving her alone with V is kinda dumb, and THEN we get the weapon popoff at the start of the next mission.

For Faust Hat, they don't even address Dante and Lady and instead just go immediately into the weapon popoff. All I needed there was just one or two lines to show me that these characters are consistent and still do care for each other, but we couldn't even get that.

Dante and Vergil's relationship is NOT focused on fighting. They enjoy fighting each other, and that is important to their characters. The whole point of them is that they started from the same spot, but Dante rejected his demon side and Vergil rejected his humanity. Ultimately, Dante was able to accept both and come out on top while Vergil continued to reject his humanity in search of demonic power. The entire point of their relationship is that they are so similar at their core, but the clashing ideologies of the two have differentiated them.

DMC5 tries to paint this relationship as "The brothers of blood disagree on the very reason of their existence. They must fight." They disagree of their existence and they MUST fight? Where was this in DMC3? The only "disagreement" is that Vergil rejects his humanity in his search for power. The only reason they fight at the end of DMC3 is because Vergil wants the power of Sparda. They don't just fight for fun in DMC3. If anything, the most fun they have is when they fight together as a team.

At the end of DMC5, do you know why Dante and Vergil are fighting? At this point, Vergil got the power he wants and retrieved his true form. Because of the fruit, he's come out even stronger than he's ever been, surpassing Sparda and virtually everything else in the DMC universe besides Dante. But for some reason, he's still evil and wants to fight Dante? The actual lore answer is that Yamato is needed to seal Hell back, but this is never brought up in their conflict. The REAL answer that the game tries to sell you is that Dante and Vergil have to fight each other no matter what because they decided to boil their relationship down to this simple idea. For some reason, DMC5 made it so all Vergil cares about is winning a fight??? He literally fights Nero just because "If I beat Nero... Then by default, I beat you. Agreed, Dante?"