Devil Arms

[Urizen]

This is a silly question but a curious one as well. What happens to the devil arms Dante collects during the game? I mean the only weapons that show up in the next game are his sword and pistols. Same for all the other characters. The force edge/Sparda sword is a plot device so it makes sense it shows up.

Whatever happened to Nevan? Artemis? Alastor? Ifrit? Do any of those show up in DMC 5?

[Dadpool]

According to lore, Dante sells weapons that he acquires.

[Urizen]

That sounds irresponsible of him. Although would any human be able to use a devil arm?

[OST]

The whole "Dante sells his Devil Arms" thing is pretty stupid. It comes from an old Japan-only "Drama CD" that claims Dante pawns his Devil Arms to Enzo (his former agent, who is human and a non-fighter) as collateral for his debts. Though supposedly, Dante does keep up with payments because he doesn't want the weapons sold.

According to the same Drama CD, Enzo had been attacked by a demon-made firearm before, which fused with his arm, and Dante had to cut it off. Somehow, all the characters treat this like a logical reason to "compensate" Enzo by giving him custody of even more dangerous Devil Arms.

Then, because they find out a demon is trying to acquire the Devil Arms, they use an elaborate ruse to trick Enzo into wiping Dante's debts and returning his Devil Arms. But once they defeat the demon, after having thoroughly proven for the second time that possessing Devil Arms is too dangerous for Enzo, Dante just returns them to him as a "gesture of friendship."

Again, they aren't actually sold since Dante pays up, but if they were, then yeah, they would be dangerous for any would-be human users. Dante has to defeat the demons the Devil Arms come from before he can use them (except for the three which come from his father). And Alastor attacked him even in Devil Arm form, so the threat is not neutralized for a new user even after the demon has been turned into a Devil Arm.

Anyway, the canonicity of this Drama CD is doubtful, because Enzo never appeared in the games, and after Kamiya put him in Bayonetta, Capcom may not want to use him. Also, they later reused the "cutting off the arm that fused with a Devil Arm" thing with Nero. Probably don't want to draw attention to that. Also, according to the Drama CD, Cerberus is one of the Devil Arms that Enzo has, but according to the DMC5 novel, Dante had it and loved it until the Balrog fight, which might mean they retconned the whole thing.

Honestly, given Dante's love for variety, they don't need this whole idiotic backstory to explain why he prefers acquiring and using new Devil Arms. Or, you know, it could just be a gameplay thing. What's the story explanation for the Devil Breakers scattered all over the levels?