Dante is a mercenary who specializes in paranormal cases, preferring those that call for demon slaying. He is muscular, has silver hair and is usually seen wearing red clothes. Dante's arsenal usually consists of firearms and melee weapons, including "Ebony and Ivory", twin handguns that never have to be reloaded, as well as a variety of swords. The guns are hand-made with "For Tony Redgrave, By.45 Art Warks" written on them. He has supernatural powers, as a result of his half-demon heritage. This gives him the ability to enter a temporary transformation called "devil trigger". In this state, Dante possesses more speed, steady health regeneration, and further abilities with his equipped melee weapon.

Dante is one of the twin sons of Sparda, a demonic knight who chose to side with humanity and drive back an invasion of the human world by demons 2000 years ago. After Sparda's death, Dante and his brother Vergil were raised by their human mother, Eva. When Dante and Vergil were still children, the family was attacked by demons, resulting in Eva's death. This event lead to Dante's commitment to hunting demons in pursuit of those that killed his mother.