Did Dante really surpass Sparda?

[Gargoyle_1]

Hopefully this is okay, I know someone was working on a different DMC thread.

Anyway, what solid proof is there that Dante surpassed Sparda? The most obvious one being Sparda needed help against Argosax while Dante solos it. However, Lady mentioned in the opening of 3 that once Sparda sealed Mundus away, his power was trapped on the other side, so he wasn't fighting at his full potential, at least I think.

 

[Follow_Doctor_Freeman]

The misconception is that Sparda sealed the Sword of Sparda and the Demon World simultaneously; however, this is not the case, for he is stated to have used his sword to deal with the Seven Sins (who were a nuisance to him after the sealing of the Demon World and humanity's construction of the Temen Ni Gru). Lady's exposition doesn't necessarily connote that the sealing of the Demon World and the sealing of the Sword of Sparda happened in close proximity, even though she mentions one after the other. Sparda was stated to rule humanity and to have dealt with remaining demonic threats for a while before suddenly going into hiding, and it makes sense that he would wait until deciding to go into hiding before weakening his main weapon. This makes even more sense when one considers the points brought up in the OP

Oh, and each mission intro in DMC2 has a quote from an in-verse book titled "Guidepost for the Hunters" that constantly references events involving Dante; it also has some statements suggesting Dante as being superior to Sparda. Here's one. The manual has some supporting statements, too, iirc.

 

[ZERO7772]

I never finishd DMC2 but :

The idea came from Dante beating Argosax who is supposde to be stronger than sparad himself also the old lady saying dante surpasse his father "i think " , anyway on DMC wiki it said after sparda sealed the hell gate he lost most of his power i also heard this somewhere but i am yet to find the source to this , so the Arogosax thing may very well be misunderstood but like i said i am yet to find proof on Sparda losing his power about the dark war

Although like Freeman said there few hints here and there says Dante surpassed sparada