ReRave
smug jerk
There is, actually.
There's a few more I can list but I don't think I can type that much.
- The core of Dante's personality, keeping his cool in dangerous situations, has always been intact throughout the series as well as his basic appearance and personal arsenal. Dante's personality is largely inconsistent. The personal arsenal changed from "Force Edge" to "Rebellion", without ever explaining, why Dante uses FE in DMC1 and not Rebellion. Why did he give Sparda to Trish anyways?
- Then there's the fact that Sparda has always been the cause of practically everything that goes on in the games and that the major motivation for all the major protagonists, except Mundus, was to gain power. Yes, but this fact is interchangable with anything. If Sparda suddendly wasn't the reason for the plot, it would still be a DMC game. Just with a better story.
- All the games have included the unsealing of demons, which is basically the core of everything that happens in each game. This point is basically repetition of the Sparda-argument
- No matter what happens, Dante's the one that fixes everything. In DMC4's case, Nero ended everything, but it was Dante who had did the major job of destroying the Hell Gates as well as helping Nero out in his time of need. Who else? What would you do, if you would play a game and in the end some random NPC saves the day?
- In all the games, except DMC4, there has always been a woman who Dante fights and ultimately ends up working with, basically DMC's equivalent to a "Bond Girl." Bland and uninteresting, but still there, yes. Except for DMC4. Also I don't know about Lucia.
Don't bother, because you are missing my point, but that might as well be my fault for not exlplaining myself: I am not talking about the standard setup (that indeed doesn't change that much), but the setting itself, that changes everytime.
DMC 1 played on a deserted Island full of demons, Dante was cool and easy-going, but not the moronic extent he would be in later incarnations. DMC1, to me, had the perfect Dante. Dante's motivation is pure vengeance: Dante hunts demons for the murder of his mother and brother. A classic motif, sure it's a little boring, but at least it has substance. Why DMC3 didn't pick up on that is a riddle to me.
DMC2 had the whole Arius-plot, which I didn't get to see all that much, all i remember is silent Dante, who lost a lot of his former attitude, that got replaced with a hommage (I say cheap copy of) to Harvey Two-Face's coin. Also, the game had a lot of wider space and was set in some kind of french part of the world with bland architecture and huge pointless levels. Dante's motivation is unclear to me, since i never even bothered finishing the game.
DMC3 had batshit-retarded fratboy-teen-Dante, who suddendly didn't give a crap about anything at all, because he was so cool and unpredictable. Literally no character developement (none that seems real at least) at all, he was put in a setting that didn't look like any of the games before. Temen-ni-gru had a lot of backtracking, pointless dialogue and the least likeable Dante ever to exist (my opinion). Dante's motivation seems to be to wreck the most mayhem, kill his brother and enjoy the "party", whatever he means by that. In the end he chickens out, because he suddendly (re-)developes some feelings for his older twin, who is chaotic evil and doesn't give a crap about anyone but himself, but to Dante obviously qualifies as a likeable individual (he erected a tower, which resurfacing from the underworld killed thousands of people already, not to speak of the demons that got out to kill).
DMC4's Dante was a little tempered in comparison to DMC3, but a clown with super-powers nonetheless. If we go by cutscene-power, there wouldn't have been any need for the plot, since Dante could have simply prevented the Order from acquiring Yamato and Sparda. Point is, the story had so many loose ends, that it became a hassle to even watch the cutscenes to me. The general setting was way more colorful than before, lush jungle levels (with huge framedrops), an Ice area, a castle and various others made the levels interesting, but very illogical. Dante's whole motivation in this thing is not clear to me. Sparda was in his posession, re-acquiring Yamato would have been a matter of seconds.
So, what makes DmC feel different to me?
I am not going to comment on the rest, since it's your personal opinion on this whole thing and I'm not able to change it. It suffices to say though, that none of the points you listed are inherently bad or game-breaking for me.
On your second list, points 2,3,4 are assumptions and not proven to be true.
Yours are too, mostly.
Plus sparda's history could still happen. He could still die or be out of the picture enough for demons to decide to take advantage of it. They decide to take over the human world using stealthier means hence Limbo's control over its populace. see above.
Limbo could have been built on some demon's sealing site and after Sparda's dissapearance, some dude breaks the seal and Malice takes over. Think of what happened in 3. Either way Dante came to kick said guy's ass and reseal Malice.
Unlikely. The trailer goes: "Demons are everywhere, in every level of society in every part of the world.". Limbo City is not a singular case.
Dante's primary objective was revenge on part of his mother so there is no reason to change that.
As I said, I doubt DMC2/3/4 had anything to do with the revenge-thing.
I believe it is Latin, but there is a small chance it could be Greek.