Dante needn’t be in DMC 4 at all, least of all as a playable character. DMC 4 was really meant to be Nero’s starting point, but the fact that Dante had become the series classic staple protagonist, and that Nero resembled Dante so much they clearly felt that it wouldn’t have worked without having Dante in the game. Therefore they decided to put him in there and people complained then about the backtracking, and rightly so. Anyway, Gloria could’ve been her own separate character. Kyrie could’ve been a lot less hopeless and dull. The Order could’ve had more generals that you faced off against such as Credo. I feel like they had a big opportunity to really do something with Nero that could’ve stood out and made more of an impact but they kind of shot themselves in the foot putting Dante into the story just so people didn’t complain their backsides off.