Just wanted to comment quick (well, it's never really quick with me, but anyway)...
Some people think Itsuno was lying when he said that the future of DMC doesn't depend on DMC4 SE's sales. The reason for that is because Kobayashi later said that ''the future of DMC is undecided''. Some people think that means that Kobayashi contradicted Itsuno. Source of Kobayashi's statement:
http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/06...-on-future-of-devil-may-cry-series-undecided/
The thing is, those two statements don't contradict each other. The future of DMC might well be undecided, but doesn't hinge on DMC4 SE's success. I think DMC4 SE was mainly developed as a way for Capcom to make easy money, considering that is their business plan right now: to make a bunch of remasters to capitalize on the success of their most profitable games. At the same time, they're trying to stick to developing new installments of popular games (Street Fighter V, for instance).
But on to the main point, it's possible that Capcom isn't yet sure they'll make enough money with DMC5 to cover the cost of its development. That, or they want a huge guaranteed profit on their games, and DMC5 is too much of a wildcard. If they are still in financial trouble somewhat, it's only logical they're trying to stick to what is guaranteed to work. Either they're unsure of DMC5 in that respect, OR they're unsure of it with regard to storytelling. Consider this: if DmC was mainly developed for the storytelling, it's possible they were not happy with the way DMC4 turned out story-wise. And that could mean that they've lost confidence in their storytelling abilities (even though it can't really be worse than DmC's storytelling, considering it probably had more plotholes than any single DMC game).
Or maybe by saying that the future is undecided, Kobayashi simply meant that they have no plans for DMC5 yet: that they haven't figured out what kind of story and/or gameplay to go with.
As for the sometimes negative reviews of DMC4 SE, I think they're not always fair. DMC4 is known for its backtracking, it has been since 2008. To now suddenly judge it extra harshly for its backtracking seems stupid to me, as its backtracking is not anything new, nor does it technically have anything to do with the extra features of SE. What reviewers need to do is review DMC4
SE, not the original game according to 2015 standards. They need to review whether or not the additions of SE were good, mediocre or bad. In response to Vergil Crosse's claim that the DMCs had ''excessive'' repetitive content, that's personal opinion. The only DMC IMO that had excessive backtracking was DMC4, whereas games like DMC3 had 'backtracking' in the sense that almost all hack-and-slash games did: going back to certain rooms to retrieve items etc.