I personally enjoy the game, admittedly not as much as the others.
However, I feel this game focus's waaaay too much on firepower rather than the skill in combat.
I have A-S ranked all modes on both Discs (took me a while but I enjoy the game), and throughout I found my rank increasing not because of the Swordplay involved but rather my ability to dodge + shoot...which made the game a little boring in places. Afterall, the sheer amount of invincible frames Capcom give you during a Roll/Dodge in DMC2 are substancially higher than that in DMC 3 and 4.
I also feel that the Swordplay was too...predetermined, I rarely felt like I knew what Dante wanted to do next with that 5ft blade in his paws - not that it mattered, but in the latter and heck even in DMC1 you felt a little more incontrol about it all.
There are things that would;ve been nice for them to include in DMC4...ie. the Dodging without Trickster Style...I know that 90pct of the moves Dante pulls in DMC3 are inspired and built upon the ones in DMC2, but the freedom to use another style ie. Royal Guard and also be able toroll about and do backflips (lol) would've been nice imo. ESPECIALLY for Nero in DMC4, afterall he still have buttons on the pad that are unmapped, a roll could've squeezed in somewhere for the kiddo.