Finished DMC5 and then did a quick second runthrough as Vergil (he's extremely overpowered).
I honestly am am a huge fan of the way DMC4 and then especially DMC5 play with muscle memory to give each character a unique identity. It's even more pronounced here, with the introduction of V and then not just the contrast between Nero and Dante but also the evolutions in Dante's own playstyle that happen across the narrative. And if I'm understanding right, I think don't even get full access to Nero's full control layout until a New Game+, which is kind of hilarious, because a New Game's Mission 20 appears to be a unique full event battle with a unique control scheme, but if you replay Mission 20 it seems to instead be in Nero's post-game controls. Then you get yet another approach with Vergil, which has more variation than Nero but not quite as much as Dante. It's kind of funny that there are three distinct Devil Trigger systems, instead of a copy-paste of how it's always worked for Dante in the past games.
I really liked the use of non-chronological storytelling here. Everything is extremely foreshadowed, but they very effectively turned this into a kind of serial with compelling cliffhangers as it cuts between stories and timelines. I think they're also striking a good balance between the dumb action movie tone of DMC1 and 3 and the more anime direction of DMC4. I am honesty surprised at how strong the character arcs are for the characters who get them. I wish that Lady and Trish were given more to do than be nude and tentacled, though. It's sad that there's even a little epilogue for them teasing what seems like potential DLC that never happened, especially considering what a strong foundation they laid to give them their own unique playstyles in DMC4SE.
It's also kind of sad that there are basically no traditional DMC exploration type stages anymore (maybe just Mission 12?), but I can accept this as a direction for the series if it's this well executed.
I think that I got my fill of this series for now, but I could see coming back to try Son of Sparda on this one to play more with the new post-game tools and get a little more tension in the encounters. I did immediately do the obvious thing of using Devil Trigger Nero to beat the prologue, of course, but then stopped).
I have a pretty flat series ranking after playing through all of them, probably something like:
1=3=5>4>>>>>2
DMC1, 3, and 5 are all incredibly strong in their own way and for their respective eras. I'm most likely to come back to these. As I wrote here I like DMC4 a lot and it appears to still be the favorite of many for its technical combat, but in practice I feel like most of what it does, other games do better. It's something of an awkward middle point between 3 and 5. DMC2 is boring and mostly a dead end narratively and in terms of mechanics, but at least it's short and easy. I wouldn't recommend DmC to anyone for any reason except to understand the debate around it.