Is Devil May Cry 4 the last good game in the franchise?

I have a friend from high school who had such similar tastes and enthusiasm for games, we could spend hours at a time just chatting and speculating on our favorite titles. One subject of many conversations was how much we loved Devil May Cry. The original had barely found its footing, it didn't quite know what genre to be. However, from the second game onwards Capcom settled on the addictive trigger-happy arcade ass-kicking action and it was just phenomenal.

Nero isn't as cool as Dante, nobody is.

Up until Devil May Cry 4, the franchise has had no cause for distrust. Even when the questionable decision to star Nero as the main character was made, we still got exactly what we paid for in a fantastic game filled with increasing difficulties and cutscenes with more awesome than an awesome-chuck could chuck (bad analogy I know).

From the moment I heard about the series reboot by Ninja Theory, I was more than skeptical. In fact, me and my friends mourned together in a call the moment we saw the trailer. Dante with black hair? That's the biggest turnaround of nope I've probably ever experienced in my life. After that moment, me and all my fellow Devil May Cry sympathizers gave up on any hope of the new DmC game being even playable. Clearly Ninja Theory didn't play the first four games enough, nor did they research the parts of the game that we, the public hold so dearly.

Nero was a step in a new direction done correctly.

Without a shred of expectation for the new DmC, there was no chance of over-hyping it. If there was any redeeming quality in the game it would of been a nice surprise. But despite having zero expectations for the game, how is it that I still feel let down? It's truly a shame that Capcom handed off one of their greatest franchises to someone who just couldn't do it justice.

I'm not faulting Ninja Theory, they did an alright job with what they had. But I think they shouldn't of tried to take Devil May Cry in a new direction. It's just a step back from the progress that Capcom made with the series over the years. If you don't rate this game in comparison to the other Devil May Cry games, it's alright. If you do, then it's a slap in the face for us avid DmC fans.

Some of the boss fights are truly epic.

It's such a shame that this game was cast under the Devil May Cry franchise. As a game in its own right, with no ties to DmC, it would of been a passable game. Worthy of praise. If only. As it stands, this mediocre approach with dumbed down down content might just kill off one of the greatest arcade franchises of all time.