DMC4: Just beat Echidna and got Gilgamesh.
Echidna was EVEN MORE pathetic as Dante. I blame E&I being > Blue Rose.
Thoughts on Dante initially?
...its Dante. He plays just like his DMC3 self, though, given the way he starts mid game with all of Nero's "EXP", he's much stronger than an initial Dante in DMC3, so you start off with stuff like Stinger 2 out of the gate. Naturally, he just murders the early stuff dead.
Rebellion's about what you expect; its a DMC sword. Balanced, needs Swordmaster for Aerial Combos, Stinger awesomeness, and...could you always chain that into Million Stab? I dunno, cause I never used Stinger in that vain. This is also the only weapon he gets (though I just got Gilgamesh) for Melee at first, so yeah.
E&I...uh...why did they become *FASTER* in this game? I mean, they were already ridiculously fast in DMC3, they fire at such a rate that the enemies actually die in reasonable time with them alone (at least they don't just murder things effortlessly the way they did in DMC2, so you still find yourself meleeing things.) The "Can Always Charge Shot" thing is nice, and I'm finding it a lot easier to control that Dual Shot feature from Gunslinger than in DMC3. Still haven't gotten a hang of using Rainstorm effectively, but at least the move feels unchanged (and looks cool <_<)
Shotgun seems to have lost its knockback effectiveness, but at the same time, seems they increased its power relative to DMC1/3, so I guess it compensates. In general, enemies aren't big on being knocked back cause there's a lot of defensive whores, so yeah, a knock back weapon wouldn't work so well, so making the Shotgun a Slower but Stronger, ranged sensitive alternative to E&I works well enough. Seems to have been improved greatly in the air though am I just screwing up, or did Fireworks get nerfed A LOT?
STyle switching is cool...if only I could figure out the logic in the order used for them. Many times I've went "ok, time to go to Swordmaster...NO! NOT TRICKSTER!" and such. Styles feel fundamentally the same as DMC3, so yeah, that's nice.
Also, Dante's DT is just wrong.
Regen Rate seems as high as with DMC3 Beowulf, E&I under DT are reminding me of DMC2 where Guns = Win (though not as idiotic about it), Stinger got an improvement THAT IT DIDN'T NEED...and then Dante is immune to flinching and knock back. Somehow, I think there's other fun stuff he gets in DT, and that's only the surface...