In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Devil May Cry 4 producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi has said that the newest installment in the series will be "kinder" to gamers than Devil May Cry 3 might have been. That’s not to say that the game will be easy, but just gentler on the newbies.
Said Kobayashi, "We had to learn a lesson there, actually, because DMC3 was really difficult. What we found was that people sometimes lost interest within the first two hours because the game just wasn’t giving them any chance whatsoever. So DMC4 will be about same difficulty level, but we thought that we would be a little bit kinder to the player, so we’re going to give a step-by-step guide on how to use the weapons and skills so that you should naturally progress to a better skill level a little more easily than in DMC3."
Kobayashi also went on to say that players needn’t be familiar with the series in order to enjoy Devil May Cry 4, and beginning at the end might even encourage them to go back to the earlier games, afterwards.