My impressions from playing the demo a few times.
-PS3 gets the short end of the stick. Shocking I know. Framerate during cutscenes is headache inducingly bad. Thankfully during gameplay the framerate is solid but there's some screen tearing and I don't think it runs exactly at 30fps.
-There's no manual Lock-on and it's a big, big loss. The automatic lock-on while not terrible it's far from great. I clocked only 2-3 hours of play and a handful of times I ended up mid combo targeting the wrong enemy. Bleh.
-I don't like the Devil Trigger at all. In the previous games it gave you extra options for your combos, here is basically an overpowered God Mode that charges slowly and drains quickly making it more a Panic Button mode.
-Guns are crap. For some reason they don't synergize with melee combat very well (testament to that is how little they are used in all the gameplay videos released so far), they are extremely weak, the Rainstorm startup is very slow and due to the control scheme buffering a charged shot can be more problematic than in the previous games. A big loss for Gunslinger lovers like me.
-Controls are responsive but obviously not as responsive as the previous games. Also, unless I'm doing something wrong, you can't jumpo cancel out of any animation. The hell?
-Air combos are pitifully easy.
-Style Meter is broken. The only way to lose a rank is by being hit, you can stand still as long as you wish or use only a single attack and it won't go down. Easily exploitable.
-At the end of the levels you are awarded a score according to stuff like damage received, time and amount of collectibles hidden in the stage. Once you collect all the collectibles in a stage you won't need to find them again the next time you play, which in turn helps lowering the time needed to complete the stage. Terrible.
-The demo has four difficulty levels (the final game will have five). The third is pathetically easy (enemies commit suicide at the first?) while the fourth is much harder (not exactly hard, though), because
enemy waves are remixed and among them appear color coded enemies (...) that can be hit only with some of your weapons. And I don't mean that the other weapons deal less damage or something, attacking them with the wrong weapon makes you recoil and open for attacks. Because in a game without manual lock-on and that is supposed to be about free form combat this is such a wonderful idea.
-Weapon clashing. If you hit the enemy when he is about to hit you you'll repel its attack and leave it stunned. The window for the clash is waaaaay too big, though. Mash the "spinning scythe" attack and you are all set. The boss battle is a piece of cake.
So...yeah?
