Anarchy Reigns is like their worst game and it's still great. Vanquish and Bayonetta are two of the best games this generation. MGR crushing the buildings. Wonderful 101 and Bayo 2 about to kill the game.
Little to no effort? It's still one of the best looking action games of this generation and it has a steady 60fps. And Nero may look like Dante but he plays completely different than any other character in the series. Also has the best non-boss enemies in the series and the bosses are no slouches either.
The hate is reviisionist history. It was really well received when it came out and it sold 2.7 million copies (a lot more than DmC is gonna sell)