The first Bayonetta is barely coherent at all, especially once you start getting into the time travel stuff. The second is better, but it loses itself about 3/4 of the way through and you can tell they just kind of give up. The first DMC barely has a story. DMC3 is probably the best of the pre-reboot DMCs, but even its story isn't anything worth talking about. It's obvious that the stories were never a focus point of those games, and the attempts to create one was never put in a lot of real effort. Like I said, the games managed to be carried by their protagonists, and other characters help, too, but junk is pretty apt to the actual storytelling, which is generally devoid of clear coherence, character development, and just good writing period.
DmC's story may not have been good, but I respect that they actually seemed to put effort into crafting an actual story, instead of a bunch of nonsense with cool quips and set pieces over any real story. I love the pre-reboot games, and if Capcom continues the franchise, I think it'd be better to go DMC5 as opposed to DmC2 since their superior games with their gameplay, but at the same time, I'm not going to pretend those games are something they weren't.
