Honestly. Is a new protagonist so bad? Lucia had the better part of DMC 2's plot, and no one complained about playing as her. I hope. stare
Not to mention, as a good portion of us have stated before, that it has been hinted that Dante will be a playable character as well. Maybe certain parts of the game are Nero, and the other parts are Dante? Or maybe you'll even be able to choose? Wouldn't that be cool, for the game to have a different outcome because you're playing as a different character?
Come on, don't critisize Nero just yet. Didn't a whole lot of people feel like a bunch of jackasses when Kingdom Hearts came out and it ended up being awesome? "Eww, a Disney/Final Fantasy crossover! It's gonna suck!" Yeah, don't spew that same crap now about a game before it even comes out!