Wasn't this the game that Itsuno had to fix in 4 months because development up until that point was a dumpster fire?
I believe Capcom wanted more DMC because it sold well but they didn't want to ask/tell Kamiya about the project because he had something against sequels.
So they formed a different team that never got beyond creating some animations. Itsuno was then brought in at the last minute to ship something in 4 months, so he did.
But he said that he wanted to do DMC3 too, so he wouldn't be remembered as the 'guy that made DMC2'.
