The 4-star difficulty is for both the time required in obtaining the Platinum, as well as the challenge. Players with experience in the Devil May Cry series, and/or have played the original Devil May Cry 4 on the PS3, may be able to bring this difficulty score down to a 3-star. There is a trophy for completing the story mode on each of the seven difficulty settings, and since these do not stack, you will need to play a minimum of seven playthroughs. Realistically however, you will probably need to do a fair bit of backtracking in order to acquire S-rank scores for each. In addition, you will need to clear the Bloody Palace mode five times, once with each character. Overall, the Platinum for this game requires skills, patience to overcome frustrations, and fair bit of time.

Expect over 100 hours of gameplay for the Platinum.

Since the difficulty-related trophies are not stackable, we recommend beginning with Human mode, the easiest setting. Rather than worrying about getting S-ranks on this playthrough, spend it getting used to the game itself and the controls. Also, focus on clearing all the secret missions for the Nothing Left Unsaid trophy, as well as finding all the blue orbs and skills, which are not necessary for any trophies but will make your life easier. By the end of this step, you should unlock the Easy Does It trophy for clearing Human mode, as well as both the Rookie Devil Hunter and Skilled Devil Hunter trophies for defeating 100 and 1,000 enemies respectively, and perhaps a few others naturally during this playthrough.

Next, it’s time for a playthrough on Devil Hunter mode. Here, there are more enemies which have more health and can do extra damage. If you’ve collected all the blue orbs in the previous set, then you should have much more health, which makes this run a little easier. During this playthrough, you’ll also want to focus on getting an S-rank for each mission. Getting S-rank involves obtaining a high amount of style points, finding the hidden red orbs, completing the mission within a certain time frame, and avoid dying which can penalize your score. By the end of this playthrough, you should unlock the Done And Done trophy for clearing this mode, as well as A Cut Above for clearing all missions with an S-rank. In addition, if you play with Lady and Trish, you can also unlock the Deadly Pair trophy.

After, you will need to redo the previous step three more times, on different modes. This means clearing the Son of Sparda mode with S-rank, the Dante Must Die mode with S-rank, and Legendary Dark Knight mode with S-rank.

Once all that is done, there is still the Heaven or Hell mode to clear. In this mode, all enemies, and yourself, will die with one hit. Luckily, this one does not require S-rank, so simply play through to the end and unlock the Step Into The Light trophy.

Finally, there is the Hell and Hell mode to clear. Here, you can still die by one hit, but the enemies can take some damage. Again, you do not need to worry about S-rank on this mode. Clearing this will not only unlock the Tonight We Dine In Hell trophy, but also A Throne Of Glory trophy for clearing all the game modes. Also, if you choose to play as Vergil, you can also unlock the Devil In A Blue Coat trophy.

Next, it’s time to mop up any remaining trophies not related to the Bloody Palace. This means, getting S-rank on Human mode if not yet done, as well as getting SSS-rank for each of the boss battles on Son of Sparda mode. Be sure to check out the Devil May Cry 4 trophy guide links under our Links tab for help with anything you’re missing.

The final step is the most difficult, which involves clearing the Bloody Palace. This is a survival mode with 101 stages that include both regular enemies and bosses. You will need to clear the Bloody Palace with each of the five characters for their respective trophies, as well as to unlock the House Of Pain trophy. You will also need to get S-rank on all stages during one of these playthroughs for the King Of The Palace trophy. Using the Super Costumes will help you greatly with this task. Unfortunately, neither Trish nor Lady have Super Costumes, which will make their run on Bloody Palace arguably the most difficult challenge on your road to the Platinum.

Once all that is finished, congratulations on unlocking a very respectable Platinum.

First, here's a Walkthrough on IGN:
https://www.ign.com/wikis/devil-may-cry-4/Walkthrough

And a Walkthrough on the Devil May Cry 4 Wiki:
https://devilmaycry.fandom.com/wiki/Devil_May_Cry_4_walkthrough

Here's a great Trophy Guide by Devilryuujin:
https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/devil-may-cry-4-special-edition/guide/

And MarioGiante, Beyondthegrave07, and TugaSonic put together a great Trophy Guide here:
https://psnprofiles.com/guide/12678-devil-may-cry-4-trophy-guide

And an Achievement Guide (same as the trophies on PS4) by GameFreak47:
https://www.xboxachievements.com/game/devil-may-cry-4/guide/

Here's a Secret Mission Guide by emiliathesage:
https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/topic/251248-devil-may-cry-4-special-edition-%E2%80%93-secret-mission-guide/

A useful S Rank Guide also by emiliathesage:
https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/topic/251390-devil-may-cry-4-special-edition-s-rank-guide/

emiliathesage also created a useful Boss Guide here:
https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/topic/251238-devil-may-cry-4-special-edition-%E2%80%93-boss-guide-dante-must-die/

And here is a Bloody Palace Guide by emiliathesage:
https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/topic/251247-devil-may-cry-4-special-edition-%E2%80%93-bloody-palace-guide/

Here is Part 1 of a Hidden Red Orb Fragment Locations video guide by Sanctus Slayer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeOJik8kHp8

Finally, here's a basic Trophy List:
https://www.truetrophies.com/game/Devil-May-Cry-4-Special-Edition/trophies