That's fair. I find that my enjoyment of Rising is similar to how I enjoyed God Hand the gen prior, it's a simple game, level design isn't much to speak of, characters and story are ridiculous and don't take themselves seriously, and that encounters were always easy to grasp but satisfying to play out. Yeah, I wouldn't equate the game to scratching the same itch as DMC3 (or even Bayonetta), the combat isn't much about weapon variety or anything like that. You just gotta enjoy going in and being a cyborg ninja in a slice of the Metal Gear universe set out to combat that.
Personally it's my favourite Platinum game because of that pared down focus. That, and the novelty of slicing enemies into dynamic pieces never got old for me.