I had a pleasant surprise with this game. Even though I didn't pre-order it, the store that imported the game for me got a Pre-Order version, so I have a playable Dampierre.
Anyway, I'm loving the faster and more fluid gameplay, and the graphics are really stunning (which is very good considering how SCIV itself looked better than many fighting games released after it).
The custom character feature is much better now too. We're finally able to make decent looking Riders this time and just better characters in general. Using stickers, free placement objects and adding textures, even to weapons, the custom characters finally avoid looking rather generic.
I haven't even tried the story mode yet, just went once through Arcade, then CaS, Quick Battle, more CaS, some offline VS and the online arena mode. I can understand the problems some people have with the offline content of this title, especially if they aren't fans of CaS, but so far it's really fun to me. Anyway, I'll post pictures of some custom Riders (and other characters) later.