Unlike the Dante of previous games, who was half-human and half-demon, the rebooted Dante is Nephilim, half-demon and half-angel. As such, his powers feature three types of weapons: Human, Angelic, Demonic.
Human weapons are Dante's basic attacks and require no trigger button to be held while attacking. Demoic weapons are those that Dante can use only when holding R2/RB to activate Demon Mode. On the other hand, angelic weapons are used by holding L2/LB to activate Angel Mode. Using the combination of these three types of attacks Dante can take out any enemy he encounters.
