I give it a perfect score for the gameplay. The story is enjoyable as well but it isn't the highlight for Bayonetta, however, I did not enjoy the ending.
No story thoughts because I've never given two shits about any Bayonetta games story.
After chapter 1 I was a bit concerned about how well the new demon slave mechanic was going to integrate into the combat as it felt slow and clunky but it turned out to be mostly just how that first demon controls. Others played better and you can unlock additional abilities that make it play better as you go.
It took some getting used to how the new playable character, Viola's, Witch time that activates by blocking instead of dodging but otherwise she's fun to play as in her chapters. I feel they could be a bit more generous with the timing needed for the block to activate it though. The window is super small.
The pacing of this entry is excellent, constantly mixing things up and having cool new set pieces. Some were very unexpected like the side chapters you need to play during the story which I wont spoil here. I feel it did these set pieces better then 1 and 2 which already shined in this area.
The main thing that holds me back from considering this as good as 2 is that frankly this is uglier and performs worse. this game goes for more open levels to accommodate the demon slaves you can summon. A result of this is performance is unsteady and they tried to help performance with LOD that updates a few feet from your character, tons of dithering and blurry textures. Hopefully one day we can get an updated version on a system that isn't stuck multiple generations behind in terms of power.
After chapter 1 I was a bit concerned about how well the new demon slave mechanic was going to integrate into the combat as it felt slow and clunky but it turned out to be mostly just how that first demon controls. Others played better and you can unlock additional abilities that make it play better as you go.
It took some getting used to how the new playable character, Viola's, Witch time that activates by blocking instead of dodging but otherwise she's fun to play as in her chapters. I feel they could be a bit more generous with the timing needed for the block to activate it though. The window is super small.
The pacing of this entry is excellent, constantly mixing things up and having cool new set pieces. Some were very unexpected like the side chapters you need to play during the story which I wont spoil here. I feel it did these set pieces better then 1 and 2 which already shined in this area.
The main thing that holds me back from considering this as good as 2 is that frankly this is uglier and performs worse. this game goes for more open levels to accommodate the demon slaves you can summon. A result of this is performance is unsteady and they tried to help performance with LOD that updates a few feet from your character, tons of dithering and blurry textures. Hopefully one day we can get an updated version on a system that isn't stuck multiple generations behind in terms of power.
Such a long wait. For such an cluster fuck of chaos and actions. While old problems persist from previous entries and some new ones like camera inconsistentes and forced walky sections (even tho short and don't require walking for completion) only two weapons at a time hurts so much cause the level of creativity from all the new weapons is truly mind blowing. The games ambition can be comprised by the hardware it's on but doesn't take away from the fact that every half an hour there was a new exciting set piece that was having me grin like a dumbass. The gimmicks are galore and fun. And the combat will keep me coming back for more and more. Music is also slayyyyy
This review contains spoilers
Really not sure how to feel about this one. I absolutely adore the first two, especially the second even though I know it's less popular among hardcore fans, but this felt like too much of a shift in tone for me and the story somehow manages to be predictable and a bit of a mess.
Outside of the overarching plot most of the game is
1. Go to a new universe
2. Kill big bad
3. Watch another Bayonetta (and Jeanne) die
4. Get chaos gear
And this happens four times.
Also killing off Cereza and handing the torch to Viola could have been done well, like Nero in DMC5, but this felt unearned. I like Viola, but not enough to completely replace the incredible protagonist we've spent 12 years with. Jeanne was also done dirty and her friendship with Bayonetta didn't feel handled very well, and the Luka romance and his whole arc felt completely off.
As for the gameplay it's still a load of fun, but now there are loads more minigame-like sections and Uncharted-esque setpieces thrown in that have put me off going back to aim for higher scores as I did with the last two. I enjoy the games most when it's Bayonetta vs. a horde of enemies, but B3 felt like it had much less of that instead opting for gimmick fights and a reliance on the new Demon Slave mechanic, which I will admit I still had some fun with.
So yeah, mixed feelings on this one. A shame as I'd been waiting a long time and watched every trailer over and over.
I will say though, that moment the Bayonettas from 1 and 2 show up HOLY SHIT was incredible, and there were still a lot of high moments.
Hoping I'll like it more after going back to it later.
Outside of the overarching plot most of the game is
1. Go to a new universe
2. Kill big bad
3. Watch another Bayonetta (and Jeanne) die
4. Get chaos gear
And this happens four times.
Also killing off Cereza and handing the torch to Viola could have been done well, like Nero in DMC5, but this felt unearned. I like Viola, but not enough to completely replace the incredible protagonist we've spent 12 years with. Jeanne was also done dirty and her friendship with Bayonetta didn't feel handled very well, and the Luka romance and his whole arc felt completely off.
As for the gameplay it's still a load of fun, but now there are loads more minigame-like sections and Uncharted-esque setpieces thrown in that have put me off going back to aim for higher scores as I did with the last two. I enjoy the games most when it's Bayonetta vs. a horde of enemies, but B3 felt like it had much less of that instead opting for gimmick fights and a reliance on the new Demon Slave mechanic, which I will admit I still had some fun with.
So yeah, mixed feelings on this one. A shame as I'd been waiting a long time and watched every trailer over and over.
I will say though, that moment the Bayonettas from 1 and 2 show up HOLY SHIT was incredible, and there were still a lot of high moments.
Hoping I'll like it more after going back to it later.
Honestly there's a lot to say about this game, but I personally don't feel qualified for all the nitty gritty details, mainly since I've only played Bayo 2 a few months ago for the first time and haven't touched Bayo 1 yet. This feels like game for longtime Bayo fans, though it can disappoint them with how troubled this game is in general. Lot of plot points not amounting to a lot, lopsided focus on the less interesting parts of the story, and critical moments that didn't feel earned. But I feel because I'm not a long time fan of the franchise, these were things I could just brush aside. I've already seen hard-core Bayo fans being pretty split on this one, but to answer why exactly is not something I can do.
So I did like Bayo 2, how was 3? I think, at this moment, I like it as much as 2. Both have their highs and lows, with I think Bayo 3 having higher highs and lower lows. (EDIT: After playing 3 on and off over several more weeks, I'm thinking I like 3 more then 2, but would probably recommend 2 first to a newcomer since 3 feels like your expected to have played the other games beforehand) To get the lows outta the way, as someone who scours every inch of an area in a game for secrets, many places are too big. I feel, not just this game, but a lot of games can get exhausting to hunt for items if there's a lot to find in a huge place. I love exploration, but not when it starts to feel I'm going through the motions or worse, a chore. I feel Bayo 2 had a better balance of size and secrets for a fast paced action game.
While there wasn't any bad minigames, there is still a ton of them. A lot of them are insane in looks and in concept, plus are rarely frustrating, but I'd prefer to see them less often, mostly since I did not buy this game for this spectacle (that's what Asura's Wrath is for), I played it for the combat.
Framerate aside, I think this part of the game is much better then Bayo 2. Umbran Climax was fun to use but didn't require a lot of thought. Demon Slaves offer a lot of customization and options in battle, but your magic meter, standing in place during summoning, and the chance of your demon going into rage mode makes it a tool that you really need to think on how to use it. Won't deny that it can feel like a crutch at points, but I'm unsure how that holds up on the higher difficulties at this point. Plus it adds a lot of player expression since there's a loooooot of demons in this game to choose from, every one of which being huge and very creative. Demon Slaves are honestly the perfect addition to add to the insane spectacle during combat since it really feels like the carnage your causing is from your own doing and not from some scripted event. That's really why I'm just kind of "whatever" about scripted events in these games. Yes, you can't control literal Godzilla during normal combat, but to me manually summoning a giant spider to self-destruct itself and kill everything around it just always feel way better since that was my plan I made during the heat of battle.... and now I'm down a giant spider... oops.
The creativity also extends to the new weapons. At the cost of no longer equipping weapons to your hands and your feet individually (some weapons in the first two games being only for hands OR feet) every weapon now has an entire moveset with their own ways of shooting range attacks, mode of travel, and able to transform into these demon hybrids which can make these weapons looks amazing during a fight. I was going to describe some of them, but frankly I rather leave that as a surprise, even if there's one that I kept on through the whole game for how crazy concept it was.
Right there's the new character too. She's fine... gameplay wise. As a character she's fun, but when actually playing as her she takes a while to get the feel for. Not much to say being real.
So yeah, despite the four stars I'm giving this, I'm truthfully mixed on this game. That might come down to high expectations that were met... but only sometimes. Regardless I did have a lot of fun, even with the problems this and Bayo 2 have I'd be insane to call them boring.
So I did like Bayo 2, how was 3? I think, at this moment, I like it as much as 2. Both have their highs and lows, with I think Bayo 3 having higher highs and lower lows. (EDIT: After playing 3 on and off over several more weeks, I'm thinking I like 3 more then 2, but would probably recommend 2 first to a newcomer since 3 feels like your expected to have played the other games beforehand) To get the lows outta the way, as someone who scours every inch of an area in a game for secrets, many places are too big. I feel, not just this game, but a lot of games can get exhausting to hunt for items if there's a lot to find in a huge place. I love exploration, but not when it starts to feel I'm going through the motions or worse, a chore. I feel Bayo 2 had a better balance of size and secrets for a fast paced action game.
While there wasn't any bad minigames, there is still a ton of them. A lot of them are insane in looks and in concept, plus are rarely frustrating, but I'd prefer to see them less often, mostly since I did not buy this game for this spectacle (that's what Asura's Wrath is for), I played it for the combat.
Framerate aside, I think this part of the game is much better then Bayo 2. Umbran Climax was fun to use but didn't require a lot of thought. Demon Slaves offer a lot of customization and options in battle, but your magic meter, standing in place during summoning, and the chance of your demon going into rage mode makes it a tool that you really need to think on how to use it. Won't deny that it can feel like a crutch at points, but I'm unsure how that holds up on the higher difficulties at this point. Plus it adds a lot of player expression since there's a loooooot of demons in this game to choose from, every one of which being huge and very creative. Demon Slaves are honestly the perfect addition to add to the insane spectacle during combat since it really feels like the carnage your causing is from your own doing and not from some scripted event. That's really why I'm just kind of "whatever" about scripted events in these games. Yes, you can't control literal Godzilla during normal combat, but to me manually summoning a giant spider to self-destruct itself and kill everything around it just always feel way better since that was my plan I made during the heat of battle.... and now I'm down a giant spider... oops.
The creativity also extends to the new weapons. At the cost of no longer equipping weapons to your hands and your feet individually (some weapons in the first two games being only for hands OR feet) every weapon now has an entire moveset with their own ways of shooting range attacks, mode of travel, and able to transform into these demon hybrids which can make these weapons looks amazing during a fight. I was going to describe some of them, but frankly I rather leave that as a surprise, even if there's one that I kept on through the whole game for how crazy concept it was.
Right there's the new character too. She's fine... gameplay wise. As a character she's fun, but when actually playing as her she takes a while to get the feel for. Not much to say being real.
So yeah, despite the four stars I'm giving this, I'm truthfully mixed on this game. That might come down to high expectations that were met... but only sometimes. Regardless I did have a lot of fun, even with the problems this and Bayo 2 have I'd be insane to call them boring.
As a Bayonetta fan since day one, I had sky high expectations for Bayonetta 3. The third in a trilogy of increasingly unlikely-to-exist games, six years of development, and coming over three years after Platinum released their last major single player game. Bayonetta 3 would have to be spectacular to meet my expectations after all that time, but not only did it meet them, somehow it managed to surpass them.
After Bayonetta 2 opted to refine and focus up what Bayonetta 1 already excelled at, to middling results, Bayonetta 3 is an explosive gambit that takes everything Platinum has ever done and launches them full force at the player with shocking fury. Genre switchups are constant (if brief) and the core gameplay itself has seen radical changes with the addition of the Demon Slave and Demon Masquerade concepts. From a distance these changes may seem worrying or clunky, but when playing it all flows so smoothly and feels incredibly satisfying to utilize as a part of your ever expanding tool kit. Not only does Bayonetta 3 have the most overall weapon options in the series, these options are more varied and more fun to use than ever. You could play for 100 hours and not hit the ceiling of what this combat system can do with Bayonetta alone. And that's not even getting into Viola, whose combat flow is wildly different from Bayonetta's and requires a real gear shift to lock into.
Bayonetta 3 never rests, setpiece after setpiece blow your doors down and threaten to drag you out onto the street and mug you in front of your neighbors and God while you try desperately to keep your cool, clenching the controller to aim for those good scores. The game is effortlessly engaging and fun, with the variety of its combat and the expansiveness of its adventurous level design always keeping you busy with something or another, and that something always changing into something equally fun.
Bayonetta 3's only falter is in minor QOL concerns, things like replays not allowing restarts of verses and a few enemies not giving good enough audio cues when they fire their bite-sized arrows at you from the other side of the planet. These are nagging concerns, concerns that become annoyances when you're going for pure platinum rankings and trying to master the higher difficulties. But those are only issues for the crazy people like me who actually want to attempt to do those things. For the sane gamer who just wants to experience a thrilling action game, I posit that you can do no better on the Nintendo Switch than Bayonetta 3.
After Bayonetta 2 opted to refine and focus up what Bayonetta 1 already excelled at, to middling results, Bayonetta 3 is an explosive gambit that takes everything Platinum has ever done and launches them full force at the player with shocking fury. Genre switchups are constant (if brief) and the core gameplay itself has seen radical changes with the addition of the Demon Slave and Demon Masquerade concepts. From a distance these changes may seem worrying or clunky, but when playing it all flows so smoothly and feels incredibly satisfying to utilize as a part of your ever expanding tool kit. Not only does Bayonetta 3 have the most overall weapon options in the series, these options are more varied and more fun to use than ever. You could play for 100 hours and not hit the ceiling of what this combat system can do with Bayonetta alone. And that's not even getting into Viola, whose combat flow is wildly different from Bayonetta's and requires a real gear shift to lock into.
Bayonetta 3 never rests, setpiece after setpiece blow your doors down and threaten to drag you out onto the street and mug you in front of your neighbors and God while you try desperately to keep your cool, clenching the controller to aim for those good scores. The game is effortlessly engaging and fun, with the variety of its combat and the expansiveness of its adventurous level design always keeping you busy with something or another, and that something always changing into something equally fun.
Bayonetta 3's only falter is in minor QOL concerns, things like replays not allowing restarts of verses and a few enemies not giving good enough audio cues when they fire their bite-sized arrows at you from the other side of the planet. These are nagging concerns, concerns that become annoyances when you're going for pure platinum rankings and trying to master the higher difficulties. But those are only issues for the crazy people like me who actually want to attempt to do those things. For the sane gamer who just wants to experience a thrilling action game, I posit that you can do no better on the Nintendo Switch than Bayonetta 3.
I waited nearly 5 years for this and forgot to wonder whether a third game was really needed. Combat's unbalanced, writing's awful and there's an underlying sad feeling to a lot of it but occasionally it reaches those Bayonetta highs and I remember why I waited those 5 years.
I don’t wanna talk about it.
Paris arc: 10/10
The rest of the game: exists
The rest of the game: exists
I still have so much to do, so this review could change, but for now, I think the gameplay is incredible but the game is let down by a terrible ending and a general lack of personality surrounding its protagonist. Bayonetta does not feel like Bayonetta and that really sucks. I can only hope they do a 180 after this game's ending when it comes time to develop the fourth entry, because I do not like where it's going at the moment. I want my Bayonetta back, but I don't know if I ever will, especially after all this behind-the-scenes drama about her original voice actress.
It's a game about serving cunt all throughout the multiverse.
Really fantastic action gameplay with a lot of varied, exciting, fun weapons, awesome demons, really neat locations, and fantastic music. It has all the exciting bombast of a Platinum game, and the deviations from when things aren't strict character action with Bayonetta or Viola is great.
The story is, well, it's a Platinum story. Obviously Bayo 3's story is contested and mixed on, but there are still some nice moments. I enjoyed seeing the interactions between Bayonetta and Viola and Bayonetta and Jeanne, and the very ending itself is cute, but there are definitely parts of the ending that made me squint, quirk an eyebrow, etc. etc. I don't come to Platinum games for the story all that much, though, so, you know, while I go "hmm", ultimately, it's not something that really, you know, makes me hate the game.
Very great game though! If you want incredible, tight gameplay that's constantly high octane, then I can't recommend this enough. 1000% worth the wait.
Really fantastic action gameplay with a lot of varied, exciting, fun weapons, awesome demons, really neat locations, and fantastic music. It has all the exciting bombast of a Platinum game, and the deviations from when things aren't strict character action with Bayonetta or Viola is great.
The story is, well, it's a Platinum story. Obviously Bayo 3's story is contested and mixed on, but there are still some nice moments. I enjoyed seeing the interactions between Bayonetta and Viola and Bayonetta and Jeanne, and the very ending itself is cute, but there are definitely parts of the ending that made me squint, quirk an eyebrow, etc. etc. I don't come to Platinum games for the story all that much, though, so, you know, while I go "hmm", ultimately, it's not something that really, you know, makes me hate the game.
Very great game though! If you want incredible, tight gameplay that's constantly high octane, then I can't recommend this enough. 1000% worth the wait.
one of the best action games of this year with a fun story that explores the vast multi verse. the drama surrounding this game was dumb.
uhhhhhh at least she's hot
God. Where do i start. First things first this game isnt the unmitigated disaster that some were expecting, and its definitely not the unimpeachable action messiah that even fewer were. It's Fun(tm), but with some strikingly obvious warts.
The moment-to-moment action is really enjoyable when playing as bayonetta herself; unlike Bayo2, witch time is strong but not overly generous - the new enemies have tricky attack animations that "catch" less frequently on your dodge frames, in addition to tighter hitboxes. The problem here is mostly that its Easy To Not Have To Dodge At All because the enemies just Dont Hit You.
The new weapon system leaves something to be desired. Designwise the new tools are great, as always, but losing the interchangeable hands/feet weapon equip slots hurts. You never feel like you have enough options, despite having roughly the same amount of discrete tools at your disposal at a given time.
The summon system is fun, if not spectacular in motion. Having madama butterfly explode out of a circle of blood and do a seismic tetsuzanko that clears an entire room is viscerally satisfying, but the thrill leaves just as fast as it sets in. The summons are either crushingly powerful or pathetically limp and difficult to parse, often grinding the forward momentum of individual verses to a painful, tooth-grinding crawl. you Can just elect to not use them, but you then cut the nose off of your proverbial face.
---
I have a sneaking suspicion that some in the platinum games office enjoyed working on Nier Automata a bit too much, to bayonetta's detriment. The quirky direction changes of automata rear their head in a much uglier way here - derailing the action for many, Many slow and gimmicky setpieces. 1 had them, 2 had them in spades, and 3 follows its elder sibling's precedent. They totally kill the pace of the game and make me never want to replay this one, even if it sucks to know ill never get those platinums.
This is the main issue 3 seems to have, it doesn't know when to turn off the charm and just make you fucking play. Automata's gameplay left-turns were largely a carryover from Nier Replicant's tortured, low-budget development - the gameplay version of Citizen Kane's parrot to keep the audience awake. Here, they just seem baffling. They're cool to watch, occasionally cool to play (thank you, wartrain gouon), but crushingly boring to think about replaying. I just wanna do combos for fucks sake.
---
Ive finished it. The great beast is dead.
Team little angels, there is not a force on this earth that could shield you from my wrath.
The moment-to-moment action is really enjoyable when playing as bayonetta herself; unlike Bayo2, witch time is strong but not overly generous - the new enemies have tricky attack animations that "catch" less frequently on your dodge frames, in addition to tighter hitboxes. The problem here is mostly that its Easy To Not Have To Dodge At All because the enemies just Dont Hit You.
The new weapon system leaves something to be desired. Designwise the new tools are great, as always, but losing the interchangeable hands/feet weapon equip slots hurts. You never feel like you have enough options, despite having roughly the same amount of discrete tools at your disposal at a given time.
The summon system is fun, if not spectacular in motion. Having madama butterfly explode out of a circle of blood and do a seismic tetsuzanko that clears an entire room is viscerally satisfying, but the thrill leaves just as fast as it sets in. The summons are either crushingly powerful or pathetically limp and difficult to parse, often grinding the forward momentum of individual verses to a painful, tooth-grinding crawl. you Can just elect to not use them, but you then cut the nose off of your proverbial face.
---
I have a sneaking suspicion that some in the platinum games office enjoyed working on Nier Automata a bit too much, to bayonetta's detriment. The quirky direction changes of automata rear their head in a much uglier way here - derailing the action for many, Many slow and gimmicky setpieces. 1 had them, 2 had them in spades, and 3 follows its elder sibling's precedent. They totally kill the pace of the game and make me never want to replay this one, even if it sucks to know ill never get those platinums.
This is the main issue 3 seems to have, it doesn't know when to turn off the charm and just make you fucking play. Automata's gameplay left-turns were largely a carryover from Nier Replicant's tortured, low-budget development - the gameplay version of Citizen Kane's parrot to keep the audience awake. Here, they just seem baffling. They're cool to watch, occasionally cool to play (thank you, wartrain gouon), but crushingly boring to think about replaying. I just wanna do combos for fucks sake.
---
Ive finished it. The great beast is dead.
Team little angels, there is not a force on this earth that could shield you from my wrath.
I’m honestly devastated by just how disappointing this turned out for me. Early 2022 this was my most anticipated game. I loved both games and have been a big fan of Platinum Games work in the past. This should have been my favorite switch game period. So what happened?
Is it Viola, the faildaughter who only exists to make Luka look competent in comparison? While she got on my nerves, I did play this after the most recent patch so she wasn’t nearly as unplayable with her block mechanic as I imagined she was back at launch. She is still immensely inferior as a block focused character compared to Raiden from Revengeance.
Is it the voice actor mess? If anything it helped lower my expectations!
The story? It’s certainly bad, but by making this a multiverse tale, I had no real investment with what happened to this Bayonetta anyway. I didn’t skip any cutscene to give it a chance, but it felt shockingly safe for a series and developer known for doing the unexpected.
My big problem is the combat. I’ve seen people praising this as an equal to the original and I immensely disagree. I don’t think I liked a single new weapon added to this game. It didn’t help that the camera in this entry was so zoomed out in comparison to the first two games, I didn’t get the time to see how weapon combos truly differentiated from each other. The new monster summoning mechanic didn’t feel right either. By having them around at all times, the cool factor of summoning the big monsters drains fast.
I almost considered calling this the Devil May Cry 2 of Bayonetta, but that would be an exaggeration. There were clearly some good ideas in here that couldn’t be delivered on due to a troubled development cycle. While I’m glad this finally came out, I will never play this again.
Is it Viola, the faildaughter who only exists to make Luka look competent in comparison? While she got on my nerves, I did play this after the most recent patch so she wasn’t nearly as unplayable with her block mechanic as I imagined she was back at launch. She is still immensely inferior as a block focused character compared to Raiden from Revengeance.
Is it the voice actor mess? If anything it helped lower my expectations!
The story? It’s certainly bad, but by making this a multiverse tale, I had no real investment with what happened to this Bayonetta anyway. I didn’t skip any cutscene to give it a chance, but it felt shockingly safe for a series and developer known for doing the unexpected.
My big problem is the combat. I’ve seen people praising this as an equal to the original and I immensely disagree. I don’t think I liked a single new weapon added to this game. It didn’t help that the camera in this entry was so zoomed out in comparison to the first two games, I didn’t get the time to see how weapon combos truly differentiated from each other. The new monster summoning mechanic didn’t feel right either. By having them around at all times, the cool factor of summoning the big monsters drains fast.
I almost considered calling this the Devil May Cry 2 of Bayonetta, but that would be an exaggeration. There were clearly some good ideas in here that couldn’t be delivered on due to a troubled development cycle. While I’m glad this finally came out, I will never play this again.
In a post-Elden Ring, post-Sekiro, and hell even a post-Devil May Cry 5 world, its hard to look at this game and really look forward to anything Platinum Games puts out next. This was the one where they werent working for anybody but themselves.
for the longest time i wondered why i never heard anyone talk about this game - outside of the voice actor drama at launch, that is. past that i never heard a word about it, good or bad. now i get why.
yeah, this one's not good. it's not all bad, though - probably the biggest highlight is that bayonetta's combat didn't take a massive dip in quality like everything else did. lots of weapons that are decently fun and flashy, and while different skill trees for each one took a while of getting used to it feels great once you find your favorites. that being said, demon combat doesn't feel as great, and i usually only pulled it out if i got bored with button mashing. for the most part though, eviscerating enemies with the yoyo was fun enough to keep me engaged throughout the whole thing. same as ever, even if it's a bit easy sometimes. it falters a bit more when you're doing kaiju fights (which is just RPS) or other shit like the on-rails sections, but they don't slow things down too too much.
honestly, that might actually be the only nice thing i can say about this one, and even that's a bit of a stretch. every moment you're not actively playing as bayonetta feels fucking horrible. the jeanne stealth sections are completely worthless filler that made me wanna die every time i was forced through one, and the viola sections may have honestly been worse. why the fuck would you intersperse your high-speed hack and slash with an objectively worse, clunkier comic relief character? why is block a different button from bayo's dodge so i need to re-train my muscle memory every time i go into the Viola Zone? why are there so many bullshit filler sections that drag things out even more?
i know every single review here is dogging on the story in some form or another, but that doesn't do it justice for how bad it really is. the bullshit, edgy-ass multiverse plot fueled by an uninteresting antagonist has zero emotional impact, especially when every single world plays out the exact same. enter new universe > kill hordes of identical enemies > watch underfell bayonetta die > get taunted by cloud face man i'm supposed to be taking seriously > repeat. the moments of campiness and bayonetta's extreme overconfidence are few and far between (though when you do see them it's pretty good), which is a damn shame because that's the entire point of the older games! her character has been completely demolished in this one - she pretty much spends the entire game pointing guns at people begging her to kill them while she looks like she's trying to force some sort of emotion. not to mention the ending in general, or whatever the fuck is going on with her and luka - ole dusty ass could NEVER bag her in a million years, i'm sorry. this game's story is like if you put bugs bunny in a saw movie and expected him to take it seriously.
the only reason this gets two stars is because it's absolutely carried by the combat, and even that's a stretch. just skip this one - there's nothing here that bayo 1/2 aren't leagues better at, and if the series somehow survives into this "new generation" they're teasing i'll give everyone who likes this post a hundred bucks.
also the scene where viola's ass gets lit on fire felt exactly like someone trying to sneak in their obscure fetish. didn't like that!
yeah, this one's not good. it's not all bad, though - probably the biggest highlight is that bayonetta's combat didn't take a massive dip in quality like everything else did. lots of weapons that are decently fun and flashy, and while different skill trees for each one took a while of getting used to it feels great once you find your favorites. that being said, demon combat doesn't feel as great, and i usually only pulled it out if i got bored with button mashing. for the most part though, eviscerating enemies with the yoyo was fun enough to keep me engaged throughout the whole thing. same as ever, even if it's a bit easy sometimes. it falters a bit more when you're doing kaiju fights (which is just RPS) or other shit like the on-rails sections, but they don't slow things down too too much.
honestly, that might actually be the only nice thing i can say about this one, and even that's a bit of a stretch. every moment you're not actively playing as bayonetta feels fucking horrible. the jeanne stealth sections are completely worthless filler that made me wanna die every time i was forced through one, and the viola sections may have honestly been worse. why the fuck would you intersperse your high-speed hack and slash with an objectively worse, clunkier comic relief character? why is block a different button from bayo's dodge so i need to re-train my muscle memory every time i go into the Viola Zone? why are there so many bullshit filler sections that drag things out even more?
i know every single review here is dogging on the story in some form or another, but that doesn't do it justice for how bad it really is. the bullshit, edgy-ass multiverse plot fueled by an uninteresting antagonist has zero emotional impact, especially when every single world plays out the exact same. enter new universe > kill hordes of identical enemies > watch underfell bayonetta die > get taunted by cloud face man i'm supposed to be taking seriously > repeat. the moments of campiness and bayonetta's extreme overconfidence are few and far between (though when you do see them it's pretty good), which is a damn shame because that's the entire point of the older games! her character has been completely demolished in this one - she pretty much spends the entire game pointing guns at people begging her to kill them while she looks like she's trying to force some sort of emotion. not to mention the ending in general, or whatever the fuck is going on with her and luka - ole dusty ass could NEVER bag her in a million years, i'm sorry. this game's story is like if you put bugs bunny in a saw movie and expected him to take it seriously.
the only reason this gets two stars is because it's absolutely carried by the combat, and even that's a stretch. just skip this one - there's nothing here that bayo 1/2 aren't leagues better at, and if the series somehow survives into this "new generation" they're teasing i'll give everyone who likes this post a hundred bucks.
also the scene where viola's ass gets lit on fire felt exactly like someone trying to sneak in their obscure fetish. didn't like that!
Algum dia eu faço um textão de muitas linhas sobre isso aqui. Meu GOTY pessoal de 2022 e uma das melhores (primeira) experiências que tive com videogame
Viola best girl don't @ me
Viola best girl don't @ me
I'm conflicted
Jeanne had been done filthy & Viola is cool but not enough to replace Bayonetta. If this is their concept of modifying the Bayonetta franchise they have failed miserably. I hope Cereza is back in the lead if they ever decide to make a 4th game. This game just didn't provide the same allure as the previous two games.
Jeanne had been done filthy & Viola is cool but not enough to replace Bayonetta. If this is their concept of modifying the Bayonetta franchise they have failed miserably. I hope Cereza is back in the lead if they ever decide to make a 4th game. This game just didn't provide the same allure as the previous two games.
This review contains spoilers
Overall I liked this game for its gameplay and slight visual upgrades compared to its predecessors, but the biggest issue I had was the story. I know you aren’t really playing these games for the story and are rather playing for the gameplay (which don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved the new gameplay and the different weapon variants were extremely fun to use), but the way they decided to take the story can’t be ignored. It feels completely random and doesn’t really fit in when compared to the other two games.
Spoilers from here forward:
The way they decided to implement the multiverse content story wise is very weird. It should’ve had more to do with paradisio and inferno like the previous entries. I’m sure the writers could’ve found a way to make a multiverse from those two realms and not used the realm of chaos as the way to incorporate it. I preferred the focus on the heaven/hell aspect of the first two games but now with these alien multiverse creatures being the main focus they basically just threw that concept out of the window (besides the occasional reference/fight). I get what the writers were trying to do in creating an enemy of the world of chaos like inferno and paradisio have but like I said the focus on heaven/hell is what the series was built on and throwing it out seemingly randomly without any setup in Bayonetta 2 (besides maybe when she travels to the past at the end of the game, but then you’d expect the multiverse to come from inferno) is kind of weird to me.
The chapters where you don’t play as Bayonetta are also pretty weak and essentially feel like filler content. The Jeanne chapters are fairly inoffensive since they’re so short but feel like the definition of filler (however the Cowboy Bebop intro reference is so good). Viola is also a topic of discussion but the issues I had with her are the same as what I have with the multiverse, very random and not set up well. They don’t tell you at the beginning her importance so when you play as her a few chapters later it feels like a chore and more filler content that you don’t care about.
On the final chapter/boss, it was legitimately the most random thing ever with absolutely zero setup. The “final boss” feels like it’s just randomly introduced at the end without any build up. On the contrary, I thought the Bayo 1 & 2 fan service was super cool when they brought in the Bayonetta’s from both previous games to fight along side the third one but at the same time it feels like they just randomly appeared for no reason. Also after completing the game you’re really left with more questions than answers. There’s almost no explanation of Viola’s story in the entire game so you feel zero connection to her during your entire play through. It’s only explained very briefly when the credits end. And seeing that she’s going to be the new protagonist of the series I really don’t like the direction they’re going in with it.
Overall I thought the game was a decent experience outside of story. Gameplay is loads of fun with the new weapons/movement and is definitely what I’d expect to see in a sequel. Same for graphics, even if it’s running on switch it looks vastly improved compared to its 360/PS3 and Wii U era counterparts. Only issue was the story and the direction they took in this game/how the series is going to move forward but nothing we can do about it now.
(Side note: loved the references to other media in this game. It references Shin Godzilla, Cowboy Bebop, Metal Gear, Metroid, Terminator, and Spider-Man to name a few.)
Spoilers from here forward:
The way they decided to implement the multiverse content story wise is very weird. It should’ve had more to do with paradisio and inferno like the previous entries. I’m sure the writers could’ve found a way to make a multiverse from those two realms and not used the realm of chaos as the way to incorporate it. I preferred the focus on the heaven/hell aspect of the first two games but now with these alien multiverse creatures being the main focus they basically just threw that concept out of the window (besides the occasional reference/fight). I get what the writers were trying to do in creating an enemy of the world of chaos like inferno and paradisio have but like I said the focus on heaven/hell is what the series was built on and throwing it out seemingly randomly without any setup in Bayonetta 2 (besides maybe when she travels to the past at the end of the game, but then you’d expect the multiverse to come from inferno) is kind of weird to me.
The chapters where you don’t play as Bayonetta are also pretty weak and essentially feel like filler content. The Jeanne chapters are fairly inoffensive since they’re so short but feel like the definition of filler (however the Cowboy Bebop intro reference is so good). Viola is also a topic of discussion but the issues I had with her are the same as what I have with the multiverse, very random and not set up well. They don’t tell you at the beginning her importance so when you play as her a few chapters later it feels like a chore and more filler content that you don’t care about.
On the final chapter/boss, it was legitimately the most random thing ever with absolutely zero setup. The “final boss” feels like it’s just randomly introduced at the end without any build up. On the contrary, I thought the Bayo 1 & 2 fan service was super cool when they brought in the Bayonetta’s from both previous games to fight along side the third one but at the same time it feels like they just randomly appeared for no reason. Also after completing the game you’re really left with more questions than answers. There’s almost no explanation of Viola’s story in the entire game so you feel zero connection to her during your entire play through. It’s only explained very briefly when the credits end. And seeing that she’s going to be the new protagonist of the series I really don’t like the direction they’re going in with it.
Overall I thought the game was a decent experience outside of story. Gameplay is loads of fun with the new weapons/movement and is definitely what I’d expect to see in a sequel. Same for graphics, even if it’s running on switch it looks vastly improved compared to its 360/PS3 and Wii U era counterparts. Only issue was the story and the direction they took in this game/how the series is going to move forward but nothing we can do about it now.
(Side note: loved the references to other media in this game. It references Shin Godzilla, Cowboy Bebop, Metal Gear, Metroid, Terminator, and Spider-Man to name a few.)
I miss being able to equip two weapons to Bayonetta like you could in 1 and 2, but the individual weapons are a little more fleshed out because they all use two buttons now. The Demon Slave is pretty clearly a spin on Astral Chain's Legion mechanics, but it adds a lot of variety to the game and it feels great to weave normal and demon attacks into a massive combo. My only real complaint is that Viola's Witch Time is kind of bad, but if you use the Evil Harvest Rosary on her she suddenly has a super reliable counter. I'm pretty sure this wouldn't work on her two Witch Time challenges, but in normal gameplay it makes her way more enjoyable.
I don't know how to exactly pinpoint how I feel about this game because while that's a 3.5 score, Bayonetta 3 has some of the highest high's of the trilogy and also some of the lowest low's as well. It's lacking the consistency in quality of the previous two games, but exchanges it for sheer ridiculous overload in ambition and absurdity at such a scale that it was basically impossible not to have a grin on my face having a good time.
For every section that kind of sucks in Bayo 3, within 5-10 minutes the game would do something batshit insane that would make me forgive it immediately afterwards.
The story may be a trainwreck, but it's still a good excuse for goofy wild stuff to happen. The framerate may be a mess and... that's probably less forgivable even with knowing how outdated the Switch's hardware is and what Platinum is trying to pull off on here. The first couple chapters are in an empty gray monotone city (Platinum's favorite for several console gens now), but then every location afterwards is new and unique even for Bayonetta standards. The combat may have less depth than the previous two games and Viola's gameplay needed so much more polishing, but the sheer spectacle of it all never ceased to be entertaining and at least for me made up for it. As a fan? I still had a blast with Bayonetta 3 and I think it's a worthy entry in the series, even if I'm worried for what Platinum will have to pull off in the future to continue from here.
Oh, and Jennifer Hale does such a good job, honestly I think her performance is better than Taylor's in terms of pulling off different variants of the same character and also making sounds and lines during gameplay engaging and effective (something that Taylor's work struggled with in the previous two games). Voice actors deserve to be paid more in general, but Hale didn't deserve any of the shit that came her way during that whole debacle.
For every section that kind of sucks in Bayo 3, within 5-10 minutes the game would do something batshit insane that would make me forgive it immediately afterwards.
The story may be a trainwreck, but it's still a good excuse for goofy wild stuff to happen. The framerate may be a mess and... that's probably less forgivable even with knowing how outdated the Switch's hardware is and what Platinum is trying to pull off on here. The first couple chapters are in an empty gray monotone city (Platinum's favorite for several console gens now), but then every location afterwards is new and unique even for Bayonetta standards. The combat may have less depth than the previous two games and Viola's gameplay needed so much more polishing, but the sheer spectacle of it all never ceased to be entertaining and at least for me made up for it. As a fan? I still had a blast with Bayonetta 3 and I think it's a worthy entry in the series, even if I'm worried for what Platinum will have to pull off in the future to continue from here.
Oh, and Jennifer Hale does such a good job, honestly I think her performance is better than Taylor's in terms of pulling off different variants of the same character and also making sounds and lines during gameplay engaging and effective (something that Taylor's work struggled with in the previous two games). Voice actors deserve to be paid more in general, but Hale didn't deserve any of the shit that came her way during that whole debacle.
The weakest Bayonetta in the series. The game feels like they made half of it, played DMC 5, and then tried really hard to force in a similar "passing the torch" story without the same setup DMC had. Viola feels like a joke character for the entire game, and the ending fell very flat for me.
But if you just want to play Bayonetta, it's still Bayonetta. Probably the best it's ever played. I hate that I don't like this game.
But if you just want to play Bayonetta, it's still Bayonetta. Probably the best it's ever played. I hate that I don't like this game.
Now all we need is Metroid Prime 4
7/10
Just as Bayonetta was a response to the Devil May Cry series, a lot of Bayonetta 3's choices make it feel like a response to Devil May Cry 5 specifically. The somewhat melancholy beats in the story, the bombastic celebratory feeling of wrapping up a saga, the switching between characters, even the fun challenges outside of combat verses that I can't help but think were added because so many people complained about DMC5 being all combat... maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it all feels a bit too familiar. And similar to the former situation, I think that despite both being extremely quality games that I would take either of in a heartbeat, I think Bayonetta 3 outclasses its competitor... if only by just a bit.
It's not a perfect game to be sure, but it looks to be an easy best in the series for me.
I think 3 manages to hit pretty darn close to 1's nice levels of balance (there are a couple abilities and weapons that feel slightly overtuned, but thankfully the giant demons are kept pretty well in check compared to Umbran Climax) while keeping 2's immaculate presentation and feeling of being on a crazy roller coaster ride the whole way through, creating a perfect formula for excitement. Bayonetta feels wonderful to control as per usual and has plenty of options, and newcomer Viola is a welcome change of pace that had me playing her every chance I got (though her Witch Time parry window took some MAJOR adjustment). The genre bending here is incredible and at times I was howling at how creative they had gotten. Given there are some tiny missteps here I think, I think the gameplay style of the Side Chapters specifically were a novel idea but had the most misses for me, especially the first two which are probably my least favorite stages in the game. Despite this, I don’t think there’s a single segment I really dread getting to on a replay, which I feel is a marked improvement.
I enjoyed the story, though it's about what you would expect from one of these games; there is a little bit of asspullery afoot (especially in regards to Luka’s character, though maybe it’s just been too long), but the series has always had some of that here and there and I can forgive it for some truly exciting and fun moments with these characters. I absolutely ADORED Viola being a complete dork with the facade of having it together, it made for some of the story's best moments as the complete polar opposite of Bayonetta (who continues to steal the show as usual). I won’t say too much more, but this is a great celebration of Bayonetta as a series, and color me very excited for wherever they choose to go next.
I’m sure you may know where I’m going when I say unfortunately this game has one big undeniable flaw: the presentation. Don’t get me wrong, the cutscenes are great as always, the music is the best in the series, the art style remains awesome, every aspect owns… except for the fact that the Switch is absolutely dying trying to run this game. I do think the performance is being singled out a bit too much, it could be much better but I think it’s fairly consistent at least and very rarely drops into the realm of being unplayable. I also think that Platinum’s engine is taking a bit too much blame as it feels pretty clear that they did some heavy work on it to add more detail and I can see it scaling pretty well to more powerful hardware (perhaps the reason for these presentation issues).
But the resolution was consistently a problem. The game is a bit of a pixely mess all the way through, and it’s especially bad in the action-heavy opening chapters. It makes it even funnier that they featured a photo mode, because despite trying excessively I could barely ever even get a picture that looked serviceable. I really hope they put in some optimization work post-launch, up the resolution for whenever the Switch successor comes along, just something, because this game deserves to be seen in its full glory.
All that said, I adored my time with this game. In a year where my gaming motivation has been about as finicky as it ever has been, Bayonetta 3 grabbed my attention and held it hard. This is definitely a new all-timer for me, and I couldn’t be happier that it lived up to the hype.
It's not a perfect game to be sure, but it looks to be an easy best in the series for me.
I think 3 manages to hit pretty darn close to 1's nice levels of balance (there are a couple abilities and weapons that feel slightly overtuned, but thankfully the giant demons are kept pretty well in check compared to Umbran Climax) while keeping 2's immaculate presentation and feeling of being on a crazy roller coaster ride the whole way through, creating a perfect formula for excitement. Bayonetta feels wonderful to control as per usual and has plenty of options, and newcomer Viola is a welcome change of pace that had me playing her every chance I got (though her Witch Time parry window took some MAJOR adjustment). The genre bending here is incredible and at times I was howling at how creative they had gotten. Given there are some tiny missteps here I think, I think the gameplay style of the Side Chapters specifically were a novel idea but had the most misses for me, especially the first two which are probably my least favorite stages in the game. Despite this, I don’t think there’s a single segment I really dread getting to on a replay, which I feel is a marked improvement.
I enjoyed the story, though it's about what you would expect from one of these games; there is a little bit of asspullery afoot (especially in regards to Luka’s character, though maybe it’s just been too long), but the series has always had some of that here and there and I can forgive it for some truly exciting and fun moments with these characters. I absolutely ADORED Viola being a complete dork with the facade of having it together, it made for some of the story's best moments as the complete polar opposite of Bayonetta (who continues to steal the show as usual). I won’t say too much more, but this is a great celebration of Bayonetta as a series, and color me very excited for wherever they choose to go next.
I’m sure you may know where I’m going when I say unfortunately this game has one big undeniable flaw: the presentation. Don’t get me wrong, the cutscenes are great as always, the music is the best in the series, the art style remains awesome, every aspect owns… except for the fact that the Switch is absolutely dying trying to run this game. I do think the performance is being singled out a bit too much, it could be much better but I think it’s fairly consistent at least and very rarely drops into the realm of being unplayable. I also think that Platinum’s engine is taking a bit too much blame as it feels pretty clear that they did some heavy work on it to add more detail and I can see it scaling pretty well to more powerful hardware (perhaps the reason for these presentation issues).
But the resolution was consistently a problem. The game is a bit of a pixely mess all the way through, and it’s especially bad in the action-heavy opening chapters. It makes it even funnier that they featured a photo mode, because despite trying excessively I could barely ever even get a picture that looked serviceable. I really hope they put in some optimization work post-launch, up the resolution for whenever the Switch successor comes along, just something, because this game deserves to be seen in its full glory.
All that said, I adored my time with this game. In a year where my gaming motivation has been about as finicky as it ever has been, Bayonetta 3 grabbed my attention and held it hard. This is definitely a new all-timer for me, and I couldn’t be happier that it lived up to the hype.
Another one of those games that’s fun when you don’t have a bitch in your ear
I didn't think you could fuck these games up but I've been proven wrong
Why’d they give the frog tits
The backloggd tagline for this game is certainly accurate alright. We sure have waited long enough for this game, I think almost 5 years judging by the date of the initial reveal teaser. Come October 2022, all the many excruciating years of waiting and coping with "there is no news" memes had finally come to a close. Although not necessarily helping things is the major voice acting controversy that came towards the tail end of the game's release, with the original Bayonetta voice actress Helena Taylor...basically lying saying she was getting paid for much less than usual. I never really got around to playing and finishing this until a few months after launch (I had too many games on backlog to finish that I was more interested in playing), which is...notably bizarre. Bayonetta is one of my favorite franchises...EVER. Why would I ever want to hold off on playing the long awaited 3rd entry in this franchise? Maybe it was all the controversies surrounding the VA and even the story that deterred me from playing at least somewhat.
I mean if we're gonna start off this review talking about the story, I don't really have much to say on this matter...or, wait, actually I do. It sucks. In fact, I would go as far as to say it REALLY sucks, and part of that reason is because it's just so...boring and repetitive. You see the same sort of things play out over and over again, Singularity is a forgettable villain with not much to his motivations outside of "I'm bad and I want to destroy da world", a lot of big reveals and dramatic revelations ring incredibly hollow because you don't really care about what's going on, and there are even issues I have beyond that. Bayo's personality herself is so much...lesser than what it was in 1 and 2, and idk how much of this is just because "oh we're playing a different Bayo from a different Universe" or whatever. And yeah...a big part of that is the acting. Look, I know Helena is never ever ever ever ever going to come back, she screwed over her own chances basically permanently. And I think Jennifer Hale does a decent enough job playing Bayo, she has a couple of cool deliveries and she'll only get better and more experienced with time, but that's the problem. Currently it just sounds like she's PLAYING a character instead of BEING a character. There's so much confident playfulness and energy in Helena's performance that's just not here at all, it feels empty. I do like Viola a whole lot though. Maybe not so much them shoehorning her to ||REDACTED|| but I just love her goofball dorky personality and her voice actress did a great job with her too. There are some good highlights that put a smile on my face, either for the sake of zany silliness or the overall hype factor of "WTF WHAT JUST HAPPENED", but these moments should be just that: moments. Things to supplement what should've been an otherwise engaging narrative. I mean I know Bayonetta stories don't exactly have a good pedigree, but man at the very least I actually KINDA felt something with the previous 2 stories, this story had me feeling empty and devoid of interest. Overall though the story was just mostly boring and repetitive fluff that also managed to piss off a lot of fans for a multitude of reasons. Maaaaaaybe later games can correct, fix or "explain" to try and help the events of 3's story seem less bleh, but at this point I just want a story I can get invested in, and this fails to deliver on almost all fronts.
But of course, Bayonetta excels as a game first and foremost. So how exactly does this element hold up? To tell you the truth it's somewhat...mixed. For one I can say I appreciate how fresh and innovative this game is, it feels less like a tired sequel just doing its thing and going through the motions, it feels like there was a genuine effort to reinvent the wheel and see how many new ways they can improve the game, it's just that not all of it works. I mean, if we're talking raw combat, it's arguably the best this franchise has seen thus far. You once again have a multitude of attacks at your disposal (honestly to an overwhelming degree), with all sorts of heavy finishers, launchers, ground to air combos, combos with special properties, pause delayed combos, etc. Witch Time is back to how it was in Bayo 1, enemies behave better than 2 so no more of that pesky permablocking out of your attacks, and good lord the weapon variety is out of this world. You get stuff like a spinning fire yo yo, a microphone stand that can give you stat buffs temporarily, a magician hat and wand that can do literal magic tricks, razor sharp fans and even a chainsaw that looks like a choo choo train...a trainsaw, if you will. There's so much crazy variety to the combos you can pull off, even if you can't equip different parts to your hands and feet anymore, they're more so just static weapon sets you switch between. Demon masquerade is the first new mechanic introduced and it's basically just the different wicked weaves like before, though instead of summoning the limbs of a demon to initiate the finisher, Bayo transforms into a demon to perform the finisher herself. The main difference lies in the different forms of traversal. Personally I thought the butterfly form's glide and dash were all I needed but I really liked swinging on the spider form like a grotesque Spider-Woman, and seeing Bayo dress up as a half demon conductor half train hybrid was equal parts disturbing and hilarious. All this is great and all but unfortunately, much like DMC4, good combat alone is not enough to prop up an entire campaign: there has to be good elements around it to make the package a cohesive highlight.
The second new mechanic is Demon Slave, Bayonetta literally controls the Infernal Demons directly like a puppetmaster and has them fight the enemy directly. Bayonetta herself is completely vulnerable to attacks while she dances to control them. This gameplay mechanic is not something I enjoy, even in this game. Like, I do think it's more fun and is better handled than V's gameplay in DMC5, and there are some neat quirks to it like being able to cancel out of it entirely to swap back and forth, and even the ability to queue up attacks while you use Bayo herself, but fundamentally I don't think controlling someone else to attack for you has ever once felt right, especially in a game like this. It feels incredibly sluggish, disjointed and honestly somewhat disorienting, because you're not the one initiating these attacks directly, you have someone else do it. There is some cool interplay you can do with Bayo's standard combat arsenal and Demon Slave, how you can use DS to stun otherwise giant heavy enemies unaffected by Bayo herself, and by doing so you can seamlessly launch and juggle them as normal Bayo. There's a lot of crazy creative setups by people pushing to be Donguri level MLG pro at this game which is great, and you can even use the summons as a secondary finish with Wink Slave, something introduced in Astral Chain a while back. The problem is that the game...doesn't really WANT you to do this. The scoring system is so heavily skewered to you spamming Demon Slave to get a platinum or above, and that just isn't fun. When I'm busy styling on regular common enemies with different weapon switches and maybe an infernal summon startup combo every now and then, only to be greeted by a gold medal because I didn't use the giant monsters enough, I start to get deflated. On top of this, the camera stays locked where Bayonetta is so trying to figure out what direction these big lugs are facing even further complicates things, particularly an annoyance with the Umbran Clock Tower.
Speaking of the camera...jeez louise guys, what happened here? It's so easy for the camera to be lost or obscured by basically everything, because the game constantly has you fight enemies that fill up the entire screen and has you fight them with allies that...ALSO fill up the entire screen. Everything becomes far too cluttered and unintelligible far too often. What's worse, you can also get completely blindsided by something OFF SCREEN. This is just baffling to me considering that this WASN'T an issue in the previous 2 games, because they did the DMC thing where enemies stop attacking when they're off camera, but here I guess they just forgot?
Viola is the new playable character, and while she is fun (her katana is satisfying to use), she feels less like a unique character and more so just a slightly different Bayonetta. To bring up an analogy, Nero in DMC4 and 5 had things that separated him from Dante, not only did he have his buster and devil bringer as an enemy grapple and shield breaking attack (and in 5 he has the breakers that each have different abilities), but he ALSO had Red Queen's unique properties of having every attack have different stages of "charge" you could rev up mid combo that changed how they executed. The problem with Viola is that Bayonetta can do...pretty much everything Viola can already do. A fast slashing weapon? She has that. You can charge it for more damage? She has that too. Parry for Witch Time? There's an accessory. A single demon summon? Bayo has like 15 of em and can swap between 3 equipped demons seamlessly. The most unique thing about Viola is her faerie form (which is somewhat different than the standard super attack Bayo can perform) and the fact that her one demon, Cheshire, attacks automatically; Viola doesn't control him. Meaning she can actually attack independently while Cheshire does his own thing, albeit she fights bare handed without her katana. I kinda like this idea, and barring wink slave I do wish you could have more interplay with Cheshire in general.
This game's structure is largely the same, chapter based point A to point B levels with verses to be graded on to evaluate the chapter's overall performance, but this time they decided to make the levels absolutely ENORMOUS. Most of this was done to accommodate for Demon Slave but this unfortunately has a negative impact on traversal as levels take too long to meander through and finish. There's a surplus of extra stuff to find per usual: Niflheim portals, Umbran tears of blood (this time as different animals than just crows), treasure chests full of either witch hearts or moon pearls, hidden verses containing fights against the usual Angel enemies (because screw it, they aren't doing anything in this story) or Bayo 2's demons, there are even some hidden platforming challenges that, while I would normally appreciate, they feel awkward to execute because of how they changed the traversal mechanics from Bayo 1 and 2 to 3. Eventually though, I just stopped caring about any of it and just wanted to get a move on, there's no good reason why these places are so unnecessarily huge, it's just a hassle to simply explore because if you do so then you waste like 30 or so minutes when you're not even halfway done with a chapter.
There's also an important disclaimer I'd like to give you: if you're a fan of Kamiya inserting wacky gimmicky minigames or alternate playstyles, then you're going to LOVE this game because Kamiya's nonsense is practically nonstop all throughout. Jeanne has entirely 2D stealth sections, there's a minigame where you play a 2D, 3D AND a top down shootemup section all in one go, you ride on spiraling rooftops, you ride on a train to shoot down enemies, you play as a giant demon that pierces the clouds and then proceeds to use the clouds to...blow bubbles to trap enemies in them, you get a rhythm minigame and even a giant rock paper scissors kaiju boxing match, it's flat out unrelenting. I find Kamiya's typical nonsensical distractions to be charming at best (that one motorcycle ride in Bayo 1), annoying at worst (Bayo 1 Space Harrier and the DMC1 underwater shooting sections), and Bayo 3's are mostly ok I find. Though because of these constant distractions the entire game feels somewhat uneven as the game throws everything and the kitchen sink at you, but if you're a fan of these, you'll have a good time.
Visually Bayonetta 3 is...decent. That's the best I can come up with it. The backgrounds are vast and full of eye candy but the areas are super dull and muted, not to the degree of Bayonetta 1 but it's nowhere NEAR as vibrant and full of color and detail that 2 has. The textures are dodgy, and this game doesn't run particularly amazingly. It's not like, Bayo 1 on PS3 levels of unplayable, most of the time it FELT like it got close to 60fps, but the moments when the game does chug and slow down are frequent and super apparent (love having this franchise locked on the Switch yessirrrrrrr :DDDD). I do love the enemy designs though, they're super creative and detailed, even if it means that a lot of the attacks the big homunculi enemies have just sorta blend together. The music is phenomenal though, chock full of original bangers and AMAZING remixes of classic Bayo tunes. Might actually be my favorite of the entire series. Not even kidding.
Overall though, while this is definitely a good game unquestionably, I can't help but feel disappointed by Bayonetta 3. The story being as bad as it is would be one thing but I've grown sorta numb to Bayo's stories so I'm not super angry at it. While the gameplay is tight and tries to innovate with so many different interesting ideas, so many of these ideas feel annoying or half baked, like they threw darts at a dart board to see what sticks and went "sure why not, put that in there". This is unfortunately the weakest game in the series for me. This game is good, again don't misunderstand me, I still had a pretty good time playing it, but since I consider the other 2 games to be absolute masterclasses when it comes to action games, having this one just be "good" is kind of a major step back for a franchise as wild as Bayonetta. After the upcoming release of Cereza and the Lost Demon, I can only wonder what they'll do for the franchise going forward, and if we'll have to wait like 5+ years again for it to come out. Time will truly tell.
The shadow remains cast.
I mean if we're gonna start off this review talking about the story, I don't really have much to say on this matter...or, wait, actually I do. It sucks. In fact, I would go as far as to say it REALLY sucks, and part of that reason is because it's just so...boring and repetitive. You see the same sort of things play out over and over again, Singularity is a forgettable villain with not much to his motivations outside of "I'm bad and I want to destroy da world", a lot of big reveals and dramatic revelations ring incredibly hollow because you don't really care about what's going on, and there are even issues I have beyond that. Bayo's personality herself is so much...lesser than what it was in 1 and 2, and idk how much of this is just because "oh we're playing a different Bayo from a different Universe" or whatever. And yeah...a big part of that is the acting. Look, I know Helena is never ever ever ever ever going to come back, she screwed over her own chances basically permanently. And I think Jennifer Hale does a decent enough job playing Bayo, she has a couple of cool deliveries and she'll only get better and more experienced with time, but that's the problem. Currently it just sounds like she's PLAYING a character instead of BEING a character. There's so much confident playfulness and energy in Helena's performance that's just not here at all, it feels empty. I do like Viola a whole lot though. Maybe not so much them shoehorning her to ||REDACTED|| but I just love her goofball dorky personality and her voice actress did a great job with her too. There are some good highlights that put a smile on my face, either for the sake of zany silliness or the overall hype factor of "WTF WHAT JUST HAPPENED", but these moments should be just that: moments. Things to supplement what should've been an otherwise engaging narrative. I mean I know Bayonetta stories don't exactly have a good pedigree, but man at the very least I actually KINDA felt something with the previous 2 stories, this story had me feeling empty and devoid of interest. Overall though the story was just mostly boring and repetitive fluff that also managed to piss off a lot of fans for a multitude of reasons. Maaaaaaybe later games can correct, fix or "explain" to try and help the events of 3's story seem less bleh, but at this point I just want a story I can get invested in, and this fails to deliver on almost all fronts.
But of course, Bayonetta excels as a game first and foremost. So how exactly does this element hold up? To tell you the truth it's somewhat...mixed. For one I can say I appreciate how fresh and innovative this game is, it feels less like a tired sequel just doing its thing and going through the motions, it feels like there was a genuine effort to reinvent the wheel and see how many new ways they can improve the game, it's just that not all of it works. I mean, if we're talking raw combat, it's arguably the best this franchise has seen thus far. You once again have a multitude of attacks at your disposal (honestly to an overwhelming degree), with all sorts of heavy finishers, launchers, ground to air combos, combos with special properties, pause delayed combos, etc. Witch Time is back to how it was in Bayo 1, enemies behave better than 2 so no more of that pesky permablocking out of your attacks, and good lord the weapon variety is out of this world. You get stuff like a spinning fire yo yo, a microphone stand that can give you stat buffs temporarily, a magician hat and wand that can do literal magic tricks, razor sharp fans and even a chainsaw that looks like a choo choo train...a trainsaw, if you will. There's so much crazy variety to the combos you can pull off, even if you can't equip different parts to your hands and feet anymore, they're more so just static weapon sets you switch between. Demon masquerade is the first new mechanic introduced and it's basically just the different wicked weaves like before, though instead of summoning the limbs of a demon to initiate the finisher, Bayo transforms into a demon to perform the finisher herself. The main difference lies in the different forms of traversal. Personally I thought the butterfly form's glide and dash were all I needed but I really liked swinging on the spider form like a grotesque Spider-Woman, and seeing Bayo dress up as a half demon conductor half train hybrid was equal parts disturbing and hilarious. All this is great and all but unfortunately, much like DMC4, good combat alone is not enough to prop up an entire campaign: there has to be good elements around it to make the package a cohesive highlight.
The second new mechanic is Demon Slave, Bayonetta literally controls the Infernal Demons directly like a puppetmaster and has them fight the enemy directly. Bayonetta herself is completely vulnerable to attacks while she dances to control them. This gameplay mechanic is not something I enjoy, even in this game. Like, I do think it's more fun and is better handled than V's gameplay in DMC5, and there are some neat quirks to it like being able to cancel out of it entirely to swap back and forth, and even the ability to queue up attacks while you use Bayo herself, but fundamentally I don't think controlling someone else to attack for you has ever once felt right, especially in a game like this. It feels incredibly sluggish, disjointed and honestly somewhat disorienting, because you're not the one initiating these attacks directly, you have someone else do it. There is some cool interplay you can do with Bayo's standard combat arsenal and Demon Slave, how you can use DS to stun otherwise giant heavy enemies unaffected by Bayo herself, and by doing so you can seamlessly launch and juggle them as normal Bayo. There's a lot of crazy creative setups by people pushing to be Donguri level MLG pro at this game which is great, and you can even use the summons as a secondary finish with Wink Slave, something introduced in Astral Chain a while back. The problem is that the game...doesn't really WANT you to do this. The scoring system is so heavily skewered to you spamming Demon Slave to get a platinum or above, and that just isn't fun. When I'm busy styling on regular common enemies with different weapon switches and maybe an infernal summon startup combo every now and then, only to be greeted by a gold medal because I didn't use the giant monsters enough, I start to get deflated. On top of this, the camera stays locked where Bayonetta is so trying to figure out what direction these big lugs are facing even further complicates things, particularly an annoyance with the Umbran Clock Tower.
Speaking of the camera...jeez louise guys, what happened here? It's so easy for the camera to be lost or obscured by basically everything, because the game constantly has you fight enemies that fill up the entire screen and has you fight them with allies that...ALSO fill up the entire screen. Everything becomes far too cluttered and unintelligible far too often. What's worse, you can also get completely blindsided by something OFF SCREEN. This is just baffling to me considering that this WASN'T an issue in the previous 2 games, because they did the DMC thing where enemies stop attacking when they're off camera, but here I guess they just forgot?
Viola is the new playable character, and while she is fun (her katana is satisfying to use), she feels less like a unique character and more so just a slightly different Bayonetta. To bring up an analogy, Nero in DMC4 and 5 had things that separated him from Dante, not only did he have his buster and devil bringer as an enemy grapple and shield breaking attack (and in 5 he has the breakers that each have different abilities), but he ALSO had Red Queen's unique properties of having every attack have different stages of "charge" you could rev up mid combo that changed how they executed. The problem with Viola is that Bayonetta can do...pretty much everything Viola can already do. A fast slashing weapon? She has that. You can charge it for more damage? She has that too. Parry for Witch Time? There's an accessory. A single demon summon? Bayo has like 15 of em and can swap between 3 equipped demons seamlessly. The most unique thing about Viola is her faerie form (which is somewhat different than the standard super attack Bayo can perform) and the fact that her one demon, Cheshire, attacks automatically; Viola doesn't control him. Meaning she can actually attack independently while Cheshire does his own thing, albeit she fights bare handed without her katana. I kinda like this idea, and barring wink slave I do wish you could have more interplay with Cheshire in general.
This game's structure is largely the same, chapter based point A to point B levels with verses to be graded on to evaluate the chapter's overall performance, but this time they decided to make the levels absolutely ENORMOUS. Most of this was done to accommodate for Demon Slave but this unfortunately has a negative impact on traversal as levels take too long to meander through and finish. There's a surplus of extra stuff to find per usual: Niflheim portals, Umbran tears of blood (this time as different animals than just crows), treasure chests full of either witch hearts or moon pearls, hidden verses containing fights against the usual Angel enemies (because screw it, they aren't doing anything in this story) or Bayo 2's demons, there are even some hidden platforming challenges that, while I would normally appreciate, they feel awkward to execute because of how they changed the traversal mechanics from Bayo 1 and 2 to 3. Eventually though, I just stopped caring about any of it and just wanted to get a move on, there's no good reason why these places are so unnecessarily huge, it's just a hassle to simply explore because if you do so then you waste like 30 or so minutes when you're not even halfway done with a chapter.
There's also an important disclaimer I'd like to give you: if you're a fan of Kamiya inserting wacky gimmicky minigames or alternate playstyles, then you're going to LOVE this game because Kamiya's nonsense is practically nonstop all throughout. Jeanne has entirely 2D stealth sections, there's a minigame where you play a 2D, 3D AND a top down shootemup section all in one go, you ride on spiraling rooftops, you ride on a train to shoot down enemies, you play as a giant demon that pierces the clouds and then proceeds to use the clouds to...blow bubbles to trap enemies in them, you get a rhythm minigame and even a giant rock paper scissors kaiju boxing match, it's flat out unrelenting. I find Kamiya's typical nonsensical distractions to be charming at best (that one motorcycle ride in Bayo 1), annoying at worst (Bayo 1 Space Harrier and the DMC1 underwater shooting sections), and Bayo 3's are mostly ok I find. Though because of these constant distractions the entire game feels somewhat uneven as the game throws everything and the kitchen sink at you, but if you're a fan of these, you'll have a good time.
Visually Bayonetta 3 is...decent. That's the best I can come up with it. The backgrounds are vast and full of eye candy but the areas are super dull and muted, not to the degree of Bayonetta 1 but it's nowhere NEAR as vibrant and full of color and detail that 2 has. The textures are dodgy, and this game doesn't run particularly amazingly. It's not like, Bayo 1 on PS3 levels of unplayable, most of the time it FELT like it got close to 60fps, but the moments when the game does chug and slow down are frequent and super apparent (love having this franchise locked on the Switch yessirrrrrrr :DDDD). I do love the enemy designs though, they're super creative and detailed, even if it means that a lot of the attacks the big homunculi enemies have just sorta blend together. The music is phenomenal though, chock full of original bangers and AMAZING remixes of classic Bayo tunes. Might actually be my favorite of the entire series. Not even kidding.
Overall though, while this is definitely a good game unquestionably, I can't help but feel disappointed by Bayonetta 3. The story being as bad as it is would be one thing but I've grown sorta numb to Bayo's stories so I'm not super angry at it. While the gameplay is tight and tries to innovate with so many different interesting ideas, so many of these ideas feel annoying or half baked, like they threw darts at a dart board to see what sticks and went "sure why not, put that in there". This is unfortunately the weakest game in the series for me. This game is good, again don't misunderstand me, I still had a pretty good time playing it, but since I consider the other 2 games to be absolute masterclasses when it comes to action games, having this one just be "good" is kind of a major step back for a franchise as wild as Bayonetta. After the upcoming release of Cereza and the Lost Demon, I can only wonder what they'll do for the franchise going forward, and if we'll have to wait like 5+ years again for it to come out. Time will truly tell.
The shadow remains cast.