These are my first playthrough thoughts. Haven't replayed missions, unlocked everything, and played harder difficulties than normal. Just letting you know beforehand.

Initial impressions are that it's a really great game. It feels like the logical conclusion to platinum games in a lot of ways. Combining many gameplay styles they've done into one big crazy spectacle. It feels like a really loving tribute to not only the series, but the games and anime that inspired it. It's infectious fun as usual for the series, and if you want to be spoiler free then I'd recommend it to any bayonetta fan. It's a high mark for character action games imo.



SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT



I was surprised how different Bayonetta 3 is right away. 2 sort of felt like it was building on top of the first games mechanics to present a more polished experience. But 3 actually uproots some mechanics and makes big changes that threw me through a loop. But after playing through it, I think the changes are welcome and for the better. I grew to love the monster summoning system, I think it's much better than umbran climax. There's a surprising amount of depth to it, and the game doesn't strong arm you into using it like Bayonetta 2 does with umbran climax. The Demon forms for each weapon is cool as heck and definitely worth sacrificing the arm and leg weapon system. I'm kind of sad that it's gone, but each weapon has a ton of moves since they are all tied to punch and kick. And I don't miss having to buy alternates so that I can use two at once. You also get a crazy amount of weapons in this game, and surprisingly, they are all great.

The game is streamlined in all the right places. The biggest improvement is not having to buy skills in the gates of hell. This takes a dmc4 approach with separate currencies, and even better, you can buy new skills at any time during the pause menu. It's nice that you always get to customize the characters. Between all the skills, summons, multiple playable characters, alternate costumes and colors and weapons, there's more than one playthroughs worth of content to chew on, and for a character action game, that's great.

Viola is a great addition to the cast. She fulfills the same role as Loki does, but you get to like...actually play as her. She's very much inspired by Nero. Punk rock, one weapon and summon, but a lot of depth to be mined from there. She's hard to get the hang of, but parrying for witchtime is really satisfying. Her sword attacks are very inspired by Nier Automatas katana attacks, and that's super cool, and they actually feel better here than that game in my opinion. She's also just a really fun character. Love her interactions with Bayonetta and Luka. And if they do anything with her in the future, then I'd be down to see more of her.

I think the level design is overall better than the other games, but it has a monkeys paw of having really long levels. Luckily if you want to go for pure platinum, you can replay levels in chunks and it saves your progress after every fight. But still, it hurts the pacing a bit when levels are just absolutely sprawling and packed. I do enjoy exploring them for secrets though, and it's chock full of really great enemy and boss encounters. It keeps the variety up which is great. But I think especially for the genre it's in, the levels can stand to be a bit shorter. There are plenty of gimmick sections too, but I think they are the most forgiving and painless in the series. I don't really imagine they will hold up all that well on replay though. There's this big kaiju fight they repeat twice in the game that's really novel, but sooooo sloooow. Just stuff like that is something I wish the series would tone down a bit, but I also understand that is also an appealing part of Bayonettas style.

I have similar mixed feelings about the story. I think it has excellent and fun moments in it. I really love the antagonist and I think they are my favorite villain in the series. The characters are all great as ever and I think they are more well rounded here. I like that Jeanne and Luka get to do some cool shit. But pacing is a big issue for the story, and unlike Bayonetta 2, im not sure I'm a big fan of it. The game has this really clinical structure of events. Bayonetta and Viola go to an alternate universe, Bayonetta meets an alternate version of herself while Viola bumbles around searching for Luka for reasons that are painfully obvious, Bayonetta fights a boss, alternate Bayonetta joins in, alternate Bayonetta dies, and then Bayonetta rips her heart out and does a big gimmick fight. It's all very predictable honestly. They try their best to vary it up and there's some cool twists here and there. But it's still repetitive and they play the events very operatically like you are supposed to be surprised every time. I did really enjoy the final boss, but the ending is very contentious to me. They basically kill off Bayonetta here, which I'm fine with, but the way they do it is so strange and I don't think it fits the character. They make Luka and Bayonetta a romantic couple at the very end of the game, and they both kind of have a Romeo and Juliet death that's just really cheesy. It's a bit odd considering Bayonetta always defied that kind of tropiness. I actually think the weird werewolf shit they do with Luka is kinda cool and makes sense considering the larger context of the story. But I dunno. I wish they either didn't make the ending that cheesy or they expanded a bit more on their relationship. The Viola twist is also so obvious, and the game keeps it mystery boxed throughout the whole game for no good reason honestly. It kinda just made things more confusing. Still, not the worst story, just a slightly disappointing conclusion with some odd pacing. It's still fun as hell and I had a lot of pop offs and fun throughout it.

Bayonetta 3 is at an odd place in my head. Like it's my favorite and least favorite in my series at the same time(?) It does so much right and I think it's an overall great followup to 2. But it has issues that hold it back for me. I also didn't mention that the game looks really bad and is being held back by the hardware in a way that Bayonetta 2 didn't. It's very visually varied and ambitious as all heck so I get it. But still disappointing considering how great Bayonetta 2 and 1 still look. I'll still continue playing this, just like I did with Bayo 2. And I think I'll grow more fond of it the more I dig into it. Considering everything that platinum has been through recently, this is a tremendous effort from platinum that stands strong with the rest of the trilogy. And its worth playing despite its shortcomings.

First playthrough log. I mean I love it, 99% of it is a masterful culmination of Platinum's development over the past 15 years, weaving different genres together and creating a combination kaiju brawler character action game that's unlike anything you've ever seen before. There's some questionable visual choices to go with the darker and edgier tone of the writing however, which, um. Culminates in one of the worst endings I have ever seen in a game? The final boss is incred, the spectacle is unbelievable, but it's like Kamiya pulled a Kojima and decided he hated the series and wanted to completely salt the earth to prevent it from ever returning. The Big Thing reads as parody. Nonetheless, I'll be playing this thing for dozens more hours trying to extract every secret I can from its multitudinous summons, weapons, side modes, enormous amount of content, it's going to take a great deal of time to fully develop feelings on this game. But so far. I like it. :)

Bayo3 is sort of a mess, but it's a mess with lots of greatness and an unfortunate amount of mixed-ness. When this game is letting you play as Bayonetta herself and fighting silly monsters- this is the best she's ever been. It's so unbelievably fun to play and the amount of variety added here by the weapon system and everything new is fantastic. I couldn't get enough. In fact, I wish there was more. My biggest problem with this game is that it tries to be ambitious to both a great strength but also its biggest fault. It feels like it needs to try out as many ideas as it can and provide insane set pieces at the cost of taking away from the heart and soul of the standard combat. The big kaiju battles and chases, on-rails shooting sections, sidescrolling levels, etc. all have some novelty but I can't help but feel the game would be more fun overall if I was Bayonetta fighting a big monster, not a big monster fighting a big monster, etc. There is some fun variety as there is in every Bayonetta game- I think that viola has a sharp learning curve but is quite fun in moderation, as an example, but it just doesn't feel like they took moderation into account. To me, there are two things I love from the Bayonetta games- great combat and silly nonsense. Bayonetta 2 was so tightly crafted with combat but its setting and character moments felt very bland. This time around, there's so much silly spectacle, but just not enough of that combat. Outside of the combat, this game is undeniably of high quality with a great soundtrack, art direction, location variety, replay value, bonus content, skill system, and charm. I have some gripes with the storytelling and the aforementioned gameplay unfocus, but theres a great time to be had here despite its very prevalent faults.

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.

Bayonetta 3 is an absolute blast to play. The combat’s as good as ever, and the new demon summoning mechanic works surprisingly well with the flow of combat. It is a shame, in my opinion, that this is the worst Bayonetta game by a very large margin when it comes to pretty much everything else.

Bayonetta 3 is one on the most visually unpleasant games I’ve played in recent memory. The character models and the environments constantly clash, and the image quality is just sad. It’s the worst looking Bayonetta by far, which is insane because the first game came out in 2009. There are plenty of set pieces in the game (almost one per chapter) but none of them hit because none of them are visually impressive. Kratos was fighting hordes of enemies on the moving back of Gaia and Nathan Drake was hanging on to an airplane that was falling apart in games that were running on weaker hardware and they still looked a lot better than anything in this game. Even the set piece in Bayonetta 2’s prologue was more visually impressive and memorable than anything here. Is sliding down buildings on top of an infernal demon really that big of a deal when the buildings look like cardboard cutouts begging to go out of frame?

Then there’s the story, which is…sigh. Look, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that the stories in the first two games weren’t hot messes, but they were the fun, campy kind of hot messes. Bayonetta 3’s story is just kinda…bad. The game tries to do this whole multiverse (ugh) thing, but none of the universes you visit are actually all that interesting save for one, and you never stay in any of them for long enough to get an actual feel for the world. Then there’s pretty much all the characters feeling…a little off. Bayonetta feels like a different character at times, and it’s not just because of the VA change (Hale does a good job FWIW, but there’s no beating Taylor). She feels a lot more subdued and generally a lot less fun here. Same goes for Jeanne (I need to have a conversation with whoever came up with her design this time around to try and understand the thought process behind it because…) and Luka. Then there’s Viola, a terribly voice acted 2D cardboard cutout of a character that unfortunately ends up having a big role in the grand scheme of things. Then there’s the ending, which is insanely abrupt and is only made worse by the post-credits scenes that follow it. The game also has the worst soundtrack out of all of the games. It’s still great and there are a couple of bangers, but I genuinely thought Moonlight Serenade’s rendition was a joke when I first heard it.

There’s also a weird amount of padding in the game that really wasn’t needed. The Jeanne missions are…there but they at least try to mix up the gameplay a little as opposed to Viola’s missions, which had me constantly questioning why the game was forcing me to play as a clunkier, less-fun Bayonetta.

Again, Bayonetta 3 is an undeniably fun game and I still had a good time with it overall, but the first two games are some of my all-time favorites and this one just simply failed to measure up. It’s probably the most I’ve been disappointed by a game since Zero Time Dilemma.

Pero qué bueno que es Bayonetta, dios.

Qué juego más chulo, más directo, más explosivo. Es puro desenfreno. El nuevo sistema de control de demonios mola mucho y añade variedad a las armas que eliges y estrategia a los combates.

Viola como personaje jugable me gusta menos porque no consigo pillarle el tranquillo a los parrys tanto como los esquives de Bayonetta, pero igualmente me parece una buena adición.

Y bueno, la acción, el estilo, el humor y los jefes son top tier como siempre.

Así de primeras diría que es mejor que Bayo 1 pero no sé si superaría a Bayo 2. Pero es digno sucesor y tengo ganas de la siguiente entrega en 10 años o así.

Might re-review after playing more on Infinite Climax but am disappointed with what I've played thus far.

The action is better than what I remember from Bayo 2 but some flaws of that game compared to Bayo 1 (variable witch time, piss-weak combos, too many giant enemies, etc) haven't been addressed. I don't think the new Demon Slave mechanics are as good as Astral Chain's take on the idea either.

About the story, Bayonetta games aren't exactly Shakespeare, but Bayo 3 is unfortunately the most bloated, least interesting and least entertaining out of the three. They did our girl dirty too.

Wow. This is for sure the best Bayonetta game. Characters are charming and fun, like always. But the real highlight is the addition of Demon Slave and Demon Masquerade. Those additions gave Bayonetta 3 enough new spice to make it feel unique while also building off what Bayonetta 1 and Bayonetta 2 accomplished.
Newcomer Viola I ended up actually liking, and her summon, Cheshire, might be the best part of the game I love that goofy oversized cat. However, her block can be a little awkward at times and I felt my ass get handed to me because of it.
But the core gameplay is amazing, and this game really has a new, huge sense of scale the previous two did not have that I absolutely adore. The weapons and demons they give you are each sublime and a joy to use.
One complaint I do have is that Bayonetta 3 is consistently enjoyable right up until the ending, where it does not make a completely perfect landing. It is a bit confusing and that moment is certainly got a "why" from me, however, I still cried so that gets bonus points I guess, I'm emotionally attached to this series.
Overall, this was worth that five year wait between reveal and release, and the eight year wait between 2 and 3. This is the best Bayonetta game, and my new second favorite game of all time. It could have topped Bloodborne, but the ending created a slight enough fumble to not get it all the way there. But this is still worth giving a play, it is a joy start to end.

i am being generous here because i love bayo to death but the game runs terribly on switch

it targets 60 fps but rarely reaches it
resolution is below 900p docked
less than 480 on handheld
frame rate drops even in empty areas
not even talking about fully decorated areas with a lot of action in it
the filters are way too grey
and even for a bayo game, the story is ass

gameplay was fantastic nonetheless
great animations
amazing soundtrack
new voice actress does a better job than hellena taylor
and i don’t just say that bc taylor sucks as a human being

good game
but the first two are much better overall

It just rules.
I loved it.
I'm so happy.

I may write an actual detailed review after I spend another 50+ hours with it.

But I love it so much. Thank you to everyone who worked on the bombastic love letter to a series which could have easily faded away after the first entry.

Gracious to live in a world where I can't say: "oh Bayonetta? That was a cool 360 game"

Bayonetta 3 tem a melhor gameplay da saga, de fato. Porém, a história é muitas vezes decepcionante e usa de artifícios baratos para fazer a narrativa fluir. Não sentimos exatamente a mesma coisa que sentíamos em bayonetta 1 e 2 devido a certos momentos da história, não sentimos aquela sensação de missão cumprida e invencibilidade. Eles optam por nerfar os personagens de história em prol de outras coisas e isso irrita. Não me parece os mesmos personagens que eram super poderosos nos jogos anteriores, e o final é decepcionante. Espero realmente que eles corrijam isso no quarto jogo da saga. De qualquer forma, se tratando de gameplay, bayonetta 3 tem a melhor variação de combos, opções de combate e variedade geral que eu já vi. É uma aventura alucinante de ação que entrega tudo que promete quando se trata de gameplay. Provavelmente o melhor hack n'slash que eu já joguei quando falamos de jogabilidade, o único problema é o desempenho do switch, que as vezes acaba tendo muitas quedas de frame e uma qualidade baixa em certos momentos. Porém, isso não é culpa do jogo, e sim do console. Eu tive que tirar uma estrela do jogo por conta da história, mas ainda o recomendo bastante. Dei 4.5 só pelo entretenimento da gameplay e pelo meu apego com a franquia.

I know this opinion might not be too popular. But somewhere in Chapter 4 it hit me; I have no desire to see this through.

Impressive and flashy animations can only get you so far. The repetition of it all really got to me. The enemies, the environments. I know, I know. Bayonetta 3 does try and switch things up A LOT with new mechanics like the train, the spider etc. but these failed way more often than they succeeded. Often I'd be not into these segments or even flat out dread them, to the point where the regular moment-to-moment gameplay was keeping me engaged. Then that got repetitive, too.

Because the story sure wasn't engaging me. At first I was a bit charmed by just the pure ridiculousness of it, but it got tired fast. It quickly became background filler for me. No idea what's going on, and I couldn't find it within me to care.

And I hate to say it, but the power of the Switch holds this back. I know, this wouldn't exist without Nintendo in the first place. Nintendo NEEDS to upgrade its hardware to keep up with most games outside its first-party fare. If I want a fun, sleek, engaging action hack-and-slash game to play, I'll go back to Devil May Cry V.

Not saying this is a bad game...it's just not for me.

This game is honestly just not as good as 2, might not even be better than 1. The enemies have some cool moves and stuff but they look so bland compared to the angels and demons, it's like if smash bros had the normal moves for all the characters but every character was replaced with a fighting polygon team version of their looks if that makes any sense. The combat can be really fun but being forced to summon and fight as a huge slow demon can be so tedious and takes you out of the combat so often it become a chore. The levels have a really nice amount of diversity in them but there's so many collectables and secrets that I have no desire to replay them just to look for them, especially since combat encounters can just be missed, it just makes me not want to go back in to look for the things I missed because it won't be worth it for an extra codex entry or an encounter I should've just been given the chance to do in my first run. The ending too, I have no idea what happened, it feels like they just wanted to go out with a bang but it failed, it failed hard. Don't even get me started on the spy missions or Viola, her gameplay was miserable to me and her character was always just a period of time I couldn't be having fun as Bayonetta. Fun game, good game, but not as good as the 8 years should've made it.

Overall my least favorite of the 3 games but still a very good time

Pros:
- Viola's a fun addition as a person and as a playable character
- upgradeable weapon trees don't add much new but both hone in on unique moves for weapons and teach you that they exist at all, something the first two games could've benefitted from
- the entire ending
- difficulty being higher than 2
- the weapons are by far my favorite in the series. Very versatile and unique purposes to complement numerous playstyles and speeds
- a story that while mediocre, breaks away from beating the same story concepts as 1 and 2

Cons:
- environments are massive but somewhat boring and bleak in color
- style and personality felt very lacking, and where it is implemented it feels like a lukewarm attempt
- still not a fan of some of the minigame segments
- again on story, the other realities don't add much besides flashy events
- the villain's reasoning and goals are entirely unexplained past "he can and he wants to so he will"
- not much exposition of characters both old and new, making what quirky dialogue you do get feel somewhat soulless

Tl;dr: the most flawed title imo but all around I had a great time and would recommend it