It is honest to god amazing that they somehow fixed everything that was a problem with Bayonetta 1 and made a worse game.

The Good: QTEs are gone. Instant deaths are mostly gone and far more manageable. Backtracking is largely dealt with, sometimes there are one or two verses you need to backtrack for, but the Muselpheim are visible, compared to the Alfheim where you could go the entire game without even accidentally bumping into one. Most of the new weapons are fun. Umbran Climax is cool.

The Less Good: The combat is very sped up compared to the first game, and witch time tends to last much shorter, which leads to a lot of the combat simply turning into button mashing (I can hear the cries of "git gud" echoing now, I have beaten this game on Non-Stop Infinite Climax difficulty, so I do know what I'm doing). It's still fun, but it's not as good as the first game.

The Bad: The boss fights, with the exception of Alraune, are abysmal. Every time you have to fly for combat it just straight up becomes unfun. Some of the less good minigame verses from Bayonetta 1 are still here, albeit less bad (the After Burner verse is much better for not hurting your eyes with all the spinning the first one had, but I still don't love the combat).

Everything together just adds up to a fairly meh experience, not really adding up to the highs of the first game, even if it avoids its lows, which is disappointing because Bayonetta 1 is one of my favorite games, and I don't think this game measures up.

Pain

I honestly think this game does many things way better than the first game such as the levels and environmental design, no qtes or highly egregious gimmick levels, way more enemy variety, no forced ‘no item’ clause on normal difficulty, way better art direction than the other two entries, improved combat challenges, new weapons, and various other quality of life updates that smooth out the overall experience compared to Bayo 1. The prologue kicks ass and is my favorite out of the series and I love Bayonetta's and Jeanne's designs here. Unfortunately, the combat has been tweaked in the most baffling ways possible that, while being way more approachable to pick up and play, ruined the smart design of the series.

Yeah yeah Umbran Climax is broken and destroys the already easy difficulty, but what killed me the most were the knock on effects brought on by this new mechanic and how everything is balanced around it. Bayonetta is devastatingly weak and has less combos than before while the enemies have ballooned in health quantity, which encourages using climax to finish up enemies quickly rather than being stylish and doing sick combos, also not helping with enemies being able to block and evade to stop the flow of combat. Witch Time is even more necessary, but it's a complete joke here compared to Bayo 1 and 3. Telegraphing felt slightly off with even more stuff happening on the screen at once, especially during the boss fights in air, that usually ended up with me getting hit randomly or witch time not triggering or triggering for only a second. The new enemies are so aesthetically cool, but are an absolute chore to fight against on harder difficulties with higher pools of health and stronger attacks. It's so disappointing coming off of Bayo 1's strong and rewarding execution of combat and difficulty.

Bayo 2 still felt like a good overall package with necessary additions, but those felt heavily outweighed at times because of the terrible combat tweaks. It seems so easy to one up the predecessor by just having those new parts added in while keeping the combat as strong as before, but Platinum still managed to fuck it up. Still superior to Bayonetta 3 though, even if I won't be returning much to this one again.

While the first chapter of Bayonetta 2 is gloriously encapsulating the joys of the Bayonetta franchise, for the first few chapters of Bayonetta 2, I was feeling a bit less of it as Bayonetta 1. It was still a wonderful time and a great action game in general, but was just feeling I had more of a joyous time with Bayonetta 1. However, as time and chapters went on, Bayonetta 2's action, scenarios, enemy design, and just plain fun was slowly giving me a grand ole time. It was making me appreciate Platinum's commitment to fun action games that not only are just fun, but have such great character moments too.

The new addition to combat is the Umbran Climax where if you choose to max out your Magic meter, you are gifted a flurry of attacks and ends with an Infernal Demon attack. It can be a bit chaotic on a small screen like the Nintendo Switch, but it's still a joyous sight to behold.

An emphasis in this game, than Bayonetta 1, I heavily enjoyed was fighting alongside different characters as the game progresses. It gives a sense of awesome story telling moments and just a fun time in general.

Overall, I think Bayonetta 2 is definitely a grand side-by-side sequel to Bayonetta 1. If you enjoy action games, commit to the Bayonetta series!