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.
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.