Goddamn it was a chore to play this game.
I had beaten Bayonetta 1, in about a week's time two years ago, around this time and the same goes for the second game roughly one year ago. I thoroughly enjoyed both of those games for its fast and fun combat, bopping jams, and especially its wacky and self-aware humor. So when I saw that Bayonetta was finally coming back, I was ecstatic. However, I probably should've known that if the game took five whole years to suddenly reappear there must've been some nonsense going on in the background. And nonsense there was. Great video by Matt McMuscles on it. Anyway, I consider this one of the most disappointing games of the year. I had to force myself to finish this game just so I could move on to something else. Let's find out why.
Story. Man I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. Bayonetta 1 had an absolutely nonsensical story. Just a whole ton of bullshit thrown at you that you kinda had to deal with because it was Bayonetta 1. Read up the CliffNotes of you were confused. Bayonetta 2 actually had a story you could digest without having to look through a wiki page on it. Bayonetta 3 follows in the footsteps of 2 in having a story you could understand, but man. It's just so... boring. The game follows a trope a lot of Western media has seen before specifically in comics and movies. The Multiverse is a type of idea where there are alternate versions of the same character's universe. Now I've no problems with the Multiverse as an idea. As long as it is executed correctly, it can be interesting to see how our version of said character interacts with these new world versions of the same character we already know and love. Bayonetta 3 does not handle it's Multiverse well. She's not very entertaining in this game. She doesn't have the one-liners she once had in the previous games staying a lot more silent throughout the duration of the game except for when she's around side characters. The Multiverse does add a lot of variety to the stages in the game. You can go from New York to Shibuya to Cairo etc. Unfortunately, they did not flesh out the Multiverse enough for me to like it so, in my opinion, the idea itself works against the game more than it aids it.
The combat is a bit of a mixed bag. Way more negatives than positives though. Instead of just playing as the titular character, now you get to play as three different characters. Bayonetta's gameplay is similar to that of the previous games, but I feel the combat is much slower in this one. Thanks to Bayo's new guns, Colour My World, combos feel slower to execute. That and the new Demon Slave mechanic, which has you using the same demons in the climax attacks of previous games, in regular gameplay, that move much more slowly than Bayonetta. They do big damage, but they're slow and leave Cereza open to attacks. I found it to be a lot more boring to play, more of a spectacle fighter than an action game. I normally don't switch weapons a ton during gameplay, (I know I should), but I had to rely on having a Bayo 2 save file on my switch to get me through the game. Having save files of the older games gives you the chance to buy the old guns Love is Red/Blue from The Gates of Hell. Love is Blue is much more fun to play with than Colour my World. Jeanne, who has made appearances in the games before this one, and is unlocked as a glorified skin for Bayonetta, gets her own 2.5D stealth platformer gameplay. I'm indifferent on this gameplay style. You can get through the stages in at just 10-20 minutes and they are a pretty alright palette cleanser. The last and newest one is Viola. Fuck Viola. Her gameplay felt oddly similar to 2B from Nier: Automata so I thought I'd enjoy playing as her but there's so many little things that differentiate her from Bayonetta enough for me to hate her. Initiating witch time is done with the guard button (a different button than normal) so the muscle memory is already lost, and I swear hitting the perfect witch time is FRAME FUCKING PERFECT. Most of the time I find myself mashing the guard button just to get SOMETHING out and it doesn't help that double tapping the button sends you flying across the screen for whatever reason. I really wanted to like playing as Viola. Similar to 2B but with a punk rock deal, but everytime I found myself playing as her I groaned in anger each time.
What positives do I have about the game. Well. The graphics are pretty great looking for the switch. A few frame drops here and there, but it's not egregious like it is in some other Nintendo switch games. The soundtrack is great. Bayonetta's Theme "Al Fine" is a great new theme for the character, but I'm especially in love with Viola's Theme "Ghost". It absolutely rocks my shit, fits her character, and it's honestly the only part of playing as her I like.
I was going to go on a whole ramble session on the ending, but I'm currently writing this at 4 am on Christmas Day and if you've even remotely heard about Bayonetta recently, you know how controversial the ending is already. Don't need me to sound like a broken record. I've never felt so empty completing a video game and I'm not too much a fan of the current course the series is taking. If there is going to be a Bayonetta 4 with the current "Bayonetta" we have, well two things. 1. It's not going to come out until 2033, and 2. They better fine tune the fuck outta her. Otherwise, I unfortunately can't see myself coming back to this franchise anytime soon other than to replay the first two games. To all of you that enjoyed the game, I envy you.
I had beaten Bayonetta 1, in about a week's time two years ago, around this time and the same goes for the second game roughly one year ago. I thoroughly enjoyed both of those games for its fast and fun combat, bopping jams, and especially its wacky and self-aware humor. So when I saw that Bayonetta was finally coming back, I was ecstatic. However, I probably should've known that if the game took five whole years to suddenly reappear there must've been some nonsense going on in the background. And nonsense there was. Great video by Matt McMuscles on it. Anyway, I consider this one of the most disappointing games of the year. I had to force myself to finish this game just so I could move on to something else. Let's find out why.
Story. Man I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. Bayonetta 1 had an absolutely nonsensical story. Just a whole ton of bullshit thrown at you that you kinda had to deal with because it was Bayonetta 1. Read up the CliffNotes of you were confused. Bayonetta 2 actually had a story you could digest without having to look through a wiki page on it. Bayonetta 3 follows in the footsteps of 2 in having a story you could understand, but man. It's just so... boring. The game follows a trope a lot of Western media has seen before specifically in comics and movies. The Multiverse is a type of idea where there are alternate versions of the same character's universe. Now I've no problems with the Multiverse as an idea. As long as it is executed correctly, it can be interesting to see how our version of said character interacts with these new world versions of the same character we already know and love. Bayonetta 3 does not handle it's Multiverse well. She's not very entertaining in this game. She doesn't have the one-liners she once had in the previous games staying a lot more silent throughout the duration of the game except for when she's around side characters. The Multiverse does add a lot of variety to the stages in the game. You can go from New York to Shibuya to Cairo etc. Unfortunately, they did not flesh out the Multiverse enough for me to like it so, in my opinion, the idea itself works against the game more than it aids it.
The combat is a bit of a mixed bag. Way more negatives than positives though. Instead of just playing as the titular character, now you get to play as three different characters. Bayonetta's gameplay is similar to that of the previous games, but I feel the combat is much slower in this one. Thanks to Bayo's new guns, Colour My World, combos feel slower to execute. That and the new Demon Slave mechanic, which has you using the same demons in the climax attacks of previous games, in regular gameplay, that move much more slowly than Bayonetta. They do big damage, but they're slow and leave Cereza open to attacks. I found it to be a lot more boring to play, more of a spectacle fighter than an action game. I normally don't switch weapons a ton during gameplay, (I know I should), but I had to rely on having a Bayo 2 save file on my switch to get me through the game. Having save files of the older games gives you the chance to buy the old guns Love is Red/Blue from The Gates of Hell. Love is Blue is much more fun to play with than Colour my World. Jeanne, who has made appearances in the games before this one, and is unlocked as a glorified skin for Bayonetta, gets her own 2.5D stealth platformer gameplay. I'm indifferent on this gameplay style. You can get through the stages in at just 10-20 minutes and they are a pretty alright palette cleanser. The last and newest one is Viola. Fuck Viola. Her gameplay felt oddly similar to 2B from Nier: Automata so I thought I'd enjoy playing as her but there's so many little things that differentiate her from Bayonetta enough for me to hate her. Initiating witch time is done with the guard button (a different button than normal) so the muscle memory is already lost, and I swear hitting the perfect witch time is FRAME FUCKING PERFECT. Most of the time I find myself mashing the guard button just to get SOMETHING out and it doesn't help that double tapping the button sends you flying across the screen for whatever reason. I really wanted to like playing as Viola. Similar to 2B but with a punk rock deal, but everytime I found myself playing as her I groaned in anger each time.
What positives do I have about the game. Well. The graphics are pretty great looking for the switch. A few frame drops here and there, but it's not egregious like it is in some other Nintendo switch games. The soundtrack is great. Bayonetta's Theme "Al Fine" is a great new theme for the character, but I'm especially in love with Viola's Theme "Ghost". It absolutely rocks my shit, fits her character, and it's honestly the only part of playing as her I like.
I was going to go on a whole ramble session on the ending, but I'm currently writing this at 4 am on Christmas Day and if you've even remotely heard about Bayonetta recently, you know how controversial the ending is already. Don't need me to sound like a broken record. I've never felt so empty completing a video game and I'm not too much a fan of the current course the series is taking. If there is going to be a Bayonetta 4 with the current "Bayonetta" we have, well two things. 1. It's not going to come out until 2033, and 2. They better fine tune the fuck outta her. Otherwise, I unfortunately can't see myself coming back to this franchise anytime soon other than to replay the first two games. To all of you that enjoyed the game, I envy you.