This review contains spoilers
With the mess that was the controversy leading up to its release, and the general downtrend of Platinum Games’ output, I wasn’t especially keen on getting Bayonetta 3 at all. I ended up grabbing it in the end, mostly just to just see how it would come out.
To my surprise, I enjoyed it a lot! Maybe it’s a case of lowering my expectations, but I had a much better time playing this than I thought I would. The gameplay as Bayonetta is easily the best in the series to me, with an incredibly fun new set of weaponry, impressively executed demon gameplay, and everything packing that signature Bayonetta punch. In a vacuum, everything Bayonetta 3 does in its gameplay is the best of its kind, and most of the praise I have for this game lies there. It’s incredible how well it’s all done.
The structure of the game however, is by far the worst. It follows a pretty rigid structure for the entire game: Go to an alternate world and location, meet that world’s respective Bayonetta, watch her get killed, then do a big demon battle. It only slightly deviates from this in its fun setpieces, but I found myself very worn out by this format very quickly.
The Homunculi, the new central enemy, are so much more boring compared to the angels and demons of games past, and even if they’re something new I almost feel like nothing would be better than them. The tone is something I wasn’t into either; it deviates from the gothic stylings of the previous two games into spreading a wide berth, and being a lot more bland overall for it… Doesn’t help that everything is bathed in a muddy, blurry wash on the Switch.
If you know Bayonetta, you already know most of these characters. Bayonetta, Jeanne, Rodin, Enzo, none of them are remarkably different in any sense, and that’s fine! They’re all great characters who continue to be great. The new major character they want to sell you on now, Viola, is a bit more of a mixed bag. Being a young witch-in-training, her loud attitude and penchant for screwing up plays well against Bayonetta’s cool elegance (and her pop-punk musical flavor rocks). On her own, she would sadly be totally unremarkable, which kind of makes me worry about how they want to make her the new focus going forward!
The ending is the biggest mark against this game by far. What an embarrassment. In a game that tries to take itself much more seriously than the rest of the series, every bit of writing is some of the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard, for which it never even bothers to explain itself or make sense, or be interesting, or good. When these writers step out of the campiness that is Bayonetta to tackle something more, it really starts to unravel the fact that they simply aren’t good writers in any sense.
Bayonetta being paired with Luka is gross too, and it totally undermines everything she was and is. Bayonetta was always unbound, relying on nobody but her own strength. Her unwavering strength comes from the facets of her femininity, which she never fears to put on display. Her representation as a female lead was always on a bit of a tightrope, but I felt it always kept steady for her. Until now. Now she gets to be tied down to a man, get to lose her individuality by being pushed into this hetero romance she has zero place in, and it sours everything I saw in her as a commanding and powerful woman. Now she’s just.. Another sex object for men. She fell off that tightrope hard.
Bayonetta 3 is still Bayonetta, in the end. It’s a game that I’d say is good, and that I enjoyed, but sadly can’t even get close to the peaks of quality Bayonetta 1 and 2 set. The story dragged this game down like a ball and chain, its structure felt horribly boring, how it passes the torch feels underbaked and horribly forced, and it just feels like a shame that the most refined gameplay Bayonetta has ever had has to be packaged in this.
To my surprise, I enjoyed it a lot! Maybe it’s a case of lowering my expectations, but I had a much better time playing this than I thought I would. The gameplay as Bayonetta is easily the best in the series to me, with an incredibly fun new set of weaponry, impressively executed demon gameplay, and everything packing that signature Bayonetta punch. In a vacuum, everything Bayonetta 3 does in its gameplay is the best of its kind, and most of the praise I have for this game lies there. It’s incredible how well it’s all done.
The structure of the game however, is by far the worst. It follows a pretty rigid structure for the entire game: Go to an alternate world and location, meet that world’s respective Bayonetta, watch her get killed, then do a big demon battle. It only slightly deviates from this in its fun setpieces, but I found myself very worn out by this format very quickly.
The Homunculi, the new central enemy, are so much more boring compared to the angels and demons of games past, and even if they’re something new I almost feel like nothing would be better than them. The tone is something I wasn’t into either; it deviates from the gothic stylings of the previous two games into spreading a wide berth, and being a lot more bland overall for it… Doesn’t help that everything is bathed in a muddy, blurry wash on the Switch.
If you know Bayonetta, you already know most of these characters. Bayonetta, Jeanne, Rodin, Enzo, none of them are remarkably different in any sense, and that’s fine! They’re all great characters who continue to be great. The new major character they want to sell you on now, Viola, is a bit more of a mixed bag. Being a young witch-in-training, her loud attitude and penchant for screwing up plays well against Bayonetta’s cool elegance (and her pop-punk musical flavor rocks). On her own, she would sadly be totally unremarkable, which kind of makes me worry about how they want to make her the new focus going forward!
The ending is the biggest mark against this game by far. What an embarrassment. In a game that tries to take itself much more seriously than the rest of the series, every bit of writing is some of the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard, for which it never even bothers to explain itself or make sense, or be interesting, or good. When these writers step out of the campiness that is Bayonetta to tackle something more, it really starts to unravel the fact that they simply aren’t good writers in any sense.
Bayonetta being paired with Luka is gross too, and it totally undermines everything she was and is. Bayonetta was always unbound, relying on nobody but her own strength. Her unwavering strength comes from the facets of her femininity, which she never fears to put on display. Her representation as a female lead was always on a bit of a tightrope, but I felt it always kept steady for her. Until now. Now she gets to be tied down to a man, get to lose her individuality by being pushed into this hetero romance she has zero place in, and it sours everything I saw in her as a commanding and powerful woman. Now she’s just.. Another sex object for men. She fell off that tightrope hard.
Bayonetta 3 is still Bayonetta, in the end. It’s a game that I’d say is good, and that I enjoyed, but sadly can’t even get close to the peaks of quality Bayonetta 1 and 2 set. The story dragged this game down like a ball and chain, its structure felt horribly boring, how it passes the torch feels underbaked and horribly forced, and it just feels like a shame that the most refined gameplay Bayonetta has ever had has to be packaged in this.
2 Comments
man what
NOWITSREYNTIME17
1 year ago