This review contains spoilers
There was a time many many years ago when I bought into the hype surrounding Platinum Games and jumped into Mad World for the Nintendo Wii, after hearing the fantastic soundtrack. Platinum games have always received heaps of praise for their hack and slash gameplay, but to be honest, I've just never understood it. They have a habit of switching up the gameplay often, but its rarely in a way that is actually enjoyable. This lends itself to the game shredding off a lot of its potential to be just above average. As much as I am disappointed that this game just was so close to being perfect, I am glad to report that this game has basically bucked that trend entirely. This is Platinum Games' swansong for Cereza, and I truly can see why it took them so long to come out with another Bayonetta title.
This is THE best hack and slash game ever made, at least that i've played thus far. I have played few games with better pacing than this. This time around, verses (the gauntlet areas where you kill a certain number of enemies to progress) are more spread apart, some even completely skippable, in semi-open world stages. This allows for Bayonetta to utilize her impressive arsenal of new demon transformations as mobility to explore and hunt for collectibles, which reward you with plenty of good stuff that I actually cared to collect. In fact, the way this game doubles as a collectathon has it coming top tier in both genres. Obviously, it's not the best collectathon ever made given it is secondary, but it does give them a good run for their money. I always felt the way that Bayonetta 1 and 2 were structured so linearly made the collectibles or hidden verses just feel like a chore.
So, so, so much care was put into this game. ALL of the cringe voice acting, dead and buried. I don't remember hearing one bit of unintentionally cringy dialogue (more on that later). The performances here were brilliant. Are we playing a Bayonetta game for movie tier performance? Obviously not, but the way the characters are acted helps you take them a lot more seriously and actually makes you give a fuck about them. The biggest beneficiary of this is Bayonetta herself, who now comes across as actually womanly, and not just a parody of femininity made by horny devs. Even things like the dance sequences at the end are just done so much more tastefully - she really seems like a woman who is in control of her sexuality and flaunting it, and she feels badass to play.
There is literally only one outright bad level, which is set in Cairo, and it was the only one that made me actually put down the game and stop playing, because of a trash mechanic where you have to mash buttons to crawl out of quicksand. I'd honestly prefer just dying, as this ruins all momentum and is exceptionally annoying when you're trying to collect everything. LUCKILY, where I had saved and quit, it turned out when I next boot up the game, that I was at the end of the level, and that war crime of a chapter was actually not as long as I presumed it would be, so it doesn't influence the score heavily. Some bangers that I really enjoyed were: All of the Thule hub areas, the final two chapters, Tokyo, and Paris. Don't get me wrong, the others had their moments too, and were decent, but those knocked it out of the park.
I've heard plenty of criticism for this games multiverse plot and saying that it was wasted potential because of the infinite possibilities. I honestly don't really know what they expected in a stylish hack and slash game? I thought the way that Platinum utilised all of the alternate universe Bayonetta's was actually very creative and, some of their moments were surprisingly touching. Hell, the start of the game took me completely by surprise with how sombre it was - it was a fantastic launch pad for the rest of the game and it barely ever let up. The games fantastic finale had me shedding tears too, i'll admit, though it's just a shame that the heavy failings in storytelling and delivery in the first two titles did little to set up this tale - all care you have for these characters is quite literally built in this game, because they weren't really that likable before, or you just didn't care about them. Luka and Bayonetta's romance that was always intended since the first game is actually believable in this game, whereas before you knew they were meant to have a thing but you just never really felt any chemistry with their acting.
Performance wise, this game really runs quite fantastically on the switch. I had actually considered not buying it because I read plenty of reviews slamming the performance, but I ran into basically zero issues and I played (mostly) handheld but also docked aswell. I'm playing on a 4K screen so even with the 900p resolution I thought the game's graphics still looked serviceable, which is all I could ask for from a console as weak performing as the switch. You can really tell that this game is hardcore pushing the limits of this hardware, Platinum must've had to work magic to keep this game running well. There are dips to like, 50fps occasionally, but it's really not noticeable enough to call an issue and it never affects your gameplay. The ONLY noticeable dip in performance I saw was during the second to last Chapter, there was three enemies during a boss fight that randomly gave me slowdown until I killed two of them? It was rather jarring, especially given as there wasn't much more happening on screen than usual, if at all.
Presentation in this game is fantastic - gone are those shit dimension maps where you pick your level. Now, you have a charming little scene of Viola's bedroom where you can throw darts at the level nodes to pick your stage on a world map, but the little details like every object in her room having an appropriate sound effect for being hit with the dart if you do so, is what really sells this. The UI is the best it's ever been too, far less confusing, with plenty of unlockable costumes and colours that I found myself changing constantly, which I did not in the first two. Gone are the days of stupidly buying skills from the Gates of Hell, hello to the wonderful world of having an actual talent tree. FOR EVERY WEAPON. And there's no shortage of them either, you will literally get a new weapon every area of the world you visit, sometimes even two at once. It's insane - just by the time you've nearly maxed out the tree on the one you've been newly perfecting throughout the level the game hurls another at you. It never gets boring - the same with the gameplay mixups. Bullet hell segments, on rail shooter segments, boss battles utilizing Bayonetta's arsenal of demons? They're all fun and don't overstay their welcome - Platinum really knew what they were doing here, with the exception of the shitty Godzilla style battles? There are only like 3 of them in the game and they don't last too long but jesus christ, they suck if only because of how slow you move. It's like they thought the two of you moving at a snails pace would make it more dramatic, but its just boring. The soundtrack is dope as usual, too.
Another common complaint I see is regarding the two other playable characters, Jeanne and Viola. Contrary to the common opinion, I actually did enjoy Jeanne's levels - they were short and sweet 2D side scrolling stealth segments, however I can understand the criticism given that if you don't like that sort of thing it's completely jarring, and it is required to progress the story. I found them fun, however, and thought they were handled with the same Platinum polish that is everywhere else in this game. Viola, on the other hand though, ergh...
Viola is the new character introduced right at the start of this game. Is she outright terrible? Nah. But her gameplay is just totally lacking the polish that is present everywhere else in this game - she feels alot simpler, but ironically the simplicity of her kit makes her alot harder to play because of how clunky it is and how few options you have. This is especially true when shes side by side to Bayonetta, who has literally some of the best, varied gameplay i've seen to date, and Viola is just excruciatingly mid. Hell, where Bayonetta has like 8 or 9 talent trees, Viola only has one, which I maxed out immediately by the end of her FIRST level. If Platinum wanted to go this route they SERIOUSLY needed to give her alot more to work with to make her remain interesting. Her soundtrack goes really hard though. Unfortunately, she makes the ending somewhat bittersweet too, given that she's really not all that much of a charming character. As I mentioned early about the VA, there's no unintentional cringe here. However, Viola is intentionally meant to be a bit of a quirky, outcasty type character who's a little awkward and puts on a brave face. She also has an american accent, which is really strange given the context of her. The problem with this is that she just generally isn't that likable and she only has like one or two good lines in the whole game, and the rest of them are just nothing or make you recoil a bit with how cringe it is. Thankfully, she only has three stages in the whole game, and one segment in the last level, but my god do those bits feel like a slog. It's not like the levels are bad, she just makes playing them feel worse than they should.
I think if I carry on talking about this game I will have an aneurism because i've been writing for so long and I have a headache. Basically the game is sick and you should play it if you're into hack and slash games, this is one of the best you'll get in my opinion. Also just like the good old days theres an unlockable demo for what would later be Bayonetta's next game, Bayonetta Origins, which I thought was commendable and is something companies just don't really do anymore.
This is THE best hack and slash game ever made, at least that i've played thus far. I have played few games with better pacing than this. This time around, verses (the gauntlet areas where you kill a certain number of enemies to progress) are more spread apart, some even completely skippable, in semi-open world stages. This allows for Bayonetta to utilize her impressive arsenal of new demon transformations as mobility to explore and hunt for collectibles, which reward you with plenty of good stuff that I actually cared to collect. In fact, the way this game doubles as a collectathon has it coming top tier in both genres. Obviously, it's not the best collectathon ever made given it is secondary, but it does give them a good run for their money. I always felt the way that Bayonetta 1 and 2 were structured so linearly made the collectibles or hidden verses just feel like a chore.
So, so, so much care was put into this game. ALL of the cringe voice acting, dead and buried. I don't remember hearing one bit of unintentionally cringy dialogue (more on that later). The performances here were brilliant. Are we playing a Bayonetta game for movie tier performance? Obviously not, but the way the characters are acted helps you take them a lot more seriously and actually makes you give a fuck about them. The biggest beneficiary of this is Bayonetta herself, who now comes across as actually womanly, and not just a parody of femininity made by horny devs. Even things like the dance sequences at the end are just done so much more tastefully - she really seems like a woman who is in control of her sexuality and flaunting it, and she feels badass to play.
There is literally only one outright bad level, which is set in Cairo, and it was the only one that made me actually put down the game and stop playing, because of a trash mechanic where you have to mash buttons to crawl out of quicksand. I'd honestly prefer just dying, as this ruins all momentum and is exceptionally annoying when you're trying to collect everything. LUCKILY, where I had saved and quit, it turned out when I next boot up the game, that I was at the end of the level, and that war crime of a chapter was actually not as long as I presumed it would be, so it doesn't influence the score heavily. Some bangers that I really enjoyed were: All of the Thule hub areas, the final two chapters, Tokyo, and Paris. Don't get me wrong, the others had their moments too, and were decent, but those knocked it out of the park.
I've heard plenty of criticism for this games multiverse plot and saying that it was wasted potential because of the infinite possibilities. I honestly don't really know what they expected in a stylish hack and slash game? I thought the way that Platinum utilised all of the alternate universe Bayonetta's was actually very creative and, some of their moments were surprisingly touching. Hell, the start of the game took me completely by surprise with how sombre it was - it was a fantastic launch pad for the rest of the game and it barely ever let up. The games fantastic finale had me shedding tears too, i'll admit, though it's just a shame that the heavy failings in storytelling and delivery in the first two titles did little to set up this tale - all care you have for these characters is quite literally built in this game, because they weren't really that likable before, or you just didn't care about them. Luka and Bayonetta's romance that was always intended since the first game is actually believable in this game, whereas before you knew they were meant to have a thing but you just never really felt any chemistry with their acting.
Performance wise, this game really runs quite fantastically on the switch. I had actually considered not buying it because I read plenty of reviews slamming the performance, but I ran into basically zero issues and I played (mostly) handheld but also docked aswell. I'm playing on a 4K screen so even with the 900p resolution I thought the game's graphics still looked serviceable, which is all I could ask for from a console as weak performing as the switch. You can really tell that this game is hardcore pushing the limits of this hardware, Platinum must've had to work magic to keep this game running well. There are dips to like, 50fps occasionally, but it's really not noticeable enough to call an issue and it never affects your gameplay. The ONLY noticeable dip in performance I saw was during the second to last Chapter, there was three enemies during a boss fight that randomly gave me slowdown until I killed two of them? It was rather jarring, especially given as there wasn't much more happening on screen than usual, if at all.
Presentation in this game is fantastic - gone are those shit dimension maps where you pick your level. Now, you have a charming little scene of Viola's bedroom where you can throw darts at the level nodes to pick your stage on a world map, but the little details like every object in her room having an appropriate sound effect for being hit with the dart if you do so, is what really sells this. The UI is the best it's ever been too, far less confusing, with plenty of unlockable costumes and colours that I found myself changing constantly, which I did not in the first two. Gone are the days of stupidly buying skills from the Gates of Hell, hello to the wonderful world of having an actual talent tree. FOR EVERY WEAPON. And there's no shortage of them either, you will literally get a new weapon every area of the world you visit, sometimes even two at once. It's insane - just by the time you've nearly maxed out the tree on the one you've been newly perfecting throughout the level the game hurls another at you. It never gets boring - the same with the gameplay mixups. Bullet hell segments, on rail shooter segments, boss battles utilizing Bayonetta's arsenal of demons? They're all fun and don't overstay their welcome - Platinum really knew what they were doing here, with the exception of the shitty Godzilla style battles? There are only like 3 of them in the game and they don't last too long but jesus christ, they suck if only because of how slow you move. It's like they thought the two of you moving at a snails pace would make it more dramatic, but its just boring. The soundtrack is dope as usual, too.
Another common complaint I see is regarding the two other playable characters, Jeanne and Viola. Contrary to the common opinion, I actually did enjoy Jeanne's levels - they were short and sweet 2D side scrolling stealth segments, however I can understand the criticism given that if you don't like that sort of thing it's completely jarring, and it is required to progress the story. I found them fun, however, and thought they were handled with the same Platinum polish that is everywhere else in this game. Viola, on the other hand though, ergh...
Viola is the new character introduced right at the start of this game. Is she outright terrible? Nah. But her gameplay is just totally lacking the polish that is present everywhere else in this game - she feels alot simpler, but ironically the simplicity of her kit makes her alot harder to play because of how clunky it is and how few options you have. This is especially true when shes side by side to Bayonetta, who has literally some of the best, varied gameplay i've seen to date, and Viola is just excruciatingly mid. Hell, where Bayonetta has like 8 or 9 talent trees, Viola only has one, which I maxed out immediately by the end of her FIRST level. If Platinum wanted to go this route they SERIOUSLY needed to give her alot more to work with to make her remain interesting. Her soundtrack goes really hard though. Unfortunately, she makes the ending somewhat bittersweet too, given that she's really not all that much of a charming character. As I mentioned early about the VA, there's no unintentional cringe here. However, Viola is intentionally meant to be a bit of a quirky, outcasty type character who's a little awkward and puts on a brave face. She also has an american accent, which is really strange given the context of her. The problem with this is that she just generally isn't that likable and she only has like one or two good lines in the whole game, and the rest of them are just nothing or make you recoil a bit with how cringe it is. Thankfully, she only has three stages in the whole game, and one segment in the last level, but my god do those bits feel like a slog. It's not like the levels are bad, she just makes playing them feel worse than they should.
I think if I carry on talking about this game I will have an aneurism because i've been writing for so long and I have a headache. Basically the game is sick and you should play it if you're into hack and slash games, this is one of the best you'll get in my opinion. Also just like the good old days theres an unlockable demo for what would later be Bayonetta's next game, Bayonetta Origins, which I thought was commendable and is something companies just don't really do anymore.
B2THEO2THEOBBY
3 months ago