Despite overall having a very good time with Bayonetta 3, it's difficult not to be quite negative about it when discussed in the context of its series.
The first Bayonetta is a marvel of combat design, with excellent visual clarity and great mechanics. As I worked my way up to the hardest difficulty, and suddenly Witch Time was disabled, it was a revelation. It all works without this central mechanic! Granted, I didn't make it far as it's incredibly challenging, but I had a great deal of respect for the design.
The problem with the first game was its rough edges. Insta-death quick-time events were a huge turn-off the first playthrough, demolishing my ranks and demoralising me. A couple of overlong gimmicky vehicle segments also spoilt the integrity of the core gameplay, but these were mere bumps in an otherwise fantastic road.
Bayonetta 2 smoothed these edges over, but marked a step down in terms of combat design. The hardest difficulty doesn't get rid of Witch Time this time, as it would make certain encounters unplayable. It's a polished, safe sequel, and that's ok. It looked amazing, played great, and was overall a smooth, fun ride, hitting neither the heights nor lows of its predecessor.
Bayonetta 3 is a mess. The polish of Bayonetta 2 is out the window; while there's nothing quite as egregious as the first game's insta-death quicktime events, we got a LOT of other nonsense in this one. Rock-paper-scissors kaiju battles, Star Fox, this weird 2D shoot-'em-up bit, I could go on.
The core gameplay remains great, but lacks integrity due to the demon summon mechanic and its downstream effects. Arenas are oversized to account for these things, hampering performance, and many enemies are oversized to match them. This can turn battles into a clusterfuck of visual information, a far cry from the first game's clarity. I attained a single Pure Platinum verse in this game, and I genuinely couldn't tell what was going on or what I was doing. I guess it worked though.
Now look, I'm sure there's plenty of potential depth to all this. Switching from one demon to the next, combo-ing their attacks... I'm sure this is all possible. But the game is such a maximalist mess, I can't parse any of it. It's all just noise.
I could go on about Viola, the story, the tone... but I think I've been critical enough. Why, after all that, am I giving it a 3.5/5? Because it's still a damn fun game. It's insane and doesn't make much sense, but that can be a captivating thing. And talking about it in the broad strokes like this doesn't do justice to all the creativity on display here. Sure, the demon mechanic can turn the game into a visual mess, but in what other game can I summon a demon train in the middle of a battle and set a course for it through my enemies? The clock tower is another highlight, just pure, brilliant silliness. And there's so many of these, each with their own animations and moves. While the gimmick sequences would be irritating if I were engaged with the combat as this considered, beautiful thing as it is in Bayo 1, Bayo 3's combat design is nonsense, so I'm more willing to just roll with the spectacle and have a fun time.
A weirder and worse sequel this time around, but I'm glad it exists. Not sure I need another though. The perfect Bayonetta game is a re-release of the first which removes the insta-death quicktime events and allows the player to start anywhere in a chapter, thus requiring perfection on the vehicle parts only once. Anything else is doomed to be a diminished iteration which, while potentially fun and interesting, can only serve to highlight just how complete that first title was.
The first Bayonetta is a marvel of combat design, with excellent visual clarity and great mechanics. As I worked my way up to the hardest difficulty, and suddenly Witch Time was disabled, it was a revelation. It all works without this central mechanic! Granted, I didn't make it far as it's incredibly challenging, but I had a great deal of respect for the design.
The problem with the first game was its rough edges. Insta-death quick-time events were a huge turn-off the first playthrough, demolishing my ranks and demoralising me. A couple of overlong gimmicky vehicle segments also spoilt the integrity of the core gameplay, but these were mere bumps in an otherwise fantastic road.
Bayonetta 2 smoothed these edges over, but marked a step down in terms of combat design. The hardest difficulty doesn't get rid of Witch Time this time, as it would make certain encounters unplayable. It's a polished, safe sequel, and that's ok. It looked amazing, played great, and was overall a smooth, fun ride, hitting neither the heights nor lows of its predecessor.
Bayonetta 3 is a mess. The polish of Bayonetta 2 is out the window; while there's nothing quite as egregious as the first game's insta-death quicktime events, we got a LOT of other nonsense in this one. Rock-paper-scissors kaiju battles, Star Fox, this weird 2D shoot-'em-up bit, I could go on.
The core gameplay remains great, but lacks integrity due to the demon summon mechanic and its downstream effects. Arenas are oversized to account for these things, hampering performance, and many enemies are oversized to match them. This can turn battles into a clusterfuck of visual information, a far cry from the first game's clarity. I attained a single Pure Platinum verse in this game, and I genuinely couldn't tell what was going on or what I was doing. I guess it worked though.
Now look, I'm sure there's plenty of potential depth to all this. Switching from one demon to the next, combo-ing their attacks... I'm sure this is all possible. But the game is such a maximalist mess, I can't parse any of it. It's all just noise.
I could go on about Viola, the story, the tone... but I think I've been critical enough. Why, after all that, am I giving it a 3.5/5? Because it's still a damn fun game. It's insane and doesn't make much sense, but that can be a captivating thing. And talking about it in the broad strokes like this doesn't do justice to all the creativity on display here. Sure, the demon mechanic can turn the game into a visual mess, but in what other game can I summon a demon train in the middle of a battle and set a course for it through my enemies? The clock tower is another highlight, just pure, brilliant silliness. And there's so many of these, each with their own animations and moves. While the gimmick sequences would be irritating if I were engaged with the combat as this considered, beautiful thing as it is in Bayo 1, Bayo 3's combat design is nonsense, so I'm more willing to just roll with the spectacle and have a fun time.
A weirder and worse sequel this time around, but I'm glad it exists. Not sure I need another though. The perfect Bayonetta game is a re-release of the first which removes the insta-death quicktime events and allows the player to start anywhere in a chapter, thus requiring perfection on the vehicle parts only once. Anything else is doomed to be a diminished iteration which, while potentially fun and interesting, can only serve to highlight just how complete that first title was.