Viola, Jeanne, the Demon Slaves, the constant rail shooter segments, the kaiju fights, teen Bayo... Platinum is desperate for you to play as anyone BUT Bayonetta in this game. It's almost as if they're ashamed to associate her with something so slapdash. Not to be a "graphics whore" in the parlance of early-2000s message boards, but a franchise that initially - and successfully! - positioned itself as pure spectacle deserves way more than Nintendo's perpetual one-step-behind tech. Fourteen years out from the release of the original Bayonetta, we should be enjoying unparalleled brain-melting cosmic glitz and glamour, and yet the franchise's aesthetics have barely evolved at all. But could Platinum even handle that kind of excess when they're barely able to handle the camera here?
My theory is that part of Bayonetta's appeal, at least as conceived by Platinum, is how static she remains, an unshakable constant through time and space, heaven and hell. You see this writ large in tempo and structure (all three games have basically identical openings, chapter lengths, and playtimes, although this one feels plot- and cutscene-heavier) and small in gesture (the extreme closeups on certain tics of Bayo's like how she licks her lips after drinking a cocktail). The issue with this approach is that Platinum hasn't yet found a satisfactory way to offer variation within this static conception. If 3's glut of variant play modes is an attempt to shake up the formula and stress that this franchise's universe is more than just Bayo herself... I don't want it. Viola sucks. Jeanne is relegated to dogshit stealth segments (though I do love her mod fashion and Catherine Deneuve hair). The Demon Slaves are unresponsive and take up way too much screen space for an already visually busy game. I know that there's a middle ground to be found between familiarity and evolution, but constantly taking the gameplay spotlight off of Bayonetta is not it. Why mess with the one part of the franchise that truly works?
There are plenty of good ideas here, hampered though they are by the limitations of the game and their own clumsy execution. I enjoyed how diverse Bayo's arsenal is, even if the skill trees are all functionally similar. I might replay it on Infinite Climax, which is more than I could bear to give to 2.
My theory is that part of Bayonetta's appeal, at least as conceived by Platinum, is how static she remains, an unshakable constant through time and space, heaven and hell. You see this writ large in tempo and structure (all three games have basically identical openings, chapter lengths, and playtimes, although this one feels plot- and cutscene-heavier) and small in gesture (the extreme closeups on certain tics of Bayo's like how she licks her lips after drinking a cocktail). The issue with this approach is that Platinum hasn't yet found a satisfactory way to offer variation within this static conception. If 3's glut of variant play modes is an attempt to shake up the formula and stress that this franchise's universe is more than just Bayo herself... I don't want it. Viola sucks. Jeanne is relegated to dogshit stealth segments (though I do love her mod fashion and Catherine Deneuve hair). The Demon Slaves are unresponsive and take up way too much screen space for an already visually busy game. I know that there's a middle ground to be found between familiarity and evolution, but constantly taking the gameplay spotlight off of Bayonetta is not it. Why mess with the one part of the franchise that truly works?
There are plenty of good ideas here, hampered though they are by the limitations of the game and their own clumsy execution. I enjoyed how diverse Bayo's arsenal is, even if the skill trees are all functionally similar. I might replay it on Infinite Climax, which is more than I could bear to give to 2.