Pain
I honestly think this game does many things way better than the first game such as the levels and environmental design, no qtes or highly egregious gimmick levels, way more enemy variety, no forced ‘no item’ clause on normal difficulty, way better art direction than the other two entries, improved combat challenges, new weapons, and various other quality of life updates that smooth out the overall experience compared to Bayo 1. The prologue kicks ass and is my favorite out of the series and I love Bayonetta's and Jeanne's designs here. Unfortunately, the combat has been tweaked in the most baffling ways possible that, while being way more approachable to pick up and play, ruined the smart design of the series.
Yeah yeah Umbran Climax is broken and destroys the already easy difficulty, but what killed me the most were the knock on effects brought on by this new mechanic and how everything is balanced around it. Bayonetta is devastatingly weak and has less combos than before while the enemies have ballooned in health quantity, which encourages using climax to finish up enemies quickly rather than being stylish and doing sick combos, also not helping with enemies being able to block and evade to stop the flow of combat. Witch Time is even more necessary, but it's a complete joke here compared to Bayo 1 and 3. Telegraphing felt slightly off with even more stuff happening on the screen at once, especially during the boss fights in air, that usually ended up with me getting hit randomly or witch time not triggering or triggering for only a second. The new enemies are so aesthetically cool, but are an absolute chore to fight against on harder difficulties with higher pools of health and stronger attacks. It's so disappointing coming off of Bayo 1's strong and rewarding execution of combat and difficulty.
Bayo 2 still felt like a good overall package with necessary additions, but those felt heavily outweighed at times because of the terrible combat tweaks. It seems so easy to one up the predecessor by just having those new parts added in while keeping the combat as strong as before, but Platinum still managed to fuck it up. Still superior to Bayonetta 3 though, even if I won't be returning much to this one again.
I honestly think this game does many things way better than the first game such as the levels and environmental design, no qtes or highly egregious gimmick levels, way more enemy variety, no forced ‘no item’ clause on normal difficulty, way better art direction than the other two entries, improved combat challenges, new weapons, and various other quality of life updates that smooth out the overall experience compared to Bayo 1. The prologue kicks ass and is my favorite out of the series and I love Bayonetta's and Jeanne's designs here. Unfortunately, the combat has been tweaked in the most baffling ways possible that, while being way more approachable to pick up and play, ruined the smart design of the series.
Yeah yeah Umbran Climax is broken and destroys the already easy difficulty, but what killed me the most were the knock on effects brought on by this new mechanic and how everything is balanced around it. Bayonetta is devastatingly weak and has less combos than before while the enemies have ballooned in health quantity, which encourages using climax to finish up enemies quickly rather than being stylish and doing sick combos, also not helping with enemies being able to block and evade to stop the flow of combat. Witch Time is even more necessary, but it's a complete joke here compared to Bayo 1 and 3. Telegraphing felt slightly off with even more stuff happening on the screen at once, especially during the boss fights in air, that usually ended up with me getting hit randomly or witch time not triggering or triggering for only a second. The new enemies are so aesthetically cool, but are an absolute chore to fight against on harder difficulties with higher pools of health and stronger attacks. It's so disappointing coming off of Bayo 1's strong and rewarding execution of combat and difficulty.
Bayo 2 still felt like a good overall package with necessary additions, but those felt heavily outweighed at times because of the terrible combat tweaks. It seems so easy to one up the predecessor by just having those new parts added in while keeping the combat as strong as before, but Platinum still managed to fuck it up. Still superior to Bayonetta 3 though, even if I won't be returning much to this one again.