The two best words I can think of to describe Bayonetta 3 are disappointing and frustrating.
In terms of gameplay, Bayonetta 3 started off pretty good. Basically as good as I remember from the previous two games. But then I realized something. Roughly halfway through the game, when I was getting overwhelmed by hordes of giant enemies, I decided to just try spamming the attacks from one of my giant demons for the whole level. That was the first time I got a platinum level rank. From that point on, it became increasingly obvious that the game was expecting me to just spam attacks from the giant demons instead of actually fighting myself, and a huge amount of my interest was sapped away. All I had to do to get high ranking medals was just dodge for witch time, then spam Madama Butterfly until I ran out of magic. I didn't even bother using any of the other demons, she worked perfectly for just about any situation. Overall, just disappointing, especially from such an acclaimed action series known for its great combat.
But then there's Viola. My god do I hate Viola. As a character she's...whatever. She can be a little grating, but mostly inoffensive. But as playable character however, she is absolutely unbearable. I don't remember the last time I've hated playing as a character this much in a video game. Her parrying mechanic is inconsistent and annoying. Plus, the fact that the only reward for pulling off a parry is witch time, the same thing Bayonetta can pull off with ease, just makes doing it feel unrewarding and frustrating. Add on her awful movement, and the fact that her giant demon moves and attacks without any input from the player, and the result is nothing but torment. This is a bold claim, but I would honestly rather play Devil May Cry 2 than any of Viola's levels. I hate her that much.
There's also these weird Jeanne stealth segments that are mostly just annoying filler. I could see some people getting some joy out of them, but they did nothing for me.
Overall, the gameplay was promising at first, but quickly devolved into being either boring or just straight up awful. A real shame from such a great series up to this point.
And then there's the story. For me, part of Bayonetta's blood is having a stupid, ridiculous, overly-complicated story that goes off the walls. It's what I believe really separates Bayonetta from other character action games. I love how Bayonetta 1 and 2 feed into each other like a loop, a perfect way to tell a duology.
So how does Bayonetta 3 fit into that?
It doesn't.
Bayonetta 3 instantly shoots itself in the foot by being a multiverse story. While there are some great multiverse stories, like Into the Spiderverse and Everything Everywhere All At Once, the problem with multiverse stories is that there's just so many of them right now. The genre is incredibly oversaturated, to the point that if a story doesn't significantly stand out in some way, it's going to be immediately lost in multiverse sea.
But hey, if any series could pull it off, it would be Bayonetta! So what crazy alternate realities does Bayonetta visit? What crazy worlds do we have the pleasure of witnessing!?
The alternate universe of uh....Japan? And uh...Egypt? A...and France? That's it. No seriously. Those are the alternate worlds present in this multiverse story. Yep, just generic locations you would see in any other generic action game. Amazing.
Seriously, where's the world where everyone is just a frog? Where's the world where Enzo is literally God? Where's the world where everyone in it is just Bayyonetta? This had so much potential and they completely squandered it in the most baffling way possible.
I think the game's big problem is that it isn't really a multiverse story, it's a time travel one. Seriously, everything would fit so much better if Bayonetta was just travelling through time to these locations instead of going to the same locations in "different" dimensions. The only thing that makes these dimensions feel like other dimensions at all is the presence of other Bayonettas, most of which are written horribly. Sadly, this is the most generic, boring, and easily predictable multiverse story I have ever witnessed.
And then there's the ending. My god I hated the ending so much. So much. The final boss takes so freaking long, filled with meaningless cutscenes between each phase that just droned on and on. And then, there's the very end. I won't spoil it, but the ending has completely eliminated any interest I had in this series going forward. There's apparently going to be a fourth installment at some point in the next decade, and I definitely won't be getting it on release day.
Overall, a massive disappointment in my eyes. There's no reason at all to play Bayonetta 3 over 1 or 2 in the slightest. Some people might be excited for future installments, but for me, I think I'm just going to stick with 1 and 2 for the time being. Hopefully that will change, but I don't have much hope.
In terms of gameplay, Bayonetta 3 started off pretty good. Basically as good as I remember from the previous two games. But then I realized something. Roughly halfway through the game, when I was getting overwhelmed by hordes of giant enemies, I decided to just try spamming the attacks from one of my giant demons for the whole level. That was the first time I got a platinum level rank. From that point on, it became increasingly obvious that the game was expecting me to just spam attacks from the giant demons instead of actually fighting myself, and a huge amount of my interest was sapped away. All I had to do to get high ranking medals was just dodge for witch time, then spam Madama Butterfly until I ran out of magic. I didn't even bother using any of the other demons, she worked perfectly for just about any situation. Overall, just disappointing, especially from such an acclaimed action series known for its great combat.
But then there's Viola. My god do I hate Viola. As a character she's...whatever. She can be a little grating, but mostly inoffensive. But as playable character however, she is absolutely unbearable. I don't remember the last time I've hated playing as a character this much in a video game. Her parrying mechanic is inconsistent and annoying. Plus, the fact that the only reward for pulling off a parry is witch time, the same thing Bayonetta can pull off with ease, just makes doing it feel unrewarding and frustrating. Add on her awful movement, and the fact that her giant demon moves and attacks without any input from the player, and the result is nothing but torment. This is a bold claim, but I would honestly rather play Devil May Cry 2 than any of Viola's levels. I hate her that much.
There's also these weird Jeanne stealth segments that are mostly just annoying filler. I could see some people getting some joy out of them, but they did nothing for me.
Overall, the gameplay was promising at first, but quickly devolved into being either boring or just straight up awful. A real shame from such a great series up to this point.
And then there's the story. For me, part of Bayonetta's blood is having a stupid, ridiculous, overly-complicated story that goes off the walls. It's what I believe really separates Bayonetta from other character action games. I love how Bayonetta 1 and 2 feed into each other like a loop, a perfect way to tell a duology.
So how does Bayonetta 3 fit into that?
It doesn't.
Bayonetta 3 instantly shoots itself in the foot by being a multiverse story. While there are some great multiverse stories, like Into the Spiderverse and Everything Everywhere All At Once, the problem with multiverse stories is that there's just so many of them right now. The genre is incredibly oversaturated, to the point that if a story doesn't significantly stand out in some way, it's going to be immediately lost in multiverse sea.
But hey, if any series could pull it off, it would be Bayonetta! So what crazy alternate realities does Bayonetta visit? What crazy worlds do we have the pleasure of witnessing!?
The alternate universe of uh....Japan? And uh...Egypt? A...and France? That's it. No seriously. Those are the alternate worlds present in this multiverse story. Yep, just generic locations you would see in any other generic action game. Amazing.
Seriously, where's the world where everyone is just a frog? Where's the world where Enzo is literally God? Where's the world where everyone in it is just Bayyonetta? This had so much potential and they completely squandered it in the most baffling way possible.
I think the game's big problem is that it isn't really a multiverse story, it's a time travel one. Seriously, everything would fit so much better if Bayonetta was just travelling through time to these locations instead of going to the same locations in "different" dimensions. The only thing that makes these dimensions feel like other dimensions at all is the presence of other Bayonettas, most of which are written horribly. Sadly, this is the most generic, boring, and easily predictable multiverse story I have ever witnessed.
And then there's the ending. My god I hated the ending so much. So much. The final boss takes so freaking long, filled with meaningless cutscenes between each phase that just droned on and on. And then, there's the very end. I won't spoil it, but the ending has completely eliminated any interest I had in this series going forward. There's apparently going to be a fourth installment at some point in the next decade, and I definitely won't be getting it on release day.
Overall, a massive disappointment in my eyes. There's no reason at all to play Bayonetta 3 over 1 or 2 in the slightest. Some people might be excited for future installments, but for me, I think I'm just going to stick with 1 and 2 for the time being. Hopefully that will change, but I don't have much hope.
sleepytitan
1 year ago