Bayonetta 3

2022 | Platinum Games | Switch

Over the last years I’ve developed a bit of a tradition to play one of the Bayonetta games around the end of the year. Much like Capcom‘s Devil May Cry series, Platinum Games’ Bayonetta has this highly intoxicating gameplay loop, that makes me come back to it, just to see if I can play a little better than last time. So, with a few years of playing the first two titles and nearly wearing out my Wii-U gamepad (prior to the Switch release of course), it was time to finally tackle the third installment as part of this years Bayo-thon. Albeit, at the start of the year instead of my usual holiday action extravaganza.

Initially revealed during the 2017 Game Awards, Bayonetta 3 was beautifully teased with a small trailer of under a minute, but those seconds sent me into a frenzy of excitement. When was this game coming out? Why does Bayonetta collapse and vanish? Who is that mysterious foggy figure? Well, it wouldn’t be until the end of 2022 that I would get some answers to these questions, albeit accompanied with a slightly tumultuous release, following the change in voice cast. The biggest question, however, was whether the game would live up to the legacy of one of my favorite high octane action game series.

Bayonetta 3 wastes no time to drop kick you straight into the story, where we find Bayonetta facing off against a horde of turquoise goop monsters. The big bad then proceeds to take notes form Doctor Strange by folding reality in on itself in a dizzying kaleidoscopic battle arena, where onslaught ultimately proves too much for the Umbra Witch. In a wild twist, the Bayonetta we know and love is killed as a result of the fight, and we get introduced to one of the new characters as she desperately tries to escape from the goop squad, also known as the Homunculi. It’s only thanks to a mysterious cube that she’s able to escape a similar fate as Bayonetta as she’s hurled across the multiverse, where we cut to New York City and a very casual Bayonetta on a shopping trip.

As with most of Platinum Games’ games, the pacing is ruthless and breakneck. After a brief moment of comedic relief by tormenting our favorite punching bag, Enzo, Bayonetta quickly finds herself attacked by the Homunculi in the middle of an impending tsunami, as well as a gigantic fish monster. During the fight, the girl who escaped earlier falls into Enzo’s lap, unconscious. No time is wasted as another familiar face, Rodin, drifts his pizza van into frame to assist in the fight. This part honestly made me laugh quite a bit, as the normally stoic and cool attitude is now counteracted by the hordes of stuffed animals attached to the man.
What follows is a long sequence of classic Bayonetta fights to introduce some of the new mechanics of the game. Demon summoning is now part of the basic arsenal, where you can summon the likes of Madama Butterfly and Gamorrah with the press of a button. This change to combat felt incredibly refreshing, especially when dealing with the larger enemies you have to face. When summoning a demon, Bayonetta will have to keep doing her dance, which leaves her vulnerable to attacks. However, you can also summon at the end of regular combo’s to safely inflict a whole lot of damage. It’s incredibly satisfying to use and makes some of the larger fights feel more engaging as a result, since you’re no longer just shooting off toes.

With New York destroyed by the tsunami, and a giant demonic squid subdued, the gang rendezvous in Rodin’s bar; The Gates of Hell. Here we get our formal introduction to the new kid on the block, the leather and plaid clad, katana wielding, punk-rocker, Viola. She escaped her own dimension, after an entity known as Singularity, the mastermind behind the Homunculi, wiped it out and has now set his sights on the other dimensions, to make his own the only one in town. The only way to stop Singularity from taking over the Alphaverse is by collecting five Chaos Gears and a scientist named Sigurd to open a pathway to the universe which holds Singularity’s true body. So, the party splits off, with Bayonetta and Viola going on a wild interdimensional goose chase for the Gears, and Jeanne going off to star in an Elevator Action spin-off to find Dr. Sigurd.

The concept behind the story allows for some incredible creative freedom to design the different worlds and their respective Bayonetta (….Bayonetti? Bayonattas?), and along with that world’s version of the Homunculi invasions. Each version has some wildly varying designs and weapons associated with them. One of the first Bayonetta’s you encounter uses flaming yo-yo’s to skate around and can transform into a giant spider. I may have yelled JET SET BAYOOOO more times than I can count, every time I equipped the yo-yo. This format gave the developers the opportunity to massively expand on the arsenal at the player’s disposal. With each world you retrieve a Chaos Gear from, there is a chance for multiple weapons and/or demons to join the weapons locker. Each one radically changes how you move around, attack and utilize the demons. It’s Bayonetta 3‘s strongest point, and something that will invite players back for repeat playthroughs to experience the different tools at your disposal. And boy, do these tools vary. From the classic guns, to a dragon’s head on a stick, to a freaking train you can use to choo-choo through hordes of enemies. Not everything will be to your liking, but there’s a flavor for every taste present within these weapons. And with how forgiving combat feels, it gives enough breathing room to experiment with different weapon and demon combinations to be endlessly replayable for it’s gameplay.

The story and writing, however, leave much to be desired. Despite Hideki Kamiya helming the project as supervising director and writer, this installment is directed by Yusuke Miyate, whose prior experience was as a senior game designer for Wonderful 101 and Astral Chain. For a directorial debut, especially with Kamiya breathing over your shoulder, I imagine this was putting tremendous pressure on the project. Although Bayonetta isn’t really known for it’s superb storytelling, it does bolster a deep level of lore to plough through, and adding on top of the already established whilst innovating the series in a new direction, is no easy task. As such, Bayonetta 3 experiences a lot of pitfalls and pacing problems with its story, and on the one hand it is a relatively small plot to keep track of; we need to collect five Chaos Gears in order to stop the main evil doer. However, on the other hand, the ambition to one up previous installments leaves a lot of plot threads tangled in a jumbled mess. This also becomes apparent in the way the levels are designed. There is much more emphasis on puzzles and collectables, and as such, we’re constantly interrupted and distracted from continuing on our journey to save the multiverse. The road is littered with treasure chests that require you to go through long platform sections, or collect objects within a time limit, and sequences where you have to pole dance to reverse time to get to an item box. At first I found these a lot of fun, but as the story ramped up, they felt like distractions that I wasn’t too bothered with. It’s not like the game is shy with giving you upgrade material anyway.

The Switch struggles noticeably with Bayonetta 3. The dynamic resolution frequently caused the game to drop to incredibly low resolutions, and the game’s refusal to use lesser detailed models when the camera is far away frequently reduces the screen to a blurry and pixelated mess. Even with the dynamic resolution assisting performance, I still experienced quite a few drastic frame drops, especially during combat with busier backgrounds. The game is somewhat designed to accommodate this, however, with textures and environments being a lot less detailed than prior installments. Bayonetta 2 had a similar thing going for it, however, that game feels much brighter and compact in comparison. Bayonetta 3‘s environments feel very subdued in contrast.
What breathes life into the game though is the absolutely incredible soundtrack backing up the action. A lot of staples, such as ‘Let’s Dance, Boys!’, make a comeback, and some of the new work beautifully brings sequences to life. There was even a surprise reference to The Fifth Element with a full on up-beat opera mini-game for a boss fight. Each character also has a brand new theme to suit them, with Viola’s being one that reminded me a lot of the final fight in Astral Chain.

Bayonetta 3 leaves me with mixed feelings. On the one hand we have fantastic combat, perfectly complimented by brand new and fresh mechanics. On the other, we get a convoluted plot that feels crammed into the last act, and dialogue that is designed solely for quips. What’s evident is that the Switch wasn’t dealing with the game well and my hope is to replay this game on a platform that keeps the resolution from combusting the screen into a blur at some point in time. For now though, I’m happy I got to experience more of the aspects of the series that I enjoy, and witnessed those aspects flourish. Over the course of just three games, Platinum has managed to finetune the combat to perfection and this, for me, is the main driving force behind embracing this entry. With Hideki Kamiya parting ways with Platinum Games, it’s going to be a curious journey forward for Bayonetta, and my hope is that, despite stumbling at the start, the new team will give us some incredibly memorable and fun high octane action to enjoy.

Goop Squad/10