Which Bayonetta Game Is The Best - T-Tees - Your Answers Await, Life's Questions Unraveled

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Ding-dong the witch is back as Cereza returns for her third hair-raising adventure as the titular character in Bayonetta 3.

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Bayonetta returns in typical fashionable style as she dons her trademark glasses, guns and glamorous locks once more, this time against powerful homunculus foes that are neither angel nor demon. Whatever is an Umbra Witch to do?

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Witching hour:Bayonetta 2 full review

Fortunately, Bayonetta has some new tricks up her sleeve, not to mention some friends both old and new to help even up the odds. Is it enough to keep Platinum’s top-notch action franchise fresh? As usual, the devil is in the details.

Bayonetta and the multiverse of sadness

A screenshot from Bayonetta 3 for the Nintendo Switch.

Bayonetta 3 kicks off with a pretty compelling narrative as it shows everybody’s cheeky and typically confident protagonist facing a tough and seemingly unbeatable foe.

A shocking scene unfolds, likely leaving players wondering left wondering what exactly is going on.

It’s a great table setter that will leave folks in anticipation as they look forward to what else gets served throughout the rest of the game. It also raises the stakes as it shows that there are no sacred cows in Bayonetta 3’s story.

With various alternate universes colliding in the series’ latest installment, the possibilities are literally endless in terms of the direction that the game takes. Unfortunately, Bayonetta 3 doesn’t always deliver on its narrative’s promise.

While the Bayonetta series has always had great lore underneath all of its camp and irreverence, its execution can sometimes be uneven. Bayonetta 3 is no different and, as a result, the payoff to its excellent setup doesn’t always end up as satisfying as it could be. It just feels like it’s trying to do much, too soon at the expense of letting things just naturally develop. It would have been nice, for example, if certain plot points were fleshed out a bit more or allowed to percolate more naturally.

It’s a bit hard to explain without spoiling the story. All I’ll say is that it’s a bit of a shame as Bayonetta 3 looked like it had the potential to have the best story in the franchise. I wouldn’t say that the story is bad but it could also be much better, especially given its excellent start.

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One notable change is the addition of a new playable character, the witch-in-training Viola, to the series. Unlike Bayonetta and fellow Umbra Witch Jeanne, Viola is raw and rough in both look and attitude, eschewing the confident elegance of her two witch counterparts.

Bayonetta 3 goes big — literally

Control demons with the Demon Slave mechanic from Bayonetta 3 for the Nintendo Switch.

One thing that longtime players will notice when playing Bayonetta 3 is that it feels much bigger in more ways than one.

While the first two games have a more intimate vibe, Bayonetta seems a lot more expansive, not just with its narrative set pieces but also its larger stages overall. The result is a game with an impressive sense of scale, especially when compared to its predecessors.

At the same time, going big also means pushing the Switch hardware closer to the limit. The result is that some obvious sacrifices needed to be made to make the game run decently. Although character models look great, for example, the same detail is absent in the game’s environs, many of which suffer from muddy textures.

Cramming a lot of data onscreen also means that performance can drop when plenty of things are happening, which is particularly noticeable for a game that depends on good timing to pull off its crazier combos. Interestingly, frame rate drops are more noticeable when playing docked, which provides access to higher frame rates. Playing undocked in comparison locks things to a lower frame rate so the game actually feels more steady.

The good news is that the action itself remains top-class overall. The Bayonetta franchise has always delivered when it comes to gameplay and Bayonetta 3 does not disappoint in that regard.

The base combat is still the same stellar, combo and counter-driven gameplay that Bayonetta fans know and love with features such as Witch Time for slowing down the action after a perfectly executed evasion, for example. Weapon loadouts did get tweaked with a move to more defined sets but Cereza’s combat itself has stayed true to its roots.

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Instead, the big changes to combat lie in how the protagonist employs her demon summons. While the previous games used Bayonetta’s demons as combo additions or climax finishers — something that Bayonetta 3 continues to do — the latest game also introduces a new mechanic that allows Cereza to directly control them. This forced measure called Demon Slave, has Bayonetta literally doing a jig to keep her Summons under control despite the absence of divine prey to fulfill their contract.

The result is the ability to have Bayonetta fight alongside her gigantic summons such as Gomorrah, who you can summon with the left trigger and unsummon with the right trigger. You just need to have enough summoning energy to do so and you can input moves for them to follow. The only caveat is that since it is a forced summon outside of the regular contract, they can also go out of control if they surpass a certain threshold.

Bayonetta also gets an ability called Demon Masquerade, which allows her to fuse with the demon embodying one of her weapons to harness their power. This includes series staples such as Madama Butterfly as well as a fan favorite demon from the second game who you can acquire by doing a certain side mission.

Demon Slave and Demon Masquerade are both fun additions that throw in one more ball to the many gameplay mechanics that players have to juggle. Granted, they can be overwhelming to series newcomers or rusty Bayonetta fans. But for franchise veterans, it helps spice up the already excellent core mechanics of the game.

The inclusion of the Demon Slave mechanic is also likely a big reason — no pun intended — why stages have gotten bigger. The larger environs, however, also lead to one of my issues with Bayonetta’s normally excellent combat. During times when the game zooms out, it can be easy to lose track of Bayonetta while fighting, especially when using the smaller screen for portable mode. When it happens, it can be disorienting and mess up with the flow of combat and your combos.

It can be like you’re playing half-blind at times so it’s important to be able to pull off things by feel and intuition. I recommend looking at enemy attacks if you can’t directly see your character and reacting to that instead (that’s thousands of hours of Monster Hunter talking right there.)

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Voila! Say hello to Bayonetta’s new playable witch buddy Viola

Viola from Bayonetta 3 for the Nintendo Switch.

Another big change to the gameplay is the introduction of the aforementioned Viola.

Viola’s gameplay is different from Bayonetta so it can be confusing or disorienting at first. While some may view the sword-wielding witch as a bootleg Devil May Cry character, she actually feels more like a fusion of characters from two other games that Platinum had a hand in: Raiden from Metal Gear Rising and 2B from Nier Automata.

Once you understand how to play Viola, she can actually be quite fun. While she has Witch Time abilities, for example, they can only be triggered while she has her sword on hand. Do a perfectly timed parry and Viola will perform her version of the series’ trademark move to slow down time to open up foes to devastating combos.

Viola is also quite quick on her feet. While doesn’t have Bat Within like her other fellow witches, she can run like a bat out of hell, especially when combined with her dodge.

The main challenge with Viola is that her timing can be different from Bayonetta’s. This can make it difficult to master her parry, which can cause you to eat damage if you mess up, especially since she doesn’t have the aforementioned Bat Within defensive technique.

If you’re having a tough time pulling off the normal block counter, I recommend equipping the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa to trigger Witch Time via that accessory instead. Once you get used to it, you can use it with Viola’s special block cancels and Shinobi Slide to put pressure on foes while triggering Witch Time in between as well.

All in all, I think Viola is a great addition in terms of gameplay. Her different combat helps make things fresh and also provides a nice change of pace.

Final thoughts on Bayonetta 3

Bayonetta 3 is another excellent addition to the franchise that pushes the series’ already excellent gameplay to a whole new level. Storytelling can be a bit uneven and the visuals, while boasting great concept design, can suffer from texture and performance hiccups. Bayonetta 3 delivers where it counts the most, however, and that’s its fast-paced, combo-licious combat. Throw in a new playable character to the mix and you’ve got another entry that can stand toe-to-toe with any of the best action games out there, crying devils included.