Bayonetta 3 Review

Astral Chain was a really cool game, with a neat gimmick centering around controlling both your character, as well as your Legion. Legions and Weapons in Astral Chain, the way ZL was used in that game, as well as the overall simplified gameplay, when compared to previous platinumgames’ games was something of a sticking point for me personally though. No no, don’t worry, you don’t need to double check the title of this post again, everything I just mentioned was ported over to Bayonetta 3 to varying degrees. Let’s start at the top though.

I will put a spoiler warning shortly before I am going to talk about post-game content and won’t really talk much about the story anyway. If you see the available weapons, demons, costumes and such as spoilers though, then consider this your one and only warning, you are probably best off playing through the game first before reading or watching any Bayonetta 3 content.

First playthrough

I’ll make this short, the story was enjoyable, the voice acting, even with the controversy, was nothing I had any complaints about and yes, it’s still as cheesy as it has always been and the different playstyles between Bayonetta, Viola and Jeanne also kept things from becoming too monotonous on a first playthrough. This is just a first playthrough kind of deal, but Bayonetta 1 and 2 both can get rather dull in the beginning as you need to unlock weapons and abilities first to get the full experience. In Bayonetta 3 this was to a degree circumvented by having Bayonetta be just Bayonetta as she has always been, but Viola essentially plays like Revengeance’s Raiden, including having to parry block for Witch Time activation and Jeanne has, what is essentially an entirely different gameplay mode dedicated to her. I can honestly say that the game offered a perfectly great and fun first playthrough experience.

 

Bayonetta 3 Gameplay

Gameplay

As I just mentioned, the game features three characters and similar to Devil May Cry 5, the main game’s chapters are locked to their respective characters. As of right now, there’s no option to Play Bayonetta in a Viola chapter, or Viola in a Jeanne side mission. In a lot of ways it wouldn’t really make sense and possibly even break progression in some cases, but it’s still a bit of a shame, as you could play the entirety of Bayonetta 1 and 2 with different characters, but they all kind of played the same back then. So what are the differences then?


System mechanics

Before I am going to talk about the individual characters’ gameplay features, it’s time to loop back to the beginning of this review. Astral Chain’s influence on this game is absolutely massive, a lot of it is good and fun, but it wasn’t without sacrifices.

Sub-weapons

Sub-weapons, that’s angel and demon weapons in the previous games, have been completely removed. On a very technical level, they still exist, but there are no sub weapons in the main game at least. The only exception to this is a key, which doesn’t count, as per usual, you are actually supposed to use it as a key. The omission of sub weapons isn’t a huge deal in my opinion either, because they really just served as a means to inflate your combo score. So, I guess good riddance?

Mixing & matching weapons

Mixing and matching weapons is no longer possible. One of the core combat functions of Bayonetta 1 and 2 was to mix and match weapons between your arms and legs. Granted, the combination of Salamandra on your arms and Alruna on your legs utterly destroyed any semblance of balance in Bayonetta 2, but these are single player games though, so I don’t think it matters too much. In Bayonetta 3 Set A and B each only allow you to equip one weapon.

With this change, some alterations had to be made in how some weapons behave. Weapons like the G-Pillar in Bayonetta 3, sharing similarities to the Chernobog in Bayonetta 2, a weapon that couldn’t be equipped to your legs, would raise a question or two. If there are no leg weapons, that means half your move set would be gone. After all, other weapons like Colour My World are set to each appendage, meaning the X button controls your arms, whereas the A button takes care of your legs. Interestingly enough, this is where these bigger heavier weapons actually got a lot more interesting, as their movesets got expanded. In simple terms they now have separate moves on the A button as well. While I don’t think it’s enough to warrant the exclusion, as this could have been easily also made possible by just having the choice for these weapons with either Legs or Arms only, or full body control, it does make me wonder how weapons like the Chain Chomp or Takemikazuchi would fare here. They are both good weapons, just a little boring due to their moveset limitations. Either way, Platinumgames taketh away and Platinumgames giveth.

Demon Slave

Demon Slave is a funny name, especially when the Legions in Astral Chain were, as the name suggests, actually chained up. The system has been copy and pasted almost verbatim. At the end of combos there is a flash for you to hit ZL on, to make your Demon deliver the final blow. Holding ZL down, makes you control your Demon directly, you however cannot control both yourself and the demon at the same time. There is an accessory that allows you to keep control of Bayonetta as you summon your Demon Slave, but that means the Demon is now in charge of its own actions, meaning both the demon and yourself are released of your shackles. The demon from your input commands and you from being stuck from whatever position you summoned the demon from.

The entire game’s combat system hinges on the Demon Slave mechanic, a little too much for my liking, but it does open up a few new options. For one, you get a third counter option. Usually you had Witch Time and a parry via the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa accessory. Now, after you unlock it on your skill tree, you also get the option to counter with your demon directly. This also means that you can triple dip your defences. Just hit your parry, dodge and demon all in quick succession for three chances to activate… something. Spam yourself to happiness! I think it’s quite fun.

Demon Slave is a watered down version of the Legion mechanic from Astral Chain, but it’s not bad at all, it’s just not as fun and free form as mixing and matching weapons was.


Demon Masquerade

This is a little weird at first and takes some getting used to. So basically Wicked Weaves don’t exist anymore and instead we have this now. In combat its functions are pretty much identical. Outside of combat it can be a little irritating at first.

In Bayonetta 1 and 2, you hit ZR twice and transform into a panther as Bayonetta, a Lynx as Jeanne, a Tiger as Rosa… some form of a large cat. This was fixed and couldn’t be changed, it was simply a means to travel faster and jump further. This was greatly expanded upon in Bayonetta 3, but in a way that to me feels contradictory. So you can equip one weapon per slot, letting you switch from one weapon to another on the fly. You can also equip three demons, which you can switch on the fly. The equipped demon is tied to your ZL button, whereas your Demon Masquerade is tied to the weapon you have equipped. That’s all the arms and legs Bayonetta summons during combos, as well as her speed-up option, hitting ZR twice. It’s all fine with the exception of hitting ZR twice. If you want to change into Phantasmaraneae, don’t make me waste one of the only two weapon slots I have, just so I can climb up a wall, when at this point in time I didn’t want to use Ignis Araneae Yo-Yo. Just choosing the Demon Slave would be a lot more preferrable and minimise unnecessary menuing… well for me anyway. Maybe others are ok with it and in the end it barely even matters after you have ransacked every stage in the game anyway.

 

Characters: Bayonetta

Characters

Just going through the system mechanics, I have pretty much already talked about how Bayonetta plays as a character in Bayonetta 3 and this also applies to Jeanne outside of her side missions, with the usual caveats of taking more damage and Witch Time only activating on Moth Within and perfect parries via the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa accessory. So there isn’t much more to talk about here, dodge offset is pretty much untouched and Demon Slave is the name of the game. There is one more character though.

 

Characters: Viola

Viola

Viola is an upgrade, or at the very least a side-grade to Raiden as far as I am concerned, that much was clear to me from the trailer where her gameplay was shown off for the first time. Playing her only solidified this initial thought in my mind. Just like Raiden, her dodge is a means to utilise dodge offset only, as it cannot trigger Witch Time. Also, just like Raiden, she has a block button, which she can also use to offset. I’ve always been wondering when Platinumgames is going to recycle Raiden’s gameplay and nine and a half years later we are introduced to Viola. Her gameplay isn’t just a copy and paste of Raiden’s moveset of course, it’s been almost ten years after all. The core concepts of focusing on parrying and using dodge more as a repositioning tool, with dodge offset to keep your combos going, is very much still intact though. Viola only has one demon, but the Demon Slave mechanic still functions exactly the same as it does with Bayonetta.

Viola might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I don’t find the aesthetics around her design particularly appealing either, but I think her gameplay experience is awesome. With the exception of those multiplayer battle cards in Bayonetta 2, this is also the first time that a completely different playstyle is available in a Bayonetta game. Devil May Cry started expanding on this with the original Devil May Cry 3… I’d say DMC2, but I don’t think that Lucia really counts. In any case, Vergil in DMC3:SE, Nero in DMC4 and then Lady, Trish and V, Devil May Cry has had a wide variety of gameplay styles available for quite a while. The Bayonetta characters Bayonetta, Jeanne, Zero and Rosa, visuals aside, they are identical. They differed from one another as much as Smash Bros clone characters. Yeah they are different, but you have to find the differences first. Viola breaks free from this. She is her own character, heavily inspired by Raiden, but still her own.


Viola’s Witch Time

Witch Time with Viola can be a little annoying. With Bayonetta Witch Time will always activate, late dodge, early dodge and bat within, which actually almost feels reactable in this game… almost, I don’t think I actually could though. The point is, it always does and it grants you varying degrees of Witch Time duration. The more accurate your dodge was, the more Witch Time you will have to play with. Jeanne can only activate Witch Time through dodging with Moth within, meaning a perfect dodge and the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa accessory via a perfect parry, meaning Bat and Moth Within timing. Viola’s block button’s initial activation works similar to the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa, but in a very annoying way. For some reason her block button will trigger Witch Time for a split second, I am talking a couple of frames and then instantly switch back to normal. A perfect block-parry will grant you your Witch Time as expected, but I fail to understand why the early version even exists. When Witch Time activates you immediately want to go into Demon Slave to disrupt whatever the enemy is doing. There is a little problem with this in Viola’s case though.

Viola throws her Katana on the ground, as that’s where her demon resides, while the demon is out, she fights bare handed. Reacting to Witch Time activations is something you’ll get used to very quickly, as that’s your main ticket to racking up combo points, more damage and finishing verses quicker and staying safe… all in all abusing Witch Time is the easiest way to grind out Pure Platinum grades. It’s not the flashiest by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the easiest. So you react to the activation, immediately throw your Katana and Witch Time cancels itself out and now you are screwed. This is a pointless trigger for her block-parry mechanic. Just set it up the same way Jeanne’s dodge and the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa work. Parry without anything when it’s too early and full blown Witch Time activation on a perfect one.

Because of that I haven’t actually really put a lot of time into her gameplay past the mandatory section throughout the main course of the game and when I play her, I usually just parry with the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa, as in that case, when Witch Time activates, I can actually trust it. Keep in mind, that even though I ranted on and on about this, it’s really just a minor gripe. Her gameplay is really fun and I highly recommend getting to grips with her moveset.

 

Characters: Jeanne

Jeanne

Jeanne? Really? Isn’t she just a slightly more difficult to play version of Bayonetta? And didn’t I just say that… Yes, that is still true, but in Bayonetta 3 she has her own little side mission segments throughout the course of the main story line as well. As I don’t want to talk about the story, let’s just ignore why she is doing this and focus on how she’s going about it.

Jeane’s missions focus less on melee combat, but instead heavily emphasise stealth kills, hiding and projectiles. While it all looks pretty cool, being a 2D platformery type of affair, the gameplay feels a little uninspired. It’s not just that melee combat was deemphasised during her side missions, it’s that they’ve been straight up gutted. There are no combos, strings, demon masquerades, dodge offsets, or anything else. You have Jeanne’s signature All 4 One for your standard projectile attacks and you can pick up other projectile weapons along the way, which all come with a finite amount of ammunition. There are also secrets to uncover, like finding the Cutie J transformations, which in here almost works like a Super Star from Super Mario… although you do still have to attack, enemies will not die merely making contact with you.

As for the goal of the mode, you just have to find your way to the exit. Hit a few buttons that tend to be awkward to reach, so that certain gates unlock and you are on your merry way. On one hand I am kind of glad, that they’ve given Jeanne a little bit more screen time in Bayonetta 3, especially considering that she was incapacitated for the majority of Bayonetta 2, but I didn’t really find this mode particularly fun or engaging. Might be just me though, considering I am here for the normal Bayonetta style combat. Once Jeanne becomes selectable for other chapters, she works just as always though. Just like Bayonetta with a few tweaks here and there to functionality, damage and health.


Post-game

Going through the main game was good and fun, but realistically, it’s the post game that has always grabbed my attention in these games. As I am going to be talking about Post-game here, this absolutely spoiler territory if you don’t want to see what options open up, once you’ve finished the main game, you should leave now.

Rodin fight

I have yet to run through the game on Infinite Climax, but at least Rodin has been taken care of. Rodin feels kind of difficult in Bayonetta 3, at least my first win against him took way longer than it did in both Bayonetta 1 and Bayonetta 2 combined. In my head at least he got progressively more difficult as the games moved along. In Bayonetta 1 he was only really difficult if you hadn’t played through and learned how to deal with Non-Stop Infinite Climax anyway. He was designed around not having Witch Time available to you. Once you were used to it, he was tough, but it really was just a few attempts to learn his movesets to take him down. Infinite Climax in Bayonetta 2 is a much more challenging concept in which to achieve a Pure Platinum, in my opinion and the challenges it brought with it, really came crashing down on you during the second phase of the Rodin fight. Witch Time was almost a necessity, however it wouldn’t last long enough to take advantage of, so you had to be ready and accurate with your activations to really take advantage of it. There were things to make this easier of course, you had the god combo of Salamandra on your arms and Alruna on your legs at your disposal. But it was perfectly possible to take him down, even under really stupid challenge rules.

In Bayonetta 3 the only thing I found that made this fight easier and that’s pretty much any fight in the entire game, is to use Baal. My favourite weapon in Bayonetta 3 is the choochoo train, aka Dead End Express. The damage it does and the speed at which it’s dishing it out isn’t as overpowered as Salamandra was, but it’s still so very satisfying. While you have to be engaged to use it correctly, as you can’t just blindly hold and mash, it’s still a lot more relaxing due to the nature of having to hold the buttons, as you would otherwise really do barely any damage at all. So I would just go with that and every Witch Time activation I’d immediately call Baal to let her sing. The amount of damage that accumulates with choochoo charges and the rain is bonkers. As long as you get that down, you now only have to get accustomed to Rodin’s moveset. It’s a bit of a shame that I got hit a couple of times, as that would have been an instant Pure Platinum otherwise.

Rodin’s second phase has a few dirty combinations of moves that can really make your life a nightmare. The thing that really screwed me over for quite a while, was that at times there are so many particles or effects on screen that you might simply lose track of where Rodin is and, or what he is doing. And the combination I had the biggest trouble dealing with is his gravity attack, which can be a real pain if he pairs it with his command grab for example. But again, just takes some getting used to. Once you know his moveset by heart, he will go down. I still think he is the most difficult variant in the three games so far though. My next goal will be to beat him with Viola… and I will need to learn how to play her properly first.

Even cheaper

Depending on when you are seeing this, there is a chance this might have been patched out already, but there is a glitch to instakill Rodin, which Umbra had posted. I don’t know if they are the ones that found this or not, but that’s at least where I saw it first, so that’s who I will give credit to. You can check out their video to see how this works exactly.

Witch Trials

This time around there are only three Witch Trials, that’s three times ten verses, but considering how many extra missions this game has and how the Witch Trials are set up this time around I am ok with this. The Witch Trials as always serve as a great way to keep you entertained, trying out new things, weapon and demon combinations, accessories or just straight up trying to pure plat the verses. Witch Trial 3 is by far the most difficult standard challenge the Bayonetta series has thrown my way. Technically it’s Bayonetta 1’s Witch Trials, as I am really bad at keeping focus for that long, but that’s less of a gameplay challenge and more of an IRL restriction on my part. Witch Trial 3 on the other hand, really and I mean really kicked my butt for so many hours at this point, I have long stopped counting. If you are looking for a challenge, between Rodin and the Witch Trials, this game absolutely has you covered.

Phenomenal Remnants

Technically not post game, at least not all of it, as you can unlock them your first time through each and every chapter by collecting the Umbran cats, frogs and crows that are available in each chapter. The phenomenal remnant chapters put you in a shrunk down version of the map of the original’s chapter and throw some challenges your way. Nothing too exciting here, for the most part, we’re talking time trial puzzles, collecting things and some of the trials will just straight up throw a boss fight at you. Some angels, demons and so on are even exclusive to these alternate chapters.

What’s cool about the phenomenal remnants chapters is that you can freely select the character you want to play. The option only becomes available after having finished the game though I believe. As each chapter, bar Jeanne’s side missions, gets those, that’s an additional 14 short chapters, that more than makes up for the compression of Witch Trials in my opinion.

Picture book

As there’s nothing in the picture book that really requires much explanation in terms of gameplay, I am going to keep it brief. It plays ok, feels like something that’s going to end up on Apple Arcade for some reason and it’s kinda cute. It’s a fun addition, but unless it’s fleshed out further down the line, I am not sure what the exact purpose for this is. You can find a costume in here though.


Unlockables

Between weapons, demons, phenomenal remnants, Viola being a completely unique character, I am not going to sit here and complain that the game doesn’t have enough content. I am however also not going to praise the non-gameplay specific stuff the game has on offer… because it’s rather lame.

 

Costumes

Costumes

I might be alone on this one, but all of the costumes are kind of boring. Having access to the alternate Bayonetta costumes is nice and that you can colour coordinate them to your liking, is kinda cool, but I honestly don’t find any of them to be all that appealing. Well, I like the Egyptian one, but not enough to really use it. Also, the one in Paris? That one should have been like the one in Egypt, where Jeanne is the arch eve… seriously a missed opportunity here to make some Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne references. Speaking of Jeanne, she doesn’t get any costumes. Not even her Bayonetta 1, 2 or Cutie J costumes, even though the Cutie J transformation is part of her side missions. That really sucks. Considering that Bayonetta 3 is a Nintendo exclusive, just like Bayonetta 2 before it, I find the lack of crossover costumes a little sad. No Link, Mario, Luigi, Zelda, StarFox, nothing. As for Viola… she gets T-Shirts. Meaning that her hair, her clothes, shoes, everything, stays exactly the same. Only the T-Shirt underneath her jacket changes and that’s also the only Nintendo specific item you can get in the game. A Nintendo Switch T-Shirt… yay. Considering how big this was in Bayonetta 2, with weapons and wicked weaves even changing according to the costume you were wearing, yeah it’s sad really, that it’s nowhere to be found in here.

Scarborough Fair and Love is Blue

Now this one I am not really ok with, but it is very Nintendo. For other games, this usually makes sense, you know to reward the loyalty of your players. Give them something, for supporting your product. There are limits to that though, you shouldn’t be forced to buy the exact same thing, up to three times if not more, just so you’re eligible for that reward.

What I am getting at with this is how you get access to these two weapons. You can only get access to Scarborough Fair and Love is Blue, if you have save files of the corresponding games on your system. Again all fine and well, if these were Nintendo Switch exclusive games. Or at the very least, games that hadn’t been available on other Nintendo Systems before this. There is an argument to be made that barely anyone had a Wii U to begin with, but I am using the exact same account with which I had purchased Bayonetta 1 and 2 on Wii U that I now use on my Switch, with which I have bought Bayonetta 3. Since I only… well I bought a physical copy of Metroid Dread, so I guess since I mainly play digital, why can’t my purchase history be enough to determine if I am eligible for said reward. Sony hands out rewards to you for some games for getting platinum trophies. Final Fantasy XIII and Bloodborne come to mind here. People always complain about DLC practices, right? With DLC at least, everyone is treated equal, equally bad maybe, but equal. This is just bad in my opinion. I am of a weak mind, so there is a high chance that I will buy the games, just so that I have a “complete” game. I’d much rather, they’d put the items up for purchase as DLC on the eshop though.

Grinding out Pure Plats

Grinding out Pure Platinums for an entire chapter has never been easier, and even on a verse by verse basis, it’s a lot easier now. Whenever you revisit a chapter, you not only get to choose where to start the chapter, with limitations, each verse will immediately update upon completion, if you managed to improve your score. That’s great, however, they went far and beyond what most people wanted I think. Maybe it’s changed and this is what everyone wants now, but in Bayonetta 2, from what I remember at least, the thing that most people had asked for is a restart button. Metal Gear Rising Revengeance already did this, so it’s weird that it never made it over to any other of Platinumgames’ games. Especially now considering they did all of this. Well, it is easy now, so go get your pure plats.

 

Final thoughts

I think Bayonetta 3 is a great game. It’s not perfect by any means and Bayonetta 2 put the bar extremely high, which is why it makes sense that there are so many fundamental changes to the formula in this game. Be that as it may, Bayonetta 3 is well worth the money and I don’t have any regrets in purchasing and playing this game. The only real gripe I have is the performance. The frame rate seems quite choppy at times. It just doesn’t feel like the game ever really hits and manages to stay locked at 60fps when there is anything happening on screen. In handheld it’s even worse, you can tell immediately that something’s not right. Truth be told though, at least docked, as long you keep playing you’ll just get used to it. Hell I even got used to Astral Chain’s 30fps back then. So my verdict remains unchanged, the game is great, it has its shortcomings, but it’s well worth the asking price. If you like stylish action games, this should be considered a must have.


In regards to the controversy about how much Hellena Taylor was offered; I am very sad that she is no longer voicing Bayonetta, as I really love her voice. However, this game was made by a huge team of people pouring years of their time into the creation of this product. Not to mention, personally at least, I felt a little betrayed when after just the tiniest amount of scrutiny, her story suddenly changed, to reveal the truth, how much she was really offered. If you wanted to or did “boycott” this game, that is completely your choice. You’re an adult, you make your own decisions. I at the very least feel very comfortable with my purchase as Jennifer Hale did an absolutely outstanding job! I also kinda grew up listening to her voice thanks to Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation 1, so there is that.

If you made it this far, put a hashtag into your comment either here or on the YouTube video, if you feel like leaving a comment, with one of the descriptors you see above. I call these games Stylish Action Games, but which of these is the one that you would use? As an example formatting, not that you would need it, but I’d do the hashtag formatting like this #StylishActionGame. Alright, thank you very much, for sticking through this rather long review of me prattling on and on about one of my favourite characters and her franchise for such a long time. Thank you and see you next time.