Game #1277: Bayonetta 3

 Bigger, badder.... but not better. 

 For a change, I was actually really hyped about Bayonetta 3. Not only did I absolutely adore Bayonetta 2, but I was digging what little I allowed myself to see about Bayonetta 3, including Viola, who seemed like a banger new character, analogous to another character I adore, Nero. Well, maybe my expectations were too high or maybe Platinum aimed too high...

 You shouldn't play Bayonetta for its story, but, hey, at least this time around we don't have a dumb child character tagging along. Instead, Bayonetta goes through the Bayoverse, meeting all sorts of Bayonettas from other dimensions. It's super stupid, but damnit if I didn't like the alternate Bayonettas! A lot of noise has been made about canonizing Bayonetta as straight, or bi-sexual at least... and who cares? She's never been queer-coded in the games, and I'd argue that the official sapphic art was just Japanese fanservice. I'd complain, however, about her love interest being the biggest loser in the series, now that is something to complain about. Plus, the ending... I absolutely hated it. Much like DMC V, it's a passing the torch type of story, with Bayonetta/Dante passing off the torch to Viola/Nero, and as much as I adored Viola, the way they went about it.... didn't gel well with me.

 Now what really matters, the combat. It has changed quite a bit... One of the things I loved about the Bayonetta franchise, and something I liked over DMC, was how you could equip different weapons on Bayo's hands and feet, thus allowing you to toy around with mixed movesets. That's gone. Every weapon is stand alone, and as much as I enjoyed the variety... I think Bayonetta lost some of its DNA. To be fair, every weapon is fairly unique, and with each weapon comes a different transformation for Bayonetta, accessed through certain moves, and each transformation changes her dash and her jumping abilities. That said, having a paltry 2 different weapon slots to toggle is very limiting, three would've been the perfect number. For instance, if you like the Train Sword(Yeah!) and the Magic Cane(Weapons can get crazy in this game) you lose vertical movility, since their third 'jump' is a forward dash. Allowing for a third slot would've been just the right.

 There's a new emphasis on Giant Battles. Basically, there are larger enemies than ever before, and to battle them, Bayoneta can now summon her own giant beasts. And it's kinda cool, you hold down ZL and you lose control over Bayonetta, who gets rooted to her place, and now you take control of the giant monster. It's a great idea, and if you are savvy enough you'll realize that you can queue actions for the monster and quickly go back to controlling Bayonetta while the creature does its thing. It adds a whole new dimension to the combat, and I kinda like it.... except that when you do this, the framerate takes a hit, and even worse, often times it's easy to lose track of where Bayonetta is among the giant enemies. It kinda sucks getting hit by stuff you don't know you should've dodged because either you lost track of Bayonetta, the giant enemy(Who turns translucid when too close to the camera) or because your view of Bayo was obstructed by a giant being.

 Viola is the new playable character, and I adore her. I love her personality and her looks. Much like Nero, she offers a simplified combat system. She can't change weapons, only fighting with her Katana and darts, and holding down ZL summons Cheshire, who moves on his own, as long as you hold down ZL, and Viola gains a new fist-and-kick moveset. Unlike Bayonetta, who enters Witch Time when dodging at the last moment, she gains it when blocking at the last moment, this makes getting witch time as Viola is harder, plus, how much Witch Time you get depends on when you blocked, and you can get less than a second of witch time. Plus, mashing block will get you nowhere, because double tapping block while holding down a direction will make her dash. The one thing I didn't like about Viola is that she gets about a fourth of the total amount of stages to play. You can, however, use her on any of the bonus unlockable mini-challenge stages or in the Witch Trials, but I would've liked being able to play as any character on any stage 

 Jeanne is back too, and she is unlocked when you finish the game. That said... she gets four mandatory 2.5D stages built around... stealth? And one is a bike stage. Regardless... I hated her stages. I wanted hardcore, fast-paced 3-D character action combat, not... 2.5D Stealth. Thankfully, only the first stage was lengthy, the other three are mercifully short and don't place as much emphasis on avoiding enemies. Regardless, I despised the fact that her stages were mandatory, I didn't sign up for them.

 There's another gameplay element, yes, they went bonkers with Bayonetta 3, which are Giant Boss Battles. Most of these are awful, particularly when forced to use Gomorrah, because, in an attempt to make them feel like Godzilla... they are very slow paced. I hated this, absolute pace-killers. And they aren't any fun either.

 Honestly, the core gameplay in Bayonetta 3, despite a few small issues, is as good as ever, it's all the extra gameplay shifts that really bummed me out. Instead of focusing on what they've always done fantastically well, instead, they added these elements that they thought were cool(2.5D Stealth, Kaijuu battles) but don't really gel well with Bayonetta. And you can tell that they had an enormous budget this time around, besides all the new gimmicks, they finally removed all the stop-motion cutscenes. About time!

 Since they went all out with the budget, environments are much larger than they've ever been, and there's a gazillion different collectibles to find. Some are useless, such as gallery items, but there are also the usual health and magic upgrades. Most important among them all are the Three Umbran Tears, if you find all three in a level you'll unlock a mini-challenge stage. There are also a lot of interesting costumes to buy, since every Alternate Bayonetta's look can be purchased, as well as various different color variations, heck, you can even change Bayonetta's hair and glasses colors!

 Another brilliant idea was dividing currencies into three: Rings are used to buy cosmethics, Green droplets are used for items and accessories while red orbs are used to purchase new moves for both Bayonetta and Viola. 

 Despite all my gripes with Bayonetta 3, it's still a great action game, and there's a lot to like here. The grander sense of scale, multiple gameplay shifts as well as all the alternate Bayonettas does add some sort of celebratory feeling to the whole thing... but I feel that some of them actually take away from what Bayonetta has always done so well. In the end, it's another great game... just not as good as the previous entries.

 8.5