Nintendo Switch Review Code Provided by Platinum Games
I recently got my hands on a copy of Bayonetta 3, developed by Platinum Games for the Nintendo Switch. For anyone who has been living under a rock or an in a convent since the original Bayonetta came out in 2009, the series has been a massive hit since its release. An action-adventure button-mashing combo event, Bayonetta 3 is much like its predecessors. It turns out, I live under a rock because until now I had never played a Bayonetta game, but I did have a vague idea what it was about; so this review will be an excellent point of view for anyone new to the series.
I basically went into Bayonetta 3 with this impression of the series: Overly sexualized dominatrix witch that's in Smash Bros and quad-wields guns in her hands and on her six-inch stilettos fights big scary monsters with mechanics a la Devil May Cry… I was not incorrect. Nevertheless, Bayonetta 3 is also much more than that - it is a ridiculously awesome game!
Story
I do have some problems with the game from a story perspective. The story is great don’t get me wrong, but it does suffer pretty badly from the ‘You definitely played the previous games right?’ syndrome. Bayonetta 3 drops you straight in and expects you to know the story and the characters, there is absolutely zero in-story review or explanation on who any of the returning characters are at any point in the game; for example, one character making reference to past adventures, or the classic narrative tool of having a character explain another’s backstory to a new character.
These rehashes can annoy returning players and disrupt the story flow so it’s not unreasonable to include them, however, I do want to mention how Bayonetta 3’s genre cousin Devil May Cry 5 handled this issue expertly. In Devil May Cry 5 there is a 20-30 minute long optional cutscene you can watch that expertly covers all the previous installment's major points and characters, that is one of the best ways I’ve ever seen to get new players and the next generation acquainted with an established series. Compare this to Bayonetta 3 where any in-game info found on returning characters, demons, weapons, and so on is only found in one or two paragraphs on the Codex entry in the UI and is extremely limited. On the other hand, the main events of Bayonetta 3 don’t continue from previous games outside of character backstories. In general, if you are new to Bayonetta and care about the story a lot, I recommend playing the previous entries first; or a quick dive through the wiki if you just want some context.
Now that we're done with the catch-up, let's talk about the actual story without getting into any spoilers. Bayonetta 3 follows the grand tradition of 3D JRPG action adventures with weird EXTREMELY quirky characters being awesome. This does lead to one-sided characters on occasion, but they are loveable nonetheless. I wasn’t expecting amazing levels of storytelling from Bayonetta 3, but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the twists and turns along the way, though some were a bit blatant. All I’ll say is to pay attention to similarities in some characters' design choices. The jist for any interested is that the titular character Bayonetta’s reality is invaded by strange forces for unknown reasons. She teams up with her old allies and mysterious new young witch Violet, to journey to other realities also being invaded by the force to protect them. Bayonetta 3 is no grand epic journey filled with bucketloads of character development, but the story was excellent and way better than I was expecting from the ‘horny dominatrix button-masher.’
Gameplay
The gameplay is where Bayonetta 3 truly shines. Bayonetta 3 revolves around a button-mashing combo system where you are graded after each fight based on time, damage taken, combo, etc. and that determines your rewards. The combat is delightful, fast-paced, and addicting. As you progress through Bayonetta 3, you unlock skill trees for your weapons, and new weapons and accompanying demons to use as well, each with their own skill trees. I was utterly terrible at combat once the game picked up in difficulty after the first fourth and found myself repeating particular fights over and over until I beat them. In the end, this led to me completing a 12-15 hour game in over 20 hours. However, despite how completely terrible I was in some combats, I loved every minute of it; that’s how smooth and comfortable the game is, despite my regular losses, I still enjoyed the challenge to complete a fight.
The parts of combat that really pissed me off were the challenges and puzzles. Placed throughout the maps are various portals that will take you to a specified challenge fight with particular rules and usually a time limit. Challenges usually reward part of a health or mana upgrade on the first success and crafting supplies for healing items on subsequent ones. The early challenges are rather easy, but once I hit midgame, some of them became impossible for me or took way too much effort and time to complete.
Puzzles are also placed throughout the map and generally involve some type of platforming or timed completion in addition to finding the puzzles themselves, which are sometimes hidden or in out-of-the-way places. Puzzles are more common that Challenges, and can also reward health and mana upgrades, but also commonly give crafting materials. While searching the map for puzzles or challenges you may also come across a variety of hidden collectibles that unlock models, music, art, and so on in the menu options.
Interspersed between Bayonetta’s adventures there are also recurring mini-levels that are comedic as well as palate cleansers. You occasionally play as Bayonetta’s friend Jeanne as she sneaks her way through a 2D sidescrolling spy mission. You also more regularly play as Viola, filling in the parts of the adventure that she and Bayonetta separate for. Small spoiler, there is one aspect about some boss fights that I absolutely love, Bayonetta will have giant Kaiju battles with her demons against some bosses that play out like easy comedic minigames, many of which are distinctly peak absurdity and Japanese in influence…don’t even get me started on the kaiju bubble bath fight in the clouds between Madame Butterfly and Store Brand Sun Wu-Kong.
The UI for Bayonetta 3 is one of the sharpest ones I’ve seen in a while and is incredibly easy to use and understand. The one small gripe I have is that in the crafting menu, you are not allowed to create multiple of one items at a time, even if you have the ingredients for it. And for those young or straitlaced people out there, Platinum games included a ‘Naive Angel” mode that gets rid of some of the more raunchy aspects of the game as well as some of the blood and violence.
Audio and Visual
Bayonetta 3 has spent a huge amount of attention on its visuals and soundtrack as those are huge selling points of the game. There are numerous songs throughout the game with new ones for every world. The songs fit perfectly with the theme of each world and make all of the massive fights suitably epic. The sound effects are incredibly detailed and well-timed to match your button mashing and make it really feel like you’re slicing dudes to shreds or blasting them to smithereens.
The visual quality of the levels is beautiful, each new world is distinct in design and theme from the others, even in color palate. The character models when you are in the level look stunning whether enemies or allies and even more so in action cutscenes. However, the in-game dialogue cutscenes that use the game-rendered character models lack a lot of facial expressions, so Bayonetta 3 tries to make up for it with occasional overexaggerated movements and vocals to express the character's emotions.
In regards to the Nintendo Switch, Bayonetta 3 is not the best game to play in tablet mode as the graphics quality takes a sharp drop when not hooked up to a TV or big screen.
Replayability
The replayability of Bayonetta 3 is incredibly generous, without even getting into replaying the game but using a different weapon loadout. As with all combo, button-mashers Bayonetta 3 is the completionist's dream come true. It is simple to repeat levels and fights until you get Pure Platinum results, and Bayonetta 3 allows you to post your results to the public when you finish competing with others over bragging rights. There is an absolutely ridiculous amount of medals to get completely platinum on before you get to competing over points and completion times. In addition to 100% combats for the medals, players also have plenty of collectibles and puzzles to search for, completely scattered across the maps. For anyone who enjoys perfecting each section of a game till it’s juuust right, Bayonetta 3 offers metric tons of replayability.
What it Could Have Done Better
Honestly, there’s not much Bayonetta 3 could have done better. A lot of my complaints are little gripes or come from clashing viewpoints. First of all, Bayonetta 3 is vaguely exploitative and offensive to some in regards to how it sexualizes women, but that is also at the same time a selling point and a main aspect of the game; so conflicting points there. Personally, I’d like to be able to see graphs of my average DPS with different weapons to compare them; similarly, I’d like to be able to get the floating damage numbers above enemy heads as a toggled option. Lastly as stated previously, a review of the plots and characters of the previous games would be nice.
Verdict
Bayonetta 3 was an incredibly challenging game for me, I repeatedly had my progress slowed due to my own lack of skill. Despite all of this I never got tired of playing just for that sweet release when I finally beat the part I was stuck at. Everything about Bayonetta 3 is magnificently polished, detailed, and designed which has made it an absolute masterpiece for its genre. If Bayonetta 3 is your type of game and doesn’t offend your sensibilities I can not recommend a better action-adventure, button-masher, combo feast than Bayonetta 3!
Bayonetta 3 is now available on Nintendo Switch.
