It’s literally the name of the game.
Bayonetta 3After many years of waiting, it finally made its way to the Nintendo Switch. The hotly anticipated capper to Nintendo and Sega’s witchy trilogy does things a little differently from its predecessors, though. You will be required to spend lots of time playing the game as people who are not your friends. aren’tBayonetta is the gun-toting witch fans have come to know and love over the past decade.
I believe this is a major mistake that prevents a really enjoyable game from reaching its full potential. With prolonged sections where you play as Bayonetta’s partner-in-crime Jeanne and her new protégé Viola, Bayonetta 3This game is too disconnected from what makes the rest of the series so amazing.
Parry party
About halfway through the story, Bayonetta 3Viola, an entirely new character introduced at start of game, suddenly puts you into his shoes. Let me simply say, Viola, when left alone, is Awesome. She’s a cool punk lady with a katana that transforms into a giant Cheshire cat, toothy grin and all. Viola’s also perhaps overly invested in impressing Bayonetta, resulting in an uneven power dynamic in which Bayonetta condescendingly refers to Viola as “kitty” for most of the game. It’s an endearing relationship.
There’s just one big problem: Viola isn’t very fun to play.
At first, I was all in on Viola’s presence as a playable character because, again, punk lady with a katana. However, her mechanics differ from Bayonetta’s in a way that just doesn’t work with the way fights have always played out in the franchise.
Let me explain. Hit the dodge button when playing Bayonetta. SimplyAt the right time, enemy damage is negated and Witch Time activates. Witch Time is a temporary state in which you can inflict pain (and other combos) upon your foes during slowed down times. It’s a key part of the BayonettaIt just feels so damn good to do.
Viola is a more defensive character. Instead of trying to dodge attacks to activate Witch Time you must press a block button to parry into the slow motion state. I’ll fully admit to being bad at this sort of thing in games, but I found that it just didn’t gel with what BayonettaIt has been. It’s a series about constantly being on the move and using the protagonist’s extreme agility to your advantage. It’s not very fun to turtle up as Viola and just wait for enemies to attack.
Viola takes up a good quarter of the game. It was more frustrating than it was fun, but it is still a lot like the original. Bayonetta. My real problem was when I had to play Jeanne.
BayonettaIt is not a stealthy game
Bayonetta’s truest homie Jeanne is a Great character. She’s every bit as stylish and cool as Bayonetta herself, so in the abstract, I’m totally down to spend a few side chapters playing as her. It’s just not like this.
Jeanne has four mini chapters that are side-scrolling stealth missions. Variety is the spice of life and I can’t blame developer Platinum Games for trying to inject as much of it as possible into the final entry of the Bayonetta trilogy. Jazzy is my favorite. Cowboy Bebop-ass animated intro that Jeanne’s levels have. I wish I could say that I enjoyed playing them.
The trademark combat that’s made Bayonetta Super-rudimentary stealth techniques have replaced the great technology that was used for so many years. If you’re behind an enemy, you press a button combination to insta-kill them. If you are seen by an enemy, run and hide until they stop looking. There are some slightly more interesting gun-based battles later on in Jeanne’s adventure, but these can’t save her story from being arguably the worst part of Bayonetta 3.
This is a shame, because Bayonetta can be played as a character. Bayonetta 3Perhaps the greatest series ever. She has so many cool weapons to choose from (I was partial to the giant, bladed yo-yos) and a cast of “demon slaves” (a term I wouldn’t have chosen) to enhance her moveset. These demons seemed to me to be distracting from Viola and Jeanne, the main star of the show. But instead, those demons simply bolster Bayonetta’s incredible combat sequences, especially when you learn to use them as combo finishers.
I’m not inherently against Viola and Jeanne being major players in Bayonetta 3. But unless Platinum can make their playstyles as deep and rewarding as Bayonetta’s, I’d rather Bayonetta 3Keep true to its name.
