Bayonetta 3 - Into the Multiverse of Madness

Bayonetta 3 is a game that came out, and I have some various thoughts so here we go:

This entry in the 'Netta-Verse ends up being a story about the multiverse, which I was not super into at first. This was sort of an unfortunate year to do a multiverse story when there were already several; Multiverse of Madness, No Way Home came out recently, Night of the Coconut if you have Nebula, another season of Rick and Morty, not to mention one of the best multiverse stories ever with Everything Everywhere All at Once. But then I met Spider-Bayonetta. Who is not actually called that, but still. She has yo-yos with blades on them, instead of guns, and the ones on her heels act as roller skates. Oh, and also she can turn into a spider. There’s even a level where you are swinging through the city, and while it’s no Spider-Man 2, it is not the worst web swinging I’ve seen, and it is incredibly fun. The multiverse ends up being an excuse to have a wide variety of weapons and abilities you get to use which is very fun. However, there are some aspects that detract from the experience. Pretty much all of the alternate Bayonetta’s die, killed pretty easily. But our main player Bayonetta faces crazy shit constantly, even getting stabbed through the chest at one point, yet she’s fine. Really bad case of main-character-shield. I think it’s supposed to raise the stakes. If one Bayonetta can die, how is ours going to be able to defeat the bad guy? But it ends up having the opposite effect, the other Bayos just look lame in comparison. The game also starts to feel a little bit repetitive. Even though there's a variety of locations, weapons and crazy demons to interact with, the game has a lot of: meet alternate Bayonetta, watch her die, take her cool shit, rinse, repeat.

You also have a brand new playable character in the form of Viola, who is kind of objectively worse than Bayonetta. And partly by design. She is younger and inexperienced, and not as crazy overpowered as our titular heroine. But as Bayo you have all these crazy weapons and demons you get access to, like the aforementioned spider, you also have a train weapon with chainsaw wheels, a weapon set based on magician tricks, and several others all with unique play styles, and skill trees. And then Viola has… a sword. It’s not a bad move-set, and it’s kinda nice to have a bit more of a challenge as Viola. Bayonetta prime is so OP in this entry that it can feel a bit easy at times, especially in comparison to the first two games. But boy is Viola just not as much fun to play as. And with just the one move-set you lack player agency that is afforded to you in the Bayo levels. She’s also kind of annoying. I think she is supposed to be a teenager, but with the art style of the game, the character model doesn’t look much younger than Bayonetta. So it feels like, "why is this grown ass woman acting like a child?"

[Spoilers] I’m also not a huge fan of the ending. Multiple main characters die and it doesn’t have the weight that I feel it should. Bayo also ends up with Luka, which is a relationship that is not really built up super well. They flirt throughout all three games, but it never really felt like anything more than that to me. I may be biassed, as my personal ship is Bayonetta and Jeanne. And having Bayo end up with Luka feels like a case of the not-gays. And yes, Bayo can still be bi or whatever and have both a male and female love interest. But the entire plot of the second game revolves around saving Jeanne from hell because Bayo loves her. Which is also why it’s weird to have Jeanne die in this game as well. Pretty hard to kill off a character after they’ve already been resurrected. It doesn’t feel like it has much weight to it, because theoretically she can come back again. It’s also weird that Bayo isn’t even present when Jeanne dies. If she witnessed it first hand I might have felt it more. With Luka and Bayonetta, I totally get that in Viola’s universe they get together. They are Viola's parents which explains her whole deal and is the logical reveal of what was set up at the start of the game. But the various Bayonettas and Lukas from the multiverse sort of converge at the end, as if to say it was always gonna be BayoLuka in every timeline. Which again, I feel goes against the entire point of the second game. They also get together and then immediately die, which rubs me the wrong way. It feels like it puts a final stamp on BayoLuka, without ever developing them as a couple or convincing me that they would be a better match than Bayo and Jeanne. Viola then takes over the name of Bayonetta, which is fine I guess. Bayonetta's real name is Cereza so it's not blasphemous for someone else to use that name. But I don't think I'd be super into playing a Bayonetta 4 staring Viola and her sword. But apparently, Cereza might be back anyways so who knows.

The main villain is the weakest of the trilogy. He’s kinda just a bad guy who wants to destroy the multiverse for… reasons. This might’ve added to my lukewarmness on the ending, as I wasn’t super invested in beating this guy. The second game’s villain had this interesting connection to your dad, and in the first game I think you kill God. Both games get super crazy towards the end, which made the stakes feel super high. This game starts off crazy so by the final boss, it didn’t really feel like things had escalated as much. And you don't really have a personal connection to the villain, which again makes it harder to get invested in defeating him.

There is also a secret preview for the upcoming Bayonetta Origins, which I’m extremely curious about. Throughout the game there are three secret keys you have to find in order to unlock a short playable demo of the game. But I guess they were afraid of me missing this or something because when I booted up the game today it was just like, "You did it! You found the keys!" What? No I didn’t. It's a cool easter egg, but it felt completely unearned. They could’ve just told me which levels to look in, or at least waited for me to beat the main story. Weird. I like that they are trying something totally new with Origins. It has this storybook/indie game aesthetic which I think looks cool. But even with the demo, there isn’t a whole lot of info about the game, or what a lot of the gameplay will be like. And for a full priced release, I’m not sure I want to jump straight into something I don’t know that much about. But I’ll definitely try it if I can find a copy used or on sale.

One thing I learned is that I actually am apparently very invested in the characters of this series. Something that I didn't really know about myself before playing this entry. I mostly enjoy the combat of this series, and love how over the top everything is, and that the series doesn't take itself too seriously. But it turns out, I do care about these characters because I had strong feelings about the way they ended this game. But I did have a really fun time playing it. The combat is great as always, and I really liked this game's attempts to keep the gameplay fresh from level to level. I particularly liked the Starfox-like on rail shooter section, and when the frog demon mega-evolved into a giant princess and it became a rhythm game. I promise this makes sense if you've played the game.

In the end, Bayonetta 3 is a good time. I just had a lot of thoughts about the stories ending, and no one to rant to. So thank you, dear reader, for indulging me.