Before Lady Dimitrescu, there was only one mommy that we wanted to step on us, and after a seven-year hiatus, Bayonetta is back.
Bayonetta 3 arrives on October 28, exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, and courtesy of Nintendo I had the chance to go hands-on with it. I played through the first five chapters of this scantily clad, hair-twirling, demon-summoning, hip-gyrating instalment, and what I experienced gave me a lot of confidence that the seven-year wait has been worth it. PlatinumGames is on its way to a return to form in an outing that is likely to leave Bayonetta fans feeling very happy indeed.
Bayonetta 3 follows the tradition of the first two games, which is to say that there is a story but paying too much attention to it isn’t recommended. TL;DR: bad stuff is happening and demons are involved, and the only way to stop them is with a swift, stiletto-heeled kick to the face. Bayonetta suits up so she can suit down (repeatedly), summoning all manner of demons to aid her in this latest battle against the forces of light and darkness.
Bayonetta 3 retains the focus on tight, precise, demon-infused combat that defined the previous games, but this time around PlatinumGames has found ways to deepen our connection to those demons and allow us to bring them onto the battlefield like we’ve never been able to do before.
It starts with weapons. Each weapon has an alignment to a demon under your command. The ‘Colour My World’ Dual Pistols are the most familiar feeling, and when you’re wielding these your combos will end with you transforming into Madame Butterfly, who will teleport in various extremities to deliver spectacular coup de gras.
In terms of less familiar weapons, the new G-Pillar is a massive club, and its massive girth is certain to hit many an enemy’s G-spot (if that joke seems in bad taste then you just haven’t played enough Bayonetta). The G-Pillar opens up an entirely new ranged attack as well as new combos that culminate in a transformation into mini-Gomorrah, who swings his massive claws for huge area-of-effect damage. Many more weapons and demons await you further into the game, and uncovering their power and spectacle as you play is no doubt going to be a big motivator.
Far and away the biggest innovation that Bayonetta 3 serves up is Demon Slavery. In addition to equipping two sets of weapons and switching freely between them, you can also equip up to three demons who will serve as your slaves. If you have enough magic (and you almost always do), hitting the left trigger will summon that demon to the battlefield. So long as you continue to hold that left trigger, you now have control of that demon and can use them to beat the stuffing out of other demons. You can move them around freely, and they have both ranged and melee attacks worked into their own unique combos. Feeding into the RPG elements, they also have their own unlock trees which open up even more attacks and combos later on.
It makes battles take on an almost Kaiju feeling, since the demons and bosses you’re fighting are often huge, and your Demon Slaves are similarly huge, and they’re just going to town on each other while Bayonetta is off to side dancing semi-nakedly.
That Demon Slave system gets even deeper later on when you unlock the ability quickly summon them in for a combo finisher by tapping left trigger at the end of a combo. You also get a Demon Slave parry, where if you hit the left trigger button at the precise moment you’re about to get hit, you deflect the damage and your demon buddy will bitch-slap the fool who tried to get handsy with their dominatrix mistress.
Crucially, all of this craziness can be side-stepped if that’s your preference. If you prefer to play Bayonetta 3 as a more traditional character action fighter, where the only thing dealing damage to your foes is you, then you can totally do that by not utilising the Demon Slave summons. That’s a good thing because I suspect that Character Action purists are going to be a little mixed on these additions. The Demon Slaves are not as tight, precise and satisfying to use as Bayonetta herself is in the core combat, so being able to totally ignore them is a nice compromise that infuses the franchise with more spectacle than ever before, without diluting the signature combat that made it great.
Also new to the series is Viola, a sword-wielding ally who becomes controllable at certain points in the story. She’s not a merely re-skin of Bayonetta either, having her own fully fleshed-out combos and a demon slave that’s a giant Cheshire cat called…Cheshire (they really dug deep on that one).
Sadly, I would be lying if I said that Bayonetta 3 didn’t feel at least a little hamstrung by the Switch’s aging hardware. I did experience frame drops on multiple occasions, and the game does feel like it runs better when you’re in smaller, less detailed arenas populated with fewer enemies. Tweak any of those variables and you’ll start to notice performance suffering a bit of a dip.
The most disappointing by-product of the Switch’s waning power is the poor environment design. It is so bare-bones at a distance, and pretty ugly up close if you stop to examine any part of it in detail. This is disappointing because Platinum are people of vision. You see it oozing from everything they do except environment design, where obviously they chose to put the Switch’s meagre power to work on character detail, particle effects and enemy count. Imagine what sort of levels Platinum could build for us if the hardware platform gave them the opportunity to do so! Bayonetta 3 more than survives this shortcoming, but I did hold that thought in the back of my mind as I explored these bleak, dreary, barren worlds.
Five chapters in I’m left thinking that finishing this game will be just the start. As you play through it, Bayonetta 3 immediately begs to be replayed because of the depth of its combat system, the combat challenges you might have missed the first time, the number of unlocks and collectibles you can acquire and that ever-addictive pursuit of a pure platinum rating for every verse.
More than anything else, it’s about the joy of playing it. The joy that comes from discovery at first, but later from mastery – returning to your favourite chapters to not only experience them again, but to truly dominate them in a way you couldn’t the first time through. That was always the appeal of the Bayonetta games, and that seems just as present here. I’ve still got much more to see and do, but everything I’ve seen so far suggests that Bayonetta 3 is likely to live up to the lofty hopes and expectations of its thirsty fandom.
Previewed on Switch // Preview code supplied by publisher
