Let's just all hope that in Bayonetta 4 they go back to the original timeline and state that Bayonetta 3 was just a fever dream of a drunken Bayonetta.
While theres a lot wrong with Bayo3. There’s also a lot it does right. Demon masquerade is absolutely fantastic. The weapon variety is the best in the series bar none. The sacrifice of the feet weapons doesn’t bother me. Having these weapons encompass the entirety of Bayos body work much better. Gives them the opportunity to make a much more creative and deeper move set. My only gripe is Demon Slave. TAKE THAT SHIT OUT PLEASE!!! Completely slows down combat. Keep the massive monsters for climax moves.
Can we talk about how Tokyo Bayo (my fave variant) was the only one who actually managed to capture the true essence of Bayo? Her cheeky response to iridescent, her hunger to get revenge for Jeanne and her gorgeous look! I think she was the bravest of all. Also can we talk about the proportions of One and two's costumes, it seems like the character model is shorter so the looks seem smushed and not as tall and confident.
Bayo 1 and 2: *knows where the enemies come from behind despite they're spouting sass* Bayo 3 AND VARIANTS: *SHOCKED to be not aware of every possibility where they're coming from*
I cannot agree more on the aesthetic part. Bayonetta should be about religious, angels & demons, solving ancient mysteries, not science fiction multi-dimension adventure. One thing I really enjoy in bayo 1 2 are collecting journals, learning the lore about the places we visit. With most stages in bayo 3 being empty huge spaces, the journals are downright boring.
Its the same theme of god and man. The singularity is a scientific and philosophical attempt to address the concept of god. And in this game they integrate middle eastern mythology which has a science fiction elements.
THANK YOU. I HATED when she just stood there like a statue when she was LITERALLY watching herself get killed, its lik the creators didnt even try to keep bayonettas brave and can do attitude. also egyptian bayonettta is my favorite varient
@@salemtheastra Honestly I barely even saw them as friends, Luka seems to be off doing his own thing all the time and he shows up to find Bayonetta, unlike Jeanne, Rodin and Enzo who seem to be around her much more often. Maybe just for work purposes, but still.
I also didn’t like that Bayonetta herself was quite throughout the game. What happened to her personality in this game? And standing there doing nothing to help the other Bayonettas was very disappointing and irritating.
And if you notice, during the finale when the original bayo appeared, the moment bayo 1 was in danger, bayo 2's immediate reaction was to activate witch time to save her. Something bayo 3 didn't even bother to do during the entirety of the story
From the early trailers I knew something felt off when bayonetta's dancing for her summons felt less burlesque and more akin to a k-pop dance. Still I had fun with the game. But it's great to watch a critique that better articulated some of the issues I've had with bayonetta 3.
It's not just the dancing imo, Bayo in general just feels more girly rather that womanly with the plaits and the skirt (side note: that skirt clips in with every step she walks). I like the design, it's just not very bayonetta.
I don't think it's just Bayonetta who's gone, the original composer, Masami Ueda? Gone, the cinematographer? Gone, the writer? Gone, the actress? Gone, the director(s)? Also gone Reminder that for DMC5, they got one of 4's composers, the original actors, director, cinematographer and writer
This. The whole character is just missing and I know the argument could be made that this is a different timeline, but everything about the charcter of Bayonetta is missing in this game no matter what they did. The gameplay is as fun as the original 2 games, but it feels so off course from the previous games that I wish this game was worked on a bit longer.
(45:40) This right here. My main critique with Bayonetta 3. This game removed Bayonetta’s identity as a witch. Emphasized in the first game, she is an ancient witch brought to modern day- and felt like an antihero with a gray morality. She’s a user of the dark arts, but she weaponizes them with her feminine power, as that is the definition of the “witch” archetype. The demonic and witchy imagery from the first two games are just gone, with a minimal futuristic style for things like the menu screens. I know that’s a small detail but they add up to such a character who is closely linked to witchcraft and the lore surrounding it. Even the treasure chests are no longer lore relevant, just Golems instead of the original chests implied to be graves or memorials to fallen Umbra Witches. This was supposed to be the third installment, with many Triple Moon symbolism found in witchcraft today, I was hoping for the Maiden Mother Crone storyline or something more. They did such an amazing job pulling from real world mythology from Catholic and Pagan beliefs and I hoped to see more rich lore and history added to this installment. To quote the artists who designed the goddesses of reality (Jubileus and Sheba) were designed to resemble Bayonetta because they represent the most powerful divine feminine energy in this universe. (Jubileus/Paradiso, Sheba/Inferno, Cereza/Human World) And who doesn’t make an appearance in the third installment? The goddesses, which really just feels like they stripped Cereza from her heritage. Bayonetta 3 does feel so sanitized, which is shocking because when the series was ported to Nintendo, the company seemed more than willing to keep Bayonetta’s character very true (with minor censoring for family audiences.) To put it bluntly, this feels like they wanted to make Bayonetta a Marvel Superhero for today’s modern audiences. I mean come on. The multiverse, the science fiction themes, the revisions to the story, it just feels too corporate and greedy when Bayonetta is a style icon in terms of her identity, games, and in our hearts and minds as fans. So don’t fuck with our witch.
Absolutely spot on, I was so disappointed that this game adds NOTHING to the relatively well established world of Bayonetta, no new Lumen sages, angels or demons but only this neo-futuristic multiverse, I like how the new enemies are inspired by the climate/stratosphere, but it completely threw the original real-life inspirations away that formed the Bayonetta franchise
Can we also just take a minute to just look at Viola's design and how she looks nothing like bayo OR Luka? Yeah obviously she's form a different universe but up until the end of the game i really did not think she was going to be their child, they look nothing alike
The only hint I could find was the bootleg cheshire plushie she has on her sword, that thing has Luka's scarf... and oh god I wished to be wrong so badly when I found out...
When they used Viola to replace Bayo at the end it immediately reminded me of Borderlands 3, where they too used a character, who you barely get to know, to replace 2 beloved characters. Honestly, Viola had her moments but she needed more if they wanted to set her up as the new “Bayonetta”
The moment I saw Viola I knew I was just replaying Borderlands 3 tbh. They just replaced Bayonetta with Viola for the sake of Identity politics, just like what happened with Borderlands 3. Hence the tone down of jokes and in Bayonetta, sexiness
@@excaliburofgachagames9241 what on Earth does "identity politics" have to do with anything??? As far as I know, Viola isn't canonically LGBTQ+, and even if she was, why would that be a problem? Bayonetta is certainly a queer-coded character already. Are you just making up something to be upset about that isn't actually in the game at all?
@@telekinesticman if we go off of Bayonetta 3 story they made Bayonetta straight (to be fair I think I would liked her to be with no one so fans can have her be with anyone fitting her free will nature). What identity politics has done is purposely remove these straight characters by any means necessary often at the cost of gameplay, story, likeable characters, etc. It might sound like me just making stuff up but the exact same thing happened to borderlands 3 and sadly Bayonetta 3 got hit with it too. P.s: The change from let's dance boys to let's dance baby is a clear indicator as well. P.s2: in all honesty I hope this is all just in my head and maybe they did it just because Bayonetta had a change in voice actresses for English and this isn't actually what they were doing. It'd make me look like a fool but it would feel a lot better. But this is just what I'm thinking right now after seeing the miss treatment of beloved characters. P.s3: Also Viola made the ending super predictable. I knew the ending at the beginning of the game simply due to how borderlands 3 ended. No videos or posts spoiled me either. It was almost copy and paste on the abuse of beloved characters. It's the reason I play gacha games or indie games or fan service games over western influenced games these days.
Viola definitely did not have her moments They spend the entire game showing us she’s a little bit of a loser that wants to be respected And every opportunity they give her to actually show some growth and show that’s she’s been learning throughout the game are wasted, as time and time again she just fails over and over again Then they imply she’s taking the mantle Without showing us she actually deserves it She goes nowhere in the whole game and they want us to believe she can take the mantle? C’mon lol
I’m glad I wasn’t the only person to think the ending was terrible. I had so much fun with the alternate universes, which made the slog of the last fight annoying.
I steered clear of this one. When the previews and trailers came out, I saw people gushing about how amazing it looked, and I thought, "Are we watching the same videos?" The vibrant and beautiful visuals of the first two games had been replaced by drab, ugly settings. Everything just seemed off. But one thing the gushing fans and I did have in common was seeing the influence of Astral Chain. That, probably more than anything else, scared me off of Bayonetta 3. It had some cool elements, but overall, I didn't think Astral Chain was a good game.
@@ressljs Demon Slave is basically what happens you let the player use every ability the protagonist has in cutscenes in gameplay when the Wicked Weaves and QTEs were already good ways to include Bayo's summons in gameplay. They also could've rebalanced Umbran Climax so it isn't a win button like it was in 2 instead of trying to replace it with a new gimmick.
This was so well articulated…I think the dance moves from Maiko Uchida omitted from the game is really, really disheartening. Especially if we consider Brave Cereza wanted to be more like the variant she met in the future. Why is the characterization so retconned beyond repair. It leaves a bitter taste as a fan of Bayonetta gameplay and lore.
The theme for this bayo was "making her cuter" as stated by Platinum themselves... So yeah she was doomed to be toned down from the start, maybe they were not comfortable with smol grown up Cereza being so overtly sexy, which is kind of ridiculous? The dance already seems generic teenager k-pop style, so yeah, we got scammed from the beginning, and I have no faith for the future games either.
For as much as the game wants us to be invested in Bayo/Viola’s mother-daughter relationship, they spent very little time on it. The multiverse was a great opportunity to explore this dynamic (as Everything Everywhere all at Once has proven), but they completely waste it by killing off every Bayo before they can have a real conversation conversation. Viola herself doesn’t appear to have ANY counterparts, which could’ve been interesting to explore, but they waste that chance too.
I couldn't care less if people like Bayonetta x Luka, it's just not something I enjoy, but the defenses I've seen for Bayonetta "falling in love with him" confuse me. So many people say she cared about his well-being in the first game and made some sexual comments towards him. And? Seriously, respecting someone more as a friendly acquaintance doesn't mean you're in love with them. And Bayonetta made sexual comments towards him. Yeah, that's what she tends to do in general. The openly sexual dominatrix witch saying something sexual isn't that mind blowing. Also while I do prefer Helena Taylor's voice, I understand why she was replaced. She was paid well for her role as Bayonetta, but she instead decided to leave out the fact that she would be getting $4,000 for every acting session she was given, which was 5, and being still being offered $4,000 for cameoing as Bayos 1 and 2 after rejecting the entire role. That is on top of her shooting herself in the foot by begging the people who hadn't preordered the game to donate to an anti-abortion clinic, supporting the "blue lives matter" crowd in the midst of police brutality against black people and her implied unwillingness to support trans rights, three things I as a black trans man find especially repulsive. I won't be buying Bayo 3, but I do hope Jennifer can grow on people and improve over time.
"uncomfortable? even a little cringe? And I actually had to reflect on that because...I'm playing bayonetta..." That alone is the biggest red flag on this whole situation. Even if this is the more innocent Cerecita version, she's still supposedly an adult here, so the fact that the most recognizable part of her personality, is intentionally making you cringe is just awful. They just had to show from the start that this is not OG Bayo, and then maybe, the sanitization would felt a bit more understandable. I guess.
@@Bane_Amesta Its a bit of this but also it felt like I was watching a fanservice scene from an anime. As TelekinesticMan said, formulaic. Like, it didn't matter. Its really awkward to do all of the fun sexy stuff only to get squashed down over and over emotionally, like the game is giving me a "NO FUN ALLOWED" sign. I wanna say the plot of 3 is just WAY TOO DIRE. Not that Bayonetta can't have a world ending plot, but there is no hope or optimism. Which is awful because joy in oneself, hope and optimism are very core to Bayonetta, not only in the gameplay, but also in Bayonetta herself. Its the very emotions that makes her sexiness work. But you lose, all the way to the end. Even if the after credits show a restored world, overall the story was too nihilistic for this game. All the moments that should be iconic feel squished in there as a tasteless nod to the past installments because of this oppressiveness. The game is at such odds with itself that everything falls apart, even Bayonetta herself. literally :')
@@irenekim8340 Oh, absolutely, this is too pessimistic to be a Bayonetta game. And you know what's even worse? That the whole story had no meaning anyways. Not just about the quest of finding the 5 thingies when the bad guy was always around. If the worlds got restored, and all the Bayos supposedly revived, then all th struggle was literally for nothing. It can be seen as one sacrifice to save everyone else, but that's NOT what happened. It was a bad decision (maybe two, I still think Viola didn't deserve to live lol) that lead to the "couple" going to hell for no real reason whatsoever. And with a "successor" that clearly doesn't deserve the title. Btw, about the sexiness, it also doesn't matter either, specially the naive mode included, she's never naked for more than what, 3 seconds? And the camera goes away. They already toned this down on 2, when she has more hair covering her body than 1, and the camera moves away faster as well. Now in 3 is literally nothing lol. I'd say is isn't really a huge loss since her dancing isn't sexy enough to watch either. As a woman is not really a huge deal for me (in a horny fan service way I mean), but even I can see how this decision damaged her character even more
i appreciate the new voice actor for bayonetta so much but even i catch a lot of voice lines that helena would’ve characterized a lot better. her voice in the first two games is much more bouncy but i think that’s because she sounded really playful while also having a mature tone and jennifer’s rendition is very playful but it has more of a youthful tone instead
I feel like bayonetta left with Helena Taylor’s soul. Nothing like her. Her sass her self her independence the way she fool around with the demons her dance moves. I would forever respect that woman even with all the controversies.
I completely agree. But even then, the game is so riddled with issues that even I don't think Taylor's inclusion would have made the experience any better.
@@justinluc2572 if you saw how the cut content was and how bayo 1 and 2 appears in their respective places, with labolas being fully summoned and rodin and jeanne's chapters, hellena would've been such a nice and distinct "variant" that it'd be nice to see all three interact...
The only one that died was the cereza you played as, all of the other ones including 1st and 2nd games were revived along with their worlds so they're still around
@asmobeel they're all gliching out at the end because they're existing across multiple worlds and only dissappear because singularity retracted from said world's to better stabilize himself, plus bayo 1 and 2 are fine from what it seemed
I will certainly not miss Cereza because I don't care about her like AT ALL. For me it's OG Bayo or nothing, even less a Bayonetta wannabe like Cereza...
Im really glad how you mentioned that her nudity is never seen at all in 3. Even though we've seen and heard multiple times that Nintendo leaves a lot of creativity and freedom to their development teams, especially for Platinum, it really makes me wonder if they were more strict with Bayonetta 3's development. Oddly in 3 they sneakily try to cover Bayonetta's nudity during infernal summons-even though she's already covered due to the hair wrapped around her, they really try to make sure she is seen as less as possible during the scenes-they even put the portal in front of her so the hair that is pulling out the demon blocks her body. Along with the pole dancing scene at the end being shown through that circle gear object and not the full screen with the scene. The scene also cuts to gameplay sequences during it which has never been done before.
Fun fact, they already toned down this in Bayo 2. Yes you can see her naked, but those moments last just a few seconds, meanwhile in 1 she was barely covered and always in the best camera angle so show her off. I compared the first infernal summons in both games, and in 2 she has more hair around covering her than 1. So is not something exclusive from 3.
@@excaliburofgachagames9241 yeah it's weird that they'd shift the protagonist (supposedly) to Viola. Viola is a cute character but I would've liked if we had spent more time with her to achieve that lead character status. I'm genuinely interested what happened within the 5+ish years of this game's development.
Greatly apprecite you validating all the things that made Bayonetta 3 feel so off. The camera issues. Weird Pure Plat time goals. The inability to retry a single verse. The lack of costumes esp for Jeanne. The shoehorning of her love for Luka. And most importantly, the lost of that magical powerful and sexy and campy humor in Bayonetta's character writing. It's truly a shame that we waited this long for a game at this level of quality.
ABSOLUTELY! I definitely relate to your reaction of the ending, as a lesbian who found a lot of comfort and acceptance through bayonetta because of how unafraid she is to be herself, her campiness, and the queer undertone with her and Jeanne.. the ending was a slap in the face.. of course I wasn’t expecting her to get with Jeanne at all but getting her with the creepy stalker guy.. *shudder*
Honestly speaking even without the correct story writing which I completely agree with. Jennifer did not bring the characters voice to life like Hellena Taylor did and that is what it is. I know I might receive hate for that, but a fact is simply a fact.
I personally disagree I really liked Jennifer's interpretation of thr role and really loved listening to her. But i understand why people don't like how different it feels and piled up with all the problems of this game it just makes it feel worse.
omg your ending conclusion... I am so happy for the me who got to experience that other universe! Thank you for this! It was the most heartbreaking end I've ever felt. I had no idea what I was crying for as the credits rolled because so much had happened.
This is an incredibly thorough and fair breakdown of the game! You carry an obvious sense of love, knowledge, and passion for the series, which only enhances your honest criticisms. The world of game analysis needs more reviews like this one. One day I'll put aside time to actually sit down and play those first two games. I've always loved their sense of style, and anything with direct involvement from Kamiya is generally worth checking out. Bayo 3 never really quite interested me as much, even before the real-world controversies and story revelations kicked in. Something always seemed off, even from the viewpoint of an outsider like myself. I also think it just sucks that Nintendo hardware has to hold such a technically ambitious game back, like this. And the story? Maaan, it is such a letdown to know just how much it missed the mark. It's a little offensive just how forced the heteronormative romance aspect is, and I am already growing insanely tired of multiverse gimmicks.
I’m a huge Bayonetta fan. I can tell you that the story of Bayonetta 3 just isn’t right. Bayonetta attitude was off throughout the whole and the romance was lame. Luka and Bayonetta never should have happened. Bayonetta in previous game never showed any interest in him at all. Also the story of Bayonetta 3 sucks. Bayonetta ending at the end was distasteful. I believe to add a dramatic twist and effect. 😮
Heteronormative romance? Lmao, do you even know who Bayonetta is, back in 2009 all people complained about was her being too sexual and how she was made for the male gaze, and for some reason since 2014 a bunch of idiots decided to put a sexuality on her. Luka and Bayonetta go way back, in their own way, people never saw the developer documentaries, people just decide to be ignorant and cry about some delusional shit that ain’t even theirs. I can tell many of you don’t even follow Kamiya, and trust someone random on the internet posting stupid ass “facts” with “trust me bro” sources more than the creator and story writer himself lmao.
Your analysis is so on point it hurts. You gave Bayonetta a proper burial, which is the least any of us could do. I hope she rises from her grave eventually, but this will leave a dark mark on her legacy.
This is thorough! From gameplay, to characters, to music, to story! Thank you. I actually loved the game but understand 100% of the criticism against it and if anything, it makes me want to play the first two games (that I did not play again after they were released back in the day) again. This quote from your conclusion is insane : "It may seem ridiculous to think that Platinum would seriously consider their hypothetical next sequel to not even feature their beloved protagonist from previous entries ...until you realize that's exactly what Bayonetta 3 already is. A Bayonetta game without Bayonetta."
Yeah I agree with everything in the video. The main reason this game turned me off is just how...restricted bayonetta feels. Like when she danced before it felt awesome and she was just flaunting and taunting the angels. Now it just felt like a tap dance routine that I would rather see Enzo or Viola try and do. Even the voice sounded less seductive/domineering and more...what a highschool kid thinks sounding sexy is like. To shorten it, I don't care how fun the game play wa. If it doesn't feel like the character then it won't feel right playing them. Edit: sound track does go hard tho
I come back to this video every once in a while since the release of Bayo3 as some sort of eulogy to a passed friend. You nailed the head on nearly everything wrong with the game and what we loved about the past two installments. It's a great shame how it turned out this way, and how it probably will never be the same ever again. I hope you realize that this video brings a great comfort to those who had a great emotional connection to this franchise who felt Bayonetta3 spat in the face of its most loyal and hardcore fans and its own legacy. Some of us are still in the grieving process, and it's because of you that this video helps cushion the blows every time they resurface themselves. Thank you.
Just started this and finished bayonetta 3 yesterday honestly can say it has some of the best music I’ve heard but lord the story was really just bland for me
With the demonic summons, in Bayonetta 3, it really does seem like Kamiya saw what Itsuno was doing in Devil May Cry 5 and thought, "I'd do that, but bigger! Because bigger is better and it always been!" However, in order to make it work, Kamiya nerfed the characters' damage output and made enemies throw up shields, meaning you're forced into using the demonic summons that feels like their too powerful and you can end up cheesing your way through the game using them. Especially when the game is always actively throwing meter at you to use them. Also between Not Nero, who's set up to be the new face of the franchise, with her Not Devil Trigger. The chainsaw motorbike thats now a chainsaw train. The magic cowboy hat thats now a magic top hat and S(h)in Devil Trigger and S(h)in Gomorrah, it really does make me wonder, does Kamiya have any original ideas of his own anymore, or is just looking to copy Itsuno's homework from here on out? I really don't have any problems with Bayonetta making references to Devil May Cry with Kamiya's work on it, but this is practically plagiarism at this point.. Oh! And Luka's Bayo 3's sheepskin lined coat being pretty much ripped off from a scrapped Dante concept costume from DMC4, and as if it wasn't obvious enough they were trying to make him like Dante, might as well give him the cowboy hat as well 🙄
That's a big thing, right there. The Shields that require a singular mechanic are always, and will always be, the worst. Member DmC? Peppridge Farms members.
@@connorburris4846 after playing through Bayonetta 3, I moved onto Sonic Frontiers, and with some enemies when you looked at attacking, what would the very first they'd do? "Quick! Retreat into our boxes! Unless Sonic does that one specific move (the cyloop), there's no way he can get through our defenses!" Which really had me thinking, am I just playing Bayonetta 3 again? Though I will at least give Bayonetta 3 some credit for having enemies that show interest in attacking you, as well as a parry that actually requires some skill, than hold down the parry button for as long as you need then there'd be a chance to let the game play itself for you. It was quite disappointing because I did have some hopes for Frontiers' combat when it was showing of some character action game qualities like launchers, air juggles and parrying and it might be the only good thing about the game, given the focus on copy, pasted levels with Cyberspace, as we go for third trip down memory lane 🙄 Sadly it was quite shallow - it didn't even have timed combo strings - and with it featuring a rapidfire projectile move that was was so overpowered it had me thinking, am I playing DMC2 again? It was not a very good time, going from one underwhelming game, I forced my through, to another 😆😅 Though things did get better, as I started Okami after that
On one hand I'm sorry, but on the other, I did want this video to capture the feeling I had when finishing this game. I remember watching the awful cutscene with Bayo and Luka kissing, and then feeling conflicted during the dance to Hell. This wasn't my Bayonetta, so I wasn't particularly sad to see *this* variant die, but it still symbolised the death of the character in general, assisted with a quite powerful, emotional song. Then, when the music picks up for the Bayo 2 flashback images, I started crying. That was when it really hit hard that she just felt so wrong this game, and how it was borderline offensive to see them suddenly showing flashbacks to the character I actually liked! And then another punch in the gut with the Bayo 1 images too, I remember almost crying again when first editing this intro and having to watch that dance one more time. Watching her last crystal shard contain an image of her and Luka was certainly not making things better. And after all that, including the Viola Kraken fight, the pole dance, and the torch-passing moment, I was still teary-eyed and felt awful. But it was when the Bayo 1 and 2 variants appeared in the final dance that I really started crying again. I was watching this weirdly choreographed dance sequence with an admittedly great remix of one of my favourite tracks from the original game, but seeing the "real" Bayonetta(s) again was the final shot through the heart, not helped by seeing Jeanne dancing alongside them. It was just like "she's right there, I can see her, even though she looks kind of ugly now and sounds different, why did they take her away from me?". That was when the concluding statement really hit me, which is why I included that shot at the end of the video as well. A Bayonetta game without Bayonetta.
@@telekinesticman I hated the dance sm I was literally yelling at my TV like "WHY TF ARE YOU DANCING LIKE IT'S A HAPPY ENDING!!" I've been playing this game since I was 9 years old. the closest thing I can describe it to is losing a dear friend. Thank you for this video I'm thankful that someone was able to put into words on why most OG Bayonetta fans felt betrayed or hurt by Bayonetta 3 plot. Thank you for this masterpeice🙏
this game seriously felt like it was rushed out of the door despite cooking for almost 8 years, like why is luka a wolf? what is viola's fairy-like transformation? if the bayonetta's from 1 and 2 are from different universes, how does that explain the scene in bayo 2 of father balder dying alongside the destroyed jubileus statue? WHY DO THE ENEMIES LOOK THE SAME????
Here is tip: A game that takes more than 5 years of develoment, 90% of time it will be a disater. Even if it had 8 years of develoment, it may took then 6-7 to have a clear idea of what to do, and because the are tight on time and resources, they are forced to use stuff they made in those 6 years, even if they were from a different type of game and doesn't fit at all. This affects both gameplay and story, which may explain a lot of stuff in bayo 3.
Thank you so much for this Video. It is truly fantastic! Bayonetta means so much to me and you summed up my feelings towards this game perfectly. I was shocked and felt speechless. I know this sounds dramatic but I still can‘t get over this empty feeling. Well, I guess it‘s time to replay the Bayonetta duology again and to dance under the moon once more. Keep up the good work, this video is amazing! 🌕
The omly thing I disagree with is saying this isn't the Bayonetta I knew from the previous games. Because this is cereza who is from a different universe and has different ways of carrying herself while still being Bayonetta in the end as her personality and methods stay the same and it feel authentic.
This video is exactly what the most hardcore Bayo fans want to say but can't quite put into words... The conclusion of this video hits really hard because that's exactly how i feel about this game - a Bayonetta game without Bayonetta
God I love thank you. I got so mad seeing the skill tree in Bayo 3. Especially seeing that a lot of the moves were just functionally the same moves across all the weapons. Some of them were unique, but for the most part most of the was like buying after burner kick, charged bullets, witch twist like 8 different times and that was just suuuuper annoying. The only reason I noticed this however was because I had Bayo 1 and 2 on my switch so when I got the guns from 1 and 2 I bounced that they have the same moves but I had to unlock them all individually....for BOTH GUNS
Thank you :) it might be my favourite video of mine so far, if not for some repetitive wording and sentence structure that I didn't notice until after the video was uploaded.
The multiverse theme it's clearly not made for this series, at least not by the hands of its actual writers and that's a fact, I would have enjoyed it a lot more if they just kept the time paradox issues from the first two games. I personally love Bayonetta's new design (it might even be my favourite) and it could have been a gorgeous way to portray her persona as the same we've been in touch with until now but actually embracing her past inner child, but everything was thrown away with a very bad multiverse plot. A plot which didn't only restrict us from playing with the witch we love watering down her personality and doing whatever nonsense with the character under the excuse that she's just not her, but also executing very poorly and uninterestingly its major appeal, which was meeting different versions of Bayo which are sadly not as cool, nor interesting (not at least from what we know since they didn't do anything) as the original one.
Tbh, I thought they were gonna play more with the fact her 3 design looks like an interpretation of the "barely legal/18+ version of young character" fetish. This is a franchise where she almost got a infantilism costume, after all, which would've been way worse then showing fanservice on the level of the last 2 games with an adult Cereza.
i havent finished playing the third game, but there are moments in which it seems like im playing devil may cry 2 all over again, the emptyness of some levels, the overall missed character growth for previous games and Bayonetta just seems like a different person .
36:20 Ngl if the main character wasn’t brave cereza I’d more more mad about the voice change but the way Hale said “you didn’t cry while I was gone did you?” with OG Bayonetta legitimacy made me emotional because I was temporarily convinced it was Taylor.
Wait, she doesn't continue shooting if you hold the button? That was one of the character's most iconic abilities! That would be like if sonic couldn't use his spindash- oh right...
Good news! I'll have to verify some of the changes myself, but it seems like Platinum have addressed a lot of the gameplay issues in their most recent patch for Bayonetta 3. I was not expecting any further updates to the game at all, so this is a fun surprise, even if it somewhat invalidates elements of this video. en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/60160/~/how-to-update-bayonetta-3#v120
@Buzz Buzz Thanks so much! I don't think I'll make an entire follow-up video or anything. Mayyybe if I did a video on Bayonetta Origins I could include some segments about the Bayo 3 updates. But right now I don't even know if I'll buy Bayo Origins, that sucker is $80 and I don't even care as much about the story anymore.
@@telekinesticman It cost that much then I suggest waiting for the price to get lower. Also what I did find this video quite interesting I don't really agree with the character assassination part honestly if you want to see character assassination go play metroid the other M that is character assassination. This feels more like watering down a character if anything. But I do agree with the whole Luka thing It should have been her and John, But I still like Viola so instead of making her her real life daughter maybe they could have done something like saying she was just an orphan kid who bayonetta and John adopted to trying to become an umbrella witch. But goes through a rebellious teen phase which explains her design, Because personally I like the character.
37:29 Thank you. Thank you so much. I really don't understand what was going on when they did this. I had so many thoughts in my head during that scene in the ending and trying to figure out what I was supposed to feel.
I was having so much trouble playing Viola. I would dodge expecting a witch time and it never came and I found the parry button hard to use possibly because I was so used to playing Bayonetta. I died so much playing her.
For me viola is near useless because her sword parry time window is almost non existent. Her dodge is pretty useless as well. Not being able to control cheasire from a distance is a burden
I agree with everything in this so much 😭 it’s like I wrote the video’s ending portion lol. I would love more Bayonetta, but 3 was kinda a flop in my eyes
In the starightonetta segment, as much as I don't ship Bayo with Jeanne (they have more of a sister relationship imo and I dont mind if they do end up together) and ship her with Luka, I do agree that her sudden romantic feelings for Luka was out of nowhere. No development whatsoever like it could be nice that they showed us that they are in a relationship or show beforehand that she IS interested in him and vice versa but it felt flat to actually seeing it happening despite shipping them for years. I mean it's cute that they had a daughter in another timeline but my god their relationship is so underdeveloped that Bayo with Jeanne makes so much sense. I honestly prefer she doesn't end up with anyone
Без лишних слов: БАЗА. Thank you so much for video and really good analysis of Bayo3. I llove previous two parts so much, spent hundreds of hours but the third... I'm really glad to see that I'm not the only one who don't like this game in some parts (especially in the story). At least in my lovely russian youtube only 2-3 videos about the game and they just say "crazy japanese game, so coooool". I'm not an youtuber or writer, so you could explain all my feelings in easy words: a Bayonetta game without Bayonetta. Thank you.
As a massive Bayonetta fan, I can only agree with just about every point you make here. It's such a shame. There's so much greatness in this title, but you're right, this Bayonetta just flat-out isn't Bayonetta. And that hurts deeply. But even aside that, I agree about the combat and enemies too. I find the massive enemies frustrating to fight, to the point I'd rather just be playing Bayonetta 1 or 2 (my personal favourite). I will always love these games and Bayonetta as a character. She has meant more to me than I even realised myself (which I do have to admit, seeing moments from 1 and 2 fly by in the credits did make me realise that). But this game, as much as it hurts to say, just didn't do her justice.
Great critique, highlighted pretty much every issue I had with the game. It’s a damn shame I don’t even think it can be fixed by Bayo 4 acting like this game never happened. The magic Bayo 1 & 2 had might really be gone for me 😢
Bayonetta 3 has been one of the biggest disappointments in my very long history as a gamer. After so many years waiting for it, this sequel to the amazing and incredibly beautiful Bayonetta 2 is really underwhelming. I find the demon slave mechanic slow and boring. It makes the gameplay more static and many times is difficult to see what is happening. The level design is also much weaker, with big empty spaces that delay the combat encounters, many of which are horribly designed. Also, it´s like the game doesn´t want you to get involve too much with its core combat system, as is constantly throwing at you stupid minigames, or a new, and not fun by any means to play character named Viola. Evenmore, game looks ugly, homunculus and backgounds design is uninspired, the story is chaotic, and the characters don´t act as themshelves. To me "Bayonetta" is a 9, "Bayonetta 2" a 9,8 and "Bayonetta 3" a 6,5.
Really great video! You really explained how many things went wrong, I was nodding throughout the whole video! I also agree with the whole "ignoring authorial intent" for the Bayonetta from 3 being different from the one in 1 and 2. Mostly because of the reasons in the video, the 2nd clearly portrays itself as a sequel, but also for another reason. So the 1st game establishes 2 timelines, one where Bayonetta is locked up for 500 years and has amnesia, and one where she's roaming free for 500 years. And the third game clearly wants us to believe that its Bayonetta is the one from the 2nd timeline, which would mean: amnesiac Bayo was capable of fighting angels that had kidnapped Cereza without harming her (even defeating Balder who had ABSORBED her), as well as defeating an angel that had EATEN LOKI (and getting him out of there by SHOOTING the angel), meanwhile non-amnesiac Bayonetta couldn't save a single variant. The game wants us to believe that a non-amnesiac Bayonetta, who was free for 500 years and is probably very skilled because of that, had to be saved 3-4 separate times in the final battle, and still died... It just doesn't make sense! (also, can we talk about the enemies? as boring and as soulless as they were, their designs were kind of cool, and I'm disappointed they were just some "factory-produced nanomachines" kind of thing instead of something more religious and spiritual like the angels...)
When I first saw the Hommunculi, I thought they were gonna be monsters from Purgatorio made of the souls of humans who died but were never claimed by Angels or Devils, which would make sense since 1 was about the angels and 2 spent half the game on devils and showing in canon the dangers of dying as an Umbran Witch.
A bayonetta game without bayonetta... If only it was revealed you were playing as a Joy the whole time who wanted to fight against her own kind DMC Sparda style...
Them jamming "the multiverse" into this game and story just.... hurt me. Replacing Cereza with Viola would have been cool....if they'd done a more satisfying story. Like if Cereza and Jeanne are rebuilding the Umbran Witches and come across/take in Viola, a young girl with the powers of a young Lumen Sage. With no one left to teach her magic and how to be a Lumen sage, they take her in to teach her. But this group of radical zealots that used to follow Balder want Viola for their own weirdo cult reasons. Dr. Sigurd, their resident mad scientist, has devised a way to create homunculi replacements for lacking the magic to summon REAL angels. And thus, our story begins, as each clash and encounter with this group reveals that there's something deeper, darker and far more sinister to them than what we initially thought or believed. And that each level of seniority knows waaay more than the average person. In gameplay, rather than masquerades and The Demon Slave being a constant mechanic, this game sees Jeanne as a fully playable main character for the game, as you can now switch between the both of them on the fly in the middle of Battle OR they team up during boss battles and significant finishers. Or, maybe, each level sees you trade off in a cycle of playing as Bayo, Jeanne and Viola. And, with each stage, Viola unlocks a new skill or power unique to her.
I feel like new mechanics they add seem to overshadow old, fun to use ones. For example, torture attacks were the most fun to use in Bayonetta 1 and were a great, flashy way to finish off a combo and get yourself a powerful angel arm. In Bayonetta 2, the game actively discourages you from using Torture Attacks because you have a much more powerful option in Umbran Climax. Killing one enemy just isn't enough when you can wipe the whole screen with a few button presses. Umbran Climax also steps on the toes of command weaves like Tetsuzanko/Heel Stomp. You get three moderately powered wicked weave commands for the same price as an Umbran Climax which gives you countless, once again the new mechanic making several older ones obselete. Demon Slave is a cool replacement for Torture Attacks, but the downside is supposed to be that you are vulnerable during it, but that is precisely why it doesn't feel that fun. On top of the demon summons feeling sluggish to control, your options for attacking in tandem are limited and it would be much more fun if you summon the demon and it attacks as you attack. I think that would at least make up for some of the lost depth from lack of feet/hands slots and overall simplified combo system.
Bayonetta not ending up with Jeanne is just an opinion matter at this point, love isn't based by logicical factors. Plus, I thought her ending up with Luka was a throwback to Bayonetta1 since in most of that game Cereza is with Luka. Anyways, all the rest is on point. Her sassy nature and her elegance that made her what she is in the previous games are almost absent, along with her good voice. No hate on the new one, but she doesn't deliver it for me. Lastly, the music was also something that played a big role in me liking the game, but Bayonetta3 went as what I like to call "SailorMoon" on this one with it. It doesn't feel like I'm dancing alongside the music, but more like I'm a heroine transforming for the job.
Cereza spending a lot of time with Luka as a child and then still ending up with him as an adult is what makes it feel incredibly weird and predatory even if it's a different Luka. Other thing is that Luka met Bayo because his father died after he found her sleeping in the lake. If Cereza never got sealed away, Luka's dad would've never looked for her, he wouldn't have died and Luka would've never stalked her so it makes even less sense. Her just bumping into that loser and falling head over heels over him is very hard to imagine, let alone believe.
Fantastic review. I feel you in almost every regard. The gameplay was lacking, and the story was a dumpster fire. Good thing Bayonetta 1 is playable on PC, which I found myself replaying over and over since Bayonetta 3 released. I don't even want a Bayonetta 4 anymore to be honest...
39:53 Thirdly Itsuno and Morihashi didn't force Dante out of the story that way the transition from Dante to Nero as the protagonist doesn't feel forced and the door was open to drop this plot just in case the reaction to Nero was negative with no reperocutations. Plus it gave them to opportunity to work on Neros character develop him into his own devil hunter and so when Dante was effectively out to the story the transition feels earned. Not that I think Dante and Vergil aren't coming back in DMC 6 cause well its obvious.
Amazing analysis video with solid evidence and incredible details. I sense a real fairness, care, and honesty in your opinion that I greatly appreciate 👍 I especially love the subtle yet pointed shade towards Ms Taylor 🤭 Absolutely tragic and full of disappointment for all party involves that let to her down fall. Her lies and questionable ethics left a real bad taste in everyone mouth, which I highly doubt will ever be remedied 😬 Credits where credits due for how much attitude and characterisation she have given to Bayonetta, but gosh darn how she fumbled the bag and lost such an iconic role. However, in my opinion Jennifer Hale did a formidable job with the material that she was given. I felt there was a real lack of quotes and scripts where Bayonetta should be saying something back or react to what was happening around her, especially towards the latter half of the game. So with that in mind, this may gave an impression that Ms Hale was not given her all when perhaps there really wasn’t much for her to go off of in the first place. Such a weird demonstration of restraint from the writers for Bayonetta character. Definitely missing the “Oomph” energy from the predecessor games and therefore the dialogues in the third instalments leaves you wanting more of the flavours and sass that was previously presented to us prior ✨ “One step forward, and two steps back.” is a perfect way to describe this chaotic and somewhat unpolished instalments of the series 😌 My heart broke when you said “A Bayonetta Game, without Bayonetta.”, for better or worse, things will never be the same again…
Tbh I didn’t mind that she wasn’t acting like the Bayonetta since it isn’t the same one, it kinda made sense to me. But I was confused why Bayo 1 and Bayo 2 appeared, I would have expected Bayo 2 just to appear since I also thought they were the same.
While I agree with you on most of this (read like 99%) I don't entirely agree with the take on Luka. I feel like Bayonetta's reaction to thinking Luka was dead in the first game suggested she does have genuine affection for him. I didn't think it was much of a push to think Bayonetta and Luka would have a child in one universe. (I agree that Bayo who met him as a child being in love with him is creepy though). I didn't dislike the idea that they had a child that much, but the whole 'fated' thing did bother me.
For me, the gameplay killed the game. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but it doesn’t feel as satisfying to play as Bayo 1 or even 2. If I had to describe it as best as I could, the smaller enemies that were fun to fling and juggle around in 1 and 2 feel like random trash mobs now. And the large enemy types that broke up the groups are now boring as the main focus of the combat encounters. It doesn’t feel as fun or natural to dance around them, it just feels like I’m mashing buttons at a wall until it falls over, occasionally dodging any time I see a sudden movement. I’m no expert at these kinda games, “educated button masher” is probably the simplest way to put it, but it felt like Bayo 3 encourages you to button mash more than ever. The fights feel less like energetic dances like they were in the first two games, something just feels off. If someone else can word it better, please do, cuz Bayo 3 felt like a slog to play because of the focus on larger enemies. This also might just be a “me” thing, but most of the weapons felt boring to use. Bayo 1 and 2 had a handful of weapons that didn’t exactly grab me, but I could see their use and maybe work toward getting a feel for them. Bayo 3 chucks a bunch of random bullshit at you every second until you see credits (and even shortly after), but all of them just felt like slight variations on light, medium, and heavy weapons with some gimmick that rarely seems add anything. And one more thing, and it’s something I almost never see brought up, half the gameplay is just mini games. Running/chase segments, Kaiju battles, rail shooters, even a rhythm segment. All the bayos have these, but there’s sooooo fuckin many in 3. They are hype at first, but the longer the game goes on (and especially on replay) they get very old for me.
I feel like the story could have worked If instead of a multiverse like a marvel movie they could have stuck with it being a timeline and have it to wear bayo 2 comments on bayo 1 design and have both bayo 1 and 2 both comments on how bayo 3 looks seeing how bayo1 get to see how she turns in the future and bayo 2 and 3 reminisce on their older looks in past games
I’m convinced that the people mad at fans who would’ve rather seen Bayonetta get together with Jeanne are just finding excuses to be homophobic at this point and do not see Bayonetta as anything other than a sex object. Because why would she go for a man with no game over someone who’s been with Bayonetta her whole life? 💀 Platinum forced a relationship with Luka because he’s the “main guy”, and god forbid they let their main female character stay single or get together with a woman. Bayonetta being with Jeanne would’ve been iconic af.
Well said. So many people think I'm this huge Bayo X Jeanne shipper when all I said was "if Bayonetta had to be paired with anyone, it should have been Jeanne". I have no problem leaving them as good friends and keeping Cereza single, that's perfectly fine. But if she was going to have a relationship with anyone, Jeanne is the only character that made any sense. Luka feels so wrong to me because it just seems cheap and formulaic. At least Rodin feels more like Bayonetta's equal, someone who she has a mutual respect for. I still don't buy them as romantic partners, but I could see it happening much more than I could *ever* have anticipated Luka being her true love. I have yet to see a single comment defending the Luka pairing and dismissing Jeanne that doesn't come off as extremely homophobic. I do also understand that navigating such a topic is very difficult without coming off that way. Even if someone had genuine reasons to believe that Luka and Cereza had a thing, and that Jeanne didn't, it's really hard to express that without coming off as a bigot. What fascinates me even more is that I've seen so much more lesbian representation in mainstream media that I thought Bayo X Jeanne wasn't much to ask for, especially with how sexual Bayonetta as a character already is. It's not like you're crossing some huge Christian puritan line when your main character already gets naked and pole dances to defeat angels. I can't imagine how much more toxic the "shipping" discourse would be if Bayonetta and Jeanne were both men, as I can't think of many gay male relationships represented in the mainstream over the past decade or so.
Thanks for posting this, you've explained more succinctly about how poor of soul this game is than I ever could without raising my voice or getting angry. I resent the direction PG have taken Bayonetta in, and as a super fan of the first game I am not going to pretend to like or encourage a sequel that betrays the amazing precedence and ideas the first established. I have a tattoo dedicated to the first game, and was considering a sleeve until this game released and ubiquitously destroyed any intention of acknowledging this game as a identifying representation of Bayonetta. At this point it's so bad I just call her Cereza over Bayonetta, I can't even imagine the thought process of the person who tattooed 3 Bayonetta before the game released and then was forced to have this watered down, generic, passionless character on them forever. Cooling down the dramatics, I just want to add another critique of this game that I've yet to see anyone mention: the turn towards overabundance, excessiveness or 'detail' in the character designs of the Bayonetta characters- primarily Bayonetta herself. I know Mari Shimazaki has stayed the character designer for all three games, but her shift in design philosophy is comment-able when her first game's concepts were fit for a fashion magazine, and looked like they pulled inspiration directly from Mugler or Givenchy. The third game's designs- mainly referencing the pigtail Cereza tutu look- have no fashionable aspects to it in the slightest sense; no dramatic silhouette, inspired colour pallet or inspirational ties to fashion houses , and seem to try to make up for it with hundreds of flower accessories that ham fistedly reference Balder placing a sakura flower in her hair as a child, an all together unremarkable scene that is given undue importance in the character design of Cereza (who has previously been all about fashion and statements). There is no asymmetry, or attempts at making the outfits remarkable in an unconventional sense, and I personally dislike this movement towards more flashy video game aesthetics over utilising real world fashion movements to make a timeless character design pop. If you doubt me, I guarantee a cosplay of Bayonetta or Jeanne in the first game will look like an outlandish, yet fabulous outfit while a cosplay of the third will garner an immediate notice of how many bits and bobs are attached to a tutu and 'is that a dark ballerina cosplay or something?'
I played Bayo1 on the PS4, but I gravited more towards Devil May Cry, 5 in specific. My heart goes out to the Bayonetta fans, who were suffering even before the game came out, with a long development while we knew the game existed, and internet drama close to launch. Release comes and I see how bad it looks, and then friends of mine start to dislike the story, it was rough.
