How Bayonetta 3 Betrayed its Own Series 

UPDATE! Bayonetta Origins helps IMPROVE Bayonetta 3's story. Check out my video on that here!: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wNglf5ndxD0.html

The multiverse is a concept of infinite possibilities, but in Bayonetta: 1) Every Bayonetta is a woman 2) Every Bayonetta is an Umbran Witch 3) No Bayonetta is a Lumen Sage Which implies that Baldur never being able to raise his daughter is a fixed point. Which is just.....so sad for no good reason

"why did the game take control away from me, only to make my character lose to an enemy I had no trouble handling?" THIS. THISSSSS

"Bayonetta loses all her IQ and summons Gomorrah instead of Madama Butterfly" I couldn't stop laughing 💀

Bayo: stabbed in the chest, perfectly fine Jeanne: stabbed in the chest, dies

Yeah, I think that the main thing that defines the Bayonetta series is that Bayonetta IS the thing, she is the queen, the diva, main point, lowkey the only entity that matters in her universe. Something that she says to singularity that to me kinda defines her is "clearly you havent been payin attention, the truth is what I make it" its like she knows she is the main protagonist, that she is supposed to win!

Bayo collecting all her variants for the final fight and wrapping it up with “you fucked with the wrong witch” would’ve been perfect. But we got what we got

The most ironic thing about Jeanne’s “first” death is that right before she gets stabbed, Bayonetta gets GUTTED by Strider and just brushes it off with hair regeneration. Multiple times throughout the many singularity fights, in one instance the Bayonettas are kicking ass just to all be wiped out with some kind of power wave from Singularity Balance. When one of the BIGGEST things about Umbra witches is their dexterity and swiftness, it makes no sense to be this inconsistent. This game has such great footing, then rips it away with little dialogue and lack of effort in writing a multiverse scenario.

I agree with you on the fact that Bayonetta should have summoned Madama Butterfly instead of Gomorrah. Even if her Umbran Watch broke, Madama Butterfly would not have straight up killed her because they are best friends, but Gomorrah? She and Gomorrah had beef the moment Bayonetta tried to feed her a man made bioweapon instead of an Angel during the first fight with the Homunculi. She had to literally control him against his will in order to force him to fight for her, and when she lost control by having her Umbran Watch broken, Gomorrah was absolutely going to kill her with no hesitation.

Pinkonetta: dies to worm that was slower than the one viola dodged in chapter 7 Chinesonetta: dies to slow ass hand coming from a mile away Emo jeanne: dies because she’s somehow extremely dumb White bayonetta: self sacrifice even though she could have just demon masqueraded and carried our bayo to safety Frenchonetta: dies to slow ass bug even though she dodged literall bullets. Cereza the dumb: dies because she summons a demon that tried to kill her MULTIPLE TIMES What the fuck bruh

She just forgot to take her Yass pills in this one

I could not agree with that aspect of femininity more; the fact that there is such a powerful female character out there who is not ashamed of her identity, and her sexuality is so empowering the fact that they’re even considering taking that away, is so depressing

I'm so glad someone else is saying this. You mean to tell me that Jeanne, who instantly shot at Viola because of her suspicions about her, could not see that Sigurd (the guy who looks also very similar in design to the Homunculi) may have something to do with all of this? Like not at one point did she stop and think while infiltrating the building, "Hm, these enemies seem to just exist in here. They don't seem to be actively looking for this Sigurd, there's something wrong here." And upon seeing Sigurd from this world she shoulda just shot him in his bald ass head. Viola should've known that Singularity would've impacted Brave Cereza's world in some way, so why outwardly trust Sigurd in this Universe?

I want to add that I feel like this game suffers from a trend that I see most overpowered characters suffer as their stories continue: They downplay the protagonist in order to try to show how powerful the enemies are, but all it does it make the character seem weaker and making it a poor continuation of a character that should've had no problem with what was shown

You’ve condensed what so many of us have been feeling so well. My biggest disappointment was that they did barely anything with the Brave Cereza plotline. I understand that it’s important to set realistic expectations. But I really did expect to see Cereza travel to our Bayo’s universe to save her, in a nostalgic play on the events from the first game. Especially in conjunction with the lyrics of Al Fine, which I thought were about Cereza’s connection to OG Bayo, not… Luka x Bayo. The end result instead feels like a clumsy attempt at fan service, rather than an epic, full-circle reunion. They could have made her death scene work so well with this concept, too! Imagine ‘We are as One’ playing as Cereza comes to OG Bayo’s aid during the final boss, smiling as she sacrifices herself to save everyone in the multiverse. After all, didn’t she say that ‘witches protect people, and are very strong!’ in the first game?

In the masked lumen/Baldur fight in Bayonetta 2, chapter 7 (The Ark) Bayonetta can literally dodge bullets travelling at their normal speed. Baldur activates light speed (lumen sage version of witch time) and places the bullets behind Bayonetta. Time was literally frozen and she still had the superhuman reflexes to dodge bullets. I can't suspend my disbelief to think that the bayo variants dying were anything but contrived and cheap.

The ending didn't feel sad to me. It felt confusing and frustrating.

I'm just confused why have Rodin intervene in the beginning chapter just to be absent during the final battle. Bayonetta is facing the biggest threat in the series and we didn't have the immortal one by our side to fight with

You know, i think the most tragic thing about blowing their load with Multiverse so soon, is that the story actually had the *perfect* excuse to segue into it set up by the second game (the effects of which i don't believe they ever brought up again). With Loki erasing the Eyes of the World which preside over time - 'The world will be destroyed, or it will find a new path. Human free will shall determine which way it goes.' The setup for that reverberation of events to lead into a world in revolution trying to turn over a new order was practically on a silver platter. so that if they must, with 'time is no longer being watched over', could say that the barriers of parallel timelines are not being clearly defined anymore. and you know what gold mine that would've been ripe for? Worldbuilding. Show us the cultures of the Lumen Sages and Umbra Witches before the fall (or as if they never fell), their cities and legends, duties and rituals, struggles and conflicts in their roles as overseers of Paradiso and Inferno. There's no way the freaking bible and Christianity 'only' had enough content for two games barely dipping one into the other of the otherworlds.

I replayed the trilogy recently and it's just so jarring how out of place 3 is in tone and execution. Even though Bayonetta 3 took 5ish years to come out I feel like it's developed was rushed. Kamiya mentioned how he pitched 3 after Scalebound was cancelled. Moral must have been pretty low due to the cancellation since many platinum veterans left the company-many of which worked on Bayo 1 and 2. I also remember reading a few articles mentioning how they wanted Bayonetta 3 to be open world-which never came to fruition due to hardware limitations causing the team to backtrack and readjust their development plans. I'm assuming this maybe lead to a "shadow delay". Not to mention we also know that unlike 1 and 2 being developed in stages in chronological order of the games' story sequences, 3 was developed in parts out of order-I'm not very educated in game development so I do not know if this would drastically affect their opportunity to change anything in regards to story or environment. Overall, I feel like they were rushed to push a successful product due to their recent cancellation and other failures which lead to it's story and characters being an afterthought. Bayonetta's stories have never been praised as masterpieces but they've always been props to demonstrate Cereza as a strong and confident woman which 3 lacks drastically.

COMPLETELY AGREE!!! The game's story really is the epitome of "why did I bother?" I especially got that feeling in the last of the Egyptian chapters. The game has really big levels, and lots of hidden collectible, so it always took me a lot of time to finish each chapter on my first playthrough. And after having seen the first 2 variants die, then the Jeanne variant die as well, I thought "ok, well maybe Jeanne was the Arch-Eve and this Bayo variant will survive", but then obviously no. I spent 1hr on a chapter just to see our Bayonettea fail again! And there are so many other example, the worst I can think of are Viola's fight with Strider in Egypt where she gets defeated in cutscenes twice (even after activating her Faerie powers!!!) and the final battle against Singularity where Bayo needs to be constantly saved just to die in the end. Also, the game really disappointed with the variants. The first two games really made me expect an interaction like "hi, I'm the Cereza you saved, I didn't get locked up by Jeanne, we fought angels together and ended up rebuilding the Umbra clan, this girl Viola is one of our apprentices", instead we got "I'm you from a universe stuck in medieval times for some reason, no time to explain because I'm going to die soon, teehee" Also, the game really introduced the concept of the multiverse, but didn't actually have the balls to outright say that this version of Bayonetta is Brave Cereza! Sure, there are hints, but when the game tries to gaslight us into thinking the second game was an alternate timeline instead of a sequel, can you blame me for not believing this to be Brave Cereza?

Finally someone said what I've been saying all along. They killed their personalities to give a dumb plot. That's why I hate what they did with her here.

So many of the points you make I agree with all my being. Bayonetta is my favorite game and just favorite fictional character in general. It's so rare to find a female protagonist who is powerful without sacrificing their femininity. What made the games great is the control the player feels when playing Bayonetta. The developers even said when after defeating angels she blows a kiss to destroy barrier that's important to show that she could have done that the entire time- she was always in control. Enemies literally run away from her because SHE'S the boss fight. While in the third game Bayonetta was never in control, in most cutscenes she's struggling or not,,, owning the situation at all. Not only she had no control, her personality was so terribly watered down in the third game. Like you said it was almost as if Bayonetta was an after thought in her own goddamn game. I also think the entirety of the multiverse plot was very...... dumb. Never once are we even given valid facts in the game stating singularity's motives or who he even is like he's just here.... destroying stuff... also he gives viola and bayo the fake task to go out and seek all of the chaos gears so he can betray them later and claim them for himself but..... throughout the game it was us.... taking them from his goons.... or an alt bayo..... that he easily killed....... so what was the point..... he already had them..... what was the fucking point 😭 But yeah Bayonetta three and the games to come betray Bayonetta as a franchise, I could really list more gripes I have but I don't think there's enough time in the universe for me to display my immense disappointment and resentment towards this title. Literally never felt so cheated from a freaking video game or work of fiction in general.

For me it was the underused variants. The whole point of the multiverse in fiction is to fuck around with characters and see what they would be like in different worlds. Yes we do have Bayonettas from different countries and backgrounds, yet they are really lacking in depth. It feels very much like they just thought "hey wouldn't it be cool if we had a Bayonetta from a different country??" and rolled with it. We barely get to know them! The dialogue is almost nonexistent between the variants and brave Cereza and they just die immediately after the fight's over, so why am i supposed to care about them when there's so little of them to begin with? For me, the most interesting of them is Egyptian Bayo, because we actually get to see her little arc and see her struggles and her desire to be better, THAT makes me get attached to her, she's actually a character and not just a cool new skin. Her death actually made me sad compared to all the others, which were just plain dumb. Imagine all the cool interactions we could have had if they were more developed and omg the dialogue on this game is ridiculous, Singularity is shit talking bayo and she's just like 😐 Overall, the multiverse plot though cool, is very disappointing because it failed to deliver what it was supposed to, introduce different versions of Bayo who were just as interesting and compelling as the main one. Sorry for the rant, i just had a lot of feelings about it and i'm very glad i got to share my point of view on this topic, your videos are awesome and you got a new subscriber!

I agree that the Bayo-variants should've been able to join the team, similar to Viewtiful Joe (I think). There could've been a challenge where Brave Cereza at least was able to save them, rather than just waiting for them to die and get her new weapon. If they were failed to be rescued in the challenge, the moon and singularity fight would've been harder, resulting in the game taking a turn for the worse, akin to a pacifist, neutral, and genocide run(like in Undertale), each with its own ending and reward to the player. The game's ending where Bayo is defeated could've been the genocide ending, with the failure of saving the other Variants. A full savior(pacifist) run would've been hard to achieve but led to the best ending: Bayo, Luka, and Jeanne are safe, Viola is able to actually earn the title of Bayonetta(if the story will still go on that plot point), and dark eve's fight actually not feeling like something hastily added in. Heck, they could've had Viola interact with her multiversal moms to learn from them, even if Viola wasn't revealed to be her daughter. Even the clocktower fight in France, where Rosa dies, it could've given Bayo an idea of how to save her French-Bayo counterpart, rather than just exploding her with songs. Or when in Egypt, one of the Bayo's could've just activated witch time and safely bring her back. There could've been so much that happened in the 3rd game, where it should've given a sense of accomplishment and nostalgia than just disappointment and letdowns.

That's what I was saying on Reddit! Bayonetta is an elegant, sexy, and strong person, even when Jeanne was dying in hell she took the time to enjoy herself on the way and throw her best quotes.

It makes me sad to say this, but this game felt like someone who didn't like Bayonetta personally made it. Almost like they took everything that made her special and unique and strong and independent. From the first game and everything that showed her character growth in the second game and threw it to the side. Something felt so off about playing it almost like we were playing an imposter or someone trying to play dress up as Bayonetta. And it was just sad, not only watching all of the bayonetta's died but also now having to watch her daughter who didn't even seem like her daughter if you ask me. It just was incredibly off-putting, in the ending itself felt like it was a red herring. I completely expected another part to be playable after the credits and when I got Viola I put the game down because I didn't want to play it at that point. It almost felt like someone just wanted to completely spit in the face of the franchise enforce everyone to see that they were going in a new direction. It felt like they intentionally wanted to kill the old bayonetta's off and ever sense that they could. And I honestly feel like that's what they did, they killed off any hope that the players had a bayoneta and Jeanne. Force one of the most sexually fluid characters in video game history to become a mediocre damsel in distress and get with one of the most non sensible characters in the franchise. Don't get me wrong both of them could have ended up as a couple but there was no buildup over the past two games of this and if anything it just feels odd. In the way they killed both her and our favorite characters off with no remorse or any type of build up is just a lazy way of killing them off. It just feels like someone had a complete grudge against the series and just demolished everything it stood for it within one final game. For all that I wish they would just sold it or had someone else come in who liked it and finish the last game. This ain't it ☹️

I really appreciate you being so open with how the ending made you feel. The ending was devastating for me. Watching them piss on her grave by giving her name away made me want to puke.

I wish that Bayonetta actually followed Devil May Cry because at least in that game when they introduced a new protagonist (Nero) they didn't use his debut game to make him the main character at the end.

I love the mention of Astral Chain. Exactly, in Astral Chain, you're just a normal man or woman that becomes the last hope of humanity to beat an enemy that you don't even know if can't be defeated at all, the Quimeras, and the Legion feel key to the character, because they're the tool that let your character fight, without them, all his hope it's lost. In Bayonetta, Bayonetta should always be capable of having enough power to overcome everything she faces, not die to a perfectly telegraphed attack. Look at Bayo 1, she can dodge bullets without even looking at them, and in Bayo 2, she can destroy bosses even without a Climax Attack, but she does them anyway because it's Bayo identity to be extra, it's not about showing her power, it's about how THAT power is her very own identity. Remember in Bayonetta 2 when Loptr actually is capable of hurting her, after 2 completely games of cutscenes of Bayo dodging everything? THAT'S was impactful, an enemy that actually is a real danger to Bayonetta, because it's equal to her in power. And don't get me started on the Viola thing... I really like her design, the idea behind their gameplay and her goofiness, but they did my girl dirty in the "character development" part...

There are a lot of good points in this video, but I think the one I agree with the most is how the Demon Masquerade mechanic de-emphasizes Bayonetta herself in battle. For me, I really liked how in the second game, using the magic meter was for Umbran Climax, which made bayonetta’s personal attacks stronger, with occasional aid from her demonic summons. But in the third game, especially with the constantly filling magic meter, I felt like when comboing enemies, I was just buying time to summon a demon who was stronger than bayonetta to complete the battle. Don’t get me wrong, I do think that the demons in three are really cool and I like the weapons and their designs, but I felt that the demonic masquerade gameplay pulled too much focus away from Bayonetta and her own personal strength.

The worst part about Viola is that even Nero had more personality than her in dmc4

I saw someone mention Nero in Devil May Cry and I can't help but have the same opinion. Capcom gave us at least some time to get to know him and grow to like him before torch passing. Viola was relatively forced into the position on the spot and she's nowhere near developed enough to take the spotlight from the queen just yet. In the future? Maybe. But we just met her and it would not work well this way. It feels like a game for her will come out now and people will go "this isn't a bayonetta game anymore" Now I love her to bits, I do. But TIME is what was needed for her. It is essential.

This game tried so hard to sell the idea of Bayo 3 being "the bravest Cereza" even though she felt the least capable out of the 3 Bayonettas. Bayo 1 felt like a seasoned fighter and really knew what she was doing. She still had setbacks, but made up for them while doing it Bayonetta-style. Bayo 2 took Bayo 1 to the next level in terms of story, telling us more about the Lumen Sages and even showing what they're capable of. She reasonably struggled throughout the story, but still kept it lighthearted because that's what Bayonetta does. No matter the situation, she's still campy and makes every fight a fun spectacle for herself and for her opponents. Nothing goofier than doing a father-daughter dance ritual that summons a giant lady in order to punch a naked man's spirit into an elephant's mouth. Bayo 3 threw out half of what made Bayonetta... Bayonetta. Her seasoned fighting skills, fast reactions times, abilities as a witch, and her confidence all felt so muted. Her campy attitude did show up a few times like doing a dance off with Baguetta, but it wasn't nearly enough. She just watched as people died most of the time and Witch Time was painfully under-utilized. It never felt like Cereza was in control of the situation.

They could've done so much with the multiverse. Like an universe where Cerezita is actually Bayonetta's daughter and she is the one who fell in love with a Lumen Sage

completely agree on Viola's faerie form. Same with Dark Eve and Dark Adam, who only sabotage their own variants instead of going after Singularity!!?? Even if they are ghosts or dark energy, they are still the derivatives of the strong and witty characters we love. How can they be so mindless/useless. I sorta get they followed the style of Japanese vengeful ghosts like Juon but these indiscriminate murderous ghosts imo are the lowest tier in intelligence and sass. Ghost Girl in Shutter should instead be the role model; She haunts but never actively harms the innocents and has a solid revenge plan.

One of the worst things that a game can do is make someone go, "Yknow what, I really don't care." That happened personally when on the chapter with the french Bayonetta, when it was just showing how the chaos gear was just, there, and then stuff happened. Somewhere between that cutscene and the next gameplay segment, it just clicked in the brain that feeling of, "Hey, why even bother watching this if you know that this Bayonetta is gonna die?" That honestly made the whole game grind to a halt, the illusion broke, and the entire thing felt hollow. That feeling never was in Bayo 1 and 2. After marathoning them both and then starting 3, it was so utterly jarring and painful... It makes the player a fool for even trying, as opposed to feeling like, yknow, BAYONETTA. What a mess...

Those are some great points! But I have to disagree with you about the outfits. Her outfit in 3 does not hold a candle, imo, to the outfits from 1 and 2, which both had a high fashion aesthetic fit for a larger than life character. Both accentuated her exaggerated, gorgeous and feminine physique and had that sexualised factor that was meant to be empowering but not objectifying or tasteless, each in its own way, the first one with a more witchy allure and the second one with a more high class elegance. Her outfit in this one fails at delivering all that and instead opts for a more cutesy style that is needlessly heavy with ornaments, especially with the braid bow and the tutu that make her look, imo, like a frail ballerina.

the ending is so weird, it ends like you picked the wrong choices and got the "bad end." like the first two games we gotta this bitter sweet wrap up with Bayo, like her jumping out of the coffin, or her talking to Loki as he varnish's. Where as the one in this game, Bayo and Luka die, Viola is crying, annd that's it. It's feels SO off.

Bayonetta is the game you play to feel good about destroying monsters large than life using a high fashion battle wear while dancing to banger songs with killer weapons attached on your shoes. I really don't know why they tried to push all this apocalyptic everybody dying thing.....

This is a very small nick pick but it's been bothering me... Why does Viola have a katana!? Bayonetta grew up in Vigrid, which is in Europe, and has a British accet. Luka comes off as if he was born and raised in the western hemisphere and is connected to fairies from the western variant, as there mentions of the Avalon Forest and Queen Mabe, who are from folklore from the UK, and Viola has fairies powers. So why doesn't she have like an broad sword or like Excalibur!?

I remember when the game wasn’t released yet I was so excited BECAUSE of how exciting she is, I was so excited to have another upbeat silly game to play. But with how melancholy this story is it feels really weird playing it

also just, viola is just, so lack luster and to insinuate she deserves to take over the mantle of bayonetta is frankly an insult to not just the fans but to bayonetta herself, I like the family dynamic that they were going for with her but making her basically the real main character by the end of it is just so fucking insulting to bayo

At the beginning, I did think singularity was the consequence of the disappearance of the eyes of the world and I really wanted it because it was a good follow up from past games... But oh well...

Thoughts I had about the game multiverse, etc. 1. The prologue did not give us any context regarding what Singularity is or what is happening to the world. The first game introduced the two European clans: the Lumen Sages and the Umbra Witches, overseers of history. The prologue [in Bayonetta 2] told us about Asier and the Eyes of the World. The third game gave random information about Viola's father. Viola should still be the narrator but have her talk about the Humuculi instead. 2. The game did not address the consequences of Bayonetta 2's ending. With the eyes of the world gone, how is humanity affected? Perhaps the lack of eyes caused Singularity to become self-aware. I am unsure whether the game directly addresses Singularity's origin. 3. In the 1st game, we are shown and told that the Lumen Stages and Umbra Witches settled in Europe. Perhaps in the other timelines, they settled in different locations (Toyko, Ancient China, Egypt, France, etc.). That would explain the differences between realms. 3. The witch hunts seem like a fixed event; they will happen no matter what. Since there is a Bayonetta in every world, that means Balder and Rosa will always conceive a child, which eventually triggers clan wars and witch hunts. 4. The angels were oddly quiet during the events of the game. Perhaps they are up to something? 5. I doubt we'll see the end of Bayonetta. She was sent down to Inferno with Luka, who has his fae powers. Additionally, I believe Madama Butterfly is guarding Bayonetta's soul. So in Bayonetta 4, Viola will have to rescue Bayonetta, Luka, and Jeanne (her soul is probably there given the fate of all Umbra Witches), similar to Bayonetta 2.

I was extremely disappointed! I was so excited about the plot and the 3 moons. This should’ve been a game where they added the plots from 1 and 2 with 3 dealing with singularity. I feel I love with 1 and 2s story was an amazing sequel. They tried to garner enough attention to keep the series alive. But they killed her too soon. So disappointed with platinum games!

Viola should have been the one to finish off Singularity

Problems i have with bayo 3: 1: She is literally watching herself die, the egyptian level can be excused since was uncouncious but the rest, there is no reason why in bayo 1 and 2 they are reacting faster then the speed of sound but in bayo 3 she just sits there and watches herslf get killed. 2: Inconsistency, this basically my beef with her divine sin summon in the egyptian level, how the heck was she able to keep concious ontop of queen butterfly in the ancient china zone but blacks out in the desert level, that ticked me off so bad. 3: The way they just nerfed jeanne should be a crime. It says shes on the same level as bayonetta but thats a clearly a lie if she got blind sighted by a freaking crazy scientist, if you want to debunk this look in bayo 1, her and bayo literally threw lighting fast punches but yet they kept getting caught off gaurd its so stupid. 4: I literally hated that ending, if your gonna kill the protagonist could you atleast end on a NOT so crappy death scene? If i could i would erase the whole bayo x luka kiss scene and make it to where jeanne survived to fight singularity so they can BOTH go out with a bang like they shoudl have, it felt jeanne just got pushed to the side. 5: Just a small detail but why does the game feel so cencored?? Literally bayonetta in this 3rd game is the ONLY ONE WHO LOSES HER CLOTHS WHEN SHE SUMMONS DEMONS, even when you have bayo 1 and bayo 2 costumes ther hair doesnt come off it feels so cencored and it sucks really cause again in the last 2 games they didnt have this problem. 6: The whole bayo x luka thing i hated the most. And the fact that they have a child really bothers me, i love luka as a seperate character but him and bayo just....no an viola i dislike too mostly cause she has no hint that shes bayos child. Shes literally a copy and paste of luka and its really sad cause we could have gotten so much better In summary i really liked the concept of multi verse but it was just executed very poorly in my opinions

I enjoyed the game but I won’t lie, there were things about it that made me feel mixed. She’s supposed to fight angels but they’re a foot note in this. The main villain was just a dude who made homunculus. I like the idea of using alchemy and demonic/angelic magic to take man and turn them into monsters, I just wish they did more with it. This is reverse Dante’s Inferno with waifus, not Full Metal friggin Alchemist. Plus, is it just me, or did they tone down the sex appeal on this one. The first, you can tie up busty angels. The second begins with bayonneta bouncing on a horse angel with the cam zoomed right on her cake. Here…I’m getting milf energy and that’s fine but I want dommy energy not, PTA mom energy. But then you get to something like Baal singing and it shows me the magic is still there just, layered under a lot of…strange.

Someone please send this to the director of the game cause this right here hits home way to hard.

I'm still conflicted over Bayonetta 3...I like it, but that ending...her decisions etc. I feel like the ending is not really as sad as it seems, but just not communicated clearly enough. There is also a clear turning point in the story - the bit where Jeane introduces Singularity to Bayonetta before the ending - it's so obvious that Singularity is a bad guy (his mannerisms) I'm actually stunned they both fall for it. It is against character for them. This is a great video, you hit on many points. It's unnerving to see this character so easily defeated considering her capabilities. The first Bayonetta has a bit at the end where it could have been "R Type Final" depressing - she thinks jeane is dead after she defeats a literal GODDESS, and almost lets an asteroid hit her - then Jeane shows up, and it's happy again. That's an awesome ending. I dunno, I'm tired and can't think of much else. It's fun to play, but the plot does my head in.

You know, i remember the guy behind Bayonetta did say once he wanted to explore a Male Bayonetta, he had a chance to have a male Bayonetta in this game lol

As a queer non-binary afab, playing Bayo 1+2 makes me feel confident in myself as Bayonetta's existence is stigmatised in her world yet she's not ashamed of it. Playing Bayo 3 did not give me that feeling, the ending just felt like the first 2 games were just a "silly youngin' phase" bayo had, now she's a mother she's a model figure? She was a tutor figure to literally herself, Loki and Viola before she found out she was her daughter so Bayo being a mother doesn't make sense, she didn't want that lifestyle and would never go out with Luka. Idk man Bayo 3 confuses me ALOT.

The true bane of Bayonetta: The Plot. Because that was Singularity’s power in a nutshell: “Nu uh! That didn’t happen!” Joking aside, Thank you for wording out all of the grievances I had with Bayo 3. My idea for Masquerade for fights would be like an Umbran Climax where you had a resource that would grow and change depending on which demon you used the most before using it. Doing this incentivises the player to experiment with the Demon Slave mechanic. As for traversal, maybe just partial manifestations would have been nice. Like having Alura create vines to ride on but Bayo is still in bayo form. This would act like a teaser for how Alraune would be as a masquerade.

I love your version of the story, and it sounds close to what I initially expected given the game's official description talking about a "a veritable coven of Bayonettas". Honestly, I've seen so many different rewrites suggested by the fans that sounded much better than how things played out, I'm baffled PG went with what we actually got.

If you also want to see my reaction to the ending of Bayonetta 3, check this link!: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Dilu0cEvlDE.html

So it wasn't just me and my poor eyesight, she really was difficult to see in Bayonetta 3... This is a really good video!! I think it sheds light on a lot of the issues surrounding the newest installment, and it helps to put into words the reasons why Bayonetta 3 felt so askew from the rest of the franchise. P.G., take notes!

This reminds of a DBZ joke. Goku can blow up an entire universe and beat Gods, but if you "surprise him", he dies like a regular human. I guess Bayonetta is no different.

Can't remember if you mentioned this but let's not forget that viola showed up with NO plan ! She BEGGING bayo not to use the portals when they show up to Thule ! Like what was the reason??!??!

Viola essentially plays the same role as Nero in Devil May Cry 4. DMC4 generally has weak writing but when it comes to character is a masterpiece. Nero while also meant to act as a replacement for the main character (Dante) doesn’t really replace Dante. They both go through CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT throughout the game. Nero unlocks some of the power of his Sparda blood, grows closer to Kyrie, and exits with new found wisdom and a fellow Devil Hunter friend who sorta replaces the role Credo for Nero, as a master type figure. Dante discovers a new son of Sparda (Nero) which is huge for Dante as he exits his silent edgy DMC2 phase and becomes fun & cheesy. The last time Dante saw someone like him was on Mallet Island, his brother Vergil a husk of his former self, twisted & corrupted by demon king Mundus into the demon known as Nelo Angelo. Nero and Dante (and Vergil) are all expanded upon in DMC5, if Nero were to lead the Devil May Cry series I wouldn’t be all upset and pissed (as long as it’s executed correctly) because Nero is a likable and well defined character. Viola on the other hand just gets handed on a silver platter the role of Bayonetta. They can’t coexist, nope, there can only be one.

What bothers me is that a story like the one in Bayonetta 3 would work in a whole different game, it's just that this isn't the franchise for it. For me, the themes of this game parallel the themes of TLOU (Part 1, Part 2 tells its own different story). In Bayonetta, we could probably get away with most of what Bayonetta 3 does but at the climax Bayonetta would straighten her glasses, get serious and save the day. Not just give her all and get a hopefully maybe possibly draw between her and Sigurd. The idea that the world is going to hell, yet people still give it their all to survive and how every person has to make that choice fits for a game where the outlook of life is bleak. We have all the other Bayonetta's fighting like hell to their last breath to save their worlds, it leads to the idea of Young Cereza making the ultimate sacrifice for a "maybe". A chance of a better future for everyone else within Viola. That by itself is fine, if it was a standalone story where this is our first time meeting Bayonetta. A woman fighting with all she has and realizing that sometimes calamity is so strong that all we can do is entrust the next generation with the chance of a better tomorrow... but Bayonetta as a franchise has always been against that. Both Bayonetta 1 and 2 follow the themes of "forces greater than you ain't shit, you are what you make of yourself. Humanity will thrive whichever obstacle is thrown against it because that is its nature" when fighting both Jubileus and Aesir. In a series where we've been shown that Bayonetta's real super power isn't just her abilities (as in Bayonetta 1 we saw how Jeanne also had said abilities but wasn't able to defeat Bayonetta) it's the fact that even when she's fallen right into Balder's trap, she believes Luka may be dead, and everything is against her, she can still beat the shit out of the enemy, load her gun with a fucking lipstick and say "Don't fuck with a witch!" while being fucking badass when doing so.

Yo imagine when gomorrah try to kill bayo because she loses all her energy and madama butterfly slap him out of nowhere to protect bayo... That would've been more epic

I’m starting to feel like I’m the only person who genuinely enjoyed Bayonetta 3. After playing all three back to back, I feel like the flow into it was pretty clean. I actually liked viola because of Cheshire lol. The weakest part of the game was sadly Jeanne’s levels. Those ones felt like they should’ve been Viola’s leves and Jeanne should’ve had a different play style from Bayonetta and be the other playable witch.

Gotta say this right now. WE NEED A DIRECTOR’S CUT

For me, early speculation and theories ruined my experience with B3. I remember seeing the first teaser, getting hyped/scared/excited for that… Then the first trailer came out and heavily juxtaposed the teaser, with bright, cinematic, and colorful gameplay. I thought and hoped it was Brave Cereza and this image of a bright beautiful woman being faced with the darkest story yet stimulated me as a bayo veteran. Seeing the plot and development of this series has left a really bad taste in my mouth and while I’m grateful Bayonetta is popular and alive, I’m not proud of this latest game…

The ending left a sour taste in my mouth to the point where I got two other bayonetta games and started to imagine there is an alternate universe where cereza is still alive and beyenetta one and two games came after the third game.

the thumbnail alone literally made me click. it gave a good giggle 💀

It should’ve had GOOD and BAD endings. Similar to BotW where if you win/lose to the boss of each universe, that Bayonetta will/won’t appear during the final boss. Only in this case if you don’t have X number of Bayonetta’s, you get the bad ending, and vice versa for the good one. The main issue would be finding a reason the saved Bayonetta’s aren’t in cutscenes. You’d need some reason why they aren’t with you. Perhaps they get sent to save other universes and they’re the reason a handful of those apparitions appear during that fight. Something like that.

Bringing the astrail chain director to direct a bayonetta game was a mistake, I genuinely hope he retired from the franchise. Bayo 3 feels more like an astral chain sequel than a Bayonetta title, the tone, the story and everything feels like the complete opposite of what bayonetta is supposed to be. I bet Yusuke Hashimoto left during bayo 3's development because he couldn't stand what they were doing with the character and the world he cared so much about. Cerezita being the main character, travel the multiverse and see different possibiltiies for her and her loved ones and ending up meeting with the original bayonetta and both teaming up to defeat the main antagonist sounded like the most fun and interesting concept imaginable, the way they delivered the story was the complete opposite of that, it's like they tried their best to ruin the idea they had... and I mean... come one, not a single universe where balder won the custory and tought cereza lumen magic? No character interaction between other bayonetta, no nothing... Lame

I couldn’t bring myself to get past the 3 bayo encounter. I was unable to place my finger on it but I just kept feeling annoyed after every major battle, and you perfectly summarized why.

Bayo 1 OST is the best in terms of making battles feel like a happy dance, and its fly me to the moon rendition is a nice cherry on top.

The only issue with this multiverse plot I have is based on the name, Bayonetta. If we're supposed to believe that this is Brave Cereza then where did the name Bayonetta come from? B1's plot was that Jeanne sealed Cereza and when she woke up, she remembers the kid nickname Bayonetta and assumes that's her name. This would be confirmed in B2. However, Brave Cereza never went into the coma, yet Luka and Enzo both call Brave Cereza as Bayonetta. How do they know this nickname? I mean Jeanne never calls her that and she would be the only one (other than Bayo) who knows of this nickname. It would kinda be weird for Brave Cereza to just go and tell these two about that name, right?

While I enjoyed my time with this game on a surface level, I just don’t understand what the hell happened. There’s so much dissonance. Bayo 1 and 2 work as a beautiful complement to one another. I was hoping 3 would do the same, but instead it wanted to do everything it could and it felt so unfocused. In a perfect world, I wish this game was of the caliber that DMC5 was, especially since games of this genre are so few and far between. There’s so much missing in this game that at times it feels like it’s held together with duct tape and bubblegum.

EVERYTHING YOU JUST SAID! I couldnt have said it better myself. I also hate not being able to mix and match weapons like you could in 1 + 2, it makes me unmotivated to try new weapons

You hit the nail on the head with this one Whenever I try to explain it loyal Bayonetta fans come at me with same old argument " Bayonetta is not supposed to make sense " " that's just how Bayonetta is " Within Bayo's Universe some things won't make sense, but 3 took that to a whole nother level. I just wasn't satisfied by the end of it at all... It didn't seem real

Your take on how the story should have been makes me wanna play your version 1000 times more then the actual game. Great video! 👏👏👏

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO !!!! i couldn't put the words on why i felt so down the entirity of my playthrough. That nihilistic tone for the entire game is so not bayo, plus so many missed potential, as someone who kinda grew up with bayo the therm betrayed is really on point. i was so chocked at the end, i didn't moved for the entirity of this amazing ending music/dancing clip, where in previous games i would bop around and dances, i just stood there like i was paralyzed and could only say "that's it ...?!" my boyfriend even made fun of me by making happy and funny movement around because even though he never played a single bayo game he watched my entire playthrough and was pretty dissapointted from the strong female character i set him up for... god that ending was so awful it suppresses all my critical thinking and i just went griefing mode with no constructive thoughts about the game for entire month's until now Thank you sooo much again, love your vids king , take care ♥!!

Guys, we need to push Platinum to make Jeanne playable in story mode. They listened to us about Viola, so maybe they will again.

Does this game seem more censored than the first two games?

You went in!!! I love you video break downs! You have a unique nack for explaining the general experience that we all feel so eloquently and accurately! Please don’t stop and they need to make a dlc that fixes the game ending

I think Platinum Games Pulled an avenger's Infinity Wars/Endgame Move Because the Chaos Gears are the The Infinity Stones and all the Bayo deaths are like what happens In avenger's Endgame. But the worlds just got restored

I agree with you completely. The story, bland color palette, and the enemy's lacking personality made me not like replaying it as much as I did bayo 2.

That thumbnail is cursed but so right.

You hit the nail on the head with the whole “positive tone” thing. I’ve been searching for the right words to describe why Bayo 3 feels so off, and it’s because we have a sense of impending doom from the beginning, none of the positive, confident stuff

I know this was a while ago but it just feels like the story is: Bayonetta dies, Bayonetta dies, Bayonetta rips out her heart, Bayonetta dies, Bayonetta rips out her heart, Bayonetta dies, Bayonetta rips out her heart, Bayonetta dies, Bayonetta rips out her heart, Bayonetta dies, Bayonetta rips out her heart, Bayonetta dies, Bayonetta rips out her heart, Jeanne dies, Bayonetta dies.

I agree with 99% of what you said! I did like her demon transformations in combat though. I agree it's a bit of a shame to lose the flair of her losing her clothes, but I think the demon transformations were cooler. If only Platinum Games would hire someone so passionate about the Bayonetta series as yourself to be a consultant or something! 😂

what amazes me the most: the angels are no longer a thing, yet they are the biggest threat, and those gooey green things are a thing, although they are never mentioned in the two other games

I would've forgiven everything if we had gotten at least one super sexy guy bayonetta variant 🥵 lol

I very much agree with every single point that you have made. I find it incredibly amazing that even when they mess up so many aspects of the game, they still deliver a very fun and challenging experience. The game on its own is lots of fun. Honestly, I’ll probably by all the 9 bayonetta games lol

Honestly I been a Bayonetta fan boy since Bayonetta 1, I have always loved the story and gameplay of Bayonetta. I remember when Bayonetta 3 was first announced I was holding my breathe for it to come out for so long when I first saw it’s first teaser. I replayed Bayonetta 1 and 2 probably about 15 times before Bayonetta 3 and I loved the story most of all in Bayonetta. When Bayonetta 3 came out I was immediately confused honestly the main problems is just how it just doesn’t respect it’s core values. 1. Yea Bayonetta 3 brings in a child Bayonetta has to take care of through out the game in the form of Viola, okay, cool. Thing is viola is so damn annoying and honestly serves no purpose in the game I believe. Baby Cereza served to help Bayonetta remember, Luka served to help Bayonetta get to Jeanne, Viola…..helped her get killed??? Honestly viola could’ve been deleted and the game would’ve been the same except everyone is a lot less annoyed. 2. New enemies just because? These new enemies shouldn’t have been added. It makes no sense, Bayonetta 1 we went against angels because they served the Balder, okay. Bayonetta 2, now demons and angels because the imbalance of inferno and paradiso, okay cool. Bayonetta 3 Homunculi, an enemy we never seen before, know nothing about, came out of no where, WHY? Bayonetta to me was always about fighting heaven and hell and what not, so why bring a new enemy that was not even built up to out of no where? Just makes zero sense 3. Multiverses? Why? This was NEVER built up to? Like with something like multiverses you either gotta start off with it or build up to it which Bayonetta did neither of, just brought in a new enemy that was stronger than literal angels and demons and brought in mutilverses because why the hell not I guess? It’s such a out of the blue choice they did. It’s the third game why the hell they just randomly decide NOW is when they should bring Homunculi and multiverses to the mix like the hell? 4. JEANNE, my god do I feel bad for Jeanne, talk about a character that always gets the short end of the stick. Bayonetta 1 she played a major role, okay cool though she was under mind control we still loved her at the end. Bayonetta 2, she’s basically deleted from the entire game and shows up at the end like what the hell, and then in bayonetta 3 SHE DIES. It’s like they couldn’t find anything Better to do with her so they went with the “okay Ive had enough LETS JUST KILL HER” and make us do this sneaky side quests with her instead of expanding on the character. She was really a gold mine of possibilities they just ignored. 5. Luka, why out of all characters you give the character that has been human for two straight games, powers just because? It honestly felt like they did what they did to Jeanne but to Luka and said “idk what to do with this character let’s just give him powers.” Like what they did with Finn at the end of starwars. Luka being the goofy human that has a thing for Bayonetta was always funny and just charming about the character but then giving him powers out the blue was such a let down and just something that’s so different from the character it just leaves people scratching their heads. 6. The looks of the game is awful, compared to Bayonetta 2. Bayonetta 3 just looks awful, Bayonetta 2 was just so vibrant, fun, easy to look at while Bayonetta 3 seems like gloomy, dead, and overall unfun. It’s like they’re trying to stick a fun character around a gray atmosphere, it just looks off and swallows the character making her hard to looks at, keep a track on, and just cause the game to be unfun especially with this bad story. 7.the ending, Jesus Christ talk about a worse ending. It’s just horrible, she uses gamorrah who she has lost control on before and WOW just like in bayonetta 2, SHE LOST CONTROL OF IT?!?! Who would’ve guessed right???? Wowowowow and then it kills her. Like when did Bayonetta get so dumb? Oh and having it be Luka that can cause a blow to singularity but not the thousands of Bayonetta and not bayonetta 1&2? Bayonetta has killed gods before right? Oh yea she did but something made from humans she can’t all of a sudden, wow okay game. She gets dragged to hell too because her witch heart broke too like what? This is supposedly THE most powerful witch but she can’t control her own powers even though we went through two games of her controlling and learning her powers perfectly? 8. Viola, again. Why her taking over? This character served no better purpose than Bayonetta actually a worse purpose, why replace the main character with a character that’s just the complete opposite of Bayonetta? It makes no sense and I’m scared to see what she’ll make in a Bayonetta 4 because the character to me is just cringey as all hell. Honestly if I were to sum up Bayonetta it would be the TikTok sound, “LOOK AT HOW WE PROBABLY WERENT SUPPOSE TO DO THAT? But we did :)” that was my rant on how bad the story is from someone who use to have a deep love for the series.

As much as I loved the game, I admit I am disappointed with the lack of creativity and missed opportunities. I mean, it was an interesting idea of another universe where it was China or Egypt across the entire globe. they took over, and so now the whole Earth is like this, but it feels like we could have done even more. - What if Cereza was raised by her father instead of her mother and became a Lumen Sage, and attacked our Cereza when she entered that universe because it became her duty to wipe out the Umbran? - Jeanne is secretly a superhero when no one is looking. What if we entered a universe where superheroes were more common and they attack our Cereza because the Cereza of this universe is a major anti-villain. - If Luka is a Lumen Sage in one universe, does that mean the Cereza of this world is a human who chases Luka to prove his existence? a reverse of the roles. - What if the war between the Lumens and Umbran never happened and Cereza, Rosa and Baldur are all together? - What if Rosa had a son instead of a daughter and he came the first male Umbran? he was born with his father's white hair, but his mother's demonic powers. he dawns a red jacket and a large sword in his adult life. he known to be a chill dude. he loves pizza and starts a business of wiping out monsters. the Jeanne of this universe is also male, wearing a blue jacket and wielding a samurai sword. It just feels like alot more could have been done. but that's just my opinion.

I think the demon masquerade forms would be much stronger visually if they kept her glasses on, just changing them slightly to fit with each aesthetic. I saw someone bring up this same point when comparing to devil trigger and how the characters still look like themselves by keeping certain aspects.

Yeah, you’re right. I don’t like how Demon Slave is the main focus. Without them, the game feel like it takes too long. We do know how much strong Umbra Witches are considering they have to defeat the demons they want to form a pact with.

Anyone notice that even the dancing wasn’t good in this game? I also noticed less nudity in this game and just less overall charisma. What makes me like Bayonetta 1 and 2 is that she cares for others but is like a bad bitch at the same time. This game idk was just not fun to watch her attempt to be cool. She never really spoke to any of the other variants like what? She obviously would help out herself but she always just sat there and watch. Sorry this is just a jumble of words. I also don’t care for Viola at all. She’s just not charismatic like bayonetta, she’s not cool like her. Bayonetta has just that IT thing that makes her different. Viola does not really stand out. She’s not unique.

Well I'd like to think Madame butterfly has her locked away somewhere as she was the main contract. Maybe even queen Shiba

One thing about this game I haven't heard mentioned yet - it's kind of small, but these small things add up - is how they completely fucked up the currency exchange in this game. Those blue orbs you collect are so abundant, just scattered randomly everywhere, so there's basically no feeling of reward when you get them from enemies, as there was in 1 and 2. You barely even have a reason to go to Gates of Hell to spend them in the first place. Lollipop ingredients are EVERYWHERE. I remember actually grinding to get ingredients in the first game so I could save my halos for new moves. It was slightly annoying, but it added to my engagement. And then moves aren't even available at GoH anymore, replaced by the branching moveset screen which, while a cool concept, honestly felt way too overwhelming for me. So, basically, you're left not even wanting to collect the 'prizes' you're awarded from defeating enemies, unless you just want to collect useless junk. It just adds onto the "what's the point of even playing" feeling you talked about.

I think it would be kool if they had a different bayo be the main villain like idk in the intro the one we see die could have been a fake out or something instead of some random dude we try to save turn out to be the main bad guy like what if it was the bayo we saw in bayonetta 2 the one that show up when the mom died who turn out to be the bad guy like she snap or something and idk use the eye power thing then year later she started taking the power of bayo from different timelines

It is a MASSIVELY WASTED OPPORTUNITY when all 3 Bayonetta we know did not come together to summon the Ultimate Chaos Queen Sheba or QUEEN BUTTERFLY. BUT NO, SHE SUMMONED GOMORRHA??????????

The ending was so dissapointing you cant tell me shes weaker than singularity when shes straight up axed gods

I just feel like Bayonetta becoming a mother just goes against everything about her, don’t get me wrong she’s very motherly but she would never settle down to have a child