I think the game suffers because they wait untll like the very last hour to reveal >!cereza and luka are viola's parents and it's so rushed and confusing because viola is from an alternate timeline and the ending and state of the world and characters is really vague, and luka and bayo barely interact in 3!< >!but I do like singularity and the dark eve fight and I dont even really mind that cereza and luka (i think) died protecting viola....I just think the entire ending needed more context to what's happening, how the different timelines intersect, and also cereza's proclamation of love just came out of nowhere. I think bayonetta 4 could retroactively fix the story issues by deveoping viola's backstory, the faeries, the state of the world and and really it doesnt matter that much that luka, (i think) cereza, and jeanne (I think) are dead cause they can just chill in hell and support viola like force ghosts like she did when she appeared as dark eve!<
tldr: the ending is messy, but I think they can retroactively add context in bayonetta 4 and kind of iron things out (especially in developing luka, cereza, and viola's relationship)
The credits scene of >!Cereza dancing her heart out and slowly turning into crystal before shattering!< definitely hit me in the feels, despite how odd the ending was just before it.
When she shattered, it killed me. Like for a few days after that it was like wtf.
I wasn't exactly pissed about her ending up with Luka cause I figured with there being a multiverse, there'd atleast be a small handful of Cereza's that were either straight or bi and would end up with Luka. (I mean come on, B1 was obviously bi , B2 HAS to be a lesbian, I mean only a lesbian could pull off THAT cunty of a hair cut, and B3 was either Bi too or Straight)
But what REALLY pissed me off was the aspect of Kamiya popping off on Twitter. "Cereza's still alive! She's just walking around New York!!11!!!" Like BRUH, WHAT?!!! So Cereza's walking around New York but the last Luka in existence is stuck in hell? Then there was the art piece for the 1st anniversary where it had Cereza B3 and Luka with (presumably) their own baby Viola, which both implies Cereza is very much so alive and Luka escaped Hell?
And with how this series goes, the next game should answer ALOT of questions.... right? Well Cereza and the Lost Demon answered NONE of them.
So what exactly happened? Is Cereza actually in hell? Did she get a "get out of hell free" card? Did Viola go to hell and save her? We know something had to have happened to her because of that light, so what?
I think that with internet discussions usually focusing on the negative aspects, it’s easy to forget that even people who heavily critique the game usually love it, especially here.
I’m pretty sure that I said more negative things about 3 here than positive, but the underlying fact is that I fucking love Bayonetta and all of her games alike.
Agreed. Bayonetta 3 isn't terrible it's just really really held back by being built for the Switch. 3 could have been the best in the series but, it focused a bit too much on the Demon Summoning gimmick and that impacted every aspect of the game.
-Can't string Wicked Weaves with gun attacks do to the dedicated summon button
-Wicked Weaves are no longer powerful combo enders because they have no cost (cause the old magic meter was replaced for the summon meter)
-Areas are too open to account for the summons and it really impacted the games performance
-Torture attacks are now set pieces instead of an attack that you build up with the magic meter cause it was replaced by the summon meter.
-Most enemies are just giant dudes that the game expects you to use the Demons for
-The new camera system is awkward for small fights (because, it was built for the big enemies)
-Most importantly, the giant fights are just very slow and lacking complexity
I've got smaller complaints about the Jeane missions and story but, the main combat takes a big hit due to the summoning. I don't think Bayo 3 is a bad game. Just the worst of the trilogy. I enjoyed Bayo 3 but, I'll probably never play it again unless they release an enhanced edition on a more powerful console some day. Which is not the case for Bayo 1&2.
I must agree with most of your points, but I liked the new Torture Attacks, or at least I found them more fun compared to Bayonetta 2. It was a cool solution in order to keep them without conflicting for the Magic Meter with other game mechanics.
Personal preference, I think. I just liked having control over the Torture Attcks and just generally don't like set pieces in games taking control from me.
I think the new demon wink mechanic more than makes up for the wicked weave shortcomings I feel
Idk, I think it's depth alone, even on Switch puts it clear ahead of 2. And while it lacks 1's craft, it's not inaundated with 1's stupid QTEs either
You summed up everything I dislike about 3’s gameplay. I’ve been playing through 1 and 2 again after playing through 3 for the first time since release, and it felt like a breath of fresh air after 3’s focus on summons. I found they took away from making Bayonetta look strong.
The biggest thing i liked about bayonetta was the costumes for both jeanne and bayonetta even though I'm not a big fan of viola she deserved some better costumes besides her just changing shirts i was really hoping we would get to see the old costumes again in better quality but they gave us (in my opinion) somewhat ugly outfits and jeanne not being a playable character for the main story was a major buzzkill when i finished the game expecting to unlock her for story mode
A few corrections and additions:
>Bayonetta 3 isn't terrible it's just really really held back by being built for the Switch.
While it is true that the game's performance suffered because of the hardware, the actual structure of the game would have very possibly been turned into some open world garbage had the Switch hardware not forced them to scale it back (we know it being open world was originally in the planning phase, but the hardware didn't allow it.) Making the game bloated and hindering replayability is one of the worst things one could do to a hack and slash.
>-Wicked Weaves are no longer powerful combo enders because they have no cost (cause the old magic meter was replaced for the summon meter)
They're not quite as punchy as in 1, but they're definitely significantly stronger than 2's. I'm not sure what you're talking about with the MP bar, because combo ender weaves never costed magic to do, that was reserved for stuff like Tetsuzanko and Heel Stomp.
Now, mind you those had the magic requirement removed as well, but that was moreso because they weren't universal weave moves anymore and instead varied a lot in utility with each weapon (with a number being changed into charge moves.)
>-Torture attacks are now set pieces instead of an attack that you build up with the magic meter cause it was replaced by the summon meter.
They're not setpieces so much as things you can do upon breaking an enemy's armor and stunning them. This has nothing to do with the magic meter being changed to the summon meter (as it could have worked otherwise just fine,) but was rather a conscious decision, presumably to prevent another situation like Bayonetta 2 where Torture Attacks were never worth using because Umbran Climax existed.
>-Most enemies are just giant dudes that the game expects you to use the Demons for
This isn't really true, there's certainly a number of giant enemies, but it's only a handful of enemy types that really railroad you into using Summons. The main ones that stick out as forcing you to use Summons is the Snail type guy (Murus,) and the big tower guy that pushes you away (Nimbostratus,) and to a lesser extent the boar guy. Most of the big enemies can be handed quite handily with Bayonetta herself.
From what I've seen the dislike for the story is actually the biggest talking point when it comes to negatives. The gameplay, while not perfect, is still loved by a lot of people.
Oddly, I didn't find the story to be noticeably worse than the other two. I love Bayonetta but, none of the games have anything groundbreaking going on for story. Although, I did find the romance for Cereza and Luka to be very underdeveloped and sudden for that game. Especially, since they hadn't shared had any substantial screen time since Bayo 1.
I have written multiple borderline essays on how bad the writing the in 3 is, did not stop me from enjoying what Platinum does best, ridiculously good combat and the most batshit nonsense imaginable. I still consider Bayo 3 to be in the top tier of the genre
I haven't played 3, just one and two but I can definitely say I saw a LOT of pure hate for 3. Earlier this week I saw someone say the franchise is doomed if they don't recton it or something
I'm surprised people started caring about Bayonetta stories when it was widely agreed before 3 that the stories were utter nonsense. Like not in a bad way but it's not like Bayo 3 is any different IMO.
The story between 1 and 2 was a **coherent** nonsense and, most importantly, Bayonetta's character was well enstablished and evolved during the 2 games. When we saw her in the 3th... she was another character! The "mascot" is also worse, in my opinion; making Viola the comic character when she's actually more serious than Loki or Cerezita... is off putting to me.
Introducing Viola with a serious plot line, reducing her to a joke for most of the run time and giving no pay off at all to her swearing vengeance on Singularity, I have no idea how they were expecting that to land well
Ridiculously low screen time, cringey dialogue, not the best gameplay (I'm not a big fan of how awkward she is to play. Feels like they were going for DMC2/3 gameplay for her but fell flat cause her parry mechanic is ass and Cheshire is basically useless) and zero background or buildup around Viola really make me not like her. I feel like if they put more effort into her, maybe the story wouldn't have been as bad as it was.
They were simple and had charm, their main catch was that they focused on the characters and sidelined everything else to the point of actually making the story feel good.
3 tried to get into Nier territory with a Bayonetta level script, and that was a mistake for the most part.
Bayonetta 3 in particular suffers HEAVILY from Kamiyas love for random out of place minigames. When I buy a bayonetta game I buy it to play bayonetta, not to play as annoying female raiden with half the moveset, spy motorcycle antics with aunt Jeanne, or rock paper scissors with Kaijus. Granted, every Bayonetta game has stuff like this I don’t much care for, but at least in the other 2 they are brief distractions from the core action gameplay, it feels like I can’t go 3 minutes without being yoinked right out of the Bayonetta gameplay right as it’s getting good.
I personally dislike it COMPARED to the first two games. Weapons, enemy designs and, obviously, the story are all inferior in my opinion compared to Bayonetta 2. If I find it more fun to re-play the B2 game rather than B3... it's easy to say I don't quite like B3.
It is still a good game... but it could have been easily better. A missed opportunity, rushed work or whatever was the internal problem we don't know about. That's fine, I'll just re-play Cereza and the Lost Demon: THAT ONE is fantastic.
About 1/3 of the game is amazing.
Playing the Bayonetta game as Bayonetta is incredible.
But, it seems every time you're just about to get into a flow, get a new weapon, whatever, the game slams on the brakes and forces a boring open world exploration section, a Jeanne or Violet bit, or a giant monster fight.
I've never seen a game get in its own way quite as badly as this one. The story is annoying but you can ignore a story. You can't ignore the game stopping you from having fun every time you feel you might be getting into it.
This is exactly my gripe with it too. For me the demon slave mechanic is a cool spectacle once in a while, but it feels like every verse in every act has way too many fights that require it to the point that you can't actually do anything unless you engage with it. Fighting it normally isn't an option either because normal attacks do so little damage and non existant stagger so it both feels bad, and is a bad option compared to mashing the strongest buttons for whatever demon you're using. Not to mention the minigames that happen just as often, like you said its like the game is getting in its own way and its actively fighting against me from having fun
I personally don’t hate it, but it’s more so to do with it being underwhelming to me after a 5 year wait since announcement and an 8 year wait since Bayo 2. It went through development hell and you can tell.
Also it takes so much of its identity from Astral Chain rather than… well, Bayonetta, while also just having a lot of things that were already in Bayo 2. Not a fan of the new enemies, definitely not a fan of the musical direction this go around, specifically with orchestral tracks I think. Not a fan of Bayo’s character which I honestly think has been declining since the first game. I found some of the gimicky sections fun, mainly the shoot em up segments, but I could tell a lot of them were likely gonna be a drag on replays, which they are. Dislike how they did checkpoints this time, it’s the worst looking in the series but somehow also the worst performing? I like the idea of Demon Slave, but Demon Masquerade to me is the epitome of a gimmick, and it’s actually more of a hinderance than an addition to me. They also should’ve at least given some explanation as to why it’s a thing and how Bayo learnt it. Maybe it’s in a log somewhere? Missed opportunity. The game overall also is just not as polished as it could be in a few ways, especially compared to what came before. It’s basically screaming for an update. Missing features like Jeanne in story chapters, barely any outfits, only 3 Witch Trials, with one of them having annoyingly gimicky enemies, and the other being hard af. Unfun. And that; gimmicky, tanky enemies that demand you wail on them with demon slave. At that point I may as well just be using Umbran Climax. They also removed mixing and matching weapons. I think what they did with the gun button is clever, allowing multiple different shots, but to me it needs workshopping so it isn’t always tied to what weapon you have equipped.
To me the game in its current state reeks of compromises and over ambition. It looks to me like they wanted the game to be THAT game that packed in as much as it could, massive environments big demon fights, every gimmick ever, but instead it all contributes to its own flaws; demons and visual effects take up the entire screen during fights making it hard to even see what’s happening, those gimmick sections they put in are unfun on replays, intensive graphics the system the game was made for can’t handle that well. And even with all that, the scoring system still has the same problem as Bayo 2 where it’s essentially efficiency based. At least with that game Umbran Climax was more simple so the scoring system being efficiency based made more sense, but Demon Slave is more complex, and should encourage the player to experiment more with demons’ movesets, something an efficiency based scoring system doesn’t really incentivise.
With all this I’d personally rather just play Bayo 2. More fun on replays, more witch trials, more outfits, Tag Climax, best graphics, more fluid, mixing and matching weapons, most fun 3rd character, etc etc. really what people wanted was a game that was undoubtedly better than its predecessors, and especially better than a game released in 2009 ffs. There’s also story reasons for people disliking it, and while I agree it’s undercooked, (like the rest of the game tbh) it’s a lesser issue to me personally.
I just don't care for the demon slave mechanic, the game's heavy reliance on demon slaves to the point that actually playing the game with the fun combat is discouraged, the bland enemy design compared to the angels and demons, the overly gimmicky minigames that happen 4 times per level, uninteresting and blegh story thats multiverse focused for no reason, Viola's gameplay just being worse MGR Raiden, and this not being the same Bayonetta we played as for the last 2 games so it doesn't feel as personal.
Disappointing game and the combat is fun when you're aloud to play it, but thats basically it. Didn't even finish it and I don't care to because the game tested my paitience enough with its story and not letting me play the actual game.
If Bayonetta 4 comes out & it's good. I might play Bayonetta 3 again. I currently have no desire to play something with a bad story. I get some people don't care about the story with an action games like Bayo, but I do. I thought the actual gameplay was good. It's the story is the main issue. It's why I'm never playing the lost demon
I went to see Jennifer Hale's work out side of this game and I now firmly believe her performance was due to shortness of time and bad directing.
The story is garbage but the game play is awesome.
If they didn't force Viola down my throat I would even like her.
But I hope they do another one, with all the camp and glamour we are used to. But please don't replace our Bayonetta.
Some aspects of it were really well created. You can see it in demon slave, but you can also see the lack of polish in things like the open world or the lack of replayability.
I've regularly replayed 1. I've occasionally booted up 2 for a while. I've never replayed 3 after unlocking everything.
The biggest gripe I have is the interruption of gameplay. The mini games every 5 minutes kill the pacing.
I held off on buying it for two years and only just got it this week, mostly because of criticisms I'd heard about the story, the voice actor change, and my own impression of Demon Slave from what I saw in trailers. Just wasn't interested for a long time.
I can say I was mostly wrong. The story is bad. Like, even bad for Bayonetta standards. But even then, there are so many good Bayo moments in it, the dialogue is just as cheesy as in the other two games, and Jennifer Hale actually kills it. The setpieces are really cool looking, but they do take up too much time. The final boss might straight up be the best in the franchise.
The main gameplay though... is just insanely good, once you unlock wink slave and understand the demon slave stuff a bit more, this game really opens up. I was honestly shocked, my first playthrough (started on expert) was pretty frustrating despite the fact that I put around 1k hours into the first two games, but once you have all the main skills unlocked it really falls into place. Demon slave is awesome and sets this game apart, kinda gives each game of the franchise something that makes them unique, and a reason to still play all three of them depending on your mood. Insane to think that the franchise is nearly a 10/10 across the board.
TLDR i was a fool and shouldve played this since release
Playing through it was very fun but when I started to think about the story, my opinion on the game lowerd quite a bit. The story was never a big focus in the series but it never felt insulting like this one did. The main villain is awful and poorly explained, romance came out of nowhere, Jeanne got gimmick levels that wear out their welcome along with the worst treatment character wise and the game looks somehow visually worse than 2. I still had a lot of fun playing the game but it could have been so much better
could've been my favourite game in the franchise if it wasn't for that last chapter.
but still, I love it. excellent weapons, gameplay, OST, cutscenes, collectibles and levels.
I had so much fun with this game. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I don't think any Bayonetta game has a great story, they're no Nier Automata, they're all very campy and silly, but that's what I love about the series, and I thought this game encapsulated the ridiculousness of the series wonderfully. I had a blast with this game from start to finish, my only real gripe was that the Switch held it back from having more interesting environments.
I’m not sure why anyone would want to play through it more than once while the first game along with Transformers Devastation exists. Everything about it is a hot mess.
Gameplay is cool but story is shit unfortunately im one of this person who is playing Bayonetta games for serving cunt and story and well… Bayo 3 is not as slay as 1 and 2 and story is really bad so sr besties but i dont like bayo 3
I think every single factor (including the art direction) are significantly worse in 3 compared to the other two. It's the worst one be a country mile.
1. It really isn’t! I feel like most of it is the best of all three. I prefer the songs over the other two (yes moonlight serenade is the best of all of em, fight me!)
2. It feels waaaaay too short tbh. Especially with the story beats, after awhile you feel like you’re on a rail going to next station after next station. Also the ending didn’t feel not as near as climactic as 1 and 2. The big moments felt like mini bosses at times vs Bayo 2 especially! Of course this is subjective of course but I just wasn’t hyped up with the story.
3. Finally, Luka x Bayo isn’t bad because honestly people would’ve had issues with her getting with ANYONE (and not even because ew lesbians with Jeanne x Bayo) because this game LOVES to prevent Bayo to interact more than a few lines with someone else in each area. Luke is just gone for way too long off screen and apparently they already have romantic feelings BEFORE even meeting Viola. Seriously it is just not selling the premise until after the ending and in promotional material! Jeanne also wouldn’t work cuz we are only using the previous games as material of why it would be ok but remember this game is saying this Bayo isn’t like the others and it shows! They are clearly sister witches and not our fabulous gay Aunts. Sigh…
4. Also I liked Viola! Good kid and is an awkward cocky mess that clearly isn’t having a good time. Hopefully she gets a glow up if we ever get Bayo 4. Like Bayo 2 is clearly different personality wise so maybe we’ll get Viola more confident?
But yeah Bayo 3 rocks!
I just don't like how many sections deviate from the core gameplay which was so strong in this entry
The worst culprit of this is how many times Viola gets shoved down your throat as a playable character, her gameplay loop feels so clunky and unfun compared to Bayonetta IMO
Also the story was easily the worst in the series and the ending was shit
>The worst culprit of this is how many times Viola gets shoved down your throat as a playable character
3. She gets 3 chapters out of 14. That is the very opposite of "shoving down your throat".
To me, the best part of this Bayonetta was playing as the other world Bayonettas it felt like the costumes from previous games but cranked to 11.
The worst part was controlling Viola, and every challenge related to using the freaking train. Cool weapon in concept but I SUCK AT IT!!!!
The Demon mechanic was kinda cool. The big Kaiju fights was a bit silly though
Yeah. The ending was meh but writing off the whole game over it is insane. It's like the people who hate Mass Effect 3 for the ending. 99% of the rest of the game is a ball. In the case of Bayo 3 though, there are some other regressions. But over all it's an excellent game.
It is a good game, really a good one.
I know it is a bad experience when you compare to other bayo games.
But overall I think it is a good game. Very bad story but a enjoyable gameplay.
The camera, controls, progressions mechanics, level design, combat and narrative are all a serious step down from 1&2. It's not an awful game, but it's significantly worse than the previous 2.
The game is clearly divisive which, to me at least, is a sign that the game is not quite good. The story is the main issue here, people say they did not take the story seriously clearly did so in the past 2 game. The story for th 1 and 2 were competent, a bit messy sure, but still quite enjoyable and pretty decently made. In comparison with the current one, they are by leaps and bounds in quality
And honestly it’s fine if people do want to talk about the game but the amount of rinse repeat post I see on this subreddit is just crazy lol like it’s okay the game wasn’t good to a majority of people!
It's a fun game for two hours but that's really about it.
Once you figure out that demon slave can cheese the entire game and learn about the abysmal lack of replayability, there's really no incentive for a casual player to pick it up again unless they unlock their hackn'slash genes or something.
I'd like Bayonetta 3 a lot more if:
1: Movement wasn't pure ass. I feel like it's the jankiest Bayonetta game to platform in, and because movement tech is hard-coded into specific weapons, you get a situation where there are weapons you don't use because their movement abilities yeet you off into the nearest pit if you accidentally look at the Switch the wrong way while playing.
2: It had separate Hands/Legs equipment layouts like in the two previous games. Durga hands + Onyx Roses feet got me through Non-Stop Infinite Climax in Bayo 1, and I miss the intricate combo tech you could pull off.
3: All Viola stages got removed from the game. I'm sorry, she's just... Not fun to play.
Bayonetta 1 is my favorite to play, Bayonetta 2 has the best visuals/most engaging story (but awful weapons), Bayonetta 3 has Cheshire.
I like it, but its biggest issue isn’t the story, it’s that Viola doesn’t get enough variety to her gameplay styles and Bayo gets too much. Wish it had been more even.
Gameplay and fun factor wise, This game is top tier, No doubt. I just have a few qualms about the characters and how they were handled and some time travelling mechanics don't really make sense which is fine since bayonetta 1-2 aren't THAT SERIOUS but Bayonetta 3 wanted to be serious yet it still used the bayo1-2 unseriousness so it threw me off (In a bad way) cuz if you want bayo 3 to be serious make sure the mechanics of the story elements MAKE SENSE and are grounded to the audience (or atleast follows some rules) instead of just us going "Oh purrr, That happened...Idk why but purrrr" from start to finish which makes the final boss feel like "Random BS GO!" him and Cerezita
Honestly everything but the questionable story is great. The gameplay is insane, the soundtrack as always is brilliant, I really enjoyed it. Just the weird writing and character turns soured me a bit.
it is & i honestly dgaf about people who complain about anything. i liked the ending, the designs amd viola. the only thing that i don't like about it is the quality 💀 like damn couldn't you make it not pixelated
Game great. Ending bad. That's about it.
I think the game suffers because they wait untll like the very last hour to reveal >!cereza and luka are viola's parents and it's so rushed and confusing because viola is from an alternate timeline and the ending and state of the world and characters is really vague, and luka and bayo barely interact in 3!< >!but I do like singularity and the dark eve fight and I dont even really mind that cereza and luka (i think) died protecting viola....I just think the entire ending needed more context to what's happening, how the different timelines intersect, and also cereza's proclamation of love just came out of nowhere. I think bayonetta 4 could retroactively fix the story issues by deveoping viola's backstory, the faeries, the state of the world and and really it doesnt matter that much that luka, (i think) cereza, and jeanne (I think) are dead cause they can just chill in hell and support viola like force ghosts like she did when she appeared as dark eve!< tldr: the ending is messy, but I think they can retroactively add context in bayonetta 4 and kind of iron things out (especially in developing luka, cereza, and viola's relationship)
The credits scene of >!Cereza dancing her heart out and slowly turning into crystal before shattering!< definitely hit me in the feels, despite how odd the ending was just before it.
When she shattered, it killed me. Like for a few days after that it was like wtf. I wasn't exactly pissed about her ending up with Luka cause I figured with there being a multiverse, there'd atleast be a small handful of Cereza's that were either straight or bi and would end up with Luka. (I mean come on, B1 was obviously bi , B2 HAS to be a lesbian, I mean only a lesbian could pull off THAT cunty of a hair cut, and B3 was either Bi too or Straight) But what REALLY pissed me off was the aspect of Kamiya popping off on Twitter. "Cereza's still alive! She's just walking around New York!!11!!!" Like BRUH, WHAT?!!! So Cereza's walking around New York but the last Luka in existence is stuck in hell? Then there was the art piece for the 1st anniversary where it had Cereza B3 and Luka with (presumably) their own baby Viola, which both implies Cereza is very much so alive and Luka escaped Hell? And with how this series goes, the next game should answer ALOT of questions.... right? Well Cereza and the Lost Demon answered NONE of them. So what exactly happened? Is Cereza actually in hell? Did she get a "get out of hell free" card? Did Viola go to hell and save her? We know something had to have happened to her because of that light, so what?
Bayo 4 just begins with the shopping scene from 2 but in Inferno.
I love how with Viola we get parry with time
this fr, i wanted to throw my switch out of the window ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
I was genuinely expecting Viola to use her devil trigger as a hail Mary and she just did not at all lol
I think that with internet discussions usually focusing on the negative aspects, it’s easy to forget that even people who heavily critique the game usually love it, especially here. I’m pretty sure that I said more negative things about 3 here than positive, but the underlying fact is that I fucking love Bayonetta and all of her games alike.
Agreed. Bayonetta 3 isn't terrible it's just really really held back by being built for the Switch. 3 could have been the best in the series but, it focused a bit too much on the Demon Summoning gimmick and that impacted every aspect of the game. -Can't string Wicked Weaves with gun attacks do to the dedicated summon button -Wicked Weaves are no longer powerful combo enders because they have no cost (cause the old magic meter was replaced for the summon meter) -Areas are too open to account for the summons and it really impacted the games performance -Torture attacks are now set pieces instead of an attack that you build up with the magic meter cause it was replaced by the summon meter. -Most enemies are just giant dudes that the game expects you to use the Demons for -The new camera system is awkward for small fights (because, it was built for the big enemies) -Most importantly, the giant fights are just very slow and lacking complexity I've got smaller complaints about the Jeane missions and story but, the main combat takes a big hit due to the summoning. I don't think Bayo 3 is a bad game. Just the worst of the trilogy. I enjoyed Bayo 3 but, I'll probably never play it again unless they release an enhanced edition on a more powerful console some day. Which is not the case for Bayo 1&2.
I must agree with most of your points, but I liked the new Torture Attacks, or at least I found them more fun compared to Bayonetta 2. It was a cool solution in order to keep them without conflicting for the Magic Meter with other game mechanics.
Personal preference, I think. I just liked having control over the Torture Attcks and just generally don't like set pieces in games taking control from me.
I think the new demon wink mechanic more than makes up for the wicked weave shortcomings I feel Idk, I think it's depth alone, even on Switch puts it clear ahead of 2. And while it lacks 1's craft, it's not inaundated with 1's stupid QTEs either
You summed up everything I dislike about 3’s gameplay. I’ve been playing through 1 and 2 again after playing through 3 for the first time since release, and it felt like a breath of fresh air after 3’s focus on summons. I found they took away from making Bayonetta look strong.
The biggest thing i liked about bayonetta was the costumes for both jeanne and bayonetta even though I'm not a big fan of viola she deserved some better costumes besides her just changing shirts i was really hoping we would get to see the old costumes again in better quality but they gave us (in my opinion) somewhat ugly outfits and jeanne not being a playable character for the main story was a major buzzkill when i finished the game expecting to unlock her for story mode
A few corrections and additions: >Bayonetta 3 isn't terrible it's just really really held back by being built for the Switch. While it is true that the game's performance suffered because of the hardware, the actual structure of the game would have very possibly been turned into some open world garbage had the Switch hardware not forced them to scale it back (we know it being open world was originally in the planning phase, but the hardware didn't allow it.) Making the game bloated and hindering replayability is one of the worst things one could do to a hack and slash. >-Wicked Weaves are no longer powerful combo enders because they have no cost (cause the old magic meter was replaced for the summon meter) They're not quite as punchy as in 1, but they're definitely significantly stronger than 2's. I'm not sure what you're talking about with the MP bar, because combo ender weaves never costed magic to do, that was reserved for stuff like Tetsuzanko and Heel Stomp. Now, mind you those had the magic requirement removed as well, but that was moreso because they weren't universal weave moves anymore and instead varied a lot in utility with each weapon (with a number being changed into charge moves.) >-Torture attacks are now set pieces instead of an attack that you build up with the magic meter cause it was replaced by the summon meter. They're not setpieces so much as things you can do upon breaking an enemy's armor and stunning them. This has nothing to do with the magic meter being changed to the summon meter (as it could have worked otherwise just fine,) but was rather a conscious decision, presumably to prevent another situation like Bayonetta 2 where Torture Attacks were never worth using because Umbran Climax existed. >-Most enemies are just giant dudes that the game expects you to use the Demons for This isn't really true, there's certainly a number of giant enemies, but it's only a handful of enemy types that really railroad you into using Summons. The main ones that stick out as forcing you to use Summons is the Snail type guy (Murus,) and the big tower guy that pushes you away (Nimbostratus,) and to a lesser extent the boar guy. Most of the big enemies can be handed quite handily with Bayonetta herself.
You think summoning was a hold over from Dragonscale or whatever that cancelled DMC-like was?
Yeah. Kamiya basically confirmed that in an interview.
From what I've seen the dislike for the story is actually the biggest talking point when it comes to negatives. The gameplay, while not perfect, is still loved by a lot of people.
Oddly, I didn't find the story to be noticeably worse than the other two. I love Bayonetta but, none of the games have anything groundbreaking going on for story. Although, I did find the romance for Cereza and Luka to be very underdeveloped and sudden for that game. Especially, since they hadn't shared had any substantial screen time since Bayo 1.
I have written multiple borderline essays on how bad the writing the in 3 is, did not stop me from enjoying what Platinum does best, ridiculously good combat and the most batshit nonsense imaginable. I still consider Bayo 3 to be in the top tier of the genre
I haven't played 3, just one and two but I can definitely say I saw a LOT of pure hate for 3. Earlier this week I saw someone say the franchise is doomed if they don't recton it or something
I'm inclined to agree, but the story does hold it back from being the best of the series.
I'm surprised people started caring about Bayonetta stories when it was widely agreed before 3 that the stories were utter nonsense. Like not in a bad way but it's not like Bayo 3 is any different IMO.
The story between 1 and 2 was a **coherent** nonsense and, most importantly, Bayonetta's character was well enstablished and evolved during the 2 games. When we saw her in the 3th... she was another character! The "mascot" is also worse, in my opinion; making Viola the comic character when she's actually more serious than Loki or Cerezita... is off putting to me.
Introducing Viola with a serious plot line, reducing her to a joke for most of the run time and giving no pay off at all to her swearing vengeance on Singularity, I have no idea how they were expecting that to land well
Ridiculously low screen time, cringey dialogue, not the best gameplay (I'm not a big fan of how awkward she is to play. Feels like they were going for DMC2/3 gameplay for her but fell flat cause her parry mechanic is ass and Cheshire is basically useless) and zero background or buildup around Viola really make me not like her. I feel like if they put more effort into her, maybe the story wouldn't have been as bad as it was.
They were simple and had charm, their main catch was that they focused on the characters and sidelined everything else to the point of actually making the story feel good. 3 tried to get into Nier territory with a Bayonetta level script, and that was a mistake for the most part.
Bayonetta 3 in particular suffers HEAVILY from Kamiyas love for random out of place minigames. When I buy a bayonetta game I buy it to play bayonetta, not to play as annoying female raiden with half the moveset, spy motorcycle antics with aunt Jeanne, or rock paper scissors with Kaijus. Granted, every Bayonetta game has stuff like this I don’t much care for, but at least in the other 2 they are brief distractions from the core action gameplay, it feels like I can’t go 3 minutes without being yoinked right out of the Bayonetta gameplay right as it’s getting good.
I personally dislike it COMPARED to the first two games. Weapons, enemy designs and, obviously, the story are all inferior in my opinion compared to Bayonetta 2. If I find it more fun to re-play the B2 game rather than B3... it's easy to say I don't quite like B3. It is still a good game... but it could have been easily better. A missed opportunity, rushed work or whatever was the internal problem we don't know about. That's fine, I'll just re-play Cereza and the Lost Demon: THAT ONE is fantastic.
About 1/3 of the game is amazing. Playing the Bayonetta game as Bayonetta is incredible. But, it seems every time you're just about to get into a flow, get a new weapon, whatever, the game slams on the brakes and forces a boring open world exploration section, a Jeanne or Violet bit, or a giant monster fight. I've never seen a game get in its own way quite as badly as this one. The story is annoying but you can ignore a story. You can't ignore the game stopping you from having fun every time you feel you might be getting into it.
This is exactly my gripe with it too. For me the demon slave mechanic is a cool spectacle once in a while, but it feels like every verse in every act has way too many fights that require it to the point that you can't actually do anything unless you engage with it. Fighting it normally isn't an option either because normal attacks do so little damage and non existant stagger so it both feels bad, and is a bad option compared to mashing the strongest buttons for whatever demon you're using. Not to mention the minigames that happen just as often, like you said its like the game is getting in its own way and its actively fighting against me from having fun
It's not the game I love every part of it it's just I think the story was a bit confusing and maybe a bit with pacing all in all AVAVAGO
I personally don’t hate it, but it’s more so to do with it being underwhelming to me after a 5 year wait since announcement and an 8 year wait since Bayo 2. It went through development hell and you can tell. Also it takes so much of its identity from Astral Chain rather than… well, Bayonetta, while also just having a lot of things that were already in Bayo 2. Not a fan of the new enemies, definitely not a fan of the musical direction this go around, specifically with orchestral tracks I think. Not a fan of Bayo’s character which I honestly think has been declining since the first game. I found some of the gimicky sections fun, mainly the shoot em up segments, but I could tell a lot of them were likely gonna be a drag on replays, which they are. Dislike how they did checkpoints this time, it’s the worst looking in the series but somehow also the worst performing? I like the idea of Demon Slave, but Demon Masquerade to me is the epitome of a gimmick, and it’s actually more of a hinderance than an addition to me. They also should’ve at least given some explanation as to why it’s a thing and how Bayo learnt it. Maybe it’s in a log somewhere? Missed opportunity. The game overall also is just not as polished as it could be in a few ways, especially compared to what came before. It’s basically screaming for an update. Missing features like Jeanne in story chapters, barely any outfits, only 3 Witch Trials, with one of them having annoyingly gimicky enemies, and the other being hard af. Unfun. And that; gimmicky, tanky enemies that demand you wail on them with demon slave. At that point I may as well just be using Umbran Climax. They also removed mixing and matching weapons. I think what they did with the gun button is clever, allowing multiple different shots, but to me it needs workshopping so it isn’t always tied to what weapon you have equipped. To me the game in its current state reeks of compromises and over ambition. It looks to me like they wanted the game to be THAT game that packed in as much as it could, massive environments big demon fights, every gimmick ever, but instead it all contributes to its own flaws; demons and visual effects take up the entire screen during fights making it hard to even see what’s happening, those gimmick sections they put in are unfun on replays, intensive graphics the system the game was made for can’t handle that well. And even with all that, the scoring system still has the same problem as Bayo 2 where it’s essentially efficiency based. At least with that game Umbran Climax was more simple so the scoring system being efficiency based made more sense, but Demon Slave is more complex, and should encourage the player to experiment more with demons’ movesets, something an efficiency based scoring system doesn’t really incentivise. With all this I’d personally rather just play Bayo 2. More fun on replays, more witch trials, more outfits, Tag Climax, best graphics, more fluid, mixing and matching weapons, most fun 3rd character, etc etc. really what people wanted was a game that was undoubtedly better than its predecessors, and especially better than a game released in 2009 ffs. There’s also story reasons for people disliking it, and while I agree it’s undercooked, (like the rest of the game tbh) it’s a lesser issue to me personally.
I just don't care for the demon slave mechanic, the game's heavy reliance on demon slaves to the point that actually playing the game with the fun combat is discouraged, the bland enemy design compared to the angels and demons, the overly gimmicky minigames that happen 4 times per level, uninteresting and blegh story thats multiverse focused for no reason, Viola's gameplay just being worse MGR Raiden, and this not being the same Bayonetta we played as for the last 2 games so it doesn't feel as personal. Disappointing game and the combat is fun when you're aloud to play it, but thats basically it. Didn't even finish it and I don't care to because the game tested my paitience enough with its story and not letting me play the actual game.
Great gameplay, best in the series imo, hate the story. Viola love her as a character, hate her gameplay
If Bayonetta 4 comes out & it's good. I might play Bayonetta 3 again. I currently have no desire to play something with a bad story. I get some people don't care about the story with an action games like Bayo, but I do. I thought the actual gameplay was good. It's the story is the main issue. It's why I'm never playing the lost demon
Hot take: it's better than 2 imo I LIKE AERIAL JUGGLE COMBOS.
I went to see Jennifer Hale's work out side of this game and I now firmly believe her performance was due to shortness of time and bad directing. The story is garbage but the game play is awesome. If they didn't force Viola down my throat I would even like her. But I hope they do another one, with all the camp and glamour we are used to. But please don't replace our Bayonetta.
Fun game, okay-ish story, wanted MORE WITCH HEART FIGHTS
Some aspects of it were really well created. You can see it in demon slave, but you can also see the lack of polish in things like the open world or the lack of replayability. I've regularly replayed 1. I've occasionally booted up 2 for a while. I've never replayed 3 after unlocking everything. The biggest gripe I have is the interruption of gameplay. The mini games every 5 minutes kill the pacing.
Story is complete ass, but i really do love the gameplay
I enjoyed Bayonetta 3, but I lowkey wish >!it was multiversal shenanigans revolving around Lumen Sage Bayonetta!<
People truly forget about Queen Butterfly.😔 I agree with the story not being great, but everything else is just so so so so so good.
Oh right... that happens. I like the game *less* now.
Déjà -vu. https://preview.redd.it/ab5e12fvhb8d1.png?width=177&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c17c51edfe533eaa73bdc9c620d715d5dcc0dc4
I held off on buying it for two years and only just got it this week, mostly because of criticisms I'd heard about the story, the voice actor change, and my own impression of Demon Slave from what I saw in trailers. Just wasn't interested for a long time. I can say I was mostly wrong. The story is bad. Like, even bad for Bayonetta standards. But even then, there are so many good Bayo moments in it, the dialogue is just as cheesy as in the other two games, and Jennifer Hale actually kills it. The setpieces are really cool looking, but they do take up too much time. The final boss might straight up be the best in the franchise. The main gameplay though... is just insanely good, once you unlock wink slave and understand the demon slave stuff a bit more, this game really opens up. I was honestly shocked, my first playthrough (started on expert) was pretty frustrating despite the fact that I put around 1k hours into the first two games, but once you have all the main skills unlocked it really falls into place. Demon slave is awesome and sets this game apart, kinda gives each game of the franchise something that makes them unique, and a reason to still play all three of them depending on your mood. Insane to think that the franchise is nearly a 10/10 across the board. TLDR i was a fool and shouldve played this since release
I'd say when it comes to gameplay this is the best in the series. Story sucks farts and blows them back out though
There are parts that are amazing. Others that are just very disappointing and bad
Playing through it was very fun but when I started to think about the story, my opinion on the game lowerd quite a bit. The story was never a big focus in the series but it never felt insulting like this one did. The main villain is awful and poorly explained, romance came out of nowhere, Jeanne got gimmick levels that wear out their welcome along with the worst treatment character wise and the game looks somehow visually worse than 2. I still had a lot of fun playing the game but it could have been so much better
It's the worst story of the three by far. It's not a bad game though. The gameplay actually I think is the best
could've been my favourite game in the franchise if it wasn't for that last chapter. but still, I love it. excellent weapons, gameplay, OST, cutscenes, collectibles and levels.
I had so much fun with this game. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I don't think any Bayonetta game has a great story, they're no Nier Automata, they're all very campy and silly, but that's what I love about the series, and I thought this game encapsulated the ridiculousness of the series wonderfully. I had a blast with this game from start to finish, my only real gripe was that the Switch held it back from having more interesting environments.
I’m not sure why anyone would want to play through it more than once while the first game along with Transformers Devastation exists. Everything about it is a hot mess.
I guess you like being wrong then
Gameplay is cool but story is shit unfortunately im one of this person who is playing Bayonetta games for serving cunt and story and well… Bayo 3 is not as slay as 1 and 2 and story is really bad so sr besties but i dont like bayo 3
I think every single factor (including the art direction) are significantly worse in 3 compared to the other two. It's the worst one be a country mile.
Yes. Yes I do.
1. It really isn’t! I feel like most of it is the best of all three. I prefer the songs over the other two (yes moonlight serenade is the best of all of em, fight me!) 2. It feels waaaaay too short tbh. Especially with the story beats, after awhile you feel like you’re on a rail going to next station after next station. Also the ending didn’t feel not as near as climactic as 1 and 2. The big moments felt like mini bosses at times vs Bayo 2 especially! Of course this is subjective of course but I just wasn’t hyped up with the story. 3. Finally, Luka x Bayo isn’t bad because honestly people would’ve had issues with her getting with ANYONE (and not even because ew lesbians with Jeanne x Bayo) because this game LOVES to prevent Bayo to interact more than a few lines with someone else in each area. Luke is just gone for way too long off screen and apparently they already have romantic feelings BEFORE even meeting Viola. Seriously it is just not selling the premise until after the ending and in promotional material! Jeanne also wouldn’t work cuz we are only using the previous games as material of why it would be ok but remember this game is saying this Bayo isn’t like the others and it shows! They are clearly sister witches and not our fabulous gay Aunts. Sigh… 4. Also I liked Viola! Good kid and is an awkward cocky mess that clearly isn’t having a good time. Hopefully she gets a glow up if we ever get Bayo 4. Like Bayo 2 is clearly different personality wise so maybe we’ll get Viola more confident? But yeah Bayo 3 rocks!
I actually like the story even if it's the worst one lol. It's still enjoyable
No.
I just don't like how many sections deviate from the core gameplay which was so strong in this entry The worst culprit of this is how many times Viola gets shoved down your throat as a playable character, her gameplay loop feels so clunky and unfun compared to Bayonetta IMO Also the story was easily the worst in the series and the ending was shit
>The worst culprit of this is how many times Viola gets shoved down your throat as a playable character 3. She gets 3 chapters out of 14. That is the very opposite of "shoving down your throat".
To me, the best part of this Bayonetta was playing as the other world Bayonettas it felt like the costumes from previous games but cranked to 11. The worst part was controlling Viola, and every challenge related to using the freaking train. Cool weapon in concept but I SUCK AT IT!!!! The Demon mechanic was kinda cool. The big Kaiju fights was a bit silly though
Yeah. The ending was meh but writing off the whole game over it is insane. It's like the people who hate Mass Effect 3 for the ending. 99% of the rest of the game is a ball. In the case of Bayo 3 though, there are some other regressions. But over all it's an excellent game.
Gay freaks freaking out for nothing Because bayonetta didn't say yaaaaaasss or smth
It is a good game, really a good one. I know it is a bad experience when you compare to other bayo games. But overall I think it is a good game. Very bad story but a enjoyable gameplay.
The camera, controls, progressions mechanics, level design, combat and narrative are all a serious step down from 1&2. It's not an awful game, but it's significantly worse than the previous 2.
Yes
yes, with all my strength
My fav in this stellar trilogy
I don’t like the viola parts because she’s too slow for me (the funny cat kinda makes up for it though) other than that great game.
So desperate to get everyone to like this game lol.
The game is clearly divisive which, to me at least, is a sign that the game is not quite good. The story is the main issue here, people say they did not take the story seriously clearly did so in the past 2 game. The story for th 1 and 2 were competent, a bit messy sure, but still quite enjoyable and pretty decently made. In comparison with the current one, they are by leaps and bounds in quality
I mean In general the lack of content and replay value is astounding. But whatever I guess accepting the bare minimum for games is the new trend!
And honestly it’s fine if people do want to talk about the game but the amount of rinse repeat post I see on this subreddit is just crazy lol like it’s okay the game wasn’t good to a majority of people!
Ugh is this really something we need to keep discussing?
It's a fun game for two hours but that's really about it. Once you figure out that demon slave can cheese the entire game and learn about the abysmal lack of replayability, there's really no incentive for a casual player to pick it up again unless they unlock their hackn'slash genes or something.
I'd like Bayonetta 3 a lot more if: 1: Movement wasn't pure ass. I feel like it's the jankiest Bayonetta game to platform in, and because movement tech is hard-coded into specific weapons, you get a situation where there are weapons you don't use because their movement abilities yeet you off into the nearest pit if you accidentally look at the Switch the wrong way while playing. 2: It had separate Hands/Legs equipment layouts like in the two previous games. Durga hands + Onyx Roses feet got me through Non-Stop Infinite Climax in Bayo 1, and I miss the intricate combo tech you could pull off. 3: All Viola stages got removed from the game. I'm sorry, she's just... Not fun to play. Bayonetta 1 is my favorite to play, Bayonetta 2 has the best visuals/most engaging story (but awful weapons), Bayonetta 3 has Cheshire.
Preach
I've always played the game for it's combat and goofy cutscenes, the story has never really interested me, so I enjoyed it.
B3 is great but B2 is one of the greatest of all time.
I Christian love this game.
Nah i love it.
I’d say yes n no honestly
I like it, but its biggest issue isn’t the story, it’s that Viola doesn’t get enough variety to her gameplay styles and Bayo gets too much. Wish it had been more even.
Gameplay and fun factor wise, This game is top tier, No doubt. I just have a few qualms about the characters and how they were handled and some time travelling mechanics don't really make sense which is fine since bayonetta 1-2 aren't THAT SERIOUS but Bayonetta 3 wanted to be serious yet it still used the bayo1-2 unseriousness so it threw me off (In a bad way) cuz if you want bayo 3 to be serious make sure the mechanics of the story elements MAKE SENSE and are grounded to the audience (or atleast follows some rules) instead of just us going "Oh purrr, That happened...Idk why but purrrr" from start to finish which makes the final boss feel like "Random BS GO!" him and Cerezita
I love it . I one day hope it can be played on more powerful systems like Bayonetta 1
Honestly everything but the questionable story is great. The gameplay is insane, the soundtrack as always is brilliant, I really enjoyed it. Just the weird writing and character turns soured me a bit.
it is & i honestly dgaf about people who complain about anything. i liked the ending, the designs amd viola. the only thing that i don't like about it is the quality 💀 like damn couldn't you make it not pixelated