PLATFORM: SWITCH | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
PLATFORM: SWITCH | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
It’s been quite the wait. Almost five years since its existence was announced to the world, and eight since everyone’s favourite saucy Umbra Witch’s last appearance, Bayonetta 3 kicks off with a bang and a half when a huge battle with an immeasurably strong opponent leaves our heroine in a less than desirable state. Squished to smithereens in mid-air, closely followed by her companion, Sigurd, only series newcomer Viola is left to pick up the pieces. Cut to Manhattan, where an alternate universe version of Bayonetta encounters a new threat – the Homunculi, human bioweapons who, we soon discover, are trying to take over the multiverse…
Following – and attempting to better – two of the greatest pure action games ever made is no mean feat, but developers PlatinumGames have more than risen to the task with Bayonetta 3. Not content to simply re-hash old ideas and hope for the best, B3 takes a lot of the major mechanics that fans of the series have come to expect and shakes them up to create something that feels incredibly fresh and exciting. A few things do remain the same – you’ll still dodge around enemies using the now-iconic slow-motion Witch Time ability, meet a handful of familiar faces (although as this is very much a standalone story, no knowledge of the previous games is necessary, so newcomers won’t have any problems) and do the odd bit of dressing up just for fun, but there are huge changes elsewhere that make Bayonetta 3 stand tall above almost any other action game you’d care to mention.
Most of these changes are most clearly seen in Bayonetta’s combat. Still based around hack n’ slash button combos, the weapons you acquire throughout the game can now be upgraded at any time rather than having to head to Rodin’s shop, and all of them can be upgraded with new combos and special attacks. The old Wicked Weave finishers, which Bayonetta would use to automatically defeat foes in previous games, are now replaced by Demon Slave attacks, where Infernal Demons can be summoned at any time. Taking cues from Platinum’s last Switch exclusive, the superb Astral Chain, Bayonetta is able to control these Demons and command them to smash through enemies with earth-shaking special moves. Some enemies have ways of countering these attacks though, and your summon can even turn against you if you don’t handle it properly…
Your choice of weapon also affects the ways that you’re able to traverse levels, which themselves are much larger than before. When using the spider Demon’s Ignis Araneae Yo-Yo, for example, you’ll glide quickly along the ground on spinning wheels, and have the ability to scuttle up walls and swing through the air to cross large distances in an instant. There’s a lot going on for those who enjoy a bit of exploration – handy items are tucked away all over the place, challenge rooms with some inventive objectives than the usual “kill x amount of enemies within a time limit”) offer some very useful useful rewards, and there’s plenty of fan service in the form of Easter eggs and references to both the series as a whole and even the developer’s other games. Sometimes you’ll even run into an area that changes everything completely, like when you find yourself sliding down crumbling buildings or taking part in a one-on-one battle between two colossal kaijus. The mayhem rarely lets up, and often becomes so overwhelmingly chaotic that it almost takes your breath away.
Elsewhere, there are a couple of new playable characters to get to grips with. The punky Viola, a newcomer to the series, feels like she could have come from a Suda51 game (Shadows of the Damned, perhaps), and has a really endearing relationship with Bayonetta that develops as the game progresses and the two work together across multiple worlds and universes. Viola’s pet cat, Cheshire, is one of B3‘s most quirky additions, a gigantic grotesquely adorable feline that helps Viola in combat in similar ways to Bayonetta’s Demon summons. Series stalwart Jeanne also gets some time in the spotlight as she plays her own part in saving the world, starring in a handful of stealth-based side scrolling sequences that are not only very enjoyable (a rarity for stealth sections!) but they also give a bit of respite from the madness of the main story while also serving a purpose within the game’s narrative.
Constantly changing things up throughout the game by giving players a new weapon to experiment with, or switching to a different character, or throwing all kinds of other nonsensical but ridiculously entertaining things at you, Bayonetta 3 goes way beyond expectations (which, let’s be honest, were pretty effing high). It feels very different to play when compared to the previous instalments but it’s still unmistakeably the effortlessly thrilling Bayonetta that fans know and love. The action is never less than exhilarating – utterly chaotic in the best kinds of ways – and it’s safe to say that this is easily the high point of a phenomenal series of games. Surpassing expectations at every turn and never afraid to get a bit camp, saucy, sassy and silly, games like this don’t come along very often at all. It’s exceptional.
