Bayonetta 3's biggest sin is its unwillingness to commit to the bit
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Loading... - Mary Campbell
- 28 Oct 2022
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I like to think I’m a generous reviewer. If I enjoyed 75 percent of a game, I can forgive the other, crappier, 25 percent. I can’t do that with Bayonetta 3. The game was a thoroughly enjoyable, worthy successor for its first three quarters, only to faceplant so hard in the final fourth that I’m ready to write off the entire game’s existence — a game I had been waiting for with bated breath for years.
I’d been looking forward to this game for so long and, at the beginning, Bayonetta 3 did not disappoint. From the game’s opening moments when Bayonetta, accompanied by her faithful submissive Enzo, crashes a mega-yacht party then surfs on that yacht fighting strange, blue creatures as waves drown New York City, I thought, “yup, this is some Bayonetta bullshit.” And I loved it.
Yup, this is some Bayonetta bullshit.
Bayonetta as a game series is kinda like the later Fast and Furious movies. Number one: family is everything. And number two: there is a basic formula that will, from time to time, be thrown out to do something absolutely wild. Kinda like how Fast and Furious went to space that one time. It doesn’t make sense and it isn’t supposed to. You’re just meant to enjoy it with slack-jawed awe like, “I can’t believe the mad bastards actually did that.”
Like Fast and Furious, Bayonetta 3 is over-the-top camp with no rhyme or reason other than “does this look cool?” It does weird shit like suddenly morph from a combo-focused beat-’em-up to an Ikaruga-style space shooter, or a rhythm game, or 2D fighting game. And because the developers lean into it, never taking things too seriously, it works. There were so many moments in which I was thoroughly delighted by the events unfolding on my tiny Switch screen. Read More...
