The Witch returns once again for her third videogame instalment. Bayonetta 3 was released in 2022 as an exclusive game for the Nintendo Switch, it was developed by Platinum Games and Published by Nintendo.

The game takes place in the realm of reality and begins with a new protagonist called Viola witnessing Bayonetta being killed by a very powerful being known as Singularity, thankfully this takes place in an alternate dimension so Viola is able to travel to the Gates of Hell and ask the real Bayonetta for help in collecting Chaos Gears, these Gears are necessary in order to enter the Alphaverse and stop Singularity causing all the universes to collide and taking over the multiverse.

The plot of the game gets very deep and is taking a much more serious approach than the last two games, this is definitely a turning point in the series and the later story definitely reflects that, I cant go into much detail as there would major spoilers and it would take away from your overall experience.

The game still has silly moments which are hilarious such as Rodin running a New York Pizza shop, dance numbers and even at one point a battle using operatic vocals but overall the majority is much more serious and will leave you in shock especially if you have played both Bayonetta 1 and 2.

Similar to the previous two games Bayonetta 3 is a hack and slash action game where you fight and kill angels, you can defeat enemies in hand to hand combat and with guns that can be fired from both hand and foot. In a series first we now have three playable characters which have there own levels and gameplay styles.

During Bayonetta’s stages you now have the ability to fully summon and control your internal demons, these animalistic creatures appeared in previous titles for use during awesome finishing moves but now we can call upon these demons and take temporary control during combat giving us access to all of their unique abilities.

I really enjoyed the use of the spider and flying demons as they had the most basic attack patterns that were easy enough to quickly get a grasp of.

We do get some more complex demons including a train that I found genuinely difficult to control and a giant clock tower which reminded me of Big Ben the clock in London.

There are a lot of demons to choose from in the game and if your like me you wont find yourself using most of them as I found that the game actually gave me a few too many options considering that each of these creatures comes with different controls and feels vastly different to play as.

Viola the new Punk protagonist has very similar gameplay to Bayonetta but uses a Katana as well as her guns, she can only control one internal demon named Cheshire who is based on the Alice in Wonderland character the Cheshire Cat, he hides his soul in a Doll that a much younger Cereza (Bayonetta’s real name) once owned.

Apparently there is more lore involving Cheshire explained in the Cereza and the Lost Demon videogame but since we haven’t gotten around to that one yet we will discuss this at a later date.

Finally we can take control of Jeanne who is going on her own adventure sneaking through a secret facility where she will find a man named Doctor Sigurd who can help Bayonetta open the Alphaverse with the Chaos Gears she has collected.

These levels are 2D and take on an arcade style where players must traverse across platforms and backtracking using elevators in order to press switches and beat puzzles unlocking further areas in the facility.

These were really fun stages and were a nice little break in between the more hack and slash style from the other characters, after finishing Jeanne’s campaign you actually unlock a full on arcade minigame based on these levels and it is a really cool addition to the game and a first in this series.

The game is of course very difficult, these games are not known for being too kind if you let your guard down but it is easily beatable with enough patience and strategic attacks but like previous games if you really are struggling but are enjoying the story switch over to casual and enjoy a much easier experience where you can still fully enjoy this games plot without much stress.

Visually this is the best looking game in the series but only by a smidge these games really do not focus graphical output and to be honest this still looks like a mid Switch game, I have a feeling that the reason they chose this is because of the of the new and much more impressive combat and the high number of onscreen enemies, I’m not sure if the switch would be able to handle it if they pushed the system to its graphical limits.

Audio Quality is once again at an all time high with the epic orchestral and instrumental music this series is known for, mixed in are some excellent vocal tracks that really give the game something extra to make it stand out, this is definitely best played with headphones to get the full experience.

Bayonetta 3 delivers in all categories giving us an epic story intertwined with tight and stylish combat, this is easily the best game in the series offering new gameplay styles, multiple playable characters and a really fun unlockable arcade game, hidden within the game is also a demo of Cereza and the Lost Demon this was a very fun discovery considering hidden demos in games have long since become something of the past so it was really cool to see this tradition being carried on in 2022. I think if I was to change anything about the game I would definitely add some sort of recap for newcomers, this game is as far as we know the end of Cereza’s story so coming straight into this one will have new players lacking the emotional impact of in game events and most likely questioning who characters are and why they play such important roles in the series.

9.7/10

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