A bizarre, flashy journey to save the multiverse - Bayonetta 3 Review

Bayonetta 3 is a bizarre action game with some of the most addictive, dynamic, and flashy combat I’ve ever experienced. Despite struggling to understand its borderline incoherent narrative, I found a lot to enjoy in the over-the-top battles of this wild ride.

Bayonetta 3’s weird narrative is filled with surprises. Although I struggled to navigate the game’s storyline early on, it wasn’t due to lack of prior knowledge from the series; this entry doesn’t really require having played the previous two games, and the majority of the plot threads it deals with are entirely new. That means even dedicated Bayonetta fans should be ready to have their heads spin. As soon as I loaded the game, I was immediately dropped into its narrative, and my rollercoaster of an adventure started.

I played the titular Bayonetta, a powerful witch with a penchant for guns, as well as brief tours as two side protagonists: newcomer Viola, a witch-in-training, and the returning Jeanne, Bayonetta’s best-friend-slash-greatest-rival. Throughout the story, Bayonetta and her allies seek to save alternate universes that are being threatened by a strange new enemy called the Homunculi. This objective had me traveling between universes, meeting alternate universe versions of Bayonetta, and acquiring new weapons and powers along the way. As I continued exploring this multiverse, I eventually uncovered Singularity, the real big bad guy behind the Homunculi.

That quick explanation probably doesn’t read as all that complicated, but trust me when I say that Bayonetta 3 delivers its narrative in a dramatic, dizzyingly paced style that left me regularly overwhelmed, if not completely lost. And just in case the story didn’t confuse me, the flashy, extravagant fight scenes were there to take my breath away. I mean, the first playable chapter went from a casual sunny day to dropping me onto a cruise ship sailing through a massive tsunami, and forcing me to fight a bedazzled, demonic octopus. To say that I had no clue what was going on is a serious understatement, and that was only the start of this absurd, bewildering, and entertaining adventure.

Despite all this confusion, I eventually came to admire Bayonetta 3’s wacky narrative and even weirder fight scenes. Instead of finding plausible explanations for all of this multiversal chaos, I accepted that nothing in this game (or series) was meant to be logically sensible. Once I embraced the game’s outrageous theatrics, I started to loosen up and have much more fun playing it.

Most of that fun was contained with Bayonetta 3’s incredibly enjoyable combat system. Battles are dynamic and enthralling in such a way that I never encountered a dull moment. I needed to utilize different attacks to pull off destructive combos that would decimate my enemies. Add in the multiple kaiju-sized demons I could summon into the battlefield if I had enough magic energy, and combat grew even more amusing and invigorating.

Another reason I admired Bayonetta 3’s combat system so much was because the game supports so many playstyles. Throughout the ten or eleven hours that it took me to reach the end, I found eleven weapons and tamed nine demons, each of which provided a different approach for taking down my Homunculi opponents. I personally enjoyed playing from afar by utilizing a long-ranged cannon and controlling a spider demon that chucks out smaller critters, which in turn stick to enemies and explode. Whenever I got bored with this playstyle, all it took was a quick switcheroo in the customization menu before fights, and I was slashing through enemies with a yo-yo blade, or kicking and punching with tremendous force.

If Bayonetta 3’s combat has any notable drawback, it’s that it requires a lot of focus to react quickly to enemy moves and counter those attacks effectively. With my notoriously slow reflexes, I ended up dying multiple times in each level, especially during major boss fights. I was able to summon demon companions to help even the odds a little, but if my thralls were damaged too much, they became enraged and turned on me, making the situation even worse. It’s not impossible to overcome Bayonetta 3’s challenges, even if you’re not an expert action game fan, but it definitely felt more punishing than I liked at times.

Despite having terrible reflexes, Bayonetta 3’s music helped me get into the groove of battle. I found myself energized and almost even more focused because of the upbeat, jazzy music throughout the game. Each of the fourteen chapters, not including the prologue or side missions, had unique tunes playing that boosted my attention. Sometimes I even found the music more enjoyable than the combat gameplay itself.

Bayonetta 3 is genuinely one of the most bizarre games I’ve played in a long while. In saying so, that weirdness is what makes the game oddly addictive and charming. And although I struggled to understand its storyline and get comfortable with the flashy, over-the-top theatrics throughout most of the fight scenes, I eventually found myself deeply enmeshed in its gameplay.

SCORE: 4 STARS OUT OF 5

PLAY IF YOU LIKE:

• The previous two games in this series. If you’ve played and enjoyed Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2, there’s a good chance you’ll want to hop in for another serving of this franchise’s wild world, characters, and combat.

• Devil May Cry 5. If you loved Devil May Cry 5 for its dynamic combat system and cool-looking demonic entities, you may enjoy the similar features of Bayonetta 3.

💬 If you could warp reality and travel across alternate universes, would you ever create a universe in your own image?