A Few Long Waits
The Nintendo Switch was an impressive portable hybrid console upon its release – I’m not sure if Nintendo could’ve made something stronger for March 2017, but with the Wii U on its way out without ever really getting in the room, they needed to get their new hardware on shelves fast. The result was a machine that wowed people on day one (a handheld with PS3/Xbox 360 level power and beyond meant a lot at the time), but as the years went by, there were quite a few major releases that struggled with the hardware. Substandard resolutions and framerates that failed to hit their targets often or at all became problems, and while there were still games like Super Mario Wonder that offered native resolutions and 60fps, there were several titles that I decided I was willing to wait to play – whether that was for the rumoured Switch Pro that never eventuated, or for an actual successor. Well, here we are, and the first game in my Switch 1 backlog that I went with was Bayonetta 3, a 2022 release that came after an already agonising stretch since the initial reveal trailer in 2017. So, with an entire generation going by between me hearing of the game and finally playing it, let’s see how it stacks up – not just as a game, but as a showcase of the Nintendo Switch 2’s Backwards Compatibility mode.
Bayonetta 3’s Narrative
I can’t go into a review of Bayonetta 3 without certain preconceived notions. I wasn’t exactly spoiled on the game, but since 2022, I’ve heard whispers on the wind of the game being… divisive, on multiple levels, and the first of those levels is the story. So while I can’t give a completely fresh perspective, I can at least say that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The basic rundown is Bayonetta (Jennifer Hale) and her supporting players coming into yet another massive conflict – this time, the heavenly forces of Bayonetta 1 and the demonic legions of Inferno from Bayonetta 2 are followed up by “man-made bioweapons” called Homunculi, their leader singularity engaged in an all-out assault on the many worlds of Bayonetta’s cosmology. This initially seems a bit out of left field, but the “man-made” part is key here, with angels and demons giving way to something at least part human. The designs of the Homunculi also bring to (my) mind the beasts of HP Lovecraft, with a green-heavy colour scheme and many curved, tentacle-like protrusions to go with their universal-scale power and seemingly endless dominance.
On the heroes’ side, we get the return of characters like Rodin, Luca and Jeanne (who is wonderful in this for reasons I’ll get to in my coverage of the gameplay), but the bigger deal here is new character Viola (Anna Brisbin), a young, punk-rock swordswoman from one of the other worlds conquered by the Homunculi, whose identity is secret-but-not-that-secret, if you’re paying attention. Important enough to actually serve as an additional playable character with a notably different moveset and defensive options to Bayo herself, Viola is young, brash and goofy in ways that I found could stretch into the overly cartoonish and even annoying at times – though this is no fault of Brisbin, who is clearly playing the character exactly as the creators intended with a great deal of skill. Viola may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but she still has plenty of excellent moments and a compelling story to go along with it.
As I mentioned earlier, the multiverse is a major component of Bayonetta 3, and it’s handled pretty damn well here. The variety it brings to the game’s environments is really substantial, with both fantastical locales and real-life cities being included (Shibuya and Paris particularly stand out). The other half of the multiverse equation, though, is that every one of these many worlds is inhabited by another Bayonetta, which lets the character designers, weapon and monster designers, and Jennifer Hale herself go completely nuts with a wide variety of very off-the-wall Bayonetta looks. There’s a lot of lunacy here that probably would’ve inspired fanboy rage had any of it been used for the actual lead Bayonetta, but as a series of alternates they’re bizarre and fantastic. The climax of the game is not something I’m going to spoil, but I will say that I assume it’s where a lot of the negativity I’ve heard of has come from. I enjoyed it, though there are some significant revelations and reveals in there that will be hype-inducing for some and just disappointing for others. Overall, though, this is a story worth experiencing at least once.
Bayonetta 3’s Gameplay – Wiiiide Open Spaces
Now, the gameplay in Bayonetta 3 is varied and deep enough that I can’t really give a completely authoritative opinion even after a full playthrough – you know how these character action games go, the first run is just a 15-hour tutorial. But here’s my thoughts so far. With the Switch being the only system it was made for, Bayonetta 3 was an opportunity for Platinum Games to advance the series’ general gameplay and design, and they went for a major increase in scale. This sometimes comes in through the crazier, action-heavy cinematics, but more often than not, it’s through very, very literal increases in size that are baked into how you engage with the combat system and the environment. Bayonetta’s Demon Slave ability – the central new feature of Bayonetta 3 that you’ll be using constantly – allows her to instantly summon one of the demonic beings she has a contract with, and they are very, very large. Large enough that the game needs to block you from using Demon Slave in more enclosed spaces, and therefore large enough that such enclosed spaces are kept to a minimum. This is another one of those complaints I had already vaguely heard of – that the game’s levels are too big, too filled with empty space to facilitate free usage of Demon Slave, and while I do see where these critiques are coming from, I can’t pretend like I don’t think the sacrifice is worth it. The craziness and epic nature of the combat is jacked up when Madama Butterfly or Gomorrah, each about 30 feet tall, appear on the scene and start swinging, and this really adds to the variety of the combat and gives Bayonetta 3 an identity separate from the prior entries, as well as other mainstays of the character action genre.
The basics of the previous Bayonettas still return, of course – utilising multiple weapons and last-second dodges to activate the slow-motion Witch Time are back, with the weapons being obtained from the alternate Bayonettas alongside bizarre new demons to summon with Demon Slave. With about 8 weapons and demons to be obtained over the course of the game, Bayonetta’s playstyle is based on variety, similar to Dante from the Devil May Cry series, distinguishing her from the next major change up – Viola. If Bayonetta is Dante, Viola is very much a parallel to Nero of DMC4 and 5 – the wide variety of weapons and abilities is stripped out in favour of a single, slightly more complex loadout with alternate gameplay tricks. Viola is different from Bayonetta in multiple ways – her katana attacks can always be charged for extra damage (Bayonetta can only do this with certain weapons), her equivalent to Demon Slave allows her to move freely and fist-fight alongside her autonomous demon Cheshire rather than staying in place to control him directly, and her main defensive option is a block instead of a dodge, which can still be timed perfectly to activate Witch Time. The end result takes a while to get used to, especially the block – since the input is the R (right shoulder) button rather than the ZR (right trigger button) like Bayonetta’s dodge (Viola uses ZR for a short dodge with no Witch Time properties), the muscle memory situation can end up being quite annoying. The story has you swap between Bayo and Viola frequently, and given how critical Witch Time is to the combat, you will constantly be getting used to one button and having to switch. Still, I was getting the hang of it by the end of the run, and with this being the exact sort of game you play multiple times over, that should only improve. Viola’s a great bit of extra variety, and a good example of what a third entry often needs.
The last major aspect of Bayonetta 3’s gameplay is the variety of… I wouldn’t call them “minigames” exactly, but there are a chunk of dedicated sections on the game where the whole genre of the game is switched up. On-rails cinematic shooter sections appear periodically, there’s a couple of 1v1 kaiju battles built around countering the enemy’s attacks, and then… we have Jeanne. Jeanne is sent on a specific errand that is presented via some brilliantly stylish 2D sneaking missions, complete with jazzy opening sequences that call to mind the openings of Cowboy Bebop and Archer. With her magic deactivated, Jeanne – though still capable of direct combat – benefits from hiding in vents and stealthing her way to one-hit surprise kills of the Homunculi guarding a military base. There honestly aren’t enough of these missions, and while the ability to replay them afterwards is nice, I wanted more, which, really, is the highest compliment I can give. The “minigames” overall do a good job of shaking things up, and while they can be a little difficult to get used to in a similar fashion to Viola’s block, they’re frequently simple and forgiving enough that you should make your way through. The real challenge in this game is getting those Pure Platinum medals, after all.
Bayonetta 3’s Sound
The third moon-themed track. Wonder what number four might be?
The soundtrack to Bayonetta 3 is jaunty and fun while being a bit more operatic – and in one specific scene, a lot more operatic, lethally so. It all fits well with the action gameplay, getting the blood running as you attack and react to the Homunculi surrounding you. The centre point of the sound, though, is a licensed remix. Bayonetta games have previously built their cinematics and combat encounters around a particular classic song remixed for the game – Fly Me To The Moon in Bayonetta 1, Moon River in Bayonetta 2, and now Moonlight Serenade for the third game. It constantly plays throughout cutscenes and combat, serving as the game’s aural backbone, and damned if I didn’t appreciate it more and more as the game went on. Notably, it does not appear in Viola’s levels, its presence in combat being replaced by Gh()st (yes, that’s the intended spelling), a rock song that goes hard on the drums and guitar to match with Viola’s whole leather-jacket, punk-rock appearance. This is a great example of a soundtrack tying into gameplay and reinforcing the significant differences between two playable characters, helping the player to mentally differentiate between them.
The songs slap, too.
Bayonetta 3’s Replayability
As one of the mainstays of the character action genre, Bayonetta 3 continues the series’ tradition of very replayable campaigns. I’ve only gone through the game once so far, but there are still weapons I’ve never used, demons I’ve never summoned, and encounters I’ve never even found – and that’s not even getting into the lure of higher scores or just general skill improvement. Bayonetta 3 is built on top of the previous games in a way that let the developers go crazy with lots of different enemies, equipment and movesets – the kind of variety that shows most clearly with someone who has dedicated countless hours to not merely beating the game, but styling on opponents and turning even the most difficult encounters into a Moonlight Serenade-backed dance that looks worlds away from the performance of even the more skilled first-time players. For no,w I have to move on to the highlights of the Switch 2 launch lineup, but I am absolutely going to be returning to Bayonetta – probably to a full series playthrough, in fact – and I recommend you do the same.
The Switch 2 Effect
With the Switch 2 having been leaked and rumoured for so long prior to release, there has been endless debate about its potential backwards compatibility. Would it have it at all? If it did, would they include a die-shrunk Switch chip like older Nintendo systems or do the work to create a translation layer? Would you be able to force games to run at their docked resolutions when in handheld mode? And most of all, would it just play Switch games exactly as they were, or were performance improvements on the table? We’re now a bit removed from the launch, and enough testing has been done to confirm that the result is mostly exactly what we were hoping for, especially in terms of performance. While a minority of Switch games sadly don’t run on the Switch 2 (yet, at least some updates and fixes are forthcoming), the majority that do universally benefit from huge increases to both framerate and resolution, as long as those were dynamic on Switch. Bayonetta 3 is a prime example of this – while I heard nightmare stories about the game swinging around the 30s, 40s and 50s on Switch, this Digital Foundry article being a notable example, my playthrough on Switch 2 was (outside of the 30fps-capped cutscenes) a basically flawless locked 60fps. I can see where the performance issues came from – the major increases in scale I mentioned earlier really make the game feel like it was built for a more powerful system, and now that that system is here, the game really gets a new lease on life. The loading times are also greatly improved – amusingly, this means that Bayonetta’s famous patented “combo practice” loading screens are wasted here, as I can’t even get a full combo off before the game starts up again! Results may vary on a physical cartridge, though.
It’s not all good news, sadly – not when we get into the subject of resolution. Bayonetta 3 remains stuck at its mediocre handheld and docked resolution caps of around 480p and 810p, respectively. Sadly, that dream of running docked Switch games in the Switch 2’s handheld mode is not available at the time of writing and may never come at all, and the result is that while Bayo 3’s biggest issue on Switch has been smoothed out on Switch 2, there’s still room for improvement here. Taking into consideration that the previous Bayonettas have their own issues – they’re oddly stuck at 720p in both modes – I would frankly love to see either a suite of free updates similar to the ones given to games like Super Mario Odyssey or Pokémon Scarlet and Violet with resolution cranked as high as possible. Or, even better, a Bayonetta Trilogy Switch 2 Edition that goes further, improving the textures, models and lighting and bringing in DLSS in more of a high-end remaster. Bayonetta may not be one of Nintendo’s highest-selling exclusive franchises by a long shot, but it’s a unique part of their lineup – distinctly-mature action titles that feel so “not Nintendo”, and so I feel they deserve a nice celebratory release that lets them shine their very brightest.
Conclusions
Bayonetta 3 isn’t perfect, but it’s very well worth playing, especially if you’ve picked up a shiny new Switch 2. It’s not technically part of the launch lineup, but it’s still the first game I played through and beat on the system, for damn good reason, and I want all of you to enjoy the same buttery-smooth experience. It’s filled with flashy cinematics, high skill ceilings, raunchy one-liners and eye-searing fashion, and while some of the story choices won’t be to everyone’s taste, there are some genuinely off-the-wall moments that deserve to be witnessed. Sometimes, it’ll even show you some real heart.
