Bayonetta 3 Reviews
As ridiculous and as unruly as it's ever been, the five year wait for Bayonetta's third outing ends on a predominantly satisfying high.
Compelling from start to finish, Bayonetta 3 is an exceptional time and up there with the very best there is - and was worth the wait.
Bayonetta 3 cranks up the chaos, improves the combat, polishes the level design, and adds a ton of new mechanics to the mix, making for the very best entry in this storied series to date. PlatinumGames has absolutely nailed it this time around, carefully layering on more ways to engage enemies, piling on the OTT gameplay sequences, and giving us multiple protagonists without upsetting the balance of what makes these games amongst the very best examples of their genre. With excellent performance in docked and handheld modes, incredible visuals, non-stop action, and a hugely replayable campaign that's a joy from start to finish, this really is a huge celebration of everything we love about Bayonetta, an action all-timer and one of the biggest highlights of 2022, on Switch or any platform.
But these issues didn’t really impair my enjoyment of the game. It would take a lot more than this for me to not have fun with a Bayonetta game. I think they’re worth remarking on, especially if Platinum is planning to continue the series. I’m not sure Bayonetta 3 will ever feel as special to me as the original was, but it’s still wonderful in its own way. I’m glad to have it after such a long wait.
Bayonetta 3 is a good time when it allows itself to be. It consists of an excellent core experience buried under superfluous bilge, an otherwise quality experience interrupting itself to such a degree as to drag down the entire experience. The high notes are high enough to ensure a genuinely quality game, but the incessant sidetracking into mediocre stealth gameplay, mundane alternate characters, and half a dozen other deviations holds it back from being truly great. Thank god for trainsaws and spider women though, because they do a heck of a lot to keep this game entertaining.
After eight long years of waiting, Bayonetta is back with all her flash and pomp intact. And while I expect this entry to hold my interest for quite a while, I hope we don’t have to wait another eight years before we see one of the biggest names in gaming return.
Platinum Games' latest full throttle action romp is a spectacle of hyper-feminine ultraviolence, writes reviewer Chad Sapieha. Read more.
Bayonetta 3 takes what worked about the first two games and continues to refine it, from the balletic combat, to the diverse assortment of wacky characters, to the snarky sense of humor. Aging Switch hardware means that the performance is uneven, however, and the difficulty curve can sometimes swing a little too far toward “punishing.”
You'll be hard-pressed to find an action game that's having as much fun as Bayonetta 3.
Bayonetta 3 delivers on its promise of a magical action RPG with sophisticated combat. Even with frustrating mini-games and objectives, it’s one of the best action games of 2022 thanks to its style and depth — whether or not you’re familiar with this absolutely bonkers universe.
Bayonetta 3 has a lot of issues, especially in terms of story, but is well worth playing for the core combat. While the game seems to be doing its best to get you away from that, once you're fighting, there's nothing like it out there.
Where many western games yearn to be seen as the height of sophistication, craving the critical kudos of an HBO drama, Bayonetta 3 stands defiant in its absurdity. Like its predecessors, this is destined to go down as a cult classic – a dizzying dance of demon-dicing delight. Its crude, whiplash-inducing narrative means it certainly won’t be for everyone, but the best things in life rarely are.
Platinum's strutting witch returns with expanded combat and the same delirious lack of restraint
While some ideas get lost in Bayonetta 3’s endless sprint to keep you entertained, there’s no other action game with this imagination, wit or style. Prepare to explore its mad depths for weeks.
Bayonetta 3 is an outrageous and fitting return to form for the umbra witch and her posse of occultish heavy hitters. Substantial improvements and additions to combat mean there are seemingly endless options for different styles of play, as well as making the prospect of revisiting each stage, verse and hidden objective more compelling than it ever has been, with the crowning jewel being Viola’s introduction into the franchise.
With hysterical excessive action, Bayonetta 3 is unlike anything else. Even the predecessors are in the lee. The adventure constantly surprises with new elements and mighty battles, but not always to the good. On the one hand, the whole becomes fragmented and uneven, and on the other hand, the Nintendo Switch does not really mess with the developers' ambitions. But a damn entertaining action game it is nonetheless.
Review in Swedish | Read full review
Everything about Bayonetta 3 is ridiculous – from the dimension-hopping storyline to the devastating finishing moves and the Infernal Demons you can possess. But that’s exactly what fans have come to expect from the franchise, and it makes for an exhilarating experience that only Bayonetta can deliver. It’s hard to see how anyone could leave disappointed; just remember to take a breather every now and then.
Bayonetta 3 undoubtedly ranks among the best action games around, and is one of the most ambitious projects to emerge from the forges of PlatinumGames. Such weight makes the technical realisation creak, itself constrained by Switch's limitations, yet the end result is a feast for all fans of these games and the charismatic Cereza.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Whether or not you enjoy this game is dependent on what you’re expecting from it. In the world of hypersexual, campy, insane action games, this sets a new standard. Every successive boss fight raises the bar, the action is always intense, and it oozes charm. There’s more move variety, the characters are beautiful, and the tone is impossibly over the top. If you’ve bounced off of Bayonetta games before, I can’t promise this time will be different. The pacing and core gameplay loop remain largely intact. But for fans of the franchise, Bayonetta 3 is easily as good as it gets. If you loved the first two games, you’ve got to check out this one.