I beat it again a couple of days ago in Expert, the game is amazing and there are still weapons and demons that I haven't even touched. Viola is not bad, but when you have a million options with Bayonetta, she feels very limited in comparison.
I don't care much about the story, but the ending is pretty weak. There is something that (bad) anime often does: They keep escalating more and more, with the bad guy unlocking new ultimate forms until randomly one of them is the true final form and he then dies. The risk with doing is that if you abuse it the watcher/player can get tired of it, so all the ancitipation and the build-up evaporates and they're just tired and wanting for it to be over. To make this escalation work you need to go higher and bigger everytime at an increased rate, see TW101 or Gurren Laggan, but if you take a step back during this process, you can bring things to a halt. You can take a step back to gain impulse and come back stronger, but you need to come back stronger, bigger and better every time. And you need to end on a high note! Bayo1's, TW101's and Gurren Lagan's final sequences are bombastic and amazing.
That's the problem with Bayo3's ending sequence. You are about to lose, but suddenly all of the Bayonetta's are summoned next to you on an asteroid and you all take down Singularity. But he comes back and destroys all of them...(first step back)...so Jeanne appears with her amazing theme (great comeback) and you bring him down again. But now you are on an empty, destroyed city on Earth and powerless against Singularity (another stepback). But then Bayo1 and 2 appear and you take control of Bayo1. But Singularity powers up again. So all Bayos fuse into one. This would've been a great moment to end the combat on a high note....but Singularity powers up again. But then Luca appears. But you get beaten again and then Viola, out of nowhere, finishes it in a cutscene. All the escalation gets tiring, it doesn't go anywhere and the build-up is completely wasted.
That said, it's still a fantastic game and I'm having an amazing time getting my ass kicked in the Witch Trials while I try to master the demons and weapons that I still haven't tried. One of my requests for character action games is that they try to do something new with the combat (Demon Slaves: check!) and that they introduce original weapons, not something that is just a variance on speed, range, damage...And in this I also count the way the weapon is used: If all weapons are used the same way (press button->get attack) they lose a lot of personality. Bayonetta has always been great with this, with some weapons relying more on their special effect when the buttons are held after attacking, others had additional timings (like the chainsaws in 2), others rewarded quick successive attacks (Oddette in 1 to freeze enemies)...But Bayo3 just hits it out of the park. Demon Masquerade makes every weapon incredibly distinct and immediately gives each of them their very own personality. But then you look at the weapons themselves and how they are used and it's even better! You have a door, A FUCKING DOOR, that can act as a shield, or summon stuff from within it, or atract enemies...You have a magic hat and a cane that you can use to summon electric bats, or a giant ball to walk on, or white doves, fireworks, A POLICE CAR!!! You have an anchor with a chain that can hit enemies on their way back to you, or can act as a finishing rod and you can manipulate the range of every individual attack.
And don't get me started on the demons: A fire-spitting dinosaur, a lion that can split into 5 and breathes ice, A TRAIN WITH GIANT CHAINSAWS, A CLOCK TOWER WITH MACHINEGUNS!!!! You can do a giant vertical loop with the train or have demons disembark from it. You can absorb enemies into the clock tower or summon a mecha that you can pilot. You can lay down vines that act line ladmines when enemies step on them, or sing with a giant frog to summon a poison rain!
This game alone has more creativity than some other entire franchises have in 5+ games.
When this game gets bashed because it's "technologically poor" something inside me dies a little. Do you know how hard it is to program all these hundreds of different interactions? How much work goes into implementing all the different gameplay scenarios the game presents? This game is an absolute triumph and my hat's off to Platinum.
I don't care much about the story, but the ending is pretty weak. There is something that (bad) anime often does: They keep escalating more and more, with the bad guy unlocking new ultimate forms until randomly one of them is the true final form and he then dies. The risk with doing is that if you abuse it the watcher/player can get tired of it, so all the ancitipation and the build-up evaporates and they're just tired and wanting for it to be over. To make this escalation work you need to go higher and bigger everytime at an increased rate, see TW101 or Gurren Laggan, but if you take a step back during this process, you can bring things to a halt. You can take a step back to gain impulse and come back stronger, but you need to come back stronger, bigger and better every time. And you need to end on a high note! Bayo1's, TW101's and Gurren Lagan's final sequences are bombastic and amazing.
That's the problem with Bayo3's ending sequence. You are about to lose, but suddenly all of the Bayonetta's are summoned next to you on an asteroid and you all take down Singularity. But he comes back and destroys all of them...(first step back)...so Jeanne appears with her amazing theme (great comeback) and you bring him down again. But now you are on an empty, destroyed city on Earth and powerless against Singularity (another stepback). But then Bayo1 and 2 appear and you take control of Bayo1. But Singularity powers up again. So all Bayos fuse into one. This would've been a great moment to end the combat on a high note....but Singularity powers up again. But then Luca appears. But you get beaten again and then Viola, out of nowhere, finishes it in a cutscene. All the escalation gets tiring, it doesn't go anywhere and the build-up is completely wasted.
That said, it's still a fantastic game and I'm having an amazing time getting my ass kicked in the Witch Trials while I try to master the demons and weapons that I still haven't tried. One of my requests for character action games is that they try to do something new with the combat (Demon Slaves: check!) and that they introduce original weapons, not something that is just a variance on speed, range, damage...And in this I also count the way the weapon is used: If all weapons are used the same way (press button->get attack) they lose a lot of personality. Bayonetta has always been great with this, with some weapons relying more on their special effect when the buttons are held after attacking, others had additional timings (like the chainsaws in 2), others rewarded quick successive attacks (Oddette in 1 to freeze enemies)...But Bayo3 just hits it out of the park. Demon Masquerade makes every weapon incredibly distinct and immediately gives each of them their very own personality. But then you look at the weapons themselves and how they are used and it's even better! You have a door, A FUCKING DOOR, that can act as a shield, or summon stuff from within it, or atract enemies...You have a magic hat and a cane that you can use to summon electric bats, or a giant ball to walk on, or white doves, fireworks, A POLICE CAR!!! You have an anchor with a chain that can hit enemies on their way back to you, or can act as a finishing rod and you can manipulate the range of every individual attack.
And don't get me started on the demons: A fire-spitting dinosaur, a lion that can split into 5 and breathes ice, A TRAIN WITH GIANT CHAINSAWS, A CLOCK TOWER WITH MACHINEGUNS!!!! You can do a giant vertical loop with the train or have demons disembark from it. You can absorb enemies into the clock tower or summon a mecha that you can pilot. You can lay down vines that act line ladmines when enemies step on them, or sing with a giant frog to summon a poison rain!
This game alone has more creativity than some other entire franchises have in 5+ games.
When this game gets bashed because it's "technologically poor" something inside me dies a little. Do you know how hard it is to program all these hundreds of different interactions? How much work goes into implementing all the different gameplay scenarios the game presents? This game is an absolute triumph and my hat's off to Platinum.
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