Scalebound lives on in Bayonetta 3’s best new trick

Ever since it sprung from the remnants of Capcom’s Clover Studios back in 2007, PlatinumGames has become synonymous with a certain brand of over-the-top action; think the knee-sliding shotgun ballet of Vanquish, the stylish sucker punch of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance or the madcap superhero adventure of The Wonderful 101. Throughout all that there’s been one constant – the devilish and daring Bayonetta, as close as the Osaka studio has as an official mascot, who’s finally on the cusp of her third outing. Having played a sizable chunk of Bayonetta 3, all signs are pointing towards it being her best yet too.

Like previous entries, this is an action game cast firmly in the mould of Devil May Cry (Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya returns here as executive director for Bayonetta 3), with whip-quick third-person combat at its core. Unlike something like Devil May Cry 5, however, which saw Capcom retool and refine that core combat towards something like perfection, Bayonetta 3 builds outwards in a work of maximalist beauty. This is a game that throws in the kitchen sink, the dishwasher and tumble dryer and just about anything it can at you, and the result is intoxicating if never exactly coherent.

There’s only two sections we’re free to discuss in this last preview before we give the final verdict, but they illustrate the point perfectly well. First, we’ve a gauntlet run through modern-day Tokyo with Bayonetta herself, summoned into the real world through an oh-so-fashionable multiverse hook. What it means, in practice, is getting to see Bayonetta transposed onto something like real-life, racing through a city that’s being destroyed by a colossal shark demon as she surfs atop the giant dragon Gomorrah, crashing along spiralling skyscrapers before donning cruise liners for a set of impromptu water skates. Bayonetta 3, in case you hadn’t already guessed, does not trade in subtlety.

Read more