Pros:
- Everything that has made the "Bayonetta" series so fantastic is on full display here.
- Story takes things in a lot of new, interesting directions.
- The music remains as superb as before.
- Jennifer Hale does a fantastic job in her debut as Bayonetta.
- While the game is doing everything it can with the Switch hardware, the visuals are still great with a strong sense of scope and scale.
- Combat is as fast-paced as you remember, but with great attention paid to all different kinds of gamers.
- Boss fights are as epic in scale as the series has always been.
- Demon Slave and Demon Masquerade are extremely fun and offer new layers to the combat.
- Multiple playable characters that all feel great to play as.
- Even with the short main length of the story, there's a lot of content to keep you occupied.
Cons:
- At times, the puzzles can be the tiniest bit overwhelming. Once you figure them out, though, they're fine.
Consensus: You don't know how painful the wait for "Bayonetta 3" was for me. Its announcement at The Game Awards 2017 had me excited immediately (just having another high-quality Switch exclusive was good news to me), and I hadn't even played the series yet. I played the first two games a few months later thanks to the Switch re-releases and loved the hell out of them, which made it all the more painful having to wait so long for "Bayonetta 3." But now that it's finally here, I can say it: this is everything I hoped it would be. It's every bit as frantic, fast-paced and thrilling as I was expecting, with incredibly layered combat and fantastic new ideas. Does it top "Bayonetta 2" for me? I mean, probably not; that is one of my Top 5 favorite games of all time, after all, so it would always be hard to top it. But make no mistake: "Bayonetta 3" is one of the best games I've played this year, and it was more than worth the wait. If you haven't gotten the chance to jump on this game yet, please do. Bayonetta, it's great to have you back.
Final rating: 10 out of 10 "Fantastic"