Bayonetta was written in October 2009 by Hideki Kamiya. The series is set in a world where Lumen Sages representing light and Umbran Witches representing dark maintained the balance of light and dark despite the war between angels and demons until the both sides were killed in part due to the birth of the forbidden child; Bayonetta, an Umbran Witch born of an Umbran Witch mother and a Lumen Sage father. Due to her parentage Bayonetta was born with nigh-unparalleled potential and was sealed away for centuries along with memories; the first game is about the restoration of her memories and the culimatinion in the centuries long conflict sparked by her birth, whereas Bayonetta 2 was about the reasons behind the events that kicked off the first game and the backstory of the divide between heaven and hell; angels and demons. The third game is as of now unreleased. Bayonetta is one of those series that I probably put off way too long. I heard from several sources I trust as credible that it was great and furthermore it sounded like something I would really enjoy and they were completely right, I thought it was great. You may notice with just how long the plot summary was this time that Bayonetta has a rather involved story and while I expect people to read these blogs after they've seen the series and am thus not worried about spoilers, some of the good things I talk about with Bayonetta I have to be somewhat more vague with just because it would take a while to explain all the plot points needed to understand the specifics of what I am saying.
3 Reasons I love it:
Bayonetta is very often renowned for it's really great fight system. I'm not very good at telling to be honest, and I won't pretend to be some expert in game design to use a point ;) I can tell you it felt good when I played but can't go too in detail. Just know if that's something you're interested in the series has what I am informed is a very well thought out combat system.
1: This series has a style that bleeds elegance and mysticism that I adore. I knew I would love the series from literally the first scene with Bayonetta and Witch Jeanne elegantly battling angels in the air. The series has a feminine mystical energy and a graceful elegancy in everything, even when it's being over the top sexual and action-y that makes it very appealing to my sensibilities. I would like to just watch the characters move just from how elegant they look doing anything and how much of a magical air is around it. Also this game references the Commedia, which is my favorite literary work and I thought was really cool.
2: I really like the themes of the series; themes of light and dark, the chaos of the human soul, the nature of time and memory, sexuality, mysticism; like the series themes is just a list of the things that I'm personally interested in. I think the series tackles them all quite gracefully as well and they are just embodied in the protagonist Bayonetta. Every scene in Bayonetta seems to be talking about something I am personally interested or it's an action scene (which to be fair there's a LOT off), or both.
3: Bayonetta does an amazing job at mixing the feeling of being an overpowered confident and unstoppable force of witchcraft without ever making you feel like a mary sue. This is one of the few things I can say with clarity from combat where I felt both like a strong powerful witch who can tear through celestial powers and also like if I made a single mistake I'd be dead. Bayonetta is an amazing protagonist who has massive agency and confidence while also being vulnerable (particularly in the first game without her memories) and like she is the underdog in her singular war against Heaven. This is one of the advances I think of having a protagonist who is via sexuality, mysticism, and an attitude that can range form maternal to dominatrix so clearly feminine has. Women protagonist I think are given a lot more room to be more emotionally versatile I think due to more clear expectations towards men and more ambigious ones towards women.
3 Flaws:
One thing I've heard people say is a flaw that I don't agree with is the series is too over the top to take the story seriously. While the series definitely goes over the top, and in fact revels in doing so, I find that not only does it work pretty well, but I especially don't see how that would keep the story from being taken seriously when the most over the top parts are during the gameplay battles while the story is mostly in cutscenes. It's completely possible to mostly just watch the cutscenes if crazy spectacle fights are going to diminish your enjoyment for somereason.
1: So while the cast of Bayonetta is very fun, a lot of them are quite simplistic outside of Bayonetta herself. This is a general thing spectacle fighters seem to struggle with in part because you're usually always with one character in particular so we don't get much time to learn the inner struggles of anyone but our lead, who to be fair is a fantastic lead. Some of the characters have more going on then they seem at first, however once you understand their goals; neither that or their personalities are very complex.
2: On a related note, I think the villains of Bayonnetta are kinda basic. The most interesting one by far turned out to be brainwashed unless you count Jeanne who wasn't even really a villain. The other villains are either stock celestial arrogant proud or stock demonic sinister and underhanded. It kinda seems like the villains are sometimes toys or set pieces for Bayo to destroy.
3: So this is something that might change in Bayo 3, but in general the heroine Bayonetta uses entirely dark powers which seems rather unfitting for the themes of the story. A major theme of the series is the balance of light and dark in the human soul, symbolically represented with how Bayonetta is child of light and dark...and she always uses dark powers. She summons demons and uses medevil torture devices as weapons, even when fighting against demons. I get that it fits her personality more but I am more partial to light and holy based powers then dark and unholy ones, and it seems to go against the theme that Bayonetta's powers seem no different to any of the other Umbran Witches save for being stronger.
Favorite Part:
My favorite part is probably the climax of Bayonetta 2 where she and her Lumen Sage father combine their powers to create Omne, a being of light and dark that defeats even the mad god Aesir, the creator of the trinity of realities. Despite Aesir transcending light and dark individually as the force that created both, Omne was able ot win because it was formed of the love that bound Bayonetta to her father, the love that binds darkness and light, and from their fusion creates something stronger then all of them, a perfect representation of the theme that the chaos of the human soul, made of light and darkness makes it greater then light or darkness alone would be.
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