is a 2009 action-adventure game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Sega. It was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan in October 2009, and in North America and Europe in January 2010. It was released on Wii U in September 2014, Windows in April 2017, Nintendo Switch in February 2018, and PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in February 2020.
Bayonetta takes place in Vigrid, a fictional city in Europe. The game stars the eponymous character, a witch who nominally wields a variety of powerful firearms but can also use her hair to shapeshift, summon powerful demons, and execute powerful attacks. Stricken with amnesia, Bayonetta travels to Vigrid hoping to learn the truth of her past, while seeking to thwart a plot by her enemies, the angels of Heaven, to bring about apocalypse on Earth.
The game features a rating system, which gives players a grade based on their performance, and a combat system similar to the Devil May Cry series. Although unlike Devil May Cry, which features a live Style Rank to directly judge the player, Bayonetta (and subsequent Platinum action games) feature an arena based ranking system, which judges players based on variables such as time, combo points and damage at the end of each individual fight which then gets tallied up at the end of each chapter to determine the final rank.
Bayonetta was the third project released by PlatinumGames, which was founded by former Clover Studio employees. Development began in January 2007, with Hideki Kamiya as the director. The development team's name, "Team Little Angels," is a play on the name of the team who developed the first Devil May Cry game, "Team Little Devils." According to Kamiya, Bayonetta was completely original, though he drew some inspirations from Scandinavian mythology and played Devil May Cry 4 for reference. The game was designed to have a core theme of "sexiness" and to feature "fashionable" characters. To this end, Kamiya and artist Mari Shimazaki spent more than a year creating Bayonetta's design. Several demos were released prior to launch.
Bayonetta received critical acclaim upon its release. The game was praised for its combat, presentation, and soundtrack, but also drew some criticism for its story and quick time events. The game was nominated for and won several end-of-the-year accolades, had sold over one million units worldwide by 2010, and is considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made. An anime film adaptation by Gonzo, Bayonetta: Bloody Fate, was released in Japan in November 2013. The game was followed by Bayonetta 2 (2014), Bayonetta 3 (2022), and Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (2023).
Gameplay
Bayonetta is a single-player, third-person 3D action-adventure and hack and slash game. The player controls a witch named Bayonetta, is able to use melee and long ranged attacks and is able to select multiple weapons. By pressing a combination of buttons, they are able to use "Wicked Weave" attacks and they are also able to use "Torture Attacks" in which Bayonetta summons a variety of devices to deal strong damage to enemies. Such devices range from chainsaws to iron maidens. One ability Bayonetta has is "Witch Time", which activates when the player makes a well-timed dodge to an attack. This temporarily increases her speed, causing enemies to appear to move in slow-motion, allowing Bayonetta to inflict massive amounts of counter damage before the enemies can react.
The player can double jump for extra height, perform evasive backflips, and destroy background objects and doors. Camera views can be rotated, enemy targets can be locked on, and weapons can be switched during play. With unlockable transformations, the player can make Bayonetta become a panther or one of various other living creatures to enhance her abilities. Lollipops can be used to heal her, replenish her magic, induce invincibility or increase her strength, although using these items, as well as dying, lowers the score for that chapter. By finding various component items, the player can combine them into new items. Many enemies and objects drop halos when destroyed, which the player can use to buy items, techniques and weapon upgrades. The player can use enemy weapons, either to directly attack or as props for movement. Bayonetta's strongest attacks allow her to summon parts of Madama Butterfly and other demons with her hair.
During development, five difficulty modes were created: "Very Easy", "Easy", "Normal", "Hard", and "Non-Stop Infinite Climax". On Easy and Very Easy, a "Very Easy Automatic" mode is made available in which the game positions Bayonetta to perform attacks on enemies, and the player only needs to press one button to execute elaborate combos, unless they wish to perform their own choice of movements or attacks. Kamiya posted a video on the game's official website in which character designer Mari Shimazaki demonstrated the mode (which Kamiya "jokingly called 'Mommy Mode) in Bayonetta. He expected players to first complete the game in 10 to 12 hours, but believed that its rating system (similar to that of Viewtiful Joe, which he directed) and the pursuit of high scores provide replay value. The game has a fixed button configuration; Kamiya said that "there wasn't really a point to changing [it]."
Story
Setting and characters Bayonetta takes place in Vigrid, a fictional city in Europe. Bayonetta (voiced by Hellena Taylor / Atsuko Tanaka) is a witch who shapeshifts and uses various firearms, along with magical attacks she performs with her hair by summoning demons to dispatch her foes. She awakens after a 500-year sleep and finds herself in an unfamiliar area with no memories of who or what she is. Over time, she begins to remember what caused her current predicament. Five hundred years before the incident that caused Bayonetta's memory loss, there were two factions preserving the balance between darkness and light in the world: the Umbra Witches, who are followers of darkness, and their counterparts, the Lumen Sages, who are followers of light. The factions shared two distinct treasures, the 'Eyes of the World' (separately named the 'Left Eye of Darkness' and the 'Right Eye of Light') which they used to oversee the just passage of time. Both factions mysteriously disappeared from Vigrid under unknown circumstances. Bayonetta has an ornate piece of jewelry which contains a small red gem, and believes this gem is the Left Eye of the World. While searching for the Right Eye, she occasionally receives flashbacks that make her remember what happened.
Other characters include (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal / Daisuke Namikawa), who met Bayonetta as a child; Bayonetta's rival and fellow Umbra Witch (voiced by Grey DeLisle[ / Mie Sonozaki), who wields four guns like Bayonetta; (voiced by Dave Fennoy / Tesshō Genda), the owner of a bar called the Gates Of Hell where Bayonetta can buy various weapons and items; an informant named (voiced by Chick Vennera / Wataru Takagi) who looks and sounds similar to actor Joe Pesci and provides comic relief; a young girl named (voiced by Joy Jillian / Miyuki Sawashiro) whom Bayonetta meets early in the game; and the main antagonist (voiced by Grant Albrecht / Norio Wakamoto).
The game settings borrow from Dante's Divine Comedy: Paradiso (heaven), which generally takes the form of a heavenly yellow or golden valley or palace and is the home of the "Angel" enemies she faces; Purgatorio (purgatory), a metarealm that functions as an "in between" for metaphysical beings and stands alongside yet outside of the plane humans exist on (all beings in and outside of Purgatorio take on a transparent, watery appearance); Inferno (hell), which is not visited in the game, but contains the infernal demons that Bayonetta summons in combat, using her hair as a conduit.
Plot Bayonetta, a witch who was awakened twenty years ago from the bottom of a lake, has no memories of her past. Owning one-half of a pair jewels known as the "Eyes of the World," Bayonetta leaves for Vigrid when the informant Enzo informs her of rumors that the other half, the 'Right Eye' is there. She is capable of traversing between Paradiso and Chaos, the realms of angels and humans respectively, but not able to enter Inferno, the realm of demons. While at Vigrid, she encounters various angels from Paradiso who attempt but fail to kill her.
Bayonetta confronts another Umbra Witch named Jeanne, who seemingly has ties to Bayonetta's past, and a young man named Luka, who blames Bayonetta for his father's death when he discovered her. Eventually, Bayonetta discovers that Jeanne is associated with the angels somehow, and fights her again. Afterwards, she meets a lost child named Cereza, who believes Bayonetta to be her mother and starts following her. Returning to the human world, Bayonetta continues her search for the Right Eye, journeying to an island named Isla del Sol with Luka and Cereza, while gradually remembering her past and uncovering the answers to her questions: she and Jeanne are the only survivors of the Umbra Witches, which was rendered near extinction after a clan war with the Lumen Sage clan, followed a massive witch hunt led by the angels of Paradiso. She also discovered that both halves of the Eyes of the World are artifacts created by Aesir (also known as The Overseer), the God of the human realm who decided to grant humans free will out of pity, by bestowing the eyes (which contain his power) separately to both Lumen Sages and Umbra Witches. Additionally, Paradiso, Chaos and Inferno were originally a single realm before it was split during an event called First Armageddon.
Bayonetta is confronted again by Jeanne, who explains Bayonetta was a child born from an Umbra Witch and a Lumen Sage, a forbidden union. Bayonetta defeats Jeanne, who reveals the reason Bayonetta possesses the Left Eye is because she has accepted her fate. Bayonetta hands Jeanne the gem she had been carrying, making her remember she is Cereza, and that Jeanne was once her friend; it was Jeanne who sealed her away during the Witch Hunt, giving Bayonetta the gem to protect her and the Left Eye. After Jeanne seemingly sacrifices herself to save Bayonetta, the latter continues through the tower with Luka and Cereza.
At the top, Bayonetta meets Balder, the last of the Lumen Sages. Balder reveals he is Bayonetta's father, and plans to reunite the three realms by resurrecting Jubileus the Creator, the ruler of Paradiso. He also reveals that Bayonetta herself is the Left Eye, but for her to awaken it, she had to regain her memories. For that reason, he brought Cereza, who is Bayonetta as a child, from the past, to awaken her memories. Confronted by Luka, he throws him to his death, revealing he was the one behind the death of Luka's father, and further reveals that he had mind-controlled Jeanne to do his bidding. Bayonetta fights and seemingly kills Balder, and saves Luka.
After returning Cereza to the past, leaving behind her watch and some parting words, Bayonetta returns to the present. However, her actions have caused her to alter the events leading to her sealing 500 years ago, changing the past and awakening the Left Eye, causing her to collapse from the overwhelming power. Balder, who had survived the fight, transports himself and the unconscious Bayonetta towards the statue on top of the tower, beginning the resurrection of Jubileus. As the statue launches into space, Jeanne, who had survived, reappears, free from Balder's control. She ascends the launching statue on her motorcycle; reaching Bayonetta, she saves her, but Jubileus comes alive, consuming Balder. Bayonetta defeats Jubileus by summoning Queen Sheba, who punches the deity's soul into the sun. As Jubileus' physical body plummets towards Earth, Jeanne and Bayonetta destroy it.
The epilogue, mirroring the start of the game, shows Jeanne and Bayonetta continuing to battle against the angels.
Development