Bayonetta 3

Bayonetta 3 is a 2022  action-adventure game  developed by  PlatinumGames  and published by  Nintendo  for the  Nintendo Switch . It was directed by Yusuke Miyata and produced by Yuji Nakao, with the  Bayonetta  creator  Hideki Kamiya  as supervising director. It was announced in December 2017, and was released on October 28, 2022. The game follows the titular angel-hunting witch  Bayonetta , who must face against man-made bioweapons called Homunculi, and an entity known as the Singularity which threatens to destroy the  multiverse . She is assisted by an ensemble of characters, including a coven of alternate universe versions of herself; and a new witch-in-training named Viola. Following its initial announcement at  The Game Awards 2017 , news on the game went dormant while PlatinumGames worked to release games such as  Astral Chain , which was developed concurrently. The game had its first full reveal with gameplay in September 2021 during a  Nintendo Direct  presentation. Bayonetta's original voice actor, Hellena Taylor, was replaced by  Jennifer Hale  after a pay dispute. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics, with praise for the gameplay, but criticism for the story, camera controls, and performance issues. Bayonetta 3 , like its predecessors, is an action  hack and slash  game in which players control the eponymous protagonist  Bayonetta  as she combats various enemies using a combination of melee attacks and gunplay. Dodging enemy attacks at the last second triggers a state known as "Witch Time", during which time and enemies slow down, allowing Bayonetta to continually attack them without interruption, or traverse in real-time to solve environmental puzzles. Unique to this game are the "Demon Slave" and "Demon Masquerade" mechanics, the former of which differs from the preceding Climax Summon and Umbran Climax features in the first two titles, and instead allows players to take direct control of one of Bayonetta's Infernal Demons to perform various attacks and special abilities, some of which are advantageous to particular scenarios depending on the demon being controlled. The latter meanwhile, allows Bayonetta to directly fuse with a summoned Infernal Demon, granting her access to magic-based abilities, including new attack and traversal options. A new playable character, Viola, can only activate Witch Time through the use of a  parry  mechanic, and whose only Demon Slave Cheshire cannot be manually controlled. When Viola summons Cheshire, she switches from a sword-based fighting style to a fist-based fighting style. In addition to the game's standard presentation, a new display mode known as the "Naive Angel Mode" is introduced. This mode conceals displays of nudity during gameplay and cinematics, such as Bayonetta's various dances to summon her Wicked Weaves using her clothing as a conduit, as well as the more graphic designs of certain enemies and demons.