Bayonetta 2 Review

Nintendo funded a hyper stylish character action sequel starring a witch who fights with her hair, and the mismatch produced the best game in the genre. Bayonetta 2 keeps the dodge offset system that lets you interrupt a combo, dodge, then resume the string exactly where you dropped it, which is still the most generous expression of skill any action game offers, and adds Umbran Climax as a release valve for crowd control.

Witch Time remains the perfect risk mechanic, since it pays you for dodging at the last possible frame rather than for dodging often. It is more legible than the first game and marginally easier, which purists grumble about and everyone else quietly benefits from. The set pieces are ludicrous in the correct way, all falling buildings and angel armies, and it never drops below sixty frames while staging them. The story is nonsense delivered with total conviction, exactly as intended. Platinum at the peak of its craft, on the console least equipped to sell it.