is a series of action-adventure games created by

Hideki Kamiya is a Japanese video game designer and director who is the vice-president of PlatinumGames. He began his career in 1994 with Capcom, where he directed '' Resident Evil 2'' (1998), ''Devil May Cry'' (2001), '' Viewtiful Joe'' (2003), and ''Ō ...

and developed by

PlatinumGames PlatinumGames Inc. is a Japanese video game developer that was founded in October 2007 as result of a merger between two companies, Seeds Inc. and Odd Inc. Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Hideki Kamiya founded Seeds Inc. after the closure o ...

. The franchise was introduced in 2009 with ''

Bayonetta is a series of action-adventure games created by Hideki Kamiya and developed by PlatinumGames. The franchise was introduced in 2009 with '' Bayonetta''. Two sequels were released, ''Bayonetta 2'' (2014) and ''Bayonetta 3'' (2022), as well as a ...

''. Two sequels were released, ''

Bayonetta 2 is a 2014 action-adventure game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Nintendo. It is the sequel to the 2009 game ''Bayonetta'', and was directed by Yusuke Hashimoto and produced by Atsushi Inaba, Akiko Kuroda, and Hitoshi Yamagami, under ...

'' (2014) and ''

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 ...

'' (2022), as well as a spinoff, ''Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon'' (2023). In the games, players control a witch nicknamed

as she wields dual pistols, shooters in her high heels, and long, magically transforming hair which becomes a deadly weapon.

Games

''Bayonetta'' (2009)

The first game in the series was directed by

, who created the ''

Devil May Cry is a series of action-adventure games created by Hideki Kamiya. It is primarily developed and published by Capcom. The series centers on the demon hunter Dante and his efforts to thwart various demon invasions of Earth. Its gameplay consists o ...

'' franchise when he was working at

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

. It was the third title in Platinum's four-game contract with

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

. The game was released on October 29, 2009, in Japan, and was released worldwide in January 2010 for

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

and

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

. The game received generally positive reviews upon release. More than 1.35 million units of the game were shipped. Although it was Platinum's most commercially successful game at that time, the company was disappointed with its sales. A remastered version for the game was released alongside '' Vanquish'' for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

in February 2020.

''Bayonetta 2'' (2014)

''Bayonetta 2'' was announced in 2012 during a

Nintendo Direct Nintendo Direct is a series of online presentation or live shows produced by Nintendo, where information regarding the company's upcoming content or franchises is presented, such as information about games and consoles. The presentations began i ...

for the

Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...

. The decision received backlash from fans, since the game would not be available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Platinum was initially working with Sega to create the sequel, but Sega decided to cancel the game during the game's development.

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

subsequently revived the project. According to producer

Atsushi Inaba is a Japanese video game producer and businessman. He was the former CEO and producer of the Capcom subsidiary Clover Studio, who developed the games '' Viewtiful Joe'', ''Ōkami'', and '' God Hand''. He is currently the head producer at the dev ...

, the game would not have been possible if they did not get the funding and the support from

remained as the game's consultant. The game was directed by Yusuke Hashimoto, and Kamiya has a supervision role. The game was released in 2014 to very positive reviews. While sales have not been fully disclosed, by March 2018,

confirmed the

Switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

version had sold 400,000 copies during its first nine weeks, compared to the 300,000 copies the

version sold during the same period.

''Bayonetta 3'' (2022)

A third game in the series was announced by

The Game Awards 2017 The Game Awards 2017 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2017, and took place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on December 7, 2017. The event was hosted by Geoff Keighley, and was live streamed around the world across ...

. A gameplay trailer was shown at the September

2021. It was released for the Nintendo Switch on October 28, 2022. The game also features a playable teaser for ''Cereza and the Lost Demon'' as a secret level.

''Bayonetta Origins:'' ''Cereza and the Lost Demon'' (2023)

A prequel companion game to ''Bayonetta 3'', focusing on Cereza as a young girl, was announced by Nintendo at

The Game Awards 2022 The Game Awards 2022 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2022. The event was hosted by Geoff Keighley, creator and producer of The Game Awards, and was held to an invited audience at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on De ...

. It is set for release on Nintendo Switch on March 17, 2023.

Other media

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

film based on the first game, titled '' Bayonetta: Bloody Fate'', was produced by

Gonzo Gonzo may refer to: People * Gonzo (nickname), a list of people with the nickname * Radislav Jovanov Gonzo (born 1964), Croatian music video director Radislav Jovanov, also known as Gonzo * Matthias Röhr (born 1962), German musician whose sta ...

and released in 2013.

appears as a downloadable character in Sega's multiplayer fighting game ''

Anarchy Reigns ''Anarchy Reigns'', known in Japan as is an open world beat 'em up video game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Sega. It is the spiritual successor to the Wii video game ''MadWorld'' (2009), and was released in Japan on July 5, 2012, in ...

'', and as a special guest character alongside Jeanne and Rodin in Nintendo's action game ''

The Wonderful 101 is an action-adventure game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. The game was directed by Hideki Kamiya and produced by Atsushi Inaba; the pair also worked together on the ''Viewtiful Joe'' series and ''Ōkami''. It ...

''. She also appears as a downloadable character in ''

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and (colloquially and collectively referred to as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'') is a group of two 2014 crossover fighting video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS ...

'', and as an unlockable character in the sequel ''

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' is a 2018 crossover fighting video game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth installment in the '' Super Smash Bros.'' series, succeed ...

''. Both games also feature a stage based on the falling Umbra Clock Tower which appeared in both ''Bayonetta'' games. Rodin was also added as an Assist Trophy in ''Ultimate''. The original Bayonetta was also used as a basis for a Pachislot and an 16-bit-style browser game.

Reception

''Bayonetta'', ''Bayonetta 2'' and ''Bayonetta 3'' all received generally positive reviews from critics, according to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. ''Bayonetta 2'' was nominated for

Game of the Year Game of the Year (GotY) is an award given by various award events and media publications to a video game that they feel represented the pinnacle of gaming that year. Events and ceremonies British Academy Games Awards (BAFTA Games Awards) ...

at The Game Awards 2014, though it ultimately lost to '' Dragon Age: Inquisition''.

References

{{Divine Comedy navbox Action-adventure video games by series Hack and slash video games by series PlatinumGames games Sega Games franchises Video game franchises Video game franchises introduced in 2009 Video games about demons Video games about witchcraft Video games developed in Japan