Bayonetta: Difference between revisions

|image        = {{tabber|width=250px|height=300px|title1=Bayonetta 2|tab1=<br><br>[[File:Bayonetta - Bayo2.png|250px]]|title2=Bayonetta|tab2=[[File:Bayonetta - Bayo1.png|x300px]]}}

|firstgame    = ''{{s|wikipedia|Bayonetta}}'' (2009)

|lastappearance = ''Earth UFO Catcher'' (2020)

|console      = PlayStation 3,<br>Xbox 360

|species      = Human

|creator      = {{s|wikipedia|Hideki Kamiya}}

Bayonetta is one of the last members of the Umbra Witches, an entirely female clan of black magic practitioners. Umbra Witches form contracts with Inferno, granting them immense strength, knowledge, and the ability to summon Infernal Demons, in exchange for losing their souls upon death. Bayonetta is bound to the mighty Infernal Demon [[Madama Butterfly]], whose limbs she can conjure to attack. She can also summon other demons, using her hair as a power source; since she also uses her hair to form her outfit, her clothing, which happens to be her hair, disappears during summoning.

Bayonetta was born in 1411 as Cereza to Umbra Witch Rosa and Lumen Sage Balder. A law from both clans states that "The intersection of light and dark would bring calamity to this earth." The birth of Cereza breaks that law and causes a rift between with witches and sages that would eventually escalate into the clan wars. Rosa and Balder were ostracized from their respective clans, and Cereza was taken in by the witches. An outcast in her clan, Cereza had a lonely childhood. The only friend she ever had was a fellow child witch named Jeanne, who would often play with her. 20 years after the start of the clan wars, as series of events known as the witch hunts begin. Jeanne was selected to be the leader of the witches during the hunts. Her final test was to battle whoever she believed was the strongest witch, which she decided was Cereza. During their battle, they were interrupted by an angel attack. Balder was falsely accused of leading this attack, which led to the death of Rosa. After learning this, Cereza loses her will to fight and allows Jeanne to kill her. Understanding that that something is not right, she instead seals Cereza away in a red jewel and throws it into the bottom of the lake to hide.

Some time after this, Bayonetta and the rest of the main cast are seen doing their Christmas shopping when angels attack the city. However, Bayonetta's summonable demons go rogue and attack her instead. Jeanne sacrifices herself to save Bayonetta and her soul is dragged into Inferno. The only way to retrieve Jeanne's soul is to go to Inferno themselves. They find a portal in Fimbulventr and travel to it. On the way, Bayonetta meets a young boy named Loki who has powers similar to herself. Loki has no memories, so Bayonetta agrees to work with him to get his memories back. They both eventually come across Loptr, a mysterious masked Lumen who seems to know who Loki is. Loptr shows Bayonetta a vision of the past, which reveals that Balder was not responsible for the witch hunts and in fact tried to save Rosa before her death. The real killer was a mysterious figure that looked like Loki, but the vision ends before the identity was revealed. Bayonetta makes her way through the real Gates of Hell and defeats the demoness Alraune, who took Jeanne's soul. As Jeanne slowly revives, she tells Bayonetta that something big is about to happen. During all of this, Loki is attacked by a masked Lumen, who is revealed to be a young Balder from the past. As they fight, Loki releases a big shockwave that sends everyone to the time of the witch hunts. Bayonetta meets an alive Rosa, and both fight of the angels. The true killer is revealed to by Loptr, who was the real mastermind behind the witch hunts. Back in the present, Loptr reveals that he and Loki are two halves of Aesir, the god of chaos. Loptr takes control of Loki and becomes Aesir. But Bayonetta and Balder defeat him, with Jeanne destroying the physical body of Loptr. The soul of Loptr attempts to kill everyone one last time, but Balder absorbs it. This would eventually turn him into his evil self, but before he corrupted fully, he told Bayonetta to kill him if it came to it. Loki, having fulfilled his purpose, fades away, but says he might return when he reincarnates again. Afterwards, Bayonetta and Jeanne continue with some after holidays shopping, but are interrupted by another angel attack.

Bayonetta's signature weapons are a collection of 4 guns, 2 used in her hands, and 2 attached to her heels. In ''Bayonetta'', they were red and name Scarborough Fair. In ''Bayonetta 2'', they were blue and named Love is Blue. Using all 4 in combat is known as [[Bullet Arts]]. They have unlimited ammunition and are used to kill enemies at a distance or juggle them in the air. Bayonetta also has a plethora of Umbran witch abilities to use in conjunction with her weapons. The most famous ability is [[Witch Time]], where dodging just before getting hit grants her super speed — causing everything around her to appear in slow motion. If the dodge is too early or too late, Witch Time will not activate, but Bat Within will instead. Her most powerful ability is the [[Infernal Climax]], where she can summon demons to do her bidding in combat.

Bayonetta appears as a newcomer in ''Super Smash Bros. 4'', and is the seventh and final [[downloadable content|downloadable character]] announced. According to [[Masahiro Sakurai]], she was the winner of the [[Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot]], being the highest-voted character in Europe and among the top 5 in North America, making her the overall #1 worldwide among realizable characters. Her appearance is based off of her redesign for ''Bayonetta 2'', while four of her [[alternate costume]]s are based off her appearance in the first ''Bayonetta'', which is known as "A Witch With No Memories". She was confirmed during the Super Smash Bros. - Final Video Presentation on December 15th, 2015, and was released on February 3rd, 2016.

Bayonetta is currently placed 1st out of 55 characters on the [[tier list]], placing her at the top of the S tier. Bayonetta's most noteworthy attribute is her combo-orientated playstyle, with many moves reliably connecting into each other, even potentially scoring her a [[Zero-to-death]]. She can also deal damage easily from afar, as almost all of her attacks can inflict damage via [[Bullet Arts]]. She also possesses a powerful [[counterattack]] in [[Witch Time]], which, if it connects, slows down the opponent, usually allowing enough time for her to strike them with a powerful attack that can easily KO them. Despite her strong positives, she does have some weaknesses, such as average frame data on the ground, and her tall and light build makes her fairly easy to KO. Although Bayonetta would go on to receive considerable [[nerf]]s in updates [[1.1.5]] and [[1.1.6]], the latter of which weakened her powerful combo game somewhat, she is still a highly regarded character by top competitive players, acquiring very strong tournament representation and results.

 

:'''Bayonetta'''

::{{flag|North America}} ''Bayonetta is one of the last of the near-extinct Umbra Witches clan. She's a master of the Bullet Arts and can use her hair as a conduit to bring forth Infernal Demons. She brings all these skills and more to Smash, where she'll unleash additional damage if you hold the attack button. Damage and distract your foes with this move!''

::{{flag|Europe}} ''Bayonetta is one of the last of the long-extinct Umbra Witches clan. She's a master of the Bullet Arts, and can use her hair as a conduit to bring forth Infernal Demons. She brings all these skills and more to Smash, where if you hold down the attack button, she'll fire bullets at the enemy. They don't just do damage; they even work as a feint!''

{{Trophy games|console1=none|game1=Bayonetta (01/2010)|console2=WiiU|game2=Bayonetta 2 (10/2014)}}

 

{{Trophy games|console1=none|game1=Bayonetta (01/2010)|console2=WiiU|game2=Bayonetta 2 (10/2014)}}

 

::{{flag|North America}} ''This Umbra Witch awakens after hundreds of years without any memories of her past life. Usually Bayonetta spends her days pretending to be a nun to lure out angels, until a witch with the same powers as her starts to slowly bring her memories back. She ends up embroiled in a battle to save the world.''

 

::{{flag|Europe}} ''This Umbra Witch awakens after hundreds of years without any memories of her past life. She spends her days with shenanigans like dressing as a nun to lure out angels to fight, until a witch with the same powers as her starts to slowly bring her memories back. As her memories return, she ends up embroiled in a battle to save the world!''

{{Trophy games|console1=none|game1=Bayonetta (01/2010)}}

 

::''A small girl Bayonetta finds wandering the stronghold city of Vigrid with her stuffed toy, Chesire. For some reason, Cereza is convinced Bayonetta is her "mummy" and wants to be just like her. No human should be able to see angels, but somehow Cereza can...''

{{Trophy games|console1=none|game1=Bayonetta (01/2010)}}

[[File:Bayonetta_SSBU.png|thumb|right|Official artwork of Bayonetta in ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate''.]]

Bayonetta returns in ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' as a playable character, retaining both of her designs based on her appearances in ''Bayonetta 2'' and the original ''Bayonetta''. Unlike ''Smash 4'', she is now available in the base game as an [[unlockable character]]. Likely due to her status as a top tier character in the previous installment, she was heavily [[nerf]]ed in her transition to ''Ultimate'' (evidenced after {{Sm|MkLeo}} performed a [[ladder combo]] with her in front of [[Masahiro Sakurai]] during the [[Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018]]). She now has much more [[lag]] on a lot of moves, a slightly less flexible combo game, and shortened reach on her Bullet Arts.

{{clear}}

***This is likely a reference to [[Akira Yuki]] from the ''Virtua Fighter'' series, who frequently says the exact same phrase. The assist trophy in ''Ultimate'' even uses that phrase as his disappearing quote.

*The "Bayonetta (Original)" trophy states that Bayonetta pretends to be a nun in order to lure in angels. However, this is partially incorrect, as the ''Bayonetta'' art book reveals that she actually does work as a nun. This is reinforced by her appearance in ''{{uvm3|The Wonderful 101}}'', which lists nun as her occupation and, like the ''Bayonetta'' series, was developed by PlatinumGames.