Bayonetta (SSB4): Difference between revisions

:{{cquote|Bayonetta Gets Wicked!|cite=Introduction Tagline}}

Although Bayonetta is widely considered to be the best character in ''Smash 4'', she still has her weaknesses. Bayonetta's primary flaw is her poor frame data on the ground, with many of her grounded attacks coming out on frame 9 or later, as well as frequently having high cooldown lag, especially on her smash attacks. Some of her specials gain more landing lag the more she uses them in the air, making her landings relatively exploitable if her combos whiff. Because of their high lag, her attacks are unsafe on shield while also dealing minimal shield damage. Furthermore, despite her long recovery, Bayonetta is still considered a lightweight, and when considering her large [[hurtbox]], she is easier to hit and KO than most other characters. Finally, players must exercise caution with her Witch Time, due to its poor effectiveness on multi-hitting moves, and its lowering efficiency if used too often. Her flaws are outshined by her overwhelming strengths, however, and thus, Bayonetta still remains at first place on the tier list.

Bayonetta has achieved excellent tournament results and representation, even after she received nerfs in 1.1.6, with {{Sm|Pink Fresh}} winning {{Trn|2GGT: KTAR Saga}} with her, along with players like {{Sm|Mistake}} and {{Sm|CaptainZack}} placing high in nationals such as {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2017}} and {{Trn|GENESIS 4}} respectively, while {{Sm|Salem}} most notably achieved success from winning {{Trn|EVO 2017}}, {{Trn|DreamHack Atlanta 2017}}, {{Trn|2GGC: Fire Emblem Saga}} and {{Trn|Shine 2018}}. Additionally, {{Sm|Lima}} took first place over {{Sm|CaptainZack}} at {{Trn|EVO 2018}}, both while maining Bayonetta.

In regards to the strength of her moveset, Bayonetta also has some notably potent and/or useful attacks that can help her close out stocks, even more so with the help of her Witch Time, which serves as the glue on her surplus punishment game. All of her smash attacks are powerful and useful, with forward smash having the biggest hitbox out of them, up smash being the fastest and strongest, and down smash being a meteor smash that serves as an extremely useful edgeguarding move. Her up aerial is her main aerial to KO out of her combos, as they often take the opponent to the upper blast line, where she can finish the combo off with the up aerial to net a relatively early KO. Back aerial, while having rather slow startup, is her most powerful and damaging aerial, has incredibly long range, and can be used to finish an opponent in a similar vein to her up aerial, through the use of a combo that carries the opponent to the lateral blast lines. Down aerial's notably high base knockback often KOs opponents at very low percentages if they are below or at the stage's height. Her forward throw is strong, though due to it launching opponents at a slightly high angle and being commonly used, it can often fail to KO, and thus it is one of her last resort KOing options. Witch Twist is also infamous for causing very early KOs due to the hits' high base knockback.

Another of Bayonetta's strengths lies in her recovery, arguably the best and most flexible in the game; After Burner Kick gives her fair horizontal distance, although it can only be used once unless she hits an opponent with it. While Witch Twist comes up vertically short, she can re-use it after a midair jump. Her wall jump/cling also helps her recovery and can often leave the opponent on an unfavorable position. Lastly, there exists a glitch on which she can midair jump and immediately use Witch Twist up to three frames after, which restores her midair jump and lets her to jump up to four times, allowing for recovery mix-ups. Her punishment game and recovery complement the other well, as the immense range of her special attacks allows her to easily [[edge-guard break]] opponents, and edgeguard or KO them in return. Thus, like {{SSB4|Sheik}}, Bayonetta is among the hardest characters to successfully edgeguard, with very few characters such as {{SSB4|Palutena}} having options that can keep her away from the stage. Lastly, due to the aforementioned points above in her immense range, lingering hitboxes, excellent recovery and fast escape/reversal options in After Burner Kick, Witch Twist and Witch Time, Bayonetta has the best disadvantage state in the game, as she can immediately turn the tides on her opponent if they're careless.

Even with her set of strengths, Bayonetta has some weaknesses. Her tall frame and light weight makes her rather easy to combo and KO (though it is worth mentioning she technically has a frame 1 air dodge, making her harder to combo by characters without fast enough attacks or whose combo ability isn't perfectly linear). Her frame data is also quite polarized: while her aerial attacks have very low ending lag, many of her grounded attacks have notable start-up and ending lag, especially her smash attacks, making them unsafe on shield, and leaves her vulnerable to opponents that have better frame data than her while grounded, like {{SSB4|Pikachu}} or {{SSB4|Little Mac}}. Her smash attacks also [[Priority#Objects that do not terminate on hit|do not terminate on hit]], rendering them unable to hit any character with an active hitbox, while being unable to trade with most attacks if they make contact with her although this problem can easily be solved by hitting the opponent with a weak attack during Witch Time and then using her smash attack. Her position after performing After Burner Kick and/or Witch Twist can be exploitable, as the more of these moves she uses in the air, the longer [[landing lag]] she will receive at the end, leaving Bayonetta punishable if they are whiffed and if she is forced to land on the ground (though she can avoid this by landing with Bullet Climax or Witch Time).

Overall, Bayonetta's strengths noticeably outweigh her weaknesses. She can dish out large amounts of punishing damage in her combos once she reads the opponent and exploits their vulnerabilities, but must also be careful not to let her opponent take advantage of her own weaknesses, though due to the high range and priority her attacks have, doing so is a difficult task to begin with. Perhaps the only characters that she has problems against are those who can camp well against her, or have much a much better neutral game than she does, such as {{SSB4|Rosalina & Luma}} or {{SSB4|Diddy Kong}} for the former point and {{SSB4|Sheik}} for the latter one, but outside of that, she can easily dominate and punish characters who cannot properly capitalize on her weaknesses. She has arguably the highest tournament representation among the entire roster, with top smashers including {{Sm|Salem}}, {{Sm|Tweek}}, {{Sm|Mistake}}, {{Sm|CaptainZack}}, {{Sm|Lima}}, {{Sm|Abadango}}, {{Sm|Chag}}, {{Sm|tyroy}}, and many more using her with consistently strong results in regional and national tournaments. However, while Bayonetta was quickly considered the best character in the game upon release, opinions varied on how dominating she was in tournaments; while some regions went as far as to ban her from tournaments due to her overpowering potential, others claimed that Bayonetta's supposed potential did not yield the overwhelming success other characters had previously attained, such as Sheik and Diddy Kong. Update [[1.1.6]] ultimately nerfed a variety of Bayonetta's attributes; while not significantly crippled, her tournament representation and results both fell in response. Despite these nerfs, her excellent tournament results have led to her being widely seen as the best character in the game and one of the most competitively viable characters in the entire roster when her high learning curve is properly mastered to her fullest.

Bayonetta has been noticeably nerfed in game updates since her debut. She was at first slightly nerfed in [[1.1.5]]: her up smash and forward smash are both slightly weaker, her down aerial has more ending lag, her [[Heel Slide]] has more ending lag, her [[Witch Twist]] deals less damage, and her infamous [[Witch Time]] has more ending lag, shorter duration, decays more with each use, and has a slower regeneration rate after usage. However, these changes did not reduce her effectiveness as she was still widely perceived as the best character in the game due to her immense strengths, while the effectiveness of other top tier characters, notably {{SSB4|Sheik}} and {{SSB4|Zero Suit Samus}}, being toned down in the same patch further exacerbated her dominance.

However, [[1.1.6]] significantly nerfed Bayonetta by directly worsening her combo game, with the effectiveness of her combo starters being weakened and her combos becoming easier to escape: her down tilt and forward aerial both have slightly more ending lag, while the former has less range and the latter is less powerful, both versions of [[After Burner Kick]] and [[Witch Twist]] have doubled [[SDI]] multipliers that make it easier to escape her combos, non-input ABK has increased knockback scaling that renders it worse for comboing at high percents, input ABK's vertical launch angle is now a more horizontal launch angle that only combos into non-input ABK at high percents, (turned from a low percent combo into a high percent combo) and Witch Twist has altered knockback values that limit its combo ability at higher percentages. Despite these changes, however, people have compared her to {{SSB4|Diddy Kong}} in that while she initially seemed to be much less effective after her nerfs, her greatest strengths have remained intact.

Bayonetta was eventually nerfed in update [[1.1.6]] and her perception and tournament results declined as a result. Even so, while her perception suddenly dropped in the eyes of many smashers, it gradually became positive again due to her players adopting a newer, more creative playstyle, similar to {{SSB4|Diddy Kong}} after update [[1.0.8]]. While her results were initially not as amazing as before, her strong tournament representation and results culminated in her being placed at 11th place on the second ''4BR'' tier list. Bayonetta's representation and results would grow as time passed, in particular due to {{Sm|Salem}}, {{Sm|CaptainZack}}, {{Sm|Pink Fresh}} and {{Sm|saj}}'s strong results within their regions, with the former two also making it to top eight at two major tournaments. As a result of this, she moved to 1st on the third tier list (in another similarity to Diddy Kong with the previous tier list); this tier rise is the second largest between the second and third tier lists, with people stating that while the nerfs did make a difference in how simple it was to pick her up, they did not hold her back from being one of the best characters in the game.

At first, opinions on Bayonetta's placing on the tier list were mixed, as some people were in favor of her taking the top spot, whereas others believed that her dominance was not as high as other characters like Diddy Kong and Sheik. However, following Salem's victories at supermajors {{Trn|EVO 2017}} and {{Trn|DreamHack Atlanta 2017}}, most people agreed that she was the best character in the game, which, combined with Bayonetta's more consistent results, allowed her to hold the 1st placing on the fourth and final tier list.

By the end of the game's main competitive lifespan, Bayonetta's first place status was unchallenged, as numerous top players including {{Sm|MkLeo}} and {{Sm|Tweek}} began using her. Most major tournaments in 2018 had at least two to three Bayonetta players in the top eight, and by the end of the [[PGR v5]] season, there were five players ranked with Bayonetta in the top ten, the most out of all the characters in the game. Her dominance in the metagame gave way to hate from the ''Smash'' community, with a good portion of the community stating that they do not enjoy playing against the character because of her perceived brokenness.

=====Banned (lifted after 1.1.6)=====

Certain regions banned or considered banning Bayonetta from their tournaments, believing that, unlike {{SSB4|Sheik}} before update 1.1.5, she was very simple to play as. Following the tremendous number of nerfs she received in update 1.1.6, however, these regions lifted their ban.

Bayonetta's default outfit is based on her appearance in ''Bayonetta 2'' and is equipped with [[Media:Love is Blue - Bayo2.png|Love is Blue]]. She has an alternate outfit based on her appearance in the original ''Bayonetta'', known as "A Witch With No Memories", and is equipped with [[Media:Scarborough Fair - Bayo1.png|Scarborough Fair]]. Depending on the costume, various visual effects will be one of two colors (which directly correlates to the aesthetic theme of both Bayonetta games): Blue for ''Bayonetta 2'' and red for ''Bayonetta''. One of Bayonetta's alternate outfit color schemes is based on Jeanne, her childhood friend and friendly rival. While using Jeanne's color scheme, Bayonetta's Smash attacks as well as her final smash will have the hair surrounding Madama Butterfly's limbs and Gomorrah colored white.

 

Her appearance while doing Wicked Weaves (summoning Madama Butterfly in her smash attacks and summoning Gomorrah in [[Infernal Climax]]) is less revealing than in the ''Bayonetta'' games, as she retains most of her clothing while performing them.

 

In the Japanese version of the game, Bayonetta is voiced in Japanese by Atsuko Tanaka while wearing her ''Bayonetta 2'' outfit and in English by Hellena Taylor while wearing her original outfit, making her the the only character who speaks a different language depending on the costume. This references the fact that ''Bayonetta'' did not have Japanese voice acting in its initial release; Japanese dubbing was introduced for the [[Wii U]] version after Hideki Kamiya was impressed with the Japanese voice-acting done for the animated movie: ''[https://bayonetta.fandom.com/wiki/Bayonetta:_Bloody_Fate Bayonetta: Bloody Fate]''.

**When Bayonetta jumps, she leaves behind a blue Umbra Witch symbol, and emits a magenta Umbra Witch symbol and when she lands. However, she does not emit the symbol [https://devilmaycry.fandom.com/wiki/File:Bayonetta_Air_Hike_(Screenshot)_Bayo2.png during her double jump].

**Her on-screen appearance is a reference to when she enters [https://bayonetta.fandom.com/wiki/Purgatorio Purgatorio], as she appears within the realm via the Umbra Witches' symbol.

**She has a special idle pose once she stops any ground attack, which returns to her standard idle pose after a few seconds pass. This is based on her attack pose from her home franchise. Her arms down position is used when traversing open areas with no enemies, while holding her arms up with her guns, and placing one foot on its toe, is the pose she takes when enemies are near by. Players performing attack animations in her home series without enemies near by will have her take her attack pose for a few seconds, before reverting into her idle pose.

*In an interview with [[Masahiro Sakurai]], he stated that including Bayonetta in the game was not an easy task. He had problems coming up with a unique moveset for her in the game, so he opted to bring in her attacks directly from ''Bayonetta 2'', which explains why she is a combo-based fighter instead having the standard one or two-hit attacks most characters have. He also stated that he initially had trouble balancing Bayonetta's sexual nature to fit the games' rating in Japan, as even the slightest sexual exposure would have boosted the games' family rating to a more mature one.<ref>https://nintendoeverything.com/sakurai-on-the-inclusion-of-cloud-corrin-and-bayonetta-in-smash-bros-wii-u3ds/</ref>