Bayonetta



""Nonstop Climax Action.""

- Game's tagline

Bayonetta is a third person action Beat'Em Up in the style of Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden and God of War, starring the title heroine, a Badass witch with epic hair, guns on her feet, and a fathomless fondness for Camp.

The plot is as follows: Bayonetta is an Umbra Witch, the (almost) last of a clan that pledges their soul to demonic power so they can fight against the angelic beings of Paradiso. Waking up from a five-hundred year sleep and seeking her lost memories, she travels to the European city of Vigrid, whose spiritual make-up is getting uncomfortably close to that of Paradiso. There, she hopes to find the mysterious "Right Eye", the other half of the "Eyes Of The World" broach she possesses. There she meets another Witch named Jeanne who seems to know more about Bayonetta than herself, an Intrepid Reporter named Luka who has a long-lived grudge against her and a seemingly lost little girl named Cereza. Her memories return progressively as she proceeds through the city while kicking a lot of ass.

Its unabashedly sexual themes caused some amount of controversy, but the fact that the game was developed by the formerly dissolved Clover Studios (now reassembled as Platinum Games) and the director of Okami (with which Bayonetta shares a character designer, Mari Shimazaki), Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 2 and Viewtiful Joe piqued the interest of many gamers who might otherwise have taken a more cynical stance on the matter.

The Xbox 360 version received rave reviews, even becoming only the 12th game to ever be awarded a perfect 40 score in Famitsu and the eleventh to receive 10/10 in Edge. The Play Station 3 version has suffered porting issues and has received solid, but not glowing reviews. Spoilers will be marked when possible, but there are still some unmarked spoilers.

Not to be confused with Bullet Witch. Nothing to do with Bayonet Ya either.

"Enzo: Aw, c'mon!"
 * Action Commands: Torture Attacks, Climax Attacks and . May overlap with Press X to Not Die for some sequences.
 * Action Mom: Cereza may not be her daughter, but Bayonetta protects her like one.
 * Subverted when it turns out that . Zig-Zagging Trope indeed.
 * Affably Evil: The Cardinal Virtues are generally very polite and respectful when they speak to Bayonetta -- certainly more polite and respectful than she is to them.
 * All There in the Manual: Information about various topics in the game are found in literal manuals that you can pick up on the field and read. Plus there's The Hierachy of Laguna that has info on all the enemies in the game.
 * Almost Kiss/Nonchalant Dodge: Bayonetta to.
 * Always a Bigger Fish/Summon Bigger Fish: Part of how Bayonetta defeats the below mentioned.
 * Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: You face the final boss in a . Not sure how that works... but it's awesome.
 * The Bonus Boss,, teleports both you and him to one of these - likely so won't be ruined during the battle.
 * An Axe to Grind: Beloveds.
 * And Now for Someone Completely Different: At the beginning of the Epilogue, you play as as she rushes to save Bayonetta from . It doesn't sound like much unless you know that you spend it.
 * You can also unlock and  as playable characters. The former can't activate Witch Time as easily and the latter is a Two Hit Point Wonder. Makes the game a bit harder in both cases.
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes: Complete the game on Normal and you can buy Couture Bullets to change your outfit.
 * Animal Motifs: Butterflies all over the place for Bayonetta.
 * Moths for Jeanne.
 * seems to have a peacock theme.
 * Anime Theme Song: MiChi's "Something Missing" for the live-action commercials. The lyrics are a mix of Japanese and English, due to MiChi being born in England from a Japanese mother and English father.
 * Apocalypse How:.
 * Arc Words: "May Jubileus, the Creator, grace you!" This is said by all the Cardinal Virtues Bayonetta faces, and becomes Fridge Horror when you realize.
 * "The, our treasured , will never fall into the hands of another!"
 * "My dear, sweet child."
 * Armed Legs: Guns. On. Feet. The Durga set when equipped to the legs and Odette ice skates cleave closer to usual use of this trope. We don't even know if the leg-mounted Lt. Col. Kilgore tonfas fall under this or a particularly over-the-top example of Pistol-Whipping, though.
 * Or Leg Cannon. Either way, Rule of Cool.
 * Artistic License Gun Safety: Notoriously bad for this. Firing indiscriminately and wildly while fighting (especially in enclosed spaces) is ridiculously unsafe in itself, but anyone who twirls pistols during punch combos, wields shoe guns that apparently fire themselves and adjusts their glasses with the business end of a pistol is just asking to be killed by misfire.
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Most of the bosses.
 * Author Appeal: As Mari Shimazaki stated in her character design blog, "Glasses! This was something that Kamiya-san really pushed for, as he was aiming to differentiate Bayonetta from other female characters and give her a sense of mystery and intelligence. Of course, I think it is just because he likes girls with glasses."
 * Awesome but Impractical: A particularly damaging projectile/beam attack requires Bayonetta to equip a sword, lock onto an enemy, and stand perfectly still for several seconds until she draws a circle in the air with her weapon. The process of preparing the attack takes about eight seconds, so unless Bayonetta is invincible at the time, there aren't many chances to use it.
 * Pillow Talk is this. You have to stop and charge for two seconds to activate its Game Breaker form and it only lasts a few seconds. When in normal form it's slightly less powerful than Shuraba, and in both cases you can't do wicked weaves, making the weapon quite risky to use. Against big bosses, it's permanently in Super Mode… but so are all the other weapons anyway. And since it cannot do Wicked Weaves, it is actually less effective than regular weapons in those fights.
 * Most weapons enemies drop also fall in this category - a lot of them are stronger, but much slower than Bayonetta's standard fare, meaning combo-chaining is hard, and you tend to only get a few (or one) use out of them.
 * Awesomeness Meter: You're ranked either Stone (Enzo), Bronze (Cereza), Silver (Luka), Gold (Rodin), Platinum (Bayonetta herself), or Pure Platinum (Bayonetta holding a purple crescent over her head), depending on how well you did at the end of each chapter.
 * Badass Biker: Bayonetta and Jeanne.
 * Bad Habits: Bayonetta dresses up like a nun at the beginning of the game, as does at the end of the game.
 * Barehanded Blade Block: Attempted by a monster in one of Bayonetta's Torture Attack sequences... with a chainsaw several meters long. Not at all unexpectedly, it fails.
 * Bayonetta Can Breathe In Space: too.
 * Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The description of an item you can buy from Rodin states that Cleopatra was a head witch in the Ancient Egypt.
 * Beyond the Impossible: At one point, Bayonetta starts a motorcycle by jamming her middle finger into the ignition switch.
 * BFG: Lt. Col. Kilgore. A set of ROCKET LAUNCHER TONFAS. Quadruple wielded, of course!
 * Big Damn Heroes:.
 * Luka has his moments a few times too, usually involving a stolen vehicle of some kind.
 * Bilingual Bonus: Bayonetta's summoning chants, the angels' dialogue/battle cries, and some of Balder's battle cries are said in Enochian, "the language of angels".
 * Throughout the game, there is a lot of text written in angelic and demonic script. For those interested in what it all actually says, here's a guide.
 * Black and Grey Morality: On one side, you have the forces of Heaven, who are not above slaughtering humans and merging realities for their own ends. On the other side, you have the forces of Hell, whose reputation precedes them.
 * Blood Knight: Sure she has to kill angels to keep demons from dragging her to Hell, but it's pretty clear she enjoys punishing angels a bit too much. Nearly every fight scene begins and ends with a smile on her face (with a few very serious exceptions) and, other than recovering her memories, she states that one of the initial reasons she was going to Vigrid was because the weak angels being sent at her had her bored.
 * Bonus Boss: . Possibly one of the hardest bonus bosses in a hack and slash game ever, expect Bayonetta to get her perky ass kicked a few dozen times before you defeat him. Also might be the best example of this boss in a game like this that isn't really story related.
 * A second bonus boss can be fought at the end of Angel Slayer mode. It turns out to be.
 * Bonus Level of Hell/Bonus Level of Heaven: The Lost Chapter Angel Slayer . Going through dozens of waves of enemies and insane bosses (fighting two Jeannes on Hard setting being one of the easiest) wouldn't be fun if you could use healing items, would it? Also the difficulty setting starts on Normal and increases progressively, ending with Non-Stop Climax. And if you die, don't expect you can just select "yes" at the continue screen cause there are no check-points: you are expected to do all of it in one shot. Nintendo Hard indeed.
 * Book Ends:.
 * The in the ending invokes this trope several times:
 * First, the conversation between Bayonetta and Luka..
 * On a lesser note: In the Prologue,.
 * And, of course, the nun outfit.
 * Boss-Only Level: Each of the Four Cardinal Virtues resides in these, though one has a few enemies before the boss.
 * Boss in Mook Clothing: Gracious and Glorious are exactly the same as Grace and Glory but are faster, more agressive, more damaging, and you can't normally get Witch Time off of them. Expect to see the four of them a lot in hard mode.
 * Plus they have no problem with breaking out of your combos, while theirs (particularly their midair ones) require equal parts perfect timing and sheer luck to dodge out of.
 * Or you can block them with the Moon of Maha Kaala.
 * Boss Subtitles: Every time a new type of enemy appears (except Gracious and Glorious, most likely because they are the only enemy that doesn't appear on the two easiest difficulties), it's accompanied with a short cut scene and a Pastel-Chalked Freeze-Frame that gives the name and class of the enemy. Is also used to remind the player to put on an appropriate Oh Crap face when.
 * . Somebody with a title like "The Infinite One" probably isn't one to be messed with.
 * Bragging Theme Tune: "Mysterious Destiny" is mostly this, although the lyrics are not only about Bayonetta's awesomeness.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy:.
 * Bring It/Taunt Button: Bayonetta does a lot of this in different ways. One of her taunts is "Do you want to touch me?" Surprisingly, this is actually a line shared by Another Joe from Viewtiful Joe.
 * "I've got a fever, and the only cure is MORE DEAD ANGELS."
 * Equip Durga on her hands and feet and she lies back and says "Come on!" while spreading her legs wide open!
 * Think Bayonetta's got some good ones? Play as Jeanne..
 * British Accents: Bayonetta and Jeanne are European and both have English accents.
 * Bruce Lee Clone: Quite possibly the only female version of this trope in existence that does it correctly, BAYONETTA becomes this when you give her the nunchuck like weapons, Sai Fung. When you do the basic 5 punch combo, she even does Bruce Lee's Kiai. It's made even more awesome by the fact that the nunchucks have GUNS in them. Crazy Awesome indeed.
 * Bullet Time: "Witch Time".
 * Butt Monkey: Enzo. In fact, he's the lowest ranking on the grading scale. And while the other awards feature other characters standing and/or posing, the Stone Award features Enzo comically falling on his ass.


 * Affinitys, the lowest ranking angels, also count, as they are abused time and time again in the cutscenes (eg: being used as a surfboard to ride a magma wave).
 * Camp
 * Captain Ersatz: Enzo is basically Joe Pesci.
 * Car Fu: Jeanne's first appearance in chapter two and.
 * Cat Fight: Bayonetta and Jeanne.
 * Bayonetta versus any Joys.
 * Catgirl: When equipped with the specified perfume, Durga causes Bayonetta to gain a tail and a pair of cat ears made of flames.
 * Censor Hair: When Bayonetta uses a Climax Attack, her hair takes a Censor Steam shape spiraling around her body.
 * Technically, she's always in Censor Hair, seeing as how the only actually clothing she wears are glasses, gold chains, and ribbons... The rest is all hair.
 * Chainsaw Good: The Torture Attack for one type of flying enemy involves Bayonetta pulling a chainsaw three times her size from Hammerspace. And unlike other torture devices, she gets to keep it afterward, mostly because it's the only one that's an actual melee weapon and because the said enemy doesn't have any weapons to drop.
 * This is both foreshadowed and lampshaded by one of Rodin's quotes when entering his bar: "I'm not putting a chainsaw on your arm."
 * Chekhov's Gun: Bayonetta's.
 * Also.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: Luka giving.
 * Cherubic Choir: The background musics of the Paradiso levels are made of this. They are stunningly beautiful and relaxing. There is also the dedicated music for Mook Debut Cutscenes.
 * The Chessmaster: . See Gambit Roulette below.
 * The Chosen One:.
 * Clock Tower: The playable introductory scene takes place on a clock tower...as it tumbles from an impossibly high cliff face.
 * Clothing Damage: Bayonetta can do attacks that rely on her own hair, and since she diverts some of the hair she's wearing for these attacks, well...
 * Cluster F-Bomb
 * Colossus Climb: Several of the bosses.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Bayonetta fights dirty. When she stuns an angel, she can use one of her Punish attacks; all are different (she can Slam, Slap, Stomp, Stab, Punch, or even Spank the angel) but all of them amount to dealing damage while the angel is helpless. She can also use a Punish attack to set one up for a Wicked Weave or Torture Attack.
 * Combat Sadomasochist: Father Balder, and how.
 * Combat Stilettos. Which double as guns.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: If she can walk on walls, she can walk on lava.
 * Actually, you'll take damage if you try to do this unless you've equipped fire Durga on your feet. That said, the trope still comes into play regardless.
 * You can skate over lava with Odette too.
 * Cool Car: Irenic.
 * Credits Gag:.
 * As in she literally stomps out the credits.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: The boss deaths and just about all the Torture Combos, but especially on the Joys. Taunt her, then finish with a Torture Combo. See where the spike on the horse is sticking in?
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus/Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: The game involves Heaven and Hell, but calls them Paradiso and Inferno. Plus, angels don't really look or act conventionally, and.
 * Cutscene Power to the Max: The cutscenes always involve Bayonetta performing amazing aerial maneuvers, one-shotting enemies with her handguns, and performing moves that would put The Matrix to shame.
 * Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Get used to Hard Mode, go back to Normal Mode, and have trouble dodging due to changes in timing.
 * Dance Battler: Bayonetta's move "Breakdance" has her do a dozen headspins all while shooting her feet-guns. Then she finishes in a super sexy pose.
 * Joys mimic many of Bayonetta's moves, and thus, follow suit. An entry in the Platinum Games blog even mentions their dance battle motif.
 * Dancing Theme: The game finishes itself off with one.
 * Several of Bayonetta's attacks involve poledancing and breakdancing. Yes, even the Dancing Theme is Beyond the Impossible.
 * Dark Is Not Evil/Light Is Not Good: Witch heroine versus evil angels.
 * Dark Magical Girl: Bayonetta tends to feel like this with her Transformation Sequence at the start of the game when she goes from sexy nun to gun-toting action witch.
 * Dark Reprise: "Blood & Darkness" is one to "Red & Black", signifying that Jeanne's not fucking around anymore.
 * Deal with the Devil: How the Umbra Witches gain their powers. The inevitable trade off for all the Crazy Awesome is an eternity in Hell when they finally die.
 * Degraded Boss: The climactic angel fights from the early chapters all return as regular enemies in later levels. You are also accosted by weaker knock-offs of the four Cardinal Virtues after killing their respective real deal.
 * Did Do the Research: The game's angels look pretty bizarre when placed next to their counterparts from other media, but the Bible states that angels spent a lot of their time trying to calm down the people they appeared to. Also, there's one enemy that looks like a locust with a scorpion tail, a sort of creature which is supposed to appear just before Christ's return and sting unbelievers to death. Of course, depending on whether you're drawing from the Bible or from later sources/artists, the accuracy will vary as the modern image of angels (people with wing) came out long after the Bible was written.
 * Did You Just Punch Out God?:.
 * Suplexing a DRAGON certainly qualifies, as well.
 * Difficult but Awesome/Simple Yet Awesome: "Dodge offset" doesn't sound all that complicated − continuing an interrupted combo after dodging by holding the attack button − but in the heat of battle it requires quite a bit of coordination to pull out spontaneously. If you master it though, it becomes extremely useful in situations where you can't use Witch Time (like the Gracious & Glorious fights or the entire Infinite Climax Mode). It looks pretty sweet too.
 * Disney Death:.
 * as well.
 * Distaff Counterpart: To Dante and Nero of Devil May Cry, Gene from God Hand, and possibly even Viewtiful Joe.
 * Zig-Zagging Trope: The Devil May Cry reboot is being nicknamed Dantenetta in that it's basically a distaff version of Bayonetta - even Dante behaves like a male Bayonetta.
 * Disturbed Doves: Luka's first appearance has this happen - mid-leap - while he is running from a Vigrid security officer.
 * Dual Boss: Grace and Glory.
 * Dual Wield: Guns. Melee weapons. Chainsaws. You name it, she can double wield it.
 * She can also dual wield twice - once for her hand weapons and once for her leg weapons. Is it Quadruple Wielding?
 * Dueling Games: Released nearly at the same time as another Heaven VS Hell beat-em-up, Darksiders.
 * And Dante's Inferno. And God of War 3.
 * Dummied Out: The 修羅刃 Shuraba katana was actually supposed to have a special animation where the hilt would open and show the beating heart of an Ashura, just like in its description. However, somewhere down the line the animation was never programmed into the katana, although the file still remains buried in the game data.
 * Easier Than Easy: Very Easy/Automatic mode, derided in some circles as "Fap Mode".
 * The Ending Changes Everything: Play this game, and
 * Eldritch Abomination: Every boss. The regular angels qualify too. At least, once their armor cracks away and you see what they really look like...
 * Eldritch Location: Several.
 * Elemental Powers: Each of the four Cardinal Virtues represents an element. Fire, wind, earth and water respectively.
 * Erotic Eating: Bayonetta's Trademark Favorite Food are lollipops.
 * Escort Mission: Some levels have you protecting and rescuing Cereza. They are surprisingly well done and avoid becoming overly frustrating, possibly thanks to being brief (Cereza's regenerating health doesn't hurt either).
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Bayonetta spins her guns after every attack if you equip any guns in her hands. The Breakdance attack also makes Bayonetta perform multiple windmills while firing off any guns on her feet in every direction.
 * Picking up the staff dropped by angels lets you do a spinning stripper pole dance that hits everything on the screen at once.
 * Evil Is Bigger: Bosses in this game are enormous, and the Final Boss is the size of a planet.
 * Evil Brit: Well, her Evil Twin is also an Evil Brit.
 * Evil Counterpart: Jeane acts this way to Bayonetta.
 * as well, since.
 * Evil Is Hammy
 * Evil Knockoff: The shapeshifting Golem can mimic the demons Bayonetta summons throughout the game.
 * Evil Laugh: Temperantia and Sapientia do this.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: Played straight with Fortitudo, Temperantia and Sapientia, but bizarrely inverted with Iustitia. The combination of a ridiculously high-pitched and slightly reverberating voice just adds to his creepiness.
 * However, you can hear a deep voice coming from the other heads on Iusticia's body at times when he is attacking.
 * Evil Twin: Aside from Jeanne, the Joy is a literal Evil Twin. Bayonetta reveals her by out-sexy dancing her.
 * Also, . Except much taller.
 * Excuse Plot: Not that the overall story is bad, but the whole deal with Bayonetta looking for a stone is only there to keep her moving from point A to point B. The story manages to remain interesting due to character interaction and Bayonetta's returning memories. Plus, of course, the several Crowning Moments...
 * Expy: The final boss is a huge statue representing God that comes to life by absorbing someone. The Savior, anyone?
 * There are also two demons that are based on ones from Devil May Cry; Scolopendra is an expy of Gigapede, and Phantasmaraneae is an expy of Phantom.
 * Face Doodling: Bayonetta does it to Luka. And the markings look pretty familiar...
 * Fallen Angel:.
 * Famous Last Words: "May Jubileus, the Creator, grace you!".
 * Fan Service: Most of the game. The lollipops, the gradually disappearing clothing, the ass shots, the dialogue and... it's actually harder to think of what isn't intended to titillate.
 * Fantastic Measurement System: Megatons for Torture Attacks, gigantons for Climax moves, and.
 * Foreshadowing: Earlier in the game, Bayonetta asks Jeanne "Who are you? And don't you dare say my long lost sister." At first Jeanne scoffs, but this becomes Fridge Brilliance when, way later in the Epilogue of the game, you pick up on what Jeanne says:
 * For Want of a Nail: More like "due to the presence of a nail" here.
 * Full-Contact Magic: Umbra Witches know how to shoot with both hands and feet, how to summon demons with their hair, how to summon Wicked Weaves to take their enemies down, and how to kick angel ass stylishly.
 * Future Badass:.
 * Gainaxing: Not much from our heroine, but it happens with the Joys occasionally, including during the Torture Attack.
 * Gambit Roulette: The entire twisted plot and most of its equally as twisted backstory.
 * Game Breaking Bugs: Route 666 has collision detection issues. Near the end, when you are forced onto a side route, you MUST jump a gap with no indication, then NOT JUMP a later one. failing either of these will result in you clipping through the bridge and taking damage from falling... before making you run through that section again.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: The game is hardly subtle, but ask any S&M enthusiast about "the horse", and those torture scenes with Joy and Bayonetta take on a whole new meaning.
 * Giant Foot of Stomping: Bayonetta can summon these as combo finishers.
 * God and Satan Are Both Jerks: True, but...
 * God Is Evil: ...Jubileus is the bigger jerk.
 * Godiva Hair: Bayonetta's Sexy Backless Outfit is actually made of her Prehensile Hair.
 * The Gods Must Be Lazy: One of the rare inversions of this trope. Not only are God and Heaven active and sending down mooks, but the forces of Hell only show up for finishing moves.
 * Gorn: The Torture Attacks definitely qualify.
 * Guest Fighter: In Anarchy Reigns.
 * Guide Dang It: The Alfheim portals often (but not always) require backtracking through entire portions of a level, as they appear only after you get past a certain point or have done a certain action, without any indication whatsoever. One of them only appears if you shoot a specific trash can. And a few Alfheim challenges can let you clueless; like staying in the air 30 seconds with nothing to help you but an agressive and uncooperative pair of Grace&Glory.
 * Also, finding all the crows that carry the Umbran Tears Of Blood without a walkthrough is quite a feat. Not only are they ridiculously difficult to spot and sometimes perched in the most uncanny places, their location changes depending on the difficulty mode.
 * Guilt Based Gaming: Choosing "No" on the 'Continue?' screen causes Bayonetta to be dragged screaming down to Hell by multiple demonic hands.
 * Gun Fu: Guns. On. Feet.
 * Including shotguns on feet. Including rocket launcher tonfa on feet.
 * Sometimes, she does all this while poledancing.
 * It could be looked at as Gun Kata too...
 * Guns Akimbo. Both in her hands and strapped to her feet, just to screw with the trope some more.
 * Hand Cannon: While Jeanne's guns are just big semi-autos, artwork and renders show Bayonetta's Scarborough Fair pistols are gigantic break-open manual loaders that look to take rounds in the 4-gauge range. She never breaks them open because that wouldn't be awesome.
 * She does open one of them, but only at the end of the boss fight against, and loads it with , making it a literal Chekhov's Gun.
 * Harder Than Hard: Non-Stop Infinite Climax mode, which is well, harder than Hard. Also, Witch Time is disabled. Have fun!
 * Heel Face Turn:.
 * Hell-Bent for Leather. Fooled ya! The "leather" is her hair!
 * Which dramatically damages the sexiness for those who think too much about what clothing made of tightly-wound human hair would actually feel like.
 * A Hell of a Time: The lore and cutscenes say that Bayonetta and Jeanne, being Umbran Witches, made a Deal with the Devil and will one day be Dragged Off to Hell. But they, and Rodin, don't seem too concerned..
 * Hoist by His Own Petard:.
 * Which dramatically damages the sexiness for those who think too much about what clothing made of tightly-wound human hair would actually feel like.
 * A Hell of a Time: The lore and cutscenes say that Bayonetta and Jeanne, being Umbran Witches, made a Deal with the Devil and will one day be Dragged Off to Hell. But they, and Rodin, don't seem too concerned..
 * Hoist by His Own Petard:.

"Bayonetta: Guns!... Guns!...Guns!...Guns!...Guns!...Guns!...Guns!...GUNS!"
 * Holy Halo: The angels, of course. The number of layers and elaboration of the design depends on the sphere of the angel in question..
 * Hood Hopping: The level "Route 666".
 * Hot Witch: And not just the title character.
 * Hyperspace Arsenal: Let's see - Bayonetta is dressed in outfit that has even less space than a Spy Catsuit to carry things, given's it's made out of her hair. Yet by the end of the game she can amass enough weaponry to become a virtual one-woman army.
 * The Immodest Orgasm: Bayonetta moans sensually early in the game when Affinity angels slash off her nun costume, before revealing her true outfit.
 * The Joys whenever you use a Torture Attack on them.
 * Impossibly Cool Weapon: Bottomless Magazines, Absurdly Sharp Blades, ice skates, bullet-firing nunchaku, rocket launcher tonfas, snake whips, Laser Blades, element shifting claws, and a shape-shifting angelic weapon.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun:
 * Infinity+1 Sword:, is the strongest weapon in the game. You can only acquire it after completing the game on its highest difficulty, Non-Stop Infinite Climax Mode.
 * Informed Flaw: For someone so afraid of their fate, Bayonetta sure doesn't show it.
 * Inspector Javert: Luka; he blames Bayonetta for his father's death is certain she's some sort of evil sorceress; this view starts to change about halfway through the game.
 * Intrepid Merchant: Rodin stays at the Gates of Hell bar for most of the game, but Bayonetta can frequently access it via portals that appear in several locations.
 * Item Crafting: Bayonetta can find ingredients in the environment and mix them up to make healing and attack/defense buff items.
 * Jiggle Physics: Just look at the Joys' chests during the Torture Attacks against them.
 * Fortunately, the game only indulges in the jiggle-closeup if the Joys haven't been significantly flayed by Bayonetta's attacks.
 * Kill It with Fire: This is how Bayonetta finishes off.
 * Kill Sat: One gets used against you in the fight against . It even malfunctions and falls out of the atmosphere after a while, but.
 * Last Chance Hit Point: Even though it's never explicitly stated to be in effect.
 * Leitmotif: Parts of "One of a Kind" are reused in many of the game's tracks, especially near the end of the game.
 * "Fly Me To The Moon".
 * Levels Take Flight: The level in Ithavoll Group's huge cargo plane, with even a listing camera during the fight against Jeanne.
 * Living on Borrowed Time: There's a reason you're dragged kicking and screaming to Hell if you choose not to continue after being killed.
 * Loading Screen. Widely praised, as it allows you to practice moves as the game loads new levels.
 * Lolicon: A Beloved falls for Cereza. It even cries and tries to reach out for her just before getting killed off by Gomorrah.
 * Luck-Based Mission: A minor example, but getting the "Touch it and it will really hurt" Tear of Blood (counter-attacking 3 times in a row with the Moon of Maha-Kaala) is basically this since, neither in the game nor in the manual is there any indication on how counter-attacks work. You actually have to counter with a pixel perfect timing, like when you activate the bat form, but most people will just succeed by chance, without knowing how the hell they did it.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father:.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: If you equip Lt. Col. Kilgore on Bayonetta's legs and do the combo YYYYB (Xbox) or ΔΔΔΔΟ (Play Station 3), you will unleash one of these. And for an even bigger one, . God only knows if this is a bug or a secret combo, but it can pulverize all but the toughest angels instantly.
 * Kinships also do it often. And it's infuriating.
 * Magic Is Evil: The source of all that Crazy Awesome magical power Bayonetta employs? Selling her soul to the demons of Inferno, most of which are genuinely evil monsters, which means all Umbra Witches suffer for all eternity. Since Bayonetta is apparently no longer mortal, she has to kill angels or risk damnation. Declining a continue in the Game Over screen causes a bunch of reaching hands to rip through the ground and pull Bayonetta, struggling and screaming, into Inferno.
 * Male Gaze: Practically the entire freakin' game. In some cases, literally.
 * Mama Bear: Bayonetta, even though Cereza is not her actual daughter.
 * Marathon Boss: . You fight her for a while and take away a bit of health, then avoid fire balls in a lava field, then ice balls in an ice field, then thunder balls in the middle of a freaking hurricane, then fight her directly again for a while, then bond her with your hair and take away the last of her health, then punch her from Pluto to the sun while avoiding to crash her into a planet. And finally, you have to destroy what remains of her body. Geez. The whole process will take a good ten minutes even for the best players, and likely twice as much the first time.
 * Marathon Level: Chapter . Takes place inside a huge building, is littered with Grace and Glory, Fairness and Fearless, Ardors, and Joys,, and it even has a . Don't be surprised if it takes you 45 minutes on your first attempt.
 * And of course, there is Angel Slayer. levels of fights against every enemy in the game, Raises in difficulty every 10 levels, has multiple boss fights against  (including having to fight THREE AT ONCE), and even has a boss fight against . As mentioned above, you cannot continue if you die. So no Save Scumming -- you're expected to do all this in one go. It can take at least 80-100 minutes to complete. I'm sure you'll love it.
 * Meaningful Name: Rodin shares his name with the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin, and also runs a bar called "The Gates of Hell", which was also the name of one of the real Rodin's greatest works.
 * Subverted with ...
 * Meaningless Meaningful Words: spends his (very long) introductory cutscene talking nonstop without actually saying a whole lot. Jeanne is guilty of this as well due to her fondness of ranting about the Left Eye of the world, though not to the same degree.
 * Meganekko: Bayonetta and Cereza.
 * Mook Chivalry: Of the Ninja Gaiden kind.
 * Mook Debut Cutscene: With dedicated music too! Only Gracious and Glorious don't have one.
 * More Dakka: Bayonetta has guns on her feet.
 * Lampshaded in the opening, as Rodin is tossing her pistols:
 * Mook Debut Cutscene: With dedicated music too! Only Gracious and Glorious don't have one.
 * More Dakka: Bayonetta has guns on her feet.
 * Lampshaded in the opening, as Rodin is tossing her pistols:

""Tentacles! Why did it have to be tentacles?""
 * Ms. Fanservice: Bayonetta's the head of the National Organization of Ms. Fanservices.
 * Murderous Thighs: In an early cinematic cut scene, Bayonetta uses her thighs to catch a ride on an Affinity, while shooting countless numbers of them out of the air, then using said thighs to spin the Affinity she rides it into the ground.
 * My Future Self and Me:.
 * Mysterious Animal Senses: It's implied that animals can see into Purgatorio, or at least sense the presence of someone in Purgatorio. Cats, understandably, don't seem to spooked by Bayonetta (seeing as she's a witch). Crows and doves, on the other hand, will flee if you get too close.
 * Ravens and Crows: Crows are naturally associated with darkness and, thus, witches. There are 50 specific crows in the game carrying Umbran Tears of Blood which you need to get the Clamax Bracelet. Bayonetta herself can transform into a crow, and one of Bayonetta's Climax Attacks involves summoning Malphas, a giant crow demon.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Obviously Bayonetta. A bayonet is a large knife that attaches to the end of a rifle to make a spear for melee combat.
 * Thou shalt shit their pants upon merely hearing the name of.
 * Names to Trust Immediately: Overlaps with Fluffy the Terrible with the names of the angelic enemies such as Beloved and Inspired.
 * The more good and angelic the name sounds, the less you should trust them.
 * Naughty Nun: How Bayonetta appears in the beginning of the game.
 * Naughty Tentacles: The name of one of the achievements.

"Luka: "Oh, FUCK me!""
 * New Powers as the Plot Demands: Probably justified by Bayonetta slowly recovering her memories as the story progresses, and thus her magic becoming more flexible. Her method of hot-wiring a motorcycle is pure Rule of Funny, however.
 * And oddly enough, Jeanne won't summon a demon in her fights unless Bayonetta's already used it on a boss.
 * Nintendo Hard: While the game is actually easier for new players to get into than most entries in this genre, that doesn't mean you can get lazy on Normal. Even after Normal is finished, the jump to Hard difficulty is staggering.
 * A boss fight example: . Oh so very much.
 * is worse. Much, MUCH worse.
 * You can even make the game harder with the Gaze of Despair item.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: When Cereza is captured by a Joy disguised as Bayonetta, if you take too much time to save her, the Joy takes Cereza away, and you will have a Game Over screen with Cereza's doll on the ground instead of Bayonetta.
 * And to expand on the Guilt Based Gaming entry above, pick "No" at said Game Over screen and not feel like a total scumbag for doing so.
 * Noodle People: Bayonetta, especially notable in scenes with Cereza copying her cool pose, the latter having proportions of a porcelain doll.
 * Moviebob was also quick to point out the sad irony that, aside from the effect of this trope, Bayonetta's proportions are much closer to what an actual person could have compared to most female video game characters.
 * Number of the Beast: Route 666, where the heroine can be Squashed Flat if she isn't careful.
 * Oh Crap: Luka is extremely fond of this. For the most hilarity, watch his face in chapter 14.
 * The Joys' reaction to an incoming Torture Attack.
 * Quite a few players probably had one when.
 * Sapientia when . Look at him run!
 * has a brief one before.
 * Older Than They Look: Virtually everyone.
 * Ominous Latin Chanting: There's lots of it during the boss battles. Makes the fight more satisfying too.
 * One-Hit Kill: has a somewhat nasty one with vacuum-like properties, although  would probably do that you.
 * On Route 666, if you end up in the wrong lane and run into an oncoming semi, even witch powers will not save you from instant flaming death.
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder: . Get hit once? Lose your entire health bar. Get hit a second time? Die.
 * One-Winged Angel:.
 * One to Million to One: Bayonetta can shatter into bats upon getting hit, negating the attack.
 * Orgasmic Combat. Practically the Trope Codifier.
 * Our Angels Are Different: Bayonetta's foes are warrior angels with marble skin, gilded armor and ornate halos..
 * Person of Mass Destruction: Bayonetta. Jeanne comes fairly close too.
 * Polite Villains, Rude Heroes
 * Power-Up Food: The powerups all come in lollipop form.
 * Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: "Don't fuck with a witch."
 * Precision F-Strike: While Bayonetta doesn't precisely avoid profanity, her vocabulary remains clean more often than not - especially around Cereza - but still...
 * Jeanne on the other hand, has quite the mouth on her. Unlock her and you'll find that she curses in almost all of her taunts. Perhaps to fit with her more (mostly) serious attitude?
 * A better example would be with Luka. When Bayonetta told him to look at something, he looks up from Bayonetta's chest.

"Bayonetta: I feel like a fucking celebrity in this town."
 * To Temperantia:

""Could you dispose with the riddles and tell me what these sodding eyes actually are?""
 * Promoted to Unlockable: Jeanne can be unlocked by completing all the chapters in Normal with Platinum trophies. She's a bit faster, but takes more damage, can dodge indefinitely without pausing (Bayonetta is wide open for a second after 5 consecutive dodges), her wicked weaves do more damage, and Witch Time is much harder to use: she can only activate it by activating Moth Within (like Bat Within), which requires pixel-perfect dodging the exact moment an attack hits... but if successful, Jeanne will gain double combo points during Witch Time as opposed to the 1.5x points that Bayonetta earns. And needless to say, she can't do any of the crazy things (such as doing multiple wicked weaves in a row or summoning demons mid-fight) her boss equivalent does.
 * Pummel Duel: Between Bayonetta and Jeanne in all their fights.
 * Purple Prose: Balder's introduction monologue would be twice as short if he expressed himself with simple words. Even lampshaded by Bayonetta.

""Ugh, another talkative type...""
 * Quest for Identity: Bayonetta has remained assleep for the last 500 years and has nearly no memories of her previous life.
 * Rage Against the Heavens: Subverted, as it is more the heavens that are enraged against her. Bayonetta just enjoys kicking angelic ass.
 * Rank Inflation: You're ranked with Stone (lowest), Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Pure Platinum (highest) depending on how fast, how high the combos, all the verses, whether items were used, and how much damage taken at the end of every chapter.
 * Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: With giant hair fists. It seems that this is a recurring trope in Clover/Platinum Games.
 * Rasputinian Death: Bayonetta subjects most regular angels to humiliating defeats, but she saves the most powerful and cruel attacks for the Cardinal Virtues.
 * Redemption Equals Death:.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Grace and Glory.
 * Refuge in Audacity: The director stated in an interview that the development team kept cranking up the sex appeal until someone told them to stop. Given the team in question, it is entirely probable that the game is meant as a particularly over-the-top parody of recent action games that rely on sex appeal. Then there's the combat....
 * Rewarding Vandalism: Smash up the scenery for materials and halos!
 * Rule of Cool: Though it usually defers to the below.
 * Rule of Funny: Several examples throughout.
 * Rule of Sexy: Do we even have to explain?
 * Running Gag: Enzo's car getting smashed up.
 * Samus Is a Girl:.
 * Save Scumming: The game auto-saves after every verse, and often saves in the middle of a verse, or even in the middle of a boss fight. Since getting Pure Platinum medals requires you to never take damage, one may find themselves quitting and reloading a lot.
 * Scary Black Man: Rodin. Seriously. This is a guy who can do Badass Drink Mixing and make it look awesome, take down the nastiest of demons to make into weapons of dark magic, and even hit angels for home runs.
 * Far more justified as if you give him a special item, he becomes.
 * Scenery Porn: Through the second half of chapter 15, you get to see Isla del Sol from the top of a very high building.
 * Sculpted Physique: The angels have this, at least to begin with. Specifically, note what Temperantia looks like at the end of the fight.
 * Sequence Breaking: In chapter 3, you can spare yourself the effort of picking up the magic hourglass in Paradiso by flying directly over the Broken Bridge near the end. Normally lava geysers hit you if you try to do that, but a yellow lollipop is enough to protect you. That also means you can literally skip the last five verses of said chapter.
 * Sequential Boss: The final one, naturally.
 * Fortitudo, Temperantia, and Sapientia also qualify to a lesser extent.
 * Serial Escalation. Constantly. When you have characters like Joy making this sort of entrance, its awesome even for Crazy Awesome.
 * Each boss fight is crazier and more insane than the previous one. The sheer volume of bosses and mini bosses is practically inconceivable and it only gets more awesome as time goes by. Special mention goes to the Mirror Match battle with Jeanne where you spend half the fight duelling atop an armed missile after it's been launched, and the final boss battle where Bayonetta !
 * Not to mention in.
 * To put it simply: Devil May Cry escalates the action; Bayonetta accelerates.
 * Seven Heavenly Virtues: Four are used as antagonists - Fortitudo (Diligence), Temperantia (Temperance), Sapientia (Wisdom) and Iustita (Justice).
 * Sexy Backless Outfit: Of the backless dress made of hair variety.
 * Sexy Spectacles: Invoked. To the point one can purchase her glasses. They're quite expensive.
 * Sexy Walk: Bayonetta swings her hips and arches her back a little when she walks normally.
 * She Fu: Expect to be doing acrobatic backflips a lot since it's the standard dodge and it triggers Witch Time! She can even do this in mid-air!
 * Shout-Out: So many, it deserves it's own section.
 * Skyscraper City: Isla del Sol is basically hundreds of skyscrapers disposed around one that must be something like a kilometer high. See Scenery Porn above.
 * Sliding Scale of Realistic Versus Fantastic: While the game is infamous for being safely placed on the absurd side of the scale, any Willing Suspension of Disbelief is long dead and buried before the conclusion. For example, while the plot starts with guns in shoes and hair demons, they seem pretty feasible when in the final chapters.
 * Sophisticated As Hell: "If you get in my way, I will... how do the Americans put it? Oh yes. Bust a cap in yo' ass."
 * Spiritual Successor: To God Hand (in terms of general insanity) and the original Devil May Cry (in terms of gameplay).
 * Squashed Flat: In a rather bizarre moment in level 9 with the Golem, Bayonetta can be flattened like a cartoon character.
 * Stable Time Loop:.
 * The Stinger: During the credits, you play through 3 verses. Two are from earlier moments in the game. The last one picks up right where the cutscene leading into the credits left off. You have a hidden time limit, and failing to complete the verse during it results in no medal. It actually counts against you to fail these verses, as they are scored as part of the last chapter in the game.
 * Stripperiffic: And it's actually the premise of the gameplay.
 * Somewhat subverted in that aside from the "clothes come off as you fight" element, her outfit is actually pretty modest for a video game character, only showing a small amount of cleavage and a Sexy Backless Outfit.
 * Summon Bigger Fish: Story-wise, most boss fights are really spent just softening the angel up for a proper mauling by whatever ravenous hellbeast Bayonetta summons with her hair. She averts the danger of the demon turning on her by the fact that she's as good as theirs anyway.
 * Summon Magic: Forms a major part of Bayonetta's attacks, both as Torture Attacks (where she can conjure up iron maidens, chainsaws, guillotines, and the like), and as a Finishing Move to take out particularly strong angels and boss fights by summoning up higher demons and eldritch abomination-like creatures.
 * Super Mode: During some plot specific sequences, Bayonetta will let her hair down. This will have the effect of making all of her attacks Wicked Weaves, which are normally finishers to her combos.
 * Suplex Finisher: On a dragon.
 * In the opening cutscene, Bayonetta slams about five or six angels into each other, then suplexes all of them simultaneously, causing their heads to explode.
 * Swiss Army Weapon: The last weapon you are likely to get,, that you earn after beating the Nintendo Hard Bonus Boss is a set of gold bracelets that can take the form of any angel weapon depending on the combo you do. One of these angel weapons is itself a Swiss Army Weapon in a smaller extent − a large bow that can separate into a pair of Whip BFS.
 * Talk To The Fist/Bullet/Boulder/Car/Etc: Bayonetta LOVES doing this to the Cardinal Virtues... sometimes multiple times in one conversation!
 * Swiss Army Weapon: The last weapon you are likely to get,, that you earn after beating the Nintendo Hard Bonus Boss is a set of gold bracelets that can take the form of any angel weapon depending on the combo you do. One of these angel weapons is itself a Swiss Army Weapon in a smaller extent − a large bow that can separate into a pair of Whip BFS.
 * Talk To The Fist/Bullet/Boulder/Car/Etc: Bayonetta LOVES doing this to the Cardinal Virtues... sometimes multiple times in one conversation!


 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Bayonetta and Jeanne.
 * Tennis Boss: The flashback encounter with Fortitudo in chapter 1 can become this once you get the Moon of Maha-Kaala (which allows you to deflect attacks). If you send his fireballs back at him instead of using your bullets, the fight can be ended in a few seconds.
 * Theme Music Power-Up: "Fly Me To The Moon" starts playing whenever Bayonetta is commencing with ass kicking. In the Cardinal Virtue fights, the boss music will be replaced with a more triumphant theme once you get them down to their last life bar.
 * There's also the songs for climaxing on larger mooks and finishing off a boss.
 * Theme Naming: The quartet of pistols Bayonetta starts with are named Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, herbs that are named in the folk song "Scarborough Fair". The set of guns themselves are named Scarborough Fair.
 * Same goes for Jeanne's set of pistols named "All 4 One", with the individual names being Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan.
 * Third-Person Seductress: Taken Beyond the Impossible. Quite possibly a parody of this trope since pretty much anything Bayonetta does that is supposed to be sexy usually comes off as completely hilarious instead.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Y'know, Luka, it's a really good thing that Bayonetta likes you. Otherwise, calling out the person you know killed your father, while she's armed and you're not, in an isolated area with no potential witnesses for miles around, would have shortened your lifespan considerably. And so what if it would prove everything you said about her? You're still dead. No witnesses also means that no one knows who actually killed you.
 * Torture Technician
 * Troperiffic: The game is basically a love letter to action game tropes, both retro and contemporary.
 * Turns Red: All enemies and bosses do this when you taunt them, which causes them to attack faster and hit harder.
 * Underboobs: Bayonetta's "Queen" outfit.
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change: Chapter 14. Shout-Out to Space Harrier too.
 * Chapter 8. Suddenly racing down the freeway at over 100km/h? Can degenerate to a Scrappy Level when looking for those Witch Heart fragments.
 * Gameplay Roulette: The gamplay is rather regular in the first twelve chapters, save for a brief passage in chapter 6 where you must fight a few angels using a lightpole, and the motorbike section in chapter 8. Then you fight a boss on a surfboard, ride said boss to lead him to the giant spider you just summonned (chapter 13), shot your way through a Space Harrier-like level (chapter 14), fight a mini-boss with a defense turret, have a platforming section, outrun a fireball (chapter 15), and have to direct a lipstick-bullet into the penultimate boss' forehead (chapter 16). Then in the Epilogue, you get another motorbike section (where, in the first part, you run towards the camera). Finally, after maiming the Final Boss, a mini-game makes you send its soul into the sun while avoiding to crash into a planet, and you have to destroy its body while falling in the middle of space.
 * Unflinching Walk: Unless you purposely make her run, Bayonetta constantly acts like she's on a catwalk, even after a massive amount of destruction has taken place.
 * Unreliable Narrator: Reading the bestiary is bound to confuse any player who cares, since almost every one of your enemies is described as a glorious and benevolent protector of good. This is quite at odds with the blink-and-you'll-miss-it hints that they originate from human sacrifice, or their callous disregard for human life.
 * Somewhat justified in that the bestiary is written from the perspective of the church of Laguna, and therefore it would only make sense that they be described as benevolent beings.
 * This also plays into the theory that Bayonetta is a Villain Protagonist.
 * Vanity License Plate: The plate on Jeanne's motorcycle reads "01 QTJ" (Cutie J).
 * The license plate on Enzo's car reads "ED N EDNA". The reason for this has not been officially confirmed, but some parts of the fandom speculate that "Ed and Edna" are the names of Enzo's kids.
 * Vapor Trail: The title character slams a tanker into Temperantia by way of another angel and creates the leak via a fountain statue that pisses the gasoline all over the poor bastard for that extra sadistic touch..
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: In an otherwise goofy, lighthearted spectacle fighter, the Torture Attacks are rather wince-worthy in their sadism and don't look like they would be particularly out of place in God of War. Particularly jarring because they go without any comment whatsoever.
 * Word of God: "It's fucking awesome!"
 * Visible Sigh: In a scene after Temperantia is defeated, a Fearless is just missed being hit by a falling streetcar. It puffs out a cloud of white vapor in relief. Then the streetcar tips over on it.
 * Visual Pun:.
 * "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Jeanne. While earlier angel foes have totally predictable patterns, she doesn't. Moreover, she is a Perfect Play AI, blocking everything unless her own attack leaves her off-guard. So, this fight serves as a crash course in dynamic dodging and using Witch Time.
 * Wall Crawl: The "Witch Walk" ability allows Bayonetta to walk on walls, ceilings, and some bosses; but it can only be used during a full moon or when Bayonetta lets her hair down during certain fights.
 * Wasted Song: Battle For The Umbra Throne only plays during the flashback fight with Jeanne, and it's EPIC.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Everything Bayonetta does is sexy and awesome. Every. Single. Thing.
 * Whip It Good: Both real whips and hair whips.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Jeanne.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: "Tentacles! Why did it have to be tentacles?"
 * The Worf Barrage: You know the climax techniques, the super Finishing Moves that kill bosses in the most brutal fashion imaginable? Yeah, they don't work on Balder. He kills them instead.
 * World of Badass: Every single character in the game is badass in their own way. Bayonetta manages to kill angelical asses without losing her temper, Luka is capable of pulling Big Damn Heroes moments despite not having any superpowers, Jeanne is among the few opponents capable of making Bayo lose her temper and truly offering a life-or-death combat to her, and Balder is the only living being who can survive a Climax attack from Bayonetta.
 * World of Ham
 * Wretched Hive: Hell's Gate, A.K.A. "The Dump", pulls double duty as both this and the game's shop. Luka even calls it "A Wretched Hive of scum and villainy."
 * You Killed My Father: The reason that Luka initially pursues Bayonetta..
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Done twice. The first time, after you defeat.
 * What's so awesome about the last part is that !

"The shadow remains cast!"