Talk:Bayonetta 2/@comment-189.250.84.87-20150103200657/@comment-1661895-20150103214058

I would have to strongly disagree with this assessment. There is a reason why Bayonetta 2 tries to expand itself beyond just being focused on Bayonetta and it works because of a primary difference between the two games.

The first game is so focused on Bayonetta because she's trying to find out who she is. It works because we as players have no idea who she is either. We never really see more to her than the witty badass character we all came to know and love because she doesn't have her memories. Her real personality, the one that is more fleshed out in Bayonetta 2, doesn't shine out until she knows who she is. In Bayonetta, we never really see Bayonetta other than a strong kick-ass protagonist, other than the few moments that she reveals a softer side with Cereza. Most of her personality is flashy like her combat style, she's unimpressed by the challenges she has to face and never shows a hint of weakness.

In Bayonetta 2, we see the cracks in the armour. We're now aware of her past and what she's been through and so is she and therefore she is allowed the luxury of having more of an emotional range. She gets visibly upset when she thinks she is too late to save Jeanne and she falters emotionally when dealing with both of her parents multiple times. Whilst she never loses a hint of her strength, she is allowed to show more of a personality off because there isn't a wall of amnesia in the way.

And that's the reason why Luka and the other side characters are given less importance. Her interactions with them in Bayonetta are more meaningful because they are the only tools she has in order for her to find out more about herself. Since that isn't the case in Bayonetta 2, they fulfil their roles of getting the plot moving, but the game is focused on how Bayonetta reacts to situations now that she is fully aware of who she is so they don't need to have the same importance they once did. Besides, Enzo and Rodin have roughly the same screen time as they do in the first game and Luka's the only one who really takes a hit (Jeanne is excused because she is the initial driving point of the narrative). And this works because Bayonetta 2 is essentially everything in the first game but ramped up to 11. The scope of the story including more realms of reality, more character focus besides just Bayonetta, the action set pieces, it all is supposed to enhance and expand.

Your idea about how the game should've focused on Jeanne and then uncovered a larger plot is...kind of exactly what happens in the game. Bayonetta uses Loki mostly as a means to an end from when they meet until around Chapter IX onwards. Whilst she gradually learns bits and pieces about his story and the other characters (which also mirrors how she learns bits and pieces about Jeanne and Luka until the end of the first game), Bayonetta is focused intently on saving Jeanne the entire time. She asks Loki how to reach Inferno upon learning he may know how to get there, she states numerous times she can't be held up by angels because she needs to reach Inferno and appears annoyed when she is set back on her journey. It's only after Jeanne is rescued and safely sent home that Bayonetta finally focuses her attention completely on Loki's plight, which is exactly what you suggested. Loki's true nature and the importance of who he is and the threat Loptr poses never really becomes the real focus of the story until after Jeanne is rescued. They are teases for the big reveal at the end, just like how the Virtues speaking about Jubileus and Balder were teases for the reveal at the end of Bayonetta.

As for the Witch Hunts, there is a reason it is called that rather than the Clan Wars. The Witch Hunts came after the war had already ended, meaning that the Lumen Sages had already been defeated or had been wiped out entirely. Bayonetta returns to Vigrid when the angels (having fooled Balder into following the idea) launch a counterattack to wipe out the Umbra once and for all. It is a boss rush of epic proportions, yes, but there is no reason to have the Lumen and Umbra fighting because they never did during the Witch Hunts. Bayonetta and Rosa seem to have some awareness of who each other is, but the circumstances of them threatened by constant attack mean that it would be impractical for them to do much more than ally themselves in battle and they both know this (not to mention the danger of breaking the timeline since Bayonetta only barely returns home before he past self discovers Rosa dead).

Whilst I agree that Bayonetta 2 lacks a more intimate focus on Bayonetta herself, I do not see this as a point of negativity for the game. Bayonetta becomes an even greater character through her exploits for the reasons I've outlined above and the story pretty much follows the same structure of the first anyway (teases of an bigger threat but focused on initial objective until the climax of the game).