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Bayonetta 2 is a Stylish Action hack and slash game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Nintendo for the Wii U and Switch, with Sega, the franchise owners, serving as advisor. It is the sequel to the 2009 game, Bayonetta, and is directed by Yusuke Hashimoto and produced by Atsushi Inaba, under supervision by series creator Hideki Kamiya. It was announced on September 13, 2012, and was made a Wii U exclusive due to Nintendo's financial backing of the game, even though the company did not request that it be exclusive. Check out the game's first teaser. At E3 2014's Nintendo Direct, it was announced that the release would also come bundled with an updated version of the original Bayonetta, although a standalone version was made available in February 2016. Bayonetta 2, along with the original Bayonetta, were released for the Nintendo Switch on February 16, 2018 with the additions of local co-op and amiibo support.

The sequel begins with Bayonetta and Jeanne bringing the pain to the angels of Paradiso as usual. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worse when one of Bayonetta's summons breaks free of her control and attacks her, leading to Jeanne sacrificing herself to save her and her soul being dragged into Inferno. Bayonetta immediately sets out for the legendary mountain Fimbulventr, said to house mythical gates to both Paradiso and Inferno, in a race against time to rescue Jeanne before her soul is lost forever. Unlike her first adventure, the balance between the trinity of realities has come undone, causing angels and demons alike to get in her way. In the midst of the chaos, Bayonetta befriends a bratty youth named Loki, who is struggling to reach the top of the mountain for reasons even he's not sure of. Loki possesses mysterious powers and a cloudy memory that may be the key to saving the world.

Following the announcement of the Nintendo Switch ports of Bayonetta 1 and 2 due out for February 16, 2018, Bayonetta 3 was announced exclusively for the Switch.

Warning! Every major plot detail from the first game is a Late-Arrival Spoiler in this one. As such, those old spoilers will be left unmarked. Please check the first game beforehand to avoid spoiling yourself.


Time For The Tropes!:

  • Achievement System: The Umbran Tears come back in this game, although there are less of them this time (only 30 achievements compared to the first game's 50).
  • All Your Powers Combined: Balder and Bayonetta summon Omne, a being of both light and dark, appearing as half a Paradiso goddess and half an Inferno goddess merged together.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Invoked, in-universe, with Balder.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The final battle with Loptr-Aesir takes place inside one of these, until the final phase, which takes place back at the top of Fimbulventr.
  • Amphibian Assault: One of Bayonetta's new demon summons is Baal, a gigantic female toad with a long, spiky tongue that she can use to ensnare and consume angels.
  • Amphibian at Large: Baal is a massive demon toad who Bayonetta can summon to kill angels by snaring them with her barbed Multipurpose Tongue.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different:
    • Loki is a playable character for one verse in Chapter V. You also get to control Loptr as he tumbles into Gomorrah's mouth during the final boss fight.
    • In Chapter IV, the final portion of the Masked Lumen boss fight has you controlling Madama Butterfly as she does battle with Temperantia.
    • And in Chapter XVI, there is a portion where you're flying a jet to Fimbulventr and simultaneously control 3 characters - Jeanne piloting the jet, and Bayonetta and Balder shooting and slashing from on top of the jet, respectively.
    • In Tag Climax, you can play as Jeanne or Rodin as well as Bayonetta. Rosa and Balder are playable as well.
  • Animorphism:
    • Bayonetta retains her animal forms from first game (panther, crow, bats) and gets the new King Cobra form for underwater swimming.
    • Loki has the ability to turn into a flying squirrel. This proves convenient for Bayonetta to carry him around in her Victoria's Secret Compartment.
    • The Masked Lumen can transform into a wolf during his boss fights.
  • Antepiece: The segment where you ride on Diomedes opens up with a pair of static Inferno-trees to avoid, one to duck under and one to jump over. The game even pauses for a moment to allow extra time for you to make the right imput. These serve as simple obstacles to get players used to the new controls before putting them in to a more complex course.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • There's an option to switch the controls to Bayo 1's setup, for the express purpose of averting Damn You, Muscle Memory!.
    • In the first game, fights that took place entirely in Bullet Time from a story perspective (i.e. the Torture Climax tutorial in the Prologue) were considered by the gameplay to be in Witch Time, so the player couldn't trigger Witch Time in mid-fight for the advantage against the opponent. In Bayo 2, what is Bullet Time from a story perspective is no longer Witch Time for the gameplay.
    • Demons drop orbs of crystallized essence rather than the halos angels drop. Rather than keeping separate counts and having certain things Rodin only sells for orbs, they're both added to the same count at a 1:1 exchange rate.
    • The Platinum Ticket to fight the game's Superboss is nearly ten times more expensive than it was in the first game. But unlike before, halos spent to buy it are not saved should the player fail. This allows for freely fighting the boss after hitting that 9,999,999-halo mark the first time, unless the amount dips below that from buying other items. After beating him, subsequent rematches are free.
  • Arc Words: One from the first game is brought up here, but with a much more poignant meaning to it. "My dear, sweet child. Fear not, for I am always watching over you."
  • Arm Cannon: The game's release on Wii U made references to other Nintendo franchises quite inevitable. Among the unlockable costumes available is Samus Aran's Power Suit. When she uses her basic gun attack, the suit's arm transforms into the familiar arm cannon. It uses the classic sound effects from Super Metroid, and comes complete with a powerful Charge Shot that's almost as strong as one of Bayonetta's own Wicked Weave attacks.
  • Art Evolution: The game does not care for the Wii U's bad rep, and does everything it can to show off what the console can do compared to the previous generation. Coming packaged with Bayo 1 - which only includes the added Nintendo costumes and does not bolster any of the graphics - only gives the new player an opportunity to appreciate the improvement.
    • The first game's Prologue took place in a graveyard in the rain, and a highway through the city at twilight, resulting in subdued colors. Bayo 2's Prologue takes place on the back of a fighter jet speeding through the city in broad daylight, upon a rapidly-collapsing train bridge, and up the side of a building, all of which are much more vibrant.
    • Climax Summons in the first game were completely obscured by the summoning witch's hair, which occasionally faded in and out to show parts of the Infernal in question. Here, the summons are far more openly visible when summoned, and several demons manifest completely without the hair covering.
    • The first game had numerous pseudo-Stop Motion cutscenes in the form of grainy-film frame-slipping sequences. Here, the same technique is instead used through the hands of a clock, with both the frame and the images rendered clearly.
    • Noatun and its environs are positively gorgeous compared to Vigrid and Isla del Sol, with much more vibrant colors.
  • An Asskicking Christmas: The entire game except for the Vigrid chapters takes place on Christmas Day, but the prologue takes the cake for interrupting Bayonetta's Christmas Eve shopping with wanton, city-leveling destruction... while also making Rodin take a break from advertising his bar to do some Badass Santa gun delivery.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • You can unlock Rodin as a playable character in multiplayer, and he kicks ass, but he's slow and doesn't have many combos. Since the objective of multiplayer is to rack up combo points, it's difficult to win with him.
    • Balder also counts to a lesser extent. His ranged attacks are much slower and prevent him from moving, making it harder to rack up a combo, and he can't use any accessories that might help mitigate the problem. He's also at a disadvantage in aerial/underwater fights due to lacking a Crow or Snake Within equivalent. Plus Light Speed's different visuals make the countdown indicator harder to keep track of.
  • Backtracking: Just like in the previous game, some hidden Verses require going back to a particular area after you've already passed it.
  • Badass Adorable: Admit it, the Chain Chomp looks freaking adorable during its idle animation.
  • Badass Family: This game reveals that Rosa and Balder are just as capable as their daughter of kicking ass.
  • Badass in Distress: Jeanne spends much of the game trapped in Inferno, with Bayonetta racing against time to save her.
  • Bag of Spilling: Nothing that was previously obtained from the first game is retained in this onenote , which is odd since every technique and accessory is exactly the same from the first game but must be re-purchased from Rodin (as if canon assumes Bayonetta never bought anything from Rodin in the original game). Even the Scarborough Fair, Bayonetta's magical guns from the first game gotten automatically, are missing in exchange for a quartet of mundane .45s just to justify the switch to the new Love Is Blue set (although Scarborough Fair can be obtained if the player beats the game on 2nd Climax and purchases the classic costume pack).
  • Balance Between Good and Evil: The balance is actually shown to be off due to the events at the end of the first game, causing natural disasters on Earth, and both angels and demons attacking indiscriminately.
  • Battle Amongst the Flames: The second phase of the first Masked Lumen fight involves Labolas and Fortitudo beating the shit out of each other on top of a magma field while Bayonetta and the Sage continue the fight like nothing's happening.
  • The Battle Didn't Count: Happens in almost every fight with Aesir. Yes, even the final one. However, there's at least a reason you have to beat him up each time.
    • First time, as The Prophet, beating him just gives Bayonetta and Loki a chance to escape through a portal to Hell.
    • Second time, as his child form Loptr, beating him just means he stops playing, but overdoes it and knocks you out of the sky, inadvertently letting you escape.
    • Even in the final fight:
      • Beating Phase 1 just gives your ally Balder enough time to recover.
      • Beating Phase 2+3 gives your other allies enough time to activate the Void card
      • After this, you finally get to deliver a satisfying No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • Beam-O-War: Loki and Insidious engage in one at the end of the fight between Bayonetta and the latter. Should the player fail the QTE accompanying it, the Game Over awaits.
  • Behemoth Battle: Both Bayonetta and the Masked Lumen summon giant creatures (demons for Bayonetta, Auditios for the Lumen) that fight in the background while they themselves are battling in the foreground.
  • Belly Dancer: Whenever she dons Rakshasa, Bayonetta wears a Middle-Eastern inspired outfit complete with veil, bare midriff and a Slave Leia-styled belt — as long as you have purchased and equipped the optional Rakshasa Perfume, that is.
  • Big Bad: Loptr, who is revealed to be responsible for Balder becoming the villain of the first game via possession.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The Big Bad is stopped and the world is saved, but to keep him from escaping, Balder had to trap his soul within himself, which led to him becoming the evil man who would wipe out the Umbra Witches and nearly destroy the universe.
  • Bland-Name Product: "Wonder Toys" is one of the World of Wonder franchise.
  • Body to Jewel: This is invoked by the 'Orbs', a demonic currency as opposed to the Holy Halo currency Bayonetta usually collects that looks like crystalline demon blood. However this is only invoked, as they are never referred to as blood, but as a rare metal containing the essence of an infernal's Life Energy.
  • Book Ends:
    • Just like the first game, the final (non-stinger) cutscene takes place in the city from the prologue, and even ends with Bayo and Jeanne about to have another battle on top of a fighter jet.
    • The first summon Bayonetta uses to perform the finishing blow on an angel miniboss is Gomorrah. This is the same summon Jeanne uses for the final blow on the Big Bad.
  • Boring, but Practical: The game gives you all sorts of flashy weapons, but the ones that remain the most consistently useful throughout are your basic Love is Blue pistols. They attack quickly, do reliable damage, and are the one weapon that seems to be effective against a difficult recurring boss. Also, your basic punch-kick-punch combo is the quickest, most effective way to get a Wicked Weave out.
  • Boss-Altering Consequence: If you press the dodge button in the introductory cutscene prior to the boss fight right as the boss attacks you, you will start the battle with an extended Witch Time effect.
  • Boss in Mook Clothing:
    • Sloth. Don't let the name fool you: it constantly gets in your face and hacks you to ribbons at an unparalleled speed, refusing to let you take a breath. They're also likely to interrupt combos on them by countering or dodging, and they're very unpredictable in their movements. They actually bear a lot of similarities to the first game's Grace and Glory in this sense, though unlike them, if they hit you, they taunt you by pointing a sword at you. Which they will be doing a lot.
    • The very aptly-named Resentment, the only enemy in the game with an instant-death attack. It achieves this by casting a long-range attack that turns Bayonetta into her younger self from the first game, then crawling up to her and swallowing her whole. Bayonetta is nearly helpless in this form, and is done for if Resentment was next to her when it attacked. There are thankfully only a few of them in the main story mode to fight, but one optional fight has you dealing with two of them in a cramped arena. Activating Umbran Climax will cut the transformation short, but if you don't have enough magic to activate it, you should hope your dodging skills are up to the task! On top of that, it can grab you and force you to wiggle the left stick to get out, Dead Rising-style. Constantly having to stop what you're doing to have to shake the left stick is surprisingly unenjoyable!
  • Boss-Only Level: Much like the first game, a few chapters are dedicated solely to battling giant bosses. This doesn't stop giant bosses from appearing in other chapters, though.
  • Boss Rush: The Witch Trials after the game is completed, some challenges are just normal encounters but near the end of the trials they will start to feature multiple bosses one after another, sometimes even two bosses fought at the same time!
  • Boss Subtitles: This has carried over to this game, after appearing in the first. But it's not just for the angels... Players will be reminded to crap their pants when they see Devourer of the Divine: Gomorrah. The demons also show up in their own book as a parallel to the angels' "Hierachy of Laguna"! Of special note is the identity of the Masked Lumen Sage, Lumen Sage: Balder. Not only that, but it's accompanied with his boss theme from the first game.
  • Botanical Abomination: Alraune, Whisperer of Dementia (changed to "Whisperer of Insanity" in her One-Winged Angel form), was once a woman who took her own life by dousing her body in mandrake poison as revenge against the husband who left her. She was reborn as an Infernal Demon in Inferno, her physiology like a Plant Person with a rose motif and uses her claws as weapons. Ironically, she has a grudge against Madama Butterfly, the demon who Bayonetta is contracted to.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: Beating the game on Infinite Climax or beating the Lost Chapter: Witch Trials V. The only reward you get (besides maybe a couple Umbran Tears) is the fact you've bested the most challenging versions of the game and its Boss Rush bonus quests. ...Well, and a nice 999,999 Halos from beating Witch Trials V.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory: The Switch version of the game introduced amiibo support. With the right figurines, a bunch of alternate costumes, Nintendo-themed or otherwise, as well as the Chain Chomp weapon, can be unlocked automatically. Plus, scanning the maximum of 32 amiibo per day will net you a bunch of halos and items, meaning you’ll be able to buy everything in no time, and you’ll always have a good supply of lollipops whenever you’re in a jam.
  • Brick Joke: At one point, Bayonetta and Enzo take a small plane to the sacred mountain of Fimbulventr. When they get close enough, Bayonetta bids him farewell and jumps out, at which point it is revealed that Bayonetta was controlling the plane with her magic, causing Enzo to panic because he has no idea how to fly or land the plane. In the epilogue, Bayonetta suddenly realizes she completely forgot about Enzo, then the plane flies into the area, under attack from evil angels and with Enzo desperately trying to keep it under control.
  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: The Big Bad is defeated but Balder has to trap his soul inside himself to keep him from escaping. He helped stop one monster, only to go on to become one himself.
  • Brutal Bonus Level: The Witch Trial chapters, unlocked after completing the story mode. All of them pit you against multiple waves of angels and demons with no items and limited recovery options. Worst of all, there are no checkpoints in any of them; die, and you have to repeat the entire trial from the start. Each chapter is longer and harder than the last, and the final trial involves fighting multiple bosses at the same time! Not only that, but unlike the normal chapters you can't use any lollipops during the Witch Trials, you'll need to do some serious practicing on Infinite Climax to pull through all of them.
  • Bullet Time: Witch Time returns from the first game. The Lumen Sages also have their own variant called Light Speed, which makes time around them flat-out halt in its tracks.
  • Button Mashing: In this sequel, button mashing replaces the Press X to Not Die mechanic from the first game.
  • Caged Inside a Monster: The monster Alraune, whose hollow chest cavity in her One-Winged Angel form contains Jeanne's lost soul.
  • Call-Back:
    • For players who preferred the first game's gameplay, Jeanne's All 4 One moveset uses Bayo 1's combos for Scarborough Fair rather than updating to Love is Blue. And for fans of the Onyx Roses' single shots during combos, give Rosa's Unforgiven revolvers a spin.
    • The end of the fights with Golem has Bayonetta summon Hekatoncheir, like she did against the Golem in the first game. In that game, Hekatoncheir attempted to finish off the Golem by setting up a volleyball spike to smash the core, only to whiff the spike and default to just pummeling the thing. In this game, Hekatoncheir starts by pummeling the core, which pops it into the air for it to set up a volleyball spike. This time, the demon hits its mark, and spikes the Golem’s core right into the Gates of Hell, breaking the final seal
    • As in the first game, the last cutscene before the credits has a character in the same situation as the first cutscene of the Prologue, with extra company but sans a character who was there before. Bayonetta goes shopping as she had with Enzo, only to realize too late that she left Enzo in Noatun with a broken plane.
  • Canon Welding: In the Switch port, using any Super Smash Bros. amiibo not tied to any specific equipment makes a letter from Rodin appear that alludes to Bayonetta's Smash appearance.
    Rodin: [written] Bayonetta, something came in from that fight club of yours. Strange to think of you up there, mixing it up with all them all-stars. Bring me along next time, huh? I could use the sparrin' practice.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: In the prologue, Bayonetta and Jeanne seem awfully preoccupied about their upcoming Christmas party. That would be casual enough, if not for the fact that they were at the same time fighting hordes of Angels hell-bent on killing them.
  • Catching Some Z's: The unlockable Chain Chomp will go to sleep with some large Z's coming out of it if left idle for a few seconds.
  • Central Theme: Humanity is responsible for its own fate.
  • Chained by Fashion: In this game, Bayo uses the chains as an Improvised Weapon to slaughter several angels during the Witch Hunts ... well, in the cutscenes anyway.
  • Chainsaw Good: One of Bayonetta's new weapons is Salamandra, a set of chainsaws that can be attached to the hands or feet, used to shred through enemies or to skate around like with Odette in the first game. Buy the retail version, and you get to quadruple wield chainsaws.
  • Cherry Tapping: Happens in universe at the end of the final boss battle. You're fighting an omnipotent god who storywise and gameplay wise is even stronger than the previous game's final boss, who had to be killed by punching them into the sun. The twist is, after a long, Nintendo Hard battle involving giant flashy arenas, giant satellites, giant lasers, and giant satellites firing giant lasers, in the end you end up weakening and depowering the boss so much, that after you send them flying through the air with your final attack (canonically stronger than the one in the first game), they keep going until they fall into the mouth of Gommorah... the weakest summon in the first game, and the first boss of the sequel. It eats him. Talk about humiliation.
  • Circling Birdies: Stunned angels and demons have stylistic pentagrams circling above them when they are stunned.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: After being an outright Nintendo Hard boss, the final phase of the fight against Loptr has him becoming a complete pushover after Loki removes the source of Loptr's power, the Eyes of the World, from existence with Aesir's true power, the power over nothingness.
  • Clock Tower: A big one shows up in Chapter XV. It's the same clock tower from the first game's opening sequence.
  • Clothing Damage:
    • Just like in the first game, the clothes Bayonetta is wearing in the intro are ruined before the gameplay even begins, and at pretty suggestive places.
    • Jeanne gets her outfit scratched right in the ass in the Epilogue. When Bayonetta points this out to her, she places herself back-to-back with Bayonetta to hide it.
  • Collection Sidequest: The Umbran Tears Of Blood make a return from the first game, thougn there are fewer this time around (50, distributed between 30 Achievements and 20 Crows). There's also the many Journals that can be collected throughout the levels, but beyond getting all of them being a requirement for getting one of the Umbran Tears, all they do is give backstory for characters, history, and locations in the game.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: With the introduction of demon enemies and the Big Bad being part of the Human World as opposed to Paradiso or Inferno, the game gives a color scheme to each of the three realms. Paradiso is associated with gold and white, Inferno with red and purple, and the Human World with blue. This can be seen in the Witch Trials, where the sky is a different color to reflect the enemies fought in a given mission. (While waves with mixes of enemies in the fifth Witch Trial use a black, starry night sky.)
  • Continuing is Painful: A downplayed case in Tag Climax. Although there is no hard limit on how many times a player character can be revived whenever they are downed, every time they do get revived, they will start off with half as much health as the last time they are revived. E.g., the first time a character dies and is revived, they will regain only half their max HP, then if they die and is revived again, they will only have half of that previous half, a.k.a., 25% their max HP and so on. In other words, dying repeatedly in Tag Climax will make your character more and more fragile.
  • Continuity Nod: There are many, many references to the first game:
    • In the beginning of the game, Bayonetta gets her white clothes shredded, reducing her to the nude, before she dons her regular outfit. A similar scene takes place in the beginning of the first game. It's taken a little further in this one though, as Bayonetta is still shown, ass and all, for a few seconds before being censored by the light.
    • Affinities, the mooks of the first game, appear in the first cutscene, and are then replaced by new centaur-like angels called Acceptances.
    • The Final Boss shares many similarities with the Balder boss battle in the first. No-Sell summons, Kill Sat lasers, Tennis Boss quick-time events, and many of its moves are only cosmetically different. The ending shows there is a good reason for this.
    • Just like the first game, Bayonetta 2 opens with Bayonetta fighting angels mid-fall while a narrator provides exposition on the series' mythology, though in this case Luka is the narrator.
    • Both games also have major plot twists involving younger versions of one of the main characters.
    • Most of the techniques from the first game are back, and some of Bayonetta's costumes from the first game return in Bayonetta 2, including her original look. In fact, simply getting the costume representing her original look unlocks some throwback weapons: Scarborough Fair and Shuraba, which work as they did in the original, down to using the same animations.
    • The Golem shows up again, with the same climax ending as before, only this time, the demons actually succeed in turning it into a volleyball. It's actually what gets Bayonetta to Jeanne.
    • At the very beginning of the game, Father Balder is stumbling out of the head of Jubileus, the Final Boss from the first game. Not only that, but players of that game might remember the final mission from the first game was destroying Jubileus's body before it crashed into Earth... with the head being the only major part of the statue that was missing.
    • Near the end, Bayonetta describes 'her kind' to Balder as "The kind of witches you don't fuck with. This harkens back to her Pre-Mortem One-Liner against Father Balder in the first game, "Don't fuck with a witch".
  • Controllable Helplessness: A rare inversion. Enjoy guiding the Final Boss to his well-deserved doom - there's no way he can escape it! (Well, OK, there is, but you really have to be trying to do so).
  • Co-Op Multiplayer: Tag Climax downplays this. Both players have to defeat the required enemies to advance from one Verse to the next, but they're also competing for the best combo score in each Verse. They still have to both make it to the end of each Verse; if one player is downed and they're not revived or the Verse completed within 15 seconds, or both players bite the dust, the entire match is forfeit for both.
  • Creative Closing Credits: There are little scenes between the credits and their spiffy music where the player relieves previous scenes of the game, ending with one last one relevant to the epilogue. Performace on these scenes grant medals, and these affect the player's ranking on the final chapter.
  • Creepy Centipedes: Scolopendra makes a reappearance in this game, now in a swarm as enemies attacking Bayonetta after she enters Inferno. Also from this game, Jeanne gets her own version of Bayonetta's aquatic snake transformation, hers is instead a giant aquatic centipede (aptly called Centipede Within) which very well may be a reference back to the Scolopendra.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Bayonetta's new Torture Attacks for angel enemies forego the 'ancient witch punishment' motif (i.e. spanking an angel into a guillotine), in favor of Rule of Cool kills like making an angel run a treadmill with a thresher at the back. The old ones show up during the Witch Hunt chapters on account of the old angels being around. She's got new ones that work on demons too, but these don't involve devices; they involve summoning demons that are still loyal to her (Madama Butterfly is one), who do the job just as well, and just as cool and unusually brutal (such as Malicious getting Eaten Alive by Carnage until it explodes).
  • Daddy's Girl: Bayonetta develops a bit of respect for Balder over the events of the game. The look she gives him when it becomes apparent that they'll be fighting in tandem is really something.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!
    • Subverted with the game's controls. If you've played Bayo 1, the "lock on" and "switch weapon set" buttons have been switched for Bayo 2. Fortunately, the game allows you to switch them back, even calling the setting Bayonetta 1 controls.
    • Played straight with Bayo's summoned demons. The Climax Gauge fills much faster than it did in Bayo 1... and consequently, the window of opportunity is much shorter.
    • Also played straight with Love is Blue, which have a few shared combos with Scarborough Fair... and numerous different ones.
  • Darker and Edgier: Demons are not necessarily on the side of Bayonetta this time around, on account of a shift in the Balance of Good and Evil after the events of the prior game. The game starts with one of the heroines Not Quite Dead, the need for an Orphean Rescue as a result, and culminates in a trip to Hell itself. That's not even bringing into account the story of the Masked Lumen, a younger Balder, whose tale is much sadder than any in the previous game. Altogether, the plot is more horrific, serious, and at times depressing than the last game, even though it does have rays of hope shining through.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Continues the same theme as the previous game, with the dark-magic wielding witches being the major agents for good. However, Bayonetta 2 also brings Dark Is Evil elements with demons that are clearly malevolent (sans Madama Butterfly and perhaps the others still loyal to Bayonetta).
  • Dark Reprise: Alraune's two battle themes demonstrate this, much how Jeanne's last two did in the original Bayonetta, with "Alraune, Whisperer of Insanity" being a hellish remix of "Alraune, Whisperer of Dementia".
  • Deadpan Snarker: Loki and Bayonetta, alongside some of Jeanne's dialogue. See some dialogue from Loki here:
    Whatever your friend did to get on the other side of thesenote , let's just say she's not having a good day.
    You know, love, you've got to be the only person on the planet who says "go to hell" and means "take me there".
  • Death Dealer: Loki of throws enchanted cards to destroy angels and demons, and has a few specialized cards with out-of-combat abilities like teleportation and erasure. They only work for him, as seen when Bayonetta throws one of his cards at an angel corpse to no effect.
  • Death World: Following up the horrific world of Paradiso in the first game, there's now the lovely world of Inferno. Naturally, as a Fire and Brimstone Hell, it is far from hospitable. The easiest ways for a mortal to get there are to venture to the top of the sacred mountain Fimbulvetr, or venture through an obstacle course of floating ruins under a subterranean ocean. If you get there, you'll be witness to hordes of incredibly powerful demons that even the strongest Umbra Witches in the world have trouble against. Attractions include a constantly-shifting living forest inhabited by soul-eating nagas capable of turning you into a helpless child, fire-breathing spiders, demons forced to eat their siblings to survive, and colossal dragon-like demons; giant rivers of boiling blood home to mile-long centipedes; an enormous tornado wrapped in thorny tentacles; and even the ground can turn out to be a giant manta ray that can hold you in its guts for all eternity. Bayonetta sure doesn't stick around here for long.
  • Demoted to Dragon: The Big Bad of this game, Loptr/Aesir, tricks Balder, the big bad of the first game, into serving him by making him think Loki, Loptr's good half, was the one who killed his wife. However, the Balder in the sequel was brought to the present via Time Travel, and is not the same Father Balder from the first game, at least not until the end of the second game.
  • Demoted to Extra: Luka's role in this game is just a hair above Exposition Fairy. Granted, this makes sense; he actually had a personal stake in the plot in the first game, while in the second he's only there to help Bayonetta.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • The first time playing the first portion of the first verse of the Prologue, Bayonetta is equipped with the handguns, which are replaced with Love is Blue. A subtle New Game Plus function enables Jeanne or Rosa to be selected if she has been unlocked on another save file; during this period, the handguns will use the old Scarborough Fair moveset that All 4 One and Unforgiven maintain.
    • The scene during the prologue where Rodin throws Bayonetta her new Love Is Blue quartet will have the weapons replaced by Arwing Guns if Bayo's in the Star Mercenary outfit, All 4 One if Jeanne is selected, or Unforgiven if Rosa is selected.
    • Earning a Platinum or Pure Platinum trophy while using a different character in Story Mode will have that character modelling the trophy.note 
    • If you use Panther Within while wearing the Galactic Bounty Hunter costume, Bayonetta turns into a Morph Ball. Doing this while Loki is with you in his squirrel form will result in him frantically running on top of the ball trying not to fall off.
    • In the Switch port, if "Moon River" is playing or has played within the last 30 seconds, video capture will be disabled. However, if background music is set to mute, you can always perform video captures, even during sections where that song would otherwise be playing.
  • Dialog During Gameplay: There's a fair amount between Bayonetta and Loki.
  • Did I Mention It's Christmas?: The game happens during Christmas eve. Rodin dresses up for the season as Santa.
  • Double Entendre: In a rare (well, rare for this game anyway) non-sexual example, Bayonetta's default long taunt line is "If you want to learn how to talk to a lady, ask your mum." It doubles as a reference to how Bayonetta learned everything she knew from her "Mummy" (aka Bayonetta from the first game's original timeline), as well as an Ascended Meme reference to Hideki Kamiya's infamous Catchphrase on his English Twitter account ("go ask Your Mom").
  • Downer Beginning: One of Bayonetta's demonic summons goes horribly wrong and drags Jeanne's soul off to Inferno, leaving Bayo to cradle her best friend's lifeless body in the rain... all before Chapter 1 even begins.
  • Dragged Off to Hell:
    • Same deal as the first game, except Jeanne's soul is taken away this way, forcing Bayonetta to mount a rescue attempt.
    • An inversion appears in Tag Climax. If all of Balder's health is depleted, then creepy heavenly hands appear out of a cloud and hold him in place, similarly to the Umbra Witches and the portal to Inferno. If time runs out or the other player dies, he is dragged up into the cloud.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Loptr pulled Father Balder (the Big Bad from the first game) through time to serve him. Loptr wants to claim the 'Eyes of the World' for his own and Loki, the good half of his soul, stands in his way. Balder, meanwhile, only wants to kill Loki because he thinks Loki killed his wife, Rosa (it was actually Loptr from 500 years ago), and has no interest in any of Loptr's goals otherwise.
  • Dreadful Dragonfly: The demonic summons of the bow named Kafka are humoungous, frightening dragonflies named Carnages, which have among others very large maws and can poison their targets. Made even more gruesome during the Torture Attack agains Malicious, during which the hapless demon is Eaten Alive by the Carnages.
  • Dual Boss: The game does not have a dual boss in the main game, but Witch Trial V has several verses that throw two bosses at the player at once: Alraune and Young Loptr in Verse 3, Masked Lumen and Adult Loptr in Verse 5, Bayonetta and Jeanne in Verse 8, and Unmasked Balder and Rosa in the ninth and final verse.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Both angels and demons fit this trope. The angels that aren't outright monstrosities are rare, and as for the mechanical ones with the carved cherub faces, as you do damage, pieces break away to reveal ... something underneath.
  • Eldritch Location: Yeah, Paradiso was already spooky and otherworldly enough, but then you have Inferno which is a hellscape of tentacles and sinister-looking plants and trees.
  • The Ending Changes Everything: For both 2 and the first game. Balder, who had been an Anti-Villain at worst in 2, traps Loptr inside him before he gets sent back to his time. As a result, the events of the first game are retconned so that the Father Balder met then is actually Loptr in control of his body.
  • Enemy Mine: In a villainous twist, the Jetfighter Assault level has angels and demons are trying to stop Bayonetta and Balder from reaching Fimbulventr. Bayo then encourages Balder to do the same, which continues until Loptr and Aesir are dealt with.
  • Epic Fail: The reward for beating all chapters on 3rd Climax difficulty (the hardest standard difficulty) is a live, angry chain chomp she chains to her legs and uses as a flail. It's as deadly as it is absurd and unexpected.
  • Escort Mission: Some chapters task the player with protecting Loki. On the one hand, he's far more capable than Cereza in the first game, as he can actually dodge and defend himself. On the other hand, he doesn't have Regenerating Health like Cereza did.
  • Evil Counterpart:
    • The masked Lumen Sage makes one for Bayonetta. He can fight her on equal footing, and summon angels just as she can demons. He even has his own Beast Within transformations, like a wolf. Just like in the first game, he's not what he appears to be. The sage, truly a young Balder, is the most benevolent Lumen Sage seen in the series thus far (and for that matter, the ONLY Lumen Sage we've seen thus far).
    • Downplayed with the demonic enemies. Some of them are counterparts to the angelic enemies from the first game. Greed is a hexaped beast that uses fire and ice, much as Fairness and Fearless are quadrupeds that use fire and lightning. Sloth is a quick, combo-breaking humanoid with sharp weapons like Grace and Glory. They are downplayed examples since the angels are not really the nicest characters in the game themselves, and both groups are more-than willing to try to tear Bayonetta to shreds.
  • The Evils of Free Will: Played with. It's explained in the opening that The Overseer gave the Eyes of the World to humanity, giving them free will. The Big Bad uses the evil intent that comes with it to grow in power and manipulate the events so he can get the Eyes back and become Aesir again, but later calls free will a joke and an illusion.
  • Exclusive Enemy Equipment: This mechanic is brought back in this game, only this time in addition to angelic weapons, Bayonetta can also steals the weapons from Infernal Demons. The secret Rodin weapon obtained in both games allows Bayonetta to wield all of those weapons at will.
  • Eyes Do Not Belong There: Angels and Demons have eyes in unusual and creepy places. Often when breaking away the statue parts of angels, you will reveal additional eyes in disturbing places.
  • Face-Design Shield: An extreme example with the angel Valor. Rather than his shield bearing a face design, the shield is literally his face!
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Noatun is clearly designed to resemble Venice, at least visually.
  • Faustian Rebellion: Zigzagged. The titular character is a witch who made a Deal with the Devil with a demon named Madama Butterfly in exchange for demonic powers and command over the forces of Inferno. Due to events in the the first game, several demons, even a few who has served her before, turn against her, forcing her to kill them in self defense. However, some other demons are still loyal to her, including Madama Butterfly herself.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Undine, a pair of demonic flamethrowers with both Kill It with Fire and Kill It with Ice settings that can be swapped on the fly. Lightning is covered by the Takemikazuchi, an absolutely massive hammer that is slow but can smash through defenses.
  • Forced Transformation: Demon Resentment has a ray that has this effect. Once Bayonetta turned into the helpless little girl she once was (Cereza), it chases her around and if she gets caught — it eats her alive.
  • Forgettable Character: Luka again pops in out of nowhere to swipe something (in this case, Loki) that a major boss needs, surprising Bayonetta as much as the boss.
    Bayonetta: I guess not even a god can see him coming.
  • Free-Fall Fight:
    • Valor boss fight happens as you are falling down inside a tower.
    • Again, the fight on the debris of the ruined clock tower, only in a slightly different scenario.
  • Gameplay Ally Immortality: Rosa, Balder, and Rodin are all invulnerable when they're accompanying you, and the latter can one-shot every enemy that he touches. Loki isn't, but fights on lower difficulties will likely end before his health becomes an issue anyway.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: After beating the game, you unlock the ability to play Jeanne - except it doesn't change anything during cutscenes, leading to moments where Jeanne declares she's going to save Jeanne, or Jeanne fighting an infernal for Jeanne's soul. The same thing happens after you beat the game on 3rd Climax and unlock Rosa, Bayonetta's mother and Balder's wife, leading to moments where Balder is trying to kill his wife to avenge his wife's death, or Rosa going back in time to fight with herself, and calling herself "mummy".
  • Giant Spider: Phantasmaraneae, absolutely humongous fire-breathing spiders that live near magma flows deep in Inferno. The title character summons one (and by extension its many offspring), and despite their ferocious appearance, they are known for being curious and rewarding to those who are respectful. However, in this game, the imbalance affecting the worlds causes them to go berserk, and one serves as a mini-boss.
  • Glass Cannon: Jeanne makes a return, but Secret Character Rosa easily surpasses her as the glass cannon in this game, as her weapons do three times as much damage by default as Bayonetta's attacks, plus her Super Mode puts her into the Mini-Mecha Umbran Armor which can devastate enemies with staggering, high damage combos. However, she also takes three times as much damage from enemies.
  • God Was My Copilot: Bayonetta is followed around by Loki, a bratty and foul-mouthed Kid Sidekick that just happens to be the Creator of the Universe. Or rather half of it.
  • Goggles Do Something Unusual: Played straight when Luka gets his hands on a pair of permanently enchanted specs from the Fallen Angel Rodin so he can see the angels (and Bayonetta) in Purgatorio whenever he wants.
  • Golden Snitch: Can happen in Tag Climax due to the wager system. Each verse's victor is determined by the highest combo score, but after six Verse Cards are complete, the victor of the match is determined by halo count. Winning five rounds might not matter if the sixth one had a 5000-halo bet at a x10.0 multiplier.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: At the end of the prologue, what should've been a routine Climax summon against the apparent chapter boss ends with the summoned demon breaking free of Bayonetta's control, dragging Jeanne's soul off to Inferno and becoming the true endboss of the prologue.
  • The Goomba: Similar to the role the Affinity angels played in the first game, Acceptance are the first angels encountered by Bayonetta in the prologue chapter, and are really just there for the player to practice her combos as well as get a feel for evading and activating Witch Time from their easily telegraphed spear attacks. That being said, they do get a bit harder to deal with once they start trading out their spears for bow harps and attacking from a distance.
  • Grapple Move: The Alruna, twin whips that can also be equipped to Bayonetta's arms or legs simultaneously or separately, allowing her to grapple two enemies at once. In both cases, the grapple is only reliable on smaller, weaker enemies unless Bayonetta uses Witch Time, which then allows her to grapple most enemies with easenote .
  • Graying Morality: Turns out Balder wasn't always a bad guy (and didn't really have a choice in becoming evil either). Furthermore, the demons of Inferno are seen as pretty malevolent, as opposed to in the first game where they always helped Bayonetta.
  • Groin Attack:
    • Jeanne nearly drives the front wheel of her motorcycle right into Enzo's groin in an early cutscene.
    • Happens if a player selects "No" on the Game Over screen. Doubles as a Breast Attack, since out of all the hands that will grab Bayonetta, two of them go over her boobs and one goes right on her crotch. She effectively gets dragged down to Inferno by her boobs and lady parts.
  • Growing Wings: While she's already able to grow wings temporarily for her Double Jump, now Bayonetta can create a pair of feathered wings from her weave for sustained flight for some aerial battles throughout the game.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: Allies join Bayonetta and fight with her on the side in different points through the game. The one who fights with her the most often is Loki, who is also the only one with limited health. Other people who tag along with her include Rodin (who is able to oneshot any enemy in his way), Bayonetta's mother Rosa in the Vigrid chapters, and the Masked Lumen/Balder in the final chapter.
  • Gut Punch: The game starts off with the same type of campy fight scene that the first one was famous for... then Gomorrah turns on Bayonetta, Jeanne saves her at the cost of her life and is Dragged Off to Hell, and with Bayonetta's reaction, you know this is not going to be the same as the first at all.
  • Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: All witches wield guns, and if the Masked Lumen is representative of all Lumen Sages, then they favor bladed weapons. However, considering the witches' / sage's combat prowess, this trope is only of ceremonial value.
  • Handshake Substitute: Bayonetta summons Madama Butterfly's giant fist for the express purpose of sharing a fist bump with her.
  • Harder Than Hard: 'Infinite Climax', which unlike its equivalent from the first game doesn't disable Witch Time... however, that doesn't mean it's any easier; if anything, you'll desperately need Witch Time to stand a chance at this difficulty, because it messes with enemy spawns like in the first game.
  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Done repeatedly in the battles against Loptr. Even though he must be defeated on every stage of each fight against him, the next cutscene always has Bayonetta barely on her feet while the boss laughs derisively.
  • Heaven: Like the first game, Heaven has a majestic look but it's a nasty place to be otherwise, and playing as the Masked Lumen in Tag Climax shows creepy heavenly hands reaching for you when you're low on life points, clearly meant to be the counterpart to the demonic hands that reach for Bayonetta or Jeanne in normal game play.
  • Hell: Inferno itself. Here it plays a greater role than in the original, as Bayonetta's goal for most of the game is to reach it. Unsurprisingly, it turns out to be a very nasty place.
  • Here We Go Again!: 2 ends with Bayonetta and Jeanne just accepting the fact that they just can't have normal lives — they can just enjoy being posh while it lasts.
    Bayonetta: Wonderful. That's the second dress in a month!
    Jeanne: Another day in the life, Cereza.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of the game, Balder pulls off a non-fatal version to disrupt the Big Bad's escape plan. This leads to his corruption, and forces him to kill the Umbra Witches.
  • High-Altitude Battle: At the beginning, Bayonetta fights against hordes of angels, all the while riding on the top of a fighter jet.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Alraune, who laid claim to Jeanne's soul after she was Dragged Off to Hell and tries to do the same thing to Bayonetta during her battle with her, ultimately gets her own soul sucked out by Rodin in order to be made into a weapon for Bayonetta.
  • HP to 1: The Superboss keeps the tradition from the first game when he Turns Red, Shun Goku Satsu reference and all, except now he's seen lying down in the aftermath with you stripped naked in the background. If you have any remaining health, he'll bring you down to the game's last-chance hit point. If he uses it at the last chance hitpoint, it will kill outright.
  • Human Pack Mule: Bayonetta gets Enzo to carry her mountain of Christmas shopping in the opening cutscene.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In Chapter 3, Loki and Luka meet for the first time, and Loki calls him "That perv who keeps staring at Bayonetta's tits all the time", and advises him that he needs to learn how to talk to a lady. This from a boy who had spent the entirety of the previous chapter being verbally emasculated by Bayonetta for his rude behavior, even using the exact phrase quoted above, and was even carried around around that same area in his squirrel form.
  • Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: In place of the standard difficulty names from the first game, we have the fitting "1st Climax", "2nd Climax", and "3rd Climax" for Easy, Normal, and Hard, respectively. A fourth difficulty setting, "Infinite Climax" can be unlocked upon beating the game in "3rd Climax". The Switch port just reuses "Easy", "Normal", and "Hard" for the first three difficulty levels, however, averting this trope.
  • Important Haircut: Subverted Trope. Bayonetta and Jeanne both sport new hairdos, but it's not important to the plot at all. According to the developers, they just felt like having new hairstyles at the time the plot happens, like anybody else. However, her hair eventually plays a small role when Bayonetta goes back in time and fights alongside her mother, removing the Generation Xerox effect from the first game.
  • Impossibly Cool Weapon: In keeping with the first game. Bayonetta's arsenal this time includes guns with Bottomless Magazines, a set of Absurdly Sharp Blades, a bow that fires poisonous insects, a set of clubs that are as cool as they are hot, a triple-bladed Sinister Scythe, a truly massive electric hammer, a set of chainsaws, a set of thorny whips, and a Morph Weapon that turns into both demonic and divine weapons.
  • Improbable Weapon User: The Chain Chomp, lifted right from the Mario Bros. series, is a sentient ball-and-chain with teeth, that Bayonetta wields on one of her shapely legs.
  • Industrialized Evil: Most of the demons appear at least partially robotic, and unlike angels, it's more than skin deep (and what is revealed at times is more magma than fleshy).
  • Inescapable Ambush: Like in the first game, there are parts in levels where Bayonetta is ambushed by enemies and has to defeat them all to proceed. Upon doing so, she breaks the obstructing barriers by shooting a heart-shaped bullet pattern into them (replacing the blown kiss).
  • I Never Told You My Name: Bayonetta calls the Masked Lumen by his real name even though he never revealed it to her. She becomes flustered when he realizes this and asks her how she knew his name.
  • Inn Between the Worlds: Just like in the first game, portals to the Gates of Hell can be found anywhere, including Inferno.
  • Insect Queen: Rosa has her own demoness she is bound too, a massive scarab woman named Madama Khepri who is said to be a Goddess in Inferno with dominion over time and the sun.
  • Interface Spoiler:
    • Very soon after starting the game, the co-op Competitive Multiplayer, Tag Climax, is unlocked, allowing a player to fight with others online. This can spoil the unlockable characters available in the game. While Jeanne is an obvious one, it spoils Rodin, Balder, and Rosa, the last two being major spoilers for the game.
    • Averted with the Bronze and Silver trophies. They’re normally based on Loki and Luka respectively, but if those characters haven’t appeared in the story yet, the trophies will look like nuns instead.
  • "Just Frame" Bonus: The game adds a bonus to the Tetsuzanko attack on some weapons — if the attack animation involves Bayonetta jumping back before ramming into the enemy, then she is capable of getting Witch Time off of an enemy's attack in the first half-dozen frames.
  • Kaizo Trap: Just like the last game, several verses are hidden in the credits, the failure to complete which will earn you a death and a missed verse for the final chapter.
  • Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: In addition to bringing back the Peach and Daisy outfits, the game also adds the 'Dress' outfit, two costumes based on fancy dresses Bayonetta wears during the Prologue and Ending of the game (Jeanne also has her own version for the fancy leather dress she wore in the ending). This game canonically shows that Bayonetta would rather not fight in her "Sunday Best", lamenting in the ending that she loses two dresses to angel attacks in a span of just a few days.
    Bayonetta: Wonderful. That's the second dress in a month.
  • Kill Enemies to Open: Like in the first game, there are barriers that obstruct the way forward when enemies ambush Bayonetta, forcing her to dispatch them. While she still blows a kiss to destroy angel barriers, she instead uses bullets to destroy demon barriers.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Alraune, who seeks to use Jeanne's soul to gain more power for herself after Jeanne gets Dragged Off to Hell. Aside from getting her ass kicked by a pissed-off Bayonetta, who tore through Inferno just to save Jeanne, her ultimate fate is deliciously ironic: Rodin uses her soul in order to create a new weapon for Bayonetta.
  • The Last Of These Is Not Like The Others: Tag Climax allows you to put a bet of halos on the table, which will be multiplied and given to whichever player gets the highest combo score for the Verse Card. Each increment of bet (amount and multiplier vary by Verse Card) also adds a star to the difficulty; one-star and two-star bets simply make the enemies a little tougher, sometimes adding another wave for common enemies. Three-star bets are much more drastic:
    • If you're lucky or clever and you chose certain bosses, you'll just get an exponential-level Numerical Hard.
    • If you chose common enemies, prepare for a nasty surprise when a playable character fights you at the end.
    • If you're very very unlucky, things get even worse. Thought one Valiance could get hard? Try two. Alraune's not tough enough as the Whisperer of Dementia? How about when Jeanne joins in? Wanted a tricky round with Balder? Let's try Balder and two more Masked Lumens. You want Aesir at his hardest? Here's Aesir, Loptr, and the Prophet.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Make sure you play the first game all the way through, because the first ten minutes of this game spoils the big reveal of the first. Heck, even playing the demo will spoil part of the first game's story, namely Jeanne survives the events of the first game and becomes Bayonetta's friend, and that Bayonetta is Cereza after She Is All Grown Up.
  • Leitmotif: "You May Call Me Father" is this for Balder, which plays during his boss fight in the first game and his younger self's last fight in the second. Parts of it are even incorporated into the second game's "Lumen Sage and Temperantia", where you fight his younger self, The Masked Lumen, before finding out that he is Balder.
  • Lethal Joke Item:
    • Completing the game on any difficulty (even Easy/First Climax) unlock the Handguns, the non-magical guns Bayonetta use during the prequel chapter of the game (before she receives the Love Is Blue set). While they have no specials powers and can't even channel Wicked Weaves, let alone Umbran Climax, they still do damage, and because they are the weakest weapons overall, they can be extremely useful for racking up combos (since enemies take more attacks to die), and are perfect for missions that require the use of Torture Attacks.
    • Completing the game on 3rd Climax unlocks the final weapon: A live Chain Chomp straight out of Super Mario Bros. chained to Bayonetta's leg. Laugh all you want, but it makes for a powerful mix of an Epic Flail and an Angry Guard Dog.
  • Light Is Not Good: Like the prequel, the angels are still callous sociopaths or robots, and the light-alligned Masked Lumen remains a regular threat. Regardless, Bayonetta 2 shows that sometimes Light Is Good, with the first game's antagonist Balder turning out to have been Good All Along.
  • Limit Break: Bayonetta's new Umbran Climax ability can be used when she has a full magic gauge. It's somewhat comparable to the Serious Mode from the first game (where every attack is accompanied by Madama Butterfly), but instead of straight jab Wicked Weaves, her moves are backed up by the new Infernal Weave, which has much, much more combo potential. These summons uniquely accompany whatever weapon Bayonetta's swinging at the time with a different demon, and the wide swings and smashes of the move can easily rack up multiple hits on a single enemy. It restores her health, too!
  • Literal Split Personality: Loki and Loptr, the good and evil halves of Aesir, the God of Chaos. When Aesir split his power into the Eyes of the World, he split his soul into two incarnations. By the end of the game, however, Loptr forcibly takes both Eyes and Loki's Sovereign Power, taking over the body of Aesir and becoming the game's Final Boss.
  • Ma'am Shock: Bayonetta is visibly annoyed when Loki calls her "ma'am".
    Bayo: Do I look like a "ma'am" to you? Bayonetta or Cereza, take your pick.
  • Malevolent Masked Men: introduces a new character acting as The Rival for Bayonetta, a Lumen Sage wearing a mask that resembles the Sun. Given that he is intent on the death of Loki and fights almost exactly like Bayonetta, using light-themed versions of her moves, he fits this trope to a T. ...or not. He actually has his reasons for wanting to kill Loki (he thinks that he killed his lover), and even then this is because he was a pawn of Loptr.
  • Mini-Mecha: In one of the later stages, Bayonetta and Rosa pilot a couple of these, known as Umbran Armor. One of the equippable items lets the player summon it during Umbran Climax, while Rosa does this by default as a playable character.
  • Mirror Boss: Pinch hitting for Jeanne is the new Lumen Sage. Can do anything Bayonetta can do up to and including summoning giants to fight on his behalf. The monsters they toss at each other also serve as Evil Counterpart mirror bosses for each other, too:
    • Fortitudo and Labolas are both multi-headed summons that do the most melee damage with their teeth and are capable of limited, slow flight. While Labolas doesn't have fire abilities like Fortitudo, it doesn't seem to mind the magma field they fight on, and is from Inferno to boot, meaning it's safe to assume it has some fire resistance.
    • Temperantia and Madama Butterfly are both the most humanoid summons that Bayonetta and the Sage have at their disposal, have better flight capabilities than the previous two, and mainly fight with their fists.
    • Sapientia and Hydra are both at home in liquid environments and have flexible, cutting appendages in the form of Sapientia's laser tentacles and Hydra's horns, as well as evenly-matched secondary options in the form of Hydra's scream and Sapientia's missiles.
  • Mission-Pack Sequel: Bayonetta 2 plays damn near identically to the original game, with some token changes and an entirely new cast of enemies except for the levels taking place in the Witch Hunt, which brings back almost the entire slew of enemies from the original game. Most of the techniques and items Bayonetta can purchase are the same as the first game, and clearing the game even allows purchasing a costume that unlocks her original moveset. This even extends to the plot itself, which reuses many plot points and elements from the first game's story.
  • Money Is Experience Points: Like in the previous game, you can use halos to upgrade your health, magic, and to learn new skills in addition to buying items, costumes, and accessories.
  • Mook Debut Cutscene: These make their return from the first game. The demons get a more sinister version, complete with darker colors and Ominous Latin Chanting in place of the Cherubic Choir.
  • Multi-Mook Melee: The Witch Trials, which can be played after completing the game. Each of these chapters consist of a series of fights against increasingly powerful enemies, and there are extra perks to further push the challenge: Each Trial's difficulty is predetermined, so while the first three chapters are reasonable for the casual player, the last two will a lot harder since they're set on Infinite Climax difficulty. Secondly, no continues can be used, so if Bayonetta's HP is depleted just once, it's Game Over and the current chapter has to be restarted.
  • Musical Nod: The new main theme "Tomorrow Is Mine" contains a brief instrumental snippet taken directly from the first game's cover of "Fly Me to the Moon".
  • Near-Miss Groin Attack: The game has Enzo's groin very nearly run over, complete with scooting back, when Jeanne makes her entrance via motorcycle.
    Enzo: MOTHERFUCKER!
  • Nerf: The overall damage output is noticeably much lower than it was in the first game, with boss and miniboss's health bars taking considerably longer to bring down, encouraging chaining together plenty of rapid combos to maintain the pain. Rosa is the closest character to replicate the massive damage output of the first game.
  • Newbie Immunity: The game starts with a prologue chapter where you play as Bayonetta fighting against a horde of Angels, all while a narrator talks over the scenario. It's impossible to take damage, as this section lacks a health bar, giving you the opportunity to try out whatever combos you'd like against foes for a short period of time.
  • New Game Plus: An odd example that's not immediately apparent. If a new save file is created while there exists a completed save that has unlocked any available characters (including the Tag Climax exclusive Rodin and Balder), those characters will be unlocked from the beginning in the new file.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Turns out while Bayonetta prevented the apocalypse in the original game, her actions erased the power of The Right Eye, which upset the Balance Between Good and Evil and leads to natural disasters across the world. This causes demons to attack Bayonetta just as indiscriminately as angels do.
  • Noodle Incident: the demon Alraune is absolutely enraged to see that Bayonetta's contract is Madama Butterfly and goes on a rant about how much she detests Butterfly, mentioning that even the "passing millennia" did not quench her hatred for her. What Madama Butterfly did to Alraune is anyone's guess. Lampshaded by Bayonetta:
    Bayonetta: I don't know what you did to piss her off, but whatever it was... nice.
  • No Fair Cheating: After using an item in a battle with the Lumen Sage, he'll practically drop everything to voice his disappointment. (He really does stop what he's doing and is open to attack for a couple of seconds.)
    Masked Lumen: ...you have disappointed me.
  • Nostalgia Level: Played with. Chapters XIII to XV take place in Vigrid, the first game's setting, and as such feature familiar locales, enemies, and music. The twist is that Bayonetta is revisiting these locations during the witch hunts from 500 years ago and fights alongside Rosa, who also adds to the nostalgia by using Bayonetta's animations from the first game and having a similar design.
  • Oh, Crap!: In a similar vein to the final climax of the first game right as Omne is about to hit Aesir/Loptr with its giant dropkick, the camera zooms in on Aesir/Loptr's face with an absolutely priceless look of "oh shit" plastered across it. Loptr has another one when he is about to fly into the gaping mouth of Gomorrah.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Ominous Enochian Chanting makes a return in this game, except here it's used mostly for demonic enemies (in particular Alraune, Whisperer of Insanity), while angelic enemies tend to lean more towards the Ethereal Choir side of things.
  • One-Hit Kill:
    • Technically, a Two Hit Kill; the demonic Elite Mook Resentment has one attack, a large purple laser, that reverts Bayonetta/Jeanne/Rosa to childhood. It then disgorges clutching red hands that will grab Bayonetta/Jeanne/Rosa and drag her into its "mouth", instantly killing her.
    • Chapter X has a section where Rodin is seen killing multiple demons with single attacks. According to him, this is him going easy on them.
  • One to Million to One: Like in the first game, by dodging an attack at the very last second, Bayonetta can shatter into bats upon getting hit, negating the attack and gaining increased amounts of Witch Time in the process. For Jeanne she turns into a swarm of moths, and this is the only way she can get Witch Time normally. In the sequel, Rosa can also use this ability, turning into a swarm of hornets.
  • One-Woman Wail: The game features one during the boss theme "Alraune Whisperer of Insanity," which fits in eerily well amongst the Ominous Latin Chanting.
  • Only Mostly Dead: It's revealed in this game that this is how death works in the Bayonetta universe. As Rodin explains, someone is only truly dead once their departed soul fully becomes part of another realm in the Trinity of Realities (either by being eaten, adapted or otherwise transformed), and this process takes roughly a day or so. Until that point, it is possible to resurrect someone. However, this comes with a number of caveats, such as keeping their physical body in a intact, stable, preserved state, the person's life having been cut short in a "wrong" way (i.e. Jeanne's soul being taken outside the terms of her contract), and someone being able to actually get to the departed soul and attach to them a means to call the soul back to their body. As such, mostly dead ends up being truly dead almost always.
  • Order Versus Chaos: Subtly shown in the comparison between Paradiso angels and Inferno demons. Like in the first game, the angels are introduced with their names, their rank and their position in the order of angelic hierarchy. The demons, meanwhile, are merely introduced with their names and moniker, nothing more, suggesting an utter lack of ranking or organization.
  • Orphean Rescue: The crux of Bayonetta's decision to go to Fimbulventr is to go to hell itself to save Jeanne.
  • Our Centaurs Are Different: Acceptances, Accolades, and Allegiances, all new types of angel.
  • Outside Ride: The game begins with Bayonetta fighting angels atop a jet fighter.
  • Palette Swap: Muspelheim is explicitly stated in Luka's journal to be a different location from Alfenheim, but both areas have the exact same geometry, the only difference being the lighting (Alfenheim looks like it's daytime, Muspelheim looks like it's night) and a few other visual effects.
  • Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: Like in the first game, each time a new enemy type appears (including bosses), a mini cutscene plays with one of these, transitioning to a book (the Hierarchy of Laguna for angels, Lemegeton's Guidebook for demons) as the name and rank/title of the enemy is given.
  • Pedestrian Crushes Car: Or rather Pedestrian Witch Crushes Airplane by kicking it hundreds of meters into the air.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Bayonetta's bad enough when it comes to Kung-Shui, but her clashes with the Masked Lumen are ridiculously over-the-top in terms of environmental damage. Whether it happens in a Noatun courtyard or an Insidious's insides, don't expect much to remain intact after those two duke it out. The latter even killed said Insidious from its insides.
  • Play Every Day: If you have amiibo that are compatible with the game, you can scan each amiibo once per day and you'll have a steady source of halos.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: The game's plot kicks off when Jeanne sacrifices her soul for Bayonetta, driving Bayonetta to travel to Inferno to rescue her before said soul is lost forever.
  • Poisoned Weapons: One of Bayonetta's new weapons is Kafka, a bow that shoots poisonous arrows.
  • Post-Final Boss: After defeating final boss Loptr as Aesir, Loki depowers him in a cutscene, and you get to wail on Loptr with near impunity before kicking him into oblivion with Omne.
  • Press X to Not Die:
    • Averted, unlike the first Bayonetta. There are no cutscene QTEs that will result in instant death if you fail them.
    • There are cutscenes that end with an enemy attacking Bayonetta. If you evade correctly, you will start the fight in Witch Time.
    • Sometimes Bayonetta eats a random lollipop during a cutscene. You may have this color lollipop bound to one of your item buttons. You can use it for free by pressing the button.
  • Pretty in Mink: In the opening, Bayonetta is going shopping at Christmastime, and she's wearing a white Pimped-Out Dress in the style of The Gay '90s that's topped with a silver fur wrap.
  • Promoted to Playable: The Tag Climax mode allows players to control Rodin and Balder (though the former had an earlier playable appearance in The Wonderful 101).
  • Pummel Duel: Madama Butterfly and Temperantia briefly engage in one at the climax of Chapter 4. They only manage to get three strikes in, however.
  • Purposely Overpowered: Rodin's namesake weapon, which in both games is unlocked by beating his Superboss fight. It's a quartet of rings that act as a Swiss-Army Weapon that morph into almostnote  every Enemy Arm, and Enemy Arms as a whole have significantly more power and combo points to them than regular weapons. The cost is that Rodin is much harder to beat than the final boss on the hardest difficulty, requires a lot of grinding just to fight him, and since fighting him automatically sets the difficulty to the highest, you can't cheese the fight by beating him on Very Easy/Easy.
  • Recurring Boss: The Masked Lumen is fought three times over the course of the main story. The Big Bad, Loptr, is also fought three times in three different forms: His projection, his younger self, and his main self.
  • Red Sky, Take Warning: Inferno's sky consists of stormy blood red clouds. Needless to say, the place is not one bit welcoming.
  • Rescued from the Underworld: The game kicks off with Bayonetta heading off to Inferno to rescue her friend Jeanne after her soul is Dragged Off to Hell by a demon gone rogue.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: There's Secret Character Rosa, Bayonetta's mother, and her revolvers called Unforgiven, which she wields on both her hands and feet. They are basically a quartet of hand cannons, and do three times as much damage as any other weapon in the game, balanced out by the fact their wielder has very low defense and is a Glass Cannon.
  • Revision: Balder wasn't the monster he appeared to be in the original game; he was originally a good man who became evil after he contained Loptr's soul to keep him from escaping, which led to him being corrupted by Loptr's evil.
  • Riddle for the Ages: What exactly happened between Madama Butterfly and Alraune, and why does the latter hate the former so much? Amusingly, even Bayonetta comments that she's unaware of the answer.
  • Rise to the Challenge: There's a Verse that requires Bayonetta to use Panther Within in order to ascend the crumbling walkways of a small tower, while being pursued by a Golem.
  • Rivers of Blood: The inside of an Insidious ends up being these, and they get more and more agitated as Bayonetta and the Masked Lumen settle their differences for a second time. It doesn't end well for the Insidious.
  • Roaring Rampage of Rescue: The main action has Bayonetta mounting a rescue mission into the very heart of Inferno in order to save the soul of Jeanne, who was dragged off after saving her from a renegade demon, taking down both angels and demons along the way. And there is absolutely no mercy from Bayonetta when she finally faces down Alraune, the demon who has laid claim to Jeanne's soul.
  • Same Plot Sequel: Despite having a different initial premise than its predecessor (in the first game, Bayonetta investigates her past while in the second she tries to find a way to rescue her friend Jeanne from Hell), the game ends up rehashing several plot points and scenes. In both game, Bayonetta wanders in an old city with ties with the supernatural (Noatun and Vigrid), stumbles upon a mysterious child who's being targeted by the ennemies (Cereza and Loki) and regularly fights with a Evil Counterpart (Jeanne and the Masked Lumen) who turns to be a pawn of the Omnicidal Maniac Big Bad (Father Balder and Loptr). At the end of both games, the Big Bad uses the Eyes of the World to summon a gigantic mass destroying deity (Jubileus and Aesir). Bayonetta and her redeemed rival defeat it by summoning an even bigger one (Queen Of Sheba and Omne).
  • Sarcastic Clapping: This is the titular character's reaction after watching Loki take out a group of angels by himself, granted this might be subverted since she did seem at least somewhat genuinely impressed with his skills beforehand (she is notorious for her snark, after all). This clapping animation is actually used for Bayonetta's losing animation for her appearance as a Guest Fighter in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, looking as snarky and sarcastic as ever.
  • Say My Name: Jeanne yells out "CEREZA!" when Taking the Bullet for Bayonetta in the prologue, sacrificing her own soul instead.
  • Scaling the Summit: This is what Bayonetta and Loki try to do, as there's a portal to Inferno at the top of Fimbulventr, but they end up getting knocked back down by Valor before they even arrive on the mountain proper and instead decide to take an underwater shortcut to Inferno. Come endgame though, all of the major characters do arrive on the summit; Bayonetta, Jeanne, and Balder come in by fighter jet and Luka gets there with Loki by actually climbing the thing.
  • Scenery Porn: The environments have received a very noticeable upgrade from the first game, ditching the subdued brown palette for brighter colors. Noatun in particular looks lovely compared to Vigrid, being a golden city surrounded by and partially submerged in water. The gates of Inferno and Paradiso also both look stunning in their own way, and this isn't even getting into many of the major boss fights.
  • Schizo Tech: The Umbran Armor is an advanced Mini-Mecha for the Umbra Witches' use. The only levels where you are required to play with it take place during the Witch Hunts, which were around the end of the Middle Ages. Considering it was only seen being used by the Umbra Witches, it's unknown if this is just incredibly advanced engineering for its time or Magitek like the other weapons Bayonetta can use.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The magic-wielding Mouthy Kid Loki is happy to follow Bayonetta around, helping her out with his powers in exchange for her protecting him from the angels out to kill him for reasons he can't recall. However, he rationally draws the line at literally following Bayonetta into Inferno. At least until an ambush by the Lumen Sage and Loptr manages to make Inferno look like a reasonable escape route.
  • Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Invoked by Balder, eventually along with Taking You with Me, to circumvent the Big Bad's Immortality. By trapping Aesir's soul inside him and ensuring it stayed there during his death, Balder was able to force the god to die with him.
  • Secret Character: Jeanne makes a return as an unlockable character in Bayonetta 2, unlocked by just beating the game on any difficulty. Bayonetta's mother, Rosa, can also be unlocked by beating the game on 3rd Climax, the second hardest difficulty in the game. Two more characters can be unlocked in the online co-op mode, Tag Climax, through randomly being challenged by them during play, Lumen Sage, Balder, and Rodin, although these two can only be used on the co-op mode and not during normal gameplay.
  • See-Thru Specs: Luka gets another pair of glasses that let him see into Purgatorio from Rodin in exchange for some genuine sake. However, he unfortunately forgets that being able to see things in Purgatorio is not the same as being able to touch them.
  • Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Inverted with Bayonetta and the Masked Lumen: Bayo's Godiva Hair outfit means she's left near-naked a lot of the time, whereas the Lumen Sage doesn't show any skin at all until he is unmasked. Played straight with Loki and his Evil Counterpart / Evil Twin Loptr in the present day: Loki at least dresses like a Street Urchin, while Loptr only wears a cloak, which he even ditches once he becomes Aesir leaving him with only a metal thong.
  • Sequel Escalation: The first game already had large-scale, intense fights against giant enemies, but the second one gives a first boss from the Prologue that could pass as a Final Boss in another game. Bayonetta goes from exclusively fighting forces of Paradiso to fighting both infernal demons and the god of the human world (which is a distinct plane from heaven or hell) in addition to both old and new angels, and we finally get to see what Inferno looks like after the first game never revealed it. The Mirror Boss fights are a lot flashier: Jeanne from 1 summoned portions of demons for her battles, while the Masked Lumen in 2 summons the bosses in full-scale as they fight with Bayonetta's own demon summons in the background.
  • Sequential Boss: Wouldn't be a PlatinumGames title without plenty of these. Notable examples include Glamor, the Masked Lumen, Alraune, and (of course) the Final Boss.
  • Serial Escalation: In the development trailer, it was stated by the developers that this will take the first game's climax action and take it up further, to the point that fighting the first boss feels like you're fighting the final boss already. They succeeded.
  • Sequel Hook: Inverted. In a bizarre twist, Balder is seen in the Sunrise and Crescent Valleys donning the mask that we see him wearing in the first game. At which point the logo for Bayonetta appears. More of a Prequel Hook, in this case.
  • Shockwave Stomp: Rodin often attacks by creating a large wave from stomping on the ground. In the game's main story, he does this against groups of demons attacking him and Bayonetta, and each stomp is capable of killing all the demons instantly. He also uses that attack when he's fought as a Superboss, but thankfully it's not an instant-kill there.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns: Luka has less screen time in this game than the last one, and while Loki also provides a comic relief role, he gradually phases out of it.
  • Shout-Out: A ton of them, which can be viewed with the rest of the series here.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: In the Final Boss, Balder delivers one to Loptr-Aesir.
    Balder: Humans need not be told what their will shall be! We can create our world with our own eyes! [...] We may not see our next step. We may stumble, we may fall off the path. But we always move forward. That is the power of man!
  • Sinister Scythe: One of the new weapons is Chernobog, a scythe with several living blades that can be launched at foes.
  • Sinister Stingrays: Insidious is one of the demons of Inferno, and takes the appearance of a gigantic manta ray, complete with skull markings on its back and eyes on its wings. Insidious swallows Bayonetta and Loki alive at one point, forcing them to battle it from within, and they have to use extremely powerful magic weaponry to kill it.
  • Sizable Snowflakes: An easily missed example: when someone is trapped withing a block of ice, said ice block will emit several large, starry snowflakes.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: Bayonetta, Deadpan Snarker par excellence, finally finds someone who can keep up with her quips in the form of Mouthy Kid Loki.
  • Snowy Sleigh Bells: The wintry theme playing during Bayonetta's last-minute Christmas shopping is rythmed by sleigh bells.
  • Sound Test: Like the first game, Bayonetta 2 has one available after the story's completion. The tracks are sorted by appearance in the games, so if you want to hear a theme in particular, make sure to remember when it first triggered.
  • Stable Time Loop: Loptr needs both of the Eyes of the World in order to attain godhood. The only problem is that Balder, who had the Right Eye, died at the end of Bayonetta. To get around this, he brings Balder from 500 years ago to the present day. After Loptr is defeated, his soul tries to escape, only for Balder to absorb it, return to his original time, become the villain that he was in Bayonetta, and set in motion the events of both games. This leads to his death, which leads to Loptr bringing his past self to the present, and so on.
  • Stealth Prequel: With all the Time Travel, Retcons, and vastly expanding on the first game's backstory, this game is more of a prequel to the first than a sequel in terms of plot. The final boss of this game is the true cause of everything in the first, this game's Sequel Hook is more like a prequel hook for the first game's conflict, and so on.
  • The Stinger: Loptr's symbol is briefly visible on Balder's forehead and he takes on the mask he wore in the original game, showing that the evil in Loptr's soul turned him into the monster he was in that game.
  • Story Breadcrumbs: There are "The Journal's Echoes", which play the same role as Antonio's Notebook in the first game, giving backstory regarding the town of Noatun, the sacred mountain Fimbulventr, and the God of Chaos, Aesir. These pages were written by Luka himself, taking after his father. It's said that Luka left these fragments of his notebook on purpose so that Bayonetta could find them to help her in her mission.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: Just like in the first game, Bayonetta is fond of summoning a demon bigger than the enemy she wants to take down. At the beginning of the game, however, the one she summons, Gomorrah, unfortunately breaks from her control and becomes the next boss fight.
  • Summon Magic: Bayonetta's new Umbran Climax ability allows her to temporarily summon demons to end combos with massive final attacks.
  • Superboss:
    • The platinum ticket returns in the game, and with it, Rodin: the Infinite One. However, instead of fighting you as Father Rodin the angel, he's fighting as Rodin the demon. It also happens to be one of the most difficult fights in a Hack and Slash game.
    • In Tag Climax, a few extra bosses can be fought. Jeanne & Bayonetta and Rosa & Balder are fought as teams; and Labolas, one of the Infernal Demons that's normally summoned during Wicked Weaves, can also be fought.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: Just like in the first game, Bayonetta can stay as long as she wants underwater, all while fighting angels and demons. It is more noticeable in this game, though, as there are much more water in Noatun than there was in the first game. She can even talk underwater.
  • Swallowed Whole: The boss fight against Insidious leads to a Womb Level after it does this to Bayonetta. The demon Elite Mook Resentment, as mentioned above, can do this as a One-Hit Kill after it turns Bayonetta or Jeanne into a child. Bayonetta's summoned demon Baal does this when used as a Torture Attack or a Climax Attack — ironically, Baal is the Torture Attack used on Resentment.
  • Sword Beam: If Umbran Climax is performed while riding Diomedes, his horn shoots these when X or A is pressed.
  • Sword Drag: Equipping Salamandra to your legs will have Bayonetta do this automatically when she runs, complete with a gratuitous amount of Sword Sparks.
  • Taking the Bullet: When Gomorrah turns on Bayonetta and tries to kill her, Jeanne takes the attack for her, getting herself Dragged Off to Hell.
  • Tarot Motifs: Loki's cards are loosely based on the Tarot and act as the interface for Chapter and Verse selection.
  • Time-Shifted Actor: Mark Daugherty voices Loptr (and, by proxy, Loki) in his young boy form, while adult Loptr is voiced by TJ Ramini. Conversely, Crispin Freeman voices the Lumen Sage, a younger version of Father Balder (who was voiced by Grant Albrecht).
  • They Killed Kenny Again: Just like in the first game, Gomorrah gets his ass handed to him severely, but shows up later looking none the worse for wear. That's because Gommorrah is not a name of an individual demon. According to in-game description there are scores of them wandering some forest in Hell.
  • To Hell and Back: The primary driving force behind the initial plot is for the titular character to find the Gates of Hell to enter Inferno to reclaim the soul of her dear friend and fellow Umbra Witch, Jeanne... and then manage to get back out again. Getting into Inferno takes up the majority of the game, although getting out of Inferno ends up being a lot easier, happening by accident as a result of elements from the secondary storyline in the game.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Several of the generic mook angels from the first game have been upgraded with tougher defenses and more damaging attacks when you meet them in the past.
  • Towering Flower: The floral demon Alraune can summon giant demonic flowers that can spit sticky goo on Bayonetta, immobilizing her for a short time.
  • Traintop Battle: Bayonetta fights a boss on top of a fast moving train in the prologue.
  • Travel Montage: Just like in the first game, Chapter One opens with a travel montage following Bayonetta's trip from her hometown to Noatun with Enzo narrating the backstory simultaneously.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: The game starts off with a plot To Hell and Back for the titular character in order to reclaim the soul of her friend, Jeanne, but gets sidetracked by a secondary plot involving a Tagalong Kid named Loki who just so happens to have amnesia about who he is, other than he just to happens to be trying to get to the same holy mountain as Bayonetta. The plots clash more than a few time, but end up being more intertwined once the Big Bad Loptr/Aesir is revealed, since he was the one who caused Jeanne's soul to be sent to hell, and also happens to be Loki's evil half.
  • Underwater Boss Battle: The fight against the demon Insidious takes place underwater, as does the second part of Valor's boss fight.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change:
    • Chapter 12 has you riding on Diomedes to chase after Loki and the Masked Lumen.
    • Chapter 14 lets you pilot an Umbran Armor Humongous Mecha, although a lot of the core gameplay stays the same.
    • Chapter 16 starts off with Bayonetta, Jeanne, and Balder on a fighter jet towards Fimbulventr, in a segment similar to the Space Harrier segment from the first game.
  • Uniqueness Decay: Halos make a return, still described as rare as ever, in this game; however, they are joined by an equally described as rare new currency made from crystallized demon's blood called Orbs (which also serves as a Shout-Out to the Devil May Cry series), which become just as commonplace once Bayonetta starts defeating Infernal Demons on a regular basis.
  • Unlockable Content: The game continues this trend with Jeanne and most of the same accessories available to be unlocked (with a mix of new and old weapons), but also introduces Bayonetta's mother, Rosa, as a new unlockable character. The sequel also introduces Verse Cards which can be used in the online co-op mode, Tag Climax, which in turn can unlock two additional bonus characters, Balder and Rodin, although these two only be used in the aforementioned Tag Climax.
  • Unlockable Difficulty Levels: Infinite Climax, available upon completing the game on 3rd Climax.
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where Bayonetta keeps Loki while he's in squirrel form.
  • Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: the Undine are magical flamethrowers that can be Dual Wield in the titular character's hands or heels with both Kill It with Fire and Kill It with Ice settings. Generally though, its just a very average weapon, the ice-setting is really the only worthwhile option because it can encase enemies in ice, and even then, it can only do so semi-reliably on smaller, weaker enemies. That being said, the leg version can be useful for closing out combos with Wicked Weaves, but there are just better options in the game to choose from.
  • Villainous Vow: Following the final fight against the Masked Lumen, he forces Bayonetta to her knees with sheer rage and swears on his soul that Loki will draw his last breath before him. Later chapters show us that, despite what he initially appears to be, he's more of an Anti-Villain.
  • Wardrobe Malfunction: Played for Laughs in the ending, when Jeanne discovers her outfit was slashed in a very ... revealing spot, forcing her into a Back-to-Back Badasses pose with Bayonetta.
  • The War Sequence: The game gets in on the action close to the end when Bayonetta gets transported 500 years into the past to the conclusion of the Witch Hunts. It consists of two levels: the first is fighting your way through the angelic army attacking Vigrid with a fancy suit of Umbran Armor, the second represents the last stand of the Umbran Witches against the overwhelming numbers of angels.
  • Water Is Air: It stands out much more than in the first game, as Noatun features much more water than Vigrid; Bayonetta and Loki can breathe, walk, talk and use any weapon underwater. The sole things she can't do there is using her Crow and Panther forms, and she gets a new Snake form to compensate.
  • Welcome to Hell: Loki says this word-for-word to Bayonetta upon arriving at the gates to Inferno. Also a literal example, since Inferno is Hell.
  • Wham Line:
    • Somehow, the Boss Subtitles manage to deliver one in a later chapter. In Chapter XII, you fight the Masked Lumen for the third and final time. Only this time, he unmasks. If the appearance of the Right Eye didn't clue you in, then the game drives it home in the Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame sequence. Lumen Sage: Balder. This also turns out to be a reference to the first game, seeing as this chapter has the same name as Balder's chapter in the first game: The Lumen Sage.
    • The first level manages to deliver a Wham Line via Boss Subtitles. After beating the presumed boss of the level (Belief), he turns out to be a Mini-Boss, as Bayonetta finishes him off with Gomorrah, but then loses control of the summon. For the first time, we get boss subtitles introducing a demon, complete with a darker-looking book and font. Devourer of the Divine: Gomorrah.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The game is primarily set around Noatum, a fictitious town somewhere in Kazakhstan according to the pre-Chapter 1 map cutscene. Apparently, Kazakhstan is home to an impossibly tall mountain with a mysterious gate at the top.
  • Wintry Auroral Sky: Somehow, auroras are seen above the top of Mount Fimbulventr. Granted, the area is cold, if the blizzard occurring outside is to be believed, but the Travel Montage at the beginning of the game reveals that Mount Fimbulventr is located somewhere in Kazakhstan. Then again, they add an undeniable and fitting mystical flair to the Final Boss arena.
  • Womb Level: After the fight with the Insidious, it swallows Bayonetta and Loki, causing the rest of the chapter to take place inside it.
  • Yin-Yang Bomb: Bayonetta and Balder summon a fusion of Queen Sheba and Jubileus to deliver a massive dropkick to the final boss. It's referred to in the Infernal Compendium as Omne, and is strangely enough a completely different being from the two of them.
  • You Can See Me?: Loki says this to Bayonetta. She explains that it's because they're both in Purgatorio, the dimension that exists between the Trinity of Realities (and where those inside are invisible to those outside, and vice versa). The boy doesn't seem to understand, as he is completely ignorant to the mechanics of most things, being an Amnesiac Hero. Luka managed to get some glasses that allow him to see people in Purgatorio by giving Rodin authentic sake in the midst of a Japanophile stint, much to Bayonetta's surprise.
  • Your Mom: Bayonetta's longer taunt in the game has her tell the enemy "If you need to learn how to talk to a lady, ask your mum", just like her creator. This taunt even made it into her guest appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

Bayonetta: If you want to learn how to read TV Tropes Wiki, ask your mum.

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Labolas

A beloved pet dog who had the bad luck to wander into hell, but the good luck and survival instincts to get through its harsh environment and grow into a force to be reckoned with.<br><br>With the superb hunting abilities, it has even become known to some as a merciless butcher. Once it has sunk its sharp canines into its enemy, it will not let go until their last breath.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (4 votes)

Example of:

Main / Hellhound

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