[9] Lollipops can be used to heal her, replenish her magic, induce invincibility or increase her strength, although using these items, as well as dying, lowers the score for that chapter.

[13][14] He expected players to first complete the game in 10 to 12 hours, but believed that its rating system (similar to that of Viewtiful Joe, which he directed) and the pursuit of high scores provide replay value.

[11] Bayonetta (voiced by Hellena Taylor / Atsuko Tanaka)[16] is a witch who shapeshifts and uses various firearms, along with magical attacks she performs with her hair by summoning demons to dispatch her foes.

The game settings borrow from Dante's Divine Comedy: Paradiso (heaven), which generally takes the form of a heavenly yellow or golden valley or palace and is the home of the "Angel" enemies she faces; Purgatorio (purgatory), a metarealm that functions as an "in between" for metaphysical beings and stands alongside yet outside of the plane humans exist on (all beings in and outside of Purgatorio take on a transparent, watery appearance); Inferno (hell), which is not visited in the game, but contains the infernal demons that Bayonetta summons in combat, using her hair as a conduit.

Returning to the human world, Bayonetta continues her search for the Right Eye, journeying to an island named Isla del Sol with Luka and Cereza, while gradually remembering her past and uncovering the answers to her questions: she and Jeanne are the only survivors of the Umbra Witches, which was rendered near extinction after a clan war with the Lumen Sage clan, followed a massive witch hunt led by the angels of Paradiso.

[27][28] Though he "deliberately created Bayonetta from scratch" and has called its story "completely original", Kamiya has admitted using "some names from Scandinavian mythology" and playing "about half of" Devil May Cry 4 for research.

[23] Conversely, Shimazaki "didn't require a huge amount of effort" to design Bayonetta's short-haired, red-clothed rival Jeanne, who merely wears her glasses on her head above her eyes.

[29] As a fan of folk music, Kamiya named Bayonetta's set of four handguns after the old English ballad "Scarborough Fair", and its individual guns Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

[33] Kenichiro Yoshimura transformed Shimazaki's Bayonetta design into a game model and used the digital sculpting tool ZBrush to create normal maps for its details.

[5][38] To fit the theme of "her femininity and sexuality", the developers made Bayonetta bleed rose petals instead of blood when hit, and used butterfly imagery as part of her moves and outfit.

[39][40] Her giant boot, fist, and monster attacks reveal some of her body—her hair is magically formed into clothes but must be stripped from her body to form these attacks - and when the player targets an enemy, red lips mark the enemy's chest; this led IGN to call the developing game a mix of "action and a great big helping of fan service".

The grand prize winner, Andrea Bonaccorso, announced on November 23, 2009, received an Xbox 360, a 50-inch plasma television, and a copy of the 360 version.

[44] The commercial, which has since been shown on the official Japanese website, touts the game as "∞ (non-stop) climax action (∞クライマックス・アクション)" and features a model dressed as Bayonetta with a lollipop.

[52] An update for the PlayStation 3 version was released on January 28, allowing players to install the game on their hard drive, dramatically reducing load times.

[56] Sega of Europe released a ∞ (Non-Stop) Climax Edition in the UK, France, Spain, and Australia, which included the game, the Rodin's Selection tracks packaged in a black-and-red jacket, and an artbook.

While the game uses 8-bit era graphics and was simplified in gameplay, only allowing Bayonetta to jump and fire at a few enemies and considered part of the April Fools' Day pranks, players found several bits of pieces in the achievements that pointed to a countdown timer on Sega's website ending on April 11, 2017, as well as other data mining suggesting a possible port of the Bayonetta game to Windows.

[64][65] A spokesperson for PlatinumGames said that they have become interested in porting more of their games to Windows, though the decision to do so has been a choice of their respective publishers; Sega has been supportive of personal computer releases as of late.

The retail release comes in a steelbook and includes Bayonetta alongside Vanquish, another PlatinumGames game, on a single disc, with support for 4K 60fps visuals for PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X users.

The album contains five discs with 150 tracks used in the game, composed by Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Masami Ueda, Rei Kondoh, Takayasu Sodeoka, Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Yoshitaka Suzuki, Erina Niwa, and Naoto Tanaka.

[67] An anime film, Bayonetta: Bloody Fate (ベヨネッタ ブラッディフェイト, Beyonetta Buraddi Feito), was directed by Fuminori Kizaki and produced by Gonzo, with screenplay by Mitsutaka Hirota and character designs by Ai Yokoyama.

A manga adaptation illustrated by Mizuki Sakakibara was published in two parts in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine on November 9, 2013, and December 9, 2013, respectively.

[95] Ryan Clements of IGN said that while the PS3 version was "still a fun game", it had "a lot of problems", mainly being "the excessive slowdown and loading".

[8][98][99][6][93][96][100][101][102] Matt Leone of 1UP.com said of the pre-release version of the game's PS3 port that when he discovered he could "hold down the final button in the string to continuously fire gunshots" he observed that it looked "incredibly cool when you kick someone and then keep your leg pointed at their face".

Edge singled out the upgrade from Normal to Hard difficulties as the point where the game transitions from "the great to the legendary", concluding that it was "difficult to recall another third-person actioner" that felt "so worth mastering".

[98] GamesRadar's Nathan Irvine also said that the game nailed "the epic scale of everything" that unfolded in front of the player and "manner in which it's delivered", believed it was better than God of War Collection, Devil May Cry 4, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and praised its "superb action" and humor.

[99] Staff at GameSpot UK labelled the "Witch Time" mechanic a "cool move" and one of the two boss battles they fought were "pretty intense", and said that it was "easy to see the similarities" between the game and Devil May Cry.

[93] Daniel Feit found the game's commands easy to learn and perform, but criticized the camera for focusing "on her and the wall" instead of "the enemies cornering her" and felt that some of her "Wicked Weave" attacks could "also obscure the action".

[96][101] However, Gamearena felt that the gameplay would not appeal to many, commenting that Devil May Cry was seen by many to be "too campy and over-the-top" and Bayonetta made it look "monochrome".

[112][113] Phil Elliott of GamesIndustry.biz called the 360 version's lower sales figures "a very strong performance for the Microsoft platform, relative to installed base".

The game, released in Japan in September 2014 and in North America and Europe in December 2014, features a port of the original Bayonetta, which adds costumes based on Nintendo properties including Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox and Metroid, as well as touch screen controls and dual audio tracks.