We were conducting a “Smash Ballot” where people could vote for their favorite characters. Worldwide, 1.8 million votes were counted, and of the fighters that were negotiable, as well as realizable in Smash, Bayonetta had the highest amount of votes!* Bayonetta 2 was also a Nintendo exclusive, so negotiations were very easy.
*TL note: In case “negotiably possible” isn’t clear, Sakurai uses the word “negotiation” here, so I take that to mean negotiations in a business sense. As for realizable, Sakurai has written about that before, in column 430.
But because her original series is so distinctive, I was very troubled, trying to think of ways to properly represent her. In the end, I made her a combo-heavy fighter that can start combos from various places. Because you need to think about how much knockback to deal if you want to begin a combo, she’s a fighter with a lot of depth.
She has many moves that show off her distinctive character, like Wicked Weaves, which uses her hair as a conduit to summon forth limbs of Infernal Demons, or Witch Time, where she must predict her opponent’s offense to counterattack, creating an opportunity by slowing time.
To tell the truth…Going through the ratings board for each country/region was extremely difficult. In particular, Japan’s rating board was very strict on Bayonetta’s sexy antics, and there were many times where I thought “You’re not even going to let this through?”
This batch of DLC fighters took more work than the fighters in the base game, and they all have their own especially unique characteristics and playstyles. Knowing this is the final update, I put in as much effort as I could, so please enjoy!
