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When the whole setting is even Darker and Edgier than the previous game and the (only) villain is not simply a God trying to subjugate one universe but an omnicidal AI blowing up thousands of universes and bringing death and destruction wherever he goes, you know there is going to be Nightmare Fuel.
- The villain in the December 2017 teaser, who is apparently powerful enough to utterly curbstomp Bayonetta and seemingly kill her. The only character from the previous games who came even remotely close to that was Loptr, and he's half of a god capable of reshaping the universe. And if you thought the sassy and powerful Bayonetta being completely steamrolled in the trailer was bad, then just wait until you see the very first playable section of the game which subjects you to a Hopeless Boss Fight against Singularity. She not only gets completely manhandled, but her death here isn't anywhere near as quick as the trailer. Hearing the indomitable Umbra Witch screaming in agony as Singularity slowly kills her is not pleasant. The only good (or bad) thing is that this is only one of the 2,042 alternate Bayonetta he destroyed, and the main one is not going to let him have his way.
- The Homunculi invasion is horrific in the viewpoint of a resident in one of the targeted universes, especially in the city-based ones. Absolutely massive amounts of human-like nanobots of all shapes and sizes, including Terminator clones, gigantic hulking humanoid figures, aerial battleships, fish-like giant battleships and other robotic abominations of all shapes and sizes suddenly show up out of nowhere to destroy and kill everything they come across for no apparent reason, and your local military goes in to deal with them, to no avail as the invaders won't take even a single scrape. Parts of the buildings you are once familiar with inexplicably vanish or get totally warped in nightmarish ways. Massive tsunamis or other natural disasters might inexplicably show up to kill millions. You don't know why they're invading, and the invaders aren't telling you anything. And the worst is the invaders already declared your death and your entire universe doomed and nobody, not even your universe's Bayonetta, knows anything about it.
- The Climax Summoning is both this and Awesome, as in order to do it, Bayonetta has to rip her own heart out, allowing the blood to drip down onto the summoning circle to complete the summoning.
- Not too overtly horrifying, but still a rather chilling one; as soon as you set foot into alternate Shibuya, you're being thrown into a Shinkansen train inside metropolitan Tokyo. You don't see any Homunculi (or any Homunculi-related distortions) until a few Stratus break in after several seconds, but it's eerily empty with not even a single citizen in sight. There's something very wrong when one of the busiest metropolitan commotion systems in the world is completely and utterly deserted even before the Homunculi rear their ugly heads out.
- Luka suddenly transforming into his faerie-wolf form, grasping his head in pain when it feels like his head is about to split in two, to his glowing red eyes, and how he states that there is "only one truth". In Bayonetta's second battle with Strider, Luka roars at how he is nothing but a monster, roaring and raging at the woman he loves, unable to stop himself with the voice in his head (his own) making him lash out while bringing out his self-loathing in the process. Even when Bayo tries to reach out for him, he doesn't hesitate to stab her through the gut.
- This makes the initial fight against Strider even harder to look at. Bayonetta's having the time of her life teaching this dog to roll over. She's actually beating up the man she loves who has no idea that he's even transformed into this state!
- If you think Alraune being a summonable demon makes her an ally, think again. She remembers everything she went through in Bayonetta 2 and while she can't overtly take down Bayonetta, she can still make her suffer while aiding her. If you use her Masquerade Rage with Alruna equipped, Alraune forces Bayonetta to transform while wrapping her with thorny vines, growing them all around the battlefield as well. And when it reaches it's climax, Bayonetta's mouth is forced open as Alraune's stinger-tail forces her venom into her mouth, the same one that turns souls into her "lovers". Just a drop makes Bayonetta scream in agony as the rage ends.
- When you destroy Stratocumulus in Cairo through The Phantom, we get a shot of the explosion from outer space. Though from where we should see the various landmasses of Earth and bodies of water, the entire surface of the Earth is instead entirely covered in the Clouds of Erasure. It serves as a chilling reminder that Singularity isn't just destroying the places Bayonetta traverses through, but the entire planets full of their own populations of humans, plants and animals, an omnicide that goes across entire multiverses.
- Perlucidus. Perlucidus. Its a hummingbird like homunculi found in Paris that attacks in droves. It should sound easy to kill and it is, but it's purpose isn't to attack on it's own. It's mean to latch onto your back, devour and/or replace your spine and give control of your body to Singularity. Its power can and will make you attack those you love, fight until your body gives out, and all you can do is hope someone can kill you quickly while you watch on helplessly.
- As hilarious as it is, the reason why the Perlucidus are deployed in Alternate France. Singularity could had been just crushed the French Military like a pancake any time he wants to just like what he did to the Japanese military and Chinese army prior. There was no practical reason for Singularity giving all the soldiers an And I Must Scream death other than mocking Bayonetta's demon slave dances, showing that despite being a multiverse-wiping AI, Singularity himself is not far above from childish, petty moments like this that will result in mass deaths and suffering.
- While other locations targeted by Singularity show a gradual state of destruction (with the Clouds of Erasure not present in Alternate Egypt before Bayonetta reaches the temple where the Chaos Gear was in), Alternate France not only throws the player straight into destroyed buildings and burning wreckage, alongside huge amounts of Clouds of Erasure covering vast swathes of the landscape, the terrain itself appears to be so heavily distorted that parts of Ginnungagap start visibly merging into the cityscape, best visible when the Cumulombinus unit attacks Bayonetta up in the air and when Bayonetta is chasing Alternate Rosa. It's especially horrific because it tells you how doomed that place and the humans living there are.
- Singularity is among one of the most awful villains in video game history. As evil as Loptr is, he's small fry compared to this vicious madman who blows up over two thousand universes. Think of Skynet meets Ultron and add in the sheer hubris and the omniversal destruction committed by The Batman Who Laughs and you get the big picture.
- He used to be a rogue Artificial Human manufactured in an unnamed artificial body parts factory, but he turned against his masters and destroys his own universe before moving off to take over multiverses by killing its universe's Bayonetta and causing that universe to entropy. And then he plans to merge all of reality into one universe where he's the only one who rules over. There's something very wrong when an android coming from a factory makes even Jubileus and Aesir (actual gods, not random crazies) look like amateurs. Oh, and the number of universes he's blown up before meeting Bayonetta in alternate China? 2,042. Very few video game villains take destruction to such an absolutely insane level.
- The Curb-Stomp Battle Singularity committed against the prologue's alternate Bayonetta and tried on the Arch-Eve Origin? That's his "phenomenal affirmation" ability, where he rewrites fate to go in way he wants to, which translates to him always winning against the targeted universe's Bayonetta and the entire universe destroyed. Small wonder why this guy's ego is so massive — he literally can't lose!
- Singularity Definition also has one horribly nasty move: While he's not the only enemy who can incapacitate your summoned demon in one hit, the way he does it is to karate chop said demon so hard he splits them in halfnote . The fact that the screen darkens right before this killing move makes it all the more unsettling.
- Just the way Singularity kills any of his victims by crystallizing their bodies and shattering them into pieces all while absorbing them as they scream in extreme agony. Makes for a pretty disturbing way to even die.
- At the end of the game, Bayonetta’s (The Arch Eve Origin, a.k.a. the player character) Umbran Watch shatters, once again turning Gomorrah against her like in the second game. This time, however, no one saves her as Luka ultimately chooses to honor their agreement and save Viola, allowing the demon to kill her with a slash of his claws, separating her soul from her body. And while Luka ultimately destroys Gomorrah, it’s too late as Bayonetta is being pulled down into Inferno, and without her watch, there is NO saving her like with Jeanne in the past. As such, Luka chooses to go down with her and the both of them are pulled into Inferno by demonic arms, all while Viola can powerlessly watch on.
- Enraged demons.
- When a demon you summon takes hits, they slowly build a rage meter. As this meter fills up, first the demon crackles with red electricity, then eventually they glow red, break free from your control and go berserk attacking everything in sight, including, or maybe especially, you. What's worse, dodging an enraged demon's attack does not grant you witch time, so you're pretty much forced to stay on the defensive until the demon calms down. And this can happen to any demon, not just the violent ones like Gomorrah, but also the friendly ones such as Baal or even the loyal ones like Madama Butterfly. A grim reminder that Evil Is Not a Toy.
- Rodin is especially bad about this. Other demons must tank quite a lot of hits before they blow up (while surviving the onslaught), but Rodin can be enraged with a simple press of a button if you're careless (or crazy): When he asks for a dance, you may deliberately or otherwise reject him, and this action will instantly make him rage. Oh, and his initial outburst alone will wipe your entire health in one go regardless of difficulty.
- Pressing dodge twice rapidly will cause Bayonetta to assume Demon Masquerade and move at accelerated speed. For most weapons, the effect isn't anything special, but for Tartarus, Bayonetta becomes a puppet suspended by strings as she's dragged along on the floor by unseen hands.
