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Originally Posted by synaesthetic
I've heard this before from the creator and other women, and while I don't necessarily disagree with it, I don't consider the protagonist to be especially empowering or appealing, but I'm also a little different than most.
Bayonetta is just an extension of the existing Strong Independent Woman stereotype which I don't think is especially helpful (or fair). Sure, yeah, it's better than vapid balls of fluff with gag boobs and bare skin everywhere, but that's not really saying much.
For what the game is, it's fine. It's a fantastic story with a superheroine in the lead. Bayonetta is no more crazy and over-the-top than Superman or Batman, or Deadpool or the Punisher.
I didn't have any personal draw to Bayonetta because I've never been big on superhero stories and because I'm not personally attracted to the "tall, dark and impossibly sexy" type of woman. Maybe Bayonetta doesn't appeal to me because I'm gay and I look at other women in a different way than straight women do.
More than that I think it's just personal preference. The characters I like most are the ones that fit under the Badass Adorable trope, and "tall, dark and impossibly sexy" doesn't really jive with that.
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The strong independent woman stereotype requires that if the woman is the lead, then she is basically a man with breasts, or if she's a secondary character, her only defining trait is her relationship with the male lead. Bayonetta doesn't fall into either category, and is in fact a pretty well written character with many characteristics that does have some feminist roots.
First off, one of her key defining characteristics is her height. She is abnormally tall, and her heels + tall hair makes her seem like a giant. Generally men are emasculated by tall woman, which is why most men go for woman shorter than themselves and short men often have issues with their height.
Her sexual poses and outfits are definitely a 'negative' in the sense that it is playing to the standard of objectifying women so common in video games. However, sexual confidence and empowerment is a staple feminist motto and the way Bayonetta is written fits that quite well. So from the marketing perspective there's definitely the whole male gaze and objectification thing going on, but from the writing perspective Bayonetta is fully aware of her own sexuality and does it not for any man, but for herself.
Bayonetta is also not defined by her relationship with a male love interest. Her two strongest relationships in the game are with her past self and with Jeanne. With her past self the game explores her feelings of motherhood with is a huge contrast with how she was living her life before as a carefree independent person tied down to no one. Her relationship with Jeanne is one of rivalry as well as friendship and female camaraderie, something that you rarely see in a lot of fiction that's not aimed specifically at women.
In fact, one of the biggest criticism of many Urban Fantasy fiction with female protagonists is that the female protagonist's relationship are all with men, and there are no other strong female characters in the story for the female lead to develop any relations with.