Disclaimer here: Feel free to argue. Seriously, this is a discussion, so start arguing and discussing, but no ****-throwing. That's just nasty.
Anyway, this goes back to what Emblem Lord and Mr. Johan said about how the developers went about with Bayonetta. Some of you might remember Trifroze talking about characters and their niches. Bayonetta's main niche, the thing that makes it worthwhile to play her, is her combo style. She's got other niches like being the only character to have an aerial that combos, Fair, the ability to rise up with a launcher like in her own games or in a fighting game, like in Marvel vs. Capcom, instead of having to jump up after using a launcher that, and she's the only character with aerials that can stay out indefinitely. Those aren't as major, but that doesn't mean they're not unimportant. Removing or destroying a niche creates a loss of identity for a character. Bayonetta without her combos is not really Bayonetta and not interesting to players. She loses her style, her flair, and what makes Bayonetta, Bayonetta.
As Emblem Lord said, what do you do about overpowered tools? You "[n]erf overpowered tools". Technically, the developers should be toning them down as seen with Diddy's Uair, U-throw, and D-throw and Luigi's D-throw. Both had tools that allowed them to setup and combo, but both were at one point really over-tuned. Diddy's Uair was a frame 3, 8%, good knockback, vertical-launching move that could easily be setup from U-throw or D-throw to rack up damage and KO while Luigi's D-throw allowed him to combo and KO across a wide range of percents few characters could lay claim to. Both were re-tuned. Some might argue they were harsh, but guess what? They can still use them in similar or even in the same ways. Those tools were re-tuned. The worse is when they're straightup butchered which inevitably leads to losses in niches. Bayonetta's Witch Twist increased SDI from 1 to 2 makes it easier to get out. Probably not as bad as Brawl SDI stuff, but since it's easier to get out, Witch Twist loses reliability and when moves become unreliable, people just don't use them as much. Bayonetta not using her rising launcher means she's not using her niche anymore because she just can't. Was it over-tuned? For many, yes. Did it need a re-tune? Yeah. Did it need to be straightup nerfed? No. Afterburner Kick was another move that gave Bayonetta a niche to how she comboed that no other character had. Pre-1.1.6, it was a strong tool because she was able to pop you up at the right angle and height with the right amount of hit stun to combo you. It was her thing, but it was a bit too far as she could convert off it hard like ZSS could with D-throw. Difference is that ZSS's D-throw was re-tuned so she can't convert as hard, but can still use D-throw for setups while Afterburner Kick seems like it doesn't do "a Bayonetta combo thing". Bayonetta lost a move that was a part of her combo game. It wasn't re-tuned, but nerfed.
Basically, as far as people are trying to show what the patch did and what people are interpreting from the patch, the developers didn't do this.
People expected Bayonetta to be nerfed in ways that allowed her combos to still be prevalent. Uair doing horizontal knockback, her Smash attacks taking a heavy knockback nerf, maybe Bair and Nair being slower, anything that allowed her to keep her chains, but not convert into instant-kills in mid-level play.
Instead, she got bopped in measures that significantly gut her appeal as a combo character.
It's no wonder people are critical of the changes. It's like making Sheik's attacks slow, or removing Peach's float.
Instead, they did what Emblem Lord said they shouldn't do.
They also break the cardinal rule of nerfing imo. Nerf overpowered tools. NEVER NERF FUN FACTOR. These changes SEEM to do that. Make her less fun. I think that is very sad. However, only time will tell.
It's weird. It's really, really weird because even when Diddy was kind of panic patched and Link was panic patched, the developers tried to re-tune their over-tuned moves, fix their problematic moves, or just re-compensated them like Diddy's Down Smash being stronger or Link's Spin Attack progressively getting stronger and stronger. The only times where they straightup nerfed characters through a patch was like 1.0.4 or something towards Greninja and Rosalina & Luma. In Greninja's case, Greninja was strictly nerfed, but was later re-tuned while Rosalina & Luma were nerfed, but because they didn't severely nerf them, Rosalina & Luma ended up being more re-tuned. Both, however, never lost something: their niche. Despite their nerfs, Greninja and Rosalina & Luma always retained what made them unique; Greninja was always an ambush-style character, but before, Greninja was a bit more versatile and stronger while Rosalina & Luma were always this defensive wall. So, when you think about this, you should be expecting that the developers are... competent or something. I can't think of the word right now, but you're expecting the developers to be fair and understanding of what makes characters special and re-tune rather than destroying characters. You expected to have learned from their past mistakes.
Outside of patches, characters that were straightup nerfed happened between games. The notable trio would be Falco, Marth, and Meta Knight. I'd argue only 2 kept their niches: Marth and Meta Knight. Marth started off weirdly weak as he wasn't rewarded enough for his spacing. Marth's niche in all games was his spacing due to his tipper mechanic, but for some reason, they under-tuned him so that he wasn't getting much compared to other characters who'd space normally. The problem with Marth was that in previous games, Marth was also a combo monster. They got rid of that since it was oppressive to the cast. Well, he's still got spacing, but they went too far. It took several patches to get Marth back up to being the spacing character he is today and man, Marth is a wonder to behold and play -- it's so satisfying landing any of his tippers. Meta Knight was this speedy sword user who with his fast aerials and multi-jumps, seemed like he was supposed to be an air fighter. Brawl went overboard, gave him a two-handed sword for his size, and made him into a killing machine. Smash 4 went overboard too, but in the opposite direction wrecking his range with poor hitbox placement on some of his moves. Despite that, Meta Knight was still Meta Knight; he was and always, an air fighter, but dysfunctions prevented him from doing that reliably. For the players, dysfunctions made it frustrating to play as Meta Knight. His ladder combo was really strong, but it was something Meta Knight just did: air combat. The developers chose to keep air combat while re-tuning his Uair. He can still do his ladder combo in certain situations, but it's not as potent anymore. Still, Meta Knight kept his niche: his air game. Right now, Bayonetta's potentially in their, Greninja, Link, and probably some others' situations and these are the paths the developers should be taking. If they don't, they're heading down towards Falco's where you have an "incomplete", niche-lacking character.
