BAYONETTA is a fantasy action adventure game in which the player controls a witch fighting an array of creatures.

The game was classified '15' for strong language and bloody violence. At '15', the BBFC's Guidelines state that 'violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury'. In BAYONETTA, the bloody violence is frequent and consists of clouds of blood, arterial spurts and flying limbs during combat, as well as 'torture' moves in which Bayonetta puts her enemies on a rack, into a spiked cabinet and so on. Such sequences are not presented in a realistic manner - one involves pulling a female monster to a rack and tightening a chain - with resulting breast jiggling - before the victim explodes in a puff of blood and body parts. Throughout the game, Bayonetta's enemies are fantastical rather than realistic in appearance, and the levels are mostly set within a clearly unrealistic universe. There is no opportunity to further damage bodies post-mortem, and none of the corpses stay in the environment for more than a few seconds.

At '15', the BBFC's Guidelines state that 'there may be frequent use of strong language'. The language in the game occurs during the 'cut scenes', and there are over fifteen uses during the normal course of the game.

The game also contains some moderate sex references, with numerous camera angles focusing on the female characters' bodies and costumes throughout.