Bayonetta 1 (Wii U): So replaying the early game has made me realize how much crap I take for granted.
Things you don't have in the prologue of Bayo 1:
-Wicked Weaves
-Panther
-Any of Rodin's abilities (given granted)
-Air Dodge (this feels like a fundamental enough to distinguish from the previous)
-Witch Time
-Any combos worth a damn due to lack of weapons and Witch Time (you're using the Hand Guns, the joke weapons handed to you for completing the game)
-Torture Attacks
Now granted, Torture Attacks, Witch Time and Wicked Weaves are all given to you by the beginning of Chap 1, but prologue doesn't go as smoothly when you take these things for granted! Albeit, prologue also gives you infinite health near as I can tell for your initial playthrough.
Why didn't this come up in Bayo 2? Because just about all of those sans the Rodin thing are in fact initial skills, on top of which, you also get Umbran Climax.
This in turn makes Bayo 1's early game harder than Bayo 2's, not because enemies are tougher but because you're so much weaker, and when you're use to big skills, that happens. Bayo 2, you still need to learn a bunch of stuff (Form of Bat is a big deal for example) but the system doesn't feel like it's restricting itself for tutorial purposes.
This is not a complaint about how Bayo 1 didn't age well, more just what happens when you're use to one thing and it's gone. By Chapter 4 or so, you should get everything notable back, and be on the right track. I just finished Chapter 2, which by now I have bought Air Dodge, both Stinger clones, the Shurada (aka the weapon I'm most familiar with), and...yeah, I just want Panther form because lots of moments of "ok, gotta run for a bit, TIME TO GO PANT-...oh, right
"
Also used the Peach Outfit and Samus Outfit. Samus is kind of boring beacuse it seems to just replace the animation of guns with the Arm cannon. Peach has Bowser Weaves, automatically awesome!