Eight months after starting it, and over two years after its initial US release, I have completed Bayonetta. And what a game it was.
I do have to wonder why they put in two easy modes, though, since it felt like one would have been more than enough. I played through on Normal the entire time, and while I died a couple of times in the story, it never felt like the difficulty was too high; just having the ability to slow time by hitting a button should be enough difficulty mitigation for 95% of the game.