Rising's combat brilliantly toes the line between challenge and simplicity, and the parry system (coupled with zandatsu) is a brilliant way to differentiate the combat system from other character action games, while also very satisfying to pull off. I thought the game was also smartly designed around parry and zandatsu, making the encounters and boss fights diverse and fun to play. Getting into a chain of parries against the heavy troops is soooo goooood.
It also has, I think, a more traditional, old school difficulty curve. Both Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101 don't leave the full raw challenge until last, and neither has a final boss that really punishes you in difficulty, as rewarding and fun as they may be. Rising, on the other had, gets progressively more and more difficult, and the final boss is a full test of mechanic mastery.
That being said, of the three Rising also, to me, feels the most incomplete and rushed. Maybe it's me projecting based on what we all know about the development history, but it does feel like a game that was pushing a long crunch, desperate to get out as soon as possible. The level design is a bit lacking, the game is quite short, and it doesn't have the weight of unlockables and tighter ideas that Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101. This is why I'm excited for what I'm sure will be Rising 2, Platinum given a full development cycle from the start, rather them salvaging a dead project from elsewhere.
The Wonderful 101 is unquestionably Platinum's biggest game. I noticed this more when I jumped into another playthrough of Bayonetta. Bayonetta is big, but The Wonderful 101 is definitely bigger, not just in game content and diversity, but in production too. It recycles less content, and where it does recycle it does so interestingly. It has ten times the mechanic diversity, and each of these is far more polished than Bayonetta's. And you just go so many places and see so many things throughout the campaign. Must have cost Nintendo a pretty penny!