"Grace, draped in flame, and Glory, controller of lightning, are the twin escorts of the Creator. They share a wild disposition and are often depicted as gods of war, heroically leading the soldiers of Paradiso into battle, with their giant claw-like weapons being symbols of their ferocity. Humanity recognizes the increased spiritual power of twins, a power that comes from the blessings of Grace and Glory."
Gameplay
Grace and Glory almost always appear together, forcing Bayonetta to fight both at once. They are incredibly powerful melee fighters, using their combination of agility and strength to chain together highly damaging attacks. They are also very resistant to stagger, compared to most angels fought before their appearance, and have the ability to dodge and dash quickly in and out of the range of Bayonetta's attacks effortlessly.
Though they have a very similar fighting style there are some difference between them. Grace is the power fighter of the two, its attacks are a bit slower, and it uses wider sweeps and tends to drag its claws along the surface of the ground before swinging. Its unique attack is a powerful tornado-like spin (and it is extremely easy to get witch time from this attack), using its elemental claws to create an inferno of quick twirling slashes as it moves towards Bayonetta like a spinning top. Glory tends to be much more mobile on the battlefield, sliding back and forth to dodge incoming attacks before striking. Its attacks are also more agile, with is usually sliding along with striking, giving it deceptively long reach. For Glory's unique attack it falls back away from Bayonetta and charges its claws with lightning for a moment before leaping a few feet into the air and then slamming them into the ground below as it lands; this sends arcing blue lines of electricity in all directions outwards from it which must either be dodged or jumped over, though this attack has no effect if player is equipped with Durga Lightning on the legs.
In addition to their slightly different fighting styles both Angels have the ability to extend their claws by using elemental bonds as a tether, drastically increasing the reach of their attacks. They also fight smartly, being that if one of them is near death it will begin to hang back and let the other distract Bayonetta as it prepares more powerful attacks out of harm's way.
For their Torture Attack, Bayonetta summons a large vice that traps Grace or Glory between a two carved demonic hands. Rotating the left joystick quickly will cause her to turn the crank-wheel, causing one of the hands to slowly push towards the other, slowly crushing the angel inside as they struggle to resist. As the torture attack sequence ends she spin-kicks the crank, causing the two hands to clasp together as if in prayer, usually obliterating the Grace or Glory caught between them.
Grace or Glory will always drop their Angel Arms, which are their massive blue or red claws. Whichever of the two is killed first will drop their weapon, however all subsequent Grace or Glory killed in that verse will not drop their claws.
Near the end of the game, more powerful versions of these warriors appear, named Gracious and Glorious. They are similar to the original Grace and Glory, but are clad in black and white golden armor instead of red and blue, and Bayonetta is incapable of triggering Witch Time against them without the use of an accessory such as Selene's Light, Moon Mahaa-Kalaa, or the Bracelet of Time.
Recommended Weapons
Due to Grace and Glory being incredibly agile in their movements and attacks quick weapons are best used when fighting them. Slow weapons like Lt. Col. Kilgore are almost entirely ineffective because of the slow sweeping attacks Bayonetta uses for her combos, usually allowing the Grace or Glory to recover and counter attack easily.
Onyx Roses: Their buckshot Charge Modifier allows the Onyx Roses to easily stagger both Grace and Glory should they stand too close to one another, and their quick small arms based combos allow Bayonetta to weave attacks between blocks and dodges more easily.
Odette: The multi-hit Charge Modifier on Odette allows it to quickly freeze either Grace or Glory, allowing Bayonetta to more easily combat its counterpart or any other Angels present.
Mythology
In Christian theology, Virtues supervise the movements of heavenly bodies and maintain order. They are also responsible for overseeing the distribution and performing of miracles.
Trivia
Grace and Glory were one of the first enemies designed and programmed. In his commentary, Hideki Kamiya shares that when the enemies were first loaded in with all the skills designed for them, they were so hard it was almost impossible to beat them. This called for a modification to their AI: While Grace and Glory always appear together, player only fights one at a time, though they do attempt to switch.
Both of them share the same name of a song from the Jet Set Radio series, Grace and Glory (which plays in the final level of both JSR games). It is unknown if this was coincidental or intended or both.
If you look closely at the Guillotine Torture Attack, Grace or Glory's mask can be seen on the side.
Their appearance are similiar with the Verdugos from Resident Evil 4, but they lack of the Verdugos' long sharp tail and their necks are much more longer.
Grace & Glory looks similar to the Israfel, 7th Angel as seen in Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series.
