Bayonetta – Review

1. Bayonetta has been in development for some time by none other than Hideki Kamiya, the man behind the resident evil series, and one you could say is the father of modern action games through his masterpiece Devil May Cry. Now that series doesn't the quality of the first one no matter how hard Capcom tries.
   
   So coming to this game I had VERY high expectations, and for the most part its nowhere near disappointing. Actually very few things hold it from perfection.
   
   Story 9/10
   
   Even after finishing the game, the story still sounds hard to understand, something about Bayonetta being buried underwater for centuries, and when she finally gets out, she has lost her memory or at least most of it, and through the game she starts regaining her memory by beating angels to death with some help of some nasty demons. It’s hard to write much about the story without spoiling, so I won’t write much story related.
   
   The cast is interesting for the most part, and the writing is pretty good and downright hilarious sometimes. You are sure to get a few good laughs here and there which is strange considering it’s an action game. However the game doesn’t take itself too seriously which is a pretty nice change.
   
   Gameplay 10/10
   
   Oh you’re not here for the story probably? Then you must be here for the action. In this regard Bayonetta more than excels. It simply makes other action games from Devil May Cry, to God of War, and Ninja Gaiden look kinda realistic in comparison.
   
   Let’s get the one bad thing out of the way first. The game has some really long sequences that seem out of place, and are there simply to extend the life of the game, while they aren’t bad, and they are a nice change of pace, they still aren’t polished enough and drag too long sometimes. If you play the game you’ll know what I am talking about. Now with that out of the way, time to start the barrage of compliments.
   
   The action in Bayonetta is out of this world. You only have a punch and kick button for combat and even though there is a button for firing guns, you won’t use it much anyway, so basically it’s a two button combat system, and yet it’s exceptionally deep. There are so many combos you can do for each of the many weapons in the game, and given that you have one weapon in hand and another attached to the feet, then that makes for even more and more combinations.
   
   You can simply mash the buttons and it will look cool, but you won’t last long while button mashing on the default difficulty level, and you won’t see most of the combos including the coolest looking ones and the most powerful as well.
   
   In order to fix that you have the easy automatic and very easy automatic modes. I didn’t try the very easy one, but I can imagine it from trying the easy mode. It simply makes the game a joke, not only do you unleash hell on your enemies only by button mashing, but the enemies are ridiculously weak, and take much less punishment to before falling, so I imagine very easy auto to be a bad idea unless you never held a controller before. The automatic modes should be fun to watch as the combos you unleash there are amazing, but it’s not much fun for the one playing.
   
   The default difficulty level sounds just right. Enemies are strong, but so are you, and with some practice you can really do some awesome moves that would make your jaw drop. It’s really hard to believe that the buttons you press do all that on screen.
   
   However even on the default difficulty level (normal) you will die over and over and over, but the good news is that the enemies never use cheap tactics to kill you, for example I can’t recall any enemy that would catch and deplete most of your health with one hit like say in Ninja Gaiden 2. Still the enemies are smart and powerful and will keep beating you till you go down. Another good news is that you can escape most combos, and turn the battle in your favor, but your enemies can also dodge or break your combo.
   
   To remedy this, you will have to become best friends with the right trigger or the button that allows you to doge. There is an interesting twist to that move is that it encourages you to wait till the last moment before the attack hits you then dodge which will get you into witch time, something like bullet time where all the enemies slow down while you retain your speed and can hack at your enemies for a few seconds without fear of reprisal. It’s a nice risk reward system that you will have to master in order to make your life easier especially against bosses (We’ll have one section about bosses only).
   
   An action game would simply be unplayable without solid controls, and in Bayonetta the controls are nearly perfect, very responsive and you never feel like there is a delay between input and output which is great considering that activating witch time needs split second timing, so whenever you die you know it was your fault not the controls or cheap enemies like it was said before.
   
   Have you ever enjoyed loading screens? Well in Bayonetta you most likely will. In fact sometimes I would prefer some loading times to last longer, as while loading you retain control of Bayonetta and have all the moves list for the current equipped weapons and can practice through loading screens which is a great touch, and shows the attention to detail that makes this game so great.
   
   There is a little platforming as well, and it’s very well done. Unlike most action games as well, the controls lend themselves well to platforming not just for action.
   
   The final piece of the Bayonetta gameplay is the puzzles. Now I certainly wasn’t expecting any unique puzzles out of this game, I was expecting the normal fetch this key, operate that lever and similar action game puzzles, but it actually has some nice ones, if only few, and mostly it involves using witch time to slow time and solve those puzzles.
   
   Bosses 10/10
   
   If there is more than 10, I would certainly give it. This game has some of the absolute best boss fights in any game to date. They are simply enjoyable and it’s obvious the developers put some heavy thought into the boss fights. Most of those bosses are towering creatures that are some of the biggest seen in a game. Big, bad and mean despite supposedly being angels.
   
   Of course it would be hard to describe bosses without spoiling what is meant to be the most fun in this game, so suffice it to say, you will enjoy battling those baddies even if you battle some of them more than once.
   
   The enemy design is also just as good as the bosses. In fact you won’t fight the same generic low level enemies over and over between bosses. There is huge variety in enemy types that you won’t grow bored of any of them as you don’t see any of them enough times to make battling them boring.
   
   The game can be described as a collection of boss fights and mini boss fights with some normal enemies in between. This is a great change from the usual few boss fights in between tons and tons of generic low level enemies.
   
   Graphics, Sound and Presentation 9.5/10
   
   Graphically Bayonetta looks very good, while not cutting edge, it certainly looks good and unique and it usually maintains a solid frame rate that rarely lowers even with many enemies on screen and with Bayonetta doing all sorts of crazy moves. However the frame rate does slow down some times but rarely or probably never affects gameplay.
   
   While the game isn’t technically top of the line, the art style more than makes up for it, the environments are colorful and varied, Bayonetta looks great and animates smoothly no matter how hectic the combos become, she makes them look natural and with no odd animations or transitions.
   
   The real stars of the show are the enemies and the demons though. The design of those angels you fight is truly unique; each one of the many bosses looks drastically different while still retaining the same style of art and color so you would know this is an angel. The angel design is pretty good, but no matter how you look at it, the demons’ designs look even better which is hard to believe considering the quality of the angel design, but those are some of the most memorable designs I ever saw.
   
   The sound is good, just what you would expect from a nice action game, music is good as well, and so are the songs that are here and there. Voice acting also shines through and through especially Bayonetta.
   
   My only concern with regards to presentation is some of the cutscenes are low budget so you see voice acting over still images or slide shows. Luckily this is a small percentage, and all fighting cutscenes are high quality.
   
   Value 9.5/10
   
   Clocking at 14+ hours on the default difficulty is nice, but you still have two more difficulty levels, some secret boss or so I heard, many weapons to master, and just for the heck of it you will want to play the game again probably will help you understand the story better or simply to enjoy the combat and bosses again.
   
   Score 9.5/10
   
   While it’s not perfect it’s a great game and definitely deserves more than 9 but not 10 as some minor issues hold it from perfection. Still if you like action games especially stylish ones, and like to look really cool on screen this is the game for you. It shines all over as one of the best games of the year and one of the best action games ever made.
2. Rating: 
   9
3. Product Release: Bayonetta (JP, 10/29/2009)

Submit a review and let your voice be heard.