Bayonetta – Review

1. We are now four and a half years into the current generation of game consoles, yet developers continue to impress with what they can achieve using the aging hardware. Bayonetta is the latest and greatest example. I don't know what the budget is, but to me it is the most expensive looking game I have ever played. No console game that moves this fast has ever looked so good. But as I played through the game I couldn't help but pull back the curtain a bit and discover this game is a radical example of style over substance.
   
   Bayonetta is a "hackinslash" action game. If you have ever played one of the Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, or God of War games then there will be no confusion about what genre of game this is. I will also be using said titles for comparison on occasion. The player assumes control of the eponymous character in a contemporary fantasy setting. She is a sexy, vain, amoral character who shoots guns with her feet as well as her hands, and has many mysterious powers. She is a "witch" who is at war with the army of Paradiso (a fictional realm inspired by the "Heaven" of Christianity). The story is essentially Heaven vs. Hell, and you play on Hell's team. But it is best not to see it in the Western sense. It is much more "Ying vs. Yang" rather than "Good vs. Evil."
   
   PRESENTATION: 10
   Slick menu, great camera work during the cutscenes. Menus are smooth and responsive. The layouts make sense. Overall the game feels like the AAA title that it is.
   
   STORY: 4
   Let's split this score in two halves. For creativity, I give it a 4/5. The premise is nothing short of awesome. Brilliant concepts, interesting characters (especially our anti-heroine), and an epic plot. The forces of Paradiso look warm and majestic, while at the same time cruel and frightening. You'll have to look up some screenshots to understand how impressive the design of these creatures are. The dialogue is sharp and funny, and the cutscenes are very sensational. There is simply put, nothing else like it. That said... as for narrative storytelling, I give it a 0/5. That's right, a zero. The story is so poorly put together it is nothing short of abject failure. While some of it will make sense after completing the game, by then it is far too late to care. This type of narrative (everything is mysterious and confusing until a big reveal at the end) is common in Japanese media. But the way Bayonetta does it is so bad, words cannot do it proper injustice. There is a lot of literature to collect explaining this unique fantasy world, it's history and politics - if you have the time or patience so sift through it. But it still does not excuse such a sloppy, halfassed narrative.
   
   GRAPHIC DESIGN: 10
   The actual artwork that went into Bayonetta is nothing short stunning. Possibly the best of any game I've ever seen. Nothing holds a candle to it in this department. Particularly the design of the enemies. Especially the bosses. And there are A LOT of them. It is difficult to describe them. They are majestic and heavenly, while simultaneously being cruel and terrifying. Whoever was behind the original art concepts for these creatures deserves half the money this game will make in sales.
   
   GRAPHIC QUALITY: 8.5
   The characters and the environments are rich and detailed. And given how smooth and fluid it remains during the game's breakneck speed, props must be given. It is impressive. I never noticed aliasing artifacts or any of the typical glitches you see. I experienced tearing in one section for a very short while, but it never happened again. The only flaw is the lighting design. Most of the time the foreground blends into the background. There should be some degree of "stage lighting" but there isn't so you can't really enjoy the wonderful graphics because it becomes a mishmash of nonsense as it moves so quickly. Not only does this adversely affect gameplay (it is hard to make out what enemies are doing with so much "busy-ness" going on), it gives the game a flat 2-D look as stone buildings mesh into characters and other foreground objects.
   
   SOUND: 3
   The voice acting is generally good. The sound design, not so much. It doesn't "fill the room." Massive corners were cut in this department it seems - which is weird considering how great the overall production value is. But worst thing about Bayonetta is the music. OMG it is awful. The soundtrack is all J-pop. Now I actually like a lot of J-pop. But the stuff in this game will make your ears bleed. During regular battles they literally cue the same goofy song over, and over, and over again. And if that wasn't bad enough, they just have what seems like the chorus of the song on loop. The most monotonous, maddening aural experience I have ever had in a video game made this decade. Totally unforgivable.
   
   CONTROLS: 7
   Here is where the inevitable comparisons belong. This game has more combos and more moves than any of it's contemporaries. Unfortunately it's lacking something all of those games have. Fighting in Bayonetta rarely "feels" like you're part of the action. This is probably due to the awful sound design and the virtually non-existent use of rumble. The best way to describe it is, when I'm slashing an enemy in Ninja Gaiden, there is a visceral "feel" that exists even if you are just mashing buttons. Bayonetta mostly lacks that sensation. Even in the cinematic finishing moves, there is no explosive tactility that action gamers have come to enjoy. I want to say it feels more like Dynasty Warriors or Ninety-Nine Nights than it Does Ninja Gaiden or DMC - but even those games had a better feel.
   
   GAMEPLAY: 6
   Despite the extraordinary degree of eye-candy, the game can be pretty dull. It is very linear even for a game in this genre. There is virtually no exploring. The areas are small and closed off. In Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, you might leave the streets and climb rooftops, go into an alley for a hidden item, or backtrack to press a switch needed in order to solve a puzzle. Hardly ANY of that in Bayonetta. And what little there is, sucks. Nothing more. Unlike God of War, the few moments there are puzzles (if you can call them that) you will probably find them easy, stupid, and annoying.
   
   The battles (which is what this game is all about) are generally fun. There is a button for kick and a button for punch. Combinations of those two make up a very large list of different combos. A third button is for shooting your guns which are not part of any combos. The amount of work that went into animating all of these different moves is mind blowing. They are impressive and the sheer number of them is awesome. If only the player had more motivation to learn them and use them effectively in the game. You never really know how much damage is being dealt for one combo compared to another. The number of combos is actually overwhelming which takes away from the game experience rather than adding to it. And instead of rewarding you for pulling off long combos like it should, the game punishes you for it. If the enemy you're attacking doesn't break your combo, one of his buddies will. The worst part is the need to mash the evasion button (right trigger) over and over again. If you evade an attack and it is a close call, time slows down for you allowing you an easy opportunity to attack. But you have such a short window of time that you'll find yourself only wanting to execute the most basic quick combos. The game dangles an amazing array of moves in front of you like a carrot but by design never lets you enjoy them. You spend most of your time fighting normal enemies plus a good amount of time fighting bosses and mini-bosses. Too many boss battles are frustrating. Executing quickness, smarts, and great timing doesn't always pay off. There are often random elements that hurt you in boss battles that you cannot really avoid. This can cause a lot of unwanted frustration. There is also a "magic gauge" which starts to fill as you damage enemies. When it is full you can execute finishing moves which are fun to watch and help you in the battle tremendously. The problem is that taking any damage whatsoever (even a little) depletes this gauge dramatically. One little mistake and you are in a world of frustration. This game rewards perfection over persistence. Many will not like it.
   
   Defeating enemies earns you halos which you can use as currency at a shop that appears periodically and between stages. This RPG element of Bayonetta a bit more rich than the three aforementioned game series' I've been using for comparison. Plenty of weapons, items, and upgrades to strive for. I like this new trend in mainstream action gaming that has come about as the arcade format dies off. I hope to see more of it.
   
   In an attempt to break-up the monotony of constant battles (a welcome effort for any game like this) a small portion of this game involves riding a motorcycle. It is ugly, not fun, not challenging - just downright awful. There is also a mini-game target shooter called "Angel Attack" that you play between stages. It is as dull and boring as these things can get.
   
   LASTING VALUE: 7
   Bayonetta features a pretty rich reward system, so there are all kinds of reasons to go back to earlier levels to earn halos (money) or just improve your score.
   
   CONCLUSION
   Typical of popular game publications who review games, the hungrier the gaming community is for a quality game of a particular genre (in this case it is the action hack and slash genre), the more ridiculously overrated and over-hyped their reviews are. This is why it is understandable to give Bayonetta such praise. Devil May Cry 4 was released nearly two years ago and there has been nothing to compare it to since. But (I know, I know, lots of "buts" in this review) just because roast beef tastes so good to a starving man- it is still roast beef, not steak.
   
   Hopefully the world of game reviews will evolve to be more like movie reviews. Where the actual critic's name is what we look at (not the publication), and games are actually reviewed on a scale from 1-10 (instead of 5-10 which seems to be the case for most major releases). And the fans need to evolve too. A 7/10 is not a negative review.
2. Rating: 
   7
3. Product Release: Bayonetta (JP, 10/29/2009)

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