Bayonetta – Review

1. The love child of the former big action brains of Capcom who split off to found their own company; first Clover and now Platinum Games; Bayonetta is a true return to classic action game form. The game revolves around Bayonetta; an ages old witch who becomes embroiled in a battle between two ancient clans; the clan of darkness, the Umbra Witches; and the clan of light, the Lumen Sages. For an action game this game strives to engross the player in the story with a series of fairly long cutscenes, as well as interspread text files; as well as a self-updating enemy index that tells you more about the enemies you kill along the way. But where this game shines, is, no surprise, it’s gameplay. Built on the obvious foundation of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta is an action gamer’s wet dream. There’s a host of weaponry to play with; including flame and lightning gauntlets; razor sharp ice elemental skates; a long, powerful katana; and much more. Need I mention foot mounted pistols, shotguns, and rocket launchers? Mix and matching of weapons produce variable combos; leading to hundreds of different ways to tackle any given enemy or situation.
   
   Most areas of the game excel well above its action game peers. The music fits most occasions; te most amusing of which is a modern remix of the classic Fly Me To The Moon. The game oozes a sort of charm and style that reminded me of the comedic tone of the Austin Powers franchise mixed with a nice dose of ecchi comedy anime. The voice acting matches the tone perfectly – Hellena Schmied (a.k.a Hellena Taylor) does an incredibly job with Bayonetta and her sultry accent. Yuri Lowenthal impressed me for once since first hearing him as Haseo in .hack//G.U. as the bungling Luka; an amusing, dorky foil to Bayonetta’s smooth, charismatic handling of all in-game action. Visually the game doesn’t quite stand up to its modern peers; lacking somewhat in character models and its backgrounds. But who really cares when the action is so fast and fluid?
   
   The game is of modest length. A normal runthrough which gave me about half of the game’s Achievements clocked me in at about 10 hours. That’s fairly modest for an action game – which usually give me about 7 hours at best. But even then, beating it once and gaining half the achievements didn’t even come close to giving me all the weapons and costumes unlockable in game; which means there’s still a hefty amount of playing to be done. This game was my MUST HAVE of early 2010; and I followed news about it hungrily in ‘09. Having played it and beat it; I must say, it lived up to my expectations; and after the amazing, dizzying boss fights and fluid action I encountered, it surpassed them
2. Rating: 
   9
3. Product Release: Bayonetta (US, 01/05/2010)

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