Bayonetta is almost indescribable in a good way. Everything from presentation to gameplay, story and even the extras are so over the top, it’s hard to not talk about this game. For those of you unfamiliar, Bayonetta is a witch who uses her hair to fight and slay angels that are constantly hunting her down. Due to amnesia, Bayonetta has no real understanding of why, but it all seems to stem from a jewel she possesses called the Left Eye. If the Left Eye were to ever be joined with the Right Eye, the “creator” Jubileus would be revived. I know what you’re thinking and I will be addressing the story. As great of a game as it may be, Bayonetta is not without its faults.
What I Liked:
Action! Action! Action! – If you’re looking for an action game, you’d be hard pressed to find a game with more action than Bayonetta. Both the introduction sequences AND credits are playable, allowing you to continue kicking butt where other games would halt. There are very few moments where the action lets up and when it does, it picks right back up.
Perfect controls – A lot of action is one thing, but none of that would matter if you had terrible controls, right? Luckily Bayonetta’s controls are some of the smoothest I’ve ever experienced in an action game. The seamless transitions between dodges, combos and counters are so smooth that it feels like you have one hundred percent control over the character. With advanced techniques like the dodge offset, which allows you to stop mid-combo to dodge and then continue that combo, Bayonetta’s combat is unbelievably rewarding to both control and watch.
Sounds so sweet – There are probably people out there who spit at one version of Fly Me to the Moon featured in Bayonetta, but if you can get past that, the Bayonetta soundtrack is superb. Commonly classified as “J-Pop”-esque, the music featured in Bayonetta is a very satisfying comparison to the gameplay. It’s very up beat, fun and yet delicate at its core. Also featured are remixes of music from classics Sega titles such as After Burner, Out Run and a few others. They feel like great little throwbacks to old school gaming, yet feel like they fit in Bayonetta’s universe just the same.
Done Yet? – The amount of unlockables in Bayonetta should keep any completionist busy for some time. Finding gold records scattered throughout the levels will unlock weapons while completing the game under certain circumstances (time, difficulty, etc.) will unlock new accessories to use in combat. There are even costumes and characters to unlock and play through the game as. Even those characters have their own list of things to unlock!
What I Disliked:
Unpolished, afterthoughts – While the combat controls in Bayonetta are exquisite, the Angel Attack mini-game and a couple chapters feature a different control scheme that feels very unpolished. There is less precision and require a type of play style almost completely different from the rest of the game. Due to such a drastic difference, they feel like afterthoughts or unfinished areas that could have used a lot more work. Luckily there are only a couple of these sequences so it’s not that bad. They’re not terrible and that’s not to say they’re unappreciated, but these particular sequences just go on for way too long.
Unforgiving moments – As amazing as Bayonetta is, it is no walk in the park. On Normal mode alone you may find yourself dying a lot. The learning curve can be quite steep if you’re not used to Bayonetta’s level of on-screen insanity, and that wouldn’t be an issue but the developers decided to almost never throw you a bone. Sometimes the game throws an a lot of difficult battles one after another and you’d be hard pressed to ever see them drop any items that replenish your health. Even on Easy. You’re offered the ability to concoct herbs that’ll heal you and help you in battle, but the game actually considers this a bad decision and penalizes you. This frustration extends to Quick Time Events (QTE) as well. Any failed QTE in Bayonetta either means death or a large health penalty. Unless you know they’re coming, the precision required to hit the right button at the right time feels extremely unforgiving. Luckily there are only a few QTE moments in the game, but overall, it still ruined some of the experience.
Unjust penalties – In Bayonetta, you are graded on everything you do from combo quality to how much damage you take and everything in between. At the end of each “chapter” (or level), you’re given an overall grade. If you die during a fight or use any items, the game will penalize your overall score, so even if you’re flawless throughout the game, if you die more than twice at any time, your overall score is a big, fat zero. In other words, you’ve failed. This is a personal issue, but it’s a little hard to swallow sometimes with cheap moments like failing a QTE event or missing a battle you had no idea existed. This issue shouldn’t hinder anyone from playing the game, but if you’re a completionist like I am, this could cause a lot of grief.
What’s going on?! – The story in Bayonetta is somewhat of a mess. The main line of confusion comes from the tone of the story. Throughout most of it, the story never seems to take itself too seriously, balancing on the lines of bizarre and absurd. However there are moments where the story begins to get way too serious leaving the question of whether to interpret it as satire or something else entirely. I have to admit, if you’re going to play Bayonetta for its story, you will be disappointed. However if you can get past it, you’ll probably enjoy the game a lot more.
Overall I found Bayonetta to be well worth the money and would recommend everyone at least give it a try. I played the God of War Collection a couple months before Bayonetta and I do think Bayonetta’s going to change the standard for good action games. It without a doubt deserves praise for having such a smooth and different approach to the beat-em-up style genre than we’ve seen lately. Despite a short length (it can be beaten in seven or eight hours), the amount of replayability, unlockables and overall fun factor can hardly be matched by other games of the same genre.