Bayonetta
I'm sitting here trying to type up the next TAY - it's a long and arduous process. Mainly because of its subject matter. But a few days ago, I was lucky enough to manage to score a Japanese copy of Bayonetta. It's a game I've had my eye on for quite a while now, due to the absolutely ridiculous premise in an industry so unwilling to fund ridiculous premises, and the game director being the original creator of the Devil May Cry series. The demo dropped a while back - I played it to death, gaping at the huge variety of moves, wondering about how it felt being both familiar and new at the same time, and making a big fuss about the game's claims to "non-stop climax action", a title it truly deserves. It's a fantastically over the top action game, and we haven't seen the likes of it - since... since, well, DMC3.
While it may be difficult for some people to separate this from DMC due to the similar interface and a few shared bread-and-butter moves (R1 + forward + attack = stinger dash, R1 + back + attack = uppercut) I cannot stress this enough. Bayonetta is a different game, and you should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking the two look alike.
You should also be ashamed of yourself if you are not buying this game purely on the basis of the character design. That's like not buying a book because you don't like the cover art. Complaints about the size of the title character's head, the length of her legs, her glasses and hairstyle are everywhere, as are those who sneer underhandedly at Kamiya using sex to try and sell his game. Those complaints should be ignored, because I hope we all remember the name of another classic videogame hero who had an oddly sized head and weird leg length, as well as the name of another once well-respected videogame series that sold a lot merely because of the player character's big stonkin tits.
She has guns on her feet. Your argument is invalid.
For those of you who are still reading, and enjoy third person action games of this time, I feel the action in Bayonetta warrants a few words, especially in the presence of other action games with numbers tacked on their titles. Were I to describe the action in Ninja Gaiden, if pushed, I would describe it as a solid, balanced triangle of attacking, blocking, and countering. Devil May Cry games - the ones worth playing? Juggling different moves in pursuit of the vaunted style ranking. Ninja Gaiden 2? Efficiency at the cost of experimentation. God of War? Brutality in motion.
And Bayonetta?
Is about dodging.
In lieu of anything as crude as a block button, there is a dodge button that grants a handful of invincibility frames. Using this in the heat of battle requires timing and practice. It's wonderful to behold; Bayonetta does consecutive backflips, and with guns on her feet and hands she doesn't even need to stop firing as she evades. A perfectly timed dodge, on the other hand, slows down the gameworld for a precious few seconds with a mechanic dubbed 'WitchTime', making enemies ragdolls to be batted around at Bayonetta's leisure. It's a fantastic game mechanic and it's a very good building block on the risk versus reward wall which dares us to try ever more dangerous stunts, waiting until the last possible second to dance out of the way of a giant axe swing or a fireball. Add to the fact that pretty much all of Bayonetta's moves and combos can be canceled at any time with a dodge, or with a bit of skill, continued straight out of a dodge, and you've got yourself a recipe for absolutely jaw-dropping action, with the player twisting like Herbie Hancock around dozens of enemies, rattling off combo finishers while the enemies flail about in desperation trying to hit the insubstantial long legged phantom with feet that are on fire.
Before I come to my point I must stress that much has been made of the game's "one button mode", making the title a mockery of the "hardcore" action fans who despise the idea that anyone should be able to play the game. Which is, again, a shame, because those people have no idea what they're missing.
Bayonetta is hard.
I'm currently on the normal difficulty, close to completion, and I'm playing in fits and starts, turning off the console and fuming in frustration at the occasional brick walls the game erects in my path. It works sometimes - sometimes I can come back with a drink in hand and breeze through the wall effortlessly like it wasn't there. But more than often I'm sent to the continue screen for the third or fourth time, shaking my head as it trashes my level ranking into the dirt. And I am not new to action games, being a NG/DMC veteran. Why, you may ask! Surely the ability to dodge any attack and turn the enemy into paste in slow motion would make the game easy?
Well, yes - and no. Having created such a wonderful dodge mechanic, the game takes every opportunity it can to rub it in your face. Certain enemy encounters are impossible without timing a dodge to within a fraction of a second so they become slow enough to hit. Certain doors cannot be opened unless you slow time first by dodging something perfectly. Certain enemies have long chains of attacks that involve them walking all up and down Bayonetta's perfectly crafted butt and shaving off entire blocks of health that are impossible to beat unless you hit the dodge button first.
A familiar Capcom action game staple - the golden creed of Avoid And Attack - is taken to extremes in this game. It's not as much of a problem as it sounds; after all, the WitchTime mechanic is so good it makes regular enemies absolutely laughable, with their slow, choreographed attacks just begging for a well-timed dodge. But in harder enemy encounters it can become a major pain, waiting constantly for that opportunity to dodge an enemy attack before even starting an assault of your own or risking getting pasted. Like Viewtiful Joe before it, evading before attacking is an absolute must if you want to get anywhere at all in the game. The dodging becomes as natural as breathing after a while, and you learn to spot the telltale signs of an enemy attack. Missiles, cars, lasers, axes, dragons, are all dodged with ease, and WitchTime replenishes your magic a little allowing you straight access to your most powerful attacks.
Then the game throws enemies who are immune to this at you.
The problems become apparent immediately. Without a system that the game seems built on, some enemy attacks immediately become too fast for anyone without a spider for a hand to handle. Bayonetta's reduced from empowering, ridiculous heroine to someone who can barely stay alive, and the only recourse is to flip through her expansive movelist to find the fastest "safe" combos. The gameplay becomes even more restricted, from dodge=>attack to dodge=>dodge=>dodge=>oh god it's got me.
(Hearing someplace else that WitchTime is MISSING from harder difficulties makes me want to scream. Games should not be hard because they gimp the player! Regardless, I'll be playing the hardest difficulties the game has to offer, because apparently you unlock a *lightsaber*.)
Bayonetta is a brilliant action game - perhaps the best in years. The game continually keeps you on your toes with perhaps the best designed boss encounters in the business, finishing moves that border on the ludicrous, a self-aware sense of humor and the unapologetic heart of a game that knows how insane it is to engineer a situation where a witch with guns all over her body turns her hair into magical demons that eat angels. It's the only game where you'll see the heroine kill angels with a torture horse. It's the only game where you'll see the heroine rip out someone else's spine for use as a chainsaw. New moves and interesting ways to mix things up are revealed to me all the time, and I've missed about half the weapons in my current playthrough.
Get it. If you like action games, you won't want to give this a pass.
(Protip: The PS3 version's plagued with loading issues. Get the Xbox version if you can; but either way, this game should not be missed.)
(Protip 2: This game includes the best version of Fly Me To The Moon I have ever heard, beating out Rebuild of Evangelion's fantastic remix. Goodbye, cheapo DMC butt-rock.)
While it may be difficult for some people to separate this from DMC due to the similar interface and a few shared bread-and-butter moves (R1 + forward + attack = stinger dash, R1 + back + attack = uppercut) I cannot stress this enough. Bayonetta is a different game, and you should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking the two look alike.
You should also be ashamed of yourself if you are not buying this game purely on the basis of the character design. That's like not buying a book because you don't like the cover art. Complaints about the size of the title character's head, the length of her legs, her glasses and hairstyle are everywhere, as are those who sneer underhandedly at Kamiya using sex to try and sell his game. Those complaints should be ignored, because I hope we all remember the name of another classic videogame hero who had an oddly sized head and weird leg length, as well as the name of another once well-respected videogame series that sold a lot merely because of the player character's big stonkin tits.
She has guns on her feet. Your argument is invalid.
For those of you who are still reading, and enjoy third person action games of this time, I feel the action in Bayonetta warrants a few words, especially in the presence of other action games with numbers tacked on their titles. Were I to describe the action in Ninja Gaiden, if pushed, I would describe it as a solid, balanced triangle of attacking, blocking, and countering. Devil May Cry games - the ones worth playing? Juggling different moves in pursuit of the vaunted style ranking. Ninja Gaiden 2? Efficiency at the cost of experimentation. God of War? Brutality in motion.
And Bayonetta?
Is about dodging.
In lieu of anything as crude as a block button, there is a dodge button that grants a handful of invincibility frames. Using this in the heat of battle requires timing and practice. It's wonderful to behold; Bayonetta does consecutive backflips, and with guns on her feet and hands she doesn't even need to stop firing as she evades. A perfectly timed dodge, on the other hand, slows down the gameworld for a precious few seconds with a mechanic dubbed 'WitchTime', making enemies ragdolls to be batted around at Bayonetta's leisure. It's a fantastic game mechanic and it's a very good building block on the risk versus reward wall which dares us to try ever more dangerous stunts, waiting until the last possible second to dance out of the way of a giant axe swing or a fireball. Add to the fact that pretty much all of Bayonetta's moves and combos can be canceled at any time with a dodge, or with a bit of skill, continued straight out of a dodge, and you've got yourself a recipe for absolutely jaw-dropping action, with the player twisting like Herbie Hancock around dozens of enemies, rattling off combo finishers while the enemies flail about in desperation trying to hit the insubstantial long legged phantom with feet that are on fire.
Before I come to my point I must stress that much has been made of the game's "one button mode", making the title a mockery of the "hardcore" action fans who despise the idea that anyone should be able to play the game. Which is, again, a shame, because those people have no idea what they're missing.
Bayonetta is hard.
I'm currently on the normal difficulty, close to completion, and I'm playing in fits and starts, turning off the console and fuming in frustration at the occasional brick walls the game erects in my path. It works sometimes - sometimes I can come back with a drink in hand and breeze through the wall effortlessly like it wasn't there. But more than often I'm sent to the continue screen for the third or fourth time, shaking my head as it trashes my level ranking into the dirt. And I am not new to action games, being a NG/DMC veteran. Why, you may ask! Surely the ability to dodge any attack and turn the enemy into paste in slow motion would make the game easy?
Well, yes - and no. Having created such a wonderful dodge mechanic, the game takes every opportunity it can to rub it in your face. Certain enemy encounters are impossible without timing a dodge to within a fraction of a second so they become slow enough to hit. Certain doors cannot be opened unless you slow time first by dodging something perfectly. Certain enemies have long chains of attacks that involve them walking all up and down Bayonetta's perfectly crafted butt and shaving off entire blocks of health that are impossible to beat unless you hit the dodge button first.
A familiar Capcom action game staple - the golden creed of Avoid And Attack - is taken to extremes in this game. It's not as much of a problem as it sounds; after all, the WitchTime mechanic is so good it makes regular enemies absolutely laughable, with their slow, choreographed attacks just begging for a well-timed dodge. But in harder enemy encounters it can become a major pain, waiting constantly for that opportunity to dodge an enemy attack before even starting an assault of your own or risking getting pasted. Like Viewtiful Joe before it, evading before attacking is an absolute must if you want to get anywhere at all in the game. The dodging becomes as natural as breathing after a while, and you learn to spot the telltale signs of an enemy attack. Missiles, cars, lasers, axes, dragons, are all dodged with ease, and WitchTime replenishes your magic a little allowing you straight access to your most powerful attacks.
Then the game throws enemies who are immune to this at you.
The problems become apparent immediately. Without a system that the game seems built on, some enemy attacks immediately become too fast for anyone without a spider for a hand to handle. Bayonetta's reduced from empowering, ridiculous heroine to someone who can barely stay alive, and the only recourse is to flip through her expansive movelist to find the fastest "safe" combos. The gameplay becomes even more restricted, from dodge=>attack to dodge=>dodge=>dodge=>oh god it's got me.
(Hearing someplace else that WitchTime is MISSING from harder difficulties makes me want to scream. Games should not be hard because they gimp the player! Regardless, I'll be playing the hardest difficulties the game has to offer, because apparently you unlock a *lightsaber*.)
Bayonetta is a brilliant action game - perhaps the best in years. The game continually keeps you on your toes with perhaps the best designed boss encounters in the business, finishing moves that border on the ludicrous, a self-aware sense of humor and the unapologetic heart of a game that knows how insane it is to engineer a situation where a witch with guns all over her body turns her hair into magical demons that eat angels. It's the only game where you'll see the heroine kill angels with a torture horse. It's the only game where you'll see the heroine rip out someone else's spine for use as a chainsaw. New moves and interesting ways to mix things up are revealed to me all the time, and I've missed about half the weapons in my current playthrough.
Get it. If you like action games, you won't want to give this a pass.
(Protip: The PS3 version's plagued with loading issues. Get the Xbox version if you can; but either way, this game should not be missed.)
(Protip 2: This game includes the best version of Fly Me To The Moon I have ever heard, beating out Rebuild of Evangelion's fantastic remix. Goodbye, cheapo DMC butt-rock.)