- Did you enjoy Devil May Cry 1 and 3?
- Do you like anime/manga?epi
- Can you NOT blink for a long, long time?
It is absolutely essential that you nod your head vigorously to all three of those questions before you even think of exchanging your hard earned money for this game. Still with me? Alright then.
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Hold Me
Bayonetta is the logical culmination of the stylized-action genre that a nice man named Hideki Kamiya revolutionised with the first Devil May Cry nearly a decade ago. This was however, before Capcom realised that betting their cash on games that just don’t sell despite all the goodwill and critical acclaim was a bad idea. Post epiphany, and after Clover was shown the pointy end of the stick as just reward for creating gems like Okami, God Hand and Viewtiful Joe, Kamiya left Capcom and created Platinum Games with fellow brainiacs Atsushi Inaba, Shinji Mikami and the rest of the Clover team.
This association is pretty darned significant because in Bayonetta, you can cherry pick references to almost every game Clover and the above mentioned holy trinity ever made. I won’t point most of these out, especially since Platinum makes no attempt to hide the fan service. Classic Sega titles also get a shout-out. Everything from Sonic to Outrun is in there if you know where to look.
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It is also worth pointing out that the Japanese gaming industry is just not what it used to be. The time and cost pressures of developing in HD, the heart-breaking decline of public interest in any gaming that isn’t handheld, and the need to cater to a growing western market has led to smaller developers shutting shop, switching to smaller, less-demanding platforms or cutting output altogether.
This aversion to risk is especially tough on those of us who have, until now (in the glory days of the PS1 and PS2), been used to unique content and variety from Japanese developers; the kind that Bayonetta delivers in spades. This is reason enough, as much as anything else I can possibly tell you in the ensuing paragraphs, to buy and bear-hug this game. It pays to know and have more than just a passing interest and love for videogames to genuinely enjoy what is on offer here.
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Thrill Me
And enjoy you will, because what Platinum have delivered is a 15-20 hour epic that takes lesser knock-offs to school and then makes them walk back home in the rain. I remember reading something about David Jaffe admitting way back when to how the Devil May Cry combat system was better than what God of War ended up shipping with. The gravity of this admission is amplified tenfold in Bayonetta’s case, as it blends beginner-friendly button mashing with the kind of intricate combos you would normally associate with a fighting game. What really sells the combat however, is the ease with which the animations blend together. Combine that with the ability to shift forms (there’s one Okami reference), and you could be flying through the air and running around in big-cat form the next, all while being able to seamlessly launch into a brutal series of combos anywhere in between. The R2/RT button is used to dodge attacks and also engages Witch Time if you manage to squeeze the button just before an attack hits you.
Combat is nothing without style, and Bayonetta knows it. With firearms attached to all four appendages, every encounter has the potential of being highlight reel worthy. Torture attacks unique to different enemies add to the fun and the GIGATON count as you button mash like mad to power up your attack never gets old. The detail that went into each frame of animation really shows through, with each taunt, idle animation and analog stick nudge getting you exaggerated movement that will have you grinning like an idiot.
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You also earn halos as enemy-drops, which can be used to unlock new techniques, weapons and jewellery knick-knacks that add even more crazy moves and abilities to your already chock full list. Another nice touch is the loading screen that lets you practice moves, complete with a list of combos that you can toggle on or off. You can also toggle the practice mode, stopping the next level from loading in and letting you practice all you want. The levels are divided into different verses and each verse is scored based on a medal system that takes into account your combo count, style and damage taken. Each level also nets you an award (be prepared to see a lot of stone if you aren’t very good) based on your performance in each of the verses.
Next page: IVG Verdict Also nifty and worth mentioning is the variety that Platinum has tried to bring to the gameplay. Along with your bog standard hack and slash mini-arena battles, you will find a lot of varied level design, puzzles and gameplay elements that keep you interested. Watch out for sections of levels breaking away and being given the ability to rotate level geometry to solve puzzles. You also gain the ability about halfway through the game to wall-walk at moonlight and to rewind time. My only gripe is that both features just don’t feel like they were used to their full potential. The time-rewind in particular only comes into play in a couple of sequences. Also thrown into the mix are turret and vehicle sequences that are long enough that may verge on overkill for some people. There are also challenge rooms in most levels that need a bit of snooping to find. Besting these rooms is essential if you want to unlock everything the in-game store has to offer.
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Kiss Me
As deep as the combat is, what you should not be worried about with Bayonetta is accessibility. Note to developers – This is how you make games accessible. Allow casual gamers to have the same experience as the core audience through special difficulty modes, NOT by dumbing down the entire game. Bayonetta practically plays itself on the two easiest difficulty levels, allowing even the most uninitiated of gamers to actually finish the game and see it as it was meant to be played. That said, there are two extra characters and two higher difficulty levels to be unlocked which can (if you wanted to) ramp up the combat to mindnumbing levels, so any masochists reading this can rest easy.
Most levels and boss encounters are also perfectly checkpointed; vitally important for a game where boss fights last through entire levels. The quality of the checkpointing does slip towards the end of the game though, which may cause some controllers to take flight. It isn’t anything too serious, and with combat this good, there is always plenty of wiggle room to improve your technique. Bayonetta is also one of those games that come with interactive cutscenes thrown in at random. You almost never have any forewarning, so it helps that the game always autosaves before they start off. Menus are similarly lag free and full-featured, allowing you to jump between levels and difficulty at will, concoct potions from random enemy-drops, read up on the lore of the world and purchase new items from the store manned by a Resident Evil fan.
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Adding to the experience is some of the classiest production I’ve seen in a game this side of Assassin’s Creed 2 and Mass Effect 2. The intricate neo-gothic architecture is super detailed and the level design, while not being especially interactive in terms of physics, makes up for it by playing with gravity and the previously mentioned level-altering dynamics. Special mentions include the anything but ordinary lava and airplane stages, and skyboxes that will give Mass Effect 2 a run for its money.
Cutscenes are a mix of CG, in-engine and freeze-frame sequences. The latter is a slightly odd choice as a game such as this lives on movement (and the style there of). The music deserves special mention for sheer bravado alone. What we have is a thoroughly eclectic mix of orchestral pieces and blaring bugglegum J-Pop that fits the game like a skin-tight leather glove. Bayonetta’s pitch perfect Nigella-voice lends some much needed credibility to a plot that otherwise leans towards the WTF end of the spectrum. This is where a love for anime and manga might help as the whole thing screams kitsch. The plot and exposition may threaten to take itself seriously before suddenly devolving into slapstick humour and Mithun-da gyrating.
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And that is what I LOVE about it. Behind the cornball quasi-serious witch-versus-sage end-of-the-world plot is a game that lets you ride a motorcycle up a multi-stage rocket escaping earth’s atmosphere. Any complaints about the plot or the ludicrous sexuality or supposed objectification of women on display must be struck down with a pointy stiletto heel and whipped into painful submission. For a title that looks to be embarrassingly upfront with its sexuality, Bayonetta may be one of the best examples of unisex gaming I’ve ever seen. The appeal of watching a beautiful designed and animated heroine kick all kinds of hiney is the same irrespective of sex, and proof enough that developers can stop peddling brain dead minigames as excuses to broaden their audience. Adding to the cred is the fact that the character designer (Shimazaki Mari) is female.
Kill Me
Bayonetta is a serious workout for your arm. It comes highly recommended to anyone wanting to relive the heyday of the Japanese videogame industry and also wants an accessible game with top-notch content for his or her trouble. This is nostalgia at its best; the kind you don’t need those much-maligned rose tinted spectacles to enjoy. Just remember not to blink too much.
(+) Combat with a pedigree
(+) Production values (and then some)
(+) Gameplay variety
(+) Old school length
(-) Questionable checkpointing near the endgame
Title: Bayonetta
Developer/Publisher: Platinum Games/Sega
Genre: Action
Rating: 18
Platforms: Xbox 360 (Rs 2,499), PS3 (Rs 2,499)
Reviewed on: Xbox 360
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