Posted by Hato-kun on 12 Jan 2010, 12:37am.

When I first heard about this game, Bayonetta, I waved it off and couldn't have really cared less. As the months went by, the game, still pretty much unknown to me, gathered quite a following. Countless people began hyping it up, raving about how good it would be, claiming it will be the next Devil May Cry and such. A few months off release, I decided to take a look at it. After a few gameplay videos, some research and even the demo, I wasn't really sold on it. It wasn't until got my hands on the actual game that it all began to make sense. I would have loved to be at the meeting where Bayonetta was first pitched. The concept on paper is absolutely ridiculous. The final game is also absolutely ridiculous. Despite it being completely insane and bat shit crazy, it's one hell of a game.

I'm going to have to agree with most other reviews I have read. Bayonetta is a good game. It's hard not to admit that much. However, where it shines is in its style. Whatever the game does, it does with style. It's hard to describe what the game actually does to accomplish this amazing level of style, but it's just something you have to play to understand. The game has a certain flare to it, that sets its apart from all the rest and makes it so much cooler, kinda like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. Despite this flare which surrounds the game, there are still some issues that I found, which were not so much bad game making, but more so gripes on my part, which I'll delve into a little later.



One major issue I came upon was the story. Even now, I don't know what the hell was happening. Even after researching and reading countless pages of plot, I still don't understand. From what I gathered playing the game, there were once two factions of warriors, the Umbra Witches, who were the followers of darkness, and the Lumen Sages, who followed light. Both clans were given an "Eye of the World", the Umbra Witches were given the Left Eye, and the Lumen Sages were given the Right Eye. When these eyes are combined, they form "The Eyes of the World" and can cause some pretty crazy shit. Even though it sounds standard, all the characters and long winded dialogue scenes make it quite a confusing path to follow. Even the end result was a little odd, but I guess it tied up at least one loose end.



Aside from the B grade story the combat is where it's at. There is never really a second that passes without you shooting some angel in the face or sacrificing your clothes for massive damage. The combat uses three or four buttons, depending how you look at it. One for punches, one for kicks, one for your guns, and an evade button, if you want to include that. Combos are performed with the punch and kick buttons, but once you progress further into the game, combat really widens up. After defeating angels or searching chests, you find Golden LP's, which you trade in at the "Gates of Hell" for new weapons and such, which range from a living sword to claws charged with both fire and electricity. Combos change depending on what weapons you equip, so there is definitely some different ways to play through the game. There are also two weapon sets that you can create, and can be cycles through at any time using the L2 or LT button, so you can continue your combos with different weapons if you so wish. With all these different styles, I never had a dull moment while beating angels to hell.



The visuals aren't too ground-breaking, and they wont win many awards, but it definitely hold its own with so much happening on screen at once.The smallest details on the models are hard too notice during the crazy fast paced combat, but the game wouldn't be the same if they weren't there. Everything in the game is there for a good reason, and it seems no corners were cut during production. Another thing i should mention in the game is the difficulty. Now i breezed though single player in about 10-11 hours, which is a decent length. However, I wasn't scouring every corner for extra items or Halos (the games currency). This was also on Normal difficulty, which was the highest available when I started up the game. Even on Normal, I had some trouble. My main gripe was losing all my health fighting wave after wave of minion angels, then arriving at a boss with less than half my health. I felt that some attacks just did too much damage to the character. Then again, I live by "If you think a game is hard, you just suck", so I guess I just wasn't that great. I do however expect the most intense of gamers to have at least some trouble on Normal and Hard difficulties.



I'm finding it hard to convey this game in words, as there are so many intricate details to take into account. I've already laid down the basis of the game, though, I could be as broad to just say "It's DMC with tits", but Bayonetta has it's own unique style, as I've said many times before. The game is worth a play at least. If you are mad about collectables and you're a complete nut about these kinds of games go ahead and buy it. Though for others, a rent is fine too. You don't want to miss this ride.

 Bayonetta, 360, PS3, SEGA, Platnium games, bewbs