Happy Price: 19.99
Rating: 9
Gameplay
Bayonetta is an action packed shooter/slasher/platformer. It emphasizes different combos and aerial combinations to create unique attacks and strategies for different opponents. The main character is equipped with guns on her feet, which creates fun weapon combinations like a sword in the hands but shotguns on the feet. The creative and stylish combos are also innovative because of the ability to shoot from one's heel.
Combat
The number of combos offered will leave you trying to master all of them throughout your gameplay run. There aren't too many weapons to choose from, that being said it isn't really necessary because variety is not lacking. When a new weapon is discovered, you'll have to learn how to use it. As the game progresses, certain situations will require you to use certain weapons. By that time, you'd better have a good idea on how to use them and mastered some of the combos. Experimenting with different weapon combinations that best suit your gameplay style is fun but can also be painful at times. You're judged each stage by the effectiveness of your combos and how much damage you've taken. So the learning phase will affect your score, and ultimately how much can be contributed to upgrades.
The most repetitive and impactful game mechanic is activating witch time. Witch time slows down the surrounding enemies for a short duration, but you get to attack at the same speed. This means you can dish out monster combos and gain the upper hand when outnumbered. Activating which time is done with a perfectly executed dodge. The more enemies attacking, the easier it is to activate witch time because there will be many projectiles and melee weapons attacking at once. Even though you may not hit your perfect dodge on your intended target, there are collateral dodges that happen and out of nowhere witch time is activated. You'll spend a lot of time dodging, jumping, shooting, and unleashing hell on enemies.
Story
I spent most of the time confused by the story. The game starts and all you know is you've been awoken from a slumber, you're a witch, and forces from the light are after you. You're then introduced to a love interest that is a journalist, but he's convinced you've murdered his father yet his this strange compassion for you. Then a little girl that calls you Mommy appears and you're trying to protect the little girl and the love interest from angels. That being said, the execution and presentation of the story was fantastic. The cinematics, animations, and voice acting were top notch. Bayonetta comes across just as she looks: charismatic, powerful, and ethereal. The actual story was not good or engaging for most of the game, until the ending where things come together and make sense. The game is driven by the fun of combat, not necessarily the narrative. If you wanted to, you can skip every cinematic and watch the last scene and know exactly what happened. If the design and animations of the characters was not excellent, the writing would have been exposed as being a huge flaw.
Animations
A number of combos, cinematics, and unique enemies stresses the importance of unique and clean animations for each character. Many times games will be filled with unique characters but they have re-used or only a few animations. This is not the case in Bayonetta. Almost every enemy feels unique and they have to be handled differently. There are even enemies that have the same character models with slightly different skins, however, they will have different attacks and powers. For example two dogs, one blue and one orange. The blue one moves and attacks entirely different than the orange one. They also have different powers which influence their attack styles and movements. The blue being electric, while the orange is a molten rock creature. The electric dog moves around all the time and is aggressive, while the molten rock dog is defensive. Bayonetta moves extremely fluidly transitioning from running as a panther to doing cartwheels and shooting upside while airborne. Nothing feels choppy and the smoothness enhances the gameplay.
Environment
You've never been to this place before. Unsure if you're on Earth, in hell, or some heavenly realm, everything about this world is unique. Angels are characterized as having gold and white tones to their attire, but hideous looking faces. Some of them are complete atrocities with huge blood boils on their bodies. Some of their worlds are angelic like you picture in heaven, while others are just normal looking cities that have a nice stickly gold architecture to them. The level designs are not repetitive and will keep you on your toes. Bosses might destroy the ground right beneath you, forcing you to jump to another platform. You may have to transform into a super fast panther to escape a rolling boulder down a hallway, or navigate along the sides of buildings during a flood. Not paying attention can result in a death, which reduces the rewards at the end of the level.
Summary
Bayonetta is a high octane adventure that mixes great action, platforming, and cinematics into an expertly paced experience. The characters are so developed and consistent you'll be able to predict their behaviors or responses to dialogue. The boss battles seem to be never ending and are always interesting. If you're looking for a game that doesn't try to do too much "realism" and lets the imagination fly, you'll want to pick this one up.
Design: 10
Art: 9
Story: 7
Tech: 9
Sound: 9
Animation: 10
Total: 9
Combat
The number of combos offered will leave you trying to master all of them throughout your gameplay run. There aren't too many weapons to choose from, that being said it isn't really necessary because variety is not lacking. When a new weapon is discovered, you'll have to learn how to use it. As the game progresses, certain situations will require you to use certain weapons. By that time, you'd better have a good idea on how to use them and mastered some of the combos. Experimenting with different weapon combinations that best suit your gameplay style is fun but can also be painful at times. You're judged each stage by the effectiveness of your combos and how much damage you've taken. So the learning phase will affect your score, and ultimately how much can be contributed to upgrades.
The most repetitive and impactful game mechanic is activating witch time. Witch time slows down the surrounding enemies for a short duration, but you get to attack at the same speed. This means you can dish out monster combos and gain the upper hand when outnumbered. Activating which time is done with a perfectly executed dodge. The more enemies attacking, the easier it is to activate witch time because there will be many projectiles and melee weapons attacking at once. Even though you may not hit your perfect dodge on your intended target, there are collateral dodges that happen and out of nowhere witch time is activated. You'll spend a lot of time dodging, jumping, shooting, and unleashing hell on enemies.
Story
I spent most of the time confused by the story. The game starts and all you know is you've been awoken from a slumber, you're a witch, and forces from the light are after you. You're then introduced to a love interest that is a journalist, but he's convinced you've murdered his father yet his this strange compassion for you. Then a little girl that calls you Mommy appears and you're trying to protect the little girl and the love interest from angels. That being said, the execution and presentation of the story was fantastic. The cinematics, animations, and voice acting were top notch. Bayonetta comes across just as she looks: charismatic, powerful, and ethereal. The actual story was not good or engaging for most of the game, until the ending where things come together and make sense. The game is driven by the fun of combat, not necessarily the narrative. If you wanted to, you can skip every cinematic and watch the last scene and know exactly what happened. If the design and animations of the characters was not excellent, the writing would have been exposed as being a huge flaw.
Animations
A number of combos, cinematics, and unique enemies stresses the importance of unique and clean animations for each character. Many times games will be filled with unique characters but they have re-used or only a few animations. This is not the case in Bayonetta. Almost every enemy feels unique and they have to be handled differently. There are even enemies that have the same character models with slightly different skins, however, they will have different attacks and powers. For example two dogs, one blue and one orange. The blue one moves and attacks entirely different than the orange one. They also have different powers which influence their attack styles and movements. The blue being electric, while the orange is a molten rock creature. The electric dog moves around all the time and is aggressive, while the molten rock dog is defensive. Bayonetta moves extremely fluidly transitioning from running as a panther to doing cartwheels and shooting upside while airborne. Nothing feels choppy and the smoothness enhances the gameplay.
Environment
You've never been to this place before. Unsure if you're on Earth, in hell, or some heavenly realm, everything about this world is unique. Angels are characterized as having gold and white tones to their attire, but hideous looking faces. Some of them are complete atrocities with huge blood boils on their bodies. Some of their worlds are angelic like you picture in heaven, while others are just normal looking cities that have a nice stickly gold architecture to them. The level designs are not repetitive and will keep you on your toes. Bosses might destroy the ground right beneath you, forcing you to jump to another platform. You may have to transform into a super fast panther to escape a rolling boulder down a hallway, or navigate along the sides of buildings during a flood. Not paying attention can result in a death, which reduces the rewards at the end of the level.
Summary
Bayonetta is a high octane adventure that mixes great action, platforming, and cinematics into an expertly paced experience. The characters are so developed and consistent you'll be able to predict their behaviors or responses to dialogue. The boss battles seem to be never ending and are always interesting. If you're looking for a game that doesn't try to do too much "realism" and lets the imagination fly, you'll want to pick this one up.
Design: 10
Art: 9
Story: 7
Tech: 9
Sound: 9
Animation: 10
Total: 9
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