<img src=http://geeksyndicate.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/bayonetta-witch.jpg>
(review based on the PS3 Version)
When I first heard of the concept of Bayonetta, I was genuinely skeptical and sarcastic. "Oh sure, it'll be cinematic and compelling and great, and there will be an adequate Superman game in the future!" I thought to myself. As I heard more, I realized that Bayonetta was trying a little too hard to appeal to certain demographics... and I was right in the middle of the freaking correlated pie chart.
The game revolves around Bayonetta (duh!) who is a member of a clan of witches with amnesia after being sealed away for half a millenium. She returns in the modern world just in time for your textbook apocalypse scenario involving a nutjob, a dangerous artifact, a deity class monster to fight, and of course a few scuffs with the "evil twin". The combat involves mixing together sexy poses with Bayonetta, over the top fighting that flat out defies certain laws and torture moves to give her a dominatrix feel... and the occasional skimpy outfit if doing a long enough combo.
First demographic hit right in the beginning, witches. It's no surprise that everytime you or someone you know goes to a Halloween party that at least once you'll hear the phrase, "hey, the girl in the witch outfit is hot," or something close to it. Also, from an RPG/MMO standpoint, I like mages. Magic can do some cool things, 'nuff said. Next, a proper structure for a videogame that knows what it is. Truth be told, the plot of Bayonetta felt, if anything else, retreading old ground, so much so that I was considering just nicknaming the game "Devil May Cry: Hot Chick Edition." Let me just go on a small tangent for a second....
Despite the rave reviews that was given to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the story line was weak and flat out hardly had its own identity, there was also no character development to be seen other than, "seems to be the kind of person I'd like to have a drink with" and the gaming mechanics implemented were either adequate or made tedious by its selling point, the graphics. Nathan Drake was cool to watch when he was making a funny comment or had a moment of idiocy, but without anything driving him as a character, he comes off as...well, a psycho. In short, the game's writers kinda got hit in the head and didn't think to go all the way with a script to match their "Hollywood Movie" looking video game.
During The Escapist's own Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation's interview about his upcoming book, Mogworld, he commented on how Writing in games should improve, and I think most of us would agree. Some games attempt to change the formula of game storytelling, problem is there isn't too much of a focus on the "game" part. In doing such thinking we get games like Wet or Metal Gear Solid 4, ie. stories that would work well in a non-interactive medium such as film but gets a small tacked on feature of you having to push buttons to get to the next part. In comparison, certain games, most notably the Half-Life series or anything Valve has done recently, focuses on the player interacting and piecing the story together themselves, doing a lot with a little. Extremes aside, as much as people attack Cliched elements in videogame writing chalk it up to whatever but the thing about stereotypes and cliches is sometimes they just work; but try to keep things simple then evolve. A good example of this would be InFamous, simple Superhero/Disaster story on the outside, fascinating conspiracy thriller and emotional drama on the inside. In other words, take advantage of the interactive aspects or try to do the basics right. What also helps is people knowing what the game is and playing to its strengths. Do you guys really play Devil May Cry to make sense of the plot? Do you honestly play God of War to see if Kratos meets a nice woman and stops ripping people in half? Do you play Call of Duty to find out the true meaning of Don't Ask Don't Tell? Of course not! You go there for what the game delivers, the plot should either move seamlessly with the gameplay ala Portal or Half Life or give a structure and justfication to why the main character does what he/she/it does and why the supporting cast is in on it then tell the player to go nuts.
Which brings me back to my point on Bayonetta's story. It's actually refreshing to me not having to listen to a twelve minute long cutscene of why this has happened and just jump into the action, and it does it well, when it's not becoming infatuated with its cutscenes that take a flow breaking twenty seconds to just skip. "It's simple but it gets the job done," pretty much sums up my feelings. Good thing too, I was worried all good writers in the world ran off after the embarrassment of the Twilight movie adaptations and to avoid catching the Dur!! Flu Virus.
Third selling point in my synopsis is the return of the old punching bag we all like in games like Capcom, the "Evil Twin" fight. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. The fight against a character who is you but in a different outfit or something and has a slightly downgraded AI so the fight doesn't make your brain explode. Jack had Kojack in Madworld, Dante had Vergil in Devil May Cry 3, Joe had Alastor in Viewtiful Joe, and Bayonetta is no different. I won't spoil it here but let's just say it was an nice breath of fresh air that some people still know how to do these fights right.
Alright, now to the selling point of Bayonetta, which is...
<img src=http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/917/917808/bayonetta-20081008093444209_640w.jpg>
The Combat System.
Good news is Bayonetta's combat system should feel familiar to anyone who's played a Devil May Cry game, bad news is I have nothing bad to say about it. I'm serious. I actually rented this game to make sure I wasn't sitting through a clone of something I've played over and over again but its actually aware of past flaws in other games. First problem the developers addressed were how could they make the fights feel difficult without being tedious yet exciting enough to not get repetitive. They decided to toss in a good variety of sub mini-bosses throughout each encounter so you know who to hit harder. But wait, how can do they do such a thing without the fights turning into bullet spamming and you backflipping yourself silly just to get away? How about a bullet-time mode you enter whenever you perform a split-second dodge, giving you time to pummel the brutes for ganging up on your hot witch ass? Guess what? They did, and it's called "Witch Time," which, personally, brought back fond memories of Viewtiful Joe. Alright, that solves that problem. How do they keep the very attacks you use from getting repetitive? Simple, they implemented an alternate weapon system identical to Devil May Cry. But wait, that's been done before. No problem, the developers also have it so that you can pick up weapons used by your enemies and to avoid them stacking we make them degrade into nothing. Not bad so far. Now for the big red flashing neon sign in the middle of the slummy red light district that is this game's distinction from other beat em ups: Bayonetta's BDSM-esque punishment attacks, medieval torture attacks and "WTF" Climax attacks.
Whenever you're fighting a bunch of monsters, you accumulate points that go to your magic bar, once the bar gets full, you can unleash a torture attack in which Bayonetta materializes objects ranging from a cat of nine tails to an Iron Maiden to a freaking guillotine, and proceeds to make them suffer. Good news is these sequences are quite satisfying, bad news is they revolve around hitting "X" as fast as you can to deal the most damage, which is alright the first few times but make you wanna punch something the hundredth. Punishment moves are less formal but involve our witch friend either slamming her high heels on someone who's already down, slamming their bodies around like a ragdoll, or getting stab happy with a katana. They're relatively unplanned but it does bring up the question of, "why is she enjoying this too much?" Last, there are the Climax attacks, which is a more fancy and dressed up way of saying "God of War final attack on boss button matching sequences." Difference being that when Bayonetta does so, most of her clothing vanishes, leaving a thin veil over her unmentionables and a monster popping out to rip the boss to shreds. I wish I could say the hotness of it all made me excuse such recycling but Bayonetta's face reminds me a little too much of Sarah Palin so weird feelings I got while playing were immediately dispelled. Nice try boys!
<img src=http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2009/11/bayonetta1119.jpg>
"any last words......other than Please Don't Kill Me?"
Okay, good points are covered, now for the not so great aspects of Bayonetta. The cutscenes are a big fat target. The cutscenes are either still framed with a cinema strip doing an artifical letterbox format, or are in full 3-D, which are accompanied by inconsistent Quick-Time Events which I swear was the most frustrating thing in a game I've ever heard since someone voice spammed a certain quote from Dumb and Dumber on a game of Team Fortress 2... you know the quote I mean. Good news is the grain filtered movie reel cutscenes are QTE free so that is a moment to relax. Sadly enough, the stuff revealed in the cutscenes are either confusing in their redundancy or just plain boring.
The music in Bayonetta is either Bayonetta's theme, some original stuff here and there and a remix of "Fly me to the Moon." That's it. I got so bored that I switched the music tracks to something else, which you are able to do on the PS3 version, thank god.
The loading screens just to get to the pause menu are kinda long on the PS3 version and breaks the flow somewhat, especially if you hit the wrong button and have to backtrack but it's alright, for a while.
Finally, the scoring system in the game for the end of a chapter can get really anal. I don't mean the "Atlas hates you" kind of anal, I'm talking about the "arresting a cop for jaywalking" kind of anal. The overall chapter Award, ranging from Platinum to Stone, reviews how it took you to beat the chapter, your individual scores on certain encounters, best combos you did, how much damage you took, and if you used any items to heal as well as how many times you died. Since the scores revolve around combat rather than the platforming or running parts of the game, it feels a bit harsh to degrade your overall score just because you didn't realize fast enough you had to press X to not die when it's purely on seeing other people die.
In conclusion, I enjoyed Bayonetta. It's fun, it's got a bit of humor to it, there's some interesting callbacks to some of Capcom and Platinum Game's other titles in game, such as Resident Evil and Viewtiful Joe. The combat feels great, the graphics are superb, Bayonetta as a character evolved and changed on me. The levels aren't the same copy and paste and are broken up really well. The boss fights are epic and the game has a good 8-10 hour length to it. True, it doesn't seem to add a whole lot to the formula other than boobies but the presentation is what makes it stand out.
Rent it or Buy it? I'd say rent it if you're still skeptical then Buy it if you like it. As to all veterans of the beat 'em up/ hack and slash/ spectacle fighter genre, buy it!!
(review based on the PS3 Version)
When I first heard of the concept of Bayonetta, I was genuinely skeptical and sarcastic. "Oh sure, it'll be cinematic and compelling and great, and there will be an adequate Superman game in the future!" I thought to myself. As I heard more, I realized that Bayonetta was trying a little too hard to appeal to certain demographics... and I was right in the middle of the freaking correlated pie chart.
The game revolves around Bayonetta (duh!) who is a member of a clan of witches with amnesia after being sealed away for half a millenium. She returns in the modern world just in time for your textbook apocalypse scenario involving a nutjob, a dangerous artifact, a deity class monster to fight, and of course a few scuffs with the "evil twin". The combat involves mixing together sexy poses with Bayonetta, over the top fighting that flat out defies certain laws and torture moves to give her a dominatrix feel... and the occasional skimpy outfit if doing a long enough combo.
First demographic hit right in the beginning, witches. It's no surprise that everytime you or someone you know goes to a Halloween party that at least once you'll hear the phrase, "hey, the girl in the witch outfit is hot," or something close to it. Also, from an RPG/MMO standpoint, I like mages. Magic can do some cool things, 'nuff said. Next, a proper structure for a videogame that knows what it is. Truth be told, the plot of Bayonetta felt, if anything else, retreading old ground, so much so that I was considering just nicknaming the game "Devil May Cry: Hot Chick Edition." Let me just go on a small tangent for a second....
Despite the rave reviews that was given to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the story line was weak and flat out hardly had its own identity, there was also no character development to be seen other than, "seems to be the kind of person I'd like to have a drink with" and the gaming mechanics implemented were either adequate or made tedious by its selling point, the graphics. Nathan Drake was cool to watch when he was making a funny comment or had a moment of idiocy, but without anything driving him as a character, he comes off as...well, a psycho. In short, the game's writers kinda got hit in the head and didn't think to go all the way with a script to match their "Hollywood Movie" looking video game.
During The Escapist's own Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation's interview about his upcoming book, Mogworld, he commented on how Writing in games should improve, and I think most of us would agree. Some games attempt to change the formula of game storytelling, problem is there isn't too much of a focus on the "game" part. In doing such thinking we get games like Wet or Metal Gear Solid 4, ie. stories that would work well in a non-interactive medium such as film but gets a small tacked on feature of you having to push buttons to get to the next part. In comparison, certain games, most notably the Half-Life series or anything Valve has done recently, focuses on the player interacting and piecing the story together themselves, doing a lot with a little. Extremes aside, as much as people attack Cliched elements in videogame writing chalk it up to whatever but the thing about stereotypes and cliches is sometimes they just work; but try to keep things simple then evolve. A good example of this would be InFamous, simple Superhero/Disaster story on the outside, fascinating conspiracy thriller and emotional drama on the inside. In other words, take advantage of the interactive aspects or try to do the basics right. What also helps is people knowing what the game is and playing to its strengths. Do you guys really play Devil May Cry to make sense of the plot? Do you honestly play God of War to see if Kratos meets a nice woman and stops ripping people in half? Do you play Call of Duty to find out the true meaning of Don't Ask Don't Tell? Of course not! You go there for what the game delivers, the plot should either move seamlessly with the gameplay ala Portal or Half Life or give a structure and justfication to why the main character does what he/she/it does and why the supporting cast is in on it then tell the player to go nuts.
Which brings me back to my point on Bayonetta's story. It's actually refreshing to me not having to listen to a twelve minute long cutscene of why this has happened and just jump into the action, and it does it well, when it's not becoming infatuated with its cutscenes that take a flow breaking twenty seconds to just skip. "It's simple but it gets the job done," pretty much sums up my feelings. Good thing too, I was worried all good writers in the world ran off after the embarrassment of the Twilight movie adaptations and to avoid catching the Dur!! Flu Virus.
Third selling point in my synopsis is the return of the old punching bag we all like in games like Capcom, the "Evil Twin" fight. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. The fight against a character who is you but in a different outfit or something and has a slightly downgraded AI so the fight doesn't make your brain explode. Jack had Kojack in Madworld, Dante had Vergil in Devil May Cry 3, Joe had Alastor in Viewtiful Joe, and Bayonetta is no different. I won't spoil it here but let's just say it was an nice breath of fresh air that some people still know how to do these fights right.
Alright, now to the selling point of Bayonetta, which is...
<img src=http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/917/917808/bayonetta-20081008093444209_640w.jpg>
The Combat System.
Good news is Bayonetta's combat system should feel familiar to anyone who's played a Devil May Cry game, bad news is I have nothing bad to say about it. I'm serious. I actually rented this game to make sure I wasn't sitting through a clone of something I've played over and over again but its actually aware of past flaws in other games. First problem the developers addressed were how could they make the fights feel difficult without being tedious yet exciting enough to not get repetitive. They decided to toss in a good variety of sub mini-bosses throughout each encounter so you know who to hit harder. But wait, how can do they do such a thing without the fights turning into bullet spamming and you backflipping yourself silly just to get away? How about a bullet-time mode you enter whenever you perform a split-second dodge, giving you time to pummel the brutes for ganging up on your hot witch ass? Guess what? They did, and it's called "Witch Time," which, personally, brought back fond memories of Viewtiful Joe. Alright, that solves that problem. How do they keep the very attacks you use from getting repetitive? Simple, they implemented an alternate weapon system identical to Devil May Cry. But wait, that's been done before. No problem, the developers also have it so that you can pick up weapons used by your enemies and to avoid them stacking we make them degrade into nothing. Not bad so far. Now for the big red flashing neon sign in the middle of the slummy red light district that is this game's distinction from other beat em ups: Bayonetta's BDSM-esque punishment attacks, medieval torture attacks and "WTF" Climax attacks.
Whenever you're fighting a bunch of monsters, you accumulate points that go to your magic bar, once the bar gets full, you can unleash a torture attack in which Bayonetta materializes objects ranging from a cat of nine tails to an Iron Maiden to a freaking guillotine, and proceeds to make them suffer. Good news is these sequences are quite satisfying, bad news is they revolve around hitting "X" as fast as you can to deal the most damage, which is alright the first few times but make you wanna punch something the hundredth. Punishment moves are less formal but involve our witch friend either slamming her high heels on someone who's already down, slamming their bodies around like a ragdoll, or getting stab happy with a katana. They're relatively unplanned but it does bring up the question of, "why is she enjoying this too much?" Last, there are the Climax attacks, which is a more fancy and dressed up way of saying "God of War final attack on boss button matching sequences." Difference being that when Bayonetta does so, most of her clothing vanishes, leaving a thin veil over her unmentionables and a monster popping out to rip the boss to shreds. I wish I could say the hotness of it all made me excuse such recycling but Bayonetta's face reminds me a little too much of Sarah Palin so weird feelings I got while playing were immediately dispelled. Nice try boys!
<img src=http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2009/11/bayonetta1119.jpg>
"any last words......other than Please Don't Kill Me?"
Okay, good points are covered, now for the not so great aspects of Bayonetta. The cutscenes are a big fat target. The cutscenes are either still framed with a cinema strip doing an artifical letterbox format, or are in full 3-D, which are accompanied by inconsistent Quick-Time Events which I swear was the most frustrating thing in a game I've ever heard since someone voice spammed a certain quote from Dumb and Dumber on a game of Team Fortress 2... you know the quote I mean. Good news is the grain filtered movie reel cutscenes are QTE free so that is a moment to relax. Sadly enough, the stuff revealed in the cutscenes are either confusing in their redundancy or just plain boring.
The music in Bayonetta is either Bayonetta's theme, some original stuff here and there and a remix of "Fly me to the Moon." That's it. I got so bored that I switched the music tracks to something else, which you are able to do on the PS3 version, thank god.
The loading screens just to get to the pause menu are kinda long on the PS3 version and breaks the flow somewhat, especially if you hit the wrong button and have to backtrack but it's alright, for a while.
Finally, the scoring system in the game for the end of a chapter can get really anal. I don't mean the "Atlas hates you" kind of anal, I'm talking about the "arresting a cop for jaywalking" kind of anal. The overall chapter Award, ranging from Platinum to Stone, reviews how it took you to beat the chapter, your individual scores on certain encounters, best combos you did, how much damage you took, and if you used any items to heal as well as how many times you died. Since the scores revolve around combat rather than the platforming or running parts of the game, it feels a bit harsh to degrade your overall score just because you didn't realize fast enough you had to press X to not die when it's purely on seeing other people die.
In conclusion, I enjoyed Bayonetta. It's fun, it's got a bit of humor to it, there's some interesting callbacks to some of Capcom and Platinum Game's other titles in game, such as Resident Evil and Viewtiful Joe. The combat feels great, the graphics are superb, Bayonetta as a character evolved and changed on me. The levels aren't the same copy and paste and are broken up really well. The boss fights are epic and the game has a good 8-10 hour length to it. True, it doesn't seem to add a whole lot to the formula other than boobies but the presentation is what makes it stand out.
Rent it or Buy it? I'd say rent it if you're still skeptical then Buy it if you like it. As to all veterans of the beat 'em up/ hack and slash/ spectacle fighter genre, buy it!!
