mechanixis said:
Browbeat said:
For me, Bayonetta tried to be so cool as to out-cool anybody else in the room. This, however, was over the top for me. There were three moments that stood out for me that ruined any semblance of respect I had for the characters or pretense of plot.
1- During a boss fight, the main character takes shelter inside a flying house while a dragon assaults her paltry floating shelter. She then leaps out of the house mid-fall and using her hair, HITS THE DRAGON UPSIDE THE HEAD WITH THE HOUSE. I remember thinking "Okay... That's awesome... But something is off here..."
2- The heroine leaps to safety during a shoot-out, lands on a nearby bike, flips off her pursuers, and uses the extended digit to spike the bike's ignition and take off on a chase. "Wow... Alright, how did she fit that in there?... And... She took it out... And the bike shouldn't be... Okay, it's abandoning all pretense of realism, fine... But that's just... Okay" I tried to ration it out, but it was becoming all too pretentious between its lollipops and befuddled cameramen.
3- One of the leading antagonists, having been beaten and bruised through a multi-stage boss fight with a set of rocket launchers and ice skates, is finally taken out - by a tube of lipstick navigated between shards of broken glass. "Okay. I don't care what kind of 'feminism trumps corporate male greed' message you're putting on here. A being like that smoten by enchanted make-up? Screw this! You have no sympathetic traits, likable aspects,or redeeming features. Wither and die, femme" Clearly, at this point, I refused to see the character as anything else than a vehicle for fancy motions and attacks. Something about that last straw destroyed any connection between myself and the lady. I skipped every cinematic from there on, grinding onwards to finish the game. Sad, really, but the only thing that kept me going was the fluid counter system.
Oh, and then the FINAL fight almost cost me a controller.
I think you lose at grasping the idea of surrealism. Firing guns with your ankles, angelic bird-men, the ridiculous costumes, portal-hair-monsters, those are all fine, but when a boss gets killed with a tongue-and-cheek bullet gag, NOW the line's been crossed.
Precisely! If physics were reintroduced into this world, it would sunder itself within seconds of motion! Internal organs would burst, guns would implode, and meta-beings from other dimensions would fold upon themselves as their channeling points would leave them starved for aether!
In all seriousness, the mechanics of the game were solid, but while I found the over-the-top nature of Devil May Cry almost charming (in #3 he was surfing a Rocket, that rascal!), the straight-faced play at the ridiculousness on display in Bayonetta was at first jarring, then amusing, then grating, and finally appalling. It was the fact that the game clearly wanted the player to enjoy the powerful, free female character, aware of her sexuality, independence, and even burden of knowledge. Unfortunately, to me she came off as smug, arrogant, and orally fixated.
So while I do not gripe about the fact that firing ankle weaponry would normally leave her wheelchair-bound for life, I DO gripe about the fact that we are supposed to take her posturing as being acceptable, and even enjoyable.
Although, for the record, when a certain acquaintance races up a multi-stage rocket in upper atmosphere in a bike, that is a so-bad-it's-good moment. Therein, I gladly suspend disbelief and let the silly wash over me.
Just not when limitless power is treated so casually as a Lancome Killshot.
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