Bayonetta (PS3)

by Piyoz on Jan 27th, 2013

Do you like senseless violence in video games? Of course you do. Do you love the rush of adrenaline pulsing through your circulatory system? Yes, sir. Do you appreciate the stylized, bloody slaying of angels one after another? You do?! Then why the heck aren’t you playing Bayonetta?

From Hideki Kamiya, the creator of Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe, Bayonetta is a recent action game for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 released in early 2010. It was developed by Platinum games, and translated to its console version and published by Sega. This game is rated (M) Mature by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, and oh so many Suggestive Themes. I’m not sure what other countries’ rating systems rated this title, but I’m sure you would find it to be a pretty similar rating.

I first started playing this game on my roommate’s PS3 several weeks before the writing of this review. He had bought the game new and only played it once, and I felt like I should give it more of a chance. I’m so glad that I did this. Bayonetta is a great game for a number of obvious reasons, despite a number of equally-obvious flaws. Let’s begin with the set-up of the game:

In this game, you play as a woman named Bayonetta and you use your weapons and special summoning attacks to fight of legions of enemies who have all come for the express reason of sending you to Hell. You see, Bayonetta is a witch. She is one of the last witches of the Umbra Clan left in existence. Throughout all of history, two supernatural organizations have been maintaining order in the universe: the Umbra Witches and the Lumen Sages (I hope you know your Latin roots). These two opposing forces work in a yin-yang sort of way to keep everything in balance. But 500 years ago, a critical event revealed in the game wiped out almost every Umbra witch, leaving the Sages to pretty much watch over the world of mortals from their heaven, Paradiso. And now that Bayonetta has been awakened without any memory of her past (never heard that one before), she finds the entire forces of Paradiso seeking her destruction. What’s a girl to do?

The game opens with this exposition while you are fighting angel upon angel with intense visuals and fast-paced action. From the get-go, the elements drawn from Devil May Cry can be seen here, with over-the-top action that doesn’t really make sense but you go with it anyway. The system of dodging enemy attacks is reminiscent of Slow Motion from Viewtiful Joe. If you keep your eyes open, you will spot a number of references to other series made Sega and Hideki Kamiya.

After being introduced to Rodin and the Gates of Hell, your supply station for your missions, the game sends you on a journey to the fictional European city of Vigrid. This city has a history with magical people, and is centuries old. Bayonetta goes to investigate, and it is here that the game takes off. You are given numerous small battles with various angel types accompanied with the game’s many battle themes. These battles are called “Verses”, and after each one you receive a grade based on damage taken, time spent, and combos performed. After you play through several verses and complete an entire Chapter, you will receive a trophy that reflects your overall grade.

Bayonetta’s attacks are executed not too differently than Viewtiful Joe’s. You have a Punch button and a Kick button. By inputting certain combinations of Punch and Kick, you can execute a plethora of unique attacks. Your weapons include a series of handguns strapped to your wrists and/or arms, an awesome Japanese sword, a possessed whip, elemental claws, nun-chuks, a missile-launcher, and a laser sword. By the way, all of these weapons have their own set of combos. In addition to basic attacks, Bayonetta can execute special summon attacks called “wicked weaves”, in which she used the magical properties of her hair to demolish enemies. More on how this works later.

I want to elaborate a little more on the aforementioned system of dodging attacks. You do more than dodge in this game; you counter. Below your health meter is a series of circles that fill with energy. As you do correctly-timed dodges, this meter fills up. When a dodge is executed at the very last second, a witch can activate what is known as Witch Time. In Witch Time, time around Bayonetta is slowed down and she can move about and attack unfettered. After you do this enough times, your Magic Meter will fill up. Once it’s full, you can perform a very fun Torture Attack. Varying by enemy type, Torture Attacks are overly-elaborate death sequences in which Bayonetta kills a single enemy in an extremely gruesome manner. This might involve guillotines, iron maidens, wheels of torture, vises, or chainsaws. Watching these in action is an absolute joy, as they blend in with the rest of the chaos well and are amusing on their own.

As you can tell from the box art and how Bayonetta is portrayed in the game, our lovely protagonist is what is really on show here. Being a woman who can change her form at will, it’s only natural that a nearly-immortal witch would choose the shape of a seductive siren to keep up appearances. Beyond that, this game likes to sexualize her. A lot. Her body is on display in nearly every cut scene, and many of her attacks even exhibit her body in ways that would make girlfriends jealous. That’s where the Partial Nudity part comes in. Well, my eager, hot-blooded gamer, this is the piece de résistance.

If you look closely, you can see that Bayonetta hair and her clothes are one in the same. As I mentioned, her hair is used for wicked weave summons. In the process it comes of her body and takes the form of a giant hand or a high-heel shoe. So, yes, she becomes momentarily nude, and the designers to their very best to cover up anything X-rated. I’m sure this has given hundreds of young men across Japan nose bleeds, and for Americans this is just hilarious.

Building off the premise that I detailed earlier, Bayonetta finds herself on a journey to find out her origins (remember that her memory is gone) and to put an end to Heaven’s endless search for her. On her path, she encounters Jeanne, another witch, who apparently has a bone to pick with Bayonetta. Jeanne, however, has since sided with Paradiso for reasons unknown. She acts as a regular boss that you have to defeat throughout the game, although she battles alongside Bayonetta several times, too. It’s all a little confusing. You also encounter along your journey a young, driven journalist by the name of Luka. He is motivated by the death of his father to continue his pursuit of the truth behind witches and sages and publish their findings for the whole world to read. Luka doesn’t really do much besides drive the story along, since he’s just a normal, mortal guy.

When it comes to the execution of the story, Bayonetta has some trouble. I recall playing through the whole campaign and thinking that a story doesn’t do a whole lot for this game. You could easily skip all the cutscenes and it would not detract at all from your experience. You see, the point of the game is to fight the seemingly-endless legions of God with crazy, hilarious violence. To add a story that takes itself seriously doesn’t really click. It merely gives us background; it gives the player no drive or purpose to kill angels. The story doesn’t build on the game play, which makes me to conclude that it’s pretty useless, all-in-all. Bayonetta could easily have a basic premise, some witty dialogue in-between fights, and a fun final battle, and this would be perfect. For Bayonetta to have a serious, structured story is really a waste of the player’s time.

Besides an irrelevant plot, Bayonetta also has crazy loading times. At least on the PS3 version, the amount of time it takes to load the campaign and the stages is bothersome. At least the game lets you practice your techniques while you wait. Even in-game, the game has you wait momentarily to load newly-gained items, the pause menu and the items menu. It shouldn’t take that long to load simple things like that. I hear that this game also has had frame rate issues in the past, but patches fixed that up, apparently.

Game Play:
Bayonetta’s game play is fantastic. The combos, summons, and Climaxes are zany and fun to watch. Enemy types are original and innovative, especially during boss battles. Destroying each type of angel as it comes to bring to the inferno fills my heart with joy. The style of play is enthralling and never gets old. It’s outlandish and exciting and it’s an experience that you won’t soon forget. I should also mention that Bayonetta is a very difficult game. Even on Normal difficulty you will find yourself rage-quitting. You have been warned.

Story:
The plot of this game is sufficient, in that it gets you from Point A to Point B and remains coherent. However, it tries to accomplish more than it needs to. It doesn’t reflect the fun-loving tone of the game play and leaves too many questions unanswered. Why they even put a story like this in the game is beyond me. If you find yourself skipping cutscenes just to reach the next battle, you know you’ve written an irrelevant story.

Soundtrack:
Bayonetta has a fun soundtrack. Battle themes are memorable and iconic, and plenty of songs are legally adapted from real songs from decades past (like real life songs that real musicians made). Each song sets the scene well and invigorates you to continue playing.

Replay Value:
After completing the campaign, you will be sure to find plenty of reasons to play through again and again. Several difficulty levels, new weapons, new outfits, new and useful accessories, and new challenges are sure to keep hardcore players coming back for more. To complete every mode and acquire every item is something only the most dedicated will achieve.

Visuals:
Seeing as this is a 2009/2010 title, graphics for a game like this should be pretty good. And they are. Environments are full of detail and realistic color. Enemy designs are cool and interesting. Character designs are even cooler and go beyond what you would expect. A good share of time was spent in completing the detail of the universe, and it shows. Not a corner goes unfurnished. The only critique here is that while looking sufficient and full, the visuals lack creativity. Everything looks realistic enough to be believed, but there isn’t that extra flair that grabs your attention. There isn’t anything special about the visuals, and sadly all the backgrounds fall out of focus. With the highly stylized action and character design of Bayonetta, the world around you is pretty lackluster in comparison.

Closing Statements:
You should buy Bayonetta right now. Or at least rent it. Or be like me and have a roommate who buys every game under the sun and play it while he’s in class. Wherever you are or whatever you play, you will enjoy this title. It’s fun and action-packed and you will never get bored while playing. I just recommend skipping the cutscenes and keeping a deck of cards handy for the loading times. Other than a few problems, this is a great game that is easily worth your time and money.

4/5 Give it a shot!

Dry up your nosebleed, would you? Calm your shaking hands and head over to our forums for more discussion of Bayonetta and lots of other games!

Categories: News, Reviews