Review – Bayonetta

Publisher: Sega
Developer: Platinum Games
Platforms:Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Genre: Action

Rating: Mature 17+
ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes

The Scoop: From the creator of Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe comes one of the sexiest and most stylish games for your next-gen console!

The Setup: Instead of beating around the bush, I’ll be straight forward with everyone. I didn’t know what the hell was going on half the time I was playing this game. The storyline is everywhere and the voice acting is competely laughable. But does this stop Bayonetta from being one of the best action games from the past ten years? The answer would be no.

From the creator of Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe comes one of the most chaotic experiences in action gaming. Needless to say, the only memorable character would be Bayonetta but the enemies make up for that as some of the boss battles in this game are the most memorable I’ve experienced in a hack n’ slash action game. The flow of massive combos among foes with the countless amount of weaponry you can buy is completely amazing. Sad to say, but you’ll be nowhere near able to afford everything in the shop, even after your first playthrough, but it makes for great replay value as you can go and replay any mission you want at any time as long as you’ve already beaten it once.

Intense action with amazing visuals make for an amazing experience

Now as I stated, the combos that you can do are incredible and the utilization of new weapons adds to this already overwhelming combo list. With each new weapon you gain, the combo list will grow as you can do new moves with these different weapons such as katanas, gauntlets and even a whip.

Witch Time is another useful technique which we learn about early in the game. Now think back to Max Payne’s bullet time technique and that’s basically what you got but in hack n’ slash form. By dodging attacks at the last moment possible, Bayonetta will go into Witch Time which will slow the enviornment around her down making it easier to brutalize enemies or get around certain puzzles that come in our way.

I’m a HUGE fan of both Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe so I must say that I’m no stranger to Hideki Kamiyas work, but I am a stranger to his work being published by Sega. To say that this surprised me a little would be a huge understatement as most of the Hideki Kamiyas work (Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil 2, Ōkami etc.) have all been published by Capcom. With this in mind, there are some huge similarities in Bayonetta to his past projects, but in my opinion, this one does it best.

Taking place in the fictional city of Vigrid, we assume the role of Bayonetta who was awoken twenty years prior at the bottom of a lake from a five-hundred year sleep. One thousand years prior to the events of the game, there were two clans. The Umbra Witches who were the controllers of darkness and the Lumen Sages who were the controllers of light. Both shared two treasures known as the ‘Left Eye’ and the ‘Right Eye’, both together forming the ‘Eyes of The World’.

Upon her awakening, she meets an informant names Enzo who knows the current location of the ‘Eyes of The World’ which brings Bayonetta back to the city of Vigrid unravelling her forgotten past. While the main story doesn’t sound half bad as I type it out here, the storytelling is completely horrible. To be honest, even after 5 hours of gameplay, I still didn’t know the story and had to read what the game was about in the booklet.

What’s Hot:

• With loads of combos to master, the action in Bayonetta is everywhere. It’s a truly chaotic experience as you slice through hundreds of angelic beings
• The graphics are superb. The battle sequences are beautiful as well and the environments are brilliant
• A very clean and fun soundtrack is present here and goes well with the personality of the character you portray
• With loads of weapons and unlockables in Bayonetta, there remains to be a lot to collect even after your first play of the story

What’s Not:

• The story is just as chaotic as the action is. Half the time I didn’t know what the hell was going on as the story in Bayonetta is everywhere
• Voice acting that’s so bad, it’s completely halarious at times. Is that a bad thing though?
• A very mediocre cast with the only memorable character being Bayonetta

Nude girls with dragon hair get 5 stars in my book

Final Verdict: Slick and sexy, Bayonetta is one of the most memorable action games of recent years. I’d even go as far as to say that the king of all action games, God of War, has been dethroned and a new ruler is on the horizon. With plenty of options for a sequel, I really hope that Bayonetta is here for the long run. Though the vocals can be a little ridiculous and the story doesn’t know the difference from up to down, the action elements are surely enough to save this game and are more then enough to make it a masterpiece among hack n’ slash games.