autaku

Bayonetta is an action game from Platinum Games helmed by Hideki Kamiya. If you’ve not heard of Platinum Games before, it’s because they’re a fairly new developer. In the West, they’ve only released one game – the stylish and well-received Madworld for Wii – but don’t mistake that for inexperience. Prior to forming Platinum many of the developers were members of Clover Studios at Capcom. In their tenure at Capcom, Platinum’s head honchos were instrumental in the creation and development of games like the Resident Evil franchise, Okami, Killer7, Viewtiful Joe and many more. Most relevant, however, is that Hideki Kamiya was the director of Devil May Cry, with which Bayonetta shares many similarities. With all this in mind, you might adjust your expectations of Bayonetta accordingly.

Despite Platinum Games’ impressive history,  the hype machine was dominated by the overt sexuality exuded by Bayonetta‘s titular heroine and the game’s bizarre premise: Bayonetta is a witch awoken from a 500-year nap with no memory of the time before her slumber. (Not very strange yet, but wait for it.) Bayonetta fights using firearms not only in her hands but also strapped to her ankles (okay, getting a little off-beat now) and also uses her shape-changing hair to create giant boots and fists to strike down her enemies, and can even summon enormous demons with it. Build up enough magic energy and Bayonetta can conjure torture devices like iron maidens and guillotines to finish off an enemy. Welcome to the crazy world of Bayonetta. Oh, and she also uses her hair to clothe herself, so so the more hair she uses for an attack, the more skin you see. Sex sells.

Needless to say, this kind of decidedly Japanese weirdness is just too much for some people. Bayonetta is the kind of game that polarises the gaming community, and that’s a little sad for a number of reasons. I’ll get straight to the point: all of this craziness is supported by incredibly solid foundations and some of the most enjoyable gameplay I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. It not only lives up to its developers’ reputation, but perhaps even raises it to new heights. Then there’s the fact that Bayonetta‘s brand of the bizarre is not simply random, it’s wildly imaginative and actually presents a coherent and (somewhat surprisingly) fascinating mythology with a new spin on the concept of angels versus demons.

Long ago in the history of Bayonetta, there were two clans sworn to watch over the world and protect the balance of light and dark. The Lumen Sages were allied with the angels of Paradiso, while the Umbra Witches drew their power from the demons of Inferno. As one of the latter you’ll be fighting your way through countless angels as Bayonetta on her journey to rediscover her past, but there’s a sense that fighting all these heavenly beings doesn’t necessarily make Bayonetta “evil”. I won’t go into the complex interplay of dimensions that are present in the game’s mythology, but the further you progress through the story the more you feel like Bayonetta stopping Paradiso’s plans is the right thing to do. This ensures that Bayonetta is a heroine in the true sense rather than an unsympathetic vehicle for the player to “be the bad guy” (or girl, as the case may be).

But enough of the story and background, how does Bayonetta play? Short answer: exceptionally well. If you’ve played this kind of combo-based action game before, you’ll be familiar with the basics. You move through levels in a mostly linear fashion, and on a regular basis you’ll get blocked into a small area to fight some enemies. Beat everyone and the level opens up again so you can advance to the next combat area. While the game does reward you for (very) minor exploration with hidden items and so on, Bayonetta is really all about the action. The controller map is pretty easy to get your head around – punch, kick, jump, evade, taunt, and a button to fire Bayonetta’s standard handguns no matter what weapons you have equipped – but the fun and depth lie in chaining these various commands together to create combos. I’d guess that there are hundreds of combos available in the game, and you’ll have access to different ones based on what combination of weapons you have equipped to your hands and feet at any given time. There’s a lot of joy to be had in finding the right approach for you, and even more joy to be had kicking arse once you really get into it.

While the combat is deep and incredibly rewarding in its own right, Bayonetta will consistently throw new twists at you to keep things interesting. For example, early in the game Bayonetta will learn the Witch Walk ability which enables her to walk on walls and ceilings. This opens up a variety of gravity-defying combat and platforming sequences throughout the game, some of which will play with your perception of up and down with very enjoyable results. Then there are the occasional vehicle sections, which offer a nice of pace and are handled very well. Vehicle sections in games that otherwise do not involve vehicles can often be frustrating but Platinum Games has hit the mark just right in Bayonetta, especially with the exciting motorbike sequences. There are plenty of other diversions from the standard combat throughout the game and you can rest assured that everything Bayonetta does, it does well.

Speaking of doing things well, Bayonetta offers up some of the most fun and exciting boss battles I’ve ever played. The word “epic” doesn’t quite have the impact it used to thanks to overuse of late, but it truly applies here. Bayonetta is dwarfed by the immense size of most bosses, and each offers numerous “I can’t believe that just happened!” moments. At least once in every boss battle you will have the opportunity to perform a “Climax” in which Bayonetta will summon a powerful demon (with her hair, of course) to combat or finish off the boss. There are giant-hair-demon-birds that devour bosses, giant-hair-demon-hands that pass bosses around like volleyballs and more; each one every bit as entertaining as it is ridiculous.

Now that we’ve established that Bayonetta has plenty of substance, let’s get back to the style. This is a visually stunning game that is  both wildly imaginative and exceptionally well-rendered. The enemies you’ll face – in particular the enormous bosses – are imaginatively designed and perfectly walk the line between looking angelic and looking like something that deserves to be stomped by a giant hair-boot. Many times during the “travel” sections between combat I would stop just to look around and take in the beautiful environments, which are full of jaw-dropping vistas. It also features a varied soundtrack that is every bit the perfect companion to the wild visual style, ranging from jazz and funk to sweeping orchestral and choral arrangements. The score is always either supportive of the tone of any given scene or conducive to an effective contrast, and in any case it adds greatly to the game’s excellent presentation.

Well, mostly excellent. If there is one issue I have with Bayonetta‘s presentation – and indeed, this is the only issue I have with the entire game – it’s that many of the game’s cutscenes are presented in a static film-strip style rather than in full motion. These clips do use the game engine, but display events with extremely minimal animation – if any at all – and it completely detracts from the experience. Sometimes an entire story section will be presented in this style, but some cutscenes skip back and forth between these film-strips and fully animated scenes to irritating and often confusing effect. While the overall story is easy enough to follow it’s sometimes unclear what exactly is happening in these static frames, particularly as they attempt to depict action sequences. There are a lot of cutscenes in the game so Platinum Games would have saved plenty of of time and money with this approach, but it’s undoubtedly to the game’s detriment and a real disappointment.

Still, when that’s the only complaint it’s hard to get too upset. I expected I would have fun with Bayonetta, but I had no idea just how much fun that would really be. Different games present different kinds of enjoyment that can’t really be compared, but for pure fun I don’t think any game has delivered for me quite so much as Bayonetta in some time. This is a game that had me laughing out loud at jokes (there are a number of classic references and in-jokes for gamers here) and consistently blew me away with its design and scope. On Normal difficulty it struck a fine balance between enjoyment and challenge, and promises plenty of lasting appeal with higher difficulties unlocked and a veritable mountain of items, weapons and costumes to earn. There will be those who simply can’t get into Bayonetta‘s unique premise – and that’s a perfectly understandable, if somewhat disappointing opinion – but let none of them decry the game’s fundamental quality, lest they be crushed beneath a giant boot made of hair.

Note: I played the game on Xbox 360, on which it presents gorgeous visuals with no real performance issues. Other reviews have (seemingly unanimously) stated that the PS3 version does not run anywhere near as smoothly and suffers from lengthy load-times, resulting in an inferior product. I can’t comment on that first-hand, but I would suggest that if you have both consoles you should buy the 360 version of Bayonetta. If you only have a PS3, I still recommend Bayonetta but you should pretend that I have a paragraph in this review about the performance issues.