Review: Bayonetta

Bayonetta is a run-and-gun action game in the vein of Devil May Cry or God Of War. Button mash your way using your feet, fists and guns to smite your angelic foes and send them to the bowels of hell. Anime fans will feel right at home with the sometimes wacky story and while it might be a little on the shallow side, the battle system is compelling enough to make you want to see this witch’s tale through to the end.

The Story

Bayonetta is your average, run-of-the-mill, quad-gun equipped bullet-time witch. She wakes up with little memory of her past, except that she’s out for vengeance against the only remaining witch in her clan. You’ll interact with various interesting characters in your quest to get the straight dope on your own backstory and the story moves along at a comfortably quick pace.

The story is angelic and demonic at the same time. Bayonetta, being a witch, fights against angels and sends them to hell. But these aren’t the angels that you’d see painted on the Sistine Chapel. Most of these baddies (or goodies I suppose) take the form of some kind of Egyptian-inspired Anubis or Ra clones. You’ll battle through waves of creatures to arrive at a boss fight roughly every half hour with some of the game’s fifteen chapters devoted solely to massive end boss encounters. There are some times you might wish for more waves of smaller enemies instead of the frequent massive bosses, but that’s only so can up your halo count (the currency of the game) and head to the shop to purchase new weapons, moves and items.

The tone is very much Japanese. Manga and anime aficionados will feel right at home with the decidedly J-pop atmosphere of the presentation. I’m not the biggest fan of the culture, but I’ve never been one to turn away from overly sexualized hair-demon witches who love nothing more than suggestively sucking on lollipops. The story is told through fully voiced, high production value cutscenes that look fantastic when the action starts to kick in.

The Gameplay

If you’ve ever picked up Devil May Cry or the Ninja Gaiden series, you know exactly what to expect from the majority of gameplay in Bayonetta. Combos are king and you’ll be hammering on punch and kick with timed button presses to dispatch your enemies as quickly as you can. It’s a deep system with dozens of different moves for each of the weapons you pick up throughout the game. While it’s fairly easy to stick with a certain few combos that come easily to the hand, the loading screens between levels allow you to dig through your repertoire and discover some of those new ones that you haven’t stumbled upon yet. Some combos allow for a finisher called the Wicked Weave that summons a giant hair-based hand or foot to bitchslap your opponents and do a high amount of damage. You’re allowed to switch between 2 weapons on the fly, from a devastating katana to giant claws or whips, regular guns and shotguns. Plus, every once in a while enemies will drop axes or swords for you to pick up and use on their friends.

Another gameplay element lets you to dodge incoming attacks and activate Witch Time (bullet time by another name) which slows time to a crawl for a short amount of time and allows you to feed damage to the bad guys in slow motion. This is a crucial mechanic to master as, further down the road, some enemies can only be damaged while in Witch Time and can lead to many frustrating encounters if you haven’t practiced up.

In all, it’s fun to throw down combos and mash up the entire screen with one long hit-string, but if you get lazy and just use the same moves over and over again it can get stale. But that’s your own fault for not exploring the depths of the combo system, which has subtleties of its own.

Boss fights also incorporate quicktime events throughout the matches, especially the final blow when Bayonetta summons a variety of giant demons from the netherworld to put the final hurtin’ on your angelic enemies. Stylish for sure and damn cool to watch, they are a nice payoff to the frenetic action as you whittle down the big bosses health.

Graphics and Audio

You’ll be humming the terribly catchy and ultimately bubblegum version of “Fly Me To The Moon” that plays periodically throughout the game, which makes sense as witches take their powers from the moon itself. The overall themes tend to land on the J-pop side of things with girly vocals and flowery music running rampant throughout the score. It could be the kind of music that would make you look over at the person sitting next to you and raise an eyebrow. Once you get the flavor of the game it doesn’t seem out of place at all and you end up getting used to it. Vocals and dialogue are really well done and add depth to the characters, even if some of the lines can be way over the top.

Graphics are another standout feature here. I didn’t experience any slowdown, even when mixing it up with multiple enemies (up to 6 or 7 medium sized baddies at the most) and nary a hitch when taking on building-sized bosses. Environments run the gamut from lush and full of vegetation to stark, concrete gothic buildings and everything looks as it should. Cutscenes move at a quick pace and can pack a heck of a lot of complex animations. In fact, all the animations, for all the characters, from combat to cutscene, all look terrific and as natural as they possibly could. Kudos.

The Overall Package

You definitely won’t need your second controller here. No multiplayer. Online leaderboards let you see where you rank among the top players for each completed chapter . There are some items in the shop that you either have to be a savant at this game to earn the amount of cash needed to buy them, or you just have to suck it up and grind out the chapters over and over to earn to necessary cash . And you will have to earn it, by perfecting your combos and not taking a single hit while destroying the enemies in as quick a time as possible. So there is definite reason to go back and play over and over again, but you won’t be doing it with a friend. I managed to cram 30 hours into it, and that’s doing the minimal amount of chapter replays just to get a little bit of cash in pocket, so it definitely takes some time.

The Downsides

Well, I’ve already mentioned that if you don’t have a taste for anime this might not be your cup of tea. That being said, the story can be a little vague with some elements not really receiving a decent exposition in the manner that most North Americans are used to seeing. And by that, I mean the typical 3 act story with a beginning, middle and end that most of us are used to. I can see a lot of people not used to the Japanese manga style not really following this game to its conclusion.

Also, anyone who doesn’t enjoy the God Of War, Devil May Cry button mashing combo system might not appreciate the combat structure. But other than that, there’s not much reason to dissuade anyone from buying this game for themselves or anyone who enjoys this type of game.

The Bottom Line

Bayonetta is a stylish action adventure with an intriguing, but sometime frustrating, storyline that offers a completely original take on demons, angels and witches. Bayonetta and her brash sexiness should be applauded for taking chances in the sometime sterile environment that triple-A games have gone as of late, even if it does induce some eye-rolling at times. The combat system is fluid and intuitive, the graphics, animation and audio all work perfectly in tandem, and the action is intense.  At least worth a rental, even if you’re not a fan of Japanese-style action games.

The Good

Fun, involving combat
Great cutscenes, sexy witches
Tons of replay potential

The Bad

Story might not grab you right away
Combat is as shallow as you allow it to be
Some underused characters appear and disappear