If one was to inquire about what games they should purchase for their entertainment needs titles like God of War, Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden and stuff like Batman: Arkham Asylum would come up undoubtedly. Bayonetta bends that talk in a unique direction but will no less be added to this list of must-play action titles. But coming from the mind of DMC creator Hideki Kamiya, that was almost a sure-fire bet anyhow.
What’s different about it? The answer is what isn’t. Bayonetta is one of those games that’s very difficult to describe. On one hand it’s a fast and frantic action game comparable to the likes of Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden. Combat is solid and undeniably fluid with plenty of combos and weapons at your disposal to prevent any onset of boredom. However, it’s over the top and exaggerated approach is unequivocally ridiculous and a considerable hook to the already excellent action.
Bayonetta is an Umbra witch, which (hah) has a counter-part group known as the Lumen sages. The Umbran side is considered “dark” while the other is wholly “light” and they’re all in charge of keeping the balance of the universe intact. Well, a Romeo and Juliet type scenario goes down with a Lumen and Umbran getting together, all hell proceeds to break loose and after the dust settles Bayonetta wakes up at the bottom of a lake as the last of the Umbran line. Suffering from severe amnesia and full of vengeance, she takes particular morbid interest in letting the blood of angels. This is the basis of the game.
To be entirely honest, I’m not exactly sure what I just wrote. Angels are your main nemesis and killing them somehow brings the story together in laughably spectacular fashion. What I mean is that everything, from the combat to the clothing is unjustifiably exaggerated which is a huge reason why the game is such a pleasure to play. Bayonetta is ostensibly a dark stripper witch with a sarcastic personality reminiscent of Dante from you know where. Her attacks revolve around familiar combo systems you’d see in games listed above, with one giant quirk… they deal with hair. Yes, combos often end with Bayonetta unleashing what’s called a Wicked Weave attack. A massive boot, fist, or sword of hair could manifest and do devastating damage to surrounding enemies; she also loses most of her clothing when performing said attacks.
Yes, the stripper witch loses clothing tactically so she may unleash insanity unto her opponents with demon hair beasts. She even has special torture attacks that are unique depending on what angle you hit your opponent. Torture attacks can be unleashed by avoiding damage and dishing it out until your magic bar reaches a certain point. Simply press a couple buttons and Bayonetta will cause catastrophic damage in a multitude of hysterically gruesome ways. For example, Bayonetta gets behind her foe, creates a guillotine and spanks her victim until finally calling down the sharpened blade to behead the embarrassed and soundly defeated angel. Even better is her climax finishes against larger beasts. Bayonetta will call down a super hair beast which can be anything from a large dragon chomping down on the surprised enemy to an enraged bird that eviscerates the target. One such boss creature I faced was in the shape of a ball, and upon his defeat Bayonetta’s climax finish summoned multiple hands of hair that played volleyball with the thing before finally crushing it to a bloody pulp. Ridiculous? Yes. But oh so satisfyingly right.
I should mention that stages are composed of the essential elements that make standardized action games solid. You’ve got your hidden treasures to find, heart and magic containers to increase health and abilities, and currency to purchase new techniques and weapons. Just about everything a typical action game requires Bayonetta has, and more. There are even small puzzles scattered around as well as hidden challenges called Alfheim portals which are very reminiscent of DMC’s challenges. Just about every level was setup in a way that didn’t make me feel cheated or bored. Actually, traversing these dynamic environments is half the fun since you’ll run into impossibly awesome scenarios quite often. Running up sky-scrapers while dodging missiles and fighting enemies while on rotating debris is commonplace in Bayonetta. Also, to follow with everything that’s already bizarre, instead of potions or some type of magical concoction to bolster your abilities, Bayonetta uses lollipops. Remember, she’s a dark stripper witch. It makes sense.
Frame rate-wise, the game is smooth throughout its entirety and its visuals are pretty damn stunning too. Enemies and animations are intricate and move like you’d expect them to. With the variety of angelic enemies you also shouldn’t get bored of maiming them either. But what’s really important is the difficulty. Games like Ninja Gaiden are brutal and after you die they’ll send you back to the last time you saved. Bayonetta can be very tough at points, especially if you have trouble dodging. Much of the game revolves around Witch Time, which is initiated by dodging at the last second. Think of it like bullet time where everything slows down for a portion, but you can move and attack unhindered. Thankfully, if you perish the game brings you back to the last section or Verse you died at. Typically there’s about six or so Verses in a chapter. What’s even better is how death during a boss battle is handled. Most fights against the level guardian are multi-tiered, so if you get to the second part of the fight and die you’ll actually appear at the beginning of the second segment, not the very beginning. This design decision helps the game flow and I’m incredibly thankful for it.
Surely the checkpoint system is very forgiving and purists will dislike how it works. However, the game tracks how well you do including keeping tabs on deaths, combos, and items used. The fewer times you die, the more likely you are to receive a higher award at the end of the stage. The game will last you somewhere around 10 hours and with this state-tracking feature as well as having all your items and currency carry over into a new game plus, there’s plenty of reasons to revisit the game once you’re through.
Bayonetta is another triumph for Mr. Kamiya. Beneath this sea of exaggeration and ridiculousness is a serious, high-quality action game. You’d do yourself no justice by skipping out on it.
Bayonetta's character design and abilities have changed a lot since the series debuted in 2009, with new costumes and dark arts in every title.
For fans who love challenging combat and the sheer silliness of Bayonetta, here are some other games that offer a similar experience.
The Bayonetta hack-and-slash game franchise has not made $450 million as voice actress Hellena Taylor claims. It's unclear where the figure came from.
Lol, no kidding. It’s a niche series. I think what she did was looked up VGChartz figures and multiplied that by $60.
Games do not sell at $60 constant. That is why first few months are critical for a game's success and then sales hit sometimes 20% to 75% (depending on the game and company). In theory the figure will be lower than million unit sold * $60 in my humble opinion.
The game needs to be multiplat anyway. If it was on PS5 Series X and Still on Switch maybe the devs will be less frugal with paying everyone involved. The game shouldn't be limited to the switches way less powerful hardware. Nothing against Nintendo but being on higher quality hardware with bigger marketing this game could have been almost as popular as Devil May Cry or at least in terms of Bayonetta being a bigger name than what it is now.
Given the fact that nintendo supported it when no other company would it definitely should be on switch and if they choose to, only on switch.
The other companies didn't care enough for it, this has been stated over and over again
Even that doesn’t make sense because the series would’ve had to have at least sold 7.5 million to have made that much. Bayonetta sold less than half that amount
No one is conflating quality with sales, but you sure are.
Even though this series isn't really my thing, I can totally see why people love them.
I don't even like hack and slash games and I'll say the first bayo was pretty fun. Haven't played the other two but they say they only get better.
Have you played the games ? What's overrated ? Your not saying much
Spam, Hear Ping, Game Slows Down, Dodge, Spam: Rinse & Repeat
I didn't like Bayonetta's style much.
hell yea. Bayonetta is slept on. if you check my comment history i have defended the game multiple times on this site, even calling it game of the year contender. the thing is, because bayonetta is a sexy woman and not a homoerotic male, it is taken more lightly. the games superb imagery, music, innovation and of course gameplay make it more than worth the money, though it is enjoying quite the modest bit of success. and to infestedany, i dont see how you did the game in 10 hours, even on normal, but all unlockables will take you past the twenty or thirty hour mark. but when the gameplay is this enjoyable why stop at all? i've put in more than fifty and i could play chapter three on infinite climax mode well....infinitely.
I don't believe Bayonetta to be nearly as outstanding a game as the superb God of War III which was absolutely excellent in nearly every passage of its game design. I enjoyed Bayonetta, no doubt, have a look at my review, but no way as near as the GOW III standards.
I did not jump on this game when it was first on sale.
Although I did make a mental note to play this one day as I like DMC and NG etc.
So last week I bought the game at a mere sum of 14 pounds.
I must say it lives up to all the hype if you like your games to fit into this style of play?.
Really glad I bought it as I am having loads of fun playing it.
Bayo combat > GOWIII combat.