Bayonetta

 For those of you that don't know Ryu Hayabusa (  隼・リュウ )  , from the critically acclaimed fast paced hack-and slash ninja action game - ninja Gaiden, meets some heavy competition from Bayonetta.

Bayonetta is a witch, and apperantly lost all her memories. The only thing she remembers is that she is powerful and from a clan of witches known as the Umbra Clan.

At first glance, Bayonetta looks like another standard button mashing hack and slash game, however looks are very deceiving, just like her outfit, more about that later.

Beyond the illusively disguised game is a very fast paced game that is on par with the best. The combat depth in this game is beyond most in the genre, rivaling even the best (in my opinion) in the genre – the Ninja Gaiden series.

From the myriad of flashy moves, to the arsenal of weapons at her disposal; from katanas, pistols, rocket launchers, to whips and even her clothes, to the advanced combat and combos that these unique weapons have, Bayonetta excels in every concept. What’s even more amazing is that the moves are truly unique, save a few ‘clothes attacks’ and specials (torture attacks); the developers have gone to great lengths to make each weapon feel unique, and not just a powered up variant of the next.

Now, for those of you that are wondering about the so-called ‘hair attacks or clothes attacks’ well I will tell you ^.^

Bayonetta’s clothes are made of some sort of demonic hair, now how’s that for creativity. This demonic hair allows her to summon huge fists and high-heeled feet that pummel the enemy, as well as some sort of demonic Cerberus that rips apart the bigger baddies in the game. The way Bayonetta summons the beast is truly interesting; facing the player she grabs her hair, yells some undecipherable words and bam! Her clothes pop off and turn into a giant demon. The remaining hair coming off her is just enough to cover the parts required for this game to be AO-rated.

Finally are the torture attacks. Bayonetta is able to summon various ‘tools of the trade’ such as gilloutienes, iron maidens and spiked wheel thingies, to finish the enemy in bloody and horrendous ways,

More on Bayonetta’s lovely aesthetics are her dominatrix looks; from her skintight catsuit, to the heels that she wears, and even to the way she walks and talks – with a nice British accent. This really goes to great lengths in fleshing out her character.

Let’s talk about the game some more while we are still slightly on course: This game is not what I would consider short, on the average difficulty it took me about 16 hours to finish the first go – with another one near in sights. Now people would wonder how such a game will have replayability, well its thanks to the numerous moves that I have yet to unlock, and the action – it keeps you coming back for more. One of the trailers of the game was titled – “first climax” and this is very aptly named – this game is just – orgasmic. When you play sometimes you just fall into a trance with all the action you get lost in it.

When you are in the midst of battle, you are presented to an odd choice of music – j-pop (which I am a huge fan of) and jazz. As much as I love the j-pop I would have to say the music does not really fit in, especially the jazz.

The jazz portion of the music was, in my opinion, out of place, and makes you feel like you are in some sort of lounge; sadly the j-pop does not fare much better (as good as it is), it just seems somewhat out of place.

Graphically speaking is where the game’s ultimate downfall for the PS3 version is. The PS3 version of Bayonetta suffers from a number of issues: frame rate stutters, screen tearing, and the dreaded loading screens – which are too often seen. This feels like the game is clunky at times, which unfortunately takes away a significant amount from this very well polished jewel.

Graphics wise the game is, out of ten, a solid 8. While by far not the worst graphics out there, also not the best. The polish is unfortunately damaged to the ‘unoptimized’ PS3 version of the game. Also worth mentioning I was not a fan of the blood; it looked really fake, and somewhat like raspberry jam.

My final verdict on this game is a good one. Get this game if you are a fan of fast paced action games, you will have a blast with this one!

Lastly, thanks for reading my review on Bayonetta! I hope you have as much fun reading at as I did writing it!