Bayonetta

This game is insane. Totally batshit, hair raisingly insane. The game is filled with exhilarating action and spontaneous set pieces worthy of some of the finest action games out there. But along with that insane gameplay there is a story, and a multitude of characters, both of which are completely inane, pretentious, and obnoxious, leading to a game that is insane to play but maddening to listen to.

Bayonetta stars a Bullet Witch of sorts, whose job is to kill angels in a effort to keep herself from being dragged back down to depths of hell. This in itself is a cool idea filled with possibilities, but unfortunately before long we get another story. One of which is about a man who, as a boy, lost his father and blames Bayonetta , but wait we also have this other story, one revolving around a small girl who has a secret past connect to Bayonetta, and wait we have yet another character, Bayonetta's rival, who knows of Baoynetta's secret past, and wait we also have the “Creator” who wants to recreate the world and needs Baoynetta's eyes, and wait.... As you can see this game has a lot of story, all of which is complete and utter gibberish, there are more plot threads here than Bayonetta has strains of hair in her weave, and that girl has a lot of hair.

Luckily this is an action game so the story and characters aren't overly important (as long as your rooting for your heroes and actively wanting to do harm to the villains that is) What's most important is if the game is fun to play or not, and by the lords of hair spray this game is fun to play. Bayonetta owes a lot to the Devil May Cry series, in particularly the trade mark weapon swapping system which allows you to relentlessly combo and torture baddies from one side of the screen to the other. There's also little dash of Viewtiful Joe in there, with the ability to slow down time with a careful dodge so one can really bring the pain to your feathery advisories. All the combat is fluid and satisfyingly over the top, Bayonetta even uses her hair to pummel and smite her enemies, giving the saying “bad hair day” a whole new meaning. The real star however is the set pieces, which are just awesome. This is where Bayonetta really shines, from running up buildings, to ridding missiles, to falling down a toppling clock tower while simultaneously kicking ass is highly inspired and a thrill to play. The work and imagination that must of went into these scenarios are unparalleled by any game in any genre in recent memory. Not to say the game is perfect, there are more than a few odd design choices.

For one the exploring of the game world is weird. There are challenge areas which only show up after you past a certain point in the area thus requiring you to backtrack pretty much after every encounter, sometimes all the way back to the beginning of the level. Not only is this lazy game design it's tedious, something that a game with this much adrenaline should never be. It would be much better served to have all these challenges placed in an arena (or possibly a back room at “The Gates of Hell”, the bar Bayonetta spends her hard earned halos at) as they really slow and hamper the pace of the game.

The other problem is the check point system. There is just way to many check points. While the combat is challenging, much in the same vein as a Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, the check point system nullifies any bite this game might have had, this is in particularly true for the boss fights, some of which have two sometimes three checkpoints in them, this in turns robs the game of any tension and gratification the gamer might feel for getting past a particular tough encounter as it seems more like an inevitability than a indication of one getting better at the game. The checkpoint system is even more bizarre when you take into account all the items you can make and buy, all of which are rendered mute since when you die you come back with full health. However, despite these minor flaws the game plays really well, it's when we have to look at our main character, along with her hair, that the game starts to fray and split at the ends rather badly.

Bayonetta is a great game that is being held back, strangely enough, by it's story and characters. Despite so many cut scenes and their length (my wii u pro controller would constantly shut down, some times twice, doing these epic monologues.) they never set up why I'm rooting for Bayonetta, or why I should hate the bad guys, and it doesn't take much. Devil May Cry 3, Ninja Gaiden, God Hand, none of these games have great stories or characterization, but they all do open with our heroes as underdogs who get their asses kicked by the villain thus allowing us to emphasize with our lead, and much more importantly making us want to beat the ever loving snot out of the bad guys, Bayonetta doesn't do either of these things. Are plucky cynical protagonist is never a underdog, her villains never pose a threat to her, she is pompous, arrogant, and obnoxious at the beginning of the game, and she's pompous, arrogant, and obnoxious at the end. Again, story and the characters aren't overly important in a action games, but perhaps Bayonetta should have followed her first passion and became a pole dancer instead.