Bayonetta or God of War - Help settle a disagreement

Bayo. I always preferred Japanese designed character action games in terms of gameplay. As for story: "Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important."

I wouldn't be surprised if Kratos was related to Aiden Pearce.

It's easy to see which one is the better series. The Bayonetta games have a SEGA logo right there on the cover,making it the obvious winner!

Okay, so I'm only partially joking, because God of War certainly has some majestic and memorable scenes, but the SEGA love in Bayonetta gets me every time. This whole sequence STILL makes the hair stand on my arms every time I see it.

@ezekiel: The small puzzles in Bayonetta are comparable I think but overall like I said, the minute to minute gameplay is where it's at - mainly combat - where God of War's combat isn't as satisfying (or maybe better put, more intricate) but there are smaller things like the puzzles and the level design that make up for it.

I guess it depends on what you're looking for in these games specifically.

If you want to beat the heck out of things and have a really intricate system for it, even at the cost of more linear and less involved level design, then Bayonetta is your pick.

If you don't need a deep fighting system and prefer an all around more balanced package - visuals, combat, puzzle solving, level design - then God of War is your pick.

@humanity: These games are all "difficult to master" in the ways I hate. The bayoneta move list is insane. And it's not like memorizing and executing all these input commands is going to make you that much more successful at the game. Learning dodge/block timing is basically the only thing you need to succeed in the genre. The trillion different moves and sub moves you can perform are all flashy fluff. Complexity without depth.

I beat metal gear rising on hard. It was fun, flashy and very hard but after doing that I had zero interest in learning combos and playing for grades. Never mind playing the whole thing over again. That's my problem with the genre: I never end up playing more than 15 hours of any of these games. There are no optional side quests with cool rewards or anything outside of the core combat to vary up the gameplay. You're just suppose to play the same stuff over and over until you get bored. I usually get bored immediately after beating the game once.

@pyrodactyl: You could consider the 30 or so VR missions as side quests if you like. There are also a bunch of unlocks (weapons, costumes, characters) for fulfilling certains criterias. Same with Bayonetta and DMC. (more so with Bayonetta) I'm curious what your definition of cool rewards is.

@ezekiel: I wholeheartedly disagree that Metal Gear Rising barely gets the action right. That game is batshit and awesome in ridiculous ways.

GoW is super guilty of the "hard difficulty just means you do less damage, they do more" curve. I've always loved Platinum's style of "the tutorial level on hard is harder than the final level on normal" difficulty.

GoW has better setpieces but Bayonetta has some great ones as well. But when it comes to mechanics, there's simply no comparison. Bayonetta all the way!

I feel exactly the same. I don't care to remember combos and get high scores. My ideal combat system would just utilize the six inputs of a modern mouse for immediate attacks and parries. The depth would come from a combination of that, platforming and the level design. Dark Souls was far, far more interesting to me than MGR because of the maze-like adventure it is. I don't even like levels/stages in action games.

I loved God of War 1 and 2 back in the day, but by the time 3 was out, I was done with them. Kratos is one of the least compelling protagonists I've ever played as, and really shouldn't have stayed the center of the series after the first game. If I had to go back to one series or the other, it'd be Bayonetta just for the tone.

Enjoying God of War is extremely difficult in a world where Bayonetta exists.

I tried going back to God of War but man, I just couldn't keep at it.

To each their own I guess but to me Bayonetta is just on another level entirely, especially with dodge offset.

DmC is the right answer.

Said no one ever.

"Cool rewards" have a direct impact on gameplay. You might think, sure you get different weapons from side content in some of these games. The thing is, since none of these games rely of RPG mechanics there is very little reason to use any of these side weapons. You find like 3 you like for different situations (good against big slow enemies, crowd control, all rounder etc.) and stick with those for the entire game. I guess it has more to do with the structure of these games though. The fact that doing challenge rooms is dull.

Open ended RPGs have narrative, different environments and characters in their side content. It's not just a variation on the same combat challenge you've done throughout the whole game without context or reason. I guess if I drill down to my main issue with character action games, it's that, when you're done with the short linear main campaign there is literally nothing left to do outside of the combat. After 6 to 15 hours with the game you already sucked everything out of it except for the combat you've already experienced for most of that 6 to 15 hours.

To each their own I suppose. What you guys find annoying I find quintessential to my enjoyment of the genre. I think you're underselling the importance of combos in Bayonetta and how they can add a lot of depth exactly by adding to replayability by letting you vary up your style significantly through the use of different weapons and such, but hey if you don't like it then who am I to tell you otherwise.

@pyrodactyl: Actually I tend to use pretty much all of the weapons at my disposal given the situation, and I find learning each new weapon fun.

I get that you dont like the genre, I was just correcting you because there are optional missions and things to unlock, but if you arent willing to delve deeper into the combat or you dont find that interesting then it doesnt matter. Again it's an apples and oranges situation, you wouldnt criticise Forza for not being more like GTA. Sure it has cars but all that other stuff is superfluous. It does one thing well and i'm totally okay with that. You arent, okay then... ;p

God of War.

Bayonetta plays great, it's super awesome and nuts. I love it, I hope there's another one.

But those God of War games were fantastic and also played great. I'm actually going through Ascension right now for the first time, and I'm surprised by how grand the spectacle is and how friggin' tight the combat is. The developers basically mastered the PS3 and it feels more impressive than most current-gen games I played last year. The crazy set pieces coupled with some amazing sound have made this a god damn riveting experience. Even the puzzles are well-designed. The story in that one isn't necessary, but it's a damn fine game after years away. Interestingly, the other GoW (Gears of War) was also really fun to return recently after some time away.

So Kratos gets a lot of crap these days, but those have been some extremely well made games. Ghost of Sparta was also the single most incredible achievement on the PSP, so that has to count for something. I actually hated the original after coming off the zen complexity of Devil May Cry 3, but I came back a year later and started to appreciate it for being something different. That's why I'm not saying Bayonetta sucks, but that God of War has made the bigger impression on me (granted, over the course of 6 games instead of just 2).

Bayonetta.
The first God of War when it came out was fantastic, i didn't keep up with the series but got around to playing 3 when i got a PS3 and it was identical to the first game, the cutscenes and stages were obviously different but it told pretty much exactly the same story and had exactly the same gameplay as the first game, it took me by surprise because it's not a remake, it's not a reboot, it was the third entry (not counting psp) in the series on the next generation on consoles... That was pretty disappointing.
I've only played the first Bayonetta but it's an extremely fun game, i like the character, the dmc style combat, the silly nods to Afterburner and Space Harrier, the outlandish soundtrack, the main negative i have are those budget cutscenes which i'm sad to see are making an appearance in Yakuza 0, but it has enough fully animated cutscenes to mostly get away with it. Annoyingly i haven't played the sequel as i don't own a Wii U, i'm hoping for a re-release on the Switch as that would tip me towards buying that console, but it's clear from it's universal praise that the sequel is phenominal, even garnering game of the year awards, as a whole i choose the Bayonetta series over GoW.

This is the wrong site to settle that disagreement.

We're Bayonetta people here, mostly.

That said, these games have pretty significant differences that this questions belies. Others have pointed this out, but God of War does have more interest in environmental puzzles and navigation than Bayonetta does. On the flip side, Bayonetta has more mechanical variety and complexity. Calling one action and the other action-adventure isn't totally crazy. Here on GB people tend to use "character action" to describe the former and that works too.

If you are looking only for mechanical systems, I would say Bayonetta is more interesting. But that's only one condition. Otherwise I just wouldn't compare the too. God of War I think also holds a lot of interest for people in terms of its mythological setting, and this is in of itself almost a characteristic worthy of a genre (similar to "Swords & Sandals" movies). As well, God of War is a real pusher of spectacle at a scale most games just don't operate it. Bayonetta is more zany, but it's not bigger. All in all, you should weigh all the above before deciding which is better in any one of these regards.

I'm one of those people who would rank God of War at least among the top ten franchises ever. Maybe even top 5. I also never got past the first level of Bayonetta. So there's that. On this site that basically makes me Big Foot.

Still havent slogged my way through bayonetta 2 but playing bayonetta 1 on wiiU was probably my biggest dissapointment ever. I love character action games but bayonetta just felt like a slog throughout to me, I finished it but now a year or so later I can't recall a single actual thing that happened besides me going 'ugh' constantly and just overall disliking the whole thing despite really trying. I usually ADORE zany Japanese stuff like this. I think I need ups and downs in my games, an eb and flood of action. If the action keeps ramping up constantly I just tend to start zoning out. Or maybe it just wasnt the right time for me, I dunno.(Scrolling up, for example, seeing that bike stage. Didn't remember that at all, no recollection.)

What I do know is that I've probably finished God of War 1,2,3 at least 3 times each (normal,hard and whatever the highest was. Never tried hardest difficulty on 3 though). Guess what I voted :p

I really like God of War 2. Its got better combat and abilities than GoW1, a slew of great bosses, and some really cool levels. I've also only played through it, like, 1.5 times.

I've beaten both Bayos multiple times on various difficulties, I bought the movie, I want the amiibo, and I've even entertained buying a PS3 copy just for kicks. The core difference between the two, for me at least, is that when GoW gets hard, it stops being fun. When Bayonetta gets hard, it makes me want to get better at the game. It rewards and encourages experimentation with your weapon sets and combo strings. I've always felt like combat in GoW was there to justify the story, whereas Bayonetta has a story to justify the combat. That said, I actually really like Bayonetta's story, and its a rare occasion where the sequel actually helped re-contextualize the events of the original game and made it more cohesive and emotionally affecting for me.

Let me put it this way. In God of War 2, you punch the Kraken in its face with a bridge. In Bayonetta 1, you punch God into the Sun.

I think Bayonetta is better

What's there to settle? This just comes down to personal opinion/ preference. That said, Bayonetta never felt like it got old and I still want more, whereas I got tired of GoW and Kratos himself about 20 minutes into the second game.

Bayonetta 2 is probably the best game in this entire genre. So that puts it ahead for me.

Although the first Devil May Cry was pretty damn good too (So that should've been a 3rd option)

God of war series. Never even got through beyonetta

Understandable, but as someone who loves both concepts I think both Dark Souls and Revengeance/DMC/Ninja Gaiden are fantastic games. I love mastering combo's, then learning to combine certain combo's, then learning to cancel in various ways, then cancel-switch, then make more combo's out of that. I love all of it.

DmC

You should probably fix that mistake!

@zevvion: too bad there isn't enough people who agree with you to make the genre successful nowadays. Again, I'm personnaly glad the things I enjoy about character action games are being incorporated into games I'm more interested in with RPG mechanics, bigger scope and more gameplay variety.

I will go on record and say that I would, in fact, say that. DmC is an excellent game. Easily on the same level of Bayonetta in terms of style and gameplay. Its just a different style, which I quite enjoyed.

(Currently replaying through DmC now, it holds up as damn fun and damn funny)

That doesn't mean they won't return or were not great in the first place. We got turn based strategy back. Proper combo action games can come back too. There is something about them that you can't get anywhere else.

god of war, you fight a big god

bayonetta, you punch a god from pluto into the sun

any questions?

Bayonetta.

I think the flak God of War gets is a bit much, it's perfectly fine with what it's doing and deserved the recognition it got at the time, but Bayonetta is like on a whole other level of good

@whatshisface said:

I would say DmC is superior to any God of War game (baring the ones on PS2) and MGS Rising. Probably on par with Bayonetta. The game gets a lot of flak for "ruining Dante", but it had a well designed combat system, cool level designs and the difficulties had a lot more nuance than "now they do double damage, and you do half".

@hermes: I think that the boss fights were lame for the most part (especially the Raptor News one), the colored enemies were a pain in the ass and made it easier to fuck up your combo and style rank. For me, being stylish and chaining together awesome combos is the whole point for a DMC game. Changing Dante is the smallest problem of that game, I think.

Don't get me wrong, it's an alright game but there were much better games in the genre. Like MGR. It might be better than Killer is Dead but that game had heart and was more memorable because of its weirdness. I haven't played the Bayo games, so I can't comment about them.

@whatshisface: Truth is, most people that complained about the game, did it before it was even out. Changing Dante could have been a small problem for you, but it was not for most of the audience. That game made me interested in chaining combos and trying cool combinations more than the previous ones, which I played mostly by finding a single combo it worked and sticking to it.

MGR I appreciated for his weirdness and heart (although I feel a significant part of it is because of Platinum), but I don't think too highly of the combat system. There were a lot of things that no one ever explain (like having the recovery items equipped automatically uses them when you reach 0%). Also, since attacking, blocking and parrying were all performed by the same motion, it was pretty easy to exploit... just point in the right direction and hit attack.

My understanding is that Bayonetta plays better than God of War. Having only played GoW, I can believe that. That said, everything about the characters, story and setting in Bayonetta make me want to try experimental brain surgery on myself using an icepick.

Bayo is the queen of character action, God of War isn't even the best Western take on the genre.

Please stop calling God of War that. It's action-adventure. Calling it """character""" action is unfair to all it attempts to do.

Thank you!

My money is on Bayonetta cause it is more my style of a video game, it's over the top nonsense which makes the experience that much more richer for myself. I've played God of War back in the day on PS2, pre-ordered the sequel and enjoyed that one over the original. Genuinely I felt I gotten my God of War experience after 2 which is why I never played any of the side games or even God of War 3, the newest Dad of War just doesn't interest me either, where as Bayonetta with a more combat focus style of gameplay I am more invested in. Only have played the first game as we speak but I do have Bayonetta 2 on the Wii U with Bayonetta (1st release) so I should be able to get around to it sometime.

God of War is a mix of an action, beat'em up, rpg, adventure style of a game it requires a bit more time investment especially for a Completionist. It is for those who are really willing to immerse into a game, while Bayonetta it does have some nice Completionist type stuff to do (although I have personally not grind it out myself) it's a simple point A to B action beat'em up game. More stylistic like Devil May Cry, that is where I was sold on it's initial concept and announcement. It's a matter I think both games should honestly be experienced for a true final decision, but if you want my opinion which is better it is Bayonetta for me I had more fun playing it than I did with God of War 2.