We here at UCC were all a little dumbfounded when we heard that Famitsu, the Japanese gaming mag considered to have one of the harshest review scales period, gave Bayonetta a perfect score . While Platinum Games does have many former Clover guys behind it, I hardly swooned at the thought of what seemed like an overly-sexualized Devil May Cry clone, so Famitsu’s thoughts on it peaked my curiosity. When Sega announced they’d be offering up some early release demos of the game, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see what makes it supposedly so awesome. I spent some time this morning with the disappointingly short demo–two small levels–but thankfully the length ended up being my only gripe. This demo, at least, is pretty awesome.
-Presentation-
Now, before we get into the combat, which is the meat of this demo, I should first note that the game looks excellent, technically speaking. Famitsu did give the PS3 version a less-than-perfect score because of its graphics, but the demo is on the Xbox 360, and here it definitely shines. The game has a nice visual flare and sense of style, though not all that unique when compared to other genre games from the land of the rising sun. It’s great to look at, and a couple areas in this demo look like portraits come to life. It’s frustrating, then, that the camera doesn’t exactly lend itself to exploring the landscape — it’s prohibitively rigid, and much like DMC, stationary in some places. A good level of attention is also paid to the music, all of it the type of dramatic orchestral stuff you’d expect from this type of title.
-Combat-
Of course, the heart of any beat’em up is its combat system, and here Bayonetta does not disappoint. Your face buttons are used to punch (Y), kick (B), jump (A), and fire your gun (X), which also works as a context-sensitive action button. Where the game shines is in how it encourages you to combine your abilities to string together devastating combos. Now, this attack/gun combo lends itself to a Devil May Cry comparison, as well as the temptation to button mash. But how Bayonetta differentiates itself is by giving its combos a slower flow, some of them requiring you to skip a beat before your next attack.
But that’s not all there is to it; within this seemingly easy-to-use, hard-to-master combo system, Bayonetta also has some bad-ass looking moves, like a special firing mode that lets you spin the camera around the titular character as she fires her guns frantically at various targets. Pulling the right trigger lets you evade attacks, and pressing it at just the right time activates Witch Time, slowing down the world around you briefly. This is by far your most useful maneuver; the demo’s difficulty under normal settings wasn’t grueling, but it wasn’t exactly a cake-walk either. Dodging your opponents can be tricky with a sticky camera, especially since you’ll constantly be facing multiple enemies at a time, but each hit you take deals an alarming amount of your damage, so activating Witch Time almost becomes a game unto itself.
However, some of the coolest-looking stuff in the demo come in the way of Torture Moves, fantastical and gruesome finishers that can only be activated when Bayonetta’s magic meter is full.
All these elements – combined with the potential in the new weapons, items, and abilities you can buy in the full game — come together to create a very layered combat system that is thoroughly enjoyable and will leave you feeling like an unbelievable badass.
-Final Thoughts-
I was definitely surprised by this demo. While I’m still not a huge fan of the overtly sexual nature of your female heroine — not sure why the Japanese can’t learn from Naughty Dog’s female characters — the game’s visuals are amusing if not gorgeous, and the combat feels fantastic to control. The demo doesn’t make much sense of the game’s story — something about darkness breeding with light or some such — but that doesn’t necessarily make it bad, just vague. When the demo hits mass public, I’ll be very interested to hear impressions. For now, I’ve suddenly found myself adding another game to my January list.
