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"[GAME] Bayonetta"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'Bayonetta'.
Sun 20/11/11 at 15:33
Regular
Posts: 261
Gaming as a medium has evolved in recent years. Games are starting to ask us more important questions about life and the world around us. Deus Ex: HR asks us about how far we are willing to push technology, when integrating it into our own bodies and the dangers it could bring to the fore. Bayonetta asks the important questions like “Does a Witch float or sink in the ocean when their hands are tied together?” or “How do you shoot guns with your feet?”……. Wait? What!?..... Witches never did that…… Did they?

That said, Bayonetta hasn’t got green skin, doesn’t fly on broomsticks, doesn’t have any warts (that are visible) or own a black cat. I guess this game forces you to re-imagine your idea of what a witch is. Bayonetta has the power to summon demons from hell by using her hair suit to channel them into her dimension. Because her hair suit is busy channelling demons, it means that she ends up with no clothes on. Now you may think that there is nothing to complain about, but there is. I may hold the world record for being the longest living virgin, but I just don’t think Bayonetta is that appealing and I know I’m not the only one who thinks so.

The story is about an “Umbra” witch who has amnesia (that great plot device) and has to fight between heaven and hell between the spiritual and the mortal planes….. If you haven’t figured it out yet…. THIS STORY IS BANANAS!

And if trying to fully comprehend the story doesn’t drive you insane then the music will, with the game’s constant loop of the same few tracks. Considering the game will take about eight to ten hours to finish on your first play through, they could have considered a few more tracks. I had “Fly me to the moon” stuck in my head for a week solid after finishing this game.

The style of the game is that of Devil May Cry, which is unsurprising considering it has the same director: Hideki Kamiya. This means that there are lengthy over the top action combat sequences, halos to collect instead of red orbs, symbols that block areas until all creatures are defeated and judgement on your performance after each level. In Devil May Cry, you get judged based on how well you mix up sword, gun and gauntlet attacks, whereas in Bayonetta you can spam the same abilities without affecting your ranking.

There are fifteen chapters in Bayonetta and a prologue. After each chapter, your performance is ranked as one of the following: stone, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and pure platinum. Your rating is affected by how many times you get hit, your combo score, how long it takes to defeat enemies, whether you have used any items and how many times that you have died.

To get “Pure Platinum” you have to defeat every enemy and not get hit or die once. I’m not very good at this game, as I only managed gold for a chapter at best, but this achievement is made even more difficult because of Bayonetta’s Quick Time Events…. And believe me, they are lightning fast. If I managed to be on a roll and get pure platinum for nearly every section of the chapter and die to a QTE I think I would cry. I can imagine it’s like if a bully preys on you at school; you manage to avoid injury for years and then one day he says “think fast!” and pushes you in front of a bus.

Also, the game has a tendency to let enemies start attacking you just as the cut scenes finish and although you can repeatedly press dodge and avoid them most of the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if it can be impossible to dodge in some cases.

What separates Bayonetta from typical hack & slash games is that when you dodge attacks, you enter “witch time”, which slows enemy movements to a crawl and makes you invulnerable for a short duration. This makes predicting your enemies movements more engaging, which is great because it is what you spend most of your time doing. This means that the skill involved it predicting the pattern of attacks that creatures use. Usually when your attack gets blocked, the enemy will then counter attack. Knowing this allows you to anticipate and dodge it. After performing a combo, Bayonetta pulls off an attack called a “Wicked Weave”, which summons hair attacks from portals, which usually stun and knock back your enemies, as well as doing significant damage.

When you go through the game, the halos that you collect for beating enemies can be used to purchase new abilities, weapons, accessories and items. For example one accessory called the “evil harvest rosary” which disables witch time on dodge, but instead creates an exploding ball that does strong area of effect damage. Even after you complete Bayonetta for the first time, you won’t have enough halos to unlock most of the items, which makes this game have good replay value. This is because you can experience new things while playing on increasingly harder difficulty settings.

There are also hidden Gold LP’s to collect, which can be traded in for new weapons. They are pretty well hidden as I didn’t unlock many weapons on my first run through.

There is a technical issue with the PS3 version, as the game loads when picking up items, opening menus and between deaths, which is bad if you die as much as I did, but it isn't a deal breaker.

I’m not usually a fan of hack and slash games, but I had a surprising amount of fun with this one.

Good
+ Good Replay Value
+ Engaging Combat

Bad
- A fair amount of loading
- Cheap QTEs
-Sometimes enemies attack just as cut-scene finishes loading

8/10
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Sun 20/11/11 at 15:33
Regular
Posts: 261
Gaming as a medium has evolved in recent years. Games are starting to ask us more important questions about life and the world around us. Deus Ex: HR asks us about how far we are willing to push technology, when integrating it into our own bodies and the dangers it could bring to the fore. Bayonetta asks the important questions like “Does a Witch float or sink in the ocean when their hands are tied together?” or “How do you shoot guns with your feet?”……. Wait? What!?..... Witches never did that…… Did they?

That said, Bayonetta hasn’t got green skin, doesn’t fly on broomsticks, doesn’t have any warts (that are visible) or own a black cat. I guess this game forces you to re-imagine your idea of what a witch is. Bayonetta has the power to summon demons from hell by using her hair suit to channel them into her dimension. Because her hair suit is busy channelling demons, it means that she ends up with no clothes on. Now you may think that there is nothing to complain about, but there is. I may hold the world record for being the longest living virgin, but I just don’t think Bayonetta is that appealing and I know I’m not the only one who thinks so.

The story is about an “Umbra” witch who has amnesia (that great plot device) and has to fight between heaven and hell between the spiritual and the mortal planes….. If you haven’t figured it out yet…. THIS STORY IS BANANAS!

And if trying to fully comprehend the story doesn’t drive you insane then the music will, with the game’s constant loop of the same few tracks. Considering the game will take about eight to ten hours to finish on your first play through, they could have considered a few more tracks. I had “Fly me to the moon” stuck in my head for a week solid after finishing this game.

The style of the game is that of Devil May Cry, which is unsurprising considering it has the same director: Hideki Kamiya. This means that there are lengthy over the top action combat sequences, halos to collect instead of red orbs, symbols that block areas until all creatures are defeated and judgement on your performance after each level. In Devil May Cry, you get judged based on how well you mix up sword, gun and gauntlet attacks, whereas in Bayonetta you can spam the same abilities without affecting your ranking.

There are fifteen chapters in Bayonetta and a prologue. After each chapter, your performance is ranked as one of the following: stone, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and pure platinum. Your rating is affected by how many times you get hit, your combo score, how long it takes to defeat enemies, whether you have used any items and how many times that you have died.

To get “Pure Platinum” you have to defeat every enemy and not get hit or die once. I’m not very good at this game, as I only managed gold for a chapter at best, but this achievement is made even more difficult because of Bayonetta’s Quick Time Events…. And believe me, they are lightning fast. If I managed to be on a roll and get pure platinum for nearly every section of the chapter and die to a QTE I think I would cry. I can imagine it’s like if a bully preys on you at school; you manage to avoid injury for years and then one day he says “think fast!” and pushes you in front of a bus.

Also, the game has a tendency to let enemies start attacking you just as the cut scenes finish and although you can repeatedly press dodge and avoid them most of the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if it can be impossible to dodge in some cases.

What separates Bayonetta from typical hack & slash games is that when you dodge attacks, you enter “witch time”, which slows enemy movements to a crawl and makes you invulnerable for a short duration. This makes predicting your enemies movements more engaging, which is great because it is what you spend most of your time doing. This means that the skill involved it predicting the pattern of attacks that creatures use. Usually when your attack gets blocked, the enemy will then counter attack. Knowing this allows you to anticipate and dodge it. After performing a combo, Bayonetta pulls off an attack called a “Wicked Weave”, which summons hair attacks from portals, which usually stun and knock back your enemies, as well as doing significant damage.

When you go through the game, the halos that you collect for beating enemies can be used to purchase new abilities, weapons, accessories and items. For example one accessory called the “evil harvest rosary” which disables witch time on dodge, but instead creates an exploding ball that does strong area of effect damage. Even after you complete Bayonetta for the first time, you won’t have enough halos to unlock most of the items, which makes this game have good replay value. This is because you can experience new things while playing on increasingly harder difficulty settings.

There are also hidden Gold LP’s to collect, which can be traded in for new weapons. They are pretty well hidden as I didn’t unlock many weapons on my first run through.

There is a technical issue with the PS3 version, as the game loads when picking up items, opening menus and between deaths, which is bad if you die as much as I did, but it isn't a deal breaker.

I’m not usually a fan of hack and slash games, but I had a surprising amount of fun with this one.

Good
+ Good Replay Value
+ Engaging Combat

Bad
- A fair amount of loading
- Cheap QTEs
-Sometimes enemies attack just as cut-scene finishes loading

8/10

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