Introduction
Hideki Kamiya, the founder of PlatinumGames, known for the Devil May Cry series, comes with another hack and slash game. Bayonetta has a nice gothic tone that makes it unique amongst the other hack and slash games on the market. You will be using a wide range of moves to make up combos with some spells to spice things up. The game has an interesting yet unique story that has two sides; good and evil.
Pros and Cons
Pros
-Interesting story with sinister characters
-Stylish combat with some interesting weapons to use
-Groovy soundtrack and good graphics
Cons
-Healing items become less viable when you pick up more health upgrades
-Not enough resources to get most of the new moves the game offers
-Concocting Compounds is a confusing game feature, that I swear was not explained
Story
500 years ago there were two clans, the Lumen Sages and the Umbra Witches. The two groups respected each other, but there was one rule both had to follow; they were not allowed to have offspring with the opposite clans. So, it was only a matter of time until someone could not keep it in their pants. War then ensued, and both clans were completely wiped out, with Bayonetta being the last remaining survivor of the Umbra Witch Clan. Bayonetta suffers from amnesia and does not remember anything that has happened to her in the last 20 years, since her 500-year-long sleep.
Bayonetta has quite an interesting story. It’s well put together, mainly with its characters and the back story with the Umbra Witches. The world of Bayonetta shows us that the Luman Sagesare who has generally been perceived as the good guys end up having evil intentions. However, the Umbra Witches are not good either. Both clans could be considered neutral and have their own goals to follow. the same could be said with the other characters as they are doing their own thing, with personal goals in mind.
This is what makes the story interesting to stand out, and the characters are what make the story great for what it has to offer. Luka is a journalist and escape artist who is after Bayonetta because he saw her murder his father when he was younger. Later he finds out that Bayonetta is a good person and befriends her. Rodin is a badass who fights demons with his bare hands, while also being a gunsmith who runs a bar on the side. Rodin is not a major character, but his impression did last. He sits on the sidelines to see how things play out instead of fighting them, despite being very powerful. The story that the game presents is nicely crafted, with a lot of loveable characters, and the humor is the cherry on top.
Gameplay
You have a variety of sinister moves to use when fighting against the Angels. As an unusual combat choice, Bayonetta uses her hair in melee combat, however, she also has weapons like pistols and other ones you find. There are different combos for you to use, and different moves to try out. When you defeat enemies, they drop Halos, which you can use to purchase more moves, items, and lollipops to help you in combat. There are three lollipops to buy, the first one heals you, the second has a shield, and the third increases your damage. You can also unlock weapons by picking up the Angelic Hymns Gold LP discs. These weapons give you access to more combos, which spice up the gameplay a bit. To get these discs, you will need to defeat certain bosses or find them throughout the level, at which point you can then give them to Rodian to make the weapon. My favorite weapon would be Shuraba; a very agile weapon and can deal a good amount of damage along with some good combos. Durga is a pair of gauntlets, and while slow, it’s fire and lighting modes make up for it, thus making it a fun weapon to use. All of these weapons are optional, so you don’t have to go out of your way to collect them all if you don’t want to.
Bayonetta can also enter a mode called Serious Mode, where she creates monsters from her hair to perform finishing moves on bosses. She can make monsters like a dragon or crow, which will then initiate an optional quick time event where you can press a button and if you max the circle meter you will get free Halos.
However, as great as Bayonettais, the gameplay has three glaring issues that should be noted. The healing items started to be less viable as you get more health upgrades, to the point where I had to use almost all of them to get to full health. There are healing based orbs in the game, but they are very rare to come by and did not replenish enough. You also don’t get enough resources to try out the new moves that the game gives you. In games like DMC, you will get plenty of resources to buy new moves for all of your weapons to get more combos. However, in Bayonetta, that option is not there, and you are not able to get all the moves you want to use. Then there is Concocting Compounds, a feature in the game I swear was not explained, and is confusing on how it works. You can get these Crystallized Compounds, which are the ingredients to craft the items, and you will need a certain amount to craft the item. It’s just this feature that is not explained properly, so I was never able to craft any of the items that the game had.
Graphics and Performance
The graphics for the game were very well put together and varied with beautiful environments in some areas while others contrast from dark, to bright and colorful. The game runs smoothly at 60 FPS and I came across no issues when playing. The game was tested with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, 16 GB of ram, and an AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor.
Soundtrack
The developer provided one groovy soundtrack, with a lot of catchy beats to listen to while playing the game. My favorite song has to be the battle theme, Fly Me to The Moon. I always loved listening to this song as it was catchy and felt so nice. The song is a remix of the original song Fly to The Moon by Bart Howard from the year 1954.
Final Verdict
Bayonetta is a great hack and slash game with very interesting weapons, spells, and a compelling story that keeps you invested. There are some gameplay issues, but it’s nothing too serious as I still had a lot of fun. If you love DMC, then you will love Bayonetta, without a doubt, as both games share similarities.