Bayonetta exudes an irresistible style and personality, even if the gameplay doesn't always live up to its charm.
All cultures have their own standards and ideals of what makes for good storytelling. Naturally, this causes other cultures to find the standards of one culture to be silly, gratuitous, or downright puzzling. Every once in a while, a writer will become aware of some of their culture's more eccentric ideals and bring them under a magnifying glass for everyone's amusement. This is the case with the latest project of Hideki Kamiya, the director behind Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe. This game, simply called Bayonetta, places the Japanese ideals of sexuality right in your face while providing the thrills of a basic hack-and-slash.
The titular (in more ways than one) Bayonetta is the last of a clan of witches who prevailed against an opposite clan of light sages in a war before being wiped out by the European witch hunts. In the present day, this witch makes her living by battling the angels of heaven as a way of keeping the demons of hell off her back. After playing to the favor of a comically stereotypical mobster, she receives a tip that a mysterious gem that could hold the key to restoring her forgotten past has been found in the holy city of Vigrid. Shortly after arriving at Vigrid, the city is thrown into chaos and Bayonetta finds herself entangled in a solo war with the forces of Paradiso as she attempts to discover her past and the angel's true motives.
In contrast to the more straightforward narratives of other Platinum Games titles like MadWorld and Vanquish, Bayonetta's story is vague, convoluted, and generally makes no sense. It's hard to consider this a negative, however. Aside from the epic playable intro, which lets you battle angels on top a falling structure while a dramatic narrator lays out the back story, Bayonetta makes it clear that this is not a game to be taken very seriously. The major priority of the cutscenes is to showcase wildly exaggerated action, in-your-face sensuality, and the cartoony interactions between characters. A few serious undertones manage their way into the wackiness in the later portions, but the game never forgets to deal with its plot in the most over-the-top manner possible.
This presentation is easily the high point of Bayonetta. As lengthy as some of the cutscenes can be, they're almost always a joy to watch as they masterfully switch between fully-animated cutscenes and slide-show reels with characters held in place inbetween shots. Much effort is gone into milking Bayonetta's deliberate sex appeal, from the quick camera shots of her well-detailed crotch to in-game special attacks that temporarily strip her of her clothes (which, by the way, are made out of her hair). This comes off as laughably entertaining, and only further heightens the game's eccentric personality. The sharp presentation translates into the actual game as well. Although the graphics aren't a technical powerhouse, they have their pretty moments, and on the Xbox 360, the frame-rate maintains a sharp 60fps for the entire ride. Also worth mentioning is the music. Just like how the cinematics can easily switch their style on the fly, Bayonetta's music frequently and brilliantly swaps between clichéd piano-pop music and full-on orchestrated pieces that would make The Lord of the Rings trilogy blush.
The entire game's presentation stays insanely brilliant from beginning to end, and goes a long way to motivating the player enough to finish the game. For all of its personality and flair, the gameplay in Bayonetta is pretty standard. Bayonetta is largely a basic hack-and-slash in the line of the Devil May Cry series: your only real objective in each chapter is to walk along the very linear world and kill every angel that dares to get in your way. Bayonetta can't block enemy attacks, but instead gets a very useful dodge button. If you time the dodge at the right time, she will activate "witch time", which causes everything except for her to slow down for a few seconds, giving her ample opportunity to go berserk on the enemy. As the game progresses, you earn halos depending on how well you perform in combat. These halos can be used at The Gates of Hell, the in-game shop with a bartender who makes references to other games every now and then. You can buy things like extended health, healing items, new moves, and silly things like costume changes, but you'll have to spend carefully, as items can be quite expensive.
The gameplay certainly has its high points. The major boss fights against the angels, for instance, are very fun, as they have multiple phases and are suitably over-the-top. One boss fight has you fighting against a flying two-headed dragon thing while on the debris of a coliseum that is tumbling through the air. Aside from these setpieces, however, the battles against the standard enemies are a bit mindless. After awhile, these fights fall into a formula of dodging an attack, activating witch time, and then button-mashing until the enemy is dead. There are some attempts to switch this up in the form of a few jumping puzzles, an escort mission, and a couple segments where you drive a motorcycle on a freeway littered with enemies, but it's not enough to keep the core gameplay from feeling shallow.
For the most part, the gameplay itself is pretty well polished. Combat flows smoothly, there are no hit detection issues, and the controls are pretty tight. However, a few blemishes can be found as the game progresses. Most notably, the camera gets into a few issues every now and then. Certain fights take place inside tight corridors, and the camera has a nasty tendency to zoom right in on Bayonetta in these fights, leading to a few cheap shots from offscreen enemies. Like most other modern action games, Bayonetta also employs the occasional use of quick-time events. The problem here is that sometimes these events occur with absolutely no warning, and failing them could lead to instant death. This is frustrating on its own, but it only gets worse when you reach the end of the chapter and the game's ranking system sees fit to give you the worst award possible just because you weren't expecting an instant-death moment.
At about 10 hours of gameplay, Bayonetta's not the longest game you'll play. There's multiple difficulty settings and a few extras to unlock after finishing the game, but how much more you'll want to play will come down to how much you enjoyed the straightforward gameplay and outrageous personality. Still, Bayonetta's over-the-top eccentricity and sensuality lends it an undeniable charm that shines through its shortcomings and makes it a gem worth playing. A $60 purchase might be pushing it, and it won't appeal to everyone even at a lower cost, but altogether Bayonetta is a wacky and sensual good time.