This game mixes old school tactics with modern day tricks so well, it can only be described as a true gamer's wet dream!
Graphics: 10/10
As I always state in my reivews, I am not a graphics hoer, but I do love art style and atmosphere, and Bayonetta has all that, and then some!!! This game is increadibly rich with detial and everything is pretty unique. Bayonetta character model and movements in game is a achievment in gaming by itself, as her movements are fluid and her body is so sexy, it's impossible to ever replicate in real life. The enimies are another welcome look, as these are probably the most unique and scary angels you have every witnessed in a game. The art direction mixes well, as Bayonetta explores colorful new locals which contrast nicely with her darker character model and demonic attacks. I could honestly go on for pages about how good the graphics go with the artstyle and how well they mix together and sure, there may be a texture glitch once and a while, but it's only with the unlockable customs, which show in every cutscene the game has to offer, which is all done with the in game engine, which is simply brilliant! Honestly, you don't get any better then this :)
*Special Extra Points* Music: +1
I usually don't talk about a game soundtrack when it comes to a game, but this has to have some speical mentioning. Whenever I review a game, anything I find "Note Worthy" and not something put into most games, I like to give bonus points for, making up for anything else the game doesn't do very well. You can think of it as Extra Credit, which always comes in the game favor. This time, it's the soundtrack, and it's spot on. The game has this wierd mix of J-pop, Jazz, and 8-bit remixs and surprising, it works really well and I woudln't have it any other way! They are tones of tracks that you will have stuck in your head, from the new J-pop version of Fly Me To the Moon, to the Smooth Jazz songs played when you visit the shop called "Gates of Hell", and even the remixes of songs from Fantasy Zone and Space Harrier you will be humming to as well. Overal, the soundtrack is a huge surprise and only adds to the games already outstanding presentation!
Controls: 10/10
My choice words for this will be a quote said by Cereza (A little girl you save in the games story) once one obtains the top rank in a level, "MOMMY, YOUR THE BEST!!!"... there is really no other way to say it, except THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE CONTROLS! There is no flaw what so ever here. Everything is spot on and fluent. It is a perfection, and is something gamers dream of. If you die, it's never the controls fault, just yours! The button layout is fantastic and even though thera a crap tone of commands to remember and button combos, it never gets so complicated that you under up never using them, blending together complicated combos yet simple controls, which only make it even better to pull off the more complex combos and moves in the game. It's something that has always been in Kamiya's "Twitch Based" action games, and this is no exception, but this time, it's about 10 times better then Devil May Cry 3, which many consider his swan song! If that is true, then these controls are like his 5th Symphony!!!
Story: 9/10
Unfortunetly, this is the only thing laking in the entire package. The story is kind of all over the place and will leave the average person lost at times, but the story is designed to make no sense. The only purpose of the story really is to take you to spectacular locals and give Bayonetta reason to do the things she does, and sometimes, this leads to many funny scenes, and the story itself really just a bunch of Capcom and Sega references to be honest. It's unquie and makes no sense, but it's pretty much spot on like that. If the game was story based, it woudln't be very strong, but really, the story is only there to help give the player an excuse to do more, which is a great tatic in my opinion, but I do find the main plot twist kind of thrown in last minute that left me with a "WTF?" kind of moment and at times, the plot didn't really make to much sense, but it's just a litle grip on a otherwise great story full of references and tones of humor.
Gameplay: 11/10
Honestly, this is the game strongest point and is THE SOUL REASON YOU BUY THIS GAME! Seriously, if one where to buy this for a complex story or graphical slideshow, then you will probably be dissapointed, because the gameplay is where it's at. Like I said earlier, controls are spot on, which make the gameplay spot on! There are no slow downs and the game is a masterpiece when it comes to level design and scale, not to mention combat! Combat plays out with almost all the buttons, as even the left anolog stick get's into the action later! You have so many moves at your finger tips, it's can't even be talked about its. It's one of those kind of things where you have to see it to believe you can do it, because everything in cutscenes, you can do in game, which is something over the Devil May Cry series. You can summon demons from your hair, along with giant arms and legs, you have a veriaty of weapons from guns, katanas, whips, and even gunchucks, and on top of that, you can turn into a panther, bats, or even an bird to add new layers to combot! Honestly, the game is full of unqiue combat that would never fit in any other game. There is also this element of avoiding attacks to gain what is called "witch time", which is where time slows down to give you a couple seconds to dish out the hurt on enimeis nearby, and trust me, you will be loving this feature and missing it on the harderst difficulty setting! Seriously, if Bayonetta where in a figthting game, she would have to be banned on the spot for being to broken! I mean, even the bosses, which are huge in scale and epic on all other notes, get there ass kicked by Bayonetta and her powers! On top of that, the game has it's sence of style everywhere, rich with unqiue combat machanics and video references, such as remakes of levels from Space Harrier and Splash Wave! Even your panther form is somewhat of a refernce to the dog from Okami, as flowers with skulls come out as you run at 3x speed. There are other references to other popular media, such as a characters father being Tony Redgarve (Dante's Alliece from the Devil May Cry novels), your empolyer being Enzo (Again, Dante's employer from the Devil May Cry novels), lines from other capcom games (Henshin a Go-Go Baby and What are you buyin are both said in game), and even a Indana Jones refernce to Bayonetta's fear of tenticales, which has all kind of refernces to popular culture in Japan. Of course, the game also has it's infamous sex appeal, but it's only because it goes with the over-the-top nature of the game that most people look past as something to laugh at the game for. The game just has so much in the gameplay departmant and there is so much veriaty in combat situations and locals, from on top of cars and crashing planes and figthing on free ways and oceans and flying missles, that I could write a novel just talking about the gameplay alone! Honestly, there is no other game does gameplay like this so nicely... and there might never be one aside from this game!!!
Replay Value and Difficulty: 10/10
Replay Value sky rockets here, as you can easily spend anywhere from 20 hours up to over 200 hours on this game! The combat is addicting on it's own, and the way the level strucutre and method of adding high scores only makes the addiction to get better and top your scores even more! I found myself no joke playing through the games story a total of 7 times over, and I have just recently played through it a time agian and plan on doing it 2 more times, and this is all based on rich combat and a urge to gain a higher score! The difficulty is perfect as well. There are the Very Easy Automatic and Easy Automatic for those who don't want to dedicate to mastering the combot and just like pretending they are doing something awesome, but the normal mode gives a godo challange for normal gamers and anyone looking for a challange are really recommended to try Hard and the brutal Non-Stop Infinite Climax mode! Everything in this game does it best to draw you in and will always leave you wanting to play it again and again, no matter how old the game is...
Final Score: 11/10
YES, I WILL GO ON RECORD AND SAY BAYONETTA IS SUCH A GOOD GAME, IT GOES BEYOND NORMAL SCORING GRADES, TOPING THE PERFECT SCORE! Honestly, the game is that good. Anyone can get into it and there isn't really anything that stand up to it's caliber not just in gameplay elements, but the feeling you get playing it as well. It has a old school feel to in when you play it, and that no matter how much you complete of it, you just want to do everything either over agian or suck teh game dry... and for no real reason either. It's really nostalgic in a sense that it makes you want to completely everything simply because you want to, something games hardly now a days do anymore, making it feel like a lost game from the PS2 or Gamecube libary. It's old school, yet with new school tricks such as leaderboards and multiple difficulties. I had a blast playing this game, and is not only my game of the year from 2010, but also is arguable the greatest game I have ever played, up there with great games like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence, Final Fantasy X, Legend of Dragoon, and Fire Emblem 7! The game is a masterpice and the I woudl say that you are actually hurting yourself by not at least giving the game a rent, because trust me, once you expeirnce Bayonetta, you will be hocked from start to finish, and beyond! I give this modern-day masterpiece a 11 out of 10!
I am sora_heart and I hope you enjoyed this review. If you liked this, be sure to check out my blog and other reviews on my page. So until then, I will see you all in my next review, whenever and whatever that is... now, if you excuse me, I have to get back to playing this game for the 8th time...