I love action games. To be more precise, I love any form of action in a video game. We’ve gone from top down pixel adventure games where you could only attack in four directions, towards complex scenarios and mechanics that test the player’s skill level and let them show off whatever cool moves they have to offer. There are a plethora of action games out there and whether you like action or not there is one to fit your agenda. We have fast pace blood pumping combat, and slower more methodical combat. There are games that put you into blade clashing duels, and games that place you into heavy gun fights. Some games let you fulfill the power fantasy you dare to dream of, and some games that allow you to control the power you earn and channel it when needed. We have action games from a third person perspective, first person perspective, from a two dimensional plane, and an isometric plane. There is an action game for everyone and yes I know that action is practically in every single video game. It’s gotten a little harder to tell what counts and doesn't count as an action game or some other genre, but we aren't here to discuss that. We should still celebrate action in video games, because it’s the main reason a lot of casual gamers play video games.
What makes a good action game, or to be more precise what makes a good combat system? Well a lot actually. How do we make each encounter engaging, so that by the end the player feels like they earned an achievement by the end. We need to know what type of enemies the player fights. Their behavior and how they hound on the player on all sides. What environmental obstacles surround the player and how do they affect the current fight. We need to know what abilities and limits the player has on hand, and how do we take those abilities and put them into play. Do we make the player utilize every tool they have, or let them use two to three simplistic attack patterns. Require them to analyze and memorize attack patterns, or just let them mash away at the attack button wildly. Reward them for going above the required skill level and how high should this skill ceiling be? It’s not just how difficult an encounter is, it’s the mastery and the drive a person has to push through every single fight. Good combat is now how satisfying each attack is or how quickly the fight can be won. Good combat is one that is cleverly thought at and works from a mechanical perspective. It’s why I love the combat from the Soulsborne games so damn much. They reward the player for understanding each system and mastering the flow of a fight. Rather than run in like an animal without learning anything new on each death.
Combat can be great without having to be so mind numbing, and one studio that has handled combat extremely well is PlatinumGames. A Japanese team of developers founded in 2007 and has grown to nearly 290 employees since then. The last decade has seen them rise in glory with hit after hit, and they have developed some of the best action games the industry has seen. We got Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a partnership with Kojima that took the twisting narratives the Metal Gear franchise is known for and carried it over to an interesting plane with cyborg ninja warriors and more. The Wonderful 101 which from what I’ve seen is basically Pikmin, but instead everyone is a superhero who groups up and stomp down baddies several times bigger than them. Then there is Nier: Automata, the unexpected follow up to the emotional journey created by Yoko Taro and asks the ever two evolving questions. What gives us purpose and why do we as living beings choose to continue moving forward? Nier: Automata is such a beautiful masterpiece and everytime I mention PlatinumGames to someone I make sure not to forget what is one of my most favorite games of recent memory. So PlatinumGames have made some really good action games and they are one of the very few companies out there with a tremendous reputation. Not a perfect reputation, but nothing controversial or scummy like the stuff that is going out at Blizzard Entertainment right now. However, I shouldn’t forget the game where the company began their adventure towards miraculous success.
2010 was the beginning of a new decade and with that came the big game changers of the next decade. There was Halo: Reach, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout: New Vegas, Mass Effect 2, and tons more coming along the conveyor belt. Then there was the fact that three to four years later we would receive the next generation of consoles, but let’s focus on how 2010 was a bustling year for video games. One of which came out early in the year, but technically came out first in Japan a few months prior to the beginning of 2010. Direction and development began in 2007, and was all led by Hideki Kamiya who previously worked on Devil May Cry which makes a lot of sense. He wanted a game filled with style and fashion similar to Devil May Cry, and wanted what was basically the opposite of a majority of video games at the time. Dark morbid settings with griddy characters and atmosphere. He wanted a game outside the box and he would push this to the extreme as fast as he could. Two years pass by and soon Kamiya claims that a mostly complete version of his new game was ready to be unveiled to the world. He showcased footage for his new project during a 2009 E3 expo and the title, Bayonetta.
What was Bayonetta, where was Kamiya trying to go, and why did it look so…… kinky? This was one of the few controversies for Bayonetta at the time, because the game did nothing wrong like depict a horrendous act or made references to politics or some controversial event. It was more like what Maiya and his team were suggesting throughout the game. An overly exposed female main character who attacked and slayed her enemies in suggestive ways, and camera shots that implied more than meets the eye. Nothing wrong, but this was taken in a lot of ways. Bayonetta came out first in Japan in 2009, and later in the west three months afterwards. The sales for Bayonetta were not that great. The game massively underperformed in sales, despite some marketing being put into the game, due to how nobody really knew who this game was for. It was just too weird and everyone just kind of forgot that Bayonetta even existed. There were still those who played Bayonetta and to those who did play the game they absolutely loved it. The fast paced brutal action that made the God of War and Devil May Cry series so successful, and it showed these types of games still have their place in the market today. The game was received quite well among critics and a lot of people consider it an underrated masterpiece.
I’ve owned Bayonetta for quite some time now, but I never really seemed to finish the game. I owned the second game and finished that, but kind of forgot that I played it and never wrote a proper review for it. Tried playing the first game afterwards and stopped around one third of the way through when encountering some enemies that annoyed me more than they should have. Since it's the holiday season and there is a lot of time to work through the games in my backlog, I decided to go back and try to beat Bayonetta thoroughly. Was a little skeptical since I’m not a huge fan of these forms of action games, and a couple weeks ago I wrote an article talking about representation in video games and how Bayonetta does and does not cross the line of what counts as representation. My doubts were then put to rest, because Bayonetta is actually a really good game. It’s not one of my favorites and I don’t love it as much as everybody else, but it is great and the closest thing we have to those older days of action games. Today I want to talk about why I loved Bayonetta and why it deserves your attention.
Story
The story follows a mysterious woman named Bayonetta who has no recollection of who she is and where she came from. 20 years before present day she was buried at the bottom of a lake within a strange coffin. A man dove down there to open up the coffin, but upon doing so a strange energy was awakened which pulled him out of the lake and pulled him limb from limb. A woman then rose from the coffin and from there she proceeded to beat up and gun down whatever was lurking around that lake. What she was fighting were benevolent beings invisible to the eye, but only gifted individuals like her can see. Beings from beyond our world who judge us for the deeds and sins we have made during our lifetime. That’s right, she was fighting angels.
Why was Bayonetta fighting angels and what were they after her for? Well she doesn’t know. She wakes in modern times to find herself in a world different from hers. She soon became acquainted with new friends who helped her adjust herself to the world she now lives in. Enzo, a fat grumpy man who has kids to take care of but sticks around because why not. Then Rodin, a bar keeper and weapon’s dealer who possesses similar otherworldly powers to Bayonetta. All Bayonetta has is the Left Eye of The World, which upon further research is said to be half of an ancient treasure hundreds of years ago.
Bayonetta begins to slowly remember her past and by doing so she remembers where she came from. Two tribes once protected halves of a relic that had the power to resurrect an ancient god that could destroy the world. They also cherished the worlds beyond and learned to harness the powers of deities from those worlds. One tribe practiced witchcraft and gambled with the demons of hell, the Umbra Witches. The other tribe gained the guidance and protection of the heavens, the Lumen Sages. These two tribes lived peacefully together, but one day an event occurred which drove the two towards war. Specific events then occurred which sealed away Bayonetta in a magical coffin until she was reawakened in the modern world.
Wanting to know more about her past and what was so important about the relic she possessed, Bayonetta decides to venture over to the place where the Lumen Sages originated from. The place which was once destroyed, but had been rebuilt and is now a prospering haven. Vigrid. Once Bayonetta arrives in Vigrid she is contacted by a mysterious voice that only she can hear. The voice claims that Bayonetta is their child and that the forces of the great beyond will do whatever it takes to bring her down. Afterall, Bayonetta is an Umbra Witch and she was stepping into enemy grounds. From there Bayonetta encounters a lot of peculiar threats and friends.
An ordinary journalist named Luka has traveled to Vigrid to study the glistening cities, but has located Bayonetta and claims that the man who died from opening her coffin was his father and that he wants Bayonetta to confess to the murder she had commited. The inhabitants of Vigrid can’t see Bayonetta, but there is a little girl similar to her who somehow has the ability to see her. The Angels of the heavens do appear to fight Bayonetta and they have brought in some of the most ferocious fiends to crush her into a pulp. Finally a woman wearing red clothing and has a similar fighting style to her named Jeanne stands in her way from discovering the truth, and the more Bayonetta fights her the more she figures out how Jeanne is connected to her past. Tension is rising and every fight is a near death sentence, but Bayonetta seems to be really chill during all of this. She’s a sassy woman who fights with style and she will do whatever it takes to reach her goal. One sexy strike at a time!
Gameplay
Bayonetta is a very simple action game to play, but when you explain how it mechanically works to someone you realize there is a lot more to talk about than expected. There’s the progression system, what goes on in and out of combat encounters, and the combat itself. That’s like only three things, but trust me it’s more than you think. Let’s start with the combat, because if it’s one of the main reasons people are going to buy this game then it's the fast paced stylish combat.
Combat is really straightforward. You make your way through a level, get thrown into a fight, and the main goal for each of these encounters is to slay every enemy that lunges towards your direction. Enemies come in a variety of flavors, and for almost every single level they introduce a new enemy type to switch up how a battle works. You have simple grounded scrawny angels and you have ones that fly around in the air. Which are practically the same like their normal counterparts, but you get to jump to reach them. You have bigger, stronger enemies who wield heavier weaponry and wear more protection. You have flying orbs, stingrays, flaming wheel, goliaths who wield giant old axes, squirming worms, fire spewing wolves, these two hacky slashy duo who are more annoying than you think, and occasionally you encounter a boss angel who stands between you and full completion of a level. These types of games focus on how a fight flows with the different enemies being thrown at a time, but taking them down requires analyzation and skill because the attacks you have aren’t too much to worry about and not one specific attack is required to beat certain enemy types.
Bayonetta has three types of attacks. A punch attack, kick attack, and guns to shoot angels from afar. Punch attacks can be performed in quick succession and allow for easy evasion, while kick attacks are much slower but can stagger angels easier and launch them into the air. Guns slowly chip away at an angel’s health, but aren’t really a priority weapon to utilize. Attacks are easy to perform, but there is a wide selection of combos and attacks to use. You can punch three times and perform a kick. Kick, punch, and then kick. Punch, wait for a second, and then punch again. Jump into the air and slash about at an enemy before slamming them into the ground. Punch, dodge away, and then hit them really hard. There’s a lot you can do and the game rewards you for getting combo mad. Each encounter is ranked for how well you do. How long your combos last, how much time it took to defeat all the enemies, and how much damage you took during that encounter. A higher score during a fight gives you higher medals and all the medals total up for the final level score. The higher the scores the higher the rewards. This is how these types of games reward you for going beyond the skill requirement and the rewards are what allow you to grow stronger and unlock new attacks for your never ending list of combos.
The main currency of Bayonetta are halos which are earned from defeating enemies, completing encounters, and achieving a rank beyond the stone rank at the end of a level. These halos can be spent at The Gates of Hell, a shop where Rodin can sell you new skills, items, and weapons. News weapons offer new play styles and ways to defeat enemies, as well as a new list of combos to learn. We have a pair of gauntlets, one of them being on fire and another omitting lightning. A pair of ice skates which allow you to maneuver around quickly. A whip to cover more terrain and attack quicker the more you mash the attack button. Then there is one of my personal favorites which is the katana, which is good for cutting up enemies and dealing lots of damage in a short amount of time. There are the Witch Hearts which can permanently increase your maximum health, and the Moon Pearls which increase your punishment meter. You have the lollipops which can be consumed during battle and offer one of numerous ailments. Restore lost health, increase attack power for a short period of time, or restore your punishment meter. What is punishment anyways and how does it work?
Punishment is a meter that builds the longer you attack enemies without taking damage. When the meter is full you can punish a single enemy. Mashing away at the designated button to get a higher halo bonus for performing the punishment attack. The punishment attacks can kill an enemy instantly most of the time and allow you to nab whatever weapon they have on hand instantly. This is a great reward, because not only does it make cutting down minibosses or annoying angels easier but encourages the player to master the flow of combat and play more aggressively than usual. It can get annoying at times, but it’s a great payoff. That’s all I have to say about the gameplay for now. It’s an addicting game with a great combat loop that pushes you to the limit.
Thoughts
Bayonetta is a stupendous action game and in the end I do recommend it. There’s a lot to like about it and some of the stuff that is questionable is ignorable once you learn to love this game. The story for starters I thought would be passable, but it’s high octane stylish action that is aware how over the top it can be at times. For if it’s one thing we can learn from Resident Evil 4 its that stupid plots that are aware that they are stupid are genius. That’s how they get away with a lot of moments that would be problematic.
The world of Bayonetta is interesting to hear about as you learn the history of the Lumen Sages and the Umbra Witches. How the heavens work and that the way we view religion can be blinding at times. The characters of Bayonetta are all very energetic and filled with personality. Bayonetta herself is actually a fantastic character with interesting history and personality. I do have to mention that during my representation I was trying to talk about games that don’t get it or just balance between that line of what is and not is representation. A lot of critics use Bayonetta as an example and I thought it would be wise to use her as an example, because even I was confused with what type of audience a character like Bayonetta would appeal to besides Discord moderators. Cue audience laugh. Anyways, turns out I was wrong about Bayonetta because even though she is oversexualized beyond hell she does have an entertaining personality. She’s sassy, but she knows when to pick things apart or start to take the ongoing subject matters seriously. Her character grows as the adventure goes on and the friends she makes along the way makes her feel at home with the world. This cast helps remind Bayonetta why she is so calm and tries to treat everything as playful, because nothing can bring her down no matter how hard they try. That’s the great part. A strong female protagonist who is motivated and knows how to express herself!
The combat is good as it rewards player mastery. You don’t need to use every combo in this game just to get past fights, but it’s nice that they give you all these options because highly skilled players are most likely to use them. The game is incredibly linear, but it has a high amount of replay value due to ranking systems and how higher difficulty settings affect how later segments of the game play. For a game that came out during 2010 it still looks really good today. The architecture of structures and the artstyle look great, character designs and animations are stunning, and the lightning is somewhat farther ahead of its time. The controls are buttery smooth and it’s easy to execute combos thanks to that responsiveness. I would even go as fast to say that gameplay wise Bayonetta is better than Devil May Cry 5 which is the most similar game I’ve played to Bayonetta. It’s faster paced and the camera is not so zoomed in on the main character, so I get a wide view of what is going on screen at all times. The music is great and there are a couple of covered tracks. One of them being Fly Me To The Moon which I know because of Frank Sinatra. I know that Frank Sinatra didn’t invent the song and covered it as well, but it’s because of him that I fell in love with jazz. The stylish cover of Fly Me To The Moon and it might have become a new favorite of mine.
That’s all the good things I have to say about Bayonetta. I almost gave this game an excellent review score, but along the way I encountered things that prevented me from loving this game as much as everybody else. Some of the enemy types are annoying and they make playing this game a little frustrating at times. Like the flying enemies who are hard to hit due to the wonky lock on system and hit detection for them, and that one enemy type that comes in a pair and hounds you on all sides. The one that has meaty claws and has that one combo that is hard to predict and is inescapable. There is a crafting system that allows you to concoct lollipops rather than buy them from Rodin. There’s only three resource types and concocting them is extremely simplistic, but the resources you gathered aren’t dropped frequently and the cost to concoct is pricey. Plus you eventually reach that point where consumables are easy to afford due to the amount of halos being dropped. Your rank gets lowered if you die during a level. You can continue, but it does feel discouraging when failing means you’ll get a terrible grade. Not only that, but using consumables brings down your grade as well. Since you used an item to prevent your death, it counts as a death. So using healing items is discouraging as well, because you fear that it will bring down your grade if you use too much. Enemies can drop items which replenish health, but they too aren’t dropped frequently and they don’t restore much.
So how the f*ck do you recover health without there being a punishment. You’re all probably saying, “Just get better at the game”, and I know that. It’s just that I’m not used to faster paced action games and would rather go for the slower paced methodical ones. Yet again I have one hundred hours in Hades, my fastest run time was fifthteen minutes with the gauntlets, and my longest win streak was beyond twenty. So yeah, flexing. It also sucks when the reason why you died during a boss fight was because you didn’t have enough health and the game didn’t decide to replenish it a little bit in between fights. Final complaint, Bayonetta also has quite a few quick time events and if you fail these events they add to the death counter. That’s really cheap. Half the time you can’t even predict these quick time events, because they play during cutscenes and usually you think nothing bad would happen during a cutscene as Bayonetta is fine on her own. This game is slapping you in the face for sitting back during a cinematic.
After all that complaining, Bayonetta is still an extremely good game and it has aged mostly well. Is this game for everyone? No, but it’s easy to pick and get into if you’re someone who likes fast responsive action and fights that put mastery over skill requirement. I mean the game does get challenging at times, but it’s a good amount of challenge. The type of challenge they adjust you into. Might just go back and play the sequel, and playing this has made me a somewhat proper Bayonetta fan. In the end I am going to give Bayonetta an 8.5/10 for being pretty good. One stylish action game!
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