Bayonetta

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List Price: $29.99
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I've been playing games for 20 years, and I honestly can't think of one quite as insane as Bayonetta. The character and level designs are gorgeous. The bosses are ridiculously huge, and there's lots of them. The combos and special moves are wicked and fun to pull off. And I actually liked that the soundtrack wasn't the typical heavy metal. The story is a little hard to follow, but you can seriously skip the cut scenes and still have an amazing experience.

Now, I heard some negative things about this game before I bought it. The biggest one is that the Xbox version is far superior, allegedly. While I can't compare the two, I can honestly say I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the game. Yes, it has frequent load times. But, you know what? There's so much happening on the screen sometimes, I didn't mind the break. The graphics seemed a little low-res, but the inventive style more than made up for it. I will say, though, that if there is a sequel, I hope the PS3 port gets the development attention it deserves.

A couple other things to consider: You can beat the game on easy in 8 or 9 hours (the difficulty is set so easy means normal and normal means you'll throw your controller a lot). If you want tons of play time for your money, you may want to rent this instead. Also, I'm aware some people are saying that the game is offensive. While the female characters are hypersexual, I didn't see a huge difference between this and something like Tomb Raider.

Overall, I highly recommend this game. It's one of the most memorable I've played in a long time. The good stuff far outweighs the bad. There's a tsunami of amazing games gushing out this year, but don't overlook this one.

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Alright, I'm sorry the title was a little rude, but it's true. For all those who complain of lag and lousy graphics, just download a patch that's available as soon as you select the game after establishing a PlayStation Network connection. It makes the game go faster, the graphics shine brighter, and the game that much more fun.

BUT... having played it for 3 weeks WITHOUT the patch, I could say it's a solid game regardless. You play as a witch with an insane hairstyle who summons torture devices and demons to kill angelic enemies. Welcome to backwards land people!

I'm really hoping for a sequel, as all of the characters brought something to the fold.

Imagine a game directed by Quentin Tarantino. CONGRATULATIONS! You purchased Bayonetta!

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First of all, to put this review up as a critical review, I cheated a little by giving this game 3 stars. (Please, don't burn me alive!!! I'll explain now) So, sorry fans, I'm dragging the score down a little.

Actually, this is a solid 4-star game for me. I just want to draw attentions of gamers who are on the fence and still considering about buying this game with an analytical point of view.

Let's start,

GAMEPLAY

Light: The game is everything you'd expected from the creator of Devil May Cry. Fast paced, over-the-top, cool heroine with attitude, cool guns and melee weapons, crazy combos and evasive moves. Combats are satisfying as hell.

The 2-button-attack system makes it simple to do combos. You can either get away with a couple of combos or go crazy and be the martial arts master. A lot of unlockables give the game a good replay value.

Dark: Yeah, it's everything you'd expected from the creator of DMC all right, including the difficulty. Remember that DMC3's difficulty had to be dropped down when they released the special edition, according to complaints from fans. This game is not exactly Ninja Gaiden or Demon's Souls, but it can be punishing at times.

You can't button-mash your way through the game. Your attacks don't really have a powerful impact or knock-back effect, so enemies counter you all the time. That makes remembering the sets of moves and plan how to execute them in the right moment important.

Dodging is crucial to your survival, maybe a little too much since you don't have any blocking move. Screw up your dodge once, and the consequence is severe. Health bar can be drained half by one set of 3-hit combo from an enemy.

If you don't hunt down the item that extends your health bar, you'd better excel at dodging. And health recovery items are scarce too.

Boss battles may need quite specific tactics. You will die and die and die again, get frustrated, curse, cry for your mommy, until you figure out how to fight. If you can endure the gaming-induced anger and frustration, you'll be okay.

They don't let you customize the button config. I don't understand why. How hard is that? It's an action game. Players should be able to set up the control scheme according to their preferences.

Check points don't really have very good consistency. Sometimes they are too far apart and it forced you to suffer hordes of enemies and die easily at the boss.

Loading time of a PS3 version is a little too much. Normally I don't really care, but this one is getting on my nerve quite a bit. The game takes some considerable loading time even when you open up the pause menu or pick up an item. It's not very long each time, but they add up to an annoying amount. I heard that a 360 version doesn't have this issue, so if you also have a 360, I recommend that one.

STORY & CINEMATIC

Light: Story doesn't make much sense at first. But as the game progresses, it will unfold and you'll understand more and more. There are some cool cinematic cut-scenes. Actors' performances are over-the-top, but since the story doesn't take itself too seriously, that turn out to be quite hilarious and fit for the game atmosphere.

Dark: Story doesn't give you any 'wow' moment, just a typical Light VS Dark stuff. And it looks like the developer didn't finish all the cut-scenes in time. They put in a lot of film-strip animatics with just character poses and voice-overs where there should be fully animated cut-scenes. Doing so gave a weird result, consistency wise.

The overly-sexualized characteristic of this game might pluck some feminists' nerves. With the amount of butt, crotch, and boobs shots in this game, it's too much to be sexy. While I myself found it hilarious and I'm willing to bet that those animators must have done their serious research from porno and strip club, feminists with no sense of humor would find this game greatly offensive (since, to them, everything that guys think sexy is objectifying women)

VISUALS & SOUNDS

Light: Character designs are good, very unique. They cleverly made angels look threatening and ugly while they still look like angels. Environments and props are intricate. Effects are lush and abundance. I'm not gonna go deep about models and textures since I'm playing this game on a very old TV. Soundtrack is a little bit on the weird side. They pick 'Fly Me to The Moon' and pop-jazz mix songs for battle BGMs. They go well with the atmosphere of the game though.

Dark: Yes, effects are lush and abundance. But that turns into the downside as well. With all the razzle-dazzle going on the screen at the same time, dodging the attacks of 3 or 4 enemies becomes deadly. Effects can be very distracting and lead you to cheap death. Many times my mind just went blank and helplessly keep mashing the buttons just because I was overwhelmed by the visuals. Oftentimes after the fight ended, I had no idea what the hell I just did.

You'll also fight with camera quite a bit. Mostly it does a decent job, but it twists into weird and undesirable angles at times and big enemies can completely block the view of your character. In those epic boss fights, they were so epic that your character sometimes shrunk down to about no bigger than half an inch. Playing this game for a long time can make your eyes filled with tears, but not of joy.

IN CONCLUSION

Despite some rough edges, it's good-looking, fun to play, and has a good replay value. Critics giving it 5-star or 40 out of 40 maybe a bit of a stretch. Nevertheless, the game is worth its full price, especially for Devil May Cry fans.

Button-masher and casual gamer beware, by the way. Under the sexy guise, Bayonetta is a younger sister of Ninja Gaiden, and she's a real feisty one. You're not gonna pass this game with one hand on something else. If you can't satisfy her, she'll punish you hard.

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After reading countless of reviews on how the porting was done horribly on PS3 I was a little worried about the quality of the game on PS3. I have not played through the entire game, but overall the game looks and feels great. The graphics are crisp and looks good, people that complained about the frame rate dropping horribly during gameplay must have one hella of a TV. I run a 120hz 1080p TV and I do not notice it at all. The only issue (which I do not see it being as bad as people state) is the loading time is a little longer then the normal games that I have encountered. The most annoying thing is that when you pickup an item during mid fight you get a loading screen (displaying the item) for about 3-4 seconds. Also when you pause the game you get a delay of 2 seconds. I find it hard to believe that the 360 version is far superior to the PS3 version, it is possible that the load times are slighlty better but I do not have a 360 and would not know.

Anyways its a great game, and PS3 owners should not be afraid about the horrible reviews that people have been giving without even playing the actual game.

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I purchased Bayonetta after the patch became available so I can't really compare with the unpatched version, but I can tell you this; loading is only noticeable during the beginning of the stage, or when skipping scenes. Overall, the game didn't suffer any framerate issues during my whole "normal difficulty" gameplay. This may be due to my 500GB 7200rpm Hard drive that also helped speed up the loading, but my experience with the game was fun, fast and epic.

GRAPHICS:

I have no complaints with the graphics although I read that the 360 version is much sharper, it didn't detract me from enjoying the game or cause me to die because of any graphical glitches reported; if I die is probably skill related. Background color seems lacking, but this is probably due to the fact that Bayonetta fights multiple/huge Angels which makes it easier to identify them for combos.

GAME MECHANICS:

If you've played Devil May Cry then you pretty much know how Bayonetta plays. Battle is fast paced with epic boss battles that can take minutes to defeat, and will get better and bigger the farther you get in the game. Battles will take you from the ground, air, water, and even space just to name a few. Weapons can be equipped on both hands and feet from guns, whips, katana, to claws etc. and can keep two weapon group setup so you can switch between them during battle for different combo effects. Also besides weapons, you can equip accessories, costumes, create/concoct items, and assign consumables so you can use them on the fly without interruption. Shooting galleries follows each chapter allowing you to trade points on items that can enhance/support your HP/MP for the next level. Items can be bought at the "Gates of Hell" bar accessible through a red portal you'll find in each chapter. If you want a challenge, just start in "Normal" or if you want to take your time and accumulate special items you can start in "very easy" or "easy", "Hard" is unlocked after "Normal" is completed.

MUSIC:

Well shes no Dante so don't expect any metal soundtrack during battle but in a good way. Personally the music in the game is perfect for Bayonetta since it fits her personality. Never once did I think that the music didn't fit the situation Bayonetta was in. The way she moves and the music accompanying her (i.e. Fly me to the Moon remix/Mysterious Destiny) is right for her... and since shes fighting Angels you can pretty much expect choir/orchestral soundtrack during boss battles.

STORY:

Well story wise... its nothing revolutionary but not bad either since I can tell you the whole story in a good three to four sentences... so its best not to say it. Just accept it to what it is. Have fun!