Having already released in Japan last year, and a little earlier this year around the world, a lot of gamers have probably already heard a lot about the third-person action game, Bayonetta, so I’m going to try and (hopefully) confirm and/or dispel the general consensus regarding what many have hailed as the next great action game, but with room for improvement.

For example, I can confirm that insane settings, characters and activities permeate the world of Bayonetta, and by the end of the adventure, you’ll have fought against a baby-faced goliath wielding a mammoth of a sword, taken control of a missile in a 3D arcade-style shoot ‘em up mini-game, and kicked an enemy into the sun, all set to up-beat J-Pop music and wrapped up in luscious style. And that’s not even the half of it.

I can also confirm that fighting mechanic refinements in the game propel Bayonetta to a new level of gameplay satisfaction, as you constantly dodge and weave in and out of the action, using timed button combinations (not to be confused with Quick Time Events, but we’ll get to those) and strategic weapon changes to get the better of your enemies.

In addition, it needs to be verified that Bayonetta herself is one of the most hyper sexualised characters in a game ever, with clothing that disappears if you do special moves, ‘poses’ that are held for a split-second too long, and ‘interesting’ ways of pulling levers and spinning around activation poles… but here’s the thing: In the crazy, over-the-top universe of Bayonetta, these actions and Bayonetta’s mannerisms somehow fit right into the backdrop of the world, almost as though in order to cope with the insanity around her, she has to overact in her own peculiar way, too.

In this way, and as the game progresses, you start to notice these things less and less and Bayonetta’s ‘unique’ personality begins to shine through, and by the end of the game, you’ll realise she’s one of the strongest characters to emerge in the world of videogames for quite some time.

But of this I shall speak no further, because the sexual innuendo aspect affects the enjoyment of the game not a bit. You’ll find this enjoyment in the real core of Bayonetta – the combat.

Bayonetta brings a few subtle refinements and innovations to the third-person action genre, and if you’re looking for comparisons, it settles more on the skill and finesse side of Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, than the raw brutality and visceral nature of God of War.

Bayonetta, the character, is a Witch on a mission to destroy Angels from Heaven (wait, wait, wait - everything isn’t as it seems!) and to help her along on this mission, you’re able to input the usual attack commands you’re used to in other games, but Bayonetta uses a system that requires a little more finesse than regular button mashing (which also works), where you’ll need to enter two button presses (for example) followed by a brief ‘wait’ (think in music terms), with subsequent button presses after that (and then repeat), to pull off all kinds of different explosive and magical techniques.

After picking up enough of the in-game currency, you’ll be able to buy extra techniques (as well as upgrades, health and status items, extra peripheral content like costumes, etc.) to further stomp your authority on the battleground, and become an ultimate magic-wielding Witch. Be prepared for a few playthroughs, however, as there are so many techniques and items to buy that you’ll simply not have the currency to purchase it all in one go. Major replayability, I say.

From the outset, Bayonetta is equipped with dual pistols in her hands, and dual pistols on her feet, allowing you to use ranged and melee attacks, and via a quick button combination, you can enter a shooting mode that auto-targets your enemies for a short period of time to wipe up the weaker, harder to reach stragglers. As time goes by, you’ll gain access to swords, more powerful guns, skates and durgas (massive gauntlets), all of which you can equip on your hands and feet (non of which are exclusive, as far as I know), taking advantage of each weapon’s strengths and combining them accordingly.

In addition, you’re given access to two such setups which you can switch between at any time, so for example, you may want to have all ranged weapons in one setup to take care of enemies that are far away while you run towards them, and as soon as you close the gap, you switch to your melee setup to deal some up close and personal damage

To help you survive ‘up close and personal,’ Bayonetta employs a ‘dodge’ button mechanic, as opposed to a straight up ‘block’ button, and if you dodge at the very last split second, you’ll automatically enter ‘Witch Time,’ slowing down your enemies and the environment to get in a few extra attacks before everything speeds up again, which provides a nice incentive for going on the defensive, and essentially rewards you with the opportunity to immediately go on the offensive again.

Another reward for performing well in combat are the ‘Climax’ moves, which are essentially ultimate ‘finishing’ moves that seem as though they’re enemy specific – sometimes you’ll spawn in medieval-looking torture devices to rip your opponents to pieces, but mostly at the end of a boss battle your ultimate moves will summon enormous creatures (formed from Bayonetta’s hair, which also makes up her clothing, which essentially leaves her naked) that chow down on the equally enormous enemies to rid you of their existence.

And you’ll need all the help you can get to rid yourself of those bosses and enemies, as Bayonetta is one tough game, even on Normal difficulty. If you’re not used to games where split-second timing is required to scrape through encounters with devilishly quick and powerful enemies who’s fighting methods have seemingly been matched to keep the flow of combat moving effortlessly along, then… you’ll need to choose a lower difficulty. The level of satisfaction on offer during combat, in my experience, has only been matched by the Ninja Gaiden series at its absolute best, and Devil May Cry only when certain elements aligned and the experience ‘clicked.’

Every encounter in Bayonetta has the opportunity to feel like the best encounter, as you strategise, attack, dodge, switch between weapon setups, tactically use health and special items, suss out enemy weak spots and openings and decide when to pull out which combo and how many split-seconds you have to pull it off… then repeat this process every few seconds for multiple enemies per encounter, and you have the makings of an exhausting, but deliberately fulfilling, combat experience.

Maybe this sounds like every game ever, but Bayonetta’s set of actions and abilities, and conversely the enemies’ actions and abilities, extend the experience above and beyond those of other games. The environments help in their variation, and the simple puzzles help break up the pace of the game, but the pockets of combat always define each area and will have you impatiently traversing the world and watching story cutscenes before getting back to the core.

Oh yes, the story! I almost forgot! Even though it takes up a not insignificant portion of proceedings, the story, while not entirely forgettable, isn’t ‘best in class,’ but will do a worthwhile job keeping you intrigued with its ‘heaven VS hell VS chaos’ yarn, with the usual mix of amnesia, betrayal, melodrama, comedy, revenge, friendship and camaraderie all present.

Some of the cutscenes go on for a bit long (not Metal Gear Solid length, but you’ll feel it), although you do have the option of pausing and skipping, which is handy, but a lot of them are super stylish and well choreographed, swapping between full motion and static ‘noir-esque’ approaches on the fly for no apparent reason other than for the heck of it.

So now we get to the bad stuff, the things that I wish developers Platinum Games had maybe spent a little more time thinking about or working on. For one thing, Bayonetta includes those loathsome Quick Time Events, specifically the kind that require precision, pinpoint accuracy that result in an instant mission fail if you just aren’t quick enough, sending you back to your last checkpoint until you get it right (as an aside, Bayonetta has an excellent checkpoint system - no jokes).

Another irritation is that, before the release of the patch for the PS3 version of the game, level load times and loading in-between menu items in-game were insufferably long. When all you want to do is quickly equip and experiment with a weapon setup, or quickly use a health item, taking more than five seconds to get to the appropriate menu is awfully drawl, and discourages the use of the menu (needless to say, I didn’t read any of the literature you pick up along the way, accessed through the menu).

The game also does a bad job of teaching players their available move set, over and above the critical moves, relegating this job to players themselves and relying on them to learn in the tutorial and load screens, of all places, in a free-form move list practice mode.

One of the last sins that Bayonetta commits is the reusing of bosses after you’ve killed them. This is one gaming tradition I can personally live without. Once I’ve defeated a boss, I don’t want to ‘relive’ that encounter multiple times, least of all in a ‘boss gauntlet,’ fighting against a myriad of bosses all in a row, even if said encounter is slightly different from before. No more, please.

Bayonetta is an excellent game that propels the third-person action game to new heights with a bevy of combat mechanic innovations and refinements, and includes massive dashes of personality, style and an extremely strong and memorable protagonist to boot. It also includes a few of problems that have plagued videogames since the dawn of videogames, but they are all more or less mitigated by the raw amount of unlockable content and combat satisfaction on offer.

In my mind, this is the one to beat, and for connoisseurs of hardcore twitch-based action games, and even fans of over-the-top action games, Bayonetta comes highly recommended.

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