Bayonetta Catch-All

I also think she's pretty astoundingly non-appealing, but I'm totally looking forward to the game. I'm a major Devil May Cry fanboy, and I will forever play anything that Hideki Kamiya is involved with.

MaxShrek wrote:

Sega is giving away early access to the demo for 40,000 people on their site for the 360 version. Requires Sega Pass registration though.

I'll put it more bluntly than Lobster did. This is {ableist slur}.

The demo is definitely nuts, but there are 2 things that scream "Sega" to me without even thinking: the rings, and the zoom-out graphics of the falling clock & explosions. There's something cheap about some Sega graphics, and the clock tower and clock tower explosions look cheap. But I had fun with it, I don't think it's perfect score good, but it's not bad!

I just tried the Demo for Bayonetta this morning, because Certis hated it on the podcast and the last game he hated (Wet) was a game that bought and am enjoying the heck out of right now.

That said, the game feels a lot like Devil May Cry 4 if you swap out the main character in DMC4 and replace him with a magical stripper.

Seriously, her clothes rip off and turn into giant stiletto heels to stomp on enemies, or giant monsters that eat them. Meanwhile she stands there posing starkers with only her hair covering the naughty bits.

Also, if she steals a polearm from a foe, she'll spin around it shooting enemies with the machine guns in the heels of her shoes.

I realize that I probably just sold everyone here on the game, but it doesn't do anything for me. I loved God Hand, but this is just too base for me. At least the main character in Wet keeps her dang clothes on.

I really enjoyed the demo. It has plenty of combos to keep things interesting, and the way an enemy flashes red right before an attack is a "evade now!" indicator, making it so even if the screen is absolutely crazy with effects, you can still maintain control and keep your combo up. I usually agree with Certis and pretty much everything, but this is a solid action game with some crazy fights. Can't wait.

I'm really hoping it was just a bad level and the full game will ramp up smoother than that.

Played the demo last night. Maybe it was because I tried it right after Tropico 3 (which, unsurprisingly, looks like it's a much better PC game than console game), but it came off as awesomesauce. Very flashy. Yeah, maybe not a lot of innovation here but the over-the-top-ness was very fun.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

I just tried the Demo for Bayonetta this morning, because Certis hated it on the podcast and the last game he hated (Wet) was a game that bought and am enjoying the heck out of right now.

That said, the game feels a lot like Devil May Cry 4 if you swap out the main character in DMC4 and replace him with a magical stripper.

Seriously, her clothes rip off and turn into giant stiletto heels to stomp on enemies, or giant monsters that eat them. Meanwhile she stands there posing starkers with only her hair covering the naughty bits.

Also, if she steals a polearm from a foe, she'll spin around it shooting enemies with the machine guns in the heels of her shoes.

I realize that I probably just sold everyone here on the game, but it doesn't do anything for me. I loved God Hand, but this is just too base for me. At least the main character in Wet keeps her dang clothes on.

Technically she doesn't wear any clothes if i recall correctly, it's all her magic hair

This might be quite a fun little pallete cleanser after so many complex RPG's and open world collect-a-thons that I've been ploughing through lately.

Certis wrote:

I'm really hoping it was just a bad level and the full game will ramp up smoother than that.

I'll agree with that, the level did feel kind of weak, but the flow of the combat was perfect. Hitting a perfect evade and being awarded "witch time" is endlessly satisfying. I wish Ninja Gaiden had a similar system. One of the biggest shames about that game is that despite how smooth and awesome everything looks, it's often too fast for you to properly enjoy.

It felt just like Devil May Cry to me. In that I beat the demo but at almost no point did I have any clue what was happening on the screen. The whole game could be a running cinematic for all I know.

EDGE Magazine gave this game a 10. That made me say, "WTF?"

*Legion* wrote:

EDGE Magazine gave this game a 10. That made me say, "WTF?"

Bayonetta does pander to a certain type of gamer and I think that type is probably more likely to also be a gamer reviewer. Even an EDGE gamer reviewer.

Personally I can appreciate what Bayonetta is doing, and even doing well, but its a style of game I've long since left behind.

I couldn't make heads or tails out of what was going on on the screen while I was playing it. Way to much eye candy going on. And the story I really hope is not presented that way because it made no sense either.

In the same issue, Edge gave Dragon Age a 5. Bizarro World.

jonnypolite wrote:

In the same issue, Edge gave Dragon Age a 5. Bizarro World.

That magazine is now dead to me.

EDGE isn't the be all, end all of game reviews. They are better than most but they still occasionally miss the mark. I believe they fell in line with the CW on Halo 3 and GTA 4, and they spent a lot of time crapping on Mirror's Edge when by all logic they should've loved that game.

I'm pretty sure the demo is parts of two different levels. If so, they should've made it more obvious. It is a really jarring transition.

breander wrote:
jonnypolite wrote:

In the same issue, Edge gave Dragon Age a 5. Bizarro World.

That magazine is now dead to me.

Yeah that was a bafflingly venomous review (though I note that he -barely- mentions the PC version more favourably, at least in terms of mechanics. Not that that counts since it was a 360 review, of course). Might have saved a lot of time just writing "Not Mass Effect 2" across both pages and moving on.

The worst crime being his audacity in criticizing Claudia Black

....i shall track down this heathen and stick sharp things his eyes

Usually, an Edge 10/10 is an unequivocal recommendation to purchase. Here is the list of every previous 10 they've given.

  • Super Mario 64
  • Gran Turismo
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • Halo: Combat Evolved
  • Half-Life 2
  • Halo 3
  • The Orange Box
  • Super Mario Galaxy
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • LittleBigPlanet

Every single one of those is a must-play game, an absolute must-play. I've played every single one, and while I didn't enjoy some as much as others, there's no denying that every one has been a milestone for videogames in one way or another.

For all the talk of them 'missing the mark' occasionally (and they do), a 10 puts Bayonetta in very illustrious company. For me, it's pushed my interestometer from 'Mildly Intrigued' to 'Likely Purchase'

Jonman wrote:

Usually, an Edge 10/10 is an unequivocal recommendation to purchase. Here is the list of every previous 10 they've given.

  • Super Mario 64
  • Gran Turismo
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • Halo: Combat Evolved
  • Half-Life 2
  • Halo 3
  • The Orange Box
  • Super Mario Galaxy
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • LittleBigPlanet

Every single one of those is a must-play game, an absolute must-play. I've played every single one, and while I didn't enjoy some as much as others, there's no denying that every one has been a milestone for videogames in one way or another.

For all the talk of them 'missing the mark' occasionally (and they do), a 10 puts Bayonetta in very illustrious company. For me, it's pushed my interestometer from 'Mildly Intrigued' to 'Likely Purchase'

Wow, that is quite an endorsement then. But I just can't resolve how this game will even mildly intrigue me after playing the demo. Although I can see the environments and enemies are of a huge scale, it plays like nothing more than a button masher with enemies who could more or less be replaced by punching bags (even the bosses). It's a good looking game, but it's not one I am particularly excited for after playing the demo.

larrymadill wrote:

Personally I can appreciate what Bayonetta is doing, and even doing well, but its a style of game I've long since left behind.

This may be the case for me as well. It was almost too frantic .. everything felt, well ... lightweight, there was no sense of weight or impact. I just button mashed my way through really, so I'm sure the combat is deeper than it seemed. This type of frantic, sh*t flying everywhere high speed combo mastering just does nothing for me, especially after playing something as slow and deliberate as Demon's Souls, much more my style.

Even if the gameplay interested me the music is a deal killer. Painful!

This demo saved me sixty bucks at least, I would have probably bought the game.

Jonman wrote:

Usually, an Edge 10/10 is an unequivocal recommendation to purchase.

The problem with this is the same problem that crops up with ALL videogame magazine/website reviews-- they're rarely to never done by the same individual.

Saying one game got a certain score compared to another is meaningless if they were reviewed by different people. Every review is subjective, and every reviewer brings their own biases to the table. This all works out, though, once you see a critic's body of work and learn to appreciate where he or she is biased. Who reviewed Bayonetta? Is this person the kind that loves DMC titles? Is he/she predisposed to like this game more than the "average" consumer? I have no idea. All we can say is that in this person's mind (and the minds of the Famitsu crowd), this game is a "10."

I tend to sort of hate the frantically difficult action of the DMC games, so I highly doubt I'd think this game was worth buying (much less a "10").

SommerMatt wrote:
Jonman wrote:

Usually, an Edge 10/10 is an unequivocal recommendation to purchase.

The problem with this is the same problem that crops up with ALL videogame magazine/website reviews-- they're rarely to never done by the same individual.

Saying one game got a certain score compared to another is meaningless if they were reviewed by different people. Every review is subjective, and every reviewer brings their own biases to the table. This all works out, though, once you see a critic's body of work and learn to appreciate where he or she is biased. Who reviewed Bayonetta? Is this person the kind that loves DMC titles? Is he/she predisposed to like this game more than the "average" consumer? I have no idea. All we can say is that in this person's mind (and the minds of the Famitsu crowd), this game is a "10."

I completely agree with everything you've said here, but I've got 2 comments:

(1): Edge, for better or worse, doesn't print bylines, so the reader never has visibility of who the reviewer(s) was/were.
(2): Go look at the list of previous 10's that Edge has given that I posted in the same comment you quoted. For all that reviews are subjective, I can categorically state that thus far, I've never regretted buying a game that gets a 10 in Edge, not even a tiny bit.

So I'm going to accept the risk that Bayonetta could be the game to break this streak of 10=buy, but so far, Edge is batting 10 for 10. Not bad odds

Is there another catch-all for Bayonetta? If so, I couldn't find it.
Either way, just played the demo. My god, was it awesome. I haven't giggled like a little schoolgirl like that in years.
I think this game captures something that Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry definitely don't - It doesn't take itself too seriously. It's fully aware of it's own ridiculousness, and so goes out of its way to be even more ridiculous - while at the same time jaw-droppingly awesome. I love so many things about this game (except the music) - character, animation, art - and the game makes me feel like it's ok for me to like these things. It's like being so over-the-top juvenile actually makes it more adult, in a way. I'm not quite sure how else to explain it.

Either way, awesomesauce. I just wish it had some more antialiasing, but I could see how hard that would be with so much going on on the screen already. Besides, maybe its just my 360 going VGA cable into my monitor.

Played the demo. Girlfriend summed it up perfectly. "So, it's just Devil May Cry with three times the gay?"

MechaSlinky wrote:

Played the demo. Girlfriend summed it up perfectly. "So, it's just Devil May Cry with three times the gay?"

That comment just made butterflies fly out my arse.

MechaSlinky wrote:

Played the demo. Girlfriend summed it up perfectly. "So, it's just Devil May Cry with three times the gay?"

Yes, except they (over)compensate for it by making the main character naked half the time.

Even if it weren't for that, I'd still give it a pass. I thought I'd like DMC4 from the demo, but by the end of it I couldn't wait to be done and move on to a game that was actually fun.

But that's just my record with 10/10 games. I tend to hate them more often than not. Give me a solid 7 any day of the week, and I'll give it multiple playthroughs. (Gungrave: Overdose is my best example of this phenomenon. I played that game four or five times in a row before I even thought about playing a different game.) 10/10s are bound to disappoint me (notable exceptions: Fallout 3 and Bioshock)

I like Devil May Cry 4, but not enough to finish it. I traded it in towards Brutal Legend and have no desire to re-purchase it for cheap down the road, unlike Ninja Gaiden 2, which I'll probably pick up again if I ever catch it at under $20. Or not, since I have yet to finish the original and superior Ninja Gaiden, which is another game I re-purchased years later.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

Yes, except they (over)compensate for it by making the main character naked half the time.

That's why it's only three times the gay.

Notable quote during the demo:
Girlfriend - "That is the worst character design I've ever - BOOBIES! What the hell? Her hair is her clothes? That's kind of cool, I guess."
Me - "Yeah, this game is cool in the same way that gay marriage is cool. I'm not against it, but I'm probably not going to go out of my way to experience it."

I liked the demo of this for a lot of the reasons that Dysplastic did: it was silly, and it completely embraced its own silliness. I'm getting a bit worn out on the drab, self-serious AAA offerings from Western gaming companies in the last few years, so that's a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what the heck was going on in this demo; there was way too much visual flair, and it all sort of ran together on my puny SDTV.

That said, I've been itching to play the demo again just to see how I fare on another attempt.

I tried the demo last night and I was thoroughly confused. I told my girlfriend that my experience was probably akin to what non-gamers experience when trying simpler game. I button-mashed my way through it, but the confusing story and massive amounts of visual flair didn't really appeal to me. Plus the J-pop blaring in the background seemed really incongruous. Perhaps it's just a crappy demo or I'm not one for this style of game (I've only played the original DMC and thought it was just ok). It was really pretty, though.