Ok this game is for real. Bayonetta that is. The first clock tower scene is shaky I guess if you care about framerate, it doesn’t help I watched the PS3/360 comparison video for it. However beyond that part the game runs fine to me. Graphically it’s like a B, but with the art directions whether the blur/grain on the entire game was intentional I push it’s visuals to a B+… so far. It looks like or reminds me of… Hellsing? Basically the game reminds me of a high octane anime and you’re actually playing through it. The game also uses film frames as an aesthetic to which I would’ve applied the blur/grain on that further to push the art direction. Whether that’s a fault of the port of the game itself, but I like the soft visual hues. It creates it’s own ghostly atmosphere especially given the content.
You’re fighting heaven from what I can gather, having killed a bunch of angels. Again maybe it’s cause I’m biased but I LOVED spawn growing up, so the content is intriguing in itself. Also the dialogue, I really dig it! Quirky, badass, goofy, cheesy but it feels like an anime almost? Also sexual innuendo all over the place, basically Bayonetta gets off on what she does, thats what it seems like to me. So far everything feels like foreplay, lol. It’s so wrong to use that how to describe what I’ve played, but that’s exactly it!
One other thing… the music for this game. RULES. I love “Fly me to the moon” and they had this remix running over and over and it was so stylistic. Makes me wish I had preordered the game and got the free 5 disc CD soundtrack that came with the first run of the game.
Also what’s up with this game being 100% English? The bluray disc is probably the EXACT same disc you’ll see come to NA. The only difference will be the text “For Japan Only” will be switched up. All I’m saying is this game is ready for a NA release, aside from the Japanese packaging and instruction booklet, the game is in pure english and I mean everything. Voice, subtitles, in-game menu, everything.
I’ve only played through the prologue, but this game is balls to walls fun and crazy and it feels like I’ve only reached the tip of the iceberg. I’m still figuring out all the combos and that’s part of the difficulty of the game, if I can start executing these better I’ll know how to essentially play better. Controlling Bayonetta is like using Dante for the first time, except Dante is on steroids and even then he decided to throw some PCP in there, maybe a little bit of the coke, some heroin, and for extra fun ecstasy. She’s got 4 guns which is madness to control cause you can chain link all these gun combos from your feet guns to your hand guns. I’m having problems using the square button as it’s basically your shoot button. However the main combos come from triangle and circle and I always find myself mashing square by default. I haven’t bothered to change the controls yet, because I’ve played so little of the game and want to learn it more so and adjust. There is a timing sequence to specific combos as well and combos for just straight button mashing, but you can execute like 20 hits on the ground, parry to an air combo and easily go overboard with who knows how many hits.
I’m also playing the game on Normal, there is more perks to unlock from what I’m reading. The instruction booklet would definitely be better served in English, lol. It’s not a fluff instruction booklet there is substance to it. However it’s nothing the tutorial hasn’t probably told me already and will tell me along the way. I did die 2 times, only because I didn’t know what the hell was going on in this Witch Hunt mode, where basically you had 5 minutes to kill enemies to charge up your magic gauge in order to fill it and execute 3 torture kills. I wouldn’t even call it me dying, the time just ran out on the meter twice, first time I had no clue and for some reason ignored the countdown timer altogether, lol. Second go around I was still trying to figure out combos. There are TONS of combos.
It’s still early, but these are my initial impressions. This game feels refreshing though, I just don’t know how refreshing it is yet as I’ve only finished the prologue. I’m going to do some research on the pros/cons of replaying the levels because I know there are unlockables. I just want to do the research early before finding out after I’m like 20 chapters in and might be struggling.
Also the loading, it’s long in between chapters I guess? Nothing I haven’t experienced before. When you collect an item or pause the game, it does have a loading sequence. I think that’s purely a caching issue and the PS3 is not being used properly in that respect. It didn’t feel like a breaker to me. Again only finished the prologue (which was 3 parts, took me just under 40min to finish, time was actually 39min something seconds) so a lot of what I’m saying could be premature at this point! I gotta learn the combos better, there is some straight up crazy shit you can do!!
