Reloading: Bayonetta (WiiU)

Looking back on the old blog, I realized I never did a review of Bayonetta (the first one). Having just recently finished it on the WiiU platform, I suppose I’ll do a quick review here before jumping into Bayonetta 2. 

Bayonetta is a character-action game in the same vein as Devil May Cry, God of War or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. It was developed by Platinum studios and was initially released a good handful of years ago on the PS3 and Xbox 360. When shopping around for a home for Bayonetta 2, most publishers turned Platinum down until Nintendo agreed to fund the game. As such, Bayonetta 2 exists solely because of Nintendo and as a free bonus for fans, Platinum also made Bayonetta 1 as a port to the WiiU at no extra charge and with bonus content. I won’t say this is the “definitive version” but since the WiiU is also capable of performing at 1080p at 60FPS, I think it’s safe to say it’s the best version of the game you’ll likely fine and it certainly won’t be on your Xbone anytime soon.

As for who Bayonetta is… well… she’s the title character and the protagonist of the “story” for this game. She starts off with amnesia and tries to find out more about where she comes from and why she does what she does throughout the course of the game. What she does is fight angels with gunkata (a form of martial arts mixing the use of weapons [mostly guns] with various punches and kicks. This style also incorporates her magic abilities such as Witch Time, Wicked Weaves, Torture Attacks, and “Climaxes” where she summons demonic monsters to perform finishers on her enemies.

Before I get on to the gameplay, let me finish with the rest of the cast and the plot. We also have Enzo, the comic relief character who gets maybe ten minutes of screentime and Rodan, his boss and someone who assists Bayonetta by selling her tools and accessories to complete her assignments. We’re later introduced to Luka (aka Cheshire) who follows Bayonetta around to both get revenge on her and bone her silly. Jeanne is the arch-frenemy of the game who basically plays the Proto Man / Shadow the Hedgehog role of fighting off the hero and being a bad guy until the last scene where you both save the world because reasons. Then there’s Cereza who is basically Young Bayonetta, but we’re given the red-herring she might be Bayonetta’s daughter thought it’s made abundantly clear that isn’t the case near the end of the game.

Visuals are some of the best in gaming overall with the world, enemies, and characters all getting a large amount of detail to their design. This is somewhat of a detriment to enemies, making some difficult to read, but it doesn’t change the fact their designs still look impressive. Music is great, albeit, repetitive after a while. You’re well within your right to want to listen to something else after the first several levels, especially if J-pop isn’t something you’re really into at all. I enjoyed it, but I know that repetitive music is repetitive and not everyone digs that.

The gameplay is the character-action game affair. You have two buttons for punches and kicks, one for guns, and one for jumping. The rest are for taunting, dodging, locking on to a specific enemy, and switching weapons. The list of combos is fairly massive but you’ll likely stick to the three to five you can commit to memory and use them as needed. And while that isn’t bad, some combos are significantly better at certain enemies than others, I do feel that there should have been some way to make the number of combos you have and the different variety more distinct. But regardless, they all look visually impressive and the bigger combos are fun to pull off if you get it right. Luckily the relatively quick loading screens let you practice your combos to get a feel for how they flow. 

As I said earlier, you can switch weapons because having just guns strapped to your hands and feet gets old after a while. You can get shotguns, elemental claws, a sword, and a few others. These all provide a large variety of differences in attacks. Claws change the speed of your combos a little bit and even provide some burst attacks if you slow down a bit and hold the attacking button. The sword also is a nice change of pace, focusing more on giving Bayonetta a longer reach with her attacks. And the shotguns sacrifice a little speed for a lot of power.

I also mentioned one of her powers as witch-time, which is the ability to slow down time to a point where almost nothing moves. Think Shadow the Hedgehog’s Chaos Control from Sonic Adventure 2. In order to activate this amazing power, Bayonetta must dodge at the exact right moment (which gets extended slightly with a new technique). If timed just right, she’ll go into Witch Time, allowing her to deal larger amounts of damage to enemies with them suspended in time for a couple seconds. It’s not always the best, as ranged enemies will then need to be approached, which eats into your Witch Time. But it’s still a very good ability that is vital to learn early on.

This means the most important part of the game is learning animations for the enemy characters. This is particularly difficult due to the enemy design and how the screen can get a little cluttered with enemies. But this is something that, if you truly want to enjoy the game the way it was meant to be, you’ll need to learn or at least have a good feel for. Because the less damage you have to take and the more time you can spend beating up frozen enemies, the better time you’ll have with this work of art. So, yes, this is a game that really isn’t for everyone.

Speaking of which, yes, this is an M-rated game for good reason. And while I normally wouldn’t draw attention to this, we are on a Nintendo console this time around. So, parents, before you go thinking this game sounds awesome and fun for your kids, consider the following: there is a fair bit of swearing, a LOT of violence (it’s a character-action game), and lots of pandering sexual imagery. This includes plenty of moments where most of Bayonettta’s clothes fly off to perform super-attacks. If these are things you do not want your kid to see, I’d advise not buying the game for them.

But this brings me to something more interesting to discuss. Bayonetta as a character. Is she a good character or a bad character in terms of female game characters? There is a sizable camp who can’t see her as a good character because she behaves as nothing more than eye-candy and they feel she exists to pander to the large male demographic in the gaming community who get off on the rarely released over-sexualized game characters. And their argument truly has lots of credibility.

But I respectfully disagree (they aren’t wrong, but I don’t agree). The mere fact Bayonetta has agency shows her to be a much better female game character than just about anything else in gaming. On top of that, it seems clear that while the pandering is there for fun, I feel it’s also a part of her character. It’s Bayonetta’s way of teasing the male gaze to invite it in, but the look on her face and the type of work she does conflicts with that. It isn’t so much a “you can have me” attitude, but more of a “if you think you can handle me, you may certainly try.” The type of woman who is comfortable and open to the idea of sex but is going to make anyone who wants it work their ass off before they even have a chance.

So the overall opinion of the game? It’s fun, but again, not everyone is likely to dig it because character-action games feel like a very niche genre only particular people are willing to support. But those who like these style of games will find lots of joy in it and may end up considering it one of the best games of the pervious (and I guess current) console generation. I know I certainly do. If you are willing and able, I recommend getting and playing Bayonetta as quickly as possible as you likely won’t regret it.

If you like this review and want to see more content like it, please be sure to like, share, and subscribe. See ya next time!