I said it was coming and I did not lie. Here is our review
of Bayonetta 2.
The reason I bought Bayonetta
1 on my PS3 two years ago was because I heard Bayonetta 2 would be a Wii U exclusive. I knew I would be getting a
Wii U, but I knew nothing of Bayonetta at
the time. But it looked interesting and certainly a bizarre choice of exclusive
titles for the Wii U. I figured I’d try the first to see if I liked it because Bayonetta 2 interested me enough that I
wanted to support it if the first enticed me enough. Obviously it did or I
wouldn’t be here talking about the sequel today. What I can say is I went into Bayonetta 2 with adjusted expectations. The
first game had a bizarre story that wasn’t necessarily easy to digest, visuals
that (while pretty) made it difficult to tell what was going on at times, and
combat that was basically flawless except for the fact you have A LOT of
different combos but will only rely on a small handful that you can remember.
And while there are many things that Bayonetta 2 does that is exactly the same as Bayonetta 1, the sequel actually does manage to make a few
significant (though subtle) changes that actually make Bayonetta 2 feel like the stronger of the two titles and was
something I actually had more fun with.
The plot follows our title character, Bayonetta, shortly
after the events of the first game. It’s almost the holidays and she’s out
shopping with Enzo when angels attack. She, along with her friend Jeanne from
the first game, fight them off as per usual until she summons one of her demons
via the Climax Move. One the demon eats the angel, it turns on Bayonetta.
Jeanne sacrifices herself to save Bayonetta, damning her soul to the Infero
(Hell). Bayonetta punishers her rogue demon and then goes on a quest to save
Jeanne from eternal damnation for her heroic act. 
Along the way, we meet Loki (not Marvel’s Loki). He’s a
young man who doesn’t have any memories (great, this plot point again) and is
also trying to go to the same place Bayonetta is (sorta). They need to reach a
mountain that is capable of taking people to either the Inferno or Paradiso
(apparently). He doesn't remember why and that's also part of the mystery. The two work together to go to Hell. Things aren’t easy, however,
as a Lumen Sage is hunting them down to try and kill one of them at the request
of something called the “Prophetic One”. No one said the road to hell would be
a cake walk.
The enemy types have a little more diversity as you’ll fight
a new slew of angels that weren’t in the first game and, eventually, you do get
to see some of the old angels from the previous game (but I won’t spoil when or
how they get back into the mix). The appearance of Infernals (demons) is also a
nice change of pace, giving a good assortment of enemies that not only
physically look different, but offer new challenges that make the fights more
varied and fun. One of my personal favorites was Resentment, Swindler of
Progress. He has a special ability to turn Bayonetta into the child-Bayonetta
from the first game, allowing him a one-hit kill if he catches you in that
form. 
In addition to new enemies, you have new environments. Not
only do we have many new environments to explore, but the aesthetics of the
game are in great favor of throwing buckets of color EVERYWHERE. The WiiU is a
host of very pretty looking games like Smash
Bros, Mario Kart, and even Mario 3D World. But Bayonetta 2 takes it to another level by showing us a non-cartoony
game with the same level of great looking colors, smooth animations at 60FPS,
and graphical output of 1080p. Visually, it’s spectacular and makes many of the
releases on other consoles look dated and bland by comparison. There are even
some spectacular underwater segments of the game and I absolutely hate
underwater segments of most games. But this was done well so it didn’t feel
long or boring and you could still do most of your normal moves under the sea.
Combat is mostly unchanged from before. You have a long list
of combos to pick from. Of which, you’ll likely rotate through your favorite
three or four and leave it at that. The good part is that the new weapons
introduced add a lot more flavor to that combat. Of the new weapons I have
managed to unlock thus far, you have dual-swords, a bow-n-arrow, and a scythe.
The swords can be quad-wielded to have swords on both your hands and feet. And
while that’s fucking absurd as shit, it looks amazing and makes your combos
interesting when you’re balancing on your sword tips for certain moves.
Meanwhile the bow-n-arrow is strictly for long range combat
and picks off damage rather than shaving off tons of health with each hit. I
didn’t use it much for the main missions, but the optional objectives showed
how useful it could be when you weren’t allowed to take damage or couldn’t
touch the ground, or you didn’t want to lose your combo. Then there’s the
scythe. It’s big, attacks are slower, and it can be difficult to adjust the
speed of your game to make it work right away. But it also gets multi-hits and
hits HARD so it’s something worth trying out. There's a lot of variety and many different combinations to play around with. 
The previous game also had “Wicked Weaves” which were
partial demon-summons allowing the player to do more damage when reaching the
end of a combo. These have been weakened slightly in favor of a new mechanic, “Umbran
Climax”. By getting your magic-gauge up to a certain point, you can initiate an
Umbran Climax which does lots more damage and has incredible range, capable of
hitting all enemies in a nearby area with the right weapon. This subtle change
actually does offer quite a lot to the combat to make it not only more
enjoyable, but to keep it from just being a copy-paste job from the first game.
Small tweaks like this allow something old to feel new, even if there are many
general similarities. 
As with Bayonetta 1
on the Wii U, you also get special costumes, but they must be bought in this
game as they aren’t available from the start. That said, there’s a fun level
near the end that, if you’re in the optional Fox McCloud costume, you’ll be in
for a treat. They have other costumes too, such as all the ones from the first
game (Peach, Daisy, Link, and Samus) and all do the same tricks as before.
There are other outfits too that are fun to play with but the detail that went
into the Fox McCloud and the other Nintendo-themed ones continue to show the
level of detail Platinum takes with their games and it’s nice to see such
effort paying off in the final product. 
But I can’t spend a whole review praising a game for being
perfect when there are flaws we should point out anyway. For starters, the game
either feels easier or I just got better at playing a Bayonetta game. I’m assuming the former because I’m determined to
believe I am actually terrible at video games. And while this didn’t kill the
experience for me (it actually felt nice to get gold and platinum medals for a
change), I can imagine most players from the first game will want to bump that
difficult to the max at the start for the optimum experience.
Likewise, the plot revolving around Loki is frustrating
familiar to the amnesia plot of the first game. I have nothing against it in
this game though because it actually helps enhance the story of the first game
in ways I won’t explain here. But while the end result is still good, it’s sad
that we’re just reusing a same plot-mechanic from the previous game instead of
trying something different. And I’m not a huge fan of Loki, though his
interactions with Luka were kind of funny.
Getting money seems easier to do in this game, but things
are still overpriced to an extent. Many of the accessories may add an ability,
but they also have some kind of drawback to them, which makes me wonder why so
many require so many halos to purchase. That said, I’ve spent my money on
alt-weapons and clothes, so perhaps I’m doing it wrong anyway. I bet there’s a
way to farm rings more efficiently that makes these prices irrelevant, but
since I was just playing to get through the game and experience the content
instead of cheating the system, I can’t say for sure.
The lack of an ending dance-number like with the first game
was also kind of a bummer. I know it adds nothing to the game and is just a
silly way for the developer to goof off. But it was still fun to see. Instead,
we get bonus “Witch trial” levels in which you get no healing items and fight
through waves of enemies. It gets progressively harder to stay alive but it’s
all still a cool way to keep playing the game if you enjoy the combat as much
as I did.
So to sum things up, if you liked Bayonetta 1, then Bayonetta 2
is just more of it but more colorful, smoother, and a little more coherent. It
takes an already fun game and just polishes it up a bit more to show us just
how far Platinum Games have come in four years, and that’s a pretty amazing
thing to see. I appreciate the fact this isn’t a series that’s been done to
death or had yearly-sequels at the insistence of a stupid publisher that doesn’t
understand how such a rushed production schedule will kill future titles from
having the same level of quality as a properly developed title like Bayonetta 2 would have. But luckily
Platinum isn’t working under Activision (often) or Ubisoft.
Glad to finally have caught up on my planned reviews. Now I
have to find new games or movies to take on. While I’m not promising anything,
I’m going to try and at least get Hyrule
Warriors or Sonic Boom completed
before the years end. And, if we’re lucky, I’ll start Dark Souls II as well. On top of that, I know The Hobbit Part 3 is coming soon, so expect a review on that. And
with the time freed up, I can FINALLY catch up on shows I’ve been falling
behind on. Expect some mid-season reviews for Walking Dead, Agents of
Shield, Flash, and Gotham before New Year’s.
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