I was one of the lucky few people to get a copy of the XBOX 360 Bayonetta demo yesterday. The demo is a little shorter than the PS3 Japanese version that came out about a month ago; but it was nice to finally get some idea of the story and be able to read everything rather than having it fly by me at lightning speed in the hands of some journalist recording the video.
The story seems pretty standard. A forbidden union between dark and light in the form of a child that is hinted at being Bayonetta. The cinematics are all in engine and look great. Which is pretty impressive considering the amount of graphical horse power this game tends to throw around. Unlike games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta never jumps the tracks graphically when things get hot and heavy. There doesn't seem to be a plodding pace required by the game to keep everything on rails. There can be a half a dozen big enemies on screen and your doing magic, shooting, and explosions everywhere. Everything stays solid. Even when you are fighting a big boss battle you have full control, powers, and even access to Witch Time. Which is when you slow down time for about 10 seconds so you can wail on your enemy or get out of the way of their next big attack, ganking them from behind. The reason this is so cool, is that many times boss battles make the player think of the game in a new way rather than as a test to see how they have honed their skills up to that point. Bayonetta doesn't fall into this trap; at least from the demo.
The game seems to be less about being challenging the player; as it is about the player seeing things they have never seen before and trying to make the player want to master the game. Unlike many titles where the game just wants you to survive through it and then come back if you had fun. Bayonetta seems to be more about making you come back because you had fun. All the crazy moves and weapons go a long way to just making the game fun to play and watch. Rather than trying to take itself super seriously and consider how realistic or appropriate certain things are. Also just from the demo there is a hint that there may be some verticality in the game. Making it even more interesting. Bayonetta has butterfly wings that allow her to basically fly as high as the level will go for a few seconds. This made getting to higher platforms easy and made air combos during boss battles a real joy. On the whole, the things I was most worried from watching videos of Bayonetta have been completely answered by playing the demo myself.
First, the camera seemed a little funny, it isn't. As long as you don't mind turning it around between fights there is absolutely nothing wrong with the angles it chooses during battle. All those crazy moves can't be easy to pull off, also not true. On Normal difficulty I never had any problems pulling off any move I wanted. The on screen instructions are helpful and any one should be able to pull off anything in Bayonetta's arsenal after a couple of tries. Oh boy she is flying all over I bet the frame and controls really go nuts during major fights. Also not true. There is no screen tearing or framerate drop(on the 360 demo). The controls are tight and you never feel like the game is just using you as an excuse to play itself.
I played through the demo twice. It is very short, only about 20 min if you destroy all the destructibles. But it is action packed and lots of fun. It is certainly very Japanese in the way that it handles story and content. But that's cool. I like games from different cultures that challenge what I believe a game could or should be. But I will say, Bayonetta is probably more the Devil May Cry for the 21st Century than anything new and shiny. But hey, what's wrong with that, I LOVE Devil May Cry.
Just want to take time out to thank Sega and Platnium Games for giving me the opportunity to try out Bayonetta...
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