Bayonetta 2

This game doesn't feature the annoying QTE's from the first game, and has a shitload more big-ass enemies to flex on so imo it is just a bit better. The story here is forgettable, but the first game's story was too; it just arguably had better beats near the conclusion, and it easily had a better final boss.

During a fight against some angels, Jeanne’s soul is taken to hell. Bayonetta travels to the mountain Fimbulventr to find the Gates of Hell so that she can recover Jeanne’s soul. On her journey she meets a boy called Loki, who is also trying to reach Fimbulventr for reasons he cannot remember. The two team up and there’s some twists to the story. Some of these twists were lost on me, but it made sense when I read the synopsis on Wikipedia. The scenes are often over-dramatic and full of over the top violence, sexual references, and slightly cheesy lines. The story is delivered via a mix of cut-scenes and still images.

I think the sexual aspects were mainly in the opening, and seemed very comedic. The swearing also seemed a bit forced. It’s a bit weird for Nintendo to allow this when they were a stakeholder in the game.

Bayonetta is arrogant and patronising to others; snarky but sassy. Her new pixie hair cut is very stylish. Loki was a bit irritating.

Bayonetta is a nimble character and can chain combos together with a mix of punch, kick, and gun attacks. It's combo system works really well due to the impressive animation of the characters and enemies. Being a witch, Bayonetta can add a bit of magic to the mix with her “wicked weave” attack, turning her hair and clothes into a demon figure, and also dodging at the last moment activates slow-motion 'witch time'. A lot of the battles rely heavily on this mechanic, so it isn't the case of just button mashing to victory since you need to wait for the attack, dodge, then unleash the fury.

Filling up the magic meter can also allow you to do “torture attacks” which do large amounts of damage and involve a bit of button mashing to rack up more pain. Weapons can be unlocked and assigned to Bayonetta's hands and/or feet including a whip, guns, sword, and bow and can be mapped to 2 weapons sets and switched at the press of a trigger.

The loading screen doubles up as a practice mode, complete with an on-screen move list, which is a nice reminder of the controls when you die and are waiting for the game to reload. Each chapter is split up into 'verses' which are scored separately based on time, combo damage, and damage taken, and the more hardcore gamers will go for the platinum awards.

On normal difficulty, Bayonetta proves a decent challenge but it seemed easier than the first game. If you want a harder challenge, there are higher difficulties available too. By collecting halos that enemies drop, you can spend them at the shop, but the extra techniques and special items are particularly pricey. The normal items like healing items are a fair price but are limited in the amount you can purchase.

Some chapters end in a boss battle, but the larger bosses are so dramatic that they have their own dedicated chapter. These take some time to take down but have checkpoints at certain stages.

The game doesn’t have the most exciting level design, since it is often an alternating pattern of simple corridors and circle arenas. It is very predictable when enemies are going to spawn. It’s really a sequence of arena battles and boss fights. There are moments where there will be aerial fights, or you will fight in a mech, plane, or on horseback but they feel too similar or more mindless.

In each level, there is at least one portal to take you to a challenge area where you have a task such as defeating enemies without taking a hit, without touching the ground, or have a damage restriction such as only dealing damage in witch-time.

The overall style of Bayonetta is certainly strange but has a lot of charm. The overall look and difficulty of the game will draw comparisons to Devil May Cry and if you enjoy that kind of game, then Bayonetta is an obvious game to play. The soundtrack to the game is very repetitive since there is often one J-pop sounding song which seems repeated an insane amount of times, especially in the challenge area.

Overall, Bayonetta is a decent game, but it felt a bit dated in its design. I don’t understand the 10/10 ratings from some critics. I felt it wasn’t as outrageous as the first game. The story seemed a bit basic at first, then was hard to follow, and some of the extra variety they tried to put in the game aren't particularly fun. Normally I wouldn't encourage quick-time events, but since the cut-scenes were so dramatic and sometimes quite lengthy; it probably would have suited the game to have more quick-time events as well as being more complex, rather than used sparingly and involving one button press.

Just beat this game on "Hard" and the game feels like "Normal" for Bayonetta 1 so that's something to consider.

They managed to basically improve the whole game in all departments where it needed improvement: visuals, QTE mechanics, gimmick levels (Jet, etc.) are not as annoying this time (although I still would prefer for max 1 gimmick level for the whole game), enemy and character design is way better and there's more variety of them (this goes for level design as well) but they unfortunately kind of screw the most important thing for a hack and slash... the combat.

The combat is still entertaining and there's some new weapons that are very fun to use (e.g. chain chomp) but there are some questionable changes made to the gameplay such as how OP Umbran Climax is (making other abilities that use magic redundant and the fact that you can just smash your way to pure platinums with this) or how you can't combo some enemies into the air unless you are in witch time... These might seem like minor annoyances but when it comes to a game like this it has a great impact on its enjoyment.

When it comes to story and music, it's about on the same level as 1 which means the music is great and the story is easy to follow but nothing spectacular.

Bayonetta 3 should aim to be everything Bayonetta 2 is but with Bayonetta 1's combat and less gimmick levels (if possible none but I'm fine with just one), if it manages to do that it will be the best hack and slash no doubt, but as it stands Devil May Cry 5 is king.

This game is very fun and a marked improvement over its predecessor, ironing out its flaws such as overused QTE gimmicks and difficulty that errs on the side of outright frustrating. I enjoyed it almost all the way through, and I'd almost rate it a 4.5 but sometimes the story feels a bit rushed, and the game in general is a little too short. Just a little. But overall, I'm sure glad this game got made.

Bayonetta 2 is a game that is often praised for being one of the most improved sequels, and many consider it one of the best hack n slack games of the past 10 years. I remember playing the first Bayonetta with my friends during my Junior year in college and while it wasn't bad, it didn't really do much for me since I found Devil May Cry much better. Bayonetta 2 does make improvements, the combat is smoother, the levels are a bit more streamlined, the boss fights are less tedious, and you don't have annoying quick time events. However, Bayonetta 2 also is shorter than the 1st game, and I think I beat it in under 10 hours, it doesn't have the most interesting level design, and the story is pretty basic. Bayonetta 2 more goes for gameplay and design, which I admit, is pretty fun and the game relies heavily on the dodge that slows down time. The boss fights in this were solid, and pretty damn memorable, although I will admit, some bosses in this were somewhat tedious and some just had too many phases.

Also upgrades in this game were a bit expensive so I never really had enough to play around with the different moves or accessories since I spent most of my points on weapon upgrades and health upgrades. The other thing is Bayonetta 2 doesn't have much extras, once you beat the game you can do a few enemy waves in extra missions, but the only thing to really do after this is replay levels and buy all the upgrades. Bayonetta 2 is better than the first, but it still left much to be desired and it just felt a bit too short and some of the bosses in this were a bit annoying, plus the story wasn't really that memorable. Hopefully Bayonetta 3 improves a lot since DMC 5 was solid and its a shame Sony and Microsoft were too ignorant to let this franchise slip out of their hands.

I have this game