Bayonetta 2 is definitely one of the best games I've played on the Wii U, and it has certainly garnered its fair share of awards and praise from critics and gamers alike. But there are a lot of things about the game that have been overlooked, both good and bad.
First of all, let me say I was a big fan of the first Bayonetta, and that the sequel was one of the principal reasons I purchased a Wii U. I think it's a shame that no hack and slash game has really reached the depth of combat that Bayonetta and Devil May Cry 4 presented all those years ago. Metal Gear Rising and DmC were both candidates, but failed to provide a complex system for different reasons. The only game that came close was The Wonderful 101, but that game is really in a genre of its own and is hard to compare to a conventional third person action game. These games were a huge part of my "gaming upbringing", if you will, so this lack of competition within one of my favorite genres made my anticipation for Bayonetta 2 that much higher.
First off, the story of Bayonetta has never been its strong point. The plot of the first game was confusing and typical, and that is more or less the same case with the sequel. For any other game this would be a big point deduction, but its clear that intense action setpieces and gameplay were the driving force of development, and the story is really only there to push things along. The opening to Bayonetta 2 is also one of the best I've ever experienced, far surpassing the original's drawn out tutorial. Where the story in the sequel fails in comparison to the original is the lack of quirky humor. We never see Bayonetta having a dance-off with an angel, and Luka (one of the funnier characters in B1) has been made secondary in favor of Loki, who lacks any personality and only serves as a plot point. This was disappointing to me, because I found the first game genuinely funny at times.
One thing that makes developer Platinum Games shine in today's industry is their focus on difficulty. Selecting "Normal" on a game bearing Platinum's logo is often the equivalent of harder difficulties on most games. But considering that most people playing Bayonetta 2 will have already played the first, the normal difficulty felt surprisingly easy to me. For example, I actually got the maximum possible trophy (Pure Platinum) on one of the bosses midway through the game, the first time I fought him! For proof, I posted it on Miiverse a day after the game released:
https://miiverse.nintendo.n...
Anyone who's played any of the developer's games knows that one usually only achieves a Pure Platinum ranking through laborious memorization of enemy patterns, mastering the combo building, and doing all of this quickly without taking damage. As in, not the first time you fight the boss. The problem with me just switching to a harder difficulty is that the next-up "Hard mode" assumes I have already beaten the game by throwing enemies from later in the game at me in the first level. So for once, the difficulty in a Platinum Games title is not very well balanced. The game still comes off harder than most these days, but I didn't get the feeling of reward that I appreciated from the first game.
The combat, for the most part, is a natural evolution of the combat established in the first game. Added is a new "Umbran Climax" mode which basically lets you unleash intense power at a wider range after you build up your magic gauge. While I think this is a good addition, I noticed that the torture finishers from the first game took a definite backseat to this new feature. Using a torture attack now doesn't impact your combo meter at all, which makes it pretty much useless if you want a good combo score. I think this is unfortunate because the torture attacks clearly had a lot of creativity invested, only for them to be made a very unfavorable option. Another thing that bothers me about the new combat is the ability for all medium-sized angels and demons to break your combo outside of Witch Time and Umbran Climax. This greatly lowers the combo potential on these monsters, and forces you to use an accessory that lets you enable Witch Time by choice if you want to maintain any style while you fight hordes of enemies.
The game's graphics are excellent, given the platform. The art style will definitely help the game age better than most, and the story takes you through a much better variety of locations than the first. Unfortunately, the framerate is not exactly great. The Wii U enables V-sync by default to disable screen tearing, and this in turn causes the framerate to stick much closer to 45fps rather than the target 60. Personally, I'm not nearly as susceptible to screen tearing as I am rocky framerates so I don't feel like the switch was preferable. The game still looks pretty good, with lots of gorgeous effects and decent character models. Also, there's a lot of influence on cool colors like blue and purple, which is awesome!
The first Bayonetta was directed by Hideki Kamiya, while the sequel was directed by Yusuke Hashimoto. I am a big fan of Kamiya's work, and for the most part his vision was fulfilled with the sequel. All except for one important piece: the final boss. I'm not going to spoil anything, but let's just say the final boss of the original Bayonetta remains one of the greatest of all time and retains a high spot in many top 10 lists for final bosses. It's epic, and the scale is insane. At first the sequel's failure to succeed it disappointed me a lot, but you need to look at the big picture as well. The sequel goes for a more even dispersal of epicness across the entire game, and in that way delivers far more memorable bosses than the first game did. If you want a real competitor to Bayonetta's final moments, play The Wonderful 101, another Kamiya game.
Lastly, one thing that I see a lot of reviewers neglect to praise about Bayonetta 2 is the incredible soundtrack. I never saw any nominations for the OST which clearly had a lot of work put into it, and I think that's a real shame, because the music often brings most of the intensity and epicness to the boss fights of the game. To top it all off, the developers took some influence from another Platinum title, Metal Gear Rising, and added a touch of dynamism to the boss fights. As the boss progresses through various stages, the music will shift in tone to reflect this. While it isn't incorporated as well as MGR, I think this is a feature Platinum should continue to incorporate into their games. Sample of the soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Bayonetta 2 is easily one of the best games of 2014, and on the Wii U overall. I'm very glad that Nintendo decided to bring this game back from the grave. I hope more people decide to buy it across the Wii U's lifespan, because it's not very often a game that raises the bar of its genre comes along nowadays.
Bayonetta's character design and abilities have changed a lot since the series debuted in 2009, with new costumes and dark arts in every title.
Many fans have been expressing their disappointment with Bayonetta 3. Here's why the recently released game is a clear step down from Bayonetta 2.
Yet the Switch is much more powerful than the Wii U - the platform the second game released on. So you're just being negative to be negative with that comment.
I thought they focused on big kaiju like fights which felt gimmicky and thy brought this new character in to try and get away from the leading star
*Spoilers*
I mean they pretty much killed 3 big characters. They killed Jeanne, Luka and Bayonetta herself and it's not the fact they died it's how they died, we've seen Jeanne and Bayonetta survive countless things yet they go out by the lamest ways possible.
Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya has commented on the third game's naive angel mode, debunking claims that it's because of Nintendo and revealing that it actually asked for the Link crossover costume in the second game to be more revealing.
I don't have a problem whatsoever with Nintendo having a variety of adult games on their platform. But I sometimes wonder what Senpai Satori Iwata would think about Nintendo today, may he rest in peace.
I think he'd be very proud and happy with how well the Switch has sold. That was his last gift to the world. Man, Iwata's death still makes me sad. The last public messages we got from him, he was endlessly apologizing for the state of the Wii U, and didn't make long enough it to get to see how the Switch would launch. :(
Looking forward to the impending Bayonetta VS Stellar Blade rivalry! Who will do the genre better?
Honestly from the latest State of Play I'd say Bayonetta has competition gameplay wise too.
Bayo is just the easy pick right now as people have played it.
Sony censoring games, meanwhile Nintendo has gone a complete 180 by asking for more lewdness. Wild times.
Welcome to the world post 2020 when it seems we shifted into some sort of alternate/parallel universe.
Right. Sony needs to get woke. They need to realize we need uncensored luscious hooters to gawk at. Like in the 90s. Who gives a crap who it offends.
Exactly why I bought a laptop. Even though the "all ages" eroge on Switch pops good enough, I wanted the entire 18+ experience finally, lol
You do realize that being "woke" (which Sony already very much is) is the problem. “Woke” companies are the ones censoring everything. No sexy woman - only fat lesbians or ugly men haters, no men in video games and if they are they must be dumb, rude, or evil, pronouns this or that and don't you dare say it wrong or you’re an evil hater of people who like to pretend they’re something they’re not, and last but not least endless ignorant very uneducated one sided takes on every political situation. So, let’s hope they don’t go more woke and realize how stupid they have become.
@Rance
I was being ironic. I feel there will be an eventual turnaround where being woke will come full circle to realizing that people are tired of politically correct bullshit. I like my women strong sure, but tiddies.
I'm just wondering, but when did you have framerate issues? I never noticed any issues with the framerate. I thought it was an incredibly fun game though.
Nice review, and I strongly agree with the difficulty part, Bayonetta 2 is an easy game until Infinite Climax, never got lower than Gold during my first playthrough on 3rd difficulty.
It's just that, after years playing Bayonetta on Infinite Climax, the sequel feels like a baby's version.
However, there are some points in favor of Bayonetta 2: no annoying QTEs https://www.youtube.com/wat... no annoying puzzles, no penalties from eating lollipops and not many fights against Grace & Glory (and their big bros Gracious & Glorious), Joy and other one whose name I can't remember; those guys are a pain on Infinite Climax in the first Bayonetta, the most ridiculous thing in any video game. Not even Joy appears, and neither an equivalent. Bayonetta 2 has its share of though enemies such as Slath and other demons.
As a product however, Bayonetta 2 is simply more accesible, and this makes the game more appealing. The first game is very hard, some battles are not fun at all and it's not very rewarding unless you're fan of this kind of titles. People that get too many rock trophies aren't likely to come back. Although, as I have said, as a competitive player, I'm still not fan of this decision.
As for for your other points, I think the game looks gorgeous, like an X360 game, but the aesthetics are there and are really nice. I don't mind saying it tops certain XONE and PS4 games.
The OST is average in my opinion and doesn't top Bayonetta's one in any way. To put it simple, I prefer more Mysterious Destiny https://www.youtube.com/wat... than Moon River https://www.youtube.com/wat... or The Heavies https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Combat is perfect, couldn't have asked for more.
Bosses are better in Bayonetta 2 in my opinion. In the first game, you had to follow a certain path of sequences in order to beat them (unless you count the Jeanee ones), whereas in Bayonetta 2 it's everything about skills, even in the final boss. I don't like Bayonetta's final boss in any way, it's just too annoying (although its soundtrack is cool and the boss design is really clever, hehe)
And Tag Climax... while I agree with your points, there's no way you could fight the final boss and other two guys at the same time, I would put the video, but I would spoil everybody. I love to do these ridiculous fights. That being said, I think Tag Climax is very good, just for the sake of fightning everybody.
Despite its flaws, I think Bayonetta 2 is easily my favorite game of the last five years. The last one ironically being, perhaps, the first Bayonetta. I prefer the sequel though because it's much more fast paced and has almost perfect controls, and I was never fan of the "press RB + RT to lock and dodge at the same time" thing, which I don't understand why they didn't fix in the re-release of the first game on Wii U; the ZL + ZR combination it's more comfortable.
Looking forward to grabbing this once the price drops a little. great review.