Bayonetta 2 was made for people who only did one playthrough of Bayonetta. At launch critics and fans praised the game for fixing a lot of the glaring faults of the original. It's more vibrant in colors, removed all resemblance of insta-kill QTEs and terrible After Burner levels, and made cool new additions such as the introduction of Demons and Umbran Climax. However, over time the game's reputation devolved, and if you ask any Platnium Games fan about the game, they'll tell you it's a weaker entry than the original. I share that same sentiment.
You see, the main problem with Bayonetta 2 is that it revolves too much around Witch Time. Now I know what you might be saying, wasn't Witch Time the central mechanic of Bayonetta and so naturally they would want to keep focusing that clear central mechanic? That was never the case.
Witch Time was made as a crutch for newer players to get used to the game on its lower difficulties, but even then there were enemies that spawned that outright ignore Witch Time. On my first playthrough, I thought that was a bug or something, but no, it was intentional. The highest difficulty of Bayonetta 1 you unlock after beating hard mode, Infinite Climax, outright removes Witch Time altogether. That seems insane for anyone who played the original once, some encounters seemed like they're impossible without the mechanic. But no, Witch Time wasn't made for these encounters, it was Dodge Offset.
Dodge Offset was the secret mechanic to the first game that allows for these Witch Time-less encounters to work. It allows Bayonetta to continue combos while dodging. The problem however lies in that while there's a visual queue for a successful dodge offset, that game never explicitly told the player how to do it, and it's the most crucial mechanic to learn how to master the game's combat. I admittedly pissed farted and shitted my way through the first game without ever knowing it was even in the game until years later.
I feel the team behind Bayonetta 2 without Hideki Kamiya's influence thought because the first game never told the player how important Dodge Offset was only a supplemental gameplay mechanic and felt the need to include it in the game without asking the player to master it. It's most likely why Infinite Climax in this game actually has Witch Time activated, as it's this game's main mechanic now.
Well okay, fine, you want to make the game easier for new players and make learning technical stuff an optional thing. That wouldn't be an issue, but for some reason, Witch Time is notably nerfed in this game too. I guess they didn't want players to gain too much reward from it during encounters, but that requires Bayonetta to do any real damage in this game.
The second issue with this game is that Bayonetta doesn't do any damn damage in this game. I already thought the health pools of bosses in the original were obnoxious, but it's taken to ludicrous degrees here now that Bayonetta feels she hits people with a wet towel, and the new weapons don't give any improvements to her damage output. Why? Oh yeah, so Platnium can shoehorn Umbran Climax to your face. It's fine if you wanted to give the player a Devil Trigger-like mechanic, but it shouldn't be the end all be all for dealing substantial damage. It also doesn't help that enemies can break out of combos easier now, which makes getting that damage naturally even harder. It devolves all of the encounters to just waiting for a Witch Time opportunity to do pixel-health damage and to build Umbran Climax meter then releasing it so you can actually nuke their health bars until either the encounter stops or the boss goes away.
I also gotta say, what was the point of adding in slow-moving walking sessions or the Snake Within or Crow Within abilities that amounts to "helping you move by flying or swimming". These don't add anything to an action game, these are blatant padding techniques to bloat out an already shorter game than the original.
So, while Bayonetta 2 does indeed remove a lot of things that plagued the original release, it adds in a bunch of useless features that not only make no sense but completely unbalances what made the original the more compelling and interesting to master game.
The thing is I never actually noticed these things on my initial playthrough. Like most people, I thought it was an upgrade to the original because it was prettier and didn't have those terrible QTEs, but what I didn't realize that the monkey paw twisted one of its fingers when I asked for these changes when playing the original. I only did one playthrough of each game and when you only have little understanding of those mechanics you will naturally feel Bayonetta 2 is the better game. But it was until revisiting those games with a better grasp of both these games mechanics and action games as a whole is how I figured out that this game was a lot of smoke and mirrors. It's pretty and flashy, but that can only give you so much to work with.
You see, the main problem with Bayonetta 2 is that it revolves too much around Witch Time. Now I know what you might be saying, wasn't Witch Time the central mechanic of Bayonetta and so naturally they would want to keep focusing that clear central mechanic? That was never the case.
Witch Time was made as a crutch for newer players to get used to the game on its lower difficulties, but even then there were enemies that spawned that outright ignore Witch Time. On my first playthrough, I thought that was a bug or something, but no, it was intentional. The highest difficulty of Bayonetta 1 you unlock after beating hard mode, Infinite Climax, outright removes Witch Time altogether. That seems insane for anyone who played the original once, some encounters seemed like they're impossible without the mechanic. But no, Witch Time wasn't made for these encounters, it was Dodge Offset.
Dodge Offset was the secret mechanic to the first game that allows for these Witch Time-less encounters to work. It allows Bayonetta to continue combos while dodging. The problem however lies in that while there's a visual queue for a successful dodge offset, that game never explicitly told the player how to do it, and it's the most crucial mechanic to learn how to master the game's combat. I admittedly pissed farted and shitted my way through the first game without ever knowing it was even in the game until years later.
I feel the team behind Bayonetta 2 without Hideki Kamiya's influence thought because the first game never told the player how important Dodge Offset was only a supplemental gameplay mechanic and felt the need to include it in the game without asking the player to master it. It's most likely why Infinite Climax in this game actually has Witch Time activated, as it's this game's main mechanic now.
Well okay, fine, you want to make the game easier for new players and make learning technical stuff an optional thing. That wouldn't be an issue, but for some reason, Witch Time is notably nerfed in this game too. I guess they didn't want players to gain too much reward from it during encounters, but that requires Bayonetta to do any real damage in this game.
The second issue with this game is that Bayonetta doesn't do any damn damage in this game. I already thought the health pools of bosses in the original were obnoxious, but it's taken to ludicrous degrees here now that Bayonetta feels she hits people with a wet towel, and the new weapons don't give any improvements to her damage output. Why? Oh yeah, so Platnium can shoehorn Umbran Climax to your face. It's fine if you wanted to give the player a Devil Trigger-like mechanic, but it shouldn't be the end all be all for dealing substantial damage. It also doesn't help that enemies can break out of combos easier now, which makes getting that damage naturally even harder. It devolves all of the encounters to just waiting for a Witch Time opportunity to do pixel-health damage and to build Umbran Climax meter then releasing it so you can actually nuke their health bars until either the encounter stops or the boss goes away.
I also gotta say, what was the point of adding in slow-moving walking sessions or the Snake Within or Crow Within abilities that amounts to "helping you move by flying or swimming". These don't add anything to an action game, these are blatant padding techniques to bloat out an already shorter game than the original.
So, while Bayonetta 2 does indeed remove a lot of things that plagued the original release, it adds in a bunch of useless features that not only make no sense but completely unbalances what made the original the more compelling and interesting to master game.
The thing is I never actually noticed these things on my initial playthrough. Like most people, I thought it was an upgrade to the original because it was prettier and didn't have those terrible QTEs, but what I didn't realize that the monkey paw twisted one of its fingers when I asked for these changes when playing the original. I only did one playthrough of each game and when you only have little understanding of those mechanics you will naturally feel Bayonetta 2 is the better game. But it was until revisiting those games with a better grasp of both these games mechanics and action games as a whole is how I figured out that this game was a lot of smoke and mirrors. It's pretty and flashy, but that can only give you so much to work with.
I love ass and tits
To this day, it is impossible to describe to someone why Bayonetta 1 and 2 are as good as they are without sounding like an absolute madman.
Gorgeous, bombastic, sound amazing, mechanically inferior to the first game and that breaks my heart to say
If you ever feel useless, just remember that someone at PlatinumGames had to program the shoot button in Bayonetta 2.
Bayonetta 2 starts off really refreshing, because it’s purely concerned with being fun. A lot of character action games are fun, but they’re conditionally fun; provided you’re able to get good at them, to master the systems, to use everything to your advantage and be the coolest guy in the arena, you’ll have fun. Bayonetta 2 isn’t especially interested in that. Bayonetta 2 is a remarkably simple, remarkably easy game, largely just encouraging the player to participate in spectacle over everything else. Combos are flashy, there’s almost always some sort of fight between giant monsters happening in the background, enemies keep getting introduced one after the other, and Bayonetta herself is borderline invincible provided that you know how to press the dodge button within a week’s notice of the enemy indicating they’re going to hit you.
But as the game wears on, it starts to become very apparent why so many character action games lock a lot of the fun and style behind mastering complex systems. Bayonetta 2 isn’t just easy, but it’s so easy that it’s boring. I found the absolute most efficient strategy to just hit the punch-kick-punch wicked weave until I could get enough magic for Umbran Climax, and then just mash punch until it wore off. Rinse and repeat. There was nothing in the game that could counter this. Dodge offset makes this even more consistent. I was getting pure platinum medals every single encounter. It was stunningly easy and it was the most rewarding way to play the game; if the other options give me worse combo scores, worse times, or make me more likely to take a hit, why would I ever use them? Love is Blue breaks the game in half from the word go and requires almost zero execution ability to use all four guns optimally. This is a starting combo, too, so there's almost no reason to invest your halos in anything other than Witch Hearts and Moon Pearls.
The Gaze of Despair helps somewhat to mitigate the easiness, but I started running into a bit of a Goldilocks problem the longer the game went on. The Gaze of Despair essentially puts enemies into a permanent enrage state, making them significantly more dangerous. They attack faster, they have armor that prevents them from being juggled, and you only get a small fraction of the Witch Time you would normally get if you dodge them. However, giving them juggle protection means that some enemies like Sloth wind up being fucking ridiculous; there’s nothing stopping them from keeping up the pressure while evading yours, meaning that using Gaze of Despair against these especially agile enemies mostly just leaves you chipping away with single hits for several minutes. By contrast, 3rd Climax is such a dead simple difficulty that I mostly wound up sleepwalking through the entire thing. The hardest difficulty available on a first playthrough is way too easy, and equipping the Gaze of Despair makes it too hard. There’s nothing here that feels just right.
Bayonetta 2 mostly just comes across like Bayonetta, but worse. Bayonetta was still a really good game, mind, so there are far worse things to be than a worse version of Bayonetta. A lot of this is just a retread. Bayonetta goes to a far-off city and becomes the ward of another kid. Bayonetta has to do another incredibly lengthy shooter section before she gets to the final boss. Bayonetta goes back in time and spends a few chapters literally going through beat-for-beat copies of levels from the first game. There’s no individual element of Bayonetta 2 that I can really point to and confidently say “yeah, that was a lot better than it was in the last one”. The bosses really suck in this. You do a lot of repeat fights against the Lumen Sage, with him taking the role of the Jeanne battles, but his moveset isn’t up to par with even Jeanne 1’s. You can’t even see most of what he’s doing because the game keeps pulling focus to kaiju fights happening in the background. The final boss is an especially egregious anticlimax, nowhere even in the same realm as Jubileus. There are just so many woefully simple movesets possessed by enemies who die too quickly to make full use of the few options even available to them.
The long shadow of Bayonetta remains cast over Bayonetta 2, and there’s largely no reason to play the latter over the former unless you’re really dying to experience more Bayonetta. Even then, I’d suggest that you exhaust Non-Stop Infinite Climax and Jeanne Mode from the original before bothering to tackle this, and that alone is probably going to be more than enough to satisfy your Bayonetta urges.
This is right after the beginning of the PlatinumGames flop era, circa 2013 – present.
Bayonetta 2 starts off really refreshing, because it’s purely concerned with being fun. A lot of character action games are fun, but they’re conditionally fun; provided you’re able to get good at them, to master the systems, to use everything to your advantage and be the coolest guy in the arena, you’ll have fun. Bayonetta 2 isn’t especially interested in that. Bayonetta 2 is a remarkably simple, remarkably easy game, largely just encouraging the player to participate in spectacle over everything else. Combos are flashy, there’s almost always some sort of fight between giant monsters happening in the background, enemies keep getting introduced one after the other, and Bayonetta herself is borderline invincible provided that you know how to press the dodge button within a week’s notice of the enemy indicating they’re going to hit you.
But as the game wears on, it starts to become very apparent why so many character action games lock a lot of the fun and style behind mastering complex systems. Bayonetta 2 isn’t just easy, but it’s so easy that it’s boring. I found the absolute most efficient strategy to just hit the punch-kick-punch wicked weave until I could get enough magic for Umbran Climax, and then just mash punch until it wore off. Rinse and repeat. There was nothing in the game that could counter this. Dodge offset makes this even more consistent. I was getting pure platinum medals every single encounter. It was stunningly easy and it was the most rewarding way to play the game; if the other options give me worse combo scores, worse times, or make me more likely to take a hit, why would I ever use them? Love is Blue breaks the game in half from the word go and requires almost zero execution ability to use all four guns optimally. This is a starting combo, too, so there's almost no reason to invest your halos in anything other than Witch Hearts and Moon Pearls.
The Gaze of Despair helps somewhat to mitigate the easiness, but I started running into a bit of a Goldilocks problem the longer the game went on. The Gaze of Despair essentially puts enemies into a permanent enrage state, making them significantly more dangerous. They attack faster, they have armor that prevents them from being juggled, and you only get a small fraction of the Witch Time you would normally get if you dodge them. However, giving them juggle protection means that some enemies like Sloth wind up being fucking ridiculous; there’s nothing stopping them from keeping up the pressure while evading yours, meaning that using Gaze of Despair against these especially agile enemies mostly just leaves you chipping away with single hits for several minutes. By contrast, 3rd Climax is such a dead simple difficulty that I mostly wound up sleepwalking through the entire thing. The hardest difficulty available on a first playthrough is way too easy, and equipping the Gaze of Despair makes it too hard. There’s nothing here that feels just right.
Bayonetta 2 mostly just comes across like Bayonetta, but worse. Bayonetta was still a really good game, mind, so there are far worse things to be than a worse version of Bayonetta. A lot of this is just a retread. Bayonetta goes to a far-off city and becomes the ward of another kid. Bayonetta has to do another incredibly lengthy shooter section before she gets to the final boss. Bayonetta goes back in time and spends a few chapters literally going through beat-for-beat copies of levels from the first game. There’s no individual element of Bayonetta 2 that I can really point to and confidently say “yeah, that was a lot better than it was in the last one”. The bosses really suck in this. You do a lot of repeat fights against the Lumen Sage, with him taking the role of the Jeanne battles, but his moveset isn’t up to par with even Jeanne 1’s. You can’t even see most of what he’s doing because the game keeps pulling focus to kaiju fights happening in the background. The final boss is an especially egregious anticlimax, nowhere even in the same realm as Jubileus. There are just so many woefully simple movesets possessed by enemies who die too quickly to make full use of the few options even available to them.
The long shadow of Bayonetta remains cast over Bayonetta 2, and there’s largely no reason to play the latter over the former unless you’re really dying to experience more Bayonetta. Even then, I’d suggest that you exhaust Non-Stop Infinite Climax and Jeanne Mode from the original before bothering to tackle this, and that alone is probably going to be more than enough to satisfy your Bayonetta urges.
This is right after the beginning of the PlatinumGames flop era, circa 2013 – present.
I enjoyed this as much as the first, which is to say that it's awesome
this is bloodborne 2
A perfect sequel
I think that witch time is probably the best defensive mechanic of the whole character action genre, even beating MGR's parry. Rewarding the player for reading an enemy's attack with 1-3 seconds of pure self expressive violence perfectly communicates what it's like to be BE Bayonetta, the fantasy of making a fool out of your enemies and punishing them for even trying.
That's all still true across Bayo 1 and 2. This sequel doesn't really reinvent much to make a contrast. The story is overall fine, Bayonetta's arc kind of finishes off at the 3/4 mark and everything is left to resolve around the New Original Character, leaving with a pretty underwhelming final boss and ending, at least by Platinum standards. Mechanically, everything is as dialed in as the first game, the variety in the weapons is a huge plus, even if that means a few of them fell flat for me, maybe someone else will enjoy using the bug bow. I do like the new art direction, everything is so much brighter and higher contrast to the point it's actually kind of easier to see what the hell is going on.
The main difference I noticed was a significant decrease in difficulty from the first game. I can count on one hand how many times I died in this game, the same is definitely not true for Bayo 1. Also, I felt no pressure to engage with the items or crafting system at all, which historically Platinum have treated merely as crutches, and even chided you for using them at times. Ironically enough, I found out after finishing that they removed the score penalty for using items from the first game, so overall the game is easier and more amicable to less skilled players. As a supposedly "Hard core elite big dick god gamer", you might think I'd balk at the idea of making things easier to appeal to the clumsy masses, but the truth is on Normal difficulty this game pretty much met my skill level the whole way through, allowing inhabit the character of Bayonetta and live that power fantasy while still feeling like I was challenged. For Platinum game veterans who are deep in this game's systems there are always harder modes to tune in the difficulty, but that's just not me.
Overall, this leaves me excited for the release of Bayo 3 and is a solid entry in Platinum's catalog- oh god please god let Bayo 3 be a hit they need a win so so bad oh jeez aw man
That's all still true across Bayo 1 and 2. This sequel doesn't really reinvent much to make a contrast. The story is overall fine, Bayonetta's arc kind of finishes off at the 3/4 mark and everything is left to resolve around the New Original Character, leaving with a pretty underwhelming final boss and ending, at least by Platinum standards. Mechanically, everything is as dialed in as the first game, the variety in the weapons is a huge plus, even if that means a few of them fell flat for me, maybe someone else will enjoy using the bug bow. I do like the new art direction, everything is so much brighter and higher contrast to the point it's actually kind of easier to see what the hell is going on.
The main difference I noticed was a significant decrease in difficulty from the first game. I can count on one hand how many times I died in this game, the same is definitely not true for Bayo 1. Also, I felt no pressure to engage with the items or crafting system at all, which historically Platinum have treated merely as crutches, and even chided you for using them at times. Ironically enough, I found out after finishing that they removed the score penalty for using items from the first game, so overall the game is easier and more amicable to less skilled players. As a supposedly "Hard core elite big dick god gamer", you might think I'd balk at the idea of making things easier to appeal to the clumsy masses, but the truth is on Normal difficulty this game pretty much met my skill level the whole way through, allowing inhabit the character of Bayonetta and live that power fantasy while still feeling like I was challenged. For Platinum game veterans who are deep in this game's systems there are always harder modes to tune in the difficulty, but that's just not me.
Overall, this leaves me excited for the release of Bayo 3 and is a solid entry in Platinum's catalog- oh god please god let Bayo 3 be a hit they need a win so so bad oh jeez aw man
The ideal Christmas game.
A game about how complex parents can be, and how, at the end of the day, sometimes they did rock and sometimes they didn't. It's also about how cool Bayonetta looks in a fancy hat.
Rodin alltimer character, masterclass; tears in my eyes over how cool he is.
A game about how complex parents can be, and how, at the end of the day, sometimes they did rock and sometimes they didn't. It's also about how cool Bayonetta looks in a fancy hat.
Rodin alltimer character, masterclass; tears in my eyes over how cool he is.
- Umbran Climax é um sistema daora no papel, na prática é horrível e destruiu toda a dificuldade boa que existia no jogo anterior, quem jogou e zerou Bayonetta 1, sabe que ESSE JOGO FICOU FÁCIL DEMAIS, ficou entediante ficar explodindo os bosses legais do jogo com esses sistemas ruins.
- Loki é um bosta.
- O jogo é bem curto pro preço que custa.
- Tiraram vários minigames e os QTE's que davam uma variada muito boa na gameplay.
- Resumo = é Bayonetta só que pior
- Loki é um bosta.
- O jogo é bem curto pro preço que custa.
- Tiraram vários minigames e os QTE's que davam uma variada muito boa na gameplay.
- Resumo = é Bayonetta só que pior
This review contains spoilers
Without a doubt Bayonetta 2 is definitely an upgrade to the first game. Trims some of the fat of one and doesn't have gimmicky stages made by Kamiya. However for every step forward in its other departments, Bayonetta 2's gameplay is easily three steps behind.
Bayonetta herself still controls the same however, the enemies do not seem to care if you hit em with a wicked weave, only really flinching outside of W.T. This is because the game is centered around W.T and it really shows, where as Bayonetta 1 removed the training wheels Bayo 2 keeps them on even on the hardest difficulty, because without W.T Bayo's damage output is pretty much gimped, so much so that you end up relying on Umbran Climax and because of how overpowered it is there's no really a point to use any of the other techniques in the game since Umbran Climax is just generally a win button and if the damage output wasn't enough Magic gain is also gimped to abysmal gains which means save all your magic for that Umbran Climax.
The bosses in Bayonetta 2 are just terrible. Aesir and Balder specifically are just bad, pretty much ignore the rules of the game and sometimes having attacks that are so fast that its almost impossible to react. The flying mode is also just terrible, it limits your control of Bayo to just her ground combos despite being in the air not to mention most of the segments are just really draggy and used quite often.
Lastly i think this game focused too much the spectacle and aesthetic to is demerit. A good example is the first Balder fight where it starts off fine the background isn't cluttered and while its dark your opponent is wearing bright white so you can see him fine, However as the phases changes its gets more difficult to keep track of Balder due to both him and Bayo Summoning monsters to fight in the background, but the camera seems to think thats more important than this annoying boss, his final phase in that fight is even worse since its a flying battle and Balder is quite small and its hard to focus on due to the big ass kaiju battle.
Overall this game is not really fun to play, the gameplay isn't as deep as the first so you can just mash p and umbran climax to win but even at high skill your essentially doing the same thing since this game forces you into this one play style due all your other options being kinda shit in comparison, but yea if I were to judge this game purely on it's spectacle then it definitely excels at that area, just if you looking for Bayonetta 1's depth there's not much to be found here, makes me worried for Bayonetta 3 honestly.
Bayonetta herself still controls the same however, the enemies do not seem to care if you hit em with a wicked weave, only really flinching outside of W.T. This is because the game is centered around W.T and it really shows, where as Bayonetta 1 removed the training wheels Bayo 2 keeps them on even on the hardest difficulty, because without W.T Bayo's damage output is pretty much gimped, so much so that you end up relying on Umbran Climax and because of how overpowered it is there's no really a point to use any of the other techniques in the game since Umbran Climax is just generally a win button and if the damage output wasn't enough Magic gain is also gimped to abysmal gains which means save all your magic for that Umbran Climax.
The bosses in Bayonetta 2 are just terrible. Aesir and Balder specifically are just bad, pretty much ignore the rules of the game and sometimes having attacks that are so fast that its almost impossible to react. The flying mode is also just terrible, it limits your control of Bayo to just her ground combos despite being in the air not to mention most of the segments are just really draggy and used quite often.
Lastly i think this game focused too much the spectacle and aesthetic to is demerit. A good example is the first Balder fight where it starts off fine the background isn't cluttered and while its dark your opponent is wearing bright white so you can see him fine, However as the phases changes its gets more difficult to keep track of Balder due to both him and Bayo Summoning monsters to fight in the background, but the camera seems to think thats more important than this annoying boss, his final phase in that fight is even worse since its a flying battle and Balder is quite small and its hard to focus on due to the big ass kaiju battle.
Overall this game is not really fun to play, the gameplay isn't as deep as the first so you can just mash p and umbran climax to win but even at high skill your essentially doing the same thing since this game forces you into this one play style due all your other options being kinda shit in comparison, but yea if I were to judge this game purely on it's spectacle then it definitely excels at that area, just if you looking for Bayonetta 1's depth there's not much to be found here, makes me worried for Bayonetta 3 honestly.
Me lembra uma review do roger ebert sobre tomb raider: É tão monumentalmente bobo, que só um idiota poderia achar defeitos
"Bayo 2 exists just for Bayo 1 to be better than it already is."
The combat relying on its witch time mechanic this time around to perform combos or damage/stagger at all even on medium weighted enemies sucks a lot of ass, the enemies are extremely horrendous in terms of gameplay design where they just dodge everything, have horrendous telegraphing cues on the animations, it just does not mesh well. This really upsets me considering how much Kamiya and Platinum valued these points of their games, and just become completely betrayed.
As flawed as the combat is compared to the first I do like it still (albeit less when I replayed it), I like seeing some of Bayo's subtle character development throughout I think it's pretty cute from the first, and I do adore the additions of Younger Balder and Loki, think they're great I love their interactions and the way they all bounce off one another is so dope.
The visuals are a step up too, but the first game is much better still all around.
The story isn't as compelling in it's second half and kinda is bleh with loptor at the end was underwhelming to me, I like that the first was more mysterious but ramped up at the end once Bayo started figuring out who she was is WAY more interesting compared to here, I think she was a much more complex character in 1 then here. Jeanne had a much more interesting role in my honest opinion in 1, this time around here they kinda wasted her not showing her interact with the other cast members besides Bayo. Some pretty wasted potential there but hey whatever. I enjoyed seeing that after the 1st game she seems more relaxed after knowing who she is and having Jeanne back as her homie and being able to get close to her again since the end of their teen years is nice. I like their relationship alot in the games, I think it's well developed and honestly? Real asf. You can tell Cereza, Luka and the gang have made her warm up to others more instead of distancing herself off from new people in her life.
I do love this game to a degree. But as I sit on it I notice the holes more throughout, wish Kamiya had more involvement here instead of being a supervisor.
Hope 3 expands more than what this one couldn't with Kamiya coming in as Executive Director this time around.
https://youtu.be/6jIQkohrSvQ
Yuzu goat
I love Bayonetta
Best waifu
7/10
The combat relying on its witch time mechanic this time around to perform combos or damage/stagger at all even on medium weighted enemies sucks a lot of ass, the enemies are extremely horrendous in terms of gameplay design where they just dodge everything, have horrendous telegraphing cues on the animations, it just does not mesh well. This really upsets me considering how much Kamiya and Platinum valued these points of their games, and just become completely betrayed.
As flawed as the combat is compared to the first I do like it still (albeit less when I replayed it), I like seeing some of Bayo's subtle character development throughout I think it's pretty cute from the first, and I do adore the additions of Younger Balder and Loki, think they're great I love their interactions and the way they all bounce off one another is so dope.
The visuals are a step up too, but the first game is much better still all around.
The story isn't as compelling in it's second half and kinda is bleh with loptor at the end was underwhelming to me, I like that the first was more mysterious but ramped up at the end once Bayo started figuring out who she was is WAY more interesting compared to here, I think she was a much more complex character in 1 then here. Jeanne had a much more interesting role in my honest opinion in 1, this time around here they kinda wasted her not showing her interact with the other cast members besides Bayo. Some pretty wasted potential there but hey whatever. I enjoyed seeing that after the 1st game she seems more relaxed after knowing who she is and having Jeanne back as her homie and being able to get close to her again since the end of their teen years is nice. I like their relationship alot in the games, I think it's well developed and honestly? Real asf. You can tell Cereza, Luka and the gang have made her warm up to others more instead of distancing herself off from new people in her life.
I do love this game to a degree. But as I sit on it I notice the holes more throughout, wish Kamiya had more involvement here instead of being a supervisor.
Hope 3 expands more than what this one couldn't with Kamiya coming in as Executive Director this time around.
https://youtu.be/6jIQkohrSvQ
Yuzu goat
I love Bayonetta
Best waifu
7/10
Melhora praticamente tudo do primeiro jogo, SIM eles conseguiram elevar o combate que já era absurdo, Platinum Games mais uma vez trazendo a ação pra outro patamar. A trilha sonora continua maravilhosa, os designs tanto dos personagens e inimigos quanto dos cenários tão belíssimos e é surpreendente o quão lindo é o jogo mesmo jogando no Wii U. O único e grandíssimo problema é a história que não me desce, ainda mais por que primeiro jogo tem um desenvolvimento e narrativa tão bem inseridos nesse mundo bizarro, E SIM é mais do mesmo mas eu ainda assim passo pano por que o jogo é divertidíssimo
Bayonetta 2 leaps off the screen in an explosive display of pride for the action genre. The colors pop and the visual design is off the charts. No longer does the game force cheap instant death QTEs on the player, but instead the occasional laid back mashing sequence that provides no immediate danger to the player, providing a power fantasy that isn’t anything new to the genre. On the whole the game is snapper, more vibrant, and is in contention for the best audio visual experience Platinum games has ever made. On the surface this game is a straight upgrade from Bayonetta 1, but that’s just the problem, it’s all just surface level. The more I played the game the more little things jumped out to me. The heavier enemies mean juggle combos aren’t as easy to attain, and occasionally your combo will be broken out of due to no fault of your own. To get around this the player has a new mechanic known as Umbran Climax, but to say it turns the game into a button masher would be an understatement. A thing I loved about the first game was how it was all balanced. One might assume that witch time was the defining central mechanic to skillful play, but in a shocking twist, the game removes this mechanic entirely on the highest difficulty, revealing that it was never essential to begin with. This was teased at certain points by enemies that couldn’t trigger witch time like gracious and glorious, but this revelatory moment is something that surely made people stick with the game even past the highest threshold of difficulty. In general, Platinum Games are really good about introducing a unique mechanic to the player, and then removing the training wheels by the end of the experience. They respect the player’s skill and let them go wild with newfound mastery of the game. But in Bayonetta 2, the use of Umbran Climax is essential for the sake of getting the best rank. More pressingly, this addition seeps into other facets of the game in a negative way. Most obvious is the major nerf to Bayonetta’s damage output. Possibly in an attempt to make Umbran Climax more enticing, Platinum opted to reduce the damage output of standard attacks dramatically from their power in the first game. This isn’t a terrible change on paper, but Bayo is so crippled here that fights end up dragging on for what feels like an eternity. In general there’s just not enough wiggle room for player expression in the game to warrant a 2nd playthrough. I’ve seen many players call Bayonetta 2 a better casual experience than the first game and I definitely agree. It's easier, less punishing, more flashy, and makes the player feel like a god from the start compared to the brutal challenge of Bayonetta 1. As a result, however, it loses all the thrill, tension, and escalation of the first game. I’m not sure what's in store for our favorite angel slayer, but with the impending release of Bayonetta 3 looming over our heads, one can only hope they don’t make the same mistakes they did with this game.
Oh yeah, that's how it's done.. 😌
Admittedly, I may have gone into Bayonetta 2 with some high expectations. I enjoyed a lot of things about 1 but above all it felt dated, and was clearly an ambitious first entry into a new IP, it was bound to have it's flaws. I'd heard from just about everywhere that 2 improved upon pretty much everything, so I went in wanting and hoping for just that. And that is exactly what I got!
The combat feels way better in this, and having the combos appear on the loading screen (though shortlived) was a much appreciated way to remind/show me some ways to mix things up between levels. I dropped Bayo 1 down to easy automatic about a quarter of the way through bc I wasn't enjoying the combat - Happy to say that I completed all of Bayo 2 on normal with very minimal roadblocks along the way. It felt fair and balanced, and that's my shit.
The colour palette is also hugely improved, with this game having buckets more pizzazz than it's predecessor, which fell victim to the murky brown trend of it's time. Everything just looks better, a fantastic decision from the devs. While we're on the subject I'd like to say that short hair Bayo absolutely clears and I will not be accepting counter-arguments. Top tier protagonist design.
I also had a much easier time following the story in this one, which I'm sure some may see as a negative but one of my biggest setbacks for 1 was that it always felt like there was lore I wasn't privy to right at the centre of everything going on, so being able to understand what I was doing in the story definitely made for a better experience for me personally.
I'm having to try to think of my biggest issues with the game, but the only things that really stand out are that Jeanne was not quite as present as I'd expected her to be. This is only really on me for randomly assuming this game would have a more 'dynamic duo' vibe to it but yeah, was a little disappointing how little she was involved.
Only other thing is that the voice lines used when completing combos and especially for perfect dodges play far too often. I get that that's because I'm doing the things but sometimes you have to dodge a lot and I would've preferred not to hear "so close. Is that all you've got? Almost!" a thousand times while doing it :p
(there was one level too where someone else was fighting with me and they kept saying "wonderful" like every 5 second during their attacks lol)
One final thing to note is somehow - please don't ask me how - my dumbass managed to miss the LP needed to get the swords early in the game, so I played the whole game without them and then realised during the credits when it let me use them that I probably would've had even more fun with those so... Don't miss the swords I guess lol
Ultimately, I had a really great time with Bayonetta 2. Very glad that I finally bit the financial bullet to give the series a proper chance.
I did buy 3 during a black friday sale, but knowing what little I do about the story and the controversy I'll be going into that one with cautious optimism. Honestly though if 2 is the peak I'll be satisfied :)
Thanks for reading y'all, I'm hoping to get through 3 before the year is out but we'll see -- Samurai Maiden is creeping up so if that keeps me busy until Crisis Core and then CC holds me until January I'm afraid everything else is fucked :p
Admittedly, I may have gone into Bayonetta 2 with some high expectations. I enjoyed a lot of things about 1 but above all it felt dated, and was clearly an ambitious first entry into a new IP, it was bound to have it's flaws. I'd heard from just about everywhere that 2 improved upon pretty much everything, so I went in wanting and hoping for just that. And that is exactly what I got!
The combat feels way better in this, and having the combos appear on the loading screen (though shortlived) was a much appreciated way to remind/show me some ways to mix things up between levels. I dropped Bayo 1 down to easy automatic about a quarter of the way through bc I wasn't enjoying the combat - Happy to say that I completed all of Bayo 2 on normal with very minimal roadblocks along the way. It felt fair and balanced, and that's my shit.
The colour palette is also hugely improved, with this game having buckets more pizzazz than it's predecessor, which fell victim to the murky brown trend of it's time. Everything just looks better, a fantastic decision from the devs. While we're on the subject I'd like to say that short hair Bayo absolutely clears and I will not be accepting counter-arguments. Top tier protagonist design.
I also had a much easier time following the story in this one, which I'm sure some may see as a negative but one of my biggest setbacks for 1 was that it always felt like there was lore I wasn't privy to right at the centre of everything going on, so being able to understand what I was doing in the story definitely made for a better experience for me personally.
I'm having to try to think of my biggest issues with the game, but the only things that really stand out are that Jeanne was not quite as present as I'd expected her to be. This is only really on me for randomly assuming this game would have a more 'dynamic duo' vibe to it but yeah, was a little disappointing how little she was involved.
Only other thing is that the voice lines used when completing combos and especially for perfect dodges play far too often. I get that that's because I'm doing the things but sometimes you have to dodge a lot and I would've preferred not to hear "so close. Is that all you've got? Almost!" a thousand times while doing it :p
(there was one level too where someone else was fighting with me and they kept saying "wonderful" like every 5 second during their attacks lol)
One final thing to note is somehow - please don't ask me how - my dumbass managed to miss the LP needed to get the swords early in the game, so I played the whole game without them and then realised during the credits when it let me use them that I probably would've had even more fun with those so... Don't miss the swords I guess lol
Ultimately, I had a really great time with Bayonetta 2. Very glad that I finally bit the financial bullet to give the series a proper chance.
I did buy 3 during a black friday sale, but knowing what little I do about the story and the controversy I'll be going into that one with cautious optimism. Honestly though if 2 is the peak I'll be satisfied :)
Thanks for reading y'all, I'm hoping to get through 3 before the year is out but we'll see -- Samurai Maiden is creeping up so if that keeps me busy until Crisis Core and then CC holds me until January I'm afraid everything else is fucked :p
This game makes me climax
A significant step forward in just about every way. Which is saying something given what a great Devil May Cry spiritual successor Bayonetta already was to begin with. The action feels smoother, more polished, better balanced (I remember having to lower the difficulty in the last title, but perhaps I'm just better at games now), and is backed by crazier set pieces. It also toned down the sexuality an appreciable degree. Look, I consider myself to be a perfectly rational, mentally healthy individual who isn't going to absolutely lose his marbles over a little skin or raunchiness in his video games. I'm someone who loves Duke Nukem 3D for crying out loud. The sheer level of horniness in the previous outing however left me me genuinely uncomfortable at points. Don't get me wrong, the protagonist still sheds her hair-clothing to perform special "climax" or torture attacks, and the occasional close-up crotch-panning camera shot remains present and accounted for here. Yet, for all of its heroine's lewd poses I no longer felt like I was being subjected to a near-constant stream of the team at Platinum's barely restrained masturbatory fantasies. Most likely thanks to the series finding a new home exclusively on Nintendo consoles.
The only area where this sequel hasn't seen an improvement is the writing. The plot is certainly easier to follow and I'll probably even be able to tell you what it was about a week from now, whereas I couldn't recall a single thing narrative-wise about its predecessor if you held a gun strapped to a stiletto to my head. It's problem is that the characters are bloody annoying. Luka and the shopkeeper don't contribute anything so it's odd that they keep appearing in so many cutscenes, comic relief Enzo is a borderline (if not blatant) racist Italian mobster stereotype, and the titular Umbra witch herself has been given a softer personality. The last one being a change I would argue isn't for the better as it causes the overall package to lose a hint of its previously established identity. Similarly to how the Shrek films did as they got progressively less edgy with each passing installment.
The worst of the bunch by far though is "mouthy brat kid" Loki. A new addition to the cast who serves as a rude, foul-mouthed sidekick to the leading lady. Pairing a hero with an obnoxious child like this is an old trope that's been in used countless times over the years and in probably every form of media there is. Although it only works when the two are able to form a bond that allows the youngster's aggravating qualities to slowly fade away as a sense of genuine tenderness begins to form. That simply never happens here. At no point does the card-throwing turd stop being a little jerk, leaving the fact that Bayonetta/Cereza becomes so enamored with him to be nothing short of utterly baffling. Mix that in with how unlikable everyone else onscreen is and if there was ever a game worth skipping the cinematics in, it's this one.
Having said all that, the storytelling woes really don't matter much when you're racing through hell on the back of a demonic warhorse or battling angels midair atop a fighter jet. The wild, ridiculous combat scenarios paired with the fluidity of the battles themselves places the experience alongside the very best of its genre peers. Not every sequence hits the intended mark, a boss battle that sees you surfing around a watery vortex feels a tad sloppy for example, but the spectacle rarely fails to deliver and the core mechanics are some of the most flawless you'll find anywhere currently on the market. Plus, a variety of weapons to experiment with, tons of items to purchase in Rodin's shop, hidden challenge rooms in stages, and the elusive "Pure Platinum" rankings to shoot for across multiple difficulties ensure that there is plenty to keep you coming back for more as mastering this will take quite a bit of time.
To put it plainly, if you're looking for an action game you'll be hard-pressed to find a better option than this. It may very well be the best effort from its developer to date, which is saying something when you consider how the studio has brought us a number of well-received hits over the years such as Metal Gear Rising. My one hope for the upcoming third entry is that on top of expanding the mechanics in meaningful ways it can finally manage to make me actually care about this world, its lore, and those who inhabit it enough to maybe even get me to start reading the supplemental journals scattered throughout the environments. It's the one aspect missing that's keeping me from becoming a true hardcore fan, instead of just the more casual appreciator of its undeniably fantastic gameplay that I am. Regardless of whether they fix that or not, its absence hasn't prevented the first two chapters of this future trilogy from standing as the absolute finest of what PlatinumGames has to offer thus far.
9/10
The only area where this sequel hasn't seen an improvement is the writing. The plot is certainly easier to follow and I'll probably even be able to tell you what it was about a week from now, whereas I couldn't recall a single thing narrative-wise about its predecessor if you held a gun strapped to a stiletto to my head. It's problem is that the characters are bloody annoying. Luka and the shopkeeper don't contribute anything so it's odd that they keep appearing in so many cutscenes, comic relief Enzo is a borderline (if not blatant) racist Italian mobster stereotype, and the titular Umbra witch herself has been given a softer personality. The last one being a change I would argue isn't for the better as it causes the overall package to lose a hint of its previously established identity. Similarly to how the Shrek films did as they got progressively less edgy with each passing installment.
The worst of the bunch by far though is "mouthy brat kid" Loki. A new addition to the cast who serves as a rude, foul-mouthed sidekick to the leading lady. Pairing a hero with an obnoxious child like this is an old trope that's been in used countless times over the years and in probably every form of media there is. Although it only works when the two are able to form a bond that allows the youngster's aggravating qualities to slowly fade away as a sense of genuine tenderness begins to form. That simply never happens here. At no point does the card-throwing turd stop being a little jerk, leaving the fact that Bayonetta/Cereza becomes so enamored with him to be nothing short of utterly baffling. Mix that in with how unlikable everyone else onscreen is and if there was ever a game worth skipping the cinematics in, it's this one.
Having said all that, the storytelling woes really don't matter much when you're racing through hell on the back of a demonic warhorse or battling angels midair atop a fighter jet. The wild, ridiculous combat scenarios paired with the fluidity of the battles themselves places the experience alongside the very best of its genre peers. Not every sequence hits the intended mark, a boss battle that sees you surfing around a watery vortex feels a tad sloppy for example, but the spectacle rarely fails to deliver and the core mechanics are some of the most flawless you'll find anywhere currently on the market. Plus, a variety of weapons to experiment with, tons of items to purchase in Rodin's shop, hidden challenge rooms in stages, and the elusive "Pure Platinum" rankings to shoot for across multiple difficulties ensure that there is plenty to keep you coming back for more as mastering this will take quite a bit of time.
To put it plainly, if you're looking for an action game you'll be hard-pressed to find a better option than this. It may very well be the best effort from its developer to date, which is saying something when you consider how the studio has brought us a number of well-received hits over the years such as Metal Gear Rising. My one hope for the upcoming third entry is that on top of expanding the mechanics in meaningful ways it can finally manage to make me actually care about this world, its lore, and those who inhabit it enough to maybe even get me to start reading the supplemental journals scattered throughout the environments. It's the one aspect missing that's keeping me from becoming a true hardcore fan, instead of just the more casual appreciator of its undeniably fantastic gameplay that I am. Regardless of whether they fix that or not, its absence hasn't prevented the first two chapters of this future trilogy from standing as the absolute finest of what PlatinumGames has to offer thus far.
9/10
i enjoyed the first one better for reasons that i dont completely understand myself but having a sexy dominatrix wiggle her ass and tits in my face and get partially and/or completely naked while defeating angels/demons leaving me speechless apart from the word "...mother" is always a good time if you ask me
more about the spectacle than the action itself and don't get me wrong, i love spectacle, but 1 also had it's gigantic boss fights, action setpieces and everything else and is just a better game to play... the nerfed air combos hurted my soul and the chip damage made me not even try harder modes.
still cool tho!! love how the plot is "saving my lesbian gf from hell". jeanne and cereza two gay icons fr
still cool tho!! love how the plot is "saving my lesbian gf from hell". jeanne and cereza two gay icons fr
Weirdest conclusion I came to is that this should've been a cinematic platformer.
No seriously, it's not like this game's good at anything else. They ripped every ounce of legitimate depth the mechanics have, offset's gone, mashing is the name of the game, enemies are missing a lot of telegraphs and the enemy design in general is piss-poor. The pacing is off, the developers who care about the gameplay are gone, the boss design is clearly set for cinematics and nothing else because your toolset is always incredibly limited and not interesting to fight. What do you have left?
The aesthetics are wonderful, the music is killer, the platforming is actually not too shabby thanks to stuff like After Burner and Witch Twist. I feel giddy whenever a cinematic lets me do the BEEG climax button thing and mash an angel or devil into a nice fine pulp. In fact a lot of the cinematic timing is on point, when the clearly underbaked story isn't rearing its head.
It's a shame to see, I quite liked Bayonetta 1.
No seriously, it's not like this game's good at anything else. They ripped every ounce of legitimate depth the mechanics have, offset's gone, mashing is the name of the game, enemies are missing a lot of telegraphs and the enemy design in general is piss-poor. The pacing is off, the developers who care about the gameplay are gone, the boss design is clearly set for cinematics and nothing else because your toolset is always incredibly limited and not interesting to fight. What do you have left?
The aesthetics are wonderful, the music is killer, the platforming is actually not too shabby thanks to stuff like After Burner and Witch Twist. I feel giddy whenever a cinematic lets me do the BEEG climax button thing and mash an angel or devil into a nice fine pulp. In fact a lot of the cinematic timing is on point, when the clearly underbaked story isn't rearing its head.
It's a shame to see, I quite liked Bayonetta 1.
When I originally played Bayonetta 2, I found myself loving it a lot more than I did the original Bayonetta. However, upon replaying it, the more accessible gameplay can become redundent, allowing you to spam powerful attacks and stun enemies with ease. It's still incredibly fun, with an array of insane weapons that are arguably more fun to play with than the original, but it lacks the edge that the previous entry had. I'd be lying if I said this game wasn't addictive though, as the level design is improved by devoting less missions to mini-games and instead allowing you to fight against a diverse range of enemies and bosses, of which the fights with Baldur are highlights. The story has never been the greatest part of Bayonetta, but Bayonetta 2 manages to make the original better in hindsight by exploring the character's backstories and building their relationships with one another. I do wish there was more of Jeanne and Luka, as they're my favourite characters, but what we do get of them is great. I'm definitely returning to the first one right away to unlock some of the other weapons to further explore the game's details before I finally play Bayonetta 3. I will also remove my rating for the first game, as after playing this one, I think I like the first even more.
Man I love women
Loki sucks
Loki sucks
It's almost unbelievable how 90% of this game can be sum up in:
1. using witch time
2. smashing the same fucking button to attack
and still be an amazing experience!
1. using witch time
2. smashing the same fucking button to attack
and still be an amazing experience!
There's only one way to ring in the new year: finishing 3rd Climax on the gamepad in the Link costume
This game is so easy that it effected my enjoyment. Best Bayonetta design. Girls with short hair and glasses dm me
Bayonetta but they spent more time making a visual spectacle than a strong mechanically driven action game.
This review contains spoilers
pre-transformation aesir has gotta be the goofiest looking final boss i've ever seen get outta here dorito man
Um dos melhores Hack'n Slash, senão o melhor, que já joguei. É incrível do incio ao fim, sem tirar nem por, não consigo realmente achar defeito nesse game. Eu sei que estou um pouco exagerado, mas são poucos games que me deixam animado dessa forma.
O que deixa ele ainda melhor é a evolução gigantesca em relação ao primeiro: tudo é mais fluido, vibrante e viciante. A trilha sonora é presente e épica a todo momento, chega a ser difícil falar um seguimento em especifico, pois são trilhas realmente muito boas. Como comentei anteriormente, uma gameplay extremamente fluida e satisfatória. Mal consigo escrever e analisar de maneira séria pois achei tudo incrível, me desculpem kkkkkkkkkkk só joguem pessoal, nunca pedi nada para vocês.
O que deixa ele ainda melhor é a evolução gigantesca em relação ao primeiro: tudo é mais fluido, vibrante e viciante. A trilha sonora é presente e épica a todo momento, chega a ser difícil falar um seguimento em especifico, pois são trilhas realmente muito boas. Como comentei anteriormente, uma gameplay extremamente fluida e satisfatória. Mal consigo escrever e analisar de maneira séria pois achei tudo incrível, me desculpem kkkkkkkkkkk só joguem pessoal, nunca pedi nada para vocês.