I wasn't really into hack-n-slash games back when this game was new. In fact, I had a strong (and foolish) animosity for them because of a bad experience with the original Devil May Cry when I was like 11 (see my DMC1 review if you're curious). I wasn't even aware of the game Bayonetta, but during that time, I played and loved No More Heroes. However, I chalked it up to loving the brilliant characters and writing, along with the core combat being pretty simple.

No clean way to put it, I was on the internet . . . a lot, and I saw various drawn porn of Bayonetta back then and got the hots for the character. She was practically the ideal depiction of what got me going, so I wanted to learn more about her!

That was when I looked the game up, found it for cheap at a local store, and was blown away by how good it was! Punchy combat, intuitive controls, the rewarding flowy combos, the badass enemy designs, the jazzy music that has a nice blend of angelic and actiony, and of course Bayonetta herself being so funny and endearing as a character with attitude!

There's some missteps, such as a couple scenarios that feel obtusely designed to be frustrating, most-especially QTE scenarios that not only have very small windows, but kill you instantly and ruin your stage rank if you fail it. The story is a little basic too, IMO. If it wasn't for the characters being so charming, I would've considered it entirely hollow. Regardless, the good outweighs the bad in this game by a longshot.

So yeah, seeing a couple of porn doujins as a teenager lead me to properly falling in love with the hack-n-slash genre. I should probably be more embarrassed by that, but here we are. What's important is that it also lead me to properly playing and loving the original Devil May Cry!

Reviewed on Oct 18, 2022


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