Backloggd phenomena report: you ever notice a discrepancy between a game's average rating and what the top reviews have to say about it? Both prior Bayonettas are pretty good examples of this. Reading through the original's reviews would have you convinced it's one of the highest rated games on the site, but it's sitting at a good-but-not-great 3.9/5. Conversely, its sequel, by all accounts, must've featured a puppy getting stiletto'd in the opening cutscene or something, but it's got a more impressive 4.1 average. Personally, I chalk this up to the casual-hardcore dichotomy. Leisurely gamers make up a larger portion of the collective unconscious, but passionate players are more likely to both write in-depth analyses and spend time voting up reviews that they agree with. I don't claim to be an expert on high-level gameplay or anything (my 'about me' on here isn't at all facetious) but I like to think of myself as someone who can see both sides of the spectrum, and I can at least anecdotally vouch for my theory being correct here. My appreciation for the first game's nuances only grows with each revisit, but, at the same time, I have several friends that consider it among their favorites who were surprised when I told them that you can continue a combo after dodging. On the other hand, I remember genuinely enjoying 2's story the first time around, but I wasn't able to finish a replay in preparation for this...
Bayonetta 3 manages to break this pattern, apparently finding common ground with its relatively low (at time of writing) 3.7 average and generally underwhelmed top reviews. Obviously, this doesn't actually mean anything, but, to me, it's representative of how so many decisions in here bafflingly appeal to neither audience. Demon Slave, the game's major new mechanic, had potential in expanding Bayonetta's moveset by giving her another avenue to creatively set up finishers, but every kaiju's overbearing nature, not to mention the fact that enemies don't seem to respond to them at all, make them feel like just another strong attack. This wouldn't have mattered as much if they at least looked cool in action, but it's usually hard to tell what they're even doing- the camera zooming in on Bayonetta even when a demon gets the encounter's final blow is a telltale sign that this wasn't thought through. They also mean that enemies lack an intimidation factor, a pitfall that could've been similarly avoided to some degree if they weren't incredibly generic visually. This extends to bosses, which primarily just feel like big enemies- at no point during a Bayonetta game should I be surprised that I got a boss bonus at the end of a verse. And there's also the smaller stuff. Retaining 1's lack of interest in an intelligible narrative without any of the energy that made its cutscenes at least watchable. The multiverse setting, which I (perhaps generously) attribute to bad timing and not any kind of trend chasing, is, at times, novel, but it lacks the showmanship of a Psychonauts or a Travis Strikes Again to really make its worlds exiting from a casual perspective. But far and away the most insulting is the implementation of the gimmick sections. A staple of high-action games that, at their best, satisfy both pros (by offering pacing reprieves and remixes of core mechanics) and casuals (by offering memorable, eye-catching spectacle) but here don't even attempt to do either. Instead, they're boring, slow-moving, time-consuming, utterly bizarre affairs that make you wonder if the minds behind them even knew what game they were working on.
But, against all odds, I ended up enjoying myself. It could just be because Bayonetta's core moveset is so great that I'll never outright dislike any of her games, but I think the alternate weapons deserve their due credit. Nearly all of them are genuinely remarkable in how outlandishly they're designed, completely distinct yet somehow perfectly in tune with how our Umbran Witch operates, and ultimately just great fun to mess around with. Maybe the true lesson to be learned here is that if you throw enough darts at the board, you're bound to get at least one bullseye. Considering she's just received her own prequel spinoff, Bayonetta is the leading lady of a capital-F franchise now, and I'd much rather see her flinging ideas about haphazardly than indulging in another round of playing it safe.
Bayonetta 3 manages to break this pattern, apparently finding common ground with its relatively low (at time of writing) 3.7 average and generally underwhelmed top reviews. Obviously, this doesn't actually mean anything, but, to me, it's representative of how so many decisions in here bafflingly appeal to neither audience. Demon Slave, the game's major new mechanic, had potential in expanding Bayonetta's moveset by giving her another avenue to creatively set up finishers, but every kaiju's overbearing nature, not to mention the fact that enemies don't seem to respond to them at all, make them feel like just another strong attack. This wouldn't have mattered as much if they at least looked cool in action, but it's usually hard to tell what they're even doing- the camera zooming in on Bayonetta even when a demon gets the encounter's final blow is a telltale sign that this wasn't thought through. They also mean that enemies lack an intimidation factor, a pitfall that could've been similarly avoided to some degree if they weren't incredibly generic visually. This extends to bosses, which primarily just feel like big enemies- at no point during a Bayonetta game should I be surprised that I got a boss bonus at the end of a verse. And there's also the smaller stuff. Retaining 1's lack of interest in an intelligible narrative without any of the energy that made its cutscenes at least watchable. The multiverse setting, which I (perhaps generously) attribute to bad timing and not any kind of trend chasing, is, at times, novel, but it lacks the showmanship of a Psychonauts or a Travis Strikes Again to really make its worlds exiting from a casual perspective. But far and away the most insulting is the implementation of the gimmick sections. A staple of high-action games that, at their best, satisfy both pros (by offering pacing reprieves and remixes of core mechanics) and casuals (by offering memorable, eye-catching spectacle) but here don't even attempt to do either. Instead, they're boring, slow-moving, time-consuming, utterly bizarre affairs that make you wonder if the minds behind them even knew what game they were working on.
But, against all odds, I ended up enjoying myself. It could just be because Bayonetta's core moveset is so great that I'll never outright dislike any of her games, but I think the alternate weapons deserve their due credit. Nearly all of them are genuinely remarkable in how outlandishly they're designed, completely distinct yet somehow perfectly in tune with how our Umbran Witch operates, and ultimately just great fun to mess around with. Maybe the true lesson to be learned here is that if you throw enough darts at the board, you're bound to get at least one bullseye. Considering she's just received her own prequel spinoff, Bayonetta is the leading lady of a capital-F franchise now, and I'd much rather see her flinging ideas about haphazardly than indulging in another round of playing it safe.
garcaso
11 months ago