this is a REALLY STYLISH fighter! Enter: BAYONETTA!
Graphics...really damn good...absolutely no complaints. Style is the name of the game...The hair detail on the protagonist as well as the enemies, the settings, the background, the wind blowing, the galaxies, man....this game is an acid trip and it looks gorgeous...so no complaints.
Story....here is MY complaint and one of the reasons why i bring down this game not to be perfect. I had to read the story online in order for me to get what's actually going on. The story is just so in your face and convoluted, that it just bugs me when i see it. And the sad part about it, it's a big part of the game. The way they tell the story is true cinematic cutscenes, true stop motionless images, true images with subtitles and so forth....plus to all this, add japanese style humor...and well, it's barely digestible to the point of raunchiness. For such an stylish and polished game, it just hurts the game rather than expand it...even though they are clearly not taken themselves seriously (one of the finishers is three dudes butt humping each other) with this one, still if the story narration was better directed, i would not have been talking about it.
The story goes something like this, there was a fight between heaven and hell, angels vs devils(she devils in this case) and the angels won. The angels went off on a power trip and now the balance between heaven and hell was lost. But, one she devil was able to survive (bayonetta) and she's the chosen one to restore the balance...oh, and there's another she devil who wants to have a throwdown, cuz she wants to be the chosen one, and then one guy who blames bayonetta for killing his father is after her, but can't stop having wet dreams with her, and later bayonetta meets herself (or her baby self for that matter), and she must protect her and there is a black guy who is a salesman but probably had an affair with bayonetta and then joe pesci gives bayonetta a ring in the middle of a graveyard and all this takes place on an alternate reality and you fight 3 batteships in space and a giant tongue with wings on the L.A. highway and her master or creator wants to kill her and bayonetta wants revenge on this master guy cuz she feels she was betrayed by him and the master says she's actually his best soldier and bayonetta's boobs don't stop dangling and she's naked when she pulls of one of her finishers and the flying tongue returns with 3 more heads and he's an angel.......WHAT THE F$%^??? Suggestion: go to wikipedia to read the story. The ACTUAL story. DO NOT take and i repeat myself, DO NOT take the story i just wrote seriously, cuz this is what i understood and believe me, am 100% confused with it. So read the story from wikipedia or someplace else Ok! ok...
Gameplay....SWEET GAMEPLAY!! what ever move you learn you can pull, what ever move you don't know you might pull, whenever to whomever. This game is wonderfull. Can you kick an enemy, and in mid-air shoot him with my leg machineguns and on the way down slice him with my katana and finish him off with my medieval decapitation method (and i kid you not)? the answer is OH YES, YOU CAN! This game is a button smasher, but somehow you can pull of moves that extraordinary with extreme ease. And when you learn how to actually make those moves, it's amazing. The freedom of how you want to eliminate those in front of you is absolutely breath-taking. And bayonetta moves with such grace, i don't have words for it. You can even transform into animals, upgrade weapons, health, magic and more...
Oh and no, there is no blocking, instead you dodge....and when you dodge at the precise time....you excerpt pain in a somewhat bullettime sort of way. Really awesome. The Boss fights are incredible and really this dudes went on a serious mushroom sniffing crusade before or during the process of making this game. You will know what am talking about once you play this game.
Replay...i have played this game over and over...really for the action game fan. If you are not, try it as well. This game is just that good. Other than playing the story there is nothing else...once you finish the levels you can replay them to better up your score or find hidden treasures and missing pieces of golden records (they provide access to new weapons).
On the bad side...the broken golden record hunting is kinda stupid, the bonus rounds shooting alley game is boring and cheap at times, the bonus stage were you go to heaven it's a pain (for me it really was), not that clear on what am i suppose to do. And of course the story narration sucks.
Plus side, stylish responsive and highly addicting gameplay fighting mechanics, great boss battles and great visuals to top it off.
This game is a MUST BUY for all action gamers. The woman fighter brings the pain and in a destructive girly stylish fashion. Bad story but the gameplay and graphics make up for, it Big time!
Buy it, it's cheap now...oh and for those complaining about the ps3 performance and delay and what not....that's pure B.S.! yes, you must wait for it to load, but at least you get to hone your skills...rather in other games you only see something moving up and down or just some white screen and you in the middle of it.
BUY IT! Cheers!