Bayonetta out on Steam (4K, dual audio), $19.99, PC launch trailer, dev diary

My appreciation for this game just shot up 300% after watching these two videos. Very well made! Just learning about the softlock and hardlock as well as the reliability of audio cues is amazing.

And the element of offense and defense transitioning seamlessly compared to other action titles is a great insight. It really is so odd to switch between games like Dark Souls and Monster Hunter to this one where your position relative to your enemy fills a very different role, and where enemies can be in very different states - like being vulnerable to being lifted off the ground or staggered, or having your regular attacks simply bounce off.

Stuff like this is why I love videogames. Watching or reading a really in-depth guide and suddenly realizing how intricate a game can be is immensely satisfying. It takes time to "read" these games - looking at the screen and recognising what options you have. Reminds me of when I first got into pinball and had absolutely no idea what all these blinking lights and animations on the little orange screen are supposed to indicate, and a few weeks later you see the same machine and instantly see what´s happening.

To me, Bayonetta is a prime example of a game I actually kinda hated at first and then suddenly realize that I was approaching the game with the wrong mindset. Very similar to Monster Hunter in that regard.


Saur is the same guy who made the BEST Bayonetta book on the planet!
http://www.future-press.com/index.php?sect=books&buch_id=343


The reason why Saur was unable to complete the Bayonetta Youtube series is due to zero time, demanding effort, timings and priorities. During the Bayonetta high, Saur was in peek skill condition to go insanely deep to produce the official Bayonetta Guide for Future Press. However, as years went by and playing many other games later, time and higher priorities and the headaches from Sega and other things involving companies and what not, they all dwindled the interest for amazing Saur to continue creating the Bayonetta guide on Youtube. For sanity, it was best for him to move onto other things which resulted in Saur created a BADASS guide for Wonderful 101 and Transformers on Youtube:

Transformers: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrwWQGfD4d7G71y57RcaiJPcHdoEWmMnU

Wonderful 101: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrwWQGfD4d7H_r3hkL6xsJRbQK_R5Du0y



Seriously! If Platinum put Wonderful 101 and Transformers on the PC, I'll buy them in a heartbeat!! Such a pity for this PC version came out so late for Saur.
 
So is there a rule as to figuring out which specific resolutions are best to downsample from (in this case, for 1080p)? My 970 falls just short of 4k/60fps, so I tried "2x" in the DSR options (1528p) but found that it looked noticeably blurrier than 1440p, which I assumed would have been the worse looking one since it's not only lower but also 1.78x res instead of a whole number. 1528p also had some kind of weird distortion with the bloom effects; you can see both of those problems when you look at Bayonetta herself and the reflection on her gun.

1528
1440

So far 1620p, or "2.25x" seems sharper than 1440p without any broken effects, but I do wonder if it's the very best option aside from full 4k. Obviously it's not as simple as "just use the highest res you can," and certain ratios are better than others. I tried searching but almost all the info is for 4k without much mention of anything else. This calculator did suggest that either 1440p or 1728p were the only options that wouldn't result in half pixels:
https://bneijt.nl/pr/resolution-scale-calculator/
 
remember the framerate in this section on the ps3? lmao

screenshot_2017-04-14ptsar.jpg
 
Saur is the same guy who made the BEST Bayonetta book on the planet!
http://www.future-press.com/index.php?sect=books&buch_id=343


The reason why Saur was unable to complete the Bayonetta Youtube series is due to zero time, demanding effort, timings and priorities. During the Bayonetta high, Saur was in peek skill condition to go insanely deep to produce the official Bayonetta Guide from Future Press. However, as years went by and playing many other games later, time and higher priorities and the headaches from Sega and other things involving companies and what not, they all dwindled the interest for amazing Saur to continue creating the Bayonetta guide on Youtube. For insanity, it was best for him to move onto other things which resulted in Saur created a BADASSS guide for Wonderful 101 and Transformers on Youtube:

Transformers: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrwWQGfD4d7G71y57RcaiJPcHdoEWmMnU

Wonderful 101: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrwWQGfD4d7H_r3hkL6xsJRbQK_R5Du0y



Seriously! If Platinum put Wonderful 101 and Transformers on the PC, I'll buy them in a heartbeat!! Such a pity for this PC version came out so late for Saur.

Transformers is on PC already http://store.steampowered.com/app/338930/
 
Any word on obtaining like, digital versions of this or even finding the physical version without paying a fortune? I missed the train on getting it and seriously want to dig in. It's a shame it's such a rare find now. I'd even import it.
I purchased a perfect digital copy through iOS ibooks for $10.
 
Any word on obtaining like, digital versions of this or even finding the physical version without paying a fortune? I missed the train on getting it and seriously want to dig in. It's a shame it's such a rare find now. I'd even import it.

Far as I'm aware, Future did not release any digital version which is a shame. For the release of this PC version, I think they should release a digital version even though the printed version is incredibly amazing! Seriously, it's beautiful and one of the most important luxurious collectors' item you can EVER receive to build your collection of everything Bayonetta.

You know what pissed me off about the whole affair between Future and Sega? Sega went with a different company to make their super shitty basic version of the guide that is super bog standard and... basically, it's crap.. really crap.. just a level map, moves set that the game already tells you, and so on. Things that you really DO NOT need. Sega Europe really missed the ball on not supporting Future Press and Saur enough with the guide, it was some godly passionate work right down to the paper quality: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0744011027/


I think the best thing to do is to email Future Press and ask them to release a digital version for you to purchase. OR, the manager of the company might sell you one direct. That would be the best thing to do because right now, that book is going for over $500 from some insanity sellers even though it really cost around 23 euros.


I purchased a perfect digital copy through iOS ibooks for $10.

Oh wow! Well, there you go. Please put the link up for everyone to purchase for even I didn't know about it.

Such a pity everyone cannot get hold of that lovely incredible print version.
 
Been wondering the same. Image looks so washed out on PC, it does the game's visuals no favors.

I've always regret that I couldn't buy that Future Press guide before it sold out.

Yea, the game is a bit washed out. Fortunately Reshade can inject a little bit of life back into it :P

Here's a comparison I made... it may not be to everyone's taste either, but I vastly prefer it over the visuals without it.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/206804
 
Been wondering the same. Image looks so washed out on PC, it does the game's visuals no favors.

The gamma curve on the 360 was terribly out of whack. This caused games to appear excessively dark, and they often had black crush. I'm not sure if Microsoft did it intentionally to give their games more "POP", but multiplatform games all looked more washed out on the PS3 in comparison.
 
I own a copy of the Future Press guide that's still in good condition besides the binding being broken from my cat knocking it over when I moved here. It really is an amazing piece of media that needs to be made available digitally. Buying it definitely changed my perception of how in depth a strategy guide could be, and how physical guides can still hold their worth in the internet era. I doubt I will find a buyer for it even if the book wasn't slightly damaged, but it's nice to have such an awesome resource if I do decide to take the game seriously again.

There are Cheat Engine codes out there if you want to do things like train on one monster for combo practice, or unlock the Sai-Fung early. I haven't seen any gameplay-changing mods yet.
 
Yea, the game is a bit washed out. Fortunately Reshade can inject a little bit of life back into it :P

Here's a comparison I made... it may not be to everyone's taste either, but I vastly prefer it over the visuals without it.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/206804
That's definitely an improvement, it looks only slightly too colorful. I've always avoided stuff like Reshade because it usually seems to go too far, but might be time to make an exception!

The gamma curve on the 360 was terribly out of whack. This caused games to appear excessively dark, and they often had black crush. I'm not sure if Microsoft did it intentionally to give their games more "POP", but multiplatform games all looked more washed out on the PS3 in comparison.

My understanding is that it was deliberate.

But concerning it being "terribly out of whack", that's what Bayonetta was designed around. Its look was created for 360 and its specific gamma curve. It wasn't meant to look like this.
 
That's definitely an improvement, it looks only slightly too colorful. I've always avoided stuff like Reshade because it usually seems to go too far, but might be time to make an exception!



My understanding is that it was deliberate.

But concerning it being "terribly out of whack", that's what Bayonetta was designed around. Its look was created for 360 and its specific gamma curve. It wasn't meant to look like this.


I mean you can basically do the same thing to "fix" it by simply setting your color range in driver settings to full and setting your monitor to limited if you want the "POP" back >.>

Personally, I like the added detail more than the crushing of the color range, but I can see how someone who spent a lot of time with the game on the 360 might prefer the original look for nostalgias sake.
 
So, I played on release day perfectly well, but today I've launched the game again and I have this INCREDIBLY ANNOYING stuttering every second or so.

Fullscreen, windowed, borderless, v-sync on or off, lower settings, higher settings, restarting, etc... nothing has fixed it. It happens even during the damn Chapter Results screen.

I have 116 minutes played so I guess I could still return the game, but I'd like to fix it :/ Anyone knows what could it be? Maybe the Creators Update did something to it, but on the other hand Overwatch has been extra smooth for me after the update.

I have an i5 3470 @ 3.8, 12 GB RAM and an RX 480.
 
So, I played on release day perfectly well, but today I've launched the game again and I have this INCREDIBLY ANNOYING stuttering every second or so.

Fullscreen, windowed, borderless, v-sync on or off, lower settings, higher settings, restarting, etc... nothing has fixed it. It happens even during the damn Chapter Results screen.

I have 116 minutes played so I guess I could still return the game, but I'd like to fix it :/ Anyone knows what could it be? Maybe the Creators Update did something to it, but on the other hand Overwatch has been extra smooth for me after the update.

I have an i5 3470 @ 3.8, 12 GB RAM and an RX 480.
Try launching steam in offline mode.
 
Saur is the same guy who made the BEST Bayonetta book on the planet!
http://www.future-press.com/index.php?sect=books&buch_id=343


The reason why Saur was unable to complete the Bayonetta Youtube series is due to zero time, demanding effort, timings and priorities. During the Bayonetta high, Saur was in peek skill condition to go insanely deep to produce the official Bayonetta Guide for Future Press. However, as years went by and playing many other games later, time and higher priorities and the headaches from Sega and other things involving companies and what not, they all dwindled the interest for amazing Saur to continue creating the Bayonetta guide on Youtube. For sanity, it was best for him to move onto other things which resulted in Saur created a BADASS guide for Wonderful 101 and Transformers on Youtube:

Transformers: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrwWQGfD4d7G71y57RcaiJPcHdoEWmMnU

Wonderful 101: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrwWQGfD4d7H_r3hkL6xsJRbQK_R5Du0y



Seriously! If Platinum put Wonderful 101 and Transformers on the PC, I'll buy them in a heartbeat!! Such a pity for this PC version came out so late for Saur.

I purchased a perfect digital copy through iOS ibooks for $10.

Thanks for the tip, I'm really in the mood for an in-depth guide. The quality of the videos is so high that I'm happy he made an entire book!
 
Hmm. Not super crazy about the 4x SGSSAA quality blur reduction via LOD bias, but I'll probably use it anyway.

b194on6.png
 
of course, Bayo finally got Rodin to put that chainsaw on her arm

super superior version confirmed!

In all my years of PC gaming I've always gravitated towards sharpness of the image and clarity of textures and shaders over anti-aliasing. Which isn't to say I don't desire a clean, aliasing free IQ, so much that I loathe solutions that blur the image.

Bayonetta SGSSAA isn't poor, but I wish it was a little bit less blurry. Some of the sharper details are lost.
 
In all my years of PC gaming I've always gravitated towards sharpness of the image and clarity of textures and shaders over anti-aliasing. Which isn't to say I don't desire a clean, aliasing free IQ, so much that I loathe solutions that blur the image.

Bayonetta SGSSAA isn't poor, but I wish it was a little bit less blurry. Some of the sharper details are lost.

What is SGSSAA?
 
I turn in game AA off, DSR to 4k, transparency AA on, and AA level to 4x I'm drivers. Game is razor sharp and only very very minimally aliased.


Helps turning DSR to 0%, leaning all the way towards sharpness
 
There's something weird going on with framerate in the game. Yesterday I was playing it for few hours and the game run smoothly (60fps all the time). Suddenly, after I left the Alfheim in Chapter V (just before the first fight with the dragon) the framerate suddenly sunk to 20fps. Going into item menu and back to the game fixed things and the game once again run in 60fps.

Same thing happen to me few more times. I replayed chapter IV a couple of times to get the better rank and on the last try the game started to dip below 30fps constantly, even though it was running smoothly before. Alt-tabbing the game fixed it.
 
I never really tried the various acessories back when I first played it, and I´ve been missing out! Replacing witch time with a retaliation bomb with the rosary and the ring that puts all enemies into permanent rage mode is absolutely hilarious and makes replaying earlier chapters for practice really enjoyable. Really cool how much you can fine-tune the difficulty/balance that way even outside of actually changing the difficulty.

I also love that Bayonetta feels like a game out of the golden era of PS2 games, just with nicer graphics. Same with DMC4.
 
In all my years of PC gaming I've always gravitated towards sharpness of the image and clarity of textures and shaders over anti-aliasing. Which isn't to say I don't desire a clean, aliasing free IQ, so much that I loathe solutions that blur the image.

Bayonetta SGSSAA isn't poor, but I wish it was a little bit less blurry. Some of the sharper details are lost.

You do realize that the image actually lack of details when no AA solution is applied and that there are no benefits of such an image whatsoever, right ?
The absolute aim for "sharpness" is something that I will probably never understand in the gaming community and it might come from a misunderstanding of the aliasing problem, especially when so much players seem fond of Reshade presets using LumaSharpen while it actually does more harm than good.

Aliasing (and not sharpness) is a loss of informations.

In the case of real-time computer graphics, this loss of informations mostly happens during the rasterization step in the graphic pipeline. During this step, we go from representing our world/scene using vectors (hence a 3D space representation) to representing it using matrices (hence a 2D represensation) so that our screen, being is a matrix itself, can display it.

The big deal with this step is that we go from a continuous problem to a discrete problem, which means that, in order to display your scene on a screen/matrix that has a fixed size (hence a finite problem), you WILL lose informations, and there is nothing you can do about that fact.

This is why, in order to mitigate this issue, we need anti-aliasing. As you might already know, there are many types of AA solutions, and many of them come with something along the line of a slight blur or ghosting artifacts for example. While we can say that these are problems, we can see that the benefits easily outweight the drawbacks.

It is also to be noted that pushing resolution higher and higher is not a solution to the aliasing problem (not that it is an actual solvable problem in the first place anyway).
It is hiding it better indeed, but it does not actually address it. Which explain why in most case, SGSSAA is the best solution over DSR which do not necessarily help for certain types of aliasing.

In the end, your image without AA applied is not sharp, it is just very badly sampled.
 
Ok, stupid question is stupid, but how exactly does nVidia inspector works? I added a Bayonetta profile, set up MSAA (the AA compatibility and AA mode/settings), added application (bayonetta.exe), applied settings, run the game and... nothing happened. There's still no AA in the game.
 
Ok I got rid of the stuttering lol Apparantly borderless with its triple buffering was the culprit. I could have sworn I switched that off at some point and enabled Vsync in the options, but w/e
 
I never really tried the various acessories back when I first played it, and I´ve been missing out! Replacing witch time with a retaliation bomb with the rosary and the ring that puts all enemies into permanent rage mode is absolutely hilarious and makes replaying earlier chapters for practice really enjoyable. Really cool how much you can fine-tune the difficulty/balance that way even outside of actually changing the difficulty.

I also love that Bayonetta feels like a game out of the golden era of PS2 games, just with nicer graphics. Same with DMC4.
I agree with you completely. I know that certain people will say that DMC4 is the pinnacle of deep combat mechanics in action games in terms of what you can do with it technically - but Bayonetta simultaneously feels classic as well as evolved from the PS2 era beyond just graphics. The depth of Bayonetta's gameplay is far more accessible than any DMC if that makes any sense. With the character movement, camera, the combo system, how its far more easy to dodge and pull off crazy combos than those games without the it being too easy or sacrificing much depth.


If you really want a power trip: Climax Bracelet while using the Pillow Talk weapon. Sweet jesus.
 
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