• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Bayonetta 2 Review Thread - Metacritic: one billion-hit combo, buy it kids

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Stardust_Comet

Neo Member
RayMaker said:
Glad to see the scores average out at 9.

For its easy to learn but deep to master combat, varied enemies, bosses and environments. its not in the same league as s lot of other 90+ games, and here why I think that.

The visuals and art style while unique ar not everyones cup of tea
The story isnt winning any oscars
The gameplay could be tedious.

In the reviews there seems to be no one addressing, obvious points which many games may not like.

reviews are just an opinion, though a good reviewer should spend time and effort thinking about different points of view.

With B1 I played the demo on my 360 and thought ''mmmm a wacky fast paced action game'' I didnt think it was bad and can understand why people love it, but reviewers giving B1 and B2 perfect or near perfect scores I cant understand.

and I dont think I'am alone in this, I loved the god of war series including god of war 3, to me its in that higher tier of games that Bayonetta does not belong in and judging by the fact that god of war 3 sold 4.7 million on a single platform and Bayo 1 sold just over 2 million on two platforms supports what I think.

Dont get me wrong its clear its a solid action game but Just what is so special about this game in this day and age?
Click to expand...


If you want to know why Bayonetta 2 is getting this many high reviews then just read the reviews themselves. There's clearly something Bayonetta 2 is doing right that nearly all of these reviewers are praising. You're better off just reading what they said on the game.
 
F

Fady K

Member
SmokyDave said:
It's not even the highest scoring game this year! For all the doom and gloom, 2014 hasn't been a bad year at all.
Click to expand...

On the contrary Dave 2014 has been one of the best years in gaming for me ;D I know you won't likely read through these but look at the amount of quality games that came out this year: (I used a list of course) Don't Starve, Broken Age, the Danganronpa games, The Last of Us Remastered, Donkey Kong Country Returns Tropical Freeze, South Park the Stick of Truth, Dark Souls II, Infamous Second Son, MGS Ground Zeroes, Bioshock Infinite burial at sea, Outlast, Child of Light, The Walking Dead Season 2, The Wolf Among Us, Transistor, Wolfenstein: New World Order, Mario Kart 8, Murdered, Valiant Hearts, Shovel Knight, Oddworld Abe's Odysee remake, Rogue Legacy, Diablo III UEE, Tales of XIllia 2, Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, Destiny, Murasaki Baby, D4, Theatrythm Curtain Call, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Sherlock Holmes Crimes & Punishment, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Forza Horizon 2, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Super Smash Bros 3DS, Alien Isolation, Driveclub, Bayonetta 2 and today The Evil Within. PHEW. BEAUTIFUL YEAR <3
 
S

Stardust_Comet

Neo Member
Fady K said:
On the contrary Dave 2014 has been one of the best years in gaming for me ;D I know you won't likely read through these but look at the amount of quality games that came out this year: (I used a list of course) Don't Starve, Broken Age, the Danganronpa games, The Last of Us Remastered, Donkey Kong Country Returns Tropical Freeze, South Park the Stick of Truth, Dark Souls II, Infamous Second Son, MGS Ground Zeroes, Bioshock Infinite burial at sea, Outlast, Child of Light, The Walking Dead Season 2, The Wolf Among Us, Transistor, Wolfenstein: New World Order, Mario Kart 8, Murdered, Valiant Hearts, Shovel Knight, Oddworld Abe's Odysee remake, Rogue Legacy, Diablo III UEE, Tales of XIllia 2, Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, Destiny, Murasaki Baby, D4, Theatrythm Curtain Call, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Sherlock Holmes Crimes & Punishment, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Forza Horizon 2, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Super Smash Bros 3DS, Alien Isolation, Driveclub, Bayonetta 2 and today The Evil Within. PHEW. BEAUTIFUL YEAR <3
Click to expand...

This is why it's not a good year for me. I've been too broke for most of the year and so many damn games came out that I need. My back log has at least doubled thanks to this year.
 
M

MoogleWizard

Member
Great scores and congratulations to Platinum Games on getting deserved praise. But I didn't expect anything below 9s and 10s after the demo, the reviews aren't surprising to me.

I'm getting a bit annoyed about the complaining about the story though, as if this medium was known for great stories. To me, the plot and characters and Bayonetta work much better for the game than many other games, that take their stories much more seriously and dedicate much more time to them. There is no disconnect between cutscenes and gameplay, like when Nathan Drake or Lara Croft go from nice guy and scared little girl to serial killer and psychopath when the cutscene ends. I use Tomb Raider as an example, because it's one of the rare games with a female protagonist like Bayonetta, and because it's one of the few cinematic, narrative heavy games I played all the way to the end. That was because the game itself was fun and the story so dumb it became entertaining. That game takes its story so seriously, yet the writing is atrociously bad. Its heroine goes from victim that can't hurt a fly to mass murdering psychopath that enjoys mowing down hordes of people with a machine gun and ramming pick axes into heads while saying "go to hell" or "run you bastards" with the flip of a switch, from one moment to another. And the devs call this character development and creating a strong female character LOL (funny how Bayonetta, with its campiness and weird fantasy setting, and without hiring professional writers (that would only get a job in video games ), manages to create a more believable heroine that doesn't need to be a psychopath to be strong). Then we have gems like the David Cage games with their shitty writing, and like I mentioned the big disconnect between the characters in cutscenes and the actual gameplay, a problem that plaques many games.
The crucial difference between such games and Bayonetta is that Bayonetta doesn't take itself seriously. It doesn't try to be something it is not, it doesn't act like it's a serious story when it's terribly written. Like Bayonetta the character and her over the top sexiness, the game and its plot are self aware. There are some serious moments here and there, but these work because they only happen rarely. The cutscenes always have the same tone, the same over the top campiness and craziness that the gameplay has, there is no disconnect. The cutscenes are funny because the game is about you having fun playing it. That is why, to me, Bayonetta's story works very well for the type of game it is. It sets the stage for the action, it is self aware, it does a good job of world building and despite the silliness Platinum managed to make me like the characters so I can care enough about what happens to them to enjoy the story for what it is. So the story works and succeeds for what it tries to accomplish, which is more than I can say for many other games that make a bigger deal out of their stories.
 
Z

Zweisy1

Member
The visuals and art style while unique ar not everyones cup of tea
The story isnt winning any oscars
The gameplay could be tedious.
Click to expand...

So? Trying to make something looks like everyone's "cup of tea" is the best way to ensure you end up something bland and uninteresting.

There's very very few games in the 90+ reviewed games list that deserve praise for their story. I mean I love games like Mario Galaxy, Soul Calibur and Halo but they don't really do anything special story wise. I guess there's Grim Fandango up there at least..

Oh and the gameplay in Bayonetta is so superior to God of War it's not even funny.
 
F

Fady K

Member
SmokyDave said:
Woah, man. I'd forgotten half of those were 2014 titles. It's been a cracking year!

No wonder my backlog has its own backlog.
Click to expand...

Stardust_Comet said:
This is why it's not a good year for me. I've been too broke for most of the year and so many damn games came out that I need. My back log has at least doubled thanks to this year.
Click to expand...

Oh man, i have the same problem guys. My backlog has grown so large - and i'm not even talking about the GOOD games I want to play, I'm talking purely about the GREAT games I want to play >_<!!
 
Z

Zemm

Member
RayMaker said:
I loved the god of war series including god of war 3, to me its in that higher tier of games that Bayonetta does not belong in and judging by the fact that god of war 3 sold 4.7 million on a single platform and Bayo 1 sold just over 2 million on two platforms supports what I think.
Click to expand...

Sells mean very little when it comes to quality. I thought everyone would have realised that decades ago with some of the turd movies and albums that sell gangbusters?

I haven't played bayonetta yet but the god of war games are the fisher price version of action games.
 
S

Spineker

Banned
Just finished the demo.

That was literally the first time ever I have played any Bayonetta whatsoever, and holy fucking shit, what is this glorious insanity!?
 
K

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
The Guardian - 5/5

It would be remiss to skate over Bayonetta herself, a character that has received significant criticism for allegedly pandering to a male audience. The criticism centres on the fact that Bayonetta has unrealistic proportions, and sometimes the camera lingers for a few seconds on her groin or some exposed flesh – usually while she’s booting some giant monster’s face off. Bayonetta’s voice actor is also pretty smouldering.

This is obviously a topic with no right or wrong take. For my part, Bayonetta is certainly sexualised, but she’s also smarter, wittier and tougher than every man in the game by a distance. Describing the character as simply sexist removes it from any context of her in-game actions: rather than spoiling the plot of Bayonetta 2, let’s consider what she does in the first game. Among other things, Bayonetta
kills every angel in heaven, demolishes the archangels in increasingly elaborate battles, lays the smackdown on the (male) Lumen sages, and rides a motorbike up the side of a launching space rocket. At the end she punches God into the sun.
I’m not saying this completely excuses the titillation, but I missed the bit where she does his laundry.
Click to expand...

The sheer polish applied to every part of Bayonetta 2 is something every major studio should aspire to: the exceptional and wide-ranging soundtrack, the huge number of unlocks, the Nintendo easter eggs, the “making of” materials, and the unlockable characters that bring their own style.
Click to expand...
 
D

danmaku

Member
MoogleWizard said:
Great scores and congratulations to Platinum Games on getting deserved praise. But I didn't expect anything below 9s and 10s after the demo, the reviews aren't surprising to me.

I'm getting a bit annoyed about the complaining about the story though, as if this medium was known for great stories. To me, the plot and characters and Bayonetta work much better for the game than many other games, that take their stories much more seriously and dedicate much more time to them. There is no disconnect between cutscenes and gameplay, like when Nathan Drake or Lara Croft go from nice guy and scared little girl to serial killer and psychopath when the cutscene ends. I use Tomb Raider as an example, because it's one of the rare games with a female protagonist like Bayonetta, and because it's one of the few cinematic, narrative heavy games I played all the way to the end. That was because the game itself was fun and the story so dumb it became entertaining. That game takes its story so seriously, yet the writing is atrociously bad. Its heroine goes from victim that can't hurt a fly to mass murdering psychopath that enjoys mowing down hordes of people with a machine gun and ramming pick axes into heads while saying "go to hell" or "run you bastards" with the flip of a switch, from one moment to another. And the devs call this character development and creating a strong female character LOL (funny how Bayonetta, with its campiness and weird fantasy setting, and without hiring professional writers (that would only get a job in video games ), manages to create a more believable heroine that doesn't need to be a psychopath to be strong). Then we have gems like the David Cage games with their shitty writing, and like I mentioned the big disconnect between the characters in cutscenes and the actual gameplay, a problem that plaques many games.
The crucial difference between such games and Bayonetta is that Bayonetta doesn't take itself seriously. It doesn't try to be something it is not, it doesn't act like it's a serious story when it's terribly written. Like Bayonetta the character and her over the top sexiness, the game and its plot are self aware. There are some serious moments here and there, but these work because they only happen rarely. The cutscenes always have the same tone, the same over the top campiness and craziness that the gameplay has, there is no disconnect. The cutscenes are funny because the game is about you having fun playing it. That is why, to me, Bayonetta's story works very well for the type of game it is. It sets the stage for the action, it is self aware, it does a good job of world building and despite the silliness Platinum managed to make me like the characters so I can care enough about what happens to them to enjoy the story for what it is. So the story works and succeeds for what it tries to accomplish, which is more than I can say for many other games that make a bigger deal out of their stories.
Click to expand...

I agree about the story being good for the kind of game Bayo is, however Bayo1 had some funny cutscene and many more terrible cutscenes, full of long boring dialogues that gave zero useful information and were just a big waste of time. There's a reason if the OT had the button combination to skip cutscenes in the title...

Platinum will never compromise their gameplay for story reasons, and I love them for that, but they're far from flawless. I hope they can handle it better in this sequel.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
TheGeoKing said:
I wasn't going to buy this (even though I own a Wii U) because I have never played the first one, but these reviews are persuading me. Lol.
Click to expand...
This comes WITH the first one.

You have no excuse.
 
O

OrbitalBeard

Member
Majine said:
I wonder how well Bayonetta 1 runs on Wii U. Considering the infamous PS3 port, I think this is a valid question.
Click to expand...

Read the Digital Foundry article. It runs better than the 360 version.

Alongside the likes of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Bayonetta stands out as one of the best ports available on the Wii U. It's clear that a lot of time and effort was poured into this release in order to preserve and in places improve upon the original experience. While it's not dramatically superior to the original Xbox 360 version, we'd have to give it the nod as the definitive version of the game. The elimination of screen-tear, faster loading, and solid performance levels make a huge difference.
Click to expand...
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Majine said:
I wonder how well Bayonetta 1 runs on Wii U. Considering the infamous PS3 port, I think this is a valid question.
Click to expand...
Its said to run just as well as the X360 version with no screen tearing.

That makes it the definitive edition of the first game, FREE
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
ViewtifulJC said:
I've seen leaked footage on YouTube "search Bayonetta 1 wii u port" and go by Upload Date...shit looks like a fuckin' Virtual Boy slideshow man

no wonder they giving this shit away for free LMAO
Click to expand...
I heard the Bayonetta 1 Wii U port actually lowers the framerate of any other game you play within an hour, before or after.
 
H

Herr K

Banned
Comparing Bayonetta to God Of Samegameoverandoveragain pls

God of War feels like a children's game compared to Bayonetta.
 
P

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
God of War has its own appeal but it's not something I'm playing just for the combat. More for the general mix of spectacle, puzzles and gore, ideally getting a sense of cohension and adventure out of it(which is one reason why 2 is so much better than the rest).

But goddamn playing GoW on the hardest difficulty is pretty boring.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Kotaku: Dressing Up In Stellar Blade Is So Much Fun
2
81
8K
Soodanim replied
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 - Reviews Thread
3 4 5 6 7
331
21K
saintjules replied
Frostpunk 2 | Review Thread
Review
12
1K
geary replied
Splitgate 2 announced for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, and PC
News 2
87
5K
Freelance Yakuza replied
Switch 2 Gimmick features
Analysis Hardware 2
63
4K
Ozriel replied
Top Bottom