Support NeoGAF

[palpabl_purpura]

They definitely attack with each other on hard.

I can confirm this after 3 flaming Ardors pretty much killed me after attacking all at once. Bye, bye lifebar.

 

[Decado]

Why does the size of your health bar fluxuate from level to level? I'm on chapter 10 and my health bar is the same size as in chapter 1. I'm going to get slaughtered

 

[Hellion]

OK where is the level select in this game?

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Why does the size of your health bar fluxuate from level to level? I'm on chapter 10 and my health bar is the same size as in chapter 1. I'm going to get slaughtered

Collect Broken Witch Hearts and buy Witch Hearts from Rodin.

OK where is the level select in this game?

Press RB in the chapter menu.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

OK where is the level select in this game?

On 360: RB on the Start/Save/Gates of Hell screen

 

[Hellion]

Thanks.

Also I failed thinking I could send the last boss through all the planets for MAX points. :lol
^

FIXED

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Why does the size of your health bar fluxuate from level to level? I'm on chapter 10 and my health bar is the same size as in chapter 1. I'm going to get slaughtered

if you buy a gold pearl or the magic one in the post-chapter Angel Attack game, you get a major health boost for the following chapter ONLY. this is useful if you're having trouble with a boss or something.

 

[Monocle]

Posts like this scare me. When I pick it up, I might just rinse thru on easy.

Please don't. Playing on Easy might wreck your first impression of the game. Even if you unequip the automatic combo accessory, the finer points of the combat system probably won't become apparent to you because you'll be fighting relatively passive enemies in smaller groups and of lower rank than you'll encounter on Normal difficulty. Normal is well balanced for players of all but the lowest skill level. The checkpoints are generous and you can spam items to get through the tough sections if you need to.

The Alfheim Portal I mentioned gave me such a hard time because the completion requirements were to pull off seven kills with torture attacks and beat all remaining enemies within something like five minutes. Get hit three times and it's instant failure. The enemies in the first wave are all aflame, so attacking them without fire Durga outside of Witch Time counts as a hit against you. The enemies in waves two and three are hyper aggressive, and to gain magic fast you need to taunt, which puts them in aggro mode, where they come at you with even greater ferocity. All this on Hard, with its more sophisticated AI.

It's like Net_Wrecker said: The Portals are challenges that are meant to be really difficult. Only experienced players need apply. You won't have to deal with anything nearly that tough outside of the highest two difficulties, with the exception of a secret boss that isn't even part of the campaign. If you want all the health and magic upgrade prizes for completing Alfheim Portals, you'll be glad to know that they're available on Normal, where the requirements are substantially easier to meet.

 

[Zeliard]

Actually in bayonetta different enemy types will attack at the same time(Normal Mode).

Example: You are fighting two Affinities and an Ardor. The Affinities will wait for one another but the Ardor will keep going regardless of what the Affinities are doing.

Grace and Glory will sometimes fight like this, Fearless and Fairness as well.

This is the case in Normal, but on Hard, pretty much every enemy will attack without waiting for anything. Joys, for one, are nasty on Hard. I had this one fight against three of them where all three literally kept throwing their whip attack at me without stopping, to the extent I almost thought it was a bug. They were hitting me so quickly and so consecutively that I couldn't even dodge out of it right away. I was caught in dominatrix hell heaven.

On Hard you will also come across much tougher encounters than in Normal in terms of what they throw at you. There's one verse in an early chapter on Hard where you fight one pair of Grace & Glory (who replace weaker enemies from Normal), and when they're gone, three more appear (two Graces and one Glory, I think, or the other way around). Hard difficulty messes around with the enemy configurations with nearly every verse and I love that for it. Does absolute wonders for replay value (and replay value in this game would be very strong even without that).

I think you'll find that if you compare Bayonetta to any of the Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden games, its combat system really is something to write home about. Here's a truncated list of essential features:

- Real-time weapon switching between two sets of weapons. With 12 weapons available, many of which can be equipped to hands or feet, there is a vast array of unique combinations. Laser guns in your hands, rocket launchers on your feet? Go for it. Lightsaber in your hands, pistols on your feet? Why not? Rocket launcher tonfas in your hands, energy claws on your feet? Okay. Shotguns on all four limbs? By all means. And so on.

- Nearly every attack is chargeable. This is one of Bayonetta's most significant innovations. Charged attacks have several important functions, which include increasing hit range, dealing extra damage and delaying the next attack in the string until enemies enter its area of effect. Charging produces a wide variety of effects. Magical mines, laser beams that suspend opponents in the air, and a wide slash that can hit all close- to mid-range objects within your field of view are just a few examples. Many charged aerial attacks let Bayonetta float, so she can say right in an airborne opponent's face or avoid attacks from enemies on the ground.

- Almost every animation can be canceled by a) dodging, b) jumping and c) standard gunfire. If this doesn't seem significant to you, think about how other action games handle the windup, delivery and recovery of attacks. Most of them lock you into the first two stages once you've pressed a button, so you have to wait until the recovery frames to cancel the animation with a new action. Aside from a few minor exceptions, Bayonetta lets you interrupt every attack animation during all three stages with the useful actions listed above. For this reason, its controls are more responsive than those of any other game in the action genre.

- The powerful technique known as dodge offset lets you perform a partial string, interrupt it with up to four dodges, then resume it where you left off. And you can do this once for every attack in a string except the first (so if you have a six-hit string, that's five potential dodge offsets). The panther transformation and taunting also bear this offset effect, the former being especially useful because you can remain in panther form indefinitely. As if delaying attacks weren't useful enough, you can also use dodges or the panther to skip moves in strings. So if you want to do the powerful Wicked Weave finisher of PKP without the first two hits, you input P then immediately dodge, K then immediately dodge, P. This will produce two evasive flips that smoothly transition into a Wicked Weave.

- The Witch Time mechanic, unique to Bayonetta, enhances its combat's natural ebb and flow of offense and evasion. Bayonetta's opponents aren't just fodder; they can and will attack in groups and parry your attacks. With Witch Time, you can turn a bad situation to your advantage with a single well timed dodge. It's to Kamiya's credit that he found a way to let players build combos as complex as DMC3's against enemies that are anything but passive.

- Bayonetta's aerial combat is second to none because, barring a scant handful of strings and special attacks, the title character's full move set is available after she jumps. Couple that with the teleport maneuver you can buy in the shop, include Kulshedra's ability to bring an enemy to Bayonetta or Bayonetta to an enemy, toss in animal transformations for good measure, and you have a truly immense spread of attack options—well beyond what most, if any, other action games can offer.

Great post.

 

[palpabl_purpura]

Thanks.

Also I failed thinking I to send the last boss through all the planets for MAX points. :lol

Yeah, that sequence makes no sense to me whatsoever. Crashing into a planet should do an adequate job of destruction. Do they realize the core of a planet is hotter than the sun? Jupiter's core is at least 5 times hotter than the sun.

 

[Jigsaw]

Yea, nope. Play on hard. Hell, taunt more than 2 enemies and just see what happens. Fuck Graces and Glories though. Fuck them hard straight to hell.

i played through endles climax weeks ago already (as it was released a month early in europe,remember?),it was as easy as normal mode and in my 6+ playthroughs i never noticed 2 enemies attacking at the same time (maybe 1 enemy was charging up something while the other does a normal hit,but all in all it was mostly 1 on 1,even when fighting 3 golden graces and glories on the highway)

maybe i was just lucky that i never got raped or im just too good after ninja gaiden 2 mnm

 

[Monocle]

Does anyone know where I can download the soundtrack?!
I'm only on the 3rd Chapter and I love everything about this game...
Sorta regretting picking it up on 360 (I got a PS3 for Christmas, and want to play that as much as possible...)

You can listen to the soundtrack on YouTube. iTunes doesn't have it, and this isn't the place to ask for illegal downloads (not that you intended your request to be interpreted that way). Play-Asia and Amazon Japan have the sexy five-disk OST.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Dumb question but how do you charge? I want to do mines!

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Dumb question but how do you charge? I want to do mines!

Hold the button you're attacking with, the same as (non-X button)shooting.

 

[Zeliard]

Dumb question but how do you charge? I want to do mines!

Hold the button down.

Charging has different properties with different weapons. The red Durgas lay mines, but the blue ones have this electromagnetic explosion sort of thing. The sword charges up a devastating wide-arc attack in 2 stages, Ninja Gaiden-style. The whip doesn't actually charge, I don't think, but holding the button down becomes the Scorpion "get over here" move. The guns keep shooting if you hold the button down (bullets for the handguns, rockets for the Kilgores, highly useful for the latter as you might imagine). And so on.

 

[sonicmj1]

I spent an hour on the Lost Chapter, and got to Verse 4 before finally succumbing. I'm sad I accidentially killed the last Affinity in one of the stages before taunting back to full health with the accessory. Sucks that all my progress is gone.

The Lost Chapter is really hard. After Verse 1, it feels like most enemies are moving at double speed.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

I spent an hour on the Lost Chapter, and got to Verse 4 before finally succumbing. I'm sad I accidentially killed the last Affinity in one of the stages before taunting back to full health with the accessory. Sucks that all my progress is gone.

The Lost Chapter is really hard. After Verse 1, it feels like most enemies are moving at double speed.

they move at what amounts to Hard mode speed, yeah. it's tough. I haven't got much further than Verse 2 yet. Granted, I haven't really sat down and properly tried it yet.

 

[Llyranor]

The whip doesn't actually charge, I don't think, but holding the button down becomes the Scorpion "get over here" move.

If you release the button as the enemy is drawn to you, you can unleash a powerful combo on them. If you hold and press in the opposite direction, you'll spin them around and damage surrounding baddies.

 

[Zeliard]

If you release the button as the enemy is drawn to you, you can unleash a powerful combo on them. If you hold and press in the opposite direction, you'll spin them around and damage surrounding baddies.

I noticed that first one actually. Haven't used the whip a great deal yet, though, but I've pulled that whip combo off before (which, as I recall, involves a lot of elbowing). Never did the spin, though. Awesome stuff.

 

[Crash Station]

I DID IT! I got every single trophy in the game. Non-stop climax wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be.

Now the only thing left I still want to do is fight the secret boss. Is there any way to farm halos without the bracelet of time? I really don't want to go through the game again for a 4th time.

 

[Nemesis_]

The Lost Chapter is insane and I am not sure I can be bothered returning to it after getting up to Verse 4: Battle 9

Fucking intense shit! 2 Jeannes!? 1 Jeanne with Grace and Glory?!

Shit is intense!

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I DID IT! I got every single trophy in the game. Non-stop climax wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be.

Now the only thing left I still want to do is fight the secret boss. Is there anyway to farm halos without the bracelet of time? I really don't want to go through the game again for a 4th time.

Here's my halo farming strategy

Spoiler

Go to chapter VII, the boss chapter. Put lightning durga on your hands, whatever on your feet. You want to equip the accessories that give you witch time when you're hit and Gaze of Despair (which makes the boss harder to kill). Basically, whenever he comes even close, spam punch like a motherfucker.

Don't stop for anything, get to his weak spots as fast as possible, just keep hitting him. Might want to carry a red hot shot in case you start taking too much damage, but all these witch time combos should max out the combo score meter. You'll get about 800k or more halos if you do it right.

 

[Roto13]

Here's my halo farming strategy

Spoiler

Go to chapter VII, the boss chapter. Put lightning durga on your hands, whatever on your feet. You want to equip the accessories that give you witch time when you're hit and Gaze of Despair (which makes the boss harder to kill). Basically, whenever he comes even close, spam punch like a motherfucker.

Don't stop for anything, get to his weak spots as fast as possible, just keep hitting him. Might want to carry a red hot shot in case you start taking too much damage, but all these witch time combos should max out the combo score meter. You'll get about 800k or more halos if you do it right.

I find it really hard to get more than like 450,000 like this. >_>

 

[Zeliard]

The "Old" costume is beautiful.

 

[Mejilan]

What IS the point of the alternate Onyx Roses?

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I find it really hard to get more than like 450,000 like this. >_>

Two good things to note:

When it goes auto-witch time (the scripted part of the battle where you hop to different platforms), run to the back to throw the bus at him and quickly get to his fingers to start a new combo. When Phase II of the battle starts, try and get to the orbs as quickly as possible so as not to break the combo.

IF you can get it up to 9999x9.9, you have it made.

Also, you're sure you have the Gaze of Despair on?

 

[Zeliard]

What IS the point of the alternate Onyx Roses?

Buying the alternate versions allows you to equip the same weapons on both hands and feet.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

What IS the point of the alternate Onyx Roses?

So you can equip them on your hands and feet at once.

So, basically no point.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

you do heaps of damage during some combos if you have the same thing attached to your arms and feet. I was playing with dual-Onyx Roses and was surprised at how fast I was able to kill some enemies.

Same with the Durga and Lt Col Kilgore, actually.

 

[Augemitbutter]

The "Old" costume is beautiful.

yea, it is. been using it alot lately.

 

[Mejilan]

Ahh, I didn't even think of that. The first set of guns didn't have the either/or limitation, so I figured it had more to do with the weapons' respective weights than anything. Thanks for clearing that up.

I think I prefer the initial guns because they seem to allow me to rack up my magic meter with great speed. Especially if I use the Punch, Punch, Punch, Kick, Kick combo, with the two kicks extended by holding the buttons down.

 

[Roto13]

Two good things to note:

When it goes auto-witch time (the scripted part of the battle where you hop to different platforms), run to the back to throw the bus at him and quickly get to his fingers to start a new combo. When Phase II of the battle starts, try and get to the orbs as quickly as possible so as not to break the combo.

IF you can get it up to 9999x9.9, you have it made.

Also, you're sure you have the Gaze of Despair on?

I never thought to use the bus to keep the combo going. I do have the Gaze of Despair on. And I do run to those little bulbs fast enough to keep the combo going. : P

 

[Daigoro]

quick question about the last battle on Hard:

Spoiler

when Jubileus punches 3 times towards you on the ground, can you parry those strikes, or just dodge them?

i was running out of time today at this point and had to stop at a check point. i got the bosses health down and climaxed and ran up the hair only to get bitchslapped to my death. i forget how to dodge that swipe there. thought i could jump over the swipe, but i guess not? ill finish tomorrow...

 

[Zeliard]

you do heaps of damage during some combos if you have the same thing attached to your arms and feet. I was playing with dual-Onyx Roses and was surprised at how fast I was able to kill some enemies.

Same with the Durga and Lt Col Kilgore, actually.

I've been using the quad Durgas as my second weapon set. I love it. I've been using Shuraba and Kilgore as my primary set for most of my playing time.

I'm gonna use the nunchucks when I unlock those, though.

 

[Roto13]

quick question about the last battle on Hard:

Spoiler

when Jubileus punches 3 times towards you on the ground, can you parry those strikes, or just dodge them?

i was running out of time today at this point and had to stop at a check point. i got the bosses health down and climaxed and ran up the hair only to get bitchslapped to my death. i forget how to dodge that swipe there. thought i could jump over the swipe, but i guess not? ill finish tomorrow...

You jump over stuff in this game? Weird.

 

[Daigoro]

You jump over stuff in this game? Weird.

yeah, fire usually.

but obviously i was doing it wrong here, cause i died. guess i just needed to use dodge/witch time.

 

[Crash Station]

Here's my halo farming strategy

Spoiler

Go to chapter VII, the boss chapter. Put lightning durga on your hands, whatever on your feet. You want to equip the accessories that give you witch time when you're hit and Gaze of Despair (which makes the boss harder to kill). Basically, whenever he comes even close, spam punch like a motherfucker.

Don't stop for anything, get to his weak spots as fast as possible, just keep hitting him. Might want to carry a red hot shot in case you start taking too much damage, but all these witch time combos should max out the combo score meter. You'll get about 800k or more halos if you do it right.

Tried it a few times. Works pretty well. Thanks.

 

[LiK]

quick question about the last battle on Hard:

Spoiler

when Jubileus punches 3 times towards you on the ground, can you parry those strikes, or just dodge them?

i was running out of time today at this point and had to stop at a check point. i got the bosses health down and climaxed and ran up the hair only to get bitchslapped to my death. i forget how to dodge that swipe there. thought i could jump over the swipe, but i guess not? ill finish tomorrow...

Spoiler

i dodged them. not sure you can actually parry her giant fists. dunno how to aim for them from the below camera angle.

and you CAN jump over her hand with the double jump when you're running along your hair. that's the only way to avoid getting swiped off from my experience.

 

[Papercuts]

Holy shit, I can't believe I got a pure platinum on the Grace and Glory x 5 part in chapter 5 on hard. :lol

I also found it odd how on chapter 6 they replaced the two waves of Grace and Glory with a single Gracious, that's not really hard to handle at all.

One more thing, I thought some people here said you could attack flaming enemies with the fire durgas? I tried it and still took damage as per usual.

 

[Zertez]

Two good things to note:

When it goes auto-witch time (the scripted part of the battle where you hop to different platforms), run to the back to throw the bus at him and quickly get to his fingers to start a new combo. When Phase II of the battle starts, try and get to the orbs as quickly as possible so as not to break the combo.

IF you can get it up to 9999x9.9, you have it made.

Also, you're sure you have the Gaze of Despair on?

The highest amount of halos I've collected in one run on the boss is 1.7 million. Phase 1 is not as important as phase 2 and 3.

Try to get a high combo score in phase 1, but conserve your health as well. When you get to phase 2, run to hot spot in panther form and build combo. At first you may need to use a gun if you are not able to get to the new spot in time. You should be able to finish phase 2 without breaking chain. In phase 3 build combo score and don't worry much about getting hit. You should have enough health to last the whole phase. You can finish phase without breaking chain.

With a little practice you can finish the fight and have long unbroken chains in phase 2 and 3. A good phase 2 and 3 should net you around a million halos easy. Killgore exploit will net a lot more halos, but fighting the boss doesn't feel as cheap as the exploit.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Holy shit, I can't believe I got a pure platinum on the Grace and Glory x 5 part in chapter 5 on hard. :lol

I also found it odd how on chapter 6 they replaced the two waves of Grace and Glory with a single Gracious, that's not really hard to handle at all.

One more thing, I thought some people here said you could attack flaming enemies with the fire durgas? I tried it and still took damage as per usual.

Because with the claws, you're still touching them. You have to just barely touch them with the weapon and Bayonetta can't be close to them at all.

All the weapons have the same issue. The sword can hit fire enemies, but Bayonetta can't touch them herself. The whip can hit enemies with impunity, but pulling them close is a bad idea.

Personally, I've always found the best way to fight enemies on fire is a combination of the whip with Kilgores on your feet and a sword on the other set doing PKP constantly.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

One more thing, I thought some people here said you could attack flaming enemies with the fire durgas? I tried it and still took damage as per usual.

I said that earlier. I'm not sure which enemies were on fire since I was only in the chapter to find an LP (In other words not really concentrating), but I definitely couldn't hit them with regular weapons, but I accidentally switched the Durgas to fire, and I could attack them without Witch Time. IDK.

 

[Tokubetsu]

Holy shit, I can't believe I got a pure platinum on the Grace and Glory x 5 part in chapter 5 on hard. :lol

I also found it odd how on chapter 6 they replaced the two waves of Grace and Glory with a single Gracious, that's not really hard to handle at all.

One more thing, I thought some people here said you could attack flaming enemies with the fire durgas? I tried it and still took damage as per usual.

Glad I'm not the only one like that in Chapter 6. Grace and Glories are the bane of my existence in this game. I just can't deal with them well..especially on hard. One gracious is fine though.

 

[mjemirzian]

Spoiler

when Jubileus punches 3 times towards you on the ground, can you parry those strikes, or just dodge them?

They are parryable. There are very few attacks in the game that cannot be parried, notably attacks that travel through the floor or the fairness 'scream'.

> One more thing, I thought some people here said you could attack flaming enemies with the fire durgas?

From my testing, it seems the fire durgas aren't effective on climax difficulty on flaming enemies.

 

[Daigoro]

hm yeah, ive been confused about the fire enemies too. it seemed like sometimes i could attack them with fire weps and sometimes not. i guess touching them is the problem. i usually just cheap out ant try to witch time/parry them.

Spoiler

i dodged them. not sure you can actually parry her giant fists. dunno how to aim for them from the below camera angle.

and you CAN jump over her hand with the double jump when you're running along your hair. that's the only way to avoid getting swiped off from my experience.

thanks. thats what i was doing as well. seemed to be taking longer than it should though and i was getting frustrated. thanks for the tip on the swipe part too, i forgot how i got through that when i played on Normal.

They are parryable. There are very few attacks in the game that cannot be parried, notably attacks that travel through the floor or the fairness 'scream'.

i figured they were, but i was really confused by the camera angle and timing. i tired it a bunch of times, but never was able to parry properly. then i got bored of losing health so just dodged.

im gonna beat that as when i get home from work tomorrow.

 

[Aske]

thanks for the tip on the swipe part too, i forgot how i got through that when i played on Normal.

As an alternate strategy, try dodging as the hand sweeps towards you. You'll roll right through it. That's all I've ever thought to do. Hell, you can dodge right through spikes as if they weren't even there if your timing is good. This game has one of the most powerful dodges I've ever used. Total invulnerability from damage, and it even saves you from the laws of physics.

 

[Roto13]

I wear durgas on my feet and I switch them to fire mode and kick the crap out of fire enemies and don't take damage.

You can walk on the fire parts of the Vigrid in Flames level with fire durgas on your feet, too.

 

[Daigoro]

as far as outfits go ive bought the P.E., Kimono, and d'Arc. so far i like them all actually. and they all look good in motion.

As an alternate strategy, try dodging as the hand sweeps towards you. You'll roll right through it. That's all I've ever thought to do. Hell, you can dodge right through spikes as if they weren't even there if your timing is good. This game has one of the most powerful dodges I've ever used. Total invulnerability from damage, and it even saves you from the laws of physics.

ok that makes sense too. it shouldnt be as hard as i made it out to be. thanks.

i was just so close to beating it on hard today before i needed to get my as to bed. i was probably just getting fatigued and frustrated while running out of time.

 

[Miburou]

As an alternate strategy, try dodging as the hand sweeps towards you. You'll roll right through it. That's all I've ever thought to do. Hell, you can dodge right through spikes as if they weren't even there if your timing is good. This game has one of the most powerful dodges I've ever used. Total invulnerability from damage, and it even saves you from the laws of physics.

What about the attack that turns you into

Spoiler

a child

? I always get hit with that, although it takes off only a tiny amount of health.

 

[Nemesis_]

What about the attack that turns you into

Spoiler

a child

? I always get hit with that, although it takes off only a tiny amount of health.

Double Jump -> Crow

You'll notice that those moves never actually leave the ground so being in the air makes you pretty much invincble.