Bayonetta 2

Baybay 2

Borrowed a WiiU to play this. Sequel to 2009′s Bayonetta. Action game developed by Platinum Games. I played the first game when it came out on the PS3.

There’s only one major gripe I have with this game. When you stand over the portal to the shop there’s no UI to show how much money the player has, you have to go into the shop to see how much you can spend. So if you play thinking ‘I have to make 20k’ and then reach a shop, you don’t actually know whether you can afford it until you’re into the shop. Bananas. Just kidding, that is a minor gripe.

The game follows the same core loop as the first one. Beat up enemies. The only difference between the two is that the magic gauge in the second game is used to toggle Bayonetta into a different Wicked Weave mode. The magic gauge in the first game had various uses, items, moves, etc. In this game, pressing a button will put Bayonetta into a powered up state where each attack will unleash a Wicked Weave, consuming magic with each attack. A boss fight in this game goes like: Attack boss with miniscule damage to gain magic > When magic gauge is full, power up into Wicked Weave mode > Hit boss with good damage until no magic > Repeat. It seems that in the first game, very little emphasis was placed on the magic bar, though Bayonetta herself had respectable damage. In this game, it seems she only does tangible damage when she is powered up. Therefore, the magic gauge is so crucial. Balancing the numbers where Bayonetta does more in her normal state and slightly less while powered up would feel better and not have damage output tied to the Wicked Weave. Otherwise, having more uses for the magic gauge so the player has other viable options. I’m quite curious as to what problem Team Little Angels were trying to solve when they implemented this. Were players in the first game not using the magic gauge outside Torture Attacks? I’m guilty of that. Platinum are Capcom veterans and some of them are responsible for the first Devil May Cry. The Wicked Weave system is similar to Dante’s Devil Trigger. Though the DT was more a panic button to me. In retrospect, I was wasting resources by not using it when I had full gauge. The Player going through periods of low vs high damage in Bayonetta 2 doesn’t feel that great. Through no fault of the Player they do no damage, it is the system limiting them, as it has decided the player will do no damage until they toggle the power up. It also bothers me that the only thing this mode does is add more damage and stuns to such a degree that if the magic gauge were long enough every fight would be trivial. If we flip the numbers we can adjust the perception. Normal attacks do as much damage as Wicked Weave attacks, Wicked Weave attacks are powered up by the same relative amount, Boos HP is increased to compensate. In that way the Player would see all of their attacks do chunks of damage, making them feel powerful.

There are a few setpieces in the game that are downright jawdropping. Near the end there’s a boxing match between a giant demon and a giant angel. Controls were intuitive and it was awesome. Very final boss worthy. There were similar fights in The Wonderful 101, another Platinum game released the year before.

All in all, I prefer the first game. There’s a third one in progress, I hope that they finally resolve this What-To-Do-With-The-Magic-Gauge problem. Platinum know what kind of game they like to make, and they like playing them even more. They make action games with paper, convoluted plots with terrific mechanics and are going to keep making them as long as they like.