E3 2009: Bayonetta Preview

Jun 5, 2009

What is It?

Bayonetta is a blisteringly fast-paced third-person action game from PlatinumGames and acclaimed designer Hideki Kamiya. The premise, the characters, the action sequences, they're all entirely different from anything else I've ever seen. If you're giving out stars for originality, Bayonetta's going to end up looking like the Milky Way.

Bayonetta is a witch who has slumbered for the last couple hundred years, brought back without her memories. Sure, there's a story to all this, one that'll force Bayonetta to kill any angels foolish enough to stand in her way, but this game is all about stylish action taken to a whole new level. This is a character that purposefully maneuvers across the battlefield like a runway model on the catwalk, with a sexy, self-confident strut. She's constantly moving, stopping only to eliminate her angelic foes with her lengthy katana, her glowing red whip, or the short-barreled shotguns strapped to her high-heeled boots.

The Bayonetta character design knocks you over the head with style. This is a character tailor-made for videogames, action figures, cosplay, maybe even a Broadway show. Everything from her skin-tight leather outfit with the revealing window up top to the streak of silver in her jet-black hair -- even the sexy horn rimmed glasses -- it all adds up to a character that begs for attention. At E3, we just couldn't tell the lady no.

What's New for E3?

Bayonetta Producer Yusuke Hashimoto ran us through a few different combat scenarios, showing us just what Bayonetta can do. As I mentioned, this is a character that's presented in an ultra-stylish way, but she's also a remarkably multi-faceted action game character. Bayonetta's hair, for instance, can magically morph into various different bits of her outfit, like low-hanging sleeves that look like leathery bat wings. If she leaps, she can sprout large butterfly wings that allow her to gently glide back down to earth.

Bayonetta is fighting what appear to be the forces of good, an angelic host of winged thugs just begging for a beatdown from the forces of darkness. She can play with her prey before finishing them off with moves like the various torture attacks. These bring God Hand-styled humorous moves into play, like this one attack where she repeatedly kicked one angel in the rear, racking up combo points, before eventually dropping him headfirst into a head-lopping guillotine.

Witch Time is one of the main advantages that Bayonetta has over the overwhelming numbers she faces. The core gameplay, as was explained, is about effectively and stylishly defeating enemies in order to build up Witch Time to slow things down.

Bayonetta has a huge number of crazy attacks in her arsenal. You'll actually practice different moves and combos in the loading screens between stages. One particularly entertaining move has her do a handstand and then fire off her heel-mounted pistols in rapid succession, legs pointing suggestively from enemy to enemy as they alternate fire. How does that move make any sense? It doesn't, not in the slightest. It's all about defying realism and presenting action in an unadulterated, ridiculously cool way.

One of the things that impressed me most about Bayonetta was how the camera, traditionally a nuisance in fast-paced third-person action games, actually contributed to the experience. Bayonetta utilizes an interesting camera system where the perspective will often shift to provide the best-looking view of any particular move or encounter, so you're not always staring at her butt.

Hmm, maybe this isn't such a good thing?

One example took place when she entered a confined space and raised her guns from long range to take out an angel within. The camera shifted to the point of view of her victim, and I watched in slow motion as a hail of bullets flew right for his face. I was also intrigued by how gravity and the laws of physics don't always seem to apply to Bayonetta. She was able to leap from wall to floor to roof and back again with no problem at all, gravity always seemingly relative to her position. Is there anything that Bayonetta can't do?

Gerald says: God of War's Kratos, Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa, and Devil May Cry's Dante: They have been the kings of action gaming for many years now. Could it be time for a queen to take her rightful place at the top?

Bayonetta's future remains unclear. It's an incredibly impressive videogame, but it might just be too strange for the sort of widespread appeal that would take it to the top. I love that about the game, it's quirky, funny, stylish and sexy, but it's also weird enough to throw some people off. This is a game developed with the "hardcore gamer" in mind, one that will challenge not only their manual dexterity, but also their ability to embrace something completely original.

It would be a shame if Bayonetta ends up like Okami, destined to one day being branded "the best game you never played."