The End is Nigh: Bayonetta

‘The End is Nigh’ is a weekly column by Play.tm’s Martin Gaston, pondering the nature of videogame endings and why we do or don’t choose to finish the games we play. This week, Bayonetta, and how its perfectly pitched structure makes it the first must-play title of 2010.

As I start writing this article, I’m exactly halfway through a Hard playthrough of Bayonetta. By the time this article is published, due to the inherent magic of the writing and editing process, I’ll have completed the game on its most challenging Infinite Climax mode and netted a cool 1000 GamerScore. Fact.

It’s an interesting game, though I’ll freely buck the trend amongst popular critical opinion and say I don’t care a fig about the sexuality of the game’s heroine. I’m invested because, amongst other things, it’s got a solid combat mechanic where you can reduce an enemy to gore by punching him with a rock-solid fist made of the protagonist’s hair.

To hammer home the point: so little do I care for its universe outside of gameplay that I’ve not watched a cutscene past the game’s prologue. I don’t really get the humour, though I can certainly muster up a passing appreciation for the plethora of cheeky game culture references. This is personally noteworthy because I tend to persevere through even the most tedious in-game cinematics – take Devil May Cry 4, for instance, or Metal Gear Solid 2. That’s not to say Bayonetta’s universe is devoid of any kitsch charm – as Greg’s review superbly points out – it’s just that I see its storyline as a perfunctory barrier between perfecting combos and firing rockets from the launchers strapped to Bayonetta’s legs. My in-game clock currently stands at thirty hours, and I’ve promised myself I’ll maybe watch the cutscenes on my third playthrough.

DEVIL MAY CARE
If I sound like I’m moaning, I’m not: it’s a phenomenal game, one with a supreme confidence in its virtues and an impeccable understanding of the minds of its potential audience. Bayonetta works where Devil May Cry doesn’t – both have flash graphics, decent combo systems and hearty swathes of bonus content – by tweaking the difficulty settings so that everyone can play it.

For instance, completing the game on normal is a doddle. Healing items and checkpoints are scattered about in abundance – you can easily pick up a coveted red hot shot healing item in every post-level bonus round – and the game doesn’t force the player to spend five hours learning how to faff about with combos (spamming a simple punch, kick and punch attack can easily get you through the entire game at the cost of your score) and multiple weapon loadouts if they want to be able to complete the second level. Even Hard, whilst it does ramp up the damage modifiers and enemy aggressiveness considerably, is still easily completed if you’re persistent enough to retain your grip on the controller after getting continually pasted by a group of three Gracious and Glorious.

Where it significantly differs from Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry is in its strict scoring. Complete a level and you’ll be assigned a rank based on the intricacy and splendour of your combos alongside overall time and damage taken, but use an item or have the gall to die and you’ll receive a red skull mark that virtually ensures you’ll receive the lowest rating, Stone, represented in-game by a trophy of the game’s overweight, bumbling comic relief character falling on his behind. Nice.

It’s a hard game to do well in, but it’s also very easy to complete. Therein lies its genius. It caters for the people who like to blast through their games a couple of times and call it a day, and in doing so it features a fair difficulty curve for gamers who’d like to cut their teeth on a game of its ilk but can’t get to grips with DMC’s and Ninja Gaiden’s constant chastising. On the other hand it sets itself up with an unforgiving ranking system that demands a great deal of skill and dedication from players looking for high scores. Though I lean towards the latter, I can certainly appreciate its efforts to make the game enjoyable, and possible to complete, by everyone. It’s a very clever move, it means most gamers can consider Bayonetta a game they can finish, and it’s done wonders to bring a sub-genre I personally treasure to an audience who might normally consider it out of their depth. Bravo, Platinum Games. By Martin Gaston