35| Bayonetta 2

Released: October 24th, 2014

Available On: Wii U

In 2001, the world was greeted with an entire new genre. A game titled "Devil May Cry" gave birth to the "hard action" genre which took the speed and combo focus of a fighting game, and transfer that to the 3D space and a single player focused experience. The title became an instant hit. Over the years there have been a fair amount of games in the genre that have been released. The Devil May Cry series had a string of four sequels, Team Ninja revived the Ninja Gaiden IP with three entries, Metal Gear Solid received a bizarre, but highly enjoyable, spin-off title starring one of its costars. Out of all these games however, the one series most people will agree that stands on top is the Bayonetta series. Created by the father of the genre himself, Hideki Kamiya, the series focuses on the same combo heavy and twitch based combat. Released in the dawn of 2010 the game instantly connected with fans of the genre. Unfortunately while it was well received it didn't meet sales expectations.

The franchise was shelved until Nintendo out of all companies took a chance to resurrect it as an exclusive for their new Wii U console. This obviously caused a lot of uproar to some fans as the original entry was only available on the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360, and a Nintendo platform was foreign to the audience. Regardless, most fans were just happy to get a sequel at all. Bayonetta 2 was released in 2014 and not only instantly became a must have title for Wii U owners, but for any gamer in general.

The game plays like any other title in the genre. The player controls the protagonist as they venture upon mostly linear levels. As they explore the map groups of enemies attack the player at a time, forcing the main character to defeat the enemies in order to progress to the next area. The player keeps pressing on forward until they get to the end of a level which is typically accompanied by a boss battle or at least some type of final trial. The game centers around the player defeating enemies in the most complex, efficient, and timely manner in order to get a higher score. The higher the score the player gets, the more goodies they can unlock. When protagonist defeats an enemies as they collect halos, which look a bit like Sonic's rings, that can be used to purchase new moves and items. This is seen as advantaged to some because can gradually master the game's playstyle as they add on new moves bit by bit. There are also golden records to collect to unlock new weapons amongst other things.

It isn't innovation that makes the game stand out, in fact it really isn't all that innovative. It does have a unique multiplayer component which is surprisingly active and is entertaining enough, but it isn't something you will constantly go back to. What makes Bayonetta 2 stand head and shoulders above the crowd is that it is so well polished. There are very few video games, especially modern games, where one can just sit down and play it and be constantly entertained every minute of it. Bayonetta 2 starts of strong and doesn't cool its steam until the end credits roll. No matter what point the player puts down the game, when they pick it back up they will be instantly entertained. This also lends the game to being highly replayable. When these factors add up, it isn't hard to see why the game is so beloved.

Unfortunately the game isn't all peaches and roses. There are two ways one can look at a title like this, from a casual perspective and a hardcore perspective. From a casual perspective the game is a very tight and well paced action games that highly entertains. From a hardcore perspective however, things become a little more complicated. It boils down to primarily two reasons. In the original Bayonetta there was an effect called "witch time", in which slowed down time astronomically after the protagonist briefly dogged an enemy's attack, as the player then executes a slew of combos. While this is entertaining, it isn't the most "pure" way to play as it makes the game a little too easy and too focused on activating the effect. This is why in the hard difficulty mode witch time is absent. In Bayonetta 2, witch time is present throughout the entire game, no matter what difficulty level one plays on. The other reason is due to the new move called "umbran climax" which revolves around the player filling up their meter in order to do a special onslaught of powerful moves. This is criticized because it has players focusing too much on charging up their meter to unleash umbran climax, rather than experimenting with different strategies. To be fair, one can play the game but not using umbran climax and using items that turn off witch time. The problem is that the game is designed around witch time. While disabling witch time results in some areas in the game being far improved and some of the best in the entire genre, it makes other previous high points in the game all but unplayable. For example, the best boss battle in the game is limited to just dodging moves and shooting bullets at them. Actually hitting the enemy hardly does anything at all because the boss battle focuses on dodging their attacks to activate witch time.

That said, if one can ignore these faulty instances, then Bayonetta 2 is probably the best action game ever made. If you play the genre casually than Bayonetta 2 is absolutely the best action game ever made, if you play the genre seriously than it is up in the air, but is still more than a worthy contender depending on how comfortable one is in altering "how the game is meant to be played." The hard action genre has been in bit of a slump lately as Devil May Cry took a strange turn and Ninja Gaiden 3 was hot garbage. Sequels are unknown for these games, while Metal Gear Rising 2 was likely canceled due to Konami gaining more control over the property. There have been winks and nudges to a new entry in the Bayonetta series, but things are still unknown as of now. If the genre continues its long slumber, at least we can take comfort knowing that it entered it with a bang.