Bayonetta Demo: What to Expect

BAYONETTA_BOXThis week, on Thursday, December 3, Sega is releasing a demo version of their highly anticipated game: Bayonetta for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. The full game will be out early next year, but I got a chance to try out the demo a little early, so here’s a sneak peek on what you’ll see in the trial game next week.

 

Not knowing a great deal about Bayonetta, myself, I couldn’t tell you much of the storyline. And the intro in the demo didn’t help any. There’s a bunch of wizards and witches, someone gets imprisoned, and then your character awakens. The main star of Bayonetta is a witch who can use all manner of weapons and guns, and she can even use her hair for special attacks. She can make her hair turn into a giant high heel boot to stomp on enemies, or even a monster to chew them up and spit them out! Talk about a bad hair day!

In the demo, you start out with a basic tutorial session that teaches you all the initial moves in the game. Punches, kicks, combos, combo breakers, bullet sprays, dodging, all that good stuff. Bayonetta plays out like a fast-paced action brawler, and fans of other titles like Devil May Cry might like this one, too. The moves in the tutorial were pretty easy to pull off, even I could do them. And you can also select a difficulty, even in the demo. So in the full game, I bet players of all skill levels will be able to enjoy this game. During the loading screens, you’ll even be able to practice those moves in an open area while the game loads.

In the first area, you’ll battle a bunch of demons and flying dragons while on top of a crumbling clock tower floating out in Twilight Zone land. This part of the game was very chaotic and busy, and I didn’t really know what the heck was going on. Even though this part was rather overwhelming, the next and last area in the demo was a little more manageable.

After that crazy stage, the main character wakes up on a passenger train. So the first level was only a dream! All I want to know is; what did she EAT to have such a crazy dream? Anyway, she uses her magic to walk through some people on the train, hears some voices, and then gets off at the station. The train station was built around some old ruins, so that’s the next destination. Along the way, you’ll read some signs and collect magic refilling items like purple butterflies and rings that reminded me of Sonic, another Sega classic.

Once in the courtyard, a bunch of flying bird demons swoop in, and another fight ensues. You can pick up and use any dropped weapon, even axes that are ten times bigger than she is (she must’ve ate her spinach that day). After all the enemies are cleared, a giant boss ogre with a baby head appears and you must fight that. That’s when I used the special attack where her hair turns into a giant monster. After that fight, you run across a large bridge to the exit, but just then, an even bigger creature shambles up from below. It picks up the stone bridge with its massive hands and swings it around like a battering ram. All the while when you’re walking on the bridge! Smack the monster’s hand holding the bridge enough times to pass. Once you enter the doors beyond the bridge, the demo ends.

Bayonetta looks to be a good title for action game fans. The demo has some of the best graphics I’ve seen on the Xbox 360 since Soul Calibur 4, the music is catchy, and play control is smooth and easy to figure out. And the game has a lot of style, too. Popular Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu even gave Bayonetta a perfect score. Again, the full game will be available early next year.

BAYONETTA_SCREEN

Kid Factor:

Bayonetta will be rated M for Mature with ESRB descriptors of Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, and Suggestive Themes. There wasn’t any language in the demo, but plenty of violence and blood. Nothing overly grotesque, except the ogre with the baby head was pretty nightmarish. Partial Nudity and Suggestive Themes were shown in the demo, though. The lady that you play as must also use her hair as clothing, because whenever she would use a special hair attack, she wore fewer clothes. The bigger the hair attack, the more skin was shown. But, with all the stuff going on the screen, it was hard to notice this sometimes. And even though there was lots of violence and suggestive themes, it was all presented in that campy, Japanese style. So I might be ok with letting older, mature teens play this one, too. At least the demo, anyway.

No Responses to “Bayonetta Demo: What to Expect”

  1. Great review! Thank you very much!

  2. Just one question: how to add your blog into my rrs reader, thanks so much.

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