I was actually going to originally write this a week ago. However, I hesitated on it until I could log some more playtime and dive deeper into the game. I'll say this right off the bat: there's a lot to love and have fun with Bayonetta. However, there's a few issues (not related to the porting of the PS3 version) that mar the experience a bit and keep it from being one of the best action games that I've ever played.

To begin, there's the core of the experience: the combat systems. There's certainly not too much to fault with the combat. It's got a fair amount of customization with over half a dozen weapons that are acquired through the game, and are switchable on-the-fly between two weapon sets (you chose two weapons for each set, one for hands and one for the legs). The weapons themselves have a nice variety in design, from the default Scarborough Fair pistols, to the fire/lightning Durga gauntlet/greaves, and the popular Lt. Kilgore bazooka tonfas.

If there's anything I could levy against the combat, it's how each of the weapons have very few unique attacks. You see in Bayonetta, there's just one list of button combinations for combo attacks that every weapon works with. Actually aside from their speed and range differences, the only real difference between using the difference weapons is their final attack of a combo string varies and a unique attack when either punch or kick is held down during an attack string. Now this is good thing in that it makes it simpler to transition between using different weapons; however, this simplification can make the fights feel monotonous in extended play since regardless of weapon, you're still using the same button combinations repeatedly.

Along with the fighting, Bayonetta has a huge emphasis on evasion in battle. The witch time mechanic actually emplores the player to make an evasive dodge at the last moment, and upon doing so activates a temporary slow motion phase where you can lay waste to foes. It's certainly gives the player a great risk/reward incentive. There's even some enemies that are on fire and require you to use witch time to put out their flames to actually hit them (unless you're using the aforementioned Durgas in fire mode). Though I will say for being a mechanic that the game focuses on a considerable amount and wants you to use, it's an annoyance when the game throws in enemies that you can't use witch time against (except when countering attacks using the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa accessory), and how the highest difficulty, Non-stop Infinite Climax, is only tough due to witch time being completely removed.

The bosses of Bayonetta are largely impressive affairs. The majority of them are gigantic beasts with a variety of attacks for you to evade and counter. Each one is typically grandiose in scale, and generally provide fun and enjoyable epic battles. However, just about every single boss is reused multiple times later in the game as sub-bosses (but with less attacks than before), which diminishes the epic feeling of each one (especially when there's one that you fight no less than four times with little difference in the fight after the second time).

Then there's the fights against Bayonetta's rival Jeanne. Now these's are great boss fights (for the most part) as Jeanne is very much your equal, and each successive fight she improves like the player does in skill. It's very much like the progression of Devil May Cry 3's fights with Vergil and Ninja Gaiden's fights against the Fiend Ryu's (on hard and above), though Jeanne's changes during each progressing fight isn't as different as those examples. Now I say these fights are great "for the most part" because during some of them, the camera is absolutely atrocious. It's mainly during segments where you fight her on some object or structure that's flying/rotating through the environment; during these parts the camera is just constantly moving and very often rotates itself to a position where you can't see a damn thing. If you can't see what's going on, then you can't properly defend yourself when Jeanne goes on the offensive, and it makes these parts of the fight painful to get through until you reach the next sequence of the fight where the camera isn't complete ass.

While I'm talking about the camera, I need to bring up another part where it's an annoyance. Throughout the game, there are a couple of sequences where you have someone with you that needs to be protected. During combat, if this person is attacked the camera shifts to showing the person being hit and stay there for several seconds. The issue is the game is still running normally in the meantime; so if you're not nearby the person during this moment, you're basically offscreen and fighting completely blind. Even worse is that the camera shifts every single time the person is attacked. I've died a few cheap deaths thanks to the shifting camera.

Moving on, Bayonetta tries to break up the pace with a motorcycle chase sequence and a shooting sequence while riding a missile. These levels are homages to the c-lassic Sega games Outrun and Space Harrier/Afterburner respectively and even have remixed music from those games. Now these parts are fun to play... for the first few minutes. After that they just wear out their welcome and become monotonous to play. In the case of the motorcycle, it doesn't help that it doesn't control all that well, and the camera is set so low to the ground behind the character, you can barely see what's coming up ahead of you.

One more thing I'd like to comment on is quicktime events (QTEs). Know first off that I have a huge hatred for them; there are very few games that have pulled off using them well. Bayonetta is close, but not quite one of the lucky ones to do so. The button mashing ones that come up mid battle like during finishing moves and counters (akin to God of War's QTEs) are fine as they're engaging the player in button presses they're most likely doing at the time anyway. It's the QTEs outside of this are the issue. They're used so infrequently that when they do pop up, the player is caught off guard and most likely won't hit the prompt in time and fail. Even sillier is how two of these QTEs early in the game are timing sensitive; if you press the button too early, it counts it as a fail and you die. There's only two like this, and all the rest you can mash early to your heart's content. Why bother with timing sensitive ones if you're only going to do it for so few times?

Finally, on to the "issues" surrounding the PS3 port of Bayonetta. Honestly, most of the moaning about the inferior version is just silly. Yes, the PS3 version does not perform as well as the Xbox 360 version. However, the performance difference is not so much as to make it unplayable, nor even unenjoyable. The framerate does dip on occassion (particularly during the game's busier battles), but there's only a couple places where it drops to a point that it noticably affects gameplay (mainly in attack timing/response). It never drops to Odin Sphere levels (if you've played OS, you know what I'm talking about).

When it's all said and done, Bayonetta is an action game that's enjoyable to play. The combat is fun to mess around with, the enemies are tricky and enjoyable to fight, and the bosses are great. It does have some issues with the camera in places, and becomes boring anytime it strays from being an action game. Regardless, it's worth playing. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that Bayonetta features what is one of the most awesome final levels I've played in an action game. It really needs to be experienced.

As of this writing, I've spent just under 30 hours with Bayonetta. Completed the game four times (twice on normal, once on hard, and once on non-stop infinite climax), and acquired the platinum trophy. I don't expect to ever touch Infinite Climax difficulty ever again as removing the one feature that makes it stand out among other action games (witch time) makes it not quite as enjoyable for me compared to my other favorite action games.

--JT