The last boss finisher in Bayonetta is as ridiculously awesome as you may have heard.
Managed to kill Father Rodin after like 3 or 4 hours of attempts! That boss is a beast, so fast and hard hitting, really had to step it up with constant panther offsets. Didn’t use climax bracelet or kilgore glitch so pretty pleased. I did use pillow talk, so I’ll see if I can kill him without using it next time.
Yeah, this is great.
Late to the party
It’s not as exciting as it could be because I’ve already played God Hand, Transformers, Korra, and Revengeance, so I’ve seen this stuff before. I still like all the enemies and mechanics here so I expect to be playing this for a while. The movelist during the loading screens really drives home the dial-a-combo options so I don’t want to just button mash like I do in their other games. That system always seemed so pointless to me in other Platinum games, including Nier: Automata, but Bayonetta gives it greater focus.
I was also super confused about the dodge timing at first. You can dodge as you’re taking damage in Transformers and still avoid it. It’s super satisfying, but it didn’t work in this game. Then I realized you have to unlock it. That’s the bat form I remember seeing in gameplay videos. Now I’m ready.
I figured you had played this one already, but better late than never! This and its sequel are still the best in their genre to me. The potential skill ceiling in this game is pretty high if you decide to really get good at it, and it’s very rewarding. One thing I will stress is to learn how to Dodge Offset if you haven’t already. I’m pretty sure there is a short tutorial for it at some point, but I think a lot of people forget that it’s there which is a shame since it’s a really cool mechanic. Another general tip is to use your guns or dance to keep up your combo meter. That might not be really important for your initial playthrough, but if you are looking to improve your scores it is. Ooo another tip: For the combos that have a pause in them look for Bayonetta to spin her guns as a visual cue for the correct timing of the next button press. Anyway enjoy, and don’t PKP through the whole game using Shuraba like I did the first time, ughh hah.
I never played this because I never owned an X360! I have a PS3 I can borrow, but I was told that version sucked. So here we are on the WiiU.
Anyway, thanks for the tips. I am comfortable with most of that stuff from other games. I just haven’t been paying attention to score yet. I need a lot of work on the dodge timings to get through with no damage.
The weapons were really confusing. I thought I’d play through the entire game with the normal weapons first. Then I saw everyone talking about using the katana the whole way through. It has a pretty fun moveset so I’ll stick with it. (The punches are so similar to Korra anyway.)
I’m doing a good job mixing up my attack patterns. Like I said, that’s a rarity for me in Platinum games. The prominent movelist really helps. Next up is unlocking and practicing the command moves that require lock-on, which is a pain in this game since it’s on the same side of the controller as dodge.
Are you playing Bayonetta 1 on the WiiU? Bayonetta 2 is by all accounts better, and the only barrier there is WiiU access. Unless you’re planning on hitting that next?
He said he’s playing it on the Wii U. I’m guessing he has that package where 1 and 2 came together. Even if not, he will likely play 2 since he’s enjoying 1.
Yeah I got the WiiU two-pack. I’ve heard some complaints about the sequel from high-level players so I’m curious to see how it is.
I probably won’t play it until later this summer. With Nier: Automata coming out, I’m afraid that if I binge on Platinum games that I’ll get sick of them. Or maybe I’ll skip Automata until the PC version. We’ll see.
Cool game. I really liked it, and I can already tell I’m going to enjoy hard difficulty even more, just like all these character action games.
The only annoyances were some insta-kill QTEs that were a little too fast to react to and the WiiU sawing away at the disc during all the cutscenes. Not that I’m going to watch them again, though skipping them is a multi-button annoyance. Oh, and the lack of custom controls is frustrating too. Wouldn’t a PC port be nice to fix all these things? Maybe in another 10 years…
I might jump over to beat The Wonderful 101 first. I believe that makes use of the gamepad, so I want to knock it out before I switch to the Pro controller full-time (assuming I like it better) when I return to Bayonetta.
I asked above because I’m actually playing Bayonetta 2 right now, having just gotten access to a WiiU. I played Bayonetta on 360 back in the day, and briefly entertained trying to 100% platinum it, but never quite had the dedication.
Anyways, it’s kind of hard to judge it so far. I should try replaying a bit of 1 for comparison.
Whenever I play these games, I always feel like I’m missing out by not being more stylish and using a broader range of weapons and combos, but I have a really hard time seeing how some of the slower weapons are even viable, but maybe that’s just my own skill deficiency talking.
That’s still my number one challenge for these games. I don’t begin to scratch the surface of style and variety until I’ve finished the campaign multiple times and I’m not so worried about survival all the time. Heck, I played most of Bayonetta with the katana and I feel like I need to use it again to incorporate some of the other moves, like the charge attack.
I guess in the long run it’s good that there’s so much to unravel.
Five years later, the Future Press guide is going for $400 on Amazon.
It’s too bad. Apparently that one has a nice explanation of the combat tech from one of my favorite Youtubers, Saur. There is a free PDF of the BradyGames guide, but it’s just a simple walkthrough.
I don’t absolutely need it. I just enjoy reading some of these guides, like an old game manual.
Well, I “finished” Bayonetta 2 on normal today, in that I got the credits, and I was a little underwhelmed. Narratively, it’s just not as tight a package as the first game. Of course, this isn’t a game you play for the story. The final boss sequence in Bayonetta also escalated deliriously, and there was nothing like that sense of playfulness here.
I was definitely able to mash through on normal. It’s been a long time since I played Bayonetta, and I don’t think I really re-learned how to play until the last mission or two, by which I mean remembering how to use lock on effectively and making effective use of aerial attacks. But the game didn’t ever force me to on normal difficulty, and although I did use a couple continues and lollipops on the final few bosses, it was otherwise unremarkable.
Ill take a break for a few days (that usually helps me really internalize action games) and try again later though.
The just-frame parry counter move is pure joy. It’s such a simple input too. I feel like I’ve seen it in some other game, which is nagging at me.
I realized today that I haven’t been doing dodge offset at all. In Transformers: Devastation you can simply continue the combo sequence after you dodge. Here you have to hold the button through the dodge animation and then press the next button in the sequence.
I finished hard difficulty. I’m at the same point I was with DMC4 after 30 hours: I really like the game, but I haven’t quite mastered the combat. I still take a lot of damage, which is frustrating, and I can’t seem to get myself to add a lot of variety to my combos. If it’s anything like other character action games then I should do better once I finish the hardest difficulty and put another 30-40 hours into the game.
I might play Bayonetta 2 first. I’m not sure the best way to maximize my enjoyment from the two games. Maybe I’ll finish Infinite Climax in Bayonetta before I move on.
I know it’s April 1st, but it looks like Bayonetta 1 is coming to Steam. Sega released a free Bayonetta flash game today which contained an achievement with a link to a countdown that ends in 10 days.
Well it’s a countdown. We don’t know what it’s for yet.
That would be awesome though! I just played it on the WiiU. I’d be happy to play it again on PC.
I was hoping for a viral teaser…
Or maybe, it is the most saddistic april fool of the year!
I’m replaying Bayonetta on Switch (I recently played B2 on the WiiU, and wanted to compare). It’s pretty cool to be able to play portably. The Switch version looks great. I can’t remember how it looked before, because I played it so long ago, but I feel like it must look better than the original 360 release?
I liked it the first time around enough that I considered trying to 100% Pure Platinum trophy it on the 360. I don’t think I did…but I got very close. I’m nowhere near that (I’m not even close to platinuming most encounters on my first attempt this time), so I am definitely a bit rusty still, but I have 2 general thoughts:
- I think Bayonetta used to be “hard”. But in a post-Dark Souls world, I’m not sure it qualifies anymore. (Caveat that I’m not playing on Hard or whatever, because I think that’s only unlocked after a full playthrough).
- I’m pretty sure I like Bayonetta more than Bayonetta 2.
Normal will feel pretty easy if you’ve played it before. You do have unlimited continues and you start close to the encounter where you died. You can also cheese through encounters with healing items. In that sense it might be easier. But the ceiling for perfect play is probably higher since there is so much coming at you.