I was able to play the demo of Bayonetta today at Sega’s booth, and I have to say I’m definitely looking forward to the full release of it later this year.
Controls were pretty typical; face buttons jump, attack, alternate attack, and interact, left stick to move around, and right trigger allows you to evade (as opposed to right thumbstick). Evading is actually a key mechanic to the game; if you evade, or dodge, an enemy attack at just the right time, you enable Witch Time, which briefly slows down your enemy and allows you to inflict more damage.
Anyway, Bayonetta plays very much like a Devil May Cry. Your character is fairly similar in style and mannerisms, the high vertical jump ability is also there, as are the unlimited bullets for your multiple pistols. Additionally, some of the enemies from the demo reminded me of DMC too, as did the way you dispatched them. Furthermore, different areas in the demo had objects or ‘directions’ you could interact with; when you press the interact button, a brief text description is shown along with a change in the camera — very much like DMC.
That said, the similarities don’t bother me; Bayonetta will have more than enough to differentiate itself. Getting back to the demo, I faced several basic enemies that were generic two legged creatures with a sharp weapon melee attack. Using typical button mashing of the face buttons and right trigger to evade. One particular enemy had a much longer lifeline than his buddies, although they all looked fairly similar. For this tougher enemy, using Witch Time really helped. Keeping track of your health and the enemies is done with two meters that appear during combat. In the upper left corner is Bayonetta’s health, while the lower right corner shows the life life of the enemy you are currently fighting, be it a standard enemy or a boss.
Speaking of bosses, I encountered one, possibly two during about a ten minute span. I think I’ll replay the demo tomorrow or Thursday, but the boss was a short, multi-part sequence that reminded me of fighting the large statue at the start of God of War 2. In Bayonetta, this boss is also a large white statue that is much large than Bayonetta. During the fight, he tore off a piece of a bridge I was on and threw it about, but I really didn’t have to worry about anything except hitting his hand, which was holding part of said bridge. After I had hurt him enough, the boss fight stopped for about a minute before starting again, in a slightly different part of the stage. There was no button matching sequence to finish off this boss, but there was a special move that occurred at the end of the fight whereby I was able to mash X and summon a large beast that inflicted tremendous damage on the boss.
As far as AI, framerate, controls, fun factor, etc., everything for Bayonetta is shaping up very well. I realize these impressions may be a bit vague, and to that end I plan on getting a video of me playing through the demo tomorrow or Thursday.
