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{{Infobox VG
{{Infobox VG
|image = [[File:Bayonetta PS3 US box art.jpg|alt=A long-haired woman dressed in black with white gloves and glasses brandishes two guns in her hands and one attached behind her right foot. A dark logo with "Bayonetta" in stylized capitals appears above her, and a full moon in a dark cloudy sky appears behind both.]]
|image = [[File:Beyonetta Cover UK.jpg|alt=A long-haired woman dressed in black with white gloves and glasses brandishes two guns in her hands and one attached behind her right foot. A dark logo with "Bayonetta" in stylized capitals appears above her, and a full moon in a dark cloudy sky appears behind both.]]
|caption =

|caption = Front box art for [[PlayStation 3]] and [[Xbox 360]] versions, used in North America,<ref name="gamespot-usx360bayo">{{cite web |url=http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/bayonetta/ |title=Bayonetta for Xbox 360 |publisher=[[GameSpot]] ([[CBS Interactive]]) |accessdate=October 29, 2009 }}</ref><ref name="gamespot-usps3bayo">{{cite web |url=http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/bayonetta/ |title=Bayonetta for PS3 |publisher=GameSpot |accessdate=October 29, 2009 }}</ref> the United Kingdom,<ref name="sega-ukbayo">{{cite web |url=http://www.sega.co.uk/games/bayonetta/?t=EnglishUK&gseoid=bayonetta |title=Sega :: Games :: Bayonetta |publisher=[[Sega]] |accessdate=October 29, 2009 }}</ref> Australia,<ref name="sega-ausbayo">{{cite web |url=http://www.sega-australia.com/games/bayonetta/?t=Australian&gseoid=bayonetta |title=Sega :: Games :: Bayonetta |publisher=Sega |accessdate=October 29, 2009 }}</ref> and other European countries<ref name="sega-frbayo">For example, France: {{cite web |url=http://www.sega.fr/games/bayonetta/?t=French&gseoid=bayonetta |title=Sega :: Jeux :: Bayonetta |publisher=Sega |accessdate=October 29, 2009 }}</ref>

|title = Bayonetta
|title = Bayonetta
|developer = [[Platinum Games]]<br /> [[Sega]] <small>(Playstation 3 port)</small>
|developer = [[Platinum Games]]<br /> [[Sega]] <small>(Playstation 3 port)</small>

Revision as of 22:09, 29 October 2009

Bayonetta
A long-haired woman dressed in black with white gloves and glasses brandishes two guns in her hands and one attached behind her right foot. A dark logo with "Bayonetta" in stylized capitals appears above her, and a full moon in a dark cloudy sky appears behind both.
Developer(s)Platinum Games
Sega (Playstation 3 port)
Publisher(s)Sega
Designer(s)Hideki Kamiya (director)
Platform(s)Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Genre(s)Action
Mode(s)Single-player

Template:Nihongo title is an action game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (PS3) game consoles, directed by Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe series creator Hideki Kamiya at Platinum Games in cooperation with publisher Sega. Set in a fictional city in Europe, the game will center on its title character Bayonetta, who can wield four handguns—among other weapons—and perform magical attacks to defeat various enemies. The game will have five difficulty settings; its two easiest ones will contain a game mode playable with only one button, similar to a mode Kamiya used in Devil May Cry. Its characters were designed with modern style and fashion in mind, while its music is largely upbeat and feminine.

The game was developed since around January 2007, and was released in Japan in late October 2009. It has been promoted through a television commercial with Japanese pop singer MiChi, look-alike searches, a theme for the Google Chrome Web browser, and an upcoming photo book and soundtracks. Critical reviews of pre-release versions have praised its easily learned moves, fast pace, boss battles, "Witch Mode" slowdown mechanic, and character and stage designs. However, they lamented inconsistent frame rates, duller graphics, and technical issues in its PS3 port, as well as its use of camera angles in both versions.

Plot

Bayonetta takes place in Vigrid, a fictional city in Europe.[1] The titular character is a witch who shapeshifts and uses various firearms, along with magical attacks she performs with her own hair, to dispatch her foes. She possesses four handguns—two hand-held, and one attached to each heel—and has also been pictured with shotguns, rocket launchers, a glowing whip with a cobra's head at the tip of it, and a two-handed katana. Bayonetta faces angelic and warrior-like enemies that confront and challenge her for reasons she is unaware. She awoke after a 500 year sleep[2] and found herself in an unfamiliar area with no memories of who or what she is. Over time, she begins to remember what caused the predicament she found herself in.

A male character known as Luka (ルカ) had met Bayonetta as a child, and is now a "possible love interest" for her even though they "exist in different dimensions" and cannot touch.[2][3] Other characters include Bayonetta's rival Jeanne (ジャンヌ, Jannu), who also wields four guns; the three men Rodin (ロダン, Rodan), Enzo (エンツォ, Entso), and Balder (バルドル, Barudoru); and the young girl Cereza (セレッサ, Seressa).[3]

Gameplay

Combat in Bayonetta resembles that in Hideki Kamiya's Devil May Cry, and involves both melee and long ranged attacks. Players are encouraged to explore ways to dispatch enemies with as much flair as possible through the use of complex combo strings and multiple weapons. Special commands or actions are woven into events, finishes, executions, and unique "Torture combos" in which Bayonetta summons a variety of devices to deal devastating blows to her enemies. Such devices range from guillotines to iron maidens.[4] Bayonetta also has unique but limited abilities that her enemies do not possess, such as "Witch Time", which activates when the player makes a well-timed dodge to an attack. This temporarily slows time to allow Bayonetta to inflict massive amounts of counter damage before the enemies can react.[5]

The player can perform many standard action game moves—"double jump, lock onto enemies, rotate the [third-person view] camera, backflip to avoid attacks, swap between weapons on the fly, break apart background objects ... and break through doors"[6]—and can unlock the ability to transform Bayonetta into a panther or one of various other living creatures to enhance her abilities.[7] Many enemies and objects drop halos, which resemble the rings from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog games, when destroyed; the player can collect the halos to buy upgrades and weapons.[1][6] The player can also use enemy weapons, either to directly attack or as props for movement. Bayonetta's strongest attacks transform her hair into giant boots, fists or monsters that assault the enemy.[1]

The game will include five difficulty modes: "Very Easy", "Easy", "Normal", and two harder modes.[6] On Easy and Very Easy, a "Very Easy Automatic" mode is made available that can be played with only one hand: the game positions Bayonetta to perform attacks on enemies, and the player only needs to press one button at certain points unless they wish to perform their own choice of movements or attacks. Kamiya, who first added such a mode to Devil May Cry, posted a video on the game's official website in which character designer Mari Shimazaki demonstrated the mode (which Kamiya "jokingly called 'Mommy Mode'") in Bayonetta.[8][9] He expects gamers to first complete the game in 10 to 12 hours, but believes that the game's rating system (similar to that of Viewtiful Joe, which he directed) and the pursuit of high scores will provide replay value.[10] The game has a fixed button configuration; Kamiya said "we found that there wasn't really a point to changing" it.[9]

Development

... it's been eight years since [the first Devil May Cry (DMC)], so of course I wouldn't create a game that hadn't progressed from those days! Of course, if there hadn't have been DMC, there wouldn't be Bayonetta, which has evolved from DMC.

— Kamiya, April 2009[11]

Kamiya directed Bayonetta at Platinum Games since around January 2007,[12] and the game was "more-or-less complete" by October 21, 2009.[13] The group developed for Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console, while Sega—with Platinum Games's original data and support—ported the game to Sony's PlayStation 3.[14][15] Shimazaki designed the game's characters to be "fashionable", with "subdued" features.[16] She designed the titular character to fulfill Kamiya's request for a modern, female witch that wears glasses and wields four guns,[14] and the two settled on her original concept for the character despite her work "over a year" on other concepts.[17] Bayonetta emerged as a long-haired, black-clothed witch with a beehive hairdo (in place of the traditional pointy hat) and glasses (which Kamiya "really pushed for ... to differentiate Bayonetta from other female characters and give her a sense of mystery and intelligence").[14] Conversely, she "didn't require a huge amount of effort" to design Bayonetta's short-haired, red-clothed rival Jeanne, who merely wears her glasses on her head above her eyes. She added plumes to Jeanne's handguns to add movement to the design, and thick makeup to Jeanne's face to "make [her] feel like something out of the 1960s". Though Shimazaki preferred Bayonetta, Jeanne turned out to be the more popular of the two witches among Kamiya and the development team.[16] Still, in an April 2009 interview, Kamiya called the former "in many ways ... my ideal woman".[11]

Sketch of two long haired, black-clothed women in two poses, side by side. To their left is a cat-shaped earring. Above the woman on the right are six circular items of gold jewelry. Around them is a white background with Japanese and English text throughout.
Mari Shimazaki designed the witch Bayonetta with long limbs to avoid a short, thin look in the final game.[14]

Though the game's director "deliberately created Bayonetta from scratch" and has called its story "completely original", he has admitted using "some names from Scandinavian mythology" and playing "about half of" Devil May Cry 4 for research.[11] As a fan of folk music, he also named Bayonetta's set of four handguns after the old English ballad "Scarborough Fair", and its individual guns Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.[18][19] Hiroshi Yamaguchi focused on composing music for the game that has a "nice up-tempo beat" and expresses femininity through female choirs, pianos, and other "'beautiful' instruments"—though some tracks also use pure orchestra or folk instruments[20]—while Kenichiro Yoshimura transformed Shimazaki's Bayonetta design into a game model and used the digital sculpting tool ZBrush to create normal maps for its details. He worked with Shimazaki on the model's makeup, referred to foreign models with similar bodies, and said "I really wanted to get Bayonetta’s backside perfect. I guess I am into that sort of thing..."[21][22]

To Kamiya, the core theme of the game and its protagonist's attacks is "sexiness".[10][23] He said Bayonetta's ability to transform into a panther reflected the developers' desire to "make her a sexy witch".[7] Her giant boot, fist, and monster attacks reveal some of her body—her clothing is composed mainly of her hair—and when the player targets an enemy, red lips mark the enemy's chest; this led IGN to call the developing game a mix of "action and a great big helping of fan service".[1] The game's sexual tone is reflected in its age rating in the United States: the Entertainment Software Rating Board rated the developing game "Mature" ("M", for ages 17 and older) for containing "Partial Nudity" and "Suggestive Themes", as well as "Blood and Gore, Intense Violence," and "Strong Language".[1] (By comparison, Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organization rated the game "D", also for those ages;[24] the British Board of Film Classification rated the game "15" for "strong language and bloody violence";[25] and it is rated "18" under the PEGI system used in the United Kingdom and other European countries.[citation needed])

The game was released on October 29, 2009 in Japan.[26] It is scheduled to be released on January 5, 2010 in North America, January 8 that year in Europe, and in an unspecified January 2010 date in Australia.[27] Sega announced on August 26, 2009 that Japanese pop singer MiChi will perform "Something Missing", written for a Bayonetta commercial.[28] The commercial, which has since been shown on the game's official Japanese website, touts the game as "non-stop climax action (∞クライマックス・アクション)" and features a model dressed as Bayonetta with a lollipop.[29] Bayonetta Witch of Vigrid, a book with pictures of the title character and an "interview" with her, will be released on October 22,[30] and a 150-song, five-CD soundtrack for the game will be released on November 4.[31] Another soundtrack CD, Rodin's Collection, will come with pre-ordered copies of the game.[32] A Bayonetta theme was made available for the Google Chrome browser.[33] At the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Sega chose Penny Drake to model as Bayonetta after auditioning 100 women.[34] The company then joined men's lifestyle website Maxim.com to run a contest to find women who looked like Bayonetta. One grand prize winner will receive an Xbox 360, a 50-inch plasma television, and a copy of the Xbox version of the game.[35]

Reception

Pre-release

Matt Leone of 1UP.com said of a pre-release version of the game's PS3 port at E3 2009: "The first thing I noticed was that, at the end of a normal combo, you can hold down the final button in the string to continuously fire gunshots—which looks incredibly cool when you kick someone and then keep your leg pointed at their face as your foot pours bullets on it." He added, "I'll be amazed if Bayonetta doesn't end up being one of the best action games this year."[6] Staff at GameSpot UK were also generally impressed with the PS3 port, which they played on June 3. They called the "Witch Time" mechanic a "cool move" and one of the two boss battles they fought "pretty intense", and said "it's easy to see the similarities between the two over-the-top action games [Bayonetta and Devil May Cry]". They added, "Rampant violence and sexism is par for the course" in the game.[4] 1UP.com staff also played a PS3 version for 15 minutes on the weekend of August 31 that year, at Platinum Games's "Feel Bayonetta" event in Tokyo's Roppongi district. They said that it "was very blurry" compared to an Xbox version displayed there, and that its frame rate "was all over the place. ... it was often hard to keep track of the action [in one scene] because of the graphical issues on PS3."[36]

Screenshot of a woman with revealing attire in an outdoor setting. Above her is a dark, giant leg, composed of and attached to her hair and attacking a staff-wielding enemy to the left of her. Behind them is a fountain and various buildings. In each corner (except the bottom left) are game scores and indicators.
Though one reviewer praised the game's use of "glorious European architecture",[1] another said "Some of [Bayonetta's] larger hair-based attacks can ... obscure the action."[37]

Daniel Feit of Wired News played both versions at TGS 2009, and felt the Xbox version was "a little brighter and more colorful ... while the PS3 version cut scenes feel like you’re watching a movie through a sepia filter." He criticized the camera angles sometimes used in the game in both versions: "When Bayonetta runs too close to the edge of a scene, the camera can automatically focus on her and the wall instead of showing the enemies cornering her. Some of her larger hair-based attacks can also obscure the action." Still, he found the game's commands easy to learn and perform.[37] In March 2009, Cam Shea of IGN Australia praised the developing game as "absolutely stunning-looking" and "a balls-out action game set amongst glorious European architecture" and has called its title character their "new favourite videogame character ever ... even cooler than [Devil May Cry's main character] Dante ... she has the playfulness and versatility of Dante, but wrapped up in some of the most visually inventive combat we've seen in a long while".[1]

Similarly, GameSpy's Gerald Villoria praised the game in July that year as highly original to the point that it could end up like the poor-selling Ōkami (another Kamiya-directed game) for it—"[t]he premise, the characters, the action sequences, they're all entirely different from anything else I've ever seen," he wrote—and called its lead a "constantly moving", "remarkably multi-faceted" character "presented in an ultra-stylish way".[38] Other reviewers compared her to former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin for her appearance and her glasses in particular.[39][40][41] Kamiya has said of the comparisons, "in the US they say Sarah Palin. In Japan, they always bring up people like [singer-songwriter] Angela Aki. I think they say something similar in every country. That country's famous glasses girl. ... The thing with that impression is, you know, we've put out plenty of trailers now, and when you play the game and see the cutscenes, I think people will recognize Bayonetta as Bayonetta. Then people will look at Sarah Palin and say that she looks like Bayonetta."[41]

Release

Japanese gaming publication Famitsu awarded the Xbox 360 version of Bayonetta a perfect 40 out of 40. The PlayStation 3 version was given a slightly lower 38 out of 40, due to scores of nine from two of its four reviewers.[42] As others did pre-release, the two reviewers criticized the PS3 port's frame rate problems; one thought the difference from the Xbox version was slight.[43] One was quoted as saying, "the fun is the same, but the controls and overall look [on the PS3] feel a bit more unwieldy than the Xbox 360 one, which is a shame."[44]

References

General
  • Mielke, James (August 29, 2008). "Bayonetta (PS3): Previews: In the September EGM, we laid out "25 Things You Need To Know About Bayonetta." Now, we're happy to unveil the full-length interview behind that story". 1UP.com. Retrieved October 27, 2009. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Specific
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Shea, Cam (March 19, 2009). "Bayonetta Progress Report". IGN. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  2. ^ a b Anderson, Luke (August 22, 2009). "Bayonetta Updated Impressions". GameSpot. Retrieved October 16, 2009.
  3. ^ a b "Bayonetta - ベヨネッタ | Official Website—Character" (Adobe Flash). Sega. 2008. Retrieved October 24, 2009.
  4. ^ a b Mc Shea, Tom (June 3, 2009). "Bayonetta Hands-On". GameSpot UK. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  5. ^ Tong, Sophia (June 3, 2009). "Bayonetta Demo Impressions". GameSpot UK. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
  6. ^ a b c d Leone, Matt (June 1, 2009). "Bayonetta (PS3): Previews: We've got the first ever hands-on preview of the next big action game from the director of Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, and Okami". 1UP.com. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  7. ^ a b Leone, Matt (May 27, 2009). "Bayonetta (PS3): Previews: Learn new details about the panther, and a few hints about other yet-to-be-revealed transformations". 1UP.com. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  8. ^ Bailey, Kat (August 24, 2009). "Platinum Games Shows Off Bayonetta's 'Very Easy Automatic' Mode". 1UP.com. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  9. ^ a b Kamiya, Hideki (interviewee); Kellams, JP (interviewer). Hideki Answers Vol. 2 Part 1! (Adobe Flash). Platinum Games. Event occurs at 0:23–1:00 and 3:33–3:40. Retrieved October 10, 2009. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  10. ^ a b Marchiafava, Jeff (September 29, 2009). "Bayonetta". Game Informer (GameStop). Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  11. ^ a b c Ramsay, Randolph (April 8, 2009). "Q&A: Hideki Kamiya on Bayonetta". GameSpot. Retrieved October 21, 2009.
  12. ^ Mielke 2008, pp. 1–2. "[1UP.com:] In June of this year, we trekked down to Osaka, Japan, to meet up with the latest incarnation of Hideki Kamiya's development group, Platinum Games. ... [Hideki Kamiya]: It's been about a year and a half since we started."
  13. ^ Gifford, Kevin (October 21, 2009). "Hideki Kamiya on Wrapping Up Bayonetta". 1UP.com. Retrieved October 27, 2009.
  14. ^ a b c d Shimazaki, Mari (April 17, 2009). "Designing Bayonetta". Platinum Games. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  15. ^ Minami, Tatsuya (September 18, 2009). "Fall Harvest". Platinum Games. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  16. ^ a b Shimazaki, Mari (June 26, 2009). "Designing Bayonetta Part 2 – Jeanne". Platinum Games. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  17. ^ Villoria, Gerald (August 13, 2009). "Designing Bayonetta". GameSpy. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  18. ^ "Bayonetta: Hair-raising". Game Informer. 190. GameStop: 63. February 2009.
  19. ^ Mielke 2008, p. 1. "1UP: What are the names of her weapons? HK: As a set, they're all Scarborough Fair. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme..."
  20. ^ Yamaguchi, Hiroshi (May 29, 2009). "The Music of Bayonetta". Platinum Games. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  21. ^ Williams, Bryn (April 24, 2009). "Bayonetta's Perfect Bottom". GameSpy. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  22. ^ Yoshimura, Kenichiro (April 24, 2009). "Modeling Bayonetta". Platinum Games. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  23. ^ Mielke 2008, p. 5. "So the whole, the theme of her attacks is 'sexiness.' ... I'm having fun with the team thinking, 'So what should we do with Bayonetta to make her look sexy?' And they're like, 'Oh, maybe this move might be good. This motion might be good.' So that's what we're thinking right now."
  24. ^ 船津稔 (October 5, 2009). "セガ、PS3/Xbox360「BAYONETTA（ベヨネッタ）」 店頭体験会を開始。GAMESマーヤ葛西店に神谷D&橋本P来店!" (in Japanese). Impress Watch. Retrieved October 10, 2009. CERO rating: D (for 17 years old or older) (CEROレーティング：D（17歳以上対象）)
  25. ^ "Bayonetta rated 15 by the BBFC". British Board of Film Classification. June 3, 2009. Retrieved September 3, 2009.
  26. ^ "'Bayonetta' Finally Released!! (ついに「BAYONETTA(ベヨネッタ)」発売!!)". Sega. October 29, 2009. Retrieved October 29, 2009.
  27. ^ Reilly, Jim (October 29, 2009). "Sega Confirms Bayonetta Release Date". IGN. Retrieved October 29, 2009.
  28. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (August 26, 2009). "MiChi to Perform Bayonetta Theme Song". andriasang.com. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  29. ^ Bayonetta - ベヨネッタ | Official Website (Adobe Flash). Sega. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  30. ^ Ashcraft, Brian (September 15, 2009). "Bayonetta The Photo Book". Kotaku. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  31. ^ Ashcraft, Brian (September 18, 2009). "Bayonetta Getting 5-Disc CD Soundtrack". Kotaku. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  32. ^ Gifford, Kevin (July 15, 2009). "Bayonetta Dated, Merchandised Out". 1UP.com. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  33. ^ Glasser, AJ (October 9, 2009). "You Got Lombax, Bayonetta And Monkey In My Chrome". Kotaku. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  34. ^ Kessler, Michelle. Video: Bringing Bayonetta to life (Adobe Flash). USA Today. Retrieved October 15, 2009. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  35. ^ Crecente, Brian (September 2, 2009). "Be Bayonetta, Win HD Gaming Set-Up". Kotaku. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  36. ^ Epperson, Justin (August 31, 2009). "Platinum Shows PS3 Bayonetta, Announces Demo". 1UP.com. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  37. ^ a b Feit, Daniel (September 24, 2009). "Hands On: How Bayonetta Stacks Up on 360 vs. PS3". Wired News. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  38. ^ Villoria, Gerald (June 5, 2009). "E3 2009: Bayonetta Preview". GameSpy. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  39. ^ Arnold, Justin (October 9, 2008). "Bayonetta = Gov. Sarah Palin". Ripten. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  40. ^ Kohler, Chris (September 2, 2009). "How You Can Win the Bayonetta Lookalike Contest". Wired News. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  41. ^ a b Good, Owen (October 6, 2009). "Platinum: Actually, it's Sarah Palin who Looks Like Bayonetta". Kotaku. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  42. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (October 21, 2009). "Bayonetta is Perfect". IGN. Retrieved October 21, 2009.
  43. ^ Bailey, Kat (October 20, 2009). "Famitsu Awards Xbox 360's Bayonetta Perfect Score". 1UP.com. Retrieved October 21, 2009.
  44. ^ Gifford, Kevin (October 21, 2009). "Japan Review Check: Tekken 6, Final Fantasy Gaiden". 1UP.com. Retrieved October 21, 2009.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bayonetta_(video_game)&oldid=322812306"