AranPrime
Octorok
- Pronouns
- He
Before I start, I have a small request. Could someone please volunteer and copy/paste this thread onto Resetera. Spoilers, I'm going to be mostly gushing about this game and I'd like to share this enthusiasm with as many people as possible and get them to try this game. Thanks and now to the main feature.
First, I'm gonna put my cards on the table; I'm not a big Bayonetta fan. I think the first one is like a 7 that has good combat but poor bosses (with one exception) and too much bullshit that separates the combat sequences. Bayonetta 2 reduced the bullshit considerably but made combat into a mindless spam-Umbran-Climax-fest. Due to my less than stellar experiences with the franchise and the mixed fan reception to it, I ended up skipping on Bayonetta 3 and still have no desire to check it out.
Then Bayonetta Origins drops in March 2023, gets good if not stellar reviews, seems to be a major departure in terms of gameplay and presentation and I decide, out of curiosity and not knowing what to play next, to check it out. The result; I think Bayonetta Origins is easily the best game in the series and probably the best game Platinum has ever made (I haven't played Nier yet).
Right off the bat, this game's vibes are off the freaking charts. Tons of games like Kirby's Epic Yarn and Odin Sphere have storybook presentations but I can't think of any that match Bayonetta Origins with it's combination of the artsyle, the music and especially the voice over. The ingredients aren't original, but the execution is just stellar. No matter what I would think of the gameplay, I knew immediately that when it came to pure style, this game is a 10.
But then the gameplay kicks in and it's right up there with Vanquish and W101 as the best of the dev's catalog. If you're like me and thought the dual protag combat in Astral Chain was lackluster, partially since the Legion felt more like a multi-form weapon rather than a combat partner, than this might be what you're looking for as it feels like a far more complex version of Ico or Brothers. Cheshire, the demon companion, is your primary source for dealing damage and will only be taken off the battlefield once you run out of magic meter or if he takes too much consecutive damage while Cereza can cast spells that can stun enemies, pick up Cheshire when he's knocked out and has the primary health bar you must manage. As you go through the game, Cheshire acquires elemental forms that change his move set. Side note, I can't help but chuckle at the fact that you get 4 elemental forms in total making this in a sense Platinum's redo/apology for their Avatar game. Now in terms of challenge, the combat is mostly a breeze but never dull from my experience. However, if you would like more of a challenge from the get-go, then you can input a "Platinum Code" on the main menu to unlock harder modes without having to beat the game first.
But in addition to the moveset, these forms also enable abilities that let you traverse Bayonetta Origins Metroidvania world, often time in conjunction with the dual protag mechanic; You'll grab a platform with your grass form to let Cereza reach on to it and then as Cheshire lead that platform next to another vertical layer where she can get off, and finally, with a simple tap of a button, you can send Cheshire right back to her in his doll form. Of course as you'd expect from this kind of game, there are upgrades hidden in the world that you get by using new abilities. These take the form of Moon Pearls and Inferno Fruits which are used to unlock new abilities for both character. Unlocking upgrades also requires another set of currencies that are dropped by enemies or scattered in the environment, more akin to traditional action game. This is a bit convoluted as one can presume it'd be simpler to just give each character one requirement instead of two but I get the sense that this done to be remain in tone with the game being BOTH a metroidvania and an action game and thus they decided to keep the character progression of the respective genres, so as to make players engage with both facets.
Outside of discovering these, you can also find bonus challenge rooms, of both the puzzle and combat variety, and lost wisps. The former reward you with currencies while the latter rejoin their kin in a playground area with you getting rewards after discovering a set number of them in addition to just having the pleasure of watching them gradually increase in number in the area. As for a slight negative,
another aspect of exploration is a rhythm mini-game where you control Cereza using her powers to manipulate objects in the environment. It's simple and never too long but definitely feels a bit basic and is barely made more complex as you go through the game.
But now let's get to the part of this game that truly shocked me. Are you ready? Listen up. Bayonetta Origins is like Dark Souls 1. No stop, come back, this isn't a joke. I kid you not, this game has a vertical map that's reminiscent of DS1's. One second you're in one area of the world and then you take an elevator that goes down and, wabham, you're right back in a previous zone and have now unlocked a shortcut. And here's how I know the influence is obvious; There's a secret area in this game, the only optional one in it, called the Sunkissed Shore that is a beach covered in pale white sand. Sound familiar?
Now I do need to set your expectations for this aspect of the game; it's not as well done as Dark Souls 1 since you get quick travel pretty early in the game and because the map is pretty, pretty, pretty bad. It's easily the worst thing about this game, being overstylized to the point of being almost unreadable, and thus it's hard to mentally visualize the vertical levels of the world especially in an isometric game where you can't just look up or down. Nevertheless, the sheer fact that this Bayonetta spin-off's world design even remotely reminded me of Dark Souls 1 still blows my mind.
So combat is great, exploration is great, the style is 10/10 but what about the story? Well let me ask you something; do you like Magical Girl animes? Because that's exactly what Bayonetta Origins is and a damn good one at that, probably the best one in this medium (not that there's much competition besides I guess Princess Crown or some other niche game I'm forgetting about). It also has a kid-meets-pet side that's really well done. Neither angle are gonna blow your mind but they're done with a great deal of sincerity and lightheartedness that prevents them from being a bother especially when combined with the great presentation. It's easily the best narrative in this series even though that's not saying much. Another side note, or tangent rather, but I still don't get how people act like the prior games had narratives worth dedicating brain cells over and how 3's story tarnished it all. Like come on people, those stories were just white noise. You went through them to get to the gameplay. And just like DMC, when they turned that shit into an anime, nobody watched it. Like I'm sure 3's story is terrible, but big woop. End of rant.
Alright to bring this all to a close, I originally started writing this thing back in November, when I was getting frustrated at how little attention this gem was getting and unfortunately got distracted and left this on the side. But today is this game's one year anniversary so I thought I'd go ahead and complete it. Back when I finished this game (did I mention it has a fantastic ending), I thought there was a strong chance that this would be the best game I would play this year and that turned out to be true. This game is spectacular. This is the game that everyone talks about when they say they want more ps2-like games. Or when they say they want more bold AA games. Well it came out and barely anyone played it. Their loss I suppose because this is undoubtedly going to become a major cult classic like Okami or God Hand. I bring those two games up specifically because this is the game by Platinum that most reminded me of their previous work as Clover. If that's not the highest praise then I don't know what is.
First, I'm gonna put my cards on the table; I'm not a big Bayonetta fan. I think the first one is like a 7 that has good combat but poor bosses (with one exception) and too much bullshit that separates the combat sequences. Bayonetta 2 reduced the bullshit considerably but made combat into a mindless spam-Umbran-Climax-fest. Due to my less than stellar experiences with the franchise and the mixed fan reception to it, I ended up skipping on Bayonetta 3 and still have no desire to check it out.
Then Bayonetta Origins drops in March 2023, gets good if not stellar reviews, seems to be a major departure in terms of gameplay and presentation and I decide, out of curiosity and not knowing what to play next, to check it out. The result; I think Bayonetta Origins is easily the best game in the series and probably the best game Platinum has ever made (I haven't played Nier yet).
Right off the bat, this game's vibes are off the freaking charts. Tons of games like Kirby's Epic Yarn and Odin Sphere have storybook presentations but I can't think of any that match Bayonetta Origins with it's combination of the artsyle, the music and especially the voice over. The ingredients aren't original, but the execution is just stellar. No matter what I would think of the gameplay, I knew immediately that when it came to pure style, this game is a 10.
But then the gameplay kicks in and it's right up there with Vanquish and W101 as the best of the dev's catalog. If you're like me and thought the dual protag combat in Astral Chain was lackluster, partially since the Legion felt more like a multi-form weapon rather than a combat partner, than this might be what you're looking for as it feels like a far more complex version of Ico or Brothers. Cheshire, the demon companion, is your primary source for dealing damage and will only be taken off the battlefield once you run out of magic meter or if he takes too much consecutive damage while Cereza can cast spells that can stun enemies, pick up Cheshire when he's knocked out and has the primary health bar you must manage. As you go through the game, Cheshire acquires elemental forms that change his move set. Side note, I can't help but chuckle at the fact that you get 4 elemental forms in total making this in a sense Platinum's redo/apology for their Avatar game. Now in terms of challenge, the combat is mostly a breeze but never dull from my experience. However, if you would like more of a challenge from the get-go, then you can input a "Platinum Code" on the main menu to unlock harder modes without having to beat the game first.
But in addition to the moveset, these forms also enable abilities that let you traverse Bayonetta Origins Metroidvania world, often time in conjunction with the dual protag mechanic; You'll grab a platform with your grass form to let Cereza reach on to it and then as Cheshire lead that platform next to another vertical layer where she can get off, and finally, with a simple tap of a button, you can send Cheshire right back to her in his doll form. Of course as you'd expect from this kind of game, there are upgrades hidden in the world that you get by using new abilities. These take the form of Moon Pearls and Inferno Fruits which are used to unlock new abilities for both character. Unlocking upgrades also requires another set of currencies that are dropped by enemies or scattered in the environment, more akin to traditional action game. This is a bit convoluted as one can presume it'd be simpler to just give each character one requirement instead of two but I get the sense that this done to be remain in tone with the game being BOTH a metroidvania and an action game and thus they decided to keep the character progression of the respective genres, so as to make players engage with both facets.
Outside of discovering these, you can also find bonus challenge rooms, of both the puzzle and combat variety, and lost wisps. The former reward you with currencies while the latter rejoin their kin in a playground area with you getting rewards after discovering a set number of them in addition to just having the pleasure of watching them gradually increase in number in the area. As for a slight negative,
another aspect of exploration is a rhythm mini-game where you control Cereza using her powers to manipulate objects in the environment. It's simple and never too long but definitely feels a bit basic and is barely made more complex as you go through the game.
But now let's get to the part of this game that truly shocked me. Are you ready? Listen up. Bayonetta Origins is like Dark Souls 1. No stop, come back, this isn't a joke. I kid you not, this game has a vertical map that's reminiscent of DS1's. One second you're in one area of the world and then you take an elevator that goes down and, wabham, you're right back in a previous zone and have now unlocked a shortcut. And here's how I know the influence is obvious; There's a secret area in this game, the only optional one in it, called the Sunkissed Shore that is a beach covered in pale white sand. Sound familiar?
Now I do need to set your expectations for this aspect of the game; it's not as well done as Dark Souls 1 since you get quick travel pretty early in the game and because the map is pretty, pretty, pretty bad. It's easily the worst thing about this game, being overstylized to the point of being almost unreadable, and thus it's hard to mentally visualize the vertical levels of the world especially in an isometric game where you can't just look up or down. Nevertheless, the sheer fact that this Bayonetta spin-off's world design even remotely reminded me of Dark Souls 1 still blows my mind.
So combat is great, exploration is great, the style is 10/10 but what about the story? Well let me ask you something; do you like Magical Girl animes? Because that's exactly what Bayonetta Origins is and a damn good one at that, probably the best one in this medium (not that there's much competition besides I guess Princess Crown or some other niche game I'm forgetting about). It also has a kid-meets-pet side that's really well done. Neither angle are gonna blow your mind but they're done with a great deal of sincerity and lightheartedness that prevents them from being a bother especially when combined with the great presentation. It's easily the best narrative in this series even though that's not saying much. Another side note, or tangent rather, but I still don't get how people act like the prior games had narratives worth dedicating brain cells over and how 3's story tarnished it all. Like come on people, those stories were just white noise. You went through them to get to the gameplay. And just like DMC, when they turned that shit into an anime, nobody watched it. Like I'm sure 3's story is terrible, but big woop. End of rant.
Alright to bring this all to a close, I originally started writing this thing back in November, when I was getting frustrated at how little attention this gem was getting and unfortunately got distracted and left this on the side. But today is this game's one year anniversary so I thought I'd go ahead and complete it. Back when I finished this game (did I mention it has a fantastic ending), I thought there was a strong chance that this would be the best game I would play this year and that turned out to be true. This game is spectacular. This is the game that everyone talks about when they say they want more ps2-like games. Or when they say they want more bold AA games. Well it came out and barely anyone played it. Their loss I suppose because this is undoubtedly going to become a major cult classic like Okami or God Hand. I bring those two games up specifically because this is the game by Platinum that most reminded me of their previous work as Clover. If that's not the highest praise then I don't know what is.
