Bayonetta is an upcoming action game for the PS3 and 360 which features a witch protagonist taking on strange versions of angels in a modern day setting. Our first look at a preview build of the game today showed that it has many similarities in style and substance to the Devil May Cry series, which is probably no surprise considering the director of Bayonetta is Hideki Kamiya, the brains behind the very first DMC game.
Think DMC with a female instead of Dante or Nero and you're a long way towards understanding Bayonetta. The game's main character is the witch Bayonetta, a quite attractive sort who dresses in tight leather and has long black hair. She also packs some serious firepower, having twin pistols as well as guns built into her shoes. The level demoed to GameSpot at E3 08 began with the title character running through what looked like a gothic building before heading outside into a large courtyard area with a big central fountain. A quick cut scene then jumped in, showing several goblin-like creatures--but with angel wings and adorned with halos--swooping onto the courtyard.
The fight that took place next was pure stylish DMC-style action. Bayonetta seamlessly switches from melee, magic, and weapons attack, and was racking up 40-hit combos on the large goblins. The melee attacks we saw her dish out included a lot of standard punches and kicks, as well as a sweet looking multi-foot stomp on opponent's chests. Bayonetta also seems to have some sort of magical hair attacks, with her long locks transforming into giant fists and feet to help finish off combos. One magical move employed which stuck in our mind was an ability to slow down time for a few seconds to deal further punishment on enemies.
The game will also feature special finishing moves, some of which summon various exotic torture devices out of thin air to annihilate an enemy. One such move saw a guillotine appear--Bayonetta foot stomped an opponent into the guillotine before hitting the switch to let the device's blade fall. Sega reps tell us the game will feature different finishing moves for various enemies.
After the goblins were disposed off, a gigantic boss enemy armed with a two handed axe appeared out of a portal. Bayonetta had to keep attacking the creature's flanks, as frontal attacks proved too dangerous. The special finishing move here involved the witch turning her hair into a massive dragon's head, which promptly bit straight into the boss enemy's torso to finish him off.
Bayonetta's looking extremely promising at this early stage, and we're keen to get some hands-on time with it to see how closely it matches the frenetic style of the DMC games. Bayonetta will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2009.
Bayonetta impression (360,PS3)
Reply With Quote
