Bayonetta 2

Insidious too.

Beat the second game. It's better then the first in every way except for the last boss.

Simple as that.

I think there should be a difficulty between 3rd and Infinite Climax, the difficulty spike took me off guard.

Augh. I hate Resentment.

x3 The only thing better about Jubileus was the scale and build-up; the fight itself wasn't that amazing.

I miss the Onyx Roses Shotguns.

The Umbran Arts Episode 2 is up:

You know I heard some people say that Kafka was the boss killer of the game, but that's not true, Salamandra is, especially in Umbran Climax.

Kafka + Chomp + Bracelet of Time ruins human-size bosses.

damned with faint praise :/

The Australia ABC's Good Game went and gave it the okay but nothing outstanding score of [[8.8 7/10 each :'(]]

Harsh, but unlike say polygon they're normally pretty fair reviewers who are 'for gamers for the games' rather than social concerned.

There did speak out about the games gleeful gleeful sexualisation of the heroine as a negative, but to be fair to say that's not gonna be everyone's cup of tea regardless of the artistic reason for it. The same goes double for the games some repetitive spectacle fighter game play.

Do you think it's fair to say the game lack a certain mass appeal?

And what again was wrong with Polygon reviewing from a social perspective rather than a technical one?

Nothing. Well, technically nothing, but Polygon's still getting any favors for me.

At the time they claimed to be reviewing it from a purely gameist perspective, not a social perspective. Or at least, they didn't make a specific caveat that their review was going to be judging the game on merits that weren't the raw gameplay. Since, you know, the vast vast vast majority of video game reviews focus on what's in the game, not how society might perceive it or what social lessons they might take away from it. It's not a problem if that's particularly how you want to judge a product. As long as the readers know how and why you're judging it like it. And if you're gonna ask "what's the big deal about that", well, think of it like this.

Polygon uses a numerical scale to summarize how good/bad a game is for its readers. For things like music or control or story, it works. Those are easy to quantify since it's conveying if it even works or not. It's all straight out of the game. It's fairly darn close to objective as you can get, since it tells us whether or not the game does what it set out to do. But how do you quantify moral outrage into numbers? What one person thinks is immoral might be fine with someone else? How do you scale this kind of thing? Does every ass shot deduct 0.32 from the overall score? Does every mention of the bible deduct a point too? See, when you try to mix in the subjective and try to spin it as an objective fact...that's when you get into the mess that happened with Polygon's review.

Basically, there's nothing technically wrong on judging it from whatever societal perspective you have. You just need to make sure people understand that's how you're are going to judge Bayonetta, because if the consumer is looking for an understanding of what is in the game itself to decide whether to buy it or not, they're not going to care about whatever societal implications the game might or might not carry, they don't care for that.

TL;DR "Nothing". Although telling me the game deserves 2.2 points off because you personally feel icky about how Bayonetta looks is something I got issue with.

Anyways, as far as "mass appeal goes", I doubt it ever did. Bayo's always been fairly popular with the video game crowd since they're more familiar with it and its in-depth combo system, but considering mass media at large is still trying to grasp things like mass effect or call of duty, people who aren't familiar with video games might not "get it" right away. All they really see is the box cover, maybe the trailer, and that's all most are going to go on. It's just how it's been for a while.

edited 12th Nov '14 12:20:38 PM by Raidouthe21st

That fact that we're not bringing up that topic again?

Is there a dance sequence at the end of Bayo 2?

Sho' nuff. In sepia, to boot.

Absolutely perfect. Every Bayo game needs to end with a dance sequence.

Only thing I'll say in regard to the Polygon review is that it is an illustration of everything that is wrong with review scores. I think it's fair game to critique the game if the fanservice makes your uncomfortable but scoring it only leads to people being critical of whether "________" is a valid reason to dock points for it.

I'm pretty sure there would be people who take offense regardless, but it would get rid of the whole "You robbed _____ from a perfect score" gripes.

If I were to review Bayonetta I'd probably just ignore the fanservice altogether and focus on everything else. That way no one would be upset!

The dance segments remind me of the way Viewtiful Joe ended with a music video.

Same creator, after all.

The afterburner kick is in Red Hot Kick reference (as well as a Kamen Rider kick reference in general).

So apparently you can buy Bayo's glasses, if I had the cash I would buy them, even if they're just for show.

Damn. Same. I would buy that so hard.

Cute specs.

To answer your question Maxwell, What Raidouthe21st said.

If you're a professional critic your job is not just to share your opinion of the game but to make an recommendation (or not) to the audience.

Is a game being offensive as valid a reason to dock as terrible optimisation and Soddy rates? If it ends up lessening the overall experience of the game Yes it is. But is gonna be something a lot more subjective to personal sensibilities them the other two.

Raidouthe21st: The videogame crowd in general was what I was meaning when I referring 'mass appeal'. Obviously your nan is not gonna slip the game in after a round of Wii bowling. But I do wonder platinum and Nintendo have done enough to reach The 'Call Of Duty' audience. Who despite their reputation are actually decent men and women who unfortunately just don't know any better.

But if that critic feels his readers would also find their enjoyment diminished by Bayonetta's use of the Male Gaze, and if they're following this reviewer you can pretty much assume that they generally agree with his viewpoints, is it not reasonable to warn them that something distasteful is heavily featured in the game and can ruin their experience?

I just want to chime in the argument before work: Yes it is fair to warn people about content that may be offensive to them, but I feel that that should always be followed with a "If you don't have a problem with that then..."

Actually, in Australia, Hyper Magazine reviewer Dan Stains said this about the sexuality in his review:

... I think it's important to acknowledge that Bayonetta is a heavily - even obscenely - sexualised character, and this is potentially problematic. I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about why i'm not bothered by Bayonetta's softcore cavorting and though I don't have any definitive answers I think the main reason is that, although she's sexualised, she's never objectified/ Bayonetta is aware and active - a participant, not an ornament. She knows you're watching and she relishes in it. Or it could be because I love this game so much that I don't want to entertain the possibility that it's kind of gross. Which is not cool and everything, but come on - can you blame me? This is a game that starts with a brawl ontop of an out of control fighter jet and then escalates from there.

edited 16th Nov '14 3:47:42 PM by Emperordaein