Hideki Kamiya, co-founder of PlatinumGames, is not an illustrious stranger, far from it. The man has already produced some more than notable titles including Resident Evil 2 and the first Devil May Cry: no doubt, the producer has a sense of style and Bayonetta was an opportunity for him to exacerbate the genre in all its facets. . Pure beat them all in 3D using the classic patterns of the environment - a linear structure punctuated by closed arenas and bosses ready to do battle - this first adventure of the franchise had marked more than one, and rightly so: it was simply breathtaking and wonderfully enjoyable. Ten years later, things haven't changed much.
COMPLETE BAYO SAMURAÏ
We therefore embody Bayonetta, Witch of the Umbra in search of truth about her identity. Where Dante was in charge of defeating the demons, the main enemies here are Angels, classified in an ultra-dense bestiary with multiple specificities. To tell the truth, the comparison with Devil May Cry could be established over long paragraphs, both in terms of the background and certain chara designs, or of course the gameplay and other innumerable winks which recall the well-developed CV of the Japanese. If the two franchises are often compared, it is for a good reason since they are two unbeatable behemoths of beat them all: even today, this first Bayonetta is a small pearl of intensity, with deep playability and the constant nervousness whose requirement requires skill and composure.
Above all, Bayonetta is the art of staging completely preposterous situations in real time, insane confrontations against disproportionate bosses, without downtime. The adventure also likes to vary its game phases by exploring the genre of shoot 'em up and other Japanese arcade styles: it's completely too much - even a little too much at times - and extremely rooted in the local culture. , at the risk of repelling the most down-to-earth. In the end, if the replayability is excellent and the mastery of the gameplay can always be deepened, only the scenario proves to be particularly fragile: too eccentric in its writing and relying on numerous slideshows as cutscenes, difficult to take the plot seriously and even to follow it assiduously. Fortunately, for a 2009 game, the graphics are very correct and, above all, enhanced by the 4K and 60fps. When you know the dismal framerate to which the PS3 was entitled at the time (the Xbox 360 did better), this port is a real bargain and also the only opportunity to have, in 2020, the Bayonetta franchise elsewhere than on Switch. No doubt, Nintendo made an excellent move negotiating the exclusivity of Bayonetta 2 and 3, to the detriment of the platforms of Sony and Microsoft which lost an excellent foal there.
VANQUISH LORRAINE
Vanquish, on the other hand, turned out to be an incredible TPS experience absolutely boosted by the great Shinji Mikami. It's hard to describe the excitement that emanated from this futuristic journey taking place in the American space city of Providence, refuge of a humanity in the midst of a resource crisis and attacked by inconvenient Russians. Let it be said: like Bayonetta, the story of Vanquish and its rudiments are incredibly cliché, with coarse accents and predictable turns… but that's not really the point. Its robotic atmosphere remains, even today, particularly tasty and comes to serve a gameplay at the incessant rhythm – a true ode to epilepsy and to scoring, short of six or seven hours but with undeniable replay value. Controller in hand, Vanquish is a sensational explosion, a small electric bomb with perfectly oiled mechanics and which are not ready to age.
No doubt, Nintendo made an excellent move negotiating the exclusivity of Bayonetta 2 and 3, to the detriment of the platforms of Sony and Microsoft which lost an excellent foal there.
In itself, it's a bit like Bayonetta's third-person shooter alter-ego, using well-thought-out slow motion mechanics and gargantuan-sized enemies that you will have to defeat in the middle of a rain of attacks and explosions. This batch in sixty images per second and with the resolution multiplied is obviously a small pleasure, especially since the action is supported by many particle effects then perfectly managed technically. Be careful though, Vanquish may seem light to non-scoring aficionados: you will therefore have to redo the game, explore the difficulties and the slightest subtleties to fully appreciate it. But between us, the title remains a safe bet.
