RF Generation Message Board

PARTICIPANTS:
singlebanana
GrayGhost81
Crabmaster2000
douglie007
Disposed Hero

CHECKPOINTS:
February 1st  - 7th:    Chapters I - IV
February 8th - 14th:   Chapters V - VIII
February 15th - 21st:  Chapters IX - XII
February 22nd - 28th:  finish the game

Oh no way! I'm so in!

I'm in fo sho!

Fly me to the moon...

Oh man...I so want to do this, but I would be tempted to stream it, and I'm not good enough to stream it, because I die ALL THE TIME. Also, I might make a few people blush, unless I can control myself. Plus, I played through it again just a few months ago. Still...tempting.

Man, I must be the only one who doesn't know what this is. :laugh:

Nope. I don't know either.

Bayonetta.

Have you ever watched my streams.. people love it when you suck.

Perhaps, but I'd rather not people love it when I suck THAT MUCH, and always be in fear that the stream might go from family-friendly (from me at least) to the opposite of that. I'm thinking about it, though. My thing is, I just played through it mid last year when I bought the Switch ports, so it'd be better if it was the second game, only because then I wouldn't be playing the game through twice in less than a year.

Checkpoints for February are up!

Decided today that I am in on this as well. Just borrowed a copy today - thanks GrayGhost81!

I've been so excited to replay this game that I started early. Since I've beaten it in the past and still had my old save file I decided I'm going to try and platinum trophy every level on normal difficulty as my incentive to replay this month. Had a hell of a time with the first few stages, but I'm getting back into the groove of playing again and chapters 3 and 4 went a lot smoother. Some of the Alfheim challenges are very inventive and infuriating.

This is another reason for not joining in. The challenges in the 2nd game are hard enough, but the Alfheim bits in the first game are hair-pullingly insane. I completed a handful, and some of them only after 40 or 50 tries (literally). I know most of them are skippable (if not all of them), but they become frustrating to the point of rage quitting. Not to discourage anyone from playing, because otherwise, it's a great game, but just go in with eyes wide open, and understand that those challenges, in particular, are brutal.

I might be joining in if my brother brings my copy back on Sunday...

So I was looking at the different versions, it looks the ps3 suffers from framerate issues, and the best version is the PC remake, but the switch wii u and 360 seems to be on par with each other.  What is everyone playing ?

I'm gonna play the 360 version on my Xbone.

I'm playing on the Wii U. I did have a moment during one of the quick time events where the animations froze during a button prompt so I just died and couldn't do anything. Pretty frustrating near the end of a level on the platinum trophy run. I'd recommend 360 or PC if you want to avoid that kind of stuff. But I'd also recommend Wii U/Switch if you want to be sexy Star Fox ;)

Are the nintendo costumes just for looks or do they add features

Sweet new features like you can open and close the visor in the Samus Armor Costume!! Seriously it's just extra flair and no new mechanics or abilities. When you summon your hair beast out of the portal to finish a combo and you're wearing Peach or Daisy you'll see a big Bowser foot instead of the usual hair monster and the rings you collect turn into Super Mario Coins instead. Just stuff like that.

Got a questions for you guys. I'm trying to platinum everything and I'm having a super hard time on one of the boss fights. I keep noticing that I'm getting a gold for "Used Item". I'm wondering if it's possible to get a platinum for that. I havn't used any items and to be safe I unequipped any items I had on so I can't think of a way to use less items than none, but I still get a gold ranking for that. Is gold the best or am I overlooking something?

Well.... Guess whose TV went out on Super Bowl Sunday....

Sorry Crabby, not familiar with this game enough yet.

Aww man it's gonna be always another month until you can play again since you'll have to plug an HDMi cord into another TV now :(

Hardy har har..........

So I figured out my platinum medal for "used items" problem yesterday. I apparently had a lollipop mapped to the D-Pad. Even though I wasn't using them it counted apparently. So I simply unequipped it and ran the boss again and got myself the platinum. I'm having so much fun playing this game again. The combat is consistently a blast and since this is my second playthrough I'm trying out some weapons I either ignored or just recently unlocked. So many great options, a few which make the Alfheim levels a lot more manageable than using the default Scarboroughs. 

I've never played this game, so I guess this is as good a time as any. I'll be playing the Switch version.

Was able to get Platinum trophies for each stage on normal and even snuck one Pure Platinum trophy! Since there is so much time left in the month I started playing through on Hard and not worrying about trophy score. The enemies do quite a bit more damage, but since I have maxed out health and moon pearls it doesn't seem to overwhelming yet. Although I did jump into the 4th Alfheim just to grab a umbran tear and the difficulty of that Alfheim compared to the Normal version was insane. Had to do torture kills to at least 7 enemies and half of them were Joys, Fairness, Fearless and Ardors all of which had were covered in flames so they couldn't just be attacked. Took me about 45 minutes just to clear that one Alfheim.

So after beating Normal with all Platinum trophies it said I unlocked Jeanne, but I can't figure out how to switch characters to her. Anyone have any insight into this?


[img width=700 height=525]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7828/46136473835_1c4cc8b6d6_o.jpg[/img] (https://flic.kr/p/2dhVuir)

I didn't remember almost anything from the story from my initial playthrough and while playing it again with you guys now I still feel like the story in the game is pretty forgettable. What I do love about this game besides the gameplay though are the characters and the tone of the game. It's got such a weird tone that's like simultaneously Sexy/Violent/Somber/Goofy all coated with a healthy dose of campiness. While the story doesn't stick much with me Enzo, Rodin, Luka, Cereza, Jeanne and Bayonetta all embody the overall tone of the game in different ways that make this game feel so unique. I think the opening cutscenes in the first chapter with the whole graveyard scene somehow gets all of their weirdness of this game summed up really well right off the bat which is pretty impressive considering how bizarre it can be.

Hard mode is done!

[img width=700 height=525]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7880/47023576692_c52db9cfea_o.jpg[/img] (https://flic.kr/p/2eDj85h)

Unlocked Infinite Climax mode which I'm assuming is the maximum difficulty for the game. I'm heading out of town for a week this month so I don't know if I'll have the time to try it out much though. Just tried the Angel Slayer area that I unlocked for the platinum on Normal and it's a crazy long hard gauntlet. Not sure how many verses there are (or if there is even an end), but I died on the end of the 2nd verse against two Jeanne's at once! Out of all the fights in the game I have the most trouble with Jeanne so two at once overwhelmed me pretty quickly. I'll have to practice that fight a bit before I retry Angel Slayer since each verse is like 20 minutes long.

Dude, you are a freaking beast! I have enough of a hard time on Normal with Jeanne. That fight, my second time playing through the game, which was just last year, took me probably a good 20 or 30 tries to beat her, and at least once rage quitting and having to come back to it the next day. That last Jeanne fight is insane.

Just started the game, finally. I'm playing on very easy because I'm so bad at video games and I want to finish it quickly. I forgot how cutscene heavy this game is! I mean, I've had the game on for about an hour and a half and have probably experienced about ten minutes of gameplay. Hell, some dopey cutscene is playing right now as I type this. If I remember correctly, the game opens up a bit once all the tutorials are out of the way.

I love this game, though. Everything is just so flashy and over the top, it's incredible. The music is sick.

I'm at chapter 6 so far, the game confuses my wife, lol.

Finally able to put some time into this one... I'm up to Chapter 3 now and plan on trying to knock out 2 chapters a night.  There is a lot going on in this game in terms of the battle sequences.  I'm not complaining for sure, but as a much more classic gamer, I feel a bit behind the curve.  I'm having a lot of fun with this one so far and I am really digging the story. However, so far I feel like the story sequences are a bit too long and the action sequences a bit too short.  Though I love the cutscenes, I could probably do with less of them.

Well, I finished the game last Friday and am finally up to putting some thoughts down about the game. I want to first apologize for being a little MIA this month, especially since I am hosting. Our TV died the night of the Super Bowl and it took us a little while to find and purchase a new one. The good news is that I'm now playing on 65" of 4K goodness, so my mourning of my old TV was short-lasted. My two oldest kids just finished basketball this weekend and travel soccer started at the end of January (i.e. weekends have been slammed). And lastly, I've been busy with the site's fund drive, which I'm in charge of.  Glad to now be "back in the game," so to speak, as life settles down a bit, and after finishing Bayonetta, I'm back in front of the curve already at level 14 in next month's playthrough of Dragon Warrior. Good times.

Alright, Bayonetta.... How do I begin to describe this game? I guess the best way would be to compare it to a Platinum game we played a while back, Transformers: Devastation. One obvious comparison is the dodging and "Witch Time" concept present in both games. I really love this feature and feel that it slows the chaos down a bit, which is always good for a more retro gamer like me. It's fun firing off the combos and the move sets are just sick! Though Transformers was similar, I felt that the move sets were not as expressive and cool as those in Bayonetta. While "Bayonetta" did feel a bit button mashy, there was always a sense of purpose in the moves I pulled off, where as with Transformers, I seemed to go with the same, repetitive combo over and over again. Gameplay in Bayonetta was fluid and wonderful.

Transformers looked great and that was its biggest selling point for me. The cityscapes were neat, but overall, simple and conventional as to what I see from day-to-day. The environments in Bayonetta were fantastical and other worldly; there was just something very grand and majestic about them. The sprites for the normal enemies and bosses were incredible!  I don't think that I have played any other game that has put so much fantastic detail into their design.

The knocks I have on Bayonetta, come down to three things: (1) poorly developed story, (2) fantastic looking, but way too lengthy cutscenes, and (3) it was a game that had a nice length, but like last months play, Lunar Knights, I just wanted it to end.  I felt that the story developed way too slowly throughout and wasn't really established well in the beginning. It isn't until the end that we finally put together what is really going on, so there is a great narrative abyss in the middle. Cutscenes look spectacular, but are way too long. I would swap these out for shorter ones and much more combat. Sometimes I felt as if I was watching a movie as opposed to playing a hack & slash. And my goodness, was that Father Balder cutscene long and boring enough for you? Geez.... Lastly, there was so much garbage thrown on at the end that some of it felt completely tacked on (really, a second final boss and I have to f#$king dodge planets?). A few times I thought that I had finished the game, but "NOPE!" here we are, still going...

I know these may seem like harsh criticisms of the game, but I think they are valid and overall, small gripes in the scope of how awesome this game is and how much I really enjoyed it.  I had such a blast and am so glad that I picked this game for February.  I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts.

Totally agree with your thoughts on the character designs in this game. I love how everything looks from the crazy gold plated Beloved to the flying warship Kindred to the ridiculously complicated bosses the game throws at you it was always visually appealing. Not to mention Bayonetta herself and how the different weapons augmented her visually as well. Swapping from the Shuraba to the Durga to Odette not only affects gameplay, but kept the visuals fresh and interesting. To tack that only another of your points the variety in combat was amplified as you unlocked said weapons which kept me from leaning back too heavily on certain combos as I progressed. And obviously different enemies lent themselves to different attack styles also so I never felt like I was doing the same thing over and over like is the case in a lot of other 3D action games.

I think you first 2 criticisms could probably be rolled into one as they are so closely related. If the story was more interesting maybe the cutscenes wouldn't feel so long? I don't disagree with you and like I mentioned in an early post, I didn't remember almost anything about the story from the first time I played Bayonetta. What I love about this game (besides how it looks and sounds) is the gameplay. That's what sticks with me and brought me back. Playing through again to Platinum each stage on normal and then again beating each stage on hard I skipped all the cutscenes, and that is when this game feels perfect to me. I don't care about the silly heavenly war and Umbran Witches vs Lumen Sages. I just want slice things with my sword, explode them with my Durgas and dodge things at the very last moment before they hit me!

As for your third point I always expect the ending to devolve into a bunch of crazy exposition and insane escalating fights that eventually pit me against a God bent of destroying all of humanity when playing a Japanese developed game so it doesn't wear out it's welcome for me, in fact it steps right up and meets expectations (I love the silly things like dodging the planets, tossing buildings/satellites at bosses and punching a statue to save humanity!). That last fight and the battles during the credits where a lot of fun.

I'm surprised no one has brought of the homage levels to Outrun or Space Harrier. Two of my favorite stages, I played the Outrun stage every time I booted up the game just to get myself pumped up with the speed of the level and the awesome remix of the original song. I ended up playing the Space Harrier stage quite a bit too, but that was just because I found it to be one of the hardest levels to get the Platinum trophy on.

I'm pretty sure Platinum has an "main' team and a "B" team though. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but the "B" team made Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles, Legend of Korra and a couple others while the "main" team is the Bayonetta team (and did a few others like Vanquish and Wonderful 101). Everything I've played by their "main" team I've absolutely loved. All their "B" team output I still enjoy, but it just does't quite live up to expectations.

I've been distracted with other things lately and haven't put much time into Bayonetta. My first impressions during the opening prologue chapter weren't great, as I found all of the cutscenes and tutorials to be a slog. I was starting to enjoy it much more by the time I finished Chapter 1, but I just haven't come back to it since then. Maybe I'll prioritize this game and try to finish it within the next week or so.

I know I didn't play along this month, but since I played through Bayonetta again a few months ago when the Switch version came out, I thought I would chime in briefly. Rich, your concerns are all valid, and I generally share them. I generally like the story setup and the basics that they've laid out, but there's way more exposition than needed, and the execution of that story is somewhat ham-fisted. That said, the character of Bayonetta herself is the main draw, and the voice actress who portrays her, at least in the English language track, does a great job of embodying that attitude that she has to have, to carry the persona they're trying to build. As for the combat, I think the biggest issue with the first game is that the window of time to execute Witch Time is just a hair small, and they widened that just enough with the second game where it's a bit more forgiving. It makes activating Witch Time a bit less haphazard, and as a result, makes you feel more powerful, which is important in a power fantasy game like this. I also agree about the length - it does overstay its welcome a bit, with a couple "gotcha" false endings, and the overuse of long cutscenes making the whole thing last longer than it needed to. And like you, despite these nagging concerns, I still think it's a pretty great game, with a lot of charm and draw to it, and with the improvements I feel they made with the 2nd game, I'm looking very forward to the upcoming 3rd entry.

Yeah, kind of got the Bond villain vibes during the Father Balder long-winded narrative. I feel like this could have been condensed had the middle of the story been better and revealed more.

Also, something else I wanted to point out. Is this a stretch or did anyone else pick up on this? (spoiler tag for those who have not finished)

Spoiler (hover to show)

I appears to me that young Cereza's "teddy bear" has the second jewel on it. Young Cereza has the necklace, but it is missing the jewel, one of the "Eyes." I first noticed it when the button eye falls off. The other eye appears to be the jewel. Am I off on this or did others notice it?" They seem to flaunt it with closer pictures of the "teddy" once in a while. Hidden in plain site?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBGohVRvxag

Love the OST in this game.