bayonetta

you know how ridiculously over the top the setpieces get towards the end? the sequel starts from that point!

haha sick!

can't find a general stylish action thread so this one will do

playing through hi-fi rush atm and holy shit this game is good. very surprised with how likable it is, like i couldn't give a fuck about gene and olivia and bayonetta and jeanne but here i'm... actually enjoying the cutscenes and the character interactions for once?
coming in blind i was expecting to despise the 4th wall breaking and the "yeah that happended" writing but about halfway thorugh the first cutscene i was already sold. this game is stunningly gorgeous and really charming so far

anyway, gameplay-wise this is baby's first devil may cry in a good way. slooowwllly teaching the gameplay system with heavy tutorialising.
again, i'd normally hate this aproach but being "skill issue" made flesh i sort of don't mind the gentle introduction.
stylish action experts will probably despise the hand-holding, and i haven't even checked if you can skip the dialogue so replaying stages for S ranks might be a pain.
i'd prefer a tad more combat encounters and less world traversal but thankfully there haven't been any obnoxious puzzle-solving or mini-game sequences for "gameplay variety" yet

i'm not the right person to gauge the combat system against all-timers like DMC3 or bayonetta but for me it plays like a dream, behind only god hand. going by the button config menu there doesn't seem to be a taunt but other than that no complaints. likely goty

The lead game designer of Hi-Fi Rush is Masaaki Yamada, he worked on Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Bayonetta, Vanquish and The Evil Within.

He's seen it all and helped make another fantastic game. pic.twitter.com/3TpiShtIJP

— Bring Peanut Butter (@Dreamboum) January 27, 2023

your praise for Godhand makes me interested in this. but sadly it's not yet available on any system i own
i do already love Bayo and Viewtiful Joe, didn't realize Capcom alum were involved with this

all those words in my post and not one mention of the gimmick of this one: it's a stylish action/rhythm game hybrid where everything in the world works on a 4/4 beat and timing attacks and dodges correctly gives scoring and damage bonus. parries have tighter timing, mashing won't work at all for those, unlike attacks that always come out even if you input them off-beat

it plays like bayo/dmc and not god hand, the camera is not locked re4 style behind your character, there's a lot of jumping, etc

a veteran with both experience with multiple games and the gaming chops to push the systems to their limits will probably (and correctly) argue that DMC5 or bayo or PS2 shinobi or whatever are much tighter games than hi-fi rush, what drew me in was the rhythm gimmick and the overall presentation and personality sealed the deal.
if you miss out on this one it's not like there aren't 2 decades worth of stellar examples of the genre