Just some quick thoughts on Bayonetta

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/8Rhky)
Tonight I was watching my wife play this sequence in Bayonetta. It starts you in front of a short cut scene which then transitions to a platforming segment. The platforming segment is, if we break it down to its most basic elements, mostly pushing forward while pressing x(a) intermittently.



Immediately afterwards, there is a Quick Time Event (hereafter QTE), which takes you into the boss fight, but which amounts to the same thing - press x(a) and forward at the signalled time. It seems like a small thing, and I will admit that I may be making a big deal out of nothing, but I like to read statements into gameplay experiences as a way of understanding a designer. QTEs get a bad rap from a lot of hardcore gamers these days, in many cases suggesting that games which utilize them are somehow akin to Dragon's Lair.

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However, if I may be permitted to read into the gameplay, it almost looks like a statement of equivocation. On the one hand, there is a justifiable backlash against having "Advent Children" fight scenes that have little to do with player input, but on the other, this can be overstated and extends baseless criticism to QTEs that aren't doing anything different from what might be considered a pretty standard platforming element.



Undoubtedly I am reading into the game to some degree or another, but I think elements like this are another measure of quality in the sense that they can betray designer consideration even on tiny details.

Another valid point that my wife brought up was that it's only unexpected QTEs which tend to irk. In the God of War series and other games like it there are often QTEs which occur at expected times: the halfway or end points of the health meter. This feels rhythmic and gives spectacular endings to boss battles. However having random QTEs in the middle of a boss fight with little to no signalling (and which force you sit through a loading screen over and over), as occurs in Bayonetta is taking it a bit too far. It's clear that Bayonetta is rooting for the mechanic (as am I), but what isn't clear is how many QTEs are too many.