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Opinion: The Cultural Clash Of Bayonetta
by Christian Nutt [PC, Console/PC]
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January 15, 2010
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[Gamasutra features director Christian Nutt jumps into the debate over the aesthetics of Platinum Games' Bayonetta, exploring context for "taste" in the history of popular culture.]
Late last year I read a fascinating book (thanks, Randy) called Let's Talk About Love: A Journey To The End of Taste. Written by music critic Carl Wilson, it's a part of the 33 1/3 series -- book-length examinations of albums.
In the series, there are books -- unsurprisingly -- on albums such as Radiohead's OK Computer, The Beatles' Let it Be, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, and Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, among many others. This is stuff that rock critics and serious music fans think are classics.
Wilson's book, in contrast, stands alone: it's about Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love, her 1997 album -- the one with the Titanic theme, My Heart Will Go On. There are two important facts that make the book as fascinating as it is. For one, Let's Talk About Love is one of the most popular albums of all time, having sold over 31 million copies worldwide; conversely, nobody who professes to be a fan of music would be caught dead listening to Celine Dion.
Wilson's book, then, is not a book-length celebration of the album; instead, as the title implies, Wilson spends it trying to understand who likes and, as importantly, who does not like Celine Dion, and why.
As Wilson puts it, "This book is an experiment in taste, in stepping deliberately outside one's own aesthetics. It has to do with social affinities and rancors and what art and its appreciation can do to mediate or exacerbate them... Primarily... the question is whether anyone's tastes stand on solid ground, starting with mine."
Why I Didn't Get There Sooner
Wilson was interested in investigating whether the critics are wrong -- not so much whether Celine Dion's music is actually excellent, but whether the premise of criticism is wrong. Wilson doesn't just listen to the CD and write his thoughts; he delves into Dion's biography, the makeup of her audience, the very nature of taste as a social construct. It's an astonishing read.
I first tried to write an editorial about the book, and how its concepts relate to our appreciation of games, in early December. The problem is that I didn't, in the end, have something to hang the article around. I found that thing last week, on Wired's Game|Life blog, in the form of an editorial by Gus Mastrapa, called Bayonetta's Gaudy Style Smothers The Substance.
In the editorial, Mastrapa describes the game as "an aesthetic mess".
He's not alone in that assessment. The game has also taken charges of being deeply sexist -- an issue explored by Gamasutra news director Leigh Alexander elsewhere.
I've been playing and have come to love Bayonetta, though, and Mastrapa's piece rankled. It's also a good example of the sort of general criticism the game is taking, so it's his piece on which I will concentrate.
What He Thinks
Says Mastrapa, "Take each element on its own: Bayonetta's skimpy black outfit, the ornate gold and feather construction of enemy angels, the baroque architecture of Vigrid. They're all handsomely crafted. But pile them together as they're presented in Bayonetta and they clash, creating an unappealing visual cacophony, like a yard sale at Neverland. Slather that gaudiness with stilted dialogue, corny music and silly plot and you've got a game that's nothing less than an affront to good taste."
His premise established, Mastrapa proceeds to demolish Bayonetta on every aesthetic front.
Its director is capable of more, says Mastrapa. "[Hideki] Kamiya did, after all, nail the look and feel of ancient Japanese art in Okami and the two-dimensional energy of anime in Viewtiful Joe. His earlier games have a visual and tonal purposefulness that seems lost in Bayonetta."
Even if you can stomach the idea Bayonetta represents an intentional stylistic choice, the execution is terrible, he says. He describes an early cutscene as "clumsily staged, terribly acted and dull as dirt."
Even so, Bayonetta is a fine exemplar of craft, Mastrapa is forced to admit, but it's artless. "There's no elegance to Bayonetta's visuals. The imagery is all clutter. When you're embroiled in a fight, the screen fills up with glistening latex, fluttering wings and whipping hair. It reminds me of the crowded screens of the Star Wars prequel trilogy."
Even worse, says Mastrapa, though Kamiya has been original in the past, that originality is missing from Bayonetta, which takes its cues from pop culture that was once hip but is now passe. "...the song 'Fly Me To The Moon' played during the first battle scene... most geeks now know the 1954 standard as 'the song from Evangelion'... it just reminded me of the '90s when The Matrix was the end-all-be-all of geekiness and Gainax was the thinking nerd's anime [studio]. There's a lot of water under that bridge, thank God."
Some have suggested, predictably, that the gameplay's so good that you are forced to forgive how awful everything else is -- it's a typical argument for a medium bursting with thin stories and strong mechanics. Mastrapa dismisses this with a cliche of his own: "I don't care how brilliant Bayonetta's button mashing is," he says. Bayonetta? It's good at something that's not even worth being good at.
And now, the finishing move -- or, in Bayonetta's sexualized parlance, the climax -- "The tired biblical allusions, the feigned trench coat cool and the towering, but ultimately hollow architectural wonder didn't just bore me to tears -- they offended me," says Mastrapa.
What I Think
Well, what I think about Bayonetta is a bit different. Writing on my personal blog in response to Mastrapa's piece, I said, "Bayonetta is fucking rocking my socks on every level." My personal opinion of Bayonetta is that it's one of the best games I've played in longer than I can remember.
In the comments section discussion that followed the article, I professed my love for the game -- which Mastrapa interprets through the lens of his disdain. "You're not wrong for liking Bayonetta or forgiving its faults for its obvious strengths," he says. "I'd like to think that we can use opinion in this way to have interesting disagreements that help us learn more about what we like (story vs gameplay or style vs substance) and why we like it."
It's not that I don't get where Mastrapa is coming from. Bayonetta is easily seen as a tacky disaster. The title character is an amoral, belligerent cipher who kills angels -- Christian angels, more or less, though the game's mythology is an ambiguous hodgepodge.
And given her impossible physique, skin-tight catsuit, and plot-necessitated nakedness, the character of Bayonetta has been derided as a sexist caricature since she first appeared. I call her an "aesthetic construct" -- which is really the other side of the same coin. In appearance, motion, intent, and deed, she's not a person -- she's a personification of concepts, or even ideals.
All games are artificial, but many strive for realism, to greater or lesser effect. Bayonetta does not care. It draws from European architecture, Christian cosmology, the human body, Hollywood, and the creator's previous work -- to name a few sources -- but offers up nothing but obvious artifice.
I find it to be a pleasurable artifice. I adore the go-for-brokeness of the whole endeavor. I find the aesthetics not a cacophony but an appealing jumble. And the gameplay is exquisitely tuned, of course. But that's the linchpin, not the whole.
Welcome to Camp
Of course, there's another interpretation. We don't have to take Bayonetta at face value. We can appreciate Bayonetta as camp.
In her 1964 essay Notes on Camp, Susan Sontag defined camp in a variety of ways -- many of which apply very obviously to Bayonetta. "Indeed the essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration," wrote Sontag.
As pointed out on my blog by commenter 33mhz, Sontag's essay seems particularly apt when discussing Bayonetta: "Camp is a vision of the world in terms of style -- but a particular kind of style. It is the love of the exaggerated, the 'off,' of things-being-what-they-are-not."
Almost everywhere you see a quote in the essay, it fits -- "As a taste in persons, Camp responds particularly to the markedly attenuated and to the strongly exaggerated," or "Camp is the attempt to do something extraordinary. But extraordinary in the sense, often, of being special, glamorous," or "Camp is the glorification of 'character.' The statement is of no importance, except, of course, to the person... who makes it," or "Camp is the consistently aesthetic experience of the world. It incarnates a victory of 'style' over 'content,' 'aesthetics' over 'morality,' of irony over tragedy."
I can pinpoint a sensibility or a moment in Bayonetta for every statement I just quoted. As a character, Bayonetta is completely self-absorbed, and her dialogue is comprised only of thoughtless irrelevancies; she out-glamorizes runway models with her impossibly leggy figure while outfighting everybody, including angels as big as buildings. Bayonetta is as stylish and amoral and ironic as a game character has ever been.
Says Sontag, "Camp taste turns its back on the good-bad axis of ordinary aesthetic judgment. Camp doesn't reverse things. It doesn't argue that the good is bad, or the bad is good. What it does is to offer for art (and life) a different -- a supplementary -- set of standards." And I think that's precisely where I deviate from Mastrapa in my appreciation of Bayonetta.
I like it because it just goes for it -- something I don't see much outside of Japan. There's no hesitation, no stopping to think about whether something makes literal sense or if it is even remotely possible. In one cutscene, Bayonetta surfs on lava on the back of an angel.
Camp is both how we like things that are tacky or bad -- though all bad, tacky things aren't camp -- and also how creators get away with making creative choices they know are bad or tacky. Even so, I don't think that liking (or creating) campy things (like Bayonetta) is dishonest.
Of course, Sontag also writes, "When something is just bad (rather than Camp), it's often because it is too mediocre in its ambition," which I think is the obvious counterargument to Bayonetta being a camp masterpiece, if one is to be made. Certainly, without saying anything about camp explicitly or implicitly, it's the argument Mastrapa makes against the game.
The Japan Question
Part of the problem with parsing Bayonetta's intent comes from its origin -- it's a Japanese game. Even in this era of international collaboration, it's hard to parse Japanese stuff and figure out what's straight-faced and what's not.
I've been consuming Japanese culture for years and one reason I like it so much is its earnestness in the face of ridiculous situations and stylistic extremes. This is easily exemplified by Final Fantasy. The series has more of a sense of humor than it gets credit for, but it's also a handy example of work that is self-serious yet stylistically extreme.
On the other hand, mainstream Japanese humor is extremely campy. There's the incredibly obvious example of Hard Gay, of course, but think about Tingle, from The Legend of Zelda series. His inclusion in such lighthearted all-ages games is indicative of how much camp has infiltrated mainstream Japanese humor.
Japan is popularly conceived of being oblivious to the effect its peculiarities have on its media -- either the Japanese don't get it or don't care, is the assumption most make. At the extreme end of both Japanese camp and obliviousness there's the blackface Obama segment from Japanese TV, so it's not an invalid criticism.
But I think Bayonetta is largely a self-aware and intentional work. That's not to say that every element is equally self-aware, or up to my personal standard. The game frequently references The Matrix for its action sequences.
This is both tired, because movies and games have been doing so for the 10-plus years since the first Matrix film was released -- and lame, because The Matrix is at the nadir of its cultural relevance and has yet to be reclaimed as something anybody who purports to have taste would admit to liking. Sure, your friend liking The Matrix is okay. However, we like to think that directors, like Kamiya, are too culturally literate to avoid this sort of faux pas.
On Taste
In Wilson's book, he quotes sociologist and critic Simon Frith as saying that Celine Dion is "probably the most loathed superstar I can remember, at least by everyone I know, not just critics but even my mother-in-law. I doubt if she will ever be redeemed, ABBA-style, and what seems to concern everyone is that she is just naff." ("Naff" is British slang for bad or tacky.)
Wilson goes into great depths to examine the cultural structures and psychological origins of taste -- which I won't. Coolness, however, is central to Wilson's concept of taste. What you find cool implies a lot about who you are; but Wilson also recognizes that (for the most part) people also mostly legitimately enjoy what they enjoy. When it comes to how you shape your own tastes, writes Wilson, "At worst I am conning myself, but to what I feel is my advantage."
I think these distinctions get a little flipped when we take a look at the game industry and its fans, rather than pop music, however. I think that we're obviously going through growing pains, as both Bayonetta itself, and the discussion of Bayonetta, so clearly imply.
Here's a sample from a very smart blog post about Bayonetta. Please note it's one that recommends the game. "Bayonetta is an embarrassment waiting to happen. To play this game in front of any human being over the age of 12 -- indeed, just to play it in front of yourself -- is to develop a sense that something has gone horribly wrong with your recreation."
Bayonetta has become the symbol of the anti-cool -- gaming's Celine Dion.
The Fine Line
At the same time we're gasping for maturity -- to produce games that are more meaningful and have more social merit -- we have two problems. The game industry has been built on a rocky bed of the geekiest of geek culture, and as a commercial enterprise it routinely panders to the basest of male adolescent fantasy.
The game industry, in its current form, encompasses the hip and the nerdy, the mature and immature, in equal measure -- often in the same people.
"Bayonetta is the game better hidden from view, much as a college dorm dweller would urge his roommate to hide the Eva wall scrolls in the closet when female suitors come calling," says Mastrapa, in his editorial. A lot of gamers may be geeks, but they're also increasingly socially literate geeks, in other words.
When you're struggling to establish your legitimacy, though, anything that threatens it -- anything as crass as Bayonetta -- is more dangerous. In that quote, Mastrapa is very concrete with his example, but it's really a metaphor; extrapolate the thinking behind it and you're dealing with the conundrum of contemporary gamer culture. We revel in otaku garbage, but we're aware that this is a problem. We're adults, and it's our job to fix it -- or if we're not in a position to fix it, to at least publicly devalue it.
Writes Wilson, about critics and their relationship with pop culture, "in the present tense, submerged social antagonisms and the risk of being taken for one of the 'tacky' dullards makes it less attractive to be so all-embracing..." of embarrassing pop culture like Celine Dion.
But Wilson argues that distinctions in culture have fallen apart. "By the early twenty-first century," he writes, "almost no one believes in them." According to a study, Wilson reports, "by the 1990s, the upper class taste model had changed from a 'snob' to an 'omnivore' ideal, in which the coolest thing for a well-off and well-educated person to do is to consume some high culture along with heaps of popular culture."
The only things people in this survey of musical taste didn't want to admit to liking was that favored by the uneducated -- separating themselves from "white trash" through their taste choices. (The study in question was entitled "Anything But Heavy Metal.")
We're not so worried about being "white trash" when we like Bayonetta. We're worried about being perceived as gamers and only gamers -- arrested adolescents. We're worried about seeing our medium's cultural currency frittered away, rewarding the mindset that produced a game so base and sexist and game-like, with no higher ideal.
If You Liked It...
Here, I think about Wilson's cherished medium -- pop music.
As Wilson writes, at the turn of the decade into the 2000s, critics increasingly gained an appreciation for the pop music of the times. ABBA, as Frith said, had to be "reclaimed"; it was loathed by critics. It is now revered.
Not so today. Pop music is seen as a valid space to work in and its fruits, like Beyonce's massive hit Single Ladies, are enjoyed by all. Sure, critics and serious fans are expected to like bands like Animal Collective or Grizzly Bear, but they're simultaneously expected to appreciate Single Ladies and Lady Gaga. Despite its patently commercial aims and mainstream appeal, Single Ladies is widely (and rightly, I'd say) regarded, and was a pop cultural touchstone from the moment it was released.
This applied to everyone, including indie musicians. A band called Pomplamoose even made its name by releasing a brilliant cover of the song on YouTube. Singer Nataly Dawn briefly abandons Beyonce's lyrics, however, singing, "Don't make sing this part of the song / the lyrics are so bad / so we're going to skip ahead to the Single Ladies part instead."
This is an assertion built on confidence. Dawn's saying, "You and I both know that Single Ladies is an incredible song, so we'll forgive the lyrics and get back to that amazing chorus without delay." But when I say something like "I love Gears of War 2... yeah, they screwed up the whole 'Dom's wife' thing, but..." I'm doing pretty much the opposite. I am admitting I don't have the same confidence about the medium. I'm trying to deflect criticism.
Let's rewind two decades from Single Ladies and look at the music industry for a clue about what might be going on with games.
It Is Now My Duty to Completely Drain You
In the late '80s, mainstream rock was a stale and ridiculous thing: incredibly trite, with bloated budgets, ludicrous visuals, idiotic characters -- and I'm just talking about Poison. Hair metal held sway, and it was increasingly a cultural embarrassment. In 1991, Nirvana released Nevermind, and quite suddenly, rawness, emotionality, and authenticity became mainstream rock virtues.
Games are still in their pre-Nevermind.
Just as Nevermind wasn't Nirvana's first album -- that was 1989's Bleach, which stayed underground -- Bayonetta isn't Kamiya's first game. With Okami, Kamiya made his Bleach -- a critical darling that promised a breakthrough. But instead of following it up with a Nevermind, he released his Dr. Feelgood.
We might forgive him if we had the confidence that comes from having our own Nirvana, but we're not there yet. Even Half-Life 2, as genius as it might be, is gaming's Guns 'n Roses -- there's immense talent and craft, but... it's still hair metal.
We're worried we won't get our landscape-refiguring Nevermind unless someone like Kamiya delivers it.
Years before Nevermind, there were plenty of literate modern rock acts, as they were known in the '80s, who didn't break through -- or, like R.E.M., couldn't quite make it until Kurt Cobain broke down the door. Sure, we have Flower and Braid. But if we get our Nevermind, might thatgamecompany become the next R.E.M.?
Mastrapa essentially lays this challenge right at Kamiya's feet: "Where Okami and Viewtiful Joe may be fine evidence for the games-as-art argument, Bayonetta is the game better hidden from view..." You're letting us down, Kamiya, he says. Get your head together and get back to making art.
I disagree with the sentiment at a fundamental philosophical level -- people should create what they want to create. Perhaps Mastrapa thinks Kamiya didn't want to make something like Bayonetta, but was pressured by Sega or market realities. After all, Okami wasn't a hit. Okami was Bleach. We now know that Nirvana made Nevermind hoping for a hit, but they didn't compromise themselves. Did Kamiya just overcompensate?
I Can't Argue
As much as I like Bayonetta, I often find myself expressing sentiments much like Mastrapa's. Given the shameless way in which Bayonetta cribs some of its action sequences from The Matrix, there's a particular irony in my own recent comment, written at the same time I was playing Bayonetta, that is winkingly "brought to you in part by The Society To Stop Game Developers Remaking The Matrix, Aliens, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars."
I think all of us who have a vested cultural interest in games are struggling with this right now. Chris Hecker recently said it better than I can, after all, particularly since he's a developer himself.
To my mind, no game better encapsulates this painful sort of contrast than EA's upcoming Dante's Inferno. It takes a 700-year old poem that's a foundational classic of Western Literature and, as far as I can tell, urinates on it.
All the while, the creators -- who are obviously mature and talented enough to push themselves through the grueling production process required to produce a triple-A console game -- continuously make, to my ears, culturally tone deaf assertions that the game is true to the poem whenever someone puts a microphone in front of them.
This cover image of the tie-in edition Del Rey is publishing of the original poem is the ultimate example of the line-straddling of Dante's Inferno. For one, the cover's got the aesthetically boring but painstakingly crafted aesthetic so common in mainstream games; contrast another edition. It's translated by a poet who died in 1882 but features an intro by the game's executive producer.
Most hilariously, it assumes that the target audience of an adrenaline-soaked hack 'n' slash game will want to read an incredibly difficult classical poem. This belief is belied by the sweeping and deliberate changes the developers have made to its content to turn it into a video game.
This is where our industry is right now: not sure what the hell we're doing, or why, or for whom -- but we're doing it with all of our technical skill and artistic talent and conviction. This is what pushes people like Gus Mastrapa, and me, to write editorials.
Having said that, despite my love of Bayonetta, I must admit that you can read his critique as completely valid. In games, we have a strange tendency to eschew the concept of taste. Not "good taste" versus "bad taste" -- that's where Bayonetta's being judged -- but personal taste. We don't really seem to believe in the possibility that different people might like different things for equally valid reasons that we hate them.
Says Mastrapa, in the comments section of his article -- clearly aware from its high Metacritic that, as a gamer, he's supposed to like Bayonetta -- "I just find it interesting to explore what we're willing to forgive in gaming, because sometimes story must be traded for play or style for substance. We rarely get the complete package -- so to me finding out what people are willing to forgive (or wind up genuinely liking -- maybe they're the same thing?) is worth exploring."
But I love Bayonetta and reject compromise. It's a terrible, tacky, campy, irresistible feast for all of my senses. I enjoy every aspect of the game -- while recognizing that some are questionable, of course. The fact that I enjoy questioning what I like and why it's entertaining to me in and of itself, after all, is probably why I'm a critic.
But I think the idea that we can't like bad things because they're bad, not despite the fact, is a limiting perspective that is one more barrier we're going to have to break through if we understand why we like -- and make! -- the games we do, and move forward.
The Taste Of Shame
In confronting Celine Dion's album, Wilson was forced to listen to it, repeatedly, at full volume -- but was embarrassed that his neighbors would overhear him listening to Celine Dion. Of the experience, he writes, "Shame has a way of throwing you back upon your own existence, on the unbearable truth that you are identical with you, that you are your limits... It's the reverse of the self extension that having likes and dislikes usually provides. It is humbling."
This is the same emotional response felt by those rejecting Bayonetta. It's not just a bad game -- it's an embarrassment. And it's an embarrassment for our entire industry, by extension, because we're still fighting for respect in a way that music is not. Celine Dion can't erase Nirvana, but Bayonetta might erase Okami.
My alternative suggestion is to embrace Bayonetta. Learn why Bayonetta is lovable. Enjoy the pure and unmatched virtuosity of its action gameplay, but also laugh along with the corny Grindhouse aesthetics, the Evangelion-inspired blasphemies, the Matrix moves, and the excessively complicated Resident Evil-style text back story. It's all there for you to enjoy -- or, when you get bored, to ignore.
After all, as Wilson argues, in the 21st century, we're cultural omnivores. Any other way of looking at pop culture is dated. Forget the Nirvana moment. It may not even be possible. Bayonetta has more in common with Lady Gaga -- a confusing and electrifying clash of art, kitsch, and camp with a great beat. You can hate her, but you can't stop her.
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I would go on to say I have not played but the Demo of Beyonetta and I instantly loved it, however I would like to argue that games like killer 7, No More Heroes, and even Mad World have done pretty much the same things as that game design wise. The characters are over stereotypical, the settings are well designed, the plot is either convoluted or absurdly funny, and the games usually play heavy with the tease of sexual themes. IMO it more that a 14 year old can handle. Perhaps the best way to get people thinking is to go camp and then to get the view or player to ask why go that way.
Personally, I'm having trouble forming an opinion on Bayonetta. I bought the game because I love Sega, 3rd person action games, Japan-centric games, and this is the first 360 release to get a perfect score in Famitsu. The game is a lot of fun, but not as compelling as I had anticipated. The action and fighting is top notch. The charachter design and art direction are outstanding. The graphics are amazing, and impressive to all onlookers. On the other hand, the level design is sub par - there are a lot of chapters, but I would have rather seen less chapters with bigger, better designed levels. The chapters are so short sometimes it feels like an arcade stand-up. My biggest pet peeve has nothing to do withthe gameplay, and that's the localization. This is one of the worst localization jobs I have seen from a major publisher on this generation of consoles. The voice acting is bad enough, but the dialogue itself feels like it was translated from Japanese using a free iPhone app with no re-write to give it any sense of a natural feel. There is no option for Japanese voices, which would have been a great fix for this issue. Normally I overlook things like that, but the other elements of the game are so good, the localization stands out like a blood stain on a white suit.
I do have to disagree with you on one of your examples:
"We now know that Nirvana made Nevermind hoping for a hit, but they didn't compromise themselves. Did Kamiya just overcompensate?"
True - they wanted a hit that got them out of the garages and small halls in Seattle, but they wanted it bad enough that they DID compromise. Kobain came to hate Nevermind before the end. Steve Albini instead of Butch Vig on In Utero was partly a response to that.
Regardless - your points are lucid and well received! I'm hopeful that we'll get our breakthrough soon (Bioshock - you were so close!)
From the start, the character design of Bayonetta instantly clued me into the visual aesthetic. While it's been quite a while since I was in a proper Art History class, I'm having to lean on wikipedia atm; it's clear the style is Mannerism: the long, elegant form, the gracefully posed bodies, the focus is not on realism or even on action, but on grace. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Girolamo_Francesco_Maria_Mazzola_-_Madonna_wit
h_the_Long_Neck.jpg]
There is little conflict to me, then in comparing the other visual aesthetics, if taken as a static shot. Even the distinct architecture doesn't go too far from what I'd expect of this particular art style. Boroque, was indeed a completely different aesthetic, twice-removed from Mannerism, but on first blush, it fits to an eye of the mass gaming audience, both Western and Eastern. And it does look both somewhat different and cool.
But, I concede there is a stark contrast when the motion of the game is considered. Leave alone, for the moment that this is a video game brawler, with plenty of over-the-top efx; the cinematography, dialogue and the narrative in general all point to what you've rightly pointed out as a distinctly Japanese aesthetic with Western action film influence; which to our Western eyes appears very nearly pure camp.
In terms of the break from convention in aesthetics, I think it's appropriate to include Bioshock in this discussion, because while they took a very similar left-turn from the norm, the decided on a very recognizable Western aesthetic, although it just hadn't been explored much to date. The strategy they took from there was also admittedly much more consistent with that aesthetic they chose.
Thanks, Christian.
I am unabashedly in love with Bayonetta, but part of it is due to my seeing the game through the lens of a developer. I can see how much care and craft went into making every scene over the top, and recognize the passionate detail that almost demands its classification as a modern piece of Baroque architecture. The things they do in that game are technically non-trivial and highly authored. In that regard, it resembles the set-pieces of Modern Warfare, but it's propelled further heavenward by the fact that the details are unique (to these Western eyes), and not ripped wholesale from a cultural pastiche I am quite satiated with.
That said, I must consciously overlook the "influence" of Christianity (or the malformed plagiarism thereof) to keep it in good graces. But this is possibly one of the most "Japanese" games of all time, and in that tradition, they have mistaken the surface of my religion for the substance, and then taken it for a marathon run through a bent and -- as you say -- ultra-campy carnival ride.
On camp: I'm always very curious about the notion of intent. I've long theorized that Paul Veerhoven meant for Showgirls to be campy -- like a modern update of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. And I frequently get in arguments about the intentions of his Starship Troopers. And while I'm disappointed when friends to see his movies the way I do I'm perfectly willing to accept their readings. Its not a crazy position to call them bad movies.
Perhaps part of the problem with games is that we haven't yet fully established what's campy and what isn't. I remember playing the terrible Dragon Riders of Pern game for the Dreamcast with a friend and thinking, "if there was a MST3K for games, this should be on it."
Thanks to decades of midnight movies its easy to identify a laughable movie, we've even elevated some of cinemas worst/best to godhood. But games, maybe, are still a little hard to sort in that way.
I think the best thing about this whole discussion is the idea that camp/enthusiasm/adoration are a separate axis from good/bad. That is kind of a terrifying relief...
I think God Hand is more of a point of reference for Bayonetta than Devil May Cry in that it is intentionally and obviously campy. Also it was the last game developed by Clover before it closed, although apparently Mikami was more involved than Kamiya. It was more outrageous and over-the-top than any game I'd ever played before and I'd wager (having played the demo) moreso than Bayonetta.
His point was that in asking games like Bayonetta to class it up, we're just asking them to change the lyrics to the song; we're not changing the song. BioShock has great lyrics...
There are lines and if you can read between them, you get a good idea of what's really being broadcast through them. For example Jim Sterling of Destructoid gave Assassin's Creed II a 4.5/10 when every other major publication I had looked at gave it an 8.5-10 out of 10. (The Metacritic rating is 91 on the PS3 version) Why? Because he LOATHED Assassin's Creed.
Assassin's Creed was a guilty pleasure for me, I definitely agree about the faults everyone criticizes it for, I do agree with them, but I still had fun with it. To see what AC2 went on to do, I found it a vastly superior sequel with so many changes that I might as well forget the first one ever existed. It was leaps and bounds above its predecessor and has pretty much cemented my decision to get Assassin's Creed 3.
But to Sterling, it's like someone handed him AC1 and he couldn't tell the difference. Reading his thoughts and hearing this commentary in the podcasts really make me question whether he was being this controversial as a rouse. He gave AC2 a 4.5/10 while Dtoid's review of the original gave a 5.5/10, that's how much he didn't like AC2.
It's akin to someone's opinion on Snakes on a Plane. I know I can immediately be friends with people who love the movie because they "get it". It is not meant to be a serious movie. It knows it is a B Movie. It knows it is campy. It knows it is unintentionally hilarious. It knows all of this because that's what it set out to be in the first place. It completely accomplished its goals with a great deadpan, and so many people can't pick up on that.
Bayonetta feels the same. Everything that everyone critical of the game has ever said, that I have heard, have always had a subtext to it that I have read. They WANT to think that Bayonetta is sexist and designed by misogynistic, horny Japanese men. (Fact: Bayonetta's character designer is female) They WANT to think Bayonetta only uses recycled gameplay. (Fact: Bayonetta goes for perfected gameplay, not innovative new combat systems)
I'll just cut it short now since I've already gone on too long. Bayonetta completely excels at what it tries to accomplish. Just not everybody can see or understand exactly what it is trying to accomplish, so they misjudge it on different grounds.
I suppose the less palatable you find various aspects of Japanese culture, the more likely you are to find Bayonetta less palatable. There will be some culture clash, depending on who reviews it.
(Also mega props for linking Hard Gay. So hilarious ;)
Now I suppose you could look to film as an example of productions which often require many people to be involved, and yet can still be quite sensitive and 'raw'. I would attribute this to the fact that there are a a few people who actually determine the core of the outcome: writer, director, and a few actors. Visuals aside, these are the main determiners of the quality of a story driven movie, IMO.
In conclusion I would liken some of the amazing, respected games we have today like Bioshock or Shadow of Colossus to impressive orchestral works, performed by a highly trained orchestra. I will never expect a 'Nevermind' from studios of the size that produce those games. Perhaps, if we're lucky some small independent venture will venture into that realm.
As for finding gaming's "Nevermind" moment a few things have to happen first. One, gaming has to sink to new superficial lows. Part of what made the Nevermind release so powerful was the wasteland that the 1980s were culturally, politically, musically, etc. Second, gaming has to completely permeate the entire population (as movies and music have) and I think that we're still 20 years from that. There is still a generation alive that doesn't game at all.
Christianity just another cultural asset to pilfer. Japan is one of the most secular countries in the world, and although there is a sizable Christian population, Christian icons are used extensively in fashion and media for their asthetic appeal. There is no deeper meaning.
Finally, I'm not sure that Celine Dion is to Nirvana as Bayonetta is to Okami. Both games are made by the same designer, where as Celine and Nirvana are totally different acts. Perhaps as Bayonetta might erase Shadow of the Colossus?
http://platinumgames.com/2009/12/11/butmoni-coronzon-from-the-mouth-of-the-witch
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As a professional designer I am humbled and in awe of the mechanics of this masterpiece, the perfect extension and evolution of the DMC/Ninja Gaiden/GoW genre. The poster who claimed it is just like DMC has not even skimmed the surface of the game, he is so far from the truth.
The level and creature design are magnificent. The campiness is some of the most creative work to come from the industry, in all the gaudy, epileptic, and gargantuan glory. You want to say it is cheesy, but at the same time it is so utterly bad ass that you can't, really. The choreography is just stunning.
A friend told me the game was so bizarre simply because it is Japanese, but that seems a dishonest way to discredit what went into it. I'm not sure serious Christians can be offended; the religion in the game is clearly not theirs, though it has "angels" and a creator. I'm also not so sure women can be offended; sure Bayonetta is wildly proportioned, but she is empowered not only in looks but in just about every way possible.
Anyway for the naysayers: get over yourselves and play it, or don't and miss out on something unique and brilliant. But don't try and talk about it like you 'understand' until you play.
First off, being purposefully camp isn't a pass to be able to do anything you want aesthetically. Pedro Almodóvar's movies are purposefully campy, but you can still find good instances of camp and bad instances of camp within his work, and the good instances tend to be visually appealing despite, or probably because of, their clashing elements. Bayonetta is cluttered and messy on purpose, perhaps, but that doesn't make it not be cluttered and messy. Had it been better done it might have pulled off clutter without losing playability, like Viewtiful Joe did, but it's not the case.
Likewise, its Japanese origins are not an excuse. It is, yes, hard to determine the intent just from the game, but the only way in which Bayonetta could ever be redeemed in its over the top characterization would be if it was a deliberately sarcastic attempt to point at what is wrong with the Japanese games industry. And even then, one more thing needs to be considered: just as Mastrapa allegedly missed the cultural reference, so did many of the critics praising the game. Not every reviewer who praised Bayonetta did so based on a self-conscious sense of cultural awareness and metatextual commentary. It was praised as a deep, rewarding, visually appealing game with a straight face, which is very disappointing.
In fact, more than the attempts at self-aware humour, which are obviously intentional (I just happen to find them as irritiating as the real thing), the success of Bayonetta can be traced back to an abstract gameplay system that revolves around a massive combo list, a seriously hardcore focus on timing and complex button press sequences. The game encourages players to hold any button in a combo, press a trigger at the last second before an attack to dodge, then release the first buton and continue the combo, which is clearly inspired by the over the top niche fighting games that are popular among both eastern and western competitive players. I happen to find the self-entitlement of the EVO crowd both annoying and damaging for the industry in that they relish in the niche status of their hobby and see accessibility as a threat.
I think there are interesting elements in Bayonetta. It is Devil May Cry, and it made me cringe every time invisible walls or "energy barriers" were used to contain a fight, only to be broken after it was over by a wink and a kiss, but it is Devil May Cry squared, and the amount of combos and customization options make the gameplay feel different and more improvisational, as there are no longer dead button combinations and anything you input causes a response. Its customization options are also interesting, opening up deep avenues of play, but also enabling a few clearly marked setups that actually remove the advanced timing based mechanics from the game to accomodate newcomers. I honestly can't tell if that's a nod to casual players or a cop-out, but it certainly doesn't redeem the game as a whole.
Overall, I don't dislike Bayonetta because I don't understand what it's trying to do. I dislike Bayonetta because it doesn't pull it off and, when it does, I dislike what it's trying to do. Recently, Half-minute Hero did self-awareness far better than Bayonetta, also in a very Japanese style, and the mechanics of Batman: Arkham Asylum and its wonderfully innovative, simple and elegant combat system pretty much make Bayonetta's insane combo list and overly complicated controls feel like a dinosaur from last generation. It's a pity that the industry embraced such a regressive game so easily largely out of nostalgia for the days when innovation in videogames came from Japan.
It made me think of No More Heroes, and how Bayonetta sounds like the exact opposite, even though both games are similar on some level and both their directors have a penchant for the odd. In the case of the latter, you're sacrificing style for substance (in terms of the depth of combat). But in NMH, it feels like you're sacrificing any sort of "depth" for an outrageous, hilarious depiction of otaku culture and stereotypes. Also, while, as you pointed out, one would likely be ashamed of showing Bayonetta to a friend, NMH is something I tend to view more as a "revel in my otaku pride" game, despite the fact that it's equally outrageous.
Bayonetta doesn't pretend to be anything more than "otaku garbage" and on a superficial level, neither does NMH. However, the latter very much has established itself as a game with a deeper "message" (damned if I know what that message is, though) in the minds of those that played it. Perhaps the difference is that there's a structure to No More Heroes' aesthetic and that it isn't sexualized the way Bayonetta is. That alone makes it a little more publicly acceptable.
I agree with you here......one thing about it I keep hearing you guys talk about Bayo's proportions being odd and unrealistic.....whats unrealistic about her?.......she doesnt have huge DD's.....I have seen real life women built like her and are naturally carrying it well.....you guys need to diversify yourselves and the article was alright. I'm a gamer I want to play games......lets bring more new and exciting games like BAYONETTA in the industry.
P* Games/Clover is one of my favorite studios.
Why the need to break this game down?....because its a female as the lead?.......because she's exotic in her ways?
Ok the next 50 shooters that come out talk about them.....I'd like to see comparisons and links to other blogs about it. I know I will not see this as FPS have become a norm; its all fun and games until someone gets shot for real.
You can look at Bayonetta in one of two ways - you can view it as a sexist or you can view it as celebratory. I'm in the latter camp, to be honest. Bayonetta's outfit is no more designed by someone who is sexist than Shaak'Ti's costume in The Force Unleashed.
What always baffles me is that people are quick to point out when women are being so-called "exploited" for male gamer satisfaction (which, let me reiterate, I don't think is the case here), but they are less speedy to point out the highly idealized male depictions in almost every video game out there. As an example - Kratos. No one thinks it's sexist to give Kratos a rediculously ripped physique that very few real men can attain, and have him run around in little more than a loincloth for most of the game? Why are we not breaking down the social climate that makes this acceptable? Or the popularity of games like Modern Warfare 2, where your character - at various points in the game - survives a mortal wound, hangs from a helicopter by one arm, shoots with high accuracy from a speeding watercraft, and can take more bullets than an armoured tank without falling? If you want to talk about "reality", this is much farther from it than the way Bayonetta looks and dresses.
My point is - video games are intended to be unrealistic and idealized.
I think what people should focus on instead of "brand fatigue" is something I'm calling "genre fatigue" - as soon as something becomes popular, everyone else tries to jump on the proverbial bandwagon and cash in on the popularity (quasi-magical youths, pirates, or vampires ringing any bells with anyone?).
Also, on a quick tangent, I think waiting for the industry to have a "Nevermind" moment is a faux pas. The industry has already penetrated the mainstream - I think what people are waiting for is THEIR GENRE to penetrate the mainstream. Nintendogs sold 22m copies, across it's various versions. World of Warcraft has 12m players. Grand Theft Auto - an M rated game by the way - sold 17m. Wii sports (single iteration, keep in mind) has sold FIFTY MILLION COPIES. Five- zero. Gaming as an industry generated somewhere in the tens of billions of dollars as an industry in 2009 alone. How much more market penetration does the industry need before we consider it "mainstream"? I'm sorry if games like The Darkness, Okami, or Metal Gear Solid aren't putting up huge numbers, but they aren't putting up numbers in the way that 30 Seconds to Mars and Fleet Foxes aren't putting up numbers in the music industry - that doesn't mean they're bad games, just that they are games targeted at a specific segment of players. If you want to make a comparison that makes sense, don't wait for a "Nevermind" moment - ask when gaming is going to have it's "Titanic" moment.
It's a game. Just a freakin' video game. If people are so incapable of detaching themselves from so-called reality to the point of actually destroying any and all ability to enjoy something that is so obviously a FANTASY, then it's the audience and the player that fail, not the experience being delivered or those that created it. I'm always amazed at the hypocrisy of critics and supposed connoisseurs of art. If we were talking about a painting, Bayonetta's eccentric and outlandish aesthetics would be called "avante garde" or "post modern" or some other shallow, superficial term cooked up by stiffs in New York lofts; but because Bayonetta is a "mere video game" such artistic terms or creative principles have no bearing or meaning? Bull sh*t. I applaud Bayonetta's beautifully eccentric and somewhat "Terantino-esque" presentation. As a game artist, yeah, I may have taken different directions with the game's visuals in a few places, but it's not MY game. This was someone else's clear and vivid creative vision, excellently executed and finely crafted. It's different, it's energetic and it's fresh. The fact that this game can generate this kind of discussion is proof that it's working. I personally love it and I'm glad Platinum Games had the balls to pull it off the way they did. It's a simple and focused game design with a surprising amount of depth to the combat, and the whole thing feels like an amazing music video from the glory days of MTV. To hell with reality, I'm going to go play some more Bayonetta because I like video games and I like art. Is that okay with everyone or am I going to offend someone? Tough.
@ Kale
Well said my friends.... absolutely well said!!!
Secondly I don’t have the time to read all the comments above although it looks like a lot of great responses.
I think the comparison of Lady Gaga to Bayonetta is particularly astute. Both are very self aware of the place they inhabit but draw from more sources a package more slickly anything that has come before them. Lady Gaga out Madonna’s Madonna and Bayonetta out Devil May Cry’s, Devil May Cry. I have only played the first three hours or so of Bayonetta but I am somewhat ashamed to say listened to, read about and watched videos of Lady Gaga. She creates intensely polished self aware pop with both camp ,irony and sincerity. Crowded visuals, over sexed leading ladies, okaku (in the global sense) tropes galore all of these are Bayonetta. But when it becomes self aware (ie the creators are QUITE aware of the larger meta blocks of culture they are painting with) you get a cultural hall of mirrors where distorted reflections of other pieces of pop stars and games get all distorted in a brand new fun house.
To really slang some buzzwords what you get is a very earnest postmodern pastiche. Not only that then you turn it all the up to 11. The “lynch pin” for Bayonetta and Lady Gaga is game play and musical hooks respectively. A game is largely defined by game play and pop its hooks. Both exceed incredibly at this core pillar of their medium. The result is mass culture all mashed up and played like the finest orchestra.
Let not but labels on things that don’t apply. In games we are still kinda one big lump but all the mature mediums that some of us one want to be favorably compared to have a great deal of diversity. Nobody says that Beatles suffer because Lady Gaga simply exists. That is a bit false of equivocation given how young games are but you get the idea. I won’t get mad at a pizza pop for not tasting like fois gras but enjoy both. If we want to be a mature medium we need to have a mature self critical eye and know along with the diversity of taste we are going have a diversity of games.
To infinity and beyond!
But if your going to get into cultural clash on the game. Well look at Madden series how well it doesn't sell in Japan compared to North America. Because outside North America no one really cares about Madden. That aside you'll find cultural differences and clashes in anything made that goes world wide. Take Russian, Korean, German and Japanese horror films, compared to typical Hollywood North American slashers. Personally I think it is a great way for people to get a glimpse of other cultures world wide and some understanding.
It's a gorgeous game that has set the bar at a new high level that will be hard to meet. The amount of content and gameplay is staggering. It must have cost a fortune to make. The price tag is more than fair.
And as for sexist?!?! Come on! Hardly. This is a strong female character. Now Ivy.. that's an exploited female, but not Bayonetta. Certainly no more than Laura. Unless it's the lack of testosterone they are complaining about. ;) W00t! Bout' time! :)
God of War is sexist. Not Bayonetta.
What.. can't handle a female god? :P Methinks embracing other cultures might expand certain folk's limited perception.
As for this article, well said but all of this is very subjective. This game is so open ended to interpretation but the final question should always be "is the game fun?" We are in the business of entertaining for the most part.
http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/213466/bayonetta-empowering-or-exploitat
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Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. :P
Anyhow, their games seem to be arcade-like, whereas I prefer interactive movies, or "games" with somewhat more believable stories and characters. I think the future of the video game industry, like all others, will be very much influenced by China and India. Anyone know what is going down in those countries?