Thats the thing, i bet you there are people out there that will have a hard time with Bayo.
Well... that's what Easy Automatic and the touch controls are for. Unlike TW101, if you know which buttons make you attack and dodge, you can probably cheese your way through any battle on Normal difficulty, and gradually improve along the way.
I found W101 way more accessible than the original Bayonetta.
I still can't manage to remember combos or pull off dodge offset, let alone delve into weapon switching and the like.
This is day 1 regardless though
Your experience probably isn't typical, because TW101 is way more mechanically complex than Bayonetta.
In Bayonetta you have:
- A core move list that your weapons modify but never change completely. The combo inputs remains more or less the same whether you have pistols or a katana or a whip or lightning/flame claws. Basic reliable combos like PKP work for every single weapon if I remember correctly.
- Logical button inputs organized by function, and mechanics that modify your basic skills in simple ways. Pressing the punch or kick button gives you a punch or kick. Holding punch or kick extends the attack by shooting bullets or charging it up or something else, according to your weapon. This works for almost all attacks with almost all weapons. The dodge button is tied to evasive movement. Tap once to dodge, twice to transform into your speedy panther form. Dodging when an attack is about to hit you activates Witch Time, where the enemies are stuck in slow motion while you move at normal speed.
- Two sets of weapons. One button switches between the two weapon sets you pre-select on your inventory screen.
- Dodge offset, a logical extension of the basic combo system. You simply insert a dodge during any extended attack. If you take PKP for example, you can extend any hit by holding the button. So if you want to extend the kick, you do P(hold K)P. To apply dodge offset to that hit, you input P(hold K)(dodge)P. This allows you to evade an attack during your middle hit and finish the combo right after your dodge.
In TW101 you have:
- Multiple functions per input and per attack type. Unlike Bayonetta the button functions are not consistent, and there are more factors to deal with because you control a team instead of a single character. Example: X is your team attack button. A regular team attack strikes an enemy with your supporting team members. Repeated team attacks will cause members to cling to the enemy like Pikmin and deal damage over time. The more team members cling to an enemy, the more vulnerable your leader is and the lower your attack power becomes (you have fewer members for unite morphs). After you deal enough damage this way, the enemy will be stunned and vulnerable to throws and aerial combos. Team attack can be charged if upgraded, unlike other types of attacks. Team attack doubles as your lock-on function by tagging enemies with reticles for a few seconds. Dashing with your leader character can call back attacking team members. The team attack button is also tied to team unite morphs, which let you form up to four auto-attacking weapons in addition to the weapon that you control. These weapons can all be different, because TW101 gives you...
- Access to every weapon at once. Weapons (aka unite morphs) are selected by drawing their symbols on the gamepad or inputting their symbols like fighting game commands on the analog stick. There are seven standard weapons plus bonus weapons and alternate modes for the gun. The size of the symbol you draw directly controls the size and attack power (and mode) of your weapon. Equipping weapons requires careful management, because your team members are sometimes vulnerable during your symbol inputs (since free members are used to form the lines you draw), and the direction your symbol points toward controls where your weapon will be facing when formed, and sometimes the environment can prevent you from drawing in certain areas, and your number of free team members limits the max size of your line. Equipping a weapon involves a further layer of management because weapons slow down your movement speed. You can queue up a weapon by drawing its symbol, pressing the attack button to confirm the morph, then canceling out of it. Now the attack button will automatically form the queued morph. Additionally, the drawing mechanic does much more than selecting weapons. You use it to reveal hidden items by encircling their hiding places, collect items and money, recruit team members, throw enemies and objects, revive fallen team members, form context-specific morphs like ladders and bridges, etc.
- The Wonderful 101 includes almost all of Bayonetta's mechanics, including its own version of Witch Time, dodge offset, and parrying and countering.
Do you see what I'm talking about? If it seems like I went into too much detail, I really just scratched the surface.
With Bayonetta you have a very straightforward character action game with intuitive controls. With The Wonderful 101 you have a radical reinvention of the character action genre where actions are distributed across a group of units, and the intricacies of team management complicate every mechanic by adding factors like the positions of your leader and support members, the number and status of your support members, your battery level (charge level limits attack power. No charge means you can't attack or dodge or absorb/reflect enemy attacks), how many support members to commit to specific actions (large weapons commit more members. If a weapon breaks, those members are knocked out for a while. You need team members to dodge, and increase your movement speed with Unite Ball, and absorb attacks with Unite Guts, and shield your leader character from damage), and much more.
The Wonderful 101 throws a mountain of complexity on the heads of players and barely explains a thing. The quality of this game's design is insane, but it's overwhelming and unforgiving. Bayonetta, on the other hand, is possible for anyone to pick up and play if they've ever tried an action game before, and the more complicated stuff like dodge offset is a simple extension of basic mechanics that become very easy to perform with a little practice.