Introduction
Just like with Ninja Gaiden Black, Bayonetta‘s first outing has made its way to numerous machines and there is, of course, never a clear winner. In an attempt to make one’s upcoming purchase of Bayonetta somewhat easier on her tenth anniversary, let’s put all the game’s features together for easy comparison.
The main changes in between games are the framerate, resolution and screen tearing. Unlike most games with this many releases, not a lot of bugfixes or changes were present in between versions. Most notable are the four costumes exclusive to the Nintendo platforms and the fact that Jeanne’s breast size was changed in some later versions to be more in line with her original character design. So yes, we’re going to feature cup-sizes in our comparison chart!
| Resolution | Framerate | Screen Tearing | Input Delay | Cutscenes lag | Nintendo Costumes | Jeanne’s cup size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS3 | 720 | 17-45 | Yes | Minor | Yes | No | B |
| X360 | 720 | 40-60 | Yes | No | No | No | B |
| PC | 4k | 60 | No | No | No | Through mods | B |
| WiiU | 720 | 40-60 | No | No | No | Yes | A |
| Switch | 720 | 52-60 | No | No | No | Yes | A |
| PS4 | 1080 | 60 | No | No | Yes | No | A |
| PS4 Pro | 1440 | 60 | No | No | Yes | No | A |
| X1 BC* | 720 | 50-60 | No | Minor | No | No | B |
| X1S | 1080 | 60 | No | No | No | No | A |
| X1X | 1440 | 60 | No | No | No | No | A |
* X1 BC = Xbox One Backwards Compatability Program; meaning inserting your original Xbox 360 disc into the Xbox One.
Kilgore glitch
One of the most notable glitches and exploits in the game is the Kilgore Glitch – a maneuver that sees Bayonetta shoot far more rockets than intended for increased damage. While each release had the rumor that it was finally removed, it is present in all versions. Hideki Kamiya, the game’s director, has been asked numerous times about whether the glitch will be removed, his answer was simply “everything is same as the original“.
Nintendo Costumes
To celebrate Bayonetta coming to the WiiU, both it and its sequel got access to some Nintendo styled costumes as shown here.
These costumes don’t just change the look of Bayonetta herself, but also change some things in the game. Using the ‘Hero of Hyrule’ costume sees the game’s currency change to Rupees while the Sharuba weapon for example while wearing the outfit of either Princess Peach or Daisy sees Bowser come to her aid during Wicket Weave attacks.
PC Mod support
Despite its legacy, Bayonetta doesn’t enjoy a lively modding scene on the PC in part due to its difficulty to be modded. The game has a Nexus page where some colour-swaps are present however, and some of the aformentioned Nintendo exclusives and also Bayonetta 2 costumes have been modded into the game, as well as some custom skins like Persona 5’s Panther, Sonic’s Rouge and Metroid’s Zero Suit Samus. You can find those collected here. Note that these modded costumes do not enjoy the changes offered by the original Nintendo costumes.
Conclusion
There are of course minor details that won’t influence your purchase too much like the Xbox One X version sporting some darker colours. That said, unless you want the Nintendo exclusive outfits the Xbox One X and Playstation 4 Pro versions are the king of the consoles, while the PC version is a very solid port with minor mod support and larger breasts for Jeanne if you’re a purist in that regard. And if you want them even bigger, well, there’s bound to be mods for that too. Lastly the Playstation 3 version should be avoided at all costs, even after its numerous patches does the game still go as low as 17 frames per second in the most intense cases while also sporting much slower loading times.
a manevour(maneuver) that sees Bayonetta shoot far more rockets than intended for increased damage(d). Also why do you put Wii U as WiiU
Fixed, cheers!
I still prefer the Switch version. I own it on Wii U , PS3, PS4, Switch, and the standard XB1. The sound quality is awful on PS4. The bass is missing from everything, and it sounds like they jacked the treble way up. Each individual song sounds like it was mixed in isolation since, for example, a single cutscene in Bayonetta sometimes uses around 5 songs that all come in at different points, and you’ll notice that they are all drastically different volumes. The first cutscene in the prologue(in the graveyard) demonstrates this clearly, with music that is at times hard to hear, while at others it is so loud that you can’t hear what the characters are saying. It’s not just the music, though. All of the sounds effects are WAY off, and as a result the game just doesn’t feel as satisfying to play. When all of the sound effects. dialogue and music come together, it’s just inaudible mush on the PS4. I sat for hours with the Switch version side by side the PS4 version trying to fix this, and nothing works. They’ve thoroughly messed up the sound mix. I’ve told Sega all of this. Whether they patch it or not, well, I doubt they will.
Sorry I haven’t been in touch, Hasker. Hope you’ve been keeping safe!
Hey Swin! Good note on the audio, I felt the audio mixing was a tadd off in the X1X version (mostly too quiet), but audio is a lot harder to nail down, hence its absence. I really wish games would get better ports. I’ve been playing Zone of the Enders 2 Mars and it’s one of the few good ports out there I feel. The HD version was aweful though.
Yeah, you know a similar thing happened to Dark Souls Remastered? I was so annoyed with that. The audio was so bad I just went back to the PS3 version. I’d rather deal with the isolated frame rate issues(isolated to Blight Town + some areas of Darkroot), than the game-spanning audio issues of the Remaster. Apparently I really, really care about the audio, haha. I didn’t realize this… but every time it seems that I’m the only person to complain about it when they get it wrong. That’s in fact why I ended my prior comment by saying “I doubt Sega will patch this”, because I’ve only seen maybe two other people mention it.
Are you playing ZOE on PS2, then? I have the HD versions on PS3. Yeah, I stopped playing them fast once I realized how shoddy the frame rate was.