I don’t care about the stuff you care about. I don’t see it as adding anything to the game-playing experience. This is called a difference of opinion.

Hideki Kamiya has one game philosophy in mind – “overcoming challenges”. The game, on normal,is less a game and more a training mode for Hard and Non-Stop Infinite Climax Modes, both of which test skills gained in the previous difficulty. Kamiya wants to challenge the player to “master” the game.

The game also has a scoring system. This is because your scores in the “verses” – or battles of each level – are ranked by time, combo, and damage (avoiding it). Obtaining these conditions nets you a rank from Bronze to Pure Platinum; it’s a tangible way of noting how well you did, basically. The combos do not merely exist to “look cool” – variety in your combo usage nets you more points, and thus gives you a higher score. It is, thus, in your best interest to learn the combos, as well as those combos which raise the combo modifier the quickest. However, there is one more thing to note – the giant fist, or “Wicked Weave” attacks, as they are called, have a special function in that they reset the decreasing modifier – the more attacks in a sequence, the less they are worth, but Wicked Weaves allow the multiplier to reset to whatever it is at currently.

In addition, getting Platinum medals on every level in Normal difficulty unlocks Jeanne, who changes the game by 1. Allowing for infinite dodges (Bayonetta only get 5 in a row by default) 2. a higher combo modifier and 3. the inability to activate witch time unless you dodge at the absolute LAST frame of an enemy attack (it might not be that precise, I’d have to check). You can even unlock one more character who change the mechanics in other ways.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying: you are dead wrong, and demonstrably so. Yes, the game has a lot of visual information, but one can easily cut through the clutter and understand that there is a system underlining the game. It just takes time to learn it, in order to dominate the game. It has nothing to do with hypnotism, with my brain being provoked into some sort of “low culture” state or something to that effect. The aesthetics are just a cover for what is a great game system that has so many intricacies that I can’t even relate them here without making your head spin.

You might want to try again.