Hi, I’m Eijiro, an animator here at PlatinumGames.

On Bayonetta, I was primarily in charge of enemies, meaning that I worked hard every day on their animations, in hopes of luring our users into exciting battles.

I’ve been an enemy animator on several projects before this one, and I have to admit that the enemies that I’ve animated are almost like children to me. Whenever I see someone playing against one of them, I unconsciously begin to root for the enemy instead of the player.

Just the other day, I had one of my co-workers play against an enemy that was pretty much done. He thought he was a bit too easy, and would end up getting torn apart, so he dropped a bomb on me – “Don’t you think this is a bit too weak sauce?” Let’s just say his words cut me deep.

As an enemy animator, I want everyone to be able to enjoy anxiety-packed, exhilarating battles; however, that doesn’t mean I can just go around making enemy attacks super-hard as a prank. If you have an enemy that has nothing going for it other than powerful attacks, all that enemy will do is cause stress.

From my point of view, it’s about a player making a call and seeing a response.

If you don’t create a wide breadth of actions – a player’s attack may hit, or it may be dodged and countered – that cause a player to speculate on what action they should take next, I feel you can never establish that coexistence between anxiety and exhilaration.

It comes off a bit stiff when put into words; however, what we actually do is take an enemy behavior and insert a bit of a break into it.

Let’s take this enemy’s attack as an example:

This is a precursor animation that screams, “I’m going to attack you!” Once you add special effects on top of this, it is even easier to pick up on. This allows the player to make a call and execute their own action, whether it is to risk it and attack, or go the safe route and dodge, putting some distance between themselves and the enemy. With this motion, you have about a second to make your decision.

Once the precursor we just saw has been completed, the enemy will actually launch the attack. This is where your choice as a player will be put up against the enemy’s choice and one will be determined to have been the correct course of action.

These attack precursors are incredibly sensitive issues when balancing a game. If you make them too obvious, they eliminate any anxiety you would feel. However, if you make them so difficult only the hardcore can pick them up, you lose your sense of exhilaration.

When I am on the receiving end of killer words from my co-workers, they usually push me towards going down the higher difficult route. (LOL) However, if I go too far down that path, I usually end up getting a tongue-lashing from the programmer who is helping me balance the game. That is how we end up with just the right seasoning on our gameplay steak. Right now, we are going through lots of trial and error on Bayonetta, but we are really getting somewhere with our work, so get ready for some fun.

There is still some time before the game is released, but I think there will be opportunities for you to get the chance to play Bayonetta at a show or in-store before then. If you happen to see the Game Over screen, you might want to take a look over your shoulder. If you see someone smirking… It’s probably me! (LOL)