Re: early copy..I work at Gamestop. It's been seeming that we get games that are street dated on a certain day the thursday/friday before the game's release. We already got a copy of Darksiders as well but I took home Bayonetta to appease my girlfriend who's been loving the demo.
I wouldn't say its a total DMC rip off, but I did get a flashback in sorts of the insane comboing and action.
You get to have two weapon sets you can switch between at anytime (yes, even mid combo). Right now, Set-A is a pair of claws that show up as either fire or electricity with a pair of shotguns on her feet while B is a katana with her traditional guns on her feet.
Whenever you encounter a new enemy type, the game goes into a small little vid with them transforming or showing up before you and then their picture being shown in a book with their name and what realm they belong to and what not.
Certain areas are blocked, either by a wall that you must attack until it breaks apart for you to pass or by a magical seal that doesn't get removed until you defeat the enemies in that small area.
Once you master "witch time" (dodging an enemy attack at the last possible second) the game becomes easy but as you progress, it seems you've gotta enter it just to have a shot at hitting the enemy / killing it.
End of each chapter (which are divided by stages called "verses") gives you your score + a medal (platinum..gold..silver..etc..) which is effected by your overall score, how many times you died and how many items you used. After this, you get a mini-game of sorts where you get a certain amount of bullets to kill floating enemies. The points you gain can either be traded for items or for halos, the latter of which you need to pay Rodin at the "Gates of Hell" for new techniques, items, weapons and the like.
