OK, I picked this up for some reason and played through the first two files (there are apparently 11, and something happens after the second that signals end of the 'opening' arc).
Due to my long years without a console or much interest in action, I have actually never played Bayonetta, Nier, or even DMC - but here are some quick impressions for what it's worth. Happy to be told what I might be missing.
The game is very stylish in an over the top way - it's good at what it does in a bombastic anime-Hollywood way. I do really enjoy the music in a way that a Guilty Gear soundtrack is worth listening to just for some guitar jamming. It's not something that really feels like a real city, or has any kind of grittiness, or the graphics and art pulls you into a real world the way KC:D forests do, of course, but for running around in an anime police mecha world it's done well.
But the story and characters it seems like is going to be super juvenile. E.g. the opening cutscene could just be copy-pasted from Evangelion, with the all-knowing police chief who looks like Gendo Ikari 30 years older staring fearlessly at the lab glass as the new dangerous mecha slams into it and then is pulled back. Bo-fucking-ring. At least GITS made the section chief a Yoda. I don't mind anime per se, but I mind how generic it is. The story so far is literally lifted straight from every anime cliche playbook - demonic invasion of earth, yes of course science must try to control it to fight back, of course it fails, of course you're a chosen one, yadda yadda. I'm sure it will get typically anime twists later on about how the good guys were in on it and there's a dark secret to your power and so on. It's all, again, done stylish enough that I can stomach it, unlike, say, Fire Emblem Conquest, but I wouldn't call it exactly gripping. At least nobody's walking around the police station with a giant zweihander, shoulder pauldrons and bikinis.
I'm not sure if I can really comment on combat as such an action gameplay noob. Right now I'm just getting C ranks in my missions trying to get comfortable with the combat, and the 'twist' at end of file 2 seems to really open up the combat as well. Your character does fight - I suppose you could choose to mostly stay out of the way and send your mech dog, but I think the intent is, and the most fun way is, to constantly move both yourself and the legion. You can use the chain to tie people up or even make them run into your chain in a boxing ring rope way, gimmicky but cool and fun. It's not that fiddly or annoying to move the two things at once, even for me. No real combos or such, unless they crop up after the 'twist'?
I am, all in all, having fun with it for now, while thinking it's not a particularly superb game and more of an anime-Hollywood experience crossed with what could be quite good actiony combat.
still waiting for Bayo 3 before I pull that trigger
