Thanks...

So even the original Bayonetta had more polygons in its main character than GoW3?

Wow, I genuinely thought GoW3 would be higher, like 40k or something.

Japanese devs tend to use higher poly counts than western devs. Where as western devs more heavily utilise effects like Normal Maps and complex shaders/lighting effects. Poly count is just one aspect of the quality of a model for example Normal Maps make a huge difference

Generally true, but it's not like Bayonetta avoids normal mapping:

That ass... Damn.

That's almost half as many polygons as Bayonetta's boobs.

That booty.

Exactly. I just want to play the game. If we get surprised by the sales then by all means, but I highly doubt it. 

I wasn't trying to say they didn't use it at all. Just that western devs generaly rely on it more. Platinum specifically tend to mix both styls well. Compared to say Team Ninja that tend to go crazy with geometry for example

And for Kratos in GoW3 specifically they actually use blended normal maps where they have a bunch of different normal maps that they blend together in different ways to stimulate muscle movement and animated wrinkles/vains etc. It was one of the first games to use it. Max Payne 3 also used it to great effect. Oh and he is bald that saves a lot of polys.

I enjoyed Bayonetta too, just not as much as any GOW game or MGR: R.