Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon Switch Review
In Bayonetta 3 there was a secret chapter hidden within a book that offered a little fun side distraction to unlock a costume. This was a cutesy five-minute gameplay snippet of a young Bayonetta walking around a beautiful forest from a sort of isometric view. In here, she ran around performing rhythm actions on plants until it abruptly ended with a “To Be Continued?”. This was completely different to anything previously featured in the Bayonetta games. Fans wondered if it was going to be an extra mode, maybe downloadable content for the game in the future. It was not until December’s Game Awards at the end of 2022 that it was in fact a short demo for a brand new Bayonetta game, which was titled Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon and was given a release date within 4 months of its announcement. What is exciting is that this turned out to be a fleshed-out title that offers a very solid action-adventure, puzzle experience that lasts about the same as any other Bayonetta game.
Bayonetta Origins, as I will call it from now on to save some space, takes us back to a period we do not know much about, a time in Bayonetta’s life when she was not even given that titular name and instead went by her given name Cereza, who was born from Lumen father and an Umbra Mother. This was against all strict laws between the Lumen and Umbra, so her father was exiled away, and her mother was locked up in jail. Cereza would visit her mother at night until this was taken away from her when her mother was moved further into the dungeon on Cereza’s tenth birthday. This only caused Cereza to be more determined to save her mother one day. With only her mother’s gift of a stuffed cat, which was appropriately named Cheshire, to hold on to, Cereza decided to leave the village and live with an exiled witch, Morgana, on the outskirts of town. Here, the little witch was trained to become stronger with the dark arts of Umbra witches so that she could one day return and save her mother.
The story is a sort of coming-of-age affair for our famous witch. This is Cereza at her most innocent, her least confident, and never having once summoned a demon or ever been in any real danger until now. What this means is a tale that you cannot help but feel for her, it’s a heart-warming adventure mixed with some smiles and heartache. This is due to how she sees herself. Cereza is disappointed in herself at being unable to become strong and summon a demon, at his point talking to her stuffed teddy cat in despair. As this is going on, a boy’s voice tells her to go to Avalon Forest and follow the white wolf. This is the start of her journey into a dangerous forest, as she manages to summon a demon into her Cheshire teddy, and together they tackle the faeries of the Avalon Forest while creating a bond that will last a lifetime.
It is a kindled friendship between the two that initially do not want to be anything more than a witch and demon but turns into a tale of friendship and loyalty to one another. Bayonetta Origins does promote a stronger focus on narrative than any of the previous Bayonetta games, and even the first chapter is 30 minutes of simple gameplay as the narrative is built to push our little wannabe witch into her first real adventure. This is an enchanting story that is enjoyable from beginning to end, with some touching moments between the two main controllable heroes and the bizarre life that inhabit the wonderful vistas of Avalon Forest.
What is brilliant about Bayonetta Origins is that it stands well as its own game and does not require investment in the previous titles to enjoy what it has to offer. It helps that the characters get to shine, building them enough personality without needing any supporting material, although, there is a nice bonus unlock that links to Bayonetta 3. It also distances itself with a big shift in its gameplay. Bayonetta Origins is mostly viewed from an isometric, top-down view, although will occasionally swing its camera around so that it can share some of the beautiful art that is on display. This gorgeous game shines with warmth and style by presenting the game in a style of a picture book. It oozes charm through this painting style, filling the screen with bundles of bright colours, just as if a child’s book had come to life in front of your very eyes. It is one of the more distinct and visually attractive games in the Switch’s library.
It is not just the camera and visuals that have changed, but the style of gameplay as well, following in the steps of something that blends baby concepts from a Metroidvania mixed with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Cereza and Cheshire have their own alignment of the controller, with Cereza’s movement and actions based on the left stick and left two shoulder buttons, while Cheshire is on the right stick and the two right shoulder buttons. This leads to often controlling both characters to overcome the game’s many puzzles situated within its environment. These are never overtly challenging, but give the player engagement as it requires the use of both characters and inputs to solve. It does take a little while to get used to pressing buttons on the right side and fighting with Cheshire and moving with the right stick, while also controlling Cereza with the other sticking and pressing left buttons to summon thorns that can lock enemies in place to make it easier for Cheshire to get in a simple combo, as it is a lot to register and pay attention too. Once it becomes second nature for the player, it ends up feeling like a natural extension of the actions performed on screen.
Combat is quite a significant element of Bayonetta Origins, but they are vastly constrained compared to the freer following combos of the mainline series. The combo mechanics are straightforward. There are no branching combos here, just a few moves and alterations when holding down the attack button. It is the addition of added elements to Cheshire’s move set that add to the combat (and puzzles). Such as using water to squirt on enemies shielded by fire or using vine whips from the grass element to pull off an enemy’s shield. This also translates to using water lilies as boats, squirting water to propel them forward, or using hovering platforms where Cheshire will drag them while Cereza stands on top to help her gain access to a once unreachable area. There are plenty of times when both are used to overcome a puzzle, and the developers have combined the abilities of both Cereza and Cheshire to make exploring Avalon Forest a mysterious journey of solving puzzles that never quite wrack the brain, but feel good taking part in.
That said, during traversal, Cheshire can be attached to Cereza by shrinking back into his teddy form, dubbed “Hug Mode”, which allows them to travel together using just Cereza’s stick. Plus, this also charges up Cheshire’s magic bar for when he uses one of four elements (stone and fire being the other two), which is important in battle, as Cereza will have to move around or lock enemies with her thorn attack while Cheshire charges up. This makes what could have been a simple combat system quite delightful. Sure, it’s nowhere near as complex or visually exciting as Bayonetta generally offers with its deeper mechanics, but this more puzzle-focused fighting fits this game’s style while allowing people who cannot grasp character action games to adapt more easily here.
This does mean that combat never toches the spectacle of the mainline games, which is only ever slightly touched upon towards the end of its story when the madness increases, which will put a nice smile on fans of the series. Overall, the game is not difficult. I do not remember dying once from draining all my health, but health does increase further into the game from finding flower petals (think hearts from The Legend of Zelda), and did not feel the need to use one of the four items (healing, timed invincibility, timed unlimited magic or enemy stun) until the last third of the game. There are plenty of accessibility options to make the game easier to play, such as making end-of-combo killing moves automatic rather than manual, reducing damage, reducing magic usage, weakening enemy strength and making witch pulse automatic, which is the rhythm mechanic that is used fairly often to alter properties in the environment that requires the player to tap a direction of the stick to a beat a few times in a row.
One element that I truly liked was a refreshing take on the “Ubisoft Radio Tower” mechanic. You know the one that features climbing up a tower and then scans the local area to reveal the map and other points of interest inside of it. In Bayonetta Origins, these are called Tír Na Nóg, small challenge rooms that are made up of either combat or puzzles, or both, with completing them revealing the map under the fog and the points of interest. It felt so refreshing to be doing something different than climbing to perform the said action, and these challenge rooms fully adapt the game’s mechanics into its combat and puzzles. Their enclosed design, with each Tír Na Nóg situated away from the main environment, as the game’s heroes are whisked through a shattered glass of reality into some unknown place, remind me of the shrines in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
I did not know what to expect going into Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon. Was this going to be a small title or a fleshed-out release? The latter is the truth, with the game offering a good 13+ hours, and that is without finding every collectable scattered around Avalon Forest. Platinum Games have given the Bayonetta IP a nice spinoff with Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon. It is an entry that comes with its own unique charm against its big sister’s action releases. This is a refreshing diversion for Bayonetta. Such a pleasure to experience its picture book-inspired visuals and presentation that never puts a foot wrong with its wonderful and charming art that makes the whole thing such an atmospheric experience, a joyful playtime with Cereza and her stuffed demon Cheshire. Smartly designed puzzles that fully utilise the duo’s abilities and control schemes are what makes the game entertaining. While the puzzles are not challenging for most, and the combat is never as demanding as the mainline series, they are a refreshing redesign that brings its own puzzle elements into the combat for a genre that could easily have gone without any action to be successful.
