Cereza and the Lost Demon review

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, our new Bayonetta game, which came out as a surprise after our Bayonetta 3 review content, which was released last year and was the best action game of the year in my eyes. Moreover, it comes with a style and game type that we would never have guessed.

Put aside the sexy characters, the tough demeanor and the fast-paced action. With Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (I’ll just call it Bayonetta Origins from now on), we will experience the story of little Cereza like a fairy tale book in a colorful world, where we will solve puzzles and travel between platforms.

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon review

A Strange Adventure With Chesire

We’re going back to when the character we know as Bayonetta was trained as a little girl named Cereza. This is the story of a girl who is ostracized because of her parents who are members of two hostile parties. Her father is exiled and her mother is imprisoned. Cereza, a girl with no one except the doll Chesire, gifted to her by her mother, whom she visited before she was moved to a more secure prison.

Living next to Morgana, an exiled witch herself, to train Umbra Witch, Cereza doesn’t know even the simplest summoning techniques yet. The little girl, who sees her struggles to save her mother in her dreams, receives a message that there is a power waiting for her in the forbidden forest.

Ignoring Morgana’s warnings, Cereza heads into the woods and when she’s in trouble, she does the demon summoning dance she hasn’t been able to properly do yet. The incoming demon stops the enemies, but because it is not under control, it captures Cereza’s doll, Chesire, in order not to be destroyed. He actually wants to attack Cereza, but for some reason he doesn’t understand, he realizes that he has bonded with himself and cannot attack her.

Seeking power to save her mother, Cereza and the demon, who need help getting back to the Inferno from which she came, begin to work together. We follow the story of the reluctant partnership of the demon and Cereza, who took the name Chesire because of the toy it was in, and their friendship as a result of the events they lived together as they progressed.

The story told with the help of a storyteller is very enjoyable. Already the main story takes about 14 hours, it does not offer much opportunity to become boring.

Controlling Two Characters Simultaneously

The Bayonetta series can be summarized as a series full of pure action, where bullets and hair fly in the air, and the characters make impressive sentences while hitting the enemies. Considering the characters’ attitudes, speeches and even the use of their hair as clothes while casting spells, it is a fact that the game is quite rich in content that can be considered sexy. Bayonetta Origins puts all this aside.

Cereza and the Lost Demon is not a standard action game, but rather a platform-puzzle genre that Nintendo players are more familiar with. There are two characters we control, Cereza and Chesire. Moreover, we check them simultaneously, not sequentially. If the characters are too far apart, Chesire’s power is depleted, so they can’t get too far from each other. We direct Cereza with the left joycon and Chesire with the right joycon.

Cereza, the main character of Bayonetta Origins, is a newbie who doesn’t even know the magic to send back the demon she summoned. Naturally, it is not possible for him to play an active role in wars. It’s up to Chesire to defeat enemies, while Cereza can cast simple spells to stop them for a short time. While defeating the enemies with Chesire during the fight, we also need to be careful not to get attacked by Cereza. Like the parts where we summon demons in Bayonetta 3, care is needed.

Outside of combat, Chesire is able to revert to her doll form, so she can cross small spaces she wouldn’t normally go through on our backs. There are also places where there are plants (rosemary) that he can never cross, in such cases he can use alternative routes with the help of Cereza. The platform-puzzle part of the game usually consists of these parts. As we progress, we gain new elemental abilities and we can reach parts we haven’t been to before.

The gameplay of the game is difficult at first, but when I get used to controlling two characters at the same time, I had a lot of fun. If you’ve played Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons before, you can guess exactly what awaits you. The characters controlled by different joycons also allow you to play as two people. Although the characters are not that effective when controlling alone, there can be controversial and funny moments such as “help me, they are chasing me”. In other words, the producers thought that the game should be played by one person with two characters, and you can notice this.

We said that the story of the game is about 14 hours, during this time I did not experience a self-repetition situation at a level that would make you tired of the game. In addition to the main story, we can discover hidden areas in the environment, rescue beings called Wisp, play the illusion sections (Tír na nÓgs) against time and win various rewards. I guess it is possible to get about 20 hours of gameplay by doing all of these. On the one hand, I couldn’t spare time for the extra parts because Octopath Traveler 2 was waiting.

Storybook Exclusive to Switch

Bayonetta Origins has done a great job with the visuals. We wander through colorful forests, explore regions distorted by the powers of fairies, and explore dungeons, each of which we gain different powers. It manages to give the impression that we are in a children’s book distorted by evil beings. The animations are very nice, the cutscenes presented in the form of book pages are beautiful, the characters manage to look both cute and scary. I also liked the details such as the animations where Chesire and Cereza are listened to at the save points.

The game works fine both in handheld mode and on the dock. I played comfortably without any stuttering or stuttering. There is no such problem as “graphics like mud in hand mode” that we encounter in some games, it would be sad for a Nintendo Switch exclusive game anyway. Isn’t it Pokemon Scarlet/Violet?

I usually play games with Japanese dubbing, I don’t particularly like English voice actors who do an unsuccessful job of voicing child characters. My intention in this game was to play Japanese, but when I forgot to make the setting while entering the game, I said that I would play a little and then change it, I’m glad I did. Both Cereza and the storyteller have produced a very successful voiceover. Jenny Lee, who plays the role of storyteller, also voices Chesire, which she has done very entertainingly and successfully.

The atmosphere presented with the graphic style and successful voice-over, which I like very much, is supported by great music. Calm music playing while walking around, tense tunes playing while battling enemies, short Zelda-like music playing when opening chests. Chest music can even make a little surprise in some parts. Apart from that, some pieces are reinterpretations of the original music of the Bayonetta series, which gives you a different pleasure when you hear them.

Conclusion

Anyone who loves the Bayonetta series may not love this game. After all, pure action, sexy witches and summoning demons fighting against endless streams of enemies are not available in this game. In fact, some players may not like the children’s book style narration. I passed out. I could tag this game as suitable for someone wanting to enter the world of Bayonetta for the first time, but then play Bayonetta and ask, “Is this Cereza?” There’s a good chance they’ll be surprised.

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is a good game that successfully implements the platform-puzzle genre and brings a brand new flavor to the series with its pleasant story and non-boring gameplay. If you want to experience an adventure that is both visually and audibly satisfying, enjoyable to play, and full of flavor, I recommend it wholeheartedly.

via My Nintendo Store Sold with a $60 price tag If you ask if Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon can be bought at this price, yes, for players who love the genre, it will be bought at this price. Players who like Bayonetta and try its demo and enjoy it might be better if they prefer to buy it for around $30 in a discount period.