Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon

(Played in Japanese, both text and voice, handheld mode. )

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon was first announced on December, the nineth, 2022 (Some minutes past nine in morning during the “Keighley’s” that year, Chinese Standard Time.) and released on March, the seventeenth, 2023. Those 2 days resembled each rather uncannily as far as my life is concerned: chilly raining Fridays in the winter when I decided not go to the office and watched one episode or two of the Wire. I started to play the game one week before its release through its demo with importable saves.

The demo could be somewhat misleading. Containing the first 2 chapters, it’s essentially an extended tutorial where problems the complete game has do not appear. Still with last year’s trilogy coda being a disappointment to me personally, young Cereza’s journey into the weeds is still the most pleasant Bayonetta game out there. (The best of the series can only be decided by having 1 and 2 locked into a cage fight and see which one crawl out.)

Japanese “Hale” Getting Her Due

Anime in a board sense, interactive or otherwise, live and die on 2 qualities: art style and voice cast. Cereza and the Lost Demon nailed those 2 accounts well. The story book style water color does not only pop but also help the game to run rather smoothly on the already 6 years old Switch. On that voice cast account, Miyuki Sawashiro finally got her due here after being with the series since they added Japanese voice to it.

Miyuki Sawashiro played a younger version of Cereza in 2013’s Bayonetta anime film and 2014’s Wii U port. Then she got done dirtier playing Viola in Bayonetta 3 but that’s the least of that game’s problems. Ms. Sawashiro to yours truly should have be the prime choice for Bayonetta since she has “sexy sadist” as her strong suit. But those snubs at Platinum chose more experienced Atsuko Tanaka. Ms. Tanaka did an admirable job but her “queen cop in the field” routine lacks certain er, arousing element. I guess just hearing Ms. Sawashiro playing a character with arc here should be a good start for Platinum’s better collaboration with her.

The other voice cast highlights includes: The aforementioned Ms. Tanaka has cameo appearance as Cereza’s mother Rosa (Actual Jennifer Hale made the cameo appearance in English.) ; The final boss is played by Yoshiko Sakakibara, someone best as “queen cop between a desk” but would not side away from throwdowns.

With the trilogy’s stores being gibberish nonsense, it’s surprising to see Cereza and Lost Demon having a good story. Even though we all know how little Cereza would turn out, this journey into the weed still has intrigues of, including how a resource for Cereza’s skill tree upgrades would telegraph some of the Third Act reveals. Seeing how heartless Bayonetta can be, the answer this game gives got me saying “Yeah, fair enough” by the end.

For the kids? Kinda, sorta, not really

Narratively speaking, the title “Bayonetta Origins” feels something tackled on to sell more copies. Not mechanically wise, since one would have to do the dodge and swing routine they know and love in the trilogy before the credits roll (That final one ever requires good timing to beat). But before we can get to that point, the game would remind us more of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons plus the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past or A Link Between Worlds.

Cereza’s actions are all mapped to left joy-con while the Lost Demon is controlled by the right one. The menu is brought up by the plus button on the right though. For the most part, one might think one can share this game with a playmate by detaching and sharing the joy-cons despite some basic maneuverer. One of those being Cereza holding the Lost Demon in their plushie form, extending them with the right stick, attaching them to some furry looking pole and pulling left bumper to get across some gaps. It’s also hard to tell which one of the duo is more suitable for one’s “less experienced in video game” friend.

D-pad and face buttons are not used frequently in this game, with the former for Cereza’s using portions and the latter just for Lost Demon’s elemental form switch. The game can be considered as a point and click adventure game with 2 cursors and 4 clicks.

The shoulder bumpers are for contextual interactions (the left mouse click, if you may), including being the jump button at times. This is where the Platinum promise of bad camera can dampen the game experience, since once might not be able to interact with the world if the camera cannot place one in the right place or angle.

The shoulder triggers are mostly for combat, left one allow Cereza to keep enemies in places while the right one let the Lost Demon pounce on them. The right mouse click feeling of those buttons is more apparent outside combat. Cereza would have to perform magic dances to advance in the game, a mini game in which one has to hit or hold 1 to 4 notes by pushing the left stick to success while holding the left trigger.

Once you see a round area like the one pictured in the game, it means it’s time to throw down. Lost Demon on the right joy-con, would do most of the heavy-lift, right bumper for defense and right trigger for offense. Cereza is not totally helpless in the arena, click the left stick to dodge is an upgrade on her skill tree. Let her tie down an enemy by hold the left trigger then let Lost Demon go to town on them by hold and release the right trigger is something closer to them special kills in the trilogy, only it does not require quick time event here.

Arena design in the game is non-existent and the combat is better for it. The way Bayonetta and Viola dodging themselves into a corner because someone think it would be good to litter Bayonetta 3’s arena with random rubbles is frustrating. Not a problem here. There is one boss fight where Cereza might have to walk slow through water, but with her being not all that useful in that fight, it ain’t no problem.

This is a game partially molded in the form of A Link to the Past and the Completion percentage on the save file do remind one of them Metroid games. The main story is blocked by Cereza and Lost Demon getting four elements, wood, rock, water and fire. The endgame areas are between barriers requires different elements.

In case this game does not remind one of polygonal platformer of yester year (Where the power fantasy is more about saving the innocent than punishing the guilty) enough, saving the wisps is a mandatory then optional activity one can take part in. Fast Travel between save points is locked until that plot point. This game has auto save who can leave then load back into, so save points are more than crafting portions and upgrading one’s skill tree.

A sixty-buck question

Yours truly paid 6500 yen for the game then had a good enough weekend with it. But English speaking video game aficionados might find the 60 us dollars price tag a harder pill to swallow mainly for its seemingly low-key production value. The game does have a couple of cool action set-pieces and the control here is much better than Bayonetta 3’s chunky attempts. Still, one should give this game a chance. It’s the best Platinum’s single-player co-operative experience to date. And with Nintendo’s own Zelda endeavor sinking into the bottomless hole of Breath of the Wild mold for now, it’s nice to see someone else keeping the Link to the Past tradition alive.