Now Playing: Cereza and the Lost Demon

When I saw the announcement trailer for Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon I really wasn’t sure what to think. A spin off game in an entirely different genre with an entirely new visual style? But because I love the Bayonetta games so much and because I wanted to support the series I figured I’d pick it up and give it a go.

What I wasn’t expecting was for the game to become an early contender for my personal Game of the Year and a potential 10/10 score. Yes, that’s how good Bayonetta Origins is. It’s close to being a masterpiece. And it is, make no mistake, a Bayonetta game. It might not look like it. It might not feel like it when you first start to play. But it is.

The way the DNA, I guess, of the ‘core’ Bayonetta games is woven into Origins as you progress is nothing short of remarkable. From visuals, to sound, to dialogue to gameplay – you don’t realise it at first, but it’s all there and the deeper you go, the more prominent it becomes. The game not only serves as a fantastic stand alone prequel, but as a perfect companion piece to Bayonetta 3.

The visuals are unique and distinct and absolutely gorgeous. The animations are fantastic. And I love how the animations evolve over time to reflect the growing relationship between Cereza and the titular Lost Demon – Cheshire. The UI also changes to reflect this. And I need to highlight just how lovely the UI is when so many games these days seem to, at best, settle for a UI that’s bland, but functional.

Every aspect of Origins has clearly had a lot of thought and care put into it – the visuals, the animations, the art, the UI – in order to connect everything together into a beautifully cohesive experience. And the music? The music is, you might not be surprised to hear, also fantastic, as is the voice acting.

But it’s not just how Origins looks or sounds that makes it special. It’s how it plays. The game eases you into controlling both Cereza and Cheshire independently of one another in both exploration and combat. The pacing is, admittedly, a tad slow at the beginning, but once you’re past the opening, your gameplay progression in terms of new abilities, new areas and new skills is pretty much perfect.

I played Origins immediately after Metroid Prime Remastered and in my review of that game I said ‘It’s one of those few games that should really be studied by developers now and in the future for a perfect example of level design, player progression and gameplay pacing.’ And now I feel like Bayonetta Origins is another game that can be added to the list. That’s how impressive the pacing and progression is handled.

As you play you unlock new ‘forms’ for Cheshire which give you new exploration tools and unlock new areas. But these forms also give you new abilities within combat. The combat is fun and very good. I won’t say it’s great. Not quite. It might feel very simple at first but it does grow more complex over time as you unlock these new forms and encounter new enemy types.

The game does a decent job of introducing new enemies and mixing them up, forcing you to switch forms on the fly in order to destroy them more efficiently. But I do wish there was just one more layer or so added to the combat system as you progress. It just falls a little short of the complexity I was hoping for.

At the very end of the game you do get new mechanics, but only as part of the final boss fight. I can’t be too unhappy about that though because that whole fight is pretty f**king stellar. In fact, all of the boss fights in this game are really f**king good. They’re genuinely some of the most fun boss fights I’ve had in years and they’re all unique in the way they play.

We do need to talk about the map, though, which is easily the worst part of Origins and why it’s falling short of that 10/10 score. The funny thing is, you probably won’t ever use the map when you’re working your way through the game because the level design is fantastic and you always know exactly where to go next.

No, the problem is when you hit the post-game and if, like me, you want to see everything Origins has to offer and find all of those missing collectibles. Then you realise how f**king bad the map is. Why? The map is deceptive. And the last thing you want a map to be is deceptive. The map is misleading. It f**king lies. You want a game map to be easy to read and precise.

But the map in Origins often appears to show two paths connecting – only for you to realise they’re actually not and then you realise – to your annoyance – you’ve spent 15 minutes running in a big circle. The game also doesn’t annotate which exits on the local map lead into which nearby regions. This alone would solve a lot of the problems, but the game doesn’t do it (unless they patch it in).

This is a real problem because some collectibles in one region require you to access them through a path from another region, but because the exits aren’t marked, you don’t know for sure which region to start from.

I’m really glad I did take my time and collect everything though (and I’m not ashamed to admit, I used a guide for a few of them) because there’s some really cool stuff to see and unlock, including entirely optional, beautiful areas. There’s also a lot of cool, post-game stuff to unlock like new costumes for both Cereza and Cheshire. Oh, and there’s also a Jeanne focused mission which ties into Bayonetta 3.

In total, I probably spent about 20 hours playing Origins. I didn’t hit 100% completion because I didn’t play all of the Tir Na Nog time trials. The Tir Na Nog challenges are a fun addition to the game, but I do wish so many weren’t entirely combat focused because the puzzle ones are really good and I wanted more like those.

Overall, Bayonetta Origins is an absolutely fantastic game. Yes, it’s a very different kind of Bayonetta game but it is, without a doubt, a Bayonetta game at heart. If you’re a fan of Bayonetta as a character and the story surrounding her then this is a must buy. But even if you’ve never played a Bayonetta game before, this is still a game you should pick up and play. It’s an absolute masterclass in design from visuals, to sound, to animations, to gameplay pacing and progression.

Shame about that map, though.

9/10