Leaving aside 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the casting controversy o📖f Hellena Taylor, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bayonetta 3 felt like one of the least discussed games of last year. While I did not care for the story that suddenly, even by Bayonetta standards, became convoluted at the end, the gameplay itself offered a new peak of the character action genre. It was a fresh experience in a sea of so many reheated triple-A open world quagmires. That it's getting a follow-up so soon in the form of Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:is a welcome surprise, but even though it's yet another completely new idea, from what I have played it may be doomed to the same fate.
Cereza and the Lost Demon features characters from Bayonetta (including the titular Cereza, which is what Bayonetta went by before she became Bayonetta) as younger versions of themselves, but this is not just a regular spin-off. The game is more of a 3D platformer with occasional combat, but even that doesn't feel correct, at least not until Chapter 5, which is where I've played up to. That accounts for 33 percent of the game - give or take, allowing for collectables and optional areas - and it's mainly a walking sim in a storybook aesthetic with a few puzzles along the way. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's propped up by a few baffling design choices.
It's clear the change in Cereza's adult years was more than just the name. The grown-up Bayonetta is suave, sexy, and sultry. Clearly, these were not qualities she would have had as a child, and I'm glad the devs didn't take the inappropriate steps of watering down these traits, instead removing them completely. Unfortunately, this leaves Cereza with just one personality trait: British. As a Brit myself, I can say with confidence that the cut-glass, shrill tones of a posh British child are amongst the worst in the world. Cereza reminds me of the annoying little clone girl in Jurassic World, but really, just think of any obnoxiously over-enunciated British child star, and you've got Cereza.
You also play as Chesire, your stuffed animal who has been possessed by a demon (in similar fashion to older Bayonetta's famous hair costume) and can now grow into a humongous beast. Initially, this creature distrusts you and refuses to be shrunk down to be carried, then suddenly has no objections to any of it because the game demands it. Overlooking this, the two characters have a wholesome, if predictable bond, but the control system sucks any joy you might get from seeing the two of them together.
Cereza is controlled by the left thumb stick, Cheshire with the right, but there's no real synergy. Most of the time, Cereza solves the puzzles and Cheshire fights. When they're split up on two paths, it feels like the game has done it only to get more playtime on the twin stick movement system, which in handheld mode is overly fiddly and lacks the sense of togetherness it's supposed to conjure.
This lack of connection between our two heroes is worse when engaged in combat. Cereza can cast spells to bind opponents, and Cheshire can attack them, but that's all there is to it. Cereza has one spell, and all of the upgrades are based on improving recovery time or making it last longer. Cheshire, so far, has three attacks, but they are tap R, hold R, or tap R then hold R. It's not the most engaging system I've ever experienced, and what makes it worse is that said most engaging system was probably Bayonetta 3.
Despite all this, there are reasons to be hopeful. For one, the fact I can max out the skill tree at 30 percent completion suggests a bigger, more complex system awaits, although I paused my playthrough to write this preview, so right now, I have no idea. Similarly, I have only unlocked one of Cheshire's alternate forms and there seem to be three more left. I worry that so many changes might be gimmicks, but the grass form has opened up new techniques for platforming and does a little more to justify the twin stick approach.
This platforming also occasionally has more chances to shine. In optional areas known as Tír na nÓg, there are set platforming challenges which pay out like mini Crash Bandicoot levels, although on a disappointing꧙ occasion, these will be combat arenas instead. Tír na nÓgs are by far the most compelling and unique part of Cereza and the Lost Demon, and I hope the game will embrace them further from this point on.
There's also the fact the game is gorgeous - usually when we say that in gaming we mean realistic, but not here. Too often, we're simply impressed by a game's technological prowess, blown away by the fact the snozzberries look like snozzberries, to consider if the style works or has anything to say. Cereza and the Lost Demon offers a more unique, painterly style like a child's fairytale, complete with turning storybook pages and splashes of illustration on vellum. It not only looks intriguing, it turns eccentric and psychedelic at the perfect moments and constantly ties to the themes of witchcraft and wonderment.
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is not a Bayonetta game, and asking fans to play it for lore after 3's ending is a bold choice. It also, so far, has nowhere near as strong a grasp on its genre as the main series does, and is flailing in a river of played out ideas. Still, it looks beautiful in a way games rarely can, the Tír na nÓg show the game has a level of thought hidden away, and I find myself caring about Cheshire even if he's a composite of Stitch and all the characters like him in pop culture. If Cereza and the Lost Demon continues to grow into its final two thirds, maybe my full review will be praising its recovery from a rocky start. Right now though, Cereza doesn't seem fit to wear the name Bayonetta.