It may even be preferable to begin a game with incorrect expectations rather than none at all. I thought Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon was some kind of visual novel when I first heard about it because of the young heroine, the hand-drawn illustrations, and the flutter of parchment. As expected, Cereza begins mostly with tale and reading, interspersing brief scenes with the movement of a three-dimensional figure.
However, as soon as I engaged in my first conflict, I had an odd notion. Perhaps I’m not quite correct. I was mistaken in this regard. All in all, Cereza is a puzzle, fighting, and exploration game. Even without discussing its connection to Platinum’s Bayonetta action games, it’s difficult to characterize. Most importantly, though: it’s beautiful. It’s really gorgeous, kind, fun, and charming. Despite whatever preconceived notions one may have, it is clear from the outset that someone took great care in this situation.
Actually, let’s start with the Bayonetta situation. This is the tale of a young witch in training and her plush kitten. The witch is young, inexperienced, shy, and embarking on a quest that has tall buildings surrounding her. One day, she will become Bayonetta. Even though there is a lot of fighting in this game, it is considerably different from the main Bayonetta adventures. Even in battle, it moves far more slowly, and the focus is on breaking up confrontations with diverse tasks that have varying tempos rather than sequentially arranging them. You experience that Platinum excess in the latter stages of the game, particularly in the boss bouts that are interspersed throughout. However, these things come in spurts.
You spend a large portion of the game exploring a mysterious woodland, figuring out navigation challenges, and facing cunning faeries. The hook is that you use the left Joy-Con to control Cereza and the right Joy-Con to control her cat Cheshire. Even before the story begins and you begin to collect new powers, Cereza can cast a few spells, most notably a binding move that locks enemies down tight for a while. However, Cheshire handles most of the fighting as he can grow to be quite the beast and has a lovely range of swipe and crush attacks.
Combat is the main focus of Cheshire, and it offers a great balance of attack and defense as you use your right hand to do damage and create combos, your left to keep Cereza safe, and—ideally—a few bind-based aids along the way. As the game went on, I found that I really looked forward to the battles—not just because of how surprisingly fierce the animations were, but also because of how various foes called for various strategies. Defusing various forms of magical protection, pulling floating enemies out of the air, and binding shield men are all part of the gameplay. Every few stages, a new opponent type emerges from the ground or descends from the woods, giving you something fresh to consider.
However, Cereza and Cheshire collaborate on riddles as well. Cereza has the ability to embrace Cheshire, which facilitates their navigation, and they can do an increasing number of actions both together and apart. Although the game wants to split them off, they spend much of the time together. Cereza explores one path, Cheshire another, and riddles force them to go back and forth between them in order to advance. They may pull objects, smash items, turn switches, and do other similar things.
Most puzzles entail figuring out the steps needed to open a way forward, and while they might be engaging and involved, they are rarely truly brainteasers. After Cereza launches Cheshire onto a ledge that they were unable to reach on their own, they can go to a new level by smashing through some thorns. Intriguing applications of the expanding set of abilities are seen here: for example, Cheshire’s plant form can move elements of the surroundings, while their stone form can destroy rock barriers. When working with Cereza, it’s wonderful to see the variety of problems that may arise from combining a few basic ideas in novel ways. Crucially, Cereza’s unconventional control method didn’t confuse me too much because I am the kind of person who has never been able to differentiate left from right.
This place has a ton of other stuff. There are sections where the world you believe you are exploring is not fully trustworthy, Zelda-style combat and puzzle dungeonettes centered around the faeries, and an upgrading system that you can access via sanctuary save sites. There are plenty of charming mini tale moments, materials to acquire, and potions to make. There are a ton of extra aspects in the game as well; I was still in the 60 percent completion level after finishing the main storyline.
All of this indicates that Cereza has a ton of work for you to complete, but what truly amazed me was how stunning everything looked and how much it motivated me to keep going. The game Cereza takes place in a haunted, bewitched forest, and although the stages are linear, they never seem to be since they create grottoes, glades, curlicues, and creeper-paths. Later stages reveal faery building in all its rusty, complex awkwardness, while shrubbery conceals collectibles and rustles wonderfully as you pass. This place has some very wonderful lakes that are shaded from the sun by dense leaf canopies. Interestingly, none of the artwork is realistic; instead, it has a Mary Blair-esque vibe to it, reminiscent of watercolors and mixed media.
Recently, a buddy told me about Metroid Dread and how, instead of everything happening on one plane, it seemed frustratingly 2D because the foreground and backdrop weren’t used to create depth. I frequently considered that while playing Cereza because, every few minutes, a route leads you past the camera that hovers overhead and past animated owls perched beneath a tree’s curling branches, or it passes through a maze of waving grass that momentarily blocks your view. I suppose what makes Cereza seem so opulent is this stuff, more so than the variety of activities and the intense action in the second part of the game. This is written with care; it jumps off the page like a narrative that entices you in from the moment you open a children’s book.