I have never really cared much about Bayonetta as a franchise, because the mainline never really seemed like they would be something I would like. Thus before playing Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon I've had only been exposed to the franchise through Smash Bros., trailers and whatever that situation with Hellena Taylor was about last year.
But when this game got announced at the end of last year and I saw the trailers, the art style and the very interesting looking gameplay, it instantly clicked with me.

Now it took me a bit to get around to start playing it, as I am have been participating in a Pokemon Draft League since January, but when I did 4 days ago (on my birthday) I got sucked in and the game not only met my-, but exceeded my expectations.

As I kind of alluded to before, the gameplay of Bayonetta Origins is very unique. If I had to compare it to anything (and take this comparison with a salt mine) this felt a bit like an isometric platformer/collectathon, as in Skylanders or Lego games, mixed with Kameo and a few sprinkles of Metroid Fusion (in terms of map-design) mixed in and then only the best parts of these games.
This is an extremely scuffed comparison, but it's the best I have got, as it is really original.
Originality for the sake of originality and nothing else is a pitfall for a lot of games or pieces of media in general and make them anything but fun to experience, but believe me when I say that Bayonetta Origins clears that.

I rarely ever go out of my way to 100% a game, even the ones I really like, with a few exceptions, but I had so much fun playing this game that I travelled through Avalon Forest for an extra 10 hours (estimation as the Nintendo Switch for some reason doesn't tell you exactly how long you've played something and doesn't at all until 14 days after starting it the first time.), just to see and experience everything it had to offer.
Now I should mention, that for you have to control 2 characters at the same time for most of the game, but the controls are easy enough that I had them down in under an hour (it probably didn't hurt that I have played this 1p2c), they are also mapped, so both characters can be played using one Joy-Con each.

I can't understate how much fun I had playing this and the ingenious overworld design definitely helped.
During my "item-clean-up" were multiple moments where I unlocked a short-cut, that made me go "wait you can go from here to there?" and this wasn't a one time occurrence.
When talking about the overworld-design I have to mention the map which at best is confusing. It's this games biggest flaw and did sour my experience a bit during said "clean-up" (shout out to Wrapper the wisp), but I think I can say that I kind of understand how it works now and it didn't occur to me as a problem during most of it and definitely not during the (for the lack of a better term) normal playtime of me going through the story.
I would also like to mention that when saying that I have 100%ed this game, I mean that I did everything in the main game and not the new game+.

Outside of the stellar gameplay loop this game also looks incredible. If you don't have an image of it already take a look at this trailer, which still doesn't do the game justice through all its compressed glory and the ost is also really whimsical and beautiful.

The story suffices. I had predicted a lot of story beats, but their execution was good enough for me to not care. I wasn't really the biggest fan of the voice work, but it isn't worse than botw's is and I also didn't care all to much in that game, but be warned if that is something you care about.
The story, such as the game is obviously more tailored towards children than the mainline games (which isn't a bad thing, for the record) and that also shows in its difficulty.

This game for the most part is easy. There is a supposedly harder new game+ though. The only times I died was during one-hit "Tír Na Nóg" trials, but there was one significant difficulty spike during one boss fight.
I have read another review, in which the author said they had problems with the final boss, which might be because they didn't collect the Vitality Petals and/or upgraded their inventory, which probably made the fight easier for me.

I really hope that Platinum will make more games like Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon. There aren't many people talking about it and I could also get the game on Amazon for 40€, which doesn't paint a good picture when it comes to sales figures and that is really unfortunate.
As someone who's first real exposure to this franchise was this game and already loved playing it as a standalone, I really implore you to give this one a chance if you are on the verge of buying it.
Get it! It's good.

As my first Yakuza game, Yakuza 0 has certainly gotten me hooked on the series. You're weirded out by the wacky sidequests, but then the main storyline keeps you reeled in with a compelling tale of very likeable characters. Combat feels good with multiple, unique fighting styles across both of the characters you play. When you get bored of the street fights and hilarious missions, the game boists a large number of fun minigames that are always worth a try. If you haven't played Yakuza, this game is a welcoming entrance to the series before moving on to Yakuza: Kiwami. If you've already played some of the other games, you know what to expect, and you won't regret the purchase.

Played Legendary Edition

Masterpiece. Bias or not, Mass Effect 2's whole conceit of "Dirty Dozen but in space" allows for it to have some of the best character work Bioware has ever managed to do. Very rarely are the complexity of the characters the appeal in a game like this but each squadmate is so richly layered and engaging from a likability perspective that the final mission ends up packing as large of a punch as it does. It's all building to that one, singular two hour experience and it's masterful.

Helps the game is actually killer to play outside of that. The simplified RPG mechanics actually work this time around - the snappier combat and more versatile power system means that you are zipping around quicker and making more effective decisions. Combine that with a strong presentation and varied mission design and you have a complete winner. Will always be a favourite.

well made modernization of classic smt mechanics, but jesus fuck is the story nonexistent

the moral dilemma isn't even present, it's crazy

VENGEANCE EDIT:

It is now painfully clear that this game was meant to be incomplete from the start, just so they could sell it again 3 years down the line as Atlus usually does. It's truly incredible how much shit this company gets away with.

My rating for this game sits somewhere between a 9 and a 10 - it's an excellent game in most aspects, but it was also frustrating in a few fundamental ways as well.

Starting with my biggest gripe in the game, and a common complaint I've seen from other reviews - the pacing. I finished this game in about 45 hours, and it absolutely could've been 6-8 hours shorter if not more. It was pretty tiring to go from these huge set piece sequences that move the plot forward to the downtime segments where you're forced to fill the time with things that felt inconsequential. I know there needs to be some sort of break in the action, but these segments felt far too frequent at times and just really broke up the momentum for me a lot.

I'm also fairly disappointed in the performance of this game, especially as it was supposedly released in the best state possible by CBU3. This isn't to say the game was unplayable, but it was jarring going from the smooth 60fps of combat to 30-40 when entering a mildly crowded town. The motion blur was also killer, but I happened to finish the game today just as the patch came out so I at least was able to finish out the game without the motion blur as an issue. I don't have any expertise in game design, and so I'm not sure how difficult it actually is to ship a fully completed game that maintains 60fps, but it would've been nice to have that. I believe there are plans to patch the performance issues in the future, so that'll give me a reason to replay the game down the road.

Now, on to the good parts, starting with the story and characters. I'm a sucker for a game with a grittier, darker tone and I think FF16 nailed it. This game didn't pull any punches, and I was genuinely surprised by how dark and violent it became at times. Although I thought the first half of the story was a bit stronger than the second, the entire narrative package here is excellent. The voice performances were unbelievably good, and Ben Starr should win some sort of award for his performance as Clive. He brought so much raw emotion to his character and it left me feeling awed by him when the credits rolled. I was also a big fan of the return to a medieval setting, and appreciated the fairly obvious Game of Thrones inspiration.

The combat was also very well done. I'm not the best at action games, and I will admit that I utilized some of the rings the game gives you to make combat easier, but I still found it to be a blast. It's obviously fairly limited when you started the game, but as you gain more abilities and your confidence in the combat system grows it'll open up exponentially; I've seen some absurd YouTube clips of people doing combos I could never dream of. It did get a bit exhausting towards the end fighting so many tougher enemies that felt like damage sponges, but all in all the combat held up throughout my play time and kept me engaged right till the last battle.

The Eikon battles blew my mind. I knew going into the game that CBU3 strived to make each fight unique, and that each would play like a different genre, but I wasn't prepared for just how epic these fights were. FF16 really nailed the scale of these clashes, and they were easily the highlight of the game for me next to the narrative.

I'm not one that usually specifically singles out music in the games that I play, but I have to make an exception here - this soundtrack was fucking awesome. The fact that you could also switch the music that plays at the hideout was a small thing that I really appreciated - it was fun to switch the music up to try and fit the vibe of the story at the time. There are some beautiful vocal performances here as well, especially near the end.

I was really, really excited for FF16 and have been following it since it was announced, and I'm happy to say that game lived up to my expectations and often surpassed them. Apart from some serious pacing issues and some performance struggles, this is a remarkably well made game. The dark, mature story was written and told extremely well, the voice performances were some of the best I've seen, and the combat was fun and fairly deep. FF16 ranks high in my rankings of FF games and is a contender for my Game of the Year so far (Resident Evil 4 Remake was also so damn good), but I'll have to let myself sit with this experience for a little bit before I can officially declare it as the best game of the year so far. All in all though, I loved my experience with FF16, and I already can't wait to do a NG+ play-through in the not too distant future.