So this is a bit weird of an entry into the Bayonetta series. It's a prequel to the series that really wants to be like the mainline games, but lacks the level of depth those games had.
I love the Bayonetta games, even 3 which I know is considered considerably weaker by many fans for various reasons, but I still had a ton of fun with it. So when a prequel was announced not long after 3 launched, I was skeptically excited. It looked very different from the mainline games, both in artstyle and gameplay. I knew I still wanted to play it, but wasn't going in expecting like Bayonetta 4 or whatever. What I ended up getting is some weird inbetween of a mainline Bayonetta game and something that wants to be its own thing.
So my biggest problem with the game is the combat. Like in the mainline games, most of what you're doing is fighting. Problem is this game lacks everything that makes the combat fun in the mainline games. There's no experimentation or chaining a bunch of things together. Instead you get pretty simple beat-em-up combat. To go into a bit more detail, Cereza can't attack at all. All she can do is trap enemies in thorns for Cheshire to attack. Cheshire has 2 attack buttons. ZR does a basic 3 hit combo and R does a special that changes based on the element he has equipped. Base form can do a counter, grass can take away shields and ground flying enemies, earth can stun nearby enemies and bring underground enemies above ground, water shoots out a hydro pump that does minimal damage and puts out fire weapons, and fire does its own 3 hit blast combo. While you can unlock the ability to swap elements mid-combo and have Cheshire do 2 extra attacks on trapped enemies, that's all he can do. This leads to combat feeling very repetitive very quickly since Cheshire auto-targets enemies so all you really have to do is keep Cereza out of danger while mashing ZR. The R button is pretty situational and not super useful for combat. Problem is 90% of what you do in the game is combat. This made me dread doing optional backtracking towards endgame cause, while you can run past most enemies, some will ambush you and force you to fight. There's also tir-a-nogs, which can either be progress blocking or optional challenge rooms. Most of these are also combat focused with only a select few optional ones being puzzle focused. I'll get to the puzzles in a second, but the amount of combat focused ones just made the experience worse. It's the same thing every single time. You go in, do a simple rhythm game to open a door, fight a few enemies, get this game's version of a heart piece, then do another rhythm game and a 3 hit combo from Cheshire to end it out. It's very repetitive.
The puzzles, though, are more fun. I loved interacting with the environment and trying to figure out how to progress. The best ones were in the optional tir-a-nogs. They usually revolve around seperating Cereza from Cheshire to get through an area in various ways. The main one that gets shown off on the back of the box and other media is Cheshire running on a wheel which I was hoping to see more often. Instead the main one they use is having them both run down pathways and press buttons or step on a platform to make one appear for the other. I didn't 100% the game (my story finished save file says I'm at 83%) so maybe there's more and I just didn't go for them. I just wish more of these puzzle tir-a-nogs were part of the main story instead of being shoved to the side.
So with all of that said, you might be wondering why I rated this a 3.5 instead of lower. If I'm being completely honest, it's cause I really liked the story, characters, and the world this game takes place in. The children's storybook aesthetic makes everything feel so magical and I loved the page turning transitions. Cheshire is an absolutely lovable demon from his design to his personality and character arc. Cereza is cute and I liked seeing her slowly gain confidence over the course of the game. However the main thing that really got me to enjoy the story and world, which felt weird how weird I got into them, was the collectible notes you find scattered everywhere. These things cover so much of this forest you're walking through, whether it's the history of the Faeries (the enemies in the game), a scientist who's studying the life that exists in the forest, a previous pair of witches that went on a similar adventure to Cereza, or these little ghost guys writing how to survive. I always made sure to stop and read these cause it reveals just so much and some of it does come into play during the ending stuff. I just really liked the story and characters, which is something that can do a lot for me to makeup for a game's shortcomings elsewhere.
Look this game isn't perfect and I wouldn't recommend it at all to anyone who's not at least pretty into Bayonetta for more than just the gameplay of those games. It still has the charm those games have in the writing, but I just found lacking in certain areas some might find critical. I also can't agree at all with people that say this is better than Bayonetta 3.
I love the Bayonetta games, even 3 which I know is considered considerably weaker by many fans for various reasons, but I still had a ton of fun with it. So when a prequel was announced not long after 3 launched, I was skeptically excited. It looked very different from the mainline games, both in artstyle and gameplay. I knew I still wanted to play it, but wasn't going in expecting like Bayonetta 4 or whatever. What I ended up getting is some weird inbetween of a mainline Bayonetta game and something that wants to be its own thing.
So my biggest problem with the game is the combat. Like in the mainline games, most of what you're doing is fighting. Problem is this game lacks everything that makes the combat fun in the mainline games. There's no experimentation or chaining a bunch of things together. Instead you get pretty simple beat-em-up combat. To go into a bit more detail, Cereza can't attack at all. All she can do is trap enemies in thorns for Cheshire to attack. Cheshire has 2 attack buttons. ZR does a basic 3 hit combo and R does a special that changes based on the element he has equipped. Base form can do a counter, grass can take away shields and ground flying enemies, earth can stun nearby enemies and bring underground enemies above ground, water shoots out a hydro pump that does minimal damage and puts out fire weapons, and fire does its own 3 hit blast combo. While you can unlock the ability to swap elements mid-combo and have Cheshire do 2 extra attacks on trapped enemies, that's all he can do. This leads to combat feeling very repetitive very quickly since Cheshire auto-targets enemies so all you really have to do is keep Cereza out of danger while mashing ZR. The R button is pretty situational and not super useful for combat. Problem is 90% of what you do in the game is combat. This made me dread doing optional backtracking towards endgame cause, while you can run past most enemies, some will ambush you and force you to fight. There's also tir-a-nogs, which can either be progress blocking or optional challenge rooms. Most of these are also combat focused with only a select few optional ones being puzzle focused. I'll get to the puzzles in a second, but the amount of combat focused ones just made the experience worse. It's the same thing every single time. You go in, do a simple rhythm game to open a door, fight a few enemies, get this game's version of a heart piece, then do another rhythm game and a 3 hit combo from Cheshire to end it out. It's very repetitive.
The puzzles, though, are more fun. I loved interacting with the environment and trying to figure out how to progress. The best ones were in the optional tir-a-nogs. They usually revolve around seperating Cereza from Cheshire to get through an area in various ways. The main one that gets shown off on the back of the box and other media is Cheshire running on a wheel which I was hoping to see more often. Instead the main one they use is having them both run down pathways and press buttons or step on a platform to make one appear for the other. I didn't 100% the game (my story finished save file says I'm at 83%) so maybe there's more and I just didn't go for them. I just wish more of these puzzle tir-a-nogs were part of the main story instead of being shoved to the side.
So with all of that said, you might be wondering why I rated this a 3.5 instead of lower. If I'm being completely honest, it's cause I really liked the story, characters, and the world this game takes place in. The children's storybook aesthetic makes everything feel so magical and I loved the page turning transitions. Cheshire is an absolutely lovable demon from his design to his personality and character arc. Cereza is cute and I liked seeing her slowly gain confidence over the course of the game. However the main thing that really got me to enjoy the story and world, which felt weird how weird I got into them, was the collectible notes you find scattered everywhere. These things cover so much of this forest you're walking through, whether it's the history of the Faeries (the enemies in the game), a scientist who's studying the life that exists in the forest, a previous pair of witches that went on a similar adventure to Cereza, or these little ghost guys writing how to survive. I always made sure to stop and read these cause it reveals just so much and some of it does come into play during the ending stuff. I just really liked the story and characters, which is something that can do a lot for me to makeup for a game's shortcomings elsewhere.
Look this game isn't perfect and I wouldn't recommend it at all to anyone who's not at least pretty into Bayonetta for more than just the gameplay of those games. It still has the charm those games have in the writing, but I just found lacking in certain areas some might find critical. I also can't agree at all with people that say this is better than Bayonetta 3.