I'll admit, seeing many of my favorite Hololive VTubers get into it made me curious to get into it, myself.

And now it's one of my favorite comfort games, whenever I fire up my Switch, I have to play two or three rounds of Suika Game a day, the last time I got into a puzzle game like this was Art Style: Cubello for the Wiiware.

Though, I wish I could change the damn tune that keeps looping over and over and over again in this game, but I can't, so I usually resort to playing a podcast in the background on YouTube, while I combine cherries, apples, and oranges into each other for that rush of serotonin into my brain.

It's fun, easy to pick up, and dirt cheap, go get it! 🍈 🍉 🍒 🍇 🍊 🍎 🍓

Story wise: It's definitely a crowd pleaser, seeing all the characters work together like the old days to gather the Chaos Emeralds, find a way to weaponize the Cyber Corruption, and defeat The End in an epic final boss fight was fun, Adventure era fans are in for a treat.

Though, part of me wish they stuck with the original ending, since it left a stronger emotional impact compared to the new one, imo.

Also, you get to talk to several characters scattered around the island while romaing around as any character, some of them provide cute and funny Easter Eggs and callbacks to previous games, and more info that expands the lore behind the Ancients and Starfall Islands.

Gameplay wise: Getting to play as Tails, Amy, and Knuckles in a mainline 3D Sonic game was way overdue, since they haven't been playable since 06, and they all feel good to play (especially after the later update, which tweaked their movement a bit, most notably Knuckles), I love how Amy can float in the air, Tails can glide like in SA1, and Knuckles has almost all his movements from SA2, all three of them also have their own moves that can only be unlocked be collecting XP points, especially from certain Kocos who are scattered around the island.

But yeah, I really hope the trio return for future games.

If there's anything I can criticize about the DLC, it's the difficulty, holy shit, they really cranked it up to 11, unless you have the patience of a Saint, I recommend setting it down to Easy if needed, especially during the Master King trial.

The new Cyber Space levels have original level designs instead of being straight up taken from previous games, and some of them will truly test your skills and knowledge with Sonic's moveset, if you thought 1-2 was hard, you've seen nothing.

Also, whoever thought not having any checkpoints in any of them should be fired, same with whoever added rescuing 3 small animals as part of the collectibles.

The music is top notch, really some of Sonic Team's best work, from the emotionally driven open zone theme songs of the characters, to the remixes of the Guardian mini bosses, and the insanely loud but catchy remixes of the Cyber Space levels, it's good stuff, imo.

But yeah, if you felt Sonic Frontiers' last island and boss fights were underwhelming, The Final Horizon should fix that for you, it's a free update, and only requires a save file where you've already reached Ouranos Island, so, you're not losing anything from playing it, it's not perfect, in fact, it's a bit janky in some places, but hey, it's free.

Just...brace yourself for the whiplash you'll probably gonna get from the increased difficulty...and some of the jank.

Less than 3 months after Bayonetta 3, Platinum Games surprised everyone at TGAs of 2022 with the yet another game starting the Umbran Witch, and this time, not only is it a prequel, but a cute, family friendly action adventure game with a story book presentation and art style.

And last March, it was finally released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch...with barley anyone talking about it, which is a shame, because more people need to spread the word about how good it is!

First thing, the story, like I said, this is prequel set before the events of the first game, and it starts a 15 year old Cereza, a banished young witch, who, thanks to a recurring dream she sees whenever she went to sleep, goes to Avalon Forest to find a boy in it, who promise her "great power" if she frees him, something she seeks to increase her power as a witch, so she can be strong enough to free her mother Rosa, who was locked away by her clan, the Umbra Witches, for violating the rule of the Clan that forbids them from "Getting intimate" with a Lumen Sage, their male equivalents.

Little Cereza is not alone, though, as she's also accompanied on her quest to the forest by an unnamed demon she accidentally summoned, and because he ended up possessing her stuffed cat, Cheshire, she simply ended up calling him "Cheshire", he's not happy that he got summoned to the human world, and wants to go back to Inferno, the realm of all demons, but due to Cereza's lack of summoning skills as a witch, she doesn't know how to send him back, but she did promise him to do so if he helps her on her quest to free the mysterious boy, and get that "Great power" she seeks, reluctantly, he agrees, and both of them go into the forest, which is inhabited and ruled by Faeries, creatures that were barely mentioned or explained in Bayonetta 3, but, their nature and lore is heavily fleshed out in this game through many journals that you find scattered around the forest.

The story is a classic "coming of age" tale, about Cereza overcoming her fears and her upbringing as a pariah in the eyes of her clan, and gaining the confidence to become the powerful Umbran Witch she would later grow up to be, her relationship with Cheshire is a major element of the story throughout their journey as well, Cheshire starts as an aloof, selfish beast, who's forced to serve Cereza as a means to an end, with little care in the world, other than going back home, this obviously changes through the many hardships they endure together, there's also Cereza's relationships with Morgana, her caretaker and instructor, who also happens to be a banished member of the Umbra Clan, and the lost boy in the forest, but, I'd rather not spoil anything about it any further.

The game has 12 chapters starring Cereza, but, there's an extra 13th chapter that unlocks after the end credits starring Jeanne, Cereza's long time childhood friend/rival, without spoiling too much, it tries to loosely connect this game to Bayonetta 3, but it leaves more questions than answers, imo, and it didn't really need to exist, but, it does have a few cute character moments, though, especially from ol' Chesh.

So, unlike the previous entries, Bayonetta Origins is not a character action, hack n slash game with complicated combos to pull off, rather, it's a simple action adventure game, where you explore Avalon Forest, and it's many areas on the map, and while the game is mostly linear in progression (you're constantly guided to your current objective), there are plenty of hidden areas and extra goodies that you won't be able to reach or access without upgrading and leveling up Cheshire & Cereza, (more on that later), so, in a way, it has some light Search Action (or, "METROIDVANIA") elements going on.

And while you do by default control Cereza with the left Joycon syick, you also get to control Cheshire with the right Joycon (which means, for the most part, you can play this with a friend using two separate Joycons) Cheshire is the brawn to Cereza's brain, he does most of the combat, and helps with certain environmental puzzles the game throws at you, while Cereza is mostly helpless (she is still a child, after all), she can use her magic to tangle enemies, and activate certain doors and switches, and, story wise, her magic is what's keeping Cheshire alive in the realm of Chaos (AKA; the world of humans), which is why Cheshire has to revert to his stuffed animal form (Called "Hug Mode") to charge up his magic gauge, since he also needs it filled to maintain his demonic "Unleashed" form, and to able to use Elemental Powers, abilities he later gains throughout the game, that are based on earth, fire, leaf, and water, that comes in handy during in combat, and helps him access certain areas in the forest that wouldn't be accessible by normal means.

One criticism that I do hear about the game is that when it comes to the combat, it is a bit on the repetitive and simplistic side, which I guess was kind of a deliberate move on Platinum Games, as they wanted this game to be more accessible to the younger and more casual audiences compared to the main series, and it does have plenty of accessibility and difficulty options to make the game as casual friendly as possible, if the player chooses.

Oh yeah, let's talk about leveling up, so, both Cereza and Cheshire can unlock and upgrade their abilities by leveling up their Skill Trees, each represents a character, and each skill can be unlocked by spending a required number of collectibles, Onyx Roses and Moon Pearls for Cereza, and Avalon Drops and Inferno Fruits for Cheshire, all these collectibles can be found all over Avalon, while Onyx Roses and Avalon Drops are infinite, and can be found literally anywhere, Moon Pearls and Inferno Fruits are finite, and can only be located in certain areas in the forest, some of them are impossible to reach without a guide on standby, despite being marked on the map, as the paths to reach them sometimes aren't clear on the map, speaking of the map, you can only view it when you pause the game, which can be cumbersome, if you ask me.

Presentation wise, this game is pretty to look at, it goes for a faded, but still colorful cell shaded, cutesy storybook aesthetic, complete with flipped pages and everything, the voice acting is great, kudos to whoever voiced Cereza, she sounds adorable, and also the sweet sounding English (or should we say, Vigridian) grandma, who's not only narrating the game's story, but also provides the spoken voice for Cheshire, by reading his lines while doing a tough, grumpy voice whenever he spoke, it's so cute.

The soundtrack is mostly orchestrated, with occasional Gaelic and Celtic sounding tracks that fits the tone of the game perfectly, some later tracks even has ques and motifs that reference the earlier games in the series, a neat piece of fanservice for longtime fans.

There's a lot more I could talk about this game, but I don't want this to be as long as my Bayonetta 3 review (looking at the essay, it probably is, lol), but yeah, whether you're a longtime fan of the series, or a complete newcomer who've never touched a Bayonetta game in your entire life, I can easily recommend checking out this game, considering barely anyone is talking about it, this may end up in a lot of people's "Top 10 overlooked games from 2023" (This is something AntDude recently says, btw, a sentiment a I totally agree with), after the disappointment of Bayonetta 3, this game was what I really needed to play afterwards, and it reminded me of why I like this series, keep in mind, this is a fairly comfy entry compared to its older siblings, so, don't expect too much bombastic, high tension action moments from it till the very end.

If you're still on the fence about the game, there's a demo for it on the Nintendo Switch eShop that gives you a taste of what to expect from it, and if you complete it, your progress carries on to the full game if you decided to buy it, more companies need to do stuff like that.

So, yeah, don't sleep on Bayonetta Origins, go play it!

Oh, and ℌ𝔞𝔭𝔭𝔶 ℌ𝔞𝔩𝔩𝔬𝔴𝔢𝔢𝔫, Witches, Sages, and Faeries! 🎃
(Even though I was planning on posting this review a couple days earlier, but hey, I guess it was meant to be, lol)

Just like with the previous entries in the series, this game went through some development hell, being announced way back in 2017, and not getting any bits of update or news about it from Platinum Games until 2021 (Shoutout to the "There is No News" fan Twitter account, lol), after many delays and controversies, the game finally hit store shelves on October 28, 2022, three days before Halloween.

I only got to play it this July, and only managed to beat it on September 1st (which is the day I started writing this review), because life obligations, and other games on my plate at the time were keeping me busy.

Anyway, while the first game set a good foundation, 2 built upon it and improved the formula tenfold, 3 feels like a step forward...and a step backwards at the same time.

TLDR; gameplay is good, soundtrack is great, story is meh.

For the long version...

Where do we start? Well, this game is mostly your standard Bayonetta fair, cheeky, sassy witch killing monsters in over the top ways, while making the occasional sexual innuendos and BDSM jokes, and going on an adventure, while traversing ridiculous setpieces, but, something about it feels like the devs are really running out of steam for this game, but, I'll elaborate further down the line.

Gameplay wise, it's what do you'd expect from this series, hack and slash combat, with sick combos you can pull of with an arsenal of ridiculous weapons you collect along the way, and the occasional platforming sections, but there's a lot more added to Bayonetta's moveset than ever before, where do we begin?

First of all, the "Animal within" abilities from the previous games are mostly replaced with the newly introduced "Demon Masquerade" forms, in which Bayonetta transforms temporarily into a combination of herself and the demon associated with the weapon she's equipping (more on that, later), some forms will allow her to glide, jump higher, dash further, or climb on walls, so, you will occasionally find yourself going back to a weapon you don't often use, just to use its Demon Masquerade form, personally, I don't mind that change, and it actually gives an incentive to use a weapon for more than just combat.

Although, some of the Animal Within forms are still usuable if you have either The Scarborough Affair or Love is Blue, Bayonetta's old guns from the previous two games, which can be unlocked for purchase at the Gates of Hell if you have save files of the previous games stored on your Switch system, however, the animal forms are only usable if you have one of the two gun sets equipped.

Speaking of the weapons, it's a mixed bag, aside from Color My World, Bayonetta's default 4 guns for this game, only the Ignis Araneae Yo-Yos, the Tartaus gauntlets, and the Simoon fans are the weapons I found myself using the most throughout the game, the rest are either too week, or too slow, and barely found myself using them throughout my initial playthrough, also, you no longer have the ability to equip weapons to either your arms or legs, which can either be a con or a pro, depending on who you ask.

also, accessories are back from previous games, both Bayonetta & Viola (more on her later) can use them, and they pretty much as previous games.

Another newly introduced ability in this game is Demon Slave, an ability where Bayonetta summons any of the demons she has a contract with, and control them manually, the story explanation for this is that this is an ability that Bayonetta started to use, because most of her foes are man-made homuncli, neither angels, nor demons, and since they don't have the scent of a creature from Paradiso or Inferno, they refuse to automatically attack them, forcing Bay to control them herself, this ability can be helpful to fight large enemies, but, it makes Bayonetta vulnerable and open for attacks, and it depleteds your magic gauge, also, a demon can be either knocked out, or gets enraged, and starts attacking Bayonetta, so, use it wisely, you can switch between three demons during combat, each have their own moveset and styles, and can be selected from the Select screen, and swapped during combat with the dpad (which means, you can't use an item on the fly like the previous games anymore, a bummer, really) and each gets unlocked throughout the story whenever you obtain a new weapon, you have both Madama Butterfly and Gomorrah from the start, but, you unlock more demons as you progress throughout the story, if you summon and use a demon enough times, you fill up a special "Masquerade Rage" gauge, by pressing down both left and right sticks, Bayonetta does a devastating attack that deals a lot of damage to enemies while she is in one of her many Demon Masquerade forms, however, she must have the weapon associated with the demon she currently selected equipped in order to use it, (Color My World is associated with Madama Butterfly, Ignis Araneae Yo-Yos are associated with Phantasmaraneae, etc...), this ability replaces Umbran Climax from the previous game, btw.

Story wise, Bayonetta 3 decided to put the conflict between Paradiso and Inferno aside to tell a multiverse story (You can thank the MCU for popularizing this trend recently), in which an entity that refers to itself as Singularity, decides to wage a full scale invasion of all the realities of the human realms with his vast army of man made homunculi, destroying every universe his army invades, and killing every Bayonetta who stands in his way, one of these universes is inhabited by Viola, a young, rebellious witch in training, who witnesses the death of her mentor, the Bayonetta of her universe, but not before instructing her to escape to a parallel universe, where she can warn another Bayonetta about Singularity, and stop their invasion of the rest of multiverse, by traveling to the mysterious island of Thule, and collecting ancient artifacts located throughout the multiverse called "Chaos Gears", which will help them travel to the "Alphaverse", where Singularity resides.

Character wise, Bayonetta is the same as before, but with more serious moments than before, that's not to say she won't crack a few jokes like she always does, but she will express anger and sorrow when the moment demands it, and believe me, this game has a lot more somber moments than before, notable about Bayonetta in this game is that her VA got recasted, now being voiced by veteran voice actor Jennifer Hale, replacing long time VA Helena Taylor, who couldn't reprise her role due to a fallout between her and Platinuim Games over work pay and compensations for her work (among many things I won't elaborate on here, but, let's just say Taylor has no plans to return to voice the Umbran wicked witch anytime soon), so, Jennifer Hale stepped in to take up her mantle, personally, it took me a while to warm up to her as the new voice of Bayonetta, and you know what? I think she does a decent job replicating Taylor's performance, and I honestly wouldn't mind her being Bay's voice moving forward, plus, Hale is a queen, and she has over two decades worth of roles she voiced under her belt to prove it!

Then, we have newcomer to the series Viola, the young, rebellious, katana wielding, punk rock teenage witch in training, who looks like the lovechild of Vergil from Devil May Cry, and Joline Kujo from Jojo: Stone Ocean, except she's nowhere near as cool as either of them, I'm gonna be honest, didn't quite like her as a character, I know the writers wanted someone who's different personality wise from Bayonetta, and they tried to build her up as the heir to Bay's throne, but they didn't give her enough time and build up for her to earn it, and I honestly can't see her being the face of the series moving forward, Nero from Devil May Cry, she is not.

Even voice acting wise, I was not impressed by the performance of her VA, Anna Brisbin, not sure if she got bad voice direction, or the fact that she's still relatively green in the business compared to her fellow cast members, either way, she needs to work on her performance, cause she wasn't showing her best in this game if she can do better.

Other than that, most of the VA cast from the previous games are back to reprise their roles, and they sound great as always, not much I can talk about them, really.

Anyway, back to Viola, let's talk about how she plays, just like with Nero, Viola only has one melee weapon, the Mab Dachi, a katana that she's capable of using, and throws darts filled with magical potions as her long range, projectile weapons, she can also summons Cheshire, her demon companion, to aid her in battle, by sticking her sword to the ground, but by doing so, Viola can only use hand to hand moves, until she grabs her sword again, sealing Cheshire away in his little trinket he's always hiding in, while waiting for Viola to summon him again, also, rather than dodging, Viola activates Witch Time by Parrying her enemies' attacks at the right time, but, truth to be told, it's nowhere near as satisfying to pull off as when you parry as Raiden in Metal Gear Rising: Revengence, later in the game, she unlocks her "Faerie form", basically, it's her Devil Trigger, in which she transforms into this weird sexy beast thing that's much stronger and faster, with it's own set of moves, obviously, the player needs to fill Viola's Faerie form gauge before she can use it, and it's obviously best used while dealing with a lot of enemies, or while facing a mini boss.

Anything else? oh yeah, Jeanne has her own series of "Spy Missions", in which she infiltrates a heavily guarded military lab, where Dr. Sigurd, a scientist who can help the gang get to the Alphaverse, is held up, Jeanne's missions are basically 2.5D sidescroller levels, with emphasis on sneaking, and taking down your enemies with sneak attacks, but this ain't no Metal Gear, so, being spotted won't get you penalized, though, sneak attacks does increase your rating, as there's also hiding spots like vents, where you can sneak in and take down enemies eaiser without being seen, you will occasionlly find projectile weapons with limited ammo to help you kill enemies much eaiser, also, you'll stmuble upon teapots that will transform Jeanne into Cutie J (Spelled QTJ), an obvious homage to 1960s/70s Tokusatsu shows like Kamen Rider (and I guess Viewtiful Joe, as well?) but not without doing a cheesy monologue about serving justice to evildoers, it can be a bit of a pace breaker, but I love it, lol, but yeah, once she transform into Cutie J, she get a tmporary buff in speed and power, so, make the best of it whenever you can, overall, I didn't mind these levels, and besides, they're the shortest in the game compared to most of Bay & Viola's levels.

Oh yeah, let's talk about length, I dunno about other people who played this game, but this is easily the longest game in the series, if you're not brisking through a chapter without discovering its hidden secrets (like the challenge portals, the hidden angels/demons encounters, Umbran Tears of Blood, etc) a single chapter could take you over an hour to beat it, this is not counting the bonus chapters you unlock by collecting all 3 Tears of Blood hidden in the main chapters, which rewards you with witch hearts and Moon pearl pieces to upgrade you health and magic gauge, and also sone accessories for Bay and Viola to use, oh yeah, this game has some of the largest levels in the series, most of them are notablly a lot less linear than the levels from the previous games.

Graphically, this game is the best looking game in the in the series so far, anyone who tells you this game looks like a 7th gen game must be tripping on something.

With that said, this game could've looked much better on a console that wasn't the Nintendo Switch, cause if you compare this game to Devil May Cry V, DMCV wipes the floor with this game easily, also, the framerate is inconsistent, unfortunately, there are parts of the game where it dips to 30, a notable downgrade, considering the series always stuck with 60 fps, like, you can tell the Platinum Games were really pushing the Switch to its limits with this game, but it came at the cost of the framerste, and other minor technical issues, I wish this series could be released from the shackles of the Nintendo exclusivity deal, and go multiplatform, but, to loosely quote Hideki Kamiya, it's like asking Nintendo to release Mario or Zelda on PlayStation at this point.

So, yeah, overall, I mostly like this game when it comes to combat, especially for Bayonetta, Viola needs some improvements, though, the soundtrack is great, obviously, they got a bigger budget for it than previous games, Moonlight Serenade is a banger, the story is trying to be ambitious (for the series' standards, at least), and is easier to follow than previous games, but it ends on a downer note, and...let's just say I'm on the camp that didn't like the ending, but, with time traveling and the multiverse being a thing in this series, I'm sure PG can easily rectify it in the next game, just...please, DO NOT let Viola be the face of the series, she's not worthy of taking over the throne of gaming's iconic witch, and Platinum Game's mascot.

(Note: This is my second playthrough of the game, but I'm playing the Switch version for the first time)

An improvement over the first game in many regards, combat wise, it's more fluid and satisfying, and more forgiving on the Normal difficulty than the previous game, meaning you'll see the Game Over screen less often than before, though, some fans may agrue that the game is too easy compared to Bayo 1, especially with the addition of the Umbran Climax mechanic, which is kinda like the Devil Trigger from the Devil May Cry games, also, no "do or die" QTEs, thank God, oh, as for the newly introduced weapons, nothing tops the Rakshasa dual blades, that, and probably the Chain Chomp, lol.

Story wise, it can be hard to follow, just like the previous game, but at least you can catch the main gest of it, also, a lot of callbacks to the first game, so, unless you've played Bayo 1 beforehand, you're gonna be even more confused, then again, story was never Bayonetta's strongest attributes, it's all about the characters, the lore, and the ridiculous setpieces, though, I will say, Bayonetta's personality is slightly better here than in the previous game, she's mostly still cheeky, nonchalant, and laughs in the face of danger as before, but here, she has some serious moments when the situation demands it, which is an improvement I welcome.

Graphically, it's one of the best looking WiiU/Switch game out there, and has more colorful and vibrant setpieces than before, a complete contrast to Bayo1's depressing brown & grey locations, which was standard for a lot mid/late 2000s games, thank God the industry moved away from that mindset, lol, also, the game runs at a solid 60fps, and it never dips below that during gameplay.

Aesthetically, it's the same as the previous game, though, I will say, Bayonetta's default outfit with the pixie haircut is easily her best look, hell, I think it's even better than her look in 3, lol, and the demons, while kinda neat looking design wise, are nowhere near as creepy and freakish looking as the "Biblically accurate" angels from both games, you'd think with demons, the character designers would make them even more grotesque and off putting to look at than the angels, but nope, it's all sharp edges and cybernetic looking...meh.

The music is fine, I guess, aside from Tomorrow is Mine and Moon River, none of the music tracks in the games really stood out to me all that much, unfortunately.

Overall, this is still a damn good game, it was well received back when came out, and nearly 9 years later, it still hold up, a must have for WiiU/Switch owners, easily recommended. 👍