Bayonetta’s new spinoff can’t decide what it wants to be

polygon.com:

Last year’s release of Bayonetta 3 heralded big changes for the character-action series. Combat is more forgiving than in previous entries, with fewer bullet-hell encounters and a wider variety of available play styles. Platforming and stealth sequences are far more prominent, complementing the brawls and boss fights that remain series mainstays. Features like angel mode — which covers Bayonetta’s clothes-shedding ultimate moves — and the new, younger, less overtly sexual characters like Viola leave the provocative, sexy, and irreverent tradition of Bayonetta behind in favor of a more family-friendly tone. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon reinforces this broader, more approachable direction.

We play as Cereza, a tweenage witch (and also the titular Bayonetta earlier in life) rebelling against Morgana, an umbra witch living on the outskirts of society who takes in the protagonist and teaches her magic. Cereza has a dream about a strange boy and a white wolf who will help her develop enough power to free her mother, Rosa, from prison. Accepting this destiny, she enters Avalon Forest and tries to summon a demon to help her. Unfortunately, she is too weak to form a contract with the entity and it ends up possessing her beloved stuffed cat, Cheshire. From here on out, she and Cheshire explore the forest together, fighting faeries, bickering with each other, and growing closer as a result. The gameplay loop consists of a mix of platforming, puzzle-solving, and very simple combat (no extended combos or coffin guns here).

This loop becomes repetitive throughout the course of the 12-hour story: Enter an area, explore, fight faeries in battle stages, and seek the four elemental cores hidden in the forest to increase