Review: Bayonetta Origins is an uneven adventure with just enough Platinum punch

videogameschronicle.com:

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon hinges on the unknowable. What lies at the heart of the enchanted woods young Cereza finds herself in? Why is a mysterious white wolf guiding her? Will she make peace with her snarling demon aide? But the mystery we can’t get over is this: who exactly is Bayonetta Origins for?

On one hand, this is a continued expansion of what feels like a Bayonetta Gaming Universe, a creation willed into life in the multiversal Bayonetta 3 and now deepened with a tale that fills in the gaps around one of that game’s more baffling alt-reality variants. Paired with the basic legwork of an origins story – showing us how a young witch bound her first demon and mastered her gyrating combat style – it feels laser targeted at the most engaged Umbra-head.

But on the flip side is the game itself: an often twee adventure set in a playable picture book that softens the usually hard-edged combat and slows the relentless pacing to something resembling Platinum’s first child-friendly game. Paired with a generous selection of empowering potions and an impressive suite of accessibility options to further simplify the fights, it unfolds as an action game anyone can play, set in a slice of lore that only a few are likely to fully appreciate.

But if Origins pulls in two directions, and makes it an unusual sell, it somehow emerges from those tangled woods unscathed. In fact, it sees Platinum stretching long dormant muscles. With ability-driven exploration and light puzzling it has more in common with Okami, that great Zelda-ish masterpiece from the studio’s Capcom precursor, Clover. Difference is, you control two heroes simultaneously: Cereza on the left Joy-Con, her demon Cheshire on the right. It’s one person