Given the recent release of Bayonetta 3, as well as the long wait for its release after Bayonetta 2 in 2014, fans of PlatinumGames’ action series about a witch with time-bending powers may not have expected to see another entry so soon. The Game Awards 2022 shocked everyone with the reveal of an origin story about Bayonetta, aka Cereza, titled Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon. The game will be released for Nintendo Switch on March 17, 2023.
Like the original trilogy of Bayonetta games, Bayonetta Origins appears from the trailer to be a third-person action game starring the same heroine, but its art style is much more painterly and stylized. The story follows a young Cereza exploring a strange forest that she’s been warned not to go into, but which she must explore as part of a quest to help her imprisoned mother. Cereza does some climbing over vines and platforming across big metal gears. Throughout it all, she clutches a stuffed cat that she’s named Cheshire, which is the nickname that she later gives to the character Luka in the original trilogy of games.
Even as a young girl, Cereza still has her signature long hair, and she’s also depicted as learning how to summon demons to aid her in battle. As she explores the forests, she meets a strange white wolflike creature; according to a mysterious character whose face does not get revealed in the trailer, this person will give Cereza “the power to save [her] mother.”
Director of the previous trilogy of Bayonetta games Hideki Kamiya serves as supervising director on the game. Kamiya recently addressed the response to Bayonetta 3, in particular the disappointment that some fans felt about the ending of the game, by saying that Bayonetta 4’s story “will be an unexpected development” for everyone, including those disappointed players. It’s not clear whether Kamiya was referring to Bayonetta Origins with those comments, or to an as-yet-unannounced follow-up to Bayonetta 3.
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