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The story in Bayonetta Origins actually made me cry

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WARNING: There are spoilers of Bayonetta Origins's storyline in this post.

Last week I wrote a review about Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon and I left out a decent chunk of writing about my connection with the story and how it impacted me. I didn’t want to spoil anyone or have multiple paragraphs talking about the story and my life, so I thought it deserved its own post—and here we are! Tadaaah.

In all seriousness, though, Bayonetta Origins is a wonderful game (that I’d suggest you should try if you haven’t) that’s actually made me cry. In my review, I talk about how exciting it is to fight monsters and roam around an enchanting world of mystery and magic, but I also dive into the game’s story. I resonated deeply with this story and it even made me tear up at one point.

There are a lot of complex emotions in this story—loneliness, anxiety, and fear are some—but even with Cereza facing them and the burden of her world crumbling down around her, she still manages to pull through. Cereza’s courage, strength, and relentless drive to overcome whatever blocks her way makes her feel relatable, grounded, and real, which is exactly what struck me in Bayonetta Origins.

I grew up without a father and spent most of my life teaching myself the basics of life. I learned how to cook at the age of eight, do laundry at nine, and practically taught myself almost everything I know now. Cereza taught herself how to survive and learned to strengthen her abilities. She lived alone without her mother and father and even as a child, pursued a greater purpose. Weirdly enough, Cereza isn’t that different from me and it’s this connection in the game where the story really resonates with me.

In Bayonetta Origins, Cereza embarks on an adventure to save her mother but soon realizes that she’s not strong enough to do so. Because of this, Cereza follows a mysterious boy into a dark forest, in hopes of gaining power.

Cereza’s courage and determination to better herself reminded me of my younger self. Growing up, I had to figure out a lot of stuff on my own and I didn’t really have anyone to support me. My mother was always working late nights and all of my brothers were busy or living elsewhere. It was difficult, but I persevered through it.

To no surprise, either, Cereza persevered too. In Bayonetta Origins, Cereza faced her inner demons in that forest and managed to overcome doubt, fear, and self-hatred. This part of the story reminded me of myself again and how I got through high school, which was the worst period of my life. Even though I taught myself everything I could, I couldn’t learn the social skills on how to be cool—and unfortunately for me, I was a little too late to figure that out in high school. I went through so much anxiety, doubt, and self-hatred that it took me four years to finally realize that high school and everything that happened in it, didn’t matter or define me.

For Cereza, her loss and struggles didn’t define who she was either. Instead, it was the end of this adventure and what she learned and took with her that did. Even with the death of her beloved mentor by her hand and the mysterious boy from the forest, Cereza pushed through every single obstacle in her path. Cereza realized that no matter if she was alone or powerless, there was always a way to get back up and running if she believed in herself, even if it was the slightest amount of hope.

For me, this realization in Bayonetta Origins made me feel fortunate and teary-eyed for making it this far in life with the determination I had, especially with everything that’s happened. In the end, I managed to realize the happiness in my story and so did Cereza in hers, which was a magical moment in Bayonetta Origins to experience. It's also when Bayonetta Origins actually made me cry.

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