But then I found myself in my first battle and thought: Hmm. Maybe I'm not right about this. I was not right about this. Cereza is, all told, a sort of exploration, combat, puzzle game. It's hard enough to define even before you get to its relationship with Platinum's Bayonetta action games. Crucial thing, though: it's lovely. It's lovely and generous and playful and extremely beautiful.
Cheshire's designed around combat, and there's a lovely mixture of offense and defense as you deal damage with the right hand and build combos, while using the left to keep Cereza out of danger, and, hopefully, manage to work in a few bind-based assists along the way. As the game progressed I started to really look forward to the battles, not just because of the surprising ferociousness of the animations, but because of the ways that different enemies require different approaches.