What’s Going On With Bayonetta 3?

Similarly to Metroid Prime 4, Bayonetta is one of those elusive Switch titles that always seems to be out of reach. While Prime 4 had a delay announced in January of last year, Bayonetta 3 has been silent since its 2017 Game Awards reveal. Metroid Prime 4 developers, Retro Studios, had been quite tight-lipped regarding their involvement with any projects, but PlatinumGames has alternatively been particularly active in the two years following Bayonetta 3’s reveal.

Alongside the game’s reveal at the 2017 Game Awards, ports of Bayonetta 1 and 2 were announced to be coming to the Switch in a matter of months. This led many to believe that Bayonetta 3 wasn’t to be too far off, with 1 and 2 acting as a buffer until the game’s release. Of course this wasn’t the case. 2018 came and went with no official news as to what Bayonetta was up to. Speculation and rumours also seemed to die down around this time.

While not massively reported, June 2018 did bring one of the biggest, if not the only, leaks regarding Bayonetta 3. According to a supposed (and now removed) 4chan leak, Bayonetta 3 was to be set in an alternate universe after our own had been destroyed by the main antagonist. While the leak was attached to a set of supposed concept art, the lack of any major coverage or cited sources make it hard to view this leak as anything but a set of unsubstantiated claims.

If it is to be believed, the game may be a prequel of sorts, set before Bayonetta 1. The leak claims that Bayonetta would meet past versions of Jubileus, Sheba and Rodin, with the latter opening up possibilities of weapon crafting. Similarly, the leak mentions the ability to “assign demons to different types of weapons”, alluding to a higher degree of customisation when it comes to combat.

These details certainly aren’t outlandish, but it’s hard to believe them given the lack of any substantial evidence. The attached ‘concept art’ certainly is original, although it’s also likely that it could be nothing more than talented fan art. Furthermore, Bayonetta’s depicted design contradicts that of her Bayonetta 1 design shown off in the 2017 teaser trailer. Given how centric Bayonetta’s design is during her games, it’s almost to be expected that she would be boasting a new design in Bayonetta 3.

Only a few days after the 4chan leak, an Amazon listing for an Xbox One version of the game was spotted, although considering the teaser explicitly stated “Now in development exclusively for Nintendo Switch”, it’s likely this was nothing more than a mistake from Amazon. With Nintendo and Microsoft’s recent relationship, seeing Bayonetta 3 arrive on Xbox One is now more likely as a way for Nintendo to repay Microsoft for their many favours including ports of Cuphead, Ori and the Blind Forest and Banjo and Kazooie’s inclusion in Smash Bros. Ultimate. This also allows Nintendo to return the favour without relinquishing one of the big IPs like Mario or Zelda. Of course this is all speculation at most, though.

Over a year after Bayonetta 3’s original reveal, a brand new PlatinumGames IP, Astral Chain, was announced via a Nintendo Direct. For many, this reveal seemed strange as it had now been a year since Bayonetta 3’s reveal and we hadn’t received a single official word on the project. Stranger yet, Astral Chain released just over half a year later, and in the meantime not a single thing was said about Bayonetta 3. Again. Amidst all this, news of a PlatinumGames and Square Enix collaboration, Babylon’s Fall, emerged at E3 2018. While the initial 2019 release date didn’t eventuate, its recent showing in the previous state of play should be taken as a good sign.

It would then take around another half a year before we would hear anything from PlatinumGames again. Beginning around the start of last month, PlatinumGames started teasing four big announcements via their official website. By the end of the month, these were revealed to be a remaster for the Wonderful 101 funded via Kickstarter and coming to the Switch, PS4 and Steam. The following two were a teaser for a new IP codenamed “Project G.G.” and the opening of a new PlatinumGames Tokyo studio said to focus on the development of live service games. As of now, the final installment in this quadrilogy of announcements is yet to be seen, but given that Bayonetta is arguably Platinum’s most recognisable franchise, it wouldn’t be unlikely for Bayonetta 3 to finally make another appearance in the following weeks.

Rewinding a bit to the 22nd of February, in an interview with Famitsu regarding the release of the Bayonetta and Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle, series producer Hideki Kamiya stated that “Bayonetta 3‘s development is progressing smoothly”. While this info is vague at best, his later claim that “there’s a lot of info hidden in the teaser announcement in 2017” is certainly more intriguing. Looking back at the teaser, a lot of info can be ascertained by comparing it with the teasers for the first two games.

All three teasers are very similar in structure, with one shot even being shared between the teaser for the first and third games. Obviously, Bayonetta’s signature colour coding is apparent with the trailer’s purple palette following the red and blue schemes from the first and second game respectively.

A more subtle nuance in the progression of the three trailers is Bayonetta’s representation of power. The first teaser shows Bayonetta overpowering a horde of angels, whereas the teaser of Bayonetta 2 shows her evenly matched with the Lumen Sage. Completing this cycle, the teaser for the third game shows the odds stacked against the Umbra Witch as not only does the mysterious new villain repel her oncoming fire, but the end of the teaser shows Bayonetta being torn in half.

As morbid as this is, it’s certainly on brand for Bayonetta and further seems to abide by the tone the teaser sets. The moon at the beginning of the teaser mirrors that of the previous two, but its new blood red appearance could be taken as a biblical allusion to the events of the rapture or some other similar apocalypse. It wouldn’t be unprecedented for the franchise to take the route of biblical allegory, and given Kamiya’s statement regarding the teaser, it’s likely this has some significance in the game’s overall tone. Furthermore, this speculation also aligns itself with the aforementioned leak which stated that the player would have to “trigger the events of genesis in order to create a new inferno”. It can also be noted that the tearing of Bayonetta’s ribbon at the beginning of the teaser is further evidence of the game’s apocalyptic tone — a suggestion that Bayonetta may not be carrying her usual confidence.

What Bayonetta’s defeat in the teaser indicates for the game itself is unfortunately less clear. Perhaps it’s a hint that the game may feature a new protagonist, perhaps Jeanne. Is the act of Bayonetta being split in half some twisted connection to co-op play? With the evidence at our disposal, it’s hard to do anything but speculate as of right now. But entertaining the 4chan leak from before, maybe its talks of time travel do carry some weight. Is it possible that the player ends up in the past because they were unable to prevent the end of the world that the beginning of the teaser alludes to?

Realistically, this is all speculation at best, but it’s still an interesting possibility to entertain given the lack of news we’ve had in the past two years. Seeing as we’re still waiting on PlatinumGames’ fourth big announcement, perhaps answers aren’t too far off. If not, maybe we’ll just have to be prepared to wait another two years.