Bayonetta series creator and Platinum Games's former vice president Hideki Kamiya revealed in a recent interview that his vision of the series' future included 9 different mainline entries.
How much do you know about the plot of the Bayonetta series? Don't worry if your answer is "nothing at all", even long-time fans of the series can barely keep up with it. The very first game in the critically acclaimed character action series, featuring witches wearing gun-heeled shoes and summoning demons with their hair, already had a notoriously confusing plot line. And it only got worse from there!
Yet, series creator Hideki Kamiya apparently had big plans for the franchise, at least according to a recent vlog on his YouTube channel where he answered questions from his fans. In response to a question about the Bayonetta series' future, Kamiya revealed that his original vision of the series included 9 mainline titles:
"I wonder what's gonna happen to the Bayonetta franchise now?" This person is asking about the future of the Bayonetta franchise, right? As I explained earlier, I worked on Bayonetta 1, 2, 3, (and Origins). I've talked about this in various interviews, that the Bayonetta series would consist of a total of nine episodes, and that I wanted to grow the franchise as the Bayonetta "Saga," but it seems like I may have to take the full saga to the grave with me.
Bayonetta To The Ninth Power
That last part is a fairly crass way to refer to his having left Platinum Games this October. Platinum Games haven't revealed any plans for the franchise since then, but since Bayonetta is their most popular franchise I think it's safe to say that they won't just abandon it. Kamiya's ambitious 9-part saga plans probably won't make the cut, though.
But I have to admit, I am very curious what this plan would have entailed. Bayonetta 3 already skipped a few orders of magnitude and went straight to introducing multiversal threats. How do you even top that? What would the theoretical ninth game's antagonist be? Kamiya himself?
Either way, the franchise's future is out of his hands now – and to be perfectly honest, a part of me is glad for it. Bayonetta 3 was a fun game, but its ending rubbed a majority of the fanbase the wrong way, myself included.
And given how defensive Kamiya got about the ending following the ensuing backlash, I have a feeling that I wouldn't have liked the direction the series would've been headed under his further guidance, much less for another 6 entries.
But I suppose we'll never know for sure!