Bayonetta creator shares his plans for the series had he stayed with PlatinumGames

Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya has shared some extensive thoughts about his plans for the series had he stayed on with PlatinumGames.

Kamiya left the company at the end of 2023. He has since founded the new studio Clovers and is teaming up with Capcom on an Okami sequel.

As for Bayonetta, Kamiya said that the third game was intended to be a “stopping point”. The series would have picked up from there, represented as “the start of a new chapter” in which the franchise would be “starting fresh with both story and game design.”

Kamiya shared the following in a video posted this week:

“So you want to know about the ending of Bayonetta 3. What if I had stayed at PlatinumGames – how far would the series have gone? Well, I do have ideas for it. I have ideas, but… well, I don’t want to just talk about it here, it’s hard to express in just words. I really wanted to express them properly through the game. Unfortunately, I’m not in a position to do that anymore.

I often hear people say, ‘He wanted to end the series with Bayonetta 3.’ That’s absolutely not true. I just wanted to mark a stopping point as a trilogy. And for me, that stopping point was supposed to be the start of a new chapter. I imagined continuing the series with that new chapter. Maybe even make it another trilogy that leads into yet another chapter. That was my plan. And when starting that new chapter, I didn’t just think about the story. Of course, the story would be new, but also, the game system – I had been gradually evolving it from 1 to 2 to 3. For the new chapter, I imagined a complete model change – starting fresh with both story and game design. So, I never intended to end the series with Bayonetta 3. Some people even say, ‘Hideki Kamiya doesn’t love Bayonetta’, but that’s absolutely not true. I ended it that way because I wanted to continue Bayonetta’s story in a new chapter.”

Kamiya also revealed that he was hoping PlatinumGames would be able to continue with Bayonetta Origins. However, the game’s director – Abebe Tinari – has also since left the studio.

Kamiya said:

“Also, I always imagined the Bayonetta series would continue, and on the side, we would keep going with the spinoff Cereza and the Lost Demon. I wanted to continue that with Abebe Tinari. Tinari and I even chatted casually about it – like, maybe Cereza would go on this kind of adventure next. I didn’t want it to stop with just that one story. I wanted to keep going and show how young Cereza becomes Bayonetta. But… well, Tinari has moved on to another company. Yeah…”

Finally, Kamiya addressed Singularity in Bayonetta 3:

“And for Singularity – yeah, I admit I didn’t get to fully flesh out his background. But, I know this sounds like an excuse. When I made Bayonetta 1, I made the last enemy, Balder, go into a long explanation at the end. It turned into a pretty lengthy scene, and since games are meant to be played – not just watched – I felt like that hurt the gameplay balance. So with Bayonetta 3, I aimed to keep the dialogue compact and focus more on gameplay. That might’ve made things feel under-explained. Regarding Singularity and the multiverse – people online often say it came out of nowhere in Bayonetta 3, but I had already been working with that theme since Bayonetta 1. If you really look at it, it’s there, right from the start. Multiverse is there throughout the series, and the concept of Singularity was part of it too. It’s a theme I want to keep exploring. I hope I get another chance to share that with everyone.”

Kamiya previously spoke about his decision to depart from PlatinumGames. Catch up on that here.