With Bayonetta 3 closing a significant chapter in our hearts, one big question lingers after the final cutscene. What will happen next? Luckily, PlatinumGames have confirmed that Bayonetta 4 will be in the works within and outside of the third game and they’ve confirmed that we will get a continuation of the story. What we don’t know, however, is who, what, when, or even where. So, looking at the past games and reading into slight hints from the third, we can make some assumptions on what we should expect from this fourth instalment.
Warning: This article contains huge spoilers for the Bayonetta video game series.
Viola or Bayonetta?
When the third game’s final dance sequence came to a close, one small message displayed on a blank screen. This message read ‘To be continued in a new generation…’ before fading away. Now, players have inferred a few different meanings from this message. One reading is that the story will continue in a new generation of the Bayonetta family. In this case, Viola will go on to be the new Bayonetta protagonist. Another reading, though, is that the next instalment will continue on a new generation of consoles, coming after the Nintendo Switch.
Who will be our protagonist?
This is interesting because there was a very mixed reception when it came to the ending of this game. Many players were shocked at the titular character’s death and then appalled to see Viola take on her name. Expecting an audience to get attached to a character who doesn’t compare to its iconic protagonist, and then accept her as the face of future games didn’t seem like a smart decision. Hideki Kamiya then voiced on Twitter that many players misinterpreted the ending and that he believes people will call him out for retconning material in Bayonetta 4. This implies that there are various parts of the ending that we may have misunderstood completely. We’ll have to wait for the sequel to see just what Kamiya meant by this.
Which Universe?
Bayonetta 3 properly introduced the idea of the multiverse. While time travel and separate timelines have been present since the first game, we never really knew how grand this scale would turn out to be. As we know, the Bayonetta 3 universe is separate from the one of Bayonetta 1 and Bayonetta 2. Both of which, are also separate. So, which universe will we be playing for the fourth game? Now that there’s no one specific character that we’re attached to (other than Brave Cereza who is quite possibly deceased), which universe do we jump into from here?
Which Witch’s universe will we be following next time?
The ending of the third game appeared to take place in the Bayonetta 3 universe, from which Viola does not come. We know this because, in The Gates of Hell, Enzo and Rodin look identical at the end of the game to that at the start of the game. The statue of liberty also stands in the same position it was in the Bayonetta 3 universe, too. In alternate universes, it appears in a different location. This may mean that Bayonetta 4 will be based in the universe from the third game, but this is entirely speculation. You never know what will come next in a series set amidst a multiverse.
What Will Happen Next?
After all that has happened over the past three games, the ending was very climactic. The most important characters in the story are dead, the multiversal threat was defeated, and everything seems to be back to normal. However, there doesn’t seem to be any story remaining. Will Viola try and save her parents from the depths of inferno? We already had a plot like that in the second game. Wouldn’t saving her mother make the entire third game irrelevant? But how does the story continue without its titular, most iconic character?
（´-`）.｡oO（別に予想外でもなんでもない…と思ってたんだけどベヨ3のラストが誰にも正しく伝わってないっぽいのでベヨ4は皆さんにとって予想外の展開になると思います…ベヨ4が出た時に「お前それ後付けしたやろ」というアレが必ず出てくると思うので今のうちに言っておきます…）
— 神谷英樹 Hideki Kamiya (@PG_kamiya) November 18, 2022
Twitter’s Translation: It seems that the ending of Bayo 3 wasn’t conveyed correctly to everyone, so I think Bayo 4 will be an unexpected development for everyone. After all, when Bayo 4 comes out, I’m sure there will be people who say, “You added that as an afterthought,” so I’ll say it now…
There’s plenty to speculate about. The ending was left very open, and quite difficult to piece together. The series really could go anywhere from here. It’s a fresh starting point, although Kamiya’s comments shown above make it seem like it won’t be so fresh after all. Only time will tell. After the eight-year gap between the last two games, we’ll hopefully expect something a little shorter for the next one. Unless, of course, they’re waiting for the next generation of Nintendo console to release, in which we may be waiting a little while yet.
Are you already excited about Bayonetta 4? Let us know down below in the comments, and check out the current Bayonetta Trilogy, all available together on the Nintendo Switch.
