Bayonetta 3 made a surprise appearance during this past week's Nintendo Direct presentation. It was the first proper look at Bayonetta 3, as its first and only prior teaser at The Game Awards 2017 was thin on content, to say the least. To the surprise of many, Bayonetta 3's new gameplay trailer drew some comparisons to Platinum Games' canceled project Scalebound, due to its summoning system. New details regarding Bayonetta 3's development shared after the show have only caused these comparisons to grow.
Former Scalebound creative director JP Kellams decided to share some news about Bayonetta 3's development following its new reveal. Kellams confirmed that Scalebound's lead designer, Yusuke Miyata, is directing the development of Bayonetta 3. Kellams would go on to say that Bayonetta 3's trailer showed the player "controlling the summons" and that it looked very similar to a mechanic that was part of how Scalebound, which let players control its dragon named Thuban.
Bayonetta has always featured gameplay wherein its titular character summons large monsters to perform extraordinary attacks and abilities. In Bayonetta 3, however, these creatures remain as summoned pets. This visual of a small Bayonetta standing in front of her summoned dragon as it battles what can only be described as a kaiju certainly leaves an impression. Of course, it isn't obvious how much control the player has over the Bayonetta-dragon, but JP Kellams' comment implies there's a full system behind it.
In Scalebound, players spend the entire game working with Thuban the dragon. Players were able to issue commands to the Scalebound dragon or could even take full control over it via a shift to first-person. A major facet of Scalebound's gameplay was upgrading these dragons and using certain dragons for different situations, as well as standard action gameplay while passively controlling the dragon. On paper, that's a lot more in-depth than what Bayonetta 3's presenting, but the new game could still use a much simpler system.
Obviously, Scalebound was canceled in 2017 by publisher Microsoft Studios. Platinum Games' studio director Atsushi Inaba would describe the situation as a failure on both Microsoft's and Platinum's part. While Microsoft retained the Scalebound IP, making it impossible for Platinum to continue development, Platinum could still use what it learned from the project on other games.
It's ultimately much too early to know just what to expect from Bayonetta 3, and that makes any direct comparisons to Scalebound somewhat presumptuous. Nevertheless, with Miyata directing Bayonetta 3, it's an interesting and perhaps exciting connection. Perhaps there are even more Scalebound design similarities in Bayonetta 3 that Platinum has yet to show.
Bayonetta 3 releases in 2022 on Nintendo Switch.