After waiting nearly seven years, fans had to have some concerns when the sequel finally came out. According to Khan, Bayonetta 3 was initially designed as a “semi-open world game,” and elements of this can be found throughout the finished version.

— Imran Khan (@imranzomg) November 5, 2022 Bayonetta 3 was planned to have a semi-open world at one point. The inspiration for the concept came less from Nier Automata and more from Astral Chain, with the central world serving as a hub from which players may send Bayonetta or other characters to explore smaller, more free-form worlds. Lots of time and effort went into developing this concept, however, problems with the story’s pacing led Nintendo to ask for cuts. According to Khan, it didn’t perform all that well on the Switch hardware either. It had been close to five years after the announcement of Bayonetta 3, which is an initial period that is normally believed to be rather long, particularly for a third chapter that does not appear to contribute to the innovation of gaming systems. Bayonetta 3 was finally released last month, in October 2022. Nonetheless, suffice it to say that the crew went back to its old strategy and started working again at the perfect time, which is what allowed the game to turn out so well.