WMG / Bayonetta 3

Pre-release

Rodin is the antagonist in the teaser but NOT the main villain of Bayonetta 3.

1. The ghostly figure has two black circles representing eyes, resembling Rodin's sunglasses.

2. The ghostly figure is made up of magical flames similar to the ones Rodin has used to light his cigars.

3. Rodin's nature as a Superboss in previous games has revolved around him trying to regain his lost powers, as well revealing he was thrown out of Paradiso for inciting a rebellion. He is something of a fallen angel similar to Lucifer, essentially the one character most anyone thinks of when thinking of Hell.

4. His nature as a Superboss ties in with how easily Bayonetta was killed in the teaser.

5. Bayonetta had the Angels of Paradiso + Jubileus as the primary antagonists. In Bayonetta 2 Loptr, the God for the Realm of Chaos, was the villain. That leaves Hell/Inferno and their God as the final Realm to fight against for the series's current plot pattern.

6. The teasers for the previous Bayonetta games have never shown the main villain: just a mook angel for 1 and The Lumen Sage for 2. Assuming the game's overall plot and setup follows the pattern of taking on each Realm of existence in order, then it's very likely the teaser is also following this pattern and Rodin/Ghost Rodin is not the mastermind of the plot.

So Rodin is the person in the trailer, but is not the main villain of the game or the Inferno equivalent to Jubileus or Loptr.

• So, Queen Sheba. Obviously.
• Jossed.

The entity in the teaser is Death.

If there's one thing the Bayonetta series made obvious, it's that Anyone Can Die with enough firepower.

Presumably, angels and demons have souls of some sort if they can be dragged off to Hell like Bayonetta does. Somebody has to make sure the souls of all those dead angels go to their appropriate fates, don't they?

• It helps that when looked at closely, the entity's face seems to appear like a skull.
• Jossed

Not only is the entity in the teaser death, Bayonetta will also have to face the four horsemen of the apocalypse

Or the Bayoverse equivalent, likely with similar if not identical names and acting as the Auditio did in the first game. Also, this leads me to...

• Jossed. Bayonetta mainly fights the Homunculi, and has a few encounters with angels and demons, and Luka's fae werewolf-like transformation.

This game will feature a world-ending event

The blood moon is a sign of the apocalypse, and Balder does mention a "first armageddon" in the first game, so what is to say this isn't another one, or maybe even the first armageddon itself?If not the first armageddon, remember the eyes of the world were REMOVED FROM EXISTENCE at the end of Bayo 2, and they were said to keep the balance, which is still... well, unbalanced, due to there being two witches and no sages alive, so that's probably not good.

• Confirmed

Bayonetta isn't dead and might not die, but instead being "Ripped in half" metaphorically.

One of the things to notice in the trailer is how we're shown things being torn apart into two clean pieces. Bayonetta's ribbon, the being tearing itself in half, Bayonetta being bisected vertically in half and even the logo for Bayonetta 3 being torn into two parts. In other words, the game might deal with having to choose sides, or Bayonetta being torn between two sides of a conflict.

Another factor is that in Bayonetta, there are two clans: the Lumen and the Umbra. Never to intersect, and yet they did so anyways with Bayonetta being the product of mixing of Lumen and Umbra Clans. What if the villain has to do with her unused Lumen magic? What if Bayonetta has been cut in half, her playable half being her normal self and the other half coming out to be how she would've been if she went Lumen instead?

The game will take place in Inferno.

• Jossed. It's entirely set in the Realm of Chaos, including a "rift" between its parallel universes. Inferno and, for the first time, Paradiso are never even visited in gameplay.

Dante might appear in this game.

In a Tweet, Hideki Kamiya asked the fans which incarnation of Dante they'd like to see in Bayonetta, and as a response to that Tweet Hashimoto tweeted that he'd like to see Dante in Bayonetta 3.

• Jossed

Adding to the above, Dante will be a secret unlockable character

The first two games had Bayonetta as the default playable character, Jeanne as an unlockable playable character, and a third playable character that also had to be unlocked (Little King Zero in the first game, Rosa in the second). Assuming that this holds true for this game as well, Dante could be the third playable character.

• Jossed. The "third" character is instead Viola, who is played in the regular campaign.

Dante will appear in the game, but not the Dante we're used to

And despite what you might think, it won't be as a Joke Character. No, this time we'll get to see exactly why Mundus was so afraid of the Nephilim, as Dante leaves a trail of bodies, both angelic and demonic, in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge that reaches biblical proportions.

• Jossed

The alternate timeline setting implied in the trailer was the result of Balder being pulled out of his own time in Bayonetta 2.

In the first Bayonetta, Father Balder awakens the Left Eye in Bayonetta by pulling Cereza out of her own time and altering history so that she was never sealed away by Jeanne. In Bayonetta 2, a similar alteration appeared, although it was only hinted at (actually, it was a Plot Hole, but this game looks to capitalize on it).

In the opening cutscene of 2, we see Father Balder's death, and with it the death of the Right Eye. This drove Loptr to pull Balder out of the past and set up his plan to take both Eyes for himself. Right there, we've already changed the script of history, but there was no timeline alteration because Balder could have returned to his own time with the Right Eye.

However, at the climax of the game, Loki destroys both Eyes. Balder was sent back to his own time and took Loptr with him, but he didn't have the Right Eye that we saw during the prologue. We don't know what would result from that, but Father Balder's entire plan in the first game was to reunite the Eyes. Without his, that's no longer an option. Bayonetta's still using her original outfit, but the use of "Whittingham Fair" instead of "Scarborough Fair" implies that this isn't quite the same timeline as the first game.

And for once, Timey-Wimey Ball makes sense. The time travel rewrite in 2 would justifiably be different from the immediate effects in Bayonetta because its rewrite involves removing the Eyes from existence. What was it that Loki said?

Luka: Whoa. Hold on a second, kid. What happens to the world if you—

Loki: Any good card player's a gambler, right? Either the world will be destroyed, or it will create its own path. Human free will will determine which way things go.

We can infer that up until that moment, the Eyes of the World were overseeing history (as they should). Loki's gamble created an alternate timeline where human free will decides the course of history. However, when Balder was sent back in time, he returned to a timeline where Bayonetta's Left Eye still existed.

So, what does this mean? Except for Rosa's death, Cereza's story, and the extinction of the Lumen Sages, which happened before Balder was pulled out of his own time, the entire setting is fair game for being rewritten. Rodin was still responsible for smithing the Whittingham Fair gun quartet, so he could be the shopkeeper again... but he, Luka, Jeanne, Enzo, and even Balder could reappear with different characterization.

Continuing from the above WMG, this game will make use of Alternate Time Line, and the villain is trying to destroy these alternate worlds, i.e., Class Z Apocalypse How

Among other things, this could mean that the Bayonetta we see dead in the trailer indeed does exist, but not the same Bayonetta whom we have seen beat up Jubileus and Loptr; The fact that Whittingham Fair is a variant of Scarborough Fair seems to be a pretty obvious clue (if also potentially a Red Herring).

And later on, as more and more timelines fall victim to this villain, pieces and bits of what used to be them eventually arrive at the actual game's own timeline proper, perhaps for example by giving our Bayonetta the Whittingham Fair dropping from the sky before Rodin gets to present Bayo his newest guns (whatever their names may be). Going further, maybe unlike the previous two games, new weapons Bayo can obtain in this game are not directly forged by Rodin this time, but rather salvaged from these fallen timelines.

(huh... this speculation suddenly sounds like Suikoden Tierkreis...)

• This fits with the teaser's main theme of things splitting. Since the series' resident Time Master in Loki is still around, the game could involve repairing all those timelines.
  • Confirmed at the very first few fights.

Bayonetta is the child of light and darkness, but this game will involve her finally fighting with Lumen powers.

According to Hideki Kamiya, sages and witches aren't necessarily chosen by their gender. Bayonetta was raised as an Umbra Witch, but who's to say she doesn't have the potential to fight with Lumen Sage powers?

• Jossed

There will be more Nintendo-themed costumes

The Wii U port of the first Bayonetta had costumes based on Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Link, and Samus Aran. Bayonetta 2 brought those back and also included a Fox McCloud costume. The costumes also had other effects that were mostly cosmetic (the Peach and Daisy costumes had the Wicked Weaves summon Bowser instead of Madama Butterfly, and Mario-style coins appeared instead of halos), and a few that affected gameplay (the Samus costume allowed you to do a charge shot, while the Link costume allowed you to parry enemy attacks).

• Captain Falcon (Her punch and kick attacks with Scarborough Fair and Love is Blue becoming Falcon Punches and Kicks, and the Wicked Weave attacks summon the Blue Falcon to smash into enemies)
• Captain Olimar (Pikpik carrots and/or Pellet Posy pellets appear instead of Halos, and a small group of Pikmin can either follow her around and be killed by enemies, or be summoned to assist in her attacks, like the Little Devils with the Infernal Communicator accessory)
• Shulk / Fiora (Shuraba and other blade weapons become the Monado, and Witch Time produces the same visual and sound effects that Visions make)
• Sheik (Similar to the Link costume, but the Hylian Shield is replaced by Bayonetta's bullets becoming shurikens and/or needles that deal more damage, and the Rupee sound effect, Chest Opened jingle, and Puzzle Solved jingle change to those from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask rather than from A Link to the Past)
• Lucina (Shuraba and other blade weapons become the Parallel Falchion, and the Item Get! jingle plays whenever a chest is opened or a special item is obtained (like a Heart Container or an Angelic Hymns Gold LP disc))
• Pit / Palutena (Hearts appear instead of Halos, Kefka becomes the Palutena Bow, and dodging produces the same sound effect that dodging makes in Uprising)
• Variants of the Link costume, based on Link's appearances in other Zelda games, such as Breath of the Wild
  • Toon Link (Same effects as the regular Link costume, but Bayonetta's appearance is now also changed to the cel-shaded art style of The Wind Waker)
• King Dedede (Hammer weapons like 武甕槌 Takemikazuchi turn into Dedede's jet hammer, Bayonetta's Double Jump is extended to five jumps, and the theme music when fighting enemies is replaced with a remix of Dedede's theme)
• Meta Knight (Shuraba and other blade weapons become the Galaxia Sword, Bayonetta's Double Jump is extended to five jumps, and the theme music when fighting enemies is replaced with a remix of Revenge of Meta Knight. Also, the mask can be slipped on and off, much like the Samus costume's visor in the first Bayonetta)
• Callie and Marie for Bayonetta and Jeanne respectively. Could change one of the animal forms into a squid, and/or the main guns into splatoon's ink guns.
  • Pearl and Marina, with similar cosmetic changes.
• Rosalina (Star Bits appear instead of Halos. Or alternatively, same cosmetic changes as Peach and Daisy)
• Pauline (Regional Coins from the Metro Kingdom appear instead of Halos, and the Wicked Weave attacks summon Donkey Kong)
• Zero Suit Samus (similar to Samus with her paralyzer replaces her arm cannon, and charged shots paralyzes enemies)
• Wolf O'Donnell (similar to Fox McCloud, with Wolfens instead of Arwings. And the keychains attached to her Wolfens are the members of Team Star Wolf)
• Isabelle (Bells appear instead of Halos)
• Fighting Wire Frame / Fighting Alloy (Sound effects for punch and kick attacks with Scarborough Fair and Love is Blue are replaced with the hit sound effects from Smash 4, and Wicked Weave attacks summon Master Hand)
• Pyra and Mythra (Switch between costumes with the push of a button, similar to how you can switch between Pyra & Mythra in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, and each would have different abilities.)

• All of these are jossed. The costumes are themed around Bayonetta's alternate counterparts, and the Nintendo outfits do not return.

This game will feature amiibo functionality

However, it'll be similar to Super Mario Odyssey's, unlocking and obtaining costumes early and/or for free, with "generic" amiibos earning you halos, objects or compounds. The compatible amiibo would the list above (characters who have their own amiibo).

The new counterpart of the Alfheims in Bayonetta 1 and the Muspellheims in Bayonetta 2 will be called “Svartalfheims” or perhaps “Myrkheims”.

As the realm of the dark elves according to Norse Mythology, it fits pretty well considering the tone of Bayonetta 3.

• Jossed. These new Verses are set in Ginnungagap, a void between the realms of the Multiverse. However, the name still is derived from Norse myth.

The game will take place in a Pompeii-expy kind of place.

This speculation is mostly to continue the trend from the first two games; The first game takes place in Vigrid, which has been noted to look similar to Vatican, whereas Noatun in the second game reminds people of Venice, and both real-life places are located in Italy area^note Vatican is not an Italian city, but regardless it is surrounded by Italy. So why not continue the trend and place the third game in another popular Italian place?

Better yet, Pompeii was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius, which makes Vesuvius also a nice setting for the game, and the fact that Vesuvius brought armageddon to Pompeii fits pretty well with the third game's apocalyptic feel from what little we have seen. Even better, Vesuvius, like Vatican and Venice, starts with V, making a volcanic environment a perfect place for this game.

• Overall jossed. There is a volcano level, but it's just one among many.

One of Nintendo's properties that will be given a Shout-Out as enemy design reference, DLC content etc will be Ultra Necrozma

Let's face it: The spoilered character not only is quite a popular character in their home franchise despite their relatively short screen time, but has the appearance (specifically, angelic dragon of light) to justify their appearance in a Bayonetta game. Well, of course they won't make Ultra Necrozma look exactly like how he looks like in Pokemon, but after Fortitudo and Glamor, who wouldn't want to fight another angel dragon?

This game will center on an Alien Invasion.

In the first game Bayonetta fought angels. In the second game, demons were thrown into the mix. To keep things fresh, this game will introduce a third faction linked to both but occupying its own category: maybe not literally space aliens, but invaders neither angel nor demon with an agenda of their own.

• As if the story trailer, these alien-like enemies aren’t from outer space but home-grown on earth. It turns out they’re Homunculi, man-made bio weapons.
• The game proper does tease at a new fae faction, although they're not the central antagonists.

Rodin will get a new form as the Superboss.

This time, it will be a half-angel, half-demon form.

A remix of the song Bad Moon Rising will be featured.

The first two games featured a remix of a song with the word “moon” in the title that was released in the 1960s. The first game had Fly Me to the Moon, and the second had Moon River. They’ll most likely want to continue the tradition for the third game, and Bad Moon Rising would be a good fit. Not only does it have the right title, but it also came out in 1969, and its lyrics would be perfect for the more dire tone and possibly apocalyptic plot the game seems to be going for. Moonchild and Moonlight Drive are two other possibilities.

• Every song remixed for Bayonetta was a slow romantic jazz song to start, so it's far more likely they'd go with something like Blue Moon or How High the Moon, or even Moonlight Serenade.
• Confirmed to be "Moonlight Serenade".

It'll be revealed that Bayonetta has a twin brother

Who was sealed away much like she was during the extinction of the Lumen Sages in such a manner that prevented him from becoming the Right Eye after Balder's Death.

It'll be revealed that that's not actually Bayonetta in the teaser.

It's quite possible that it's a shapeshifter or an impostor (likely a normal human, given that "Bayonetta" bleeds in the trailer instead of spilling flower petals) taking her form and someone, probably Rodin as mentioned above, doing the real deal a favor by taking out the impersonator.

• Another (small) bit of proof would be "Bayonetta"'s lack of a beauty mark, as well as the guns being called 'Whittingham Fair' rather than 'Scarborough Fair'.
  • Jossed, it is A Bayonetta.

This game and Devil May Cry 5 reveal that both series share a universe together

Not only will Dante make an appearance, but the events in 5 and possibly the other Devil May Cry games will be referenced as well, while 5 will reference the events of the Bayonetta games, confirming that the Bayonetta and Devil May Cry series both take place in the same universe.

The forces of Inferno invading and ravaging the World of Chaos will be a major plot point.

In Bayo 2, we get to briefly see the Gates of Heaven during a boss battle - they're open, which makes sense, as Bayo has been dishing out the hurt against angels for 20 years in the World of Chaos. But the demons are hardly ever seen outside of Inferno, the only major exception being Umbra summons. However, Bayo busted the Gates of Hell wide open in 2 - methinks that there are going to be many more demons invading the World of Chaos in 3.

• Demons can be found as minor and often optional encounters, but it doesn't hold much of an impact on the plot. While the Prologue has a Kraken demon attack along with the Homunculi, it's Dark Eve's contracted demon, not one that came from the Gates being open.

Just like the previous two games, there will be a level based off of a classic SEGA game.

Since the first game has levels based off of Space Harrier & Hang On, & the second game had a level based off of After Burner, my guess is that the third game is gonna have something like that, but what game could it be?

• Galaxy Force, maybe?
• OutRun!

The antagonists will be an Umbra Warlock and a female Lumen Sage.

Possibly working together as a Big Bad Duumvirate or a Big Bad Ensemble that are against each other just as much as they are against Bayonetta. Bonus points if there are any references to Bayo's experience against Galeem and Dharkon. Perhaps this Sage will either appear as a result of time travel or Balder wasn't the last sage after all.

• Bonus points if they go with the Old English meaning for Warlock, and make the Umbra a traitor to the coven for crimes worse than Rosa's conception of Bayonetta.
• Jossed. The villain isn't even human, and they have no Umbra nor Lumen upbringing.

New Playable characters.

All the playable characters from 2 will likely return, even if the two non-story ones remain unplayable in the story mode (unfortunately), but more are almost sure to be added

• Joy. Its original incarnation already has models for the gun weapons, Shuraba/Pillow Talk and Kulshedra, and literally all its animations are re-used from Bayonetta's, so it wouldn't be a stretch to add a couple more and perhaps change the accesories to be Lumen-themed (ie: Pulley's butterfly/Infernal comunicator summon decorations instead, as a mod already showcases). Its wicked weaves could summon Jubileus' limb and the Auditio, its beast within turns her into Fearless/Fairness, etc.
• Loki. He was even technically playable in a short sequence, and his "twin"'s boss fight already had some attacks that were very similar to wicked weaves. It just feels like a missed opportunity.
  • Jossed. In the end, only Viola and Jeanne are also playable, though Bayonetta can dress up as the alternate Bayonettas she runs into.

The mysterious figure in the trailer is a member of the 'tribe' that belongs to Chaos.

In both Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2, the main rival boss was an Umbra Witch and Lumen Sage, who are both representative of the two tribes for darkness and light respectively. Now that those two tribes have been represented maybe it's Chaos' turn to have a human follower for Bayonetta to battle against as a rival.

• Semi-confirmed. The figure is one of Singularity's forms, and Singularity originates from the World of Chaos. The game's "rival" boss is Strider, who is a resident of the World of Chaos (Luka) with a curse that originates from neither Paradiso nor Inferno.

Possible new weapons for the main game

• A flaming halberd.

• A weapon similar to Durga/Undine that alternates between ice and lightning.

• A Chinese jian sword infused with the Earth element.

• Balder's Holy Glaive probably as a reward for beating the game, able to alternate between dual wield form and polearm.
  • So far all jossed. Currently we only have a huge artillery cannon with a dragon's mouth decor, a flaming Killer Yo-Yo, a massive club with built-in chainsaw which can shapeshift into mini train, a mic stand, a pair of Combat Hand Fan, a detachable pair of tower shield, a top hat-slash-Classy Cane ensemble, and a huge anchor.

The antagonist of this game has the ability to manipulate space, as opposed to the mastery of time that the Umbran Witches and Lumen Sages possess

Whoever the figure in the trailer is, they're able to effortlessly stop Bayonetta's gunfire in its tracks just as the Masked Lumen did in the teaser trailer for Bayonetta 2. However, this time we don't see any time manipulation - the bullets are stopped by some sort of force and shatter into pieces before the figure in flames warps in front of the camera.

• The series has leaned heavily into dichotomies in the past - light vs dark, Paradiso vs Inferno, the Umbran Witches vs the Lumen Sages, so why not a mastery of time pitted against a mastery of space?
• Confirmed. Singularity can travel universes, erase anything with magic clouds, and bend space around him.

There will be a Nephilim in this game

It'd tie up the DMC parallels well, huh?

• The singular is actually "nephil".

The villain is an Outside-Context Problem relative to the angels of Paradiso or the demons of Inferno.

In the previous games, the mortal world had no idea about the conflicts taking place. With the exception of Luka Redgrave and Enzo, no mortals knew that Bayonetta or Jeanne still existed as Umbra Witches or were fighting angels, demons, or gods. This is because aside from collateral damage, the mortal world was unaffected by the conflicts that took place in Purgatorio, Paradiso, and Inferno. As evidenced by the army of what seem to be humans fighting against two giant monstrous creatures that appear to be neither angel nor demon, this is no longer the case. Whatever is attacking this time, the mortal realm is fully aware of it and is attempting to fight back. And it makes sense to do this, given that Serial Escalation is this series' raison d'etre.

• Confirmed

There will be (at least) three different Alternate Timeline versions of Bayonetta in the game.

The first one we meet, and the game's main protagonist, will be the Colour My World-wielding Bayonetta we saw in the gameplay trailer, which I'll dub "Cerezita" for convenience. Most likely the second we will meet is instead the Bayonetta 1-like Bayonetta who dies in the announcement trailer, bleeds blood instead of flowers, and wields Whittingam Fair. I dub this one "Bayonetta Red". I believe that unlike Cerezita, who was most likely created by the time travels that occurred in the first two games, Bayonetta Red, from the lack of any spare timeline we know of, is from either a parallel timeline or one that was modified more radically in the past and not by Balder or Loptr. Finally, the third Bayonetta will be either one based visually on Bayonetta 2 Bayonetta but different in quite some ways ("Bayonetta Blue", I guess) similarly to Bayonetta Red, OR the Cereza, probably still in her Bayonetta 2 attire and wielding Love Is Blue we've always known. If this is correct, it's rather possible that Cerezita will have to battle Bayonetta Red and/or Blue/Cereza as mirror duel bosses, similarly to the Jeanne battles in the first game. Naturally, if it's Cereza instead of Bayonetta Blue, she will most likely come after Bayonetta Red, and be a last-minute climax in story boss like Balder in the first game. Also, watch the announcement trailer again. The figure Bayonetta Red loses to... is *purple.* Could this actually depict a duel to the death between her and Cerezita?

• Confirmed, that Bayonetta 3’s Bayo is Cerezita, by Game 1’s Bayonetta at the end of the story.

There is a third kind of magic aligned with Earth/Purgatory and linked to the new enemies: necromancy

the only thing humans seem to have that is of any concern to the denizens of either realm is there soul, as such if Humans have there own form of magic it would make sense it would be powered by and revolve around souls, if the new enemies are native to earth it would also explain why unlike the others they manifest in the physical world, notably the new enemies all appear to have some sort of flap/paper hanging from there face, possibly inspired by the paper talisman on a Jiang-shi, and its possible the reason there only just now becoming a threat is normally Paradiso and Inferno would claim all the stray souls preventing them from becoming undead, but Bayonetta have given them both too much of a thrashing to keep up, this also means Rodins bonus boss form will likely be acting as the angel of death, assuming his ability to turn souls into weapons is not already necromantic in origin

• While not jossed by the game itself, the enemies are instead made from nanomachines and other highly advanced technology, with no signs of necromancy being involved in Singularity's powers.

The new enemies this time around are associated with Chaos.

If Demons are associated with Darkness and Angels with Light, then it only makes sense for these new foes to stand in the middle with Chaos. Which also may owe to the fact that human shapes (given humans may also be of Chaos) are found all over their bodies.

• Confirmed

The mysterious swordsmaster seen at the end of the gameplay trailer is a witch hunter, and maybe even a descendant of one of the humans involved in the past Witch Hunts

With the possibility that we are dealing with Alternate Self, it may be that the Cheshire the swordsmaster hangs on their sword may have indeed belonged to a Bayonetta, meaning that they successfully killed one (or more) Bayonetta and took her Cheshire as Battle Trophy.

• So very, very jossed. Not only she is a witch, her mummy and grandmother are also witches who even witnessed the clan's destruction during the Witch Hunts.

Viola is Bayonetta and Luka's daughter in a different universe

With the game dealing with the possibility of a multiverse of sorts, Viola may be their daughter in at least one of these universes. Her witch abilities and her grapple hook are inherited straight from her parents but the way the trailer is played implies Viola may have never met Luka but she seems curious about him, making it seem like something happened to her father in her universe and never met him or something else entirely.

• That her demonic feline partner is called "Cheshire" and a Cheshire doll can be seen at the end of her sword's hilt lends further credence to this theory when Bayonetta playfully called Luka "Cheshire" back in the first game.
• Also, the way Viola angrily retorts "My name is VIOLA!" in the trailer when Jeanne calls her little kitty is reminiscent of Luka's "My name is LUKA!" when Bayonetta keeps calling him Cheshire in the first game.
• Confirmed 100%

Alternatively, Viola is not Bayonetta and Luka's Alternate Universe daughter

As explicit as the visual clues are, Viola being biologically related to Bayonetta and Luka could be a Red Herring. Instead, she could be the following:

• Given the possible Alternate Universe theme of Bayonetta 3, perhaps Viola is another surviving Umbran Witch from her setting who had history with her version of Bayonetta and Luka, thereby explaining some of the similarities.
• Alternatively, she is a daughter to an Umbran Witch, just not Bayonetta's. Maybe an unnamed Witch's...or even Jeanne's?
• She's a Big Name Fan who studied Luka's notes on the Umbran Witches and practiced their arts extensively to the point where she can use the same skills and techniques that they can use, including making a contract with a demon and summoning it. Her visual cues to Bayonetta and Luka are because they were Viola's inspirations.
• Jossed. See above.

The Bayonetta from the first two games died

This is hinted at in the reveal teaser. Afterwards, she survived long enough to turn into a demon, and this is what the voices at the end of the release date trailer is.

• Confirmed at the end of the game.

One of the alternate Bayonettas encountered in the story is male

Along with the implications of venturing through different worlds, it may be possible one of them is set in an alternate timeline where the Umbran Witches were Warlocks and that world's Bayonetta was the son of one with his mother being a Lumen Sage.

• Jossed.

If there's a Super Mirror that brings back Bayo's outfits from Bayo 1 and 2, Naive Angel Mode will censor the default outfits exactly like in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

Hey, if Mythra got her Smash-censored outfit in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, who's to say Bayo can't get her Smash-censored outfit in her canon games, too?

The Homunculi are made by someone who wants to preserve humanity and its free will at all costs.

The name pretty clearly links them to the process of alchemy, so it makes sense whoever is making them is trying to "perfect" the universe in some manner. Given how they are explicitly native to a version of Earth, it could be the Big Bad, as a Contrasting Sequel Antagonist to Loptr, is a human scientist who saw the full scale of the universe/multiverse, and humanity's place in it. They proceeded to Go Mad from the Revelation and latch onto the idea that so long as more than one world exists, humanity will be at the mercy of Paradiso and Inferno forever. So they decided to merge them, and every possible universe, into a true paradise.

• Jossed. The villain is barely more than a Generic Doomsday Villain who wants to rule all reality for kicks.

Sigurd is the villain

A few things seems off about him. He is found locked in his lab, which sports a metallic grey-slash-green color scheme, which is exactly the color scheme of the homunculi. Plus, the one who suggests to find him for help is Viola, and from what little we see of her, she probably has been fed info about the end of the world by someone related to Sigurd, which makes her panic and thus her rather impassioned demand for our heroes to search for him in the false hope that he can solve this apocalyptic problem. There's also potential foreshadowing from Jeanne's words: "Carelessness will get your tail snipped", which can mean Jeanne is warning Viola to think things through a bit more, including about trusting Sigurd.

• Confirmed with a twist. Sigurd is normally an ally, but the "Sigurd" encased in that pod is the villain masquerading as Sigurd.

In fact, the situation with Viola and Sigurd eerily resemble the plot of the first game: A witch (Bayonetta/Viola) gets intel about what she's searching for and immediately goes on the hunt for it (The Right Eye/Sigurd), with her senior having some reservation about what's going on and giving her a warning (Rodin/Jeanne).

Homunculi will have a chaos-related naming scheme.

Since the angels of Paradiso all have light-related names, and the demons of Inferno have darkness-related names, it only makes sense for the homunculi to have chaos-related names. Like Anarchy and Bollix.

• Jossed: Their names are Cloud-themed.

Viola's theme is going to be Wild Frontier.

Looks like this game is going to rescue a lot of the themes and ideas from the canceled Scalebound. So it would be great that it also rescued that kickass theme!

The villain who made the homunculi is a rogue Lumen sage or member of an offshoot Lumen faction who developed their own identity

There's quite a few things about the Homunculi that seem too reminiscent of Paradiso:

• Like Paradiso, the Homunculi are predominantly defined by bright colors, in their case, silver and green as opposed to gold and marble.
• One of the first known Homunculi is named Iridescent, a term related to light. While rarely do angels of Paradiso have names directly related to light (Resplendence is one such rare case), this is still quite a red flag.
• Despite the trailers clearly highlighting the Homunculi to be the enemy of the game, there are still angels; the Way of the Witch trailer shows Acceptances, and Bayonettas Everywhere trailer shows Valiance. This likely means that while the multiverse's attention is directed to the dangerously powerful Homunculi, the angels or said rogue Lumen may be pulling some strings.
• The Homunculi are Bioweapon Beast that are part humans; to put it in another way, creating Homunculi likely includes Human Sacrifice. Back in the first game, it's clearly shown that it's possible to create angels via human sacrifice, in that case, ritualistic suicide by definitely-still-living Lumen disciples to create angelic foot soldiers.
  • Jossed.

The stained-glass-winged demon first seen in the gameplay trailer is also a Bayonetta

After all, umbra witches are doomed to go to Inferno once they die, but it's also known that any formerly-living being who spends enough time in Inferno can eventually become a demon themselves. So, given that the demon gets to make an appearance when Homunculi has all but taken over the threat spotlight, it must be an important character, and its stained-glass wings sort of evokes butterfly wings, and butterfly is one of Bayonetta's most well-known animal theme.

• Jossed. It's Luka, and not a demon.

The Homunculi are meant to originally protect humanity.

Sigurd could have been forced to create the Homunculi by someone or something who was made aware of how much destruction angels and demons bring. The bio weapons were made to prevent further destruction but something went wrong.

• Alternatively, the Homunculi could have been meant to be the evolution of humanity to better stand a chance against such threats.

One of the alternate Bayonettas will turn out to be a Lumen Sage.

Unsurprisingly she will not get well along with angel-killing Bayonetta at first.

• Jossed, though amusingly one Bayonetta does try to kill Prime Bayo out of vengeance.

Bayonetta will have a chance to talk to her dead parents.

Rosa will have turned into a demoness while Balder became an angel. Shockingly enough they are still into each other.

• Confirmed in a sense. She runs into a Rosa from the French Bayonetta's reality, but not a Balder.

Most of Bayonetta's arsenal will be on loan from her Variants.

As of the latest trailer it's shown that with at least two exceptions in our Bayonetta's case, each Variant has her own unique weapon to use in combat. Maybe they'll each let her borrow said weapons after helping fight off the Homunculi in their own respective universes.

• Sort of confirmed. The alternate Bayonettas all die while the main Bayo traverses the realities, and ends up claiming their weapons in memoriam.

Post-release

Loki is still out there and will show up in the next game (If there is one).

In Bayo 2 he states that he'll be reborn into a new era and the ending of the game hints that it's already happened by that point. This whole game has the theme of ending an era with the passing of the torch to newer blood so perhaps he'll have matured by the time of the next game and end up running into Viola at some point and make good on the promise of meeting Bayonetta again as a man.

Cereza will meet the Fairy King if the Old Picture Book story continues

At the end of the secret chapter, we see Cereza found her way to Avalon and is being attacked by fairies, followed by disjointed story snippets, including telling someone she's an Umbra Witch. The one she tells this to is a young Lukaon, and they will team up while Jeanne tries to find her.

• The story will continue. The picture book is a demo for a prequel game.

The new enemies in the next game will be ghosts.

In the post-credits scene Rodin gives Viola a job involving ghosts haunting an old house, which she eagerly takes on. Ghosts however aren't really a subject that have been touched upon prior to this, so mentioning them now could be a hint at them serving as a future threat, following the series tradition of introducing a new class of enemies in each game.

• It's worth noting that spirits of characters have been seen before: Resentment can suck a person's soul out of their body, Gommorah can likewise separate a Witch's soul, and both of the first two game's final bosses get their bodies separated from their souls by the finisher. It's likely that if ghosts exist in the Bayonetta verse, they're spirits of people who for whatever reason managed to avoid being dragged to Paradiso or Inferno.

Bayonetta 4 will have a radically different logo style.

Since Viola's the new Bayonetta, the logo will have a more punk style to it. Bayo 1, 2, 3, and Origins are all Cereza's adventures, and if this game will center on Viola, then the logo will match her just as the others matched Cereza.

Bayonetta β2 had a severe falling-out with her father and ripped out her own right eye so as not to be reminded to him.

While the Left Eye and Right Eye are mostly-metaphorical concepts in Bayonetta verse referring to the most prominent Umbra Witch and Lumen Sage in the world respectively, it's also possible that a Witch's/Sage's literal eyes do serve as something of a conduit for these Eyes of The World Power, given that we do sometimes see Bayonetta's left eye flicker when she uses magic (such as when summoning her wings in 2).

And so, due to a very, very bitter quarrel with her father (which may even end up with a fight to the death), Bayonetta β2 renounces her Lumen heritage by taking out her right eye, and with it, any possibility of her cultivating any Lumen powers. This, for example, may result in her being unable to use Angel weapons unlike Prime Bayonetta who can.

Luka, not Antonio, discovered Bayonetta in Viola's universe.

The franchise dabbles in Fairytale Motifs, so Luka waking Bayonetta from her 500 year slumber a la Sleeping Beauty would help explain how their relationship was close enough to have a life and a daughter together. This Luka variant fulfilling Prince Charming's role is especially appropriate if he also was the reincarnation of Prince Lukaon.