According to Scalebound’s lead producer, Bayonetta 3’s demon kaiju fights may be connected to the cancelled Xbox One exclusive. Last week’s Nintendo Direct closed with a premiere of the upcoming Bayonetta 3’s gameplay, showcasing a new kaiju-style battle mechanic called Demon Slave. While Bayonetta 3 currently lacks a concrete release date, the Nintendo Direct announced the game is expected to hit shelves sometime in 2022.
On the other hand, Scalebound didn’t see a release of any kind. Announced by Microsoft during its E3 2014 conference, the PlatinumGames-developed (also Bayonetta 3’s developer) action-RPG followed Drew, who was linked to a dragon companion named Thuban that would assist him in battles against knights and other monsters throughout the game’s world. Drew was designed to have the ability to command his companion and transform parts of his own body to be dragon-like – however, these mechanics never saw the light of day when Scalebound was cancelled by Microsoft in 2017.
JP Kellams (via Video Games Chronicle), Scalebound’s lead producer, recently tweeted that the cancelled game’s lead designer, Yusuke Miyata is directing Bayonetta 3 – and that Bayonetta 3 and Scalebound appear to share some similar game mechanics. The former PlatinumGames producer explained, “Miyata is super talented, and I can’t wait to play [Bayonetta] 3 primarily because he is directing it.” When another Twitter user commented that this information intrigued them, Kellam followed up by adding, “The controlling the summons thing looks VERY similar to a mechanic that we had in Scalebound to control Thuban.” Based on Kellam’s information, it appears Miyata could be taking some inspiration from his work on his former project.
The brand-new Demon Slave ability in Bayonetta 3 allows the player to summon large-scale, kaiju-like demons and control them for combat. Although Bayonetta has always possessed demon-summoning talents, players have never had the opportunity to control them like they can with the Demon Slave mechanic. Each demon will have different abilities and specific uses throughout the game. The number of demons in the player’s control has not yet been revealed, but Miyata has encouraged fans to watch the gameplay trailer multiple times to look for hints and small details.
Bayonetta 3’s gameplay reveal at last week’s Nintendo Direct might have included mechanics that call back to Scalebound, but it appears the upcoming series installment will have even more new features beyond Demon Slave. Bayonette herself has a new look, a new set of guns, and will be able to merge with demons in addition to controlling them. That being said, while Scalebound never made it into the hands of the public, it seems like players might be able to get a taste of its gameplay through Bayonetta 3.
Bayonetta 3 will release on Nintendo Switch in 2022.
