With the reveal of long-awaited gameplay for Bayonetta 3 this morning, it looks like fans are starting to speculate the details of the game’s plot, particularly around the circumstances of Bayonetta herself.

Over on reddit, fans have realized that Bayonetta’s new design looks very familiar to Cereza from the original Bayonetta- revealed later in the game to be a young Bayonetta flung into the future, like a reverse Chibi Moon if Sailor Moon got naked and summoned demons.

“This is Cereza from Bayo 1 all grown up. The use of Bayo 1 demons, the little jumping and dancing around while fighting, and the hair style screams Cereza. She also is trying her hardest to mimic Bayonetta so hard.”, writes redditor Calvinize. They go on to also point out multiple more homages to Cereza, such as a Cheshire Cat necklace and the lack of Madame Butterfly.

The biggest giveaway was her new double-braid hairstyle, which mimics Cereza’s look in the original Bayonetta, as well as the fact both Bayonetta 1 and 2 dealt with Time Loops.

The other point of suspicion was the voice actress- it was previously said that Hellena Taylor would not be reprising her role as Bayonetta, though fans are suspecting that this might be a red herring- that is to say, the Bayonetta you knew from 1 and 2 hasn’t been shown yet, and this new Bayonetta would have a separate voice actress.

It wouldn’t be the first time a game used a shift in voice actors to hide a plot detail- the Persona series did that to great effect, masking a big twist in one of the games.

The double Bayonetta theory also has credibility because of the game’s first teaser trailer- which features another Bayonetta, sporting her first game’s ponytail. More importantly, it also shows her seemingly getting defeated- the perfect time to tag in another hero.

Aside from that, fans have also been skeptical at how much more toned down this new Bayonetta seems to be- the gameplay trailer lacks a lot of the hyper-sexuality of the Bayonetta series, such as Bayonetta getting naked to summon her demons.

Fan sentiment seems to be that it was toned down since it was a Nintendo Direct, though some are worried that it would be related to Nintendo trying to push for a more all-ages marketing for the game, despite having published Bayonetta 2 exclusively on the Wii U (and still featuring naked demon summoning).

Bayonetta fans are comrades-in-arms with the Elden Ring fandom, having had their game announced at a random livestream one day and heard nothing about it for years since. With both games slated for a 2022 release, those worried about Bayonetta 3 and its plot are sure to get their answers sooner rather than later.