According to Platinum Games artist Yong-Hee Cho, Bayonetta's director Hideki Kamiya requested concept art of Bayonetta in Princess Peach's costume for the Wii U version. In addition, Kamiya also requested Cho to design a Mario Charm for Peach's costume and a Luigi Charm for Daisy's costume, and pulled Bayonetta's long black locks in favor of flowing fabric.

Cho also goes on to talk about the concept for the Link and Samus Aran costumes, with the second costume being based on the NES original. According to Cho, it was actually Nintendo who pushed for Bayonetta to show a bit more skin while dressed in her Link costume.

Additionally, Bayonetta in her Samus Aran costume was at one point given the ability to form into a Morph Ball like how Samus does in the Metroid series, but the idea was scrapped and instead was later implemented in the game's sequel, Bayonetta 2.

One of Bayonetta's attacks is a reference to Akira from Virtua Fighter, where she performs his Tetsuzankou (Bodycheck) and says his signature victory quote "Juunen hayaindayo!" ("You're 10 years too early!").

Bayonetta's development team's name, Team Little Angels, is a shout out to the development team of Devil May Cry, Team Little Devils, a lot of whose former members are now working at Platinum Games.

Bayonetta has a few references to Viewtiful Joe, which was also directed by Hideki Kamiya. These references include a grave belonging to "Red Hot" Joe (referring to Viewtiful Joe himself), a street sign for Movie Land (the setting of the Viewtiful Joe series), and when riding an angel in lava Bayonetta shouts "Dancing a go-go, baby!" (which is a reference to Joe's catchphrase "Henshin a go-go, baby!").

On the title card for Spoiler:"Lost Chapter: Angel Slayer", Bayonetta is posed in a manner similar to Trish from the Devil May Cry logo. This is very likely an homage to the Devil May Cry series.

Of the many Infernal Demons that can be summoned by Bayonetta during a Climax Attack, the Little Devils are an obscure reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, more specifically Guido Mista's Sex Pistols. Director Hideki Kamiya has mentioned during a commentary that, much like Sex Pistols, each of the five devils have their own personality, and have a number written on their foreheads, with the #4 missing as it may be considered very unlucky by Zero, the King of the Little Devils.

Sapientia's legs have angelic text on them that, when translated, reads "SEGA Mark lll" which is the original Japanese version of the Sega Master System. Upon further inspection, the writing on Sapientia's head translates to "SG-1000000", which is a theoretical follow-up to the SG-1000 (Sega Game 1000) made up by Hideki Kamiya, the game's director.

In many parts of the game, a language is written or spoken that may sound like gibberish, but is actually a language known as Enochian; a forgotten language said to be the language of angels. An Enochian chant is used to summon Infernal Demons and torture attacks by Bayonetta, as well as being spoken by the Angels themselves.

Bayonetta's Lt. Col. Kilgore weapons are a reference to the character of the same name from the movie Apocalypse Now. Bayonetta's alternate costume for the weapon is designed after Kilgore's appearance in the movie matching his hat, sunglasses, and yellow scarf.

The song that is played for the Lt Col Kilgore Golden LP is Flight of the Valkyries, which was also played during a battle scene in Apocalypse Now.

Jeanne's All 4 One pistols reference elements from The Three Musketeers story. The four pistols are named after the characters D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. "Tous pour un, un pour tous" are written on the pistols, which translates to "All for one, and one for all" which is the motto of the Three Musketeers.

If Bayonetta shoots idly at a wall, she will start writing her initials and hearts with the bullets.

The weapon Shuraba was intended to have an animation where the sword's pulsing heart would show on the hilt of the sword when the weapon was fully charged. During development, the developers forgot to put the animation on the weapon, so the animation does not appear in the game, but the code still exists.

Bayonetta's watch contains the numbers "14111219." These numbers represent her birthday, December 19, 1411. Today she would be around 600 years old.

Jeanne's watch has the numbers "141216," which would make her birthday January 6, 1412.

There is an unlockable sword in the game called Pillow Talk. It is the same sword that Ushiwakamaru uses in Okami, and the name "Pillow Talk" is the name of the ending theme of Devil May Cry.

Bayonetta's Bracelet of Time shares attributes with Devil May Cry's Bangle of Time and Viewtiful Joe's V Watch. All three items look similar and freeze time. Additionally, the description for Bracelet of Time and Bangle of time reference Dante's parents as the creators, so they might be the same item. Hideki Kamiya was also the director of all three games so this similarity may be intentional

There are two characters named Enzo appearing in Bayonetta and Devil May Cry. Both characters support Bayonetta and Dante as an informant. There is proof that both Enzos are the same person.

In the Bayonetta art book, there is a picture of Enzo playing poker with someone while Bayonetta and Rodan are in the background. Enzo's opponent is shown to have lost a sword, two handguns, and a red coat. These are all trademarks relating to Dante. This not only shows that the Enzo that helped Dante was the same Enzo that helped Bayonetta, but successfully connects the Bayonetta series to the Devil May Cry series.

The accessory Immortal Marionette bears a striking resemblance to the Marionette enemies from the original Devil May Cry. Hideki Kamiya was the director for both Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, so the resemblance is probably intentional.

One of Rodin's many lines upon entering the shop is, "No matter how much you ask, I'm not puttin' a chainsaw on your arm." This is most likely a reference to Jack Cayman from Madworld and Anarchy Reigns. All games were developed by Platinum Games.

One of Rodin's quotes whenever you visit the shop is "Whadya buyin!?", a phrase that has become popularized from the store owner in Resident Evil 4. Rodin even follows up with "Heard that in a game once."

Near the beginning of Chapter Five, Bayonetta threatens to kill Luka who tried to convince her that she shouldn't because it would break the hearts of four girls. The girls names are Claire, Trish, Silvia and Ammy. All of which are characters from previous titles that the team worked on when they worked at Capcom.
Claire being Claire Redfield from Resident Evil. Trish being a character in Devil May Cry, Silvia also being a character from Viewtiful Joe and Ammy being short for Amaterasu from Okami.