10 MORE Video Games You Didn't Know Were Connected

2. Devil May Cry/Bayonetta

Though the Devil May Cry and Bayonetta franchises aren't developed by the same company, they were both created by Hideki Kamiya, and so it's tough to ignore the many, many similarities between the hit character action games.

Even accepting their existence with the same genre and similarly over-the-top tone and aesthetic, they share enemies down to specific traits and attacks.

A re-designed version of DMC's giant spider Phantom appears in Bayonetta, renamed to Phantasmaraneae presumably for legal reasons, and DMC's time-slowing Bangle of Time re-appears in Bayo as the Bracelet of Time.

Moreover, the Bracelet of Time's item description refers to a "legendary dark knight" almost certain to be DMC's Sparda, but again, legalities prevented Kamiya from outright namedropping him.

Bayonetta invokes DMC constantly, and while Kamiya himself has deemed the two franchises to share a universe, this can't be taken as gospel because Capcom gave the DMC series to Hideaki Itsuno from the second game onward, while Kamiya moved on elsewhere (and eventually to Bayonetta).

The one big roadblock to accepting their shared world is the lack of angels in DMC, implying differing Heaven and Hell dynamics that don't really gel together.

Many fans have essentially accepted that DMC splinters off into two separate continuities - the Kamiya universe, encompassing the original DMC and all the Bayonetta games, and Itsuno's version outside of this.

Either way, Kamiya managed to slyly get away with intimately linking his two hack 'n slash titles while just barely avoiding Capcom's legal ire. It's not perfectly neat and tidy, but provides some tantalising food for thought regardless.

When will fans finally get that long-requested DMC/Bayo crossover? Kamiya sure is keen.