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Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II sees its titular protagonist in a really totally different headspace in comparison with the primary sport, when the Pict warrior was largely on the mercy of the antagonistic, psychosis-induced voices in her head. She’s extra assured in herself in Hellblade II and on this new-found company, she’s in a position to join with folks once more. Forward of Hellblade II’s Could 21 launch, I spoke to guide actor and Ninja Concept video editor Melina Juergens, Ninja Concept scriptwriter and efficiency seize director Lara Derham, and Bernard Wolfe Professor of Well being Neuroscience Paul Fletcher (a key collaborator on each Hellblade video games) about Senua’s evolving notion of her psychosis and the way that can inform her narrative arc.
“On the finish of the primary sport, [Senua] was actually confronting lots of new issues, and that is a really troublesome a part of the journey,” Derham advised me. “I believe on the finish of the sport, she got here to a way of–I would not say full peace, however extra peace and extra acceptance. And he or she had began to query and put apart her father’s teachings: that this distinction that she had that she shares along with her mom is evil and flawed.”
She continued: “So I believe [Senua is] at a degree now the place she’s ready to maneuver ahead and have a look at what comes subsequent. And for her, what comes subsequent is that this mission that she feels very strongly that she’s destined to do, that she’s chosen for. And that is to do with the promise that she made to Dillion about not letting anybody undergo as he did. So I believe I wish to see it as a step out into the world as a result of it is not nearly her and her ache, it is about different folks. And there is a actual selflessness to this choice that she makes, particularly since she’s placing herself at such nice threat.”
In Hellblade II, Senua travels to Iceland to cope with the Viking risk nonetheless entrenched there. In contrast to the primary sport, which noticed her take care of the legendary monstrosities of Helheim all on her personal, Hellblade II sees Senua battle in a setting based mostly extra firmly on actuality and work together with different folks. And a few of these folks will see Senua as an aspirational chief, not the cursed outcast from the primary sport.
“We have got a solid now for the brand new sport,” Juergens advised me. “There are those that recognize [Senua’s] perspective, her distinctive perspective on the world, and there are different individuals who reject it. I believe she comes throughout a bit bit extra assured now. Once I was appearing, I made positive that for the second sport, my posture is a bit bit extra assured and upright as a result of she is a pacesetter within the second sport. She’s not a sufferer of psychosis anymore. She hasn’t overcome it, however she’s accountable for it.”
![No Caption Provided](https://www.gamespot.com/a/uploads/scale_super/1587/15875866/4283094-senua.png)
“Once we have a look at Hellblade 1, [Senua] was completely enthralled to and enveloped by this darkness,” Fletcher mentioned. “And as she emerges from that, she acquires extra energy and self-reliance and is ready to problem and resist the voices and visions though they’re nonetheless there. So she has extra energy. And that is what allows her to look outdoors and to suppose when it comes to the larger image past herself.
“That is a extremely vital level that she is [no longer] being continually buffeted by the voices and buffeted by her experiences,” Derham added. “They nonetheless have an effect on her, they’re nonetheless there, however she has the power now to push again on them a bit bit and to acknowledge that she has company.”
For Ninja Concept, it was vital to showcase that residing with psychosis is a journey. There is no ending to Hellblade II the place Senua walks away fully “fastened” of her psychological sickness. “I believe some folks can consider her trajectory of restoration in quite simple phrases of leaving the previous behind,” Fletcher mentioned. “And I believe, echoing what Lara mentioned, [Senua] does not go away her previous behind, however the previous really grinds and shapes the lens by which we see the current and predict the long run. And that is there the entire time. In assembly with different folks, she positive factors new views. And for me, that is actually thrilling that [Ninja Theory is] taking the narrative this manner. As a result of so typically in scientific apply, what permits folks to recuperate is to realize a which means and a objective that is past themselves.”
“The place that we’re taking [Hellblade II], which is admittedly new, is as an alternative of analyzing how totally different Senua is from different folks, we’re taking a look at how comparable a few of her experiences are to what we’d name ‘regular’ folks’s responses,” Derham mentioned. “It goes again to what Paul was saying this morning about how all of us assemble our personal realities ultimately or one other. And we’ll see Senua’s world by Senua’s eyes however additionally, you will see how different folks, [people without psychosis] are additionally doing the identical sorts of processes that Senua is–creatively establishing her world, [is something] that different folks do as properly.”
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is about to launch for Xbox Sequence X|S and PC, and can launch day one on Xbox Recreation Cross.
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