Media in general that uses loops as representation of psychological rumination, going over the same point in life over and over, always has a special place in my heart. It touches on something that is very hard to describe. I know the term has been used to the point of losing meaning past few years but ludonarrarative harmony, using the very tools of gameplay to convey something about the story is what makes games a particularly special storytelling device.
It was sitting down my playlist for quite some time, I tried it but found it frustrating so I benched it waiting for better times. Your retrospective made me want to give it a second chance, and after a rough start where I never made it out alive a few chambers I started steadily getting better, I beat the first boss on my second try, I died to the second but I had the resurrection chamber active so I could try again immediately, then I beat both Nemesis and Hyperion on first try (still dying somewhere during the chambers) Still haven't reached the final boss, but I guess it's a matter of days :3 Really satisfying feeling you getting better at it.
ight, so ik there's a chance that you either: 1. won't see this 2. won't understand this 3. or you'll think i'm completely wrong (this game doesn't help you understand what event happened with which character AT ALL. it's so vague at times and don't get me wrong........ ik thats the point and it's supposed to make the story more complex but damnnnnnnn. not even a single mention of mental illness? shit, you don't even get to see what the mom actually looks like outside of the flashback of the first car crash and her black and white picture sitting on the table when you walk in on the first house sequence. so i completely understand why people were so confused with the story for so long and about what events took place where and with who. even the times of everything... the devs really want you to piece together things on your own) first off. HELIOS IS A SON not daughter 😭 but anyways...i don't think Selene is the mom of Helios and i don't think she's the driver in the flashback. shit, i don't even think the flashback is necessarily about her (not mainly when first analyzing atleast but i'll get to that in a bit). i think Selene is simply just {dramatic pause} the schizophrenic daughter of Theia / younger sister of the late Helios. IN FACT, i think they're all schizophrenic and Helios just happened to be the vocal but unaware passenger and victim of the crash. and this is gonna sound a bit funny but yes, there were 2 crashes. one being the crash at 8:36 AM [involving Theia and Helios] and other being the crash at 8:36 PM [involving Selene]. now, the difference between both of these crashes besides Selene not even being out of the womb yet and Helios already kicking the bucket is (you guessed it) - the year. first clue i got about this is the car model in the flashback of Theia. then i also concluded that the black and white picture on the table of the house when you first walk in, is Theia. who also evidently was the one that was rejected from ASTRA for being *schizophrenic* (Selene actually did get accepted)....something that Selene didn't want ASTRA to know about, as well as her therapy sessions because it would have alerted them that she wasn't mentally stable and resulted in the same outcome as her mother (she didn't have any knowledge of her application or interest in even being an astronaut. evident by her reaction while reading the letter in the second house sequence). another way that you can even tell that something is off about Selene, is the pills that she supposedly "HASN'T NEEDED IN A WHILE" in the second house sequence lol. hilariously in the first sequence, you get a bit of foreshadowing for the end of the game to find out what she did to her own mother. in the first sequence, the basement door opens and she says "this should never be open"...then it shuts itself. in the second sequence after, you get more foreshadowing when the toy octopus looks to be "attacking" Selene. (im rushing because i have work in a lil and this is a lot to explain, so i have to speedrun rq). the voices on the house phone's voicemail were NEVER Selene. Helios is trying to get Selene to atone for her sins but also helping her to realize that she can't. even if she were go back to save her mom from the house fire that she started (Selene has a psychotic break after an argument with her mom and burns down the house with Theia in it after being told about her older brother who she previously didn't know about. also was being told about their hereditary quickly progressive early schizophrenia) i gotta hella other details i can give you too if you need like Helios having episodes when talking to his astronaut friend, i gtg tho. boutta be late. oh and Selene killed herself. same bridge, same location. just at night. flashbacks of both the last memories of Helios and Selene are merged which is why it shows it night but the news says it happened during the day... Chow ;)
Returnal is criminally underrated. The feeling you get when first entering the Spire at the end of the Echoing Ruins, hearing the melody grow in strenght as you ascend, and the boss battle that follows... that's something I'll never forget
Personally I think one particular theme in the game is intergenerational trauma as a cycle. I think the conflicting info on who was driving and who was the child and who died is purposeful, the roles are meant to be interchangeable, with part of Selene's torment being the ways she enacted the same cruelties on her own child that were enacted on her. Trying to leave the planet represents her attempts to end the cycle and be a better parent, and her returning represents being sucked back into those toxic behaviours over and over again, and her fear is that leading to the destruction of her child and the endless abandonment of Helios. Whether she's the driver or the passenger doesn't matter, in the cycle they are one and the same. I think it's interesting how the alien lore ties in to Selene's story as well. The Severed weren't originally aggressive (they wrote the ciphers and one of the xenoglyphs even says "we were only trying to communicate") but the sentients were afraid ("our brethren feared us") and rejected them and imprisoned several of them, resulting in a needless war that destroyed both their world's and left the remaining Severed mad. As the game progresses Selene releases and fights the bosses from their prisons (some forced on them and some of their own make) and takes on pieces of sentient tech to use herself, symbolically becoming more like the sentients herself while not being part of the hive mind, similar to the Severed. Each boss represents a part of herself that she releases and confronts: Her fear (Phrike), her hubris (Ixion), her resentment towards herself and her mother (Nemesis), her feelings of abandonment (Hyperion), and her feelings towards motherhood (Opheon) act as the final barrier or gateway she has to overcome to really delve into her past and the truth about herself. I think Hyperion represents abandonment in part because it was the song playing when she crashed and abandoned Helios, and in part because I think either her father, her husband, or both were absentee figures in her life (one Xenoglyph in the Echoing Ruins even says "I never spoke to him afterwards or heard his music again"). Nemesis was what was left of the Sentients and their hive mind, hidden away from what remained of their world and escaping what their actions had wrought. They were their own worst enemy, their misguided fear and hatred towards the Severed resulting in both sides being brought to ruin. In a way the Severed are like the children of the Sentients, they're even smaller in stature than the Sentients were iirc, and in their madness they bear the continued punishment for their parent's mistakes as well as the part they themselves played in the battle, their thoughts are even described as being an endless loop of suffering with the "creator/destroyer" being the only one who could end the loop, it being implied that Selene is the Creator/Destroyer. They could also potentially represent different parts of Selene, the part of her shaped by her mother and afraid of change or confronting her own issues, and the part of her that wants to break free and be a better mother than her own mother was. Opheon likewise resembles the skeletal depiction of Selene's mother including the long tentacle-like fingers. I don't think it's made very clear what Opheon is, but some of the Sentients, such as Phrike and Ixion, were supposedly seeing visions of something drawing them to the depths of the Abyss, and I'm assuming Opheon was what was calling them to some sort of divine truth that resulted in their severing and ascention, and the Sentients imprisoned them for it out of fear. That could represent motherhood both in how it gave Selene perspective on her mother's feelings of resentment and in how Selene herself has to overcome her own resentment towards Helios. I like to think that the secret ending with her swimming to the surface is actually Helios escaping rather than Selene, because I like the idea that ultimately Helios is the one to escape the cycle and survive the "crash", and it is their (I think Helios's gender is ambiguous?) mother's attempts at ending the cycle that allows them to make it out even if Selene doesn't. I do remember there being a version of the crash mentioned at some point where the child survives while the mother dies, so I think that points towards it being a possibility. Plus in several house sequences you play as a child, and that child could be Selene, or they could be Helios, so it's not unprecedented that you could be seeing the POV of Helios at the end, and when you hear Selene's voice saying Helios's name as they surfaces it's more of an echo. I think it also fits with Selene descending down into the depths and embracing those memories instead of trying to escape them. Trying to escape without confronting those memories and what they meant only lead to her abandoning Helios and repeating the cycle over and over again. Even when she thought she'd escaped, no matter what she was always pulled back so long as she was running from the truth, and while she was escaping from her own past Helios was left on that planet, abandoned and decaying. But going deeper and confronting those memories are what allows her, or Helios, to finally escape the car and reach the surface. The first time we see the crash we see her reaching for Helios and failing to save them before being pulled away by those tentacles, and I think that represents what she's been wanting to do throughout the game: save Helios. You start the game by leaving Helios the ship and abandoning it, and you end the game by returning to Helios the child trapped in that car on the bottom of the river, and I personally think the most thematic and rewarding ending to that would be if the one surfacing in the end is Helios, successfully pulled out of the car and released from the cycle because of Selene finally confronting her memories and her role in the loop and coming to terms with that. Maybe Selene herself didn't make it out of the car, aka out of the cycle, because her own mother never went through that process of confronting her own issues and Selene is still always going to be haunted by that and already made her own mistakes resulting in the crash and the loop in the first place, but even if Selene didn't originally make it out, maybe Helios still can. That's my personal interpretation of the story and the ending at least. I think the only thing that really contradicts this reading is that in the secret ending the character swimming to the surface is wearing Selene's jacket, but it's left open to interpretation purposefully so I prefer to read it that way and I think a lot of other stuff supports it as an option. One xenoglyph in particular has a section that says "Helios lies shattered and I must put him back together". Plus since the role of child and mother are interchangeable that also means that symbolically she is both Theia and Helios as well as herself depending on where she is in the cycle. By saving and freeing Helios, she frees herself as well. Regardless, it's a fascinating story to think and theorize about lol. Great video btw. I do kinda wish you'd lingered more on the Hyperion fight, such as the music cues leading the player towards the spire throughout the level/biome, the way it crescendos as you approach the boss room going up the spire itself, and how the battle with Hyperion goes to the pacing and notes of the song being played while you fight so you're basically fighting to the tune of the song which helps a lot with timing if you realize it during the fight. Those aspects of the gameplay were so fascinating to me I still sometimes get chills just remembering that experience. But otherwise I felt the video captured the appeal and complexity of the gameplay and the story well. I don't usually play rogue-likes but Returnal caught my attention and I absolutely loved it.😮😮
One of my absolute favorite games ever. Been playing games for 24 years and this instantly became a favorite. The "Ascend the Spire" melody has imprinted itself in my mind, living absolutely rent free. From time to time I randomly start hearing the melody. It's an incredible adventure that I wish I could forget so I could replay it for the first time again. Been waiting for this video since I found your channel!
@@ebrietas-biscuit Hey. So my recommendation is to first remap dodge to R1, set it to always sprint, and auto pick-up items. For weapons I would suggest leveling the Carbine with leech rounds. It helps you regain lost health and when it's close to max, you can basically tank damage without dying. Start there, and then you should get into the groove of it :)
I think the car crash is her and her mother. The woman driving the car doesn't have different colored eyes and she talks about her mom said she would be wearing a suit similar to the old astronaut suit the stranger wears if not for the accident. I think that link is why they often show you her miss matched eyes when you die and she relives her crash. It would also make sense that she grew up to become an astronaut and her mother became jealous that her daughter was able to do what she had always wishes to. I'm betting her father left after the accident because he couldn't deal with the mother's needs after becoming paralyzed which left only the daughter to take care of her. Her grief and frustrating being taken out on her daughter would explain why she sees her as a monster later in the game.
Something I feel should be noted is that Selene's name itself is a reference to the goddess of the moon, while Hecate is also linked with the moon, she is the goddess of 3 faces as well. Could be a reltion to Selene, her mother Thea, and her daughter.
Haven't played it yet but 'Atropos' is not just 'the thread-cutter', it literally means 'the unchanging'. Also, while Helios (sun) is a very weird name for a girl, it might be significant that the main characters' name Selene actually means 'moon'.
Great review. I always felt that you started off so strongly in terms of quality and you continue to improve. The recent Drakengurd / NieR series really suited your storytelling ability and this is no different. I haven't played this but it looks a fantastic game with some deep and subtle meanings. It also has some originality which isn't easy to achieve. Been quite busy lately but managed watch both Drakengard videos just before NieR was released. Feels good to watch this one close to release too. Keep up the great work, and keep loving what you do.
Well son, returnal was of the best games in recent memory with amazing combat and smooth controls. Story is still confusing to me but I'm glad I have you to help explain as your old man is not as bright as you
This game was the sole reason I purchased a PS5... AND since buying Returnal in October of 2022 (when I could finally find a PS5 in the wild), I have put over 600 hours into it. It's my 2nd favorite game of all-time (behind Pathologic).
Oh hell yeah, my personal 2021 GOTY and one of my favorite games of all times. So, so glad to see you making a video on this. Sadly, as majority of my personal TOP games, this one is also heavily underrated. Edit. The audio design in this game is insane. I don´t think I ever had such a good spatial awarness in a game like in Returnal. Positioning and sounds separation literally makes you see with ears.
It was my GOTY as well. Speaking of audio/sound design, the spire climb to Hyperion was such an amazing experience in game that I still think about it from time to time
@@Clarence_the_potato Oh man absolutely. If you check the most upvoted comment under that song on youtube, that would be me from my second account saying literally the same. That part is written in me forever I guess.
I sadly can't play this game because of my hands being a bit of a mess, so I really enjoyed watching this video! I must admit I didn't see that ending coming, but I do love a story where cycles slowly reveal psychological torment. It's a genre I wish there was more of.
I also came to the same conclusions as you. And am so happy to see this video. This game was so inspiring and gripping. It’s in my top 3 games of all time. I am continually blown away about how every element in this game meshes so well and just works. No bloat, it’s all purposeful and concise.
This game blew me away. I was a fan of Housemarque's earlier works but I did not expect them to be able to blend their fun and addictive gameplay with some amazing storytelling with such emotional resonance.
Usually a casual gamer but decided to give this one a shot. It clicked very quick with me and is now my top 3 game of all time. Very possibly could be 1. The game play, audio design, level design, art style, haptic feedback, world building are all perfect to me. On top of all that they have a really great complex storyline.
I rented this after Jacob Geller's video. I couldn't beat the second boss, but still loved exploring. The twist where you think you're safe just to be pulled back into the cycle is horrifying.
@@FightOstinFight oh lol I’m not offended. But you under appreciating this game just validated my point further. You’re proof that’s it’s under appreciated.
God this game is good - I'm not normally into sci-fi stuff, but the story, gameplay and atmosphere really pulled me in and made me want to know more Great video 🙏
Dead Nation and Outland on the PS3 cemented Housemarque as one of my favorite indie devs, and I was super hyped for Returnal. It took me a while to get a PS5, but Returnal made the wait worth it. It's the perfect balance between risky "big ideas" indie development and big budget AAA production.
Story time. I am not sure if anyone will see this or read it as I know this video is a few years old. I got this game last summer. My senior cat was nearing twenty years old. His health was in poor condition and my wife and I knew it. I had the cat since I was a senior in high school when he was only a few months old and took him on my journey into life as an adult. He was beside me every evening I was captivated by this games journey for weeks. We'd sleep on the couch together... He was dying and we booked the date to put him down. It was the last stretch of quality time with him even though he had no quality of life. Yet he would come to me to get picked up onto the couch and hang out with me for comfort.The themes of death and loss... really hit home hard while playing this game. The soundtrack by Bobby Krlic really resonated with me and still does. I can't help but tear up a bit when I hear certain parts of the soundtrack to this game. and I had to say goodbye to my best friend days after finishing this game. It will stick with me forever and I am not sure I can ever play it again. I bought the soundtrack vinyl to display as it means so much to me. Thanks for navigating life with me Earl. Miss you.
Was NOT expecting this! Returnal is my favorite PS5 game so far and deserves wayyy more analyses in my opinion, so this was a welcome surprise. Good work, son 👍
This is the only platinum on PlayStation I have!!!! I absolutely love this game. Makes you feel like you accomplished something just doing Anything in this game.
You know that amazing feeling of a new console generation where you buy the launch games and stare in awe of what technology has achieved? I didn’t feel that with the PS5, except when I played Returnal.
Helios is her son, both VA and motion capture actors were boys, its literally in the credits. Other than that nitpick, really good analysis and breakdown of each biome! I didn't think of Hyperion as reflection of her father, but it makes sense.
My theorie is as follows: After the car crash, Theia survived with injuries, got in a wheelchair, while Selene, as a child, was too long in the water and was in a coma. for a very very long time. She always wanted to be an satronaut like her mother wanted. Her mother got rejected back then, hence the letters of rejection in the game. while selene is in a coma, we play her thoughts. she might know how she looks like, but time passes differently and she "dreams" the returnal world like she was an adult, at about the same age as her mother was. since she only knew well enough how her mother looked like, she interpreted herself as looking very similar. One day she even dreams of coming back to her world, living her life as intended, getting older and then dying, just to return to Athropos.
I feel really guilty because I don’t enjoy playing rogue-likes, god knows I’ve tried. However I wish I could support this game w my “consumer dollars” to show that I DO want a more varied range of female characters, I want to play as an older woman who has a history, etc. This game looks cool.
Most people don’t. Who wants to play an overly hard cheap game to lose all progress upon death only to have to start all over again? Those are masochists.
@@FightOstinFight I'm happy to be on PS plus so I could play the game for free. I'm glad that I didn't have to full price because I dropped it after 2 hours. I didn't enjoy it at all. Roguelike element + the actualy gameplay just didn't resonate with me at all. No wonder the game didn't so well. The story is great, but who would play such a hard game "for the story"? I should have been a visual novel, a book, or a movie. Most gamers who are into hard action roguelikes probably wouldn't be drawn by this protagonist/story.
Probably my favorite current-gen game. Fantastic theme, great combat, and Housemarque did a fantastic job marrying sound design with DualSense feedback.
It sounds a little like you're saying the planet and everything Selene goes through is a creation of her mind, and the entire thing is a metaphor for Selene's internal struggle with loss, trauma, and survivors guilt. But so much of what we find dealing with Astra doesn't seem to relate to Selene's situation, and legitimately seems like corporate speak and general business talk. And it's like, why would she know or the game include all of that and not really tie it in with Selene's situation? As some kind of a red herring? I mean, why provide so much framework behind everything? It wouldn't really have been necessary. I had two initial thoughts. That rejection letter looks very old, so I was wondering if maybe it didn't belong to Selene's mother. The 2nd thought (which is what I personally believe) was that the reason Selene was initially rejected is because she had a child and Astra wouldn't want to send a single mother on deep space missions knowing they have a young child... given how spending YEARS alone in the blackness of space could negatively impact someone's mental _integrity_ (see what I did there?, lol), potentially compromising the mission. So maybe after Selene's son died, she took time off, tried to get herself together, reapplied to Astra, and got accepted. The reason that I say this is because THE FIRST TIME we see the house Selene says "It's exactly as I left it"... Well, what's missing from that sequence? ANYTHING relating to/belonging to a child. There is LITERALLY not a single toy, drawing, picture or ANY evidence of a living child. And that's exactly how Selene says she left the house. What we do see are a lot of are papers and books, that suggests Selene has been spending all of her time studying (because the rejection letter also talked about her lack of _proficiencies_ relating to the job she applied for)... And I could EASILY imagine Selene wanting to remove everything in the house that reminds her of her son in an effort to "get past" her trauma initially. And I feel Atropos is... a lot of things, and this is already too long, but it ends up manifesting in Selene as her own personal Silent Hill... But what we're REALLY seeing are the remnants of two Alien species waging war through Selene. I think one side cursed/granted her the deathloop thing with the hopes of her stopping the invading force (which is also why she the only tech she can keep is theirs), and the invading aliens (enemies) are simply trying to stop you, and they use their sentience to create manifestations and exploit all of Selene's fears and traumas in an effort to "break" her, which would prevent her from stopping everything if she were too entirely lose it, even if she has the deathloop mechanic granted by the "good" aliens. And the reason she ended up back on the Planet after escaping and dying of old age is because that ability wasn't given to her so that she can escape... It was given to her so that she can overthrow the invading aliens... Sit stop the architects chair and orchestrate the "good" aliens revival. I also think that's why Selene is slowly taught the language... So that she can take advantage of their tech and text to fix things/bring them back. But she was never meant to leave. And as far as why the ship has the same name as her son... Maybe she got to pick the name/call sign for the ship. I mean, missions do last YEARS AND YEARS... So it makes sense why they might allow the pilot to do something like that. IDK... I know there's some cope, lots of loose threads, and some reaches thrown in there, but I ALWAYS struggle to get on-board with the *_IT WAS ALL A DREAM_* thing because it just takes so much of the wind out of sails of everything we experienced, and it's also a bit of a cop out from a narrative standpoint.
I love the game and I like the story, I think it evokes a lot of emotion and is a unique way to tell a tale. I'm just sad that it somewhat boils down to a "dream theory" approach. The world that's built, the extinct alien race and all the effort to flesh it out via item descriptions and stuff could've been an awesome story and lore-dump on its own. I like the symbolism and I like the mystery that even forced me to go and look up videos to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding it. I just couldn't shake the feeling that it felt like wasted potential to create a massive, mysterious world and it essentially mean very little except the hints towards the astronaut and the "real" story. I know it's nitpicky and cynical, would just have liked all the things we see to mean a bit more. Fantastic game though. Had a lot of fun and if not for the potentially endless runs needed to find the rare rooms with the remaining audio logs and ciphers, I'd have 100%'d it. I'm doing it a small bit at a time.
I knew the story very soon after starting playing. One would think it would spoil the experience and twist BUT for me it made it even better. Knowing the story actually revealed so many subtle details while playing and made it more enjoyable. Amazing game
I never played a roguelike and purchased this game because i saw gameplay from the ps5 pro reveal 😅 I thought it was your usual third person story shooter. I didn't know I'd be playing something so much better. I love the atmosphere when I first played. Being a noob entering a dangerous planet filled with robot killing machines and knowing you need to make your one and only life count was truly immersive. It made me feel like I was in the Maze Runner movie but being able to come back to life if I didn't make it through. I'm looking forward to the next Housemarque games
It's so funny listening to Gingy's analysis of this, it's like you two were playing two completely different stories right with to whether Helios was a boy or a girl.
Right around 53:00, it gave me the idea that... Since she keeps reliving the same moments and thoughts and that she's already died.. gave me the thought that, if when we die we must atone/repent/have your heart and mind go through turmoil based on the life you lived, she would be in purgatory?? or this being her hell.. hmm!
I’ve played through most of the game so far. There’s only one world that I played through quickly so far and that is the derelict citadel. Legitimately, finished it on a single run through after being stuck in the crimson wastes for a while. But the derilect citadel? Got through it in one go, no deaths, no reconstructions, no astronaut figurine. All I had was a bunch of parasites, one of which saved me from one killing blow. During the boss fight at the end of the level.
I did enjoy this game BUT the last time I played I had an amazing run I finished 3 biomes in a row got pretty far and then……the game crashed I lost all my progress and basically had to restart from the beginning
I lost a lot of hours to this game! Such an interesting world and protagonist, even if I felt the endings were a little TOO vague--and I love cryptic Dark Souls nonsense, LOL. Can't wait to sit down and watch this, later!
My interpretation is that Selena's mother has a much larger presence throughout the game. the old style space suit following you around is Selena's mother. Selena's mother never got to be an astronaut but I guess she either resents Selena for succeeding and her hatred has manifested into this astronaut orrrrrr Selena's mother also came to this planet. Maybe mentally. If I'm not mistaken Selena's mother also went crazy like she did. Also Selena's mother was in a similar car accident with Selena in the car as a child. So imo Selena and her mother both have the same kind of mental illness / superpower that takes them to this planet. And she feels a certain level of guilt that Helios is inevitably coming to this planet as well. The cool thing about this game is that there is no right answer. Another fantastic video bro! uh I mean son Also thanks for explaining that meme of the guy pushing the rock up the hill!
I really badly wanted to play, like, and be good enough to get through the game, but alas, I sucked... well, I need stop selling myself short... I lack the patience to struggle through these types of games, so I'm glad of this video to cover it in depth. Great video as always Son, you make your Dad proud
What blew my mind is when you take a rest on the tables. Sometimes Selene has a restful sleep and sometimes not. When you awake from a truth she loses integrity and takes damage. When she awakes from the delusion she's healed
Not gonna lie- 'twas all a dream' deflated my interest in the world so hard it bummed me out. I was incredibly curious about the world- and how it came to be the way it was, but there was no real history behind it except for Selenes. Don't get me wrong, great game- great video- great take, just didn't click with me the same way.
@@FightOstinFightit is already losing argument when you say way overhyped to prove anything. "Is alot of people that like it so I'll say it's overhyped therefore proving nothing" lol.
@@yeahyeahwowman8099 but it is and was! A lot of people like Taylor swift too. Is she overhyped? Absolutely. She’s a generic female singer/songwriter. Hasn’t done anything women before her haven’t already done. See the example and how it works genius?! Get your cock out of this games ass for 5 minutes and you’ll understand. It was an average game at best. And 7/8 on a scale. Nothing to write home about. Nothing to remember. Play it and move along.
I'm not generally a huge fan of rougelikes, super challenging, or creepy games. But I loved this one. It's now one of my favorites. Normally repeating the same areas in dying over and over just turns me off. Bug this one never did for some reason. And slowly realizing all the representations and correlations in the game world to the background story was great. It was done very well. I think this is one of the best PS5 games. Probably my favorite.
Great video but I think the Echoing Ruins is supposed to be the Overgrown Ruins but after a time jump (because Selene lived her whole life after Nemesis).
Picked the game up after watching this. At one point you can watch the news in the house. It specifically says Thea was the driver in the crash. So unless there's 2 crashes...
As a Blue Oyster Cult fan... i was pretty pissed at first that they would pick up the "more cowbell" song. But damn did they do some wonderful things with it !
Before I launched the game I looked up the trophies and saw it's platinum difficulty was the same as GTA5 and Lost Judgment. I thought to myself, "huh, that's kinda weird a game this short could be rated this high in difficulty" boy did I find out, but I am not quitting this game until I platinum it.
Slight nitpick, but the modern rogue like Renaissance began prior to TBoI, with Spelunky (classic) which Edmund has cited as being an influence on Isaac.
exactly how you explained this game.. i 100% agree.. this game is def a 4.8/10. action is perfect, boss battles are THEE BEST i've had, very immersive and keeps you on edge. The first run before waking back up at Atropos, I died i think 4-5 times, the last boss i didn't die tho.. very fun game
I've been playing games for 30 years, and this is easily my favorite shooter game, and is my 2nd favorite game of all time (NieR Automata being 1st). If you havent played this game, you must. Please pat for it, and then send a message to the creators demanding a 2nd game.
little late but there isn’t much returnal reviews or in depth stuff on youtube guess it isn’t as popular as i thought. however i got my ps5 purely for returnal paid the full price 70 and i was not disappointed, i would even say it’s the only ps5 game that i’ve played and thought it was actually next gen. retunral is in my top 10 i just love the uniqueness and arcade style feel and rng is interesting for replayability. i have 50 hours in this game so far competed it once done some co op and played some tower but soon i’ll be starting the journey again. amazing game.
I mean I finished Returnal so many times, I am literally doing multiplayer to help other people out in the game when they need some info, or help with a boss and the best weapons to choose with the right equipment😂
I feel like you skipped over the true origin of todays popularity for genre, Spelunky. 2008 Rebirth even referenced Spelunky with the Spelunky's hat item.
This is a very well made game and I played a lot of it. Unfortunately, it left a bad taste in my mouth at one point. I had a really good run and was able to beat the final boss of the run. After defeating it, I heard Selene say something along the lines of "Finally, I'll learn all of the secrets!" Then, my power immediately went out right after she said that, turning off my PS5. I lost that entire run due to no fault of my own, forcing me to make more runs to get back to that point. Unfortunately, I suck as a player, so I was never able to get myself back to that point. So, to this day, I was never able to get through a full run and learn more from the story myself. I understand roguelikes being difficult and starting you over at the beginning when you die, but it sucks to lose a whole run due to no fault of your own. It probably wouldn't have been a problem if the game actually had checkpoints that save your position if you have to leave or turn off the PS5, but it doesn't.
Hey Dad, how do you feel about Returnal?
Media in general that uses loops as representation of psychological rumination, going over the same point in life over and over, always has a special place in my heart. It touches on something that is very hard to describe. I know the term has been used to the point of losing meaning past few years but ludonarrarative harmony, using the very tools of gameplay to convey something about the story is what makes games a particularly special storytelling device.
Terrible game and has no history behind to justify a video like this on it.
For being a channel called YourFavoriteSon you're really formal. lt feels disjointed and weird. But still a great channel.
It was sitting down my playlist for quite some time, I tried it but found it frustrating so I benched it waiting for better times.
Your retrospective made me want to give it a second chance, and after a rough start where I never made it out alive a few chambers I started steadily getting better, I beat the first boss on my second try, I died to the second but I had the resurrection chamber active so I could try again immediately, then I beat both Nemesis and Hyperion on first try (still dying somewhere during the chambers)
Still haven't reached the final boss, but I guess it's a matter of days :3
Really satisfying feeling you getting better at it.
ight, so ik there's a chance that you either:
1. won't see this
2. won't understand this
3. or you'll think i'm completely wrong (this game doesn't help you understand what event happened with which character AT ALL. it's so vague at times and don't get me wrong........
ik thats the point and it's supposed to make the story more complex but damnnnnnnn. not even a single mention of mental illness? shit, you don't even get to see what the mom actually looks like outside of the flashback of the first car crash and her black and white picture sitting on the table when you walk in on the first house sequence. so i completely understand why people were so confused with the story for so long and about what events took place where and with who. even the times of everything... the devs really want you to piece together things on your own)
first off. HELIOS IS A SON not daughter 😭
but anyways...i don't think Selene is the mom of Helios and i don't think she's the driver in the flashback. shit, i don't even think the flashback is necessarily about her (not mainly when first analyzing atleast but i'll get to that in a bit). i think Selene is simply just {dramatic pause} the schizophrenic daughter of Theia / younger sister of the late Helios. IN FACT, i think they're all schizophrenic and Helios just happened to be the vocal but unaware passenger and victim of the crash. and this is gonna sound a bit funny but yes, there were 2 crashes. one being the crash at 8:36 AM [involving Theia and Helios] and other being the crash at 8:36 PM [involving Selene]. now, the difference between both of these crashes besides Selene not even being out of the womb yet and Helios already kicking the bucket is (you guessed it) - the year. first clue i got about this is the car model in the flashback of Theia. then i also concluded that the black and white picture on the table of the house when you first walk in, is Theia. who also evidently was the one that was rejected from ASTRA for being *schizophrenic* (Selene actually did get accepted)....something that Selene didn't want ASTRA to know about, as well as her therapy sessions because it would have alerted them that she wasn't mentally stable and resulted in the same outcome as her mother (she didn't have any knowledge of her application or interest in even being an astronaut. evident by her reaction while reading the letter in the second house sequence). another way that you can even tell that something is off about Selene, is the pills that she supposedly "HASN'T NEEDED IN A WHILE" in the second house sequence lol. hilariously in the first sequence, you get a bit of foreshadowing for the end of the game to find out what she did to her own mother. in the first sequence, the basement door opens and she says "this should never be open"...then it shuts itself. in the second sequence after, you get more foreshadowing when the toy octopus looks to be "attacking" Selene. (im rushing because i have work in a lil and this is a lot to explain, so i have to speedrun rq). the voices on the house phone's voicemail were NEVER Selene. Helios is trying to get Selene to atone for her sins but also helping her to realize that she can't. even if she were go back to save her mom from the house fire that she started (Selene has a psychotic break after an argument with her mom and burns down the house with Theia in it after being told about her older brother who she previously didn't know about. also was being told about their hereditary quickly progressive early schizophrenia)
i gotta hella other details i can give you too if you need like Helios having episodes when talking to his astronaut friend, i gtg tho. boutta be late.
oh and Selene killed herself. same bridge, same location. just at night. flashbacks of both the last memories of Helios and Selene are merged which is why it shows it night but the news says it happened during the day... Chow ;)
Returnal is criminally underrated. The feeling you get when first entering the Spire at the end of the Echoing Ruins, hearing the melody grow in strenght as you ascend, and the boss battle that follows... that's something I'll never forget
Personally I think one particular theme in the game is intergenerational trauma as a cycle. I think the conflicting info on who was driving and who was the child and who died is purposeful, the roles are meant to be interchangeable, with part of Selene's torment being the ways she enacted the same cruelties on her own child that were enacted on her. Trying to leave the planet represents her attempts to end the cycle and be a better parent, and her returning represents being sucked back into those toxic behaviours over and over again, and her fear is that leading to the destruction of her child and the endless abandonment of Helios. Whether she's the driver or the passenger doesn't matter, in the cycle they are one and the same.
I think it's interesting how the alien lore ties in to Selene's story as well. The Severed weren't originally aggressive (they wrote the ciphers and one of the xenoglyphs even says "we were only trying to communicate") but the sentients were afraid ("our brethren feared us") and rejected them and imprisoned several of them, resulting in a needless war that destroyed both their world's and left the remaining Severed mad. As the game progresses Selene releases and fights the bosses from their prisons (some forced on them and some of their own make) and takes on pieces of sentient tech to use herself, symbolically becoming more like the sentients herself while not being part of the hive mind, similar to the Severed. Each boss represents a part of herself that she releases and confronts: Her fear (Phrike), her hubris (Ixion), her resentment towards herself and her mother (Nemesis), her feelings of abandonment (Hyperion), and her feelings towards motherhood (Opheon) act as the final barrier or gateway she has to overcome to really delve into her past and the truth about herself. I think Hyperion represents abandonment in part because it was the song playing when she crashed and abandoned Helios, and in part because I think either her father, her husband, or both were absentee figures in her life (one Xenoglyph in the Echoing Ruins even says "I never spoke to him afterwards or heard his music again"). Nemesis was what was left of the Sentients and their hive mind, hidden away from what remained of their world and escaping what their actions had wrought. They were their own worst enemy, their misguided fear and hatred towards the Severed resulting in both sides being brought to ruin. In a way the Severed are like the children of the Sentients, they're even smaller in stature than the Sentients were iirc, and in their madness they bear the continued punishment for their parent's mistakes as well as the part they themselves played in the battle, their thoughts are even described as being an endless loop of suffering with the "creator/destroyer" being the only one who could end the loop, it being implied that Selene is the Creator/Destroyer. They could also potentially represent different parts of Selene, the part of her shaped by her mother and afraid of change or confronting her own issues, and the part of her that wants to break free and be a better mother than her own mother was. Opheon likewise resembles the skeletal depiction of Selene's mother including the long tentacle-like fingers. I don't think it's made very clear what Opheon is, but some of the Sentients, such as Phrike and Ixion, were supposedly seeing visions of something drawing them to the depths of the Abyss, and I'm assuming Opheon was what was calling them to some sort of divine truth that resulted in their severing and ascention, and the Sentients imprisoned them for it out of fear. That could represent motherhood both in how it gave Selene perspective on her mother's feelings of resentment and in how Selene herself has to overcome her own resentment towards Helios.
I like to think that the secret ending with her swimming to the surface is actually Helios escaping rather than Selene, because I like the idea that ultimately Helios is the one to escape the cycle and survive the "crash", and it is their (I think Helios's gender is ambiguous?) mother's attempts at ending the cycle that allows them to make it out even if Selene doesn't. I do remember there being a version of the crash mentioned at some point where the child survives while the mother dies, so I think that points towards it being a possibility. Plus in several house sequences you play as a child, and that child could be Selene, or they could be Helios, so it's not unprecedented that you could be seeing the POV of Helios at the end, and when you hear Selene's voice saying Helios's name as they surfaces it's more of an echo. I think it also fits with Selene descending down into the depths and embracing those memories instead of trying to escape them. Trying to escape without confronting those memories and what they meant only lead to her abandoning Helios and repeating the cycle over and over again. Even when she thought she'd escaped, no matter what she was always pulled back so long as she was running from the truth, and while she was escaping from her own past Helios was left on that planet, abandoned and decaying. But going deeper and confronting those memories are what allows her, or Helios, to finally escape the car and reach the surface. The first time we see the crash we see her reaching for Helios and failing to save them before being pulled away by those tentacles, and I think that represents what she's been wanting to do throughout the game: save Helios. You start the game by leaving Helios the ship and abandoning it, and you end the game by returning to Helios the child trapped in that car on the bottom of the river, and I personally think the most thematic and rewarding ending to that would be if the one surfacing in the end is Helios, successfully pulled out of the car and released from the cycle because of Selene finally confronting her memories and her role in the loop and coming to terms with that. Maybe Selene herself didn't make it out of the car, aka out of the cycle, because her own mother never went through that process of confronting her own issues and Selene is still always going to be haunted by that and already made her own mistakes resulting in the crash and the loop in the first place, but even if Selene didn't originally make it out, maybe Helios still can. That's my personal interpretation of the story and the ending at least. I think the only thing that really contradicts this reading is that in the secret ending the character swimming to the surface is wearing Selene's jacket, but it's left open to interpretation purposefully so I prefer to read it that way and I think a lot of other stuff supports it as an option. One xenoglyph in particular has a section that says "Helios lies shattered and I must put him back together". Plus since the role of child and mother are interchangeable that also means that symbolically she is both Theia and Helios as well as herself depending on where she is in the cycle. By saving and freeing Helios, she frees herself as well.
Regardless, it's a fascinating story to think and theorize about lol. Great video btw. I do kinda wish you'd lingered more on the Hyperion fight, such as the music cues leading the player towards the spire throughout the level/biome, the way it crescendos as you approach the boss room going up the spire itself, and how the battle with Hyperion goes to the pacing and notes of the song being played while you fight so you're basically fighting to the tune of the song which helps a lot with timing if you realize it during the fight. Those aspects of the gameplay were so fascinating to me I still sometimes get chills just remembering that experience. But otherwise I felt the video captured the appeal and complexity of the gameplay and the story well. I don't usually play rogue-likes but Returnal caught my attention and I absolutely loved it.😮😮
the only way to win is not play. not reliving and not replaying the trauma (and the game) is the only escape
One of my absolute favorite games ever. Been playing games for 24 years and this instantly became a favorite. The "Ascend the Spire" melody has imprinted itself in my mind, living absolutely rent free. From time to time I randomly start hearing the melody. It's an incredible adventure that I wish I could forget so I could replay it for the first time again.
Been waiting for this video since I found your channel!
I can’t past the 3rd boss. Any ideas you have for beating it? Weapons, etc?
@@ebrietas-biscuit Hey. So my recommendation is to first remap dodge to R1, set it to always sprint, and auto pick-up items. For weapons I would suggest leveling the Carbine with leech rounds. It helps you regain lost health and when it's close to max, you can basically tank damage without dying. Start there, and then you should get into the groove of it :)
@@Tunayer1 thanks I’ll give that a try
@@ebrietas-biscuit the electropylon driver canstanly aim at the chest and concentrate on movement
@@OHMASIA1 They haven't beaten the 3rd boss so they can't use a weapon unlocked in the 4th biome
This is one of the two games that were more like life experiences to me than mere games, the other being DS3. Absolutely phenomenal.
Try Disco Elisium. Thank me later, brother.
Ah... a ray of sonshine.
Sonday Sonday Sonday
HA
Funny because Raycevic also just uploaded
I think the car crash is her and her mother. The woman driving the car doesn't have different colored eyes and she talks about her mom said she would be wearing a suit similar to the old astronaut suit the stranger wears if not for the accident. I think that link is why they often show you her miss matched eyes when you die and she relives her crash. It would also make sense that she grew up to become an astronaut and her mother became jealous that her daughter was able to do what she had always wishes to. I'm betting her father left after the accident because he couldn't deal with the mother's needs after becoming paralyzed which left only the daughter to take care of her. Her grief and frustrating being taken out on her daughter would explain why she sees her as a monster later in the game.
Something I feel should be noted is that Selene's name itself is a reference to the goddess of the moon, while Hecate is also linked with the moon, she is the goddess of 3 faces as well. Could be a reltion to Selene, her mother Thea, and her daughter.
Haven't played it yet but 'Atropos' is not just 'the thread-cutter', it literally means 'the unchanging'. Also, while Helios (sun) is a very weird name for a girl, it might be significant that the main characters' name Selene actually means 'moon'.
Great review. I always felt that you started off so strongly in terms of quality and you continue to improve. The recent Drakengurd / NieR series really suited your storytelling ability and this is no different. I haven't played this but it looks a fantastic game with some deep and subtle meanings. It also has some originality which isn't easy to achieve. Been quite busy lately but managed watch both Drakengard videos just before NieR was released. Feels good to watch this one close to release too. Keep up the great work, and keep loving what you do.
Well son, returnal was of the best games in recent memory with amazing combat and smooth controls. Story is still confusing to me but I'm glad I have you to help explain as your old man is not as bright as you
This game was the sole reason I purchased a PS5... AND since buying Returnal in October of 2022 (when I could finally find a PS5 in the wild), I have put over 600 hours into it.
It's my 2nd favorite game of all-time (behind Pathologic).
I’m approaching 500 it feels great
Oh hell yeah, my personal 2021 GOTY and one of my favorite games of all times. So, so glad to see you making a video on this. Sadly, as majority of my personal TOP games, this one is also heavily underrated.
Edit. The audio design in this game is insane. I don´t think I ever had such a good spatial awarness in a game like in Returnal. Positioning and sounds separation literally makes you see with ears.
I don't think people know what underrated means anymore.
@@donovanfaust3227 I don´t think you are right.
It was my GOTY as well. Speaking of audio/sound design, the spire climb to Hyperion was such an amazing experience in game that I still think about it from time to time
@@Clarence_the_potato Oh man absolutely. If you check the most upvoted comment under that song on youtube, that would be me from my second account saying literally the same. That part is written in me forever I guess.
I sadly can't play this game because of my hands being a bit of a mess, so I really enjoyed watching this video! I must admit I didn't see that ending coming, but I do love a story where cycles slowly reveal psychological torment. It's a genre I wish there was more of.
If you're a computer gamer, there are special controllers for people with disabilities you may want to look into if you haven't already.
Returnal is a fucking masterpiece. It took me two trys to really sink into it but am I ever glad I did. What an experience.
I also came to the same conclusions as you. And am so happy to see this video. This game was so inspiring and gripping. It’s in my top 3 games of all time. I am continually blown away about how every element in this game meshes so well and just works. No bloat, it’s all purposeful and concise.
This game blew me away. I was a fan of Housemarque's earlier works but I did not expect them to be able to blend their fun and addictive gameplay with some amazing storytelling with such emotional resonance.
The first time you come across the house… unreal. This game is fantastic
Usually a casual gamer but decided to give this one a shot. It clicked very quick with me and is now my top 3 game of all time. Very possibly could be 1. The game play, audio design, level design, art style, haptic feedback, world building are all perfect to me. On top of all that they have a really great complex storyline.
As a mother myself the ‘hey dad’ hits differently. You certainly are my favourite child ❤
Love this channel for always introducing real genuine fun games out of spotlights to us all the time
I rented this after Jacob Geller's video. I couldn't beat the second boss, but still loved exploring. The twist where you think you're safe just to be pulled back into the cycle is horrifying.
to me it was comforting. like we get to be on athropos after we die...
Such a phenomenal game. So under appreciated. By far the best rogue like I’ve ever had the experience of playing.
Not under appreciated. It's appreciated and that’s all it deserves.
@@FightOstinFight you not appreciating it more now makes it even more under-appreciated. Tragic
@@lukegedeon3559 I’m sorry. The game is just ok. I don’t mean to offend just stating an opinion.
@@FightOstinFight oh lol I’m not offended. But you under appreciating this game just validated my point further. You’re proof that’s it’s under appreciated.
@@lukegedeon3559 but it’s not. YOU overly like it. It’s honestly generic. I’ve played MANY games like this before. It’s average at best.
God this game is good - I'm not normally into sci-fi stuff, but the story, gameplay and atmosphere really pulled me in and made me want to know more
Great video 🙏
Dead Nation and Outland on the PS3 cemented Housemarque as one of my favorite indie devs, and I was super hyped for Returnal. It took me a while to get a PS5, but Returnal made the wait worth it. It's the perfect balance between risky "big ideas" indie development and big budget AAA production.
Story time. I am not sure if anyone will see this or read it as I know this video is a few years old.
I got this game last summer. My senior cat was nearing twenty years old. His health was in poor condition and my wife and I knew it. I had the cat since I was a senior in high school when he was only a few months old and took him on my journey into life as an adult.
He was beside me every evening I was captivated by this games journey for weeks. We'd sleep on the couch together... He was dying and we booked the date to put him down. It was the last stretch of quality time with him even though he had no quality of life. Yet he would come to me to get picked up onto the couch and hang out with me for comfort.The themes of death and loss... really hit home hard while playing this game. The soundtrack by Bobby Krlic really resonated with me and still does. I can't help but tear up a bit when I hear certain parts of the soundtrack to this game. and I had to say goodbye to my best friend days after finishing this game.
It will stick with me forever and I am not sure I can ever play it again. I bought the soundtrack vinyl to display as it means so much to me. Thanks for navigating life with me Earl. Miss you.
I feel you brother. Thank you for sharing your story
Was NOT expecting this!
Returnal is my favorite PS5 game so far and deserves wayyy more analyses in my opinion, so this was a welcome surprise.
Good work, son 👍
Hope you enjoy!
This game sucks balls
There’s a reason why it doesn’t. It’s simply just ok. Not the grand marquee you think it is
@@FightOstinFightyes it is, does it bother u when people like things you don’t ?
@@reeceeastlick7406 no. It bothers me when people make outrageous overblown statements.
I’ve never had a gaming experience quite like returnal. The loop affected me in real life too.
Love you for reviewing this game, awesome video!
This is the only platinum on PlayStation I have!!!! I absolutely love this game. Makes you feel like you accomplished something just doing Anything in this game.
Hyperyion is my favorite section of the game the build up to the boss is fantastic
I rarely re-play games but I keep coming back to Returnal. It's gameplay is so smooth and fun.
You know that amazing feeling of a new console generation where you buy the launch games and stare in awe of what technology has achieved? I didn’t feel that with the PS5, except when I played Returnal.
Helios is her son, both VA and motion capture actors were boys, its literally in the credits. Other than that nitpick, really good analysis and breakdown of each biome! I didn't think of Hyperion as reflection of her father, but it makes sense.
Quick thing: the first boss's is actually feminine in meaning and from the creators themselves, her name is pronounced "Free-Kay"
My theorie is as follows:
After the car crash, Theia survived with injuries, got in a wheelchair, while Selene, as a child, was too long in the water and was in a coma. for a very very long time. She always wanted to be an satronaut like her mother wanted. Her mother got rejected back then, hence the letters of rejection in the game.
while selene is in a coma, we play her thoughts. she might know how she looks like, but time passes differently and she "dreams" the returnal world like she was an adult, at about the same age as her mother was. since she only knew well enough how her mother looked like, she interpreted herself as looking very similar. One day she even dreams of coming back to her world, living her life as intended, getting older and then dying, just to return to Athropos.
Greatest and super complete content about this game. (And arrangement was really good too) Good job son 👏👏👏
I feel really guilty because I don’t enjoy playing rogue-likes, god knows I’ve tried. However I wish I could support this game w my “consumer dollars” to show that I DO want a more varied range of female characters, I want to play as an older woman who has a history, etc. This game looks cool.
Most people don’t. Who wants to play an overly hard cheap game to lose all progress upon death only to have to start all over again? Those are masochists.
@@FightOstinFight I'm happy to be on PS plus so I could play the game for free. I'm glad that I didn't have to full price because I dropped it after 2 hours. I didn't enjoy it at all. Roguelike element + the actualy gameplay just didn't resonate with me at all. No wonder the game didn't so well.
The story is great, but who would play such a hard game "for the story"?
I should have been a visual novel, a book, or a movie. Most gamers who are into hard action roguelikes probably wouldn't be drawn by this protagonist/story.
I just want to watch this video over and over and over again
Probably my favorite current-gen game. Fantastic theme, great combat, and Housemarque did a fantastic job marrying sound design with DualSense feedback.
Just wanted to say I look forward to your uploads! Your hard work always pays off in each video, keep it up!
Glad you like this videos!
It sounds a little like you're saying the planet and everything Selene goes through is a creation of her mind, and the entire thing is a metaphor for Selene's internal struggle with loss, trauma, and survivors guilt.
But so much of what we find dealing with Astra doesn't seem to relate to Selene's situation, and legitimately seems like corporate speak and general business talk. And it's like, why would she know or the game include all of that and not really tie it in with Selene's situation? As some kind of a red herring? I mean, why provide so much framework behind everything? It wouldn't really have been necessary.
I had two initial thoughts. That rejection letter looks very old, so I was wondering if maybe it didn't belong to Selene's mother.
The 2nd thought (which is what I personally believe) was that the reason Selene was initially rejected is because she had a child and Astra wouldn't want to send a single mother on deep space missions knowing they have a young child... given how spending YEARS alone in the blackness of space could negatively impact someone's mental _integrity_ (see what I did there?, lol), potentially compromising the mission.
So maybe after Selene's son died, she took time off, tried to get herself together, reapplied to Astra, and got accepted.
The reason that I say this is because THE FIRST TIME we see the house Selene says "It's exactly as I left it"... Well, what's missing from that sequence? ANYTHING relating to/belonging to a child. There is LITERALLY not a single toy, drawing, picture or ANY evidence of a living child.
And that's exactly how Selene says she left the house.
What we do see are a lot of are papers and books, that suggests Selene has been spending all of her time studying (because the rejection letter also talked about her lack of _proficiencies_ relating to the job she applied for)... And I could EASILY imagine Selene wanting to remove everything in the house that reminds her of her son in an effort to "get past" her trauma initially.
And I feel Atropos is... a lot of things, and this is already too long, but it ends up manifesting in Selene as her own personal Silent Hill...
But what we're REALLY seeing are the remnants of two Alien species waging war through Selene.
I think one side cursed/granted her the deathloop thing with the hopes of her stopping the invading force (which is also why she the only tech she can keep is theirs), and the invading aliens (enemies) are simply trying to stop you, and they use their sentience to create manifestations and exploit all of Selene's fears and traumas in an effort to "break" her, which would prevent her from stopping everything if she were too entirely lose it, even if she has the deathloop mechanic granted by the "good" aliens.
And the reason she ended up back on the Planet after escaping and dying of old age is because that ability wasn't given to her so that she can escape... It was given to her so that she can overthrow the invading aliens... Sit stop the architects chair and orchestrate the "good" aliens revival. I also think that's why Selene is slowly taught the language... So that she can take advantage of their tech and text to fix things/bring them back. But she was never meant to leave.
And as far as why the ship has the same name as her son... Maybe she got to pick the name/call sign for the ship. I mean, missions do last YEARS AND YEARS... So it makes sense why they might allow the pilot to do something like that.
IDK... I know there's some cope, lots of loose threads, and some reaches thrown in there, but I ALWAYS struggle to get on-board with the *_IT WAS ALL A DREAM_* thing because it just takes so much of the wind out of sails of everything we experienced, and it's also a bit of a cop out from a narrative standpoint.
I love the game and I like the story, I think it evokes a lot of emotion and is a unique way to tell a tale. I'm just sad that it somewhat boils down to a "dream theory" approach. The world that's built, the extinct alien race and all the effort to flesh it out via item descriptions and stuff could've been an awesome story and lore-dump on its own. I like the symbolism and I like the mystery that even forced me to go and look up videos to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding it. I just couldn't shake the feeling that it felt like wasted potential to create a massive, mysterious world and it essentially mean very little except the hints towards the astronaut and the "real" story. I know it's nitpicky and cynical, would just have liked all the things we see to mean a bit more.
Fantastic game though. Had a lot of fun and if not for the potentially endless runs needed to find the rare rooms with the remaining audio logs and ciphers, I'd have 100%'d it. I'm doing it a small bit at a time.
I knew the story very soon after starting playing. One would think it would spoil the experience and twist BUT for me it made it even better. Knowing the story actually revealed so many subtle details while playing and made it more enjoyable. Amazing game
Yeah it’s insane how many subtle details are packed into the books, posters and general environment of the house sequences that you can miss so easily
this channel deserves way more subscribers
I never played a roguelike and purchased this game because i saw gameplay from the ps5 pro reveal 😅 I thought it was your usual third person story shooter. I didn't know I'd be playing something so much better. I love the atmosphere when I first played. Being a noob entering a dangerous planet filled with robot killing machines and knowing you need to make your one and only life count was truly immersive. It made me feel like I was in the Maze Runner movie but being able to come back to life if I didn't make it through. I'm looking forward to the next Housemarque games
It's so funny listening to Gingy's analysis of this, it's like you two were playing two completely different stories right with to whether Helios was a boy or a girl.
Right around 53:00, it gave me the idea that... Since she keeps reliving the same moments and thoughts and that she's already died.. gave me the thought that, if when we die we must atone/repent/have your heart and mind go through turmoil based on the life you lived, she would be in purgatory?? or this being her hell.. hmm!
Father is proud, Son. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
This was my first Rouge-like. Ever. Amazing game.
I’ve played through most of the game so far. There’s only one world that I played through quickly so far and that is the derelict citadel. Legitimately, finished it on a single run through after being stuck in the crimson wastes for a while. But the derilect citadel? Got through it in one go, no deaths, no reconstructions, no astronaut figurine. All I had was a bunch of parasites, one of which saved me from one killing blow. During the boss fight at the end of the level.
Great job, pal!
I did enjoy this game BUT the last time I played I had an amazing run I finished 3 biomes in a row got pretty far and then……the game crashed I lost all my progress and basically had to restart from the beginning
I lost a lot of hours to this game! Such an interesting world and protagonist, even if I felt the endings were a little TOO vague--and I love cryptic Dark Souls nonsense, LOL. Can't wait to sit down and watch this, later!
My interpretation is that Selena's mother has a much larger presence throughout the game. the old style space suit following you around is Selena's mother. Selena's mother never got to be an astronaut but I guess she either resents Selena for succeeding and her hatred has manifested into this astronaut orrrrrr Selena's mother also came to this planet. Maybe mentally. If I'm not mistaken Selena's mother also went crazy like she did. Also Selena's mother was in a similar car accident with Selena in the car as a child. So imo Selena and her mother both have the same kind of mental illness / superpower that takes them to this planet. And she feels a certain level of guilt that Helios is inevitably coming to this planet as well. The cool thing about this game is that there is no right answer. Another fantastic video bro! uh I mean son
Also thanks for explaining that meme of the guy pushing the rock up the hill!
Awesome analysis. I really just wanted to comment for the algorithm :D
Somehow I never knew this was a roguelike, I'm gonna have to try it
It's free on ps plus
I really badly wanted to play, like, and be good enough to get through the game, but alas, I sucked... well, I need stop selling myself short... I lack the patience to struggle through these types of games, so I'm glad of this video to cover it in depth. Great video as always Son, you make your Dad proud
What blew my mind is when you take a rest on the tables. Sometimes Selene has a restful sleep and sometimes not. When you awake from a truth she loses integrity and takes damage. When she awakes from the delusion she's healed
This is the ONLY platinum I have. I have been on psn since the ps3 days. Yes I love this game
Hell yeah, son this is what im talking about
Not gonna lie- 'twas all a dream' deflated my interest in the world so hard it bummed me out. I was incredibly curious about the world- and how it came to be the way it was, but there was no real history behind it except for Selenes. Don't get me wrong, great game- great video- great take, just didn't click with me the same way.
"Mother worked so hard....doesn't make it right."
If there is a better line read in gaming, I don't know it. (Maybe the ending to Spider-Man PS4)
I was interested in returnal but never found the game play that interesting so heariing the story is cool
Hope you enjoy it!
It isn’t. It’s waaay over hyped by the fanboys in these comments.
@@FightOstinFightit is already losing argument when you say way overhyped to prove anything. "Is alot of people that like it so I'll say it's overhyped therefore proving nothing" lol.
@@yeahyeahwowman8099 but it is and was! A lot of people like Taylor swift too. Is she overhyped? Absolutely. She’s a generic female singer/songwriter. Hasn’t done anything women before her haven’t already done. See the example and how it works genius?! Get your cock out of this games ass for 5 minutes and you’ll understand. It was an average game at best. And 7/8 on a scale. Nothing to write home about. Nothing to remember. Play it and move along.
I'm not generally a huge fan of rougelikes, super challenging, or creepy games.
But I loved this one. It's now one of my favorites.
Normally repeating the same areas in dying over and over just turns me off. Bug this one never did for some reason.
And slowly realizing all the representations and correlations in the game world to the background story was great. It was done very well.
I think this is one of the best PS5 games. Probably my favorite.
Doing great work, son. Love seeing you grow and I am always looking forward to what you choose next. You can sit up front from now on.
Great video but I think the Echoing Ruins is supposed to be the Overgrown Ruins but after a time jump (because Selene lived her whole life after Nemesis).
one of the best game on ps5, hands down. cool you cover it ❤ :)
Thank you for the retrospective. Great game
Espectacular, son.
Picked the game up after watching this. At one point you can watch the news in the house.
It specifically says Thea was the driver in the crash. So unless there's 2 crashes...
Wake up honey, new long form video essay gaming channel found
As a Blue Oyster Cult fan... i was pretty pissed at first that they would pick up the "more cowbell" song. But damn did they do some wonderful things with it !
So you don't like the song because SNL decided to make a skit about it?
@@donovanfaust3227 where did i say i dislike the song ?
Still never finished this game. Too damn hard.
Before I launched the game I looked up the trophies and saw it's platinum difficulty was the same as GTA5 and Lost Judgment. I thought to myself, "huh, that's kinda weird a game this short could be rated this high in difficulty" boy did I find out, but I am not quitting this game until I platinum it.
Thanks for the video.
My favorite current gen game, and one of my favorite stories in video games
Slight nitpick, but the modern rogue like Renaissance began prior to TBoI, with Spelunky (classic) which Edmund has cited as being an influence on Isaac.
exactly how you explained this game.. i 100% agree.. this game is def a 4.8/10. action is perfect, boss battles are THEE BEST i've had, very immersive and keeps you on edge. The first run before waking back up at Atropos, I died i think 4-5 times, the last boss i didn't die tho.. very fun game
I've been playing games for 30 years, and this is easily my favorite shooter game, and is my 2nd favorite game of all time (NieR Automata being 1st). If you havent played this game, you must. Please pat for it, and then send a message to the creators demanding a 2nd game.
little late but there isn’t much returnal reviews or in depth stuff on youtube guess it isn’t as popular as i thought. however i got my ps5 purely for returnal paid the full price 70 and i was not disappointed, i would even say it’s the only ps5 game that i’ve played and thought it was actually next gen. retunral is in my top 10 i just love the uniqueness and arcade style feel and rng is interesting for replayability. i have 50 hours in this game so far competed it once done some co op and played some tower but soon i’ll be starting the journey again. amazing game.
When I finished biome 3 and came back I felt like Roy a life well lived
Such a missed opportunity with that portmanteau. They could've been "Blood of the Earth" 😭
Excellent game, excellent video
This game is so excellently crafted! It’s phenomenal game!
I mean I finished Returnal so many times, I am literally doing multiplayer to help other people out in the game when they need some info, or help with a boss and the best weapons to choose with the right equipment😂
I’m proud of you son.
Which is the game that he shows on 7:52 ?
hades
Well. Add this to the list
When are we going to get an apology video for Josh?
57:24 - Biome 6 is literally Tartaros.
Great story son
Holy shit i need to buy a ps5.. this is exactly the game ive been waiting for. How have I not heard of this?
100% the true PS5 Experience; I know everyone says Spider-Man and GoW but meh..trust me this is top 5
There are better names for a little girl than Helios.
I feel like you skipped over the true origin of todays popularity for genre, Spelunky. 2008
Rebirth even referenced Spelunky with the Spelunky's hat item.
Just started this game yesterday
This is a very well made game and I played a lot of it. Unfortunately, it left a bad taste in my mouth at one point. I had a really good run and was able to beat the final boss of the run. After defeating it, I heard Selene say something along the lines of "Finally, I'll learn all of the secrets!" Then, my power immediately went out right after she said that, turning off my PS5. I lost that entire run due to no fault of my own, forcing me to make more runs to get back to that point. Unfortunately, I suck as a player, so I was never able to get myself back to that point. So, to this day, I was never able to get through a full run and learn more from the story myself.
I understand roguelikes being difficult and starting you over at the beginning when you die, but it sucks to lose a whole run due to no fault of your own. It probably wouldn't have been a problem if the game actually had checkpoints that save your position if you have to leave or turn off the PS5, but it doesn't.
That's rough buddy
That's not exactly the fault of the game though, either.. it didn't knock your power out. Accidents happen.
Play it in coop
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but is okay to call horror, horror.
Had more of a Metroidvania feel than rogue-like. Idk, seems wrong to not mention that 🤷🏽
Other than that, great video.
This game ruled
Sloppy Joe^^ I played alot of Rogue likes but i like the weapon handling here the most. Great game. Cool story. Awesome ending.
I struggled so bad woth the second boss last phase but the run i beat him i the game he thrashed me for two days straight lol