Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Discussion - Spoilers

Welcome back to another TA Playlist month. Use this thread to speak freely about Senua's Saga: Hellblade II and assume anything goes in here.

Looks great, plays badly. If you liked the first one then it's pretty much the same so fill your boots. If you didn't like the first one then it's pretty much the same so don't bother with it

Jumping into this one after I complete the first one!

Hurn Weasel said:Pretty much this.
Graphics are insane, yes. But gameplay and story are quite meh.
Still worth a badge though.

Spoiler of ending of Hellblade 1: https://youtu.be/lVjKRUFjIL0?t=236

This was an epic experience, the music is great, the combat looks a bit crude retrospectively but I liked it as it was. I still listen the music of that game (you can find it on Spotify).

From Hellblade 2,

Found this game to be weaker than the first for the most part. Its visuals are obviously an upgrade but from a gameplay standpoint it is def weaker as the combat has just become one on one fights one after the other instead of a group of enemies in the first game making it feel like nothing but quicklime events. The first games music also stuck with much more than this one with the only track that really stuck with me being the first "boss fight" against the volcano giant which i think is by far the most memorable part of this game anyway. The giants also raise an niggle with me as in the first game it seemed clear that all the strangeness we were witnessing and hearing were coming from Senua but in this one the other characters can clearly see and interact with the giants making them real in game and not a viewpoint.

In another thread, we were talking about achievements. Hellblade 2's achievements look like your typical shovelware game. There are only 11 and most of them are unmissable story achievements. A couple are particularly lame:

and

Allgorhythm said:The photo mode is good, it gives a different view on the game and had many options to change light, etc. I used it naturally because the game has impressive visuals and I wanted to take pictures. And the alternate narrator is unlocked after finishing the game, the weird thing is that they had to record voices that many players will skip. Well, I was too bored after my playthrough to replay a chapter with the alternate narrator... IMHO they are not as bad achievements as you see them. They are good incentives to discover parts of the game than people may miss, and way better achievements than many shovelware. Like this: or

Moe GZ said:I tend to be a purist as I've discussed throughout my tenure on TA. To me, an achievement should only be awarded for accomplishing a significant undertaking requiring skill, tactics, or some other significant 'game move.' Photo mode and additional narrators are, as you say, neat features. But they are not gaming accomplishments. Their discovery is their own reward.

The 360 used to award avatars for doing certain actions. That would be a better alternative than relegating 2 of the meager 11 achievements to non-gaming actions.

Incredibly beautiful game, its a shame its so short, even shorter than the first one :/

Ok I just finished tonight and my question I had the whole time was not answered xD So wanna bring it up here and see what people think. spoilers ahead

So in the ending it is revealed, although not surprising if you know what this saga is about, that the giants aren't real. Duh. But what bugs me and had me confused the whole time is, how are Senua's followers seeing these giants and talking about them?
I've seen some ideas online that the giants are metaphors to different fears. I've seen some say they represent parts of senua from the first game and others say they represent the fears of the people Senua helps along the way. And we could go deeper into that but I'm curious to throw this out there:

What if her followers were never real either?
I was debating this idea during my playthrough due to their interactions with the giants and even dragur (which also couldn't be real). Part of me wonders if this is simply a developer trick to keep the player confused like Senua. But another part wants to get my board of conspiracies stringed up xD

I was noticing how her followers would often conveniently not be there at times. Remember how the girl disappears when the fighting starts? Or how everyone just vanished in the Forrest when Senua starts to get afraid? Or at the very end they get grabbed during the final fight and are not seen again. Sure we do occasionally see them fighting, but only when fighting those things that can't be real.
I could personally see all of them also just being metaphors to Senua's journey. These different people she is helping guide, is her growing to be a leader to be strong enough to save everyone's at the end. This being especially noticable in the Forrest scene. Maybe Senua from the start was on her own journey to stop the slavery and the final fight was what really happened but everything up to it was her character building.

Or maybe they are real, and all that was imagined with them fighting and interacting with the giants was just part of the fear conquering that the giants represent. Or rather the fighting was just internal that the others wouldn't see. But what do other people think?

The second game has much easier combat than the first. There are some cinematic battles with what feel like scripted "struggle" points, but overall it's much easier.

I enjoyed both entries and their stories, but the first one definitely blurs the line between psychosis and mythology more. It's harder to tell what's supposed to be real. This second outing brings a lot of myth and magic forward, which makes it harder to tell what is supposed to be psychosis. Right until the very end.

It would have been nice if the story was longer, with more weighted decisions and more struggle with those outcomes, instead of the main character just plowing through and blunting the effect of the voices in her head.

A little overhyped, but definitely a worthy series that tackles some important issues other than just "good vs. bad".

well i typed out a ton of stuff but then my browser tab got completely reloaded and erased paragraphs. I said some cool stuff about how the lorestones tell a story of fate being insurmountable and how that is a good thing to learn but it makes for an anticlimactic video game

The visuals and audio are second to none, but the combat is way too dumbed down and easy.
The story was acceptable, not on the level of the first game, but still enjoyable. Too bad it is a very short game, even whit all the collectibles it is a max 5-6 hour completion.