#(hellblade thoughts)

[scalproie]

APEXES OF THE FORBIDDEN LAND VS THE FATED FOUR

[metalheadmlm]

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

The game company that made this game got mental health professionals to help them make the game realistic to psychosis and show how it could look like from the persons point of view. Which is why I like it so much. They killed it with making it realistic and dramatic which most company’s don’t give a shit about. Plus, the combat is easy and I’m not much of a hard combat in games person. Which is great because I only cared about the story

There’s a button on the main screen of the game that shows how they implemented psychosis elements into it if you didn’t know that and are curious about it or google it I guess but i don’t know what will pop up. <3

(it’s also in my blog header image thingy bc I got problems)

[stuff-of-legends]

Metaphor: Refantazio prologue demo thoughts

Metaphor Refantiazio's demo is great and ill pick up the main game after i beat my current load- mgsv, jedi survivor and hellblade.

However it does give deja vu to Persona in the archetypes system and how its awakened.

I do like the scholar More and Academia over the velvet room attendants. They fill the same role but More feels more tied to the main story than the velvet room often does in the recent games (P3-P5).

[locus-v]

18+ Community Discord Server's back.

Fairly small atm, come and check us out, or don't, nobody lasts either way :^)

[stankycowboy]

“were you watching me?”

Oh yes, he had been watching vigilantly. Her every motion captivating his sense. It was not often he was allowed to be around the more ritualistic practices of herself or her kin, but he found them truly fascinating as an outsider. Whether it was the turbid, heady herbal smoke getting to him, or the summoned magicks he could feel crackling like fireworks in the air surrounding; Severen felt nearly hypnotized. His vision felt divided, in one sight he could see her, pale skin bearing runic markings in ash and blood, in the other she was wolven, teeth bared, fur on end. An electric tingle hummed off his skin, he felt like he could step completely out of himself, out of this mortal trapping--- and wanted to desperately. He wanted to meet her there, where she was, wherever that may be. Whether under his own power, or simply having been drawn together by intangible force, he finds himself before the goddess. Mixed within the scents of the forest---more than trees---is her. He can sense the interweaving of the two; her connection to the world itself. His hand lifts to hover over a bare shoulder, there is a pressure, a power radiating off her pallid skin, it threatens to decimate him--could do so with ease. She raises her own to press his hand down to touch her. A jolt of energy cripples his arm, making him grunt reflexively. It is not pain, not quite, but he struggles to define it as anything but overwhelming force.

He is rooted to the spot. Unable to move away, not wanting to either, he tries to focus on her face, on her eyes, the only part of her that remains stable in view, but it feels like staring into the sun, so bright, so vibrant is the gold incandescence radiating around her pupil. Severen feels one of her fingers press into his forehead, dragging into a pattern he cannot picture based on the movement, nor is he mentally capable of keeping it in mind, far too distracted by the whole of her. Pine, ash, blood, his lips part, audibly inhaling through his mouth in pants, the only way he is able to get enough air to breath. The tastes are so keen on his tongue it is like he is consuming the wild itself. Her fingers scrape along the back of his skull, the sensation makes him weak, as if she had bludgeoned him. Binding his hair betwixt her knuckles, she presses his forehead to hers, their breath shared, his mouth thirsting for hers. Against his chest he can feel hers heave into him, the press of her skin unsatisfactory unless there is no space between them at all.

In his ears rings a faint chanting. Words spoken in inhuman voices. There is no central origin, it is from all places, it disrupts any cohesive thought he could have. Severen is no longer inside his own mind. He is outside of the world, or rather, so integrated a part of it he is inseparate. The press of her teeth into his bottom lip is a luxurious pain, his tongue seeks her upper lip, tasting a hint of his own blood as he pleads for her kiss. She grants his request, passing his inadequate taste into his own mouth. Severen moans regardless, at the feel of her, despite being teased by a flavor so disinteresting. Lira spears her tongue against one of his sharpened teeth (had he filed them, he couldn't recall), and a blossom of ambrosia ignites in his mouth like liquid fire. The hand once woven to her shoulder comes away---a ripping sound like roots being torn from the earth---to wrap around the small of her back, shoving her tight to his body. They clasp each other's faces close, mouths moving greedily, the flavors of the two mixed within their hungry kisses. There is more here than consumption, this passion one the blood drinker has known only for her. It is nothing of hunger, that is a drive he knows all too well; this is a unique lust, of her, for her. There is no proximity besides this, bound together, that is close enough. Her nails dig into his scalp, he delights in her possessiveness, truly desiring to be claimed by her, having his feelings reciprocated in violent delight. He braces the back of her neck, hand smudged grey, sticking in the still wet symbols, though somehow unable to mar their shape. Lira's left hand scrapes at his chin, dragging down the length of his neck leaving welted marks that make him snarl and buck against her, daring to ask for more; even if that may tear him apart. Anything to be ensnared by the eternal one. Between them she braces her palm against his heart, pressing upon his chest. There is a feeling of heat, a sear, like she is melting away his flesh, he can feel her lithe fingers curling around his now pounding organ, warming it, making him gasp, splutter at suddenly feeling a burning vivacity in a place he had not felt it kindled in decades, a century.

Severen gasps to full attention with a jolt. His blue eyes roll madly as he tries to place where he is, what is happening around him. All is calm, all is peaceful. He sits, legs crossed, stripped down to simple leather trousers in a dark clearing of the brooding woods he has come to think of as the heart of the earth. His breath comes in heaving swells, as if he had been holding it for some time. He cannot quite remember the precursory events that led to him being here, but gradually stills when he settles on the familiar shape of Lira before him. There is a smile on her face that is hard to read. It seems almost teasing, as if there is a joke she knows and has not told him. It settles his rapid pulse, brings him back into himself, allowing him the presence of mind to wonder: had he been dreaming? The scent on the wind is of smoke, but it is wood fire and since extinguished. Nothing there of spice, only pleasant, residual odor. There is no sound present other than bird call, the rustle of small woodland creatures carrying about their ways.

Severen looks a question at the mysterious woman across from him, but she simply closes her eyes, retreating back into whatever meditation he had disturbed her from. With a grin of his own, he crawls over on hands and knees and plants a kiss upon her high cheekbone, sitting back down beside her. Without looking she reaches out and the two interlace their fingers, disappearing once more into the true depths of the forest; to what lingered there in the long shadows of the trees.

[metalheadmlm]

My favorite game ever

I know much wisdom, I see deep in the future, all the way to Ragnarök, a dark day for the gods…

[brynnmclean]

I MISSED TRANSCRIBING SOME OF ÁSTRÍÐR'S NARRATION???? damn it

[can-of-pringles]

Hellblade 2 came out yesterday?! And it's already on Gamepass??

[brushandbravery]

Because a lot of people liked the other post about the Glavenus project, I thought I‘d go into detail about how I made the figurine!

After I had found a model that was detailed enough, I threw it through my slicer to get an estimate for the size of the model and the duration of the print. The model was pretty large and had to be printed in parts, taking up over 30 hours of print time.

Next, I assembled the model to prepare it for priming. Priming is a necessary step where a foundational layer of paint is applied that sticks to the model and that you can paint on. I did this twice, once in black, once in white from above, to simulate the position of a light source for shading later.

I had to chose a color palette. My friend really loves the deviant version, Hellblade Glavenus. So I went with dark blue and darker shades of red. Next was the base layer of paint. I generally like this step the least, since you don’t really get very satisfying results at first. Only in the later steps the paint job really comes together.

Next, I started the objectively most fun step: Drybrushing. With drybrushing, you can bring out highlights very well in models with sharp topography, which the Glavenus had a lot of. Especially in big models. It is also a pretty forgiving technique for clumsy people like me. I kept highlighting with the drybrush until I was happy with the result and went on to the detail work. Here I painted teeth, claws, eyes and everything else that needed special attention. Usually I would also do edge highlighting, but the drybrushing largely took care of that.

When that was done, I applied a protective layer of varnish, which also gave the model the glossy look which really made the colors pop. I then glued the Glavenus onto the base (which I had primed, based and drybrushed separately).

Overall it was a very fun experience that I learned a lot from. Today, I would do a couple things differently, but I am overall very happy with how the result turned out. And my friend was too, which was the most important thing. In total I finished the entire project from start to end in exactly a week.

[brynnmclean]

I am VERY intrigued by this... also the arm that was affected for her was her right arm and his was his left... Mirrors of each other...

Does this mean we're going to get Senua and Thórgestr with matching dark rot marks on their arms?

[demekii]

A bunch of Hellblade sketches because I’ve thought of nothing else for the past few weeks

[juniusgirl]

I am, as a rule, Very Bad at video games. Didn't play them much growing up, game logic is something that does not come naturally to me, i often have a hard time remembering buttons and controlling both movement and camera simultaneously.

But i like games as like, an art form. I especially love watching essays about them, because then i can get all the sweet art analysis without having to frustrate myself. So of course i watch a lot of Jacob Geller videos. And a lot of the time i get just that out of them; all the analysis without having to deal with the frustration (i would not, for instance, be able to play returnal for a multitude of reasons, but i love the concept). Sometimes, however, he will talk about a game and i'll say "that actually sounds very interesting and doable to me", and given my forgetfulness, i will write down the name of the game or tell it to my husband and eventually i might play it, and given my forgetfulness, i won't usually remember any spoilers.

So i was excited, as usual, to watch the most recent Jacob Geller video. But quite quickly, it brought up a game i was actually planning on playing--Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. I saw a trailer for it years ago, perhaps my husband even showed it to me to say "looks like your kinda thing" and i was like "it really does", and my husband bookmarked it and bought it when it was on sale, and it's been waiting for me. But i was scared to play it, because i am Very Bad at video games, and it looked so interesting, and i was worried i was going to ruin it for myself by being so disasterously bad at such basic tasks as walking and looking where i was going and getting frustrated and giving up and feeling like an idiot and a failure for letting something that's supposed to be fun defeat me because i'm stupid and and and.

But i started the Geller video, and the game was almost immediately mentioned, and i thought "actually i can't get spoiled for this one. I will actually remember this time because this one has actually been on my mind and i have actually wanted to play it for so long that i have to experience it in my own way before i have someone else's interpretation."

So i told my husband that i have to play it soon. And he waited a day or two for me to say i was ready. Then he decided i needed a nudge (i did), and set it up for me, sat me down, handed me the controller, and said good luck.

I made my way through the first bit. I handled everything better than i thought i would, only died three or four times (only one of those a non-combat idiocy issue) before he wandered back in to check up on me.

He sat and watched as i got to my first boss fight, and while i struggled a few times, i beat it around my fourth try, and he seemed genuinely impressed. Said by that fourth try he actually saw skill and timing instead of my usual panicked button-mashing.

I dunno how much of that was just hype-up or sincere pride, but either way it made me feel good. I have always been so bad at games, and most people i've tried to play with were merciless about my ineptitude, it's just so nice to have that encouragement for something challenging instead of being shamed. I think that might have been the first time i ever felt good about accomplishing something; the first time i ever did something i found really difficult and then was excited to keep going instead of just being relieved it was over. All because of a few positive words.

Idk what the point of this little anecdote was. Maybe i just wanted to document something positive that happened because life's been really, really shitty lately. But there might be a lesson in there somewhere.

[angrbodic]

Finished the DLC last night, some thoughts. (Excuse my dyslexia)

So, finishing this, I may need to tweak a few things with the fic I wrote. That's fine, it's already being beta'd.

Non-spoiler-y part:

I switched over to the easiest setting because of the difference between enemies and the amount of them. I'm glad I did; initially, I had the "easy mod" before the DLC but putting it to the easiest setting made a world of difference between that and the regular game play. I can't parry and block worth shit, my style is going in with brute force.

The voice acting was FANTASTIC. I was surprised to see Neil Newbon in this as the Uzumaki (yes, I know that's not him) guy. Everyone did so well!

And this makes it funnier because I actually went back and re-did the game when I got my Asus ROG Ally and picked the Dexterity build. My computer is getting up there in age, so I wasn't able to play the game as much as I wanted to. Plus, before the DLC, I wanted something to play "Hellblade 2" on.

I genuinely don't understand why people dislike Gemini. I find him to be a great levity to the story because it can be fairly bleak at times. I feel like he helps P establish his own person hood commenting on his actions and choices. The DLC made me appreciate him more.

Happy to see P speaking more--while we don't hear it audibly, him asking lots of questions is a nice touch. He was so quiet and now he's really interacting with everyone. This is such a nice addition if you're going in with high humanity.

So I'm glad that the DLC lets you explore the past, but the "moral", sort of speak, despite your actions, you cannot change the future.

And now we're getting into the spoilers section.

It looks like Lea was not a blood sister of Sophia, rather than an adopted one? I'm assuming so because Lea was implying that the Monad family took her in. I will admit this assumption is wrong because I'm assuming as much, especially when she renounces the whole Monad name, not just Valentinius. On that note, Lea seemed genuinely disgusted with her father's greed and his ties to the Alchemists. Maybe possibly what they were doing with her sister, Sophia.

That being said, the Charity House was very upsetting to be in, despite the insights it gave to us. Being used to store the arm of god, then it falling to a massacre that was then explained away from the petrification disease. Maybe because of the whole connection with Valentinus, Alchemists, Arcelcchino, and Geppetto. I feel like that would make a lot of sense a place meant for philanthropy and being such a well-established boarding school the upper class didn't want to admit they allowed a murderous puppet (with awakened Ergo of a serial killer) to come in, torture, dismember, and kill children. Like, the class disparity exists in this game. Again, that's speculation, but I feel like perhaps this assumption makes sense, because there is a (possible) retcon here.

That being said, now it's a little ambiguous as to how Carlo died? At least to me it is. Either, he died from the disease that spread at the Charity House or he was eventually killed by Arcelcchino because he was the second apprentice of Lea. Likely the latter and if that's the case, then it makes sense what Geppetto does. For someone called the "blood artist", I can't imagine what happened to poor Carlo.

Which makes the conception of P all the more haunting and disgusting. P was modeled after Carlo, he was then unknowingly burdened with the expectation that he would become Carlo. Geppetto poured all of his regret, pain, hope, and anger in this secondary puppet he made, not with his child's body, with his soul, and in the end, this never became reality. Even with the "real boy" ending, it's not truly his son because his son is an expectation of what he wanted to be. This goes back to another post I made talking about how Geppetto is like a narcissistic parent, he doesn't understand who his son was and he wanted him to be a certain way. The DLC doesn't push the whole "P is Carlo", IMO, it actively works against that and P is shown to be his own being, his own person. And the DLC is like an exploration of that.

Antonia was definitely more of a parent than Geppetto. Her taking in Carlo and being the nurturing parental figure when Camille passed (and then passing again when the Alchemists took her puppet form). Seems like her death may have have drove a wedge between Carlo and his father? Like Geppetto threw himself into work and ultimately damned any chance of his relationship with Antonia. Seems like Geppetto didn't understand how to emotionally cope with the loss and Antonia was trying to push for amends between the two. The letters were never sent and/or opened. Antonia was trying to get Geppetto to explore Carlo's talent with the piano and I thought that was so sad because the path of a Stalker is clearly one dipped in violence and Antonia wanted Carlo to have a happy future. What a sweet woman Antonia was.

I'm bummed we didn't get to see more of Romeo. From what we know about him, he seemed like a compassionate, empathetic, and loyal young man. I feel like out of the trio, he was the light of the group. Like him telling Carlo that he was fortunate enough to have family and assuring Lea he could fend for himself. So, we know he made a deal with Geppetto to become a puppet, so Romeo had his heart in the right place. But his death...

So, I think Geppetto is a wonderfully written character, in the sense that this DLC made me dislike him as a character more. Fantastic! It's clear he harbored some deep, deep anger towards Lea (and Romeo, I'm sure) to the point he decided to allow events unfold. I bet he was also tailing Lea to the Rose Estate, counting on either Archelcchino to kill her or Lea to finish him off that he brought the Nameless Puppet to finish her off. I'm assuming when Lea was able to get Romeo down, Romeo was still clinging to life or passed in her lap from blood loss. His arms were cut from his body and placed with puppet arms to torment Lea because she had cut them off of Archelcchino. And regardless, Lea knew she was going to die from her illness. I feel like she also had a suspicion of Geppetto and that he was doing something nefarious. The sad surrender at the end when he finally finds her, Romeo likely passing in her lap, and Geppetto letting loose his creation, and Lea being killed off screen. Like the genuine horror and absolute abhorrent actions of Geppetto towards the end. And then add that with the fact he had brought the Nameless Puppet to the Opera House with the same expectation of either P to be killed or succeed with Romeo's second death? Yikes.

All and all, it was fantastic, and I cannot put into words the joy of when P had approached Lea and tried to hand her sword back, in the most compassionate and empathetic gesture he could, showing her kindness and she refuses her own sword.

And when she remembers who he looks like, I feel like maybe that gave her peace before she was killed off screen.

I know some people have complained about the difficulty options but I am happy! I hope we can see more of P in the future -- I'm still betting on him being the Tin Man.

[culttonotfollow]

Why I love “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice” so much

So as I stated, I'm writing a post about my experience with this game and why I think it's as good as it is, including my favourite aspects of it. To this day it's my favourite game and one of the few I've managed to 100% complete.

This post is going to include spoilers. Do not read if you do not want spoilers.

Disclaimer out of the way, I actually want to start by saying that before this game was recommended to me by a friend (thank you, Markus- shout out to you), I had no idea what it was about other than the fact that it dealt in some way with mental health. I mostly forgot about it until I saw it on sale sometime in October (it might have been the Halloween sale), at which point I made the decision to purchase it.

To begin with, the visuals are stunning—beautiful and terrifying at the same time. And just to get mechanics out of the way so I can ramble about the story and the way it made me feel—some of the puzzles are challenging at first, but they are so rewarding after you figure them out that I almost didn't mind the difficulty. The fighting feels almost perfect, particularly with the autobalancing option.

The premise of the game is that Senua, a Celtic warrior with severe mental illness, sets out on a journey to the homeland of the Northmen after discovering what had happened to her lover, planning to enter Helheilm, the mythological land of the dead, or what would be considered hell, and retrieving his soul through bargaining with Hela (or Hel, as she's more commonly known). Throughout the entire game- with the exception of a segment in the story- she wears his skull on her belt, wrapped in a cloth.

The Game uses sound to mess with you??

The game throws you right in with whispers bouncing all around your head (even during the menu when you first open the game)- I will never not applaud Ninja Theory for their choice of using binaural sound (here is an article by Splice on what it is), otherwise it wouldn't be what it is. This is one of the few experiences where the classic "Best experienced with headphones" recommendation should be taken seriously.

As you paddle past, well, burnt, staked and hung corpses that don't make it less tense either, the voices get progressively louder and more erratic until you don't know how many there are anymore or where they're coming from, urging Senua to turn back or calling her a coward in many different ways- with the exception of a few, who actually argue with the others and encourage Senua to push on.

There have been moments when the voices stopped for a little while, but by the time I realized there was nothing in the background anymore except for my own racing thoughts, I was already somewhat uneasy.

To add on to that, one of the trials Senua goes through relies solely on intuition an hearing to get throught the darkness safely, with an extremely limited field of view. I can safely say that was when I was most terrified and hyperfocused in my 12 hours of gameplay. I have to admit after my first run I went to bed and the whispers were still there because of how much I was hearing them the past several hours.

Mindfuckery taken to the next level

I spent the majority of the game in awe, watching the story unfold in front of my eyes. A lot of games or franchises, in my opinion, struggle to make their characters feel human, but Hellblade managed to do it. Even equipped with a sword, I felt vurnelable at all times, the game does a great job at causing anxiety even during the most mundane moments.

There isn't a combat tutorial of any kind; you have to either figure out the "guide" is in the menu, or keep failing the first battle until you figure it out. The game actually only gives you a single prompt in regards to combat: Each time you fail (die), the rot on Senua's arm spreads, and when it reaches her head all progress is lost. This alone made me so much more conscious of every move I was making for over half the game, until I learned the truth.

It's not an actual mechanic, it's only put in place as a warning to add another thick layer of tension to every other already existing, anxiety inducing element of the game, and further enforce the game's primary goal of distorting your perception: what's real and what's not, what/who can you actually trust, what is the truth? It brought me anxiety to the point where it was borderline uncomfortable, and that's exactly why I loved it so much.

I spent the majority of this game in awe, just watching the story unfold. Every twist or reveal felt like a gut punch (in the best way I could mean this), and it made Senua (the girl you play as) feel human, something not a lot of games can do properly in my opinion. This game uses everything in its arsenal to create a truly dreadful experience: visuals, audio, light, combat, etc. without abusing jumpscares or scary monsters (although fighting Fenrir scared the ever loving hell out of me, but so did dealing with him in general). Rather, it capitalizes on its strongest suit: the childlike fear of what lies in the dark- what might occur if the dark really does take control.

The ending made me question my entire purpose (sort of)

It's going to sound weird, or insane, but the ending changed me as a person I think. It made me seriously reconsider some major things in my life, and take a moment to appreciate some others. It's both some sort of psychological torture or terror and an enlightening experience. It brought me to tears and left me completely speechless for what felt- and actually was- hours.

In its own very special and well done way, it's not strictly a game about a girl that's gone mad, or a quest about retrieving a soul, but it sucessfully and sensibly touches upon themes of grief, loss, and folklore. I can safely say I've never been more immersed or touched by a game on every single level. There are tens of memorable moments that I think back on, and I can't believe I got through every single one of these.

The ending took a twist for me. It was far from what I expected, but I think that's what made me as satisfied as it did- and yet it left me wanting even more. Which is why I'm so incredibly pumped for when the sequel comes out. Despite warning about spoilers, I won't actually say how it ended. I'll let whoever reads this discover for themselves one way or another.

Conclusion?

I recommend this game with my whole heart to whoever can handle these kinds of topics. It's beautiful, the story is heartbreaking, the gameplay is fun, and the visuals are beyond gorgerous.

[hrodvitnon]

Out of curiousity, did the events of Legacy of Monsters happen in some form in the AbraxasVerse?

Hoping you're doing OK, Hrod!

Honestly haven't given too much thought to it, but for now I'll say, "to some extent." That aside, doing okay! Just beat Hellblade 2, creative juices are flourishing in other ways, and in time maybe I'll be able to whip up something regarding AbraxasVerse! Just need to give that section of the brain a good coma till it's good and ready to wake back up. and fulfill a promise. damn it, brainrot.

[jinchaeji]

...

turns out I hate when there are whispers near me

I tried to play "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" but literally at the beginning of the game there were whispering voices almost everywhere and one of them, I called them "the narrator", was really flipping "close" to you and I just... can't stand this

I knew I have problems with some types of sounds but I'd never thought a fucking whisper is one of them