4 CRAZY Theories that Explain the ENDINGS of Returnal! | The Deep Dive Series
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- Опубліковано 7 сер 2024
- In the last video of the Deep Dive Series for Returnal I’ll present you with 4 different theories that explain all the events that occur in the 2 different endings of Returnal in Act 2 and Act 3. Did Selene actually break the cycle? Are Theia and Selene the same person? Is she even real? It is time to adventure into the unknown and attempt to break the cycle, once and for all.
0:00 Intro
1:01 Returnal's Timeline Explained
5:56 Hostage
9:25 Purgatory
12:17 Nightmares
18:54 Daydreaming
21:44 More videos!
#Returnal - Ігри
In my opinion, the developers were freely inspired by Philip K. Dick's novel "A Maze of Death".
Selene's mind is inside a virtual reality simulator created specifically to train astronauts in the event of a crash landing on an exoplanet, but Selene's psychological trauma and guilt are somehow interfering with the simulation, making her live a distressing experience.
Ooh, I like that idea. I've not read anywhere this concept, nor seen a video speculating this specifically (and I read that entire reddit post that was like an hour worth of reading). Mind if I use this in a video I'm working on?
This story can be interpreted in so many ways and that fascinates me. I personally saw Helios as being victim of abuse from their mother. You see 3 things in the house sequence that make me believe this.
1. She pours cereal and there is barely any food for her to eat suggesting the mother isn't really taking care of her.
2. When Helios tries to tell the astronaut that make believe story, she looks up and finds the astronaut not present, maybe suggesting the mother was also verbally abusive to Helios. After the astronaut disappears, Helios sais something like "it is a cool story" as if the astronaut was ignoring her or saying something along the lines of "that's a dumb story, Helios".
3. When Helios tries to show the astronaut the toy octopus, the astronaut attacks Helios.
I dont know if I'm on the right path, but I see the astronaut as selene. I think Helios thinks it's so cool that their mother is pursuing a career with Astra, that Helios takes an interest in space. (Just the fact that her mother is very motivated to get a job with Astra and actively studying and trying to get a job with them). Either way, in Helios room, you see drawings, books, toys, etc. Helios looks up to the mother, and even pretends to see her as a child's portrayal of an astronaut even in normal everyday life. Helios just wants her love but the mother is very flawed and abusive, maybe partly because she is so focused on her career and maybe because Selenes own mother also treated her like that.
So eventually after Selene gets the letter from Astra, she is distracted, devastated, maybe even lost some sleep over the rejection. Sleep deprivation can cause hallucinations, which is what I think possibly caused Selene to see the astronaut in the road. The result of the crash sends Selene into mental insanity/schizophrenia/etc. Selene immediately goes into this state soon after the crash, but escapes her mental problems after biome 3 ends. I believe she lives a sane life for many years until one day she is playing the piano when she is older, and starts playing the song that loosely resembles don't fear the reaper, the song playing during the crash. I think playing the song reminds her of what happened and sends her back into insanity. And that's why biomes 4-6 are the same environment, yet overgrown and different. All biomes are still fragments of Selenes mind, but biomes 1-3 was the insanity she experienced soon after the crash, biomes 4-6 was the insanity she experienced as an old woman.
I think Selene has unbelievable guilt about what happened with Helios and sees herself as the pregnant monster in the final cutscene. She pushes the monster away and tries to separate her current self from the person she used to be. There is so much more to this, but that's how I understood the core of the story.
I am probably 100% incorrect, but really there is no correct explanation I guess... just how I interpreted it.
In my opinion, that's a pretty darn good interpretation 👍
I definitely had taken it about the cycles of abuse. We never were playing a protagonist this whole time. Definitely an antagonist.
I just finished the game and absolutely love this theory. Thanks for taking the time to share!
this is my favorite theory i have heard so far, and fits a lot of other things as well. When you come back into biome 5 the ships logs are more and more chaotic. While I don't really like the whole "it was all in her head" kind of cop out, it is still a great story and definitely made me think.
Yeah this is the most cohesive theory in my mind.
HUGE point towards the Purgatory theory - the currency you use in the game is called Obolites.
Obols were an ancient greek currency and in their myth of death you;d give Obols to Charon in order for him to ferry you over the river styx and to the underworld
This has blown my mind lol! Thanks for pointing out this great detail!
Yes, the developers (in the commentary watching with IGN a speedrun) mention several times that to truly understand this game is best to lookup all the Greek mythological references. It's practically every thing in the game like every boss, Selene, Helios, & Theia and much more. There was a reddit party about 1.5 years ago that deep incredibly deep dive. It took me about an hour to read that post & will be easy to find. It was something like a complete explanation of Returnal on reddit & had many contributors helping the author. Much more hypothetical take, but it was fascinating with how much Greek mythology plays a role in Selene journey.
It felt to me like the gameplay takes place during Selene's two deaths. She survived (or was maybe revived) the first time in the car crash with Helios. The first act gameplay always starts with you crashing your ship and then trying to ascend the mountain and citadel which feels like a representation of her desire to stay alive and not give up (which may also be in line with her abandoning Helios to save herself). The first thing you see in gameplay is "Helios abandoned" when you go through the first door. In the second act, you always wake up on the ground which would align with her dying in her sleep of old age (notice the house light goes out just before they show the grave). It's also 60+ years later which would make her at least 80+ years old at time of her final death if this were true. Now that she has passed away, she will have to truly face Helios in death once and for all and come to terms with what happened. The end of the 4th level is Hyperion playing organs (presumably at a funeral). I think this probably represents her own funeral as her favorite song is being played. Immediately after finishing that boss, the 5th and 6th levels see you dropping to the depths of Atropos to face or atone for the event of the crash so many years ago. Atropos being a "fate", and you can never escape death. She was always going to have to face Helios some day. I agree with the multiple personalities angle and Theia feels like the "mother" side of herself that she locked away so that she could continue with the life she wanted. Maybe this started before the accident and aligns with the neglectful mother theories, or maybe it's about erasing Helios from memory afterwards so that she could live her life without regret. She calls Theia weak in one of the final scenes, so to put herself first over her child is what makes Selene the strong side. I have a hard time thinking Theia was her actual mother because that feels like a second storyline that is just tacked onto the end, and the Helios story already had plenty to explore. Also, the Theia picture looks exactly like her, just older. Finally when you get through the full ending, she never really faces the full impact of what happened during the crash and you return to fight another day. The game never fully ends because she never actually faces her son and she will forever be stuck in this cycle. All in all a brilliant game, even if I have nothing right.
Yes, thank you! this is my exact interpretation of the story as well. I think the entire game is the hell that Selene is in and she replays it over and over thinking about her regrets in her life. Maybe the monster at the bottom of the lake is the one putting her through hell or maybe she is just doing it to herself and she cannot forgive herself for the things she did in her life so she is stuck in this loop forever. "The game never fully ends because she never actually faces her son and she will forever be stuck in this cycle." just like you said
I kind of thought the boss fight at end of Act 1 was how she framed getting revived like you suggested because the "burning face" and large eyes that float around kind of seem like an operating room and the repeated blasts Selene is hit with might be doctor's trying to revive her with a heart defibrillator. So then she lives her life and is a rejected astronaut and dies naturally but returns to the hell she was in during the car accident but the environment has progressed in those 60 years. I always thought the environment of the very first biome seems like a bunch of sections of highway at night in a full moon which was the setting for her car accident. But when Selene dies naturally maybe even during the daytime and she is buried so that is why the first biome for Act 2 is overgrown with plants and in broad daylight, but still similar to the initial nightmare.
Anyways, thanks for sharing I'm glad someone else interpreted it the same way! :)
My thoughts align with Theory 4. If memory serves me correctly, there are multiple references to schizophrenia, which can explain her separate personality (at least per the commonly-accepted association with the disorder).
I'll take it a step further. Theia was actually pregnant when she crashed (per the basement scene). She lived with a back injury, though Helios passed. Hard to say if the Astronaut she swerved from was her being distracted from Astra's bad news, or her way of symbolizing it caused the depression that took her life. Perhaps she also held anguish in believing the pregnancy is what caused the rejection, and her inability to pursue her dreams led to suicide (intentional swerve).
Her schizophrenic disorder reshaped her memories into a much more attractive path where she goes by Selene. In this life, she was accepted by Astra and also had the chance to raise Helios.
The houses from Biome 1 and 4 also contrast towards her separate identities. 1 is dark, limited, filled with psyche meds, and the other is cozy where Helios has a figurative breakfast with Selene, etc. This duality is also seen with the TV flashing back and forth between Selene's life as an astronaut, or Theia's life involving the crash.
This answers most questions and fills most gaps, at least in comparison to other theories. It all makes sense when you ask yourself "does this scene relate to Theia's reality or Selene personality?"
Thank you for sharing this! I hadn't thought about the schizophrenia. It really fits in perfectly!
This video was amazing but great comment here doc Pringles especially about the crash. Theory 4 makes so much sense but I'll argue it's not schizophrenia but a complete mental and psychotic breakdown and maybe a bit of both. In Greek mythology...Selene and Helios are children of Hyperion and Theia! So it's not far fetched to think Theia lost not only her son Helios but her daughter Selene who she was expecting. Yes not much is indicated she's pregnant during the crash scene but as the monster later you can see Theia was pregnant. So this devastating loss and being wheelchair bound takes on what could have been her life or better yet what she dreams Selene's life would be like as an astronaut going into deep space...all in Theia's mind. If you add the five stages of grief to each boss there are some alignments there as well. A direct correlation is not there but that could be due to the way we interpret the stages vs the way the devs wanted it or the way Greek culture or language interprets it. I'm open to plot holes to this but based on theory 4 and Greek mythology this was my take
@@nomanbroman3556 there’s also a lot of books in the house with all the biomes Selene goes through- Abysall’s and Red Deserts etc. There’s sci fi books with similar monsters/ Octo etc. More importantly there’s a book called “Greek Mythology Connections” which explains all the weird Greek names for everyone. Theia is the Mother, Hyperion her husband. Helios her dead son and Selene her dead unborn daughter. They probably have normal names that we don’t get to see, apart from one “Joshua” who we see on a postit note. Helios could be Joshua. Also chasing the white shadow is literally her chasing the moonlight to escape the water. Her image of the Astronaut is because that’s what her current timeline astronauts wore.
I’m fully convinced Theia is Selene. She failed her Astra/ NASA interview due to her baggage of husband, child and pregnancy. She even contemplated abortion but didn’t. She drives off the bridge, killing her son and unborn daughter in the process. She’s left wheelchair bound with her left arm useless (as seen when she confronts Theia at the end) her husband leaves her due to grief, she heavily used painkillers and develops schizophrenia/ general madness due to literally everything/ guilt. She commits suicide and this is her hell/ purgatory. Forever in a loop until she comes to accept that she’s the cause, and more importantly, that Selene herself isn’t real, only a figment dreamt up so she doesn’t have to deal with the real truth . Her confronting Theia at the end is her coming to terms that she’s not actually real and is the “Astronaut” who causes the crash- i.e. her pursuit of being an astronaut and subsequent failure and possibly falling asleep at the wheel, is what caused her to lapse off and kill her child and child in womb.
“As I lay dying on the road” audio log, is Selene telling us after she got struck by the car as the astronaut, she lies dying. Not literally, but meaning Selene is now dead and Theia has accepted that she’s not real and was the cause of all this misery all along. Possibly she finds peace now, or else this Selene will continue in loops forever
Very dark and personal tragedy story that unfortunately most people won’t know about. This also might be completely wrong lol but too much evidence in game and audio logs etc that point to what we are discussing here
@@LOSTBHOY88 thanks for adding more to this! I'll admit missing some of the lore here as this game was equal parts enjoyable and exhausting...I'm not a rage quit guy but yea this game got me there. As for most people not getting all of this, it IS unfortunate...it's what transforms any medium from entertainment to art. I like to dissect movies as well and 99% of the time, these placements of names, characters, references are intentional. At times with meaning and at times to eff with us in the name of Kubrick. But for a space shooter to touch on such deep and dark themes (including one where we see the sacrifice of one's potentially demanding career due to becoming or being a mother...an issue we still see all the time in the real world and a big reason I think the protagonist is female in this story)....it converts this game to another level.
@@nomanbroman3556 no problem dude! I’ve been trying to find a place for a proper discussion on this as only recently bought the game and finished it fully a few nights ago and this video and his others are very very good! The story right from the start really interested me, as I’m fascinated with space and I enjoy cosmic horror. I wasn’t expecting a story this deep though. The clues were there all along but we had no reason to pick up on them as we were all expecting a space bullet hell shooter.
I too love to dissect everything especially when movies and now games provide us with genuine mysteries. Everything in these pieces of entertainment are ALWAYS intentional. Someone has made a conscious decision to include them so I love delving deeper and getting right to the heart of these mysteries. Kubrick is a definite culprit lol.
There are other plausible explanations for this game yet this is the one that I find is most accurate. And yes the inclusion of a female protagonist was perfect for this story. I like the duality of both rooting for Selene to find her answers yet also hating on her for abandoning her son to die, possibly to save her unborn child, but still.
Also the developers stated their love of David Lynch’s works, as far as literally including the different eye colours like in Mulholland Drive to signify the person portrayed with them is in a fantasy.
Like we said, all the pieces of the clues are there, which solidifies our theory, it’s just so damn hard to get them all, that people will just assume this is a run of the mill roguelike shooter about a woman Selene who is stuck in a time loop. Simple as.
Just really want Housemarque to give us even a subtle hint about which is right, then again that would take away from the mystery and all the discussions. One of my favourites to do this with when I was younger was Vanilla Sky. So many possible scenarios.
Good to discuss this with you mate 👍🏻
3:41 she breaks the ship in the exact same wing as when selene crashed. 🤔🤔🤔 the right side. I think the child is selene.
So basically as I thought before, Housemarque left the game and ending to personal interpretation. The story becomes what you believe it is. That makes it fitting for exactly what type of game and story Returnal is. It is what you want it to be, nothing more, and nothing less. Housemarque just gives you the pieces of the puzzle and leaves the player to put them together to interpret it in each’s own way.
I do not understand shit about story of this game but my adrenaline levels are so high while I am playing it that my heart want to blow my chest. I have similar experience riding my sport bike on race track. Now I have used to this game but first time my hands was shaking when fighting with bosses.
The story can't become what we believe it is. They might want that, but only delusional people would believe the story is X when the makers specifically left it out and we have no evidence for it.
This sht only flies with normies. Anyone who has studied basic logic or linguistics will know interpretation requires a referent. If that was their goal, then I blame Hollywood for all this pseudo-artistic & visionary wannabe works nowadays.
They dont have balls to write a complete story nowadays. I am tired of symbolisms and interpretations
Nah it was aliens dude
@@coulthard1984 nah it was aliens, apropos made all the aliens you find on the planet try and gain ascension from it but it has always called selene there was a war on the planet and a time paradox is making you shoot your own ship down
Just finished the game...here's my take...
My take...car driver is Thea (Selenes mum)...Selene causes the car accident because she says ' can you see the white shadow'...Thea (Selenes mum) is pregnant with Helios (Selenes brother - see Greek mythology) and he dies in Thea's stomach and Thea has spinal injuries and is in a wheelchair for the rest of her life...Selenes father can't deal with the grief of losing an unborn child and leaves the family home...Thea puts the guilt of losing her child on Selene and she grows up and lives with that guilt all of her life slowly going insane despite counselling and meds....she wants to be an astronaut like her mum but can't because of her mental illness and she constructs the world of Atropos in her mind as a way to process grief...
Theory 2....same as above upto car crash and Thea losing Helios....as a result of spinal injuries Thea can't become an astronaut...puts guilt of losing Helios and becoming an astronaut on Selene...Selene does become an astronaut...crashes on Atropos...othion (final boss) grants her some kind of God status through ascension that severed never realised and because of resentment towards her mother she travels back in time to bridge, causes crash and dies...creating a closed loop...future Selene dies and saves young Selenes life at same time on bridge creating the closed loop or returnal world where she constantly returns in a neverending loop in Atropos...
Thanks for sharing your theories Hardeep!
@@thev-side1331 thank you for making all of your videos on returnal....they were so helpful and informative!!
Also did a lot of reading last night on different theories and love that the endings are ambiguous and open to interpretation and different views...I find it beautiful that my take on the ending has also shifted and changed several times since finishing, like the world of returnal...
Finally, I got this game not knowing much apart from it was a shooter. It turned out to be one of my favourite games of all time...the interweaving of gameplay, sci-fi, storylines, and use of ps5s tech to showcase the next gen is simply awe inspiring, so massive appreciation for the team at housemarque!
and maybe thats why Thea had the non aproval letter from ASTRA, the condition, was the she was pregnant
i like ur theory
Well, it's obvious enough that this ending implies that Selene was transported back in time and was the astronaut that caused the car accident. This ending (and the house sequence events that precede it) also seem to confirm that Selene wasn't the one driving the car in the original ending and that she was the child.
As if I needed more reason to obsess over this game! Wow, thank you for your theories! I’d like to think all 4 blend perfectly in one way or another, but the beauty of it lies in our own interpretation. The central themes of pain, guilt, trauma, regret are all at the helm of this dark & profound narrative.
I LOVE VIDEO GAMES!
So glad you enjoyed it Saul! I have more Returnal videos here in the channel if you want to check them out too and more PlayStation stuff coming soon too :)
I think it's an actual timeloop. Selene is the Astronaut, everything actually happens and she is the cause for the carcrash of Theia and the death of her brother, Helios. Theia was a bad mother and thats why Selene hates her for only focusing on her job and leaving Selenes father.
Yea I was kinda confused by the idea of Helios being her son. Most of the early story hints about the car crash says that the child went missing and the mom died. I take this as the mom being traumatized by some event and committing suicide by driving into the lake. The astronaut is a representation of that stress, anxiety, and depression whenever it appears or whoever is embodying them.
Selene's story is an incredibly tragic one. Especially when you see how she seemed to neglect her son and seemed to scare him even if accidentally. She failed to break the cycle of abuse and in a way became just like her mother.
I'll go with theory 4. It's all in her head. "Helios Abandoned" sealed it for me. If it were real there would be no need to mention it in game.
Also note that your health is called "integrity." Which could just be suit integrity, but it could also be the integrity of will to push through the lies, false memories, depression, suffering, etc.
It cannot be entirely in her mind, as she could not have fabricated the monsters and alien landscapes on her own. It must be a combination of both, likely involving the red-eyed monster that appears in her memories and in the house. This Lovecraftian creature possesses god-like power and can change reality. At some point, it must have taken over her mind and is now using her memories to manipulate this pre-existing world and turning it into Selenne's personal hell.
for half of the game when i was puzzling pieces of info i got on my gameplay (b4 the escape loop) i was preeeeeeetty sure that Selene was not real but an interpretation of thea (at this point i knew that she was an astronaut and i had the info she was in the car accident, but in the visions she was never there, hence the image that thea and selene are the same person, this is also supported by thea's picture in the house, she is actually identicall to selene but older)
and from there i diverged into 2 theories, the one you explain come close the the one i had, as she was in a coma or dying (ala jacob's ladder) and reliving the endless cicle of guilt until untill at some point she come to peace with all and trully dies (supported by the reason she does not want to see the face of the other corpses and when she tries to do so something makes that impossible, i was pretty sure the face on the corpses would be that of thea's)
Then my other theory was similar in wich she is the white shadow and selene is actually helios "phantasma or persona" as her mind was so full of guilt that she imagined helios as Selene (divided in too the part she wishes escaped the accident and the spaceship wich is helios stranded)
hence why she is always the reason Selene search's for and ends up dead over and over even when selene escapes and ends up returning to atropos 70 years later (and endless cicle of guilt).
And this also makes seline not recognizing Hyperion as his father sense (and making the song confuse her if she knew it from him or the other way around) , cuz helios never saw his father asides from a faint memory (the song he listened and that is why thea hates that song)
Basically the guilt of the life she denied helios to have.
But then i started to complete more and more of the game (i liked it sooooooooooooo much that i "returned" quite a few time and also did the tower quite a few times, and got the extra memories...
and then i came to the theory that everything that happens is real, the deaths are real, the bodies are real, time DOES advance but it's a temporal loop where the entitie sends back seline in time as the white shadow to cause the accident as a failsafe for the cicle to reset every single time, and the astronaut is seline outside of that loop trying to warn herself and helios without success (that is why the astronaut figure make you skip the cicle)
a personal hell with a neverending cicle no matter what (kinda like event horizon where the dead ones are kept in a endless state of suffering)
BUT i scratched the ideo of purgatory as well, and everything you say on the video makes a hell lot of sense as well...
There is a 5th posibility (well actually there are a lot more)
one strong theory would be that the whole game is exactly what the game tells you at some point....
Helios mind creating everything on her imagination, another adventure from captain who is actually her mother (hence the spaceship recognize itself as helios and aknowleges selene living her abandon her (a not so present mother or one who she does not have a good relationship), selene is thea persona, as helios cannot fathom to put her mother's name in the fantasy for trauma
(this could be a very disturbed child mind in a daydream escapade or actually helios surviving the accident and thea injuried on the weelchair)
this will make a LOT of events and logs make sense and also why the astronaut is always the one to blame for the accident as helios might be the schizophrenic one (and there are quite a few references to schizophrenia on the game).
(there where never 3 persons in the story and this makes the story works as well as there was never a 3rd person on the car.
also this makes sense again with the reason why her father image is so distant and distorted.
i think the idea of the programers was exactly this one, that every piece of hint you get in the game diverge into one of this theories and is up to the player to pick the one that fits the globe acording to the experience they have.
Hence all the logs are confusing and hinting to diff theories on purpouse.
(something similar to silent hill 2 where every single ending you get is the real ending for the story)
This game was awesome and had a criptic awesome story as well fun gameplay, very difficult untill the game itself trains you so much that you are the only living thing on the planet that actually can "survive" , the music is really good as the ambience as well, and the system is action with an element that makes the game not to be repetitive and boring.
What im pretty sure is that this game was inspired by 2 novels
"A Maze of Death" and "i have no mouth and i must scream"
i find a hell lot of things from those 2 in here.
Even before I watched this. I always thought Atropos was purgatory. Theory 2 hits every nail on the head for me personally. Hopefully one day the devs will confirm one day. Though it sort of adds to mystery if we don't ever know. One of the best games I ever played, and I really struggled at the start with it, so glad I persevered and even got the platinum. What a game
I feel in love with this game and the lore your videos series on this game just made me love it even more, great job! Subbed
Glad you liked the video series for this one! This game really is intriguing in a lot of cool ways. Thanks for subscribing! More content coming soon :)
Amazing video! Awesome job!
The last theory is the most accurate imo, awesome video, keep it up 👍🏼
Thanks Mr.!
Excellent video! Lots of Returnal analysis videos just cover one of these theories, but you really look at this story from multiple angles and have the research to back it up. Great work.
I love this game so much, glad that it shows! Thank you!
You did a fantastic job with this video. The production and narration were impeccable. You have a very soothing voice and accent as well. Theory 4 I think makes the most sense.
Thank you so much! I really liked this game and I think it reflected well on the video. Thanks :) Normally its a hit or miss with my voice for many!
very underrated channel, your production and storytelling are fantastic man.
Thank you so much for your kind words!!
A lot of time goes into these videos :)
Finally!! I’ve been waiting for this for weeks 👌🏽
Hope you like it, Turt! Share your theories here in the comments!
It's so crazy that a video game can have such a deep story, the only other game i can remember that got me curious about it's story is Nier: Automata. what a masterpiece!
Exactly. I agree 100%
This is really helpful, thanks for sharing!
No problem! Hope you liked the game!
I appreciate your efforts very much to compile all of this, I beat the game and got the white shadow trophy last night and couldnt be more in wonder at this game-experience
Thank you for watching:) I really love this game, and I'm glad to help others fully understand the great ending!
Very good video and theories.
Thank you for this theory video. Honestly, i dont have time to understand the story/lore of the game, I'm busy praying to RNG gods.
awesome vid dude, instant sub!
Thank you so much for subscribing JW!
More cool content on the way!
Great video! Thanks man.
Thank you for watching :D
Loved Returnal and this video is an excellent piece of work.
Thank you kindly!
One of my top 5 games of all time. Great analysis!!!
Thank you for watching and subscribing as well! This game is amazing!
Excellent video!
Glad you liked it!
Very interesting theory’s
Surely Selene is Helios' sister. She stood on the bridge when the crash happened. She broke her spine and never walked again. Atropos is her dealing with her psychosis through psychotherapy and meds. She left it for a while (end of Act 1) and then was dragged back in (start of Act 2). Her repeated attempts on Atropos is her dealing with her depression and other disorders by beating them but constantly experiencing setbacks meaning diying and coming back to life to try again. It's a beatiful analogy if you think anout it.
Now and surely her name is not Selene, her brother ain't Helios, father isn't Hyperion and mother Theia. Of course she replaced real people with Greek gods and goddesses in her head.
If you guys didn't notice the dead body of the monster is her as every main boss have the same eyes blue and brown same side
Interesting, good theories. 👍☺️
Thanks, Michael!
I personally subscribe to the idea that this is not just all in her mind but as well as that she is in Hell. Not the kind found in cartoons or storybooks
Hell not as a punishment in the conventional sense but as a state of existence. Existence shaped by her regret; her own personal Hell earned from the natural result of her decision
This is her mind both equally punishing her and trying to forgive her. This is her mind grieving and accepting
So in essence a hell like state that was ripped off of from Lucifer. Granted their was a place called, but everyone’s hell was different, because they would constantly have to relive their own guilt if I remember correctly
Omg you killed me with the last theory WTF
I watched quite a lot of lore vids about Returnal, but I havent seen this mentioned anywhere ... when Selene/Theia is in the car watching Helios in the rearview mirror, she has this completely indifferent face and turns the mirror away from her son, so not to see him. This always stroked me as very odd and cruel, but this is exactly what you would do if he was a hallucination, which you have seen many times before ... just an idea :)
Best video ever about Returnal! Congrats!!!
The craziest theory (#4) is, actually, the same I came up to. It is a huge coincidence that 2 car accidents happen to this familly IN THE SAME PLACE.
She talks bad about "her mother" a lot and sometimes she kind of understand her - in fact, I assume she is trying to forgive herself.
This is the best history I saw in 2022, between games, books and movies. By far.
Thank you so much for your comments! It is a fantastic story! There are more videos in the playlist at the end if you want to go down the rabbit hole.
@@thev-side1331 thanks! I saw some of them - amazing as well. I'm saving the ones from DLC to see after I get all trophies from the main game!
I think those are the best, but they're full of spoilers, so be sure to finish the DLC!
There was never 2 crashes in one place. That isn’t even implied in the game. Dunno where you that theory from
Where is the next video bro. Ive been waiting for only your theory bro. You are the GOAT
Hey man! Had a couple of personal issues at the beginning of the month, but the video is now in the final phase of editing!
Expect it by the end of the week. This one is 20+ minutes long!
@@thev-side1331 oh great i cant wait man.
@@cookingwithkratos exporting the video as of right now!
Theory 1 with some tweaks makes the most sense for me. Admittedly, part of my affinity for that one has to do with liking fantastical narratives more than ones that present a fantasy situation and then get to the end, declare, "guess it was all a dream!" and then use that to shrug off any plot inconsistencies.
Inconsistencies are what makes it hard to decipher what's going on, though. We have the rich lore of the hive mind, severed and Xaos, which brings into question why an otherwise very personal delusion would have those details, but then we have things in act 2 that contradict what is in act 1. I think that it's possible that, rather than Thea making up Selene, Selene is multiple people due to time loop shenanigans. Act 1 xeno archives make mention of a "Creator/Destroyer" who seems to be Xaos, but a few times near the end of that sequence, it seems like they're referring to Selene. Selene in later parts of the game describes herself as the source and the destroyer. Not sure if this means she is somehow Xaos as well (maybe she eventually mutates into Xaos and all of the timeline manipulation is Xaos making sure it eventually exists) or if Xaos is it's own thing and the xeno logs are referring to Selene the whole time.
Mental theory is more aligned, If you know Greek mythology Atropos is a sister of fate the one that cuts the thread and symbolise death and fate. And where Selene is on the planet Atropos, and if you take that into account you see all the bodies which summaries that Selene cannot escape fate. One of Atropos abilities is reanimated dead people and around the map are dead versions of Selene and in one of the audio logs she talks about killing a dead version of herself. Astra in Greek mythology is a god of star that resembles Purity and when Selene was applying she already had guilt and other issues which is not a pure thing which makes it worse since she was rejected by. In the tower of Sisyphus was depicted as a punishment in Greek mythology in the Audi log it was suggest the tower was endless and if you take it back to Greek mythology Sisyphus was a man was punished to push a boulder up a hill for eternity and every time he reaches the top he would be destined to fail and when you enter the hospital in the tower it says in the book, “the boulder fell, the boulder fell, the ship fell” which implies that Selene was also being punished.
Awesome theories and video bro, maybe the best I saw about the game. Thank you. Your channel is so underrated, I hope one day you get a thousands of views, you deserve it. Subbed for more. :)
Only finished the game yesterday... yes I know I'm very slow.
I want the entire story to be real but I think it's all in her head and Selene punishing herself for her failure to save her child, she's in a coma and fighting her demons.
I'd be perfectly happy if the game devs came out and said it was 100% real that Selene was trapped in Alien/Groundhog Day too though.
I think Selene was a person that had aspired to be an astronaut her entire life and had her own share of psychological issues. The letter she got rejecting her candidacy for her dream job could of caused some sort of psychological break and for her to lose her tenuous grip on reality. If you look at it from the perspective of someone who is in their own world and has an obsession with Greek mythos you could see that the game could have taken place in her mind with bits and pieces of her reality sprinkled in. Or it could even take place on her property that the house is on over the course of a year, with the different seasons making the environment seem different and alien to a mind that is already in the midst of a psychotic break or delusion. The whole cycles starting over again and again could simply being a start to a new day.
It would be hard to take anything at face value in the game. There seems to be hidden meanings behind just about every aspect of the story and no clear cut answer. I don't normally go for that sort of thing, but it was presented in a such a way that it held my interest beyond playing the game.
Thanks for the video you can tell how much time you put in, It turned out great!
Hi, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this because it is interesting to draw dots together with other peoples ideas about the story of Returnal, especially when others mention new ideas, and agree to exactly some of the same conclusions I have come to as well. I have some feedback for those looking to hear some of the deep stuff I feel this story portrays.
at 11:00 you begin explaining the 2 most important things Selene sets out to do for her soul in redemption which you start of by saying "to stop blaming herself for the death of Helios". This would not be a redemption process. The most important thing any one of us can do is to blame ourselves, which is the only way we begin to recognise how our actions have consequences which is then the only way we begin to develop a desire to be more loving and caring. If we stop blaming ourselves, we only end up having to repeat the same lesson until we do learn how every action we take does have consequences, and unloving actions have unloving consequences which I think can be argued is one of the points the developers make in producing this game. I think what you mean to say here however is to stop judging yourself as someone who is bad or evil for the actions that have lead to painful consequences. In this understanding, then yes, I absolutely agree that to accept what one has done that has caused e.g. others to die or suffer intensively is a step towards becoming at peace with ones own soul (container of feelings).
I think you nail it with some points here that I didn't realise before like the Heterochromia we clearly can see Selene has being actually a scar, which you can see in the picture there is a clear line of scaring above and below her eye that is blue. I did also get a feel of "she's probably a mental health patient having these experiences" which you do mention also.
I thought I was smart in doing a name meaning check for Selene, but again you've hit it on the head on the fourth part by mentioning about the greek mythology of their names. Selene = moon goddess. In all of this there's one thing stands out to me in the very last word Selene says in the second ending. She says "Helios", which at first makes me believe relates to her concern for her child, which remains relevant to this point: Helios is the god of the sun in greek mythology. I believe this means after merging with her memories that Selene buried for so long, along with all those negative traumatising feelings/emotions that come with the concept she is to blame for her sons death, she then became free from the cycle of pain she had inside of her soul. I think this is so true for all of us, how we suppress emotions rather than feel and face them because of being afraid of being punished, most of all by our own judgemental mind about how unloving we was or are, which only ends up keeping that pain inside of our container of feelings aka soul, which only ends up attracting to us via the law of attraction certain events that repeat similar events that all aim to trigger these suppressed emotions. Understanding that everything we experience is ultimately our fault, we then align to the truth from Gods perspective, and because truth = love = light, I can see this is what the devs have cleverly designed at the end as the light at the end of the tunnel as she emerges from this deep place within herself back to love, truth and light for her to feel Gods love again and to become back at peace again, which I think is something we all undergo the process of as to learn the big lesson in life: why living in harmony with our conscience is important. I think this is so profound this lesson because I think even in our spirit life, there are many who struggle to learn this even after being in dark places for thousands of years, as I have heard it be explained that when we die, we go to the spirit realm which is the place we visit every night anyway, but once there in our spirit body, we are given a place to live according to our soul condition and our body can degrade to the point flesh falls off it like seen with Theia which all depends on how much we resist what the truth is from Gods perspective and hold onto our own arrogant view points, which, because are lies from Gods perspective, we remove ourselves from Gods love and light in the process. Again, the devs understanding of this is made clear to me when they use the name Theia, meaning from one source found via google "goddess of light" which supports this by suggesting that Selene, who could be Theia has rejected herself in the effort to avoid feeling her pain hence rejected the truth (which is Theia being the light) which we can see Theia reaches out to Selene to confront her, but Selene in her disgust of Theia turns away. The most profound lesson from this story is: if you want to be free from pain, never avoid your pain, because there is always a lesson that pain is trying to teach you.
My personal take of the story is that this is the emotional journey Selene undergoes in the effort to understand why she experienced what she experienced so she can find peace and release herself from her own self inflicted judgement.
I believe it relates to so many people because I think almost everyone grows up bottling up emotions they don't want to face or feel, which they end up suppressing for so long, which causes them to forget memories. Doing this often makes us feel like an alien to ourselves and in some cases even becoming split in our mind as we continue to suppress and avoid our painful emotions, which is often done through escapism and addiction (such as computer gaming *cough*), but that's exactly why I think this is such a brilliant game. It brings people who have this desire to avoid reality, and then shows us a story of someones effort of self discovery being this very hard and difficult, scary, dark experience that gives this overall feeling of "struggle" that we feel is just too powerful to overcome, but shows us that if we do face our painful negative emotions, we become free from the cycles of repeating either the same or similar traumatic events that get attracted to us in our every day lives via the law of attraction.
Now that we know a second child was recovered from the crash, it's pretty like that Selene and Helios were siblings, right?
This is my favorite ps5 game it’s the only platinum I have at all. I wish more people could experience this game. Good video…. I still just don’t know what I think…
the second one makes the most sense, Selene is in hell, especially if we take into consideration the fact that atropos means fate, this is her destiny, her actions in her past life led to her reliving her bad memories (fighting the aliens) over and over without an escape, the scout logs and details about selene we find throughout atropos are meant to serve as psychological torture, a sort of personalized hell altogether.
One thing I haven't seen a lot of people talk about is the doctor consultation at 16:04 is clearly in reference to an abortion. It's hard to say if this is meant to be real or not, but I think in one version of events (or at least her falsely remembered version of them), Selene never had Helios which is what allowed her to pursue her Astra career.
I have my own theory. Obviously the game is open to interpretation which is what I love but:
Maybe Astra is really a company that has a machine which helps people with trauma by having them live out their issues and memories through a dramatized hyperreal scenario.
There are data points with warnings to selene that seem to make this believable though I can't remember what they said these days but I think one log says "die at any cost to ensure repeated trauma". There's also logs about severing her connection which might also connect to the "severed". It would make sense then why this world has Greek influence, house memories, traumatic visions, etc. The Astra machine is trying to help her cope with her trauma which also is why she cannot die since it's virtual. Perhaps she cannot leave until the trauma is truly dealt with.
🤯This is one of the most unique theories I've read in the comments. WOW.
@@thev-side1331 You should definitely look into it then, you can probably find more evidence to support the theory than I can XD
this game is pure masterpiece and insanity at the same time
Wasnt sure about this game and now im hooked. Finally just beat act 2 now gotta get true ending
that rejection letter is obviously typed using a typewriter so it can't be related to Selene's timeline! it is actually a memory of Theia's rejection as an astronaut. also related to the root cause of child-mother complexes: the white shadow!
Indeed, nowadays the most mind bending movies/games theories are those where everything is literal.
I appreciate your effort for doing these videos and research. A saw also other videos interpreting the story that is given in the game, but I personally miss certain aspects in every Theory.
Despite the Greek names and relations, which are pretty obvious, the game has many parallels or references to Cthulhu mythology. The last creature with tentacles and red eyes pretty much could resemble Cthulhu itself, Bering able to manipulate matter and time….don’t want to write to much know and I myself do not have a straight theory that could explain much, but I for my self noticed parallels to Cthulhu and other HP.Lovecraft creatures…also quite some parallels to Bloodbourne, where also dreaming and nightmares are a major aspect of the lore.
Maybe you guys also see parallels, or maybe I am just misinterpreting something….but without the Greek names. Cthulhu mythology comes closest to the whole theme of returnal
Thank you for watching! I never thought about the Cthulhu pov. This is amazing, thanks for bringing it in!
NEW VIDEO! The secrets of Returnal's Hospital! 👉ua-cam.com/video/lnXE4Ghw1ic/v-deo.html
Selene's Darkest secret 👉 ua-cam.com/video/JtkpBnouBL8/v-deo.html
Please do so, because the story has a spin-off when you play in the new dlc tower. I wont spoil it, but instead of the house scenes, you get something else, and we get more answers or should I say puzzles. I want to hear your take brother. 🙌
@@EvilForces Hi! The video is now available! I'm working on a new one with a new ending theory. I'll let you guys know when it is done.
ua-cam.com/video/lnXE4Ghw1ic/v-deo.html
Food for thought ....In one of the house scenes playthrough she was rejected from Astra Scout program
Waiting for your Ascension DLC update!
Hi! Finally finished Elden Ring today! Will continue playing the DLC tomorrow!
Hi! The first video is now available for you to watch :)
Thanks for your patience!
ua-cam.com/video/lnXE4Ghw1ic/v-deo.html
You didn't cover the most sensible theory that meets all the different data points. In the video sequences of the car crash helios her son asks her a question she takes the rear view mirror and focuses it on herself off her son ie ignoring him and turning up the music. Then she sees the astranought ie a delusion because she stopped taking her medication and crashed. She believes she was taken away while trying to save helious in the initial ending and thinking the astronaught (her mother) caused the crash. Then you have the true ending when you get her car keys and then you see that she is the astronaut ie she is the reason the car crash occurred the delusion and you also see she die not actually try to save helios but didn't even remember him until she got out into the water and screamed his name, this is why you get the words helious abandoned everytime you restart the cycle of grief. The entire game is metaphorical. With the true ending being she finally breaks the cycle by realizing she was a terrible, neglectful mother that repeated what had happened to her with her son and left him to die. Ie she saw the reason he died with clarity now.
Wonderfull content try talking slower and clearer and give us more lore from the game , overall you are great keep it up
Thank you for the feedback! I'll remember that for the next videos :)
I live in okanogan county and I can’t think of anywhere that looks like that car crash scene. That looks like somewhere on the east coast maybe. It’s all sagebrush and pines here.
The last one makes the most sense
Why no one mentions that in the first ending Helios is playing Returnal on his ps5? What does that mean?
I love thinking about this game.
The biggest puzzle piece to me is the game itself. Which theory makes the game as a game make sense? Why is it a bullet hell sci fi shooter with Lovecraftian space monsters and dead alien civilizations?
I get very David Lynch and Jacobs ladder vibes. I feel that ultimately the final boss we never fight is the creator/destroyer keeping Selene in a sort of purgatory until she can learn and forgive herself with the abuse she was dishing out onto her daughter. I believe this daughter was also lived by the soul Selene. Thus why the apollo era astronaut is around. It's another lived life of Selene. Perhaps family heritage and bloodlines learning to correct actions?
The lesson to be learnt was that she should break the cycle of abuse. I feel the science fiction stuff and meat of the game-play was all just a highly realised purgatory for exploring the unknown with a foggy sort of Dark Souls "Hollowed" experience going on. These foggy memories of failed runs on Atropos. Hell even the planet starts having fauna and trees that look like spines. There's messages in the ship about how a director is concerned about how "direct" Selene can be and how they hope she is not like this with her colleagues. I also feel the "Theia" Selene has resentment towards her child who she blames internally for the failed application to Astra. More abuse continues, etc, etc.
I feel it is different true "real life" timelines lived by the same soul who has to learn to break this cycle of abuse and also forgiveness. For the "Theia" Selene abandoning the child "Selene" and as the child for resenting Theia for leaving her in the car. This lack of forgiveness will foster to hatred and another abusive person will be realized.
The game is about death and those possible moments before passing over to the other side (the swirling darkness taking her from underwater). Whether there be a heaven or hell. Whether after death Selene can finally rest in the void, isn't really the point. In my opinion we weren't playing a protagonist. We're playing an antagonist who has to learn lessons before passing the unknown barrier of death.
My theory is Theia wasn't necessary supposed to be pregnant. It's just a touch from devs to give us a word that means "mother". belly -> pregnant -> someone's mother -> Selene's mother. 1 more thing, is that Selene's newborn daughter at the end leaning into the burial right after she wakes up again in Echoing Ruins? Well i have nothing to go further on this. But feels kinda weird when everyone's leaving, there is only 1 person coming back and leaning into her bury.
Really good game, specifically with the COOP. Makes it easier and fun if you have a friend. I don’t, but random players are amazing on this game.
Game is not easier in coop
Greed
Theory 5, this is actually Silent Hill in the year 5,000
Is there any references to the "Astronaut" being the white shadow? What is the white shadow. Why did the child in the car say it and who was the sole surviving alien broadcasting the white shadow broadcast?
Perhaps the only reference of that direct connection is one of the trophies ("White Shadow" and the icon is the Astronaut).
Great video. I'm still so frustrated with the lack of concrete answers regarding the story of the game. It made everything feel worthless. Idk maybe im looking at it the wrong way. Awesome game besides the story.
Thanks! The thing is the game is made like that on purpose, very unlike the typical storytelling, so I get it is frustrating, but I hope this and the other videos cleared things up a little bit :)
Pause at 4:57 and look at the eyes! That is not Selene's! Selene got different colored eyes!
What about the 2 crashes theory? and what about the 2 child (death) theory (Selene's son and brother)?
I had no idea about those!
Care to share a link or something so I can read about them please :)?
💯💯💯
There' seems to be no "truth value" to Selene's predicament. Her Earthly tragedies are more grounded, and can thus fairly be interpreted as more real. But I think the central theme of cycling and re-instantiating past/ancient horrors tries to cut to a more fundamental, indelible, and universal aspect of humanity's self-destructive tendencies. It's not just the themes which support this interpretation. Selene is incidentally a Greek person named after the Greek moon goddess; Helios is named after the sun; and Theia is the matriarch/mother (or aunt, if you transliterate from Greek). Are these names merely coincidental? If you play the DLC, you'll find it's heavily implied Selene's last name is Vassos. What's that in Greek? Forest. So I think you're meant to take the game's story and themes as a solid block, if you will; at face-value. I mean, you do actually play as Helios playing as Selene...
Gehenna (gehennam) in islam is hellfire.
So maybe another theorie from an islamic perspective:
Selene was bad to her mother and child, maybe even sick mentally as a result of her dream to be an astronaut got crushed. That caused her to be depressed.
So selene mentioned that she ended up in hellfire. In islam death doesnt exist in the hellfire.
Gehenna (gehennam) where the people are punished (burned and tortured), their skin (where the pain receptors are located) is burned, God gives them new skin over and over again so they can feel the punishment eternal (returnal) over and over again.
Just like selene is respawning over and over again without actually dying.
So basically its like selene died in the car crash and ended up in the hellfire like she mentioned and is getting tortured over and over again (respawning, like the skin) for the bad things she did and neglected.
Just an endless circle where she experiencing all that she did bad and is getting reminded of.
May you update your theories after ascension release?
Hi! Yes! I'm currently working on a video for all the hospital's secrets I could find, then one more for mythology and Finally, a revised ending video.
Hi! The first video is now available for you to watch :)
Thanks for your patience!
ua-cam.com/video/lnXE4Ghw1ic/v-deo.html
Not enough love for theory three. However! Her seeing herself in the road which caused the initial car crash makes no sense. The crash was already her fault, putting another her there that she had to avoid which started the crash would be wholly unnecessary. The only way that this would make sense is if she was actively trying to kill herself and her son by driving off of the bridge, which conflicts with what we see.... everything else was solid though.
Ech... Sometimes games have a hard to explain ending (for example "the path"). Sometimes games have a so mamy different enginds (for example " Detroit become human"). But "returnals" Has clear and easy ending... I don"t Understand what you looking for... Every endings give us the same story about car accident...
To be honest i prefer the one that this is kinda real. Some creature is making the planet look like her house and she's just beeing put on a "dream" world by the deep sea creature
Is Helios a boy or girl? He's saying both. Other videos have done that too
For me, Helios is boy, for all the references with the greek mythology.
Feels abit lazy the end of the game, 98% of people have no clue what is even happening by the end 😂 I've watched a few ending explained videos and they all are different
Yikes!! based on everything that was said being paralyzed and having a child was her biggest downfall ….. WOOOOOW SHE HAD HELIOS before the crash but sees herself at her lowest pregnant and on deaths door…. Damn Theia
BTW this game doesn’t really need sequels but if Remedy got their hands on it I could see them really building this up.
Something with astra isn’t right though…. All this hardware/ parasites in game does a lot of augments and honestly the theme of returning puts me in the mind of the movie source code. But what if astra is running simulations to get Selene or “theia” into the program manipulating her grief in order to have her reach a peak level so she can go into space for some real action? 🤔🤔🤔🤔 what if she’s a cryogenic subject in active trials? 😵😵😵😵
This theory is sooooo dark! Love it!
Why do people keep referring to helious as a boy and a girl. This video he was a boy in the first 3 theory’s then you were saying “she” in the last one.
but what about the house burning down ?
Hey man! The burning house is one of the true enigmas of this game! I don't have a definitive answer on that one. Perhaps represents her family burning down in a symbolic way.
@@thev-side1331 It probably is symbolic in some way, since almost everything in the game has some sort of symbolism. Could imply her burning down a deeply hated past, with the house being a place where she experienced some amount of hurt and pain she wanted to get rid of.
The house representing the family is an interesting one. A home can be a place of refuge, but also a place of despair. Selene's relationship with Theia and Helios seems like a broken one rooted in a lot of bitterness that felt poisonous for a family. The pleasant scenery of the house that may indicate that a pleasant life was there at one point, but after a single incident (the car crash) things started to take a turn for the worst and that turns the pleasant scenery of the house to that of an apocalyptic, destroyed one, indicating the family crumbled down and was internally destroyed.
Great theories! The game needs a story mode in order to make it easier to just enjoy the story instead of the hard challenge of the gameplay.
I'm fairly disappointed by the ending. I feel like all the weight towards "Atropos was a dream/nightmare/purgatory" theories means all the worldbuilding about the aliens stopped mattering.
I was really interested to get answers about the planet, the timeloop and learn about the aliens, but as soon as it started becoming clear that all those alien scraps of lore were fictional in the context of the game itself they stopped mattering to me and I stopped caring.
I get why some authors like leaving stuff open to interpretation but I find it to be a somewhat lazy way to 'end' a story. "I wrote a very intriguing mystery, now you do the work to figure it out, I don't care".
Your opinion is fair, but I personally find your point quite weird. You stopped caring about the world-building because it's *potentially* not real in the game world? So you'd care more about the exact same world-building if the game told you it is explicitly real, game-wise? But then why would you care at all at that point if the game Returnal itself isn't real? Why does it matter if you care or not about anything that happens in this fictional game? It seems really arbitrary to need it to be real, game-wise, in order to want to understand why the exact same aliens and locations are the way they are. Sure, you might personally want to see a more scientific origin for them, but it'd still lead to the exact same destination.
And any story with a solid or open ending can be lazy, and therefore poor in someone's eyes. Open endings are a different style where in order to be great at being open ended, the author needs to carefully analyse several parts and ideas of their story and make sure they either harmonise or conflict in order to have the reader be able to sit there afterwards and interpret for themselves what path they want to believe in the most, which is a unique experience based on a person's own morals, beliefs, wisdoms, emotions and logic. I think Returnal shows great mastery over this if judging by the four theories in this video alone, and some of the greatest and most talked about mysteries are the ones that are never solved.
Now of course, you said you get this and your opinion is still fair but either way, Returnal was marketed like this from the beginning. What I'm seeing from this comment isn't really anything to do with Returnal at all and more your own dislike for open-ended mysteries as a genre.
@@narukami6364 Returnal is the most recent example of a game that enticed me with an interesting setting and interesting lore as I played only to suddenly flop at the end with no actual conclusion and an open-ended "pick your favourite theory". I don't remember it being marketed as that.
I'd care more about the exact same world building if it was explicitly real in the game, yes, because then the setting is interesting. You've got a bunch of mysterious things happening: time loops, finding her own dead bodies, a shifting world. How did she get into the timeloop? Why does the world change? Why does ancient history seem to prophesise her? There's a bunch of potential for a good, fun time travel plot, but as you get further into the story every mysterious or intriguing plot element narrows down and boils down to "it's probably just a hallucination anyway".
I know it might sound weird to not be interested in a story if it's just a dream versus literally happening to the character, but that's how it is for me here. Returnal was one of the most difficult games I've played and I stuck at it because I really wanted to see what was going on, and expected the story would give me that information. I was interested in the world building because I believed she was literally on an alien world, and the mystery had me hooked. But then the ending was just so open ended people can't even seem to agree on whether the child was her or her own kid, and the time loop/shifting world aspect is either answered by it all being a dream or not answered at all in the case it is real.
And even if it is real, why are they doing this to her, how did they draw her in with the signal, what are they getting out of it, etc, etc.
It's the only game I've played in a fair while where I came out regretting it, so I'm probably overly harsh, but it strongly feels like the writers were just interested in the setting and quirky mechanics and not really how the two fit together. It feels lazy to me because anyone could make a mystical, interesting world if they didn't bother thinking about how its elements interact or make sense.
Like I'm not bagging on people enjoying it, I'm genuinely glad they did, I'm just sore that I paid $100 AU and played a game that stressed me more than satisfied me only to not get what I expected out of it, and it reinforced the opinion about open endings I realised I had playing Remedy games
@@TaliesinMyrddin Unfortunately you expected something else when this is what Returnal is about. The items and world and enemies based on Greek mythology and parts of Selene’s life that you liked and were intrigued by so much came from Selene’s mind one way or another, so if you’re not wanting to use this world-building to understand the real mystery of the game which is why Selene is the way she is and who her family were, which they did say is what you’ll be learning more about through the House sequences when advertising the game, then there’s not much about it that’s really the games problem.
I only highlight this twice because it reminds me of a random google review of someone giving BotW 1 star. Their main issue was with the weapon durability system, and they opened with a sarcastic line saying “Do you have a favourite weapon in this game? Well prepare to never use it.” They’re obviously annoyed that the game has weapons break after a while forcing you to use another weapon or other, but he doesn’t state what’s actually wrong about it. He just states what it is and that he doesn’t like it, which is fair, but clearly you can see why it’s not really valid criticism. I also don’t like weapons breaking, especially if I just want to look cool with a certain weapon, but I at least appreciate that the game works this way because you’re meant to use everything at your disposal, rather than just the strongest thing over and over.
And unfortunately, it has always been a bullet hell rogue-like game, which is always meant to stress you out gameplay-wise than focus majorly on story or other. At least you tried out Returnal, maybe one day you’ll replay it with slightly different expectations and have a different view on its world. But if you really don’t like it, I suggest staying away from games like Bloodborne which you may hear some people today hoping for a remaster or sequel, even 7 years after it came out.
@@narukami6364 Yeah, I already know I won't like Bloodborne. I played the original Demon's Souls and it turned me off that franchise and its spin-offs entirely. Don't have any desire to play it or Elden Ring or anything. Literally the only reason I wanted to give Returnal a try is because it was a flashy new time loop game and the marketing I had seen, at least, indicated it had more of a story than a lot of roguelikes at the time, and I like the basic concept of roguelikes it not the implementation. So I went in expecting the time loop to be more of a story focus than it wound up being, and I don't really feel like it's my fault to have assumed that from the first trailers.
I can barely understand you
Hi! There are subtitles for this video in case you need them.
5th: game is trash
k 🤷🏻♂️
Your pronunciation is very bad, which is OK if english is not your native language, but at least try to speak slowly so that people can understand.