A Story Analysis of Returnal
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 มิ.ย. 2024
- The story of Returnal is mysterious and very complicated. So today's story analysis will attempt to dissect the story of Returnal to figure out what's really going on here.
____________________________________
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:38 Prologue
8:47 The Aliens
18:48 Endings
31:49 True Ending
50:07 Outro
____________________________________
Music Courtesy of Returnal OST
• Returnal, Vol. 2 (Orig...
0;00 The Crash
0;38 A Familiar Awakening
8;47 Ascend The Spire
18;48 Fractured Wastes
31;53 Crimson Wastes
44;10 Failed Escape
____________________________________
Hope You Enjoyed!
#Returnal #gingy #story - เกม
“talking with her mom didnt reward her with anything” is the perfect description of what confronting an abuser is like
This. It sure didn't give me any closure. My father is now dead, and I never got an acknowledgement of what he did to me when he was alive, let alone an apology.
Confronting him wasn't worth it.
The centipede like statues may actually be spines - relating to the spinal injury mentioned in the dlc
Wow I honestly didn't even think about that. That's an incredible find!
Also all thr giant spines that are out in the desert
I am once again asking for a Signalis video
I’m surprised he hasn’t covered it
Honestly a decent number of people already made videos almost exactly like how he would have made it.
It is a crime that GINGY hasn’t gone over Signalis yet
you seen Power Pak’s Signalis video yet? its new
Dunno if you'd enjoy it but I can recommend Grimbeard, they have a fairly decent review of Signalis.
One fun tidbit, you're correct that there was no Alex in greek myths - but it might be a reference to something else. In Roman times, Mark Antony and Cleopatra had children named Cleopatra Selene...and Alexander Helios.
I think the bridge scene contains some more information we can infer. First it can be noted that when Helios talks she looks at him in the mirror and promptly swings it as to not see him to which this contributes to the idea that Celine sees him as a burden. Next, they are on the bridge and she swerves off because of the astronaut. If we assume the accident was planned, this bridge acts as a cross roads for Celine just as it did for her mother, she can either continue and essentially hit the astronaut (losing any chances of her becoming an astronaut) or follow through, swerve off and leave Helios behind saving the astronaut. Since in one of the cutsences Celine is the astronaut I think its fair to say the astronaut did not exist but instead acts as a visual representation of Celine's dilemma
Another idea is that maybe since she was working long hours she could have hallucinated someone there, which still fits into this, but isn't as malicious but still tragic.
Dilemma for what?
@@JarodHarrison-jj7oqbut isn’t the astronaut technically herself? Why would she hallucinate herself?
@@andimari9194 If we work with the idea that instead of it being temporal and more being all in her head, she could be reremembering the incident as it being her own fault rather than just a legit accident. Like how some people can blame themselves more for something that happened and just spiral from that, instead of trying to process it as just an accident, and from there it'd be like she's viewing herself more at fault. Instead of it being the astronaut it could have been an animal or a straight hallucination due to how long she had been working so much, her mind registered that there was something there, and her first response was to instead of hit it despite her mind knowing where they were (IE. on the bridge), and everything involving helios happening from there. A case where her tiredness resulted in her making a decision that resulted in her child dying.
@@JarodHarrison-jj7oq not a bad theory. I have heard of people blaming themselves for things that aren’t their fault (like you saying an animal causing her to swerve, or it just being a legit accident). I also think if she’s hallucinating the astronaut, it could be her mind trying to lie to her to say it wasn’t her fault, and she needs to in the end, accept what she did. Makes more sense now
I literally thought the video was ending after the story synopsis lol. I was like, "yo this man just did a speed run of himself"
Such an underappreciated game with a deceptively deep story. Really glad you've finally gotten around to this one, your analysis is always top tier!
If they would have launched it as a pure single player title it maybe is. The multiplayer aspect of the game got me to buy it and a bunch of friends also. it fucking sucks iam so mad, Multiplayer is a mess. They even say it is coop and multiplayer game ... // edit wow iam so mad, they not even patch the game or fix any of the 100 problems the game has ... so lazy
i lived it, such a gem.
@@vorhandklaus It was launched as a pure single-player game.
Co-Op was added along with the Tower a while after launch.
The game is built for single player. You can't enter the house or the tower or your ship while in co-op. And the flow of the game is a bit disrupted in co op with all the enemies having substantially more health and deal more damage.
I swear the game is harder in Co-Op than single player.
Though I personally like the Co-Op. The game is best experienced single player in almost every way and I recommend everyone first playing the game go single player for their first completion.
But Co-Op is fun too. I think it's a cool idea and addition. Help out a struggling random or play with a buddy.
I assume when you say the multi-player sucks you're talking about glitches or something? Because it doesn't suck at all. It's not the best but it's not bad at all for co op added in after the fact.
Though when I first messed with co op I would occasionally run into a glitch that gave me a hard time. So I assume that's mainly what you're talking about.
I assumed they fixed most of it cause just a few days ago I played through it with a friend on PC, the whole game fresh, and didn't run into any problems.
It's not the best co op and the game was built without it. It's more a fun option for those who want to use it.
@@vorhandklaus It was launched as a single-player. Co-Op was added along with the Tower a while after launch.
The game is best experienced single-player. In Co-Op you can't enter the house, your ship, or the tower. And the flow of gameplay feels disrupted with enemies having way more health and deal more damage.
Honestly Co-Op feels a little tougher than single-player even with the ability to revive a partner. Sharing health and resources and the beefed up enemies and bosses can get annoying if things don't go well.
But I do like the Co-Op. It's a fun cool idea that was added later. Being able to help randoms or play with a friend is fun.
Can I ask what you think sucks so much about it? I remember running into some annoying glitches in a few spots, worst of which the Nemesis bossfight which basically killed the partner and was out of reach for revival the whole fight.
But I just played through the whole thing with a friend on PC, fresh game, and never ran into an issue. The only Co-Op annoyance I ran into was the slightly disrupted gameplay flow and having to revisit the house in singleplayer.
It’s very likely that ‘white shadow’ is the moon on the waters surface as she’s swimming to the top in the last ending
Bruh holy fuck LMAO that actually just opened my eyes. THATS why she’s so hell bent on finding white shadow. It get her out of the water, and in the alien planet it brings her back home
i always thought the astronaut is the White Shadow that is her salvation
@@plaknas_games both the moon and the astronaut represent her aspiration imo. I think she sees it as her salvation, but ultimately it’s what damns her, as she feels Helios is holding her back from achieving her dreams.
@@christopherlyndsay8611 yeah a lot of overlap but essentially it represents escape! That's how she escapes Atropos too.
But she comes looking for White Shadow on Atropos in the first place. Which causes her to abandon Helios.
@@andimari9194yeah she needs to reach the white shadow (moon/air/safety) but Helios (her son) has been abandoned in the lake and she just cannot cope with the fact she left him to try to survive. The lake symbolizes the hell she suffers in whilst trying to deal with her situation. Tremendous symbolism
Isn’t it more likely that Theia was pregnant with selene and the child we see in the car is Helios (Selene’s brother). It makes more sense that theia drove off the bridge, couldn’t save her son, and was injured but miraculously her in utero child survived (Selene) and was resented for it by her mom. The scenes of Helios playing are actually Selenes memories. Makes more sense than both mom and daughter driving off the same bridge and also explains the heterochromea
That’s a very interesting perspective
After reading this a few times I’m fully convinced, I 100% can not see it any other way now, hell it almost feels obvious even. Nice 👍
That would also fix one more plothole - where is Selene's partner? Is he mentioned anywhere at all? Even if he died, left or was a night one stand - it would be weird that he is not an important person affecting Selene in some way. I could be missing something though
I also strongly believe in this idea, as I cannot conceive of the idea that Selene acquired heterochromia, as this is a very rare and congenital condition. It's almost impossible for heterochromia to be acquired through an accident and I don't think the developers would give Selene this trait and justify it as a result of the accident. I believe that the car scene is Theia driving and the heterochromia is a way of making this clear (and also of showing the character's duality, of course).
Great theory but I have one question. why would selene then feel extremely intense guilt? I could see her being sad about Helios dying cuz it’s her brother, but a lot of the hints, especially “Helios abandoned” is more of selene not being able to save him
I was spoiled by the Jacob Geller video on Returnal but that twist where you escape, live a full life, only to be sent back to the planet is amazing
Turns out the main antagonist was the bridge all along
Finally a worthy rival for Truck-kun: Bridge-sama.
I love this game and this is hilarious 😂 that damned bridge
41:26 Could it literally be as simple as "She fell asleep at the wheel"? Her dreams of being an astronaut, i.e. her job making her work late nights and neglect her son's safety, causing her to veer off and crash. She even looks like she's drifting off in the shot right before the crash. I don't know, it's a theory
There's a log that specifically mentions her condition and that she hid it from the academy. She knew she wasn't in a stable enough condition to drive that night.
@@WobblesandBeantypical woman driver
@@AC-hj9tv take those jokes back to reddit boomer
Another thing that supports that it’s all in Celines head, is that in the house sequences there are books you can see in the shelves and on desks, one of which is a made up science fiction novel that is uses Greek mythology - which is obviously something that happens a lot in Returnal
I have bipolar disorder and I once had an episode of substance induced psychosis with medication.
I had seizures and was trapped in a mental loop for 12 hours that felt like months. I would spend what it felt like days trying to get out of a hole of abstract nonsensical images to then pop back in and somehow end up in the exact same place I was at the beginning and everything would start over again.
It was the closest thing I have ever felt to being in literal hell. And returnal gave me a weird feeling of being understood.
Eternity, inevitability, and being the cause of your own torment from start to finish. That's a wild trip.
One thing I noticed about the bosses, they seemed especially Algos - they seemed to have a ‘child’ like entity attached to them in some form; at least that’s how it appeared to me.
I feel like perhaps similar to her mother, they could be reflections of how she viewed Helios in her life; a ‘hurdle’ to overcome.
Ophion is legitimately a giant astronaut too, which I found very cool
"Hell of your own making" as that one other famous essayist-reviewer free-lance TH-camr described the story of "Returnal"
Yacob Jeller
@@justinfung4351 You don`t say the quite part out loud, mate.
@@diamondhamster4320 y not
@@diamondhamster4320 Listen, I care about sharing his content with people who don't know, more than preserving your moment with your little in-joke.
It’s more about how the guy tells the story, even with one line that works pretty well, as a artist I can assure you you going to use “steal” as you are implying the guy said, from anyone, it also called inspiration, and let’s be honest, a good line is a good line anywhere, and also, another good one for you “no matter who said the words, they were spoken to the world” and no matter who said it.
I can’t wait. Returnal is easily in my top 5 favorite games. I love how the narrative comes together in such a way, and how many ways you can interpret it. The “ending” got me the first time.
Yeah that’s one of the best twists in any game imo
A quick not on scout logs:
-Rooms' layout is NOT randomized, all rooms are pre-built and randomization comes in only to determine which ones you'll encounter.
-Scout logs are inside some of those pre-built rooms
-Same goes for Glyphs
I’m 11 minutes in and he said collectibles aren’t required to see the true ending…that’s not entirely true so hopefully he corrects. The sun medallions and flowers are vital for true context.
Edit: 25 minutes in with the reveal lol, I should’ve never doubted!
Returnal is a masterpiece in gameplay and storytelling. One of my favorite games. Hopefully Housemarque are working on something as crazy as this!
I love how I kept changing theories on whats happeneing as I played the game, there were times I thought atropos was real, and later on there were times I believed It was all on selenes head or she was in Hell. There was so much to uncover and theorize about, and only after beating the game did I go online to see what other theories people came up with, and it was really cool to see other people come up with very similar conclusions and ideas.
The thing that made her teeter to the "it's in her head" was the log where she's having a conversation with her doctor. He asks if Selene is taking her meds, she says no and starts talking about her astronaut job, and the doctor stops her, saying she's talking about things that aren't real.
Selene may not even be an astronaut. She might just be truly mentally broken.
Gingy uploads always put a smile on my face
For real, even for games I’ve never heard of or have any interest in. He has a way of explaining things so clearly.
Love these videos, perfect format and no fluff. Keep up the great work!
Absolutely love your videos Gingy! I hope you enjoy making them as much as we love watching them!
I feel like they could have reduced the amount of rng for important items if they just made them guaranteed to spawn. In the case of the collectibles and logs they could be guaranteed but spawn in random locations or secret areas. For more important items like the sunface fragments they could have made the room guaranteed to spawn but be locked behind some kind of puzzle. Either way this game was a blast and I'm glad you covered it. Didn't really expect a AA roguelike but this game did it well.
What i loved the most first playing this game was my brother watching. Hes very pucky about the games he plays but he was super intrigued and we were theorising as we played. Neither of us wanted to be spoiled and it was a great time
When that second act part began, we both were pissed in a good way. He was confused and i felt cheated; "no! We played your rules, we won!!" And that was when it clicked on why the game felt so short. It had only just begun
Was truly something special to have with him. A rare moment of him & i having an actually good time together. Turns out my theory of her being stuck in a hell of her own making was correct but he was the first to catch on the "you abandoned Helios" thing being such an odd word choice
Easily one of my favorite games in recent years. Absolute must play for others
Also, 7:49 to 8:06 best description of this game's core concept ive heard, period. That was perfectly worded
I played this game to death, I have never thought about the theory of Selene killing them both, but you explained it in such a way that I can't now not unsee it. Great job.
Wait, so did they just make Silent Hill... but in space?
Amazing video! I've not seen enough people talk about this game and your take on the story was refreshing. Thank you for your hard work on putting this together for all of us to see.
Perfect Timing! Just got done with my studies and was about to take a nap. This'll be great to listen to in the mean time.
Also, a very underrated game. It was Ah-mazing!
Thanks for covering it
I know you’ll probably not see this comment but thank you Gingy, truly for all your videos. I’ve had a really bad flu for almost a week now and your videos are one of the only things keeping me sane.
How's you feel now?
I don't think this game worked well as a rouge-like one plays tons of times, but as a one playthrough game (technically two for the extra ending) I had a lot of fun. The boss who plays music as you fight it will forever remain a highlight of gaming. It was badass and awesome. Anyways, excellent video, as always.
Thanks for the kind wishes as always Sophia!
I agree. Fantastic game that will always sit in the shadow of legends like Metroid prime because it chose the wrong genre. Should have gone the Metroidvania route.
Love that the gameplay is reminiscent of the side-scrolling shooters that I was playing as a kid, with tons of laser beams and energy particles to avoid while you shoot
Such an underrated gem. Returnal, despite its flaws, is so unique and one of the best experiences I've ever had in any form of media.
Great video. Even though I beat Returnal and got most of the cutscenes you went over - I got a ton of new context from hearing you connect these dots.
Gingy love your videos man. Keep up the good work. At all costs.
My take is she died with her son in the crash and the game is a metaphor of her regret and struggle in some kind of afterlife hellscape.
youre moving towards must watch status with these. always excellent
I have been waiting for this video since the first time I got introduced to your channel thank you 🙏🏾
Never heard of this, heavily interested now.
It’s brilliant, defo try it out
It's really good.
Nah, you already spoiled it for yourself.
@@mosthated8848 Not necessarily, I found about it through a video that spoiled pretty much everything and it still became one of my all time fav games
Really happy you tired this and liked it, can’t wait for the next video
Love this one. The mysterious ambiguity of it all is just so good. I replay it every once and a while.
Returnal got me through a good chunk of the quarantine.
Dude…it’s crazy seeing you come this far from For Honor! Long time follower. Glad to see, you’ve found your niche. 👌🏾💪🏾
Probably one of the most underrated games of this console generation. Had me completely addicted to it. The Citadel Boss Fight is one of the most incredibly designed sequences in gaming
I watched and read lot of stuff about Returnal but nothing satisfied my curiosity expect your video.
Thank you for making this for our Returnal community..
You made me realize some stuff, that I didn’t when playing through the game, and damn was it shocking when it finally clicked
Im so proud of your growth on youtube
It took me like 10 hours to pass the first biome but after around 60 hours with the game and close to the plat. I started a brand new game in a different account and never died once. Even if it feels like an unfair game at first, this is probably the most balanced game I ever played.
Just started this last month, ended up finishing in a week and getting one of my friends to start it. Such a good game. Thanks for the video 😌🙏
Another Great Video Gingy, thank you.
Fantastic analysis. I recently completed act 3 and this helped fill in a lot of the gaps for me
a new Gingy analysis vid will always make my day!
Such a phenomenal game but the story, once everything truly sinked in to me, it’s super depressing 😢
Great video as always! ❤️
Glad to see some coverage of this game, really enjoyed all aspects of it when it first came out on PC. Got 460-something world rank in the tower back then though I'm sure I've dropped lower since.
this story unfolds basically like the Kang Dynasty storyline in marvel, with him ending up fighting Lord Chaos and Master Order, the cosmic entities. The aliens caught in the middle are just the Kree.
what i mean by that is, Kang desperately wishes for a way to change fate, to change what happened, only difference is he invents time travel to do so rather than being forced by an outside entity into a timeloop. but after countless tries and different attempts and even basically losing his purpose and forgetting and having to put the pieces back together, at some point, one version of himself finally just accepts what is, tries to go back and tell his younger self that this is going to happen and he must be prepared for it and just live with it, etc. if your theory of Celine being a murderer is really the plot, that unlike her mother, she chooses to veer off the road to make it look like an accident and let her child die so that she can go after her dream, this parallels alot with Kang's story about the sacrifices he is willing to make to be with Renslayer. , eventually even coming to hate her for making him do all these things even though she didn't actually make him do anything. Idk if your a comic book fan or anything, but if this intrigues you, either checkout comicsexplained on youtube or pick up the comics themselves, the arc is called the Kang Dynasty.
I literally just started this a week ago and this is what I need
Great video breakdown of a great game. Thanks Gingy!
I was eagerly waiting for this :)))
Great video dawg love you
I was just looking for something to watch while making food, you bless me gingy
That bridge really needs to stop sign or stoplight
Great video as always.
Perfect timing, just finished the game after having a blast with it for a few weeks
Great video. So much information. It'd be great if you make another that just explains each theory in chronological order.
Oh wow I had no idea this was a rogue-like!
And a great one at that
I never got a chance to best this game but thank you for the story summary because man oh man returnal was so hard for me at least in my opinion.
Completely watching your story video compelled me to buy Returnal, die over and over again, and just last night I finished Act 3 and saw the "real" ending. Thank you. This is one of the best games I have ever played, and I can't wait to get as high as possible w/in the Tower of Sisyphus and finally 100%ing this game.
So excited you've reviewed Returnal... i gave it a good 20 hours when i picked it up awhile back but it was far too challenging for my arthritis ridden old man, slow ass reaction time 😅
Fantastic video as always 🫡👊🏿
THIS ONES GONNA BE A BANGER I CAN FEEL IT
The final straw that convinced me that Selene did intentionally swerve onto the river was her reaction when she “saw” the astronaut, she quickly widened her eyes and my interpretation is that she did that because she made the snap decision to crash the car and kill Helios. A reach, I know but the theory works
This games story is soooo good and I love to read all of the theories that different people have cuz so many can actually be the case of the story. It’s so open for discussion with so many different factors, years after its release you can find a new perspective
Returnal is one of my favourite games this is definitely a video I’m excited to watch
The planet’s name is a reference to Moirai (Fates) from Greek Mythology. The Moirai are three beings that appear as old women and control Fate, depicted as a length of twine. One weaves the twine together, another spins it out, and the last cuts the line. The name of the Moirai who cuts the twine (and so ends every person’s fate) is Atropos.
Can't wait for your next video!
Wow this went from a super intresting roguelike I wanted to play to an extremely amazing story that I MUST experience
Thanks for what you do.
I never saw the sequence where Selene shoots down Helios, that's kind of blown my mind.
Another great video Gingy! Would love to see you do a story analysis of Fear and Hunger. Those games seem right up your ally, and I think you'd enjoy the story!
Every one of these videos are always a banger such detail. great game
Returnal was my game of the year when it came out, glad to see it getting some love!
Great video!
Always a good day when ginger uploads
Albeit I'm biased toward roguelikes, I appreciate someone else noticing this gem. And considering I could never comprehend stories as well as Gingy, this is a wonderful video.
I binged your channel 3 days ago and got bummed I ran out. Oh lucky me seeing you post. Haven’t watched yet, but I’m excited for the deadpan humor and in depth analysis.
Loved returnal still play it sometimes, and honestly love this story analysis.
"feasts on her mind" as if the universe is her brain that she's traversing. I love this paradox.
Oh, my, this video made me wish to someday see you cover Signalis. I just hope you find time for it, it'll be so worth your time. ^.^
Thank you for this. I love this game and wish I had something to send friends.
This game was a god damn masterpiece, gameplay and story alike. I just wish I were better at video games, so I could have experienced more of the story myself, instead of having to watch lore videos. Great video. Thanks for your patience in playing the game.
From how you're explaining the story, it almost feels like chaos is pulling apart selene mind and studying her while giving her combat scenarios to see how she works within them.
As a sci-fi 3rd person shooter with mind-bending and interesting story, this reminds me of CONTROL - would love to see your breakdown on that game!
it's been about 8 months since i platinum'd this game, i just can't get enough of it
Great video , I feel like returnal is criminally underrated
Loved the analysis. Played this game back in September and despite watching and reading a lot about it back then, only now did I really get it.
Basically the message the game conveys is, if you die while listening to Blue Oyster Cult you get trapped in a timeloop 👍
You posting this made me actually want to go back and finish the game so I can watch this 😂
Jumped back in and had no idea what I was doing prior all I know is I'm in Act 3 somewhere, here goes nothing lol
I too, am asking for signalis. It might drive you mad, but it is an experience that you will never forget.
Very excited for this
God bless you! Never clicked download so fast ❤
I got this game on PC for the story, but I suck at the gameplay. So I am glad I checked this video out. It would take me forever to figure out the story on my own and get to the end.