"There are some wills so strong they dream a new world. A Hel of their own creation. And they will not sit lonely in that nightmare. If you wake the dreamer, does the nightmare die?"

A good sequel, but not as narratively and emotionally compelling as the first game. The writing overall is not the same quality, but not bad by any means. Senua still receives great development and there's side characters with serviceable depth. It is a visual ugrade though; the game is absolutely stunning. The sound design remains astounding, continuing Senua's journey with psychosis and representing the disorientation and difficulty of mental disorders. Senua also explores a new land with new and terrifying threats which served their purpose in spooking me. I do however kinda dislike the changes to the combat system. Dodging feels really fluid, but I didn't love the new animations and the removal of an attack type. But it gets the job done.

A sequel worth playing for sure. Looking forward to Hellblade III.

"I carry it with me. It drives me forward. It's a promise, not a prison."

This game was made for me. I loved it. Fantastic combat, the most beautiful visuals ever, and a serviceable, compelling story about a samurai who would sacrifice his own honor for his people. I'm gonna keep playing and check out the bonus content.

The best part about this game has to be the relationship between Jin and his uncle. It didn't fully hit me until that final fight which was more emotional than I was expecting.

There were some other side characters too with interesting dynamics of their own that I enjoyed.

My main criticisms are the awful camera in combat and some really choppy scene transitions. But the narrative definitely could've been improved upon as well. However, I'm not very picky about that because this game was just so fun. Loved exploring Tsushima and slicing up Mongols. Criticisms do not even come close to outweighing how visually striking and transportive this game was. Incredible experience. One of the very few games I want to replay immediately after finishing it.

"Why go on? When you give everything and face that which torments you, only to find that it is worse than you could have imagined...why go on?"

Honestly kinda blown away by this. The amount of times this game gave me chills is insane. Just a phenomenal story-driven game, especially for how short it is. Absolutely mind-blowing script, sound design—cannot emphasize the transcendent sound design enough—and such an immersive Norse world. There's a part of me that does wish the gameplay was a little more elaborate and complex, but at the same time the simple controls and mechanics really puts the spectacular narrative in the spotlight. This game was created for the audible and narrative experience, not only for a compelling journey, but to shine light on psychosis and mental disorders as a whole. Amazing gaming experience, highly recommend.

"Do not mourn the waves, the leaves, and the clouds. Because even in darkness the wonder and the beauty of the world never leaves, it's always there, just waiting to be seen again."