A Story Analysis of Returnal

“talking with her mom didnt reward her with anything” is the perfect description of what confronting an abuser is like

I am once again asking for a Signalis video

The centipede like statues may actually be spines - relating to the spinal injury mentioned in the dlc

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

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"

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

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!

Turns out the main antagonist was the bridge all along

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

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

"Hell of your own making" as that one other famous essayist-reviewer free-lance YouTuber described the story of "Returnal"

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.

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 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

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.

Returnal is a masterpiece in gameplay and storytelling. One of my favorite games. Hopefully Housemarque are working on something as crazy as this!

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 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.

Gingy uploads always put a smile on my face