Ninja Theory’s long-awaited sequel to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, is out next week. It sees Senua venturing to Viking Iceland to mete out justice while still dealing with her psychosis, manifesting as “The Furies.” In a new video, the development team discusses psychosis alongside several experts and how it’s depicted in-game.
Some of these experts include Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust’s Peer Workers and Paul Fletcher, Bernard Wolfe Professor of Health Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. In addition to collaborating with them, Ninja Theory partnered with Recovery College East. It’s objective was “understanding the subject thoroughly” when depicting a character with psychosis.
“What started as an exercise in hoping to learn quickly transitioned into a creative collaboration where the openness, honesty and enthusiasm of our collaborators gave us the chance to not only portray Senua’s experiences truthfully – but enhance our character, her world and her story,” said studio head Dom Matthews on Xbox Wire.
He hopes the sequel will once again “give a taste of what it can be like to hear voices, to see things that only you can see and to be driven by beliefs that may be unusual to others.” Matthews also shared a conference co-hosted by Ninja Theory and Cambridge Neuroscience on psychosis and its in-game depiction. Check it out here.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 launches on May 21st for Xbox Series X/S and PC, though it’s reportedly being considered for a PS5 release. Head here to see the system requirements on PC.
