The Existential Terror of Returnal

Returnal is a phenomenal game wrapped in an insane story. I peel back every layer, analysing the story and decoding its hidden depths. What is the astronaut? What is White Shadow? What is Atropos? What is real?

— Plutarch, Life of Theseus 23.1

The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their places, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same.

Scout Log: Atropos

I'm starting to see patterns that I know are not there. I cannot trust my memories. The planet knows me better than I know myself. The Hivemind and the Severed are real. Helios is real. The Astronaut... is missing. I haven't found it anywhere. Where has it gone...?

Chapters:

00:00:00 - Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice
00:00:32 - I found myself within a forest dark...
00:13:06 - The Pledge
00:18:16 - I did not die, and yet I lost life's breath
00:23:40 - The Turn
00:26:00 - Remember tonight... for it is the beginning of always
00:37:25 - The Prestige
00:39:31 - If your world isn't right, the cause is in you

#returnal #majorasmask #housemarque #zelda #zeldamajorasmask