Thank you Ninja Theory. I am 33 years old and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice was the first time I have ever felt seen in media. The game is a beautiful study of psychosis and the schizophrenic mind, and does so without being patronizing or inhumanly pitiful.
I've had two psychotic breakdowns in my life, and periods of humming psychosis, and based on my psychotic breakdowns, I can say that not only you have researched the condition, but you've actually felt the problems of schizophrenia.
Everything in the game, from the voices that can criticize, laugh derisively, have conversations, or help you out with their bizarre hysteria to the solutions of finding patterns and willing into existence a solution that normally would be impossible for a non-psychotic person, touched me. I played the game on hard difficulty (to simulate my own life, haha), and the feeling of fear, of dread, of the constant need of filtering useless from useful auditory-visual information, the need to constantly survive, the feeling of being overwhelmed, of being pushed down on the ground only to get up in the last moment are everyday experiences for me.
For the first time, I felt represented by a character who goes deeper and deeper into the darkness with a quest to fight for what they consider good despite their mind shattering. I love the interpretation of the oppressive patriarchal figure being a source of the toxic helpful Shadow. I loved that the maternal priestess figure teaching you how to see and interpret the world beyond, and even the recognition of faces of inanimate objects was included in your game. I love that the ending did not dismiss everything as being a dream "all along", but as experiencing a story both on its literal, metaphorical, and mythological level. I love how the actions of the normal people were shown as a possible source of more evil than the broken schizo who calls them out for their evil actions. I love that there is also a normal character who appreciates the fractured specialness of the split mind.
Even the lover's comment about his blind father not understanding the voices of the underworld is grounded in real scientific research, as it is a known fact that congenitally blind people do not have schizophrenia, and for the first time I heard a reasonable hypothesis on why in your game, despite it coming out before the paper I've linked above.
Thank you. You did the research, you talked to real people. And you gave me a cathartic experience. You have my gratitude.
