After the visually and narratively impressive Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Senua's adventures continue in Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. Since the responsible development studio Ninja Theory was taken over by Microsoft in 2018 and integrated into the Xbox Game Studios, the sequel will only be released for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
As the official announcement said, the creative minds at Ninja Theory want to stay true to the strengths of the first part and deliver another disturbing journey into the depths of the human psyche with Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. According to the British development team, this will benefit from both the financial resources of the Xbox Game Studios and the use of Unreal Engine 5. A combination that is supposed to enable Ninja Theory to pursue photorealistic graphics and lifelike animations.
Motion-Capturing and the Support of Flow-Maps
Since Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is all about the protagonist Senua's tragic fate and mental illness, Ninja Theory attaches great importance to a realistic portrayal of the involuntary heroine. Senua is portrayed in her second adventure by the actress Melina Juergens. With modern motion-capturing technology, Ninja Theory wants to create both fluid animations and particularly lifelike facial expressions.
But Melina Juergens herself also wants to contribute to a credible portrayal of Senua. So she not only signed up for a master class in swordsmanship. At the same time, she is preparing for her role with her life partner Lion Macedo, an experienced MMA trainer and professional fighter. Macedo taught Juergens, among other things, how to handle weapons and corresponding fighting techniques. Ninja Theory is supported in the motion-capturing work on Senua's Saga: Hellblade II by C.C. Smiff, an award-winning swordsmanship master and stunt choreographer who has worked on well-known works such as Star Wars or Game of Thrones in the past.
Another technology that the British studio is using for work on Senua's Saga: Hellblade II are the so-called flow maps. With this technique, Ninja Theory is able to conjure up believable cloud movements, fluid weather changes and a detailed sky on the screen.
Finally, the developers of Ninja Theory promise that Senua's new adventure will make full use of the technical possibilities of the current
