Sacred Symbols+, Episode 101: Returnal Review and Story Discussion
Added 2021-07-06 16:01:05 +0000 UTCPlayStation 5's most unusual game is also one of its most critically-acclaimed to date. Returnal -- developed by one-time second party (and now fully-owned) developer Housemarque -- is the culmination of 25 years or so of rock-solid arcadey goodness. But the team that revolutionized the twin-stick shooter and modernized score-chasing walked away from both for their highest-budget game yet, a title with a dense story and a recurring series of worlds where you, as astronaut Selene, try to escape a mysterious and galactic purgatory. It's a journey worth delving into, and to do so, we brought games industry lawyer and friend-of-the-show Rick Hoeg on to accompany us on yet another trip to Atropos.
Follow Rick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HoegLaw
Check out Virtual Legality: https://www.youtube.com/hoeglaw
Comments
Listening in 2025 finally getting round to playing this awesome game
Mr Peter Banks
2025-03-10 20:24:44 +0000 UTCLate to the party on this one cuz returnal has been kicking my ass but I finally beat it last night and listened to the ep today. Awesome work and more stoked now that Rick is a reg contributor. Cheers!
Jay Bayles
2021-07-30 01:45:11 +0000 UTCI'll see what I can do!
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-09 21:54:16 +0000 UTCIt's hard, man!
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-09 21:54:10 +0000 UTCThat movie seems to come up from time-to-time in the LSM sphere.
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-09 21:54:02 +0000 UTCThank you!
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-09 21:53:51 +0000 UTCOkay. =)
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-09 21:53:45 +0000 UTCI beat all 3 acts in less than 25 hours, come on you can do it, especially if you beat all dark Souls games, Sekiro was way harder and needs more timing skills in my opinion and you still beat it
lopido
2021-07-09 19:32:43 +0000 UTCRick Hoeg is an awesome dude. Definitely would like to see him around more often!
Carlos Moreno
2021-07-09 19:09:29 +0000 UTCStill never made it past biome 3 lol. Over 100hrs and I had to shelf this game. I can beat every dark souls type games but not this lmao go figure
Wayde
2021-07-08 20:09:32 +0000 UTCI liked the Jacobs Ladder reference.
Context Should Matter
2021-07-08 01:25:42 +0000 UTCFantastic episode/analysis. I think keeping the number of voices to two was a great choice! Hoeg rules!
Daniel Boyer
2021-07-07 14:59:21 +0000 UTCKeep the Hoeg episodes coming!!!
BM
2021-07-07 04:51:20 +0000 UTCNice, thank you! I succumbed for sure.
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-06 23:56:56 +0000 UTCThanks! As usual, we go as long or short as seems right in the moment. <3
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-06 23:56:37 +0000 UTCOkay, good to know. Thank you!
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-06 23:56:22 +0000 UTCHe did great! He'll be back, for sure.
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-06 23:56:16 +0000 UTCI gotta say, it wasn't one of my favorite guns. But I didn't use it much.
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-06 23:55:40 +0000 UTC!!!
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-06 23:55:29 +0000 UTCThere's something up with the consoles, there has to be.
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-06 23:55:25 +0000 UTCThat's right.
Colin Moriarty
2021-07-06 23:55:13 +0000 UTCI also had trouble with the last glyph in the 2nd biome! I did some reading and I think most people miss the same one. It’s after you go through the first teleporter, you enter an outside area and look up and there’s a tricky grappling hook spot and then after that there’s one of those orbs you hit to get a hidden platform. That was the only glyph I had trouble finding. Also, I noticed you started saying biome even though you don’t like that term :P
Random Integer
2021-07-06 23:13:07 +0000 UTCHow can we miss him if he wont go away.
Piston Pants
2021-07-06 22:38:40 +0000 UTCGreat episode. Love how much Hoeg had to say. Only wish it was longer
Jake Z
2021-07-06 20:50:36 +0000 UTCHey Colin, the sun fragments will always spawn as long as you go to the house in biome 4 after beating biome 6 in order to see the final house scene. Also, when I earned the platinum I found that chasing the sun fragments was best to do first before getting the glyphs and the logs. You'll find the glyphs and logs along the way. Thanks for the episode!
Jordan Avery
2021-07-06 19:56:33 +0000 UTCHoeg was damn knowledable and a great reviewer. Please bring him back in the future
Andykapped
2021-07-06 19:49:58 +0000 UTCWhere was the big D on this one? I was under the impression he finished/beat the game and really enjoyed it.
John
2021-07-06 19:14:29 +0000 UTCI doubt they change the upgrade system or the difficulty, I would very much appreciate some sort of save state but I don’t know if they will do that either. I just need to nut up and play it more but it’s so depressing to lose an hour or 2 just to die in 5 seconds
NukeDukem
2021-07-06 18:30:08 +0000 UTCWhen Hades comes out I would 100% recommend it. I played it on switch and will be playing it again on PS5 to get trophies
NukeDukem
2021-07-06 18:27:32 +0000 UTCI must of missed the thread for this. Has anyone got any suggestions of similar games. This is my first experience with this type of game and quite intrigued to explore more
Aran Benton
2021-07-06 17:39:08 +0000 UTCa fully levelled hollowseeker is the OP secret endgame weapon devs would put into games back in the day after you complete everything
Jacob
2021-07-06 17:37:48 +0000 UTCHooooooeg
brody_low
2021-07-06 17:00:29 +0000 UTCGreat episode as always. I’m excited for a future ps5 episode. Returnal worked well for me up until I could not turn off the PS5 using the media bar. It would just not shut off at all, and I could still play the game etc. it’s the only game that this has happened to
Kenneth Oms
2021-07-06 16:56:46 +0000 UTCColin and the Hoagie boi.
Piston Pants
2021-07-06 16:35:02 +0000 UTCWould love to listen to it, but haven't beaten the second level, decided to stop playing it until the devs fix their bullshit difficulty, which may never happen... I want them to make the game more Roguelite with tangibles permanents stats upgrades. But as of right now, in it's current state I can't justify playing this game, all too dependant on rng, that may last me another 20 hours or 120 hours, when I already have so many games to play. Gameplay is really great in this game and I would really like to be able to progress the story... Maybe one day.
RD_21
2021-07-06 16:06:55 +0000 UTC
