A few months ago, the fine folks over at Ninja Theory boldly declared that 'yes, you can too have a female lead in a video game' with the release of the trailer for their upcoming Celtic-inspired action title, Hellblade. The latest developer diary takes us deeper into the world of the game's main character, Senua.
Go To Hell With The Hellblade Cinematic Reveal
Senua, an intimidating Celtic warrior, came about because he game's creator (Chief Creative Ninja) Tameem Antoniades was inspired by an article he read about a heretofore unknown Pict goddess named Senua. He wanted to create a character of "intense realism, beauty, anger and history." A medieval woman descending into some version of hell certainly fits that bill.
Creating Senua in form was, in a word, 'challenging'. Antoniades even describes her as 'a challenging female form: not sexy, not skimpy, not young, not skinny, yet stunning, compelling and believable." That last word is key. Now, none of us have ever traveled to Dark Ages Britain, but the concept and finished art of the character has a presence and groundedness the many scantily clad women of say, Dead Or Alive, simply do not possess.
Chivalry Goes All Medieval On Your Last Gen Butts
In other words, Senua is first and foremost, a character worth following. That she happens to be a woman is not driven by titillation or the need to appeal to some male demographic. Hellblade is being funded, developed and released completely by Ninja Theory, so they do not have to play by anybody else's rules on what gender is or is not acceptable as a main character.
The process behind the reveal trailer is a fascinating one, too. There was once a time we thought Aeris in Final Fantasy VII was the pinnacle of graphics, and to see a video game company utilize such Hollywood style techniques is a testament to how far video games have come in the public's eye.
The video is about 5 minutes long and features a lot of great looking concept art. There's no gameplay, so we cannot comment on that, but it does seem like Ninja Theory has its heart and its head in the right place. We look forward to seeing more of Hellblade in the months to come.
