As I can attest from personal experience, having a mental illness adds a whole new level of difficulty to finding love and maintaining a relationship. Senua finds in Dillion someone who accepts her and loves her for who she is, trauma and all. This is a truly rare and special thing.

But she feels that her illness is hurting him, (another very relateable problem) and so pushes him away and leaves to try and confront her demons alone. When she returns, he is dead, and his death pushes her to a psychotic break which manifests as the events of the game.

What begins as a quest to save his soul from hell ultimately becomes something far more poignant; Senua must come to terms with his death, let him go, and resolve to move on with her life.

Most love stories tell of the genesis of a relationship; Hellblade instead portrays the pain of love cut short, and how we cope with loss.