Author: Jacob

SENUA’S SAGA: HELLBLADE II

In this video, we’ll be taking a look at the settings relating to the motor accessibility of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, such as the simplified ‘Self-play’ options for offensive and defensive actions, as well as the comprehensive controller remapping settings.

Senua’s Saga is an action-adventure game that’s available on Xbox Series S and X, and PC. You play as the protagonist Senua as she makes her way through ninth-century Iceland.

The game features elements of combat, exploration and puzzles as you explore the lands to free your people.

We’ll be taking a look at the console version of the game using a game controller. However, all the settings mentioned can also be found on the PC version of the game.

Gameplay Menu

On starting a ‘New Story’, you are not offered difficulty levels to choose from. Instead, the game starts in Dynamic Difficulty Mode.

This affects the Combat Difficulty only, not how difficult puzzles are or other gameplay elements may be.

Dynamic difficulty adjusts the game’s difficulty automatically, depending on your skill level.

For example, if you’re having difficulty defeating enemies, then the game will automatically start reducing enemy health and damage.

The same applies for if you’re defeating enemies with ease which will subsequently make enemies become more difficult for you to defeat, as they would deal more damage and have increased health.

You can change difficulty at any point in the game by pausing the game, going into Settings, then selecting Gameplay. You can choose between Dynamic, Easy, Medium, and Hard.

Button Mash Input Method

At the top of some menus, selecting ‘Accessibility’ will take you to an Accessibility Sub-Menu. This sub-menu contains some options related to the motor accessibility of the game.

You can select how you interact with the Button Mash Input Method. By default, it’s set to Tap where you have to repeatedly press the correct button to complete the action.

Setting this to Hold will allow you to complete the action by holding down the correct button. Setting it to Auto will complete the action automatically without the need for a button input.

For instance, to get up after being hit to the ground during combat, with the option on the Tap setting, I am tapping the A button repeatedly and quickly to get up. If I change the setting to Hold, I now hold the input to get up. With the setting on Auto, I now do not need to tap or hold the button. My character will get up on their own.

By default, some actions, such as Sprinting, Blocking, and Focusing are performed by holding down the relevant button for the duration of the action.

LB performs a Sprint, RB performs a Block during combat, and LT and RT act as Focus,which is required to progress through puzzles.

However, you can change these actions to a toggle instead where you press the button to start performing the action and press it again to stop it.

For instance, to sprint, you press Left Bumper to activate sprint and Senua will sprint during movement until you press it again to deactivate it.

If left activated Senua will continue to sprint next time you move, even if stopping any movement in between. 

When blocking is set to a toggle, you would need to press the RB button again after each successful block to block again.

Offensive and Defensive Actions

You have several options for how you can attack and defend. You can choose between Default, Simplified, and Self-play.

Default gives you full control in combat where you have to press buttons to attack.

Simplified will perform the most appropriate offensive or defensive action regardless of what action button is being pressed.

Self-play will perform offensive and defensive actions automatically without the need to press a button.

This option can be beneficial to players who would prefer to enjoy the story without worrying about the combat.

You can mix and match the different options for defensive and offensive actions.

So, for example, you can choose to have full control over offensive actions, and then have self-play to perform defensive actions.

With the default setting for both Offensive Actions, I attack using X for Fast Attack and Y for Heavy Attack.

These need to be timed to strike at an appropriate moment. To defend, A is used to Evade and RB is used to Block and Parry.

Again, these need to be timed to avoid a strike from your opponent.

Here, I have now changed Defensive Actions to Simplified and I can either press A or RB and the game will choose the most effective action between Block and Parry or Evade.

This reduces the amount of Defensive inputs required – to one button instead of two.

You will need to still use an interact action to get up when downed which is a ‘Button Mash’ scenario as described previously. As stated before, this can be made Automatic.

Here, I have changed the Defensive Actions setting to Self-play and I no longer need to use an input to defend myself. The game will take over Defensive Actions during combat.

Leaving Defensive Actions set to Self-play, here, I have changed Offensive Actions to Simplified, and now I can press either X or Y and the game will choose which is the most appropriate action to carry out.

You will also utilise Senua’s Focus ability, when available and appropriate, which slows time and increases Senua’s speed in attack.

This reduces the amount of Attacking inputs to one button instead of two.

If I change the Offensive Action setting to Self-play, I now no longer need to use either of the attacking inputs to play.

Different combinations of the Offensive and Defensive Actions options can be used, depending on the inputs you want to use, from four maximum with both settings on default, to none with both on Self-lay.

With both on Simplified, you would need 2 inputs in total for Offensive and Defensive Actions in combat.

It is worth noting, that during combat, enemies approach you, so you do not need to use movement or camera inputs to aim at or move towards an enemy.

You can use the movement action to strafe around the enemy you are currently in combat with.

Controls Menu

You can remap actions to almost all of the inputs in the game, including the Menu button, View Button, and individual stick directions.

This means that you can remap any actions to the joystick directions, including allowing you to swap the stick functions over, so you could move your character with the Right Stick and move the camera with the Left Stick.

You could also remap the Look Left and Right actions with Move Left and Right, to create a ‘Legacy’ style control scheme on the joysticks.

This could allow some players to do much of the exploration in sections with just one joystick, until you need to move Left or Right to strafe on a ledge or in combat, or use Look Up or Down to solve a puzzle.

Here, I have mapped Left Stick with Move Forwards, Backwards with Look Left and Right. I can move the stick upwards to walk forwards and left and right to turn.

You can also assign button actions to a specific joystick direction or vice versa.

For instance, you could even assign a button or trigger to act as walk forward so you wouldn’t necessarily need to use both joysticks continuously in the game.

For example, you could assign Left Stick Up function to R2 and then keep the Right Stick for the camera.

This will allow you to walk forward by holding down R2 and turn your character by moving the Right Stick left or right.

If you are using an Xbox Adaptive Controller, you could plug an accessibility switch into the X1 port as an alternative to utilising this remapping option to use a walk forwards button instead of a joystick.

This port acts as Left Stick Up, by default, which will make your character walk forward when the button is held down.

You could then either use a joystick that is plugged into the Right USB port to control the camera, or use the Right Stick on the standard Xbox controller via Co-pilot.

More information about the Xbox Adaptive Controller can be found on gameaccess.info, using the ‘XAC’ tag.

In the Controls menu, as well as the game actions, you can remap the Pause action to another input, which is the Menu button on the Xbox controller by default. Inputs within the menu itself cannot be remapped.

After choosing an input to remap an action to, you will be told of any conflicts and you’ll be able to confirm by choosing to ‘Overwrite’ or ‘Cancel’ it, or ‘Retry’ with another input.

If you do Overwrite another action by using the same input, that action will become blank and you will need to remap another input to it.

While some inputs are stacked by default, it can be useful if a player prefers to carry out the same action with different inputs, depending on the situation, such as both A and B being options to use as interacting.

You cannot remap using multiple inputs for one action. Only one alternative input can be mapped to each action.

There are only two types of context – exploration or combat, so most inputs are not used for multiple different actions, except when in Photomode, which uses the majority of the controls also used during gameplay and also uses the D-pad.

Input Menu

You use the Right Stick to move the camera during exploration. You also use it to solve puzzles by lining up your viewpoint with the environment to match symbols.

The camera follows behind Senua at all times, so you will need to look Left and Right to turn Senua and your camera.

The Up/Down movements on the Right Stick can be inverted by turning on Invert Look Control Y.

You can adjust the vibration strength, ranging from 0-100, in increments of 1.

You can adjust the camera sensitivity, ranging from 5-100, in increments of 1. Look Control Sensitivity X adjusts the Left and Right camera movements and Look Control Sensitivity Y adjusts the Up/Down camera movements.

By going into Photo Mode, you can take your own bespoke photos in the game. The Sensitivity of the Left Stick to navigate the camera can be adjusted, ranging from 5-100, in increments of 1. 

The Sensitivity can also be adjusted for the Camera rotation which is controlled by the Right Stick. This also ranges from 5-100 and can be adjusted in increments of 1.

Outro

We hope you found this video useful. If you have any questions about the motor accessibility of the game, please get in touch with SpecialEffect.

For game developers interested in other ways developers have offered accessibility features, similar to those we have looked at in this video, please visit the SpecialEffect DevKit at specialeffectdevkit.info.

For example, to see how other developers have used ‘Automatic Digital Actions’, as with the Self-play settings available for combat in Senua’s Saga, please see module 7.3 in the ‘Simplification’ topic.

This shows how developers have implemented similar features in their games, and how it might be possible to reduce the number of actions the player needs to perform by partially, or fully automating them.

For more information on how allowing remapping between analog and digital inputs can be useful for players who prefer pressing a button to moving a stick in certain directions, or vice versa, please visit module ‘2.5, Interchanging Analog with Digital’ in the ‘Action Mapping’ Topic.