After inadvertently teasing fans about a sequel, Returnal developer Housemarque has announced that a graphic novel adaptation called “Returnal: Fallen Asteria” will be coming in October. I’m excited to see how the story is handled in the book, especially since it’s being created by the same storytelling team that wrote Returnal, but even as a big fan of both the game and the graphic novel, I have to admit, I’m worried. Returnal’s gameplay and narrative structure are a big part of its deep, moving story, and I’m not sure how an 88-page book will capture that.

If you haven’t played Returnal yet, don’t read any further. I’m usually pretty negative about how strict people are about spoilers, but you need to experience the story of Returnal to really understand what it’s all about. What begins as a typical science fiction tale, in which astronaut Selene crash-lands on an alien planet called Atropos, slowly reveals itself to be a deeply personal psychological horror about grief and guilt. Like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, Atropos is a metaphorical representation of Selene’s psyche. But how you discover this fact plays a key role in understanding the story’s major themes and larger developments.

Returnal has a reputation for being a tough bullet-hell style roguelike, and it’s a reputation that’s well deserved. Roguelike loops are built into the story. Selene heads into the wilds of Atropos in search of a way to get home, and each time she dies, time rewinds to the moment she stepped off the crashed ship. This isn’t just a narrative device to justify it being a roguelike, it’s a crucial feature about how you experience the story. In Hades, Zagreus always makes incremental progress toward his end goal, celebrating small victories along the way. In Returnal, each defeat pulls Selene back to the beginning, her progress lost and her will to continue further eroded. It’s a Sisyphean undertaking for the character, and a devastating one for the player.

At one point, we realize that Selene’s time loop is a prison of her own making, and that her inability to escape is a reflection of her inability to cope with having done something terrible. She punishes herself with fantasies of dying over and over again on a hellish planet filled with monsters, and we share her suffering, torn apart by Returnal’s brutal combat encounters. To truly understand her story, we must suffer alongside Selene. This is one of the most fascinating stories ever told in a video game, and that’s largely due to the way the game experience reflects and enhances the narrative.

Very few comics challenge or torture me as much as they do. Grant Morrison’s highly experimental and highly self-indulgent book The Invisibles comes to mind. It’s incredibly divisive, difficult to analyze, exhausting to read, and often credited with saving or ruining lives. Other examples can be found in literature that Returnal excels at: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski found it more difficult to complete than any game I’ve ever played, and often left me feeling hopeless. Similarly, I’d rather be trapped in the Atropos time loop than re-read Anja Ahlborn’s Brother.

People often talk about unadaptable books, novels that just don’t work in any other medium. House of Leaves is one of them, others include Blood Meridian, Infinite Jest, the Dark Tower series, and, until recently, Dune. Now that we’re in the age of animated video game adaptations, it’s interesting to think about which game stories really can’t be adapted. I’m excited to see how the team at Housemarque translates Returnal into new media, but I don’t think any other medium can do Selene’s story justice unless you play the game and experience it for yourself.