In order to bring your character back to life, you have to press random buttons in quick succession until all of the symbols are gone. (dagersystem.com)
At the beginning of the game, the main character mentions that he has a whip; after clicking random buttons on my keyboard, I finally found it 30 minutes later. (thatvideogameblog.com)
Those cinematic actions are still present, but they're not random buttons anymore. (dualshockers.com)