The interns, to me, mostly felt like the tutorial brigade. They show up in the beginning as a minor obstacle, you win (most of) them over at the climax of the second level, and then their purpose in their narrative is done, allowing them (sans Norma) to fade into the background. Norma showing up again to betray you is fine, since it's plenty foreshadowed, but after that, their chapter is well and truly closed. They don't need to be any more than that (even if some extra conversations on the hub world would have been nice). The first act antagonists showing up in the finale feels silly. It has all the gravitas of a hypothetical version of the final battle of Psychonauts 1, where instead of Augustus showing up and cashing in all of his narrative build-up, it would have been Kitty and Franke riding in on a giant friendship bracelet while triumphantly yelling "All right Raz, it's time we pay you back for those arrowheads you gave us on the bridge!" It's especially egregious since having the Psychic Six show up instead would have allowed them to earn redemption for themselves and move past their old failure, which would have been a really nice capstone on their character development. I honestly thought, with all of them being present in the room prior, that's what was being set up. As it is, it feels a bit like that group was robbed of their narrative climax.
I kind of wish Psychonauts 2 had included a level revisiting Raz's mind, the way we did in the original game. It's understandable, but given the game's themes and what you've pointed out about the parallels between Raz and Gristol Malik, it seems a waste not to confront it. Alas, that's not the game that exists. Black Velvetopia's still the best level in the first game, though.
Though funny, it felt very wrong that Gristol's mind is of some lunatic childish narcisist, his plan involved infiltrating a secret agency with people who hear thoughts and feel emotions (like Milla scanning the world). How???? Also, how did the manage to give that phobia to lobotto? Did he hire a second psychic for that???
I mean, other than Gloria, all the minds at the Asylum are pretty iconic and a blast to spend time in. ... Can't say that for any of Psychonauts 2's minds. They just don't feel as fun to be in.
@@OtterloopB Yeah that's understandable. Gloria's mission wasn't all that fun but I really enjoyed her character and story, wish they did more with it tbh
The interns are, for me, the biggest missed potential (with the rest of the Aquato family apart from Lucy and Augustus beeing close) in this game. They either come off either as annoying (specially Norma) or underutilized. Sam is the best not only because of her personality but because she has the advantage that we know her brother and grandfather, we have a more context on her behavior and posible backstory compared to all other interns. There should've been more interactions with them that tie into the story, like them introducing to the player certain things like grindrails and trampolines for the first time or having character growth as you progress through the game of the same quality as the campers' in the first game. For me the most underutilized of them all is Adam, the yoyo dude. I weirdly remember his name since I was quite interested in him at first due to him actually beeing a chill dude. Saddly that's mostly all he has apart from his pyschic yoyo that we rarely see him use. He doesn't even have a sidequest.
I just thought of something, Adam hangs around the display of the Psychonauts' history in the main area within the Motherlobe, and in the post game he shows off the new screen displaying Raz's battle with Maligula. Maybe that could've been a way for us to know more about him and have him connected more with the main story. Make him a Psychonauts history buff (maybe even more so than Raz) and can have discussions with Raz about that history. Along with that, after certain points in the middle portion of the game, like saying after beating Cruller's Correspondence, we get new dialogue between him and Raz about what we now know about the Psychic Six.
@@merpo2806 I forgot about the screen in the post game and I agree with you. Having the friendliest out of the interns also have a thing for the Psychonauts' history would also further deepen the relationship between him and Raz as good friends.
Originally he was supposed to have some sort of side quest as evident by certain voice files, it seemed to be about taking photos in the questionable area! Its sad they never added it :(
@@deadmanag283 Ah man that stinks, that would've given the camera gadget (I forgot it's actual name) an actual use instead of just being a neat bonus. (I briefly forgot it helps find figments with the special filter for a moment)
I think it would've been cool if specific Interns joined you in certain minds throughout the game. Like getting Sam to join you in Comptom's Cookoff or Adam in Cassie's library. It would allow us to explore a character while also getting a chance to push the story forward. They don't even have to be a companion class NPC supporting during fights. They could've operated like Lily during Fatherland Follies.
I know people joke about how the Psychic Six/Seven needed to see therapists, and they do, but I wonder if they realize that they're also themselves essentially very, very, very eccentric therapists. I wonder how much the obligations that came with that, the need to be the stable party who takes care of other people, someone who gives help rather than receives it, caused them to shun other Psychonauts and therapists until things got so bad that a literal child had to get involved.
I love cassie's reaction to you your proposal to look inside of her mind. She is so glad and positive about it. It seems popping in and out of eachother's minds was a regular practic for them, she even mentiones , that her last check-up was performed by ford. They seemed to help eachother be in shape , untill they drove apart.
The interns popping up in the finale felt wrong to me too. Had a similar feeling in Borderlands 3. We get side characters that are mostly absent from the story popping up as if they're fundamentally important.
Yup. Maybe they were short on time or animators or something, but I feel it could've been solved pretty easily be having some cutscenes in between major parts of the game showing what the interns were up to. Sort of like a "B story" in a cartoon, where the A and B stories are disconnected but somehow become connected and relevant to each other in the end. Plot-wise, I think it would've been neat if the interns were sent to find Loboto after he escaped (I mean seriously, why did nobody go after him?). The story could've tied together to Raz's by having the interns catch Loboto, and eventually getting him to spill everything he knows about Maligula. Interns get shocked, realize why Raz has been running back and forth all this time, go ask Forsyth where Raz is. Interns find Raz and now have a reason for helping him, not just because they have to but because they learned everything Raz did up to this point.
@@crazyduplicate as opposed to... what other kind of discourse? I'd say you know a game is good when the only "discourse" around it is very minor nit-picking.
@@crazyduplicate god forbid someone is being somewhat critical of something you like ;). Dont pop a gasket just because someone pointed out something wrong in your darling little angel of a game. Games good but not flawless, almost nothing is, except me ofc.
With that spoiler warning up front, I'm gonna stash this video in my Watch Later list; I'm only about an hour into the game. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts sometime in March when I've finished playing!
1:02:25 - fun fact: napoleon’s great nephew, jerome bonaparte moved to the us and started a linage of american bonapartes that as far as i can tell goes onto this day, meaning were going to enter the psychonauts timeline any day now
My biggest grip was that by the end of it all, the interns and raz all became juniors when I feel like Raz is definitely deserving of a higher placement due to saving the world twice already practically by himself and because out of everyone he has the most experience being a psychonaut
Story about relying on each other: Has the main character constantly, comically thrust into saving the entire world on his own while everyone else throws him a shovel to help him dig. Constantly has all the other professional psychonauts fail to do their jobs so that the Gary Stue mc can save the world, again. Exposition dumps even more pontifications about morality throughout. Reaction: "Wow, this is a masterpiece, but I would prefer if its story had better moral implications in its historical parallels of Tsarist Russia." I weep
The bit about the NPCs can best be demonstrated by this: Name a camper at Whispering Rock, and a fan of the first game will likely be able to tell you a good bit about them. Name an intern other than Sam, and a fan of the second game might have to ask you which one that is. Some of the minor NPCs you can find wandering the Motherlobe have more interesting character arcs than the interns.
I dunno. I obviously can't speak for everyone, but as a massive fan of the first game who's played it around 10 times or so to completion since it came out, including once right after beating Psychonauts 2 when it first came out, I'm honestly not certain I could tell you much about either the campers or the interns. Like, just off the top of my head as I'm writing this I remember Bobby's name, Lilly...and that's it. From the interns I remember Sam (natch) and...well Lilly. I can't even clearly remember Sam's brother's name, and he got a fair bit of focus in the first game. I also don't really recall any of the campers getting much of an arc (except Lilly). You're also not the only person I've seen have this opinion, so it could very well be me, but I can't help but think nostalgia has a lot to do with it as well.
@@anosmibell6473 I'll freely admit that both nostalgia and simply the fact that the first game has been around for so much longer contribute to that. But I also believe it's generally true regardless.
@@anosmibell6473 Dogen Bobby Kitty Nils Quentin Vernon Pheobe JT Chloe the cowboy one the two cheery ones aaaaaand OH Maloof and Mikhail, Benny, then sailor boy and invisible girl How'd we do fam
WAIT IT'S CHOPS I remember now I can see the comment getting likes but I remember them all, and I know for a fact they all have arcs, trust me, it's not just nostalgia, those kids are golden. We see Maloof become a Mafia Don in 5 acts, pure genius.
My biggest and really only "Minor" complaint was that the new PSI abilities didn't really have a SUPER useful "Exploration" potential. Yeah there's a few. The logs in the Mystery Zone, Slipping into mail slots as paper Raz. But that's ALL they are. They're "keys" to certain locks. And not much else. Combat it pretty much always going to handled the same way.
My biggest issue with PsychoNauts 2 (and the interns, specifically) is so small but holds such weight in my mind. It's that new sign that gets added to "The History of the PsychoNauts" at the end of the game. "The Heroic Interns" or whatever it's called. I'll explain. It is very clear that sign on display was left blank so that it could be filled in after finishing the game's story. The fact that it is part of a display that details the history of the PsychoNauts gives it importance within the world the game takes place in. The fact that it is clearly meant to be filled in after the story is completed gives it importance to the player. This sign was always meant to depict a symbol that represents the entirety of the player's journey through this game. An image the player can go back to that will call upon the events of this new game. The sign should've been of the Psychic 6. The Psychic 6, Raz, and Lucy. That's what this game was about. That's what the player will always remember. Those are the characters this game took time to develop and had the player form relationships with. The interns were flat, static, annoying characters that barely have any importance on the plot, form no real connection to Raz or Lucy, and are just generally unpleasant to interact with throughout the entire game. I get that they could be seen as realistic teenagers, and there is no need for them to apologize for their treatment of Raz.... SO LONG AS they are treated as the background characters they were written as. But instead the game seems to think they are more important than they actually are. It annoys me greatly and I am relieved to find out I am not the only person that thinks this way. TL;DR The Interns were written as annoying background characters, but were treated as main characters and stole attention away from the characters that were actually developed.
I don't know, they're not forcing them in. If anything, the problem is that they don't do enough with the interns. Also, keep in mind that there is a section for the Psychic 6 that gets corrected in the post-game to include Lucy as well, as the Psychic 7.
I actually forgot about this comment. I agree with you and never claimed the interns were forced into the story. I wish more was done with them to justify their existence at all. Having actual development for the characters would've made them so much more tolerable and might've made them pleasant to interact with. My main issue is that, as written, all the interns (except Sam) and really annoying.
Funny that crows on a train in Hat and Time look, talk, and act in similar fashion as milkman's spies. I'm sure it was an intentional homage to Psychonauts!
Jonas Kaerlev - The creator of Hat in Time - has actually brought this up in a multitude of interviews. He's a very outspoken fan of Psychonauts, & he included a number of references to Psychonauts within the game (the CAW Agents being probably the most obvious homage). B-Mask actually specifically brings this up in his Hat in Time video (it's actually how I first found his channel, & is easily one of my favorite videos from him), but to paraphrase a point he talks about in that video, the CAW Agents essentially miss the point on what made the G-Men so effective, making them fall flat from both a comedic & storytelling perspective.
Great video about a great game! I'm glad you mentioned the whole Romanov symbolism, I loved the Gristol twist but it also left a weird feeling in the back of my mind due to the whole... innocent royal children being murdered thing. It's a complicated, sad topic that left framing Gristol as potentially irredeemable as a bit off-key. But like you said, within the context of the game world it works well. It obviously wasn't intended as a 1-for-1 comparison anyway.
Thank you! In a way I'm glad I was able to air those thoughts to give myself some closure, knowing others were at least aware why i'd feel so conflicted. Overall it's my favourite level in the game, there's nowhere else I can go to play anything like it.
I'm not saying it's wrong to make that connection, but I don't think it's really warranted? Don't get me wrong, the game is clearly drawing parallels, but I don't think it's actually trying to SAY something about the Romanov children? I'm not wording it a well as I want to, and I'm sorry for that.
@@Sperium3000 Oh yeah I don’t think Tim was actually trying to say bad things about the Romanov kids or anything, it’s just a story beat that maybe should have been handled a little bit differently to avoid unintended implications.
I'm not sure that Gristol was framed as irredeemable? More like he refuses to buy into the fact that something needs to change about him. Because that's where all therapy begins, with self-reflection. And I don't think Gristol is incapable of self-reflection, because that would actually make him irredeemable, just that he doesn't want to. Because he's built up his own victimization and narrative about what happened so much that if he lets go of even a tiny bit of it, if he stops that theme park ride from moving, then he has nothing else to grasp onto. I think a key part that might have been glossed over about Gristol's mental world is that it very heavily implies that Gristol is aware, on some level, that his whole narrative and delusion is self-enforced. Like, the fact that you can alter that small section about his family fleeing and their "suffering" so easily, changing the order of events and so on to solve the puzzle, seems very indicative of that to me anyway. I do agree that a redemption arc for Gristol, even one that only begins his journey towards better mental health, would be incredibly interesting to see play out.
I will say, I think the interns are the part that most feel wasted. As you said, they, thematically, make sense within the world. the campers were all Raz' age, all people just starting out on their trip down the road to being psychics. Half of them had little to no control. Meanwhile, Raz, by the end of a single day, had surpassed all of them to the point of being able to assist full Psychonauts with an emergency. Not one of the others, other than MAYBE Lilly, and possibly not even her, could have done that. The interns are the next step up. They are in full control of their abilities, to the point of toying around with it, pushing ever so slightly against the ceiling of how far their powers can go, and seeing if they can get them out just that little bit farther. However, they're still not at Raz' level, something the game itself acknowledges. Or rather, Raz is a generalist, each of them is a specialist. It allows them all to fill a role in an operation, but not to be slotted into ANY role at the same time. And that kind of holds them back, as a generalist is what's needed for so many of these minds and missions. It sounds like, from the talk of the office around, that each full Psychonaut has an area where they're adapt or a master, but they also have a basic ability in the other areas. That's what the Interns are here to learn, and something Raz has already mastered, again, putting him just a step ahead, which is why the promote him at the end of this game, while also giving the other interns a leg up too.
For me it was pacing of how raz reacted to everything was just steamrolled, the second batch of kids wasn't well integrated to the world, the mind world's were great,the main world need to be some relandscape. I just wished we could had seen more from his family.
Tbh, after the plot twist, I got the vibe he was bottling things up and throwing himself into his work, so to speak. If that was the case, I could see it being a cool future plotline in a psychonauts 3.
I was disappointed by the lack of character growth based on world state compared to the first game. I was really hoping we'd get to know the campers a bit more and we'd see them get closer to and grow to respect Raz and the lack of Lilly and Raz specifically and Raz's family felt a little lacking. A lot like you, Psychonauts is everything I'm in to, from it's macabre edges to its adventure game trappings to its aesthetic, partly because Psychonauts was my introduction to a lot of those things. I played it at launch when I was eight and it was the first thing I ever encountered that made me want to make THINGS. Art, music, stories, anything as long as I could capture that spark Psychonauts made me feel. I love the game and I feel so vindicated that almost seventeen years of waiting was mostly worth it, but I really wanted more after the credits. I felt a little weird at the end having that feeling, like I was being a little greedy, but even though I love the game I ultimately can't help but want another game that gives me more and pushes things in ways that first game did. I don't think I'll ever get that, but I can't help but want it.
My god. My GOD, B-Mask. This video was phenomenal. I would have never considered some of the things you did when you discussed the final act. And I am totally where you are with that last conversation Raz has with his dad. I think it really suggests that some of Raz’s attitudes you mention towards *REDACTED* is something Raz has to let simmer in the back of his mind too. Really your video just cemented for me how much I loved, and how affected I was by, and how grateful I am for soooo much of what Psychonauts 2 was doing.
I sympathize with loving the first game, but not quite loving this one, and that made this video really cathartic. I'd been feeling conflicted about this game ever since I finished it, and while asking for even more in certain areas is unreasonable, as you implied, I think the points you brought up in the 'Critical thinking' chapter are nevertheless quite strong, and they helped me figure out why I felt underwhelmed in the end, especially when it comes to the climax. It ain't no asylum and meat circus, that's for sure. On the other hand, there are many ideas and details you highlighted which I either didn't notice or didn't quite process on my playthrough. I thought I was being slow and diligent, but maybe I was still moving a bit too fast to pick up on all the distinct merit of the game. Possibly also a bit dismissive of some themes that didn't resonate with me. To summarize, this video helped me lay a lot of my problems with the game to rest, and made me appreciate it more as well. For that much - thank you, B- Mask!
You’ve worded everything I’ve been feeling after I first played Psychonauts 2. I enjoyed the game, but the experience felt almost too compact and the ending felt so abrupt. I didn’t think I cared about the Raz and Lilly storyline until Psychonauts 2 when they barely interacted. I keep comparing the interns to the campers. I loved the way they fleshed out the campers by placing them around the map and having you overhear their conversations between each other. They also did a lot of unique things like Chloe testing a paper airplane, Nils spying through a peephole, Bobby torturing a fish, etc. They defined themselves through their actions. I felt like the interns were always just in the Motherlobe talking and doing very little else. There’s nothing particularly terrible about them, but they’re hard to remember when thinking about Psychonauts as a whole. I kinda feel that way with almost every character introduced in Psychonauts 2, but I only just started my second playthrough. I’ve grown to like Psychonauts 2 a lot more with my second playthrough. It has a lot to like and the levels do a great job in terms of design. However, Psychonauts 1 will probably always top its sequel imo. Psychonauts 1 was much more experimental to me, certainly not as polished, but I didn’t care as much about that when I experienced all the fascinating ideas and the wonderful details Edit 2: I also found the ending for the villain strange too. It seemed a little messed up that Milla and Sasha were so comfortable and joking about the idea of doing unethical experiments on a prisoner, and when talking to Nick in his cell, his dialogue shows that he sees the Psychonauts as an unfair and authoritarian agency. The unethical operations of the modern Psychonauts are not explored at all, and I think it’s strange that the franchise approaches the issue from such a one dimensional viewpoint. It makes more sense now that I’ve seen the brief history lesson for the context behind this part of the game, but still rubs me the wrong way.
I think an easy solve for the games issue with the interns is to have them join you in the minds that aren’t ford or Lucrecia , maybe even adding minds like Augustus and Otto. Sam could’ve come to help Compton, Lizzie to Cassie, Lilly to Bob, Norma to Augustus.
I think the biggest surprise for me was how great the story was. I wasn't expecting for it really hit me in the feels in the way it did, especially with the twist and the delivery of the line "I lost her Rasputin". There is just this mix of emotions welling up inside where I was incredibly disgusted with what was done to this family but at the same time understood why it was done in context. It's nice to see Rasputin fully reconciled with his entire family after so many years since the first game since He and Augustus finally got a chance to start understanding eachother near the end. And that score too. Some movie quality tracks for sure. By the end I really want to see whats next. How can Psy3 go bigger? Where can it go from here? Are water levels and swimming a possibility now for levels? Dunno, guess we'll have to see after they're done with that new project and I'm confident Brutal Legend 2 will be made before Psy3 (Not that I'd be complaining).
while i don't think he would swim (maybe a world you can swim in to start with this growth?) maybe he can finally use his levitation bubble on the water surface (for a limited time since that thought/worry might be there)
@@Silver_wind_1987_ well maybe swimming could be a post game reward so that way we can have real world obstacle courses (with the water still being a reset for messing up) without having to make everything SUPER big/tall to compensate for that "lost" on every course. but i do like that from boat to ball to swim idea
I feel that P's levels being as diverse and experimental as they are is in itself an integral part of the games's identity so 2's lesser emphasis on that front hurts it plenty, especially seeing as to how the greater leap in technology could've helped push the envelope in terms of just how diverse the levels could've been.
Thank you so much for this, I think it's really helped me appreciate 2 on it's on merits a lot more. I think most of my (and a lot of people's, actually) issues with 2 stems not from the game itself, but rather the fear it could be the last installment. If there was just explicit confirmation that this series and it's wonderful core concept had more games to come, I think we would all be a bit more confident that, even if it wasn't represented in 2, the specific element of the setting we want to see explored (such as a specific kind of mental world) could eventually get it's day in the sun, at least in some fashion. But I fully understand that just making a second game at all was an absolutely herculean effort on Double Fine's part, and I couldn't be more thankful. If 2 really is Psychonauts's last bow, then the team more then delivered.
Only came to buy this game last month and finished it just yesterday. First thing I did after logging it was watching this video that I missed from B-Mask last year. So glad I did because the added context of the Gzar and how that reflects on the message the game conveys made it that much more interesting for me. Great video reflecting on a great game. Thanks B-
I think the biggest difference for me was how the story and mechanics were structured. In the first game, it felt like a mystery you were solving, like an actual SPY. The second game felt more like a superhero story kinda? Its hard for me to explain, im not a writer, but I think other people will understand what im trying to get at. Like a platformer/point&click game. Psychonauts 2 is more like a Platformer/action game in the way everything is presented. You arent using deduction to solve a puzzle, your mostly just moving forward to the end of the story. You solve PUZZLES but you arent putting the pieces together. Your getting a new ability, then using those as basically a key to get to the next part. Its really hard to explain because they're so close to being the same thing, but not exactly. Like cousins of each other.
I get the sense that the final battle was originally going to take place in Grulovia and Nick was going to take her there after Fatherland Follies, but then they ran out of money and time. I also don't like how the Delugionists turned out to be one person.
It felt like, a good 1/4th of the game was/miss missing. Which is sad because we know it isn't. doublefine was able to produce all the content they wanted to do for the game thanks to microsoft buying them. What I mean is like, you have the beginning: getting to the HQ and meeting the interns. Then you have the middle: psi king, ford, and Compton. finally the ending section. However in-between like the middle and end, or even the beginning and middle... there is feels like a gap. Like some way to connect us more with the other interns, who we just got to knowing. Which is the weird thing. Psychonauts1 follows the same structure. the beginning of getting to camp and meeting the campers. The middle of milkman and lungfish, and then the ending 3. Yet despite both games following the structure, I don't like the world of Psychonauts 2 as much. I love the characters and Raz's personal story is absolutely satisfying. However the overall story progression just feels a bit disjointed. Like there was a bridge needed to connect the middle+ending to the beginning and it just isn't there.
B, you really outdid yourself with the "Jigsaw Puzzle vs Rubix Cube" analogy there. Never have I ever heard of an analogy so eloquent, unique, and insightful all in one! Bravo, B, bravo.
I loved this game, I REALLY loved it. It had some changes, some understandable [certain powers not returning] but also, some changes still weird. It had some issues, I won't deny those [it feels like the Interns aren't as fleshed out as the campers and they sort of vanish from the plot for most of it.] But I love the sequel, it was pretty much worth the wait and was an amazing experience.
@@BMask to be fair, I didn’t make that connection myself until I saw your video. Having both Raz and Rasputin in the same sentence/ paragraph made me finally realize it.
In my experience it's difficult to hold flaws against a piece of media that shows it was made with love and care. It can be easy to create unfortunate implications when expressing complex ideas in increasing complex ways but I see the empathy and wanting for the audience to understand mental health better. I think most people who played it did and that's most important to me
Great video, loved how you grappled with your own feelings towards the games and its themes. Loved that ending music video and the Maligula drawing for thumbnail looks really good.
Your videos are so great! Thank you so much for covering the themes of the both games and how they explore our minds and reflect our reality. I am Russian, and the plot has hit home really hard... especially now( But I am happy to know that world is still filled with beautiful people and great works of art - these games and your essays are definitely those ✨
First off, it's a blessing that both games are excellent and that they are so different from one another. To think that both titles could generate enough conversation and analysis is absolutely a testament to Tim and his team. What's fascinating about 1 vs 2 is, if there's one area where a game is lacking, the other game is FAR superior to it in that area. So combining both games together, you get a diverse experience that is tremendously satisfying. My least favorite part of Psychonauts 2 were the memory vaults. I think they made the wrong call to reiterate what happens in the vaults in the main storyline, as the vaults were primarily used in the first game to reveal something MAJOR that may entirely change the way you view the character, and it was satisfying and worth tracking down these vaults because you knew that they would not be mentioned anywhere else in the story. Knowing they can be missed is a HUGE incentive. These games are fascinating and I can go on and on about them, but then I would just be reiterating the contents of this excellent video analysis.
Thank you for the kind words- but also an excellent point you made at the start about both games offering something the other might lack and feeding into each other as a single great experience. Wish I'd thought to hammer something like that home in this video!
@@BMask And further expanding upon that observation, it's fascinating that each title could be played interchangeably without feeling like you missed anything or played it in the wrong order. Narratively speaking, each game's tone is much different meaning that there's reason to take a look at each. Two has the stronger commitment to a grander plot with everything connected, where one has more free-flowing ideas that bounce off each other for better comedic effect. Gameplay wise, two is much tighter and more pleasant to actually control, but one offers more secrets to find and bigger payoff for finding those secrets. Honestly, I really want to make a video about what makes a good sequel now! If you beat me to the idea, then by all means go ahead :)
After 100%ing the game, I felt like the game was missing something. Unlocking no cooldowns was neat, but there was no reason to use it as there was nothing left to discover, let alone most enemy encounters no longer spawn once dealt with. The game lacked hidden zones and easter eggs for the most part. You're correct on things feeling a bit too linear. After that I ended up cheating and using jump cheats to see if I could find anything extra outside the map and could only find a loading box outside the brain hub, and that was it. Which is neat, I guess. a Developer left fun text on it. Learned a bit how they designed their loading zones and where they hid interiors, how they dealt with distant terrain and whatnot. Because of this linear nature, it just feels like there's no replay-ability to the game. I feel as though it'll be the same experience every time. And I loved the game, but for me, it's just a one show pony. Unless they come out with DLC, of course.
I just gotta say I’ve been through a lot of shit over the years and I don’t mean to be parasocial or anything but your vids have helped me through a lot. I have CPTSD and this one reminded me of some important stuff the other week. Keep being you
Holy fucking SHIT B-Mask you knocked it out of the park with this one, my brain is filled and I can appreciate this story in even more ways then I could before, let's hope we do get a Psychonauts 3 lmao cause this world is so large and has so much to it, still, very glad Double Fine's taking a break first. Man though, what a video, really had my jaw agape at points with the conclusions you came to that I didn't
It's great to see you back B-Mask! I hope you're doing well in these scary times- When I saw my first playthrough of Psychonauts 2, I felt as if it would go on forever but it was much more shorter than I thought. Time crunch is real, and the fact that they didn't crunch at all is a triumph, even though it resulted in Psychonauts 2 having some holes that you shed light on.
You hit on a lot of what I felt when I was playing this. While I did enjoy it a solid amount, especially as it got further into things, I couldn't help but feel the same points of contention that you illustrated. I also missed the more scrungy look of the first game, where everyone looked off and semi-surreal. In this game, they scaled that back majorly and made the characters much "cuter," with only the occasional quirk or irregularity (sometimes they almost came across more like plush toys than crafted models). I also definitely noticed a change in the vibe and humor, with it losing a lot of the more "meaner" aspects that gave the original game a certain bite (no more "squirrel roast dinner," I suppose). I figured some of this might be a reflection of how things have changed since the 2000s, maybe most folks wouldn't really want that sort of thing in a game like this anymore, I don't know. Anyway, I'm glad you covered this, especially after your great video on the first one, which I very much appreciated. It's good to have you back, though I'm sorry you've had to go through so much recently.
These are my primary issues. 2 just feels so...SANITIZED...compared to 1. Like, I remember so many of the jokes from 1, but most of the jokes in 2 have completely left me. (Considering Tim Schafer has said they consulted lots of people to make the humor more "inclusive", i feel that might have impacted the humor of 2. I'm not against "inclusive" humor, just don't take out the humor of an established series to make it bland.) The overly cute aesthetic bothers me too, since you're going from a dirty, grungy looking world to what looks so clean and, again, sanitized compared to 1. It just...doesn't have the same feel of 1. I just can't rank 2 above it.
This was a fantastic video, I have very similar feelings towards this game, I think objectively, it's the better game out of the two. I can easily recommend this one to friends, it's tight, creative and masterful..... but I miss the disjointed wacky charm of the first game and how so much love was put into every inch of it so you can always experience something new on revisits. I get a lot of people struggle with the first one but I hope that people fall in love with the excellent characters and style and storytelling enough in the second one to want to pick up the first one again and be able to look past some of the problems (clunky combat and handling etc) and really appreciate it for what it is.
So glad to see you making videos again! You're one of the best video essayists on the platform! Psychonauts holds a real special place in my heart, and I'm always glad to hear people more eloquent than I am explain what makes it special, flaws and all
Raz's idealization of the Psychonauts in the first game reads like a starry-eyed child on career day being told how "cool" it is to be a firefighter or a cop. His fixations on the power fantasy and aesthetics, the impression that achieving this nebulous goal would, in his mind, grant him some form of stability and comfort in his identity as a psychic. It's like how a lot of confused, insecure kids hope that one day, when they're older, they'll just have life figured out, and Raz often feels like he's trying to act above his age in a rush to hit that point. The immediate aftermath of Agent Forsythe's level felt like the first real step towards maturity for him, forcing a harsh lesson about the way he wields his powers, but still allowing him to press on, his excitement about the Psychonauts in tact, but now tempered by a well-earned sense of responsibility that informs his actions throughout the entire rest of the game. It's such a great step for the character and the moment that I realized Psychonauts 2 was really going to be something special.
I'm imagining an intro mission for the third game could be Sasha putting Raz through the Brain Tumbler in an experiment to try to help him gain more conscious control over the Hand of Galoccio, which would both serve as a recap of the events of Psychonauts 2 and give us a glimpse at some of Raz's own personal issues that the plot could address, and maybe *then* maybe by the end after Raz and his own relationships and personal demons get some attention/development/closure as needed, we could see him using Hydrokinesis in a final boss fight taking place in realspace as opposed to inside someone's mind.
As great as that and any hypothetical would be, it doesn't replace the phantom of its perfect place in 2 for me. I can live with it, but it will always be missed in that moment.
Great video. The problem I have with Gristol's mind is that, while it serves its narrative function, I think is the most torturous part of the game to "play" through. The whole mind felt like one large unskippable cutscene that spoonfeeds you the lore in the most boring way possible. The "It's a Small World" aspect gets tiresome really quickly after the first room. Also, while it makes sense for Gristol wanting to bring back Maligula, I wish that there was more to Maligula/Lucy/Nona in terms of her relation to Raz and what that meant to him. I feel like Psychonauts 2 has a very well-constructed story, but as you said yourself, is more about Ford than it is about Raz. We don't get to explore Raz's mind at any point in this story, which I feel is a largely missed opportunity to connect him more to the narrative emotionally. As far as I was concerned, Raz was just sort of thrown into the Maligula plot without any real stakes. Yes, we learn that Lucy is Raz's "fake grandma," but not much is expanded upon with either that or the explanation of the water "curse" as you also addressed. In Psychonauts 1, there's freaking tanks with brains in them that are being created by the dude that somehow mixed his brain with your brain. We don't really get that level of connection between protagonist and antagonist or sense of potential destruction in the "real world" of Psychonauts 2, aside from that giant whirlpool at the very end. It was difficult for me to stay invested in the Maligula story after hearing it being retold in countless ways without seeing firsthand the kind of destruction she was doing, as well as how she was connected to Raz aside from her being distantly related. It felt sort of tacked on to me. In short, I love both games. But I get the feeling I'll be coming back to 1 a lot more because of how the story is constructed as well as how that interacts with the gameplay.
Im so so so disapointed no one in the writers rooms piped up and said "maybe we should do a whole theme park" or something like that with the "History of Grulovia" ride being at the end or even a cutscene.
One thing at this point I don’t like about the series is Raz simply does not get his respect. Like look at his feats at what he was able to overcome. I mean in the 2nd game alone he fixes all the psychic six (seven technically, which is something literally the six couldn’t do in regards to fixing Lucy) he fixed Ford, something that literally NO OTHER physic was able to do up until that point, and he defeated Maligula (sure not by himself but mostly) the most powerful physic threat known up until this point. This is the same Raz who was said to have weak physic energy at the beginning of the game by the casino scanners. Sure you can say they did that for the gag, but the game consistently does no give him his respect. I believe the agents (Sasha, Milla, and even Coach) know just how powerful he is or rather his potential is, but the game constantly downplays him. He should quite literally be seen as an absolute prodigy who undergoes unique training at this point, not a junior psychonaut or whatever it is they have ALL the interns at the end. Edit: I’d go as far as to say Raz as an adult would be like a god compared to everyone else
Man its shit like this is why im a patreon. Im not much into background stuff, and i dont really understand discord, but im happy to fund someone putting out really good stuff like this (and getting better at it as you go). Might have to re-watch a couple of times, because this is so dense I dont think i got it all. But that is an easy thing to do with your videos. Thanks B-mask
As usual all the other comments have said pretty much everything I could about how amazing this analysis is, so I'll just tack on that I love when you do those little music videos at the end of these kind of things - they're always so good!
one of many things i love about you and this channel is you don’t post your thoughts to catch onto the hype train, you let it simmer, make sure you feel your feelings are completely thought through. that self control is extremely admirable
As someone who had no idea what psychonauts was or even watched a single video about it and just played the 2nd because it was a new release on game pass i have to say that psychonauts 2 is a great and amazing game even if some things bore me as a new player i thought it was such an amazing game and im really glad i gave it a chance
Watching this 8 months later, all I can think is...I'm really excited for your return to monkey island video. Your first MI video articulates exactly how I'd felt about the series up until that point amd I'm really curious to see if you liked Return as much as I did (it actually made me cry at the end)
So, rewatching this after a year. Man I still love this video. So glad we had your take on the whole game, maybe it got to double fine and they will reach you to take some notes on the next entry (?) One can dream.
My issue with the game was the antagonist, Maligula, and that she was stripped of all her agency and just ended up becoming a "puppet" for someone else. That's a weak antagonist and I was left unsatisfied by the games conclusion because this woman killed people, regardless of her mental state, but we are pushed towards feeling sorry for her because there was a rich boy who was somehow much worse despite not having done anything as bad as she? That doesn't sit right with me.
and even then, they treated Malik as irredeemable. There was creative strain I feel, there could've been re-consoliation where malik was confronted with the bitter truth that bringing back maligula wouldn't give him the kingdom he thinks he deserves, mirroring raz's experience of how he glorified the psychonauts and how differently it turned out. Then we could've gone to Lucy's arc
I’m extremely late but I do want to say this. Maligula and Lucretia are two different beings. Lucretia is not treated like the bad guy because she isn’t one. She wanted to help her country and was manipulated by the gzar. Causing her to do things she didn’t want to do, but thanks to the astrolabe weakening her mental state she didn’t notice that what she was doing wasn’t quite right. Then when she accidentally causes the dam to burst killing many including her sister, her mind breaks releasing Maligula to cope with her accidentally killing her own sister. Is it right to blame her and be angry at her for doing things that were completely out of her control?
@@BBWahoo Uuu that actualy sounds really good even if he stayed a villian. Both charachters from messy famillies both effected by Maligula and both looking for past glory that never really existed.
honestly i dont think the game tries to make you feel bad purely because the maliks used her, but because she was on a destructive path giving in to her primal desires for victory and violence and the maliks only worsened it and i dont think she was really supposed to be seen as a puppet, its more gristol idolized her and thought of her as a great member of the grulovian government when really she was only working for herself, he saw her as a puppet, but really she was completely out of control
@@BBWahoo honestly i think it would be better if they did the opposite, they couldve gone full force with malik being irredeemable instead of mostly glossing over it, it would be nice to show you cant help everyone and some people are just too deadset on their ambitions, but the game just sorta makes you visit his mind, learn a little bit about maligula and why gristol was the ringleader antagonist the whole time, then you leave and the game just says he cant be helped when you dont even really try im guessing they didnt go as far with the idea since it was near the end of the game and it would just be a really long sidething and people wouldntve liked it
"A psychic kid leaving home to discover others like himself" is accurate, but I must point out for anyone in the comments looking for additional insight that this passes over the fact that Raz is a kid who ran away from the Circus. I personally find this infinitely hilarious as a subtle subversion of the idea that kids that say they would run away from home and join the Circus and the jokes and stories that center around that.
@@BMask Oh, absolutely! I made this comment not as a dig at you for not talking about it, but as a way to offer this perspective to people who are traipsing about the comments looking for... additional perspective. Your video is great and I 100% understand why you chose to pass up mentioning such a small nuance, which is why I thought "why not leave a comment about it? maybe someone will enjoy discovering it that way". It was in no way my intention to suggest or even imply that your video would be made any better for having gone over it, and I apologize if my wording came off as such. I can delete the comment or edit it in some way if you feel like I could have worded my intent better. I really do like the video as is!
A mindscape heavy game should have more of a character driven plot with all the characters having a fully realized backstory that might not be added to the game
God I love this channel. Psychonauts 2 felt a bit, flat(?) compared to the energy of the first game, and I just can’t put my finger on why. Visually it’s just as creative, tons of effort went into making the mechanics actually have better feedback and everything, but we’re still missing something. My personal feeling is that the summer camp vibe of the original is what made it so special. The kids were grounded by their flaws, and the adults were all larger than life heroes to them, despite being messes themselves. It feels like everything that happened in the camp happened internally, from characters you already knew. As an agent, anything could happen, but the experience feels remarkably less personal, despite exploring a lot about Raz’s backstory. Still, love you for turning these gears over in my head, and for the reminder that it was still a great game even if it was a little disappointing
Thanks so much! I've been surprised how many people felt the same way (or felt I didn't go far enough!) so I'm glad I was able to offer that a voice, while still expressing the ways it deeply affected me for the better. I see exactly where you're coming from on the first game, really interesting getting to read other people's unique takes like this.
I would posit one contributing factor is that they were being more "safe" and consulted "consultants" like anita sarkeesian, meaning they sawed off any rough edges that might've made for a more "uncomfortable" experience in some places when dealing with the subject of mentally broken people like the first game.
ok i finished the video and I want to pop in and say phenomenal job- this analysis scratched an itch I've desperately wanted to for a long time, it's thought-provoking and well structured and i will definitely be revisiting it- choice editing too! great job:D
That's incredibly kind. I still think I could have done better and I get this is not everyone's bag, but if people are into it then I'm glad I was able to provide.
@@BBWahoo I don't want to elaborate too much because that might ruin it for some people but I often regret not being able to word something better or hit an idea stronger - but that just gives me the energy to try and make the next video even better.
@@BMask I commend your efforts nonetheless, you come off as well informed and treat each idea with care and analysis. I hope you reach your personal goal, because I will be looking forward to them! I have the same struggle, but I get discouraged more often than not, so to see someone like you, who can form more coherent ideas and information, be so critical, makes me feel an odd sense of relief. That it might never be enough for the eye of the beholder, which is my cue to just do something. Thank you for that ☺️
Sadly somebody has already decided to take it upon themselves to do Cheers/Frasier retrospectives. But I will have something to say about Dr Crane at some point!
Ok but that sequence of scenes put together to a piano rendition of Once Upon a December was beautiful. Great choice! I agree about the interns. While they're unique and interesting characters to some degree, they really aren't as fleshed out as the campers in the first game, which is a real shame. I like how this game portrays relationships as helpful, but never as a cure. Love doesn't fix all, but it sure helps. I haven't seen anyone address Raz's delusions, which I think was a fascinating take! A great rundown, worth the watch!
For me, the one thing that made it feel off was the lack of stylization in the over world and background characters. There’s a deformation of sorts in all the original characters but the inters felt too normal and the background characters looked like muppets from Sesame Street.
THEY DO LOOK LIKE SESAME STREET CHARACTERS. Literally, my first time playing the game, I just kinda stared at the character designs and went "Why do they look like sesame street puppets"
I think what makes Gristol work for me is that they show he chooses to wallow and place himself above others despite his time in exile. Where some would use this opportunity in order to grow as a person and understand the perspectives of the commoners, Gristol is a narcissist who only wants the improvement of himself over everyone else and only considers himself as worthy. Even Lucrecia and Morona had differing opinions on how to make Grulovia a safer, more peaceful country and their patriotism was admirable because they considered the country before themselves. Gristol has no regards for the common people and only wants to be a royal again for status and luxury.
I should add I absolutely love all this stuff too and agree completely. Its was more a discussion around intentions than execution - removed of any of that debate I'm as conflicted as I am because it's my favourite level.
I knew I liked Psych. 2 but... I couldn't put my finger on why it felt plain despite its improvements. You nailed it. The change from the odd uniqueness in both the artstyle and level design of Psych 1 stood out from other platformers but while Psych 2 keeps a lot of that same style charm, it lacks a bit on the level design itself.
The fact it wasn't a thinly veiled nitpick video sent me for a spin. The comment made it seem like it, the title did too. Yet at the end of the day it turns out I actually have more issues with the game than you do - and yet I felt defensive about it at the outset. Fascianting.
I think my only issue with Psychonauts 2 so far. (I only just got to the casino) is that characters like Hollis have a totally normal voice and everyone in 1 seemed to have a really silly voice. Then again maybe I'm wrong because you got Raz's dad and Fred Bonaparte talked pretty normal....hmm might need to rethink this whole thing.
On one hand, I think it's a bit refreshing to have a villain to defeat in Psychonauts that is irredeemable. It's in line with Raz's disillusionment with the Psychonauts and the ideals he has about "fixing people" like the asylum inmates that get shot down after messing up in Hollis' mind. It's a hard lesson to learn that sometimes certain people cannot be rehabilitated, and deserve punishment. You can't help everyone, especially when they aren't willing to take it. But I think that's only part of the issue. Gristol's affected just as much by the central event of the game as every other mind you enter, it's just that his particular upbringing turns his coping mechanisms to manipulation and a narcissistic personality, whereas the Psychic 6/7 deflect the blame almost entirely on themselves. In a way, they're really not so different, just people dealing with intense trauma in different ways. I think it's important that a line is drawn between the aggressive and non-aggressive coping mechanisms, but I think it goes a bit too far in making Gristol completely unsalvageable as a person. I don't know exactly how to reconcile that with my feelings about enjoying having an awful villain, but I think approaching him from the point of view as a person with whom you should try to empathize, which is what the point of these games tends to be, writing him off as forever bad is kind of dangerous. It's true, narcissists hurt people and it's not the responsibility of people in their lives to try to "fix" them. Same can be said about plenty other serious disorders. But this portrayal doesn't really show much of how he got to that point, or offer much hope for him in the future. There's this amazing scene in his level, where you more or less relive a traumatic memory of his attempted assassination by a crowd of protestors and get thrust into a huge, dangerous battle that sort of comes close to saying something, but the rest of the level takes great strides to paint his experiences as exaggerated and pathetic instead of pointing out what underlying problems might have led to them. We've actually made progress in treating things like Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which up until the past decade or two were thought to be incurable, to the point where some are able to build healthy relationships and develop empathy. For Psychonauts, which is normally really, really good at showing personal growth in all of its characters, it just seems kind of antithetical? I think maybe the message that should have been communicated was "it is not your responsibility to fix or help this person, but they are not beyond help if they learn to seek it out." It's kind of a hard thing to accept but treating bad people like monsters only keeps them that way, and allows them to keep hurting other people. Jesus I did not mean to turn this into a ramble.
No need to apologise- what you just went through is a great example of my own quandary in trying to word my feelings around the character and the approach taken.
I feel tim was burnt out and couldn't really challenge his own bias at that point, story wise, gristol trying to bring back maligula was a huge red flag, so for the in-world characters to spare their own sanity they took the easy way out and just kept him in his mental prison, there's some nuance there but not enough for it to be the traditional psychonauts experience
I love ur style/format for reviewing a piece of media I agree with loads of your points despite imo this game being a masterpiece of art and design with it definitely being my GOTT for 2021
Tysm for saying what I've been trying to articulate!! It's a FANTASTIC game! But the Aquatos and interns were sadly underutilized, and the ending felt oddly unsatisfying, even if the game itself is still amazing! All extremely well put!
51:39 I mean in the memoreis we see the Gzar did seem to only want them rained, on, neither Lucretia nor the Gzar seemed to anticipate days and days of protest-disrupting rain causing the dam to burst. He's still a thug though.
Happy to have ya back B. Been a long fan of your stuff since I discovered your Sly Cooper Retrospective, and out of curiosity watched all your other stuff. Glad you're doing better and can't wait to see a Jak & Daxter video in the future, whenever that happens.
The most ambitious sequel about a sequel
The interns, to me, mostly felt like the tutorial brigade. They show up in the beginning as a minor obstacle, you win (most of) them over at the climax of the second level, and then their purpose in their narrative is done, allowing them (sans Norma) to fade into the background. Norma showing up again to betray you is fine, since it's plenty foreshadowed, but after that, their chapter is well and truly closed. They don't need to be any more than that (even if some extra conversations on the hub world would have been nice).
The first act antagonists showing up in the finale feels silly. It has all the gravitas of a hypothetical version of the final battle of Psychonauts 1, where instead of Augustus showing up and cashing in all of his narrative build-up, it would have been Kitty and Franke riding in on a giant friendship bracelet while triumphantly yelling "All right Raz, it's time we pay you back for those arrowheads you gave us on the bridge!"
It's especially egregious since having the Psychic Six show up instead would have allowed them to earn redemption for themselves and move past their old failure, which would have been a really nice capstone on their character development. I honestly thought, with all of them being present in the room prior, that's what was being set up. As it is, it feels a bit like that group was robbed of their narrative climax.
Very good breakdown of exactly why it feels off, couldn't agree more,
I kind of wish Psychonauts 2 had included a level revisiting Raz's mind, the way we did in the original game. It's understandable, but given the game's themes and what you've pointed out about the parallels between Raz and Gristol Malik, it seems a waste not to confront it. Alas, that's not the game that exists.
Black Velvetopia's still the best level in the first game, though.
Though funny, it felt very wrong that Gristol's mind is of some lunatic childish narcisist, his plan involved infiltrating a secret agency with people who hear thoughts and feel emotions (like Milla scanning the world). How???? Also, how did the manage to give that phobia to lobotto? Did he hire a second psychic for that???
I mean, other than Gloria, all the minds at the Asylum are pretty iconic and a blast to spend time in.
... Can't say that for any of Psychonauts 2's minds. They just don't feel as fun to be in.
@@OtterloopB Yeah that's understandable. Gloria's mission wasn't all that fun but I really enjoyed her character and story, wish they did more with it tbh
The interns are, for me, the biggest missed potential (with the rest of the Aquato family apart from Lucy and Augustus beeing close) in this game.
They either come off either as annoying (specially Norma) or underutilized. Sam is the best not only because of her personality but because she has the advantage that we know her brother and grandfather, we have a more context on her behavior and posible backstory compared to all other interns.
There should've been more interactions with them that tie into the story, like them introducing to the player certain things like grindrails and trampolines for the first time or having character growth as you progress through the game of the same quality as the campers' in the first game.
For me the most underutilized of them all is Adam, the yoyo dude. I weirdly remember his name since I was quite interested in him at first due to him actually beeing a chill dude. Saddly that's mostly all he has apart from his pyschic yoyo that we rarely see him use. He doesn't even have a sidequest.
The only way I remember Adam is that I remember that I keep forgetting he exists.
I just thought of something, Adam hangs around the display of the Psychonauts' history in the main area within the Motherlobe, and in the post game he shows off the new screen displaying Raz's battle with Maligula. Maybe that could've been a way for us to know more about him and have him connected more with the main story. Make him a Psychonauts history buff (maybe even more so than Raz) and can have discussions with Raz about that history. Along with that, after certain points in the middle portion of the game, like saying after beating Cruller's Correspondence, we get new dialogue between him and Raz about what we now know about the Psychic Six.
@@merpo2806 I forgot about the screen in the post game and I agree with you. Having the friendliest out of the interns also have a thing for the Psychonauts' history would also further deepen the relationship between him and Raz as good friends.
Originally he was supposed to have some sort of side quest as evident by certain voice files, it seemed to be about taking photos in the questionable area! Its sad they never added it :(
@@deadmanag283 Ah man that stinks, that would've given the camera gadget (I forgot it's actual name) an actual use instead of just being a neat bonus. (I briefly forgot it helps find figments with the special filter for a moment)
I think it would've been cool if specific Interns joined you in certain minds throughout the game. Like getting Sam to join you in Comptom's Cookoff or Adam in Cassie's library. It would allow us to explore a character while also getting a chance to push the story forward. They don't even have to be a companion class NPC supporting during fights. They could've operated like Lily during Fatherland Follies.
That sounds like it would go hard
I know people joke about how the Psychic Six/Seven needed to see therapists, and they do, but I wonder if they realize that they're also themselves essentially very, very, very eccentric therapists. I wonder how much the obligations that came with that, the need to be the stable party who takes care of other people, someone who gives help rather than receives it, caused them to shun other Psychonauts and therapists until things got so bad that a literal child had to get involved.
Yeah. That aspect of the story gets better the more you read into it.
I love cassie's reaction to you your proposal to look inside of her mind.
She is so glad and positive about it.
It seems popping in and out of eachother's minds was a regular practic for them, she even mentiones , that her last check-up was performed by ford.
They seemed to help eachother be in shape , untill they drove apart.
I don't think mental health therapists exist in the Psychonauts world. As you said, the psychic 6/7 would be the closest thing.
The interns popping up in the finale felt wrong to me too. Had a similar feeling in Borderlands 3. We get side characters that are mostly absent from the story popping up as if they're fundamentally important.
Yup. Maybe they were short on time or animators or something, but I feel it could've been solved pretty easily be having some cutscenes in between major parts of the game showing what the interns were up to. Sort of like a "B story" in a cartoon, where the A and B stories are disconnected but somehow become connected and relevant to each other in the end. Plot-wise, I think it would've been neat if the interns were sent to find Loboto after he escaped (I mean seriously, why did nobody go after him?).
The story could've tied together to Raz's by having the interns catch Loboto, and eventually getting him to spill everything he knows about Maligula. Interns get shocked, realize why Raz has been running back and forth all this time, go ask Forsyth where Raz is. Interns find Raz and now have a reason for helping him, not just because they have to but because they learned everything Raz did up to this point.
@@crazyduplicate you seem angry
@@crazyduplicate as opposed to... what other kind of discourse? I'd say you know a game is good when the only "discourse" around it is very minor nit-picking.
@@crazyduplicate god forbid someone is being somewhat critical of something you like ;).
Dont pop a gasket just because someone pointed out something wrong in your darling little angel of a game. Games good but not flawless, almost nothing is, except me ofc.
Yeah, they arent good enough to be the future face of psychonards
With that spoiler warning up front, I'm gonna stash this video in my Watch Later list; I'm only about an hour into the game. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts sometime in March when I've finished playing!
I am gonna use that spoiler warning as a flashbang in CS:GO :D
You totally should watch it right when you finish it, this video is great
Its really hard to describe how good of a sequel the game is, you're in for an amazing game
Good luck. Trust no one.
It’s totally worth it to take that wait. Not to mention, this game is way better to actually PLAY than the previous one
1:02:25 - fun fact: napoleon’s great nephew, jerome bonaparte moved to the us and started a linage of american bonapartes that as far as i can tell goes onto this day, meaning were going to enter the psychonauts timeline any day now
Honestly kinda seems like psychonauts takes place in the past you don't see any hint of modern technology minus the jet
My biggest grip was that by the end of it all, the interns and raz all became juniors when I feel like Raz is definitely deserving of a higher placement due to saving the world twice already practically by himself and because out of everyone he has the most experience being a psychonaut
Story about relying on each other: Has the main character constantly, comically thrust into saving the entire world on his own while everyone else throws him a shovel to help him dig. Constantly has all the other professional psychonauts fail to do their jobs so that the Gary Stue mc can save the world, again.
Exposition dumps even more pontifications about morality throughout. Reaction: "Wow, this is a masterpiece, but I would prefer if its story had better moral implications in its historical parallels of Tsarist Russia."
I weep
@@novusnescio3234 That is certainly an opinion
The bit about the NPCs can best be demonstrated by this: Name a camper at Whispering Rock, and a fan of the first game will likely be able to tell you a good bit about them. Name an intern other than Sam, and a fan of the second game might have to ask you which one that is. Some of the minor NPCs you can find wandering the Motherlobe have more interesting character arcs than the interns.
I feel like them all working together for the first adventure made them and their quirks more memorable to me.
Speaking on Psychonauts 2 naturally.
I dunno. I obviously can't speak for everyone, but as a massive fan of the first game who's played it around 10 times or so to completion since it came out, including once right after beating Psychonauts 2 when it first came out, I'm honestly not certain I could tell you much about either the campers or the interns. Like, just off the top of my head as I'm writing this I remember Bobby's name, Lilly...and that's it. From the interns I remember Sam (natch) and...well Lilly. I can't even clearly remember Sam's brother's name, and he got a fair bit of focus in the first game. I also don't really recall any of the campers getting much of an arc (except Lilly). You're also not the only person I've seen have this opinion, so it could very well be me, but I can't help but think nostalgia has a lot to do with it as well.
@@anosmibell6473 I'll freely admit that both nostalgia and simply the fact that the first game has been around for so much longer contribute to that. But I also believe it's generally true regardless.
@@anosmibell6473 Dogen Bobby Kitty Nils Quentin Vernon Pheobe JT Chloe the cowboy one the two cheery ones aaaaaand OH Maloof and Mikhail, Benny, then sailor boy and invisible girl
How'd we do fam
WAIT IT'S CHOPS I remember now
I can see the comment getting likes but I remember them all, and I know for a fact they all have arcs, trust me, it's not just nostalgia, those kids are golden. We see Maloof become a Mafia Don in 5 acts, pure genius.
My biggest and really only "Minor" complaint was that the new PSI abilities didn't really have a SUPER useful "Exploration" potential. Yeah there's a few. The logs in the Mystery Zone, Slipping into mail slots as paper Raz. But that's ALL they are. They're "keys" to certain locks. And not much else. Combat it pretty much always going to handled the same way.
OK but that Drag Me Down AMV at the end is everything I could've ever wanted. EVER.
My biggest issue with PsychoNauts 2 (and the interns, specifically) is so small but holds such weight in my mind.
It's that new sign that gets added to "The History of the PsychoNauts" at the end of the game. "The Heroic Interns" or whatever it's called. I'll explain.
It is very clear that sign on display was left blank so that it could be filled in after finishing the game's story. The fact that it is part of a display that details the history of the PsychoNauts gives it importance within the world the game takes place in. The fact that it is clearly meant to be filled in after the story is completed gives it importance to the player. This sign was always meant to depict a symbol that represents the entirety of the player's journey through this game. An image the player can go back to that will call upon the events of this new game.
The sign should've been of the Psychic 6. The Psychic 6, Raz, and Lucy. That's what this game was about. That's what the player will always remember. Those are the characters this game took time to develop and had the player form relationships with.
The interns were flat, static, annoying characters that barely have any importance on the plot, form no real connection to Raz or Lucy, and are just generally unpleasant to interact with throughout the entire game. I get that they could be seen as realistic teenagers, and there is no need for them to apologize for their treatment of Raz.... SO LONG AS they are treated as the background characters they were written as. But instead the game seems to think they are more important than they actually are. It annoys me greatly and I am relieved to find out I am not the only person that thinks this way.
TL;DR The Interns were written as annoying background characters, but were treated as main characters and stole attention away from the characters that were actually developed.
You are very smart to have made an observation like that's not been able to come together in a coherent way for me
My observation would be like "the interns are ugly as fuck" lol, there's psychonauts stylization and there's the interns
I don't know, they're not forcing them in. If anything, the problem is that they don't do enough with the interns. Also, keep in mind that there is a section for the Psychic 6 that gets corrected in the post-game to include Lucy as well, as the Psychic 7.
I actually forgot about this comment.
I agree with you and never claimed the interns were forced into the story. I wish more was done with them to justify their existence at all. Having actual development for the characters would've made them so much more tolerable and might've made them pleasant to interact with. My main issue is that, as written, all the interns (except Sam) and really annoying.
I saw Sam show up at the final boss and thought, "Please let it only be her!" And then the rest of the interns showed up.
Psychonauts Needs a 3, where Raz goes on missions of his own with his own team
Funny that crows on a train in Hat and Time look, talk, and act in similar fashion as milkman's spies. I'm sure it was an intentional homage to Psychonauts!
Jonas Kaerlev - The creator of Hat in Time - has actually brought this up in a multitude of interviews. He's a very outspoken fan of Psychonauts, & he included a number of references to Psychonauts within the game (the CAW Agents being probably the most obvious homage).
B-Mask actually specifically brings this up in his Hat in Time video (it's actually how I first found his channel, & is easily one of my favorite videos from him), but to paraphrase a point he talks about in that video, the CAW Agents essentially miss the point on what made the G-Men so effective, making them fall flat from both a comedic & storytelling perspective.
Great video about a great game! I'm glad you mentioned the whole Romanov symbolism, I loved the Gristol twist but it also left a weird feeling in the back of my mind due to the whole... innocent royal children being murdered thing. It's a complicated, sad topic that left framing Gristol as potentially irredeemable as a bit off-key. But like you said, within the context of the game world it works well. It obviously wasn't intended as a 1-for-1 comparison anyway.
Thank you! In a way I'm glad I was able to air those thoughts to give myself some closure, knowing others were at least aware why i'd feel so conflicted. Overall it's my favourite level in the game, there's nowhere else I can go to play anything like it.
So a Psychonauts 3 Gristol redemption ark: from narcissism to empathy?
I'm not saying it's wrong to make that connection, but I don't think it's really warranted? Don't get me wrong, the game is clearly drawing parallels, but I don't think it's actually trying to SAY something about the Romanov children? I'm not wording it a well as I want to, and I'm sorry for that.
@@Sperium3000 Oh yeah I don’t think Tim was actually trying to say bad things about the Romanov kids or anything, it’s just a story beat that maybe should have been handled a little bit differently to avoid unintended implications.
I'm not sure that Gristol was framed as irredeemable? More like he refuses to buy into the fact that something needs to change about him. Because that's where all therapy begins, with self-reflection. And I don't think Gristol is incapable of self-reflection, because that would actually make him irredeemable, just that he doesn't want to. Because he's built up his own victimization and narrative about what happened so much that if he lets go of even a tiny bit of it, if he stops that theme park ride from moving, then he has nothing else to grasp onto.
I think a key part that might have been glossed over about Gristol's mental world is that it very heavily implies that Gristol is aware, on some level, that his whole narrative and delusion is self-enforced. Like, the fact that you can alter that small section about his family fleeing and their "suffering" so easily, changing the order of events and so on to solve the puzzle, seems very indicative of that to me anyway.
I do agree that a redemption arc for Gristol, even one that only begins his journey towards better mental health, would be incredibly interesting to see play out.
I will say, I think the interns are the part that most feel wasted. As you said, they, thematically, make sense within the world. the campers were all Raz' age, all people just starting out on their trip down the road to being psychics. Half of them had little to no control. Meanwhile, Raz, by the end of a single day, had surpassed all of them to the point of being able to assist full Psychonauts with an emergency. Not one of the others, other than MAYBE Lilly, and possibly not even her, could have done that.
The interns are the next step up. They are in full control of their abilities, to the point of toying around with it, pushing ever so slightly against the ceiling of how far their powers can go, and seeing if they can get them out just that little bit farther. However, they're still not at Raz' level, something the game itself acknowledges. Or rather, Raz is a generalist, each of them is a specialist. It allows them all to fill a role in an operation, but not to be slotted into ANY role at the same time.
And that kind of holds them back, as a generalist is what's needed for so many of these minds and missions. It sounds like, from the talk of the office around, that each full Psychonaut has an area where they're adapt or a master, but they also have a basic ability in the other areas. That's what the Interns are here to learn, and something Raz has already mastered, again, putting him just a step ahead, which is why the promote him at the end of this game, while also giving the other interns a leg up too.
For me it was pacing of how raz reacted to everything was just steamrolled, the second batch of kids wasn't well integrated to the world, the mind world's were great,the main world need to be some relandscape. I just wished we could had seen more from his family.
Tbh, after the plot twist, I got the vibe he was bottling things up and throwing himself into his work, so to speak. If that was the case, I could see it being a cool future plotline in a psychonauts 3.
I was disappointed by the lack of character growth based on world state compared to the first game. I was really hoping we'd get to know the campers a bit more and we'd see them get closer to and grow to respect Raz and the lack of Lilly and Raz specifically and Raz's family felt a little lacking.
A lot like you, Psychonauts is everything I'm in to, from it's macabre edges to its adventure game trappings to its aesthetic, partly because Psychonauts was my introduction to a lot of those things. I played it at launch when I was eight and it was the first thing I ever encountered that made me want to make THINGS. Art, music, stories, anything as long as I could capture that spark Psychonauts made me feel.
I love the game and I feel so vindicated that almost seventeen years of waiting was mostly worth it, but I really wanted more after the credits. I felt a little weird at the end having that feeling, like I was being a little greedy, but even though I love the game I ultimately can't help but want another game that gives me more and pushes things in ways that first game did. I don't think I'll ever get that, but I can't help but want it.
My god. My GOD, B-Mask. This video was phenomenal. I would have never considered some of the things you did when you discussed the final act.
And I am totally where you are with that last conversation Raz has with his dad. I think it really suggests that some of Raz’s attitudes you mention towards *REDACTED* is something Raz has to let simmer in the back of his mind too.
Really your video just cemented for me how much I loved, and how affected I was by, and how grateful I am for soooo much of what Psychonauts 2 was doing.
Rewatching this video after watching 25 parts of PsychOdyssey, I have to say: this All Paul music video comes with a really good essay.
Its because its fucking amazing. Such a richly designed, vibrant and fun world. I forgot games could have colours.
I sympathize with loving the first game, but not quite loving this one, and that made this video really cathartic.
I'd been feeling conflicted about this game ever since I finished it, and while asking for even more in certain areas is unreasonable, as you implied, I think the points you brought up in the 'Critical thinking' chapter are nevertheless quite strong, and they helped me figure out why I felt underwhelmed in the end, especially when it comes to the climax. It ain't no asylum and meat circus, that's for sure.
On the other hand, there are many ideas and details you highlighted which I either didn't notice or didn't quite process on my playthrough. I thought I was being slow and diligent, but maybe I was still moving a bit too fast to pick up on all the distinct merit of the game. Possibly also a bit dismissive of some themes that didn't resonate with me.
To summarize, this video helped me lay a lot of my problems with the game to rest, and made me appreciate it more as well.
For that much - thank you, B- Mask!
You’ve worded everything I’ve been feeling after I first played Psychonauts 2. I enjoyed the game, but the experience felt almost too compact and the ending felt so abrupt. I didn’t think I cared about the Raz and Lilly storyline until Psychonauts 2 when they barely interacted.
I keep comparing the interns to the campers. I loved the way they fleshed out the campers by placing them around the map and having you overhear their conversations between each other. They also did a lot of unique things like Chloe testing a paper airplane, Nils spying through a peephole, Bobby torturing a fish, etc. They defined themselves through their actions. I felt like the interns were always just in the Motherlobe talking and doing very little else. There’s nothing particularly terrible about them, but they’re hard to remember when thinking about Psychonauts as a whole. I kinda feel that way with almost every character introduced in Psychonauts 2, but I only just started my second playthrough.
I’ve grown to like Psychonauts 2 a lot more with my second playthrough. It has a lot to like and the levels do a great job in terms of design. However, Psychonauts 1 will probably always top its sequel imo. Psychonauts 1 was much more experimental to me, certainly not as polished, but I didn’t care as much about that when I experienced all the fascinating ideas and the wonderful details
Edit 2: I also found the ending for the villain strange too. It seemed a little messed up that Milla and Sasha were so comfortable and joking about the idea of doing unethical experiments on a prisoner, and when talking to Nick in his cell, his dialogue shows that he sees the Psychonauts as an unfair and authoritarian agency. The unethical operations of the modern Psychonauts are not explored at all, and I think it’s strange that the franchise approaches the issue from such a one dimensional viewpoint. It makes more sense now that I’ve seen the brief history lesson for the context behind this part of the game, but still rubs me the wrong way.
HOLY SHIT, I never realized how much that mermaid song from RoR fits Ford's past until you did the montage at the end.
I think an easy solve for the games issue with the interns is to have them join you in the minds that aren’t ford or Lucrecia , maybe even adding minds like Augustus and Otto. Sam could’ve come to help Compton, Lizzie to Cassie, Lilly to Bob, Norma to Augustus.
I think the biggest surprise for me was how great the story was. I wasn't expecting for it really hit me in the feels in the way it did, especially with the twist and the delivery of the line "I lost her Rasputin". There is just this mix of emotions welling up inside where I was incredibly disgusted with what was done to this family but at the same time understood why it was done in context. It's nice to see Rasputin fully reconciled with his entire family after so many years since the first game since He and Augustus finally got a chance to start understanding eachother near the end. And that score too. Some movie quality tracks for sure.
By the end I really want to see whats next. How can Psy3 go bigger? Where can it go from here? Are water levels and swimming a possibility now for levels?
Dunno, guess we'll have to see after they're done with that new project and I'm confident Brutal Legend 2 will be made before Psy3 (Not that I'd be complaining).
while i don't think he would swim (maybe a world you can swim in to start with this growth?) maybe he can finally use his levitation bubble on the water surface (for a limited time since that thought/worry might be there)
@@Silver_wind_1987_ well maybe swimming could be a post game reward so that way we can have real world obstacle courses (with the water still being a reset for messing up) without having to make everything SUPER big/tall to compensate for that "lost" on every course.
but i do like that from boat to ball to swim idea
I feel that P's levels being as diverse and experimental as they are is in itself an integral part of the games's identity so 2's lesser emphasis on that front hurts it plenty, especially seeing as to how the greater leap in technology could've helped push the envelope in terms of just how diverse the levels could've been.
Thank you so much for this, I think it's really helped me appreciate 2 on it's on merits a lot more.
I think most of my (and a lot of people's, actually) issues with 2 stems not from the game itself, but rather the fear it could be the last installment. If there was just explicit confirmation that this series and it's wonderful core concept had more games to come, I think we would all be a bit more confident that, even if it wasn't represented in 2, the specific element of the setting we want to see explored (such as a specific kind of mental world) could eventually get it's day in the sun, at least in some fashion.
But I fully understand that just making a second game at all was an absolutely herculean effort on Double Fine's part, and I couldn't be more thankful. If 2 really is Psychonauts's last bow, then the team more then delivered.
Only came to buy this game last month and finished it just yesterday. First thing I did after logging it was watching this video that I missed from B-Mask last year.
So glad I did because the added context of the Gzar and how that reflects on the message the game conveys made it that much more interesting for me.
Great video reflecting on a great game. Thanks B-
I think the biggest difference for me was how the story and mechanics were structured. In the first game, it felt like a mystery you were solving, like an actual SPY. The second game felt more like a superhero story kinda? Its hard for me to explain, im not a writer, but I think other people will understand what im trying to get at. Like a platformer/point&click game. Psychonauts 2 is more like a Platformer/action game in the way everything is presented. You arent using deduction to solve a puzzle, your mostly just moving forward to the end of the story. You solve PUZZLES but you arent putting the pieces together. Your getting a new ability, then using those as basically a key to get to the next part. Its really hard to explain because they're so close to being the same thing, but not exactly. Like cousins of each other.
I get the sense that the final battle was originally going to take place in Grulovia and Nick was going to take her there after Fatherland Follies, but then they ran out of money and time. I also don't like how the Delugionists turned out to be one person.
you legit got me thinking tim was actually in face/off for a second
I've been wanting to make this joke for YEARS
@@BMask Wait that's not actually him as an extra?
It felt like, a good 1/4th of the game was/miss missing. Which is sad because we know it isn't. doublefine was able to produce all the content they wanted to do for the game thanks to microsoft buying them.
What I mean is like, you have the beginning: getting to the HQ and meeting the interns. Then you have the middle: psi king, ford, and Compton. finally the ending section. However in-between like the middle and end, or even the beginning and middle... there is feels like a gap. Like some way to connect us more with the other interns, who we just got to knowing.
Which is the weird thing. Psychonauts1 follows the same structure. the beginning of getting to camp and meeting the campers. The middle of milkman and lungfish, and then the ending 3. Yet despite both games following the structure, I don't like the world of Psychonauts 2 as much. I love the characters and Raz's personal story is absolutely satisfying. However the overall story progression just feels a bit disjointed. Like there was a bridge needed to connect the middle+ending to the beginning and it just isn't there.
We really needed them to give the interns more time in the oven tbh
This is truly amazing. Your videos have been a joy ever since I got hooked on your videos about the Sly Cooper trilogy. Good to see you back B- Mask!
B, you really outdid yourself with the "Jigsaw Puzzle vs Rubix Cube" analogy there. Never have I ever heard of an analogy so eloquent, unique, and insightful all in one! Bravo, B, bravo.
I loved this game, I REALLY loved it. It had some changes, some understandable [certain powers not returning] but also, some changes still weird. It had some issues, I won't deny those [it feels like the Interns aren't as fleshed out as the campers and they sort of vanish from the plot for most of it.]
But I love the sequel, it was pretty much worth the wait and was an amazing experience.
Don’t forget that the famous figure of Rasputin died due to drowning after various other attempts on his life.
Oh bloody hell I completely dropped the connection on that one. Great catch!
@@BMask to be fair, I didn’t make that connection myself until I saw your video. Having both Raz and Rasputin in the same sentence/ paragraph made me finally realize it.
54:05 I can’t believe it took me this long to realize that’s why his alias is Nick!
Man, you dont know how happy i am to see a new video from you, i really, REALLY like your content
In my experience it's difficult to hold flaws against a piece of media that shows it was made with love and care. It can be easy to create unfortunate implications when expressing complex ideas in increasing complex ways but I see the empathy and wanting for the audience to understand mental health better. I think most people who played it did and that's most important to me
Man. You have put into words everything I've felt about this game
Great video, loved how you grappled with your own feelings towards the games and its themes. Loved that ending music video and the Maligula drawing for thumbnail looks really good.
Your videos are so great!
Thank you so much for covering the themes of the both games and how they explore our minds and reflect our reality.
I am Russian, and the plot has hit home really hard... especially now(
But I am happy to know that world is still filled with beautiful people and great works of art - these games and your essays are definitely those ✨
Okay but that “Drag me Down” or whatever that All Paul song is called AMV at the end was amazing-
First off, it's a blessing that both games are excellent and that they are so different from one another. To think that both titles could generate enough conversation and analysis is absolutely a testament to Tim and his team. What's fascinating about 1 vs 2 is, if there's one area where a game is lacking, the other game is FAR superior to it in that area. So combining both games together, you get a diverse experience that is tremendously satisfying.
My least favorite part of Psychonauts 2 were the memory vaults. I think they made the wrong call to reiterate what happens in the vaults in the main storyline, as the vaults were primarily used in the first game to reveal something MAJOR that may entirely change the way you view the character, and it was satisfying and worth tracking down these vaults because you knew that they would not be mentioned anywhere else in the story. Knowing they can be missed is a HUGE incentive.
These games are fascinating and I can go on and on about them, but then I would just be reiterating the contents of this excellent video analysis.
Thank you for the kind words- but also an excellent point you made at the start about both games offering something the other might lack and feeding into each other as a single great experience. Wish I'd thought to hammer something like that home in this video!
@@BMask And further expanding upon that observation, it's fascinating that each title could be played interchangeably without feeling like you missed anything or played it in the wrong order. Narratively speaking, each game's tone is much different meaning that there's reason to take a look at each. Two has the stronger commitment to a grander plot with everything connected, where one has more free-flowing ideas that bounce off each other for better comedic effect. Gameplay wise, two is much tighter and more pleasant to actually control, but one offers more secrets to find and bigger payoff for finding those secrets. Honestly, I really want to make a video about what makes a good sequel now! If you beat me to the idea, then by all means go ahead :)
After 100%ing the game, I felt like the game was missing something. Unlocking no cooldowns was neat, but there was no reason to use it as there was nothing left to discover, let alone most enemy encounters no longer spawn once dealt with. The game lacked hidden zones and easter eggs for the most part. You're correct on things feeling a bit too linear. After that I ended up cheating and using jump cheats to see if I could find anything extra outside the map and could only find a loading box outside the brain hub, and that was it. Which is neat, I guess. a Developer left fun text on it. Learned a bit how they designed their loading zones and where they hid interiors, how they dealt with distant terrain and whatnot.
Because of this linear nature, it just feels like there's no replay-ability to the game. I feel as though it'll be the same experience every time. And I loved the game, but for me, it's just a one show pony. Unless they come out with DLC, of course.
I'm so happy how good and worthy of a sequel Psychonauts 2 was. I would LOVE an animated series.
I just gotta say I’ve been through a lot of shit over the years and I don’t mean to be parasocial or anything but your vids have helped me through a lot. I have CPTSD and this one reminded me of some important stuff the other week. Keep being you
Always wonderful to hear I can be of help - and seeing comments like this helps me, too. Thank you.
Holy fucking SHIT B-Mask you knocked it out of the park with this one, my brain is filled and I can appreciate this story in even more ways then I could before, let's hope we do get a Psychonauts 3 lmao cause this world is so large and has so much to it, still, very glad Double Fine's taking a break first. Man though, what a video, really had my jaw agape at points with the conclusions you came to that I didn't
It's great to see you back B-Mask! I hope you're doing well in these scary times-
When I saw my first playthrough of Psychonauts 2, I felt as if it would go on forever but it was much more shorter than I thought. Time crunch is real, and the fact that they didn't crunch at all is a triumph, even though it resulted in Psychonauts 2 having some holes that you shed light on.
You hit on a lot of what I felt when I was playing this. While I did enjoy it a solid amount, especially as it got further into things, I couldn't help but feel the same points of contention that you illustrated. I also missed the more scrungy look of the first game, where everyone looked off and semi-surreal. In this game, they scaled that back majorly and made the characters much "cuter," with only the occasional quirk or irregularity (sometimes they almost came across more like plush toys than crafted models). I also definitely noticed a change in the vibe and humor, with it losing a lot of the more "meaner" aspects that gave the original game a certain bite (no more "squirrel roast dinner," I suppose). I figured some of this might be a reflection of how things have changed since the 2000s, maybe most folks wouldn't really want that sort of thing in a game like this anymore, I don't know. Anyway, I'm glad you covered this, especially after your great video on the first one, which I very much appreciated. It's good to have you back, though I'm sorry you've had to go through so much recently.
These are my primary issues. 2 just feels so...SANITIZED...compared to 1. Like, I remember so many of the jokes from 1, but most of the jokes in 2 have completely left me. (Considering Tim Schafer has said they consulted lots of people to make the humor more "inclusive", i feel that might have impacted the humor of 2. I'm not against "inclusive" humor, just don't take out the humor of an established series to make it bland.) The overly cute aesthetic bothers me too, since you're going from a dirty, grungy looking world to what looks so clean and, again, sanitized compared to 1. It just...doesn't have the same feel of 1. I just can't rank 2 above it.
This was a fantastic video, I have very similar feelings towards this game, I think objectively, it's the better game out of the two. I can easily recommend this one to friends, it's tight, creative and masterful..... but I miss the disjointed wacky charm of the first game and how so much love was put into every inch of it so you can always experience something new on revisits. I get a lot of people struggle with the first one but I hope that people fall in love with the excellent characters and style and storytelling enough in the second one to want to pick up the first one again and be able to look past some of the problems (clunky combat and handling etc) and really appreciate it for what it is.
So glad to see you making videos again! You're one of the best video essayists on the platform! Psychonauts holds a real special place in my heart, and I'm always glad to hear people more eloquent than I am explain what makes it special, flaws and all
Raz's idealization of the Psychonauts in the first game reads like a starry-eyed child on career day being told how "cool" it is to be a firefighter or a cop. His fixations on the power fantasy and aesthetics, the impression that achieving this nebulous goal would, in his mind, grant him some form of stability and comfort in his identity as a psychic. It's like how a lot of confused, insecure kids hope that one day, when they're older, they'll just have life figured out, and Raz often feels like he's trying to act above his age in a rush to hit that point.
The immediate aftermath of Agent Forsythe's level felt like the first real step towards maturity for him, forcing a harsh lesson about the way he wields his powers, but still allowing him to press on, his excitement about the Psychonauts in tact, but now tempered by a well-earned sense of responsibility that informs his actions throughout the entire rest of the game. It's such a great step for the character and the moment that I realized Psychonauts 2 was really going to be something special.
I'm imagining an intro mission for the third game could be Sasha putting Raz through the Brain Tumbler in an experiment to try to help him gain more conscious control over the Hand of Galoccio, which would both serve as a recap of the events of Psychonauts 2 and give us a glimpse at some of Raz's own personal issues that the plot could address, and maybe *then* maybe by the end after Raz and his own relationships and personal demons get some attention/development/closure as needed, we could see him using Hydrokinesis in a final boss fight taking place in realspace as opposed to inside someone's mind.
As great as that and any hypothetical would be, it doesn't replace the phantom of its perfect place in 2 for me. I can live with it, but it will always be missed in that moment.
This just reminded me that I desperately need to play this game. Thanks!
Great video. The problem I have with Gristol's mind is that, while it serves its narrative function, I think is the most torturous part of the game to "play" through. The whole mind felt like one large unskippable cutscene that spoonfeeds you the lore in the most boring way possible. The "It's a Small World" aspect gets tiresome really quickly after the first room. Also, while it makes sense for Gristol wanting to bring back Maligula, I wish that there was more to Maligula/Lucy/Nona in terms of her relation to Raz and what that meant to him.
I feel like Psychonauts 2 has a very well-constructed story, but as you said yourself, is more about Ford than it is about Raz. We don't get to explore Raz's mind at any point in this story, which I feel is a largely missed opportunity to connect him more to the narrative emotionally. As far as I was concerned, Raz was just sort of thrown into the Maligula plot without any real stakes. Yes, we learn that Lucy is Raz's "fake grandma," but not much is expanded upon with either that or the explanation of the water "curse" as you also addressed.
In Psychonauts 1, there's freaking tanks with brains in them that are being created by the dude that somehow mixed his brain with your brain. We don't really get that level of connection between protagonist and antagonist or sense of potential destruction in the "real world" of Psychonauts 2, aside from that giant whirlpool at the very end. It was difficult for me to stay invested in the Maligula story after hearing it being retold in countless ways without seeing firsthand the kind of destruction she was doing, as well as how she was connected to Raz aside from her being distantly related. It felt sort of tacked on to me.
In short, I love both games. But I get the feeling I'll be coming back to 1 a lot more because of how the story is constructed as well as how that interacts with the gameplay.
Im so so so disapointed no one in the writers rooms piped up and said "maybe we should do a whole theme park" or something like that with the "History of Grulovia" ride being at the end or even a cutscene.
One thing at this point I don’t like about the series is Raz simply does not get his respect. Like look at his feats at what he was able to overcome. I mean in the 2nd game alone he fixes all the psychic six (seven technically, which is something literally the six couldn’t do in regards to fixing Lucy) he fixed Ford, something that literally NO OTHER physic was able to do up until that point, and he defeated Maligula (sure not by himself but mostly) the most powerful physic threat known up until this point. This is the same Raz who was said to have weak physic energy at the beginning of the game by the casino scanners. Sure you can say they did that for the gag, but the game consistently does no give him his respect. I believe the agents (Sasha, Milla, and even Coach) know just how powerful he is or rather his potential is, but the game constantly downplays him. He should quite literally be seen as an absolute prodigy who undergoes unique training at this point, not a junior psychonaut or whatever it is they have ALL the interns at the end.
Edit: I’d go as far as to say Raz as an adult would be like a god compared to everyone else
I read a comment saying that Laika should make Psychonauts movies, and now, you will forever think about it now
Man its shit like this is why im a patreon. Im not much into background stuff, and i dont really understand discord, but im happy to fund someone putting out really good stuff like this (and getting better at it as you go).
Might have to re-watch a couple of times, because this is so dense I dont think i got it all. But that is an easy thing to do with your videos.
Thanks B-mask
As usual all the other comments have said pretty much everything I could about how amazing this analysis is, so I'll just tack on that I love when you do those little music videos at the end of these kind of things - they're always so good!
Made a b-line for the new b-mask. Very excited for this one!!
one of many things i love about you and this channel is you don’t post your thoughts to catch onto the hype train, you let it simmer, make sure you feel your feelings are completely thought through. that self control is extremely admirable
As someone who had no idea what psychonauts was or even watched a single video about it and just played the 2nd because it was a new release on game pass i have to say that psychonauts 2 is a great and amazing game even if some things bore me as a new player i thought it was such an amazing game and im really glad i gave it a chance
The music video at the end was just the cherry on top.
Watching this 8 months later, all I can think is...I'm really excited for your return to monkey island video. Your first MI video articulates exactly how I'd felt about the series up until that point amd I'm really curious to see if you liked Return as much as I did (it actually made me cry at the end)
So, rewatching this after a year. Man I still love this video. So glad we had your take on the whole game, maybe it got to double fine and they will reach you to take some notes on the next entry (?) One can dream.
B-Mask, bravo. This has given me enough to think about for... years. Thank you so much. Well done
My issue with the game was the antagonist, Maligula, and that she was stripped of all her agency and just ended up becoming a "puppet" for someone else. That's a weak antagonist and I was left unsatisfied by the games conclusion because this woman killed people, regardless of her mental state, but we are pushed towards feeling sorry for her because there was a rich boy who was somehow much worse despite not having done anything as bad as she? That doesn't sit right with me.
and even then, they treated Malik as irredeemable. There was creative strain I feel, there could've been re-consoliation where malik was confronted with the bitter truth that bringing back maligula wouldn't give him the kingdom he thinks he deserves, mirroring raz's experience of how he glorified the psychonauts and how differently it turned out. Then we could've gone to Lucy's arc
I’m extremely late but I do want to say this. Maligula and Lucretia are two different beings. Lucretia is not treated like the bad guy because she isn’t one. She wanted to help her country and was manipulated by the gzar. Causing her to do things she didn’t want to do, but thanks to the astrolabe weakening her mental state she didn’t notice that what she was doing wasn’t quite right. Then when she accidentally causes the dam to burst killing many including her sister, her mind breaks releasing Maligula to cope with her accidentally killing her own sister. Is it right to blame her and be angry at her for doing things that were completely out of her control?
@@BBWahoo Uuu that actualy sounds really good even if he stayed a villian. Both charachters from messy famillies both effected by Maligula and both looking for past glory that never really existed.
honestly i dont think the game tries to make you feel bad purely because the maliks used her, but because she was on a destructive path giving in to her primal desires for victory and violence and the maliks only worsened it
and i dont think she was really supposed to be seen as a puppet, its more gristol idolized her and thought of her as a great member of the grulovian government when really she was only working for herself, he saw her as a puppet, but really she was completely out of control
@@BBWahoo honestly i think it would be better if they did the opposite, they couldve gone full force with malik being irredeemable instead of mostly glossing over it, it would be nice to show you cant help everyone and some people are just too deadset on their ambitions, but the game just sorta makes you visit his mind, learn a little bit about maligula and why gristol was the ringleader antagonist the whole time, then you leave and the game just says he cant be helped when you dont even really try
im guessing they didnt go as far with the idea since it was near the end of the game and it would just be a really long sidething and people wouldntve liked it
"A psychic kid leaving home to discover others like himself" is accurate, but I must point out for anyone in the comments looking for additional insight that this passes over the fact that Raz is a kid who ran away from the Circus. I personally find this infinitely hilarious as a subtle subversion of the idea that kids that say they would run away from home and join the Circus and the jokes and stories that center around that.
I love that aspect, but when you're flowing ideas in a video to make a particular point you're often fighting for what to spell out at every turn.
@@BMask Oh, absolutely! I made this comment not as a dig at you for not talking about it, but as a way to offer this perspective to people who are traipsing about the comments looking for... additional perspective.
Your video is great and I 100% understand why you chose to pass up mentioning such a small nuance, which is why I thought "why not leave a comment about it? maybe someone will enjoy discovering it that way".
It was in no way my intention to suggest or even imply that your video would be made any better for having gone over it, and I apologize if my wording came off as such.
I can delete the comment or edit it in some way if you feel like I could have worded my intent better.
I really do like the video as is!
@@BMask
You're an inspiration.
A mindscape heavy game should have more of a character driven plot with all the characters having a fully realized backstory that might not be added to the game
God I love this channel.
Psychonauts 2 felt a bit, flat(?) compared to the energy of the first game, and I just can’t put my finger on why. Visually it’s just as creative, tons of effort went into making the mechanics actually have better feedback and everything, but we’re still missing something.
My personal feeling is that the summer camp vibe of the original is what made it so special. The kids were grounded by their flaws, and the adults were all larger than life heroes to them, despite being messes themselves. It feels like everything that happened in the camp happened internally, from characters you already knew. As an agent, anything could happen, but the experience feels remarkably less personal, despite exploring a lot about Raz’s backstory.
Still, love you for turning these gears over in my head, and for the reminder that it was still a great game even if it was a little disappointing
Thanks so much! I've been surprised how many people felt the same way (or felt I didn't go far enough!) so I'm glad I was able to offer that a voice, while still expressing the ways it deeply affected me for the better. I see exactly where you're coming from on the first game, really interesting getting to read other people's unique takes like this.
@@BMask thanks for the response man, and looking forward to whatever weird shit you want to talk about for an hour next time
I would posit one contributing factor is that they were being more "safe" and consulted "consultants" like anita sarkeesian, meaning they sawed off any rough edges that might've made for a more "uncomfortable" experience in some places when dealing with the subject of mentally broken people like the first game.
My favourite part about psychonauts 2 is how the voice actor for Raz also voiced Zim and Raz’s archetype is voiced by the same voice actor as Gir
I'm not *disappointed* that there isn't more...
But I *want* more. And that's a good place for a game.
im still at the begining of the video, just wanted to pop in and say the puzzle visual aids are very effective and adorable:)
ok i finished the video and I want to pop in and say phenomenal job- this analysis scratched an itch I've desperately wanted to for a long time, it's thought-provoking and well structured and i will definitely be revisiting it- choice editing too! great job:D
I'm always very surprised by how pleasant to listen to you are (in addition to making deep, toughtful and interesting content) I'm glad you're back
If your video doesn't reach 1 mil by the end of the month, I will personally rewatch this video until it reaches that number. It's SO GOOD.
That's incredibly kind. I still think I could have done better and I get this is not everyone's bag, but if people are into it then I'm glad I was able to provide.
@@BMask
What do you think you could have done better?
@@BBWahoo I don't want to elaborate too much because that might ruin it for some people but I often regret not being able to word something better or hit an idea stronger - but that just gives me the energy to try and make the next video even better.
@@BMask
I commend your efforts nonetheless, you come off as well informed and treat each idea with care and analysis. I hope you reach your personal goal, because I will be looking forward to them! I have the same struggle, but I get discouraged more often than not, so to see someone like you, who can form more coherent ideas and information, be so critical, makes me feel an odd sense of relief. That it might never be enough for the eye of the beholder, which is my cue to just do something. Thank you for that ☺️
@@BMask
Seriously. I come back to this video every day.
I was close to finishing the game but when I saw a new video, I went full steam ahead and finished the game. I’m glad I did. Great video as always!
Its really interesting seeing this perspective after watching the giant documentary they just released
This is a TREMENDOUS analysis. Truly truly great job.
I like what you said about the ending. It made me uncomfortable too.
With every video we draw closer and closer to the Frasier retrospective
Sadly somebody has already decided to take it upon themselves to do Cheers/Frasier retrospectives. But I will have something to say about Dr Crane at some point!
@@BMask no worries, glad to see you managed to get Niles in there with all the Freud and Jung going on
I feel like Gristol feels shallow because Otto's been fucking with his mind to make him the big loud fallguy.
Ok but that sequence of scenes put together to a piano rendition of Once Upon a December was beautiful. Great choice!
I agree about the interns. While they're unique and interesting characters to some degree, they really aren't as fleshed out as the campers in the first game, which is a real shame.
I like how this game portrays relationships as helpful, but never as a cure. Love doesn't fix all, but it sure helps.
I haven't seen anyone address Raz's delusions, which I think was a fascinating take! A great rundown, worth the watch!
For me, the one thing that made it feel off was the lack of stylization in the over world and background characters. There’s a deformation of sorts in all the original characters but the inters felt too normal and the background characters looked like muppets from Sesame Street.
THEY DO LOOK LIKE SESAME STREET CHARACTERS. Literally, my first time playing the game, I just kinda stared at the character designs and went "Why do they look like sesame street puppets"
This game compels you to improve your life aswell, so just for that its a must have
I think what makes Gristol work for me is that they show he chooses to wallow and place himself above others despite his time in exile. Where some would use this opportunity in order to grow as a person and understand the perspectives of the commoners, Gristol is a narcissist who only wants the improvement of himself over everyone else and only considers himself as worthy. Even Lucrecia and Morona had differing opinions on how to make Grulovia a safer, more peaceful country and their patriotism was admirable because they considered the country before themselves. Gristol has no regards for the common people and only wants to be a royal again for status and luxury.
I should add I absolutely love all this stuff too and agree completely. Its was more a discussion around intentions than execution - removed of any of that debate I'm as conflicted as I am because it's my favourite level.
amazing video dude! It's wonderfully structured and the ending was *so* powerful!
I knew I liked Psych. 2 but... I couldn't put my finger on why it felt plain despite its improvements. You nailed it. The change from the odd uniqueness in both the artstyle and level design of Psych 1 stood out from other platformers but while Psych 2 keeps a lot of that same style charm, it lacks a bit on the level design itself.
psychonauts 3: raz finally goes to therapy
The fact it wasn't a thinly veiled nitpick video sent me for a spin. The comment made it seem like it, the title did too. Yet at the end of the day it turns out I actually have more issues with the game than you do - and yet I felt defensive about it at the outset. Fascianting.
I think my only issue with Psychonauts 2 so far. (I only just got to the casino) is that characters like Hollis have a totally normal voice and everyone in 1 seemed to have a really silly voice. Then again maybe I'm wrong because you got Raz's dad and Fred Bonaparte talked pretty normal....hmm might need to rethink this whole thing.
On one hand, I think it's a bit refreshing to have a villain to defeat in Psychonauts that is irredeemable. It's in line with Raz's disillusionment with the Psychonauts and the ideals he has about "fixing people" like the asylum inmates that get shot down after messing up in Hollis' mind. It's a hard lesson to learn that sometimes certain people cannot be rehabilitated, and deserve punishment. You can't help everyone, especially when they aren't willing to take it. But I think that's only part of the issue. Gristol's affected just as much by the central event of the game as every other mind you enter, it's just that his particular upbringing turns his coping mechanisms to manipulation and a narcissistic personality, whereas the Psychic 6/7 deflect the blame almost entirely on themselves. In a way, they're really not so different, just people dealing with intense trauma in different ways.
I think it's important that a line is drawn between the aggressive and non-aggressive coping mechanisms, but I think it goes a bit too far in making Gristol completely unsalvageable as a person. I don't know exactly how to reconcile that with my feelings about enjoying having an awful villain, but I think approaching him from the point of view as a person with whom you should try to empathize, which is what the point of these games tends to be, writing him off as forever bad is kind of dangerous. It's true, narcissists hurt people and it's not the responsibility of people in their lives to try to "fix" them. Same can be said about plenty other serious disorders. But this portrayal doesn't really show much of how he got to that point, or offer much hope for him in the future. There's this amazing scene in his level, where you more or less relive a traumatic memory of his attempted assassination by a crowd of protestors and get thrust into a huge, dangerous battle that sort of comes close to saying something, but the rest of the level takes great strides to paint his experiences as exaggerated and pathetic instead of pointing out what underlying problems might have led to them. We've actually made progress in treating things like Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which up until the past decade or two were thought to be incurable, to the point where some are able to build healthy relationships and develop empathy. For Psychonauts, which is normally really, really good at showing personal growth in all of its characters, it just seems kind of antithetical? I think maybe the message that should have been communicated was "it is not your responsibility to fix or help this person, but they are not beyond help if they learn to seek it out." It's kind of a hard thing to accept but treating bad people like monsters only keeps them that way, and allows them to keep hurting other people. Jesus I did not mean to turn this into a ramble.
No need to apologise- what you just went through is a great example of my own quandary in trying to word my feelings around the character and the approach taken.
I feel tim was burnt out and couldn't really challenge his own bias at that point, story wise, gristol trying to bring back maligula was a huge red flag, so for the in-world characters to spare their own sanity they took the easy way out and just kept him in his mental prison, there's some nuance there but not enough for it to be the traditional psychonauts experience
I love ur style/format for reviewing a piece of media
I agree with loads of your points despite imo this game being a masterpiece of art and design with it definitely being my GOTT for 2021
Tysm for saying what I've been trying to articulate!! It's a FANTASTIC game! But the Aquatos and interns were sadly underutilized, and the ending felt oddly unsatisfying, even if the game itself is still amazing! All extremely well put!
The Sensorium was my favorite level. Even though it introduced my least favorite enemy, the Panic Attack. Quick bastard...
51:39 I mean in the memoreis we see the Gzar did seem to only want them rained, on, neither Lucretia nor the Gzar seemed to anticipate days and days of protest-disrupting rain causing the dam to burst. He's still a thug though.
Happy to have ya back B. Been a long fan of your stuff since I discovered your Sly Cooper Retrospective, and out of curiosity watched all your other stuff. Glad you're doing better and can't wait to see a Jak & Daxter video in the future, whenever that happens.
Thank you so much- and don't worry, I do have plans to get a Jak video together sooner rather than later.