#very fun game i missed psychonauts

[snailcubezz]

ALSO i finished meat circus for the first time today :D👍

[edgy-ella]

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice thoughts

Overall I really liked it! This is definitely Burton’s best outing in years. His signature quirky sense of humor is back, and it’s got some fun performances and a nice blend of practical effects and CGI. Go see it if you can.

From here on out I’m gonna get into spoiler territory so proceed with caution.

This movie along with the original Beetlejuice have made me realize that one of Burton’s unsung strengths as a director is his strong pacing. Both movies are very zippy, never lingering on one shot or scene for too long. That’s a good thing, too, because I don’t think this movie would’ve worked otherwise. The script juggles a lot of characters, old and new, and subplots that don’t tie in very well to each other, leading to a climax that feels like everyone lining up to get a slap in the face before exiting stage left. Burton’s directorial touches—snappy pacing and cartoony German Expressionism visuals—are what make the movie work.

There’s some sequel gap syndrome at play here but it’s not very distracting. I think it helps that there is a huge time skip between the two movies rather than something like Psychonauts 2 which takes place literally the next day after the first game ends. You don’t really question how Beetlejuice unshrunk his head or how he has a bunch of other shrunken head people working for him now; so much time has passed that you can just sort of infer it on your own. That being said, the movie seems to have abandoned the concept of afterlife social workers all being suicide victims.

There is meta humor but it’s all very subtle. It’s never a big punchline where the actors pause for the audience to laugh, it’s always incorporated into the dialogue fairly naturally and there for people in the know to chuckle at. One character says that she’s “never doing Disney again” while talking about Halloween costumes. Neither of my friends picked up on this bit, but I got a nice giggle out of that one. Like you go Tim you’re finally out of your abusive relationship with the mouse.

For those of you that have seen the musical, it is a little distracting early on in the movie because it seems like Lydia and Astrid’s character arc is the exact same one that Charles and Lydia go through in the musical. The kid’s got a dead parent and living parent won’t talk about them, which becomes a source of tension. Astrid doesn’t go running into the Netherworld to find her dad like Lydia does for her mom in the musical, but strangely enough, she just…kinda bumps into him? It’s very strange. He’s working for customs in the afterlife and they just so happen to pass by each other as Astrid is nearly sent to the great beyond. I’m too tired right now to go into what this kind of thing means thematically.

Jenna Ortega gives a good performance as Astrid, but I wasn’t really sold on her character. I appreciate that she’s not just Lydia 2.0, but the Snarky Politically Active Teen Who’s Above All Of The Superficial Blonde Girls™ has been done to death already. I don’t see her having the same cultural impact that Lydia had when the first movie came out.

Monica Bellucci’s character, Beetlejuice’s ex-wife Delores, honestly feels like trailer fodder. She suffers the most from the movie’s lack of focus, especially for how much she’s hyped up at the beginning. Once again, she gives a good performance, but the script isn’t doing her any favors. Bizarrely enough, they didn’t really keep the gag of Beetlejuice keeping her chopped off finger/wedding ring? She’s still missing a finger, but she doesn’t get it back from Beetlejuice. It’s just there with the rest of her. She staples it back onto her body the same time she does her torso and legs.

One of the writers definitely has a pregnancy kink. There’s a couple of those “the writer’s poorly disguised fetish” moments in the movie, which honestly got a laugh out of me for how blatant they were. Congrats guys, you got to see Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega give birth. There’s also an inflation scene, but that only happened once, not twice.

Lydia is shown taking either antidepressants or schizophrenia meds, which her fiancé throws in the trash in like the first scene of the movie which just made me think of that scene in the Fnaf movie where Vanessa throws Mike’s sleeping pills in the lake.

On a similar note, there’s a shot that is more or less frame for frame that scene from the Casper movie where Kat and Casper start levitating while they’re dancing. It even serves basically the same narrative purpose. Seeing it gave me whiplash. You can’t do this to me Tim.

Kind of related to the meta humor, but I got a kick out of how they wrote Jeffery Jones (the actor that played Charles) out of the movie. I mean, they definitely had to, but still. We see Charles’ death through a pretty goofy stop motion segment, and in the afterlife he’s walking around without a head (presumably played/voiced by a different actor). Conversely, the Maitlands (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) don’t show up at all. Lydia says that they “found a loophole and were able to pass on” and that’s it. I wish they got a stop motion segment the same way Charles did.

Bob is my goat. He’s very Sir Dan-coded. He did not deserve the fate this movie gave him.

I wouldn’t say I prefer this movie over the original, but my god, it’s leaps and bounds better than all the remakes, reboots, and gap-sequels we’ve been getting for the last ten years. It could’ve benefitted from a tighter script, but in a movie like this that’s not really what matters. It’s dark, it’s funny, it’s charming, it’s memorable. It doesn’t feel forced or corporate the same way that movies like Hocus Pocus 2 or that new Indiana Jones movie do. It’s worth a watch.

[the-sky-queen]

You have my full attention

KAY BUCKLE UP. INFO DUMP TIME LET'S GOOOOOO!!!

We'll go in the order that I listed the spinoffs, even if that isn't the order we came up with them. (Spectrophobia was probably the first one I think.)

Dementophobia is the fear of going insane and it's the Psychonauts one. I hadn't heard of Psychonauts before this, so I'm still working my way towards watching the game cutscenes. I think I'm in the middle of Psychonauts 2 right now and then I'll be all caught up. If you're unaware, Psychonauts is a videogame where this kid named Raz has psychic powers and wants to become a Psychonaut, who are basically spies I think and also use their mind powers to help people get therapy.

So during Dementophobia, Niko accidentally comes into contact with the Warp Topaz (a common theme you'll see in a lot of these) and gets sent to the world of Psychonauts. He comes into contact with Raz who figures out something's up and decides to help him out. Raz goes into Niko's mind and very quickly realizes something is VERY WRONG HERE. (Also, Lily and I along with Lily's more Psychonauts knowledgeable friends have done a TON of worldbuilding around Niko's mind world and what happens there. It's so in depth and interesting and I LOVE IT SO MUCH) Anyway, Raz realizes that he's gonna need some backup here because Niko's mind is unlike pretty much anything he's ever seen before. It's that messed up. He takes Niko to his Psychonauts friends for help and that's when things really get going. Also Maple shows up at some point.

I could go on and on about what we have planned for Niko's mind world, but that might be a bit too spoiler-y. BUT TRUST ME WHEN I SAY IT'S SUPER COOL. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Alright, next up is Phobophobia which in all honesty is a silly joke AU that is really just here to have fun with. Here's what's up: Starline and Maple are married. Niko is their actual child. (Also Surge and Kit show up at some point, also being Starline's kids)

It sounds CRAZY (and it is) but it's really fun!! Niko's like 7 I think and there's not really a set plot to this one. It's just a collection of scenarios that this wacky family gets into. Also, there's like a subplot where Starline learns to be more caring and gets closer to Niko and it's kinda cute. This one got started before the Trauma Siblings became a thing, so they're not included, and I'm still wondering if I should put them in. That would put Starline and Maple at SIX kids though and I don't know if their marriage can handle that. XD

(ALSO EGGMAN AND STARLINE ARE CO-WORKERS AND EGGMAN'S DAUGHTERS ARE 6 YEAR OLD SAGE AND BELLE.)

Next up is Decidiophobia, Fear of Decision making. This is the Stanley Parable crossover, another game that I hadn't heard of before this, but I'm now OBSESSED WITH. Quick rundown of The Stanley Parable: You play as Stanley, an ordinary guy with a job pressing buttons on a keyboard all day. Then one day, his co-workers all go missing and he sets out to try to find them and figure out what's up. The entire game is narrated by the Narrator, who even narrates your actions! However, what he says you're going to do isn't set in stone and you can go against what he says whenever you want. All this leads to different paths and storylines you can take, causing multiple different endings. After each one, the game resets and you start all over again.

SO HERE'S THE THING ABOUT THIS ONE. Instead of doing another dimensional yeet via the warp topaz, we decided that The Stanley Parable exists within the regular Sonic universe. How? Uhhh, I probably can't explain that because of spoilers, but let's just say . . .

The Narrator is vaguely connected to the Time Eater and also the Phantom Ruby is here. And GUN got involved too.

So Niko shows up in side The Parable™ and confuses the Narrator, because he's not Stanley. The Narrator tries to continue on as normal, but after a particularly disastrous ending, he realizes that Niko is AN ACTUAL CHILD and resolves to help him escape The Parable™. :D

Next: Autophobia, Fear of being Alone, otherwise known as the Miraculous Ladybug one. You know the drill by now. Warp Topaz, dimensional yeet, and it's all fun and games until Hawkmoth gets to Niko literally IMMEDIATELY. (Not gonna explain Miraculous because it's a lot. If you don't know about it already, just go watch the show.) So Niko gets akumatized into THE MOST TERRIFYING AND OVERPOWERED AKUMA IN EXISTENCE, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS LITTLE ANGEL. He can make people fall (platonically) in love with him just by looking at him and it even works across BROADCAST. So like. Anyone who comes into contact with him is instantly obsessed with him. There's a bit more too it, but that's probably spoilers. :P

Anyway, Ladybug is compromised pretty much INSTANTLY. And shortly afterwards, the entire school falls to Little Angel's spell. Due to spoiler reasons, Chat Noir, Chloe, and Kagami, manage to escape his influence and start trying to find a way to fight back. (Oh also Little Angel is not a hedgehog, but he was turned into a small human child with animal ears, a halo, and wings. Yeah, he's called Angel for a reason.)

This is the only crossover we have where Niko very much does NOT get therapy. He's usually better off by the end of one of the crossovers but NOT THIS ONE. In fact, he actually gets WORSE because of this one. :D

AND FINALLY WE HAVE SPECTROPHOBIA, Fear of mirrors/your reflection. AKA THE ONE I ACTUALLY CAME UP WITH BY MYSELF. XD This one is interesting because SONIC shows up. Like, regular Sonic, untainted by Starline's influence, shows up in the facility. How? Let's just say that the 900th Adventure special didn't quite go as planned. >:) So he's able to find Starline and Niko in the facility right in the middle of a session. Sonic's like 'nah this is stopping right now,' rescues Niko, and escapes the facility! It's not as easy as it seems though because Niko freaks out as soon as he realizes Sonic's here and he took him away from Starline. I REALLY WANNA START POSTING THIS ONE. I PROBABLY COULD BUT I'VE BEEN PUTTING IT OFF. Also the Warp Topaz shenanigans are fun in this one and I've got an art I need to finish for it that no one but Lily will understand but will come up later on in the story. >:)

Kay, that's all the ones I mentioned in that post, but there's a few more. I won't talk about them though, because most of them are more Lily's expertise.

But aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa can you tell why I'm going insane now?

[anthurak]

So as something of a follow-up to this post I did on Psychonauts, I thought I’d try and think of other examples of games with a notably casual and relaxed early-game instead of tossing both protagonist and player directly into some intense main plot. Particularly if there are ways of essentially ‘putting off’ the main story to the point that a significant percentage of your playthrough of the game takes place in this more casual, relaxed state.

Now as someone brought up in the tags of the Psychonauts post, yes Kingdom Hearts 2 has a great example of this concept with Roxas’s prologue. Sure, it may not be very long compared to the rest of the game and there is no reasonable way to extend it (indeed, that inevitability is very much part of the POINT of Roxas’s story in KH2), but at the same time the last few days of ‘summer vacation’ for Roxas so perfectly capture and present this chill and relaxed atmosphere that really does set KH2 apart from so many other games. Not to mention being probably THE main reason Roxas ended up being as beloved as he is by the fandom.

For another, perhaps unexpected example, I’d actually put Cyberpunk 2077 on this list. Specifically the pre-heist section of the First Act. Like it might be easy to miss if you just go straight to the meeting with Evelyn and the deal with Maelstrom, but after the meeting with Dexter, you’re given free reign of the Watson district along with a few side quests you can do. Sure it’s not like how Psychonauts opens up basically three-quarters of the map after the first level as you’re still stuck to one district with a number of higher level unlockables unavailable. But I think it’s still a bit significant, particularly as you can complete either of the main quests at your leisure and even put off the heist itself until you’re ready.

Which I think in turn gives the first act a more relaxed, casual feel since most notably, V DOESN’T have the ominous specter of Johnny Silverhand looming over them at this point. Like even though functionally from a gameplay perspective there isn’t much difference between the first act and the rest of the game, there is still that FEELING of creeping mortality that pervades the rest of the game. Which as an aside, speaking personally has actually been the biggest barrier to replaying CP77 for me. Like yeah, I do think the game is fun, and I want to have fun with it, but the looming doom and gloom of V’s fading life really does create this oppressive atmosphere that sucks a lot of the fun out of the game for me. To the point where I really wish there was some kind of secret route (perhaps a New Game+ mode?) where maybe V can avoid getting shot by Dexter and triggering the relic?

Finally, for the fourth example that I’m sure will surprise a few people; let’s talk about Skyrim.

Specifically, Skyrim with an alternate start mod.

Because while the base Skyrim game might rather infamously lock you into the main quest right from the get-go, there are in fact a number of fan-mods that essentially allow you to sidestep the main quest entirely.

For example; the mod I used back when I played Skyrim, Live Another Life, essentially allowed you one of several dozen alternate starts to your playthrough. From starting as a new recruit for any of the major factions, to starting as a new arrival to one of Skyrim’s ports to starting in a random inn or tavern, to starting as a bandit, necromancer, vampire or other random enemy in a dungeon/camp, to starting on a shipwreck, and many more.

And once you started, the main quest was essentially locked. No dragons flying around, no one freaking out about dragons returning or anything else like that. At least until you wandered nearby to Helgen and saw the big fuckoff dragon fly away from the big smoking hole in the ground which kicked off the main quest as normal.

But that meant you could essentially put off the main quest as long as you want and just play around in Skyrim doing all the other quests and adventures you wanted without the big ol’ ‘end of the world’ and ‘chosen one’ malarkey looming over you.

Heck, depending on the mod you were using, you could just disable the main quest entirely and roleplay as someone OTHER than a dragonborn.

So those are the examples I could think of for games with a notably relaxed early game, which certainly feel rather notable and interesting when it seems most games are rather terrified of losing player attention and thus toss them right into the plot/action as soon as possible.

Would definitely love to hear any other examples anyone can think of XD

[self-loving-vampire]

I don't really want to reblog your post saying this because I feel like that could be annoying but I've gotten a lot into gacha games (specifically Bang Dream, Project Sekai, D4DJ, Blue Archive, and now Zenless Zone Zero, in that order) as a 25 year old plural trans failgirl and despite enjoying them I know they are bad for me and it is my policy to not recommend them

and basically every time I find myself posting gushing over their stories or whatever I feel the need to asterisk myself with "this is a gacha game so I'm not really recommending you check it out". And like, I don't know, I feel like I should say it and it's necessary but it also feels a little tedious I guess. Like, everyone who I follow and who follows me knows this already so aah. But also then again I thought I already knew that the psychological manipulation and gambling was bad and etc and I still ended up getting super OCD over it and losing a lot of time and money to them and I would not wish this condition on anyone else. Which I guess is a more than good enough reason to continue the asterisking even if it's tedious in the same way it's tedious to say "content warning" or "spoilers for _____" or tag anything bothersome so people can filter it and sometimes you might forget to but you gotta do it anyway.

Anyway I uh. I do have like fifteen years of game playing experience prior to the gacha games where I played no gacha games. So if that counts for anything my favorite games of all time (and these are all non gacha singleplayer games) range from like,

Psychonauts (1 and 2), Milk Inside a Bag of Milk, Subahibi, killer7, Night in the Woods, VA-11 HALL-A, Tsui Yuri ~Okaa-san ni wa Naisho da yo~ (the incest yuri visual novel), Shadow the Hedgehog, if found..., Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Dishonored, Gunpoint, Jet Set Radio Future, and most importantly Senran Kagura (but not the gacha one), and many others but I'll just stop typing them now

Also I recently played the System Shock remake, which is kino and beautiful

Anyway I hope this confession is allowed. I really like your posts and your ask box has a very confessional vibe to me sometimes so I still feel compelled to it. Um, yeah. I guess, play those games. And not necessarily any gacha games. (Do that at your own risk, but also probably, really, seriously don't)

I've been trying to write a more formal essay on how gacha games can have good things in them but unfortunately still suck but ironically it hasn't yet come together because I've been distracted playing the gacha games. Hopefully I figure out that problem... Maybe with drugs or something (please)

Yeah, I don't think they are entirely bad (I still look at and reblog horny pictures from some of them often) but I wouldn't play one of those again even with full confidence that I won't fall into a gambling addiction because even putting morality and financial risk aside the very fact that they are trying to push players into it ends up worsening the rest of the game design.

Games these days (not even exclusively gacha) are sometimes deliberately made more tedious and inconvenient just for the sake of selling a solution to these invented problems. Paying to remove some arbitrary limitation or to skip a grind, for example.

The controversy around the new Star Wars Battlefront 2 contrasted with the original game highlights this very clearly. Things that used to just be a part of the game included by default are now things you have to either gamble for or play for an unreasonable amount of time to unlock. It really did not have to be that way, as demonstrated by the original game.

I think if you have been playing them and noticed all the issues it might be worth it to ask yourself if you're actually enjoying yourself on the net. Not just if the games have something in them that's worthwhile but if they are actually a fun way to pass your time. Is it play, or is it a chore you put up with to avoid falling behind or missing out on the things you do like? Would you be missing on much if you engaged with the story through youtube videos instead of playing the game yourself?

And if you do end up deciding you could be having more fun with something else, it's not like there's a shortage of other games, especially if you look into older games. Many of these are free or easy to emulate.

Looking at your list I think we have different tastes but if you enjoyed things like System Shock and Dishonored then you could maybe look into the first Deus Ex, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, or Arx Fatalis.

(Also this is a confessional now? I guess it gives people an excuse to picture me dressed up as one of those ero anime nuns even as I maximize blasphemy and apostasy.)

[extraneousdominomask]

What I did on my summer vacation

As you've no doubt gathered by now, for the last two years I've been playing various old games with my wife. I often used to post about that adventure here, and then I kinda stopped. I feel bad about that, especially when it comes to the two excellent, free indie games I had fully intended to spotlight. So here's a quick rundown!

Celeste, OJONMRAG, Double Cross

Three great indies I got in the same bundle. Celeste needs no introduction, and I've spoken about it before. I don't know if I ever mentioned Oh Jeez Oh No My Rabbits Are Gone!!!, but it's a fun puzzle game with cute visuals and surprisingly catchy music. And speaking of those two things, Double Cross is a hidden gem of a game. We really enjoyed its eclectic cast, and still sometimes quote the zany catgirl in particular. ("All cats are tyrants, Zahra.")

Manic Miners

Lego Rock Raiders was a toy line in the 1990s, which earned its own video game tie-in. I remember it fondly... as did one absolute hero, who remastered the dang thing as a non-profit passion project. Manic Miners is available via Itch for free - because it's a fan game! He had to ask very nicely to do this at all! - and it completely revitalizes what was an engaging but flawed fuzzy memory from my childhood. As well as adding several quality of life improvements to make the game flow better, cut content is restored and entirely new features are added in, such as a character creator. If you want an accessible game that can provide the sweet, sweet satisfaction of collecting every scrap of resources from a initially messy environment, I highly recommend this.

inFamous 2: Festival of Blood

An important thing to know about me is that I hate vampires. I don't like 'em and I don't like looking at 'em, so I usually avoid and and all vampiric media, even if they're getting slaughtered. For that reason, despite loving inFamous 2, I never checked out its DLC side-adventure Festival of Blood... until now. (Making a new purchase on the PS3 digital store was hard, but not impossible. Thanks for complaining every time they try to shut it down, everybody!) It's a short experience, but a lot of fun, thanks to the wise decision to let Zeke narrate the whole bullshit stor- I mean, thrilling tale of true heroism. I found Bloody Mary to be an entertainingly nasty villain, despite my biases.

Psychonauts 2

Psychonauts is one of the video games ever, no question. Expectations were lofty for its much-delayed sequel. If anything, I think I prefer this one! The core (the gameplay, visuals, hilarious writing, and Peter McConnell's consistently excellent music) all remain unchanged, with new mechanics, some quality of life improvements, and an impressive voice cast all added on top. Jack Black and Elijah Wood are both in this game, and they're both great!

Pokémon White

this one kinda sucked ngl

Halo: Combat Evolved

Mostly, I'm showing my wife a game and not the other way around. There was one major franchise that I had almost entirely missed, however - aside from a few free-form skirmishes at parties - that she fondly remembers. This summer, we both experienced the first Halo together, and in short: yeah, I can see why this changed the course of the industry singlehandedly. It still feels great to play, even with my wife assuring me that the sequel is a big improvement from these already solid bones. I frankly don't relish slaughtering the fleeing, crying Grunts, since we as a society have moved on considerably when it comes to the rights of funny little guys. But it feels great to shoot aleins and Cortana is my friend. Exactly as advertised.

Jak II: Renegade

this one definitely sucked, holy shit. I remember this being a good game. I remembered incorrectly.

Shantae (2002)

I've played two of the more recent Shantae games, and I found them charming. But how does the original hold up? Pretty well, honestly! It's far from perfect - the day and night cycle really adds nothing beyond referencing Castlevania - but the music and visuals are truly impressive for the original GameBoy. I'm gonna be thinking about Shantae's cute little 8-bit dances for a while.

Undertale Yellow

Like anyone who listens to a lot of Toby Fox's music over YouTube, I've seen my fair share of dubious OCs and "epic fights" floating at the corner of my vision. With that in mind, I went into UY with managed expectations, despite the positive buzz. Could a fangame really match the unique energy and charm of one of the greatest independent games of our generation?

Uh... yeah! I'm as surprised as anyone else, but everything from the music to the gameplay to the writing was really bang-on. It's not a flawless experience - the El Bailador fight needed reworking, it was WAY harder than other, more impactful fights - but the eight years of passion very much shine through. If you're a fan of UT/DR and need something to tide you over as we all wait for Chapters 3+, I fully recommend this. It's free!!!!

Spyro the Dragon (1998)

Finished this just yesterday! I got the remaster when it came out, but - no offense - nothing beats the blocky low-poly charm of the original. This was my first time replaying it in several years, and for the first time, it felt small. Levels I remember struggling with posed no challenge any more. But I think that only speaks to how many times I replayed this lovely little adventure. Also, did you know that of the, like, four voice actors in this game, one of them is Clancy goddamn Brown? He plays like 30 of these polygonal dragons!

...I would normally try to end a post this long on a more climactic note, but, uh... yeah.

[ottoslab]

just wanted to say that i adore your art, and you kinda got me into psychonauts. i already knew about it and had been wanting to look into it, but then i saw your tf2 psychonauts crossover art and went CRAZY over the designs and shapes i just had to buy both psychonaut games. i’m actually playing the second one as i type! i’m having a blast and this series is definitely going in my top favorites already, so thank you!!

i don’t know if you’ve talked about this before, but what are your favorite or least favorite levels from the psychonauts games?

anon you have no idea how happy this makes me. My favoritest games of all times it makes me so so happy to know other people are still getting into them and enjoying them! They’re both great games, but psychonauts 2 is really just a good game to play. Absolute blast bc of story and gameplay, I really hope you enjoy it!! Feel free to send me an ask and let me know your thoughts! Id love to hear!

Favorite and least favorites… good question!

Favorite in game one: Meat circus I LOVE you meat circus. I knowww everyone’s always mad about it because of the shitty gameplay and like. YEAJ. I agree. It sucked major ass but I don’t care. I love weird circuses SO much and I love Coach Oleander so it was fun getting to see the merging backgrounds of him and Raz. It just has so many super cool parts to the level that I think get overlooked because of people getting upset at the gameplay.

least favorite: Gloria’s theater :( it’s like the whole reason I haven’t replayed the first game . The setup of the level itself is boring and cramped and the mechanics for the level are confusing and i dont like it!!! Which sucks bc i love Gloria and her story is really sweet but i really dont think her level does her justice in any regard.

Spoilers for game 2 under the cut just in case you want to avoid it for now til you finish!

Favorite in game two: It’s such a tossup every time because like. Psi-King’s sensorium is full of wonderful music and in-your-face art design, Loboto’s Labyrinth is so well designed and a wonderful intro into the game that lets you know exactly what you’re getting into, Bob’s Bottle’s is gorgeous and fucking HEARTBREAKING oh my GOD. But I think Cassie’s Collection is my favorite overall because it has stellar level design, great music, and is the level of one of my favorite characters. Honestly the fact that Cassie is my favorite character is probably the only reason i can make this decision. I lvoe her sm shes so wonderful and her level tells such a good story :) I genuinely think the only downside is how lackluster the final boss is. It feels like its missing something and I completely forget about it until the moment I have to fight her.

Least favorite: Lucretia’s lament… Fun area, but very clearly meant to be a quick exposition level. Not a lot for you to really uncover, unlike a lot of the other levels that are packed with hidden secrets and details and stuff. It’s really pretty, I especially love the quilted area, but you just feel so boxed in when you play through it that it feels like setdressing. Type of railroading feel that is more reminiscent of the first game than the New and Improved psychonauts 2. I feel like if i had more of an opportunity to look around and explore and Experience the different areas I’d have more of an appreciation for it, but you don’t really get that unfortunately!

Close second is Hollis’ Classroom/Hotstreaks PURELY because ive restarted the game and only gotten halfway so many times that I’ve replayed those sections an unGODLY amount and its left a Hollis’-Classroom-shaped-indent in my BRAIN. But then i remember how cool her level is and I get normal.

[katapotato55]

Why I am not a fan of the interns from psychonauts 2 in terms of writing

spoilers for most of the game. please play this game it is very good. spoilers begin after the cut. Disclaimer 1: I love this game. If I hated it then I wouldn't be talking about it. I criticize the things i love because I believe in improvement from fair criticism. Disclaimer 2: If you are personally attached to said characters and feel as though you are being attacked by reading this, politely piss off. I don't know you personally, and if you think my opinion on fictional characters is some slight against a random stranger, then you need to touch grass instead of spamming my feed. With this in mind, this is my PERSONAL OPINION as to why i dislike these characters from a writer's standpoint

1- they are pricks. i have been told "hazing is just a normal rite of passage!" hazing is a dick move created as an excuse to prank newbies. I don't care how many fond memories you have of your frat house: hazing is something only assholes contribute to. and you know what else is a dick move? bullying a 10 year old kid for no reason. it is very normal for teenagers to group together with people that are the same as them, so i can believe this is a group of snobby little shits. If being bullies was the intended purpose of their characters I would be fine, but it conflicts with the story the writers want to tell. which brings me to my next point

2- We barely get any time for them to develop at the beginning of the game they are introduced as a group of little shits who bully kids for no reason. not great but i can forgive giving characters flaws so they progress. People like that do indeed exist. the problem: they don't seem to learn anything and they just randomly decide Raz is their friend during the casino mission. (and then later randomly shown up to save the day at the end even though they were missing most of the game) "don't forget how i taught you how to grind rail raz!" what???? you didn't teach us anything! you barely talk to us skateboard kid! Raz knew how to do that at the summer camp! and like, this scene is very cool. the artistic style and the characters popping up like comic book panels but none of that matters cus i have no reason to like any of these kids. "but Raz proved himself that he is capable during the lady luctopus fight so they respect him!" thank you for pointing that out obvious straw man I created to make up for my shitty argument skills. but the thing is: just because these kids were proven wrong does not equal character development. They didn't learn anything other than to not mess with Raz specifically. Which:

3- If you asked me their names, I can't tell you who is who other than sam (and we will get to her later) let me describe these characters to you -skateboard kid -kid who is in a really cool lawn chair hover thing -kid who got all of her clothing by stealing from construction workers and rodeo cowboys -the other bitchy one but with a beanie. - darius rucker with a yoyo -and sam. this shit is all i know from these characters. At best I know traffic stop clothing kid and the other one are sisters, but i literally only know that because Raz randomly pointed it out. (and personally, i think those two are the most unlikable of them all) "ah you probably hate them because they are teenagers" listen man. I am an original homestuck fan back when the main cast consisted of 13 year olds. The characters ages do not matter to me, but rather how interesting they are. in Psy 1 the campers were full of personality and depth, BUT they didn't shoehorn them in expecting them to suddenly be all buddy buddy with raz. They were designed as fun background characters, and they served their purpose. The interns problem is that they have the personality of very boring background characters, but they are not given enough time to develop as characters and are expected to be treated like a main characters. We spend all of our time with the Psychic 6 and not them (and i fucking love those guys!) the Psychic 6 are the ones we spent our time with. THEY are the real main characters because we understood their struggles and got to learn about them. I was closet to THEM because i spent time with them. I feel as though most of the interns were shoehorned in to appeal to a younger audience ok now we can talk about sam

4- I think sam is only interesting because she is attached to Dogan (please don't kill me i promise i am going somewhere with this) If you don't know, sam is basically the explodey head kid's sister. She has personality because she is attached to the most wholesome man of all time, and the weird kid from the first game with murderous tendencies. As a result of this, Sam has to be just as weird as her family members to make sense. I guess her character wouldent change if you removed her familial status with the Boole family, but also consider sam is basically pinkie pie. and Mable pines. And Molly McGee and basically every single quirkyyyyyy overly energetic female character in media with animal abuse sprinkled on top for comedy. there is nothing wrong with this. I think sam is fun too. But also she stands out like a real person in a room full of mannequins, mostly because her friends have the personality of mannequins. The poor writing of the rest of the interns essentially makes sam worse by the law of association because sam is grouped with these losers. in case you are curious, the "where did you get the milk" line cracks me up every time. poor Raz needs a hug.

5-They overplayed agent Forsythe a little bit too much and that does not help the interns in contrast. first: i love Raz's arch about learning not to affect peoples brains like it's nothing. It gave me emotional whiplash because i played the first game right before this game, but the games have a 16 year gap between each other and times have changed. I won't blame the game for that, AND the whole "mental health is a serious issue" grew on me. very good story this game has. Point is: Raz's consent arch was a really good thing for his character. but also agent Forsythe is kind of a bitch. first: your two agents brought you a kid who is enthusiastic about the psychonauts and your immediate instinct is to put him up with the mailroom clerk as his mentor? really? Thinking Cruller is a fucking nut and not validating Raz's honorary psychonaut status? yeah fair. she has no reason to think Ford isn't batshit insane. Getting on Raz for being late to class? also fair. She is a very strict teacher and needs to instill onto her kids that punctuality is important. but then some things rub me the wrong way. like you are an adult, how come you are letting these kids bully Raz? surely you saw the footage on the security cams? Or how come Raz got blamed for invading her thoughts when it was the interns that shoved him into it? How come you are targeting the kid for this and not everyone else who was involved in this? lets give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she didn't know about those things. Raz's story about him apologizing and learning from his mistake was still very good. Then sasha and Raz have a very charming fatherly moment about learning when to bail from a dangerous situation. made me smile. but then after all that emotional drama, you then talk to her and raz apologizes AGAIN and the emotional drama tries to continue. Lady you already had a talk to Raz about consent, why are you making him explain himself again out in the open? He is 10 years old and already learned his lesson, chill the fuck out.

and then later on she implies that she thinks Raz is the mole just because his family is from a fallen country related to the current issue. I understand not liking Raz, but is the racist remarks necessary? Do you seriously think some random kid kidnapped the head of the psychonauts? I know it is a serious issue but come the fuck on the kid barely knows how shapes work. i know this is about the interns, but Forsythe rubs me the wrong way and i feel like she is the reason why these brats are the way they are. I feel like she makes my distaste for the interns worse because she comes off to me as a sad fuck who targets kids to fuel her fragile power tripping ego. her level was good, and her arc with Raz was good, but she could use a bit of retooling. I feel as though I can forgive her nastier flaws if she acted more like an adult and gave the teenagers the same amount of lip she gave Raz. Perhaps if she had stepped up the interns would be more likeable because they and raz could have a nice bonding moment over their mistake. Tldr: Forsythe needed to act like an ADULT and discipline the interns just as much as she did raz instead of enabling them.

Overall, the interns are poorly written and I dread seeing them on screen. I am not attached to them in the way i am attached to the Psy 6. The story of Helmet and Bob touched my heart, Agent Boole's mission about social anxiety related to me personally, the story of Cassiopea coming to terms with her past and identity issues, Learning about ford's mistakes and the trauma he collected, everything! I love these characters! I guess the lesson is that just because a character is superficially the same as you, does not mean they are relatable. I am in my 20's. I am not a teenager anymore, but I am not elderly either. I am actually closer to the interns in age than i am to the Psy 6. And yet I relate to the Psy 6 more because these are human beings that i have grown to know and learn about. I am a girl who plays videogames. Shocker I know. and I have seen debates about "we need this and this and this or else i can't relate to the character!". There is not a lot of female characters in media and i agree that it would be nice to be represented more. but a character being the exact SAME as you does not equal relatability. I am not a grandfather with a tendency to make people explode, but i relate to Bool because we both share in our self judgement issues and the struggle to not want to hurt people with your personal problems. We have nothing in common physically, but we share in our struggles. and that is why the interns failed as characters when the Psy 6 succeeded. please don't spam my inbox about how much you disagree with me and how much you actually like the interns. this is just my opinion with writing advice sprinkled in it, much like Sam's personality.

[browngonzo888]

Small rant about fandom

So seeing a lot of “I miss my quiet fandom” from the Spiderman 2099 fans. Like yeah I geddit, got a lot of Gen A kids with their TikTok’s and their annoying Ciara track edits an such with a version of Miguel they don’t recognize. And also arguments about race and skintone.

think that’s bad?

Mortal Kombat fandom…. FULL of racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Transphobia. Deathwishes. Netherrealm Studios retconning the characters to hell because they handed the script to a guy who’s NEVER had any experience with video games (when it comes to ick, P Daniels got nothing on Dominic Cianciolo) Redesigns not able to decide who they wanna pander to. A lot of this crap because they were trying to stay relevant to an old crowd from the 90s as well as cater to a newer crowd, but there was a severe clash because the old crowd knew a simpler arcade game while the newer fans wanted FGC level BS. MK11 was the biggest fandom nightmare. Seriously atsv is MILD, and seems to try to go in the right direction by being rich with additional culturally specific art and design. MK did something like that but then also did some weird crap with it and not everyone was happy and I still haven’t exactly pinpointed just what that was! They literally changed up a skin because it was Confederate-inspired.

A mess! I got into the shittiest arguments. Never wanna go back to that ever again as long as a live, no matter how good or ambivalent my intentions are.

So I kinda left it alone

Anyway. Before atsv I went back to Psychonauts. Played it as a teen, then part 2 came out in my 30s. Of course they did small things that catered to new players. Some of the stuff the newer fans do are not always easy to relate to or understand (like the Miguel tiktok edits), but I really don’t mind it at all. I reached out to them in my own way by liking and reblogging their work and they checked me back in kind and some I chat with on a regular basis. What I’m tryna say here is that there’s always gonna be old fans and new fans. Depending on the way creators handle their audience can heavily effect the way their fandom gets along. NRS dropped the molten hot ball by being a hostile network that occasionally even fought with their own fans. Doublefine Studios is hella-casual and their fandom turned out that way too.

In real time I’m sorta watching where Sony is going with this fandom. They seem to be diverse-conscious yet also trying to ignore Miguel’s origin comic shamefully? Idk i think it fits him anyway, no matter what he looks like. Oof and I’ve seen the whole “why he white” rhetoric in Miguel fanart over at Pinterest and gosh I don’t know if I can spare to care anymore because you couldn’t swing a controller without running into that with MK art, when clearly a LOAD of their characters were default Caucasian-looking in the 90s. It’s a reoccurring design that has plenty of room to make changes with imo, but it’s tiresome to gatekeep.

I think if people are just a bit patient with the newer fans and not start a war, things will be fine and the Spiderman 2099 fandom will go back to being peaceful. I’m a newer fan. I don’t like the weird edits. I purchased the first two issues of the 90s comic to fully understand Miguel’s origin, the very comic with the cover that atsv used in his intro. It’s nice to collect something else other than DC Lobo. I think if you feel creeped out, pressured, or even downright angry at new fans, just ignore them. Ignore me. It’s possible to curate your own experience online. Except Twitter. Fuck that place in the A, I hate it. I’d join a hateocracy against the destruction of Twitter if I could. And if you a new fan, idk just have fun and don’t be mean to the old fans because they the reason 2099 came back around despite his story getting shelved several times.

Anyway, ramble over. I wanted to get a lot of that off my mind.

[kieuecaprie]

KieueCaprie's Games Finished List of 2023: Entry 6

While Twitter is going to pot, I'm going to be playing catch-up with the list, it'll take a while to catalogue all of these so please bare with me if I take a while to update it.

#6: Hi-Fi RUSH

What's done? Main Story

Started? 26/1/23

Finished? 27/1/23

What platform? PC

If PC, where? Xbox Game Pass

No screenshots for this one and considering that I'm playing catch-up, I may not come back to this to add any but I will say that initially, I didn't expect much from this game.

But that went out the window real fast when I actually got my hands on it. It was absolutely a great game to play, it felt like I was playing a PS2/Gamecube-era game with the visuals, the gameplay, the music, everything.

I also played through the entire game with Streamer Mode on even though I'm basically a retired streamer at this point because I wanted to know what songs they made to replace the licensed ones, and they were also really great.

It is one of the few Game Pass games so far that has met my "I feel like I'm robbing the developers by playing it on Game pass" goal, something that is only shared with the likes of Psychonauts 2 and Slayers X.

#7: Pizza Tower

What's done? The game

Started? 27/1/23

Finished? 28/1/23

What platform? PC... 'cause it's only on PC at this time in writing

If PC, where? Steam, of course.

Seems I only had this screenshot of the funny pizza man game but I can say that Pizza Tower was a very good game. The controls are tight (well, after the superjump button binding update because THAT was killer...), the gameplay loop is almost addicting, and the difficulty is just right (...in some cases...). It really makes you feel like you're playing a balding italian man who is perpetually anxious and is one bad day away from snapping and ending someone.

#8: Wario Land 4

What's done? The game

Started? 16/2/23

Finished? 18/2/23

Platform? Wario Land 4 on the Game Boy Advance (HA HA HA!)

I actually stopped and started this a few times and I don't really know why... and it took until completing Pizza Tower 101% before I could finally find the drive to playthrough and finish Wario Land 4 on the Game Boy Advance.

How the heck did I not play this sooner? How on earth did young me miss out on this? AND I WAS A 3DS AMBASSADOR WHICH HAD WARIO LAND 4. AAAAAAAA-

#9: Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

What's done? Story mode

Started? 20/2/23

Finished? 22/2/23

Platform? Nintendo Switch

Initially, I wasn't too impressed with the changes to the gameplay coming from 3DS to Switch but I got used to it overtime. It still tripped me up from time to time.

Also A Long Fall was in it, so of course.

#10: Barony

What's done? Full story

Finished? 15/3/23

Platform? PC, on Steam

Multiplayer? Yes, with @armoreddragon99

Barony is one of those games where it's fun but is complete CBT-inducing when it comes to playing solo. One day, Armored and I decided to do a run of Barony together (We eventually started playing with ZaktheDragon and Kaelyn later on but I dunno if we've finished those runs or not, maybe I could check).

The game stops being so CBT when even ANOTHER player joins, meaning that if I die in solo play, it's a massive skill issue.

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[tobiasrieper]

have you watched the documentary series for the making of psychonauts 2? i just love that double fine documents the development of their games like this

i've only watched the first two episodes but i think i wanna watch the whole thing!! and yeah i think it's really cool to have this more intimate perspective of the studio and to see their development process of not only creating a game, but specifically a psychonauts game. like is it true to their world, their characters, does it feel weird and funky in that uniquely psychonauts way, and most importantly, is it fun to play?

it also really shows how grueling and unpredictable the games industry is, even 20 years ago. like for the first psychonauts game, the devs were sleeping on the floors of their office and put in all that crunch to meet their deadlines, and it was almost for nothing after microsoft dropped them. it makes me wonder how many games we've missed out on and how many other devs have left the industry for good because of how unstable it is

anyway yeah i like it so far it's insightful! i think after i finish my psychonauts 2 replay, i'll continue watching it!

edit: OH i forgot to mention that another game development video i always liked was the GDC presentation about abzu! it's about the technical challenges they faced while making the game and the solutions they found. it's very clever how they solve these sorts of problems, i love it!

[dynamos-games]

I played through 6 levels in a single day what the hell-

THIS GAME IS FUN. it's so silly goofy I missed playing games like this. everything is colorful and bouncy, the dialogue is still fairly witty and humorous this time around, and the level design. HOLY FUCK THE LEVEL DESIGN. I was losing my shit in Hollis' Hotstreak just at how cool the exterior of the hospital/casino is, Compton's Cookoff was also amazing, but PSI King's Sensorium really took the cake for me. the stylization and the music were almost overwhelming as someone who gets overloaded with sensory input very easily, and the way that panic attacks were introduced was done very well. the only thing I didn't like about the level was how fucking hard it was to find every figment, it was kinda giving me flashbacks to Milla's Dance Party with how difficult it was to track down figments when everything is so brightly colored. I couldn't tell you which is worse though, because even though the figments from Psychonauts 1 would fade and reappear, the ones in 2 are solid and much more saturated, but that doesn't really help when everything in the environment is also very saturated.

overall, I'm really enjoying this game, and I can't wait to see what else is in store.

I love getting a $60 game for like $10

[ottiliere]

I like to periodically check in on ur blog because you do some of the best Dirk analysis out there and to come and find that since I last checked you posted both JTHM and psychonauts was so awesome, especially because me and one of my pals have been really into talking about both recently since I just bought the reissue of all 7 JTHM comics with extra content and he’s been playing psychonauts 2. I hope to see more of both on ur blog in the future (although please don’t feel pressured you’re content is always good anyways) !

ohh this is lovely to hear...have always felt like there's a through line between psychonauts 05 and jhonen's stuff. which does make sense given that they were made around the same relative time period! I'm assuming you're talking about the director's cut release of JTHM here...I believe this is the first physical copy of the comic i owned as well, it's really nice! have always been fond of how barebones the spine was, i'm sure some people don't like it but I kind of miss how charmless (using the word affectionately) a lot of the design was for books like this.

i wish i could say something nicer about psychonauts 2...I'm not a fan of haterism like that's just not what i care to put out into the world, especially on this blog. but i have to be completely honest with you and say i just did not enjoy this game. if it had been anything BUT a psychonauts sequel it would have been entirely inoffensive to me, but as a sequel it's just kind of incredible the extent to which the charm, style, humor, love, etc. of the first game was just, removed completely, with absolute surgical precision. very little traces of these things. it's fun to play and mostly nice to look at, a good game in all technical respects, but it's just not psychonauts 2005.

my friend dane davestriderdeathcult4568 has been my psychonauts buddy and was running through the first game again recently which is what made me get back into it... neither of us had really engaged with the sequel yet so i watched him play it and it was just; legitimately devastating. the state of the writing is so tragic i remember specifically there was a point at which we had to physically get up and and go stand around on the balcony outside for a while clutching our drinks and cigarettes in the wind looking up at the sky trying to recover emotionally. this sounds like a joke but it totally isn't this game made me so incredibly sad.

like initially i was a little worried my first impression was just nostalgia or something but talking around a little it really obviously...isn't. there's something really vital missing from psychonauts 2. a lot of really vital somethings actually. outside of the writing, even, like, glossing over how just objectively not good the story is....the character design is so egregrious held up to the designs of psychonauts 2005. it feels like they tried too hard to make everyone appealing and "cute"....but they all already were! there was so much lovability in the violent asymmetry and crooked strangeness of the original designs. raz is a great example of this here i think, in the second game he's too...puppy-cute, where in the first game he was cute like kind of an ugly little insect. that was special! and of course there's dear sasha....like look at this look AT this. i don't even know what to say :(

side note it must be said and i will admit that i was so was so upset about everything i was witnessing under dane’s hands that i went home and moped for days and days. and i couldn't even find sasha's p05 model uploaded anywhere and i became alighted with such a fervent spirit i learned specifically how to rip models and textures specifically to recover him (will upload soon of course). unrelated did you know his model is missing buttons when they’re specifically textured in his texture sheet....lost buttons of the world.

and of course i've got “wife” bias with sasha (a/n: he’s a clinically diagnosed homosexual) but I think this is applicable to pretty much every character we see. especially tertiary background characters got... I don't even know a word for this. the janky grotesqueness of the original style is just completely gone, you can see they tried to emulate some of that a little with the asymmetry but what remains is just barely a ghost of an idea of what made the 05's designs memorable. so much of pn2's design work is just absolutely forgettable like leaves no impression at all, and that wouldn't be such a crime if the first game wasn't so criminally without flaw. example:

I'm aware the sequel was in devhell for a while and a lot of this is probably the consequence of necessary streamlining. like i get it, of course I am sympathetic to this. but it doesn't make the final product any less tragic to me...if anything it's worse knowing that there could have been better designs somewhere in there along the line.

there's something to be said for the loss of atmosphere, too....like, the first game was so murky and oppressive; you really got the feeling of a humid, kinda dirty summer camp. all the angles and the spaces and the colors...it was compact in the best way, just absolutely as tightly woven as it needed to be. the low-quality background textures... lovely. the wide-openness of the second game is comparatively so personally uncompelling...it's beautiful and well-crafted but the world of psychonauts 2 lacks the misshappen crackedness of the 05 game. i'm not called to spend hours larping anywhere here...

there's so much more i could say on this, like i sincerely hope this doesn't come off as snotty or pretentious! it'd be one thing if this was just how i felt personally but dane myself and a few other friends have spent copious time idependently of one another poring over both the 05 game and the sequel and come to a lot of the same conclusions as to what's..."missing". the game isn't a complete trashfire and it has a whole handful or maybe even two of redeeming features, but that only makes it hurt more that it feels so devoid of life! loboto in particular is a highlight, like out of everyone i think he's the only character from the first game who truly benefitted from the transition to high resolution...which only goes so far because they shelved him so quickly. I think i actually cried watching him in the game he was so fucking wonderful, genuinely everything about him harkens the ambiance of the first game more than anything else present in the second. he is additionally one of my favorite characters of all time, so I’m... happy he got what he got, at least...

i'll probably end up talking about this again in a little more detail. i wish i could make peace with psychonauts 2 but manpower and research efforts seem to indicate that this is not possible. 2005 reigns undefeated, best game ever all time forever, accept no substitutes, you get the idea. regardless I hope your friend enjoys it still and does not allow this ersatz of love to corrupt their spirit and joie de vivre.

[aquato-family-circus]

"What does Otto Mentallis' Brain look like?" "Yes!"

I've been wanting to pay a little tribute to everyone else's very fun little Otto ideas, since a lot of them inspired my own take, so finally we are here. If yours isn't here, don't worry about it, just means I must've missed it! Mostly worked with ones that had visual refs or at least detailed descriptions~

I included everyone's usernames in the images themselves, and here's the direct links to where I got the refs for these concepts too, so you can show them some love:

@banjo-bugs [x] @britishsass [x] [x] (second link is a fanfic series, go read it) @jnixz [x] @razputin-archetype [x] @save-me-san-fran-psychonauts [x] @sunnievii [x] @vikviky [x]

All image descriptions under the cut:

General ID: 7 Images depecticting different people's interpretations of mental denizens who would occupy the head of Otto Mentallis. A majority of them are iterations on Otto's design, barring a few exceptions such as jnixz and britishsass' concepts. Each image is labeled with the text "Concept By -" followed by the respective person's tumblr username. End ID.

ID #1: Concept by Banjo-Bugs. A continuous line drawing of an abstracted Otto Mentallis looking angry as he balls his fist and points aggressively to the left. The linework of his outer limbs and body is teal, then it grows from yellow to red as the colors reach his face. His eyes are swirling and bright yellow. He's surrounded by particle effects in the same colors as his body, and the background is a solid dark blue with blotches of darker blue circles. End ID.

ID #2: Concept by Britishsass. Three mechanical figures stand beside each other, each on top of a colored circle that is connected to a line that travels across the background in an erratic pattern. From left to right, the figures are Win-0 on the blue line, Turing on the red line, and Lovelace on the green line. Win-0 is a humanoid robot with a bronze/copper like complexion and ball-jointed limbs. It's wearing brass goggles on top of their head, a blue neckerchief, a grey t-shirt and a dark grey pair of overalls with black shoes and a brown belt. Turing is a simplistic robot with a circular head, bright red eyes, and an oval body with a small brain decal on the chest, tube arms, claw hands, and a singular wheel instead of legs. They're wearing a tiny floating hat with a brain decal, as well as a big brown satchel slung over one of his arms. Lovelace is a semi-humanoid robot with long, flowing metal hair, a stark white face with eyes that resemble camera apertures, mitten-like hands, and an electrical ghost tail. She's wearing a flowing grey dress with long sleeves under a green cloak with a silver heart on top. It also has a big green bow on the top of their head. End ID.

ID #3: Concept by Jnixz. A small silhouette of Otto Mentallis is floating down a green murky area as a large monster glowers down at him with bright yellow eyes. The monster resembles the design for a nightmare from Psychonauts, but it is much larger than a typical nightmare, and its multiple arms are all individually representative of a member of the Psychic 7. The limbs are all slightly out of focus, making the focus of the piece the Nightmare's skull-like head. End ID.

ID #4: Concept by Razputin-Archetype. A version of Otto that is modeled after blocky toys or miniature figurines one would find in a diorama or museum display. He has a slight wood grain texture and his joints are connected by small metal chains. He has his hands behind his back and he's looking up wistfully as he stands in a diorama depicting the heptadome by using pictures of in-game screenshots, superimposed on each wall and the floor. End ID.

ID #5: Concept by Save-Me-San-Fran-Psychonauts. A small Otto that is made of bright teal linework on top of a pitch black background. He has fluffy hair, and he's wearing a college graduation hat and robe. He looks determined as he holds onto a rabbit drawn in the same style which has ears meant to resemble lightbulbs. He's surrounded by bright red shark fins that are circling around his feet. End ID.

ID #6: Concept by Sunnievii. Three robotic versions of Otto expressing the emotions of Love, Anger, and Sadness. The Lovestruck Otto is colored in a pink monochrome, and has a heart on his chest that is showing an electrocardiogram, also in the shape of hearts. The Angry Otto is red, has sharper features, and has one hand raised up in a fist. The Sad Otto is blue and has softer features. He is slumped over in a defeated posture, one of his eyes is broken like glass, and his chest has a lightbulb inside of it. The background is a solid yellow color with white lines radiating from the three Ottos, in the shape of hearts, electrical lines, and rain, respectively. End ID.

ID #7: Concept by Vikviky. Otto is standing up against a dilapidated wooden door covered in wooden boards nailed to it, rusty chains, and a yellow ribbon labeled "DANGER!". Otto looks frightened and has his arms up in a defensive posture. His hair and cloak are wavier than is normal, the cloak especially starts to curl off into whisps resembling smoke at the bottom. His Psychonauts dress is also longer, reaching the ground. His glasses are bright yellow and glowing, one obscures his eye while the other is broken, revealing that his visible eye is bloodshot. In the background there are scribbles of eyes starring down at Otto. End ID.

[feel-mobile]

I know for a fact that it's been said before, but I love how the in game collectibles are used in Psychonauts 2. There is a lot of show don't tell, and it's done very well.

The strategically place emotional baggage has to be my favorite. There's obvious ones like the Purse next to the Astralaithe, but one I like is the Suitcase next to the figments of the wedding in the Sensorium. The Steamer Trunk in Cassie's Collection is on the floor above the library with the paper Psychic 7. There's a Purse next to Gzar Theodore on his deathbed in Fatherland Follies, and a Hat Box next to a letter from Lucy in Cruller's Correspondence. I don't even need to mention the emotional baggage in Lucrecia's mind. There's also the Steamer trunk on Truman's island in Bob's Bottles, and that island is also covered in the exploding plants. A lot of them.

Which brings me to the next category, things like those plants. Items placed around the map in order to tell you something. I don't know my flowers very well, but I do know that pink carnations, the flowers leading up to Tia's bottle, are a symbol of Mother Day. I believe Truman's flowers are red dahlias, which can mean betrayal. And finally, Helmut's flowers are marigolds, which have a number of meanings, most of them bad. One of its meanings is despaired love, which speaks for itself. There's also a lot of star imagery in Cassie's mind, maybe that's one of her interests. The Paper Psychic 7 all have wrinkled or cut edges except for two- Helmut and Lucy. The ones who Cassie believed to be dead, and paper Bob has beer stains on him.

What about the enemies? There are no Regrets in Gristol's mind. Not one. (I forget if there are Bad Moods in that mind, I don't remember any but I don't doubt one was there). No Doubts in Helmut's mind. There's only two Bad Ideas in Helmut's mind too. Ford's Follicles and his other levels have many, many regrets. I don't think I ever saw Judgement in Cassie's mind, but there are some in Bob's. The source of a Bad Mood in Bob's Bottle's just happens to be on the table where the Lucy and Ford figments were.

And back to figments! Ones that stood out to me were the figments going down the Helmut bottle. It told the story of those two, of how they met, fell in love, got married, and then the Battle of Grulovia and how Bob started drinking afterwards. And how could I not mention both sets of wedding figments? In Cassie's mind, there's a little figment of a piece of bacon next to Paper Ford. There's even a lot of cats figments, maybe that's her favorite animal. In Loboto's mind, there's a figment of him missing his arm. This answers none of our questions, but at least acknowledges it.

In the end, I do really like what Psychonauts 2 did with its collectibles and more. It's a lot of fun to think about. Everything has the possibility to tell a story, and I discover new things every time I play.

[ilaiyayaya]

Ok after the castle, the 2nd half of the game feels kinda short, like in actual time spent, I don't think it actually is, I just did all of the 2nd half of the game in one sitting (except the final boss) which took about 4 hours, but I also didn't fully search every single area, I pretty much just got the major secrets. It's like, fine, but I don't really have much to say about any of the post castle stuff, all of the mandatory areas afterwards are very creepy and atmospheric and scary, but in terms of like, anything other than atmosphere, uhhh they kinda just, exist. Like they're not bad, but I literally just played all of them and the only specific things I remember are the cool desert temple, and the prison that was kinda lame. 2nd half definitely took a big dip compared to the first half, which a large part of that is probably just that my interest kinda just naturally wanes the further I get into most games regardless of the actual quality of the later parts, but like, idk I feel like the 1st half just had way more interesting areas. Like almost every area in the 2nd half of the game felt really similar, like they all had a similar color palette and general vibe going for them, and the ones that were more unique were really, really short, like the lava area, I think I got through that entire area in like 15 minutes and I think I found literally every secret. Also the funni tower, the Tower of Abyss, yea it was okay, like I get the idea, and if you care about leaderboards and improving personal times it's probably cool and all but like, it was really easy, I went in expecting the last couple of floors to get really difficult but no, the difficulty was kinda pretty consistently low throughout all of it, probably because I feel like most enemies aren't that hard, aside from a few annoying ones, which a few of those did appear in the tower but never enough to actually be dangerous. Even the final floor was just another Abyss Demon which like, the first time I fought I thought it was really easy, and this time it was just the same but I know it's patterns even more like none of the enemies in this game are really interesting or difficult enough to fight individually to make a combat-focused area like that fun, it was kinda just boring, and long, and tedious. The reward was cool tho, I never used it because it's really slow and I don't like slow weapons but like, it's stats are good, it's a good weapon it shoots a magic beam that's cool! I do plan to go back and get all of the secrets and go through the rest of the optional areas I missed next, but that's like, not right now I've played this for 5 hours straight today and that's like half of my total playtime, I feel like I'll probably enjoy that next play session a lot more, because finding secrets makes my brain go "waow! :D" and this game has a lot of cool secrets. I'm gonna have to change my computer's clock to be on a full moon for one of them tho I HATE THOSE TYPES OF SECRETS WHY IS THERE AN ACHIEVEMENT ON THE STEAM VERSION OF PSYCHONAUTS FOR PLAYING ON CHRISTMAS THERE'S NOT EVEN ANY IN-GAME CHRISTMAS STUFF as far as I'm aware AND IT'S NOT A CHRISTMAS THEMED GAME FUCK YOU PSYCHONAUTS yea i don't like those secrets they're unfun :c. I'll also get to level 99 which won't be hard because I'm already level 74 and leveling is pretty easy, but I also kinda wanna get all weapons and like, :( that requires just hitting things with a bunch of useless weapons to give them exp so I can upgrade them into new weapons :(. Maybe I won't do that, maybe I'll just do the fun extra stuff I think that would be a better idea :). Also this session I did 1 attempt of the final boss. I'm not doing a 2nd one right now that fight sucks I hate that guy he has too much health, why are the 2 bosses in this game the only even somewhat difficult combat challenges and they're both just massive damage sponges that aren't even fun???? Anyways good game fun game still, 1st half definitely better than 2nd half, but 2nd half still alright honk shoo honk shoo hooooonk mimimimi zzzzzzzzzz eepy time

Holy shit Lunacid is epic I can make my character portrait anything I can become Wedding Crasher in real life in game! I can make my character Six_Flags_Safari_Off_Road_Adventure.png!!! AND I can give myself pronoun yuo dont like capitalism yet you log by bulb!!!