KickStarter Psychonauts 2

[Ghulgothas]

Double Fine might as well shut their doors now that Psychonauts 2 is out and is relatively good. I don't think they're ever going to make a game that matches this one's scope and bar of quality ever again.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

To everyone whose beaten the game, please rank the Mental Worlds according to your perception of their quality (Whatever Reasoning). I want to gauge opinion.

Spoiler

My line-up is similar to yours, except Strike City would be fourth, Ford Follicles fifth, Loboto's Labyrinth sixth and then Fatherland Follies seventh. I agree with all of your points, save to say that Strike City is good because it just gets to the point, plain and simple. It doesn't fwaff about.

# I raged when the Flea Circus started, complete with Meat Circus-music. So many painful memories of having to beat the OG Meat Circus. Fortunately it's handled so much better, and is a much shorter section. (Also the joke of "What did I just step in?" is brilliant.)

# I've worked in a mail-room. Cruller's Correspondence sang to me in hurtful tones.

# Fatherland Follies has such incredible potential... and yet most of it is just wasted on pushing the story and exposition. If they'd shifted one gear down it could have been brilliant.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

On another note I see a reason to spoil the following information:

If you're a completionist who has played Psychonauts 1, you may remember the "Point of No Return"-save that the game forced upon you. Well, a similar thing happens in Psychonauts 2, the game gives you warning that once you enter a specific mind, there's no going back... but there is. Entering that mind sets the player upon a path that excludes some content... but once that's all over (namely, the story and plot of the game), Razputing says something along the lines of "Well, I've done all this, but there's still time to earn extra credit, so better do that!" and you get free reign after the game's plot is done. In fact, tracking down every character of importance in this post-game section is kinda mandatory, just to know where everyone is at that point in the story.

(For clarity's sake, I entered into this "pipeline of plot" at Rank 87, and came out at Rank 96. Currently I'm Rank 101 with only a handful of figments keeping me away from Rank 102, which seems to be the max.)

 

[GhostCow]

Double Fine might as well shut their doors now that Psychonauts 2 is out and is relatively good. I don't think they're ever going to make a game that matches this one's scope and bar of quality ever again.

They could if someone gave them a huge amount of money to make a sequel to Brutal Legend

 

[deama]

Double Fine might as well shut their doors now that Psychonauts 2 is out and is relatively good. I don't think they're ever going to make a game that matches this one's scope and bar of quality ever again.

Can't they go about making another sequel?

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Double Fine might as well shut their doors now that Psychonauts 2 is out and is relatively good. I don't think they're ever going to make a game that matches this one's scope and bar of quality ever again.

Can't they go about making another sequel?

It’s not clear whether or not it’s a success yet. It hasn’t been in the Steam Top Sellers from what I’ve seen, but it’s also on Gamepass, so Microsoft might just be treating it as a prestige title to bolster their catalogue.

 

[Sore Loser]

.

 

[Xelocix]

Psychonuts

 

[lightbane]

So, the game has SJW elements, even though the first game had most people becoming couples, as it should be. Inevitable in clown world, but still annoying.

At least Raz wasn't replaced by a STRONK WOMAN! protagonist.

I'll wait for more patches and to replay the first one first.

 

[Ivan]

I got that stupid eh-eh-ehhhh-eh song/dance stuck in my head

 

[MicoSelva]

Bros, I am in love with this game. I am feeling like a little kid again, and I do not mean nostalgia, since I played Psychonauts 1 as an adult (but it gave a me a similar feeling those 10+ years ago).

The sheer creativity and positive energy present in this game is something I missed a lot. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but for me this is almost the perfect combination of quality elements (writing, gameplay, level design, voice acting, etc.). I don't even usually like platformers and here I am staying up past midnight to play just a little more, even though I need to get up for work next day - this has not happened since at least Breath of the Wild.

 

[gerey]

the game has SJW elements

What woke shit did they shove into the game?

 

[Visperas]

Hey! Would you guys recommend that I play the first game or should I jump straight to the sequel? Why?
Thanks!

 

[J_C]

Hey! Would you guys recommend that I play the first game or should I jump straight to the sequel? Why?
Thanks!

Play the original first because it is a great game which one has to experience at least once. You will appretiate the sequel even more.

 

[Riddler]

Play the first game first.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

the game has SJW elements

What woke shit did they shove into the game?

Normally I don't like to toot my own horn, but I covered what I found in an earlier post.

Here it is again, spoilers and all:

Regarding the woke-factor

I noticed four things:

1: There's a homosexual relationship in the game, complete with a marriage proposal. This being Psychonauts it gets weird of course, but all things considered it's not that big an issue. The story isn't warped because of it, it's just one of the things that happens in the background of the story (so to say), but it still feels forced as it's an introduced element to a character that doesn't do anything for or against him.

2: Anita Sarkeesian gets a nod in the credits as "Consultant".

3: The interns, a.k.a. 'the new kids'. I said it before and I'll say it again, they are the entire woke/diversity-agenda of the game. And the game suffers because of it. They're written badly, they're portrayed badly, and they don't leave a memorable impression. I recall Morris as he's a wannabe radio host in the world's cheapest hoverchair, and I remember Sam because she's absolutely the most unlikable person of them all. It takes effort for me to even name the other four. Generally I just tuned out somehow whenever one of these characters got involved... and they get involved, because they're regularly pressed into the player's face. They're pushed further to the front than Sansha and Milla were in the first Psychonauts-game.

(Meanwhile Quippie, Martala, Dion, Hazie, Donatella, Augustus and Nono (the granny) comprise Razputin's family, and even though most of them are variations on Raz, they're each their own persona with notable character traits.)

4: Heterosexual relationships are being repressed. One of the key things about Razputin is that he found himself a girlfriend, Lili. One would imagine she weighs heavily on Raz's mind... and heart. But no, the game almost brushes her aside the first chance it gets. She's there at the start and at the end, but otherwise she's pretty much a background character like Milla, Sansha and Oleander.

Want more proof? Sansha and Milla's relationship. We know she loves him (but we aren't told how he feels about her) and while they're clearly very close, we never get to see any more of it. Oh sure, lots of Psychonauts-staff gossip about them, but nothing else happens.

There's also a couple of background characters around at the Motherlobe that do get together in the end, but if you skip using Clairvoyance on them you won't even notice it.

That's it. If you think that's too much then obviously you don't buy or play this game. But for a 2021-release to have this little wokeness is borderline Heresy for the SJW-crowd, and I predict that members of the alphabet-squad will bitch about this game soon enough... or once they actually beat the game.

 

[J_C]

Semi-interesting interview with Tim:

Two things I found interesting:
- before Microsoft bought Double Fine, they had funding problems so they had to cut the boss fights from the game, it was only thanks to Microsoft that they could put them back in the game
- Tim tries to push a relatively crunch free development since the first Psychonauts. I guess this explains all their games being late and missing milestones.

 

[gerey]

spoilers and all

Yeah, fuck giving money to Schafer and the rest of his Marxist goblins.

I wish all of them and all their families the most painful and debilitating form of cancer imaginable.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

ANYWAY, I checked in here to read those reviews Infinitron posted from 'rEsPeCtAbLe" gaming sites, and the first paragraph of the Eurogamer-review made me laugh:

I played through the original Psychonauts properly for the first time this year. I've been trying to work out how it would feel to play it at release in 2005, at a horrible time in my life, long before I'd given any structured thought to things like trauma and depression. Would it have offered me any useful insight? I'm undecided.

This is a game review, not "This is Your Life", moron.

The second review is much better, fortunately.

But in that first review I spot a theme: Reviewers (and Redditors, I can sadly attest) seem to like the character of Sam Boole. In fact, that whole conversation at the diner where she's making pancakes seems to be the favorite scene of many.

There isn't a retadred-emoji big enough available online to convey how much that makes my head hurt.

That scene was literally painful for me to watch, barring the exit punchline and seeing how well the critters are animated. Sam is easily the most unlikable character in the game, and yet people are losing their shit over that scene. I'm just gonna say it: If you like that scene, you're a crazy person. Libtard leftard SJW NPC, through and through. Your issues have issues with you. Book an appointment with Dr. Loboto, your brain is bad and needs to be pulled out.

 

[deama]

I'm really disappointed there's no proper romance between raz and lili, I was really looking forward to that.

I'm torn between playing this, back in late 2000s I stumbled upon psychonauts by accident and quite enjoyed it, was my favourite platformer next to rayman 2. Played the shit out of it, even did a bit of light speedrunning. But now that a sequel is finally out, I donno, I think me playing through it so much kept increasing the expectation of the sequel and now I've seen some gameplay and it's kinda meh, so much potential kinda wasted to be honest. The power nerfs, no additional interesting powers, the platforming hasn't been expanded, more focus on combat (I never really liked the combat in psychonauts 1), the unresolved romance; it just looks like a disappointment.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

deama There's an in-built option in the game (probably put there for 'pro' game journlists) to allow you to do excessive damage to enemies, meaning that almost every encounter (including boss fights) becomes trivial.

I don't feel a pang of pain revealing this, but I played through the game with that option enabled, past a certain point. I don't really care because only one of the boss-fights felt like it held some gravitas, and that was the first boss fight. Even the plot-related boss fights later don't get it right.

 

[deama]

Unkillable Cat , how long did it take you to beat the game in hours?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

My first playthrough has 10 hours on it, but I'm softlocked there and can't continue, so I started a second playthrough where I'm now at Rank 102. That one has 20 hours on it.

EDIT: I can also add that I still have my Psychonauts 1-install, and I checked my final save there. It has 15 hours on it.

 

[Ivan]

"Watch it Larry, I know all your weak points"

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Well, finally finished it yesterday. And today I finished all side quests and collectibles.

It's an amazing sequel. Having played the through the whole 1st game last week, I'd say I has aged very nice. It's easy to forget it's a PS2 era game. And enetering P2 imediatelly after, with it's magnificent shaders, lighting, animation, texturing, it doesn't feel like a modernized sequel. The art direction is the same. P2 is a bit bigger, with many hubs, but surprisingly, it took me almost the same time to finish both with all collectibles. And well, loading times are waaaay longer, but i installed it on a normal HDD.

One thing about the first game is that I played it only once back in 2007, and never touched it again, so replaying it now shows how little I remembered anything about it. P2 follows the same progress structure and pace, but sometimes it feel like it drags a bit more, and before I checked, it really felt I spent a lot more time in it than with the 1st. Improvements is now figments are clear as day, and don't fade as in the first game. But getting all of them specially if you missed is what takes most of the gameplay time if you want 100%. In P1, you had the camp and later you had the asylum/tower. Here you have the quarry and later the green neddle gulch. The thing is, although in the first one you were free to go back to camp, there was nothing more to do there concernig main story. In P2, after reaching the gulch, you can never go back until after you finish the game. Actually, at least you have freeroam after finishing the game so you can finish everything. I thing I really miss in the first one, but it's expected as this idea was not common back in those days.

- Storywise, it feels a bit darker. The mental worlds are as fun and creative as in the original, but there's no sense of novelty, since the main mental issues were all touched upon in the 1st game. The plot twists are not that impressive but nothing that will insult anyone. Jokes are nice and the voice acting helps a lot. But Psychonauts humor was never the case of LOL, it's more the cute, the kind that makes you smile here and there. The grulovia music in the park ride level is catchy. I didn't like the mind of one of the main characters being fractured, and we have thre small levels. I'd like to have them interconnected in one big level that you would unlock access in the real world, and when you defragmented, they would become one you would revisit through the brain tumbler. Though I admit two of these mental worlds are really good.

- Gameplay is almost exacly like the 1st, with the changes that bother me the most is how you can't attack while levitating (possible in the first game) and how psy-blast is weak and enemies are bullet sponges. It forces you to change habilities and try different powers with the now expanded bestiary, but changing powers is clunky to do on the fly, so it's never fluid. Bosses, on the other hand are very easy and you are constantly hearing the npcs shouting what you have to do and there's plenty of health. Another thing is mental worlds can be revisited, but most of them now have sections that do not interconnect anymore. Like if you enter the stage at the beginning, a destroyed door forces you to go to the "bonfire-snake" and fast travel to the other areas. It actually makes the levels feel fractured as I mentioned above.

- Bugs, I've encounter only 2: One that is common it the final prize in compton's level, you can't get it on the first time because when you win, you're imediatelly transported to the boss fight. If you go back to the level, the prize will be locked. The solution is going back to the level only after finishing the game. The other was in bob's bottle, when I cut the rope of bob's potato head while falling in the water. it triggered a cutscene while i was dying, and after the cutscene, Raz was alive and well and walking through the water. for the whole level. I went out of the bottle and managed to enter the ocean bed, until i fell through the void and never die. Reloading fixed the problem.

If one really liked the first game, there's very little chance to not like psychonauts 2. It's a game that would be the same had it been made in 2006. What only makes it stand out as a 2021 game is the graphics, and since the game is very stylized, it doens't make it too different of the original. It's like playing mario sunshine, mario galaxy and mario odyssey, it's the same mario 3d gameplay.

TL;DR: Game is good, worth buying. If you liked the first, or like 3d platformers/metroidvanias.