Psychonauts

[ratsoalbion]

This coming Thursday evening (UK time) Leon, James and Josh will be getting together to talk all about Double Fine's Psychonauts.



Please share your opinions, experiences and emotional baggage regarding the game in this here thread.

[InsrtCoins]

Psychonauts remains one of my absolute favorite games, and is one that continues to change every time I play it. While it is easy now, after many playthroughs, to praise the game for its inventive art direction and hilarious characters, I should say that, initially, the game's world came across as being rather hostile to me as a newcomer. While the characters are funny and each and every one of them won me over quickly, it is worth remembering that every one of them has aspects that are deeply uncomfortable. From the sometimes gross Tim Burton-style art direction to the often very dark places these troubled characters emerge from, the stark dichotomy drawn between the unpleasant side of each character and the lighthearted, hilarious lines of dialogue spoken with childlike innocence by them gives each cast member and, in turn, the entire game a rich texture and a level of earnestness in its exploration of the human condition that much more serious titles most often completely miss.

Tim Schafer will always be remembered for his mastery of humor in video games, but I think that, to an equal degree, he should be given credit for his ability to translate intangibles into gameplay experiences. Just as Brütal Legend, in its landscape alone, captured the power, spirit, and ferocity of the extraordinarily diverse genre of heavy metal music, Psychonauts constructs game worlds out of the subjective experiences of those suffering from various mental illnesses that, while often playing their broad stereotypes for laughs, also expresses a considerable amount of empathy and understanding.

Gameplay-wise, I suppose Psychonauts is most similar to the 3D Gex titles from the PlayStation and N64 in that both are platformers without as many flourishes and without as much polish as, say, Banjo-Kazooie or Mario 64, but brilliance lying in the way that they use each level's theme, in Psychonauts' case mental illness and its interaction with each character's self-perception and perception of the world around them, not only as the aesthetic backbone of each level but also as the level's internal logic, changing the objectives of each level and the way in which you can interact with the environment and characters around you based on how you can best help the troubled individual you are exploring.

To wrap up, I am currently a doctoral student working towards my PhD in clinical psychology. As I continue my studies, this game remains one of the touchstones that I always come back to. While cartoony and not necessarily rooted in psychological science, I find its abstract representation of my area of study entertaining and true to its spirit. The stories of the more seemingly normal characters, Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello, serve as good reminders that even those of us who seem to have it together each have secrets below the surface that could emerge at any time if not properly dealt with.

[ratsoalbion]

Wonderful post, thank you.

[dezm0nd]

Purchased this on import when I was in America and loved it to pieces.

The scene where one of the kids turns his hand back and forth and makes a weird mouthy noise is still a constant in my life. It always makes Gemma laugh like an idiot.

[Todinho]

So Psychonauts this is game I really wanted to hate when I first played it,everytime I heard someone talk about the game they would say how good it was and how it was one of the best games ever made and so on,I just couldnt understand how this weird 3D plataformer for kids could be so good that people wouldnt shut up about it,I made it my mission to play the game and prove that it was nothing special.

The beginning of the game didnt really do much to change my mind if im honest,I found the first level very bland and the controls on mouse and keyboard werent really all that great,the open world didnt really appeal to either I just found that collecting was I huge pain however when I got to Sasha's level things started to turn around,that level peaked my interest and I kept going then I got to Milla Vodello and entered a room I was told not go into and then things got really interesting,from then on I fell in love with the and just kept going level after level until I beat the whole thing and even the dreadfull meat circus didnt manage to spoil the journey for me.

It still strikes me how much creativity went into this game with each level managing to top the one that came before but more than that it's a game that manages to touch on some pretty dark topics without losing it's lightheartedness and does it with some of the best story/mechanics integration I've seen.While the game has it's fair share of problems and feels like it was cut short ,much like a certain other Double fine game,I still am confident enough in saying that psychonauts is one of the best games ever made and one I encourage everyone to play.

What have I become!?

[Nekemancer]

So, Psychonauts is a game that a good friend of mine has been insisting I play, literally, for years. It's always been one that looked interesting, but never made its way to the top of my playlist. I've had the damn thing installed for the last year or so to help encourage me to just play it! Then I saw that you guys were going to do an episode on it and decided that I finally needed to do it.

And then I ended up losing another couple of months from when you announced it until it was the week you were going to do the episode. I guess I'm bad at this sort of thing.

Sadly, I probably won't be able to finish this game in time for the recording, so I'll post my first impressions. I'm posting now because I have no idea if my 2 month old son will allow me much game time before Thursday.

This game has incredible voice acting for its era. The sense of humor is spot on. The characters strike me as a bit reminiscent of cartoons like Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern life and Ahh! Real Monsters, but also completely unique in their own way. Both in visual design as well as personality. I hope there's a lot of Dogen going forward, cause that kid is awesome. I'm not too far into the story yet, but it's definitely intriguing so far. The world design is beautiful and interesting, it simply begs to be explored. I don't think the game has gotten any real graphics tuning since original release, but it has aged remarkably well. Gotta love all the color in particular.

The platforming feels good, though mixing in the 2D Figments into the 3D world plays all sorts of havoc with my depth perception. I've got really awful depth perception, so that just might be me though. In general, from what I've seen so far, it's much more about having good timing than it is landing precision jumps. Which is definitely a plus for me.

Looks like there's a ton of stuff in here for a completionist to sink a gajillion hours into the game's world easily. I'm not a completionist myself, but I can appreciate how much there is to go looking for.

I'm going to tell my friend to listen to this episode. Sorry Kevin, you were absolutely right. I'm not touching another game until I get through this one. Looking forward to listening to this episode once I'm done!

[aidopotato]

I'd heard about this game upon its release, but only picked it up (like many others i'm sure) after yahtzee's anti-diatribe on zeropunctuation.

So very very very happy i hunted it down. What at first blush seemed like a colourful but simplistic platformer, soon revealed itself to be something altogether deeper. A deeper world, deeper storyline, deeper play mechanics- everything. In contrast to Brutal Legend, every additional gameplay mechanic you unlock in Psychonauts compliments the core gameplay in a satisfying (and often hilarious) way. By the time you get to the endgame you have a plethora of techniques at your disposal and it's a credit to the game that it all hangs together.
On top of this you have one of the the freshest and most vividly described worlds in recent gaming memory; delightful design and graphics and one of the all-time funniest scripts. I think it all adds up to a stone-cold cult classic.

[PlexShaw]

I only played Psychonauts for the first time this year as part of a challenge to myself to complete (in achievement terms) all of Double Fine's released games, excluding the web and Amnesia Fortnight titles, in 2013 (at the time of writing, I only have The Cave left to go).

I don't have an in-depth thesis to offer about my 20-ish hour or so experience with it but I was surprised by how well it plays even now in terms of mechanics and how influential it has been on some more modern 3D platform games. Above all, Schafer obviously has a talent for storytelling and that is most definitely one of the strongest elements of Psychonauts.

[Alex79]

Oh I'd love to have got in on a reply of this. However, it's no longer available on the 360 store, despite my actually already purshasing (and eventually deleting) years ago. It's annoying, you can't even redownload from your history. I own a PC copy but don't have a PC to play it on either.

I only got as far as some underwater fish boss when I played it originally. I remember loving what I played though.

[InsrtCoins]

Oh I'd love to have got in on a reply of this. However, it's no longer available on the 360 store, despite my actually already purshasing (and eventually deleting) years ago. It's annoying, you can't even redownload from your history. I own a PC copy but don't have a PC to play it on either.

I only got as far as some underwater fish boss when I played it originally. I remember loving what I played though.

You got so close to the best part

The fish part (going inside of her mind, not the boss fight preceding that) was VERY Gex. It's a very funny section.