How Storytelling Saved Psychonauts

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The history of Psychonauts is an interesting one, it went from promising project, to embarrassing failure, to fan-fave cult classic before having a glorious return fifteen years later. What caused Psychonauts to fail, and why did people fall in love with it anyway?
The answer, as The Architect has just found out, is a little technique called Environmental Storytelling, a way to communicating complete narratives, not through mere words, but through nothing but level design. How is it possible to do that? Well, as it turns out, things are a little more complicated than putting some graffiti on the wall and calling it a day...
You Saw:
Psychonauts (2005)
Psychonauts 2 (2021)
Disco Elysium (2019)
Bioshock (2007)
The Stanley Parable (2013)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019)
Deltarune (IDK it's weird)
Journey (2012)
Bloodborne (2015)
Half Life: Alyx (2020)
Horizon: Zero Dawn (2017)
Deathloop (2021)
Psychonauts and the rombus of Ruin (2017)
A Hat In Time (2017)
Wolfenstein: The New Colossus (2017)
Half Life 2 (2004)
Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014)
Dark Souls 3 (2016)
Bioshock Infinite (2013)
Overwatch (2016)
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim (2011)
Fallout 4 (2015)
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (2006)
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016)
Far Cry 3 (2012)
Hitman 3 (2021)
Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengance (2013)
Batman Arkham City (2011)

[@ArchitectofGames]

Have you ever suffered from a feeling of malaise? General anxiety? A sense that you're somehow different to everyone else around you? Well I have it on good authority that giving me money on the internet will solve all of your mental problems and I won't even have to go inside your brain to do it!: www.patreon.com/ArchitectofGames Full disclosure the good authority is my twitter which should under no circumstances be listened to except when it comes to giving me dosh: twitter.com/Thefearalcarrot

[@TealTheDropster]

Sounds Legit

[@samadams8533]

Hey Adam, have you played deathloop yet? Would be very interested to hear your thoughts on it

[@ArchitectofGames]

@@samadams8533 I have! It's good, but not perfect. The combat is pretty shallow, the metaprogression elements don't add much and I'm not a fan of the ending - however, the environment design is top tier, the world they've created is fantastic and I love the puzzlebox nature of figuring out the perfect day (so long as you keep the objective markers off, they really ruin a lot of the fun).

[@samadams8533]

@@ArchitectofGames Glad to hear you tried it, and yeah combat is standard arcane, but the environment and characters really made the game for me, and learning the story/theorizing through the notes and audio logs found was quite fun as well. The only meta progression part that i thought was interesting(since i was always able to infuse what i wanted, was basically pointless) was the player-julianna invasions, having an actual person who is trying to stop your progress was thrilling. Cutscenes were weird though, as soon as i figured out the perfect day, like one thing later and they give a cutscene spelling it out for me. Which ending are you talking about, which one do you prefer?

[@StAngerNo1]

@@ArchitectofGames What is the game running during the end shoutouts? Looks really cool and I would like to try it out.

[@digitramch]

Outer Wilds is a game that is almost 100% focused on pure environmental storytelling and the best example of it I've yet experienced. Everything you do, every tool at your disposal: The spacesuit, spaceship, the probe, the translator, serves to help you explore the environment and gather information from it. All the narrative, all the progress you have is just the information you collect from these environments. The world stays the same throughout the loops, everyone says the same thing, every planet behaves the same way, every phenomenon happens exactly the same way at the same time. Yet its small solar system is so richly detailed that you, the player, and you alone, piece together the story yourself entirely from the environment. The line between the details that are "important" for you to progress and the details that are "just worldbuilding" is blurred since the worldbuilding details ARE the entire narrative.

[@martine5604]

I was about to mention Outer Wilds in the comments when I saw this ^^

[@Bracketmeister]

Fun fact, Brittle Hollow actually falls apart differently every loop as the projectiles from Hollow's Lantern are random and are affected by the gravity of every other planet. I think the islands get thrown up on Giant's Deep differently depending on the tornadoes, though I'm not certain on that one.

[@andriypredmyrskyy7791]

Some of the most fun I've ever had playing a game was going through outer wilds writing in a journal and drawing little maps and diagrams. So much fun.

[@tbahr123]

Everyone who even remotely enjoys exploration in games needs to make Outer Wilds a priority. It’s just incredible, the purest exploration game I have ever played.

[@Howitchewstofeel5gum]

Such an amazing and unique game. And the ending... Duuuuuuude.

[@PlaylistGeneral]

Not gonna lie, I got a little mad when you reduced Cassie's level to "she likes books" when there's SO MUCH going on with the level as a metaphor. I can see how you took that away though, many of Ford's levels felt like they were about a character who's whole personality surrounds 1 thing. Cassie's level was about how the formation of different personas inside of us is basically a form of storytelling - or at least, the way we justify our own behaviors is by creating characters within ourselves as archetypes. Cassie is inhumanely good at adapting to her surroundings because she can justify her own actions in convincing ways without losing her sense of morality or self, allowing her to do things others would hesitate to do because "that's not me". The cool part is that the antagonist of the level - the librarian - is basically the "logic" part of her brain that has the job of making sure all of these different personas stay together in SOME way and don't stray too far from Cassie and cause her to have an identity crisis. I don't know shit about psychology but I found it to be a pretty remarkable kind of post-Freud interpretation of how our brains work. I wish more of the level was outside of the library itself and in that sick book city near the pier you encounter, that part was delightful. Favorite level in Psychonauts 2.

[@FelisImpurrator]

It is technically heavily inspired by Jungian psychology, which if I remember correctly is a response to Freud. Ford's mind is actually a fairly interesting and certainly not unsympathetic portrayal of something closer to DID, which is why his separate ego states don't share memories. What Raz is doing is essentially reintegration therapy.

[@DisAnimated]

I feel like they needed to increase the Varity of that level, the main hub being just a library was fine but the side rooms where you look for the other personas should have reflected them more, like how the later area where your hunting down evidence for counterfeiter Cassie, (so like teacher Cassie's area would be more like a schoolhouse or university) allowing us to better see where these personas would have been at the for front.

[@PlaylistGeneral]

@@FelisImpurrator Huh ok that's super interesting, you never really learn about the non-Freud stuff and to see it represented a little abstractly in a game is exciting.

[@PlaylistGeneral]

@@DisAnimated The little 2d platformer areas inside the books were a little much IMO - I think if you had like 3 or 4 different minigames similar to that, that the game jumped between in rapid succession it would've been fine.

[@Shibanu_]

Yeah you got Cassie right but i also think Fords dream were so isolated because his mind was broken into pieces so it kinda makes sense that he learned one imoportant message at a time.

[@bobbobkilu]

I have to disagree with your thoughts on cassie's level. The reason everything revolves around books is because she is being forced to hold to a single role, as the librarian, compartmentalizing anything that doesn't fit with that asthetic. She seems one note because she *is* one note, and thats how she is broken, rejecting all the nuances of her character.

[@Wandervenn]

I'd argue against the take on Cassie's level. She feels flat at first because she's compartmentalized her personality so much that she has literally locked aspects of herself away. Then as you meet her other alters you realize that Cassie isn't just book smart, but she's kind, she's a teacher, and she's someone who had to fight and struggle for her own survival and is surprisingly street smart as well. My only argument on her level was that it felt like they didn't know how to mix the ideas. I liked the book platforming idea, but once you get to the part where you collect evidence, her whole world feels much more exciting and it doesn't mesh well with the rest. I kind of wish each of the alters had a similar world like that, to show Cassie was suppressing herself (the library) but was much more complex when you read through her stories (more levels like the counterfeiter book), with the 2d book platforming being just the literal passages between both aspects.

[@BadIdeasBureau]

Yeah - the library isn't just there because she's a writer, it's there because she's carefully taking aspects of her personality, categorizing and separating them out, and bringing them out one by one as needed like pulling a book from a shelf. It's a psychonauts-style (i.e. not great and somewhat oversimplified in parts, but not awful) portrayal of dissociative identity disorder, and it could have worked better if it wasn't also some of the most frustrating platforming and figment collecting in the game. If anything, the obsession with bees throughout the level (and in the accompanying outdoor section) is more jarring and less usefully thematic than the library, though it does somewhat reinforce the "identify different bits of yourself and then get them working together as a greater whole" message when combined with some of Raz's voice lines about Mindswarm, the book Cassie wrote. It also serves to make Cassie less well differentiated than the others in the psychic 6, as her portrayal as "the bee lady" ends up giving her a lot of overlap with Compton Boole

[@rickpgriffin]

I like the level just fine, but it does feel like there was a specific fixation on one aspect of her past, when the theme of the level is that there's a lot of sides to her. It doesn't really come together. And part of the problem is that Cassie isn't really well-figured in the plot, she's basically "the other member of the team", and there's barely anything at all to do with bees in her level so we're not really sure why she became the bee woman. My guess is that they didn't quite know what to do with her narratively. Individually, any part of the design is fine, but it doesn't tie into the narrative whole as well as other levels do. The level itself is great. But what's up with the bees

[@logic9680]

Fun fact: The clairvoyance ability in the milkman conspiracy doesn't work on everyone. Most of the time, the NPCs will see you as a 2D figure. However, the crows will see you as you actually are. The cameras in the post office will also see you as a 3D character. I found that by mistake, and for some reason I find it cool.

[@Transparencyboo]

Thank you for the nice shout out, we really appreciate it! Glad you enjoyed some of our stuff. At first we were a bit perplexed by where all the new views and subscribers were coming from, but we finally found the source, haha. Have a good one, and don't be a stranger~ :)

[@hoodiesticks]

I think one aspect of Psychonauts that makes it so effective at environmental storytelling is that the premise makes it abundantly clear that the worlds are metaphors for something. Other games have done the whole "the world is a metaphor" thing (e.g. Spiritfarer, Gris) but Psychonauts is way more overt about it. Even the characters in the story recognize that the world isn't real, and at times they openly discuss with each other what each part of the world means. That frees up the designers to absolutely go wild with wacky environmental details, without having to pretend that this world could potentially be real (which was one of my main problems with Spiritfarer).

[@migueeeelet]

This also lets the devs try out different psychological approaches to the worlds, too. It's great

[@RockstarRacc00n]

...and here I actually really enjoyed the gameplay, because of all the weird and interesting mechanics that gave you a lot of freedom once you mastered them, and all the really surreal levels.

[@thebohemian814]

Game play wise it was good

[@TenebraeUbr]

I disagree about Cassie's Collection, I saw it as Cassie experiencing executive disorder due to her over-compartmentalizing of her different personas. The Librarian wanted to lock away the archetypes Cassie once had used to survive, that spurred her to action, as Cassie believed that those had failed her against Maligula. To the Librarian, letting these facets run free in Cassie's mind could lead to more pain and loss. Outside her mind, she, despite being able to control the bees, allows them to overproduce honey, creating the mess outside her home, and despite not seeing Boole, someone she loves, for years doesn't even try to find him despite missing and worrying about him. She knows what she needs to do but becomes focused on a time-consuming task unrelated to her goal. Back inside Cassie's mind, the Librarian seems more focused on finding the "dangerous books", earlier chapters of her life, than cleaning up all the cluttered books. The Librarian would probably have an easier time finding them if they tidied up. Cassie's "library" is in disarray, thoughts and archetypes are somewhat loose in her brain, despite being stated in universe to have great skills in compartmentalization. Hell, compartmentalizing is the subject of her book! A major point of the level was that Cassie was limiting her point of view, and needed to expand it to open up options in her behavior. All the talk about "the real Cassie was all of them" was more to explain to Raz, and the player, that different archetypes, personas, are still parts of the person, to help further reinforce Raz's eventual understanding of the relationship of Maligula and Lucy, along with Ford's fractured mind levels. As a side note, I found it really interesting that some of the npcs in Cassie's Collection are advanced mathematical formulas, which shows she's much more learned than just accounting and literature.

[@kingoftropes922]

People conflate "little details about the world" and "actually informing the understanding and personality of the world" which is where I feel a lot of environmental storytelling falls apart. There's always a place for text dumps and straightly told info since there are just things that require a straightforward explanation, but the thing that makes Environmental Storytellling cool is being able to tell that information without directly saying it, even if it does get an explanation later on. One of my favorite levels in Psychonauts 2 is Bob's Bottles for this very reason.

[@ArchitectofGames]

Bobs bottles *might* be my second favorite level for exactly that reason, there's so much subtle storytelling right down to where its signature enemies appear!

[@CheshireCad]

@@ArchitectofGames - Bob's Bottles *is* the objectively best level in the game. Purely because of the MONUMENTAL MAN-NIPPLES.

[@DanoLefourbe]

So, the platforming in the first Psychonauts is far from perfect, and I have my issues with it. But calling it god awful? Really?! Opinions I guess, but this one seems totally unreasonable to me.

[@apoisonedgift4966]

So... there's a lot of good defenses of Cassie's Collection that make me happy. But I have to disagree with two other criticisms you have that came off as pretty shallow to me... For starters, Gloria's Theatre - I'm can't really agree with it being a shallow portrayal of bipolar disorder. I personally read this level, instead, about the way that abuse from parents impacts children - Gloria is torn between blaming herself for everything and wanting to please her mom, to being angry and hurt that her mom treated her so poorly. However, I recently replayed through Psychonauts 1 in the lead up to the second game - but I played through it with my partner who suffers from a bunch of psychological issues, included bipolar, and was subject to pretty extreme emotional abuse from her mother. And I think, between both Psychonauts 1 and 2, Gloria's Theatre is the level that resonated with her most and left the most memorable impact specifically because of the way it handled those things. I still don't like the level - I think mechanically its somewhat tedious and annoying, but in a game about mental health and the way it impacts people, I wonder if maybe some of the levels just weren't made for everyone, or were made by people drawing on specific experiences. And secondly the labelling of Meat Circus as awful... I constantly have issues with the way everyone suggests that level is bad. Yes it is difficult, and there's certainly some balancing changes that could have been made to make it a little more accessible. The camera is the main issue IMO (as is true of the entire game - older 3D platformers are notorious for how awful their cameras were but Psychonauts 1 really does try to take that crown at times)... but overall I see the level as a metaphor for how Raz has spent the entire game helping others with their demons, but doing that in your own mind is always much more difficult and challenging. I feel like the sudden ramp up in difficulty is incredibly relevant to the fact that its his own demons that he is fighting (well, at least some of his own), and replaying the game recently has only really made me more confident in that opinion. I don't think the first game is perfect by any stretch. There's a bunch of issues with it and it makes sense it didn't do super well commercially (despite the fact that I purchased and loved it even at the time), but I do think it is often given a harder time, particularly regarding Meat Circus, than it deserves.

[@Freelancer837]

Damn, I didn't know people had a problem with the camera in Psychonauts 1. Usually older games, they're pretty bad but I thought it was good here, aside from how the sensitivity in-game and in the menu are very different

[@rosykindbunny1313]

Yessss justice for Gloria's Theater! It's my favorite level for the theater setting, the backstory, and the mechanic of the spotlight.

[@PrincessFelicie]

I really really adored Cassie's Collection for its portrayal of median plurality (a "tamer" form of DID that I have, to explain it laymanly). There's a lot in the environmental storytelling that goes very unsaid -- have you noticed the sheer amount of random NPCs you can have fully fledged conversations with, compared to other psyches you visit?

[@InkfinityOkamix3]

>plurality Translation: “I wanna be speshul plz pay attention to me!”

[@lukemills237]

@@InkfinityOkamix3 Speaking as a headmate, that's not what it's about. We just want the ability to exist as our own people without constantly getting told we don't exist. It's *very* easy to spot the fakers; they're the ones who constantly shove in extra-convoluted means of address, controversial introjects, and extremely exaggerated switches. Most real switches won't be noticed by those on the outside unless actively pointed out.

[@InkfinityOkamix3]

@@lukemills237 there’s no such thing as “headmates” either. You’re schizophrenic.

[@moondrip2163]

@@InkfinityOkamix3 You seem to be the only one here bothered by how one says a word. And isn't what you're saying now for the sake of that exact purpose?

[@InkfinityOkamix3]

@@moondrip2163 I’m saying that plurality doesn’t exist. Most who say they’re “plural” are either saying it cause they want attention/feel special, they have a overactive imagination, or have some other mental issue like schizophrenia or autism. I bet OP wasn’t plural or even knew wtf it was until they watched a tiktok video about it, and have probably never seen a psychiatrist about it. DID is now very trendy to have, along with Tourette’s. Are you not aware of the spikes in young people (esp girls) getting DID after watching their favorite social media influencer say they supposedly have it as well??

[@LordHengun]

SOME PSYCHONAUTS 2 SPOILERS AHEAD . . . . . . I feel like you're selling Cassie's Collection a bit short. The whole point is that each INDIVIDUAL aspect of our identity is flat and two-dimensional (represented by them being literal paper cutouts) and it is only by uniting all aspects of her personality that she turns into an actual person (represented by her 3D model). I thought it was a neat visual metaphor.

[@derpfluidvariant0916]

Yeah I didn't enjoy the level as much as say, Hollie's Hot Streak, but the symbolism was kinda obvious for most of it. Like, she split her mind into 4 prices to deal with various different things. The Librarian kept her in check, the teacher was how she delt with positive and nurturing relationships(Mostly bees), the Smuggler was to let her do more shady actions without feeling bad about herself, and the writer was so she could seperate her creativity from everything else.

[@koiofokinawa]

I completely disagree with the first game being terrible. It had awesome gameplay and levels imo

[@yodal_]

Yeah, people keep saying that it is buggy and have terrible gameplay and I just can't figure out what they are talking about.

[@derpfluidvariant0916]

@@yodal_ the rerelease fixed a lot of issues.

[@rickpgriffin]

IMO, Psychonauts had unpolished gameplay elements. For instance, many of the powers just don't have a use outside the area that you get them, and barely inside that area at that. The combat mechanics are on the simple side, and many parts of the game go a long time without any battling whatsoever. The acrobatic controls could have been more intuitive. Personally, I don't think this makes it BAD GAME, I LOVE the game. The elements weren't as crisp as they are in Psychonauts 2, but they're far from unusable.

[@Freelancer837]

@@yodal_ I didn't even play the first game until the day Psychonauts 2 came out (bought it on sale and fell in love with it) and was shocked with how solid of a game it was. It wasn't that buggy. And as someone who usually isn't a fan of how clunky older games are, I didn't really have an issue with Psychonauts 1 at all. It played like a dream for the most part and better than I could've asked for. The game aged REALLY well imo

[@XxDyneXxFreeEnergyx]

This one "Psychonauts had awesome gameplay" 😂🤣😆😁

[@clawdia169]

"Oh hey, a new Adam Millard video about psychonauts! I wonder what he'll talk about!" Adam: *talks shade about two of my favourite levels* Gloria's Theater might feel like padding for some, but i adore it simply because of the way it uses its own setting in order to flesh out Gloria's character in a way no other level does, from her troubled childhood to her idealized view of her father. Most or all of those moments wouldn't be possible without Psychonauts' Adventure game elements, which makes me sad to see them gone in the sequel. And the catwalks, altough somewhat short, contained my favourite moment in my last playthrough: witnessing Gloria's Fallen Star, her memory of reading about her mother's suicide and subsequently developing Bipolar Disorder, then promply failing a jump and hearing The Phantom proclaim "Just like Gloria's mother!" Powerful stuff, man. and uh about Cassie idk i like her design and her Collection was the first "true" level i 100% so i might be biased

[@FelisImpurrator]

Cassie's level has a *shitload* of depth Adam just doesn't give enough credit. I mean, she obviously has far more of a personality than "just likes books". The concept of compartmentalizing aspects of yourself is manifested through every aspect of the level. The depth of her backstory is something that only comes to light once you see how those personalities interact. The secret room up top is literally her *projections* about the important people in her life, and her relationship with Compton is incredibly nuanced. Cassie's Collection is a brilliant fucking level. Also, hard agree that Gloria's Theater is great. It's not "sensitive", but it is one of the most sympathetic portrayals of the disorder that era even had.

[@PrincessFelicie]

@@FelisImpurrator Cassie's Collection is a look into median plurality -- a subset of DID where the system members are split on a personality axis, but all share the same identity. My favorite detail about this psyche is the fact that it is the one with the most fully fledged conversations with random NPCs in the entire game -- a subtle indication to the way Cassie's brain was prone to emulating multiple consciousnesses and be "split apart" in the first place.

[@rosykindbunny1313]

Both of those levels are based around my two favorite things: theater and books. If you insult either of those levels, I'm gonna be pissed and ready to lecture you about why you're wrong lol.

[@MariusUrucu]

4:01 "All 3 Psychonauts games". Excuse me?

[@scorpioneldar]

there is a psyconauts VR game from about 4 years ago called Psyconauts and the Rombus of Ruin. It is a kind of side story where they go on that mission to rescue Head Zenato that was mentioned at the end of the first game and that they keep bringing up in the second. Playframe has an entire playlist of the entire series Here kzbin.info/aero/PLvFQJa1XAXzzEGuk2PezBIeMnH6lXG5ZE

[@isoval4364]

It’s short, and highly recommend watching someone play through it if you wanna play Psychonauts 2, as it takes place directly after Rhombus of Ruin

[@bkgrila]

@@scorpioneldar No so much a side story as a short section of the main story. It directly connects Psychonauts 1 and 2. I was glad I watched a playthrough before starting Psychonauts 2. Releasing it as a VR-only game was probably not the best idea.

[@scorpioneldar]

@@bkgrila eh it isn’t really necessary to understand the plot which I is why I consider it a side story that and the gameplay is nothing like the other games. I also don’t feel like that particular story would work in a conventional gaming style. The out of mind experience is a pretty cool concept and I think VR was the best way to tell that story. Maybe interlude would have been a better word that side story.

[@alecchristiaen4856]

Credit where it's due: these enviromental anecdotes in TES or Fallout do create a sense of immersion. While it'd be cool if they'd implement it more for the main plot, the little background stories do help fill the world and make it feel real. Personally, I remember catching a radio signal near a mall ruin in Fallout 4, which was a distress signal on loop. While I should've known what to expect, I was actually rushing to find the source and help the person out, only to find a vault with a skeleton inside (and some loot). No quest line, no big story, just a part of the world for you to find and think "this makes sense".

[@AnotherDuck]

I think, especially in Fallout 4, that those small anecdotes make the world feel more lived in, and that it exists beyond what your character experiences. It makes it feel less like you're the player character in a video game designed to tell your story, and more like you're a person in a world that will still exist even without you. Also, these open world games aren't entirely comparable to a much more story-focused game like Psychonauts. The more the game focuses on the story, the more you can make the environment tell that specific story. In an open world game that's less about following the plot you can't really make the world be designed around that plot, since you also need to focus more on the actual world.

[@TililioChaosLord]

Currently playing Cassie's level and I highly disagree. It's not "just" a book level because she likes book. Her whole storyline is based on printing on books... [spoilers] Be during her teaching days, or when she was forced to counterfeit money or the fact that writing her novel seems to have helped her escape her country. The usage of the china's ink as polluted water also works very well aestheticaly speaking

[@ArchitectofGames]

I'll agree with you on that last point, Cassie's collection is one of the best looking levels in the whole game - it's gorgeous!

[@sqwid12]

I did find Cassie's level to be the most boring and removed. I didn't feel much of a connection to Cassie, or a motivation to help her, because it felt very obtuse to feel what she feels. She was barely even presented to have a problem that needed solving before we went in.

[@charlesajones77]

@@sqwid12 Cassie's whole deal was controlling disparate aspects of the psyche to make them stronger than the sum of their parts. The "librarian" had compartmentalized those pieces, keeping them apart, making her unable to control the "swarm" of her psyche, and that translated to a real world inability to control the swarm of bees.

[@FelisImpurrator]

@@sqwid12 I mean, her level isn't really built around evoking a sense of affective empathy, which is what you're describing. She's a very cerebral character, so she deals with her emotions by compartmentalizing and rationalizing, which is perfectly fitting for who she is. It's simply a different way of expressing and dealing with emotions.

[@FelisImpurrator]

@@charlesajones77 Did you notice that her images of the Psychic Six are *literally* and figuratively her projecting on them? It's the exact kind of brilliant abstract connection Psychonauts is built around.

[@Chris_W]

Huh, I thought Cassie's level in Psychonauts 2 communicated quite a lot. Yeah the library part is a lil one-sided, but once you dig deeper and her past starts seeping in with this big area where you have to find some clues about money laundering, a thing she did in her past and feels shame about, the somewhat "fairytail illustration-esque" style the NPC's have there was a great artistic choice in my mind and tells us just how much books have kept her sane throughout her entire life. You can argue you don't like them going back to the 2d book bits quite as often as they do, but other than that I don't think any of the mind levels in P2 could be described as symbolically shallow.

[@Laezar1]

Ok Transparency sounds like an amazing channel, very thankful that you shared it

[@BPBegha]

The little storytelling bits are also very present in the second game. Expanded upon even. For example, in Psi King level his true identity (and even other plot points that are yet to be introduced) is hinted several times with the figments, just a lot of little details that add to the whole.

[@Salsmachev]

Milkman Conspiracy is the Super Mario Bros World 1-1 of Psychonauts. Like, can't we show Lungfishopolis or Fred Bonaparte's War some love for once? (Honestly, while Milkman Conspiracy is a hilarious and brilliant level, it's also one of the least satisfying in terms of resolution and narrative. Black Velvetopia is probably the strongest in terms of narrative and world design being integrated into gameplay)

[@hoodiesticks]

As someone who spends way too much time on KZbin, I'm kinda glad all these video essayists focus on Milkman Conspiracy so much. When I finally played the game for myself, I thought I knew everything the game had to offer already, and then I entered Lungfishopolis and my jaw hit the floor.

[@Salsmachev]

@@hoodiesticks That's fair, I guess. Though I'm not sure it makes sense for critics to tiptoe around spoilers for a game that old. But I still think it's kind of limiting how we talk about psychonauts. There's so much brilliant stuff baked into Meat Circus, Black Velvetopia, and Fred Bonaparte's War that deserves to be talked about. Honestly I think even Gloria's Theatre deserves some more analysis, even if it's just a discussion of what went wrong.

[@ProjectTony]

That bull though was so annoying for me. It's hit box was way to big to dodge alot of the time.

[@Salsmachev]

@@ProjectTony It's funny, because on the one hand that's totally the point, and on the other it's completely in line with the overall jankiness of Psychonauts.

[@wispisang]

SO TRUE

[@ArazectReviews]

Great essay, but i have to add a little. It's not only Psyhonauts 2 did a perfect job telling the story through environment. It's more like a next step for Double Fin in directing gameplay in linear and focused way. What purpose in subtle narrative things while a little group of critics actually point on it? Minds in Psyhonauts 2 as opposite to first game is more linear, has a far more non-interactive cutscene gameplay breaks, uses a camera tricks to show an environment from different angles and has a lot exposition stuff. All your "good" examples (except, maybe, Journey) uses the same, forcing player to actually experience all prepared content rather than accidentally found it.

[@Emily-su1te]

While I've never played Psychonauts or any of its sequels, this was a really interesting insight into level design and environmental storytelling. As always, it's cool seeing you tie in your thesis of the video to so many different titles that all really help get the idea across :D

[@SoulGameStudio]

I did start to try and tell stories through game systems but that's tricky and the way you reframe the question gives me more perspective. Thanks!

[@hey.its.BrandishJaye]

Yay! Loved the Transparency shout out. I love that channel.

[@diegocm8636]

It's funny how i've seen many people say that the gameplay of the game is bad and the writing saves it, but I played it just a week ago and really didn't mind the gameplay. I even found it to be really nice. It's janky, but effective

[@TooRudeProductions]

If you do a video for clairvoyance, remember in the second game that at the end certain characters, like the other interns, see you differently afterwards

[@masterboa6321]

I was today years old when I learned that raz's real name is rasputin

[@ArchitectofGames]

I legitimately had to look it up to write the video - everyone just calls him Raz!

[@thyrussendria8198]

He does say it in the intro. Raz: "My name..." Coach Oleander: "Begins with D." Raz: "Is Rasputin. But people call me... Raz."

[@onlyacomentarynothingspeci2419]

Well hes russian after all

[@gfaDiaspa]

@@onlyacomentarynothingspeci2419 Half Grulovian actually, more likely Balkanic, but close.

[@mwkcope]

I haven't played Psychonauts, but I feel like you could replace almost every mention of it in this video with Alan Wake (rewriting context specific bits obviously) and you'd get almost the exact same video. Another game, focused on storytelling, that didn't get it's due when it came out but, through a dedicated fanbase and passion from the developers, has earned a second chance, with the remaster coming in just a few short weeks and the sequel all but confirmed.

[@LinkDing]

Wtf do you mean bad controls? Controlled perfectly fine, definitely one of the better 3D platformers that came out at the time. Also I've never heard nor experienced the game being a buggy mess. Lastly the only collectables that were definitely annoying are the figments, the rest were great and I've never had a problem with them.

[@seth5362]

I disagree with you on a few points: firstly, I really enjoy psychonauts's platforming, it's has interesting movement, is solidly done in a general aspect, and keeps things varied with its worlds. Secondly, deus ex mankind divided's racism bits felt a little hollow since the people who could afford augments would generally have been rich. Great video though still. Good job.

[@MrWhygodwhy]

Psychonauts had worse platforming than even Psychonauts 2. Everything looked good and told a story, but the platforming itself was uninspired and bland, and the mechanics were barely functional and didn't fit with the level design. If they want rolling around on a ball to be a core feature, they have plenty of reference points of what good design looks like with that in the marble genre. I agree with Adam 100% on this one.

[@sponge1234ify]

As for DE:MD racism... i only played HR long ago, but as i remembered it, wasn't Augmentations cheap enough for the middle-class to at least reach? I wouldn't call *those* guys rich... or at least, on the same level as multi-billionares.

[@EGRJ]

@@sponge1234ify There's plenty of poor people today who buy stuff they can't afford. Even if you were well-off and aug'd, the legal and therapy bills from the end of the first game can't be cheap.

[@linamishima]

Something that wasn't made clear enough in the deus ex setting was the requirement to get augs for certain jobs, like construction, often via employer loans. It's a staple of the cyberpunk genre. Also, mankind divided follows the catastrophe at the end of human revolution, in which augmented people were controlled and made to go on psychotic rampages. This lead to mass panic, and a fall from grace for most people with augments. Just look at how religious persecution in the real world, or sexuality, can cause people's status to flip seemingly overnight

[@Y0uTubeCommentPoster]

There's a document in the game that gives somewhat of an explanation for this - when augmented people get shipped off to places like Golem City, all of their assets are seized. This allows the illluminati to take control of a great deal of wealth while also wiping out a large amount of the middle and upper class.

[@farmboyjad]

When it comes to Bioshock, I know Fort Frolic gets all the praise and plaudits, but from an environmental storytelling perspective, I'd argue the Olympus Heights is another major highlight. By virtue of being the literal home of several of the characters you've come to know throughout the game, it really adds to the immersion of the world; it both provides additional insights into these characters and effectively communicates that they all have (or at least had) lives and livelihoods beyond their direct contributions to the plot. It's just too bad that the first half of the level pushes you to rush "or you'll *die*", and the second half is marred by the randomly switching plasmid gimmick. I genuinely think it'd be my favorite level if I could *just explore the damn place at my own pace*.

[@Mr.BlurryEyes]

AG: Sooo how are you doing? Me:.................. AG: silent as usual Me :Wow this guy gets me

[@alexkibbe2792]

I loved the gameplay of psychnauts 1 when it came out and I replayed it on PC recently in anticipation of psychonauts 2 so I can say that it's not just nostalgia goggles that tell me that you are just wrong about the platforming being bad. is there better platforming out there? sure. but its hardly bad in the first game. The clip you showed when you said it was bad, jumping up to the house above you in the milkman level, was you failing to boundary break.

[@buttonasas]

Meat. Circus.

[@alexkibbe2792]

@@buttonasas That one was fun too. Some of the climbing was mildly frustrating, thats about it. And it is fitting that the mind of the only person that actually wanted to hurt you was the hardest to handle. None of the others you enter had anything against Raz personally.

[@sponge1234ify]

@@alexkibbe2792 See, you had to tie the storytelling to the gameplay. I'm not saying you're _wrong_ for doing so, but i doubt game journalists even back then would do it at all, and they had more power then to market games. Also someone else said that the re-release fixed a lot of the bugs. I can't vouch for their truthiness, for i came in pretty late from release as well, but hey.

[@Freelancer837]

@@buttonasas I played the PC version so Meat Circus was balanced better than the original one, but still I'd say the only part of Meat Circus I didn't like was having to get a knife thrown at the spinning wheel and then use it to platform

[@Lugmillord]

Environmental storytelling feels like a thing that is so hard to get right. Thank you for your analysis. I believe it helped.

[@LeoStaley]

You should collab with gmtk on his new series where he will devlog his own new game, and make your own game concurrently.

[@firebal6129]

That would be so cool but RIVALS

[@austinfarley8457]

Have they done a collab yet?

[@Rainbowmon]

I've seen the trailer for Psychonauts 2, but haven't been able to play it; does this video have any spoilers in it? I'll probably watch it eventually either way, but I don't know if I should watch now or wait until I can finally get my hands on a gaming PC (which might be a while).

[@ArchitectofGames]

I give a fairly detailed run through the tutorial and there are a few glimpses of later levels but overall, no real spoilers to be concerned about!

[@insaincaldo]

If you wanna go in blind, go in blind.

[@Rainbowmon]

@@insaincaldo That was the point of asking - I wasn't sure if the video was focused on just the first game or if it had any content from the 2nd game beyond the trailer. I've got it in my watch later list; I'll watch after I've played through the 2nd game.

[@tnk4me4]

9:36 I've never played any of the bioshock games but even I heard that shade.

[@Serutans]

I found the offhand criticism of Cassies level in Psychonauts 2 (that she is a writer and has no other personality traits) really strange as that level literally explores the different aspects of her personality. I'm not really commenting on the quality of the level (personally didn't find it bad but certainly on the lower end of the list) but it's a really off-the-mark criticism. Rest of the video is great though.

[@argo7155]

I've seen once game on your channel. It was perspective from above, more like adventure-type game about time traveling in some kind of club where people where murdered and you probably needed to save them in time loop.

[@UltravioletNomad]

I Agree that Gloria's theater is a pretty cumbersome level both mechanically and thematically, I think Cassie's collection is much better. I was disappointed that every version of cassie didn't get their own themed section outside of the library portion, but the broader themes still resonate well. Cassie doesn't believe in her own abilities and doesn't have a sense of self. Every bit of information in her mind is simply categorized, but Cassie struggles to claim any ideas as her own. The fact that she doesn't appear to have any character is the point. But the missed opportunity was in the objective. Librarian Cassie shouldn't want to lock up her personalities per say, they should have been locked up from the beginning. She wants you to collect them, but you do too, the goal should be finding them to remind Cassie that they all are her. It loses the narrative as it isn't clear if Cassie is willfully shuting out her past, or if shes just doesn't acknowledge it. When you realize that her trauma comes from feeling like she was useless when it mattered, it feels like the focus should be on a disassociation with her past achievements, not necessarily repression. Certainly not the best but better than Gloria, and as much as I hate to say it, follows the prompt better than Lungfishopolis.

[@fredericonossin2558]

Totally agree with you. When I started playing Psychonauts 2 I was really confused with the gameplay and crowd AI (the combat one is fine though), found them really basic or even bad. But then I got immersed in the narrative and the great level design, and now I don't even care if some parts of the game are not that good. Because the most relevant parts for the experience are put together very well.

[@emmas1366]

I thought Omori did this quite well, a lot of it is quite subtle but on replays oh my god i almost cried from seeing a single room in an area because i knew what it stood for in the story

[@NichePlays]

Awesome video as always Adam. I had similar feelings playing through Psychonauts for a review last month but ultimately was a bit more forgiving of the issues I had with its gameplay - I do agree that the storytelling and world of Psychonauts was it’s real draw though. I’m psyched to play the second one when I get around to it though

[@SrKing-dm4ku]

Hey, this might be a hot take, and maybe word of god conflicts with it, but I don’t think Gloria’s Theater is about being bipolar at all. I guess spoilers? I will be fair going into this, saying that one could interpret her personality before the level as a negative and poor portrayal of bipolar disorder. I interpret these scenes as just an extreme self centered mindset, that fluctuates between “I deserve the world’s praise” and “I am nothing but shame”. The main reason I avoid interpreting it as a distasteful bipolar metaphor is the villain is a literal inner critic. Victory in the level is removing this harsh inner critic that becomes self destructive. With that out of the way, we can piece together her internal struggle, that she is unsure if her story is a tragedy or comedy (insert Joker gag here) but not “happy or sad” but in the theatric sense. Is it a story about a girl that came from miserable conditions and overcame them? Or is she a woman doomed to failure? And this theater serves as a metaphor for endlessly obsessing about one’s past, observing different parts of it (the plays and sets) and from different angles (the mood lighting). The inner critic even gives you the first replacement play, yet still bashes the theater production it helped create, just as an overactive inner critic both makes one relive bad memories AND beat themselves up over their actions. I could go on about this angle and how it adds more depth to the story, but in the end, it is by bringing to light the obsessive and self destructive nature of a hyperactive self critic that you overcome Gloria’s obsession with her past, and she is finally able to move on, in what she calls a retirement. What I mean through all of this is, by flattening her early interactions and mood light into a portrayal of bipolar disorder, so much complexity disappears, and the obsession with the past might not even make sense.

[@melodymcdaniel9268]

Isn't she described in the game as having bipolar disorder though? I'd agree with your interpretation if the game itself didn't damn her level to solely being a portrayal of bipolar disorder

[@SrKing-dm4ku]

@@melodymcdaniel9268 Honestly I don’t think they name drop a single disorder in that game! Its been a while since I played but I distinctly remember that. It’s strange, I know they name drop “genetic memory” for the Napoleon dude but I think that’s just Raz’s misinterpretation of an inferiority complex, with Napoleon representing the legacy he has to live up to? The writing is so good I could see that being intentional to represent Raz’s naive perspective blindly accepting Napoleon as part of his mind. I know they never say the milkman has paranoia either, but it’s heavily implied. I think they went as far as saying Ford Cruller has a fractured personality, not explicitly stated as “multiple personality disorder”. It’s weird, I really don’t think they name drop anything explicitly for some reason. Strange choice if I’m not blatantly wrong The only other reason I feel there’s an argument to be made is that this feels like a very bad illustration of bipolar, since it’s more or less explained that she’s replaying these memories in her head over and over again, whereas being bipolar affects you in the moment, and with how well everything else is written I feel this would be such a major oversight. Plus, the inclusion of overcoming an “inner critic” would solve the problem in my interpretation, and would do jack all for bipolar disorder?

[@rosykindbunny1313]

Holy shit, you just gave me a new interpretation for that level!

[@vadarman9906]

I, myself, really enjoyed the first game's gameplay.

[@reco7234]

Sable is another new example of a game with great enviromental storytelling

[@Khamrad1]

Transparency is sooo good. glad they're getting love.

[@glooperscooper]

I like how after a point he just stopped talking about Psychonauts

[@awintory]

I love your channel so much, and am biased further in this video by your inclusion of Journey :)

[@Rognik]

No one who plays Psychonauts 2 to completion will forget the "It's a Small World" level. "Grulovia, Grulovia..."

[@gfaDiaspa]

Dammit! I just got it off my head, now it's back thanks to you

[@rosykindbunny1313]

Gristol's worst quality is getting that song stuck in people's heads

[@yahavlivni3002]

I don't think Cassie's Collection is great but it is better than you give it credit for. My interpretation is that Cassie categorized and organized her personality until only rational decision-making was left. And throughout the level, you free these different aspects of her eventually forming the whole. I think the level rides more on its cool visuals than its environmental storytelling.

[@FelisImpurrator]

Massive spoilers forthcoming! Lots of defenses of Cassie's Collection here, which pleases me because it's great and now I don't have to write an essay on it... But also, man, I can't overstate how excellent the final level is. It's on par with Black Velvetopia or Milkman narratively. For one thing, its gameplay is horribly tedious and uncomfortable, with lots of sitting on rails getting infodumped at... But that's the point. It's supposed to be dismal, uncomfortable, and full of exposition, because that's what this person's mind *is.* He's a broken man wallowing in self-delusion, trying to build up his fragile ego with a constant stream of grandiose self-praise. When you silence the music for that hidden achievement, the fact that absolutely nothing takes its place is telling - it shows exactly how hollow the guy is, because other than the lies he tells himself, he has nothing and is nothing. He hasn't allowed himself to grow as a person beyond his obsessive lamentation over lost glory and privilege. He doesn't even have real interests beyond superficial indulgences. And that's reflected in every detail of his level.

[@ArchitectofGames]

I really really wish I could talk about the final level more because it's SO GOOD - loads to unpack there

[@sempersolus5511]

The trick worked and now my narrative depth can penetrate anyone

[@pieterfaes6263]

Nier Automata does some elements of environmental storytelling pretty well (and somewhat dynamically). When you see a mountain of android corpses, you know shit's about to go down.

[@l0u13__3]

I finished 2 last week and it was one of my favourite games

[@Deram1Axres]

I loved Psychonauts when it first came out and rebought it when it came to Steam to play again. Day before Psychonauts 2 came out I went and replayed both the first game and the VR game to get me psych'd for Psychonauts 2 and I was not disappointed. Though I think the story in the first one was a little more engaging where the second game feels more like your along for the ride. Maybe we will get a 3rd installment one day lol . . . still waiting on a Dark Cloud 3 but Level-5 has repeatedly said no . . . probably has to do with agreements with Sony on the original games. Lot of games don't get sequels or get PC ports cuz of copyright and other legal stuff.

[@jjthepikazard212]

YES! I LOVE TRANSPARENCY SO MUCH! I HAVE SINCE THE BEGINNING!

[@AngelCorpse666]

Your content is legendary. Thank you!

[@mattkuhn6634]

I don't know if I agree with your take on that part of Wolfenstein 2. I remember playing Half-life 2, and the Combine fell very flat with me as an enemy. It was like, I get it, aliens enslaved humanity, let's do this - they didn't seem real, their motivations didn't make sense, they might as well to me have been robots. Plus, in that first section I was still more marveling at the (at the time) new tech of the source engine, and all the stuff they included to make it feel dystopian made it feel over the top, to me. On top of that, I just didn't understand how it happened. I didn't know how we got from a world like in Half-Life to the world of Half-Life 2, and so I couldn't buy into the dystopia. With Wolfenstein 2 though, I dunno, I mean I really identified with BJ, and so when it gets to that encounter, much like the one with Frau Engel in the previous game, I was very much feeling and experiencing it as BJ. I didn't get "lol silly hat drinking milkshake" at all. And I was really affected by seeing an America bowing to fascism, a humbling reminder that "it can't happen here" is never true. So maybe part of why Wolfenstein landed harder for me was because Nazis are *real*, even if the story of Wolfenstein is not, whereas the Combine is wholly fictional. You don't have to sell me on "nazis are a thing and they're bad," but you do have to do that for the Combine, and I feel like they tried too hard and it made it a cartoonish trope rather than something believable.

[@wlll1235]

haven't finished watching yet, but there are a few levels of minecraft dungeons that have some pretty cool environmental storytelling

[@lordthor5951]

Personally I think bethesda environmental storytelling is great, its just not about telling your story as much as its about making the world more *lived* sure the girl getting gibbed while skinny dipping doesn't really do anything for your story, but it does establish that some people skinny dip and its probably a bad idea :D Without all the small vignettes the world would seem dead and empty really, (Which you see a lot in other open world RPGs) if all the bunkers in fallout just had trash and monsters outside for example it would seem samey, but one have someone giving up and killing themselves, another have people fleeing the bunker and so on all works together of making the world seem a bit more real. Frankly if all the vignettes where relevant and thematic I would find it a bit weird.

[@FelisImpurrator]

Arguably, Bethesda RPGs rely almost fully on being able to do environmental storytelling well because their main questing is so goddamn bad. Except the sidequests, which are fairly consistently quality micronarrative.

[@lordthor5951]

@@FelisImpurrator Yeah in General I think Bethesdas main narratives tends to be quite bland, but they excel at telling smaller stories. And to be fair who really play bethesda games for the main quest?

[@lollaloopa]

as good as side-quests and story elements can be interesting, I quite like those small nuggests of unrelated world-building, mini-stories. If every random encounter, every small dungeons were related to the story plot, it often feels too artificial and "gamey" to me. I need those random stuff to feel like this is a living, breathing world rather than a crafted stage for me to play in. I loved the random dungeons and buildings in skyrim where you could observe the environment and figure out what the story behind it is all about. It's those small adventures that are the most memorable because it isn't mandatory, it isn't needed to understand the main plot, but I have to actively observe and use my brain to figure out what actually happened. For example, the faction quests and main plot of skyrim aren't that memorable, but I still vividly remember a cottage down by a random riverside that had a skeleton and a short diary in it, and some jewels lying around in a boat next to it. It had basically no story, the jewels were quite missable(it was rolling around in the boat rather than in a container), and the whole encounter took about two minutes, but I still remember it because it felt so interesting and rewarding. I didn't get the jewels because i smacked a bunch of monsters to get to the end of a dungeon, I got them because I read the lore, actively searched for a hidden cache, and paid attention.

[@nathanlevesque7812]

Idk about bugs on release but it literally controls better than most 3D platformers, including every overrated 3D Super Mario that isn't Odyssey (and even that has worse camera jank). I'd also rather have the odd and as such interesting collectables of Psychonauts, than the generic crap that flies in just about every other 3D platformer. And yeah, the final level is punishing...but it's also more memorable than other entire games, and half the time a game is described as punishing it's to praise that fucking game. Psychonauts is just great. It's the review culture for this genre that is flawed.

[@idontcheckmynotifications]

Preach, I don’t know why people have an issue with Psychonauts collectables (Figment visibility aside). Yeah, I don’t know if this is exactly what you’re talking about but people seem to have really weird standards for 3D platformers? The Mario ones get WAY too much of a pass on their filler and gimmicks lol.

[@wolfkilljoy]

damn, now I need to replay bioshock again. "grabs scuba gear"

[@lukostello]

14:00 you're the first person I've heard critique psychonauts 2 for this. I have similar qualms with bob's garden, and Compton's cookout.

[@lucasartgames]

There are certainly some... Interesting takes in this video... That's for sure

[@janugur2241]

I think in Souls games's sake the decision of From Soft to let many players miss out on the Enviromental Story-telling actually works for the narrative. In the real world you'd miss them if you're not interested in the nuances of this world and just want to have some fun brawls and the game world reflects that with the enviroment and the story details that actually take work to put together giving the player crucial information about their place in the story that could effect their decision at the end of the game.

[@thatdemoguy9489]

Hey Adam! I have some ideas for future analyses! Ultrakill, a retro FPS similar to earlier Quake and Doom games, with an emphasis on style and speed Deltarune, the sidequel to Undertale, which recently had its second chapter released. You could cover its theme of how your choices never matter. Hope you like the ideas (if you see them) and thanks for providing quality content!

[@Chessrook44]

A video on Environmental Storytelling that DOESN'T touch on the Myst games or, especially RIVEN?! Oh Adam Millard, I am so very disappointed...

[@adiksaff]

YES!!! MOAR Psychonauts coverage!! I disagree with Cassie's level being flat as well. Yes not as exciting as other worlds, has a very heartwarming storybeat in it. I don't think it was set up well though. She seemed to be the most well-adjusted of the Psychic 6 and I couldn't understand why she wouldn't just help immediately. I would've liked to see her crippled with self doubt or something first.

[@FelisImpurrator]

Well, she is held back by self-doubt. The fact that she's hiding that from even herself is the entire point. The whole level is easier to appreciate with a passing familiarity with Jungian archetypes though...

[@williamlennie]

I have always enjoyed Fallscrolls and Elderout...

[@Aques_Aquir]

I am shocked that hollow knight was not mentioned

[@ice-2167]

Yo Adam! I like your videos a lot and would love to see a video on Audio Games

[@jaybabe7767]

The games with the greatest environmental story telling I have played are undoubtedly last of us 2 and red dead redemption 2 where they have these small stories told with a vague letter and the evidence laying around. I know people say ds3 and from soft games are the best but without reading a bunch of item descriptions you can't figure anything out where as rdr2 and lou2 can tell an entire story in a single room and have it make an impact on the world and story.

[@cherryleafy101]

I remember playing through Psychonauts. I couldn't get through the final level in the end.

[@rhael42]

There's a LOT of commentary about fascism you're missing in the opening bit of Wolfenstein. It's just trying to do something else other than what you were looking for. Hell, the "passivity" is even part of the point.

[@labdG]

You reminded me of Journey and it still makes me a little sad that I didn't connect with that game. x)

[@9Godslayer]

I like how you brought up the Dark Souls games and that their approach to storytelling is really lacking. The main problem I've had is that you can go a _long_ time between story beats if you don't know what you're doing since the world is so large. I actually like Bloodborne better because the city is compact so you can get information quickly. Also, the enemy design is more interesting and consistent.

[@Melonik9846]

You should list your patreons at the end in order from most recent instead of alphabetical. If someone (like me) clicks away at the beginning of the list then they will hear most patreon's names at lest once (given they watch all your new videos). With the alphabetical order they hear the same ones in every video before they click away.

[@null_point]

this made me realize id:invaded is just anime psychonauts. i will never be the same.

[@Mandrake42]

Oh whoops. I thought this was about Psychonauts 1, I didnt realise it had spoilers for Psychonauts 2. I think I will come back later.

[@przemysawzanko6700]

Thanks for the video.

[@SerpC]

Great video!

[@nostalgiahero3139]

Anyone know which game is at 11:49? Excellent video Adam. Delicious content 😋

[@buddingdufus]

Can up with a beat idea for a game today. You have veteran warriors and older teenagers with magic. And some in between. The warriors have far better movestets(stuff like dodges, toughness, attack speed and combo ability)while the teenagers with magic have far more raw power(magic so homing bolts or AOEs or a teleport dash or flight) but all have shitty movesets full of openings and low combo potential. There’s also a lot of fun stuff you can do with a story about different aged characters.

[@xzxmemoxzx]

It’s so hard for me to actually care/invest myself into stories in video games

[@colinberg3342]

Then why are you watching this video let alone commenting on it

[@fhjunior6183]

Thanks for the vid

[@crazygamecrafter8830]

me waiting for him to mention eternal like

[@OuterHeaven210]

Great video! Got me very interested. I have a PS2 is the first game on PS2?

[@embodiementofsoup3567]

I like the gameplay in psychonauts 1 🥺

[@mikhaelgribkov4117]

Pretty sure Andrew Ryan does same monologue stuff that you blame on Infinite. And let's be real, your misunderstanding Library just shows that people are sometimes that quick to discard something as beneath them when they don't get it first time.

[@nickkuroshi0]

I will stand by my statement that cult classic games are considered cult classics not because of their gameplay or writing but because of their stylization and personality. Wonderful 101 and Psychonauts are fun, impactful games with a lot of heart and they are some of my favorite games for it. But they also have contemporaries that have better, cleaner gameplay or more tightly written stories.

[@lonelyPorterCH]

yeah, I never played it, but I heared a new psychonauts will come out, maybe I will play this^^

[@taylorrobinson5572]

We not gonna talk about shots at Bioshock Inifinite either?

[@pessoinha5529]

I'm dumb, my games need to explain everything to me or I'm lost

[@bitabitesalty5164]

Oh I'm the same age as psychonauts that's cool