Psychonauts 2 (Zero Punctuation) 

Watch this week's episode of Zero Punctuation on Tormented Souls and The Artful Escape - www.escapistmagazine.com/tormented-souls-and-the-artful-escape-zero-punctuation/ - watch it early and support our content on RU-vid via RU-vid Memberships. And yes, Deathloop is next week.

“Like a McDonalds birthday party themed around seal team six” Truly remarkable.

The sound in Yahtzees voice when he goes "Well, obviously I do." sounds so different from his usual feel.

The level where they don't explicitly say they all take drugs.... The Psi King actively says "Oh hey yeah you can find them up on top of that hill, it's where they like to go to get high"

To be fair, as someone who finished the original Psychonauts just today, most of the original was focusing on the adults, the kids were mostly the set dressing, occasionally obstacles, and in the latter half McGuffins for Raz to rescue, they were well characterized set dressing but, the main focus was on the adults as you dived into their minds one after another.

I'm glad Yahtzee has good memory of the physical torture he inflicts on thousands of strangers on the internet.

The main thing I missed in Psychonauts 2 was the point-and-click influence that the first game wore proudly. Held items are gone completely, and every single mind is focused on platforming, whereas the minds of the asylum patients all relied heavily on puzzle solving and experimentation with items. It could drag on a little long, especially in the drama stage level, but it made the minds more interesting and memorable.

Note to self: never leave Yahtzee alone with the furniture.

Indiana Jones’s dad actually snogged the main love interest in Last Crusade.

"...where you waste half an hour trying to jump off a slippery 2 inch perch to grab one last collectable with no actual f-ing use" After spending half an hour yesterday trying to jump on top of one of the rubber stamps in "Crullers Correspondence" to get the last figment, I felt that remark...

It's funny that Yahtzee as a decaying husk didn't like the direction of them focusing on the old psychonauts and shafting the interns while as a pinwheel wearing 20 year old zoomer thanked the god we didn't have to associate with the interns for longer than we needed to because I hated every single one of them, except maybe sam.

2:40 as I recall Indy's dad was still doing pretty well for himself with the ladies. Remember when Indy asked how his dad knew the femme fatale character was a traitor, and Dad's priceless reply: "She talks in her sleep" 🤣

The entire point of the Milkman Conspiracy was the very ethical lesson that Yatzhee calls the second game out for. After the Milkman Conspiracy, Raz makes sure to check with the people whose minds he enters if they're okay with him helping them. His slip in the second game is just that, a slip into old behaviour after learning his lesson once already, something both very realistic and very useful for getting players back up to speed with the rules that Raz operates on.

My opinion of Psychonauts 2 is much like your opinion of Portal 2: "Whatever you take from this video, don't let it be that [Psychonauts] 2 isn't worth your time, because it most certainly is; were it in any other position, it would accumulate enough of my saliva to run all its household plumbing for several days. Unfortunately, [Psychonauts] 2 is in the uncomfortable position of necessarily having to be compared to [Psychonauts] 1, and taking both games as wholes, it can't possibly have the same impact; certainly, there's more of it, but that just makes it flabbier, and it's still funny, but more in a broader “custard pie to the face” sense than in a finer “snooker cue to the bollocks” sense.

Yahtzee's been saving that finger-breaking joke for more than 10 years lmao.

I’ll never forgive Yahtzee for breaking my fingers because I had a GameCube.

Honestly Im fine with the direction they went with. Doesn’t have as much comedy but I was pretty intrigued with the story direction and all the former psychonauts being jaded for years after Grulovia. I still felt happy for them when their levels end and they feel like theyre at peace

Actually, that's the best way I could also describe psychonauts 2 It invokes the first, but does not surpass or exceed it. It simply walks alongside it. Which is still way better than any other game that was in development hell for 15 years. This is a fucking miracle by *every* stretch of the imagination.

3:52 I guess? But the levels in the latter half of the first game were all about helping people through their traumas and personal problems, and they emphasise over and over they’re there to help the kids control and finesse their powers (like that pyromaniac or the tinfoil hat kid).

Something holding Psy2 back from being as memorable is most the minds revolve around the same group of people in an effort to make a connected plot , Psy1 minds were self contained stories giving them more room to be comedic

So has Yahtzee graduated from dolphin plushies to furniture or has he devolved from plushies to furniture?

I’m surprised at Yahtzee’s take on this. I feel like the sequel was always going to be about the founders. The games were always about going into and exploring adult minds, despite the main character being a kid

Personally, I was a big fan of the changes to combat. Every ability felt like it had a place in it, and the variety of enemies with their variety of weaknesses meant bouncing around those arenas flinging psychic abilities all over the place. That was a good feeling.

Yahtzee's review is what got me to play the original. Brilliant, hilarious, cynical. Psychonouts 2 is good, but I knew going in this game could do nothing to top the likes of Lungfishopolis or The Milkman Conspiracy. At least was nothing as hard as Meat Circus. When that music started playing in 2, It was like having a Nam flashback.

Thank you Yahtzee for reminding me that I'm not nearly as much of a cynical old boomer as I thought I was

I gotta disagree with what he said about the sequel taking an empathetic approach to the minds we go into being a complete switch, because I feel the original Psychonauts did the same. The characters there were simpler. but from Lungfishopolis forward (minus Boyd), the rest of the levels are about helping people with their mental issues without taking the piss out of them. Glorias Theater, Black Velvetopia, Waterloo, even the final level is Raz sympathizing with the person who wanted to steal his brains all game. And what he did with Boyd wasn't intentionally him trying to break Boyd's mind to get his way, and it ultimately worked out. It's not really much of a stretch to go from that to 2 where Raz does more of the same but with a bit more thought. Even the whole "learning a lesson" thing only happens in Hollis mind, and after that Raz is doing more of the same he did in 1.

"I struggle to recall parts of Psychonauts 2 that really stand out as comedy highlights." The cooking show where the food is positively gleeful at being chopped, boiled, fried, and blended? And at one point you need to cut up some pork and the cutting machine turns out to be the pig's grandfather? And some of the highest praise you can get is things like "slightly better than a mouthful of nails"?

20 years and they finished off the story. That's incredibly rare these days.

Just going to say it You had me at gay psychic Viking wedding

I think the problem with number 2 is it wants to have a more mature story but when it feels like it's always spoon feeding you all this pathos, I think it has the opposite effect. It's inconsistent too with characters like Sasha giving you a lecture on trust and boundaries one minute, then making jokes about doing experiments on kids and prisoners the next.

Nostalgia MIGHT be a bit of a factor here. I played 1 for the first time a couple weeks before 2, and so far 2 feels to me like a broader, more refined continuation of 1 and I couldn't be happier. But I still enjoy Yahtzee's opinions no matter what

I liked the more empathetic direction that PSYCHONAUTS 2 took. There were hints of that in the first game (particularly with Gloria's Theater), but they preferred to go for the comedy first. Since the theme of the game is Raz stepping into the larger adult world of the Psychonauts HQ, it makes sense that he'd have to take the mental health of those around him more seriously.

Psychonauts 2 still kicks ass. I don't remember when I had as much fun with every other game.

Thank you for mentioning the limited ability slots! Haven't sent that in many reviews for this game. Loved the game but I found myself sighing every time a complex battle started as I had to go into the menu and move everything around.

Been waiting for Yahtzee to review this considering how much he liked the first game. Keep hearing how this one is even better than the first and needed the most cynical of minds to give his take.

>I listen to NPR now Don't do this to me, Yahtzee, please. Last thing Id want is to be in your video.

I was at a client's house last Friday and saw one of Yahtzee's books on their son's bookshelf. Mad me chuckle

I think psychonauts kept the cynical edge and style of humour, it's just changed by the circumstances. You went from people in an insane asylum who had serious problems, to people just trying to leave their past. It's a lot less of a serious circumstance

Yahtzee’s reviews always give me a bit to think about, even if agreeing completely is rare. I for one loved the second game’s more empathetic and serious tone. Because a game that can make me laugh AND cry is more fulfilling to me than a game that makes me laugh, even if I laugh a lot more. I love games for the range of emotions they can make me feel. Spec Ops the Line wouldn’t have been the same if we had to choose one out of the list of writhing, uncomfortable emotions that game allows you to feel. Bioshock wouldn’t have been the same if it was just horror, just action, or just awe. So I liked the new direction Psychonauts 2 went. The gameplay isn’t perfect, but the whimsy, the comedy, the joy, and the sadness all kept me more than entertained.

Yahtzee’s sequel comment was better explained in one of his reviews from a few years ago. Something along the lines of “A good sequel builds off the original. A bad sequel wallows in it”

I experienced a very different game than Yahtzee did. I loved both Psychonauts 1 & 2, and I loved 2 the most. It certainly eclipses the original for me.

I played the first one right before this (having also played it around the time of its release). I think the kids in the first game aren't well developed as a whole. A few of them are, but there's way too many of them and too little time spent with them. Most of them are one-note caricatures rather than believable characters. The interns in 2 have similar problems, but I think to a smaller degree.

Indiana Jones' dad literally snogged the same hottie that Indy did in that movie. Sure, it wasn't onscreen, but we were all blown away when he dropped that bomb.

Don't you think calling adults in P1 "props" and children "well flashed out" is a bit reaching? All adults other then Ford and Igorina had an entire levels dedicated to them, while children at best had a basic archetype slapped on them and never developed. Also about dropping inters halfway through the game... It was more like right after their introduction, which happened in the second level of the game, and up until the very end of the game. Same as P1, children had zero to none characterisation outside of some basic traits.

I really wasn't expecting Yahtzee Croshaw of all people to be disappointed in not interacting with children enough

I too feel that the original Psychonauts was a better game. There were just more memorable moments and the game felt a lot bigger somehow. The original campgrounds, with multiple interconnected sections, felt bigger and more interesting than the quarry and questionable area in Psychonauts 2. The kids in the original had small personal stories that played out over the game if you managed to find them at the right time like the Chloe/Bobby love interest, the Elka/Nils/J.T triangle, Maloof's development, etc. After rebraining the kids, you could go back and visit them at the campgrounds and listen to some new dialogue. The interns just did not feel that engaging to me. Sure, the conversation with Sam in the diner was kind of funny, but what about all the other interns? It also felt like the original game had a lot more stuff that you could discover if you looked around, things like the bulletin board, the log with the history of Whispering rock, Vernons monologue in the TV room, all the things Boyd would say, all the responses to using telekinesis or fire on everyone or showing mr Pokeylope too them. I'm pretty sure that there are still a few things in the original game that I haven't seen. Somehow it just felt like there were more to it than the sequel. For me the original game also gave me more a sense of awe. I can still remember the feeling of entering Lungfishopolis the first time: "I'm a giant godzilla monster stomping all over a town! Yeah!" and the big laugh I got out of it. There was nothing like that in Psychonauts 2. Black Velvetopia is just beautiful and hard to beat, even though I must say that parts of Cassie's library came close and the boss of Hollis' casino was really good looking too. Even though Fatherland follies gave me a WTF moment, it couldn't match the WTF!!!? feeling from seeing the Milkman level for the first time. And personally, I mostly got bored by the puke and belch humour of Compton's cookoff and Bob's bottles, it just did not work for me. No, I don't consider myself a prude, but I just felt that it was unneccesary. The way that the minds in the sequels were broken up when revisiting also made the game feel smaller somehow. In the original game basically possible to play through a mind again. The route is mostly the same as when visiting the mind for the first time. And the teleport guys are there from the beginning so it's possible to go back even on the first visit. Maybe not realistic in a level where you are supposed to have feel some time pressure to finish the level, but still nice. In the sequel revisiting a mind just felt cramped, in a lot of sections you reach a dead end and have to exit the mind or slog back to find the teleport guy again which is no fun. And I also hated the nerfed levitation power. There were so many places that I felt that I ought to be able to reach but since the bubble popped so quickly it just wasn't possible. In the original game you could basically levitate as long as you wanted until you reached the ground. It just felt more powerful and joyful to be able to do that. Sure, there were a lot of things in the original game that were worse, some of the jumping in the Meat Circus for example. And getting to the last figments in Fred Bonaparte's level were very frustrating with some hiding in what I'd say unfair places. But overall I still like the original game better. And this isn't just nostalgia from ten years ago talking, I played through the original just a few months ago.

I think as one continues to grow older, it's harder to "eclipse" and original work. That's an advantage new things have over sequels or remakes.

It also didn't have that same cockslap difficulty increase at the end which made it feel a lot shorter and easier than the original. Totally agree, good game, just... lacking a little.

If we ever get a DLC for the game based on the psyche of Yahtzee, i would imagine that the theme of the level would be based on Cadbury eggs enemies and spunkgargleweewee enemies. Who knows maybe it will feature a easter egg being the lost review of Borderlands 3.

It was definitely trying to be more mature in it's themes, which I didn't mind but the Mind's seemed a lot less varied this time round?, of course they looked amazing and all but outside of perhaps the Cooking one they all seemed to be mainly just platforming and combat when Psychonauts one played around with things more, like the Board game, Milkman and Lungfish levels.

Been waiting for this review. Yahtzee’s first Psychonauts review was my introduction to Zero Punctuation years ago.

I think the Milkman was the exception, since most others in Psychonauts seemed to really benefit from Raz screwing with their heads.

I loved the call-back for the pencil joke at the beginning.

2021: The Year where long awaited sequels finally get released.

I love it when he references the old episodes.

The level themed around "definitely not saying they did drugs but they totally did" is absolutely the most memorable part of the game. Definitely my favorite part too. So trippy and so much fun

I did think it was weird how suddenly in this game it was very important to get consent before jumping inside anyone's mind instead of just diving on in and changing whatever you needed to in order to progress, but I didn't think it detracted too much from anything. I do agree that, while there are lots of funny lines throughout, there are no standout comedy moments, and that first point was likely a contributing factor. It seemed like they were trying really hard not to make jokes at anyone's expense, which is a nice thing to consider while writing, but I think they could have gotten away with a few jabs here and there.

Compared to its contemporaries it's one of my games of the year. Yahtzee may not like the game growing up but I do, because I was a child when I beat the original.

"I hope your fingers are still smarting from the last time I brought that across" Classic. And true.

I'd like to think Yahtzee's mind is just a yellow backdrop and his cartoon avatar at his computer and the whole level takes place inside his text documents.

I think that, had Double Fine managed to make Psychonauts 2 a few years after the first game, it would have been a very different game. I replayed the first game leading up to the second's release and noticed a couple differences: for example, the Psychic 6's totems at the campfire have Lucrecia's totem out in the open and Bob and Helmut's totems aren't close together, so they might not have made them a couple had they been able to make the sequel closer to the original's release. And Raz's dad has much more knowledge and use of psychic abilities when he appears in the Meat Circus, so I'm guessing they were originally going to have him be a Psychonaut as well, whether active or retired I'm not sure, but it's interesting going back and seeing what they intended to carry out later that they didn't because of the amount of time it took to get Psychonauts 2 made.

0:37 “breaking fingers” Love the reference to the original video “hold your hand out like Spock and put a pen inbetween your middle and your ring finger. Now press your fingers together.” “You might now realize that really fucking hurts. That was for not buying Psychonauts”

Finally having gotten around to beating it, I feel like psychonughts 2 tries it's hardest to draw from minds like Fred's and Gloria's as opposed to Lungfishopolis or the milk man conspiracy. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just the direction they went. I will say though the doomsday bowling alley, and opening mission were zaney enough.

What I loved most about this game besides the polish and Jack Black song was the reunion of the voice actors for Invader Zim and Gir respectively.

Always good to see someone else remembers poor Full Throttle.

I think Yahtzee needs to rewatch The Last Crusade. Indiana Jones's father arguably gets more lady action than Indiana Jones does.

I appreciate the reference to Extreme Ghostbusters. A man of culture!

I'm curious how long it's been since Yahtzee played the original Psychonauts, because as someone who did replay it immediately before jumping into 2, I wasn't left with a desire to go back, I was left with a feeling of "Wow, once you get past the stupidly excessive load times this was actually better than the first in almost every way.'" On the topic of the camp kids vs the interns, I'll agree that the campers overall were more interesting, but to call them "fully characterized" is really pushing it. Most of the campers were one note stereotypes (the bully, the flunkie, the rude girl, the space case, etc.) and what depths there are you really have to go out of your way to find.

10 years after the review of the 1st game and Yahtz remembered the finger breaking!. You Sir, have my respect.

go play psychonauts one and you'll find the gameplay in two is much improved with very refined platforming.

I mean you spend the last third of P1 in the insane asylum with kids all brainless. I feel like there's at least some overlap with spending the last half of P2 with the idiot founders, even if P2 really does not pay off the other interns (besides Sam) as well as P1 handles the kids.

At least Zero understands that Boyd’s the milkman, and that his milk is delicious.

Since the story takes place in the early 80's the teenagers are probably more into Farrah Fawcett than the old guys. For them it's probably, like... Rita Hayworth, or something :X

"When are we getting Full Throttle 2, Tim?" One can only dream...

I think that any issues with the interns could've maybe been softened out with entering at least one of their minds. Like, maybe explore the sisters' relationship or have a KLOB radio themed level. Personally though, I loved the game to death and great video as always Yahtzee!

This is one of my favorite form of fleshed out combat in a platformer. Every enemy can be killed in multiple ways, except for like one enemy. It was really fun switching to the most optimal move, like you had a little bag of tricks up your sleeve.

I have been waiting so impatiently for this

Thank you for mentioning extreme Ghostbusters just wow.

The only funny part I remember was completely optional with no point whatsoever from one of the thrown away characters if you found it about making pancakes.

This Kind of frustrated recommendation at the end is the reason why I enjoyed yahtzees audiobook this much!

What I took away is never sit on any furniture in Yahtzee’s home. 🤔

I still remember when you made me hurt my fingers for not having the first one. Haven't bought it yet

5:05 - A vivid yet apt analogy.

I can’t believe he referenced the pencil thing again 🤣🤣

This man has a grasp on the English language beyond the scope of us mortal plebs.

Very much agreed with the ending opinion here. I want it to be like going from borderlands 1 to 2, but it fell just ever so shy.

Can’t wait for Psychonauts 3 to release when we’re all brains in jars. It’ll be great!

3:19 Did Yahtzee just imply that humanity peaked with the release of Advance Wars? That's an universally agreed upon statement.

I know exactly what having a mind that's a fixer upper on a good day is like

And that ending statement is literally how I felt about Back 4 Blood's beta.

I just remembered that I tried to watch this last week but the player on the site wouldn't work... also when it does work, it loads in weirdly. Like only a few seconds at a time and won't preload the whole thing

Hey escapist! How much do I need to pay to get a review of RimWorld?

The change in tone actually landed, they pulled it off and the whole thing is well-rounded in terms of gameplay, graphics, and writing. It’s a complete experience.

I can't really argue with this review. I have some of the same misgivings, even though I found myself saying "I love this game" multiple times throughout the whole thing. They got the feel right, but it still had enough differences to make it a slightly different message. Mechanically, there's almost no difference. Scavenger hunt, collecting figments, psy cards, challenge markers, etc. You get each item in different ways, but its still practically the exact same game with different minds and improved abilities. I had a lot of fun, but I can't say it was better in every way. Even so, I absolutely reccomend it to everyone. It's a great game, even on its own. :)

Pretty much my impression of the game, too. There are few levels that stand out, where in the first game you had an underwater monster chase, an utterly mad twisty neighborhood full of hilariously awkward secret agents and creepy girl scouts, the waterloo board game inside a cozy bourgeois study where the study is visible from a window in a large house within the expanding board game world after you jump into it, a godzilla-style segment... even the tutorial levels were _fun_ and creative. Figments moved around more, at least some of the time. And objectives were not always "go down paths A, B and C (in any order!!!) and then bring items A, B and C to point D to finish this mind." There was more exploration, more variety. I can say these things with confidence, by the way, as I re-purchased Psychonauts 1 on Steam and played it right after finishing 2, and 1 is still a vastly better game. Funnier writing, more fun to play, even the controls feel slightly better and there's less constant power-swapping (some, still, but mostly in the later levels) to get around all the places. I do love the sound effect when you're running on glass in Psychonauts 2, though. Oh, and the wedding part was sweet. But the puking goats and burping heads and appeasing-the-bullies bullcrap where two-or-three-days-ago Raz would have smacked them off a grindrail with a psionic slap? Not so much.

2:38 didn't Shean Connery have a line about how he knows what one of the villains says in her sleep because he slept with her?

Has Yahtzee played Psychonauts in The Rhombus of Ruin? It's a VR exclusive game that was released not terribly long ago. Would love to know his thoughts on it.

THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY

My first thought after completing P2 was indeed replaying P1. And it was a great decision. Still liked P2 and Rhombus Of Ruin. Loved the morbid humor in that one.

"WAAGH PLEASE DON'T SCHOOL SHOOTING ME"