Psychonauts Minds: Worst to Best 

I love how the memory vaults all have trauma or vital memories, yet Fatherland Follies's memory vaults are just Gristol eating caviar, and Gristol not having any more caviar. Really emphasizes how little he's suffered in his life.

Being told that your mind isn’t interesting sure is one heck of a roast

One thing I really liked about comptons cookoff was that at the end it’s shown that the hand controlling the puppets are comptons hands, implying that he’s the one putting so much pressure on himself

Compton’s cook off isn’t just about inferiority complexes, it’s also about anxiety. The way you’re thrown into the level, with little time to get your bearings, and a time limit really mirrors how anxiety can be sudden and immediately overwhelming. I also love how his mind being structured like a cook off perfectly matches the stress from it. Being on stage in front of countless people watching tv, the way you have to run around to and scramble your way through the kitchen, and the harsh critique of the judges insulting you for messing up all works perfectly for simulating a stressful environment.

Regarding Bob's Bottles, I think there's an actually simple reason as to why Truman Zanotto fired Bob from the Psychonauts: His alcoholism. Bob may have been one of the Psychic Six, but being an alcoholic, along with still grieving over the loss of Helmut, is a recipe for potential self-destruction, as you can imagine. Hence the reason why Truman had to tell Bob to leave, as he didn't want Bob to potentially endanger himself and others. And though his nephew had good reasons for doing so, it didn't work as intended, leading to Bob isolating himself in his greenhouse and drowning his sorrows for years.

With regards to Shasha's hatred of Tiffany Lamps, Tim Schafer actually clarified in an interview ("Questions with Tim Schafer" on GameSpot, IIRC) that Sasha only hates cheap, knock off Tiffany Lamps. But real, authentic Tiffany Lamps he does love, being a man of fine taste and quality. So we can gather that the lamp in his office is one that's up to taste

The fact that Gristol/Nick was able to hide everything going on in his head from an entire organization of psychics is actually pretty impressive.

I believe Cassie's librarian is her trying to "tidy away" her emotions of guilt, anger, loss and regret. Neatly locking them away like the books she takes and locking away any other archetypes that might experience those emotions.

"His main insecurity centered around Cassie being gone, and I don't think there's anything in this level that even mentions her." I mean, isn't that the point? Compton mentions several times during the stage that he wishes Cassie were there to help, and the whole level is based around Compton getting over his dependency on others. You could argue that angle doesn't really work either, though, because Raz was still helping him, but the main idea behind the level was "Compton misses Cassie and feels he can't do anything without her, therefore in his mind, he's missing Cassie and feels he can't complete this cooking contest without her."

9:32 I believe Tim Schafer explained this one once. Sasha actually loves Tiffany lamps, but only if they're genuine, like the one he has in his office. The ones he brings up in his level for Raz to shoot are cheap knockoffs, and that's why he hates them. It's kind of interesting since you would assume that he dislikes them because they clash so much with the Bauhaus aesthetics he's obviously going for.

I don't know if anyone said that, but here is something really cool about Basic Braining. There are no actual Soldie characters in the level, only figments. All soldiers in the level are figments of imagination.

if you look closely at sasha's memory vault in the first game about his childhood, part of the reason hates those lamps is because he subconsciously associates them with his mother's death. so at some point he must've realized this, come to terms with it, and now accepts these tacky stained glass lamps as an occasional reminder of the loving mother he had rather than taking it as a symbol of her death. also the mafia teeth are tooth fairies. something you normally wouldn't know or realize without the subtitles on

29:52 "Last time she(Lili) and Raz were in a mind together was Basic Braining" Forget about Loboto's Labyrinth already?

I work in Chemical Dependency treatment and Bob’s bottles is probably the most profound expression of how a game can be art through both its theme, story and gameplay mechanics. If you need any reason for why Bob is fired…it’s because of what addiction does to you. It isolates you, it makes your brain foggy and it makes your job performance suffer overall (hence the firing). There’s a whole lot more there under the surface issues. The fact that there were references to both the effects of addiction and the some slyly referenced tropes of recovery tells me that the dev team took the time to research or there are people on the team in recovery. For me this level was the crowning masterpiece of the entire series. Not because it’s the best gameplay wise, but because the theme, mechanics and collectibles/mission objectives are so locked into each other. I don’t think any other medium besides gaming could have pulled off this type of deep connection to the audience, to those dealing with addiction and present the issue with such equity and understanding and still keep it funny. This was a high water mark not only in the series for me but in just how far we’ve come in answering the critics of video games as an art form.

Loboto's mind has the mafia teeth because there's a big theme there of trying to keep him quiet. And a lot of that is themed through posters using stereotypical mafia lingo "Don't snitch" "Snitches get stitches" "Only rats snitch" Stuff like that. So those are part of the theme. They try to remove your way forward because they're trying to keep Loboto's info from getting out. Because a mind is a beautiful thing. It would be a shame if something... happened to it. Also, Compton's stage is how it is because he has trouble multitasking and quickly becomes overwhelmed by anxiety overload, he needed Cassie, who is a master of multitasking. She, in-turn, worked well with him because she seems bad at small details since she's constantly working in such a broad scope, but he seems to have a knack for it. When Compton is making the dishes alone, he does great (better than your dishes, in fact), but he does need you to be able to get the ingredients to him, showing how detail oriented he is.

I think the Cookoff story was about how he felt he couldn't handle things without Cassie, such as during the mission he mentions that he can't do it alone and he wishes she was there. The sensory overload thing is again derived from her not being able to help him, as she seems to be his safe space

It should be noted Milla's mind being less "interesting" than other minds is actually deliberate - Tim's said in interviews that hers is an example of what a healthy mind should look like. It's very controlled, it's a relatively safe environment as mental worlds go, there's no obvious internal clashes or conflicts, and while there *is* an inner darkness, it's hidden and locked away - not to the point of denial, but in a healthy manner, so that it can't spill out into the rest of Milla's life. It's the same way that Sasha's mind was originally just a cube, or Hollis' was originally just the classroom and the hospital - their minds weren't wild, sprawling environments, there wasn't an internal mental conflict, because they were in good working order, and their issues weren't on the surface.

A quick point of contention, though I agree with your placement of the level; The Milkman is not Boyd's true personality. You can see this by the fragment of the personality leaving him after he finally completes his route. Instead, he's a construct planted by Oleander to have a patsy nuke Thorny Towers once it's no longer useful to have around to cover his tracks. He got triggered early by Raz, which might be part of why he's hesitating with doing the deed until after you're all done with the place; on some level, he knows it's still occupied, but by the time you're done, all the inhabitants are already around him (except Loboto, but in this game he's a bit of a dick), so it's now safe.

I've been watching alot of the videos of the developers of psychonauts and they mentioned that The Milkman isn't Boyds true identity. Coach hypnotised him and build the sleeper agent The Milkman inside his mind, that would be triggered to destory the asylum, if anything in Coaches plan was to go wrong to hide his and Lobotos tracks.

37:03 I think you kinda missed the obvious context here; bob started drinking after fullbear’s death, which was also around the same time the mother lobe was founded. Bob’s drinking problem eventually got so bad that Truman was forced to fire his uncle because of it; the game isn’t exact subtle about this either, as long as you’re paying attention it’s pretty obvious.

On a scale from 1 to 10, how scared were you when the Meat Circus theme started playing in Lucrecia's Lament?

I love how Psychonauts 2 increased the series popularity, nice to see people talking about how creative the levels are. My favorite detail is how both of the villains’ minds have the Aquato Circus in them.

Honestly I agree on the cooking show level, as someone who suffers from anxiety I honestly felt it was a fantastic representation. I also loved the psychedelic world for representation of sensory overload and while I’ve only suffered mild panic attacks a few times the monster representative of panic attacks felt so accurate it’s scary

Fun fact about gristol's mind. While in there, you encounter every enemy type at some point, except for one: at no point in his mind do you ever see a regret enemy. Theyre the only enemy type not found in the level.

This was a good list. I do hate how many people were saying that the levels in 2 weren't as good as 1, but then they only one they ever wanted to talk about from 1 was Milkman, which, yes, is the best level in the series, but that's a big thing, it's the best, period, so it's a high water mark. And while nothing really makes it that high, they all aim for pretty close, and mostly succeed. A lot of the concepts feel like more refined versions of levels from the previous game, and since I'd not really consider any level bad in either game, even Meat Circus, that's saying something.

Fatherland Follies is my #1 unseating the Milkman Conspiracy. It's basically a superior Shido's Ark. Everything the ark did wrong, this level did right. It delivers a stunning and (as you mentioned) well crafted plot twist, an incredible last-minute villain, with a catchy villain song. All three of these feats could have easily been mishandled, but are instead executed flawlessly in an engaging final gauntlet, that tests all the skills you learned while expanding on the games themes about violence and closemindedness, which given the context of what Maligula represents, creates a subtext of fascist entitlement. Another layer of interest is how "he's not suffering from trauma or mental illness" as you put it. So many people come away with that impression but if you look closely at the details, he's clearly unwell. Suffering from "delusions of grandeur". For me, it didn't hit me until I saw him muttering the song to himself in the prison cell in the post game. The ride in his mind is the story he tells himself to cope. Consider that one part of the ride where the facade breaks and you're thrust into his traumatic memories of a murderous mob of peasants, indicating that deep down he knows they hated him. But he cant bring himself to believe it. So he just digs himself deeper into denial, The fact that it does all of this while being short enough not to break the flow of the climax is an astounding accomplishment.

I'm surprised when talking about Fred Bonaparte and what the level does with size, you didn't mention how at the smallest level you can look into one of the windows and see the living room. It loops back on itself infinitely.

I always saw Compton's issue as anxiety, but I could be wrong.

I assumed that Bob got fired because he was coming to work drunk. Works with the level and feels implied.

The way I interpreted it was that Ford breaking his own mind was actually unintentional, and he was going to tell everyone about Helmut's Brain _after_ he had wiped his own memories of what he did to Lucy.

. . . I never thought I'd hear someone say "lamp tsundere"

26:44 shows exactly why he forgot about Helmut's brain, the blanks(such as why he didn't tell anybody about it before lathing himself) are easy enough to fill in

I think Cassie’s Collection feels so empty because the NPCs don’t talk unless you go out of your way to talk to them

While I don't really like Compton's Level his story is pretty clear and not about sensory overload. Compton excels in the ability of telepathically communicating with animals much like the other members of his family Dogen and Sam Boole. His issue is something of a social paranoia, a fear that everyone is judging him; due to that insecurity he built a habit of picking up on the thoughts of everything around out of suspicion that they're all judging him, the only way he's been able to cope until Raz dives into his psyche to help him out was by isolating himself and his thoughts in the Psychoisolation Chamber. Compton's peers being represented as both judges and puppets ties into the idea of Compton's Paranoia, he is judging himself and assuming that's what his peers think of him.

43:20 I believe Compton's level is about his codependency as a whole not just his reliance on Cassie O'Pia. Although I believe she is mentioned during the boss fight. One of the boss shouts something like "you're nothing without Cassie".

I believe they did explain why Bob was fired, but you kinda had to dig for it in the story. He got fired because he barely worked and was usually drunk on the job since he was so broken up over Helmut

I like how by level 15 the critique is 'i wanted more!' speaks volumes of how awesome the game is!

Brain Tumbler is my lowest mind, followed by Lungfishopolis. The best is for sure PSI King’s Sensorium. Sorry, Milkman Conspiracy, but you just can’t beat a journey through trippy psychedelic locales set to bootleg Pink Floyd and Jack fucking Black.

I'm glad I never watched any trailers for Psychonauts 2, as I got to experience the Psi King level entirely blind and I don't think it'd be nearly as effective if you've seen it before.

I hate the meat circus as much as everyone else. But just saying the escort mission I completed it on my first try with collecting all the figments but the tunnel of love was such a pain I ended up finding a way to skip the tunnel of love with the ball. The platforming challenge with raz dad was a pain. And the final boss was pitiful.

All righty, here I am, stepping up to plate to be a filthy Meat Circus apologist. In terms of gameplay, from what I can recall from replaying Psy1 rather recently, the only real egregious sections when it comes to Meat Circus' platforming is the Tunnel of Love (which, as mentioned, is debatable to count since it's just a wonky railgrind) and the spiral gate in the Don't Drown segment, as the game has kind of a hard time figuring out your double jumps on it. Overall, on a gameplay standard, it's not that bad- Not even protecting Olly is really that bad, provided you can put the pedal to the metal in your movement. Is it still the hardest level in the game? Oh, almost certainly. But that's what makes it work. Not just from a gameplay perspective either, but logistically it's something I genuinely adore about the level. Meat Circus isn't hard because it's the last level of a video game, Meat Circus is hard because _solving your problems is hard._ This isn't the usual romp where you tinker around in someone's brain and help them grapple with themselves enough so they give you their jacket, it's a ten year old boy being forced to confront his own personal issues with his father, and just like they needed help, so do you. I think this point is honestly emphasized more so by the final boss. Is having a curbstomp final boss kind of lame? Sure, but the fact that it's a curbstomp is kind of beautiful, in a weird way, because you're finally getting help from an outside source, and one that's contradicting your personal demons at that. ...Also, while I'm here with my frankly, probably controversial hot takes, the Milkman Conspiracy is far from the best level in the game, especially from a gameplay standpoint to me. It's far from the worst, to be certain, but in and of itself isn't really that much to write home about, but much like Meat Circus I moreso like what it means for Raz as a character going forward, because the Boyd situation makes him realize that he has to be a little more delicate with the brains he's stomping around in, which you can tell immedietely because of how he starts interacting with the rest of the Thorny Towers Patients and their mental figures (Bonita Solei springs to mind as a good example of this), and, thankfully this carries into the second game, with another, more straightforward variant presented in the Aftermath of Hollis' Hot Streak. Anyway hi this was my small essay on why Meat Circus needs to be cut a little slack, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

The Meat Circus Conspiracy

"-or is Sasha a lamp tsundere?" is not something I was expecting to ever hear but I am all for it.

Compton's level was about social anxiety and his social phobia, the hand puppets being controlled by his own hands representing that his insecurities were entirely fabricated by his own overactive mind. Obviously social anxiety is a bit more complex than that, but I particularly liked that segment and would place it equally high.

26:46 honestly I feel like it was well enough implied that he simply forgot to tell anyone because he was so distraught, and he possibly didn't realize at the time quite how badly he was going to mess himself up to the point where he'd forget about having Helmut's brain.

Comptons cookoff was more about scocial anxiety than sensory overload which then causes him to accidentally explode stuff, he can handle the rat just fine but when you bring him three bees instead of just one their collision of thoughts sends him into a panic attack. Cassy was more than just his friend, she was his emotional support that helped ground him, completing his mind helps him deal with his anxiety, at least enough that he can be out and about on his own so he can find cassy

Let's be honest here.. Next to the Milkman, the Boole family are also one of the best characters in the series.

At least we still got a great quote from one of the minds and that's I'm the milkman, my milk is delicious now that's a classic line.

Entering Helmut's skull to hear their vows honestly nearly broke me. Their relationship is easily the best character dynamic in the game for me.

about the Dance party considering Mias personality and how she considers children in need of protection the handholding seem to make sense

Cassie's Collection was my favorite mind. During the boss fight I wasn't doing too good until one of the Cassie's said "summon an archetype of yourself that's good at fighting" guess it's supposed to be hounding you but just like that, it fight clicked and a beat it shortly

37:00 That's easy. If you wait and listen fully to the back and forth between Bob and Truman at the end of Bottle 2, it becomes increasingly obvious that Bob's alcoholism, which has resulted in him getting reckless, angry, and troublesome to work with others ultimately made him impossible to properly do his job. Even though we only hear Bob's half of the conversation, it's clear that Truman is basically saying "You need to get some serious help, Bob. You're a danger to yourself and the Psychonauts at the moment." He even gives Bob a number to call, implied to be Alcoholics Anonymous, which Bob angrily refuses, denying there's anything wrong with him. Here's a transcript for you: "Fired? You can't fire me! I helped create this place... recruited by Ford Cruller himself! No pipsqueak nephew's gonna fire me! What do you mean what's happened to me? What's happened to you?... What's this phone number? I'm not going to call some... stranger! I don't need help! I just need my job! I made some mistakes, but so has everybody. Yes, people were hurt, but no one died! It worked out in the end! Why are you all attacking me? You're my own blood. Why aren't you on my side? Truman... how could you?"

Pretty sure Ford forgot about Helmut’s brain due to the effects of the Astralathe.

I think the idea with Compton isolating himself was so he could avoid hearing anymore voices potentially judging him. As opposed to sensory overload.

I'll be honest, Bob's bottles was one of my least favourite levels as it felt like a nothing mind to me. That was until I connected one dot that made me fall in love with it, the moth is a representation of his alcohol addiction. It hides the seeds (His memories) and provides a false sense of protection to Bob. The symbolism is just on point for it

I really enjoyed the change of pace and visuals that Cassie's Collection brought. The calm piano music, the dusty books and lack of movement... It was a very calming level for me and I enjoyed it a lot. I can see why it's not everyones favourite, but it really grew on me and I am very happy that it exists in the game. I wish there had been more sections of Library to explore.

The "he's dead" line in lungfishopolis is my favourite part of the whole series

One big thing with the timers on the cookout level, and the tension, is that you're never TOLD that failing to meet them is fine. First time players will almost assuredly have no idea, making it an actual engaging challenge to complete it in time. I certainly didn't, and it is definitely the most fun level, mechanically speaking, for me.

In Boyd's mind, the Milkman is the embodiment of Oleander hypnotizing him to guard the asylum, and to burn it down if something went wrong

Funny story, while I didn't really enjoy playing through Compton's Cookoff (the time limits wreaked havoc on my performance anxiety), I spent a while constantly replaying the last dish because my perfectionism demanded that I get it done within the time limit. It was only when I finally decided I was okay with not getting that one that I was able to move on and experience the rest of the game.

Defawfulizer drinking game: Take a shot if he rants on the meat circus

A correction at #8- Raz and Lilli are in the same mind for Loboto's, as well. You even show it in the video.

While I loved the Casino, I find it jarring in hindsight. The whole secret agent angle and the interns don't mesh well with the more personal story focused on the psychic seven that the game is really about.

I actually liked the Meat Circus (except the bosses). The one thing I really thought Psychonauts 2 was missing was a difficult final stage. Maligula is way, WAY too easy.

Milla's mind is canonically an example of a healthy mind, it kinda has the same vibe as hollis's level, before the casino elements at least.

About the lamp: the one he conjures in the construct is a cheap knockoff. The one in his office is a high quality, artisan, Tiffany style lamp, which he’s a fan of.

gloria's theater was the fist mind they worked on in the first game and it shows

Great list. I was surprised to see Lungfishopolis so slow though, being one of my favorites. I had a huge grin on my face throughout the whole level the first time I played it. I never really minded the speed at which you move, but I did have frame rate issues since there’s so many enemies on screen. Nice video though!

Great video! To me, Compton seemed like someone with social anxiety disorder, cause he felt he was constantly being judged. I mean, the cooking show had some of his closest friends be literal judges, and the game introduces the big judge enemy in this level. He perceives the voices he hears as more judgments, and he can only handle so much. In the end, he finds out that he was his own worst judge (as seen when he removes the puppet and it is his hand controlling it.) Cassie was probably his rock that helped quiet the voices, and without her he spiraled downward. Though there is much more to say about him and his mind than just this.

In bobs bottles of you wait before picking up Truman’s seed you’ll hear bob and him arguing about his drinking at work, kinda easy to miss but a good indicator for why he fired him.

37:00 The game does tell us why Bob was fired by Truman. Play through the game again and listen to the dialogue that plays before you grab the seed in that segment. It explains that, after Maligula beat him and 'killed' Helmut Fulbear, he became a violent wreck, constantly lashing out at his friends and family. Because of this, Truman fired him to keep him from doing something that could compromise the Psychonauts.

Cassies level is actually one of my favorites in the game despite it having one of the most difficult to figure out secrets and figments. The librarian is clearly her coping mechanism trying to lock away aspects of her personality she feels make her weak due to her failures with Maligula. It also has one of my favorite austhetics in the game with the paper npcs and the flavortext. The Meat Circus terrified me as a kid, but somehow Fatherland Fallicles managed to be so much more creepy compared to the majority of levels due to how its basically the mind of a egomaniacal narcissist who literally has no regrets or empathy for his actions.

The milkman is not the true personality is shown in one of the vaults That the coach hypnotized Boyd And after the asylum is set fire to the milkman personality disappears

Raz helping Edgar literally evict people living rent-free in his head was cathartic.

The reason why Ford didn’t tell anyone about helmet before he shattered his brain was because he most likely didn’t mean to. He attempted to use the astralathe to make him forget about Lucy but took it a step too far and broke his psyche.

If you translate the Latin in Cassie's mind it tells the story of the Deluge of Grulovia, with bees representing the members of the Psychic 6.

I interpret Compton's mind to be more about anxiety than sensory overload. Specifically performance anxiety. Anxiety can be caused by sensory overload, yeah, but if you look at Helmut's level, he's a literal rockstar playing for a packed stadium. Compton is in a tiny, confined stage, but he's in a total panic because he's actively being judged and watched for his every move. He doesn't trust himself to make decisions on his own, and feels like he constantly needs help. Now that Cassie is gone, he's put himself into a literal bubble where he can be safe and not cause anyone any problems. Cassie isn't present in the level, because she's no longer present in Compton's life. It wouldn't make sense for her to be a judge, or even an audience member, because she was his rock. If she were present, there would be no stage and no pressure to perform. That's why he needed Raz's help to trust himself to act on his own again. As someone working through serious anxiety problems, his level was an amazing depiction. And I also love cooking shows, and that just made it all even better.

One, MAJOR correction: The Milkman is NOT Boyd's true personality, it's actually a Manchurian Candidate Personality Oleander installed in Boyd's mind, taking some of his already present neuroses (paranoia, and mistreatment by his mother and sisters) and twisted them into protections for "The Milkman", but what little of Boyd's Sanity kept him from burning down the Asylum till the other Patients had gotten out. When the Milkman Persona completed it's preprogrammed mission, much of those converted neuroses disappeared/were destroyed (but not completely, Boyd has a better chance at being cured/a normalish life after but that's in Spite of Oleander and Raz's meddling, not because of.

Meat Circus is one of my favorite levels I was mad they lowered the difficulty on PC. Dad's pushing their children too hard the level is such a cool idea and mixing the brains just adds such a genius layer. I love details like we learn the only reason Oleander wants to be in the military and act tough is that his father taught him small weak things die. Raz having to unwillingly listen to his father and do family acrobats or drown is awesome. It's got a lot of depth to it, but I guess it can be seen as just hard annoying platforming. I agree with most of the list as somebody who has also played the first one too many times. I got ptsd you mentioning finding all the figments at Mila's and that stupid fairy.

Im very glad you put a lot of 2s levels higher up. A lot of people felt like some of the new minds were weaker but they were really good. Plus Comptons Cookoff being so high was good to see, as it was one my favorites too.

Wait, there are people who hate Lungfishopolis? I LOVED that level, it was hilarious and I really fun to rampage around as a B-movie Kaiju. Funny how both "worst" levels of both games are Cirus-themed. Also apparently they nerfed the difficulty of Meat Circus in the Steam Version.

Apologies if someone already mentioned it, but I think the reason why Ford didn't mention Helmut's brain to anyone is because he literally forgot. He fractured his own mind so greatly because he couldn't live with the guilt of what happened to Lucy and the rest of the Psychic Six, after all.

I like Mila’s dance party because: I don’t care about collecting figments, it has a dark and character developing backstory, I’m glad to acquire levitation, the music and the level are well groovy, Mila’s over the top expressive energy is entertaining, I like beating Bobby in the race. Though the level design is not the best of the bunch.

A part of me would like a HD remake of Psychonauts 1 mostly cuz of figments. Honestly I only seen the 2nd game so seeing this contrast is drastic, all hazy and fade in especially in those aforementioned colourful levels. NGL the game is great but that's the only gripe I have

God, what I would've given to have a proper level for Lucrecia. You wouldn't even have to get rid of most of it-just make it longer and stretch out the degradation as it goes on and she regains more of her memories. To watch a sweet and almost Wonderland-esque world twist and warp into something horrifying and unrecognizable as you help her work from the moments with her family all the way back to the death of Marona, where Maligula lurks behind that dam of emotional baggage would have been incredible. It's probably the only real complaint I have with Psychonauts 2-we never really get to see her actual perspective on what's happened, even though she is undoubtedly the central figure in all of these events.

I think the near total lack of Cassie being mentioned was intentional; she's gone. She has no lasting presence for him to cling to and work through his problems with. That's where Raz comes in.

9:35 I think the reason why the lamp returns in Psychonauts 2 is because it was present during his mother's death, as it was seen on the nightstand when she died. So im guessing He keeps it in memory of his mother? also in 37:04 It was theorized that Bob was fired because he was caught drinking on the job. There are figments in the HQ in this level of people drinking, so this makes sense

I really related to Bob in his level, especially that bit where Helmut said "I don't really love him." It SUCKS Knowing something isn't true but the worst parts of yourself make you feel it anyways

This year was definitely a highlight in the career of Richard Horvitz. This game AND Helluva Boss?!

fun fact about waterloo world, if you look outside the window in the room you start in, you can see that the building they are in is, in fact, part of the board game itself. At the smallest level you can also find a building with a window in it that lets you see the starting room as well. The level is infinitely recurring.

By the way if you wait until after the mission is over you can come back to the race with no time limit. If you take it slowly and plan your route you can get all the remaining figs in 8 minutes with only 2 runs.

I don't understand why noone mentions that psy king's level is a literal acid trip, it was my favourite level, the music,the cosmos scene, the moving colours sends your mind the exact stimulations like you are on lsd or something

I think I only disagree with The Milkman level, it's indeed hilarious with the spies and I like the Mario galaxy feel, but it's the level with the cobweb wall and I don't think the backstory is quite as interesting compared to Edgar and Fred levels imo.

The number one spot has its own freaking Wikipedia page. That’s impressive

"This track is probably my favorite out of the entire game" *is Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture* A bit weird considering its a RUSSIAN piece of music used for a time period where the French and Russians weren't exactly... friends

When I first played Psi king sensorium, my birthday was just a few days away and my family and I put in a request with a local shop for a milicrepe cake, something I'd never had before. So for me, it truly was a feast for all my senses and it was awesome.

Excellent ranking video! I disagree with almost every one of them! 😊 In spite of this, I think what makes this ranking still so enjoyable is that is speaks to the vast differences of perspective & with out life stories. The comments are filled with what spoke to each of us, and I love that a game series can evoke that.

I used to volunteer at a lot of music festivals so that bumps the PSI-King levels up to #2 for me. Milkman Conspiracy still #1 though.

After thinking, I noticed another difference between the minds of Psychonauts 1 and the minds of Psychonauts 2. Psychonauts minds didn't have many main minds that connected to each other, not counting the Tutorial Minds. Psychonauts 2 on the other hand had all of them to connect to each other. Every mind feels like you can't experience without experiencing other minds, like imagine playing Bob's Bottles without the Psiking's Psirosium. Like you would still get the story of both without the other, but you don't have any of the emotional satisfaction. Like if you played Bob's mind without Helmut's mind, then you would miss out on the emotional satisfaction of knowing that Helmut is alive. And Same thing with Helmut's mind, you won't get the idea that Bob blames himself for his husband's death.

I gotta say, I couldn't disagree more on Milla's dance party. (Aside from the collectibles bit, her level sucks for those) i think the slightly generic setting is perfect for one of the first minds you enter. She's created a fun dance party to teach the kids levitation and its all light hearted and fits her character, then you get that emotional whiplash from finding the orphanage and you realise how constructed everything is. She has a lot of pain but chooses to show her mind to the kids like its always a big party. Her mind is just as 'under wraps and organised' as Sasha's. I think its really strong subtle storytelling and sets the tone well for how dark the game gets later on. Also if you aren't on a completionist run its a super fun level I think you made some fair points about placing it so low but I would have bumped it up at least a couple places