Video Game "Book" Club: Psychonauts 2

kitler53 · Jan 07, 2025, 05:18 PM

So re-thinking the spoiler thing. I'm thinking a thread per game makes sense to people can join the club but avoid open spoilers for a game that didn't participate in.

Assignment 1: Due Monday January 13

Spoiler for Hidden:

Assignment 2: Due Monday January 20

Spoiler for Hidden:

Assignment 3: Due Monday January 27

Spoiler for Hidden:

Assignment 4: Due Monday February 3

Spoiler for Hidden:

Assignment 5: Due Monday February 10

Spoiler for Hidden:

Assignment 6: Due Monday February 17

Spoiler for Hidden:

Assignment 7: Due Monday February 24

Spoiler for Hidden:

Assignment 8: Due Monday March 3

Spoiler for Hidden:

Assignment 9 (Optional): Due Whenever!

Spoiler for Hidden:

Sources:
https://www.ign.com/wikis/psychonauts-2/Walkthrough
https://psnprofiles.com/guide/13752-psychonauts-2-trophy-guide

kitler53 · Jan 07, 2025, 05:41 PM

if anyone is like myself and never played the 1st game,.. i'm going to watch a story recap before playing the game.

Short

Medium

Long

Legend · Jan 07, 2025, 05:46 PM

The first game is also on gamepass. I'll probably play a few minutes of it but not the whole thing.

kitler53 · Jan 07, 2025, 10:54 PM

Quote from: Legend on Jan 07, 2025, 05:46 PMThe first game is also on gamepass. I'll probably play a few minutes of it but not the whole thing.

i watched the video summary.

not the deepest story in the world or anything but it's very clear to me why the game wasn't a big success. the content seems very unappealing to children and not even appealing to a majority of adults. very narrow target in who's the audience for this game.

kitler53 · Jan 08, 2025, 03:45 PM

so i kind of got distracted with a good run on baltro so i didn't play much but i managed to knock out the first chapter last night.

1. kind of wished i didn't watch that youtube video yesterday summarizing the story. this game started with a summary that was pretty good and much more succinct. i'm glad they did that. too few games onboard people into their sequel.

2. the game did something i hate which is to disable functionality in the tutorial level. they drop you into the level and at first you can't even jump until they "teach" you how to jump. tbh i loathe when a game does that. i know it's important to teach people the controls but disabling controls is not the way to do it. the first 5 seconds was a slow walk until they "taught" you how to move was excruciating for me. left a very bad first impression. i always hate the slow walk but if you are going to do it it had at least be something like the uncharted slow walks where the game is basically using it as a way to do a cut scene without taking the player 100% out of the game. ...only like 95% out of the game.

i hate slow walks.

nnodley · Jan 09, 2025, 02:44 PM

I actually had a little bit left on chapter 4 so I finished that off. The quirky level designs are pretty fun, but I kinda get put off on the weird character designs. I think that's mostly cause stylized art is probably my least favorite to play.

kitler53 · Jan 09, 2025, 03:19 PM

Quote from: nnodley on Jan 09, 2025, 02:44 PMI actually had a little bit left on chapter 4 so I finished that off. The quirky level designs are pretty fun, but I kinda get put off on the weird character designs. I think that's mostly cause stylized art is probably my least favorite to play.

i 100% get what you are saying.

i actually love stylized games. i vastly prefer it to photorealistic games. but still, the art is mostly disturbing. it's kind of like a tim burton style but somehow less charming. disturbing without being endearing. i really could have done without the "teeth" motif featured in the first level. i've never thought of myself as being grossed out by teeth (i know it is a thing for some people) but i was this time.

kitler53 · Jan 09, 2025, 03:21 PM

I knocked out another chapter last night but i've still got 2 to go. how would everyone feel about me reducing the weekly assignment's work load? I can get my 4 chapters in this week but it will keep me from playing much of anything else which is something i didn't want to do with our book club.

nnodley · Jan 09, 2025, 04:02 PM

Quote from: kitler53 on Jan 09, 2025, 03:19 PMi 100% get what you are saying.

i actually love stylized games. i vastly prefer it to photorealistic games. but still, the art is mostly disturbing. it's kind of like a tim burton style but somehow less charming. disturbing without being endearing. i really could have done without the "teeth" motif featured in the first level. i've never thought of myself as being grossed out by teeth (i know it is a thing for some people) but i was this time.

I think also what feels weird is that the character designs are all over the place. They don't feel very cohesive in style, imo.

And yeah I'd be fine with reducing the weekly work load.

kitler53 · Jan 09, 2025, 04:24 PM

Quote from: nnodley on Jan 09, 2025, 04:02 PMI think also what feels weird is that the character designs are all over the place. They don't feel very cohesive in style, imo.

And yeah I'd be fine with reducing the weekly work load.

so i left the 4 chapters for week 1 if for no other reason than because than we'll all be caught up to you.

here on out i reduced it to 2 chapters. at least for me that's more inline with 1 evening of playing which i suppose was my target.

Legend · Jan 12, 2025, 11:31 PM

I finished chapter 1.

Oh boy you were right about that introduction. I don't think I've ever seen something like that. Just so many details before I had any reason to care.

Also I had no idea this game was about real people. The weird art style made me think they were all dead or some Tim Burton thing.

kitler53 · Jan 13, 2025, 05:09 PM

Quote from: Legend on Jan 12, 2025, 11:31 PMI finished chapter 1.

Oh boy you were right about that introduction. I don't think I've ever seen something like that. Just so many details before I had any reason to care.

i reread my post and it does not seem i complaint half as hard as i thought i did. yeah, it was bad.

...i'm afraid it doesn't get better as you go. i finished chapter 4 last night and wanted to comment here about it but it relates back to my complaints about the introduction.

so my comments are particular to the last part of chapter 4. on the the one hand they did a thing i don't think i've quite seen before. they had sort of a playable cut scene. so like the split the screen 2/3 and 1/3 so that I was technically playing the game on the 2/3 while the cast of NPCs did their talky thing on the 1/3 of the screen that was effectively a cut scene. (i looked for a screenshot but i couldn't find one on the web.)

i've certainly seen things adjacent to this:
- story is told via audio only while i play the game
- story is told mostly via audio but a small static picture of the person talking is put into one of the corners of the screen.

what pschonauts did isn't massively different but at the same time it did feel unique to me.

...not sure i liked it though. i did make it hard to play and to be honest i was barely playing anyways as mostly these happened at moments where i was just walking down a hallway.

which brings me to my complaint of this chapter. JFC i think there was at least 15 minutes there where i played for no more than 10 seconds without the game taking over for another cut scene. soo many hallways and 1 room stages of just walking from one end to the other to trigger the next cut scene. again and again and again. ...and the story isn't even that good.

i don't love watching cut scenes but on occasion they can be fun especially when done well. i'm not sure i love the more "in-game" forms of story telling either for the most part. ...but these fake gameplay moments between short cut scenes is probably my least favorite design choice.

nnodley · Jan 13, 2025, 06:03 PM

Quote from: kitler53 on Jan 13, 2025, 05:09 PMso my comments are particular to the last part of chapter 4. on the the one hand they did a thing i don't think i've quite seen before. they had sort of a playable cut scene. so like the split the screen 2/3 and 1/3 so that I was technically playing the game on the 2/3 while the cast of NPCs did their talky thing on the 1/3 of the screen that was effectively a cut scene. (i looked for a screenshot but i couldn't find one on the web.)

yeah this part was jarring to me. It came out of nowhere and I felt they could have just had the audio and not do that.

Quote from: kitler53 on Jan 13, 2025, 05:09 PMwhich brings me to my complaint of this chapter. JFC i think there was at least 15 minutes there where i played for no more than 10 seconds without the game taking over for another cut scene. soo many hallways and 1 room stages of just walking from one end to the other to trigger the next cut scene. again and again and again. ...and the story isn't even that good.

what is crazier is that this game took them 5-6 years to make. Granted, if you watch the psychodyssey doc you will understand why. There was quite a bit of internal turmoil during the first few years of dev that was not great. Was one upper management/Project lead that was the majority of it. People felt they couldn't talk or bring things up at meetings. The people there are very passionate about game dev.

Legend · Jan 13, 2025, 09:11 PM

Yeah so many boring cutscenes. I love MGSV and Death Stranding but with those cutscenes you're often on the edge of your seat. Here it's just people talking with essentially no engagement.

Feels like such an old game. On one hand that's interesting because it lacks a lot of modern things that are standard (like the map at headquarters is a genuine map, not a video game map) but on the other hand it doesn't feel great. I'm really confused who came up with the psi power setup where you can map everything to the shoulder buttons instead of having a bit more structure.

kitler53 · Jan 13, 2025, 09:38 PM

Quote from: Legend on Jan 13, 2025, 09:11 PMYeah so many boring cutscenes. I love MGSV and Death Stranding but with those cutscenes you're often on the edge of your seat. Here it's just people talking with essentially no engagement.

Feels like such an old game. On one hand that's interesting because it lacks a lot of modern things that are standard (like the map at headquarters is a genuine map, not a video game map) but on the other hand it doesn't feel great. I'm really confused who came up with the psi power setup where you can map everything to the shoulder buttons instead of having a bit more structure.

i kind of like the not-map map. in the same vein the journal is an actual journal and not a checklist of a quest log. i kind of like that more "tactile" approach. i've had numerous ideas of how to reinvent maps in video games that are in the same general direction has this.

i don't like the maps in games like AC or horizon that detail everything and put a bunch of quest markers on the map. imo a game should not be open world if it doesn't feature any exploration and a detailed map pinpointing quest locations eliminates exploration.

with repsect to the psi power up setup i was also baffled by it. each of the power ups has moments where you cannot proceed without it. yet i never know which ones i'm going to need next so i'm not certain what to use. and having power-ups move around all the time was confusing for me.

i ended up assigning R1/2/L2 to my three "favorite" spells and decided the only thing i'll remap is L1. Probably means i'm in the menus more often than i need to be but my small brain could deal with constant spell rotation.

Video Game "Book" Club: Psychonauts 2

Should we pick a new game for book club?