Okidoke, finished!! Wicked game, probably my second favourite game we've played for Game Club. Ori and the Blind Forest being my favourite and this is either second or maybe tied with Hellblade.
I did more or less 100% it in the end. My final rank was 99 though. There is an opportunity to get 100 by replaying that punching mini game from Basic Braining 5 more times with increasing difficulty to get that final rank but I don't think I'll bother, although it does unlock a secret video.
If anyone else is going for 100%, the game just lets you know when the point of no return is, it doesn't actually give you an option to back out. It's in the asylum in the third area (Dr. Loboto's lab) and you'll know it because you will see Sacha Nein and Milla firing psychic blasts at Lily trying to free her. You trigger the point of no return by firing your own psychic blast at her.
So completing everything before that point, that is the vaults, figments, mental baggage, mental cobwebs from the mental worlds and psi cards, psi markers, scavenger hunt, the children's brains (which you start collecting in the asylum) from the over worlds. That left me with Rank 97 and 3 psi cards left over after I'd converted the cobwebs and psi cards/cores in Cruller's secret lab and handed the scavenger hunt items in to the Janitor in the GPC area (the final scavenger hunt item is in the first area of the asylum).
There's 3 mental cobwebs past the point of no return in the final mental world as well as more figments and mental baggage which will level you up to 99. There is a place you can convert those mental cobwebs into psi cards there but it's a bit pointless as it doesn't add up to 9.
It's a bit tedious but you can use the tram system to travel to each overworld map in the campgrounds and press the Menu button (start) to check you have collected everything there. Unfortunately you have to traverse the three areas in the asylum to check you have everything there.
The collective consciousness (mental world hub) will show doors with 4 lights around them. If they are all lit up then that mental world is complete 100%. The exception being Basic Braining which has that additional mini game if you choose to do it.
Yeah anyway, I thought I'd write this up because I was trying to look up to see if I had everything before I go past the Point of No Return and there seems to be conflicting statements on whether you can get to Rank 100 or 101 and how many psi cards you are left over with before and after the Point of No Return itself.
I'm satisfied that the above is correct information based on first hand experience. I suspect the differences between anecdotal accounts online may be either from differing versions of the game such as the original Xbox game (which we are playing but I guess it could have been patched), the PC version and the XBLA/PSN version. It might also be due to people misremembering stuff from their time with the game which could have been up to 20 years ago.
But yeah, with that out of the way... Some more thoughts on the game (in addition to my first post on it):
I think the game has that LucasArts atmosphere to it. The character designs, the obtuse puzzles etc. It was a good way to update a point and click game into a 3D platformer.
I know it's slow to start but some of the more complex levels later on make it worth sticking out. Levels such as The Neighborhood (Milkman) and the Boardgame level are really good. The Theatre stage was frustrating for me because in typical LucasArts fashion, I thought I had tried absolutely everything but as usual there was one small thing I hadn't tried 😅 that would have got me through it.
I think generally, reading reviews and anecdotes online has led me to believe that the difficulty has been overstated. Again this could be due to different versions of the game. The particular stand outs being The Neighborhood and the Meat Circus. Neither are hugely difficult, maybe it was because I'd leveled up for them though. You get more lives as you progress and losing them all just boots you out to the Collective Consciousness area, you start the level from the beginning but you keep all your baggage, cobwebs and figments so it's really not that bad in my opinion.
But yeah, I thought the game was wicked and I'm looking forward to starting Rhombus of Ruin!
@ralphdibny Congrats man! Never seen you this passionate about a game we've played on Game Club. Sounds like you've become a huge fan of these Tim Schafer games!
So tell me, how excited are you for Psychonauts 2 next month?
I've set myself up now, I will say I'm relatively excited 😂. It was a good game, I probably wouldn't have gotten around to it or its sequel if it wasn't for game pass.
I hope the sequel isn't artificially bloated in any way. I am curious as to how it's going to turn out. I am sort of getting visions of Alice Madness Returns but I guess we will see!!
@ralphdibny Yeah I'm also quite excited to play Psychonauts 2 now that I've played the first one. Really hope it turns out great. The only thing I didn't like about the first game is just how clunky the mechanics could be sometimes. Hopefully the controls will be much tighter in the sequel.
Have you watched the trailers for the second game? I think it's rather cool how it continues right where the first one left off. Although imagine the poor souls who had to see that cliffhanger back in 2005 and be forced to wait over 15 years to finally experience the rest of the story.
@LtSarge yeah me too! Nah I haven't watched any trailers actually, I normally like to go in to games blind. Maybe I'm just less interested in seeing trailers for something I'm eventually going to play anyway. I'll look at screenshots sometimes and read reviews too but I guess I'll occasionally watch trailers if it's a game I know absolutely nothing about and am undecided on playing.
Weird that Psychonauts 2 picks up directly at the end of the first game... I just played Rhombus of Ruin and it does that so I guess I'd expect 2 to pick up at the end of RoR 😅. Not a lot happens in it though tbh, it could probably be summarised in a cut scene. It's more like character moments. I'll do a proper post about it shortly with some screenshots
So I played Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, a VR exclusive game that picks up directly after the ending of Psychonauts. Because of that, I will be deliberately vague about plot points in my write up. I've chosen non-spoiler screenshots and I hope the lack of context will help that but skip this post if you are worried about it anyway.
I thought I'd write it up and post some shots though as I'm guessing some of you won't be able to play it if you are Xbox only and may want to know what it's all about. It is on PC as well but I played it on PlayStation 4.
This game isn't a 3D platformer like the last one. It is more of a point and click game, perhaps necessitated by its VR platform. That said, it's not a traditionally difficult P&C game, there isn't a lot of options of what you can do and you don't have a large inventory of seemingly unrelated interactive objects. You just click around on the screen and do stuff.
A few powers return from the first game, Pyro, TK, Psi Blast and most importantly Clairvoyance. This allows you to see out of other characters' eyes but also allows you to use your abilities from your new vantage point. This power serves as your method of movement through the stages.
Thankfully so, the relative stillness of your own position means this is one of the less vom-inducing VR games I've played. I'm hyper sensitive to VR sickness and my symptoms were so mild in this game that it didn't ruin it for me at all. That and the short running time (roughly 2-3 hours) made this game pleasant enough to experience.
I haven't posted all my screenshots from the game because I didn't want to run the risk of spoiling any plot from the first game but I've posted a few so you can see what it looks like. Here are some old favourites that have returned with a modern facelift!
And here are some random landscapes and other situations (without context) that you may find yourself in.
That last pic is from a sequence that uses a stop motion style aesthetic for its animation which was pretty cool.
One other thing I should mention is the title song which is a James Bond parody/homage. It doesn't come close to Metal Gear's absolutely brilliant Snake Eater Theme but it's worth a listen. I enjoyed it!
Overall a decent-ish game. Worth playing if you have all the gear to do so. I bought it on sale for about £8 and while it's short, I don't feel ripped off or anything. I definitely wouldn't pay any more than that for it though.
@ralphdibny Nice write-up! The game looks absolutely gorgeous compared to the first one. But yeah, it doesn't feel like a game you have to play before the second one, which is good. It's definitely a neat little extra to hold you over until the actual game arrives.
@LtSarge cheers 👍. I had to be a bit vague because I didn't want to post spoilers or anything. It definitely looks nice, especially for a VR game which are normally quite fuzzy because of the reduced resolution. Stuff looks worse when it's further away but up close all the characters looked great!
@antifyre@Magabro heya, just checking if you two wanted to be added to the tag list so you get updates when we change the game each month? Or were you just dropping in to post thoughts on Psychonauts? Either is cool!
And I’m still stuck on Meat circus, two weeks later. May go back to a save before the ‘point of no return’ and get some more power ups etc. Need that health bonus!
Yeah might be a good idea, don't be afraid to check a guide for those tricky to spot figments. This game had me wondering if I had some level of colour blindness at times 😅
@ralphdibny sure! But things are starting to get insane right now: Death's Door, The Ascent, Hades... I can't promise I will be able to play August's game
No worries, there's no obligation to actually play any games. There's a bunch of bods that drop in and out and some have dropped out for a good while. You'll just get a notification when we change game and also get a chance to vote on the next one if you reckon you'll be taking part in the following month.
Beat the Party level and got my levitation power so just need to go back and finish off the Brain Tumbler thingy! I got my cobweb thing too so did the cobwebs I could in the first couple of levels. Getting into the swing of things now and it really is a very fun game with bundles of charm.
@LtSarge that room was so weird in that it has no gameplay purpose and is story only. Which I think is the only thing in the game like that. I guess later in the game you do fight something similar to what's in that room in the neighborhood level mini boss fights but still weird anyway!!
I'm really struggling to get motivated with Psychonauts due to the lack of achievements. I'm already lagging behind this month (currently sitting bottom of the top 10) because ive been playing Hollow Knight and that's quite tight with the achievements considering how tough it is.
@ralphdibny@nessisonett Yeah I was honestly quite shocked when I discovered it. Sure you learn the backstory of each character in their levels by breaking open the safes but they truly went all out on the female agent's level.
@Mr-Fuggles777 Hopefully you decide to give it a try eventually! It's absolutely worth giving it a go even if it doesn't have achievements. It's one of the most fun 3D platformers I've played in recent memory.
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