One thing I love about the Milkman Conspiracy is how, unlike _every_ other level in the game, the Censors do not show up as normal enemies. It really shows you what happens to a mind when there's nothing there to prevent "incorrect" thoughts from forming
Some fun Psychonauts facts (spoilers ahead:) - The emotional baggage for each character’s mind plays a unique crying clip from each person either slowed down or sped up. The Meat Circus is unique in that both Oleander and Raz’s cries are blended together. - There’s a 2 hour long video that shows all the vault memories with Tim Shafer and the artist who drew the memories, Scott Campbell, discussing them. - Sasha and Milla supposedly represent the left and right sides of the brain respectively, which is also why they go well together. - Oleander’s past is foreshadowed as early as Basic Braining. Near one of his emotional bags are _bunnies_ in army helmets.
The Meat Circus escort section becomes 10x easier if you throw confusion grenades at the bunny! That way you can just pick him up instead of having to wait on Little Oly to do it.
BIG BRAIN SHIT! that's cool as hell, I had no idea! Goes to show how brilliant this games move set really is, so many hidden opportunities to use everything
That's the first thing I did! Given how much options you were given in this game, it seems a lot better to knock the heck out of that bunny than to patiently wait the kid to pick it up.
A fun fact about clairvoyance, if you use cheats to unlock all the abilities you can go back to where you shouldn't actually have it and see what characters like Coach Oleander think of you, and it's a unique graphic!
The confusion grenades trigger dialogue on NPCs before you're supposed to have them, too! Almost everyone has something silly to say, but the best one is Boyd, who's actually turned sane long enough to work out what's happening to him... and, naturally, his dialogue is timed so the confusion wears off and he goes back to babbling to himself _right_ before he gets to the big reveal.
The hand coming out of the water is how Raz portrays his fear of water. Its portrayed really well in the VR game Rhombus of Ruin. There's a part where water is filling up in a room and Raz sees the hands coming out of the water but when you use clairvoyance to see another characters viewpoint they dont see the hands. I always really liked that detail in the game.
@@VerdeMorte I'm under the impression that the hands isnt part of thr curse but what he sees the curse as. Raz knows that they will drown in the water but not grabbed by hands under the water.
Yeah I always pictured the hands as Raz personifying his fear of water. Hell, since he is a psychic you could even argue the grabby hands are his powers subconsciously shaping water to become physical hands to get him.
@@spiderdian2 If you haven't played PSychonauts 2, DO! It is worth it, and as promised by Tim Schafer, the game touches on the backstory of Ford Crueller and the Gypsy curse, among other things!
This has happened with Ratchet and Clank franchise. All the 2010 games have their art direction be a worse derivation of the ACiT artstyle, including RA, and if lucky with only a fragment of the charm of the ACiT artstyle. RA in espcial strips all the charm away and replaces it with pretty graphics. I prefer ToD graphics, the worst looking of the 2000 Ratchet games, many times over RA, or all the 2010 Ratchets in general.
@@rac1equalsbestgame853 The original 4 games are the best for story and humour, while the Future trilogy looked the best graphics wise, I hated the redesign starting with All 4 One
@@majinya6199 The OG 4 are what you said, I actually love GC's artstyle. The Future games retain most of the charm of the originals and unique gameplay aspects like ToD's gadgets *(I wish there was more gyro-cycle and gelatinator,* but I'm not going to complain about that knowing how turbulent ToD's development was) and ACiT's space exploration, while technically padding, is so atmospheric, engaging and imersive I don't care if it is padding. Starting with FiO that charm went to the trash. RA is the worst case here. In FiO, FFA and Nexus at least _some_ of the ACiT could be dug up if looked past the cheapness of the general look. The 2016 game is an interesting case where it lacks the charm but not completely... at least to me. But RA straight up has 0 of it. I can see past the pretty graphics and just feel nothing. ACiT could be stripped of it's really pretty look and I'd still play to death. Same with Tools. But RA justs feels like it's only flashy asset is the graphics and nothing else. Like no one would bat an eye without the graphics.
I do agree with your take about the Future games having some of the charm and gameplay of the originals, It had a shift in tone but wasn't completely changed. I love the Future games as much as the originals but for different reasons, They both have their own pros and cons but the games still felt like Ratchet games. Even with the trouble development of ToD i think it turned out good, Granted I would love to see what the original story was before they brought on Fixman. All 4 One was just straight up the beginning of the end, Not only they changed up Ratchets look but they basically gave the games to the new Insomniac studio they opened at the time so all the last remaining PS3 titles from then was by their smaller new studio that's why we kept getting small bite sized not so good games. The 2016 game as pretty as it is i think it is so stale, Only charm it has was elements from the original. I hate how they changed Ratchets personality completely. Like i get they might've not wanted the original personality from the first game but they could've improved upon thier mistakes in the original instead of just making Ratchet generic "i wanna be the hero" Not to mention that 2016 game just recycles most of the weapons from the Future series they didn't even try with the 2016 game. haven't had a chance to play Rift Apart but from what i've seen it looks like another soulless take on Ratchet like 2016 was
Last year for Christmas, I commissioned a friend to have a comic drawn in the style of the Psychonauts memory vault memories. I then decorated the box to look like a memory vault as they appear in game. Once everything was put together, I gave it to my boyfriend. The comic inside detailed one of the stories of how I fell in love with him. He had introduced me to the game earlier that year and I absolutely fell in love with it. I wanted to make something that connected that.
Quick note on the difficulty of the meat circus: Original print had some nasty collision bugs that were hard to spot *as* bugs, lending some of the platforming challenges an unfair level of demanding perfection. These were fixed pretty quick, but in reviews and initial reception, the level got its meta branding regardless.
i believe the time you get to get up there when the kid is getting hiss ass kicked was also not as much as you would get in the later prints of the game. but could be mistaken.
It's funny. My first time playing through the meat circus I figured it must have been patched to be easier since it wasn't anywhere near as hard as people made it out to be. Guess I wasn't that far off.
One thing to note is James played Psychonauts on the original Xbox. I know the Steam version got a Meat Circus patch, as well as other tweaks over time, but I doubt the Xbox saw any form of addendum.
@@azooreus I mean, patches for games in the mid 2000s were 100% a thing. Sometimes it was when they'd re-release with something like player's choice, but it could also happen silently. I dunno what Psychonauts did though.
People don't realize how big a deal it is that Psychonauts got a sequel! This could help pave the way for more Platformers with a focus on Story and Characters to be made again. It's been sooooooo long since I've played a 3D platformer with open world lobbies, fantastic characters and a focus on exploration and collecting. Psychonauts 2 scratched that exact itch I've been looking for FOR YEARS. Can't wait for your review of it!
i play TY the tasmanian tiger quite often as it’s one of my favorites! but FPS games really took over and i agree i hope it helps pave the way for another era of platforming games they have been on the back burner for to long!
Yeah I beat the game today and it was soo good sucks that I was comparing it super hard with my nostalgia of the first but when I can get passed that i think they’re on perfectly equal levels
This game is insane with optional dialogue. There's like a dozen worldstates in the camp overworld, and the campers keep moving around and all of them have their own personal side-story. Not only can you talk to them all, you can eavsdrop on them all and I'd wager most of the dialogue are these completely missable incidental things. When I re-bought the game on Steam I spent hours and hours trying to find every little interaction and detail. You essentially need to run around the entire campsite every time a main story event happens to see everything.
That's kinda awesome, I'm not surprised Boyd actually has the most dialogue in the game apparently, most of which is missable, so if that can happen with just a single character then anything is possible.
@@Ronin11111111 yeah that's it, it was on a wiki for the game and one of the facts brought up is that he has the most dialogue, which is wild to think about.
18:56 I was hoping that he'd talk about the secret room you find in her mind that shows her dark past. That was genuinely scary the first time I played.
I just want to bring up, just as a moment of realization of how much care and detail went into this game, I have to border a little bit close to spoiler territory. But it's on the same level of the Clairvoyance level of detail. There's an adventure game style inventory item that you get at the end of the game. It's only supposed to be in your inventory for barely a minute or so, to progress the plot and further the story when it's brought to what you need to turn it into. And instead of trying to force you to do what you need to do with it, the game is perfectly happy to let you just turn around and go all the way back to the opening hub and show it to all the other characters in the game. And almost all of them have a unique piece of dialogue upon being shown this item. I think I should be behind the 'read more' tag. So spoilers away, at least a little more. It's Mr Pokeylope. Most characters will have a response. some don't, and only a couple characters you can interact with makes Raz spout "No, I can't mess around with Mr. Pokeylope right now. I've got to give him back to Sheegor right away!" I think that's superbly admirable, because most adventure games would make that "I can't mess around..." line the only line used when not doing what you need to do with Mr Pokeylope. But a bunch of lines were written and recorded just for the player who gets curious about taking him other places.
For real, even after fully completing the game multiple times, you still find a new detail every now and then, like with the straight jacket item, its an item that appears once as a piece of a puzzle, but they went ahead and programmed so you couldnt ledge grab if you have it on.
I always loved how this game explains regular video game mechanics you wouldn't normally think twice about through story. Why can Raz do all these acrobatic moves? Well he's from the circus, obviously. Why can't he swim? His entire family was cursed to die in water. It's brilliant!
It's so frustrating that games having joke levels about playing as a kaiju are better than actual kaiju games. The simple answer would be to make a good game but no, for some reason almost everyone who makes a kaiju games make baffling dumb decisions and use it as a dumping ground for experimental gameplay mechanics that never catch on or don't work for kaiju.
The best thing about Psychonauts 2: despite being bought by Microsoft, Double Fine did promise the sequel would be available on PS4 as initially announced and now that it's finally out, the devs delivered on their promise.
29:18 One super cool thing about Waterloo World, you're not JUST shrinking into the board game. If you look outside the window here, you'll actually see that the outside of this room IS the board game. And if you go to the back of the mansion next to the carpenter's house, you can actually FIND this window and see Fred and Napoleon at the table you just jumped into almost like we're in some sort of Hypercube or Tesseract. Both inside and outside both the room and the board game at the same time. That's some REALLY cool design~
Psychonauts is still one of the best 3D platformers ever made for how inventive it was with its levels and writing. Top tier stuff and while some of the mechanics haven't aged 100% gracefully with the sequel out and making that 20 year jump in tech a bit more clear. That said, this is still a must play for any platformer fan or even classic adventure game fan. Not that I dislike Double Fine's other games like Brutal Legend or Stacking but, I do hope that after Psychonauts 2, they continue in this platformer/adventure game hybrid style going forward because I think their team really has a talent for making them compared to their work in other genres. Psychonauts 2 is honestly looking like their best game since the first one by a significant margin and I think they can go in a lot of interesting directions within just the platformer space whether or not it's another Psychonauts sequel. Hell, if they don't make another original game next, I'd be interested in seeing what would happen if Microsoft just gave them the Banjo IP and gave free reign to do whatever with it (provided that it's still a platformer).
Honestly, I just hope they have a little add-on DLC for the postgame of Psychonauts 2. Infinite levitation, new game plus for that shiny final upgrade, and a little bit of meaty content to really wrap up plot and character threads that didn't quite go far enough during the main story...
Something I want to point out i love about waterloo world is there is a building where if you look in the window on the second floor on the backside of the building you can see the room you started in with them looking over the board and everything That inception level stuff is perfect for this kinda game
Chill out, what ya yellin' for? Lay back, it's all been done before. And if you could only let it be, you will see that I am the funniest YouT*ber of all time. Admit it, my dear follow*r king
@@AxxLAfriku first of all why don't you search up your name on the search bar before calling yourself the funniest, second you don't need to censor follower and youtuber Get off our comments and run back to your moms basement
Finally someone mentions the Levitation Race. That is the whole reason I have an extra 2 hours to my 100% run every time I play this game. As a person who has trouble differentiating colors Milla Levitation Party is my nemesis. Like.... the Figment System is point based. Have the optimal path be where the figments are and have them be large enough to not miss, the points would add up to keep it balanced.
I can’t agree more, that Levitation Race was always the part I dreaded in 100% runs. Though my most recent run wasn’t too bad. I’m just glad there aren’t any long sections like that in Psychonauts 2. 100% completion was reasonable for Psychonauts 2, though I wish that there was more than just the max rank upgrade.
Also, don’t make them transparent and hard to see. I remember Caddicarus had trouble with 3 figments in particular; a figment on a house in The Milkman Conspiracy, a purple figment on a purple table in the same level, and a figment in the basketball hoop in Black Velvetopia. I hope the sequel has some sort of figment-finder, like how Sparx works in Year of the Dragon and the Reignited Trilogy.
@@whichcache2517 nope, but the higher fidelity along with their animations and overall design change makes them easier to see at a distance. They have about 2-3 different actual states they stay in switching every few seconds so they kinda wiggle. They also have a fog of sorts around them of a similar color to their linework which makes them more noticeable from across the map. Except for the banana..... the banana!
@@whichcache2517 Spoiler alert, there is no detector to my knowledge. I had to watch walkthroughs after figuring out which figments I missed just to get them all. The only saving grace was that there were no scenarios like the Levitation Race
While I love the figments and how for close observers they can reveal little bits of story in and of themselves, for a 100%er IT’D BE NICE to have uniform sparkly gold coins. the second game is even harder, as many of the stages are much larger and the game doesn’t have a way of communicating to you where exactly some of these last few figments in a level may be.
Nitro Rad has really become a comfort TH-camr for me recently. His almost always positive vibes are just really nice. I hope he keeps up with what he's doing.
The Milkman Conspiracy is such a famous and revered level that it has its own Wikipedia page. Yeah, a video game level - with a Wikipedia page. That's big.
@@chowderwhillis9448 The others are mainly either notable multiplayer maps like 2Fort, Blood Gulch, and de_dust2, or classic stuff like Water Temple from Ocarina of Time and the Green Hill Zone from original Sonic the Hedgehog. Diablo doesn't seem to be represented.
One thing to appreciate this game so many years later is how gameplay is woven into story. Raz has the standard platformer skills because he’s an acrobat. Double Fine couldn’t make a swimming mechanic so they gave Raz’s family a water curse. They didn’t have enough time to make more npcs for camp workers so they used Ford over and over, and rather than have it be handwaved with a joke like Nurse Joy, it’s a major plot point and tragic. Goddammit I love this game so much
I always loved the visual of Raz's goggles glowing as he pulled them down, especially with that secret agent musical sting that's behind it most of the time, its just so damn cool! I also really think Ford is an interesting character. My personal headcanon for him is that he doesn't really teleport per say. If he used his brain to teleport, and his brain is shattered, then whos to say he's not in multiple places at once (like a certain type of object from a certain space exploration game I know you've played)? The more subtle elements of storytelling like all the foreshadowing in the brain tumbler is what really makes this game for me. Depending on how you interpret the levels, you can just go deeper and deeper on analysis of these characters. It's also great how its not afraid to get super dark with it (yeah yeah Milla's children, but are we not going to talk about "the big top"? That one had me seriously shook).
@@TheFuzzyOcelot The game outright refers to them in multiple when talking about being able to tackle 'them' in any order IIRC I beat the game recently but I'm not 100% confident
@@yugijak The game does refer to the multiple aspects as multiple people, but we never get confirmation as to whether physically they are separate entities or the same singular Ford body teleporting around. I prefer the former, but it could be either.
The issue with meat circus as far as I remember was the water rising was either too fast or buggy, which pc fixed, and if you’re fast enough you wouldn’t notice it.
I always thought Cruller was just pretending not to recognize you when he wasn't dealing with official psychonauts business because he was trying to maintain his cover as the camp janitor or shopkeeper or whatever else But like He literally doesn't recognize you???
@@MillyKKitty Yeah it was just a nod to dementia at the time but they turned it into a plot point of him breaking his own mind to protect himself from knowing the truth of what happeneed with Miligula in the second one.
The 2000s was an era filled with obscure platformers, with Psychonauts being one of the most outstanding. And the game was very fortunate enough to see a re-release so it wouldn't be lost in obscurity, if only other platformers at that time could do the same.
I’m just so insanely delighted that this game got a sequel, this many years later, and it’s actually excellent and true to the series. It cannot be overstated how rare and awesome that is! Support Psychonauts 2!
I always love the art style of psychonauts, and I'm so glad it's gotten a bigger audience over the years. I think playing it when I was a kid kinda primed me for how much I fell in love with German expressionism later on.
As someone who just beat the game last week for the first time with no prior knowledge of "The Meat Circus", I think its reputation is fair. It might not be the hardest thing ever but it's definitely quite a difficulty curve compared to the rest of the game. The main issue being the timing coupled with the platforming which isn't always tight.
I just finished on ps5 for the first time. The part that really drove me mad was the climbable cylinder with patches of fire. Falling there would make you go through: 1) the stack of 3 ropes that would feel 'sticky' and if you were caught not entirely still when trying to climb from dangling, you would get hit by projectile 2) the slow paced bubble with the rings of fire. Perspective would sometimes make this tricky to judge getting through the rings, particularly approaching the source of projectiles Neither of the above were close to the hardest part of the game, but doing them many times repeatedly I would get frustrated, make mistakes and then mess up If not... 3) the damn mesh cylinder. the sticky physics from jumping from climbing state and the camera made me want to throw the controller at the wall. I have finished Returnal a while back so I don't hate difficult games, but this level really highlighted some of the games weaknesses
I remember that the camera would suddenly turn around before you even reached the platform to jump onto the cylinder fire wall part, causing a lot of failures... Plus not being entirely sure if you are able to double jump to the other side of the wall, because it didn't work soemtimes 🤔
The one downside of Psychonauts 2: You can't run around the main menu anymore. Still... The masters of environmental storytelling in platformer level design are back and they didn't disappoint. Here's hoping the early 2000s action platformer is up for a renaissance.
I would say a downside is that the point and click influence that was in the 1st game seems a lot less prevalent in the 2nd, it's there to an extent but it's a lot more basic. The platforming however and the environmental creativity is really something in 2.
@@logiclunacy606 Hmm. I suppose, yeah. It does still show hallmarks of corners they had to cut due to budgetary concerns and just kind of needed to leave on the cutting room floor... Still, Psychonauts is special because it uses the entire world to tell a story in ways most games never even dream of doing. It's never been a masterclass in action or platforming or immersive-sim sandboxy stuff, but every little worldly detail factoring into the narrative in some way is the real series hallmark.
the lack of a manual save option is a downside as well...especially as I have to completely restart to earn a level achievement after losing internet while playing :/
I feel like the rebirth of adventure platformers has been coming for a while. It's not had the breakout success of Metroidvanias or retro FPSes, but games like Poi and A Hat In Time do well enough to show that not only do people still like the genre, but that it can succeed very well with modern accoutrements added in.
There’s a lot that’s in the second game that’s different from the first game, it’s better to enjoy it separately from the first game. Still a ton of fun though, and pretty as hell
Back in the day I worked at Hollywood video. They went out of business so on the last day, everything was free for the staff to take. I grabbed this game by chance and it almost immediately became my favorite game of all time. What I would do to see this become a legacy game like Mario or Zelda, the potential for story telling in this universe is endless! Just happy to see people as excited about it as I am!
I do hope your review of Psychonauts 2 is gonna start with a brief overview with the Rhombus of Ruin. It's definitely important to the overall narrative.
I still can't believe that Raz is voiced by Richard Horvitz. I'm so used to him being either Daggett or Zim that it was just so weird to hear him so in control and calm. Don't get me wrong, I love his voice work in this game though!
It honestly doesn't even sound like him because in all his other roles he's screaming his lungs out or making weird noises and ends up sounding similar, but not here
37:42 Xbox One version is the OG Xbox version backwards compatible and enhanced for 4K. You can just pop in an OG Xbox disc and it will download the enhanced version.
Honestly speaking about the meat circus i had pretty much the same experience: by the time i got to it my rank was almost at max,so the more annoying parts were lessened and frankly most of the platforming there was pretty damn good.
I'd say that its biggest issue is really how janky it is - you can tell it was made in kind of a rush, since there's a lot of weird edges that can bump you off and a lot of beginner's traps, especially in the grind section. It's really not that hard, but it can kind of leave a sour taste in your mouth since it seems to bring out the worst unintentional issues the game has right at the end of the game. After the escort segment and the grind stuff it really is pretty easy, though.
boyd’s level is what originally got me into the series boyd is such a funky character and i’m sad we didn’t seen any of the asylum members in the second game
Can tell the editing was VERY on point in this video, lol. I grew up playing my Uncle's Xbox copy of the game and we spent forever trying to beat it, since the Cobweb Duster grinding bored us, it actually didn't even really cross our mind to use the store... Compared to every other level I got stuck on, I never really struggled with the Meat Circus, I've always been surprised how slightly overblown the critique of the level was online since it has one of the funnest platforming areas to me, besides Milla's and the Milkman's mind, plus the Asylum.
I thought the humor was on-point. The best joke for me was Edgar thanking Raz by drawing "a true work of art" and it's that stupid dogs playing poker painting. Perfect.
So something I learned about the Milkman Conspiracy. If you cheat confusion into the game before you actually get it, you can use it on Boyd, and he actually becomes Lucid enough to realize he has some serious mental problems.
@@xxXxBluecheddarxXxx a legendary developer taking umbrage with greenlight asset flippers sleeping their way to favorable reviews and building a network that will violently exclude anyone who doesn't conform to the mold? The same guy who made psychonauts, which got unfairly panned by critics and embraced by actual gamers for being such a weird masterpiece? Can't possibly imagine how that happened
@@lithuaniaball legendary is quite subjective bud Also rooted in subjectivity: the methods by which Schaeffer decided to virtue signal and side along with some of the most hypocritical feminists in industry. Wonder why you failed to mention that eh? Lol
I will never not laugh about the fact that’s it’s about a kid that RUNS AWAY from the circus. This game has always been in the back of my mind for my entire childhood, playing it again before I can afford psychonauts 2 haha. TIGHT clean mechanics still unique art, design, story, voice actors, everything, the more I play it the more I love it! 😭😭😭😭 Linda is my favourite leading lady
I’m still so ashamed that as a kid, I’ve never heard of or played any of the double fine/LucasArt games until years later and learnt how amazing games like Day of the tentacle was . I’ve played a lot of great ps2 platformers so missing out on psychonauts was such a shame.
You should be, you shameful man you! Nah, I was just barely old enough to have played Monkey Island a bit as a wee lad, but that’s about it. Better late than never, right! Just so you know (& probably already know this), the game is available on PS4 for very cheap.
Its all good man! I grew up with the Xbox, so while I got to play all these incredible platformers, I missed out on SO much PS2 and Nintendo content of that era.
I’m surprised you didn’t cover milla’s secret in psychonauts. That’s an infamous dark Easter egg in the fandom. I hope you do talk about it in your psychonauts 2 video
I'm glad Psychonauts is starting to become a mainstream series. I watched my brother and dad play it back when it was new, and I forgot how creative and well thought out it was until I replayed it a couple of years ago.
Anyone remember that one easter egg where you go through a door in someone's mind and theres a memory of a school of burning kids that she feels guilty for being unable to save? Yeah this game goes into the details *hard*
Loved the video, being a south-american this game was an absolute test to my english skills, even though games in this era didn’t gave much mind (pun intended) to accessibility. I remember getting stuck on everything for countless weeks, but the personality and crazyness always made me insist and belly my way to the end.
Psychonauts was my white whale for a long time. I remember watching X-Play on G4 and this game got a freaking 5...out if five from Adam Sessler himself. The game just looked so cool and amazing that even without the high rating I still wanted to play it. Unfortunately I only had a GameCube and by the time I got my ps2 it was already becoming hard to find. I Eventually pirated the pc version not realizing it was on steam. I was happy I finally got a chance to play this game and was hoping that a sequel would Eventually be made in, oh, roughly 20 years or so and give us a look into the history of the Psychonauts organization (cough cough). I did realize that the game was on steam and it became the first game I bought on Steam. Easily worth the price. On A side note, Psychonauts 2 was the second game I ever pre-ordered and it was worth the 16 year wait in my opinion
There's a lot of gems from that era that've gone under the radar. Another one I love, but I'm almost certain others won't like, is Grabbed by the Ghoulies by Rareware
I liked the designs and music, but the fighting can get annoying, and certain rooms requirements can be incredibly annoying at times. It doesn't deserve that much in the way of hate compared to other OG Xbox titles.
I was wondering when you'd finally review Psychonauts, I always felt like you reviewed it in the past, but was surprised you didn't do so already. It's definitely the kind of game I feel like I missed out on as a kid due to not owning the console it was on, but is definitely the kind I would have enjoyed back then. Can't wait to see you review the sequel that just came out, from what everyone has told me, it's even better than the first! Kind of interesting that two cult classics that flopped when they came out and became popular years later both involve around kids with psychic powers. Psychonauts is one, while the other is Earthbound... which makes me wonder if Raz were to go into Ness's head, would he see Magicant? Heck, if he went into Madotsuki's head, would he see Uboa? There's a lot of potential for crossover fan-fiction, but let's remember... THE MILKMAN'S MILK IS DELICIOUS!
When I first played the game many years ago, I completed Oleander’s punching mini game pretty easily, but each time I come back it seems to get harder and harder for me, lol.
one of the things that prevented me from actually finishing this game was a point in the milkman conspiracy, you actually need the cobwen duster to progress in the level. understanding how to even get it in a reasonable amount of time was not there when i was younger, when i went and played it again i figured out the method to get it in like 20 mins
I am excited for NitroRad to be covering one of the most important games from my childhood. Much respect to you James, a Psychonauts video was long overdue and great timing since Psychonauts 2 just released a few days ago. Psychonauts is a cult classic everyone should play at least once in their lifetime.
Thank you for pointing out the phenomenom of gaming TH-camrs greatly exaggerating how bad something is, then that eventually becoming the norm to say on the internet because the video got popular.
Yeah I never got the whole Meat Circus is hard thing especially the Olly part took me two tries max but the big acrobatics section screwed me way more times then i'd like to admit (namely at the climbing part where the camera decides to focus on Raz's interpretation of his dad)
I will say Oleander’s 101 rank, as a 13 year old, isn’t difficult *in my opinion* with the Meat Circus, yeah that’s kinda hard but it’s the final level of course it is. Like you said a TH-camr probably exaggerated it (I know who but people will complain if I said) and overall it’s like 7 mins. so it’s not even long
The one thing I loved most about The Milkman Conspiracy is how this level feels kinda claustrophobic despite being wide and open. The idea of constantly being watched gives you the feeling of your movement being restricted when it really isn't. Incredible. Can't wait to hear what you'll say about Psychonauts 2 (and maybe also Rhombus of Ruin)
I nearly had a (rage induced) heart attack from screaming my lungs out getting that 101% on the punching mini-game when I first played it in 2015. Then when I replayed the game on steam 5 years later, I beat it second try, no problem.
I love those segments where you show stuff on camera - like how clunky the black/white buttons are! Lots of content creators only talk about stuff like this but it adds so much when you actually see the controller.
Nitro Rad talking about how Psychonauts got its day after release with being so accessible is something I hope happens for other older games that might've gotten lost to time.
Pro tip’s for the final level (because I struggled with it) 1. You can levitate after a knife jump 2. USE THE CONFUSION GRENADES, it can can confuse the normal bunny, go straight to the bunny and boom, you skip the wait with telekinesis.
Really glad Nitro finally reviewed this game. Psychonauts is a game that I've always felt was closest to my sensibilities. The wonky and cool art style, the demented concepts and humor, the wildly weird and wonderful levels, the quirky character writing, and it all being contained within a platformer is everything that I love about this game. I don't feel like there's too many other games like it, or at least none that quite capture what it was able to. It's definitely one of my favorites, if not my number one favorite, which it might be but I've never attempted to organize my favorites in a ranking anyway. It'll be interesting to see what Nitro thinks of the second one in comparison to this one, because while I have been enjoying that one as I've played it, it definitely felt like they took it in a different direction compared to the first, and some of the aesthetics, writing, and even the tone/feel have definitely changed to a degree (and I have my theories on why that is). But for now, I'm glad he played this one, it was always a game that I thought he would enjoy.
I like the joke where Raz figures out a kid is using a squirrel to look into the girls cabin, I laugh when the kid just says "Can you say acorns if you repeat that to anyone else?"
Ah I love this game so much. I'm one of those people obsessed over the minor characters, so I cheat to get powers early to mess with the other kids while they're still at camp and try to see all the little cutscenes and subplots. I really recommend reading the lipo document, it's not entirely canon, but it puts some character's motives in a clearer perspective, especially for coach oleander. I really like him knowing a more detailed version of his childhood trauma
30:21 lol I used the confusion bombs for that part. It was even more grueling having to kill the weird rabbits over and over again to get the bombs, just for them to fall off the platform.
The one problem I see people struggle with the meat circus is getting the knife thrower to hit the spinning board twice and it needs to be exactly lined up so you can use the knife handles to trapeze to a higher platform. (And sometimes you just don’t make the jump and fall all the way down) Cuz in the original Xbox version, there’s no safety net. So if you fall, you’re back to the very bottom of the escort sequence. Also the kid screaming for his bunny constantly, people found very annoying in addition to being a stressful platforming/escort section.
6:29 “we live in an era where everything has to look extremely sleek and polished and perfect” shows Gumball, a show with extremely unique character designs and one of the most different art styles of any cartoon
I never played Psychonauts and I probably never will but this video made me understand why it's so acclaimed. This game is DRIPPING with creativity, craft, and inspiration. It's a standout game any way you look at it.
Just a few minutes in I knew this was one of my favorite games of all time. The game might be missing a few sound effects sometimes but otherwise the attention to detail and the sheer level of passion in this game is otherworldly. It’s REALLY special.
Psychonauts is amazing as hell I played a shit load of it back then and I've never been the same. I was so excited when they announced a sequel. thanks for making this video.
Honestly as a kid seeing raz and Ollie mind meld fusing their fears anxieties and torments was super powerful. I think the part that really stuck with me was how when Razes real father shows up. He's just happy to see Raz again. He apologizes for making raz feel that way about him and even gives you the player the power boost you need to beat the boss. I dunno it just struck me as a teenager as a good feeling to end on. His father accepting and encouraging raz. To be who he is.
This remains one of my favorite games of all time. It's one of the few games I've 100%'ed, and I have so many fond memories. I also really love the bit they added in the psychonauts 2 trailer about Raz needing to save the world and him responding "I just need some bacon" which if you haven't played the first game means nothing and becomes a wtf moment, but means so much if you have.
This game is really well written, like not just the jokes but the story and foreshadowing too, shame a few years back I watched a playthrough as I didn't want to buy the game. Props to the VA's too, Richard Orvitz and Tara Strong really solidify the characters.
Can confirm; all time classic. I added this to my ps2 collection at around 2014. Played the thing to completion without switching to any other sp game. The music, the esthethic, the characters, enviroments, the gameplay itself, so good. Even a low framerate couldnt stop me from ennoying this game thoroughly!
![comfy ramen for froooogs ~ Midori no Kaori Demo [FIRST IMPRESSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YsaVVW9xyp4/mqdefault.jpg)
One thing I love about the Milkman Conspiracy is how, unlike _every_ other level in the game, the Censors do not show up as normal enemies. It really shows you what happens to a mind when there's nothing there to prevent "incorrect" thoughts from forming
When your thoughts go unchecked and unfiltered
To top it off if you go back they do appear attacking The Milkman.
I am the milkman, my milk is delicious. Special delivery today
@@solidskullz5736 *Heeyah!*
Beware the COWS! NOT ALL MILK IS ENRICHED! XD
Some fun Psychonauts facts (spoilers ahead:)
- The emotional baggage for each character’s mind plays a unique crying clip from each person either slowed down or sped up. The Meat Circus is unique in that both Oleander and Raz’s cries are blended together.
- There’s a 2 hour long video that shows all the vault memories with Tim Shafer and the artist who drew the memories, Scott Campbell, discussing them.
- Sasha and Milla supposedly represent the left and right sides of the brain respectively, which is also why they go well together.
- Oleander’s past is foreshadowed as early as Basic Braining. Near one of his emotional bags are _bunnies_ in army helmets.
Also meat flowers, cleaver figments and ect.
The Meat Circus escort section becomes 10x easier if you throw confusion grenades at the bunny! That way you can just pick him up instead of having to wait on Little Oly to do it.
BIG BRAIN SHIT! that's cool as hell, I had no idea! Goes to show how brilliant this games move set really is, so many hidden opportunities to use everything
....Huh. All these years, and I had no idea.
Wha
Just use tk. Hold him in place
That's the first thing I did! Given how much options you were given in this game, it seems a lot better to knock the heck out of that bunny than to patiently wait the kid to pick it up.
A fun fact about clairvoyance, if you use cheats to unlock all the abilities you can go back to where you shouldn't actually have it and see what characters like Coach Oleander think of you, and it's a unique graphic!
Any footage or anywhere I can find this?
@@marioguy1225The Psychonauts Wiki had the art assests for clairvoyance including Oleander. He sees Raz as a brain.
@@MDNTRNC And Milla sees Raz as a baby, if I'm not mistaken.
My favorite is that the girl who always turns invisible when you get close to her sees you as a big boot
The confusion grenades trigger dialogue on NPCs before you're supposed to have them, too! Almost everyone has something silly to say, but the best one is Boyd, who's actually turned sane long enough to work out what's happening to him... and, naturally, his dialogue is timed so the confusion wears off and he goes back to babbling to himself _right_ before he gets to the big reveal.
The hand coming out of the water is how Raz portrays his fear of water. Its portrayed really well in the VR game Rhombus of Ruin. There's a part where water is filling up in a room and Raz sees the hands coming out of the water but when you use clairvoyance to see another characters viewpoint they dont see the hands. I always really liked that detail in the game.
That and it's a *gypsy family blood curse.*
@@VerdeMorte I'm under the impression that the hands isnt part of thr curse but what he sees the curse as. Raz knows that they will drown in the water but not grabbed by hands under the water.
Yeah I always pictured the hands as Raz personifying his fear of water. Hell, since he is a psychic you could even argue the grabby hands are his powers subconsciously shaping water to become physical hands to get him.
@@spiderdian2 I'm certian this is true, especially after playing Psychonauts 2
@@spiderdian2
If you haven't played PSychonauts 2, DO! It is worth it, and as promised by Tim Schafer, the game touches on the backstory of Ford Crueller and the Gypsy curse, among other things!
I hadn't realized just how well the graphics of this game held up. Just goes to show how important stylizing is, money can't buy artistic vision.
This has happened with Ratchet and Clank franchise. All the 2010 games have their art direction be a worse derivation of the ACiT artstyle, including RA, and if lucky with only a fragment of the charm of the ACiT artstyle. RA in espcial strips all the charm away and replaces it with pretty graphics.
I prefer ToD graphics, the worst looking of the 2000 Ratchet games, many times over RA, or all the 2010 Ratchets in general.
@@rac1equalsbestgame853 The original 4 games are the best for story and humour, while the Future trilogy looked the best graphics wise, I hated the redesign starting with All 4 One
@@rac1equalsbestgame853 And the PS4 reimagining of the first game was god awful, like you said the newer games is all about looking pretty
@@majinya6199 The OG 4 are what you said, I actually love GC's artstyle. The Future games retain most of the charm of the originals and unique gameplay aspects like ToD's gadgets *(I wish there was more gyro-cycle and gelatinator,* but I'm not going to complain about that knowing how turbulent ToD's development was) and ACiT's space exploration, while technically padding, is so atmospheric, engaging and imersive I don't care if it is padding.
Starting with FiO that charm went to the trash. RA is the worst case here. In FiO, FFA and Nexus at least _some_ of the ACiT could be dug up if looked past the cheapness of the general look. The 2016 game is an interesting case where it lacks the charm but not completely... at least to me.
But RA straight up has 0 of it. I can see past the pretty graphics and just feel nothing. ACiT could be stripped of it's really pretty look and I'd still play to death. Same with Tools. But RA justs feels like it's only flashy asset is the graphics and nothing else. Like no one would bat an eye without the graphics.
I do agree with your take about the Future games having some of the charm and gameplay of the originals, It had a shift in tone but wasn't completely changed. I love the Future games as much as the originals but for different reasons, They both have their own pros and cons but the games still felt like Ratchet games. Even with the trouble development of ToD i think it turned out good, Granted I would love to see what the original story was before they brought on Fixman.
All 4 One was just straight up the beginning of the end, Not only they changed up Ratchets look but they basically gave the games to the new Insomniac studio they opened at the time so all the last remaining PS3 titles from then was by their smaller new studio that's why we kept getting small bite sized not so good games.
The 2016 game as pretty as it is i think it is so stale, Only charm it has was elements from the original. I hate how they changed Ratchets personality completely. Like i get they might've not wanted the original personality from the first game but they could've improved upon thier mistakes in the original instead of just making Ratchet generic "i wanna be the hero" Not to mention that 2016 game just recycles most of the weapons from the Future series they didn't even try with the 2016 game. haven't had a chance to play Rift Apart but from what i've seen it looks like another soulless take on Ratchet like 2016 was
Last year for Christmas, I commissioned a friend to have a comic drawn in the style of the Psychonauts memory vault memories. I then decorated the box to look like a memory vault as they appear in game. Once everything was put together, I gave it to my boyfriend. The comic inside detailed one of the stories of how I fell in love with him.
He had introduced me to the game earlier that year and I absolutely fell in love with it. I wanted to make something that connected that.
That’s awesome
That is so beautiful!
That's really cool!
He’s lucky to have you
Darn wholesome
3:32 I love the blink-and-you-miss-it shot of punching the disc tray closed.
Quick note on the difficulty of the meat circus: Original print had some nasty collision bugs that were hard to spot *as* bugs, lending some of the platforming challenges an unfair level of demanding perfection. These were fixed pretty quick, but in reviews and initial reception, the level got its meta branding regardless.
I remember getting our asses kicked there, hooh.
i believe the time you get to get up there when the kid is getting hiss ass kicked was also not as much as you would get in the later prints of the game.
but could be mistaken.
It's funny. My first time playing through the meat circus I figured it must have been patched to be easier since it wasn't anywhere near as hard as people made it out to be. Guess I wasn't that far off.
One thing to note is James played Psychonauts on the original Xbox. I know the Steam version got a Meat Circus patch, as well as other tweaks over time, but I doubt the Xbox saw any form of addendum.
@@azooreus I mean, patches for games in the mid 2000s were 100% a thing. Sometimes it was when they'd re-release with something like player's choice, but it could also happen silently. I dunno what Psychonauts did though.
“Beating my meat circus” NitroRad always pulls through in the script department
Classic getting past the censors moment.
People don't realize how big a deal it is that Psychonauts got a sequel! This could help pave the way for more Platformers with a focus on Story and Characters to be made again. It's been sooooooo long since I've played a 3D platformer with open world lobbies, fantastic characters and a focus on exploration and collecting. Psychonauts 2 scratched that exact itch I've been looking for FOR YEARS. Can't wait for your review of it!
i play TY the tasmanian tiger quite often as it’s one of my favorites! but FPS games really took over and i agree i hope it helps pave the way for another era of platforming games they have been on the back burner for to long!
Yeah I beat the game today and it was soo good sucks that I was comparing it super hard with my nostalgia of the first but when I can get passed that i think they’re on perfectly equal levels
I hope it also opens the door for some forgotten games to finally get sequels. Can we finally get Beyond Good and Evil 2 now?
Have you played a hat in time
I'm thinking you're new to video games in general?
Fred Bonaparte's level is one of my favorites in a game and I was glad to see you enjoyed it too. Amazing game and amazing video.
Hello Hoober Doober
omg its Shrek
It was one of my favorites to just idly hum to the ost to while figuring out my next move in the level
Its so underrated, I honestly respect anyone who says its their favorite level even if theres one or two I like a little bit more. It's so good!
Hi doobus, still depressed?
This game is insane with optional dialogue. There's like a dozen worldstates in the camp overworld, and the campers keep moving around and all of them have their own personal side-story. Not only can you talk to them all, you can eavsdrop on them all and I'd wager most of the dialogue are these completely missable incidental things. When I re-bought the game on Steam I spent hours and hours trying to find every little interaction and detail. You essentially need to run around the entire campsite every time a main story event happens to see everything.
That's kinda awesome, I'm not surprised Boyd actually has the most dialogue in the game apparently, most of which is missable, so if that can happen with just a single character then anything is possible.
@@bobafett4265 Yeah Boyd has a huge array of things he can randomly mutter.
@@Ronin11111111 yeah that's it, it was on a wiki for the game and one of the facts brought up is that he has the most dialogue, which is wild to think about.
@Ahmed Malaki Yes.
This game really screwed with my expectations for everything else going forward XD it was so good
18:56 I was hoping that he'd talk about the secret room you find in her mind that shows her dark past. That was genuinely scary the first time I played.
Facts it still haunts me but in a good way when I was 8 I had nightmares
(Spoiler) The screams and cries of orphans when they were burned alive? Yeah that shit haunted me to this day
“Beating my meat circus” - James
That almost went over my head ha.
I went into the comments just to look for someone else saying this
@@Slenderquil glad I wasn't the only one
I involuntarily laughed out loud when I heard that. Such a good joke.
the second part of your comment too xD
I was like "Does...does he know?"
I just want to bring up, just as a moment of realization of how much care and detail went into this game, I have to border a little bit close to spoiler territory. But it's on the same level of the Clairvoyance level of detail. There's an adventure game style inventory item that you get at the end of the game. It's only supposed to be in your inventory for barely a minute or so, to progress the plot and further the story when it's brought to what you need to turn it into. And instead of trying to force you to do what you need to do with it, the game is perfectly happy to let you just turn around and go all the way back to the opening hub and show it to all the other characters in the game. And almost all of them have a unique piece of dialogue upon being shown this item.
I think I should be behind the 'read more' tag. So spoilers away, at least a little more. It's Mr Pokeylope. Most characters will have a response. some don't, and only a couple characters you can interact with makes Raz spout "No, I can't mess around with Mr. Pokeylope right now. I've got to give him back to Sheegor right away!" I think that's superbly admirable, because most adventure games would make that "I can't mess around..." line the only line used when not doing what you need to do with Mr Pokeylope. But a bunch of lines were written and recorded just for the player who gets curious about taking him other places.
For real, even after fully completing the game multiple times, you still find a new detail every now and then, like with the straight jacket item, its an item that appears once as a piece of a puzzle, but they went ahead and programmed so you couldnt ledge grab if you have it on.
On PlayStation/Xbox/Steam you get a trophy/achievement for doing this.
I always loved how this game explains regular video game mechanics you wouldn't normally think twice about through story. Why can Raz do all these acrobatic moves? Well he's from the circus, obviously. Why can't he swim? His entire family was cursed to die in water. It's brilliant!
Some kids run away to the circus. Raz runs away FROM the circus.
It's so frustrating that games having joke levels about playing as a kaiju are better than actual kaiju games. The simple answer would be to make a good game but no, for some reason almost everyone who makes a kaiju games make baffling dumb decisions and use it as a dumping ground for experimental gameplay mechanics that never catch on or don't work for kaiju.
The best thing about Psychonauts 2: despite being bought by Microsoft, Double Fine did promise the sequel would be available on PS4 as initially announced and now that it's finally out, the devs delivered on their promise.
Plus, it’s backwards compatible with PS5 so everyone’s set.
It is crazy seeing “Xbox game studios” load up in my PS4
@@ChronicSynchronizer didn't Cuphead and both Ori games also have that on Switch?
@@martinde-serres8724 I don’t know, I haven’t played either on switch
@@ChronicSynchronizer Sony did the same thing with MLB The Show 21
29:18
One super cool thing about Waterloo World, you're not JUST shrinking into the board game. If you look outside the window here, you'll actually see that the outside of this room IS the board game. And if you go to the back of the mansion next to the carpenter's house, you can actually FIND this window and see Fred and Napoleon at the table you just jumped into almost like we're in some sort of Hypercube or Tesseract. Both inside and outside both the room and the board game at the same time. That's some REALLY cool design~
Psychonauts is still one of the best 3D platformers ever made for how inventive it was with its levels and writing. Top tier stuff and while some of the mechanics haven't aged 100% gracefully with the sequel out and making that 20 year jump in tech a bit more clear. That said, this is still a must play for any platformer fan or even classic adventure game fan.
Not that I dislike Double Fine's other games like Brutal Legend or Stacking but, I do hope that after Psychonauts 2, they continue in this platformer/adventure game hybrid style going forward because I think their team really has a talent for making them compared to their work in other genres. Psychonauts 2 is honestly looking like their best game since the first one by a significant margin and I think they can go in a lot of interesting directions within just the platformer space whether or not it's another Psychonauts sequel. Hell, if they don't make another original game next, I'd be interested in seeing what would happen if Microsoft just gave them the Banjo IP and gave free reign to do whatever with it (provided that it's still a platformer).
it’s looking like it took all the best aspects of the first game and improved on them quite significantly so I’m excited to play it.
Yeah, I didnt like Brutal legage(mostly cuz gameplay) nor Broken age(Act 2 was such a letdown). I think psychonauts is their most unique work.
@@armandostockvideos8386 how do you spell legend so wrong 😭
I would lose my shit at banjo kazooie by double fine.
Honestly, I just hope they have a little add-on DLC for the postgame of Psychonauts 2. Infinite levitation, new game plus for that shiny final upgrade, and a little bit of meaty content to really wrap up plot and character threads that didn't quite go far enough during the main story...
Something I want to point out i love about waterloo world is there is a building where if you look in the window on the second floor on the backside of the building you can see the room you started in with them looking over the board and everything
That inception level stuff is perfect for this kinda game
9:59-10:01 That gameplay transition was nearly perfect. the camera swung to the right place in the next cut.
I was watching this on my TV, but pulled this video on my tablet just to comment on this it is sssoooooo goooooood.
Chill out, what ya yellin' for? Lay back, it's all been done before. And if you could only let it be, you will see that I am the funniest YouT*ber of all time. Admit it, my dear follow*r king
@@AxxLAfriku first of all why don't you search up your name on the search bar before calling yourself the funniest, second you don't need to censor follower and youtuber
Get off our comments and run back to your moms basement
That match cut!!
@@bleepblock2177 Just thumbs down and mark as spam. Don't answer back.
Tim Schaffer games are hella amazing. The amount of love and care put into them is unbelievable
Finally someone mentions the Levitation Race. That is the whole reason I have an extra 2 hours to my 100% run every time I play this game. As a person who has trouble differentiating colors Milla Levitation Party is my nemesis. Like.... the Figment System is point based. Have the optimal path be where the figments are and have them be large enough to not miss, the points would add up to keep it balanced.
I can’t agree more, that Levitation Race was always the part I dreaded in 100% runs. Though my most recent run wasn’t too bad. I’m just glad there aren’t any long sections like that in Psychonauts 2. 100% completion was reasonable for Psychonauts 2, though I wish that there was more than just the max rank upgrade.
Also, don’t make them transparent and hard to see. I remember Caddicarus had trouble with 3 figments in particular; a figment on a house in The Milkman Conspiracy, a purple figment on a purple table in the same level, and a figment in the basketball hoop in Black Velvetopia.
I hope the sequel has some sort of figment-finder, like how Sparx works in Year of the Dragon and the Reignited Trilogy.
@@whichcache2517 nope, but the higher fidelity along with their animations and overall design change makes them easier to see at a distance.
They have about 2-3 different actual states they stay in switching every few seconds so they kinda wiggle. They also have a fog of sorts around them of a similar color to their linework which makes them more noticeable from across the map.
Except for the banana..... the banana!
@@whichcache2517 Spoiler alert, there is no detector to my knowledge. I had to watch walkthroughs after figuring out which figments I missed just to get them all. The only saving grace was that there were no scenarios like the Levitation Race
While I love the figments and how for close observers they can reveal little bits of story in and of themselves, for a 100%er IT’D BE NICE to have uniform sparkly gold coins. the second game is even harder, as many of the stages are much larger and the game doesn’t have a way of communicating to you where exactly some of these last few figments in a level may be.
Nitro Rad has really become a comfort TH-camr for me recently. His almost always positive vibes are just really nice. I hope he keeps up with what he's doing.
The Milkman Conspiracy is such a famous and revered level that it has its own Wikipedia page. Yeah, a video game level - with a Wikipedia page. That's big.
I AM A GRIEVING WIDOW
For reference, there are roughly 15 or so other levels in all of gaming that have their own pages.
Damn.
@@RFieth what are some of the other? Is cow level on there? From Diablo 2
@@chowderwhillis9448 The others are mainly either notable multiplayer maps like 2Fort, Blood Gulch, and de_dust2, or classic stuff like Water Temple from Ocarina of Time and the Green Hill Zone from original Sonic the Hedgehog. Diablo doesn't seem to be represented.
One thing to appreciate this game so many years later is how gameplay is woven into story. Raz has the standard platformer skills because he’s an acrobat. Double Fine couldn’t make a swimming mechanic so they gave Raz’s family a water curse. They didn’t have enough time to make more npcs for camp workers so they used Ford over and over, and rather than have it be handwaved with a joke like Nurse Joy, it’s a major plot point and tragic. Goddammit I love this game so much
I always loved the visual of Raz's goggles glowing as he pulled them down, especially with that secret agent musical sting that's behind it most of the time, its just so damn cool!
I also really think Ford is an interesting character. My personal headcanon for him is that he doesn't really teleport per say. If he used his brain to teleport, and his brain is shattered, then whos to say he's not in multiple places at once (like a certain type of object from a certain space exploration game I know you've played)?
The more subtle elements of storytelling like all the foreshadowing in the brain tumbler is what really makes this game for me. Depending on how you interpret the levels, you can just go deeper and deeper on analysis of these characters. It's also great how its not afraid to get super dark with it (yeah yeah Milla's children, but are we not going to talk about "the big top"? That one had me seriously shook).
The fact that Raz is literally being haunted by the specter of his dad just adds so many layers to that level.
You have no idea how accurate you actually are.
Go play 2 to get what I mean
@@yugijak Oh, trust me, I have. Though I think technically there's still no confirmation he isn't just teleporting while you aren't looking.
@@TheFuzzyOcelot The game outright refers to them in multiple when talking about being able to tackle 'them' in any order IIRC
I beat the game recently but I'm not 100% confident
@@yugijak The game does refer to the multiple aspects as multiple people, but we never get confirmation as to whether physically they are separate entities or the same singular Ford body teleporting around. I prefer the former, but it could be either.
psychonauts is one of the few games that I wish I could entirely forget so I could experience them again
The issue with meat circus as far as I remember was the water rising was either too fast or buggy, which pc fixed, and if you’re fast enough you wouldn’t notice it.
Yeah there was a bug in the original versions which they fixed on PC for the water rising section
NitroRad said that he’s playing this on the OG Xbox.
I always thought Cruller was just pretending not to recognize you when he wasn't dealing with official psychonauts business because he was trying to maintain his cover as the camp janitor or shopkeeper or whatever else
But like
He literally doesn't recognize you???
If you use clarvoyance on him he sees you as a different person each time
Yeah, that's what he tells you at first until you figure out his mind is just messed up 😅
@@MillyKKitty Yeah it was just a nod to dementia at the time but they turned it into a plot point of him breaking his own mind to protect himself from knowing the truth of what happeneed with Miligula in the second one.
The 2000s was an era filled with obscure platformers, with Psychonauts being one of the most outstanding.
And the game was very fortunate enough to see a re-release so it wouldn't be lost in obscurity, if only other platformers at that time could do the same.
I’m just so insanely delighted that this game got a sequel, this many years later, and it’s actually excellent and true to the series. It cannot be overstated how rare and awesome that is! Support Psychonauts 2!
I always love the art style of psychonauts, and I'm so glad it's gotten a bigger audience over the years. I think playing it when I was a kid kinda primed me for how much I fell in love with German expressionism later on.
As someone who just beat the game last week for the first time with no prior knowledge of "The Meat Circus", I think its reputation is fair. It might not be the hardest thing ever but it's definitely quite a difficulty curve compared to the rest of the game. The main issue being the timing coupled with the platforming which isn't always tight.
I just finished on ps5 for the first time. The part that really drove me mad was the climbable cylinder with patches of fire. Falling there would make you go through:
1) the stack of 3 ropes that would feel 'sticky' and if you were caught not entirely still when trying to climb from dangling, you would get hit by projectile
2) the slow paced bubble with the rings of fire. Perspective would sometimes make this tricky to judge getting through the rings, particularly approaching the source of projectiles
Neither of the above were close to the hardest part of the game, but doing them many times repeatedly I would get frustrated, make mistakes and then mess up
If not...
3) the damn mesh cylinder. the sticky physics from jumping from climbing state and the camera made me want to throw the controller at the wall.
I have finished Returnal a while back so I don't hate difficult games, but this level really highlighted some of the games weaknesses
I remember that the camera would suddenly turn around before you even reached the platform to jump onto the cylinder fire wall part, causing a lot of failures... Plus not being entirely sure if you are able to double jump to the other side of the wall, because it didn't work soemtimes 🤔
The one downside of Psychonauts 2: You can't run around the main menu anymore.
Still... The masters of environmental storytelling in platformer level design are back and they didn't disappoint. Here's hoping the early 2000s action platformer is up for a renaissance.
I would say a downside is that the point and click influence that was in the 1st game seems a lot less prevalent in the 2nd, it's there to an extent but it's a lot more basic. The platforming however and the environmental creativity is really something in 2.
@@logiclunacy606 Hmm. I suppose, yeah. It does still show hallmarks of corners they had to cut due to budgetary concerns and just kind of needed to leave on the cutting room floor...
Still, Psychonauts is special because it uses the entire world to tell a story in ways most games never even dream of doing. It's never been a masterclass in action or platforming or immersive-sim sandboxy stuff, but every little worldly detail factoring into the narrative in some way is the real series hallmark.
the lack of a manual save option is a downside as well...especially as I have to completely restart to earn a level achievement after losing internet while playing :/
I feel like the rebirth of adventure platformers has been coming for a while. It's not had the breakout success of Metroidvanias or retro FPSes, but games like Poi and A Hat In Time do well enough to show that not only do people still like the genre, but that it can succeed very well with modern accoutrements added in.
There’s a lot that’s in the second game that’s different from the first game, it’s better to enjoy it separately from the first game. Still a ton of fun though, and pretty as hell
Back in the day I worked at Hollywood video. They went out of business so on the last day, everything was free for the staff to take. I grabbed this game by chance and it almost immediately became my favorite game of all time. What I would do to see this become a legacy game like Mario or Zelda, the potential for story telling in this universe is endless! Just happy to see people as excited about it as I am!
"I am the milkman, my milk is delicious."
So now I know where the meme is from.
The comment has the status of (edited) and the quote is still wrong...
@@kgpspyguy oh shit lmao my brain fried
From "I am the milkman, my milkman is delicious"
to "I am the milkman, my milk is delicious."
I do hope your review of Psychonauts 2 is gonna start with a brief overview with the Rhombus of Ruin. It's definitely important to the overall narrative.
I still can't believe that Raz is voiced by Richard Horvitz. I'm so used to him being either Daggett or Zim that it was just so weird to hear him so in control and calm. Don't get me wrong, I love his voice work in this game though!
He’s also Moxxie in Helluva Boss.
I found out Richard was also Alpha in Power Rangers in my recent re-watch of Mighty Morphin.
yeesh. this is like saying you only know steve blum as spike from cowboy bebop
VA are more than just their most popular roles
@@ma99954 well their popular work is where most people are going know them from and associate them with lmao
It honestly doesn't even sound like him because in all his other roles he's screaming his lungs out or making weird noises and ends up sounding similar, but not here
37:42 Xbox One version is the OG Xbox version backwards compatible and enhanced for 4K. You can just pop in an OG Xbox disc and it will download the enhanced version.
Honestly speaking about the meat circus i had pretty much the same experience: by the time i got to it my rank was almost at max,so the more annoying parts were lessened and frankly most of the platforming there was pretty damn good.
I'd say that its biggest issue is really how janky it is - you can tell it was made in kind of a rush, since there's a lot of weird edges that can bump you off and a lot of beginner's traps, especially in the grind section. It's really not that hard, but it can kind of leave a sour taste in your mouth since it seems to bring out the worst unintentional issues the game has right at the end of the game. After the escort segment and the grind stuff it really is pretty easy, though.
boyd’s level is what originally got me into the series
boyd is such a funky character and i’m sad we didn’t seen any of the asylum members in the second game
I literally just came back from staying over with my older brother, who bought the sequel and beat it. Now this happens! James, I freaking love you!
Can tell the editing was VERY on point in this video, lol. I grew up playing my Uncle's Xbox copy of the game and we spent forever trying to beat it, since the Cobweb Duster grinding bored us, it actually didn't even really cross our mind to use the store... Compared to every other level I got stuck on, I never really struggled with the Meat Circus, I've always been surprised how slightly overblown the critique of the level was online since it has one of the funnest platforming areas to me, besides Milla's and the Milkman's mind, plus the Asylum.
I thought the humor was on-point. The best joke for me was Edgar thanking Raz by drawing "a true work of art" and it's that stupid dogs playing poker painting. Perfect.
Seeing the Alice Madness Returns footage makes me hope someday he’ll play the Alice games.
Controversial opinion: I kinda like the artstyle, the practiced imperfection of it reminds me that most people are imperfectly perfect.
It also helps that this wouldn’t feel out of place as a Klasky Csupo series which is what associated this game with when I first saw it.
yeah but i can't help and feel that it could be ruined by a bunch of copycats
That’s not controversial 😐
@@nunyabisness1979 like what?
@@Slipperyslab I mean it seems to be, I see a lot of shit talk about the art style online, I guess it’s just one of those cilantro things
So something I learned about the Milkman Conspiracy. If you cheat confusion into the game before you actually get it, you can use it on Boyd, and he actually becomes Lucid enough to realize he has some serious mental problems.
"I'm not here to talk shit I'm here to talk about platformers"
Jesus dude, you could put that on your mantle
What an inspirational quote.
I mean it makes sense. When a game developer has history in the gamergate fiasco.
Can't have the name tarnish the ip.
@@xxXxBluecheddarxXxx a legendary developer taking umbrage with greenlight asset flippers sleeping their way to favorable reviews and building a network that will violently exclude anyone who doesn't conform to the mold? The same guy who made psychonauts, which got unfairly panned by critics and embraced by actual gamers for being such a weird masterpiece?
Can't possibly imagine how that happened
@@lithuaniaball legendary is quite subjective bud
Also rooted in subjectivity: the methods by which Schaeffer decided to virtue signal and side along with some of the most hypocritical feminists in industry.
Wonder why you failed to mention that eh? Lol
that should be his catchphrase.
I will never not laugh about the fact that’s it’s about a kid that RUNS AWAY from the circus. This game has always been in the back of my mind for my entire childhood, playing it again before I can afford psychonauts 2 haha. TIGHT clean mechanics still unique art, design, story, voice actors, everything, the more I play it the more I love it! 😭😭😭😭 Linda is my favourite leading lady
I remember the Meat Circus being super difficult for me as a kid, probably because my psy rank wasn't that high, I did beat it though after a while
I couldn't stand the meat circus. it wasn't impossible, it was just annoying.
Sock man!
glad im not the only one going on a binge after playing the sequel :D
Same, I'm just bad at platforming lol
What annoyed me the most was the constant moaning of your dad going RASPUTIN whilst little oley going "Owwww, that HuRtt" - it was just so annoying
Ah, fellow sock pfp 🤝
I’m still so ashamed that as a kid, I’ve never heard of or played any of the double fine/LucasArt games until years later and learnt how amazing games like Day of the tentacle was . I’ve played a lot of great ps2 platformers so missing out on psychonauts was such a shame.
You should be, you shameful man you!
Nah, I was just barely old enough to have played Monkey Island a bit as a wee lad, but that’s about it. Better late than never, right! Just so you know (& probably already know this), the game is available on PS4 for very cheap.
Day of the Tentacle is one of my all time favorites.
Its all good man! I grew up with the Xbox, so while I got to play all these incredible platformers, I missed out on SO much PS2 and Nintendo content of that era.
@@NeoNovastar Psychonauts was on PS2 and Xbox. I’m not understanding the train of thought.
I’m surprised you didn’t cover milla’s secret in psychonauts. That’s an infamous dark Easter egg in the fandom. I hope you do talk about it in your psychonauts 2 video
I can already tell people wanted this game on the channel for years. I really want to check this game and the sequel some time.
I'm glad Psychonauts is starting to become a mainstream series. I watched my brother and dad play it back when it was new, and I forgot how creative and well thought out it was until I replayed it a couple of years ago.
One of my all-time favorite games. The comedy & the gameplay is so good.
HELLO FELLOW ROAD CREW WORKER
WELCOME TO THE ROAD CREW
@@THEGREATMAX If I'm not mistaken, that quote/line was done by the legend that is Steven Jay Blum.
Anyone remember that one easter egg where you go through a door in someone's mind and theres a memory of a school of burning kids that she feels guilty for being unable to save?
Yeah this game goes into the details *hard*
What makes even worse is that it was an orphanage.
Loved the video, being a south-american this game was an absolute test to my english skills, even though games in this era didn’t gave much mind (pun intended) to accessibility.
I remember getting stuck on everything for countless weeks, but the personality and crazyness always made me insist and belly my way to the end.
9:58 that transition was so smooth
Psychonauts was my white whale for a long time. I remember watching X-Play on G4 and this game got a freaking 5...out if five from Adam Sessler himself. The game just looked so cool and amazing that even without the high rating I still wanted to play it. Unfortunately I only had a GameCube and by the time I got my ps2 it was already becoming hard to find. I Eventually pirated the pc version not realizing it was on steam. I was happy I finally got a chance to play this game and was hoping that a sequel would Eventually be made in, oh, roughly 20 years or so and give us a look into the history of the Psychonauts organization (cough cough).
I did realize that the game was on steam and it became the first game I bought on Steam. Easily worth the price.
On A side note, Psychonauts 2 was the second game I ever pre-ordered and it was worth the 16 year wait in my opinion
Have you watched the Sessler’s review of the second game? His passion for the series made me tear up a bit.
There's a lot of gems from that era that've gone under the radar. Another one I love, but I'm almost certain others won't like, is Grabbed by the Ghoulies by Rareware
I liked the designs and music, but the fighting can get annoying, and certain rooms requirements can be incredibly annoying at times.
It doesn't deserve that much in the way of hate compared to other OG Xbox titles.
I was wondering when you'd finally review Psychonauts, I always felt like you reviewed it in the past, but was surprised you didn't do so already. It's definitely the kind of game I feel like I missed out on as a kid due to not owning the console it was on, but is definitely the kind I would have enjoyed back then. Can't wait to see you review the sequel that just came out, from what everyone has told me, it's even better than the first!
Kind of interesting that two cult classics that flopped when they came out and became popular years later both involve around kids with psychic powers. Psychonauts is one, while the other is Earthbound... which makes me wonder if Raz were to go into Ness's head, would he see Magicant? Heck, if he went into Madotsuki's head, would he see Uboa? There's a lot of potential for crossover fan-fiction, but let's remember... THE MILKMAN'S MILK IS DELICIOUS!
When I first played the game many years ago, I completed Oleander’s punching mini game pretty easily, but each time I come back it seems to get harder and harder for me, lol.
one of the things that prevented me from actually finishing this game was a point in the milkman conspiracy, you actually need the cobwen duster to progress in the level. understanding how to even get it in a reasonable amount of time was not there when i was younger, when i went and played it again i figured out the method to get it in like 20 mins
This game was one of my absolute favorites back in the day... and the sequel is also fantastic
I am excited for NitroRad to be covering one of the most important games from my childhood. Much respect to you James, a Psychonauts video was long overdue and great timing since Psychonauts 2 just released a few days ago. Psychonauts is a cult classic everyone should play at least once in their lifetime.
Thank you for pointing out the phenomenom of gaming TH-camrs greatly exaggerating how bad something is, then that eventually becoming the norm to say on the internet because the video got popular.
Yeah I never got the whole Meat Circus is hard thing especially the Olly part took me two tries max but the big acrobatics section screwed me way more times then i'd like to admit (namely at the climbing part where the camera decides to focus on Raz's interpretation of his dad)
that spiral climbing part is the only part I remember being hard, played this game so long ago
@@rickross9829 that parts definitely bugged
I will say Oleander’s 101 rank, as a 13 year old, isn’t difficult *in my opinion* with the Meat Circus, yeah that’s kinda hard but it’s the final level of course it is. Like you said a TH-camr probably exaggerated it (I know who but people will complain if I said) and overall it’s like 7 mins. so it’s not even long
Definitely one of the most creative games of the era of 3d platformers.
The one thing I loved most about The Milkman Conspiracy is how this level feels kinda claustrophobic despite being wide and open. The idea of constantly being watched gives you the feeling of your movement being restricted when it really isn't. Incredible.
Can't wait to hear what you'll say about Psychonauts 2 (and maybe also Rhombus of Ruin)
I nearly had a (rage induced) heart attack from screaming my lungs out getting that 101% on the punching mini-game when I first played it in 2015. Then when I replayed the game on steam 5 years later, I beat it second try, no problem.
I love those segments where you show stuff on camera - like how clunky the black/white buttons are! Lots of content creators only talk about stuff like this but it adds so much when you actually see the controller.
I just recently played this for the first time and my god it’s amazing
Me too, i finished it two months ago and recently completed it a second time.
Nitro Rad talking about how Psychonauts got its day after release with being so accessible is something I hope happens for other older games that might've gotten lost to time.
What an iconic game with such awesome characters! Thanks for covering it, love your videos!
Pro tip’s for the final level (because I struggled with it) 1. You can levitate after a knife jump 2. USE THE CONFUSION GRENADES, it can can confuse the normal bunny, go straight to the bunny and boom, you skip the wait with telekinesis.
Really glad Nitro finally reviewed this game. Psychonauts is a game that I've always felt was closest to my sensibilities. The wonky and cool art style, the demented concepts and humor, the wildly weird and wonderful levels, the quirky character writing, and it all being contained within a platformer is everything that I love about this game. I don't feel like there's too many other games like it, or at least none that quite capture what it was able to. It's definitely one of my favorites, if not my number one favorite, which it might be but I've never attempted to organize my favorites in a ranking anyway. It'll be interesting to see what Nitro thinks of the second one in comparison to this one, because while I have been enjoying that one as I've played it, it definitely felt like they took it in a different direction compared to the first, and some of the aesthetics, writing, and even the tone/feel have definitely changed to a degree (and I have my theories on why that is). But for now, I'm glad he played this one, it was always a game that I thought he would enjoy.
I like the joke where Raz figures out a kid is using a squirrel to look into the girls cabin, I laugh when the kid just says "Can you say acorns if you repeat that to anyone else?"
Ah I love this game so much. I'm one of those people obsessed over the minor characters, so I cheat to get powers early to mess with the other kids while they're still at camp and try to see all the little cutscenes and subplots.
I really recommend reading the lipo document, it's not entirely canon, but it puts some character's motives in a clearer perspective, especially for coach oleander. I really like him knowing a more detailed version of his childhood trauma
The lipo document? I didn't got that we're can i read that?
The amount of creativity and sheer joy in the concepts is something we rarely see in games nowadays.
This game hit me in the feels with a certain moment...I wont forget it
Does it involve an orphanage in some way?
@@christopherlowery3797
Shhh
@@christopherlowery3797 that part is fire lit good yo
@@adrifhauster3442 Can you don't 😭
@@christopherlowery3797 don't remember that part
30:21 lol I used the confusion bombs for that part. It was even more grueling having to kill the weird rabbits over and over again to get the bombs, just for them to fall off the platform.
The one problem I see people struggle with the meat circus is getting the knife thrower to hit the spinning board twice and it needs to be exactly lined up so you can use the knife handles to trapeze to a higher platform. (And sometimes you just don’t make the jump and fall all the way down)
Cuz in the original Xbox version, there’s no safety net. So if you fall, you’re back to the very bottom of the escort sequence.
Also the kid screaming for his bunny constantly, people found very annoying in addition to being a stressful platforming/escort section.
BU UH UH UH NNY
Don't forget you can still float after swinging off the knives and you shouldn't miss
@@TheTjoconnor yeah, I remember. Thanks
Thanks James. Literally bought and finished the game just to watch this video. Good stuff.
Clicked as soon as I saw the notif! I absolutely adore the Psychonauts series, so this is already gonna be a good one
6:29 “we live in an era where everything has to look extremely sleek and polished and perfect”
shows Gumball, a show with extremely unique character designs and one of the most different art styles of any cartoon
YES! This is the video I've been waiting for! I've been playing through Psychonauts 2 and wondering why Nitro never tackled the series.
I never played Psychonauts and I probably never will but this video made me understand why it's so acclaimed. This game is DRIPPING with creativity, craft, and inspiration. It's a standout game any way you look at it.
8:28 cole’s reason works as well because he constantly has electricity going though him because of the conduit Gene
Just a few minutes in I knew this was one of my favorite games of all time.
The game might be missing a few sound effects sometimes but otherwise the attention to detail and the sheer level of passion in this game is otherworldly. It’s REALLY special.
Psychonauts is amazing as hell I played a shit load of it back then and I've never been the same. I was so excited when they announced a sequel. thanks for making this video.
Honestly as a kid seeing raz and Ollie mind meld fusing their fears anxieties and torments was super powerful. I think the part that really stuck with me was how when Razes real father shows up. He's just happy to see Raz again. He apologizes for making raz feel that way about him and even gives you the player the power boost you need to beat the boss.
I dunno it just struck me as a teenager as a good feeling to end on. His father accepting and encouraging raz. To be who he is.
Seeing all these games about exploring the mind like this and Omori and Yume Nikki really make me want to see an END ROLL video from you.
This remains one of my favorite games of all time. It's one of the few games I've 100%'ed, and I have so many fond memories. I also really love the bit they added in the psychonauts 2 trailer about Raz needing to save the world and him responding "I just need some bacon" which if you haven't played the first game means nothing and becomes a wtf moment, but means so much if you have.
This game is really well written, like not just the jokes but the story and foreshadowing too, shame a few years back I watched a playthrough as I didn't want to buy the game. Props to the VA's too, Richard Orvitz and Tara Strong really solidify the characters.
Can confirm; all time classic. I added this to my ps2 collection at around 2014. Played the thing to completion without switching to any other sp game.
The music, the esthethic, the characters, enviroments, the gameplay itself, so good. Even a low framerate couldnt stop me from ennoying this game thoroughly!