Episode 18: Story Trailer And More!
Hello Backers! We draw closer to release and that means a new trailer plus more info!
To start with, we have a fresh story trailer showing off hints of Raz’s upcoming journey. As he finally joins the Psychonauts (via the intern program) Raz learns that not all is well with the venerated spy organization. Funding issues, a mole within their ranks, fanatical "Deluginists" seeking to revive the deceased psychic murderer Maligula. Well, it’s a lot to deal with alongside climbing the organizational ranks. To untangle these plots, Raz will need to learn about the history of the Psychonauts founders… and unravel the truth behind the mysterious curse that’s affected his family for years.
So, yeah! There’s some heavy stuff but thankfully Raz will have help from new allies like his fellow interns and new abilities. We’ve talked about the Time Bubble ability and Mental Connection. Today, we’d like to reveal our final new psychic power: Projection. Using this skill, Raz can create an ‘archetype' copy of himself that has uses in an out of battle. You can use your little buddy to solve puzzles, sending him into tight spaces that Raz can’t enter. Or you might summon him to distract enemies in combat so that you can sneak in extra hits or use more powerful attacks like pyrokinesis. Projection is both adorable and practical.
Which is good because there’s also new enemies to deal with. Among them is the nasty “Enabler” enemy that can boost the stats of other bad thoughts. These annoying cheerleaders bolster bad vibes and enemy censors with added defense. In tougher encounters, it will be crucial to target them first so that you can deal with the other enemies more effectively. Project might come in handy. Distract the buffed enemies with your copy and seek out the Enablers while everyone else is distracted! Bang! Pow! Goodbye annoying baddies!
That’s just the surface of what we’re going to share here because last week, we let members of the press and other influencers play the game for quite a long time. Including two new levels that have never been seen before that involve diving into the mind of Psychonaut’s founding members Compton Boole and Cassie O’pia. One level is a frantic game show about managing your anxieties; the other is a massive library about managing the various personalities we project to other people in the world. Our confident sides, our sneaky sides, and more.
The press seems pretty pleased overall. Outlets like Kotaku, Windows Central, and GamesRadar think there’s cause to have Psychonauts 2 on your mind for Game of the Year considerations and other folks are enjoying the variety of levels and activities. We’ll let you all judge for yourselves when the game releases next month; you’re the most diehard folks with whose expectations we really want to meet. If you want to hear the press’ takes, it’s worth seeking them out. (I've collected a lot of them on our Twitter account.) You might even learn some nuggets of wisdom about our new progression system that allows you to augment your powers with powerful variations like a version of Time Bubble that speeds up things or a telekinesis option allowing you to pet animals in the world.
As we head into the final stretch, we aim to share more with you soon. About progression, abilities, art direction, characters, and other cool stuff. Details about backer rewards will also come into focus as launch approaches. Codes will become available either a day before or the day of release. We’ll let you know additional details soon; Linux and Mac support is taking some time and will come post-launch. More than anything, we hope that the wait has been worth it and that we’ve made the game you’ve dreamt of. We thank you for your patience and support; you are all amazing and we hope these new pieces of information excite you!