Never been more conflicted about a game tbh, it's got so much style, controls feels really responsive, graphics look fantastic. I absolutely adore getting to see more of the world in action and to see what the Psychonauts like Milla and Sasha look like in action. The dialogue and voice acting were even better here, and the characters were so interactive in the overworld and a joy to speak with.

I did really enjoy my time with it, but I can't help but have some major reservations about this one.

It feels a little too style over substance for me in some ways. I didn't find the level theming and writing as great in this one as I did in P1. It felt a little too preachy to me at some points and each level felt a little more unsubtle than the ones in Psychonauts 1. Yes, trauma and mental illness were still a big focus of the best levels in Psychonauts 1, but I just think the way in which these topics were approached felt a lot less organic than it did in PS1.

I didn't like the overarching story about the Grulovia war all that much and how all the character's trauma connects to that. It got really old both theming and writing wise to basically talk about a bunch of old hippies who have more or less of the same background causing their mental troubles. It just kind of felt like each level was deliberately designed with the intention of "this is a metaphor for this specific illness or concept" instead of how that flowed so naturally from the writing in the first title. I don't even mean for this to come across as that I don't like a positive message on mental illness or trauma, I just really preferred the way this was approached in the first title.

I much prefer the last half of the first game where there's overarching themes (mainly parent and child relations), but each person felt like their own individual. The writing in the first game is truly one of my favourite game stories. You really felt the individuality of each patient or member of the team and I just really missed that here. None of the Psychic 6 or the other characters you meet felt nearly as organic as Boyd, Fred, Gloria, or even Sasha and Milla.

Levels are good, but nothing of the height of Waterloo World, Milkman Conspiracy, etc. Gameplay is a major upgrade to me, but not a big enough improvement to justify the decline in writing IMO. They're a little too linear and I thought the game was really missing the exploration and point and click adventure elements of the first title. I really felt so many aspects were really under-utilized and were missed opportunities. Stuff like the mental connections changing the world in Hollis' level would have been nice to have fleshed out more.

This did get a little rambley I know, I just felt something was missing from this title despite it being an upgrade from its predecessor! I did genuinely enjoy playing it, I just can't fathom loving it as much as the second game.

Despite having the modern day tech which allows it to pull off many of its trippy level design and visual feats, I felt like this game fails to reach the thematic heights of the first game. The technical improvements are very impressive though. Movement is a lot smoother and makes the game a lot less janky when compared to the first. Having the levitation ball from the beginning was a great choice since it is so fun to move around on it, and also allows the developer to design the whole game around having it. Psychonauts 2 is also able to do a lot of really weird things with its level design. Warped gravity, non-Euclidean passages, and unique shaders are all very typical throughout the game and add a lot to the overall experience. The problems present in this game ultimately come down to the core design and themes for the levels. Compared to the first game, the levels hardly feel memorable. In the first game, each level looks unique and is centered around a set of specific and interesting puzzles. In this game a lot of the levels end up playing very similarly and didn't present themselves in ways that were as engaging for me. The standout levels were ones that did lean into a unique style and set of gameplay mechanics like the gameshow level as well as the band level. Overall though, this is still a pretty fun game, but when compared to the first it does feel like a bit of a let down for me.