The original Psychonauts is a game that I fell in love with and I became very ecstatic when I heard the release date for Psychonauts 2 was finally announced. Psychonauts 2 had me waiting in anticipation like I was a little kid waiting for a new toy again. And I am so happy it was well worth the wait. If you loved Psychonauts 1 as much as I did, I assure you that your money will be well spent on Psychonauts 2. Despite having only a 15 hour long campaign, I'm already starting a second run while enjoying every second of it. As a quick warning, I will be talking about some segments in the game with brief glimpses into quite a few of the levels, but no major story spoilers will be included.

Part of the reason Psychonauts 2 is such a great sequel is it keeps exactly what made the first Psychonauts game so great. Psychonauts 2 continues the series' reputation for genius level design. I was really worried that this was something they would fail to replicate, but boy were my concerns shattered after playing the game. Like the first game, every mental world has you doing something completely different from the last. Not a single level is the same as another one and as a result, the game is never repetitive. One moment you're in a cooking gameshow and the next you're a casino rigging the slots in your favor. You go from exploring the seven seas to going through a literal amusement park ride of someone's life. There's tons of creative 2D platforming segments too with the library level as an example, having you use the words from books as platforms. I showcased that example below if you wanna take a look. Even the real world segments of Psychonauts 2 were vastly improved upon from the first game. The Motherlobe may not be as nostalgic as Whispering Rock, but it's surely a gem to explore in its own right. Loved the Questionable Area after discovering I could climb the waterfall. Minor complaint on the real world sections though, really wish the fast travel tunnels were more noticeable. The stumps from the first game petruded out from the ground and the sewer grates don't really do that. The level design in the first game is a major reason why I'm able to enjoy playing it again and again, and I think I can safely say it's going to allow me to do the same with this game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2585891396
The most drastic change from the transition to Psychonauts 1 to Psychonauts 2 is the reworked combat and psychic powers. Starting with the psychic powers, there is no longer any useless ability. Every ability has a use in combat and the returning abilities all feel much more natural and fluent to use. Telekinesis is probably the perfect example of a glow up for the powers. It was easily the worst ability in the game in Psychonauts 1 and that is gladly not the case in 2. Telekinesis now no longer has you come to a complete stop to pick up most objects, there are way more things to pick up in your environment, and throwing objects can stun enemies for a brief period. It easily became my favorite returning power and it became as natural as PSI Blast as an alternate ranged attack. The new powers are great too, with slowing time and summoning a clone taking the spotlight over the mental grappling hook in my opinion. Although, the new abilities and reworks wouldn't be as impactful without the combat reworks. Enemies have actual health bars and there is much greater variety with enemy types. And certain enemy types are weaker to specific powers like Doubts being highly flammable or Panic Attacks being so fast you have to slow them down to have an easy time with them. Bosses were another area where the improved combat really shined, although all of the bosses really boil down to doing the same attack method 3 times. Really happy that there was some areas that were borderline arenas towards the end though, as I highly enjoyed fighting people's personal demons.

Onto the game's presentation. While Psychonauts 1 had a one of a kind art style that I greatly appreciated, it was ultimately held back by the inferior hardware it launched on 16 years ago. In Psychonauts 2's case, it keeps that unique art style while also becoming absolutely gorgeous with its visuals. Mental worlds especially are beautiful. Psychonauts 2 is another game I'd like to say that every single frame is a painting. The Brain in a Jar level in particular is a wonderful depiction of a psychedelic drug trip and I just don't think screenshots do it justice. It's so bright and colorful, I feel very confident that I can compare it to Black Velvetopia with its visuals. You're best off looking at the early trailers for that level to see what I mean. Another example of the genuinely stunning artwork is the hospital casino level, which is a great example of how the drastically improved lighting really helped give the game its modern look. Even the music is wonderful. I love the throwback songs and leitmotifs, but I adore a lot of the completely brand new songs like the aforementioned casino's music. I'm desperately waiting for the ost to be released separately just for that Meat Circus remix though. Overall, Scott Cambell's character art looks beautiful and the other talented artists helped give it that AAA quality. And Peter McConnell did a stupendous job as always, love his music so much.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2601515224
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2601515463
And how can I not talk about the writing? Psychonauts keeps its humor from its absurd situations and clever writing, so much so that it seems like the game was made just days after the first one. I won't spoil any major plot details because the game is brand new, but there are tons of clever twists like how the reveal of Oleander as the main villain was in the first game. There's tons of attention to detail with foreshadowing and how characters view Raz and plenty of other small tidbits too. The writing was a major reason I fell in love with the first game and I can safely say the same for Psychonauts 2. Especially the commentary on mental health, they didn't tackle any issues they already covered in the first game. I was really surprised to see they managed to keep a T-rating with one character's world heavily exploring grief and alcoholism. That point of the game in general really reminds me of the asylum, as it's at nighttime, you're all alone, the levels can be done in any order, and it covers mental health problems exceptionally well. The other level in that area became a favorite of mine too, I liked how they handled a sort of identity crisis. Covering the different personas people can have by having them literally be different characters in someone's mind was really interesting to me. And the end scene of that level was adorable and a tad touching.

Psychonauts 2 was exactly what I wanted. It's an easy 10/10 for me. I am so happy I got to play this game. Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2 are one of a kind games that I highly recommend. If the $60 price tag puts you off, wait for a sale. I promise you, you won't regret playing this game. I am so glad that Psychonauts is no longer a one-off game and I really hope Microsoft acquiring DoubleFine means we can see more of this series.

As someone who's played turn-based games to hell and back since I was a kid, Brutal Orchestra was one of the most refreshing experiences I've had in a long while. I haven't had this much fun with an RPG since Mother 3 and LISA; and saying that should mean a lot to anyone familiar with the genre. I'm going to preface this review with a simple statement: Pick up this game. It's worth the price even when it's not on sale.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2787571142
As the title already hints, purely from a gameplay perspective, this is my new favorite RPG. A unique battle system, real strategy, interesting items and movesets, and dozens of party members all combined to make some of the most memorable combat from a turn-based game. The number of systems and status effects may seem daunting at first, but if you take just a teensy bit of time to read, it’s very simple. Originally, I thought the pigment system was going to be a pointless gimmick, but I quickly realized the amount of depth involved in its design. Enemies and party members may require different strategies just because they don't use the most common color of pigment. Pigment overflow exists to punish bad pigment management with a slight health penalty. Additionally, calculating the risk versus reward with using pigment of the wrong color is always a fun gamble. However, what took me away the most was the lack of random crits. For an RPG, this is a huge distinction that I welcome with open arms. Alas, no more randomly taking or dealing double damage; Brutal Orchestra has full faith that its combat is engaging enough to not rely on an outdated gameplay mechanic. Although the combat is turn-based, it's still fast-paced. Once you fully understand what you and your enemies are capable of, battles will be over in a breeze. Even with attack animations turned on, battles will regularly last a little over a minute with total turns in the single-digits.

Some of the items get really creative like giving your party member an extra turn, but they act of their own volition. Other fun ones include doubling your gold at the cost of severely crippling your party member's movement or gaining extra turns but with a 30% of having the item break. The Fishing Rod was a personal favorite of mine and I will not elaborate on that one. The party member variety is possibly the best there is. There’s a party member with an absurd amount of health capable of resurrecting dead party members, but he can never be healed. There’s a Shedinja-like girl who can’t be hurt and redirects all the damage to her party members. She can deal absurd levels of damage, but she’ll make her party members take double the damage if you play poorly. There’s a party member who lights every enemy on fire, but he’s always on fire. There’s one that trades health for extra turns, one that does random amounts of damage and randomizes your stored pigment, and even ones entirely focused on managing pigment. With 20 total party members that have different movesets every time you encounter them, the party members easily carry the replay value with the variety they offer. And the party members wouldn’t be nearly as fun if it weren’t for the outstanding boss fights. There’s one boss that constantly changes attacks when you hit him with one of them leading to an instant kill. The game teaches you restraint, and then uses that against you when encountering a different boss that effortlessly sweeps your party. But then you find out that if you attack that boss he loses one of his attacks. Every boss has their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses offering a unique challenge for every boss.

The art direction is phenomenal as well. Maceo's art style is so distinct you can tell he's the artist of a game just by looking at it. And ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ does the game look gorgeous. I particularly like the environmental design of the three major areas. The Far Shores being a dried-up ocean filled with enemies inhabiting fish carcasses, The Orpheum and its rather unique take on a Greek amphitheater with a perpetual rainstorm and fleshy instruments, and the literal Bosch painting that is the Garden all made incredibly unique locations. In addition the enemies are just so expressive and vibrant. I love how every enemy has an idle animation, it really says a lot about the genre when this is a rarity. The attack animations are all wonderful too. Some of them are actually pretty disturbing, especially for the unique boss animations. There's one where a baby gets torn apart by its parents and then there's stuff like whatever the hell Come Home is.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2773168757
And oh my God the soundtrack. I have regularly listened to Brutal Orchestra's OST outside of the game. Every enemy and boss also has a unique battle theme and you have no idea how happy that makes me. I think the Persona series comes to mind when I talk about this problem, but a lot of RPGs don't really care about battle theme variety. Most games would just put one song for normal enemies, one for bosses, and one unique song for the final boss or rarely a special encounter in the story. It is so refreshing to have almost every encounter play a different tune. Nearly every song in the soundtrack is amazing, but if I have to pick a few favorites I'll have to go with Osman, Then Nowak, Teach a Fish to Man, and The Other Escape. I think my favorite song of them all has to be Feel the Rhythm, the Music Man theme. Though this is partly because I like the reactive elements the soundtrack incorporates. The Music Men are enemies that transform into fleshy instruments and when they do, that instrument gets added to the song. The soundtrack reacts right on cue to the changing battlefield and I love it. There are other examples of reactive songs, but the Music Men are the big standout. The sound design is also surprisingly good. The bizarre screams coming out of some moves are pretty unsettling at times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Urv4LIFEUQ
Here's my main problem with the game: The story. Now, this has absolutely nothing to do with the story being bad. Far from it. The issue is how much just isn't in the game. There are plenty of funny lines and examples of good writing, but there just isn’t enough of it. A lot of the bosses just sorta exist with no in-game backstory. This is especially confusing for one of the final bosses which has a very clear motivation and connection to the plot, but without even a sliver of explanation. The devs have talked about adding a bestiary, more NPCs, and generally more dialogue in the game, so this issue might be resolved in the future. I think more party member interactions would be a nice addition personally. The party members are colorful characters before you recruit them, but when they're in your party they might as well all be statues. LISA had these short blips of end-battle dialogue that showed up all the time and I think Brutal Orchestra could use the same system. That and actually allowing me to talk to them outside of combat would be pretty neat. It would add more to the game's lore and story but without breaking the pace of gameplay. And on an unrelated complaint, there’s a major exploit that allows you to reset the fight by going to the main menu. Patching that should be a priority because it does remove a lot of the difficulty.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed my time with Brutal Orchestra. For $15, it is well worth every penny. I’m currently giving it a 9/10, but the game’s probably going to go up to a 10/10 for me in the future. The developers have promised free updates, with one in the near future including a bunch of new enemies. And with new enemies means more strategies, new songs, new art, and just more in general. Pick this game up if you’ve got the time and money. I’m very much looking forward to the bright future of this game.