It's taken many years, but the sequel to the cult-classic Psychonauts is finally out. Psychonauts 2 brings with it the continued adventures of the aspiring Psychonaut Razputin "Raz" Aquato as he interacts with a cast of colorful characters and explores their mental worlds. The signature Psychonauts style of adventure game elements mixed with 3D platforming includes a host of new psychic powers for Raz to try out. He's going to need them, because the Mother Lobe, headquarters of the Psychonauts, isn't going to reveal its secrets easily.
Thanks to his adventures in Psychonauts and Psychonauts: In the Rhombus of Ruin, Raz is well-equipped to deal with whatever mind-melding problems lie in front of him. Psychonauts 2 even opens with one of the previous games' villains, Dr. Loboto, being grilled by his assembled allies. They do manage to find out the dangerous hydrokinetic Maligula may be behind everything, just as she is behind the water-based curse on Raz's family. After that, Raz is dropped off as an intern at the Mother Lobe for training and ends up uncovering even more conspiracies, including evidence of a double agent. Major Spoilers ahead for Psychonauts 2.
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Maligula's True Identity
Throughout Psychonauts 2, Raz is on a mission to reconstitute Ford Cruller's shattered mind at the behest of Truman Zanotto, Grand Head of the Psychonauts. While doing so, he helps out the other members of the Psychic Six, the original founders of the Psychonauts. Eventually, he discovers that the group's current sorry state was due to the secret seventh member, Lucrecia "Lucy" Mux. She was romantically involved with Ford but had to leave the group due to professional obligations for her homeland of Grulovia. However, Lucy's experiences during an uprising combined with the abusive training caused her to create a dark, violent persona named Maligula. She lost control when quelling the uprisings and flooded all of Grulovia, driving her mad when she saw her sister's corpse among the destruction.
The Gzar and his family fleed in exile while the Psychic Six managed to subdue Maligula. However, Ford Cruller secretly took the defeated Lucrecia and used the Astrolathe, one of Otto Mentallis' inventions, to alter her mind. He also used it on Augustus, Raz's father, to place Lucy amongst the Aquato family as her twin sister Marona – Raz's supposed grandmother Nona. Raz is shocked and angry, but Ford convinces him to keep the truth from his family for a little longer so they can ensure Maligula remains sealed. Cruller takes Raz and Nona to the Green Needle Gulch, the first home of the Psychic Six, to use the Astrolathe again for that purpose. There, Raz discovers that it was a disguised Nona who directed him toward Psychonauts' psychic summer camp in the first place.
The Psychonauts Double Agent
Raz and the Psychic Six fire up the Astrolathe to banish Maligula, but Raz is pulled out and replaced by Truman. Truman's daughter and Raz's maybe-girlfriend Lili then appear and tells Raz her father has been acting strange. They enter his mind, and sure enough it isn't really him. Instead, it's the mind of the brainless mail clerk Nick whom Raz found early in the game. Furthermore, Nick's true identity is Gristol Malik, the Gzar's spoiled son. Gristol turns out to have been behind Dr. Loboto's actions in Psychonauts: In the Rhombus of Ruin. Raz and Lili discover Gristol's intent to bring back Maligula in an attempt to destroy the Psychonauts and reconquer Grulovia. Dr. Loboto was involved, but only to do the initial brain transplanting.
Maligula awakens, and most of the characters present are blown away in the resulting storm. Lili leaves to find her father's brain and Raz runs to his family, who have figured out what's going on. They help Raz enter Maligula's brain, where he and Nona do battle with her. Raz and Nona are uncomfortable with the truth of Nona's identity laid out, but Raz decides that there's a Maligula in everyone that they have to fight. Nona comes to terms with her mistakes, and Maliula is banished with the help of the other Psychonaut interns. A side effect of this is that Raz's family curse regarding drowning in water, actually a psychic censor implanted by Ford, is gone, and no longer causes the Hand of Galochio to try and drown him when he touches water.
Raz and his fellow interns graduate to become junior agents, and peace finally returns to the Psychonauts' headquarters. However, there is one last notable scene hidden in the postgame. When revisiting Sasha Nein’s lab, Raz will see Dr. Loboto escaping. Loboto convinces Raz not to snitch on him given it was revealed he was innocent, with him also stating that he’d left his “kid” at “camp.” This is clearly in reference to the events of the first Psychonauts and is a surprising twist for Loboto's character. Whether this will lead to any future developments for the Psychonauts series is unknown, but fans would surely welcome another entry.
Psychonauts 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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