#linda lungfish

[steggmatt]

[psychonauts-textposts]

Psychonauts + Textposts Pt. 110/?~

[a-m-w-worlds]

Psychonauts Analysis: Why Lungfishopolis is an Underappreciated Level

This level is technically impressive, for one thing. Raz is given an entirely new set of idle and walking animations which only appear in this one level. This is the only level after unlocking it that levitation is completely unusable. Raz is much slower than normal and feels significantly heavier with even the camera shaking as he walks. And everything from buildings, to tanks, to cars, to pedestrians is completely squishable! I wouldn't bat an eyelash at any of this in a newer game, but in a game from 2005? This is mind-blowing! The devs didn't have to do any of this. Even if they had taken the easy route and not added all these little details the level still would have been fun, but I probably wouldn't be writing a Tumblr post about it.

Then there's the level design. Linda's is the only non-human mind we enter over the course of the Psychonauts series, yet her mindscape is a decidedly human city. This is obviously because she was being mind-controlled by Coach and he built over her real psyche with something he can more easily manipulate. Something interesting about this level though is just how eerie it feels. Maybe this is just me and the early 2000s jank, but even with all of the cars and pedestrians, Lungfishopolis doesn't feel fully alive. Urban areas feeling lifeless and oddly compacted in older video games is nothing new, but this is one of the only times I feel like it actually benefits the level. Despite having an open sky, the city feels almost subterranean, enclosed. This is very fitting for what's actually going on in Linda's head! The city being surrounded by stone walls isn't just practical from a design standpoint, it perfectly visualizes the way Coach is trying to close Linda off from everything but his instructions, represented by the broadcast tower. My other point about the city feeling lifeless also plays into this. Lungfishopolis, like other video game levels from the time, feels less like a real city and more like a populated ghost town. Again though, this makes sense in context! Just as game developers create pixel simulacrums of cities without being able to capture the liveliness of a real city due to time and hardware constraints, so did Coach! The fact that the shortcomings of this nearly-old-enough-to-drink video game actually adds to the storytelling is absolutely beautiful!/gen/pos

I've not even mentioned Raz and Coach Oleander being kaiju's yet. Like with everything else in Psychonauts, this is a brilliant decision! It magnifically demonstrates how small and powerless Linda feels compared to the humans despite being physically larger than them in real life, but I also just appreciate how the roles are reversed. The fact that the monster destroying the city is actually the good guy and the superhero trying to save the city is the villain, is glorious! If you return to the level after completing it, you're even encouraged to keep smashing everything because now that Linda is free, Lungfishopolis will be undergoing reforestation.

The last thing to note is how, oddly enough, Lungfishopolis roughly parallels Lucrecia's Lament. Linda and Lucy both had psyches "built over" by foreign entities (Coach and Ford), both realized something was wrong, and both broke out of their programming in small ways, (Linda with her freedom fighters and Lucy with her quilts). I love that we got to see basically the same concept portrayed in two wildly different ways!

Also, if I had a nickel for every game that featured a level where the protagonist and final boss were kaiju-sized on a miniature set...

-and the end credits referenced the Lunch atop a Skyscraper photo from 1932...

-I would have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it could buy me two cans of Pork and Beans the year that photo was taken!

[yurigagarin998]

[visual-oddities]

Kochamara dialogue that is basically unused considering how it's implemented

[magicmvx]

deepsea/merman raz meeting linda idk

Both met Linda :D

[psy-quotes]

Day 75 - 2/11/2022

Number 10:

Raz: [meets Lili late at night] Geez, it sounds like you caught a bad cold.

Lili: Maybe, but LISTEN! I traced the psychic interference back to Coach Oleander's radio! He's been broadcasting his insane plot all over camp in his sleep!

Raz: So he's really kidnapping children and stealing their brains to make weapons!

Lili: [excited] Yes! Isn't that great?

Raz: [confused] What? How is that great?

Lili: Because this is an honest-to-goodness psychic emergency!

Raz: And Sasha's not here! He left on some "official Psychonauts business."

Lili: [still excited] Milla left a note saying the same thing!

Raz: [Shaking her] Lili! A deranged madman is building a fleet of psycho-death tanks to take over the world, and there's no one who can stop him except for you and me!

Lili: OH MY GOD! Let's make out!

Raz: [Backs away] Uh, what??

Lili: Sorry! I'm just so excited! Since you showed up, Raz, things are so much more exciting! Sinister death plots, mad scientists, hideous monsters...

Raz: ...Make out?

Lili: How long have I ignored what this camp has to offer? Everything's new to me now thanks to you! [sees a flower pop out of the bush] I mean, look at this flower!

Raz: You mean, like... kiss?

Lili: How many years have I been coming here and I've never even noticed a cool flower like this before?

[Lili picks up the flower and is suddenly captured by a gigantic mutated Lungfish emerging out of the bush; Raz attempts to attack it, but is swatted aside]

Raz: Ahhhh--oof!

Lili: Oh, no! You didn't just hit my boyfriend!

[n-sani-tea]

Just a little curious, what does Linda look like as a human in the Role Reversal au?

She was surprisingly hard to translate.