PSI King's Sensorium is a level in Psychonauts 2. It takes place inside the mental world of an anonymous brain in a jar left inside Otto Mentallis' Brainframe for 20 years. Razputin helps its owner, nicknamed "PSI King", regain their memories.
Description[]
The brain in a jar's mind, when entered the first time, only contains a dark, empty void. It's only when the brain is given new sensory input that it begins developing a proper mental world again. At first, a chaotic mess of swirling colors envelops everything, which once the mind is calmed down gives way to another mostly dark void, though this time with much more of a sense of space and some silhouettes of old memories. Eventually, this void, which turns out to be the inside of a Memory Vault, opens up to a newly formed mental world outside.
PSI King's Sensorium is especially vibrant and colorful even by mental world standards, owing to its host rediscovering their senses for the first time in 20 years. It has a cel-shaded art style that's different from anything else encountered in the series, and objects that are farther away have an anaglyph effect to them.
The world is themed around psychedelic art and the five senses, and is meant to resemble an open-air 1960s music festival. Key locations include a music stage, campgrounds for the festival-goers out in the woods, and an area with concession stands. All of these areas can be traveled between using the Feel Mobile. Additionally, the members of Feast of the Senses, the band that's meant to play at the concert, have themed "shrine" areas separate from the festival where their instruments are recovered. Here, each sense is connected to a single color, and each has a huge statue in their honor overlooking the area.
Points of Interest[]
- Quiet Place: A dark, safe area inside a Memory Vault, where the mind's host can hide out in case things outside get too overwhelming. There were remnants of old memories here that needed to be rekindled.
- Backstage: The most important area of the festival, this is where Feast of the Senses is meant to perform in front of an unruly audience of fans, that represent the huge amounts of sensory information the mind is trying to process. The top of the stage is shaped like a viking helmet.
- Eye Shrine: An area colored almost exclusively in shades of green that's dedicated to vision. It's overlooked by a huge statue of Vision Quest.
- The Woods: A forested area with a cliff and a waterfall that's also called the Campgrounds. There are plenty of tents in this area, as this is apparently where most festival visitors camp out overnight.
- Ear Hand Shrine: A mountainous area colored mostly in blues and reds, with a large open arena at the top. The arena is overlooked by large statues of Audie O and Dr. Touch.
- Concessions: A spiraling hill surrounded by concession stands, though most are sold out. As a result, a huge crowd of festival-goers are queued up around the hill for the one open food truck at its very top.
- Nose Mouth Shrine: An area that's split right down the middle. with the left side colored all orange and themed around taste, and the right side purple and themed around smell. At its peak, a split platform has statues of Sniffles and Tasty, side by side.
In Psychonauts 2[]
In order to reach Postmaster Cruller, who's locked himself inside the Motherlobe's Mailroom, Razputin needs the help of a more senior mailroom worker. Since Nick Johnsmith is around, but his body is brainless, Raz goes looking for a "loaner brain" to pilot the body. To do so, he heads to Otto Mentallis' lab and picks a suitable brain from the Brainframe.
Upon entering the brain using his Psycho-Portal, Raz finds only darkness inside, as the brain's owner has been deprived of his senses for around 20 years, losing track of his identity and most of his memories of the outside world because of the complete lack of stimulation. He does find the Mote of Light, a small glowing orb that represents all that is left of the mind's consciousness. Raz asks for permission to return the brain to a body, and though the Mote is very confused, it is also overjoyed that Razputin's presence is causing it to remember basic things about being alive. It enthusiastically agrees to the plan.
When Raz manages to insert the brain into Nick's head, its new occupant immediately begins experiencing sensory information again. The brain-inside-Nick's-body reacts with wonder to everything around it, but also feels overwhelmed at the sudden wealth of things to process. Razputin has no choice but to enter the mind again to try and calm them down.
Inside, a chaotic vortex of images and colors has taken the place of the dark void, and Raz and the Mote of Light are soon ambushed by a Panic Attack. Razputin has difficulty keeping up with this creature, but the Mote stops the battle by shutting out the world entirely. They are once again inside the void, though it now has more of a sense of place, as there are some dark floating islands to stand on in the void, which now looks more like a starry night sky than outright being empty. The void also contains some wispy silhouettes that Raz remarks seem like a sign that the Mote is remembering something. When Raz goes to talk to the Mote, though, there is a sudden knocking on the sky itself. Razputin tentatively tells the knocking presence to come in, and the void opens up to reveal a huge figure with an eyeball for a head dressed in all green, which the Mote identifies as Vision. Vision says the Mote is "needed on stage", and calls it "PSI King" as he grabs it and pulls it out of the darkness.
Razputin follows the two, exiting from the void; which turns out to be the inside of a Memory Vault, and entering a wildly colorful music festival. At the stage, an unruly crowd is waiting for a concert by "Feast of the Senses", a band composed of PSI King and all five of his senses: Vision Quest, Audie O, Dr. Touch, Sniffles, and Tasty. Unfortunately, most of the band members are missing at the moment. When Razputin suggests that Vision at least play a solo to keep the crowd placated, he admits that he's unsure of where his violin went. As he tries to remember, Razputin is sucked into his enormous pupil and ends up at a separate location, where a shrine to vision holds the violin.
Raz and PSI King make their way through the Eye Shrine area to recover the violin, in the process fighting off another Panic Attack, which will need to be done several more times across this level. To slow down some elements of the Shrine's decor that move too fast for Raz to deal with (as well as the Panic Attacks, or anything else, for that matter), PSI King teaches Razputin the Time Bubble PSI-Power, which can be used to slow down anything within a small spherical area.
Once the violin is recovered, Vision can perform; however, only his own fans are calmed down, and the fans of the other four senses jeer him off the stage after his solo. It does cause PSI King to transform from a featureless orb into a floating eyeball. Vision tells Raz that they need the rest of the band, as PSI King remembers that they used to have a van. The Feel Mobile pops into existence, and the three can use it to drive to two other areas and look for the other band members.
- At the Concessions, a huge crowd of people shaped like Nick's body are looking to get food, but most of the food trucks are sold out. Razputin makes his way to the top of a spiral-shaped hill in the middle of the area to find the single active food truck, where Sniffles and Tasty are choosing what to order. As Raz talks to them about getting back to the stage and performing, he is brought to the Nose Mouth Shrine to obtain their instruments as he did with Vision's violin. He climbs through a large purple and yellow obstacle course that's part taste- and part smell-themed, and brings back Tasty and Sniffles' guitars. This also causes PSI King to gain a nose and mouth.
- At the Woods, nobody much is around, but Audie O and Dr. Touch are camped out near the top of a waterfall, arguing and looking out at the crowd gathered by the stage. Audie O says there's no band without PSI King, so when Raz tells him PSI King is back, the two are ready to perform. This still leaves Raz needing to find their instruments, which he does at the Ear Hand Shrine. In this blue and red area, Raz climbs up another waterfall to reach an arena where he has to fight some Censors and Regrets, and then another Panic Attack. Finally, he can reach Dr. Touch's electronic organ and Audie O's drum set. Hearing them causes PSI King to gain a pair of ears and a little arm.
When the entire band is back together, they can finally give a proper concert. With PSI King on vocals, the band performs the song Cosmic I, and with all his senses properly sorted out, PSI King takes on the appearance of his old body as he finally begins to remember everything. PSI King, now as Helmut Fullbear, one of the Psychic Six thought dead, cannot even properly finish the song, however, before an unwelcome memory rears its head: Maligula, whose actions took 20 years off his life, while his friends forgot him that entire time.
Faced with Maligula, Helmut retreats into the safe void inside the Memory Vault again and turns back into the Mote of Light. Razputin helps him look back on his memories of what happened 20 years ago, to come to terms with the reality of it all and see that things aren't hopeless. Once he feels better, he and the band members work together to keep the memory of Maligula frozen in time so Raz can dispel her. The crowd demands an encore, and Helmut can now help Raz with his plan to enter the office in the Mailroom.
Upon revisiting the Sensorium, the entire band including Helmut will be too busy bowing to the crowd to acknowledge Raz, so he decides by himself to keep cleaning up backstage.
Collectibles[]
Figments[]
There are 263 figments in PSI King's Sensorium, which is the largest amount of any world in the series so far. They are shaped like all sorts of things PSI King remembers from the outside world.
Figments of Interest[]
Among PSI King's figments, some that stand out include:
- The band members' and Helmut's outlines, found in the middle of the stage.
- Six different types of figments shaped like Bob Zanotto.
- A group of figments under the stage that form a scene of Bob and Helmut's wedding, with the other members of the Psychic Six in attendance.
- Figments shaped like swords and shields and a viking longship, in reference to Helmut's penchant for wearing viking helmets during performances.
Emotional Baggage[]
Purse
- Bag: Located in Concessions, when reaching an area with spinning stars jump down to the floor and head right to find the bag in a dead-end.
- Tag: Located Backstage on top of a trailer.
Dufflebag
- Bag: Located after the second light bridge in the Eye Shrine, after getting off the bridge go straight past the second healing bulb and then to the right, around a large stack of equipment. The bag is found inside this stack of equipment.
- Tag: Found immediately to the right of where Raz spawns when entering Concessions with the Feel Mobile
Steamer Trunk
- Bag: Found in the Ear Hand Shrine on top of the mountain, on the right before the light bridge.
- Tag: Located in the Nose Mouth Shrine, after slowing down two fish to cross over a lake the tag is on the path in front of Raz that leads to a large platform.
Hatbox
- Bag: Located near the beginning of the Woods, follow the path upwards and take the first left. The bag is sitting with some tents.
- Tag: Located after the second light bridge in the Eye Shrine on the path towards the spotlight that activates the third light bridge. After the third fan, burn down the "A Feast for the Senses" poster to reveal the tag.
Suitcase
- Bag: Found Backstage underneath the main stage on top of a wooden box.
- Tag: In the Woods, climb up the mountain until you reach the first log. Go around the right side of the mountain after this log to find the tag.
Memory Vaults[]
- Helmut's Hail Mary - Located in the Concessions area near the beginning of the section behind a wooden gate that requires the Projection ability to open.
- Ford Forgets - Located in the Eye Shrine area behind one of the light towers, past two rotating fans and within a wooden gate that requires the Projection ability to open.
Half-A-Minds[]
- Located Backstage in the same area as the Suitcase, burn a poster to reveal another path towards this Half-A-Mind.
- Found in the Eye Shrine, after the first light bridge, on a wooden platform directly beneath a spinning fan.
- Found in the Woods, at the top of the mountain use Time Bubble on a falling log to jump across a gap towards this Half-A-Mind.
- Located at the end of the Nose Mouth Shrine, use the spotlight on the platform with the instruments onto the prism below to create an optional light bridge leading to this Half-A-Mind.
Nuggets of Wisdom[]
The Nuggets of Wisdom in this mind are shaped like handheld microphones.
- Located in the Eye Shrine after the first light bridge, slow down two spinning stars to platform up to the Nugget.
- Located in the Nose Mouth Shrine after the first light bridge, slow down the two tongues and use a trampoline to jump on top of the second tongue where the Nugget is sitting.
- Found in the Ear Hand Shrine at the beginning of this area. Use the spotlight on the mountain to create a light bridge towards the island with the Nugget.
Enemies[]
- Censors
- Regrets
- Doubts
- Little Censors
- Heavy Censors
- Panic Attack
Trivia[]
- The Mote's mental world is heavily influenced by his synesthesia - a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway. A mental world affected by synesthesia was previously considered for Psychonauts, however the idea was thought too challenging to implement at the time[1].
- A notable challenge the developers faced when developing this level was making it accessible to colorblind players. The colorblindness setting in the options menu uses some of the vegetation from this level to demonstrate what the different settings will look like in-game.
- The level takes inspiration from "the Peter Max-inspired Yellow Submarine as well as the work of Russian abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky and even some old cartoons like the Looney Tunes."[2]
- Both Vaults in the level are able to be sequence-broken with the AOE upgrade for Pyrokinesis, eliminating the need for Projection, though their reception to such a move may be fixed in a patch.
- The enormous statues of the Senses that hold their instruments each had 6 arms in many of the promotional images and trailers before release, but have only 2 arms in the final game.
- The subtitles for one of the tongue twisters Raz says into the stage mics is wrong. The subtitles say "Are you copper-bottoming them, my man? No, I'm aluminiuming them, man!" where Raz actually says "Are you copper-bottoming them, my man? No, I'm aluminiuming them, my man.".
- However, both of these are wrong. The actual tongue twister is "Are you copper-bottoming 'em, my man? No, I'm aluminiuming 'em, mum."
- PSI King's Sensorium and Black Velvetopia are the only two mental worlds in which Raz's textures change to match the mental world's style.
- In the final shot of the level, when the crowd asks the band for an encore, the Memory Vault PSI King escaped into is being bounced around on top of the crowd like a beach ball.
- Using the "plucky" pin in Psi King's Sensorium has Raz pick up a pink heart object. Several of these objects can be found in the level.