Razputin Aquato |
–Raz
Razputin "Raz" Aquato is the protagonist of the Psychonauts series. He is a ten year old[2] psychic. As of Psychonauts 2, he is a newly-recruited junior Psychonaut and former Psychonaut intern.
Appearance[]
Razputin has yellow skin, burgundy hair, and green eyes. His head is large compared to his body. He is four feet and four inches tall[3]. Raz's outfit varies slightly from each game, but he is almost always seen wearing a few core items: A mahogany leather bag with his earned merit badges clipped on the front, large red goggles, and a red-brown leather circus helmet.
In Psychonauts, he wears a worn, brown leather jacket, a turtleneck sweater striped with chartreuse and forest green, brown corduroy pants, and black shoes. He wears the same outfit in Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin.
In Psychonauts 2, he first wears his outfit from the previous games. He then wears Sasha's borrowed clothes after getting his old ones stolen by the interns. His new outfit has an oversized dark beige blazer, a teal turtleneck sweater, denim jeans, and sand-colored dress shoes.
Personality[]
Raz is a charismatic young psychic determined to become an officially recognized member of the Psychonauts. He is always eager to help others and tries to see the good in everyone he meets, displaying great patience and understanding with the minds he dives into. Being raised in a circus, he is a master of performing on stage. Raz is an accomplished trapeze artist, vigorously trained by his family in acrobatics. He can use these skills combined with his potent psychic powers for unique performances. Despite his young age, he is a very fast learner, showing he can master several psychic abilities in only a few days.
Raz is very eager to help and be part of the Psychonauts. As a result, he has a tendency to be overly-ambitious and sometimes makes mistakes out of recklessness. However, he is quick to own up to and fix his mistakes, as well as accept punishment for his actions.
Background[]
–Character blurb from the original Psychonauts website
Razputin was born and raised in the Aquato family circus, the middle child of five to Augustus and Donatella Aquato. He is the younger brother to Dion and Frazie and older brother to Mirtala and Queepie, and was very close to his grandmother Marona, who he affectionally called "Nona".
All his life, Raz's father would tell him and his siblings about a bloody past feud wherein a family of fortune tellers from a rival circus drowned his father and cursed every current and future member of Raz's family to die in water. The threat of this curse would constantly plague Raz's mind. Whenever he was near water, he would realize a large hand that would pull him under if he came close to the shore.
The constant warning from his father about "fortune tellers" brought Raz to believe his father hated psychics, which became troubling for him when he started showing signs of being psychic himself. Luckily for him, his sister Frazie was also psychic, and they played many "brain games" together in secret. But this was not enough for young Raz, and he would practice his abilities behind closed doors. Raz grew up reading the adventures of a psychic spy agency, known as the Psychonauts, in a comic series called "True Psychic Tales". His father instead insisted that he should focus more on practicing his difficult acrobatic routines.
One day, after a circus performance, a stranger from the audience handed ten year old Raz a pamphlet for Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp - a secret government camp designed to train young psychic children into becoming Psychonauts. Raz eagerly read the pamphlet after the show. Noticing the pamphlet, his disapproving father snatched it up and tore it to pieces. Later that night, Raz stealthily ran away from the circus on the back of his sister's pony, Sugarcube. He soon let Sugarcube run home after reaching some traintracks. Eventually, Raz met a friendly lumberjack who was willing to drive him to the camp gates.
Story[]
Psychonauts[]
After reaching the camp, Raz tried to sneak in, but was caught by the camp counselors. With some convincing, they agree to let him stay until his parents arrive. With more convincing, they allow him to take part in Coach Oleander's "Basic Braining" course, which he easily passes. Impressed, Agent Nein invites Raz to take part in an experiment at his underground laboratory to determine the extent of his abilities. Agent Nein and Agent Vodello teach Raz Marksmanship and Levitation to aid the experiment.
During the experiment, Raz comes across a vision of Dr. Loboto, an insane ex-dentist, extracting camper Dogen Boole's brain, but is unable to intervene. Unbeknownst to Raz, his thoughts have accidentally been intertwined with the thoughts of Coach Oleander, which have been unintentionally broadcasted via the camp loudspeaker system. Raz eventually realizes that the vision was real after finding Dogen without a brain, but the camp counselors don't believe him.
Raz discovers that Dr. Loboto is working on behalf of Coach Oleander, who intends to harvest the campers' brains to power an army of psychic death tanks. Lili and the camp counselors are soon abducted as well, and with both Agents Nein and Vodello missing, Raz takes it upon himself to infiltrate the abandoned insane asylum across the lake to rescue them. Agent Cruller gives him a piece of bacon which he can use to contact him at any time, and tasks him with retrieving the stolen brains so that he can return them to the campers. Raz frees the sea monster lungfish, Linda, from Coach Oleander's control and she takes him safely across the lake. At the asylum, Raz helps the inmates overcome their emotional struggles:
- Boyd Cooper: A former security guard obsessed with a number of government conspiracy theories.
- Fred Bonaparte: A former asylum orderly who believes he is possessed by the ghost of his ancestor, Napoleon Bonaparte.
- Gloria Von Gouton: A former stage actress driven to depression by her mother's suicide.
- Edgar Teglee: A painter whose girlfriend cheated on him in high school.
Once healed, they help Raz gain access to the upper levels of the asylum, where Loboto has set up his lab. With help from Raz, Mr. Pokeylope knocks Loboto out of the tower. Raz frees Lili and restores Agents Nein and Vodello's minds, allowing them to confront Coach Oleander. Boyd Cooper subsequently burns down the asylum, giving Coach Oleander time to transfer his brain to a giant tank. The giant tank then blasts everyone unconscious, except for Raz. Raz destroys the tank, but when he approaches the broken machine, it releases a cloud of sneezing powder, causing him to sneeze his brain out. Physically incapacitated, Raz uses his telekinesis to place his brain inside the tank, merging his mind with Oleander's.
Inside the combined mindscape, Raz discovers that Coach Oleander's inner turmoil springs from his childhood fear of his father, being amplified by the Psitanium underneath Whispering Valley. Oleander's mental image of his father, a raging cannibal, tries to kill them both. Razputin's mental image of his own father later appears and the two dads join forces. Suddenly, Raz's real father breaks into the mindscape to save Raz, having finally arrived at the camp. Raz's father explains that he doesn't hate psychics, as he is one himself, and only wanted to keep Raz safe. Raz's father uses his own psychic abilities to fix his son's tangled mind and helps Raz destroy Oleander's personal demons. At the camp's closing ceremony, Agent Cruller presents Raz with an official uniform and welcomes him into the Psychonauts. As Raz prepares to leave camp with his father, word arrives that the Grand Head of the Psychonauts—Lili's father, Truman Zanotto—has been kidnapped. The team, Raz and Lili included, fly off in the Psychonauts' jet to rescue him.
Psychonauts: In the Rhombus of Ruin[]
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin picks up immediately after Psychonauts. Using his Clairvoyance ability, Raz discovers Truman Zanotto is being held captive somewhere in the Rhombus of Ruin. The team travels into the Rhombus of Ruin, but the jet crashes into the ocean before they can land.
Raz awakens tied to a chair in the chamber where Zanotto is being held. Trapped in arm restraints with most of his powers suppressed by the debilitating nearby Psilirium deposit, Razputin has no other choice but to use Clairvoyance to jump into the body of a fish outside of the facility. While enjoying the ability to swim like a fish, Razputin observes both the massive chunk of Psilirium at the bottom of the sea floor and the huge number of sunken vehicles piled on top of it. Using his psychic abilities to explore the junk filled ocean, Raz eventually discovers that his friends are trapped in vicious hallucinations imposed by the Psilirium deposit below them.
Body hopping his way through the Rhombus of Ruin, Razputin finds Milla trapped inside of a school bus. Milla believes she's on a bus packed full of children, which is stuck on collision course with a train that she is holding back using her powers. Razputin is able to snap her out of the trance using music therapy with a nearby radio. Unable to physically help Razputin, Milla lends him her psychic energy and boosts his suppressed psychokinesis so he can have more freedom to interact with the environment. Observing the lights on in a sunken nearby bomber plane, Razputin body hops his way over, where he observes Lili playing with several nuclear weapons that she believes are flowers.
Luckily, Lili still has her music box. Seeking to repeat his success with Milla, Razputin hops into the body of a nearby flea, and enters the music box in hopes of repairing it. Once repaired, it plays its tune. Snapped out of her hallucination, Lili uses some bombs to blow a hole out of the plane and into a neighboring train. Lili lends Razputin her remaining psi-energy for him to use Pyrokinesis in order to burn a path through the train for her. It quickly becomes apparent that Lili can't go any farther than the caboose. Body hopping to Lili's new pet rat, Razputin goes on his own and soon discovers that the fish guards surrounding the facility are all humanoid fish. Eventually, Raz comes across agent Nein, whose hallucination has led him to believe their fishy captors are in fact benevolent alien visitors. This hallucination is further fueled by the fact he is on a replica UFO.
However, once a conveniently placed record snaps him back to his senses, he concludes that the alien ship is little more than an Earth-made reproduction designed to scare the general population during the cold war. Hopping into the body of a whale, Razputin makes his way to a sunken cruise ship where Coach Oleander is held captive. He finds the coach is worse off than the others, for he's putting on a full blown concert in his hallucination, making music therapy useless. After destroying all of the coach's musical equipment, Razputin resorts to breaking a window, pouring cold water all over Coach in the process. With the cruise ship now flooded, Razputin levitates Oleander into a mermaid costume to help him swim.
After freeing his team from their hallucinations, Raz is pulled back into the chamber by Dr. Loboto, the insane ex-dentist from the first game, and Zanotto's kidnapper. By using a Psycho-Portal given to him by Oleander, Raz enters Loboto's mind. There, Razputin finds himself tied to the mast of a ship, floating adrift in a bath tub the size of an ocean. According to the ships captain, they're under attack by a giant sea monster, who emerges from the ocean almost immediately. After a short but intense fight with the Monster, Razputin is able to make it spit out a memory vault which he then opens and body hops inside.
Now inside the memory vault, Razputin watches the horrible tale of Loboto's parents who, upon realizing that they had given birth to a psychic, had his powers forcibly removed with a lobotomy. Raz finds Loboto's literal moral compass inside of his repressed memories and brings it back to the ship's captain, partially curing the mad dentist of his insanity. After Raz exits Loboto's mind, Loboto seems to have a change of heart, but instead leaves Raz and the others and floods the base. They escape from the base with Truman (and a stowaway Loboto), and the game ends with Lili telling her father about their adventures, and Truman shouting in disbelief that Lili has a boyfriend.
Psychonauts 2[]
Picking up right after the end of the Rhombus of Ruin, Psychonauts 2 begins with Raz, Milla, Sasha and Lili traveling to the Motherlobe, involved a mission in Dr. Loboto's mind to uncover the identity of the person who kidnapped Truman Zanotto. Although the mission almost goes awry, Raz is able to discover that the person who hired Loboto is affiliated with Maligula, the greatest enemy the Psychonauts have ever faced, that there may well be a mole in the Psychonauts. However, he is unable to learn more about the person's identity. Meanwhile, Truman has seemingly fallen comatose.
Upon their arrival to the Motherlobe, Raz is introduced to Hollis Forsythe, the Second/Lesser Head of the Psychonauts. Hollis is initially doubtful of the possibility of the mole, and horrified at the involvement of Maligula. She dismisses Raz as a capable Psychonaut on Ford's word due to the dubiousness of the old Psychonaut's mental state. However, she allows Raz to stay at the Motherlobe as part of the Internship program, due to Sasha and Milla's recommendation.
Raz's early days in the internship program prove to be humiliating: he falls for a hazing ritual by the other interns and has his clothes stolen, he's prevented from learning any intel regarding the mole, he isn't allowed to leave the Motherlobe, he isn't allowed to see Truman, and he's assigned under the mentorship of Nick Johnsmith -- the head of the mailroom who isn't even Psychic. When Raz arrives at the mailroom however, he finds Nick trapped in a package addressed to Truman, brainless. The psychonauts find a card for a suite at the Lady Lucktopus Casino on Nick's person, and begin planning an investigation. Hollis forbids the interns from getting involved due to the potential danger of the mission, and Hollis decides to stay behind at the Motherlobe to look after the interns in the meantime.
Raz attends a lesson under Hollis, arriving late. The lesson takes place in Hollis' mind, and he learns Mental Connection and stray throughts from Hollis (and Norma, who reluctantly brings him up to speed). However, Raz's acrobatic background leads him to jump into the stray throughts, allowing him to traverse between stray thoughts to create throught connections in a person's mind. Raz's fellow interns goad Raz into changing Hollis' mind so she'll allow the interns to join in on the casino mission. Raz manages to do so by associating Risk with Money (as Hollis had been preoccupied with the Psychonauts' monetary problems), leading Hollis to allow the interns to join the mission. In the process, Raz accidentally causes a chain reaction of thought connections that leads to the creation of an extreme gambling addiction.
Concerned about Hollis' erratic behavior (as she had disappeared to gamble at the casino, despite it forbidding Psychics), Raz once again re-enters Hollis' mind, finding that its appearance has changed radically into one of a Casino. Raz is forced to take on rigged gambling challenges to gain access to the innermost part of Hollis' mind, where the manifestation of her addiction: the Lady Lucktopus has taken root and grown to colossal size, as well as kidnapped Raz's fellow interns who have also snuck into Hollis' mind. Upon defeating the boss, Hollis' concious mind resurfaces, horrified at the state of her mind. Raz comes clean, apologizing to how he altered her thoughts and how he knew how it was wrong the moment he did, and even offers to leave the Psychonauts for his actions. Although Hollis is furious at Raz for jeapordizing the mission and the extreme invasion of privacy, she chooses to forgive Raz, as she had once made the same mistake, but unlike Raz was unable to undo it. She has Raz promise to never repeat this mistake and to learn from it.
Upon regaining her sanity, Hollis quickly retakes control of the mission, and coordinates Sasha, Milla, Raz and the other interns in infiltrating the hotel suite that seemingly belonged to Nick. Raz finds the lavish hotel suite has hidden room filled with writing and paraphernalia of the Delusionists, the followers of Maligula, He also finds books on necromancy, and is especially surprised to find a picture of Lili, which Raz hides away before the others can find it. Hollis briefly concludes that Nick is likely the mole, but Raz points out that it's impossible because his brain is missing.
Upon returning on the mission, Raz goes to meet with Lili, but is stopped by Sasha, who chides Raz for using his psychic abilities to alter a person's mind to his benefit. He tells that people make mistakes, but he thought that Hollis was too soft on Raz. Nevertheless he give Raz Smelling Salts and access to the Brain Tumbler, likely as a means to further deter him from futher misusing his powers. Raz meets with Lili in Truman's office, where the head of the Psychonauts remains comatose and unresponsive to Psychic treatment. Raz informs Lili of the picture he found, which upsets Lili, leading her to leave. Suddenly, Truman awakens to speak to Raz, asking him to not tell Lili of his condition to keep her safe. He asks Raz to quietly investigate the mole and the impending return of Maligula, and asks him to draw the help of Ford Cruller, and tells Raz to piece together Ford's broken mind. Raz is nervous at the prospect, especially after the disaster he caused with Hollis, but Truman tells Raz to treat Ford like just another mind in peril.
Soon after, Raz is met with the sudden arrival of his family, who've tracked him down at the Motherlobe to check up on him after he had run away from home. However, Hollis sternly asks them to leave and stay at the nearby Questionable Area, since the Motherlobe is meant to be top secret and is on lockdown due to the mole. Raz can meet with his family, and find that his older brother Dion is especially upset about Raz running away to become a Psychic, that his older sister Frazie still refuses to admit that she is a Psychic too, that his younger brother Queepie keeps running off to dance, and that his mother still hasn't come around on psychics even though his father has. Raz can also meet with Augustus, who reminds him to be careful with Maligula, as she is a member of the Galocio family who had apparently cursed the Aquato family to die in water.
Raz manages to summon Ford with a piece of bacon, although he very quickly reverts to his shattered state. As a result, Raz is unable to stay in Ford's mind for very long, but is able to learn that Maligula had once been a friend and fellow Psychic to Ford, as well as a secret seventh member of the Psychic Six by the name of Lucrecia Mux. With Ford now playing the part of a mail-room clerk, a barber, and a bowling alley attendant, Raz is forced to track him down.
Raz is prevented from even entering the bowling alley, as it is senior bowling night. Realizing that Compton Boole, a member of the Psychic Six and notable Zoolinguist should have the necessary bowling pass. He finds him locked away in a Psychoisolation Chamber, having retreated there due to his extreme anxiety leading him to involuntarily blow people up. Compton refuses to give Raz his bowling pass, as it has significant sentimental value; however he does ask Raz to gather a single bee from the Forgotten Forest, in hopes to check in on his friend Cassie O'Pia. Raz manages to capture three bees through some peril, but the number of bees manages to overwhelm Compton, leading him to have a breakdown. Raz enters his mind for a wellness check. Compton's mind takes the form of a cooking show, where the host and judges resemble Truman, Hollis, Ford and Otto Mentalis, respectively. They are forced to work together to earn the approval of the judges, but in the final challenge the two are separated, and Boole is forced to cook on his own, while Raz feeds the judges. Emerging victorious, Compton regains his confidence to do things on his own. He leaves the Psychoisolation chamber with the bees to track Cassie down, leaving Raz with bowling pass.
Raz enters Bowling Ford's mind, and learns that Ford and Lucrecia had once been lovers, who had bonded over bowling, but after a passionate romance, they were tragically forced apart, and Ford was forced to defeat her when she became Maligula.
Raz is also prevented from accessing Mail Clerk Ford, as he is arranging mail in a room restricted to senior mail staff. Seeing that his mentor Nick Johnsmith is without a brain and his body keeps getting into trouble, he decides to seek out a loaner brain to keep Nick's body safe and get him access to the senior mail room. He borrows an unidentified brain from Otto Mentalis' lab and enters it, finding that it's been without a body for so long, it's forgotten who he is. With the brain's permission, Raz inserts it into Nick's body, but he is immediately overwhelmed by stimuli, leading it to become manic. Raz re-enters the brain's mind, and helps it get in touch with each of his long-lost senses, After tracking each of them down and helping them (with Raz learning Time Bubble from the Mote in the process), The Mote of Light finally regains his long-forgotten memories, that he is Helmut Fullbear - a member of the Psychic Six who was thought to have died during their conflict with Maligula. Memories of Maligula suddenly flood back in, reminding Helmut that he'd seemingly been forgotten and abandoned by his close friends, and even his husband. Raz consoles Helmut, and insisting that none of his friends had truly forgotten him but simply thought he had died, and that Ford had even managed to rescue his brain, but had lost of his memories when his own mind shattered. Helmut is also assured that his husband, Bob Zanotto is likely still waiting for him. Finally at peace with his trauma and re-acclimated to the world, Helmut decides to seek out Bob, but not before helping Raz gain access to the senior mail room.
In Mail Clerk Ford's mind, Raz learns that Lucrecia decided to return to her home country, Grulovia to help its leaders when it was being ravaged by war, although Ford and the other members of the Psychic Six were reluctant to let her go because their experiments with the human mind left her mind vulnerable to outside influence. Lucrecia and Ford shared correspondence while she was away, but she seemed to grow more vicious in her letters the more time she spent away, as the horrors of war had started to warp her psyche. Concerned, Ford tries to reach out to her, but was heartbroken when he is unable to reach her by mail.
When Raz enters the mind of Barber Ford, he finds that this fragment of Ford's mind represents the tensions between the Maligula, Grulovia and the Psychic Six, and the horror he felt over Maligula's genocidal actions, seeing common people as mere lice that got in her way.
After piecing together the three mental Fragments of Ford, Ford regains his lost memories, but cryptically expresses that it would been better if Raz hadn't when he remembers something horrible. Raz is sent to a forth and final mind fragment, resembling a graveyard. Raz makes a horrible discovery: that his Nona, the person he believed to be his grandmother, was in fact, Maligula. He learns Maligula had accidentally killed Raz's real grandmother, who was her own sister, Marona. After defeating her, instead of killing Maligula, Ford chose to hide Maligula away in the deepest corners Lucrecia's mind. Ford used a machine called the Astralathe to seal away Maligula to the deeper reaches of Lucrecia's minds, and to alter Lucrecia's and Augustus's minds to make them think that Lucrecia was Marona, and that the two were mother and son. Additionally, he creates a false memory of the Aquato family curse as an additional measure to prevent Lucrecia from remembering her past and learning of her own hydrokinesis. Shortly after, Ford used the same machine to shatter his own mind, as final way to prevent Maligula from ever awakening again, as he believed he was the only one who knew of her fate. Horrified, Raz runs off into the night.
Ford stops Raz from telling his family, stating that the sudden shock could cause Nona to feel threatened and cause Maligula to resurface. The two venture into Green Needle Gulch, agreeing to work together to prevent Maligula's return by using the Astralathe once more. They find the Astralathe covered in massive vines and swarming bees. With Ford preoccupied with looking after Lucrecia and keeping her memories from resurfacing, Raz seeks out ways to deal with the vines and bees. He finds the last two members of the Psychic Six: Bob Zanotto and Cassie O'Pia, who've hidden themselves away in the gulch after becoming alienated with the Psychonauts over the years, and overwhelmed by their emotional problems from the aftermath of the battle with Maligula (Bob's Alcoholism and Cassie's Identity Crisis). Raz seeks help from the both of them, but their current mental states prevent them from assisting, forcing Raz to intervene in their minds too. Raz helps Bob make peace with his painful memories and relinquish his dependency on alcohol, and helps the aspects of Cassie's personality make peace with each other (and learns how to use Projection in the process). Once at peace, they each help Raz access the Astralathe. In the process, Bob reunites with Helmut (still in Nick's body), and Cassie reunites with Compton.
Raz activates the Astralathe, and the Psychic Six reunite after having been apart for 20 years. When Lucrecia arrives, they learn of Ford's deception, but immediately welcome her back, and agree to help Ford and Raz by stabilizing the Astralathe as the two enter Lucrecia's mind. In Lucrecia's mind, they are met with the Flea Circus: a representation of Raz's family, a construct that Ford inserted into Lucrecia's mind to keep her stable. Raz plays his part in the circus, but is invited by Lucrecia into a hidden part of her mind, where she had stored away her genuine precious memories as a mother to Augustus and grandmother to Raz and his sibling. Raz also learns that Lucrecia had been the stranger who gave Raz the flier for Whispering Rock, and was directly responsible for Raz wanting to become a Psychonaut, as she was growing increasingly confused and upset as Ford's alterations to her mind slowly wore off, and had hoped that Raz could help her.
Ford and Raz each the deeper parts of Lucrecia's mind, where Maligula is sealed away with a dam. Lucrecia sees the dam is locked with a picture of her sister, Marona, and starts to remember. After learning that Maligula is a dark of Lucrecia born out of her fight or flight complex that has simply gone out of control, Ford tells Raz of his plans use the Astralathe to open a deep hole in Lucrecia's mind and push Maligula into it so she may never never escape again. However, just as the dam is opened, Raz is pulled out of Lucrecia's mind, by Truman Zanotto, who had been called to the scene by Norma.
Norma states that she believes Raz to be the mole, and called Truman to stop his plans. However, Lili (who had also arrived on the scene) states that Truman has been acting increasingly strange, and insists on entering his mind to investigate. The two discover that Truman is not what he seems, and that his brain had been replaced by the brain of Nick Johnsmith, who was secretly Gristol Malik, the heir of to the throne of Grulovia, and the mole in the Psychonauts. They also discover that Gristol had conspired to assume Truman's identity and manipulate Raz so he would reawaken Maligula (who he idolizes), and plans to use her to destroy the Psychonauts, due to his deluded vendetta against them for supposedly ousting his family from their home after their battle with Maligula (in reality, he was simply resentful for losing his luxuries as royalty). Lili manages beat the location of Truman's brain out of Malik before they leave (it had been hidden away in the briefcase that was found attached to Truman's arm when he was recovered from the Rhombus of Ruin).
Upon exiting Truman's mind, Raz and Lili are discovered by Sasha, Milla, Coach Oleander and Hollis, shocked that they would enter the Head Psychonaut's mind. However as Raz attempts to explain that Truman was an imposter, Lucrecia awakens with all her memories returned, and the painful reminders shock her into reverting back into her Maligula persona and summons a massive storm. The Psychic Six, adult Psychonauts and Gristol are trapped in Maligula's storm, and Lili runs off to obtain Truman brain, leaving Raz to face Maligula alone. Realizing he needs help, he runs to his family. He finds them comforting Augustus, whose own sealed away memories have finally resurfaced and is grieving the loss of his mother.
The Aquatos gather together, and through the use of acrobatics, they are able to launch Raz straight towards Maligula, allowing him to once again enter her mind. Raz faces off against Maligula in Lucrecia's mind, periodically receiving help from his fellow interns (including an apologetic Norma). Eventually, he weakens her enough to allow Lucrecia's conscious mind to re-emerge, and she lends Raz all her power, giving him the strength to push Maligula into the hole created by the Astralathe, defeating her for good.
With the threat of Maligula gone, Hollis and Truman congratulate Raz and the interns for their courage, and promoting them to junior Psychonauts. Although Norma is annoyed that they're merely junior psychonauts, Raz gleefully accepts it.
Behind the Scenes[]
According to an interview with creator Tim Schafer, "Raz" was the nickname of one of the game's animators, Razmig Mavlian. Schafer "stole" the name, and expanded it to "Rasputin", which was later changed to "Razputin" so that it could be trademarked.
Raz was originally conceptualized as d'Artagnan, referred to as Dart for short. He was completely redesigned after Double Fine completed their first playable version of Psychonauts and realized he didn't fit their idea of the game's protagonist and was too "odd-looking compared to all the other odd characters"[4] . Some other name possibilities for Raz included: d'Artagnan, Chops, Angus, Beat, Dare, Otto, Bolt, Finn, Li-Po.
Psychic Powers[]
Psychonauts[]
Raz starts the game with the ability to strike nearby objects with a large psychic hand and to perform a double jump using a bubble of mental energy. While it is not a playable power, Raz also has some degree of telepathic and mind reading abilities which he demonstrates by reading Lili's mind during a cutscene. He also has considerable psychic defenses that not even professional Psychonauts can penetrate, despite his young age and lack of formal training.
Gameplay Powers[]
During his stay at Whispering Rock, Raz's psychic potential was boosted by the large amount of Psitanium nearby, allowing him to learn numerous abilities. During his stay, he learns the following psychic abilities:
- Clairvoyance: The ability to see others' perspectives through their own eyes, which often shows Raz how others perceive him. Raz gains this badge in the Milkman Conspiracy after taking it from Boyd's refrigerator.
- Confusion: The ability to cloud others' minds with mental grenades, often leading them to attack other nearby beings. Raz gains this badge in Black Velvetopia from Dingo Inflagrante.
- Invisibility: The ability to become invisible to other creatures. Raz learns this at rank 30.
- Levitation: The ability to levitate on a psychic ball that allows Raz to move more quickly, Bubble Bounce in the air, and PSI Float during a fall. Raz learns this early on from Milla Vodello.
- Marksmanship: The ability to channel large amounts of aggression into a damaging psi-blast of focused energy. Raz learns this early on from Sasha Nein.
- Pyrokinesis: The ability to focus psychic power so that objects or creatures burst into flame. Raz learns this at rank 10.
- Shield: The ability to project a mental shield that temporarily protects Raz from damage and, when upgraded, reflects it back to the attacker. Raz gains this badge in Lungfishopolis from a Lungfish Zealot.
- Telekinesis: The ability to mentally move an object with enough force to inflict significant damage if it strikes another object. Raz learns this when he reaches rank 20.
Non-Selectable Powers[]
- Astral Projection: Raz can astral project into minds using a psycho portal or a brain tumbler.
- Hydrokinesis: Raz is subconsciously creating the Hand of Galochio out of his fear of water. The hand is entirely a manifestation created by Raz[5].
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin[]
Raz starts the game with his previous psychic knowledge from Psychonauts. However, the player cannot use all of the powers from the previous game. Powers the player is not able to use are Confusion, Invisibility, Shield, and Levitation.
Returning Powers[]
The powers that Raz can use throughout Rhombus of Ruin include:
- Clairvoyance: Raz can use clairvoyance to jump between the perspectives of several minds, this is used as the primary "transportation" mechanic.
- Telekinesis: Raz can use telekinesis to push or pull object in several directions, or to make simple interactions with buttons, levers, etc.
- Pyrokinesis: Raz can set certain objects on fire to help him solve puzzles.
- PSI-Blast: Raz can shoot various objects to help him solve puzzles.
Other Powers[]
Raz does not learn any knew psychic powers in Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, but he does show off a previously unknown ability:
- Zoolingualism: The ability to speak to animals. Raz can communicate with Lili's pet rat, Harold.
Psychonauts 2[]
Raz starts the game with his previous psychic knowledge from Psychonauts and Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin. However, due to Raz's psychic abilities possibly being weakened after leaving Whispering Rock, some not only being unauthorized for the Internship program, but also not being "second nature" to him, the player cannot use all of the powers from the previous games. Rather than automatically upgrading powers when leveling up, Raz can spend Intern Credits on upgrades for his PSI-Powers.
Returning Powers[]
- Telekinesis: Raz can now move while using TK to hold or throw an object.
- PSI-Blast: Raz can now fire PSI-Blasts in quicker succession.
- Pyrokinesis: Raz can now use Pyrokinesis in an area-of-effect around him, which can be charged up to a certain radius.
- Levitation: If enabled in the settings, the player can use the jump key a 3rd time to trigger the PSI-Float, or to pull the ball down under him.
- Clairvoyance: Clairvoyance can now be used to reveal hidden items or objectives.
New Powers[]
- Mental Connection: Mental connection is the ability to control someone else's thoughts. Raz learns mental connection from Hollis Forsythe.
- Time Bubble: The ability to slow down platforms or enemies. Raz learns this in PSI King's Sensorium.
- Mental Projection: Mental Projection is the ability to create an archetype of one's self. Raz learns projection from the teacher archetype of Cassie O'Pia.
Non-Selectable Powers[]
- Zoolingualism: Raz can communicate with Lili's pet rat, Harold.
- Astral Projection: Raz can astral project into minds using a psycho portal or a brain tumbler.
- Hydrokinesis: Raz is still subconsciously creating the Hand of Galochio out of his fear of water.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Augustus Aquato[]
Augustus is Raz's father. He loves Razputin very much but can appear overbearing in his attempts to protect him from harm, leaving Raz to believe that he resented him for being a Psychic. At the end of Psychonauts, Raz proves to his father that he is a mature individual capable of taking care of himself and the two come to an understanding. When Augustus discovers the truth about his mother and his aunt during Psychonauts 2, Raz makes a point to check up on his father.
Donatella Aquato[]
Donatella is Raz's mother. She loves Razputin very much, but like Augustus can appear overbearing in her attempts to keep him safe. Although she tries to be accepting about Raz joining the Psychonauts, she's still struggling to get over the years of distrust towards psychics, and she is quite upset about how Raz ran away. As such, she can be quite passive-aggressive towards Raz. She still sees Raz as her little baby.
Dion Aquato[]
Dion is Raz's older brother. As the eldest child of the Aquatos, Dion holds the most distrust towards Psychics, having heard the family's myths about "fortune tellers" the longest. Because of this, and because Raz ran away from home, Dion is quite hostile towards Raz, even seeing him as a punching bag. However, Dion begins to let go of his anti-psychic beliefs after the truth of the Aquato family curse is revealled.
Frazie Aquato[]
Frazie is Raz's older sister. The two used to be closer, as they are both psychics, however Frazie has distanced herself from her psychic nature over the years due to family pressure. These days, she sees him as a whiny toddler.
Mirtala Aquato[]
Mirtala is Raz's younger sister. She respects him, and does not resent him for running away.
Queepie Aquato[]
Queepie is Raz's younger brother. Although Raz wants to spend time with Queepie, Queepie finds his older brother annoying and overbearing. He still respect him to some degree, and does not resent him for running away.
Lucrecia Mux[]
Nona is Raz's great aunt, although he initially believes her to be his grandmother, Marona. Truthfully her name is Lucrecia Mux, the true identity of Maligula, although she herself is unaware. Due to Ford's alterations to her and Augustus' minds, they both to believe she is Marona: Lucrecia's sister and Augustus' mother. Although Raz is horrified with the truth and the grand deception, he comes to accept that she is still his Nona, and she too still sees Raz and his family as her own. Nona has a tendency to mistake Raz for Dion or Queepie.
The Campers[]
The Whispering Rock campers don't pay Raz much attention, excluding Lili Zanotto. Some are friendly to Raz, some are ambivalent, and some are mean.
Psychonauts[]
Sasha Nein[]
Sasha is Raz's mentor. He views Raz as a younger version of himself and wants to aid him in achieving his dreams of becoming a Psychonaut. When Raz alters Hollis' mind, Sasha bluntly expresses his disappointment in Raz, but recognizes that Raz still needs guidance.
Milla Vodello[]
Milla is Raz's mentor. She is very kind toward Raz and sees him as a child that needs protection.
Morceau Oleander[]
Morceau is Raz's mentor turned enemy, then turned friend again after his redemption. Morceau frequently refers to Raz as "soldier".
Lili Zanotto[]
Lili is Raz's girlfriend. She had eyes for him since the moment he literally dropped into camp, despite her subsequent attempts at being aloof and standoffish. It's also thanks to him that her excitement for the Psychonauts was rekindled. Raz is personally unsure what it means to have a girlfriend.
Hollis Forsythe[]
Hollis is Raz's teacher and superior. She teaches Raz Mental Connection. Hollis initally underestimates Raz and puts him in the internship program. When she prevents the interns from joining in on a mission to find the mole, Raz attempts to change her mind with Mental Connection, only to accidentally cause a chain reaction that makes her a gambling addict. Raz undoes the damage and comes clean. Hollis is initially furious but forgives Raz because she once made a similar mistake. The two eventually comes to an understanding, and agree to put the incident behind them because of how embarassing it all was.
Ford Cruller[]
Ford is Raz's mentor and hero. Ford is eager to teach him how to become a Psychonaut. He signs off on Raz's earned merit badges in Psychonauts. Raz enters Ford's mind in several instances in Psychonauts 2 to help piece together his broken mind. Raz makes the horrifying discovery that Ford had meddled with his family by altering his great aunt (who was actually Maligula) and father's memories to believe they were mother and son, as well as fabricate the myth of the family curse in their minds, all in a bid to prevent Maligula's return. Raz is initially furious over the deception and meddling his his family's lives, but agrees to continue working with Ford to stop Maligula's return.
In the postgame, upon interacting with Ford's mural at the Motherlobe, he ponders: "Ford Cruller. I'm not sure if you messed up my family, or saved it. Maybe I'll figure it out later, when I'm not ten."
Otto Mentallis[]
Otto provides various upgrades and gadgets to Raz in Psychonauts 2.
Helmut Fullbear[]
Raz is a friend of Helmut's, and the first actual person he's met for about 20 years. Raz helps him rediscover his lost memories and identity. Raz helps him reconnect with his senses, overcome his sensory deprivation and overload, and his fear of abandonment. He teaches Raz how to use Time Bubbles.
Compton Boole[]
Raz ends up befriend Compton while trying to help Ford, helping him by recovering some of Cassie's bees and helping him overcome his severe anxiety, self doubt and dependancy problems.
Bob Zanotto[]
Bob is initially hostile towards Raz, due to his bitterness and alcoholism. However, after Raz helps him overcome his fear of the past and his substance dependancy, he begins to heal, and is happily reunited with his long-lost husband after years of being apart and thinking he was dead.
Cassie O'Pia[]
Raz helps Cassie overcome her loss of purpose and regret over failing to stop Maligula, as well as help stop her internal war between the aspects of her personality. She teaches how to use Projection.
Thorney Towers[]
Dr. Caligosto Loboto[]
Caligosto is Raz's enemy turned friend. Raz becomes sympathetic toward him after learning about his traumatic past. At the end of Psychonauts 2, Loboto escapes his captivity, and asks Raz not to rat him out due to him reforming.
Boyd Cooper[]
Raz tried to help Boyd break free from the Coach's mind control, but failed. Raz doesn't actually get the chance to help him overcome his paranoia, and Boyd doesn't pay much attention to Raz after the Milkman Conspiracy.
Edgar Teglee[]
Edgar is Raz's friend. Raz helped Edgar overcome his anger issues, and they are even able to joke about it afterwards.
Fred Bonaparte[]
Fred is Raz's friend. Raz helped Fred overcome his personality disorder and crushing fear of failure.
Gloria Von Gouton[]
Gloria is Raz's friend. He helped her overcome her bipolar disorder.
Sheegor[]
Sheegor is Raz's friend. Sheegor sees Raz as a saint who rescued her from Dr. Caligosto Loboto.
Linda[]
Linda is Raz's friend. She initially attempts to harm him while under the mind control of Coach Oleander, but they become "best friends" after she is freed, giving him free rides to travel between Whispering Rock and Thorney Towers.
PSI-Cadets[]
Norma Natividad[]
Norma is Raz's fellow Junior Psychonaut at the Motherlobe. The two do not get along, as she is openly hostile towards him during their time in the internship program, and regularly sends passive-aggressive jabs at the younger cadet. She even throws away his clothes after a hazing ritual, and Raz is forced to do Norma's internship work to get his old clothes back. However, she only treats Raz this way due to her mistaken belief that Raz is a mole and is associated with Maligula. When she realizes she's wrong, she apologizes, but Raz still resents her, and calls her a snitch.
Lizzie Natividad[]
Lizzie is Raz's fellow Junior Psychonaut at the Motherlobe. The two don't start out on good terms, as Lizzie bullies Raz for being the young and newest intern. The two eventually start getting along after the Casino mission, although Lizzie still teases Raz from time to time. The two agree on Norma being obnoxious.
Adam Joseph Gette[]
Adam is Raz's fellow Junior Psychonaut at the Motherlobe. Adam's the first person among the interns to befriend Raz after their hazing ritual, apologizing and agreeing to call a truce. The two bond over their shared interest in Psychonaut history.
Gisu Nerumen[]
Gisu is Raz's fellow Junior Psychonaut at the Motherlobe. She generally likes Raz, but isnt above roping in Raz to help her with her internship work. Raz is slightly dismayed over Gisu's interest in his older brother, Dion.
Sam Boole[]
Sam is Raz's fellow Junior Psychonaut at the Motherlobe. She's quick to like Raz, especially after finding out that he's friends with her brother, Dogen. Raz also like Sam, but is slightly terrified of her.
Morris Martinez[]
Morris is Raz's fellow Junior Psychonaut at the Motherlobe.
Trivia[]
- Raz is one of the few characters in the Psychonauts to have five fingers on each hand whilst most other characters in the game have four.
- In the beginning of the game when Oleander attempts to probe Razputin's mind, he states that Razputin's name "starts with a D", referring to d'Artagnan, an early version of the protagonist scrapped during production.
- Raz is the only major character in Psychonauts whose surname is never explicitly mentioned. However, his last name is mentioned in subsequent games.
- His family's last name, Aquato, means water in Latin.
- In Alice: Madness Returns, the sequel to American McGee's Alice, a cavern holds the skeletal remains of Raz sitting in an armchair.
- Raz is also referenced in Brütal Legend, a later title by DoubleFine. In the intro, the guitarist of the "heavy metal" band Kabbage Boy is seen doing Raz''s signature victory dance, as a statue bust, on a car paint decal, and a headbanger named Jack the Lift-Op wears Raz's goggles. These two characters are both voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz, who voices Raz.
- Raz is referenced again in the Hammer of Infinite Fate map pack, where the player can chisel his head into Mount Rockmore. Doing this four times will unlock an achievement/trophy.
- Raz is also referenced in Brütal Legend, a later title by DoubleFine. In the intro, the guitarist of the "heavy metal" band Kabbage Boy is seen doing Raz''s signature victory dance, as a statue bust, on a car paint decal, and a headbanger named Jack the Lift-Op wears Raz's goggles. These two characters are both voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz, who voices Raz.
- Raz is unofficially referenced in the videogame, A Hat In Time. One of his appearances happens to be as a dweller-mask drawing in the attic of Vanessa's Manor.
- During PSI King's Sensorium, Helmut claims that Raz tastes like "New Shoes".
- Razputin is a playable character in Bit Trip Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, as part of the 'Good Friends Character Bundle' DLC. The game apparently uses his original model from Psychonauts.
- Raz's model in Psychonauts has the most textures out of any other character in the game.
- Raz stole his signature taunt from Bobby Zilch, who showed it off after he kicked Raz off a platform in Basic Braining.
- In the Psychonauts audio files, Raz can be heard introducing himself as "Angus", "Dare", and "Finn", which were all names the creator considered before choosing Raz.
- In an MTV2 short, Raz can be seen changing the TV channel with his mind.
- Raz's default telekinesis PSI color is orange in Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2, but purple in Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin.
- Raz is a large fan of the comic series True Psychic Tales, referencing it frequently and submitting his own stories to it.
- According to his old Myspace account, Raz is a capricorn. It also lists his home town as Lithuania.
- Raz puts his goggles on whenever he travels into a mental world.
- Unlike all other characters, Raz only gets one Memory Vault, "Razputin's Getaway".
- Raz's backstory of running away from the circus is most likely an intentional twist on the common trope of children running away to the circus.
- Raz is a talented cartoonist.[6]
- Raz doesn't use Confusion, Invisibility, or Shield in Psychonauts 2 because they aren't as "second nature" to him as his other powers.[7]
- The player never sees Raz physically open his eyes in Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin.
References/Notes[]
- ↑ Razputin is not a skilled teleporter. He appears to be able to reflexively teleport out of danger and back to a place of safety. In game, this is what happens when Raz's mental health drops to zero and he loses an Astral Projection Layer.
- ↑ Raz mentions that he's "only ten" in Black Velvetopia. Boyd Cooper also asks why he would give a loaded gun to a ten year old when you talk to him while holding the Rifle in The Milkman Conspiracy.
- ↑ His height is listed as four feet and four inches on his official Psychonaut ID card.
- ↑ https://youtu.be/9WWSsw-16vw?t=255
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yajg8ANXq8&t=6s
- ↑ Raz shows off his own illustrations in the Psychonauts 2 animation recap.
- ↑ https://youtu.be/0mn0iT-zZkM