Razputin Aquato

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Lore & Background

Razputin Aquato is the son of a family of circus performers, who runs away from the circus to become a Psychonaut despite his father Augustus' wishes. His family is cursed to die in water, and a watery hand called the Curse of the Aquatos (or Water Curse) attempts to submerge Raz whenever he approaches any significantly deep water. At camp, Raz meets the individuals running it: Sasha Nein, Milla Vodello, former Psychonaut Agent Morceau Oleander (who is running the camp under false pretenses), and Ford Cruller. Raz also meets several gifted children including Lili Zanotto, daughter of the Grand Head of the Psychonauts, who gradually develops a relationship with him; and Dogen Boole, grandson of one of the Psychonauts' founders, who has telepathy and wears a tin foil hat to prevent his thoughts from being read or causing harm.

In Their Own Story

Razputin, having fled from his family's circus, tries to sneak into the camp but is caught by the Psychonauts. They agree to let him stay until his parents arrive, but refuse to let him take part in any activities. However, they allow him to take part in Morceau's 'Basic Braining' course, which he easily passes. Impressed, Sasha invites Raz to take part in an experiment to determine the extent of his abilities. During the experiment, Raz comes across a vision of Dr. Loboto, an insane ex-dentist, extracting Dogen's brain, but is unable to intervene. Raz eventually realizes that the vision is true after finding Dogen without his brain, but the Psychonauts refuse to believe him.

Reader's Guide

Razputin begins with basic movement abilities such as running and jumping, but as the game progresses, he gains additional psychic powers such as telekinesis, levitation, invisibility, and pyrokinesis. These abilities allow the player to explore more of the camp and fight off enemies. Powers can be awarded by completing certain story missions, gaining PSI ranks, or purchasing them with hidden arrowheads scattered around the camp. Powers can be improved — such as more damaging pyrokinesis or longer periods of invisibility — through gaining additional PSI ranks. The player can assign three powers to their controller or keyboard for quick use, but all earned powers are available at any time through a selection screen. Raz can take damage from psychically empowered creatures around the camp at night, or by censors in the mental worlds; due to a curse placed on his family, Raz is also vulnerable to water. If Raz's health is drained, he is respawned at the most-recent checkpoint, but this can only be done so many times while within a mental world, indicated by the number of remaining astral projections; if these are expended, Raz is ejected from the character's mind and must re-enter.

Did You Know?

• Razputin's family is cursed to die in water, and a watery hand called the Curse of the Aquatos (or Water Curse) attempts to submerge him whenever he approaches any significantly deep water.
• Raz's father Augustus is a circus performer who does not want Raz to become a Psychonaut.
• Raz easily passes Morceau's 'Basic Braining' course, impressing Sasha Nein enough to be invited for an experiment.
• During Sasha's experiment, Raz sees a vision of Dr. Loboto extracting Dogen's brain, which later turns out to be true.
• Raz can be ejected from a mental world if he runs out of astral projections from respawning too many times.

Origins and Developmental Turmoil

Psychonauts was based on an abandoned concept that Double Fine founder Tim Schafer had during his previous development of Full Throttle. The game was initially backed by Microsoft's Ed Fries as a premiere title for the original Xbox console, but several internal and external issues led to difficulties for Double Fine in meeting various milestones and responding to testing feedback. Following Fries' departure in 2004, Microsoft dropped the publishing rights, making the game's future unclear. Double Fine was able to secure Majesco as a publisher a few months later, allowing them to complete the game after four and a half years of development. The game was well received, but publisher Majesco encountered a severe financial loss after the game's release and departed from the video game market.

Psychic Abilities and Gameplay Mechanics

Razputin begins with basic movement abilities such as running and jumping, but as the game progresses, he gains additional psychic powers such as telekinesis, levitation, invisibility, and pyrokinesis. These abilities allow the player to explore more of the camp and fight off enemies. Powers can be awarded by completing certain story missions, gaining PSI ranks, or purchasing them with hidden arrowheads scattered around the camp. Powers can be improved — such as more damaging pyrokinesis or longer periods of invisibility — through gaining additional PSI ranks. The player can assign three powers to their controller or keyboard for quick use, but all earned powers are available at any time through a selection screen. Raz can take damage from psychically empowered creatures around the camp at night, or by censors in the mental worlds; due to a curse placed on his family, Raz is also vulnerable to water. If Raz's health is drained, he is respawned at the most-recent checkpoint, but this can only be done so many times while within a mental world, indicated by the number of remaining astral projections; if these are expended, Raz is ejected from the character's mind and must re-enter.

The Whispering Rock Setting and Lore

The story is set in the fictional Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, a remote US government training facility under the guise of a children's summer camp. Centuries ago the area was hit by a meteor made of Psitanium, a fictional mineral that can grant psychic powers or strengthen existing powers, creating a huge crater. The Psitanium affected the local wildlife, giving them limited psychic powers, such as bears with the ability to attack with telekinetic claws, cougars with pyrokinesis, and rats with confusion gas. The Native Americans of the area called Psitanium 'whispering rock,' which they used to build arrowheads. When settlers began inhabiting the region, the psychoactive properties of the meteor slowly drove them insane. An asylum named Thorny Towers Home of the Disturbed was built to house the afflicted, but within fifteen years, the asylum had more residents than the town did and the founder Houston Thorny committed suicide by throwing himself from the asylum's tower. The government relocated the remaining inhabitants and flooded the crater to prevent further settlement, creating what is now Lake Oblongata. The asylum still stands, but has fallen into disrepair.

Legacy and Commercial Resurgence

Psychonauts has earned a number of industry awards and gained a cult following. It has since been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. In 2011, Double Fine acquired the rights for the title, allowing the company to republish the title through digital distribution with updates for modern gaming systems and ports for Mac OS X and Linux. Double Fine reported that their own sales of the game have far exceeded what was initially sold on its original release, with cumulative sales of nearly 1.7 million as of December 2015. A sequel, Psychonauts 2, was announced at The Game Awards in December 2015 and was released on August 25, 2021.

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