"We All Have Our Own Maligula" - PART 5 - Psychonauts 2
4For some people, it's an aversion to suede. For others, it's a latex allergy. And sometimes it's your haunted past trying to steal the rest of your body.
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Psychonauts 2 is a platform video game developed by Double Fine and published by Xbox Game Studios. The game was announced at The Game Awards 2015 ceremony, and released on August 25, 2021 on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, with support for macOS and Linux planned for a future, unannounced date.
The story is set in a fictional, alternate world where the impact of a meteor containing psitanium (a fictional element) affected local wildlife and eventually Native Americans and prospectors, granting all psychic powers or improving existing ones, however slowing driving them all into insanity. Taking awareness of the existence of these psychic individuals, the US government formed the Psychonauts, agents gifted with psychic abilities by the psitanium to combat evil-doers of extraordinary nature.
In the previous installment of Psychonauts, runaway acrobat youngster Razputin "Raz" Aquato infiltrated Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, a Psychonaut training facility under the guise of a summer camp, wishing to become a Psychonaut against the wishes of his family, especially his father Augustus. As he trained his psychic abilities, Raz stumbled upon a plan devised by one of the Whispering Rock mentors, Coach Morceau Oleander, to kidnap both the summer camp trainees and colleague teachers Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello and extract their brains to power a division of brain-powered battle tanks, assisted by insane ex-dentist Dr. Caligosto Loboto. With the assistance of the forcefully retired and mentally shattered Psychonaut agent Ford Cruller, Raz is able to rescue all trainees and both agents Nein and Vodello, while also confronting Oleander and eventually restoring his sanity, when both his and Raz' brains merge together, defeating both personal demons manifested by the fear of their fathers.
With these feats, Raz is welcomed into the Psychonauts, but is immediately forced to deploy in action when he learns that Truman Zanotto - the Grand Head of the Psychonauts and father to Raz' newfound love interest Lili - has been kidnapped. The story of Psychonauts 2 starts immediately following the aftermath of that rescue mission, portrayed in Psychonauts: In the Rhombus of Ruin.
Immediately following the rescue of Truman Zanotto, Raz and the rescuing Psychonauts - Sasha Nein, Milla Vodello, Coach Oleander and Lili Zanotto - attempt staging an illusion into the mind of Dr. Loboto to discover who hired him to kidnap Truman, only to discover Loboto's mind was booby trapped to prevent him from revealing his contractor. Raz, who managed to venture further into Loboto's brain than all others, informs he was able to see a familiar silhouette of a woman, whom Sasha helps identify as Maligula, a cruel hydrokinetic who destroyed the capital of the fictional nation of Grulovia, Raz' ancestral home, but was defeated and presumably killed by the Psychonaut founders two decades ago. Though not believing it, Sasha believes Maligula's loyal followers, the 'Deluginists', are attempting to perform necromancy to resurrect her. The investigation into Loboto's mind also drives Raz and the Psychonauts to the conclusion that there's a double agent within the Psychonauts, given Loboto's inability to kidnap Truman on his own.