These bottles explore fragments of memories that Bob has tried to repress or “bottle up” and throw out to sea. Some islands have bottles that Raz must uncork and travel through to progress. He has convinced himself that these subjective perceptions are true, which only encourages his self-destructive behavior and isolation. Lili is obviously someone important to Bob and someone he wants to meet if she’s located so close to his own island, but he’s too scared of reaching out to her or anyone else. Lili’s voice is lower than it should be, and she admits that Bob has only seen pictures of her. Truman too says he wants nothing to do with Bob, but it isn’t until Raz finds Lili that it becomes clear that these are merely projections of Bob’s perception and not based on real experiences or facts. When Raz talks to the fellow Psychonauts, Otto shuns the idea of being on good terms with Bob. On neighboring Islands, Raz finds familiar faces like Otto Mentallis, Truman Zanotto, and Lili. Raz doesn’t push him into remembering, but instead volunteers to venture out into Bob’s psyche to find where his seeds might be, and it’s in these uncharted waters that Raz will find how Bob views himself and why this may have occurred in the first place. Bob is continuing to exhibit symptoms of depression, such as memory and concentration troubles. Raz notes that the plants Bob is tending on the island are dead and asks about the garden.īob is absent-minded and can’t seem to focus or remember where the seeds for growing strong plants could be. Bob has stranded himself and is too afraid to leave the tiny island’s shores to venture out beyond this one viewpoint. Upon entering Bob’s consciousness, Raz finds Bob tending to a dead garden on an island all by himself. He used up what little energy he had left to push Raz away but after seeing he failed, he resigns himself to whatever judgment he believes is waiting for him when Raz sees his psyche. The plant gingerly turns Bob back toward Raz, and all the fire from Bob’s eyes is gone. Raz gets thrown out of the greenhouse, but Bob’s plant ushers Raz back in, obviously worried for its human friend. He is stuck in his own vicious cycle of loneliness, addiction, and depression. He is all alone and pushing other people away who are trying to help him, and there are indications that he may have a serious drinking problem based on the number of unmarked bottles scattered around his greenhouse. Bob even refers to himself as “dead” and tries to appear content to waste away in seclusion with only his plants as company. They’re all…lost…dead.” Bob comes off angry and distant, and it’s obvious that something has happened to cause such a reaction, but Raz has no idea yet what that could be. Raz tries to talk to Bob about getting the gang back together, but Bob says he “never wants to hear those names again. That is until Ford Cruller suggests that Raz get as many of the Psychic Six back together by investigating Green Needle Gulch When Raz enters Bob’s greenhouse, a plant throws a bottle at him, and Bob takes a swig from a flask. However, in the aftermath of the Battle of Grulovia, Bob disappeared from public view, his location seemingly unknown. These can be strange, like going into a conspiracy theorist’s head to hear about his Milkman Conspiracy, or they can be heartbreaking, like Psychonauts 2’s Bob’s Bottles, which explores neglect, substance abuse, and depression better than any game that I have seen before, while still remaining respectful of the subject matter.īob Zanotto was one of the Psychic Six: the original team that pioneered what being a Psychonaut was all about. This premise is fantastic for creating wacky levels for players to jump around in, but it also gets into the psyche of the characters in the game, which opens the door to explore unique mental states that many can relate to. Double Fine’s Psychonauts is a series that asks: “What if you were able to breach that frontier and learn more intimately what that person’s struggling with?” You often hear the phrase “what if you were in their shoes?”, but as individuals, it’s still very difficult to get a complete picture of that person’s struggles, perceptions, and mental state.
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