pSYCHONAUTS NARRATIVE ANALYSIS
LAUREL PRATT
During College, I did paper on the narrative of Psychonauts, a wacky action-adventure platformer from 2005. This assignment involved analysis of all the prominent characters, the plot structure, and most punishing, the pacing. I time-stamped cutscenes every 30 seconds and gameplay every five minutes tracking plot progression, for a total of 329 entries. My meticulous and time-consuming work payed off. About a year later I was able to compile and refine my work into a submission for the GDC 2020 Narrative Review Competition, and I earned myself a Gold.
Conclusions
Can't read the whole paper? That's fine! Read the poster below for the condensed version.
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In summary, the game excels at nonverbal storytelling, particularly through it's level design. It keeps up a consistent and lovable tone, and it's characters are unique and charming. However, it falls a bit short on it's pacing a plot structure. The story's narrative theme and main conflict don't intermingle well, and the individual levels (while fantastic) distract from the story as a whole.
This lovely poster was put together by Jay Han! Check out his LinkedIn
PACING ANALYSIS
This graph depicts the emotional valence of the Psychonauts plot and gameplay over the course of it's runtime, with positive numbers corresponding to positive emotions experienced by the viewer and vice versa. Negative valence can also represent increases in difficulty, as gameplay should go hand and hand with narrative. Note that this was based off of one playthrough, and is not a perfect representation of the game (every player will go through it slightly differently).
Act I is fine for the most part, though it's tutorial section is a little long. It does an overall good job of easing the player into the gameplay and story without rushing to the inciting incident.
Act II is bloated with asylum mini stories. In concept they're fine, as the second act should be defined by a series of obstacles, each heightening the stakes. Unfortunately, they drag on too long, cutting into Act III. They don't contribute to the main plot either, so there is no steady increase in stakes.
Act III gets rushed within the last hour of gameplay. There's a fake-out climax at the end of act II, but that turns into a false victory. Razputin's true death beat takes place mere minutes before the final battle and climax, giving it no room to breathe. It doesn't match up with the overall lowest point in the beatmap either (when taking into consideration both narrative and gameplay, this point is at the end of act I). His death beat is so rushed, it has no time to establish itself as the lowest point in the beatmap, and gets upswept in the climax.