Within these mindscapes, Raz can perform a variety of new and returning psychic abilities that allow him to maneuver through their often-twisted minds and battle the mental creatures they produce.

Double Fine regained the intellectual property to Psychonauts from Majesco Entertainment in 2011, allowing them to rerelease the game on modern platforms, which saw strong sales and increased demand from players for a sequel.

Double Fine sought to acquire part of its financial capital to fund the developments of Psychonauts 2 through a US$3.3 million crowd-funding and investment drive through Fig, launched simultaneously with the game's announcement.

Praise was directed at its platforming, level design, visuals, writing, and tone, while criticism fell on aspects of the gameplay and the boss battles.

The player controls Razputin "Raz" Aquato, a ten-year-old child runaway of a circus acrobat family,[1] who possesses powerful psychic abilities that allow him to delve into the minds of others.

His acrobatic skills are used to deftly navigate environments in the game; he can run, jump, scale walls and platforms, and slide along rails, but cannot swim due to a family curse.

The Psychonauts are an international espionage agency focused on psychic peacekeeping, scientific research of the human mind, and the development of psychic-based technologies.

In addition to returning characters from the previous games, Psychonauts 2 introduces the other founding members of the Psychonauts alongside Ford Cruller, known as the Psychic Six: Otto Mentallis, chief inventor who assists Nein and provides new psychic equipment; Compton Boole, who pioneered telepathy with animals; Bob Zanotto, uncle to Truman Zanotto and capable of communicating with plant life; Helmut Fullbear, Bob's husband and a psychic actor whose body was lost and his brain was kept in a jar for over 20 years, making him lose his five senses; and Cassie O'Pia, an author of the self-help book "Mindswarm" who is lost in a multiple personality disorder.

These interns include Sam Boole, elder sister of Dogen and granddaughter to Compton who can communicate with animals like her family; Adam Gette, the African-British keeper of the Psychonauts' history board who powers yo-yos as a weapon; Morris Martinez, a radio aficionado who travels around via levitating wheelchair; Gisu Nerumen, an engineering ward to Otto and levitating skateboarder; Norma Natividad, a shrewd manipulator and talented pyrokinetic; and Lizzie Natividad, Norma's cryokinetic and moody sister.

However, Raz sees a vision of a woman whom Sasha identifies as Maligula, a cruel hydrokinetic who flooded and destroyed the nation of Grulovia's capital.

Ford determines that with the Psychic Six's help, they can use the Astralathe to create a further hole in Nona's mind to banish the Maligula personality permanently.

Within Nona's mind, they learn that she had been already recalling elements of Lucy, and was the one to convince Raz to go to Whispering Rock in her subconscious as an indirect means to call for the Psychonauts' help.

Finding Truman's actions suspicious, Raz and Lili enter his mind and discover his brain is actually that of Nick, who reveals to be Gristol Malik, Gzar Theodore's son.

In the aftermath, Nona is pardoned and reconnects with Ford, Truman's brain is restored, Gristol is imprisoned for therapy, Loboto escapes to retrieve his child from Whispering Rock, and Raz and the interns graduate to become junior agents.

[9][10] Schafer had expressed interest in working on the Psychonauts franchise again, with the company having envisioned larger story arcs for the game's characters over the course of its development.

[11][13] After Double Fine's success with the concurrent development and publishing of several smaller games, such as Costume Quest and Iron Brigade, Schafer felt more comfortable about embarking on a sequel, knowing that it need not obstruct the creation of any newer properties.

[15] In February 2012, Markus Persson, at the time the owner of Mojang, made a public offer to fund a sequel to Schafer through Twitter.

The company sought $3.3 million in funding for the game, which represented approximately one-third of the planned development costs, and would augment money being put in by Double Fine and a third-party investor.

Schafer noted that while the amount was the same that they had raised for their Broken Age Kickstarter, which by the time of its release had significantly overrun its budget, he felt the studio was in a better position to manage the costs and processes necessary to deliver Psychonauts 2 on schedule.

[26] Upon completion, a total of $3,829,024 had been raised from 24,109 backers, with about $1,874,000 (48%) coming from those who opted to invest in the game compared to those who chose the more traditional reward-based options.

[35] Schafer said in a 2020 interview that prior to Microsoft's acquisition, they were at a point that they cut the boss fights out of the game due to lack of funds, but were able to re-add them afterward.

[45] Kimberly Brooks, who voiced Hollis Forsythe, won a BAFTA Award for Performer in a Supporting Role for her work on Psychonauts 2.

Its interspersion of sharp, witty humor with well-paced story beats and a delicate treatment of complex themes resonated with multiple critics.

[53] Polygon and Telegraph noted greater maturity in the game's themes over its predecessor;[55][57] the former praised the handling of thematic complexities with "empathy and responsibility".

[6] Reviewers noted this quandary manifested in an early level where Raz recklessly alters Hollis' psyche and must reconcile with the repercussions.

[60] Hardcore Gamer lamented the interns' relegation to supporting roles in the wider narrative after a strong introduction and faulted the final act's pacing.

[5] Telegraph and Ars Technica welcomed the atypical level environments, which subverted expectations by avoiding stock ice, lava and desert themes.

[59] Game Informer observed occasional bygone textures,[52] and IGN noted stiff facial animations and slight repetition in the level structure.

[3][56][60] Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) said platforming achieved a "level of polish that feels modern", but that combat was merely functional.

[59] Design creativity in the other gameplay elements was not, according to GamesRadar, recaptured in the boss fights,[5] and Eurogamer felt "rickety execution" slightly dampened their fun.