Heartwarming / Psychonauts

A psychic summer love.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

• When you go through the battlefield in Oleander's mind, you have the option of guiding Dogen safely through the minefield. It's really sweet to hear Raz gently re-assuring him, especially since he just met Dogen.
• The scene with Raz's father before the final boss battle:
  Raz: How can you hate me for being psychic, if you're psychic too?
  Augustus: Son, I could never hate you. I only wanted you to be happy, Razputin. And safe.
• While some of it is played for laughs, the speech Raz gives Oleander to convince him to stay in the beginning cutscene can count. After it's done, the coach who was just finishing lecturing the other campers and talking about how they were going to die if they failed their training was on the verge of tears.
  Raz: "But in this dojo... In this psychic dojo... They make you a hero."
  (cuts to Oleander, misty eyed and bottom lip quivering. He quickly looks away with his eyes shut tight and points to Raz.)
  Oleander: "...Get that soldier a bunk..."
  • It's very probable that Oleander wrote the pamphlet speech that Raz recites out of his own experience. If so, not only does Oleander realize that Raz was discriminated against just like him, but also that Raz sees Oleander as the hero who gave him hope. Given Oleander's backstory, this is huge: part of his Start of Darkness was because he was rejected by every branch of the Army, being denied the chance of being a hero.
• You have to go idle for a while, but watching Raz slowly start to dance in Milla's Dance Party is just so adorable.
• Using Clairvoyance on the staff can yield heartwarming results. Milla sees Raz as a sweet little baby to look after owing to her own tragic past. Raz reminds Sasha of himself as a youth so much that he sees Raz as a younger version of himself. Ford Cruller sees Raz dressed up in a full Psychonaut uniform — as far as he's concerned, Raz is already worthy of the title.
  • One might notice Ford sees Raz as Sasha Nein, only younger. Keep in mind, Ford knows all about Clairvoyance, and it could be he's projecting that image to give Raz confidence - it doesn't make it any less heartwarming.
  • While not as heartwarming as the previous examples, there are still some other really sweet examples supplied by Clairvoyance: Lili views Raz as a kind Prince Charming figure, Maloof views Raz as a mob boss (given Maloof's apparent mob ties, this implies he looks up to Raz), all Emotional Baggage view Raz as an assistant ready to help them, and Sheegor sees Raz as a benevolent messiah here to help her. Also a lot of the campers view Raz as someone very similar to them (James sees Raz as another cowboy) or as something they like (Chops sees Raz as a hockey player), implying that despite only knowing him for a short while they already see Raz as a good friend.
• While Raz is collecting all the brains of the campers he gives each one a kiss. Even Bobby Zilch. It's kinda cute.
  • Raz has a funny remark to say about every brain he retrieves, but when he finds Dogen's? All he says is this:
    Raz: Dogen Boole. I told you I'd get your brain back.
  • Same with Elton who Raz initially dismissed his Cassandra Truth in regards to Linda and the fish in the lake being freaked out by her.
    Raz: Elton. What can I tell ya? You were right. The old legends were true.
  • Even the remarks are somewhat heartwarming as they're more of the affectionate kind of remarks you give to tease your friends' Character Tics (excluding Benny and Bobby).
• Once the kids are rebrained, they go off and do their own things. None of them particularly help you, but it is cute to see some what's happened during Raz's day at camp and see some hidden depths.
  • Bobby is right next to Chloe, wholeheartedly supporting her unhelpful but well-intentioned idea to call aliens for help.
  • Clem and Crystal seem to have moved on from attempting suicide and are cheering on Janitor Cruller. Whether he likes it or not.
  • Elton's gotten over Lili and is now with Milka, a girl who actually likes him back.
  • Elka has stopped trying to take possession of JT and has gone back to Nils. Nils, meanwhile, has stopped trying to chase every girl in camp and he and Elka are just having a pleasant talk with each other.
  • JT and Chops are together again.
  • Maloof has gained a spine, and is taking action of his own against Coach Oleander with Mikhail's help
• Raz saying "What a magical lady!" in reference to Linda.
• Technically not part of the game itself, but in the official Vault Viewer commentary for iOS, it's oddly sweet to hear Scott Campbell (the official artist) refer to Tim Schafer, his boss, as "bro".
• When seeing some of the other campers making friendship bracelets, Lili calls the idea stupid. Raz remarks to her that he wouldn't mind getting one, to which she responds by getting flustered and calling him stupid. Later in the game, we see that Lili has made him a friendship bracelet. Aww...
• Fred's relationship with the other inmates post-cure. He's genuinely laid back, calm and warm towards his former charges. It makes sense given he's the real orderly and not Crispin.
• Helping the inmates regain their sanity, and leave the Asylum for the first time in years.
  • The way Raz treats the inmates once he's in their heads. From trying to coax Bonita out of stage fright by telling her that, as an ex-carny, he knows how she feels, to helping Edgar let go of his past, to being undyingly optimistic and encouraging during the Bonaparte battle... you gotta hand it to the kid; he's a bit cheeky, but his heart is definitely in the right place.
  • The empathy that Raz displays towards the inmates also features as his greatest strength throughout the entire game. Raz is unerringly polite and friendly towards the other campers and clearly cares about the welfare of the minds he enters, even warming to Linda once he learns the circumstances of her situation. The only people he shows any real negativity towards are Crispin Whytehead and Bobby Zilch, and Bobby had to really push Raz to dislike him.
• Sasha Nein seeing the loving memories his distant father still holds for his mother who died years before, even if he was also unfortunate enough to catch the tail end of a sexual memory as well. While the memory in question might have been horrifying to Sasha, the fact that his father held on to that memory of his wife's smiling face during a very intimate moment is incredibly sweet.
• Milla's Ship Tease moment with Sasha. The biggest smile Milla gives in the game is when Sasha's smiling back at her. It's especially cute considering the Memory Vault showing that moment is available after the infamous Milla's Children vault; in keeping with her being the most mentally-healthy and happy person in the game, she may have a legitimately heartbreaking and traumatic past, but since then, she's been able to also internalize that she's had a bunch of wonderful adventures... and even fall in love!
• When you consider the fact that in this world, psychic powers go hand in hand with mental illness, it's heartwarming to see most of the characters portrayed as average, likable people, all of whom Raz treats with determination and empathy.
• Mr Pokeylope's voice aside, the moment where Sheegor reunites with the turtle is a small but sweet moment, making it clear Sheegor is a much nicer person than her initial impression would lead you to believe.
• A minor one, but right before the Mega Censor smashes Sasha with his stamp, you can see Sasha push Raz out of the way. Adding onto that, with the metaphorical nature of the mindscapes, Sasha spending the entire fight stuck to the stamp means that even after losing control of his censoring ability for real, he was still doing as much as he could keep his mind from stamping Raz out.
  • And when Oleander appears at the top of the tower to confront them all, the first thing Sasha does is push Lili behind him to protect her. It seems Sasha cares about the children just as much as Milla does.
  • Plus if you go into Sasha's Shooting Gallery before rescuing the counselors, Sasha sounds genuinely concerned and relieved to see Raz is alright. It's a surprising bit of heartwarming given his usual aloof demeanor. He then says he isn't sure where he is but thinks he might be asleep or in a trance, and he has to concentrate to maintain a baseline level of brain activity (for some reason). Adding on to the heartwarming, Raz offers to help by shooting up stuff in his shooting gallery.^Context Doing so helps stimulate parts of Sasha's psyche.
• The fact that Crystal's Campster profile is full of messages of support from the other campers (including one from resident Alpha Bitch Elka). It really shows how, despite the occasional drama here and there, the kids at Whispering Rock really care about each other.
• Bobby Zilch actually tearing up in the end cutscene as Raz gets a Psychonauts uniform.
• Sasha offering Sheegor a job as his assistant. Her jaw DROPS at him doing so.