| Black Velvetopia |
The heart card painting.
Black Velvetopia is a level in Psychonauts. It takes place inside of Edgar Teglee's mental world.
Description[]
Black Velvetopia resembles a peaceful town as depicted in Edgar's signature art style: every element of the world is rendered in black and detailed with fluorescent colors, like in a black velvet painting. At its center, Edgar attempts to build a tower of cards high enough to reach the sun above, inside of which is a beautiful woman crying rose petals. Unfortunately, his deck is missing its queens, which causes all of his attempts to collapse immediately after he builds them. The queen cards Edgar is missing are in the possession of Luchadores spread throughout the town's streets, which are themed around colors to match the playing card suit and Luchador that can be found there: orange for clubs, red for hearts, purple for diamonds, and green for spades.
The other reason Edgar is unable to complete his tower is that the town is plagued by a colossal pink bull known as El Odio, who runs endless laps around the streets, causing tremors and threatening to trample anyone who stays on the road for too long. The Dog Painters are trapped in side alleys because of the bull, so they hide out in their safe zones selling paintings. These paintings can be placed on specific hooks to bring what is depicted in them to life and reach new areas.
Black Velvetopia resembles a Spanish town most of all, bullfighting is a primarily Spanish phenomenon, and the concept of the loose bull stampeding around is clearly based on the Bull run of Pamplona, Spain. However, this world also contains various elements that reference Latin-American culture, including the Luchadores and fountains shaped like sombreros. Edgar does have a Spanish accent, and while he may be either Spanish or Latino, this may imply that, having grown up in America, he is not actually very knowledgeable about his heritage, and simply romanticized things he has seen associated with Spain/Latin America in media. Of course, it may also simply be an oversight by the developers.
Points of Interest[]
- Edgar's Sanctuary: Located at the very center of the town, this is a plaza where the inner Edgar can always be found. When Razputin visits, Edgar is restlessly building card towers here. Raz will return here several times to give Edgar the queen cards he needs, resulting in a taller tower after handing over each one.
- The Main Street: This is where El Odio charges through at set intervals once every few seconds. Most of the places in Velvetopia Raz can explore surround this one street that snakes around, changing colors to match the playing card that can be found nearby.
- Luchador Arenas: Each different colored area features a large portrait of Edgar, that acts as a portal to one of these. In each arena, a Luchador waits for challengers. The arena's ring, which fights take place on, actually is a queen card, which shrinks to its normal size after the Luchadores are defeated.
- Underground Sewers: Reachable through a couple manholes across town (one in the alley the Collie is in, and one on the Diamonds part of the Main Street), the sewers are underground hallways flooded with grimy pink water. They also contain memories of high school Edgar doesn't want to remember, as they include lockers, gymnasium bleachers and showers.
- Secret Garden: A rooftop area that can only be reached by placing a vine painting on the hook near the manhole in the alley. This area contains many potted plants and a few sombrero fountains. Once defeated, the Luchadores come here to garden.
- El Odio's Arena: Once Edgar makes it to the sun, it becomes a portal to this bullfighting arena separate from the rest of the town. This is where bullfighter Dingo Inflagrante is supposed to face El Odio.
In Psychonauts[]
When Razputin enters the lower floors of Thorney Towers, he finds Fred and Crispin, the latter of which guards the elevator, but he also sees a painting being thrown out of a room above them with a frustrated yell. This room is the asylum's art room, where Edgar Teglee, a burly tattooed black velvet painter, is chained to the floor until he can complete a portrait of Dr. Loboto, apparently as part of his art therapy. Unfortunately, Edgar is fixated on bullfights, and is unable to paint anything else no matter how hard he tries, which frustrates him severely. To calm himself down, he builds towers of playing cards on the table near him. Razputin needs a disguise to trick the extremely nearsighted Crispin into letting him use the elevator, so the portrait of Dr. Loboto Edgar is set to paint would be very useful to him. He decides to use his Psycho-Portal to enter Edgar's mental world and try to help him overcome his obsession.
Upon entering Edgar's mind, Razputin Aquato lands in Edgar's Sanctuary, a plaza where Edgar tries to build a tower of cards to reach Lampita Pasionado, a beautiful lady who he sees every day crying rose petal tears inside the sun up above. Edgar complains that he wants to help her, but that his creation lacks something, and he cannot make any progress because of El Odio, an enormous pink bull rampaging through who causes the card tower to crumble every time. Raz notices that Edgar is missing his queen cards and offers to search for them. However, he is caught off guard and hit by El Odio, who drags him along the main street to a back alley somewhere in town.
Inside the back alley, Raz is introduced to the St. Bernard, one of the four Dog Painters hiding out in town. These help Raz by selling him their paintings, which can come to life and allow him to reach new areas. Razputin uses a doorway painting to return to the main street and sets off to find the queen cards, every so often finding a portrait of Edgar that leads to a wrestling arena. In each one of these arenas, Razputin battles a Luchador, four in all, each of whom guards one of Edgar's coveted queens.
Along the way, the Dog Painters tell Raz more about what's going on. They first tell him Edgar is a famous artist, and that the woman in the sun was his wife before she was stolen away by the town's best bullfighter, Dingo Inflagrante. However, Edgar's real story can be pieced together soon afterwards: he was actually a wrestler in high school, and he dated a girl called Lana Panzoni who dumped him in favor of Dean LeGrante, a male member of the cheerleading team. This caused Edgar to enter a depressive spiral and lose a wrestling tournament, which everyone at school hated him for. Everything else is a romanticized fantasy of Edgar's.
As he keeps at it, Raz defeats Tiger, Dragon, and Eagle, each representing one of Edgar's old high school wrestling club teammates, and gives Edgar the queens of clubs, hearts, and diamonds, respectively. However, the final wrestler, Cobra, cannot be hurt due to his unbreakable concentration. To beat him, Raz will need an additional trick up his sleeve. First, he must meet up with Dingo Inflagrante, the bullfighter, who wants a mural painted to advertise his upcoming fight with El Odio. Dingo gives Raz the merit badge that unlocks the Confusion PSI-power, which he can use to confuse El Odio long enough for the Bulldog to finish the mural. He can then also use this new ability to throw Cobra off his game and defeat him, earning the final remaining queen.
After Raz gives Edgar the final card, Edgar disappears, as the tower has been built up all the way to the sun. Raz follows to the top of the tower and ends up in a bullfighting arena, where Lampita laments how "he simply wouldn't let [her] go" and asks Raz how he killed El Odio. The bull appears just at that moment, and Raz must fight him, using the banderillas, colorful pointed sticks planted int the arena, to deal damage, much like a banderillero does before the entrance of the matador in a real bullfight.
When Razputin has weakened El Odio about halfway, the bull transforms into Edgar, and as Dingo appears to finish him off, Razputin tries to explain to Edgar that the entire bullfight story is false and he shouldn't let these memories ruin his life. Unfortunately, Dingo and Lampita launch into a junior varsity routine that enrages Edgar all over again. This leads to a second battle in which Raz must now defend El Odio from Dingo, confusing the bullfighter and removing the banderillas from the bull to hit him with them instead.
After the battle, Lampita runs in to cry over the defeated matador, as Edgar realizes it was foolish of him to have lingered so long on his past. Now more in control of his mind than ever, he opens up a pit under the arena that Dingo and Lampita fall into, never to be seen again.
Upon revisiting Black Velvetopia, Edgar can be found in the clearing where his card tower once stood, playing poker with all of the Dog Painters. El Odio is nowhere to be seen. The Luchadores, meanwhile, are up in the secret rooftop garden area, tending to the plants.
Collectibles[]
Figments[]
Black Velvetopia contains 160 figments, many of which loosely relate to either the Spanish setting or high school memories. For a list of figments and their locations, see the unofficial Psychonauts figment guide.
Figments of Interest[]
Among Edgar's figments, some that stand out include:
- Three adjacently placed figments where one represents a cockfight and the other two are men in hats betting on the outcome.
- Several terrified-looking crossing guards trying to stop traffic from facing El Odio.
- A set of figments shaped like faded-looking high school yearbook pictures, including one of Edgar and one of Dean.
- A figment of Edgar and Lana holding hands.
Emotional Baggage[]
- Purse
- Bag: In the room where Edgar is building his card tower.
- Tag: In the room where Edgar is working on the card tower, on a balcony. Use Levitation to reach it.
- Dufflebag
- Bag: Go through the side tunnel in the sewers to reach a second ladder. Climb it and use pyrokinesis on the vines to reveal the dufflebag.
- Tag: Just before you reach the first Queen, jump on top of the fence and jump up to a balcony to the right to reach this tag.
- Hatbox
- Bag: Search around in Dingo's apartment to find the hatbox bag.
- Tag: Next to the third painter is a rope. Climb the rope and follow the path around. You will find the hatbox tag next to a hook on the wall.
- Steamer Trunk
- Bag: In the first alley from the archway painting.
- Tag: On a balcony in Edgar's sanctuary. Use levitation to reach it.
- Suitcase
- Bag: Go through the fireplace in Dingo's apartment to reach a rope going across the alley. Walk across to find the suitcase.
- Tag: In Dingo's apartment, on his bed.
Mental Cobwebs[]
- Use the guitar painting on the hook next to the Queen of Hearts. Climb up to reach this cobweb.
- Blocking a hallway in the sewers.
- In the sewers, follow the side path to find a web blocking the wall.
- After obtaining the Queen of Diamonds, return up to the ledge and follow it around to find a hook. Use the window painting to reach a new area, with the cobweb in the corner.
- Blocking the entrance to Dingo's apartment.
- In the fireplace in Dingo's apartment.
- Go through the fireplace in Dingo's apartment to reach another web at the end of the hallway.
Memory Vaults[]
- Edgar's Love - Located in the secret garden, which is the rooftop at the end of the alleyway past the second Dog Painter (Collie). This area must be reached by going through the sewers first. Once in the alleyway, use the vine painting on the hook near the manhole and climb over to the garden rooftop.
- Edgar's Lament - Located in the sewers, in the tunnel leading to the gate that requires Telekinesis to open.
Enemies[]
- Stamping Censors
- Shouting Censors
- Strongarm Censors
- Personal Demons
- Luchadores (Boss)
- El Odio (Boss)
- Dingo Inflagrante (Boss)
Trivia[]
- The style of this level is based on the artwork of painter Edgar Leeteg, who is often called the "father of American black velvet painting" and also clearly where Edgar's name came from.
- A common subject of the black velvet art style is dogs playing poker, which is why they feature in Edgar's mind as painters.
- Most of Black Velvetopia can be entirely skipped by using the levitation glitch to reach the sky and trigger the boss fight.
- This is one of two mental worlds in the series in which Razputin's appearance is significantly altered to match the world's art style (the second being PSI King's Sensorium).
- Not completing Dingo Inflagrante's advertisement before the bullfight permanently prevents you from obtaining an astral layer upgrade.
- If El Odio hits Bulldog before he finishes painting Dingo's advertisement, the advertisement will smudge and remain that way for the rest of the game.
- In this mental world, when Raz uses Confusion on a Censor and there is no other Censor around for it to attack, the confused Censor wanders off to the road to get trampled by El Odio instead of hurting itself.
- All the paintings become free after this mental world is completed.
- Using the All Psi Powers cheat code will enable Raz to stun El Odio at any time, but the powers re-set after defeating each Luchador.
- Two figments can only be found by placing window paintings in empty picture spots.
- When you give Edgar the Queen of Hearts after fighting Dragon, he instead adds the Queen of Spades to his tower, and vice versa — the last card in the tower is the Queen of Hearts, not the Queen of Spades you've won from Cobra.
- Raz cannot change the color of his levitation ball in this mental world.
- Edgar's is the only mental world in Psychonauts to contain figments that directly represent himself. In Psychonauts 2, meanwhile, figments of oneself or pictures of oneself are much more common, as only Hollis doesn't have at least one figment that looks like herself.