Psychonauts Wiki
Register
Advertisement


Linda

Prepare yourself for passage, human child.

–Linda to Raz

Linda, also known as the Hideous Hulking Lungfish of Lake Oblongata, is a heavily mutated lungfish that was rumored to kidnap children in Psychonauts. She was forcefully controlled by Coach Oleander until Razputin freed her from his mind control. She now resides at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, and occasionally swims with the campers[4]. She is also the boss fought beneath the lake also known as Lair of the Lungfish.

Appearance[]

Linda is a mutated Lungfish who's size has been dramatically increased due to modifications made by Dr. Loboto under orders from Coach Oleander. She has two large, glowing, yellow eyes with red and green irises, respectfully. Unlike normal lungfishes, she possesses an angler-fish esca at the tip of a modified dorsal ray which she uses to swing at enemies. It is unclear if this is a modification created by Loboto or a result of the Psitanium poisoning.

She is bipedal and walks on two short, lizard-like legs. She can breathe in water and on land, suggesting she has both lungs and gills. She has a powerful tail used for swimming, reminiscent of a crocodile's. Linda has three rows of razor sharp teeth - two on the top jaw, and one on the bottom jaw, with a noticeable under-bite. Her skin is a scaly muddy brown-blue color with blue-green webbing on her hands. She posses five webbed fingers on the right hand and four on the left, and three webbed toes on each foot. Her head is disproportionately large to her body, with various bumps and scars formed around the skull as results from the artificial mutations. Metal plates are also implanted on her skin. She has multiple dorsal fins protruding from her head, spine, and tail.

Personality[]

Linda was extremely aggressive while under Oleander's control. Once his mind-control devices where removed from Linda, her demeanor changed to one of a gentle giant. She telepathically speaks with a deep voice.

Background[]

Every summer camp has its horror stories about the local mythical beasts and monsters. Few, however, ever turn out to be so terrifying or true as the tales of the enormous lake beast known as… Linda.

Of course, she wasn’t always this way.

The Hideous Hulking Lungfish of Lake Oblongata used to be a normal, happy little lungfish. She spent most of her nights hanging out in her little lungfish lair, watching the Lungfish Channel on her lungfish TV. One night, however, she was netted and pulled from the water by a strange-looking character wearing a shower cap and brandishing a gleaming metal claw where his hand should be. She was brought to his lab, where she was subjected to numerous mad science experiments, mutated and turned into the monster she is now. Even her little lungfish mind was not left untampered with, as she was given a mental antennae to control her mind and programmed to kidnap any campers unfortunate enough to be caught wandering alone along the dark shores of Lake Oblongata at night, delivering them them[sic] then to her new master.

Old Psychopedia description

Once a peaceful, average size, walking fish, the Lungfish has been mutated, enlarged and mentally controlled by evil forces. Now, according to legend, it comes out of the lake at night to eat the brains of unsuspecting children. This is only partly true.

–Character blurb from the original Psychonauts website

Lungfish04

Loboto mutating Linda.

Linda was initially a regular lungfish living underneath a dry lake bed before being taken and altered by Dr. Loboto and Coach Oleander. After hideously mutating her and putting a mind-control implant in her brain, Oleander used her to kidnap the children from the camp, bringing them to Thorney Towers Home for the Disturbed across the lake. She is first mentioned in the opening cinematic by Bobby Zilch, who had been spreading the rumor that there was a monster in Lake Oblongata. Mikhail is the second to mention her, mistaking her for a "giant hairless bear" that he expresses interest in wrestling. She makes her first appearance during the "Lili Kidnapped!" cutscene, where she attempts to lure Lili and Raz with random objects while they converse. The last object she throws out is a flower with a happy face, which Lili picks up without thinking, giving Linda the chance to reel her in and kidnap her. After destroying the mind-control implant in her brain, Linda is very grateful to Razputin, offering him a way to the Asylum across the lake where Lili and the other children's brains are being held.

On the MTV2 shorts which take place after the game is completed, Linda is shown playfully interacting with the Campers around Whispering Rock.

Psychonauts Transportation[]

F6f9fe69

The Lungfish Call.

Main article: Lungfish Call

After Linda is freed from Coach's control, Raz can use her as transportation between Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp and Thorney Towers Home for the Disturbed. He can summon her by using the Lungfish Call.

Linda's Mind[]

LungfishopolisSea

Lungfishopolis.

Main article: Lungfishopolis

Linda's mind is a sprawling metropolis reminiscent of Tokyo, inhabited by Lungfish people living out a human-like existence. When Raz enters her mind, he is gigantic and feared by the citizens as "Goggalor". However, the Lungfish citizens within the resistance movement against Kochamara aid Raz in taking down the radio tower (mind-control implant). The entire scenario parodies the Godzilla franchise and the Kaiju film genre in general, casting Razputin as the monster because Lungfish are more commonly preyed upon by humans.

Boss Fight Strategy[]

Dodge that garbage it's spitting out! And when it's sucking it back up, bust open one of those nail boxes and see how it likes the taste of those!

Ford Cruller advising Raz from the bacon about Linda.

Linda is very noticeable for being an extensive boss fight featuring a total of 3 phases which the first two repeats itself at least once (Making it a total of 5 phases in general). The first phase with Linda takes place in an air pocket under Lake Oblongata and the third phase in the ghost town. The best way to beat these parts is smashing open the boxes of nails lying around as she sucks them in, in third phase however you first need to wait till she starts spitting out stuff. Repeating this will move the battle to phase two or phase four respectively, where Raz has to be steered through the lake bottom while Linda pushes the air pocket around. Keeping ahead and not getting too close to the edge of the bubble are key, as Raz will be grabbed out of the bubble by the Hand of Galochio if he touches the edge.

After surviving the obstacle course the final part of the battle will ensue, in which Linda will come out and fight you herself. Similar to past phases, there will be sucker fishes and crayfishes in the way, attempting to attack you as well. She attacks with her "fishing rod" appendage at close range, and needs to be led to one of the many clam shells while doing this attack. Her fishing rod will get stuck in a clam if it done correctly, leaving her open to attack. After the battle, the player will be able to use the Psycho-Portal on her, and continue to Lungfishopolis.

Attacks, Obstacles and Health[]

  • Sucking: the main attack of the lungfish is focused on sucking everything that is around the air pocket bubble, including raz itself. While this happens some of the objects that are on the ground can start rolling and moving forward the lungfish mouth which can damage raz in the process dealing 2 hit points. If razputin gets close to the lungfish she will swallow him, dealing 3 hit points.
  • Spitting: the opposite of the sucking attack, the Lungfish will start spitting objects towards Raz. While most of them are launched in random directions if he stays in one point linda will purposely spit an object directly at him, getting hit by any of this objects will deal 2 hit points.
  • Hand of Galochio (Obstacle): If raz gets too close to the edges of the bubble he will be grabbed, which in the auto-scrolled sections it will move him a few meters back or even a big part of a segment. In the sucking sections however it will only stun him for 2 seconds.
  • Sucker Fishes (Obstacle): they will be laying on the ground waiting for raz to get close to them so they can latch on his head, if this happens they will only do 1 hit point.
  • CrayFishes (Obstacle): similar to the suckers they will be laying on the ground, however this ones move a little trying to get close to raz attempting to snap him with their clamps. They only deal 1 hit point.
  • Clams (Obstacle): this ones will remain open until raz steps on them or even punch them. They deal 2 hit points, a bit more compared to most of the obstacles in this combat.
  • Spiked Antenna: in the last phase of this fight, Linda will use the "fishing rod" or "angler-fish esca" from her head which features a red glowing aura and a sphere cover in tiny spikes. This antenna will be swing towards raz every time he's close to her and it will deal 4 hit points which is one whole brain in the Mental Health.

Compared to Blueprint Tank or Mega Censor, Linda doesn’t have that much health but neither that low. Counting the 6 times Linda swallows the nail boxes and the 9 PSI-Punches raz performs on her, in total this boss requires a total of 15 hits.

Trivia[]

  • If the player reaches PSI Cadet Rank 100, an extra cutscene is unlocked that features Sheegor, Mr. Pokeylope, and Linda. The scene implies that Pokeylope and Linda had a close relationship before she was mutated.
  • Unlike the other creatures in the bottom of Lake Oblongata that were mutated by Psitanium, Linda is the only one that is known to have been mutated by Dr. Loboto and not the Psitanium.
  • Linda is the only non-human character in the entire Psychonauts series whose mind Raz jumps into.
  • The name Linda means "Pretty" in Spanish and Portuguese.
  • Linda's heterochromia matches Dr. Loboto's - one red pupil, one green.
  • Double Fine originally wanted to add a scene where Loboto fell into Linda's open mouth after getting shot off the tower. If the scene actually did happen off camera, it would be an explanation for how Loboto survived the fall.[5]
  • The level "Brain Tumbler Experiment" originally featured a 3-phase boss fight with Linda which can be seen in very brief clips of the E3 2002 trailer for the game.[6] During the fight she would have been able to spit projectiles, charge at Raz and perform a simple melee attack.

See also[]

Fish Guards

References/Notes[]

  1. Bobby consoles Linda because she wont jump in the water in an MTV2 short.
  2. Raz learns how to use the shield ability from Linda, who indirectly learned it from Coach Oleander.
  3. Linda's mouth never moves when she talks, and her voice has an echo-feel to it, similar to other telepathic voices.
  4. Shown in the Psychonauts MTV shorts.
  5. https://youtu.be/8NR-7KAUMnk?t=6670
  6. Psychonauts E3 2002 Trailer
Advertisement