Otto Mentallis

Otto Mentallis is a supporting character in Psychonauts 2. He is a founding member of the Psychonauts, the inventor of numerous psycho-reactive devices, and a current agent and engineer at the Motherlobe.

Appearance
Otto Mentallis is a tall, elderly man with cyan skin which tints slightly pink around his eyes, nose, mouth, and fingers. His face is wide and oval-shaped, with deeply sunken blue eyes at the farthest end of either side. He has a flat and pointed nose, a pointy chin, slim grey eyebrows, and no visible ears. He has a widow's peak and grey hair styled into a mountainous pompadour.

He wears a forest-green ribbed turtleneck, a white coat with pockets and puffy grey trim, tan pants with vertical grey stripes, and brown shoes. His accessories are a pair of square wire-frame glasses, and a swirling eyeball pendant on a gold chain around his neck.

A wood carving in Psychonauts and memory vaults in Psychonauts 2 depict Otto as a young man. Minimal changes in his appearance occurred since then, except for the need for glasses as an older man.

Personality
Otto is easy-going, confident, and ambitious to a foolhardy degree. He is fascinated by the mysteries of the human brain and proud of his own psychic innovations, prone to waxing poetic about both topics. He takes great pride in giving form and tangibility to abstract concepts and feelings like hunger and sorrow. When danger impedes scientific progress and discovery, Otto pays no heed. He bent the rules to loan out his devices to an underage intern, but subsequently refused to train Raz in the use of said devices for fear of increasing his legal liability.

Otto lives in the moment, thriving on attention and progress, as opposed to the rest of the Psychic 6, who all isolated themselves due to trauma and guilt. He harbors mild regret as the one who brought Lucrecia Mux to Green Needle Gulch, and for failing to defeat Maligula, though is quick to divert and accuse the situation of being "all Ford's fault" in the first place. Among certain friends, he developed a reputation as an unjustifiably smug egotist, as seen in the minds of Cassie O'Pia and Bob Zanotto.

Notable Psi-Powers and Skills
Otto is not shown to be proficient in any one psychic skill, instead focusing his efforts and on inventing tools to augment and amplify a psychic's skills and powers.

Inventions

Otto is a scientist and engineer whose major contributions to the Psychic 7 and later Psychonauts organization are his psycho-reactive machines. Otto's known creations include:


 * Astralathe: A powerful device capable of permanently altering the human psyche, implanting false memories, and accessing constructs bound to the subconscious.
 * Brainframe: Otto's collection of hundreds of brains, donated from deceased Psychonauts as per a non-disclosure agreement form. Each brain moves along metal beams in an individual compartment, long incapable of thought and at Otto's disposal for experimentation.
 * Defribu-lober: A device briefly mentioned by Raz to be capable of mass hypnosis, Otto's use of which was chronicled in True Psychic Tales #62.
 * Hyperhyglaciator: A machine intended to amplify a psychic's hydrokinetic powers. Froze an entire lake in "Hyper Ice" upon deployment.
 * Mini Murder Bug Bot: A fleet of tiny robots which escaped from Otto's lab, falsely advertised as lethal to increase sales. A defunct bot is found on the roof of Lucrecia's house in Green Needle Gulch during Norma Natividad's scavenger hunt.
 * Otto B.O.N (Brain Only Network): An elaborate network of tubes allowing for quick travel around the Motherlobe and surrounding outdoor areas. Accessible to those only with proper ThinkerPrint access, transmitted psychically.
 * Otto-Matic: A vending machine dispensing PSI pops, dream fluffs, and performance-enhancing PSI pins.
 * Otto-Shot: A camera which records photos in both the physical and mental worlds.
 * Psychoseismometer: A machine which collects and stores lingering negative psychic pressure. Liable to explode without frequent discharging in the form of mental combat.
 * Thought Tuner: Detects stray thoughts in the physical world, allowing a psychic to make tangible mental connections to them. Consists of a handheld scanner, and pair of headphones with an antenna.

Major Relationships
Ford Cruller

Otto was Ford’s first partner in the psychic research team which would eventually become the Psychonauts, sharing the same passion for the mysteries of the human mind. They are close friends, but prone to mockery of each other’s intelligence. Upon reuniting at the Heptadome, Otto was happy to see Ford’s senses returned to him and gladly accepted Ford's ribbing of him once more. Otto says in the postgame that he looks forward to having Ford around again to keep him humble, "abusive so-and-so" though he is.

The Psychic 7

Otto and Ford worked with Lucrecia Mux, Bob Zanotto, Helmut Fullbear, Cassie O'Pia, and Compton Boole as the psychic pioneers known as the Psychic 7. Together, they pushed the boundaries of their minds with new methods and technology, with little fear for consequences due to their close friendship and support of one another. Otto appears in the minds of many of the founders, revealing what they truly think of him. Specifically, Cassie remembers Otto as a boisterous idiot, Compton and Bob remember him as judgmental and blunt, and Helmut remembers him as argumentative but capable. Despite this, the Psychic 7 shared a group hug upon reunion decades later, and worked together to eliminate Maligula once and for all.

Sasha Nein

Otto and Sasha are close colleagues who trust and respect each other. They have a similar method of problem solving, as elucidated when Otto advised Sasha on interrogation of Caligosto Loboto, only to find Sasha already attempted every tool he recommended. Their methods differed when Otto offered to remove Loboto's brain, which Sasha declined, though insisted he'd call Otto for more assistance if he needed it. When Sasha vouched for the competence and capability of Razputin Aquato, that was sufficient enough for Otto to trust Raz with sensitive psycho-reactive equipment.

Backstory
Otto was the first psychic recruited by Ford Cruller to study the psitanium-rich land which would become Green Needle Gulch. He learned of Lucrecia Mux, Grulovian immigrant and hydrokinesis specialist, and suggested to Ford that they bring her aboard to aid their hydraulic psitanium mining operation. After Lucy, the team expanded further, attracting author Cassie O'Pia, herbophony specialist Robert Zanotto, zoolepathy specialist Compton Boole, and musician Helmut Fullbear.

The Psychic 7 became close friends, united in the goal of pushing the limits of the human mind. Otto built a lab into the cliff next to Bob Zanotto’s greenhouse, where he created machines to amplify and enhance the powers of psitanium and psychics. Emboldened the age of psychic exploration, as well as each other, the Psychic 7 experimented on their minds using Otto’s invention, the Astralathe, capable of permanently altering one’s psyche. One such experiment on Lucrecia released a dark, primal construct called Maligula from her subconscious, which thrived when Lucy returned to aid the war effort in Grulovia.

World leaders called upon the nascent Psychonauts to vanquish Maligula, after she broke a damn and drowned hundreds of peaceful protesters. In the ensuing Battle of Grulovia, Otto deployed his Hyperhyglaciator to freeze Maligula and the water she wielded, only to accidentally freeze the lake and seal Helmut Fullbear's body deep beneath it. After Maligula was defeated, Otto and Ford searched for Helmut's body, to no avail.

With Lucy and Helmut presumed dead and the Psychonauts declared heroes, Otto spearheaded the creation and groundbreaking of the Motherlobe headquarters. Otto cut the ribbon himself, visibly the only founder with enthusiasm for the project. Ford's slipping sanity soon rendered him unfit to lead, and Cassie, Compton, and Bob isolated themselves due to their trauma, leaving Otto the only founder with influence on the modern Psychonauts organization. He augmented the Psychonauts facilities with inventions such as the Otto B.O.N. transit system and the Otto-Matic vending machines. From his private laboratory across the quarry from the Motherlobe, he developed devices to aid agents in espionage, interrogation, and exploration.

Roles
Psychonauts 2

Razputin Aquato first encountered Otto in Sasha Nein's laboratory, advising Sasha on methods to extract information from Caligosto Loboto. Otto offered his services and tools to both Sasha and Raz before departing to his own lab.

Later, Raz required a loose brain to fill the vacant body of Nick Johnsmith, and was directed to Otto's workshop to find one. Otto showed off his inventions to the awed intern and, at Sasha's word, exploited a loophole to loan Raz the Thought Tuner and Otto-Shot camera. When Raz investigated the Brainframe, Otto explained that each brain was voluntarily donated by its owner for experiments, as is required of Psychonauts upon death, and as his brain and Raz's will be someday. Raz snuck a brain out of the Brainframe before leaving Otto's lab, one that Otto found abandoned in the Heptadome years earlier.

After Raz repaired the Astralathe, Otto reunited with the rest of the Psychic 7 in Green Needle Gulch. The Psychic 7 shared a group hug before working together to send Raz and Ford into Lucy's mind to eliminate Maligula and restore Lucy's true personality once and for all. Due to the intervention of Gristol Malik, Raz and Ford failed, releasing Maligula and sweeping Otto and the rest of the assembled Psychonauts away in a flood.

After Maligula's defeat, Raz can visit Otto's lab in the postgame. Inspired by the Astralathe despite the recent proof of the dangers, Otto reveals his plans to mass-produce personal Astralathes for "cosmetic" personality changes, excited to use one on himself to remove his brain's own wrinkles. When asked how he feels about Ford's return, Otto says he looks forward to the chaos Ford will bring with him, even if he predicts the Psychonauts will lose their funding as a result. He declines Raz's suggestion to leave his lab, citing his gadgets and a crab sandwich as the only company he needs.

Otto was also appointed mentor to Psychonauts intern Gisu Nerumen, whom he assigned to investigate his long-forgotten and unstable psychoseismometers, a task which was passed onto Raz.

Otto appeared as a mental construct in four minds in Psychonauts 2-- as the harsh food critic Otto Meatallis in Compton's Cookoff, the psychedelic organist Dr. Touch in PSI King's Sensorium, a paper cutout of himself as an egotistical young man in Cassie's Collection, and as a lone and unaltered figure of judgement in Bob's Bottles.

Behind the Scenes
Otto Mentallis is voiced by Piotr Michael, who voiced numerous minor characters in Psychonauts 2, including the Tooth Fairy in Loboto's Labyrinth, the Hippo Pot in Compton's Cookoff, and the Propagandeer in Fatherland Follies.

NOTE: The following information is not canon.

A piece of concept art shows psitanium being used as a recreational drug, in particular, depicting Otto smoking a psitanium-laced blunt.

A mechanic cut from the final gameplay of Psychonauts 2 was "Bottled Emotions," which would have been invented and explained by Otto.

Trivia

 * A wood-carved portrait of Otto is found by the campfire in the original Psychonauts, along with the rest of the Psychic 7.
 * Otto is the only member of the Psychic 7 whose mind is not visited in Psychonauts 2.
 * Otto is present via a figment in Helmut's recollection of the Fullbear/Zanotto wedding, but is absent from Bob's.
 * The framed gadgets and knickknacks in Otto’s lab include: a fish skeleton, the wrapped bomb from Cruller’s Correspondence (complete with Gzar Theodore’s message to Lucrecia), a chunk of psitanium, a brain ball, a mining helmet, a bowling ball, a lantern, the crab sandwich, a rotary phone, a bee smoker, a radio, a dripping bottle candle, duct tape, a Brainframe jar, a pair of bowling shoes, a pinecone, and a plush turtle wearing a fez.