Webcomic / Level 30 Psychiatry

Level 30 Psychiatry is a webcomic hosted on ComicFury that asks "Have you ever noticed how insane video game characters are?" quickly followed by "What if they had a scrap of common sense and got professional help?"

The titular practice is run by Dr. Gardevoir, a Gardevoir who has somehow "broken through the language barrier" to help those who have lost their minds (or never had them in the first place) to reintegrate into society. Other main characters include Roll, the head of the MM Memorial Hospital and Gardevoir's friend, Head Nurse Chansey, who has to deal with the physical problems, former galactic hero and current bumbling janitor Roger Wilco and airheaded Trainee Nurse Audino.

While most comics are separate entities there are intermittent arcs.

• Another Side: The stress of the job is beginning to get to Gardevoir.
• Olympics: A tie -in to the then-current London Olympic Games.
• Home Visit: Audino has a nightmare and decides to sleep over at Gardevoir's place
• Hire Expectations: After mistaking an ad-placing for part of the Job System, Black Mage and White Mage join the hospital staff.
• Dawn of Misunderstanding: A Pokémon trainer who was unaware of the crossover arrives in Light City, along with her flirtatious Gallade.
• Malpractice Makes Imperfect: The hospital hosts tryouts for the vital role of surgeon, despite a lack of competent surgeons in Light City. Hilarity Ensues.
• Heavy Metal: Proto Man pays a visit to the hospital, and the history behind its name is revealed.
• Girl's Day Out: Roll is concerned that Gardevoir is overworked, so she takes the female staff out for a day while Roger, Black Mage and Valentine stay behind.
• Airman wa shigoto wo yameru: The Poorly Disguised Pilot for a long teased secret project, a Spin-off focusing on Air Man and the video game villains, End Boss's World.
• Level 29 Psychiatry: Thanks to a deal gone wrong, Dr. Gardevoir is de-evolved into a Kirlia and White Mage is forced to fill in for her.

Updates Sundays, usually. Late updates tend to be accompanied with "apology sprite comics" featuring author avatars of the creators.

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Tropes include:

• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Chansey and Audino wear nurse's hats, and Gardevoir's alter-ego wears glasses. Audino also wears a night cap and a ribbon at various points, both in hospital colors.
• Action Bomb: As a Creeper shows us, it's not a lot of fun when you have a nervous disposition.
• After the End: The series takes place in a world created from the fused fragments of other worlds after an event known as The VG Cataclysm.
• All Psychology Is Freudian: Discussed. Gardevoir mentions that Freud's theories are outdated but since they're well known they end up being what most game characters are based on, meaning she has to resort to them.
• Alt Text: Snarky comments on each comic since the beginning.
• And Then What?: Doubles as an Armour-Piercing Question:
  Gardevoir: "Do you even know what to do when you defeat [Mario]?"
  Bowser: "No..."
• April Fools' Day: Usually celebrated with a silly comic or joke. In 2013, Deadpool took a visit to the hospital. In 2014, the April Fool's comic was removed after much controversy (and 5 banned Kotaku members). In 2015, the authors "ran out of funny" and put up a comic with tons of melodramatic cliches instead. 2016's one had a long requested comic focusing on Sonic.EXE... only for the writer to muddle it with Mega Man Battle Network (Rockman.exe in Japan.)
  • Subverted in 2017 which had Gardevoir de-evolving and the comic being renamed Level 29 Psychiatry... only for it to stick.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Gardevoir disbelieves that Audino managed to find her place just by following her breathing, despite being having psychic powers and a best friend who's a Super-Powered Robot Meter Maid. She's called out on this by her own split personality.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Variation. Roger Wilco is rather disappointed when he finds out he's the exception to Rule 34.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Events recalled by Kratos are tearing out a cyclops's eye, throwing himself off a cliff and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale not meeting sales expectations.
• Art Evolution: Due to increasing personnel added to the comic the style has changed a lot. The initial comic was a rather crude sketch done in colored pencils. Eventually more artists and a colorist were added, giving quite an upgrade to the comic's style.
• Art Shift: It's bound to happen with two/three rotating artists, but special cases are:
  • Child of Plight, drawn to resemble its namesake.
  • Brawl in the Tribute, a tribute to Brawl in the Family, done in the style of its early comics.
  • A duology featuring Pit, which has softer, pastel colors and blue outlines. The latter comic was redone in the usual style during a hiatus.
  • Lampshaded in Style Un-savvy with Athena, complete with Painting the Medium.
• Aside Glance: Gardevoir, as shown here.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Played with. Lara Croft's more injury prone reboot is a side effect of surgery to remove her fan-service.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Solid Snake and his family have issues, to say the least.
  • The same goes for Dante and Trish.
  Gardevoir: "Freud would've had a field day with this family."
• Black Dude Dies First: Conversed by Pyramid Head.
  Pyramid Head: "If [Audino] was in my home genre of horror she would be the first to die after the ethnic minorities."
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Deadpool, of course.
• Born as an Adult: Gardevoir has no recollection of being another Pokémon- she was already a Gardevoir when she gained awareness of herself. This is one of the many reasons being accidentally de-evolved into a Kirlia freaks her out so much.
• Bound and Gagged:
  • Sakura has to pull this to get Dan into the office.
  • Apparently, this is how Deadpool scored his cameo by pulling this on one of the comic's staff.
• But Now I Must Go: Backstory example. The Warrior of Light left the team for unspecified reasons and White Mage tries to send him a letter, hampered by the fact she doesn't know his name.
• Butt-Monkey: Roger Wilco. In only his second appearance he is killed by a Witch. Gardevoir's lines indicate it's not the first time this sort of thing has happened, and this is proven as he is repeatedly maimed and mocked.
• Call-Back:
  • The comic introducing Nurse Chansey is called "To ER is Human..." The comic introducing Nurse Audino is called "...to Forgive, Asinine".
  • White Mage and Black Mage note in Malpractice Makes Imperfect that they received no tryouts when they joined, referring to an earlier arc, Hire Expectations.
• The Cameo: The "Girl's Day Out: Use Morgue Gun" strip includes a zombie version of Nintendo from Consolers.
• Casanova Wannabe: Dawn's Gallade, contrary to what his Pokédex entries state.
• Centipede's Dilemma: The Scolipede's Dilema (sic), where Audino questions Gardevoir's ability to stand on such small feet.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Referenced in this strip and somewhat mocked in the commentary. Interestingly, the comic has been developing a more serious backstory in regards to what happened to the city.
• Character Blog: Nurse Audino has a Facebook page where she posts her insights.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Gardevoir seems to have an idea of what's wrong with her, but as the only psychologist in the series, she can't really get a second opinion. Also lampshaded in the title of strip 316, in which Gardevoir puts on an Irregular Update Support Group as the first strip of the comic in nearly two years.
• Continuity Nod: In one of the strips, all the hair fighters get stuck together, so Valentine has to cut it all off. Later, we see Shantae, sans ponytail, who contemplates buying a long-haired wig.
• Continuity Snarl: In-Universe. The Street Fighter writers' differing views on whether or not Charlie is alive really puts the strain on Guile.
• Culture Clash: Duke Nukem doesn't really get Pokémon battles.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Super Mario powerups are the Mushroom Kingdom's main exports
• The Ditz: Audino lives up to her name.
• Drunk Driver: In a flashback, Meta Knight drives the Halberd airship straight into King Dedede's castle while drunkenly celebrating his Smash Bros. debut.
• Everyone Has Standards: The Space Quest Narrator and Valentine who had respectively reveled in and caused Roger Wilco's violent death fall silent at the sight of the Surgeon Simulator protagonist's carnage.
• Fanservice: Mocked with the "fanservice removal surgery" underwent by Lara Croft, and which Samus immediately heads to the hospital to demand.
• Fountain of Youth: After a request to remove the popularity of Gardevoir from the internet goes wrong, Dr Gardevoir finds her self de-evolved into a Kirlia.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Dr. Gardevoir has a Comic Fury account and can be messaged at her link. (Comic Fury account required.)
• Freudian Couch: Gardevoir orders them in bulk, because the things get destroyed so often that there's a running out-of-universe game on guessing what colour the next couch will be an how long it'll last.^note For the record, the current standings are as follows: original red, 2 comics, blown up by a creeper; gold, 11 comics, crushed by Bowser; black leather, 11 comics, glitched into unusable condition by Missingno; green, 3 comics, rendered unusable by Master Belch and burned offpanel by Roger; burgundy, 4 comics, used by Peter Puppy to beat Roger over the head; blue-gray, 11 comics, dyed a permanent orange by an Inkling.
• Funny Background Event:
  • While Gardevoir and Roll discuss the Xbox One, Roger gets attacked by Morpha in the water cooler.
  • While Gardevoir and Audino talk shoe sizes, Roger Wilco is seen running from Kreig (who is on fire), followed by a shower of blood from off screen.
• Genre Savvy: Kano came to the surgeon tryout to, quote "brainstorm some new fatalities". That he expected the fact that in a world where every video game character ever ended up, quite a few quacks would be showing up shows exactly how Genre Savvy he is.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Gardevoir wears a night gown at bedtime despite not wearing anything normally. It was lampshaded in the second strip she wore it in.
• Have a Nice Death: Even if he's not the main character, Roger Wilco gets snarky comments from a text box when he dies.
• Hard on Soft Science: Inverted. Gardevoir doesn't think highly of physicists but that has more to do with the fact the ones at Black Mesa keep sending head crabs into her office.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Silver the Hedgehog suffers one when his warnings of a Bad Future are ignored in favour of the Olympics.
  • Roll has a literal one after seeing naughty pictures of herself online.

• High-Pressure Blood: Roger Wilco.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: "Can't look a gift Rapidash in the mouth."
• Homemade Sweater from Hell: Averted and Played Straight. Roll makes very nice and tasteful winter sweaters but while she puts the extra effort into Gardevoir's one, the egg-shaped Chansey gets a very ill-fitting sweater.
• Hopeless Suitor: Gallade is shot down in less than 4 panels after his first appearance. He later tries to hit on Marina Liteyears and gets thrown across the room for this efforts.
• Humanoid Abomination: Max Payne's description of Gardevoir paints her as one, likening her to something seen in a lucid dream.
• Ink Blot Test: Done with Eggman who mostly sees his foes in pain.
• In Memoriam: In-Universe example - the hospital is named in honor of Mega Man.
• Interactive Narrator: Like in Space Quest, Roger Wilco's narrator is this, but it can also converse with the characters.
• I Owe You My Life: Gardevior apparently saved Roll's life at some point in the comic's backstory. Gardevior takes a Think Nothing of It approach to it.
• "Jump Off a Bridge" Rebuttal: Gardevoir tries this on the Sniper and it backfires.
  Glasses Gardevoir: Has that cliff jumping question ever worked?

• Large Ham: Whenever Roger Wilco takes on the identity of Random Object Collector Man.
• Le Parkour: Discussed. Spikes were placed on the ledges of the hospital to stop parkour-inclined characters from scaling the place. Taken to its logical conclusion when Roll is shown patching up Knuckles, Cole MacGrath, Faith Connors, and Ezio Auditore.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: Invoked and Subverted. Gardevoir and Roll try it to cure Gardevoir's Hollywood schizophrenia but all it does is make Gardevoir's hair stand on end.
• Literal-Minded: GLaDOS takes idioms as serious scientific questions, conducting ridiculous experiments including seeing how many angels can dance on a pinhead or tracking bears to see if they crap in the woods.
• Living Prop: Arakune is forever on a chair in the waiting room.
• Mommy Issues: Navi accuses Dr. Gardevoir of blaming her guardianship for Link's psychological issues.
• Motor Mouth: Ellis, to the point that Gardevoir charges an extra $30 an hour for him. He falls silent when he finds questionable pictures of himself.
• Mummy Wrap: A Cofagricus pulls an accidental version of this on Gardevoir.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Roll being in charge of the hospital is a reference to the instruction manual of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom which stated Roll's dream was to one day open a hospital.
  • A second nod to the game comes when her bio mentions beating dark gods to death with a broom.
  • Roll normally has green eyes like she did in Mega Man 8 but when reverting to a more childlike state, her eyes become blue as they were in the initial games.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*:
  • Black Mage sings The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins while full of tranquilizers.
  • Gardevoir, meanwhile, sings the theme to Pokémon the Series: Black & White after tumbling over.
• Nonstandard Character Design: McPixel is represented with his actual game sprite instead of being drawn.
• Oh, My Gods!: Gardevoir swears on the name of Arceus, while Chansey has been heard to use the hybrid expression, "Arceus Christ!".
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Parodied in the Alt Text of #37
  When Roll's nose disappears you know she's concerned.
• Opening Monologue: The first comic has a narration which explains the background and premise that turns out to be Roll reading aloud a flyer for the titular business.
• Overflow Error: When Gardevoir and Roll find an old bottle of champagne from Gardevoir's college days it's been left so long that it's not become vinegar, it rolled back around into a fresh bunch of grapes. Roll even calls it a 256=0 situation.
• Painful Body Waxing: Just the possibility of waxing is enough to make Dixie Kong scream.
• Painting the Medium:
  • In the Peanuts parody, Gardevoir's speech is in Peanuts font.
  • The Space Quest narrator, in a sense; even though it's still the same 8-bit text box, the characters can "hear" it and hold a conversation.
  • After mentioning an "art style change", Black Mage and Roll switch from one artist's style to another.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • White Mage is able to fill in for Dr Gardevoir without anyone noticing using a dress and horn accessories, despite refusing to dye her hair.
  • Roger Wilco's Random Object Collector Man costumes concists of an apron and sun shades. Roll doesn't even seem to realise he thinks he's in disguise.
• Parental Favoritism: Parodied when Chansey accuses Roll of this when Gardevoir got a better sweater than her.
  Chansey: "Well, I guess we know who mom's favorite is."
• Performance Anxiety: Discussed when Samus Aran blames her infamous reaction to Ridley in Metroid: Other M on stage fright.
  Samus: "Do I have to wait for my stuff to be authorized? Do I have to scan for something? Why was he so fluffy?
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: After spending months as a Kirlia, she is able to evolve back into Dr. Gardevoir with the help of a lucky egg... only to be taken out of action from the pain of her bones growing so much in a short space.
• Pokémon Speak: Averted by Gardevoir who speaks plain English and played straight, though translated, by every other Pokémon. This is parodied when White Mage and Black Mage need to speak to Chansey, complete with translation boxes.
• Pun-Based Title: Most of the comics have one to the point that significant ones can be identified by the fact they don't.
• Real Is Brown: Referenced in the Alt Text of "Another Side: Wait, what?":
  "Apparently, hallucinations have the same color palette as first person shooters."
• Respawning Enemies: The explanation for Waddle Dee's Unexplained Recovery.
• Robot Girl:
  • Roll, and she's a Ridiculously Human Robot to boot.
  • There are a few reminders that Roll is a robot, mostly played for laughs. For instance, she recharges with a power cord attached to her neck and her eyes glow in the dark. She also performs a Blue Screen of Death upon seeing Rule 34 and attempts to hard reset herself with a magnet.
• Rocket Jump: Unfortunately for the Soldier, the Surprisingly Realistic Outcome happens.
  Gardevoir: "Why didn't you just use the stairs?"
  Soldier: "The what now?"
• Sarcasm Failure: While the Narrator from the Space Quest series usually has a sarcastic reply to everything that comes up, even in the bizarre universe of Level 30 Psychiatry, when Nigel from Surgeon Simulator 2013 tries to give Roger a heart transplant (an effort involving a hammer, then when he drops it, a fire extinguisher, and a piece of broken glass), even he is stumped and outright admits that he's "got nothing to say".
• Seen It All: Chansey's reaction to some of gaming's more bizarre status effects indicates this, though it's defied by her opening Internal Monologue.
  Chansey: "If you think you've seen it all, you've underestimated people's ability to find new ways to hurt themselves."
• Silent Protagonist: Link shows us how difficult this makes psychiatry.
• Slices, Dices, and Makes Julienne Fries: The result of letting Valentine apply for the position of surgeon.
• Species Surname: Dr. Gardevoir appears to be this, under typical naming conventions. However, Gardevoir's last name was once considered to be Sirknight, which is Gardevoir's name in Japan.
• Split Personality: Gardevoir has one in a mini-arc, Another Side. It seems the other side of her personality, Glasses Gardevoir, is an embodiment of her more collected and analytical side, as she is always level-headed and examining Gardevoir's problems. Gardevoir is the only one who can see or hear her.
• Squee:
  • Roll's reaction to learning that her brother Mega Man is in Super Smash Bros., much to the Villager's annoyance. There's a good reason for this.
  • When Kirlia asks Roll to help her enjoy her newfound childhood, Roll resets her mind to a more innocent state... and immediately has this reaction on seeing Kirlia.
• Status Effects: Chansey has to deal with some pretty unstandard conditions.
  Luigi: (Holding Mario who has been turned into a scarecrow) "My brother was-a struck by the trippiest status condition in the world!"
  Eggplant Pit: "I respectfully refute your claim."
• Strongly Worded Letter: Gardevoir's response to a Head Crab attack.
  Gardevoir: "Black Mesa is going to receive another strongly worded letter about this."
• Talking to Themself: Gardevoir with her Glasses counterpart.
• Time Police: Taking his original role to the logical extreme, Mr. Resetti.
• There Are No Therapists: Averting this is the basic premise but played weirdly for Gardevoir herself. She tries giving herself therapy and it backfires.
• They Killed Kenny Again:
  • Take Wilco's penchant for getting killed, add some 1-up mushrooms and you've got this trope. It doesn't quite sink in well with Dr. Stiles.
  Gardevoir: "The worst part is, when Roger comes back to life, he'll have to mop up his own shredded remains."
• Tongue on the Flagpole: Greninja's tongue scarf and urban ninja running don't mix too well.
• Trauma Inn: Referenced in the tagline.
  Because not all problems can be solved by sleeping at an inn.
• The Unintelligible: The Pyro from Team Fortress 2 is a patient and is as difficult to understand as ever.
• Waxing Lyrical: It turns out Tails' theme from Sonic Adventure was a pretty accurate psychiatric assessment.
• Wham Line: "This is the Mega Man Memorial Hospital." Mega Man died before the start of the webcomic and couldn't be brought back.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Invoked Trope. Gardevoir sees a much darker side to The Land Before Time than most.
  Gardevoir: "It involved a child being stalked by his mother’s killer before the kid gets tired of running and talks his friends into a plot to drown him."
• Who's on First?: Audino gets into this routine with Chansey. Lampshaded by Gardevoir as Chansey hits her head against the wall.
  Gardevoir: "What is this, Vaudeville?"
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Gallade's attempt to woo Gardevoir consists of mangled flowery language. She is less than impressed.
• You Bastard!: The sexy pictures of Samus in her underwear in the Metroid clear screens? This version of Samus did not consent to the Fanservice.
  Samus: I spend a week blowing up space pirates and escaping exploding planets and what do I get at home? A perv on my window, snapping pictures of me in my underwear.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Black Mage mistakes Call for Roll in a fancy dress. Awkwardness ensues.

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