Everyone in Socrates's family loves philosophy, including his smart-as-a-whip daughter Ari, but he doesn't get what all the fuss is about. After all, if you aren't a philosopher, why should you care? But in Connor Fallon and Valeria Reznitskaya's Phoenix Wright-inspired educational visual novel adventure game Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher, Socrates is about to get a crash course in why you don't need a flowing white robe and a long scraggly beard to get why philosophy and basic debating skills are important in every day life. Especially if, like Socrates, an ironic accident strands him in a surreal realm beyond our own where the only way back is to sharpen his mind and provide an answer to what sounds like an unanswerable question.
The gameplay itself comes down to sequences where Socrates (that's you) must square off against someone's arguments or presentation and use tactics to pick it apart. But you're no troll, you're just using basic skills like asking for clarification or supporting evidence, or checking for relevance. As each statement is made, you'll get a chance to ask questions that can force them to change or otherwise update their statements in ways that provide you with more information or even provided an opportunity to make a counterpoint. Of course, to make counterpoints of your own, you'll need to have a little bit of knowledge of your own, and pertinent arguments to raise in any given situation will be added to your "idea slate" to raise when the time is right. Be careful... debating needs to be handled intelligently and credibly, and making wild, useless, unrelated, or just plain wrong statements will lower your credibility bar, and if it drops all the way, you've lost.
See, Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher is all about teaching you how to debate people in every day life. You don't need to be standing behind a podium to need to know how to argue or even just talk to other people in a productive, intelligent manner. It's what separates the humans from the trolls, after all. But regardless of how useful the skill it's teaching is, any educational game still needs to be fun and engaging to really teach someone and keep them interested, and Pro Philosopher happily succeeds in both parts. Not only is it witty and clever, but the characters are interesting and the topics they discuss doubly so. Of course, not everyone is going to agree with every concept on the table, or the way they're presented, or even the counter-arguments you're given, but hey, that's what debates are for.
It is, by design, an exceptionally wordy game, which means that players looking for more adventure-sy aspects might find it a bit too linear and talky. But Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher is a great idea delivered in a simple yet effective format that works perfectly for its core concepts. Whether "NONSENSE!" is ever going to become as catch-phrasey as "OBJECTION!" is (snicker) debatable, but with great art and a light-hearted take on some big ideas, Pro Philosopher is a prime example of how edutainment can be effective and still be fun.
Walkthrough Guide
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Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher Walkthrough
General Tips
If you follow this walkthrough to the letter, you'll miss out on a lot. Much amusement can be found by asking questions I don't tell you to ask and not skipping over anything.
You can fast-forward dialogue by repeatedly clicking the NEXT button.
If you get stuck, question everything. You'll never lose credibility by asking questions.
Not every idea that appears on the Idea Slate will come in handy during a chapter. Don't use it as a checklist.
In the options menu (click the gears), you can turn on the option to highlight questions you've already asked. This is off by default, but it's incredibly useful when you need to keep track of what you've done.
Prologue: One new York Morning...
Opponent: Billy the Salesman
Argument 1: "Buy my product!"
Ask for clarification on the first statement.
Ask for clarification on the third statement.
Press for backing on the third statement.
Argument 2: "Deer are a menace!"
Challenge the fourth statement with "Deer live in the woods".
Argument 3: "Why you still need my product!"
Question the relevance of all of the first three statements. Each one will be removed when you do.
Chapter 1: Through the Looking Glass
Opponent: Euthyphro of Athens
Argument 1: "Good is what is Holy"
Ask for clarification on the fourth statement. New idea!
Challenge the fifth statement with "There are Different Gods".
Argument 2: "On Divine Disagreements"
Press for backing on the fifth statement. A new statement will be added.
Challenge the new sixth statement with "Morality Comes from the Gods".
Chapter 2: An Old Friend Appears
Opponent: Protagoras of Athens
Argument 1: "The Source is the Self"
Ask for clarification on the fourth statement. It will be amended.
Press for backing on the newly amended fourth statement.
Argument 2: "Morality is up to the Individual"
Press for backing on the third statement. New idea!
Challenge the fourth statement with "Speech Penalty".
Argument 3: "All Morals are Subjective"
Question the relevance of the fourth statement.
Chapter 3: The Social Contract
Opponent: Thomas Hobbes
Argument 1: "The Natural State"
Challenge the third statement with "People Work Together".
Argument 2: "The Social Contract"
Ask for clarification on the third statement. It will be amended.
Challenge the newly amended third statement with "Mankind is Selfish".
Argument 3: "Our Obligation to the Contract"
Ask for clarification on the third statement. It will be amended.
Challenge the newly amended third statement with "Contracts Need to be Enforced".
Chapter 4: The Pursuit of Happiness
Opponent: John Stuart Mill
Argument 1: "Morality comes from Happiness"
Ask for clarification on the third statement. New idea!
Challenge the fourth statement with "Happiness Distribution".
Argument 2: "Rules that Promote Happiness"
Press for backing on the fourth statement. New idea!
Challenge the second statement with "Rule Nuances".
Chapter 5: Paved with Good Intentions
Opponent: Immanual Kant
Argument 1: "Intentionalism"
Ask for clarification on the fourth statement.
Argument 2: "The Categorical Imperative"
Press for backing on the second and third statements. You'll get a new idea from each one.
Challenge the fourth statement with "Lying". (You could probably have gotten somewhere with the other idea if Socrates's example was better.)
Argument 3: "The Universality Test"
Ask for clarification on the third statement. Two new statements will be added.
Challenge the new fifth statement with "Intentionalism".
Chapter 6: The End of the Road
Opponent: Find out for yourself!
Argument 1: "Morality Exists"
Ask for clarification on the first statement. It will be amended.
Press for backing on the newly amended first statement.
Argument 2: "The Answer Will Be Found"
Press for backing on the fourth statement.
Argument 3: "Socrates Found the Answer"
Question the relevance of the third statement. A new statement will be added.
Challenge the new fourth statement with "Mankind is Flawed".
Argument 4: "No Point in Trying"
Press for backing on the second statement. Two new statements will be added.
Ask for clarification on the new fourth statement. It will be amended.
Challenge the newly amended fourth statement with "Good is Happiness".
Posted by: SonicLover | August 21, 2013 4:18 PM