Do you like Ace Attorney? Do you like philosophical debate? If both of those answers are yes, Pro Philosopher 2 might be the game for you.

Machiavellian

I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself to be a particularly Machiavellian figure in my day to day life. In fact, apart for the occasional shower thoughts about how I might have better dealt with a situation, I don’t really think about philosophy all that much to be honest.

I do, however, love logic puzzles and am particularly fond of the Ace Attorney games. So when I was given the opportunity to trial out Pro Philosopher 2 from Intelligible Games I was intrigued.

The demo – available June 10th after Steam Next Fest – pits you up against one of the most formidable minds of the Renaissance, Niccolo Machiavelli. In a logical debate, you need to listen to your opponent, press for more information and then using that information poke holes in their fundamental principles.

Objection!

If you’re familiar with visual novel style games like Phoenix Wright then the gameplay won’t be too unfamiliar. You listen to the opposition and then interrupt them with evidence you’ve discovered to discredit or undermine their points. It’s a seemingly simple loop, that becomes more difficult as you try and decipher the flaws in your opponents arguments.

As mentioned above, the demo focuses on explaining the game in a philosophical duel with Niccolo Machiavelli. Drawing heavily on the subject matter of The Prince, you need to convince Machiavelli of the flaws in his concepts. On one hand, this works fantastically to draw you into the plot – Machiavellian is a adjective for a reason – but on the other hand the gamefication of the subject matter sometimes makes points feel a little bit cheap.

In order to point out the flaws in the logic there has to be pretty glaring flaws laid out, and much like the cases in Ace Attorney games there also has to be a correct answer. From the demo, there is some satisfaction from probing towards the contradictions to dismantle your opponents views, but the need for a right/wrong dynamic in a field so focused on questioning the human experience felt a little shallow.

Conclusion

Given the demo is only one debate, it’s difficult to get a judge on how deep into philosophy we might go, however the gameplay does have a lot of potential for a fun thought provoking game. There are also some ties towards an overarching story continuing from the first game. So if you like philosophy, visual novels and logic puzzles give Pro Philosopher 2 a go at Steam Next Fest this week!