Pro Philosopher 2: Governments & Grievances

I've played the first game when it was still in Flash, and replayed that when it got ported to Steam, and finally I got my hands on this game. And what I can say, I literally can't praise this game more. Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher was simple but also pleasant and intelligent, making philosophy clear and understandable; Pro Philosopher 2 is even better at that, managing to tackle political philosophy just as clearly without playing favorites or degrading into sham. The soundtrack is very fitting and feels just right. And the morale is just what a good game needs in times like ours. My verdict: Must play for every philosophy and/or politics enjoyer, and great for everyone else.

Fell in love with it the moment i saw the trailer, and the game itself held up to the expectations. A charming and well-calculated mix of silliness, social commentary and actual philosophical thinking. And even if these topics are not really your thing, it can be enjoyed as a great short visual novel - characters, artwork, storytelling, humour are very enjoyable and endearing.

Like PP1 this game is based around philosophical debates - a philosopher makes an argument, and the player makes a counterargument. It's an AceAttorney like where pressing is replaced with asking for clarification and asking for backing, and trial evidence is replaced with an 'ideas slate' that can be used to Object to the opponent's argument. It also improves on AA's mechanics by making it so that when an argument is Objected to, if the Objection makes logical sense but it isn't the one meant to progress the story, the philosopher merely addresses the Objection without the player losing credibility points. I am not familiar with the work of all the philosophers represented, but I know Machiavelli's views are somewhat misrepresented (but this is explained at the end by him essentially playing a character based on 'The Prince'), and Marxism's depiction has plenty of errors but still better than in most media. (it also doesn't actually give criticism of Marx, only criticism of the Leninist Party-State, as well as AnComism for some reason?) The story's deceit is *incredibly* silly, and I very much could have done without it. Something more similar to the first game's, something without all the secret government conspiracies and such, would have worked just fine. This also made the final chapter significantly less enjoyable than the rest of the game. The drama honestly doesn't work much if at all. Good premise, good improvement on Ace Attorney's gameplay, dumb story, mixed characters, and there's plenty of minor errors in the depiction of the philosophers but not anything that impairs enjoyment. It's flawed but play it anyways.