i got that ace attorney feel :D
Reviews for "Socrates Jones: Pro Philo"
kudos.
if the values you possess influenced you to create the game, then respectfully i presume you're aware of your values and their intrinsic powers over our psyches; furthermore, if so, then, nonetheless, i wish to acknowledge and emphasize the value of conscious praxis: kudos, again!
for our sake, i'll disregard the possibility of the game being an accident, mistake, replica, &c. and singly consider it your purposeful masterpiece.
considering so, i wish to propose to you the essence of my analysis. i'll be quite vague about that which i'll presume you can infer or understand yourself. there were some evident fallacies: a quantifiable variety of inconsistent premises and irrational propositions lied hidden among the splendor of philosophical discovery. i decide against presenting my conclusions primarily bc it'd be counterproductive to the exp. of investigation and secondarily bc i feel this is a disadvantageous medium for effective communication. were you to desire a dialectic with me, i'd be more than happy to make the journey together; however, as it stands, we cannot actively communicate through a review. bc i realize my limitations to expression here, i therefore will restrict myself to reviewing your game with vague honesty. i apologize in advance if i'm acting inconsiderate to you or your contribution to newgrounds and the community.
on the bright side, the game was def. a positive exp. while this cannot be an absolute observation, it is understandable why your game has touched an unexpectedly sensitive audience (relative to what many before you have attempted but failed to accomplish). its accessibility—coupled with its organization, presentability (as a game), and entertainment—ironically, makes for a rather uncritical appeal, granted the language barrier is perhaps the single obstacle which you cannot easily avoid. your execution, contrary to wut people may have already commented, is on the whole a remarkable accomplishment. in part, your success is due to the medium for your idea; however, that is in no way discrediting you.
i'll say this: surely you've at least some exp. in the real world that you would sufficiently resolve the many presumptions existing concerning the study of philosophy, as well as the individual variance that on the whole constitutes and conditions society on average for or against the value of philosophy as an essential part of growth, life. were you to confirm my suspicions, please be specific as to wut exp. you've—i'm curious.
finally, i sympathize with some of your reviewers: you didn't actualize the full potential of your idea. maybe you considered that nething greater might have edged closer to intimidating rather than exciting, in which case i understand. maybe you yourself r still growing—as a thinker, as a game creator, wutever it may be. either way, i wish you'll consider the limitless potential your idea harnesses. feel free to discuss the idea with me further, if it'd be of interest to you.
there is so much more i could and would like to share, but more than nething i'm grateful. thank you sincerely for your compassion and dedication to newgrounds and its community; thank you sincerely for your love for humanity.
i wish we can all grow from your contribution.
First and foremost I'll say that I did enjoy this game. The music was smooth, the background art and character art was simple yet effective. The idea is absolutely brilliant. However, a few things that bothered me while I played the game... Ari, as a character, is rather plain, boring, and even annoying at times. I would much rather not have to deal with her fan-girling over Mill, her interjections (during the part with Mill), while I was trying to think and come up with a conclusion, were obnoxious and unneeded. Ironically (being the character that introduces Jones to philosophy) she didn't think very openly when Jones pointed out flaws in her idols ideas, even Mill himself was more rational about it than she was. I could say more, but I'd just be ranting. Jones himself comes across as unintelligent at times when talking to Kant, even the Arbiter seems to become this way around Kant, yet later on the Arbiter proves to be a greater problem than Kant. The characterization of your own characters I found to be a bit weak, but the way each philosopher was presented was pretty entertaining. Another thing is that sometimes the logical fallacy's are obvious in my mind, but I have trouble finding a way to them through the games options. Even on the other hand, I sometimes couldn't even think of an answer and I would click on it by accident while searching through my options. It would be my conclusion that the game isn't limited in options, it just has different options than what people would/could think.
Aside from all that, this game really taught me about philosophy and a bit of history, it does make me think and question statements more often than I already do.
P.S. I liked the nods towards Ace Attorney game, I've never even played those and I still caught on.
TL;DR version
Ari was annoying, Jones was sometimes dumb
Game has a good set of choices, just not the ones I thought of
I enjoyed it overall
Wow, this didn't win an award? I admit this was pretty informative. It's great to learn about philosophers. It's just that I thought this wasn't so repetitive. I have never been into point 'n click adventures. This was a tad boring.
It was still pretty playable. The animation probably could've been better. I'm more used to porn games here. Yeah, I thought it would turn into that. I'd rather get crocodile repellent.
As a game, I like it; that's why you get the 4 stars.
However: don't we have enough negative portrayals of masculinity in the media already? Every sitcom has the doofus dad, who'd fall apart without his womenfolk thinking for him. I'm so thoroughly sick of this trope - its persistence undermines masculine authority throughout society (replacing it with the "wisdom" of social institutions and bureaucrats), and it's utterly unrealistic to boot.
The fact of the matter is that men are the rational sex, not the emotive one; men make up the majority of accomplished philosophers, engineers, and scientists, NOT women. Men are not the sex so easily convinced by commercials to buy useless crap, and male headship in the household is utterly vital to a healthy family.
In this game you have the daughter smacking around her father and disrespecting him; you have a teenager acting as if Grade 11 philosophy has made her more rational than a father who's been an accountant for 20 years (boring? Maybe, but hard work); you have the father crying about what the mother thinks of him; and finally, you have his final words to his wife being "I'm sorry."
Pathetic. Utterly pathetic. If your goal is to further tear down masculinity, kudos; you're utterly typical of the feminist, anti-male media that we have nowadays. Maybe you should apply that fine philosophical mind to the present era: what is the crime rate of children raised by single mothers? What percentage of women are on anti-depressants, compared to the "oppressive" fifties? Which sex is known for working itself into an early grave to support the other? And which sex is more prone to abstract, intellectual pursuits, and which is more prone to gossip magazines?
Note to the ladies on here: you're the exception, you're the original geek girls, and you're exceptional. We're talking about averages, not the norm, but when the media presents a skewed version of reality enough times eventually people start to believe it. Stand up for your men.
ChiefWakamakamu responds:
This is one of the most misguided things I have read in a while, and prompted by so little too. The fact that you reduced both our characters to traits based off their gender is reductive to both of them.
I'm not sorry Socrates doesn't meet your backwards expectations for Male Performance, or that Ari happens to have some knowledge in the field she is passionate about. I'm just sorry that people still exist who still hold these regressive views and will reach so far to try to justify them.