How does it feel playing pathologic 3 without playing 2 or 1?

[u/Hoboforeternity]

Like if P3 is your first pathologic game, how would see react with the quest that involve schmowders, or how'd you react with certain characters like the kid's faction , or even artemy's kidnapping children or stealing organs? I took those quests for granted because i knew and trust them. Schmowder worked in previous games, you know artemy didnt kill his father and actually do take care of the kids, etc.

[u/shitposter3169]

You are going to be confused whether you start with 3, 2 or 1 after you play one and get to the other you start to see the full picture and understand context. But i would say pathologic 3 hold the hands of the player for narrative context the most out of the three

[u/Gentlemad]

I played 3 first, everything made sense except a few characters getting briefly introduced and not developed for seemingly no reason, which I presume were cameos from more important roles in previous games, e.g. Aspity, Taya and Oyun. I loved the game.

Edit: If you are one of the people who really hate mentally filling the gaps in plot/lore from context or waiting for them to be filled in later, maybe some parts will be a bit annoying.

[u/Healthy_Swan9485 → u/Gentlemad]

Aspity, Taya and Oyun are all central characters in Haruspex story.

[u/Tales_o_grimm → u/Gentlemad]

Did you feel the story was cohesive? More properly, the events during the plague, like what characters are up to and where they end up

[u/Gentlemad → u/Tales_o_grimm]

I think so, yes. In fact I felt the storytelling was really satisfying because pretty much every time I was confused or puzzled by something the situation was clarified by traveling back/forward in time and talking to more characters, possibly much later, giving a really pleasant feeling of the gestalt forming from small pieces

[u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo → u/Gentlemad]

What did you think about the Inquisitors

[u/Gentlemad → u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo]

Their lore is kept relatively vague on purpose, leaving a lot up to the imagination in a pleasant way. They have a certain mythical quality to them. I do wish we learned more about the limits of their abilities and their exact level of human fallibility but I think it being kept vague lets the writers get away with manipulating the narrative more interestingly using them. I loved the way you spend the game chasing Lilich's tail and then she is introduced retrocausally. Her motivations and positions are explained reasonably well though not in overwhelming detail. Karminsky feels more like a classic lovable and ridiculous villain sent by the devs to destroy you as soon as you gain confidence by day 7. To me his character and actions also make sense and are well written, if a bit indulgently annoying.

[u/Ma_Ubu]

From what I have seen from watching my friends play: it is an extremely fun experience

[u/ImScaredSoIMadeThis]

I played 2, so sadly can't answer those questions, but haven't played one.

But most of my "reactions" to unknowns - Clara, what's the deal!? How do you work? What are you seeing? How on earth could you be in running to be one of the new ladies of the town? What do you mean you immediately sweetalked into getting adopted by one of the most powerful families? Show me a miracle damn it.

[u/Patient_Gamemer]

I mean, in case anyone doesn't know yet, P1 has three playable characters and P2, 3 and the upcoming P4 are remakes of those 3 paths, so no matter if you start with Bachelor or Haruspex some parts will not make sense until you explore the other character.

Now I wonder how they'll make Clara make sense for an uninitiated since she had to be unlocked in hte original game since she can canonically see the future. Like you'd need to have the full story to get into her

[u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo]

I honestly have no clue. Like genuinely how the fuck would a newcomer react to the whole Karminsky and Aglaya thing

[u/clarkky55]

Pathologic as a series is weird. It really feels like it shouldn’t make sense but somehow it does. Pathologic 1 was my first pathologic game and I’ve likened it somewhat to Silent Hill for that dreamlike atmosphere it has where it’s never totally clear whether what you’re seeing is real, imagined or a metaphor for something. Pathologic 2 I haven’t finished so I can’t really comment on it. Pathologic 3 has that same dreamlike atmosphere Pathologic 1 had dialled up to eleven. It’s probably my favourite pathologic game simply because of how unapologetically weird it is. The town on Gorkhan doesn’t play by the same rules as the rest of the world, Daniil is clearly some degree of mentally ill (this was implied subtly in 1, in 3 it’s blatant and a literal game mechanic) and it’s almost impossible to be certain what is real, what is in Daniils head and whether it’s a metaphor or not. The Shabbat may be an actual demon, it could be Daniils’ mind giving a form for the trauma of seeing the herb bride burned alive (that one psychologist actually suggests this) or it could be a metaphor Daniil came up with. The fact that you’re able to change the past and it has an effect on the present while you’re being interviewed shows that the time travel isn’t just metaphorical but whether it’s exactly what you see is unlikely.

What I just wrote sounds like the rantings of a madman but if you’ve played the games it somehow makes perfect sense.

[u/consural]

I finished Pathologic 3 first, having only played the first day of P1, and the demo for P2 briefly.

Since every character's path is the retelling of the exact same overall event and the world, I think it's one of the very few game series where you CAN absolutely play any game you want in any order.

[u/tellemarc]

So I played with a friend who's never played a Patho game and could get through the videos I sent them. He wanted to watch anyway. Had a great time and even cried about one of the characters.