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Pathologic, For Those Who Will Never Play It (Haruspex's Route) [Day 1-3 Rough Cut Preview]
🕑 Added 2025-05-10 20:07:20 +0000 UTCHey ya'll, back with the first 100+ minutes of the main summary!
Something things to note:
-As ever, not all voicelines are in place. Getting more and more in by the day, however.
-Day 1 has been updated with extra voice acting! Still not quite 100% complete, but it is definitely a lot more put together
-The intros which break up each day are, at present, incomplete. They are going to be centered around readings of letters Artemy gets around midnight each day, often from Isidor or Aglaya. Those lines are still forthcoming, and given that I'm planning on tailoring the visuals to the narration, I've opted to basically just leave a place holder with the essential info there for now. Feel free to skip to around 2 minutes in at the start of each day if you feel you've got the idea/read everything.
-Still quite a bit of polishing and refinement to be done with the editing, and some footage that's to be replaced
-Hope ya'll like the thumbnail <33 (Sharkrocket did a phenomenal job on it imho and you should def check out their work, one of the best Patho artists out there!!)
Overall though, I am quite proud of how this is shaping up! Despite being on a nonstop grind with this, I'm still excited and energized as the whole thing comes together more and more, I could not be MORE hype at this point. Think this has very real potential to become my new best video.
On that note, I will also say that feedback on this one in particular would be much appreciated! Trying to navigate a lot of complicated ideas and information in these parts and helps to know that I'm communicating them properly.
Going to be posting a broader update and another research review in the next week. Day 4 is next, then after that I'll be taking some time to polish everything up a bit. More on that soon!
For now, hope you enjoy~
Ruby <33
![Pathologic, For Those Who Will Never Play It (Haruspex's Route) [Day 1-3 Rough Cut Preview]](https://img10.patrefans.com/storage/3/fa/tb/563145-019e833a-631a-7bfa-8cf8-2b22cd42c92a.jpg)
Comments
Kim Letendre
This second playthrough really tickles my brain. I've got more than a touch of the 'tism and my main special interest is storytelling and by the Fates, Pathologic really hits the spot for me. I think your point about hermeneutics is, thematically speaking, a HUGE theme of the game that can only really be teased out by playing through the multiple routes that the game presents you with. I love when media respects its audience's intelligence enough not to spell shit out to them. Sure, most people may start with Daniil's route, but the game actually allows you to start with Artemy as well. You could start from either POV and build yourself a set of in-universe biases that get challenged when you play the other healer. It forces you through the hermeneutic circle in a way that other games don't always encourage. I already believed games are a great way to co-opt the hermeneutic circle since they dynamically engages the player with their stories and ideas, but Pathologic does it brilliantly. The game jarringly challenges your understanding of the plot and characters through the different lens we're offered (Daniil, Artemy, and Clara) so you're always going to end up wondering if you're doing the right thing. Ultimately, it leads the player to reject simple dichotomist worldviews; even in a vacuum the moral choices the healers are facing aren't easy to reconcile with the bias we tend to have to perceive doctors as "good guys" but they often get pitted against each other and you're left in the lurch, seeing both sides of the coin, incapable of truly calling any of them good or bad people. I'm the type of person who will watch media again and again to properly "digest" it, so the hermeneutic circle is close to my heart. I started typing a half-baked idea on how Hermes is also a god of boundaries and roads, but I need more time to articulate the vibe I'm trying to put words to. I'll rewatch the preview and I'm sure eventually I'll have cogitated enough to express myself, but I'm getting a feeling that perhaps that type of theme may rear its head up during this playthrough.
