The Immortal John Triptych brings together Joe Richardson’s three wonderfully strange point-and-click adventures in one collection, covering Four Last Things, The Procession to Calvary and Death of the Reprobate. Published by Akupara Games, the trilogy has plenty in common beyond its characters and themes, most notably a fascination with Renaissance art, irreverent humor and puzzles that operate according to their own peculiar logic. On PlayStation 5, this collection makes a particularly strong case for experiencing the three games together, because their similarities and gradual refinement become much more apparent when played in sequence. It is an unusual collection, certainly, but one that consistently manages to turn its eccentric presentation into something genuinely entertaining.
The premise across the trilogy is difficult to describe without making it sound considerably more sensible than it actually is. Four Last Things sends the player on an absurd quest involving the seven deadly sins, while The Procession to Calvary expands the scope into a bizarre tale of revenge and religious upheaval. Death of the Reprobate then puts the player in the role of Immortal John’s son, who has to perform a series of good deeds. Although each game has its own self-contained story, recurring characters, ideas and jokes create a satisfying sense of continuity. More importantly, the writing understands exactly how far it can push the contrast between serious subject matter and ridiculous situations. The humor is deliberately crude at times, but the writing is also surprisingly clever, with philosophical and artistic observations sitting comfortably alongside silliness. That combination will not work for everyone, but when it does, the deadpan delivery makes even the most ridiculous encounters land beautifully.
The gameplay is rooted firmly in traditional point-and-click adventure design. The player explores environments, talks to eccentric characters, collects objects and combines information to work out how to progress. The interaction system has been streamlined for modern controllers, with straightforward movement and an interface that makes it easy to cycle through usable characters and objects. It is a sensible approach for a collection that otherwise embraces an old-fashioned adventure-game structure, and the three games feel cohesive as a result. There is also a welcome sense of freedom in the way many objectives can be approached, particularly in the earlier games, where investigating the environment and experimenting with items is often more important than following a rigid sequence of tasks.
That traditional design is also responsible for some of the trilogy’s weaker moments. Richardson clearly expects players to embrace the sometimes bizarre logic of classic adventure games, and there are occasions when the connection between an item and its intended use is considerably less obvious than the game seems to believe. This can lead to backtracking through locations, repeatedly talking to characters or simply trying combinations until something works. Four Last Things and The Procession to Calvary are particularly susceptible to this, while Death of the Reprobate does more to help players when they become stuck, including a more explicit hint system. The latter is arguably the most polished of the three from a mechanical perspective, but that also makes the progression from one game to the next interesting: the collection effectively documents how the formula developed over time.
The PlayStation 5 controls work well for this style of adventure, although they never completely eliminate the slightly awkward feeling of playing a point-and-click game with a controller. Direct character movement feels natural enough, while cycling through interactive elements keeps the interface relatively clean. The collection’s updated presentation and controller support make the games more approachable than their age and genre might suggest, but there is still some friction when searching busy scenes for the particular object or character required to advance. That is less a technical problem than an inherent limitation of adapting this style of adventure to a gamepad. For players who enjoy traditional point-and-click design, it is unlikely to be a serious obstacle, while those who dislike that genre’s trial-and-error tendencies may find themselves becoming frustrated.
Visually, however, there is very little else quite like The Immortal John Triptych. Richardson constructs the world from fragments of real Renaissance, Rococo and Romantic paintings, combining figures, backgrounds and objects into bizarre interactive compositions. It sounds like a novelty on paper, but the approach becomes increasingly impressive when seeing how many details have been manipulated and recombined to create functioning game environments. The effect is simultaneously recognisable and completely surreal: familiar artistic imagery is placed into situations that the original artists could scarcely have anticipated. Death of the Reprobate in particular demonstrates how far the concept can be pushed, with more activity taking place throughout the environments and a greater sense that these painted worlds are actually alive.
The audio complements that visual identity rather than competing with it. There is no conventional voice acting, meaning the humor relies heavily on written dialogue and its delivery through the game’s presentation, but the soundtrack does a great deal to establish the atmosphere. Classical compositions and period-inspired instrumentation fit naturally with the artwork, while the contrast between grand musical ideas and deliberately ridiculous situations adds another layer to the comedy. The collection’s expanded musical material is therefore more than background decoration, helping give the three games a shared identity even as their individual stories and locations differ.
The additional material also gives The Immortal John Triptych more value than simply placing three previously released games on the same disc or download. Behind-the-scenes videos and other extras provide insight into how Richardson assembled the artwork and constructed these strange worlds, making the collection interesting from an artistic perspective as well as a purely playable one. Seeing the process behind the finished scenes makes it easier to appreciate that the visual style is not simply a gimmick: an enormous amount of thought goes into deciding how disparate paintings can be combined into something that still functions as a coherent environment. The new material is unlikely to transform the experience for anyone who has already played the trilogy, but it is a worthwhile addition for newcomers.
The biggest limitation is ultimately the same thing that makes the collection appealing: there is only so much of this particular kind of adventure to experience. The individual games are relatively short, and the entire trilogy can be completed in a handful of hours, although exploring more thoroughly and chasing everything can extend that considerably. That brevity suits the material to some extent, since the jokes and surreal situations are probably more effective when they arrive in concentrated bursts, but it can also leave the player wanting more by the time Death of the Reprobate brings the journey to a close. Some puzzles can also feel more obscure than satisfying, and the deliberately crude humour will inevitably have its detractors. Even so, the combination of inventive writing, unusual puzzle design and genuinely distinctive artwork makes the package difficult to dismiss as merely another collection of old adventures.
The Immortal John Triptych is therefore much more successful as a complete artistic package than it would be as three unrelated point-and-click games bundled together. Four Last Things establishes the formula, The Procession to Calvary expands it and Death of the Reprobate arguably represents its most polished incarnation. None of the three completely escapes the genre’s traditional frustrations, but their eccentric personalities, sharp writing and extraordinary visual presentation more than compensate. On PlayStation 5, this is an unusually memorable adventure collection that proves that classical art and traditional point-and-click design can coexist with extremely silly humor without either side losing its identity. It is short, strange and occasionally obtuse, but it is also imaginative in a way that few games manage to be.
Score: 8.5/10