The Philosophy of Planescape: Torment 

*Updated My Journal*

The world needs more Planescape: Torment videos.

On the subject of fantasy standards in media, I've always been frustrated by the way most fantasy settings are LESS fantastic than reality. In the real world, we have the river of five colors, giant crystal-filled caverns, multiple seemingly ever-burning pits filled with flammable natural gases, and even in terms of ancient or modern architecture we have things like ancient ruins that are almost entirely preserved thanks to being purposefully buried in sand some fifteen thousand years ago, or amusingly ornate libraries made almost entirely out of glass and towering skyscrapers. Meanwhile, in your average fantasy setting, it's usually a vague approximation of medieval Europe with some plains and hills, forests, and maybe a mountain or two. I blame this mostly on Tolkein, though not directly the man himself - more specifically, I blame everyone copycatting off the setting presented in tolkein's work and not bothering to try and think of anything fantastic themselves. It also honestly does a disservice to medieval Europe, as despite the elves and goblins, those settings are usually less fantastic than actual medieval Europe was.

My favorite dialog choices were when you got like three sentences, and each was there two times, one of those prefaced with "Truth:", and one with "Lie:"

In knowing the teachings of Zerthimon, I have become stronger.

the fact it added a tab highlight feature is one reason i'd recommand people play the enhanced edition over the original.

Hello Strat-Edgy, if you ever read this I've never been good at conveying my thoughts in an articulate manner, and honestly, I feel awkward typing this out. But I just want to convey to you just how much I enjoy your videos. You produce solid content and in my opinion, you are one of the most underrated channels. Your videos have brought some of the most compelling and thought-provoking story's into my life and for that, I am eternally grateful I look forward to your future videos. Sincerely a Fan.

13:20 "...for a circle is infinite, yet has a beginning and an end" No, you have that exactly backwards. A circle is finite, but has no beginning or end.

"Cities dense with population... TO A FAULT." I, for one, am very thankful for the amount of generic NPCs in all areas. You know why? Because when nameless dies, the game's scripting actually goes looking for generic NPCs in the area where he died, and kills the first one it finds. And if it can't find any left, you actually get a game over screen.

One of the only games I've ever played that made me cry at the end. Best RPG of all time.

This video is incredible and the interview was very informative. I hope we see Planescape again so we can explore Sigil in a modern game. The Bleak Cabal are my favorite faction too. I love their symbol of a blank, empty helmet they don't remember the origin of, signifying nothing in particular.

Thanks man. I was feeling rather lost in the night, since its 4:45 am here and this is exactly what I needed.

>Every time he says "Mortay" It's MORTE! MOOORRRRRRT!

I remember playing this game around 2012 after seeing it so many times on different "Best Games of all time" list quite trip but you know what needed, "long thick daggers"

'Sijil'? 'SIJIL'?! Harmonium, take him away! And call the Mercykiller too!

i love how unforgivable this game is. Give the wrong answer , piss the wrong person off , and if you kill them and dont put the pieces together by yourself you ll literally fucked. i remember when i first entered the Alley of Dangerous Angles. There where some berks asking for money , so i killed them all. Then i realized i had to kill the whole map .) Obviusly ,after that , i had to go to the players Maze. Goddamn , feel like i gotta go and update my journal.

what a great video. i count myself lucky to have followed your channel. your polemics are always captivating, and even if i don't always agree, and rarely even find some notions naiive, they all come from a point of deep thought and extended consideration and in the complexity and nuance that ensues it often manages to change my mind on things that you present, or to display a side to the topic i haven't considered yet, because i would need to be in your specific position to make those remarks in the first place. you, unlike many people who write, have an actually unique, and nuance, view of things, and that is why i will gladly spend an hour listening to this, while my patience with most videos on youtube ends at five minutes. please never change this. i hope you still beam your voice out 50 years from now.

"Why do games feel so hollow and meaningless now?" Pretty sure Frank Zappa answered that question 40 years ago, just talking about music: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KZazEM8cgt0.html

This is the most thoughtful and thorough love letters to one of my favorite games that I have ever seen. Thank you so much!

Friendship ended with *MR.BTONGUE* Now *STRAT-EDGY PRODUCTIONS* is my best friend

Love your videos, keep up the good work! Thanks for bringing so many videos so quickly

YES!! I've been waiting so much for this, you never disappoint. Thank you.

Man I come back to this video every few months and I never get over how well done it is in my opinion it's strats best video to date I just love how thought provoking this whole video is

Just finished Planescape: Torment for the 1st time, LOVED it and watched the whole video. LOVED it as well, so interesting, too bad it's so short, could listen to you for hours.

Found your channel randomly today and have been deeply enjoying your analyses! I have no one to talk about concepts found in Torment, so listening to you talking about it is a good substitute.

Always enjoy your insights. Thank you so much for continuing to make these videos! -Insert all of the words of encouragement here-

After some time, I settled on describing Planescape: Torment as "an amazing interactive novel with beautiful artwork and music".

This is fantastic like always! You ever consider reviewing Arx Fatalis?

Welcome back and wonderful video.

I started playing this last week so I'm probably not going to watch this any time soon, but this'll give me something to look forward to when I finally am done with it. Keep up the good work, your videos are consistently insightful and enjoyable and I can't wait to get to this one (even if I can and will wait... you know what I mean). :)

When Planescape come out as a D&D setting it instantly became my favorite. I couldn’t get enough of the lore. Planescape Torment is my favorite of the Baldur’s Gate type games, and Tides of Numeria surprised me, even if it wasn’t the best game ever. But your ideas on the game and it’s choices and morality are very engaging and give me a lot to think about. Even though I agree with a lot you said. Good video! You’ve earned a sub.

Original Torment was really sweet when I was a young lad, still able to read actual books. Playing through Torment really was more like reading a book than anything else. These days my brains are softened by all the nonsense entertainment and starting senility. Couldn't even finish a tutorial in a CRPG without slipping into a coma. Maybe it was all the instant ramen and energy drinks.

Thankyou for this video. I've always been a Torment fan, and I originally played it back in the late 90's when it first came out. I had no idea what I was doing on my first few playthroughs and never got far. A few years down the line I tried again, and then the whole game opened up and I was amazed. I must have played it 20 times by now, and discovered something new each time. It does take some patience to play through this type of game these days, and I am likewise a bit spoiled by modern games. But I'm old enough and have enough nostalgia for when it was new to "get it". Playing through Torment now for me is...different though. Sort of unlike the way you describe it, I've done it so many times (and read through the guides enough) that I pretty much have all the key necessary things to do memorized, and most of the major nook and cranies and secrets memorized as well. While on the flip side, the first few playthroughs of the game got hard, because it was all guess work based on dialogue and a vaguely organized journal. So you can actually get lost, or not pick up the right item, miss an important dialogue, and so on. That was more frustrating but the playthroughs had more "soul" to it - when the game itself is still a mystery. A mystery RPG. As for Numera, I somewhat enjoyed it - I did at least 3 full playtroughs - at first but the main nagging things about it for me were that it seemed to be too blatantly trying to copy the *formulas* of Torment but not so much the *spirit* or *feeling* and ended up being too forced. The narrative stuff was also philosophical in a more convoluted way and it seems like they purposefully padded out the game with unnecessary text just to boast a high text count. The combat, while technically a better system than Torment, was also terribly implemented and super buggy at first. There's also the fact that they broke half their promises to their backers and the game was totally not ready to be released when it came out. I felt like they should have just released Numenera as its own game without relying on the hype of the Torment name as well, as it's a completely different game in a completely different setting. They oversold its connection to Torment and then paid for it with a flood of buyer's remorse. The only thing it really has in common with Torment are certain thematic elements, a simplified class system, and the general choice to make a narrative-focused, text-heavy game. Otherwise, it's basically its own post-apocalyptic RPG with thematic allusions to Torment.

Amazing video, as always. its really nice to see you still doing videos, especially after your last video . I hope everything goes well for you . have a nice day since you made my, and thousand of others peoples day better.

Hey just wanted to you to know that this video was great and I appreciate the effort that went into it.

it's 2021, found your channel after playing this amazing game, which i played after it was recommend for players who wanted more of a disco elysium game. good work man, nice analyse

Dude thanks for this! Motivated me to rerun this gem after decades

Dude thank you so much. Is it surprising that an analysis of a game all about self-discovery has actually given me insight into myself? A truly good work of art should send philosophical ripples like that. My new fav channel keep it up

Ohhhh!! New video! What a great start of the day:)

always come back to this one. such a great vid.

Got into your channel recently. This is some good shit man, i love it.

your a awesome youtuber man, just found you a couple months ago and have binged all ur stuff lol good stuff man!

Kudos from Brazil. Recently discovered your channel though your video on TToN. Just had to subscribe it!

Nice video :) I loooove this game! I remember playing it for the first time in my teens and I immediately fell in love with it - the strangness of the world, it had such a charm, characters, deeps stories everywhere. I have my list of top most beloved games ever… and then, there is Planescape Torment in its own “god tier” level above them. It was truly unique experience for me, I love every aspect of it - story telling, graphics, music, everything. And while I love also some other games, this one is the most unique for me.

Great piece of work, thank You!

Awesome video. It's wild that more than 20 years had to pass to get something even remotely on the same vein of P:T, Disco. It speaks volumes that it needs a specific group of people, in a particular situation and mindset to craft an experience such as this one.

Amazing! Thanks for your thoughtfulness.

This game made me think about philosophical questions in the bed after playing it. Awesome game and awesome video! Thank you!

Excellent video! Thanks!

This is pretty fucking ace, mate. I always love watching your content.

You know that old tired response to videos "i was going to bed, then this video popped up" ? I hate reading that...but it just happened to me, and now i don't know how to feel That said: One of my favorite moments in this game is "the brothel of intellectual lusts" the music inside it...the many tales of Yves...the intellectual conversation that you must have with Fall-From-Grace to convince her to accompany you...it is one of those moments that really give sense to Planescape being "the best game you'll ever read" ; the brothel is basically a single screen, with thousands and thousands of lines of dialogue to have (if i remember correctly it took me more then 2 hours to fully talk to everyone) and yet ... another INCREDIBLY powerful moment is when you see one of your past incarnations at the society of sensates and you experience (as a memory) what you did in the past but through the eyes of the one you made suffer..no matter your character, no matter who your character has been built as, no matter your alignment or anything else you decided...your character cries desperately because of what he has done in the past..just for a moment your "role play" gets taken away to impose how atrocious what you have done is. Doesn't matter how evil you are playing your character: what you have done is unspeakable.

This was brilliant! Now im gonna go back into playing the new torment game

Hope you enjoy your break man

Really good video. Subscribed.

I didn't even have to press play, I saw that you covered this game for 59 minutes and I immediately went to your Patreon for a subscription.

When he's talking about Chris Avellone around 35:50 and how much Avellone hated the tropes of the time (most of which are common to this day) - gotta give Avellone props for staying true to that all the way to 2019. He's one of the only game writers whose games I seek out, no matter the engine or IP or decade. (And I'm pretty damn excited for The Outer Worlds even though he's no longer with Obsidian, because that attitude is absolutely engrained in Obsidian.) That said, the original design document for Torment (which Colin makes reference to a few times) is floating around online and boy, it's... rough. Really telling regarding how developers were viewing their audience at the time. Kinda shows through in the released game in the completely unnecessary bosom and bosom-enhancing clothing on nearly every woman's model in the game, though of course that's a pretty minor flaw on one of the greatest games of all time.

That video is a pretty great love letter to PS:T. Beautiful in parts. I'd argue combat and strategy in PS:T is pretty great, and I love the FMVs for spells, and despite the devs, I think it works. I'll look forward to watching more of your content.

Great vid!

Thanks Paul, I'll be getting my own copy of the remastered soon. As someone who was born in the 90's I need to remedy the crime of not having played this great game yet.

Everyone who love planescape, should check put Disco Elysium. It is a detective RPG releasing in 2019 (hopefully) with crazy skill system, deep story that explore alot of philosophy and human nature.

Torment is one of my favorite video game storylines. There is so much to explore throughout the game.

Probably the best game review I've ever seen.

I adore how ya know it will be a smart look into filosophy and theorethical spacetravel in a magical setting when ya start the lecture by going into names on baby speak

Interesting insights! Planescape: Torment has been one of those games that is always in the back of my mind, and serves as a benchmark for any cRPG I play. It is a game that highlights the importance of good writing and creativity held up by a scaffolding of solid design choices. Where the game falls short is where the game is also a product of its time; uninvolved combat, clunky interface and user interface,

Great review about my alltime fav. game. Just a quick correction, Ravels split personalitys like Marta, Mebbeth und Ei-Vene are creations and split personalitys created from the believ of the people with which Ravel interacted and her personal desire off a specific personal trait. Meppeth even tells you so if you check the wisdom and intelligence check. Cause she was the strongest and most desired trait that Ravel possed. Quite beautiful that the cruel and Spiteful Nightvettel got fulfillment in being a midwife and healer to the poorest people in Sigil. but sadly all their lifes wa interlinked. So after Ravel dies so do Marta, Mebbeth und Ei-Vene. Mebbeth has that realisiation that she is a aspect of ravel if you talk to her and then she dies.

I think the New Vegas record is for spoken dialogue Tremendous video. Never heard Torment dissected in such detail.

Cool video. I gotta try this game now, thanks.

Cool that you quoted my favorite comedian Doug Stanhope. On the same subject, when I was younger I did a lot of drugs including DMT on several occasions. The flash from a DMT trip is unlike anything you can imagine ranging from perceived inter-dimensional travel, to seeing/experiencing the interconnectedness of all things, and even communicating with otherworldly entities. Do I believe that I really traveled to another dimension? No, but at the time that was what my mind told me I was doing and thus it felt real in the moment. Point being that your perception of your five senses as interpreted by your brain is your personal reality, and we all perceive things differently, thus we all have different realities, albeit with many commonalities.

Great video

It was nice to see that Easter Egg Morte. I've been using that wallpaper off-and-on for... well, you can probably guess for how long.

This channels so under-rated

I just finished the game a couple of hours ago for the first time and was just blown the fuck away with it, it's certainly an experience and it's been a while since something had that much of an impact on me. I loved your video on it and you've captured my thoughts on it perfectly. Can't wait until I play the sequel so I can watch your vids, then replay them afterwards. P.S: What you said about yourself and how the modern titles fucked up your attention span kinda affected me to when I reached the Clerk Ward, but after googling the shit I got stuck on I realized just what a dumb fuck I am for doing so since all I needed to do was add 2 and 2 together. Looking forward to coming back to the game because I'm sure I missed a couple of things.

Great video! I hope to make my own philosophical examination of Torment very soon.

Thank you for this enlightenment

perfect video perfect structure, you are reason that reminds me why i love internet..

Fucking love your videos man, this one's perfect. Makes me wanna install the game again

The best moments of Planescape: Torment are the points where you meet Deionarra's ghost and the theme kicks in. Each time I'd just take my hands off the keyboard and mouse, and just sit there.

This reminds me of a mr b tongue video. Good job

Good stuff! The Enhanced Edition of PsT is pretty good, but I would still like to see a improvement in the a.i. of the companions.

Came for the gaming analysis, stayed for the Doing Stanhope philosophy trip

This game storytelling got me to an experience which I have never found in any game ever since. Well, bg3 still has a chance as I have yet to finish it.

Just finished Planescape. What an incredible experiencr

This game defined a part of my life. I was a PC gamer in the mid to late 90s and a bit of an edgy teen. I loved Baldur's Gate, and others in that genre, but Planescape spoke to me. As a nerd who read philosophy books and also loved RPGs, Planescape immediately became my favorite game above all else. It exposed me to new concepts, new ways of looking at things that, of course, I looked into more and found literature on the topics and themes in more depth. I haven't played the game in many years, but even now I knew every intricate part of the Brothel and a wave of nostalgia hit as I watched this video. I suppose its time for me to buy that Enhanced Edition now.

It’s a pretty funny coincidence that you released this video on the same day I bought this now obscure 20 year old game.

I'm on my first run through right now and I just got out into the hive. I initially planned to sneak out of the mortuary but to keep it short I wound up having to fight my way out.

Mebbeth did die in my game, went to see her to sell some rings and she was dying, can't remember the convo very well but i think she was unawares of being ravel, only thing i remember for sure is i asked her if she was in pain and she said she was. Also went to check on Marta in the buried city and she had disappeared from her home. Played the EE, dunno if they changed some things there.

I'm going through alot of the forgotten realms lore and I hadn't come across this and wow

I'd say the biggest downside of the Tides of Numinera is that while it stimulates the intellectual side of you, I wouldn't call it "emotionally engaging". There are no brilliant humorous moments (in the style of P:T or especially Fallout 2), no characters you care about and can develop an emotional attachment for (like Dak'kon or Annah from P:T or Sulik from FO2) - I don't remember you talking for a half of an hour about ToN characters. And even the main character in ToN is just a blank paper roll and can't trust anyone around - OTOH the inclusion of Morte was a excellent move in P:T that brings in some personality into the game right from the start. IOW ToN is kind of emotionally barren - despite of all great improvements in made compared to the Planescape game.

Very interesting assey! Would you consider doing one about the ridick games and movies? Espacialy escape from butcher bay?

Jesus could you imagine an alternate world where instead, Planescape is the dark souls of their universe? Big mind fuck.

Some one should do an audiobook of planescape torment . I’d fall asleep to the shit every night

You left me with many questions on this one: 1. What about the last 2 teachings of the cyrcle? There the most important part. How does this compare to the fact the whole thing is a fake? 2. Why not mention the rest of the companions? I can understand Anna cause shes just in love but our living armor and flaming mage? 3. How would you recomend Numenera to a torment fan?

Ty.with this knowledge I feel I can ascend to a higher plane.

Great video. I always say his name as “Mort” like a part of Rigor mortis

There are Visual Novels that takes 200 Hours to completely read and Visual Novels are considered Games so theres no way Fallout New Vegas has most in game dialogue. A big proton of world records are outdated because the record publishing companies demands money if a world record holder want to put their world record and make it official. That's why outdated world records exists.

I don't blame you for missing splinter, I completely missed Dakkon and modron on my playthrough...

one of the best video i've ever seen, when i played planescape i was really young, but my answer doesnt change: what can change the nature of a man?..... nothing

Idk what it is about your videos but I feel like I'll see you on tv one day. Having wrote a book or screen play or somthing.

lol, almost forgot about those holiday-themed costumes for Morte and Anna.

I could swear that the Enhanced Edition has container and character highlighting. And it also fixes HD.