Absurd Renaissance Collection 'The Immortal John Triptych' Coming to Nintendo Switch

An Unconventional Bundle Arrives

Fans of bizarre and unconventional adventure games have something unique to look forward to later this year. Developer Joe Richardson is bringing a collection of his highly distinct, art-driven point-and-click titles to both the current Nintendo Switch and the upcoming Switch successor. Titled The Immortal John Triptych, this package gathers three separate but spiritually connected adventures into a single release. The games included are Four Last Things, The Procession to Calvary, and Death of the Reprobate, all of which previously garnered positive critical reception for their incredibly strange approach to game design.

What sets this collection apart from typical indie fare is its visual presentation. Rather than employing pixel art or traditional three-dimensional models, the developer has constructed the entire visual landscape using hundreds of real-life paintings spanning the Renaissance, Rococo, and Romanticism periods. These historical works of art are stitched together to form a consistent, albeit deeply ridiculous, world for players to explore. Character animations and background scenes are entirely composed of manipulated classical artwork, resulting in a visual style that feels like a museum exhibit gone hilariously wrong.

Modern Upgrades for Console Players

Transitioning a point-and-click adventure to a home console often requires significant adjustments, as the genre was originally built entirely around the precision of a computer mouse. To ensure the experience feels natural on a Nintendo controller, The Immortal John Triptych includes a variety of quality-of-life updates and a modernized interface. Players will have direct control over their characters rather than relying on a traditional cursor, and environmental interactions are handled through a streamlined verb coin menu.

To celebrate the upcoming console release, the developer offered a typically eccentric statement that perfectly matches the irreverent tone of the games themselves.

Playing a point and click adventure game on a video games console is like reading Rabelais on an e-reader - It's vile and abhorrent and you ignorant f***ing heathens are going to love it.

Why It Matters

For retro gaming enthusiasts and fans of classic adventure mechanics, this release highlights the continued viability of the traditional point-and-click format. By combining old-school puzzle solving with modernized console controls, it offers a practical way for players who might not use a personal computer for gaming to experience these highly rated indie titles. The inclusion of three games that earned Metacritic scores of 83, 78, and 81 ensures that players are getting a substantial package of well-regarded content. However, players should be aware that the humor and puzzle logic in these types of games can often be deeply unconventional, requiring a specific taste for the absurd.

Z-retro View

It is always refreshing to see developers take genuine risks with their visual presentation, especially in a genre as storied as the point-and-click adventure. Relying on centuries-old public domain artwork instead of rendering custom assets could easily feel like a shortcut, but in this case, it serves as the foundational joke for the entire trilogy. While playing mouse-driven games with analog sticks can occasionally feel slightly clumsy, the promise of direct character control and an updated interface suggests that careful thought has gone into this console transition. If the execution matches the ambition, this will be a welcome addition to the Nintendo Switch library.