Incline Disco Elysium - The Final Cut - a hardboiled cop show isometric RPG

[Puteo]

You genuinely overrate the writing.
I remember a time where people said Witcher 3 was the best game ever written - and those were people that had played, and loved, PS:T. When I played it, them, it turned out that the writing was competent and even had a few flashes of brilliance here and there. But the comparison still was born not from a genuine love of Witcher's writing, but rather a sense of relief and happiness to be playing a decently written RPG again.
I think it's the same here.

Okay. Then you should be able to easily list games with better writing than Disco. Go ahead, we are all very excited to judge your personal taste.

 

[Jasede]

JarlFrank
Are you being sarcastic?

Puteo
You got me in the sense that very few games have good writing. I'll try, though.

 

[Darth Roxor]

dont get involved in this thread Jasede its a trap

 

[Jasede]

Here it goes. Jasede's list of games with better writing than Disco, in Jasede's opinion.

• Betrayal at Krondor - the writing in BaK is of high quality all around. Sentences are composed in a way that makes me always excited to learn about the active noun. Not a single sentence in BaK is wasted, yet the game isn't overly brief nor verbose. Even throwaway lines and descriptions, such as those of the wax paper around your rations, are written in a style that helps tell you more about the world and feels completely natural in the sense that it suits Midkemia. This game's writing influenced me the most I would say.
• Planescape: Torment - obviously, the writing in PS:T is pretty verbose. If it were made today, with a proper budget, a lot of the flavor writing would be off-loaded to the animations or graphics department. That said, despite the vast quantity of text, I never feel like a line is just there to insist upon itself. As in, each line has a concrete purpose: it builds the setting, or it teaches you about your main character. The word choices are nuanced without being outlandish. All in all very memorable writing, as far as video game writing goes.
• Arcanum - sparse, but very flavorful. The game doesn't overwhelm you with text, but what is there exists to further the mood and atmosphere without wasting your time.
• Fallout - one of the most efficiently written games there is. A perfect balance between being brief, yet descriptive. The game never wastes your time with its writing, but it doesn't leave you hanging when you need more words to fuel your imagination, either.
• Thief 1 - the cutscenes / dialogues are written to be not only genuinely human, but also unsettling. The game gets more mileage out of a few lines of dialogue than many games can hope to build in hours.
• Dark Heart of Uukrul - just generally competently written all around, for a game of its age
• Ultima 7: Serpent Isle - unlike the purple prose of Ultima 7: The Black Gate, in Ultima 7:2 the writing manages to give each character a distinct voice, again without drowning you in unneeded lore or cruft. It made a strong impression on me when I was younger.

Edit: here are some more that aren't exactly objectively better but I am partial to, so you can make fun of my taste, as that seems to be your goal:

• Gothic 1/2 - the German in this game is astoundingly well-written for being so light-hearted. Every other game written in German suffers from German just not working too well in 'high fantasy' settings. But here, they pulled it off. Maybe it's their tone of levity, or the permanent snark of the main character, but the writing in this just works.
• Dark Souls & Demon's Souls - I am not talking about the tl;dr item descriptions; I don't have time for that. But the NPCs are written/translated in a way that's nearly perfect. Every word furthers their deterioration, and it advances as the game progresses. Great use of language.
• Deus Ex - just strong all around, even the flavor text and emails

 

[Puteo]

A solid list. While I personally disagree that any of those games have better writing than Disco, most of them have valid reasons for someone to opine that.

On the other hand, none of those games you listed as being better are even from this decade.

In 2018 alone, over 9000 games were released on steam. From your list, you agree that Disco is better than all of those games, making it at least in the top 0.01% of games for writing.

Seems challenging to overrate that accomplishment.

 

[Jasede]

Maybe it's just not my cup of tea. It's possible. Like, that excerpt Jarl Frank posted. It doesn't seem 'good' to me.
What's good about it? It's too post-modern for me. Too avant garde. It's not my style of humor.

I don't understand what they are trying to express.

(It should be obvious I am prone to hyperbole; I naturally don't think it is the worst writing ever, or even bad. I don't see the appeal, though, and the good reception here leaves me a bit confused.)


If you wanted me to list games from this decade you got me in a bind; I don't like most modern games.
I would use titles not many would agree with at all - in fact you might even make fun of me for naming these.

• A Night in the Woods (although the same teenage vibe as Life is Strange, in this one, the characters actually talk like real people at that age do, and the situations and problems depicted, societal as well as psychological, are real and raw.)
• The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories, for similar reasons; the text messages are engaging and weave a narrative, and they are actually translated realistically rather than someone trying to pretend they understand what young people sound like
• Pathologic 2 (I think I don't need to explain this one. It trims the fat from P1 while retaining its unique bizarre style. Like with Disco, it's ... odd, but at least in this one I can see what they are going for.)

 

[JarlFrank]

JarlFrank
Are you being sarcastic?

No.

 

[Jasede]

Well, okay. Let's analyze.
What do you like about that part? What is it trying to say? What's the joke? It reminds me of a bad episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force absurdism.

 

[jebsmoker]

It gave me some feels too. And what's nice is that it was totally unexpected from an RPG. Or from a game at all really.

The game is really good at articulating those feelings, the mid-life crisis, feelings of getting older, regrets.

I have no idea how old the writers are but they nailed that shit, and it's to see devs tackling those kinds of issues instead of just focusing on "younger" issues so to speak. When you've played games for a long time, you kinda just expect that games are not going to affect you in any way anymore as most storyheavy games are for a younger audience. But DE completely surprised me in that sense, very cool.

i would say how the game tackles the main character's fears and anxieties speaks to everyone; it spoke to me on a personal level on how i deal with my personal demons

 

[Quillon]

I reloaded a save there to give her a straw hat instead of muh precious detective hat

 

[Elex]

It gave me some feels too. And what's nice is that it was totally unexpected from an RPG. Or from a game at all really.

The game is really good at articulating those feelings, the mid-life crisis, feelings of getting older, regrets.

I have no idea how old the writers are but they nailed that shit, and it's to see devs tackling those kinds of issues instead of just focusing on "younger" issues so to speak. When you've played games for a long time, you kinda just expect that games are not going to affect you in any way anymore as most storyheavy games are for a younger audience. But DE completely surprised me in that sense, very cool.

i would say how the game tackles the main character's fears and anxieties speaks to everyone; it spoke to me on a personal level on how i deal with my personal demons

i asked myself if the writer lived that experience.

the ex part in particular feel too accurare.

 

[jebsmoker]

everyone does. it's human, but the way the writer distilled into the game feels incredibly down to earth

 

[Jasede]

So you like it because the character is going through a relatable mid-life crisis? ("Getting older")?

 

[Delterius]

wait

you related to a story

what are you, human ¿

 

[Jasede]

I'm not criticizing it. I'm trying to break down why they like the writing and I don't.

 

[Delterius]

maybe its because its p good jasede and you aren't into it because sjws

 

[Jasede]

It's possible my biases prevent me from seeing the good in it, true.

 

[Goral]

Jasede
I doubt it's bias, it just is immensely overrated. I've had no (negative) bias prior to playing it, it was one of the most anticipated games of this year for me but I ended up disappointed, especially after all the hype this game got. Here's my opinion of it: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...view-disco-elysium.130591/page-5#post-6395765

 

[Jasede]

That was a nice long review, thanks for the link brother.

 

[Strange Fellow]

The opening conversation is kinda shit actually, and had me halfway convinced that the game really was the pretentious drivel it appears at first glance, which is a shame. I don't care if you play enough to get to the really good parts or not, but you should know you haven't seen them.

 

[Lithium Flower]

Thank God that Goral linked his review again, otherwise we could have missed it considering it was only posted to about three different threads and then where would we be?

 

[Jasede]

Tell you what. Just to be fair to the game, I am going to un-refund it and play past the first hour/conversation.

 

[Darth Roxor]

i told you it was a trap

but now it's too late

soon the cult will coerce you into saying it's your favourite game

poor jasede; so young, and already in the next world

 

[Jasede]

Ah, most likely I still won't like it, but I should at least play past the first few minutes I guess. Especially if that guy says the opening conversation is one of the weaker parts.

In all honesty, I also think the Mortuary in PS:T is one of the more slow, boring parts.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Frankly since about half your list of games with best writing have "it's sparse but functional" as their claim to fame you might as well uninstall right away. You shouldn't keep playing just to prove a point.