Viata
Arcane
I've finished Disco Elysium. It is a really good game and I can understand why it is GOTY for some people(then again, this is the only 2019 game I have played, that I can remember), but I have a hard time seeing it as a rpg and more like a 3D visual novel. Then again, on codex, the game is rpg if you like it and not if you don't, so who cares what is the genre?
The game is quite easy, perhaps the easiest rpg/visual novel/adventure game I have ever played. The skill checks are nice and you have a guarantee of passing ALL of them, as you have 1 in 36 chances of getting two 6 or ~3%. The opposite also happens, as you have ~3% of failing any skill check(and I'll tell you, there is nothing that hurts more in this game than rolling two 1 when you have more than 90% of passing it). There are two kinds of skill checks: white and red ones.
The red ones are available only once and if you fail it, that is it.
The white ones, however, can be done as many times as you want(in theory) because if you fail it, you just need to level up the skill to try it again. I say in theory because this game does something I really like: Suppose you have a skill check in pain threshold. You fail it and thinks "ok, I'll just level up that skill and try again", so you get enough exp to level it up and when you try to do that, you can't. Why? Because your skill level is limited by your status level. You can't have logic 5(which depends on int) if your int is not at least 5 too. So, if you have 2 of int, that is how much you can level up your logic. This is my favorite thing in the game, btw.
The only other way to level up logic is during dialogues, as they can level up specific skills. You can wear clothes or use items that increase a skill, but it is not considered as a level up and so that skill check is going to stay blocked. So, in a way, you can get fucked by a white skill check and "never" be able to do it.
Why "never"? Because of the thought cabinet. The though cabinet is like a second set of skills/items you can equip(think). They are limited by skill points and to stop thinking about something or unlock new available spaces to think about it(our protagonist has a hard time thinking of many things at the same time, I guess) also requires the use of skill points. So yeah, you either increase a skill or unlock new spaces to think/stop thinking about something. The though cabinet has some good uses, it can increase skills(and also decrease them), help you get past some part of the game(tbh, it only happened once for me so) and even clear all white skill checks so you can try them again. There are even, of course. The though cabinet system is kinda broken, for example, by just saying something like "yeah, sometimes rich people do wrong" and you already have voices in your head asking if you want to build communism, which, if accepted, prompts you to think about it. It doesn't really chances anything in the game, not for me at least, and I think the dev can better explore this in the second game. The voices on your head is a cool idea, most of them is just your knowledge in some skill talking to you and helping you (or not: "Why are you listening to me? Don't listen to me!" said Empathy when I selected exactly what it said and the person I was talking to didn't like it) pass dialogues. It really helped, but made the game even easier.
On politics, the game has more communism dialogues than any other political view, however, some of them are not the kind of today's left would really associate with. A great example is the old man at the end of the game, his view is quite different from the kind of commies I see both in university and on the internet and in fact he would even be hated by them. There are some critics to the left, too, like protagonist telling how they like to ditch someone as soon as that person does something they dislike and so on(just like we see on twitter). The right(and center) dialogues are not only extremist but also made for someone that has no idea what it is and just asked people's opinion on twitter. The same also happens to the left, but imo, in a not so exagerated way[then again perhaps because I'm more used to see retarded shit left does in my country and so I don't think the game exaggerated it as much it does to right]. One thing I disliked in the game was the racist guy who is there just so the played can make some choice and have the thought system asking you if you wanna build communism/be a fascist/or whatever the shit. I disliked it because it was really bad, stupid and even unnecessary in the game when it has so many nice dialogues. The politics shit didn't stop me from enjoying the game, I'm used to hearing dumb commies left and right(I'm an university student, after all) and I can enjoy something without having it stopping me from having fun.
Overall, it was a really great game and I do recommend it to anyone that wants to play it. It's not, for me, neither GOTY nor RPG, but that is not really important, what is important is if the game is good or not. And it is really good.
The game is quite easy, perhaps the easiest rpg/visual novel/adventure game I have ever played. The skill checks are nice and you have a guarantee of passing ALL of them, as you have 1 in 36 chances of getting two 6 or ~3%. The opposite also happens, as you have ~3% of failing any skill check(and I'll tell you, there is nothing that hurts more in this game than rolling two 1 when you have more than 90% of passing it). There are two kinds of skill checks: white and red ones.
The red ones are available only once and if you fail it, that is it.
The white ones, however, can be done as many times as you want(in theory) because if you fail it, you just need to level up the skill to try it again. I say in theory because this game does something I really like: Suppose you have a skill check in pain threshold. You fail it and thinks "ok, I'll just level up that skill and try again", so you get enough exp to level it up and when you try to do that, you can't. Why? Because your skill level is limited by your status level. You can't have logic 5(which depends on int) if your int is not at least 5 too. So, if you have 2 of int, that is how much you can level up your logic. This is my favorite thing in the game, btw.
The only other way to level up logic is during dialogues, as they can level up specific skills. You can wear clothes or use items that increase a skill, but it is not considered as a level up and so that skill check is going to stay blocked. So, in a way, you can get fucked by a white skill check and "never" be able to do it.
Why "never"? Because of the thought cabinet. The though cabinet is like a second set of skills/items you can equip(think). They are limited by skill points and to stop thinking about something or unlock new available spaces to think about it(our protagonist has a hard time thinking of many things at the same time, I guess) also requires the use of skill points. So yeah, you either increase a skill or unlock new spaces to think/stop thinking about something. The though cabinet has some good uses, it can increase skills(and also decrease them), help you get past some part of the game(tbh, it only happened once for me so) and even clear all white skill checks so you can try them again. There are even, of course. The though cabinet system is kinda broken, for example, by just saying something like "yeah, sometimes rich people do wrong" and you already have voices in your head asking if you want to build communism, which, if accepted, prompts you to think about it. It doesn't really chances anything in the game, not for me at least, and I think the dev can better explore this in the second game. The voices on your head is a cool idea, most of them is just your knowledge in some skill talking to you and helping you (or not: "Why are you listening to me? Don't listen to me!" said Empathy when I selected exactly what it said and the person I was talking to didn't like it) pass dialogues. It really helped, but made the game even easier.
On politics, the game has more communism dialogues than any other political view, however, some of them are not the kind of today's left would really associate with. A great example is the old man at the end of the game, his view is quite different from the kind of commies I see both in university and on the internet and in fact he would even be hated by them. There are some critics to the left, too, like protagonist telling how they like to ditch someone as soon as that person does something they dislike and so on(just like we see on twitter). The right(and center) dialogues are not only extremist but also made for someone that has no idea what it is and just asked people's opinion on twitter. The same also happens to the left, but imo, in a not so exagerated way[then again perhaps because I'm more used to see retarded shit left does in my country and so I don't think the game exaggerated it as much it does to right]. One thing I disliked in the game was the racist guy who is there just so the played can make some choice and have the thought system asking you if you wanna build communism/be a fascist/or whatever the shit. I disliked it because it was really bad, stupid and even unnecessary in the game when it has so many nice dialogues. The politics shit didn't stop me from enjoying the game, I'm used to hearing dumb commies left and right(I'm an university student, after all) and I can enjoy something without having it stopping me from having fun.
Overall, it was a really great game and I do recommend it to anyone that wants to play it. It's not, for me, neither GOTY nor RPG, but that is not really important, what is important is if the game is good or not. And it is really good.
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