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Tags: Disco Elysium; Helen Hindpere; Kaspar Tamsalu; ZA/UM
In addition to the rest of its new content, Disco Elysium - The Final Cut will also include a few new tracks by British Sea Power, presumably for the game's new areas. ZA/UM have uploaded a couple of them to their YouTube channel, with some nice artwork.
Alongside this release, several new interviews with members of the development team have appeared on the web. The interview at PC Gamer provides details about the game's new political vision quests and its expanded voice acting. Here's an excerpt:
There are a couple more interviews at GameSpot and The Washington Post, both of which confirm that the Final Cut will indeed include a fast travel option. That didn't remain a mystery for long.
In addition to the rest of its new content, Disco Elysium - The Final Cut will also include a few new tracks by British Sea Power, presumably for the game's new areas. ZA/UM have uploaded a couple of them to their YouTube channel, with some nice artwork.
Alongside this release, several new interviews with members of the development team have appeared on the web. The interview at PC Gamer provides details about the game's new political vision quests and its expanded voice acting. Here's an excerpt:
Disco Elysium, our 2019 Game of the Year, is poised to take its final form this month. More quests, a new location and full voice acting—over a million words—makes it a hefty free update. The response from players, says lead writer Helen Hindpere, is a big part of why the team is returning to Revachol and its amnesiac detective. They embraced the way it dove into challenging subjects, and ZA/UM wants to give them even more.
"It seems that, oddly enough, people do like politics in their games—especially when it’s offered as a way to shape your character in a RPG."
Politics seeps into every part of Disco Elysium, and your journey through Revachol's ideologies is just as meaningful as the main story, but it doesn't really get its own conclusion. Political vision quests will cap that journey by exploring these ideologies even further, while also putting your dedication to your chosen ideology to the test.
"Each vision quest comes to a point where players are encouraged to stop and reflect on where the quest is leading them," says Hindpere. "Are the solutions offered by your fellow ideological companions tangible enough? What is the best way to leave your mark on the world?"
Disco Elysium's biggest puzzle is your forgetful detective's identity, so ending your political quest with a final moment of self-reflection feels appropriate. The mark you leave on the city is tangible, too. The map will physically change, explains Hindpere, "as a sort of direct metaphor of the way politics has the power to shape the world." You'll be able to customise the statue looming over the traffic jam, for instance. Along with the world, you'll also be able to tweak yourself, finding new clothes and ways to earn XP.
This has also been an opportunity for the team to address a criticism some players had: that political dialogue options often took things to comical extremes. It's fitting for a game with such an eccentric protagonist, but ZA/UM decided to give the vision quests more "heartfelt and serious" moments, and more nuance. There's room for the detective to grow and mature by the end of them. But there will still be laughs, Hindpere promises.
What's also reassuring is that these quests aren't being forced into the same mould, even if they have some common themes. The ultraliberal path lets you build a personal brand, for instance, while the communist track inspires you to begin a movement. They have different lengths, though, and some are chatty, some are more visual, and one of them will take you to a new hidden location. It's an urban area, which Hindpere says reminds her of Berlin. She doesn't give away much more about it, but adds that it's accompanied by a new track from British Sea Power, which she describes as "hopeful and strong, like the mammoths of history marching through time". That will be a new experience for my ears.
British Sea Power actually put together two new tracks, Advesperascit and Ignus Nilsen Waltz, and you can listen to both of them now.
Every quest will have unique elements like characters you won't be able to chat to otherwise, so your choices will lead to an even more distinct journey—you'll have yet another reason to return and try a different ideology on for size. And like most of Disco Elysium's cast, these new characters will reveal more facets of your personality, making things bubble to the surface that can potentially change how other conversations play out. This way, their impact lingers even once you return to the original story.
Kim Kitsuragi will join you on these new quests and will of course have plenty to say about your misadventures. It wouldn't be right if we couldn't bring our BFF. He's not the only character who's been expanded, either, and the new conversations aren't exclusively related to just ideologies.
"I've described these new bits as political vision quests, but in a very Disco Elysium fashion the conversations won't revolve around a single topic," says Hindpere. "You'll be talking about love, sexuality, hope, ambition, and even about certain geological features specific to our worldbuilding. There's an opportunity to get close and intimate with characters who have thus far seemed unapproachable. Let's say that once you share the same ideology many barriers disappear, allowing you see a different side of many important characters."
"It seems that, oddly enough, people do like politics in their games—especially when it’s offered as a way to shape your character in a RPG."
Politics seeps into every part of Disco Elysium, and your journey through Revachol's ideologies is just as meaningful as the main story, but it doesn't really get its own conclusion. Political vision quests will cap that journey by exploring these ideologies even further, while also putting your dedication to your chosen ideology to the test.
"Each vision quest comes to a point where players are encouraged to stop and reflect on where the quest is leading them," says Hindpere. "Are the solutions offered by your fellow ideological companions tangible enough? What is the best way to leave your mark on the world?"
Disco Elysium's biggest puzzle is your forgetful detective's identity, so ending your political quest with a final moment of self-reflection feels appropriate. The mark you leave on the city is tangible, too. The map will physically change, explains Hindpere, "as a sort of direct metaphor of the way politics has the power to shape the world." You'll be able to customise the statue looming over the traffic jam, for instance. Along with the world, you'll also be able to tweak yourself, finding new clothes and ways to earn XP.
This has also been an opportunity for the team to address a criticism some players had: that political dialogue options often took things to comical extremes. It's fitting for a game with such an eccentric protagonist, but ZA/UM decided to give the vision quests more "heartfelt and serious" moments, and more nuance. There's room for the detective to grow and mature by the end of them. But there will still be laughs, Hindpere promises.
What's also reassuring is that these quests aren't being forced into the same mould, even if they have some common themes. The ultraliberal path lets you build a personal brand, for instance, while the communist track inspires you to begin a movement. They have different lengths, though, and some are chatty, some are more visual, and one of them will take you to a new hidden location. It's an urban area, which Hindpere says reminds her of Berlin. She doesn't give away much more about it, but adds that it's accompanied by a new track from British Sea Power, which she describes as "hopeful and strong, like the mammoths of history marching through time". That will be a new experience for my ears.
British Sea Power actually put together two new tracks, Advesperascit and Ignus Nilsen Waltz, and you can listen to both of them now.
Every quest will have unique elements like characters you won't be able to chat to otherwise, so your choices will lead to an even more distinct journey—you'll have yet another reason to return and try a different ideology on for size. And like most of Disco Elysium's cast, these new characters will reveal more facets of your personality, making things bubble to the surface that can potentially change how other conversations play out. This way, their impact lingers even once you return to the original story.
Kim Kitsuragi will join you on these new quests and will of course have plenty to say about your misadventures. It wouldn't be right if we couldn't bring our BFF. He's not the only character who's been expanded, either, and the new conversations aren't exclusively related to just ideologies.
"I've described these new bits as political vision quests, but in a very Disco Elysium fashion the conversations won't revolve around a single topic," says Hindpere. "You'll be talking about love, sexuality, hope, ambition, and even about certain geological features specific to our worldbuilding. There's an opportunity to get close and intimate with characters who have thus far seemed unapproachable. Let's say that once you share the same ideology many barriers disappear, allowing you see a different side of many important characters."
There are a couple more interviews at GameSpot and The Washington Post, both of which confirm that the Final Cut will indeed include a fast travel option. That didn't remain a mystery for long.
