Disco Elysium spoilery thread

[Gangrelrumbler]

Also is Kim oversensitive regarding racism? He points out that the racist guy saying "Welcome to Revachol" actually wants to make him feel unwelcome, but he says the same thing even if you approach him without Kim. Is the racist guy actually acting racist from the get-go or did Kim snap for no reason at a guy who just happened to be racist. Was the conversation included only to make fun of NPCs greeting player with "welcome to X" line even though it feels completely unnatural in a casual conversation?

Welcome to Revachol is explicitly the in-universe Fascist rallying cry, several characters uses it.

But it's not used specifically against Kim as he implied.

 

[Zariusz]

So does anyone knows how to get to that interactive object in ruby hideout? That upper left part of the screen in dark.

 

[Herald of Durance]

Is there any visible effect of drinking alcohol every day? I drank beer for roleplaying reasons but it didn't seem to affect anything. At least not those beers I drank in-game.

I finished yesterday and I really enjoyed the game. The ending felt a bit anticlimactic (holy shit, I've learned just now thanks to autocorrect that it's anticlimaCtic, not anticlimatic!), and with the island being visible on the map but unaccessible it was clear that the last part would take place there. Unfortunately, I didn't get the last dream that's been discussed here. From the roleplaying point of view, it makes no sense to sleep on an island where the killer is likely to be hiding. Best case scenario - he'll run away, worst case scenario - he'll sneak up on you and your partner.

It was quite possibly the best new gaming experience I've had in the past several years. It was wacky, bizarre, but not to the point of being unintentionally laughable or weird for the sake of weird (looking at you, Numenera). One thing that really underlined the sort of melancholic state of being drunk, washed-up loser cop, was the music. Ever since I've finished the game, I'm listening to From the Sea to the Land Beyond by British Sea Power on repeat. I've tried even their regular albums but they seem far worse than this one. Speaking of music, The Smallest Church in Saint-Saëns sung by the Ancient Reptilian Brain is also great. A nice impression of Leonard Cohen/Tom Waits.

Also, just for fun, I've tried shooting Cunoesse with a really low percentage of success (I think it might have been one of the 3 % ones), and of course, I succeeded. It was a really pleasant surprise that the game wouldn't somehow avoid it and tell you that killing kids is bad, but it really lets you kill the little fucker.

 

[overly excitable young man]

Meh. Was a pretty whiny and pretentious game.
Somehow i feel gayer now after playing it.

The phasmid thingy was stupid and obsolete as was the lore stuff like the innocence of smth being Dolores Day.
Why did they have to make it that little bit supernatural? I don't get it.

Political ideologies are only there to trick stupid reviewers in thinking there is c&c.
And it works - because journalists are beyond retarded.

The thought system is also fake and bad.
You say something 5 times - then you get the thought so you can raise your stats. Boring.

With something like 7 you can pass almost every skill check.
So if you start with 5 in int and emotional int and get your clothes you don't have to skill much anymore.

I didn't feel any character progression from the system.
No rpg at all. Adventure with minor rpg elements.

It's not good and it's no rpg therefore it shouldn't be the best codex rpg 2019.
I'm sure there is some indie game which should get the title.

 

[Gord]

So, finished it.

Overall maybe not a contender for "best classical cRPG of 2019", but a pretty cool experience.
As others have stated, the world- and characterbuilding ZA/UM has done is great.
Harry is definitely one of the most memorable protagonists in a game I played and despite the exaggerated presentation of his personality, his struggels are actually surprisingly relatable.
Likewise, pretty much all the interactable NPCs in the game are just well done.

I didn't mind the (somewhat abrupt) ending, or the late introduction of the deserter - actually the latter in a way fits with the setting and the mood, imo. There's much planning and scheming (from the Union and Wild Pines), great political and socio-economic theories being thrown around and the big mystery in the end boils down to

Spoiler

some deluded old fool who's stuck in the past being jealous over some girl he kept stalking. In other words all the chaos comes down to humans being humans. Even if potentially having brain-damage from long-term pheromone exposure.

My main gripes are that your actual build in the end doesn't seem to matter that much - being really thorough in going through the different dialogues, picking up all the scattered hints in the world before doing some of the checks central to the story seems more like the intended play-style (and fitting for an detective) than being able to brute-force any particular check right away. I guess it will otherwise mostly influence the thoughts you get delivered during inner monologue?
Although I would be interested in seeing how things turn out if I just go for the quick and dirty solutions as much as possible. Especially when it comes to the whole story surrounding the involvement of the Hardy Boys.
Then again, given the tribunal will happen no matter what, it probably doesn't matter too much in the long run.
Likewise the Thought Cabinet didn't fully convince me. There were some thoughts that gave interesting boni and others which were required to pass certain checks (and therefore integrated in the story) - but most seem to be more about some small bonus like raising a learning cap or getting another + to some skill.
Edit: One thing I just remembered - health/morale system felt like an afterthought for 95% of the game. Especially the morale stat - but maybe that's somewhat related to builds?

I would have also liked to get a bit more of an conclusion to some of the storylines - what became of the anodic dance music freaks, what happened with Evrarts project after I had forged the signatures (and what was his reaction when he found out), etc.
Funnily I also had some slight slip-up in the final scene of the game - I had used alcohol a total of two times and smoked a cigarette once (to pass some checks in each case). Yet my squad commented how I reeked of alcohol (three days after drinking some beer) and Kim made it sound as if I was a chain smoker, too. Well, at least he was technically right that I have been drinking on the job.

I also think it was a bit strange to learn that

Spoiler

Harrys issues with his ex seem to go back merely ~6 years - from the various thoughts and fractured memories it looked like something much older - like he knew her from way back when he was in his early twenties, maybe married for years before they broke up, something like that. Makes it a bit harder to understand why it has thrown him off balance that much. Then again, it was probably just the starting point and alcohol did the rest.

Anyway, while the game might not be perfect, in summary I had fun with it and would like to see more of their games in the future.
Probably not going to replay it too soon, but eventually I'd like to try a few more things I didn't manage to do and check out some stuff I missed.

 

[Twiglard]

One thing I just remembered - health/morale system felt like an afterthought for 95% of the game. Especially the morale stat - but maybe that's somewhat related to builds?

No. You don't have to buy a single healing item even with 1 health.

Funnily I also had some slight slip-up in the final scene of the game - I had used alcohol a total of two times and smoked a cigarette once (to pass some checks in each case). Yet my squad commented how I reeked of alcohol (three days after drinking some beer)

I'd excuse the alcohol/drugs thing given its place in the narrative, i.e. Harry being an actual addict. It's the game's equivalent of the Grimoire of Pestilential Thought. Many alcoholics smoke though.

 

[Harthwain]

Meh. Was a pretty whiny and pretentious game.
Somehow i feel gayer now after playing it.

The phasmid thingy was stupid and obsolete as was the lore stuff like the innocence of smth being Dolores Day.
Why did they have to make it that little bit supernatural? I don't get it.

Political ideologies are only there to trick stupid reviewers in thinking there is c&c.
And it works - because journalists are beyond retarded.

The thought system is also fake and bad.
You say something 5 times - then you get the thought so you can raise your stats. Boring.

With something like 7 you can pass almost every skill check.
So if you start with 5 in int and emotional int and get your clothes you don't have to skill much anymore.

I didn't feel any character progression from the system.
No rpg at all. Adventure with minor rpg elements.

It's not good and it's no rpg therefore it shouldn't be the best codex rpg 2019.
I'm sure there is some indie game which should get the title.

You don't realize you posted this in the wrong thread, do you? Nothing you said is spoiler-worthy.

 

[HansDampf]

Interesting game. I finished it as sober "Moralist" Apocalypse Cop, without savescumming like it's supposed to be played. I'm a slow reader, and normally when a game is throwing walls of text at me like that I get bored/exhausted quickly. But here my eyes were glued to the screen for hours. Loved the lore dumps with Joyce. Every step of the investigation presented another twist to the mystery. The different voices in the protagonist's head and the dialogue system as a whole ought to be inspiration for other RPGs, please. Most of them are hidden checks, right? Otherwise you'd see 10 failed checks after every paragraph. I also like that some of the voices don't always make the right call, or that you can put "too many" skill points into them. It's funny when 3 or more voices are coming from different angles trying to influence you.
I'm tempted to play it again, soon, with different skills. But I'm afraid I'm probably going to be disappointed by how little it changes. It's always smoke and mirrors with this type of games. I've noticed it with a few red checks, like when I asked Cindy the SKULL for her paint brush. I failed the check, but she gave it to me anyway. What was the point of that? But I definitely missed a few things, some doors I couldn't open, many locked thoughts in the thought cabinet, and some white checks I kept failing.

Other than the (possible) lack of real consequences, one thing that got me thinking is the time limit. I like how time passes in this game only when you are advancing dialogue. But I never felt real time pressure. At best, I wanted to get as much done as possible in a day before everyone went to sleep, for convenience. But the overall time limit is very lenient and you could basically do everything in 5 days. When you think about this as a detective game where your goal is to find as many clues as possible within a certain time frame, then wouldn't it be more interesting or challenging if you had to decide which people or witnesses are worth talking to? Not necessarily in a "right or wrong" way. There could be multiple paths that lead you to the same conclusions. Or you could miss some details that may or may not matter in the end. This would also have another side effect, that you would avoid mindlessly clicking through info dumps. Based on your previous investigation you may want to ask different questions that are most relevant to you. I don't know. Just thinking.
And why is there no stylish pocket watch in the bottom right corner of the screen instead of just numbers?

Some spoilery questions:
Is Harry an unreliable narrator? For example, the light-bending rich guy in the container. Encyclopedia pulled some bs about a physical phenomenon that bends light around a rich person if there is a poor person nearby. But Kim couldn't see it because he isn't poor enough. How convenient. He did see the Phasmid at the end, though, and the photo was real, so Harry didn't imagine that. Inland Empire also makes many adventurous claims.

I had very high Perception and Visual Calculus and found the bullet early during the autopsy. What changes if you don't pass the checks and don't find the bullet? Will Klaasje tell you later that the victim was shot?
What does Visual Calculus influence, anyway? Do you get more details during those reconstruction sequences? Would low VC also reveal the 3 possible sniper sightlines when you are inspecting Klaasje's window? If not, how do you find out?

Is there a different way to find Ruby's hideout other than the Shivers check at the Feld building? The game really wants you to pass this check. At the end I had 8 bonus points from other quests. But even with the highest possible chance, 1 in 36 players are still going to fail this without any fault of their own.

Related to that, what would happen if you just sat around for 5 days doing nothing?

Is it possible to end the tribunal peacefully? Would Kim have died if I had failed this check?

And who is this Ruud Hoenkloewen at the tribunal? He came out of nowhere and was acting very strange. He wasn't the deserter in disguise, or was he? There was a Composure check later to assess his health, but I failed it. He was coughing up blood, and I had a hunch that I would have found a gunshot injury, because Kim shot Ruud during the tribunal.

 

[Herald of Durance]

Is Harry an unreliable narrator? For example, the light-bending rich guy in the container. Encyclopedia pulled some bs about a physical phenomenon that bends light around a rich person if there is a poor person nearby. But Kim couldn't see it because he isn't poor enough. How convenient. He did see the Phasmid at the end, though, and the photo was real, so Harry didn't imagine that. Inland Empire also makes many adventurous claims.

I think he is definitely unreliable. Everything is seen through the eyes of a possibly insane alcoholic with an "apocalyptic" hangover. The question is, how unreliable he is? The light-bending guy is a good example - if Kim didn't say that the guy looked normal, you'd never know it. So who knows what else is not what it seems. Inland Empire plays right into it, you never know if it's real or just your imagination.

 

[tripedal]

PCGamer GOTY: https://www.pcgamer.com/game-of-the-year-2019-disco-elysium/

 

[Gord]

Is there a different way to find Ruby's hideout other than the Shivers check at the Feld building? The game really wants you to pass this check. At the end I had 8 bonus points from other quests. But even with the highest possible chance, 1 in 36 players are still going to fail this without any fault of their own.

Apparently not. And I think you could actually end up stuck, if you don't make the check, don't have any points left to spend but have exhausted all side-quests. Unlikely, but possible.

Related to that, what would happen if you just sat around for 5 days doing nothing?

Probably not that much, I guess? But then, who knows, maybe Kim gets too annoyed eventually.
The biggest issue might be advancing time - I guess one would have to re-read some book several times since you can't skip ahead with Kim around (esp. annoying when you want to meet The Pigs).

Is it possible to end the tribunal peacefully? Would Kim have died if I had failed this check?

No, best thing you can do seems to be to limit casualties (not that much, however). If you fail the check, Cuno turns up instead and tells you Kim is in hospital. You get to finish the game with Cuno at your side.

And who is this Ruud Hoenkloewen at the tribunal? He came out of nowhere and was acting very strange.

Not sure. I'm wondering whether you can find some hints about him before the tribunal.
Joyce said they are working in teams of three, so only two should remain. OTOH, they had more than one week to fly in some backup, so maybe that's what they did?
Pretty sure he's not the deserter, since Ruud is shot through his visor and killed by Kim, while the deserter definitely doesn't seem to have any facial injuries.

 

[HansDampf]

Is it possible to end the tribunal peacefully? Would Kim have died if I had failed this check?

No, best thing you can do seems to be to limit casualties (not that much, however). If you fail the check, Cuno turns up instead and tells you Kim is in hospital. You get to finish the game with Cuno at your side.

Fuck does Cuno care!?

 

[JustMyOnion]

So are you actually unable to solve the murder case before the tribunal? And the culprit is physically gated from the rest of the map until the (what I'd call) epilogue?

 

[overly excitable young man]

Yeah and that is pretty gay.

 

[JustMyOnion]

Yeah, feeling pretty bummed out about the game now after a week. The thought that I was fucking up deliberately and the game was responding accordingly had a huge draw for me. And then it turns out it's a murderhobo on an inaccessible island.

 

[overly excitable young man]

With stuff like that you can clearly see the development process.
They had no vision.
They didn't know what this game was about.
They didn't know how to solve that murder.
So they shoehorned that island and the murderhobo in.

 

[Zariusz]

Yes i can see it clear now...
Disco Elysium is adaptation of Mad Bull 34.

Both main characters have badass moustaches and are cops who can break police rules.
They both have younger cop partners who have asian ancestry and are proper cops.
Both characters are working in big city of former colonies.
Both characters can be womanisers.
Disco Elysium and Mad Bull 34 both have themes of rape.

Either this is truth or my fever is bigger than i thinked.

 

[Rafidur]

but there were several little comments that made me think "huh, I guess he might be gay".

Ah yes, subtle hints such as him knowing how anal beads sound.

 

[Gromoer]

Done the whole thread, nice read thanks dawgs. Just finished the game for the first time (laughably centrist sorry cop), apparently my inner combatfag was still strong in 2019, but I am glad I’ve waited enough for the director’s cut to become a thing (apparently it’s become a thing in 2019 kek).

was kinda a bit disappointed this whole story hasn’t turned out to be a delirium visions of our poor Harry passing away in al gul coma somewhere in our world. I really anticipated some miserable Lynchian finale to this.

As for the quests, surprised nobody mentioned taking la responsibilite, such a huge and crazy quest with the most hilarious possible game over. That said, I am still trying to do some stuff that I’ve missed pre-Ruby, like e.g. any thoughts that will start a quest. I’ve heard that Col Do Mama Daqua (can’t recall how it’s spelled) though will start one, but somehow completing this thought didn’t do it for me. Any other thoughts that you would recommend?

 

[Roguey]

As for the quests, surprised nobody mentioned taking la responsibilite, such a huge and crazy quest with the most hilarious possible game over.

Never saw this and I imagine most people haven't either since it looks like it involves a very specific set of requirements to meet.

 

[Gromoer]

As for the quests, surprised nobody mentioned taking la responsibilite, such a huge and crazy quest with the most hilarious possible game over.

Never saw this and I imagine most people haven't either since it looks like it involves a very specific set of requirements to meet.

Ha-ha, that’s curious. I don’t even remember what was the trigger for this thought. Maybe that I’ve played the most boring build ever (but which mirrors myself almost precisely) 3-3–3-3

 

[Roguey]

Ha-ha, that’s curious. I don’t even remember what was the trigger for this thought. Maybe that I’ve played the most boring build ever (but which mirrors myself almost precisely) 3-3–3-3

https://discoelysium.fandom.com/wiki/Take_on_la_Responsibilité mentions all the prerequisites, it's quite a number.

 

[Gromoer]

Ha-ha, that’s curious. I don’t even remember what was the trigger for this thought. Maybe that I’ve played the most boring build ever (but which mirrors myself almost precisely) 3-3–3-3

https://discoelysium.fandom.com/wiki/Take_on_la_Responsibilité mentions all the prerequisites, it's quite a number.

Man, the amount of underlying shit going on in this game is absolutely mind blowing. Especially knowing that getting this whole quest popping up was purely a coincidence, or, better said, the sum of my choices throughout the game (wink)?

That said, I don’t believe there is much replayability… other than to uncover all the secrets Martinaise has, complete all thoughts? But for some reason carrying on with this completionist mindset left from the pre-DE RPGs feels unbearably lame here.

The only thing I think the game was lacking is an option to have one save mode or something that would prevent you from save scumming (like completely). That would have added the whole another layer to the gameplay.