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

[Luckmann]

While we're on the topic, if anyone is going to be digging up any avatars, it'd actually be nice to have all of them, sorted into a pile of spoilery and non-spoilery, if applicable.

I believe all the avatars are up on the Codex.

Just low-res scaled-down/cut-off versions, for codexian use. I want the game ones.

 

[fantadomat]

While we're on the topic, if anyone is going to be digging up any avatars, it'd actually be nice to have all of them, sorted into a pile of spoilery and non-spoilery, if applicable.

I believe all the avatars are up on the Codex.

Just low-res scaled-down/cut-off versions, for codexian use. I want the game ones.

Meh,just screenshot it and cut it out lol.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

I have started playing yesterday as the "Thinker". Fun game so far. But what are the best skills for a caharacter focused on intellect and motorics? There are so many... Does it matter at all or can you beat the game with every character? Also: What level can I reach during one playthrough?

You can beat the game with pretty much any character—certainly any of the prebuilds—as long as you don’t deliberately gimp yourself by making like a 1-1-1-1 build. Disco is very generous with skill points.

The best MOT skill is perception, by far. The others come up less frequently, but they each have some big moments. Hand/eye coordination has an awesome red check very early in the game that you really want to make if you’ve got a motorics build (but I don’t think it’s that hard with 4 MOT and 6 INT as one of your INT skills can give you a bonus). Reaction speed lets you come up with clever comebacks in conversation. Composure is useful, especially for a low PSY character—it can prevent you from taking morale damage and also prevent you from embarrassing yourself. Interfacing comes up a bunch.

For INT, they’re all fairly useful and with 6 INT you don’t need to invest much more to make them quite powerful. Encyclopedia is the least useful and six points is plenty. Frankly, you might not want to put many more points into INT skills until you fail a white check and need to invest a skill point to take another crack at it.

My advice: experiment with the thought cabinet to find thoughts that raise your learning caps for certain PSY and FYS skills so that you can offset some of your character’s weaknesses. There are at least couple thoughts that boost the learning cap for Shivers and/or Inland Empire—take them. Same for Volition and Endurance—they’re very important.

 

[Kasparov]

I would think the portraits will be in the digital art book. Stay tuned

 

[Jenkem]

Cuno should get his own game.

 

[fantadomat]

Cuno should get his own game.

You want to fiddle Cuno,shove a finger up his ass???

 

[Daedalos]

FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????

 

[HoboForEternity]

FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????FUCK DOES CUNO CARE??????

Tone down the speed cuno

 

[Prime Junta]

Cuno should get his own game.

He needs to the the Chosen One who rolls back the Pale, saves reality, and becomes the next Innocence.

Spoiler

And brings forth full Communism, natch.

 

[fantadomat]

By the way did it die in your game?

Spoiler

The old hardcore soldier dude that is on Prime Junta 's avatar. It was the saddest moment of the game .

 

[fantadomat]

Cuno should get his own game.

He needs to the the Chosen One who rolls back the Pale, saves reality, and becomes the next Innocence.

Spoiler

And brings forth full Communism, natch.

Nah,Cuno is a fascist bastard like me .

 

[Skall]

Kasparov congrats on the release! Since the game's writing has gotten so much praise, I'll at least mention loving the animated colour-explosion of the title screen, the loose strokes texturing the environments, and the chaotic mural of the Thought Cabinet. And that song that plays at the Whirling-In-Rags has completely wormed its way into my ear.

I bowed out of the old thread after it devolved into a Codexian debate on communism, but by then I already knew I'd be picking up the game on day-one. Really digging it so far and I'll probably try to catch up on this thread after my first playthrough (I'm already curious as to how subsequent ones will change based on my build and choices).

What I wanted to mention that I haven't seen brought up yet is how all the text in the game is actually presented.

A few years ago I was working on a small dialogue-prototype that focused on passive checks for "flavour" text and active checks for the selectable options, so it's fascinating seeing something similar in a completed project. I think the fact that conversations are shown vertically -- as opposed to the horizontal bottom-bar of Infinity Engine style games -- is a huge plus as it limits wall-of-text paragraphs. I also did something similar for framing, but whereas I used the left side to display a journal with notes, Disco Elysium preserves it to show the great visuals of the game while keeping focus on the talkers. It's a clean, stylish approach that I wouldn't be surprised to see games mimic in the future, but I do wish there was an option to always-show the die-rolls to more clearly convey the gameplay-checks.

The passive checks further break up the text into more digestible chunks, and the fact that they're their own voices works wonderfully. I never considered making such passive checks into characters themselves -- ones the protagonist/player can doubt or question -- but it adds so much personality to what could've easily been dry, descriptive text. Really good stuff.

Can't wait to play more and give no truce to the Furies!

 

[Prime Junta]

Germans liked it too although they found some of the political positions etwas verstörend. Biggest downside they mentioned was that it's Englisch only.

https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/disco-elysium-test-beste-rollenspiel,3350364.html

 

[Haba]

I'd compare this game to an incredibly tall tree. As in, it stacks gargantuan amount of layers on top of a handful of NPCs spread around a small patch of land. You can climb up top using many different branches, but every time you look around, you'll see the same landscape.

And that describes pretty much every RPG that exists. You might cut some branches as you climb, sometimes you make a detour for a stronger big branch and go to its end to see what you find. The very act of your climb may kill the tree or help it grow, depending on how you climbed. But this isn't made obvious to the climber, unless he stops to listen to the tree itself.

 

[Madawc]

I finished it last night. Took me around 36 hours, with the Sensitive premade build.

I can understand the complaints about it not being a "proper" RPG (whatever that means) or it not being branched enough. And honestly, I couldn't care less about these things. It was an amazing experience. Not that anyone cares, but it's definitely game of the year for me; I would say it's even in my personal top 3 games of this decade.

I hope this doesn't bomb financially - I would love to revisit Revachol or the other places in this setting in another game.

 

[Luckmann]

Cuno should get his own game.

Unironically, I'd be genuinely interested in a game where you'd play as a truly fucked-up Cuno, because boyo that kid does not have a good future ahead of him.

In just a few years, he'll be one of those homeless punks at the top of the scene and wake up with loose teeth in a derelict apartment in an abandoned complex full of squatters, using a pile of black garbage bags as a improvised bed, with a black eye and an ache.

Spoiler

He won't have lost his memory, but he'll have no idea where he is or how he got there and it just might be time to stop.
C? C, where the fuck are you? Shit don't do this to me C, you were.. you were right here, right?

Spoiler

Fuck now I made myself sad.

 

[Terenty]

Sounds very Disco Elysium, even the title

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I'd compare this game to an incredibly tall tree. As in, it stacks gargantuan amount of layers on top of a handful of NPCs spread around a small patch of land. You can climb up top using many different branches, but every time you look around, you'll see the same landscape.

And that describes pretty much every RPG that exists. You might cut some branches as you climb, sometimes you make a detour for a stronger big branch and go to its end to see what you find. The very act of your climb may kill the tree or help it grow, depending on how you climbed. But this isn't made obvious to the climber, unless he stops to listen to the tree itself.

Not at all. Proper RPGs are pyramid-shaped, you can take multiple paths to the peak and only in the late game the walls start closing in. To survive a pyramid, you have to be a prestigious adventurer, preferably a cool archeologist who wears leather jackets and a fancy hat.

Meanwhile a typical player who enjoys a tree-structured visual novel like Disco Elysium is a vegan, feminist tree-hugger with no agency and no direction to go except straight to the top.

 

[Luckmann]

Not at all. Proper RPGs are pyramid-shaped, you can take multiple paths to the peak and only in the late game the walls start closing in. To survive a pyramid, you have to be a prestigious adventurer, preferably a cool archeologist who wears leather jackets and a fancy hat.

Meanwhile a typical player who enjoys a tree-structured visual novel like Disco Elysium is a vegan, feminist tree-hugger with no agency and no direction to go except straight to the top.

This is actually a very prestigious observation, and one I find myself agreeing with.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Unironically, I'd be genuinely interested in a game where you'd play as a truly fucked-up Cuno, because boyo that kid does not have a good future ahead of him.

Nonsense. Cuno ended up really liking my character. Punching him, splitting speed with him, and shoving my fingers into a corpse all worked to impress him a hell of a lot. He'll become a fine upstanding citizen like Harry. Cunoesse is probably fucked but maybe she'll die off before she can take Cuno down with her.

Still haven't started a new character yet, got the Pathologic 2 DLC in just a few days and I don't think I'll poopsock my next Harry. Think I might go heavy intellect and psyche and dumpster motorics and physical just for the complete opposite of my last character. I suspect intellect-Harry is probably the most boring of the bunch (Kim already covers that nicely and I'm not sure if the blue skills would pay off enough in non-murder mystery ways) so I may lean more toward psyche, but I dunno.

 

[Luckmann]

He'll become a fine upstanding citizen like H̵̩̟͚̦͙̦̩̻̗̮͘͟ͅͅa̢̩̳̞̥͠ͅr̸̪̰͙̀̕ṛ̨̡̛̹͓̘̳̪̤̳̥͙̭̯͖̜͟͠y̝̜͔̜̲̭̞͔̱̗͚͈͚̕͜.

 

[Luckmann]

Well I just got across the river fairly late on Day 3, and...

Minor

I got my oil.

Slightly bigger spoiler

..and I found the car.

Actual spoiler

Oh Goddammit

Oh, Harry.

Harry, Harry, Harry.

Harry what did you do?

 

[Got bored and left]

Well I just got across the river fairly late on Day 3, and...

Minor

I got my oil.

Slightly bigger spoiler

..and I found the car.

Actual spoiler

Oh Goddammit

Oh, Harry.

Harry, Harry, Harry.

Harry what did you do?

Yep, that's a gut-wrencher. Luckily, Lt Kitsuragi was the broest bro about this to me

 

[felipepepe]

Kim is the broest of bros. It's hard to do a total failure playthough because I don't want to disappoint him

 

[JarlFrank]

By the way did it die in your game?

Spoiler

The old hardcore soldier dude that is on Prime Junta 's avatar. It was the saddest moment of the game .

Yes. When that happened, I was already in a somewhat melancholic mood from the fisher village, and then this...

One of the game's many well-executed emotional hits.