Rumor: Bethesda has been in turmoil since the death of their CEO

[Butter]

Lol, not even close, Underrail has like the same two-three maps repeated a hundred times with different layouts.
If that's good worldbuilding, then you are ultimately clueless.
I may even add that Skyrim has better worldbuilding than Underrail.

Worldbuilding =/= level design.

 

[ItsChon]

Disco Elysium is a great RPG with great world building. That being said, Underrail definitely has better world building and a better setting than Disco Elysium. The issue with Disco Elysium is that while the world is interesting, it is very hard to get a good grasp of what the world outside of Revachol is like. Everything seems almost ethereal, and hard to pin down, and of course, this adds to the wonder of it all, but Disco Elysium was a game that was too limited in scope to really allow the player to get a great feel of the setting/world they were in. Of course, I'm not saying it's a bad thing that Disco Elysium was limited in scope, that is what makes the narrative so damn good. But when it comes time to compare setting and world building, the sheer fact thatthe game is more open open ended than Disco and actually allows the player to actually visit all all the different places in the setting versus just being tied down to one location is a major point in Underrail's favor simply due to the design of the game itself. This is not even factoring in all the amazing things that Underrail does to make the setting and world so amazing.

It's honestly an unfair comparison. If Underrail was set entirely in South Gate Station or in Core City, than it could be compared to Disco Elysium, but not as the game is now. Due to the type of plot Disco Elysium has, the game has to trade world building for a strong narrative, while Underrail is the opposite. It trades a strong plot/narrative for amazing world building and setting.

 

[Raghar]

This looks like Jin-Roh wolf brigade.

 

[dreughjiggers]

Lol, not even close, Underrail has like the same two-three maps repeated a hundred times with different layouts.
If that's good worldbuilding, then you are ultimately clueless.
I may even add that Skyrim has better worldbuilding than Underrail.

Worldbuilding =/= level design.

Level design's critical. Show, don't tell.

 

[v1c70r14]

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

An alcoholic prostitute in Bulbapol, which is recovering from the breakup of the world union of gommutards and a failed Armenican space program, wakes up one morning without memories and an eviction notice on her door. Also there's some deepest lore bullshit about the court wizard Tardowski of the Funko-Bulgorian king having a glowing nose 400 years ago or something. I'm a BAFTA award winning writer now.

 

[oblivionenjoyer]

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

An alcoholic prostitute in Bulbapol, which is recovering from the breakup of the world union of gommutards and a failed Armenican space program, wakes up one morning without memories and an eviction notice on her door. Also there's some deepest lore bullshit about the court wizard Tardowski of the Funko-Bulgorian king having a glowing nose 400 years ago or something. I'm a BAFTA award winning writer now.

That's not what worldbuilding means you gigantic retard.

 

[v1c70r14]

Upset much? I was making fun of the game in general but if you use the term worldbuilding unironically you should consider receiving Canadian healthcare.

 

[Turjan]

Ah, I see. I guess it somehow was a bigger hit on xbox than PC.

I guess Morrowind sold enough on PC. When the big ads were running prior to release, I was looking where to buy it, and one of the big department store chains (does anyone remember those?) sold the Collector's Edition on release date for a lower price than the normal version, which means I bought it there. It came with a nice map and an ordinator figurine. I still have that box.

 

[Decado]

Disco Elysium was made by communists. Toss it onto the shitpile.

I didn't expect this to get it's own thread. I am disappointed that Starfield is delayed, I was/am looking forward to seeing their take on it on a hybrid genre. But -- and I am not claiming to be special in this regard -- I called this shit months ago, when we still had not seen spaceflight footage for a game called "Starfield."

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

Oh, would you look at that
A decline enabling storyfag that doesn't know any better
What are the odds...

 

[Harthwain]

Disco Elysium is a great RPG with great world building. [...] The issue with Disco Elysium is that while the world is interesting, it is very hard to get a good grasp of what the world outside of Revachol is like. Everything seems almost ethereal, and hard to pin down [...]

To me the world itself is not that interesting (as in: the exact configuration of political entities and landmasses). What I find interesting is that they managed to make the in-game politics believable parts of the setting. In most RPGs the political side of things is often detached from the actual game. Here it feels like an integral part of it and it's reflected in the world around you. Morrowind is another example where politics/culture plays a huge role in the in-game world and the player can feel it.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Morrowind is shit, by the way.

That said, even Morrowind is, of course, better than Disco Elysium.

 

[Luzur]

Wasn't Daggerfall already p much everywhere when it released? At least that's what I remember, despite not really being interested in it. Morrowind was 100% mainstream, or whatever other term you want to use here.

I remember getting like 2 different demos of it from mainstream gaming mags back then, besides seeing ads for it and seeing it on game shop shelves

 

[Ravielsk]

I think Bethesda became too big right at the moment in time when they were getting a hand on how to make the sort of game they wanted to create.

More like they started rotting from the inside the second they got mainstream. The problem Bethesda has is not that they try to appeal too much to the "mainstream" but that they spend more time looking for shortcuts than it would take them to walk the walk.
Fallout 4 is such a painfully blatant example that even normals can notice it but the problems started as early as with Oblivion. Most of the changes that happened between Morrowind and Oblivion make no sense from a mass market or development appeal but make sense from the "no shits given angle".

For example by condensing weapon categories into essentially just 3 categories Bethesda made things only more difficult for themselves as they stripped themselves of the ability to create unique pieces with their own rules. Even if they were to never make use of such a feature just straight up removing it hurts them more than it helps. Same with level scaling. About 5 hours of gameplay makes it obvious that its implementation discourages leveling up and makes the world feel artificial as all hell. It absolutely did not make the game more approachable for new player but it absolutely made it bad in the long term. But it makes dungeon design easier because you no longer have to factor in the inhabitants of the dungeon.
Or how about NPC disposition that they essentially removed in Skyrim which is a universal developmental tool for quest design that makes it easy for the devs to make a open ended quest simply by asking the player to make an NPC tolerate them enough to talk? Its removal again only hampers the developers and does nothing for a casual. But one less system to debug is one less system to debug.

There are many more examples of Bethesda choosing "convenience" over "sensibility" in their games and when you listen to their dev documentaries or interviews it becomes painfully obvious that their priorities when making games have been out of whack for a very very long time. Their response to FNV alone is proof enough that they did not give a shit as early as 2009. A passionate and focused person does not respond to someone handing them a blueprint on how its done by swiping it under the rug and pretending it never happened. Those are the action of a layabout that got butthurt at being called out.

 

[KateMicucci]

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

i think DE is the freshest game setting in a while, but that's mostly due to the art style. Not just the painterly look but also the design of things like the armor, guns and cars.

It's bizarre to see Underrail praised for its setting, of all things. I guess there are enough closet train autists here.

 

[toro]

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

i think DE is the freshest game setting in a while, but that's mostly due to the art style. Not just the painterly look but also the design of things like the armor, guns and cars.

It's bizarre to see Underrail praised for its setting, of all things. I guess there are enough closet train autists here.

Ony if your concept of fresh is the smell of a corpse.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Underrail's setting is barely there and it's mostly an excuse to dig through trash, one of the faorite pastimes of the average rpg player.

 

[ItsChon]

It's bizarre to see Underrail praised for its setting, of all things. I guess there are enough closet train autists here.

If you think Underrail's setting is limited to trains it just goes to show how little of the game you actually know.

 

[None]

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

i think DE is the freshest game setting in a while, but that's mostly due to the art style. Not just the painterly look but also the design of things like the armor, guns and cars.

It's bizarre to see Underrail praised for its setting, of all things. I guess there are enough closet train autists here.

Underrail's setting requires a bit of digging for it to really get interesting. With a little exploration and curiosity, it quickly goes from Get-The-McGuffin: Railroad Edition to something truly bizarre and fascinating. The best part is that you are still required to put the pieces of the puzzle together once you find them, instead of having some dickhead NPC spoon feed it to you. It is kind of like the Pale in DE. You can easily beat the game without really comprehending the situation, but once you do it puts a whole different spin on the setting.

 

[Higher Animal]

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

i think DE is the freshest game setting in a while, but that's mostly due to the art style. Not just the painterly look but also the design of things like the armor, guns and cars.

It's bizarre to see Underrail praised for its setting, of all things. I guess there are enough closet train autists here.

Underrail's setting requires a bit of digging for it to really get interesting. With a little exploration and curiosity, it quickly goes from Get-The-McGuffin: Railroad Edition to something truly bizarre and fascinating. The best part is that you are still required to put the pieces of the puzzle together once you find them, instead of having some dickhead NPC spoon feed it to you. It is kind of like the Pale in DE. You can easily beat the game without really comprehending the situation, but once you do it puts a whole different spin on the setting.

This is very delightful.

 

[Ryzer]

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

i think DE is the freshest game setting in a while, but that's mostly due to the art style. Not just the painterly look but also the design of things like the armor, guns and cars.

It's bizarre to see Underrail praised for its setting, of all things. I guess there are enough closet train autists here.

Underrail's setting requires a bit of digging for it to really get interesting. With a little exploration and curiosity, it quickly goes from Get-The-McGuffin: Railroad Edition to something truly bizarre and fascinating. The best part is that you are still required to put the pieces of the puzzle together once you find them, instead of having some dickhead NPC spoon feed it to you. It is kind of like the Pale in DE. You can easily beat the game without really comprehending the situation, but once you do it puts a whole different spin on the setting.

Biggest cope I've seen in a while, there is nothing fascinating or bizarre about Underrail.
The game is just an endless stream of Fetch or Kill quests until you become highly leveled to unlock new capacities to enjoy more the Kill X and the FedEx quests.
The story has nothing good to brag about.

 

[ItsChon]

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

i think DE is the freshest game setting in a while, but that's mostly due to the art style. Not just the painterly look but also the design of things like the armor, guns and cars.

It's bizarre to see Underrail praised for its setting, of all things. I guess there are enough closet train autists here.

Underrail's setting requires a bit of digging for it to really get interesting. With a little exploration and curiosity, it quickly goes from Get-The-McGuffin: Railroad Edition to something truly bizarre and fascinating. The best part is that you are still required to put the pieces of the puzzle together once you find them, instead of having some dickhead NPC spoon feed it to you. It is kind of like the Pale in DE. You can easily beat the game without really comprehending the situation, but once you do it puts a whole different spin on the setting.

Biggest cope I've seen in a while, there is nothing fascinating or bizarre about Underrail.
The game is just an endless stream of Fetch or Kill quests until you become highly leveled to unlock new capacities to enjoy more the Kill X and the FedEx quests.
The story has nothing good to brag about.

Your retardation on this topic has been exposed countless times. Stop shitting up threads with your garbage tier takes.

 

[BING XI LAO]

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

i think DE is the freshest game setting in a while, but that's mostly due to the art style. Not just the painterly look but also the design of things like the armor, guns and cars.

It's bizarre to see Underrail praised for its setting, of all things. I guess there are enough closet train autists here.

Underrail's setting requires a bit of digging for it to really get interesting. With a little exploration and curiosity, it quickly goes from Get-The-McGuffin: Railroad Edition to something truly bizarre and fascinating. The best part is that you are still required to put the pieces of the puzzle together once you find them, instead of having some dickhead NPC spoon feed it to you. It is kind of like the Pale in DE. You can easily beat the game without really comprehending the situation, but once you do it puts a whole different spin on the setting.

Biggest cope I've seen in a while, there is nothing fascinating or bizarre about Underrail.
The game is just an endless stream of Fetch or Kill quests until you become highly leveled to unlock new capacities to enjoy more the Kill X and the FedEx quests.
The story has nothing good to brag about.

Is it wrong of me to enjoy FedEx quests? What else should the quests be?

 

[Heroic Liberator]

So as someone who has never played Underrail, I gather that the lore is akin to FromSoftware titles (i.e. Souls titles, but also Elden Ring I guess) in terms of narrative design?

 

[Wunderbar]

So as someone who has never played Underrail, I gather that the lore is akin to FromSoftware titles (i.e. Souls titles, but also Elden Ring I guess) in terms of narrative design?

if by "fromsoft narrative design" you mean hiding the crucial info in a description of "Godwyn's tattered pants" then no.

All you have to do is to pay attention to what NPCs are saying, read occasional readables, and complete all sidequests (some of which are well hidden or mutually exclusive, thus couldn't be completed in a single playthrough).