The GWJ CRPG Club - Game 14: Disco Elysium

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For more information on the GWJ CRPG Club, go here.

Disco Elysium is the GWJ CRPG's Club's 14th winner, winning the vote in convincing fashion.

Disco Elysium is an award-winning isometric 3d role-playing video game developed and published by ZA/UM in 2019. The main character takes the role of an amnesic detective who has been charged with solving a murder mystery. The game is a non-traditional RPG, as there is no combat, with much of the player interaction coming through a system of 24 skills and dialog trees.

The Final Cut version was released as a free upgrade on March 30, just as we are beginning play. The upgrade adds full voice acting, more quests and characters, and other quality-of-life improvements. The Final Cut version is available on Windows, macOS, Stadia, and PS4/5. This update will come to Xbox One and Switch later in 2021.

We'll be playing this game until September 30, 2021. This thread is for friendly discussion as we play through the game. Share your reflections, successes, defeats, tactics, wishes, impressions, and whatever here! The more conversation the better, so post away.

For BIG spoilers, please use the spoiler tag. (No! I am your father!) Tactics, strategies, general story progression likely won't need them.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to participate, and can start at any time, so join the fun! One quick favor: If you decide to play, make a post here along the lines of "I'm in!" to let us know. If you start and finish the game before the end, you'll level up your GWJ CRPG Membership.

Helpful Links
Steam ($31.99 <-- 20% SALE!)
GOG ($31.99 <-- 20% SALE!)
Epic Games ($31.99 <-- 20% SALE!)
Playstation Store ($39.99)
Is There Any Deal: Tyranny
How Long to Beat (21 - 41 hours)
Fan Wiki
Wikipedia Page
Guide & Achievements Guide
Metacritic (91 metascore, 8.4 user score)
(Taking suggestions)

Members Completed
Alien Love Gardener
Redherring
Godzilla Blitz
gewy
Timespike
Last Surprise
Shadout
Agathos
Sundown
benign1
ubrakto
Sorbicol
beanman101283
Math

Members Playing
Spikeout
brokenclavicle
Rat Boy
fuzzyslug
Amoebic
Spikeout
RnRClown
UpToIsomorphism
tboon
blackanchor
KozmoOchez

I’m hoping that Xbox gets it soon. I’m not going to buy it elsewhere when it’s going to be on game pass.

I'm in, and am looking forward to this one. I picked up the game at the Epic Winter sale, when it was really cheap. So I've just got to download the upgrade to the Final Cut and I should be ready to get started.

RawkGWJ wrote:

I’m hoping that Xbox gets it soon. I’m not going to buy it elsewhere when it’s going to be on game pass.

I saw "summer 2021" for Xbox One as I was putting together links for the thread. Not sure how accurate that might be.

I'm in. Uh, as soon as I am done with Bravely Default II.
Disco Elysium is so good.

Btw, supposedly also on Stadia, no excuses.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Members Completed
Godzilla Blitz

Literally nobody believe that.

I'm in. I grabbed it during the Winter Epic sale, expecting it would win the club at some point after Final Cut dropped, and here we are. I sort of know the basics of the game, but have largely avoided spoilers. I'll probably start it up sometime in the next couple of weeks after I finish some of the games I'm working on now.

I'm interested to see what sort of builds people go for.

I'll be a part of the conversation at some point as I've just purchased the game on PS5 but it seems its running a bit poorly & is quite buggy at launch Disco Elysium - PS5 Problems

Hopefully this will be patched quickly as I can't wait to dive in, I'll still play for a bit tomorrow to see if those problems arise for me.

Woohoo! Can't wait to fall behind in completing this! Really looking forward to playing it, though.

Easy decision, I'm in for a replay. As I mentioned in the other thread, I'll be doing whatever is the opposite of a Thinker.

$30 is more than I can justify. Going to sit this one out unless it appears on Gamepass PC and/or hits 50%+ off.

I'm in.

So, assuming just one playthrough of the game, is it preferable to be a jack of all trades, or heavily focus in one or two attributes at the expense of the other two?

If the latter, I'm gonna be a smart, clumsy weakling.

I'm in, though it may be a few weeks before I get started. But I can't wait to play again and see how things play out differently.

Shadout wrote:

I'm in. Uh, as soon as I am done with Bravely Default II.
Disco Elysium is so good.

Btw, supposedly also on Stadia, no excuses.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Members Completed
Godzilla Blitz

Literally nobody believe that.

I'm really fast at games?

Fixed that, had it in the wrong box by accident!

I've added the Stadia info, thanks! (I saw that and thought, "Does anyone use Stadia? Hmm. I can leave that out.")

beanman101283 wrote:

I'm in, though it may be a few weeks before I get started. But I can't wait to play again and see how things play out differently.

I was reading that you can play your character evil or good, and the game actually works pretty well either way?

I’m in. I have no idea what this even is but I seem to own a copy so why not?

I don't think good/evil is the right way to phrase it. This isn't a game concerned about saving the world and fighting evil. But you can certainly be more or less dickish in your actions towards folks. You can also just be.. strange.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I've added the Stadia info, thanks! (I saw that and thought, "Does anyone use Stadia? Hmm. I can leave that out.")

That was my thought as well. But I have seen some threads around here with people staunchly defending Stadia. So apparently.

I've only just started playing and I game overed twice!

In! Went ahead and purchased from GoG; 20% off is better than 0% off.

beanman101283 wrote:

I don't think good/evil is the right way to phrase it. This isn't a game concerned about saving the world and fighting evil. But you can certainly be more or less dickish in your actions towards folks. You can also just be.. strange.

I've played about a half hour now. Strange seems to fit the vibe so far. I went with a 4 Psyche, 4 Intellect, 2 Physique and 2 Motorics. For core skill I took Conceptualization.

Rat Boy wrote:

I've only just started playing and I game overed twice!

I wondered if it would be possible to kill myself making some decisions over others. So far I've kept my self alive.

Rat Boy wrote:

I've only just started playing and I game overed twice!

Rat Boy is CRPG clubbin'?

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/vy9ZkLAcx04IcwkEse/source.gif)

I'll be playing, but I do need to get Tyranny done first. Ooops.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

I've only just started playing and I game overed twice!

I wondered if it would be possible to kill myself making some decisions over others. So far I've kept my self alive. :)

The Thinker archetype doesn't handle setbacks well at the start.

Edit:

Spoiler:

Steam should have an accolade for not losing to a folding chair.

I'm in. I think I'll try to go full Lynchian weirdo.

Shadout wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I've added the Stadia info, thanks! (I saw that and thought, "Does anyone use Stadia? Hmm. I can leave that out.")

That was my thought as well. But I have seen some threads around here with people staunchly defending Stadia. So apparently.

We welcome everyone here with unbiased open arms. Even weird Stadia fanatics.

I'm in and really looking forward to playing.

Welcome aboard, everyone! The list in the first post should have everyone's name, but if my assistant has missed anyone let me know and I'll fire him.

Reading a bit about the game during some breaks at work, it's starting to come together in my head a bit. I'm looking forward to playing more tonight.

I'm definitely in, already in the pile and even on my priority list of games for 2021!

The pull to drop everything and get started is strong...might try to finish off Banner Saga first though. Maybe.

Last time, I did a custom thinker/sensitive looking to redeem himself and come clean with his shortcomings and get sober. This time...I'm going full bananas. Physical/Sensitive with 0 impulse control and dumb as a box of rocks! (1/3/5/3)

You can count me if you like! Just saw this thread pop to the front and wanted to chime in

Talking to the boy Cuno beside the crime scene when 'Conceptualization' chimes in with "if there ever was such a thing as an ugly kid, then this is it. He's almost exquisite in his ugliness. Like a gremlin". That made me chuckle.

The guy who voice acts your character’s personality traits is excellent, he's got the right tone & delivery, it feels really well executed.

So is it correct to say that the voices you hear in your head are totally different if you have different skills and pass different skill checks?

Spikeout wrote:

The guy who voice acts your character’s personality traits is excellent, he's got the right tone & delivery, it feels really well executed.

Totally agree. It's the perfect voice for an amnesic brain on drugs.

Amoebic wrote:

Last time, I did a custom thinker/sensitive looking to redeem himself and come clean with his shortcomings and get sober. This time...I'm going full bananas. Physical/Sensitive with 0 impulse control and dumb as a box of rocks! (1/3/5/3)

Nice! I went much like you did the first time (4/4/2/2). Really interested to see how this plays out, although I suspect I'll play an hour or two and want to restart.

Really curious to see how the Thought Cabinet stuff works out.

What a clever game.

EDIT: I played for an hour tonight. Got my first skill point and my first thought added to my Thought Cabinet. Still just examining the area around the starting location. It's such a novel game, enjoying things so far and curious to see how this personality unfolds.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

So is it correct to say that the voices you hear in your head are totally different if you have different skills and pass different skill checks?

So far I've only heard the narrator's voice for anything going on with internal monologue during the day; the Old Reptilian Brain and Limbic System you hear at the start and later on are voiced by different people.

Rat Boy wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

So is it correct to say that the voices you hear in your head are totally different if you have different skills and pass different skill checks?

So far I've only heard the narrator's voice for anything going on with internal monologue during the day; the Old Reptilian Brain and Limbic System you hear at the start and later on are voiced by different people.

Ah, right. I can see I was unclear. What I was trying to say was this:
So is it correct to say that the internal monologue you hear will be different depending on your skills and how you pass skill checks? So a physical character will have a different internal monologue than say a more intellectual one?

(But it'll be the same voice.)

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