The GWJ CRPG Club - Game 14: Disco Elysium

beanman101283 wrote:

I keep forgetting to mention I started this! Nearing the end of day one. I rolled a Thinker build, and had several game overs early on due to the low Morale. One level up and an internalized thought later, i've got some decent Morale now. The Visual Calculus skill is a lot of fun, and the Encyclopedia lore dumps are interesting, though my character is often desperate to lord his knowledge over everyone else. I'm excited to see how differently things play out compared to my playthrough last year.

Nice! It's been interesting hearing how people are enjoying the game even though I'm done.

I've finished day 3, and I feel like I got way sidetracked with sidequests, but I may finally be back on track. I'm going to list what I did on day 2 and 3 in spoilers.

Spoiler:

Day 2
-Talked to Hardy boys, got some info from them, didn’t try to arrest
-got the body down and examined it
-found a fridge to put the body in
-talked to just about everyone on this side of the river, but don’t know what I actually got out of it
-talked to the smoker and his Sunday Friend

Day 3
-Got access to a new area
-Got some drunks by the fishermans village to sign Evert’s document
-Got a free room
-Shaved successfully
-I didn’t hit on the widow because Kim was there, but my Tie really wanted me to
-I found my badge!…..in my car crashed in the sea. I tried not to ask to many questions so as not risk a bunch of morale hits.
-Spent way too much time considering the implications and meanings of a smiley face with Xs for eyes with ravers. At least the music was better than the normal ambient droning.
-I helped the programmer lady in the church find the emptiness, and convinced her to let the ravers in so she could use their equipment
-Karaoke! I put on all my drama clothes and gravel-voiced that song like a king. I thanked my Lizard brain and Kim for all they’ve done for me.
-Investigated the invisible insect thing for the cryptozoologists and found out about Cuno’s little locust side project
-Got my gun back by convincing the lady the gun was out of bullets. Kept it.
-And right before bedtime at 23:00. I finally showed enough authority to the Hardie boys to get them to talk, and they gave up the name of the lady the hanged man assaulted.

So I spent almost all of Day 3 exploring the new area, and almost none of it on the A-plot. As far as I can tell anyway. I’m assuming more of it ties in somehow in ways that I don’t see yet. I also feel like I’m playing it really balanced so far. I started at 3-4-2-3 so I was mostly an all-rounder, and I haven’t specialized in anything yet, just plugging in points to meet the skill checks as they come up, and picking up some interesting sounding thoughts. Most are just raising caps on certain abilities, but a couple have raised stats as well. As such, no options that are too crazy have happened to me, for the most part.

I can’t imagine playing this without all the voice acting now, since there’s so much and it’s all very evocative.

I finished days 4 and 5, and there was a ton of story we got through. Exciting stuff. I’ll post some of them in spoilers. It feels like we’re now heading towards the end of the story.

Spoiler:

Day 4 was incredibly busy, and the story was pushed ahead rapidly.

After doing nonstop sidequests on day 3, I decided it was time to get back to the main story. We talked with Klaasje, and suddenly everything looks different, as the motive the Hardie Boys gave us was bunk. And then I got a high volition roll, and Volition told me how empathy, logic, electrochemistry and maybe a couple others were compromised and couldn’t be trusted with her. Man, I hope there’s more of the voices arguing, since there really hasn’t been so far.

And after a herioc roll with Titus, we put the squeeze on Angus, and the truth came out that the merc was dead before they got to him. And the plot thickens. I bet I’ll almost like Titus by the end of this. Seems like he does take care of his people, we’re just on opposite sides for now.

And then I learned that my earlier Volition check wasn’t just for show, and Klaasje had more going on. I’m more impressed by this thing now. It hasn’t necessarily been super reactive up to this point, but I get the feeling that this is going to happen more. But after enough back and forth, I’m off looking for Ruby on the south side of the river, where I spent all of day 3. I may have messed up my sequence a bit, but I got these sidequests done now instead of later.

Also, I’m trying to figure out how old I am now with a thought. Because what’s the worst that can happen?
THE PAST IS THE FUTURE, BUT THE FUTURE IS DEAD! Egg Head is awesome. Might be my second favorite character after Kim.

And with the dead body inspected a second time, we found the bullet, and I sent Kim off to turn the body over to processing. With him gone, I had Joyce teach me about the Pale, and I fixed up everything for the ravers in the church. I took the widow on a date, finished most of the quests I had. Not bad work for day 4.
I also did the Moralist mission, where you want to talk to whoever is in charge and try to make contact with The Committee by setting up a radio on King Philippe’s statute to contact the airship. But if you actually let the airship take you away after telling them about the hole in the church, you seem to get disappeared in a game over. Kind of a letdown, since I thought that story may go somewhere else. Although maybe getting disappeared by the Moralists for knowing something dangerous is the story going somewhere.

Then onto day 5.

With Kim back in tow, it was time to talk to Ruby. We got to the Feld building, and I got a ridiculously boosted Shivers roll (My Sivers like 2 or 3, but the roll was 97% since I had explored everything and done a bunch of quests south of the river). Having decided she was inside but unsure of how to get up, I teleported up to the top of the Feld building with a weirdly high Savoir Faire score. Kim had to be a spoilsport and say I merely climbed up, though.

We got to Ruby, and after pumping her for information (and having to heal a ton as the death ray drained my health), we destroyed her death ray. But my Rhetoric was too low (never put anything into it), and she offed herself. But not before making it clear Klassje had more going on, again.

Then we walked into a standoff with the mercenaries and the Hardie boys. I went in with two pieces of merc armor and dual wielding guns, I might add. I got every distraction diceroll against the makeshift leader, and when I tried to shoot the guy I failed at 92%, but he laughed and gave me a second go at it and I hit on 83% Hilarious. I dodge the first bullet from the rifleman, but that 3% on the second one wasn’t going to work out. But I still told Kim to look behind him in time to save him. And then it all goes bad and lots of people die, but still probably fewer Hardies die than if I hadn’t interfered.

And now that we’re on Day 7 after a quick timeskip, I declare that I’M A PSYCHOLOCOMOTOR. Kim says sure, why not.

And when Garte told me he was a “bad ass” for being near the shootout, my Suggestion told me not to pick at him since it was a rough scene, so I nodded stoically at him instead. He nodded stoically back, and my Physical Instrument approved. And then Kim joined in and nodded stoically, so we were all there nodding at each other. Man, I’m going to like nearly everyone by the end of this game, aren’t I?

So now I’m off to find the true shooter on the island. Basically every quest I’m interested in at this point is done (I haven’t had a drink, for instance, since I’m trying to be sober), so I think this may be heading towards the endgame. Excited to see where it goes, since I thought that it couldn’t be done with Ruby; too many threads left.

Love the write up. I agree that Egghead was hilarious and one of my favorites. I’m also chuckling right now remembering the stoic nodding.

Here's a fun reactive moment, Sundown, that comes if you do some of your things in a different order:

Spoiler:

I climbed the Feld building, but then -- after getting the "point of no return" warning, left to wrap some stuff up, including the Moralist quest. And although I never actually managed to speak with someone in authority, I did get my antenna wired up on top of the statue of the King. At one point, I had to choose to climbthe statue to fix the antenna. I'm pretty sure the game let me say that getting up there would be no problem, because I had mastered the art of teleportation. Of course, Kim had to be a spoilsport, again.

Awesome write up, Sundown! You've made great progress.

And at 32 hours, I finished Disco Elysium! My diary for the endgame are in spoilers.

Spoiler:

Needing to go to the island (and the clear Point of No Return notice), we got to the widow’s skiff, and I had Kim man the motor while I stood up front and blasted Sad FM on the boombox. It’s so dumb but great.

When I arrived at the island, I realized that I had no bullets left, so I equipped a gun in my off hand, and held the sword that the widow gave me at the end of our date in the right hand. Wasn’t sure if it was actually usable, but it was there.

During the dream sequence on the Island, I had a 93% Suggestion roll to kiss Dolores Dei. I hit the roll, but she didn’t kiss back. Suggestion told me “this was not about failure or success. This was always going to be horror. I should not have suggested it, and you should not have listened to me.” Darn, that’s a good line. And from my tagged skill, even. It asked for forgiveness or death shortly thereafter.

After arresting the Deserter, the Phasmid Walking Stick showed up with a good perception check. And then with Inland Empire, I could talk with it. I don’t know what I learned, other than it thought itself to be unremarkable, but me to be an extreme, all-engulfing madness. And also I created the Pale and may wipe out existence by blinking, so I promised to be careful not to blink. But Kim was able to take picture, so all was good. Maybe. At the time, I felt like this was just the punchline to the earlier phasmid sidequest that was going nowhere, but it also shocked the deserter into some sort of state where it was easier to leave him as we got medical help.

I like the way the confrontation with the partner served as a capstone to the whole mission. Not really a final boss, since I don’t think I say any skill checks (maybe one, tops), but still a satisfying way to pull everything together, and to fill in the bits of backstory that I had blacked out on. I also loved the music during that scene.

Kim had my back during the confrontation with my old team, even going so far as to say I was one of the best detectives I’ve ever seen, and confirmed that I hadn’t drunk alcohol all week. I would run through a wall for him. But while supporting me, he showed the picture of the phasmid, and we theorized that it had released a pheromone that made the Deserter’s mental state to deteriorate. It brought my former partner around, as did explaining the murder motive and that Evart may have had our killer take out the competition as well. I left the rest of the stuff, about the night club, Cuno’s dad, the extra dead body on the board walk, out of my defense. It could have been funny, but I was trying to play this straight after initially walking into a buzz saw.

After cracking the case and Kim’s defense, my team decided to take me back.

I learned that I was formerly a high school gym teacher, and then me and Kim worked through all the evidence of it, like that I’m always running all over the city and the crazy facial hair. And then Physical Instrument popped in and said “just look, everything about this guy.’ And I looked at that PI picture and laughed for like a minute. Well played, game, well played. And that’s why I got along well with all the teens running around the city. And to end it, I asked Kim is considering joining us at the 41st, and he said he would strongly consider it

We stopped a war, caught the bad guy, and kept the body count under 10. Sounds like a job well done to me.

I really like this game. The writing is interesting enough to keep things moving, especially considering the dialogue is everything in it. The different skills not only letting you do things in the game, but also giving you more information or choices, or even arguing, seems so brilliant that I can’t believe other games haven’t done it.

I played a pretty boring game, not specializing too much, and saving points for when I needed a bump for a skill check, and there was still a lot going on in the writing and reactivity of the game. I can imagine how different things are if I had specialized in something, and what other voices I might be hearing instead with different stats. I think it would make for a worthwhile replay later this year before GOTY time to change things up and let it go crazy, so I can see how reactive this game can be. And I would probably accept more failed rolls next time, just to see what happens. That’s probably part of the fun, anyway. And as the credits rolled, there were quite a few characters I didn’t recognize at all. Seems there was still some game in there I never found.

Any way, this was a very cool game, and I’m glad I finally got around to it. Now to go read all the spoilers throughout the rest of this thread.

Something occurred to me a day or so after I finished the game. I was too wrapped up in the gameplay and plot to realize it until afterwards. I wonder if anyone else had the same revelation.

When I first started the game, I saw all these different copatypes and related dialogue choices and thought most seemed totally ridiculous. I figured choosing them would make for a hilarious playthrough, but I mainly played it straight with sorry cop. That made the most sense to me- basically going for some kind of redemption arc.

None of them seemed too egregiously unexplainable to me though. I figured my detective was probably very eccentric at baseline, and he'd been heavily abusing drugs, and obviously dealing with great personal loss, so it wouldn't take much to shift him into a full on raving lunatic (apocalypse cop) or a clueless narcissist (superstar cop) or develop a fixation on para-natural explanations.

However:

Spoiler:

By the end, it became clear that all of these choices are very much more valid than I initially thought.

At first, there's little to suggest this world has different physical laws than Earth, but eventually you realize that your cop must have a para-natural link with the city. There's no other way to explain some of the accurate revelations he gets. And cryptids do exist. So the para-natural choices are very legitimate.

And there's the big revelation about the pale and how it's swallowing the world. And discovering the nearby anomaly. The apocalypse actually is coming.

I initially figured my cop was just a fairly intuitive, competent detective hampered by personal issues, and he was sent to Martinaise in disgrace after his substance abuse and psychological problems had caught up to him. Later it's revealed that he actually is an elite detective. He had a case clearance record well above average, had refused promotion twice, and had set up and led a special task force within the precinct. It was he who rejected his fellow detectives, not the other way around, by abruptly setting off alone, declaring that they were all cramping his style and they needed to "detect or die". So he kind of is a bit of a superstar.

I found this a bit mind blowing.

Old Math wrote:

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

Apparently $20 is about what I can justify. Picked this up from the Epic Games sale and plan to dig in.

Congrats to Sundown for completing the game and to Math for beginning his journey at the other end.

This has been such a great choice for the club. With about a month to go to our next game, I'm hopeful it'll be as good as pick as this one.

Finally had a breakthrough on Day 5:

Spoiler:

I had been stuck on the dialogue with the Hardies since Day 4. For some reason I had decided that I had obviously picked the correct options, I was just missing some key object or piece of info to keep me from getting whacked. Nope, just the saying the wrong words thing. That was certainly the obstacle damming the river of plot.

Dropped by the church after that, and proceeded to decisively fail my Moralist mission, decapitating ol' Phillipe's horse in the process. But that's ok, because on returning I DANCED SO HARD I GOT TO TALK TO THE CITY ITSELF! Also my spinal cord has some very strange ideas about physiology.

gewy, those ... are some great insights. I hadn't thought about it that way, but I love your take.

I never really wrote about the end of the game, but from time to time I've been mulling over parts of the end, the last dream sequence in particular. Big spoilers, obviously.

Spoiler:

I found the dream sequence, where you go to sleep in the fortress, to be one of the most jarring -- and impactful -- moments of the game. Given how Elysium is different than our own world, and the presence of the supernatural, I was primed for some weird stuff. Maybe Harry had been dead all along? Maybe this was the afterlife? So when I woke up without Kim, it was a real gut punch. I actually didn't think it was a dream; i thought something happened to him, or that maybe I had finally woken up from my own dream. I thought I'd be on my own, tragically, as I saw this through to the end.

Seeing Harry's Ex, dressed up as Dolores Dei, with her bags packed and waiting for a train, was just magnificent. Harry's confused reactions to Dolores so perfectly foreshadowed this moment. Plus, the way Harry can choose to speak of her, and of the love he lost, it makes total sense that he would see her as this deific figure. And, with him living inside that dream, night after night, no wonder he'd be a wreck.

It's also such a delightful commentary on video games and our effort to "game" the outcome of real life choices. I made such an effort to pick the right dialogue choices to get a good outcome, then set myself up to "win" the check where I tried to kiss her. Of course, you can't. There's no way to optimize your interaction with her, no perfect choice that repairs the relationship, no skill roll that can make you win. She (or the version of her in Harry's mind) doesn't love you anymore, and won't kiss you back. It's as simple as that.

This game easily had some of the best characterization I've ever seen in a game. Every NPC, no matter how minor, felt like a real, interesting person.

My favorites:

Lt. Kim Kitsuragi- no elaboration needed. If I were a cop and needed an RPG partner, he'd be my first pick. Sorry, Garrus.

In second place, perhaps surpisingly, is Cuno. My character had a whole great arc with him-

Spoiler:

First, when he was pulling this "The cops are raping me!" ploy, I was actually quite tense and scared. It felt like I suddenly found myself in the middle of an unexpected minefield. Worse even than if someone had randomly started shooting at me. How the hell am I gonna get out of this?! Gotta pick these dialogue choices carefully and hope for good rolls. It took a couple of minutes for me to settle down to the realization that everyone around there was already familiar with Cuno's nature, and it was the type of neighborhood where people kept to themselves regardless of what's going down. If I recall, the game brilliantly conveyed this with just a brief mention of someone closing their window nearby.

After that, he kept probing for weakness, trying to fluster me, or even better, enrage me. But by that time, I knew he was powerless, and I found his antics amusing, almost endearing even. It felt like he became slightly less malicious, like a growling dog that backs down when you don't run or attack. I tried to undercut his insults by playing into them. You're right, Cuno! My partner and I are gay and we're going to have sex later today! Didn't realize at the time that Kim actually is gay... That added a whole other dimension to things after the fact, and I might have just opted for ignoring Cuno instead... Poor guy no doubt had to hear this crap all the time when working in the youth division

Then, of course, when I find out about Cuno's abusive piece of crap father, and the terror he feels toward Cunoesse, and his interest in art, I just felt empathy for him. He really never had a chance.

Really fascinating to read later though that depending on how things turn out, he can temporarily partner up with you, and you can even wind up recommending him to the RCM youth training program. Cool.

After these two, it becomes a bit of a scrum. Egghead was hilarious. I thought Klaasje was a great, tormented femme fatale character. The two old men. The drunk guy who lost everything. The kind cryptozoologist's wife. Measurehead's racist theories- despicable but yet slightly amusing in their ridiculousness. The fisher widow- strong, sad and world-weary. The ex. Actually this has devolved into me just listing characters, and I could probably go on naming about half of the game's entire roster here. Hell, they even managed to make each of the Hardie Boys relatively distinct from one another. All of these people will stick with me for a good while.

He was a good character, but I found myself loathing Evrart more than anyone else. Well, him and the war criminal mercenary.

The only negative comment I have... I didn't like Ruby's voice actress. The delivery seemed off for such an intense scene.

Finished far too late last night, clocking in just 10 minutes shy of my estimated 35 hours. I had figured there was maybe an hour left, so I could stay up a little bit late for that. Turned out to be more like 3.

Spoiler:

That there was so much more wrap-up than I expected after the big showdown felt like a nice bonus. Feels so rare that we get a real denouement like this. Between a swell of appreciation for that, neatly wrapping up the investigative loose ends, and reuniting with my squad in a "back and better than ever" mood with the door open to Kim joining too, my game wrapped up on a surprisingly upbeat note rather than the rolling disaster I was anticipating.

While the credits rolled, as I was pondering the questionable life choices that lead to all those names passing before my eyes at 3am, I had a clear mental flash of the game I had expected as cobbled together from conversations and podcast impressions. It was an odd mirror image, or as if refracted through a prism such that all the elements were still visible but distorted and at odd angles - a surprisingly complete picture, and one that I had built much anticipation around, yet a poor imitation once the thing itself was revealed. I'm having trouble coming up with something in recent memory that I've had such high expectations for which were so thoroughly exceeded.

It's clear this game has taken up residence and I'll be thinking about it often for a long time to come. Goes without saying that this is towering over everything else at the top of my list so far this year, and nearly impossible to conceive that anything will surpass it in the next few months.

I am very curious just how differently things could have gone along the way - onward to the spoiler text!

Congrats on becoming our tenth finisher of Disco Elysium, benign! I finished the game under similar circumstances, pushing on past my bedtime because I knew I was sooo close, but in the end it took quite a while to roll the credits.

Same here! Though I don't think I pressed on all the way to the end in one session.

Spoiler:

I might have played through the confrontation and straight on to the fortress. I thought I was close , and I pressed on through a lot of that content, but by the time I met the cryptid it was well past time to go to bed. I think I finished first thing the next morning.

After a week out of town for a much-needed vacation, I've finally started going down the rabbit hole on this one. I came back to it last Sunday still on Day 2 and am now into Day 5 of my investigating. I'm not sure, but I suspect I can get into the endgame anytime I want from here, given some of the red flags the game is putting up.

Spoiler:

I've located the basement where Ruby is likely to be.

So, I've been focusing on knocking out as much of my to-do list as I can still do. After feeling like I was slogging through days 1 and 2, the game world came alive for me in a big way as I finally started putting together real evidence and making real progress (the body, the Hardies, room #3, etc.) and generally feeling like I'm helping Tequila Sunset get his life back together. It also helped that I finally realized there's a whole southern section to the map that I completely overlooked during the first two days. (God I'm oblivious sometimes.)

The real highlight, though is getting the "Rare" achievement "Unbelievably Boring F**k" for saying "7 incredibly boring things," which honestly made my day. Why yes, Disco, I very much am. Sweet of you to point that out.

This may push me to get this game...Question for those playing or completed: Since it is a CRPG, should I stick to PC or will I be ok with PS5? My PS5 + 4k TV w/ HDR runs better than my PC on a lot of games.

Not sure what the console version is like to control. I like having a mouse and keyboard for this one, but to me, there aren't enough buttons or need for hotkeys to make me think this wouldn't play just fine on a controller. It also doesn't strike me as a particularly taxing game (in terms of graphics); so hardware-wise, I'd think you'd be OK on either platform.

KozmoOchez wrote:

This may push me to get this game...Question for those playing or completed: Since it is a CRPG, should I stick to PC or will I be ok with PS5? My PS5 + 4k TV w/ HDR runs better than my PC on a lot of games.

Steam are having an "Open World" sale and the Final Cut is available at a 25% discount. I will probably pick this up ready for when I have finished Tyranny. I am a little behind the Curve!

Sorbicol wrote:
KozmoOchez wrote:

This may push me to get this game...Question for those playing or completed: Since it is a CRPG, should I stick to PC or will I be ok with PS5? My PS5 + 4k TV w/ HDR runs better than my PC on a lot of games.

Steam are having an "Open World" sale and the Final Cut is available at a 25% discount. I will probably pick this up ready for when I have finished Tyranny. I am a little behind the Curve!

"open world" truly means nothing anymore, apparently.

Aaaaand, done!

Spoiler:

Not sure what variables there are to the ending, but I survived the shootout outside the Whirling with a bullet wound. Kim survived. A few of the Hardies bought it, but Titus lived, as did the lawyer whose name escapes me (not Acelle is it?). I found the real shooter and got the full confession with motive. Got a picture with the phasmid (did not see that coming), and found Klaasje's artifacts (who I let go with a summons, and she bolted, which I'm OK with; I also let Ruby go). Kim gave me a stirring defense to the taskforce, and I left out some details of my more impressive achievements, like starting a HARDCORE nightclub and solving the mystery of the cursed district. They let me back in. I also achieved the Sober mindset, which took 20 hours and punished multiple skills. Not expected, but I like that there is no reward for going sober other than becoming boring. Seems about right.

There were definitely times where I wanted characters to just Shut. Up., but the fact that you could click through dialogue that wasn't engaging made that more of a nuisance thing. I also kind of wish there had been some "whatever happened to" bits at the end to let me know what some of my actions resulted in.

But, really, the game is a masterpiece, and I'm in awe of it. The writing for the mindsets/voices and how they're integrated as critical game mechanics is something I've wanted to see from an RPG for a long time. Generally, that is, an RPG where skill checks aren't reliant on how you kill things or even the need to kill anything at all and have everything to do with who the character you're building is. I hadn't thought of such a thing as making characters out of internal monologue, which is a stroke of genius. It's something I hope other developers see and mimic in unique ways and in different genres for future RPGs. I'm skeptical that will actually happen, but it could legit change the game for what CRPGs across a range of genres could be.

All in all, A+ game. So glad we played it!

Nice work, ubrakto! I feel a lot the same about my playthrough. The shiny elements greatly outweighed the parts I didn't enjoy. Such a brilliant game.

I didn’t realize it at first, but in addition to the negatives, the sober thought gives +1 to all psyche stats across the board, so it’s very much a net positive.

I'm in the afternoon of Day 2.

Spoiler:

Kim was unable to shoot the body down, but I managed to. We also had our first conversation with both Evrart and the Hardie boys. We deliberately didn't go down every conversation path because I didn't want to trigger things too soon, and I didn't want to be particularly open to Evrart's manipulations.

I'm moving through the game a lot faster than my previous playthrough, not that I've been trying to deliberately. I think it was the third or fourth day when I actually got the body down my first time. So it feels like I'm blasting through it, but I think there's a lot I'm forgetting as well. We'll see! Still really enjoying it, and I'm glad I'm getting to see the different perspectives you can get in this game depending on your choices and character build.

gewy wrote:

I didn’t realize it at first, but in addition to the negatives, the sober thought gives +1 to all psyche stats across the board, so it’s very much a net positive.

Ugh. You're right. I missed that.

Generally, that is, an RPG where skill checks aren't reliant on how you kill things or even the need to kill anything at all and have everything to do with who the character you're building is
Spoiler:

Is it actually possible to kill someone in the game? I never got my gun back in the end, so I don't know whether you can during the shootout

dejanzie wrote:
Generally, that is, an RPG where skill checks aren't reliant on how you kill things or even the need to kill anything at all and have everything to do with who the character you're building is
Spoiler:

Is it actually possible to kill someone in the game? I never got my gun back in the end, so I don't know whether you can during the shootout

Spoiler:

It is possible to kill that lead merc. If you get your gun back during the tribunal confrontation, you can successfully shoot him in the head with a skill check. It's still a bloodbath, but it appears the least-awful outcome involves shooting him. Online, I saw something about a "spirit bomb," you can build, but I don't recall the specifics or if it involves killing him. I've also seen a vid where it's apparently possible to shoot Cunoesse, but it triggers an endgame state to do so.

The praise for this one keeps nudging me to return. At least every now and then. I haven't been able to muster that second wind, not just yet. I think I needed to shake it off, completely, so to come in unburdened once more.

Disco Elysium actually knocked the wind out of my sails, to bring my adventures in video games to a petering meander. I had the loftiest of expectations, perhaps unattainable, which were not met. Nor exceeded. Quite the opposite actually. Crash. Bang. Whilst it delivered on the different, most certainly, I couldn't quite see this alluded to quality outside of sporadic flashes.

I think a more focused and a less meandering approach, in tandem with expectations that are more realistically managed, may allow me to see that which seemingly everyone else has. My wife is actually taken aback that I did not gel with it considering the verbose ponderance and the thesaurus fuelled conversation that were on display. She thinks I may have been expecting far, far too much.

RnRClown wrote:

The praise for this one keeps nudging me to return. At least every now and then. I haven't been able to muster that second wind, not just yet. I think I needed to shake it off, completely, so to come in unburdened once more.

Disco Elysium actually knocked the wind out of my sails, to bring my adventures in video games to a petering meander. I had the loftiest of expectations, perhaps unattainable, which were not met. Nor exceeded. Quite the opposite actually. Crash. Bang. Whilst it delivered on the different, most certainly, I couldn't quite see this alluded to quality outside of sporadic flashes.

I think a more focused and a less meandering approach, in tandem with expectations that are more realistically managed, may allow me to see that which seemingly everyone else has. My wife is actually taken aback that I did not gel with it considering the verbose ponderance and the thesaurus fuelled conversation that were on display. She thinks I may have been expecting far, far too much.

I definitely feel there are flaws with the game, and some of the positives never resonated with me personally. So I'm not sure I would put it in my top 5 RPGs, for example. Well ... maybe?

But the things it gets right are brilliant, and some of the mechanics and execution of those mechanics are so fresh and creative. I can't think of a game that comes close to it in terms of rich, deep, memorable characters. The way you play the game based on strengths in your various domains, and how those domains expose or hide ways to interact with the world, is an incredible achievement when you consider the degree of game state that it has to monitor to pull it off. Once I came to terms with the elements I wasn't enjoying, I really zoned in to the game's positives and enjoyed the ride.

So while I might not put it in my top 5 RPGs, it might be the most memorable RPG I've played.