Now this is a game I'm entirely on the fence about. On one hand I think how the game is structured in tandem with the unique interactive mechanics and its overall non-linearity is downright brilliant (with a few hiccups, of course) And on the other hand I absolutely despise the unsatisfying and rushed finale that literally renders most of what you do in the game completely pointless.
Alright, so the beginning stretch of this game can be tad bit confusing and overwhelming but after sinking in a few hours and getting accustomed to all the mechanics and skills it's very easy to get hooked in and fast. The different skills aka the various parts of your psyche that affects the dialogues and how you interact with the world is unarguably the best part of this game. Depending on what part of your psyche you put the most points in you will get VASTLY different outcomes of little tasks like getting a hanged body down from a tree, while also affecting your abilities to pick up on certain leads. Which ultimately ends up giving the game a lot more variety and replay value than it'd initially have if it stuck to the more linear and rigid story telling formula of most other CRPGs. Also the way all the seemingly pointless and insignificant side quests loop back into main quests in the most unexpected way imaginable is done competently and can lead to a lot of "ah ha" moments. I also appreciate the fact that despite the game being entirely reliant on texts the dialogues are delivered in a digestible manner with everything fully voice acted and the voice acting is surprisingly top notch. At first when I was trying to read through every single line of text I thought the dialogues felt dense but that's objectively the wrong way to go about playing the game as you're punished for picking too many options. Once you start playing the game as it is intended you start to appreciate how well written the character interactions are with a lot of genuinely funny banters that don't feel forced. But there is something else entirely that can actually interfere the with the game's pacing and it's the constant DnD skill checks which forces you to do a lot of backtracking and chore-ish tasks just to have a higher chance of succeeding and even then you can fail. Which I can see being the main contributor behind putting off a lot of people and rightfully so and it's objectively a bad game design approach when most people playing the game save scum repeatedly to get past them.
Now onto my main gripe with the game and it's the ending. The finale is flat out terrible with absolutely zero thought put behind and it contradicts the whole investigation this game revolves around. Without delving too deep into spoiler territory, it's the whodunnit. It's entirely detached from everything you do throughout most of the game, from every lead you gather throughout your entire investigation. And to address all the idiotic copium takes I see defending this god awful ending like "oh no but it's supposed to be meta! it fits the themes! it was never about the murder mystery", The game quite literally frames itself as a murder mystery that is LITERALLY your entire objective throughout the whole thing and the game failing to deliver a proper satisfying conclusion shouldn't be above criticism, it's objectively bad and if you can't see that you lack critical thinking skills. Also if there ever was a game that would benefit from having several different endings that vary vastly from one another it'd be THIS but what the game delivered was the exact opposite an extremely linear final segment which contradicts the rest of the game's open-ended nature.
Disco Elysium is a game that has a lot of never-before-seen unique mechanics in a narrative game with a lot of entertainment value but all of it is bogged down by a HORRIBLY botched ending.
Alright, so the beginning stretch of this game can be tad bit confusing and overwhelming but after sinking in a few hours and getting accustomed to all the mechanics and skills it's very easy to get hooked in and fast. The different skills aka the various parts of your psyche that affects the dialogues and how you interact with the world is unarguably the best part of this game. Depending on what part of your psyche you put the most points in you will get VASTLY different outcomes of little tasks like getting a hanged body down from a tree, while also affecting your abilities to pick up on certain leads. Which ultimately ends up giving the game a lot more variety and replay value than it'd initially have if it stuck to the more linear and rigid story telling formula of most other CRPGs. Also the way all the seemingly pointless and insignificant side quests loop back into main quests in the most unexpected way imaginable is done competently and can lead to a lot of "ah ha" moments. I also appreciate the fact that despite the game being entirely reliant on texts the dialogues are delivered in a digestible manner with everything fully voice acted and the voice acting is surprisingly top notch. At first when I was trying to read through every single line of text I thought the dialogues felt dense but that's objectively the wrong way to go about playing the game as you're punished for picking too many options. Once you start playing the game as it is intended you start to appreciate how well written the character interactions are with a lot of genuinely funny banters that don't feel forced. But there is something else entirely that can actually interfere the with the game's pacing and it's the constant DnD skill checks which forces you to do a lot of backtracking and chore-ish tasks just to have a higher chance of succeeding and even then you can fail. Which I can see being the main contributor behind putting off a lot of people and rightfully so and it's objectively a bad game design approach when most people playing the game save scum repeatedly to get past them.
Now onto my main gripe with the game and it's the ending. The finale is flat out terrible with absolutely zero thought put behind and it contradicts the whole investigation this game revolves around. Without delving too deep into spoiler territory, it's the whodunnit. It's entirely detached from everything you do throughout most of the game, from every lead you gather throughout your entire investigation. And to address all the idiotic copium takes I see defending this god awful ending like "oh no but it's supposed to be meta! it fits the themes! it was never about the murder mystery", The game quite literally frames itself as a murder mystery that is LITERALLY your entire objective throughout the whole thing and the game failing to deliver a proper satisfying conclusion shouldn't be above criticism, it's objectively bad and if you can't see that you lack critical thinking skills. Also if there ever was a game that would benefit from having several different endings that vary vastly from one another it'd be THIS but what the game delivered was the exact opposite an extremely linear final segment which contradicts the rest of the game's open-ended nature.
Disco Elysium is a game that has a lot of never-before-seen unique mechanics in a narrative game with a lot of entertainment value but all of it is bogged down by a HORRIBLY botched ending.
3 Comments
DELETED
4 months ago
Deleted
@definitelynotfa
Yeah, the Phasmid was arguably the main spotlight once it comes up in the whole scenario, sidelining Dros even for a small moment at the end. Especially when you take in the account of how it has an actual influence in his motivation to kill Ellis LMAO.
Also I was wondering if you finished the Church side task. Both establishing the club and dancing with Kim and helping Soona on her project of analysing the 2mm hole in the air. And your general thoughts on both of them since I think those two were an interesting way of expanding some elements of Elysium's worldbuilding.
Plus a funny little secret is hidden in the Shivers check if rolled successfully, that was meant to be a huge goalposts of the game's storyline if it ever continues in the future but was locked by abnormally huge Rhetoric, Reaction Speed and Half-Light requirements.
Yeah, the Phasmid was arguably the main spotlight once it comes up in the whole scenario, sidelining Dros even for a small moment at the end. Especially when you take in the account of how it has an actual influence in his motivation to kill Ellis LMAO.
Also I was wondering if you finished the Church side task. Both establishing the club and dancing with Kim and helping Soona on her project of analysing the 2mm hole in the air. And your general thoughts on both of them since I think those two were an interesting way of expanding some elements of Elysium's worldbuilding.
Plus a funny little secret is hidden in the Shivers check if rolled successfully, that was meant to be a huge goalposts of the game's storyline if it ever continues in the future but was locked by abnormally huge Rhetoric, Reaction Speed and Half-Light requirements.
Gappy833
5 months ago
+ to add to that complain after 100% the game....even when Harry and Kim manage to do a psuedo-ballistic report on Klassje's window and suspect that the bullet has a 28% chance being shot from the island they don't go directly to it, even when not only Lillian is there with Joyce (that only goes away if you finish her quest up or start the Tribunal) and their boats, Kim refuses to pursue that train of thought purely by his idea that they shouldn't search the more than a kilometer from the cadaver, which is stupid.
But for me the narrative shortcoming of the game is depleted by it not being completely out of the blue since Harry's ludicrous intuition and detective work vaguely holds onto details and clues that look unimportant:
Flowers on the balcony of her rented apartment being exclusive communist symbols the ICM used and adored never seen in the entire Martinaise
Harry if he has high enough VC (5/6 or so) can see that the Statue of Filipe the 3 being shot in the heart in a town where guns are almost banned unless your in the Union's muscle, and dedicates it to be a political message.
And the gun being military grade (which was banned after the Coalition landed) and nobody hearing the shot as well as the HB not wanting to actually poke the Wild Pines in by way of executing their strike beakers.
And my main disagreement with the ending is how strong Dros's character is to the entire revelation to the plot and world presentation that it makes the whole historical world building and being a bad version to Harry as a foil (Mirroring Harry's shitty relationship with Dora with Dros obsession with Klassje for the sake of some form of emotional warmth ending up destroying them). And being a literal presentation to Revachol and his inhabitants -- the moment you step outside and talk to people you witness what Dros inherently has become. A ghost.
Otherwise, I agree with the rest