#also the horrific necktie quest

[moyurukoda]

If I see a morally grey, self destructive, pathetic middle aged man I will put him in my brain and make him my entire personality. Every goddamn time

[deckof-dragons]

I started my next playthrough of Disco Elysium today. In my first run I went for a eccentric but nice guy. So I would pick some funny options but mostly I was trying to be as decent of a person as I could. This playthrough I'm going straight for the weirdest choice whenever possible. And it's already fantastic. xD

I also got the Horrific Necktie this time. I didn't wear it at all my first playthrough and thus didn't know there was anything special about it until I bought the medicinal alcohol, prompting the quest that mentioned it. But then when putting it on didn't do anything, I dismissed it and took it off. After finishing the game though and was thus allowed free reign in the DE tag, I saw mentions of it. So made sure to get it right away this time. Was prepared to save scum for it an everything (didn't have to though). I was missing out because I love it/him/them/whatever the neckties pronouns are.

[theqhreator42]

What should I know before starting disco elysium?

A great question! One initial remark is that you should play the Final Cut version, which is much better in every way than the original release and contains a series of new quests. (I believe that is the only version on Steam, but make sure you buy the Final Cut just in case.)

As for trigger warnings, be aware that it contains very frank depictions of substance use disorders, depression, and suicide, and racism, misogyny, sexual violence, and poverty are important themes.

As for the game itself: I can't stress enough the importance of seeking out minor characters throughout the game world—this game is all about dialogue and social interactions, and I think its greatest strength is its capacity to depict so many different kinds of people with unsparing realism and deep compassion at the same time. Although the game does record the passing of time, there is no hard time limit; it took me and my girlfriend several dozen hours to finish it. Take your time to savor the world!

There are four fundamental statistics in the character creation: intellect, psyche, physique (endurance and fitness), and motorics (skill with tools). Personally, on my first playthrough, I set psyche to the maximum (6) and chose Inland Empire, the skill that connects you to your imagination, as my tag skill. This skill is only moderately useful in solving problems, but it provides you a uniquely rich and intimate view of your protagonist's inner life. (Also, the "horrific necktie" in the starting room will have special significance if your Inland Empire is high enough—I believe around 4. It's bleak and hilarious and I don't want to spoil it for you!)

Don't be afraid to take a political stance in the game (well, as long as it's not a pro-fascist stance, which will alienate many characters). Disco Elysium is deeply, viscerally political, and some of the most profound moments in the game are political confrontations. (Importantly, if you consistently follow a particular ideology, you may be able to unlock a special quest in which your character explores it further—there are four broad ideologies represented in the game, and four such quests, although in a single playthrough you can only do one.)

Be nice to Kim Kitsuragi. He is a good man.

Last thing, and I can't stress this enough: you will meet a woman with a wheelchair. Help her find her husband, a man with an Australian accent who studies very dubious science. Play along with his theories and help him and his wife out; if he offers to spray you with a suspicious substance, do not wash it off. I don't want to tell you why just yet, but it is so so so so worth it.

Sorry for inundating you with boatloads of suspiciously vague advice about this game! I just get extremely excited when folks are willing to try it out, because I think it's one of the best games ever made.

[disco-elysium-via-polls]

Our list of tasks is looking ever more manageable.

FIND BOOZE AND DRINK IT

The hangover feels really bad. You have to take the edge off. Find a bottle of alcohol, put it in your had, and the magic will happen by its own!

As you can see, the blue text below this task says it was Forfeited on Wednesday. That doesn't mean we can't still drink, though.

THURSDAY

GET THE WHOLE STORY FROM TITUS

Hardie and the boys know the whole story. It'll be difficult to get it out of him. Have you thoroughly inspected the body? Looked around for a witness? Gotten friendly with the Union boss and the company rep? *Really* gotten to Klaasje?

Confront Klaasje with the Hardies' story.

THE MISSING INSECTS CASE

Some locusts have gone missing, and the Insulindian phasmid has yet to be found. Perhaps you can use your detective skills to help out the cryptozoologists?

Ask Cuno about the empty trap, then take a look around the yard.

ADD EVEN MORE BEAUTY TO THE WALL

You have seen an exceptionally beautiful wall in Martinaise, near the pier, and have decided to add to its beauty, artistically. This will take a brush first? Who would have one? Then paint, and then the act itself.

Use fuel oil to paint the wall.

GET TWO SIGNATURES FOR EVRART

Get Isobel and Lilienne in the nameless fishing village down the coast to sign Evrart's document. Once the signatures are secured, mail the document to Evrart's accountant using the mail box on the plaza in front of the Whirling.

Find someone to sign the documents instead of the intended recipients.

Forge the signatures, but somewhere private, where you feel safe enough to sleep.

Remember, this is also going to point us further towards our gun.

GET ACELE TO TALK ABOUT HER ASSOCIATES

Acele refused to talk about her friends. Maybe she'll open up later -- after you've helped them set up the nightclub.

MAKE VAN EYCK'S JAM HARDER CORE

You can feel it—this music could hit so much harder. It just needs a few tweaks... Walk back to the canal and see if you can find any tapes that could work as a melody, then bring them back to Egg Head for remixing.

Find a tape with a melody for Egg Head.

SYNC THE SINES WITH NOID

Noid doesn't want to talk to you, the sines are not in sync. Guess you need to help him and his friends out somehow, prove that you're one of the crew. Who knows what he'll tell you?

HELP RAVERS START A NIGHTCLUB

The ravers asked you to help turn the church into a dance club, but there are already some people inside. Find out who those people are and what they want.

Look into the spookers in the church.

Almost all of our Thursday quests are to do with the ravers.

WEDNESDAY

SPIRIT IS ETERNAL

The Horrific Necktie is getting ready for the end game. For the love of god do not remove it until 'the magic' happens.

Hold onto the spirits and wait for the signal.

FIND IDIOT DOOM SPIRAL'S JACKET

Idiot Doom Spiral stole a cool jacket at one point... and then lost it again. The story of his life. According to the man, the jacket was last seen somewhere around the boardwalk, maybe the abandoned fish market.

We have *a* jacket, but it's not in great condition.

ASK KLAASJE ABOUT SUNDAY NIGHT

When Kim's not around to stop you, ask Klaasje about what she heard from her room the night before you emerged into Reality. She must know something.

We missed our opportunity to do this last night. If we want to do this, we'll have to wait until 22:00, then pretend to go to sleep to get Kim out of the way. Also, if we go to confront her about Titus's story, it may be the last time we speak to her, so we'll want to put that off.

TUESDAY

FIND THE MURDER WEAPON

You need to find the firearm that killed the hanged man. Something tells you it will take *some* time. You could start by identifying the bullet, so you'd know the weapon that shot it. After that, keep your eyes open. And be patient.

Perform an advanced analysis, using H/E Coordination.

Can't do this with HEC maxed out. Although there are *other* ways to level it up...

MONDAY

REPLACE LOST BOULE

Due to some confusion over the game René and Gaston are playing, you threw one of their pétanque *boules* far in the sea. The shot was excellent, but now you owe them a *boule*... or at least similar-looking metal sphere.

FIND ALL ARMOUR PIECES

You want all of the armour pieces. Deck yourself out in full metal battle-hardened glory. NOTE! This might take a while. Like, a *long* while.

In addition, let me go over a few other things we can do:

Get into the area behind the bookstore.

[Volition - Legendary] Look Klaasje in the eyes.

[Rhetoric - Legendary] Get Gaston's sandwich.

[Rhetoric - Impossible] Open the cargo container door.

[Reaction Speed - Medium] Find a Dick Mullen novel.

[Pain Threshold - Medium] Find a Man from Hjellmdall novel.

[Suggestion - Medium] Why is Annette familiar?

[Suggestion - Heroic] Ask Lilienne on a date.

Hear more stories from Doom Spiral.

[Interfacing - Medium] Fix broken faucet, find a figurine.

[Encyclopedia - Formidable] Find the source of the Expression.

[Drama - Impossible] Convince Rene we're also a war hero.

Now that we have money, we could also look into buying a board game from the bookstore.

[kimkitsuragi]

Final Cut News!

All right, so, by now most people are probably aware that we got a glut of new information about Disco Elysium: The Final Cut yesterday. However, so much content from so many sources can be a bit overwhelming, so I’m making a roundup of links to all the new articles, art, music, and videos I can find, highlighting the details that I personally find interesting.

(under a read more because this will be quite a long post!)

To start with, new official art of Harry and Kim has been released! This art was created by Anton Vill, who did the art for the in-game Thought Cabinet.

ZA/UM's Head of Publishing, Mikk Metsniit, also posted art of Martinaise in the official Disco Elysium Discord. This art has been shared in lower quality before as part of a promotional image for the collector’s edition of Disco Elysium, which will include it as an “illustrated fabric map”. The file Metsniit posted is named “Martinaise Revitalization ‘48.″ In-universe, a design studio previously made an attempt to restore Martinaise to its pre-war state, but ultimately failed. This piece appears to show the planned development of Martinaise--except it’s being swallowed up by the Pale. Fun!

Along with the first piece of art come two new songs by British Sea Power, which will be featured in the final cut:

Advesperascit, named after the city in Vesper-Messina where Dolores Dei was crowned Innocence in-universe. Apparently the name is Latin and roughly translates to “evening comes”

Ignus Nilsen Waltz, named after a prominent communist figure in-universe.

I think these songs will likely be tied to the new political vision quests, which are four new questlines that are each associated with one of the game’s four political ideologies. More information about them, along with other details, can be found in the following articles and videos:

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut Is Like Going From A Black-And-White Movie To Color, article from GameSpot’s Phil Hornshaw. In this article, voice over director Jim Ashilevi talks about adding full voice acting to the game and says that The Final Cut will feature 59 voice actors from countries around the world, chosen to reflect the backgrounds of Revachol’s diverse inhabitants. Lead artist Kaspar Tamsalu speaks about the political vision quests, saying that they will allow the player to meet new characters, learn more about the existing ones, and dive deeper into the politics, secrets, and history of Elysium. Tamsalu also says that The Final Cut will add the ability to fast travel and include Twitch integration, allowing stream viewers to vote on streamers’ decisions and even influence the build of the protagonist.

Biggest Changes In Disco Elysium - The Final Cut, video from GameSpot’s Phil Hornshaw, accompanies the above article. This is a fairly short overview of The Final Cut’s new features as detailed in GameSpot’s article. It includes samples of new voice acting, clips of new animations from the end of the game involving the protagonist and his coworkers (1:47, 2:05), a scene showing a new area added by one of the political vision quests (1:57), and a particularly funny voiced line from Kim (3:22)

‘Disco Elysium: The Final Cut’ comes out March 30. Here’s what’s new.  Article from The Washington Post’s Elise Favis. Includes more details about the political vision quests. According to developer Kaspar Tamsalu, these quests may be started after one in-game day, and are mutually exclusive so that only one may be completed in each playthrough. Jim Ashilevi talks more about the challenge of recording all of the game’s dialogue--more than one million words in total--without outsourcing the work to other studios. Ashilevi also says that he sees ZA/UM as an “art collective”, and “compares his team to the Wu-Tang Clan, in that each person has other creative endeavors, both personal and professional, outside of creating video games.”

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut even gives your horrific necktie a voice. Very brief article from PCGamer’s Fraser Brown. Not much new information in this article, but there is one interesting tidbit: apparently the Horrific Necktie’s voice will be provided by Mikee Goodman, who is one of the game’s voice over directors. Goodman also provides the voices of the Ancient Reptilian Brain, the Limbic System, and several other characters.

Disco Elysium is getting even more political, a long article from PC Gamer’s Fraser Brown. Lead writer Helen Hindpere talks more about the political vision quests, which she says ZA/UM was inspired to add based on fans’ enthusiastic reception of the game’s existing political themes. Hindpere says that the new quests can change the game’s map itself, allowing the protagonist to leave his own mark on the district of Martinaise. The quests will also allow for deeper and more serious exploration of the protagonist’s political views, which were often taken to humorous extremes in the original game. Each quest is different, with some being more wordy and some more visual. The Ultraliberal quest will allow the player to “build a personal brand”, while the communist quest “inspires you to begin a movement”. One quest also adds a new urban location to the game, which Hindpere says reminds her of Berlin. The quests don’t just revolve around a single topic, though; according to Hindpere, "You'll be talking about love, sexuality, hope, ambition, and even about certain geological features specific to our worldbuilding. There's an opportunity to get close and intimate with characters who have thus far seemed unapproachable. Let's say that once you share the same ideology many barriers disappear, allowing you see a different side of many important characters." There will also be a significant amount of new dialogue with Kim Kitsuragi related to these quests.

Disco Elysium PS5 Gameplay - 5 Things You Need To Know, fairly long video from PlayStation Access’ Ash Millman. This video provides some basic information about the game’s premise for new players and shows what the game will look like on PlayStation 5, with a user interface redesigned for the console. The video also includes clips throughout that show some new content, presumably from the political vision quests. Three of these clips seems to be connected: in the first of them, wires are shown that run from the battery of the protagonist’s crashed car to radio equipment set up on and around the statue in the center of Martinaise; in the second, Soona, the radiocomputer programmer from the church questline, can been seen climbing the statue itself to set up some more equipment; and in the third, Soona, Harry, and Kim stand near the modified statue, talking about attempting to contact the flying warship Archer via radio. There are also two other clips: in one, the statue has been splashed with multicolored paints, while in the other the protagonist is seen talking to Idiot Doom Spiral, a local drunk, about hiring him for an unspecified job. Millman also talks about the three different settings that will be available for the game’s voice over: “Classic Mode” will play the same as the original game, with only a few lines voiced, while “Psychological Mode” will provide voice acting for all characters except the protagonist’s internal monologue and skills. The last option, “Fully Voiced Mode” is, well, exactly what it sounds like. There’s also a brief clip that provides a sample of the Horrific Necktie’s new voice (1:26).

DISCO ELYSIUM - The Final Cut (Cuno Voice Example), YouTube video shared by developer Mikk Metsniit. Video is age-restricted. This video includes new voice samples for Cuno, a few of the skills, and Kim. Due to COVID-19, Cuno’s original voice actor, Dot Major, was unable to return, so Cuno is now voiced by Oli Dabiri. Lenval Brown, the narrator of the English language trailers, acts as the game’s general narrator and voice of all 24 skills. Jullian Champenois remains as Kim.