#disco elysium lets play 2

[missmonkeymode]

*Sighs to myself as I open up disco elysium again* Anyone up for a round two liveblogging of this game

This will be tagged as #disco elysium lets play 2 so if you don't want to see it go block that for a week or two

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Siffrin plays Disco Elysium AU: Featuring backseat gamer Loop.

[volivolition]

DAY 4: DRAMA - Put on your prettiest face for the masses!

gonna start adding silly captions actually. [POINTS ACCUSINGLY] MELTY FUCK (AFFECTIONATE)!!

[alittlesliceofcucumber]

disco elysium but make it the great ace attorney

instead of harry and kim make it herlock sholmes and satoru hosonaga

[tchotchkez]

for some reason this hardcore run has been my best, most successful run of all the other times I've played disco elysium??

the most homoerotic, the most efficient, the most everything. what is happening.

[mourningmaybells]

Nightmare Blunt Rotation

[fruitpunchjollyrancher]

caught myself thinking today that BOTH harrier dubois and kim kitsuragi are just like me fr and i think i have hit a new level of mental illness. my horrific floral button up is going to start talking to me any minute now. if i buy 5 more notebooks in the coming weeks then the situation has become dire

[weepylucifer]

It’s wildly funny how Harry is usually very observant about people, but when it comes to The Smoker on the Balcony he’s just going “Huh...?? What is it about this young man that is so Different and Fascinating?? :o” and meanwhile, in complete silence, The Smoker and Kim have probably immediately clocked each other, exchanged the secret underground hand signals, and are now sizing each other up and wondering if there’s going to be an Altercation over the confused bicurious sloppy bear in their midst

[r2y9s]

I love your Disco Elysium art. Also your Watch Dogs art is great! Keep the good work :>

aww thank you!! :)

[ampleappleamble]

haven't seen this on here yet so:

in case you don't want to slog through the shitscape that is the bird/letter website, take a peek beneath the cut (shamelessly copied from the something awful forums dungeon meshi thread)

- Her first memory of video games was watching her father playing Wizardry on Famicom, also Dragon Quest, Ultima, and Fire Emblem among others.

- She was a difficult child so her parents didn't let her play. Wizardry is a boring game to watch, but the monster illustrations on the walkthrough evoked her imagination and made her keep watching.

- She only started becoming a serious gamer after the serialization of Dungeon Meshi was locked, for research purposes. Before that, she read fantasy novels such as The Neverending Story (Michael Ende) and The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien).

- The international title for Dungeon Meshi: Delicious in Dungeons was decided by her editor.

- D&D popped up a lot when she researched the history of video games, so she read the rule books, replay novels, and games inspired by D&D.

- One of the first games she studied was the Legend of Grimrock (game's 80% off on Steam atm). Originally, she wanted Dungeon Master (FTL Games) which was famous for "RPG with meals" but hunting down the game and machine was too much.

- She didn't like games other than turn-based RPGs at first, but she decided to stop being picky and play anything that piqued her interest.

- She played Zelda: BotW and TotK on a borrowed Switch from her editor due to the console's scarcity at the time.

- She enjoyed Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War for their stories. RDR2's incredible attention to detail had Kui engrossed so much that she asked her editor and other mangaka to play it so she could discuss it with them.

- Kui praised The Witcher 3 localization as something only possible with full support from the developer. Cyberpunk 2077 is one of her all-time favorites.

- Papers, Please was her first taste of indie games.

- Disco Elysium is the perfect game for her due to the lack of fighting, intriguing story, charming character interaction, and top-down perspective. She tried playing it in English at first due to an unlikely chance for JP loc, but it was out of her ability. Thus she is forever grateful to Spike Chunsoft for localizing it.

- Kui played Baldur's Gate 3 from the time it was in Early Access. Again, she's grateful for Spike Chunsoft's JP loc. She hoped BG3's success would bring the possibility of JP loc for other titles too, such as Pathfinder: wotr

- She likes games with top-down perspective because they have narration text for monologues and scenery description. Even if the graphic is lacking, the texts show the atmosphere and each character's behavior and psyche. Also, characters that react to your choices.

- She praised Unpacking and House Flipper for being able to tell what kind of person lives there only through their belongings, and that there's no right or wrong for the placements; she would make the best arrangement and then enjoy her hard work while sipping tea.

- The biggest inspiration for Dungeon Meshi was the Cosmic Forge pen from Wizardry VI. With improved graphics from its predecessor, now it could show broken farming tools in the background and many more details that made exploration so much fun.

- At the time of the interview (Dec '23) she still hadn't watched DunMeshi anime, but she attended the recording sessions. She's embarrassed that the dialog she wrote now acted passionately by professionals. Marcille's screaming was wonderful but also made her want to flee.

- Kui was anxious about the CP2077 anime adaptation, but she was relieved it was the Night City she knows and loves.

- Other than minor adjustments, she left it to TRIGGER as to how to adapt

- She's happy that Mitsuda Yasunori was chosen as the anime composer, as she used to play Chrono Cross and rewatched the opening many times.

- Her anticipated games in 2024 are Cloudpunk, Nivalis, and Avowed.

- DunMeshi would be hard to adapt into a game because in the first place, what Kui depicted in the manga are parts that are omitted in games for the sake of brevity.

- If DunMeshi game was Wizardry-like, it'd be told through Laios' perspective and eating was essential not to die

[txttletale]

“of course having a law that allows corporations to own the work of artists for a one time payment and then make millions off that work without paying the artist a cent is worse than having no law at all.” In a world without IP, wouldn’t the corporations just do the same thing but without even the one-time payment? Like, they own the means to profit off of creative content anyway, so isn’t making them at least pay for the idea better than nothing? Or is it more that it’s not worth the tradeoff of letting them abuse IP against smaller creators?

well the thing is that not only do these corporations profit off the work (which ofc they would do without IP) but the original creators can't! if kurvitz tried to make disco elysium 2, or write a sequel to his novel, ZA/UM could sue him. the creator of ghost rider was in fact sued by marvel for selling sketches of the characters at cons. copyright is not just the ability to profit off a work but the exclusive ability to profit off of it to the exclusion of anyone else, including the original creator. american mcgee wanted to make a third alice game badly enough he asked EA to let him buy or license the property back and they said no. when yahtzee croshaw quit the escapist he had to rename and rebrand the show he'd been making for 15 years. john fogerty refused to play CCR songs for years rather than let a record label that he hated speech profits.

sure, without IP law corporations could still replicate people's creative works, but at least they couldn't legally prevent the original artists from continuing to create the things they love as they can now. what's happened to these artists is a real theft, unlike so-called "IP theft", because they have been deprived of something they created and loved!

[canmom]

It appears that today is the day of ZA/UM successors.

To begin with, we have this article, which mentions three projects by former Disco Elysium devs...

Dark Math - a 20-person team, half of them formerly from the Disco Elysium team, working on a detective RPG called XXX NIGHTSHIFT

Longdue Games - has the "leads" of the cancelled Disco Elysium sequel, now working on an as-yet unnamed RPG with a "psychogeographic" mechanic - it's a bit vague, but they do have funding

Kurvitz and Rostov are rumoured to be working on an unannounced game at a studio called Red Info, backed by chinese company NetEase. if so, we don't know anything about it yet!

Alongside these, we have senior writer Argo Tuulik and a number of other ZA/UMites, who've announced a plan for a new studio called Summer Eternal with a whole-ass manifesto for their company structure...

Lots of radical zeal but they haven't even made the company yet, so unclear if this will get off the ground, but they're also planning on making an RPG of some sort.

I'm very tempted to end with something cynical like 'release/implode, place your bets' but honestly? I really hope they all work out, and we enter a new era of literary CRPGs in which there will be more opportunity to work on arty shit in games. I don't wanna be that doomer about it all.

So best of luck to all involved, let a thousand za/ums bloom... (look, the summer eternal guys twisted mao's 'half the sky' quote to be about 'creatives', just let me have this one ok)

[linktoo]

kim's responses to you naming the case are making me mental bc they say so much about him. lets break it down

1. THE HANGED MAN

ok makes sense. It's the only option you can end up settling on in the end without him asking for another name. he likes how simple and effective it is. Kind of "cool detective" vibes in his book. tbh it's more hilarious in another dialogue path where you end up deciding on the same name

2. THE FURIES ARE AT HOME IN THE MIRROR

Kim doesn't like fancy poetic stuff.. he likes it cut and dry. as an art cop if you're painting a mural kim still lets you play around with it, but he rolls his eyes and sighs. It's not like he hates all creativity, he later wistfully quotes the moral intern motto "A blue forget-me-not, a piece of the sky". like he just clearly isn't the type for abstract concepts and flowery poetry without a clear point.

This makes me also wonder if this was incorporated conversation when the devs changed the game title from "No Truce with the Furies" to "Disco Elysium".

EDIT: and because I've seen a lot of people bring this up; suggesting this stays with him. Kim does use this name in honour of you if he gets shot at the tribunal.

YOU - What is the name?

HALF-FINISHED PAPERWORK - KK57-0803-0815 (THE FURIES ARE AT HOME IN THE MIRROR)

ESPRIT DE CORPS - Twenty-eight kilometres to the northeast, in the infirmary of Precinct 57, Lieutenant Kim 'Pinball' Kitsuragi rests under a heart monitor. A triage sign coloured yellow hangs from his injury record -- safe, it means. He coughs, propped up against the pillow. ESPRIT DE CORPS - On his right hand side -- a little blue notebook. Open at case notes..

CONCEPTUALIZATION - He went with the 'Furies'. Perhaps the internal strife it implies was not so off after all? Or perhaps to honour your wishes? Or for some other reason. Hard to say...

3. THE SETTING SUN

we get another technical name that kim likes because it's simple and straightforward but doesn't mean anything about the case. lmfao.

4. SHIT ON A STICK

kim doesn't like crass humour for no reason. He does give tasteless names to his cases like "THE MAN WITH THE HOLE IN HIS HEAD" but nothing glaringly offensive.

5. I dont have one

ok this is where it gets funny because now you get to decide if kim gets to say what name he wants for the case.

1. No.

he gets fucking pissed and he likes you less

2. Go ahead.

It's clear how much he likes it. but you don't get any kim reputation points if you let him name it, you get kim points if you approve.

he gets pissed if you don't like it.

whether you mock him or not.

3. Let me guess- the HANGED MAN?

doesn't matter you beat him to it, this guy gets happy if you suggest the same name as him... lmfao.

[smokedgastropod]

the sky in disco elysium

so much of disco elysium is looking *up*, so its only fitting that 2 of the 4 ideologies, moralism and communism in disco elysium have symbols relating to the sky - moralism the clouds, the daylight sky, the one the color of forget-me-nots, *aerostatics*, and communism - the stars. the latter one was quite well explored already, so let me give you a taste of moralintern's sky:

and, of course, the resolution of the thought "the kingdom of conscience":

and even though joyce tells us that living under the same sky at the same time counts for a lot:

perception of coalition aerostatics tells us a different story. for a privilledged sunday friend they are peacefully patrolling, joyce herself finds comfort in looking up, kim says they're on a "lookout", and trant doesn't even deny their destructive power, though doesn't seem scared by them himself:

but all of those above are more or less comfortable in society, or find it too painful to recognize the inequalities inherent to status quo (kim. i mean kim here.). soona, noid, cindy have different opinions:

this group doesn't think of aerostatics as helpful, but (at best), dismissive of their suffering. thats why aerograffitos are an interesting part of worldbuilding in de. they're an attempt to be heard by the warships, to have a chance at being allowed change.

the sky just doesn't belong to revachol and her people. it's for moralintern to keep watch, in a strict, supposedly loving way:

it's actually quite often described as feminine, dolores dei is too. this "strict, feminine" way is of a mother watching her children play. not just to keep them safe, but *in line* too. it's sinister, but disguising itself as protection. it's expressed in this world as "balance of terror theory":

i want to come back to this unofficial motto of moralintern: "for a moment, there was hope" along with another hope-related quote:

and a particularly tragic line in my opinion:

that you can mistake an aerostatic for a star if you don't look closely. what a way to kill hope.

[convoloutedinjoke]

Rating Disco Elysium characters based on how funny I think their kinks have the potential to be

Harry: the DSM of getting off on things. He likes piss he likes feet he likes the idea of being soooo small and tiny you could step on him like a bug, and while none of these things are funny on their own they are when he does them on account of his being a clown. He would also fuck a clown, incidentally. 8/10, knocking two points off because this lacks the element of surprise.

Kim: Leather and uniform fetishist. No wise guy shenanigans here. Will fuck you serious will fuck you professional. His strap is extremely normal, his daddy/boy dynamics are not a laughing matter. 4/10 because he wants to have relations with his car and is embarrassed about it

Jean: No idea what gets him off but he genuinely believes whatever it is means he’s evil and weird, making him the proud owner of The Worlds Funniest Kinks. 9/10, steals mustard from the homeless without remorse but has a moral crisis every time he cums while fantasising about getting gangbanged in a holding cell. Sad!

Trant: not funny. too passionately open about the things hes into. if you tried to make light of his trampling fetish, he would recite the wikipedia entry on cock and ball torture to you from memory and look delighted to be sharing his interests with you the whole time. 3/10

Klaasje: not funny to most on account of being conventionally attractive and good at billing her sexual encounters as suffused with romantic, literary ennui but it SHOULD be funny to be such a Lana Del Rey motherfucker in the sheets so I’m pulling rank and saying 7/10

Joyce: cringefail class dynamics fantasies. Bodice rippers and the opposite of CEO erotica feature heavily here. This wouldn’t be funny if not for the fact she literally owns a yacht. Also wants to get stabbed a little bit. 5/10, probably read the elysium version of lady chatterlys lover as a teen and still jerks off about it.

Garte: a normal man if there ever was one. has kinks but they aren't funny. wears a bra sometimes and it looks cute. 1/10 probably fun to hook up with and a decent communicator

The Deserter: given the 5 decades of loneliness, im willing to bet his brain has rewired itself into having some interesting potentially bug-related reward pathways but whatever he's got going on is too sad to laugh about. 0/10 :(

Sunday Friend: his kinks would be funny on anyone else, but he’s very very very boring. 2/10, you can pay a twink to do raceplay with you, but it wont dispel the grey miasma of being a mid tier government employee

evrart: I don’t know honestly, the lying and manipulating and petty power plays scrambled my brain despite the rube-Goldbergian elements of all his little tasks. Maybe he’d do predicament bondage? Uh. 3/10. Id let him hit, but he also has kind of a Wallace n Grommit thing going on so I can’t say 0

Steban: big on role playing but isn’t very good at it. Starts giggling halfway through when it becomes apparent how silly the fake muttonchops are. 4/10, less funny than it could be because he has a sense of humour about it

Ulixes: probably has a guro thing but also hasn’t had sex since he started focusing on reading theory and feints at the sight of real blood. This should be less funny than pretending to be Kras Mazov in bed, but he takes himself extremely seriously. 6/10 until he starts getting laid again, then still 6/10 but for other reasons

Gary: cuck chair. 10/10. I am not elaborating because I’m tired now, but someone else made a convincing post at one point

[alpaca-clouds]

Solarpunk Game Ideas: CRPGs

Here I go on with my ideas for Indie Solarpunk games, that are not some sort of building sim or farming sim - and of course I cannot do this without mentioning CRPGs.

Mind you, despite what you might think given that over the course of the last year I have barely played anything but a certain CRPG (BG3), CRPGs are actually not really a genre of game I am super into, even though some of my favorite games are CRPGs. But as a genre in general I usually like faster paced games a lot more. It is just that when I hyperfocus on something that usually is a result of me getting obsessed with a character from it - and that is more likely to happen with a CRPG than with a metroidvania.

But how to do a Solarpunk CRPG?

The Issue:

Look, there really are not any CRPGs right now that are in any way Solarpunk. And I would argue this goes again back to the issue that people struggle with telling stories within a Solarpunk setting, as they are too set in the idea that a) Solarpunk needs to be an utopian setting (or a setting that pretends to be utopian) and b) that utopian settings will not allow for any conflict whatsoever. Additionally there is of course also the issue that most CRPGs do involve violence in form of fighting, which is what a lot of people struggle with - even though some amazing indie games like Disco Elysium have shown very well, that you can do a CRPG without a combat system.

So, let's go over some ideas for Solarpunk CRPGs.

Idea #1: Off-Brand Princess Mononoke

If you follow me for any time, you might know that to me there is no movie or piece of media that is more Solarpunk than Princess Mononoke. And thankfully we can easily build a sort of CRPG around it, either with a similar historical setting or just a fullon fantasy setting. Because remember: Solarpunk does not need to be Science Fiction!

No matter whether you go with a historical setting or just a full-on fantasy setting, the idea is fairly easy: The player character has a magical problem and they need the help of some sort of spirits. As they travel to the place of the spirit, they find out that the spirits are in a war with some group of humans, that are encroaching of the home of the spirits, because they try to access some sort of ressources, driving the spirits nearly to extinction. The player would have the choice in the end which side to join - or whether they will try to broker peace between spirits and humans.

Bonus: You'd have several choices how to play the game - but it is not a clear cut "good" and "evil", especially when the humans might have good reasons to need the ressource.

Idea #2: A SciFi Conspiracy

This idea is very much for a somewhat shorter game. Think a bit more like "Shadowrun Returns". Something that has more like 15 to 20 minutes of a runtime.

We go with the idea I brought up in one of the other ideas before: We have a Solarpunk world, that runs on mainly anarchist principles, and there are some arguments going about over some of the security mechanisms. (Anarchy can after all not properly work, if some people have weapons and others don't have - but you cannot undo the existence of weapons.) Our main character is part of some security force, that mostly are just trained to deescalate situations, but are in some cases allowed to use force.

And when a group of pro-capitalists or maybe even actual fascists start a conspiracy to take over the government, and they already have some co-conspirators in all positions. And the main characters need to navigate this with a mixture of diplomacy and violence, with the player getting a fairly good influence on how this plays out.

Idea #3: A Natural Disaster

Let me take one approach, that is inspired by one of the most Solarpunk movies, that is not by Ghibli: Misaki no Mayogai. That movie takes place after the Tohoku earthquake and is very much about mutual aid in the community.

And here is the thing: No, CRPGs do not need to have combat. So this is an idea for a CRPG without combat. We have a natural disaster of some sort. Honestly it does not matter. An earthquake, a flood, a vulcano... Can be anything. It just did destroy a lot of stuff in a big area. And the game is very much about rebuilding after this disaster, about people helping each other through mutual aid, and then building something better from it. It could feature a society going full Solarpunk if you want to (like a positive post-apocalypse) or just something getting a bit better. Build back better and such.

And if you are interested in creative Solarpunk endeavors, I would love to invite you into the Solarpunk Creatives community! :)