#it's soooo fun and it's hilarious but it WILL sucker punch you many times before it's over

[57sfinest]

Explain disco elysium to someone whos never played disco elysium

if you have played this game you will know what an impossible question this is to answer. but i can try

you're an amnesiac detective with the dual tasks of solving a murder and solving the mystery of who you are, why you're here, why *here* is *like this* and why *you* are *like this*, and whether the answers to any of those questions are related. it's a dialogue heavy tabletop-inspired open narrative rpg with a lot of chance elements and a lot of freedom in choice. you can build your character to be a cocktail of many different traits based on your decisions so your interactions with the world are very meaningful and will shape how you move forward. the setting is best described as magical realism; there are a lot of things parallel to our own world, as well as some supernatural/magical elements that are worked into the narrative in such a way that they hardly even seem like magic. it's a well-built world that feels very real, which is important because the setting has such a profound impact on the characters and story.

as for the meaning of the game, the takeaways are so deeply personal and also dependent on how you go through it. politically it calls out the sheer ridiculousness of fascism, the cruelty of centrism and the evil of capitalism, while also addressing the failings of contemporary communist circles- most notably its favoring of intellectual debate rather than direct action. it addresses the fallibility of human beings in all their aspects: how relationships fall apart, how even the best intentions lead to terrible consequences, how sometimes trying your best just isn't enough. it also addresses the beauty of humanity, of how people make beautiful things out of the ugliest parts of life, of how there will always be one more chance to try again, somewhere. it's about death and how to live in spite of it. it's about the stubbornness of life and how to die, regardless. it's about futility, and the inherent hope in hopelessness: if nothing you do matters, focus on the *why not* instead of the *why bother*. it's about making joy where you can find it and embracing pain where it comes to you. it's about unfairness and inequity and the apathy of circumstance, and knowing that it will never ever change, and knowing that regardless, you have to try. it's about fighting back and giving up. it's about being presented infinite choices in a singularity. it's so incredibly meaningful and everyone is going to get something different from it that reflects what they listened to most. it's genuinely a work of art.

it's also a dress up game.