The church questline was the greatest most HARD CORE thing I have ever seen in a video g*me.
Also communism, lots of communism. Unfortunately also fascism, moralism, humanism and liberalism :ooooooooooooooh:
It's definitely a 10/10 masterpiece, though I wouldn't include it in my personal GOAT like New Vegas or Dragon Age Origins because it got too realistically depressing at times.
NO NATION BUT TRANCE NATION - NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR
The satire of ideologies in DE is genuinely some of the most biting satire in that regard anywhere. The satire of communism hits particularly hard because it comes from a place of real experience and affection.
communist quest spoilers
I love how clear it is Harry has no place calling himself a communist and how goofy he comes across during the quest. He's some dumbass cop who lost all his memories and decided he's a revolutionary, the one true communist actually. I love how he'll bring up communism in nearly every conversation regardless of the context. He'll loudly and openly mention he hates the bourgeoisie, just so everyone remembers. It's such an accurate portrayal of some baby leftists I always smile in those parts.
I love how he gets a little thrill whispering that he's a fellow traveler to some of the union guys. I love how he meets with those two students thinking it's an org, when it's just a glorified book club. It's just so good.
Then the final part, meeting the veteran revolutionary who calls Harry out. Harry keeps saying "yeah I'm a communist like you." and veteran replying that Harry is a dumbass cop who doesn't know what he's talking about.
It's so good. It's coming from experience and a place of understanding. The devs are just so good. A few lines should just be accepted theory, like how communism is like getting a degree in truth, or that that one line about zero percent of communism has been built.
more spoilers
I like how while this is true, it's also true that (depending on how you just played the game) Harry is someone who just spent the last week among the people, learning about their plights, helping where you can, while the deserter is miserable and hateful, and has completely isolated himself from the working class and any sort of mass struggle, just wallowing in despair at how bad the rest of society has become and how terrible everyone else is for letting it happen. You're both lousy communists for the opposite reasons.
What I love about the book club
spoiler
For just a second their theories work and even Kim is amazed
And at the end with the
spoiler
Phasmid "Do it, for the working class"
Gotta love it when
Disco Elysium communism spoiler
You join an org and it's a glorified book club which mostly just critiques stuff like media, argues over weird almost posadist (without the nukes) theory, doesn't actually read theory, is extremely academic and splits constantly.
Also gotta love Kim Katsuragi.
same as above
You bring him to a communist meeting, despite being basically a socdem, and not only doesn't complain, but is implied to actually have fun when Harry and the students discuss theory.
Kim is a very good boy and the only good cop to ever exist
deleted by creator
If it helps you sleep at night there's an Espirit de Corps check and a Shivers check that suggest the RCM have a plan to initiate "The Return" i.e. a second communist revolution
Both of those skill checks are notoriously unreliable though and often describe imagination
deleted by creator
No dissing communist&sober!Harry :ooooooooooooooh: