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Overall I fucking loved it but there was a few parts of the ending that felt a bit anti-climatic. I get they wanted to structure the story is such a way that even players who fucked the investigation up could find the killer, but it is weird that there’s really no way to really solve the case before shit goes down and then you just, find the guy. But I guess that feeds into the narrative that no single person is really in control of much outside of themselves.
Also didn’t like there wasn’t a “I’m turning I my badge” option for Harry (if there was one I didn’t see it). That seemed to fit the best into my RP. But idk maybe Harry wants to sober up entirely before he makes such a decision. I did get Kim to agree to be my partner tho which made me happy. I also also expecting as sort of “trial” at the end where my psyche makes an analysis of what kind of cop I turned out to be, but we just got in the motor carriage and left.
Kinda tempted to reload a save from before I encountered Ruby cuz I’m pretty sure there’s shit I missed, I was playing things kinda safe cuz I was sorta RP Harry as trying not to fuck things up and I think that bit me. Also I’m bummed I never got to meet with Steban again, don’t think I timed that right.
Anyway I’ll probably do a fash play through in a month or so.
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one of the playthroughs i did was entirely sober and there still wasn't an option to turn the badge in, which is also a thought i had. on the other hand, the entire game is kinda about having turned one's badge in, from the very beginning, and then you just choose the ideology through which you want to be defeated agian, including regaining the badge lol. it's defeat all the way down. it's sublime, transcendent.
I also had Harry stay sober, which Kim praised me for to the task force, which was a little detail I appreciated.
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I had a playthrough where I listened to all the voices telling me “you don’t want to think about this” and avoided the entire backstory with his ex-wife. In my first playthrough it was so obvious that these thoughts amounted to unhealthy rumination, but I neeeeded that info dump so bad I’d literally take damage for it.
It was very interesting to see the ways in which online leftists use communism as an identity with which to avoid the world and cope with trauma. You see a lot of this behavior online but seeing it so distilled and in another context made me internally cringe a bit. Then you find the One True Communist and he ends up ranting for a bit about how the commune legalized homosexuality and how he didn’t like it.
“Defeat all the way down” is a good way to put it. Being sober for a week gives you little more than a pat on the back at the end. You cannot reconcile your feelings about your ex. You cannot truly save Martinaise. Even the best outcome as far as I can tell is the mercenaries leaving after several of them being killed, Wild Pines leaving and Joyce gives the harbor to the union, and the union still preparing for war because they’re expecting retaliation.
“Defeat all the way down” is a good way to put it.
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One of the strangest storytelling decisions this game makes is that it has a bloomer stuff in it, but it's all hidden. The TL;DR is that Revachol is at the end of history, but time hasn't stopped yet.
deep spoilers
There's a conversation you can have with Klassje, after you read deeper into the story she tells you in your interview and realize that she's hiding things from you (and that Harry didn't notice because he's too attracted to her), where she talks about The Return. It's kept vague what The Return is, presumably so that you can fill in the blank (is the The Return of Communism? Monarchy? Independence?), but it's clear that it's a belief that the people in Revachol take seriously, and that gives them hope for the future.
The Return might be an upcoming coup being organized by Harry's boss, an RCM captain who's famous enough that Kim knows and looks up to him. This future event is revealed by having a high Espirit de Corps during the game's last conversation, and if Harry isn't fired from the force, the captain will be going down a list of who's going to be part of it and who will not. Harry will be part of the coup if the captain thinks that he'll "side with the people".
Socialist Infra-Materialism is real in the game's universe. You can learn from the Phasmid that the thoughts of people are creating a kind of climate change, which is proof positive that in Disco Elysium pure idealism can effect the physical realm - so why couldn't a large group of sufficiently motivated people bring better material conditions into reality by believing in them?
The final scene with the communist book club is the most hopeful scene in the game - a few people who are barely relevant, stacking matchboxes for an hour, into a shape that will almost certainly collapse. But for a few glorious moments, the boxes hold their physically impossible shape. That's what we in the writing community call a METAPHOR, and in this case it's for the seemingly impossible act of building socialism.
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I don’t remember anything about The Return. Maybe I missed the dialogue for some reason. But yeah, the fact that the matchboxes stand for just a little bit longer the second time after you’ve lent a hand is possibly the most inspiring part of this game and it’s hidden behind a thought and a time-sensitive quest
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I had a playthrough where I listened to all the voices telling me “you don’t want to think about this” and avoided the entire backstory with his ex-wife. In my first playthrough it was so obvious that these thoughts amounted to unhealthy rumination, but I neeeeded that info dump so bad I’d literally take damage for it.
So I actually tried to uncover as much about Harry as I could, to the point it nearly killed me when I found his Ex's goodbye letter. Thing was I was a bit shocked in the end when your partner tells you she left you like 6 years ago, I had assumed it was recent and that's why Harry went over the deep end, but it took six years for that trauma to ruminate in his head to get this bad? I left thinking there must have been some other element to Harry's story besides his ex that made him lose it, something I missed in the story.
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That also struck me as odd. There’s also a point where the necktie talks about how you used to have a good “work-drink balance”. My guess is that Harry threw himself into his work post-divorce. He definitely had an obsessive streak and a kind of unrelenting drive no matter what he’s doing. So it may have just taken that long to get as bad as it did.
But then there’s the issue of pale. Harry’s obviously been exposed to the pale, probably extensively. There’s a chance that his case notes act similarly to the ancient rituals that sailors would use to survive the pale. But this series of events in the game does seem to be Harry’s rock bottom. Not sure if this is canon, but I always assumed that he tried to kill himself and that’s why the tie was on the fan. It’s never quite explained how or where Harry was exposed to pale, but given his reputation for being as crazy as he is, it doesn’t seem recent.
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If you compete “ruthless self criticism” it says Harry once permanently disabled a man with his gun, and once got physically violent with a woman during a drunken argument (leaving it ambiguous as to whether it was his wife or not). I kinda assumed Harry did something fucked up while drunk and the tried to commit suicide, or maybe tried a few times. Him driving out into the sea was clearly a suicide attempt.
I think the ending is purposefully anticlimactic.
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The actual solving of the mystery is secondary to everything else that's going on, and the fact that it's some super-communard weirdo living on an island that you can just never get to until after the resolution of the actual events of the plot. All the apparent nonsense video-gamey clues that you find regarding someone hiding in certain spots throughout Revachol, the island being the lowest-probability location for the shot to have been taken, the idea that "communism killed him," and other weird points throughout the game I may be forgetting: all of these tie together when you find this one old man who explains everything in detail in one final conversation. He is the hidden piece of it all, the key to the puzzle, and behind him, another answer to everything: the cryptid. But you can only find this out after the main events of the game, when people are already dead and gone or their lives changed irrevocably. The truth behind whodunit didn't matter to them.
I enjoy reading this game as, in many ways, a parody of Planescape: Torment. I would suggest checking that game out (create a character with high WIS and become a mage and talk to everyone) if you liked DE.
I apologize and hope I did not ruin the game for you or anyone. My first post here.
Oh jeez no it’s okay I’ve played it. That’s perfectly understandable. Welcome, comrade!
Edit: I apparently messed up spoilers in several of my posts so :shrug-outta-hecks:
Honestly I had like half the ending spoiled for me before even starting it but I still really enjoyed playing through the story none the less.
Your first point of criticism is common and pretty interesting. To me, it was clear from the beginning that the story wasn't a traditional whodunnit, but instead a nordic noir, so I wasn't even trying to figure out if one of the previously known characters was the killer. In nordic noir catching the criminal is often meant to be a thematical climax instead of a satisfying twist, and I think the game does this really well.
:lt-dbyf-dubois: “I really wanna look around some…”
:lt-kitsuragi: “No time! We have to find the suspect.”
Yeah thanks Kim!
Edit: but I can’t stay mad at Kim 😭. Literally I cried when I thought he had been shot.
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Literally I cried when I thought he had been shot
It’s not uncommon for him to die in that scene. Sounds like you passed some good checks.
The best way to head into the tribunal is
To have hand-eye and physical instrument maxed so you can make those shots and dodges, have gotten the blue spirits from the one drunk in the fishing village and let your tie convince you to make a molotov cocktail out of it, and have shamed the crypto fascist into giving you the chest plate armor if you couldn’t manage to get the full set. I think there’s also a check that involves talking to the head mercenary about Lely that gives you advantage on the shot. Maybe it was running a check on the boots’ serial number over the radio?
Edit: oh, and gotten your gun from The Pigs
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My Harry going in suited up wouldn't have really fit my RP, he just wanted to deescalate things. I did manage to pass the check to dodge the first shot, and the check to save Kim, which was enough for me. Sad Titus got killed, dude was kind of a prick but I think he was trying to do the right thing in the end.
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I don't think that was me. I attended the first commie reading group meeting but missed the second cuz I triggered the tribunal.
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I also missed commie part 2 because of the tribunal, but you should definitely go back to before you went into the cave in order to tie up all the threads you missed, including that one. Commie book club part 2 is one of the best scenes in the game.
I also recommend, time permitting, a second playthrough where you save scum or cheat engine to pass every single red and white check. There's so much cool stuff you can miss just by not rolling some dice good.
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I seem to remember trying to read that book a second time and getting a message like "it causes you physical pain to read this book again", so I think they patched it.
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So my concern is, the game says I only have 5 days, yet Rhetoric didn't give me the "get organized" mission till day 4, and the group doesn't meet till after 10. Is there a day 6? Cuz I'd kinda have to put off finding Ruby till Day 6 to attend the second meeting. I assumed if I went past day 5 the event would just trigger.
Also is it okay to bring Kim to the commie meetings? I didn't for the first one and I don't want him narcing.
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The tribunal doesn't happen until you're on the way back from meeting Ruby. If you need to pass time, buy books.
I think if you try to bring Kim to the meeting he'll tell you to do it when he's not present, same with asking the fisherwoman on a date.
Also is it okay to bring Kim to the commie meetings? I didn’t for the first one and I don’t want him narcing.
It's absolutely okay. He looks interested and will not narc.
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I also sped through the game a little too fast AND failed to save Kim on a 72% check. I was SOOOO tempted to savescum but I decided to play it out. I didn't bring Kuno with me but I kinda wish I had.
I drank a single beer in my run, the only drug I ever did, and that apparently disqualifies you from actually rejoining the force? I got I think the worst ending, where Harry just lives out his days in that shitty shack :kitty-cri-texas:
No way i did a TOOOON of drugs and they still took me in
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Kim dying was the only time I save scummed but from the little I played with Cuno, it would have been worth it to bring him along. I didn’t even know getting kicked off the force was an option. Did you go full hobocop?
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Yeah basically lol. If Kim were with me I think things would have gone better. Maybe I should've save-scummed
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Yeah Kim does vouch for you (after he narcs on you for drinking A SINGLE DRINK THE ENTIRE GAME GODDAMMIT KIM)
super spoilers
I think the real climax of the game is the showdown with the mercs. I could feel it was coming and I prepared accordingly with all of the armor (as an aside I was proud to have found all of it.) I really thought I could resolve it without anyone dying, but nope. Super intense moment in the game where everything came to a head just before I was ready. I'd even guessed that the real culprit was on the island, but it didn't matter at that point, everyone was ready for blood. The die was cast at that point and afterward all that was left was to create a giant, burning message in the street, go through the motions of solving the case, and reflect on what I'd learned and what was coming next. I think the ending act was mostly a denouement and really coming to terms with reality.
However, the scene with the phasmid was truly unexpected and magical. I think I cried a little and got pretty breathless. It was the perfect thing to inject a little hope and sense of possibility as everything else sort of fell apart, or fell into its next stage. The confrontation with your old team felt pretty perfunctory at that point, just continuing to check off boxes as the future began take shape around you.
Still sort of think it was a weaker part of the game, but by that point I was well satisfied and sort of just enjoying the refractory period.
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I think they did a good job of making the cryptid seem far fetched while still leaving room for weird "supernatural" stuff like that to exist, with other stuff I can't remember the name of being pretty out there. I think the crypid was even in the game's trailer but I had forgotten about that by the time I got to that part.
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I went as heavy as I could into the shivers skill after having it trigger a couple times. That shit was very much my kind of supernatural. The city having a ghostly consciousness the connected everything or was constructed from everyone in it and the physical manifestations of their thoughts and actions was seriously rad.
Also didn’t like there wasn’t a “I’m turning I my badge” option for Harry (if there was one I didn’t see it). That seemed to fit the best into my RP.
You got sorry cop first run like, 2/3rds of us, didn’ya?
Yes…
I mean that radio call with the girl who quit her job after my BS was enough to make me fucking hate myself… I mean Harry.
Feel like it's a stupid question, but I've never asked it or seen any discussion around it so,
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why does the union cover for the murder? I figured it was because they wanted the tribunal to happen because they are looking for a reason to get rid of the mercenaries. But also, why did Klasjie go along with it? Was she coerced? Maybe Ruby has something to do with it, but in my playthrough I didn't get to find out much about her involvement. If it is Ruby don't spoil it much lol because I want to do another run sometime.
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The decision to cover up for the murder had several factors including the ones you mentioned, but Ruby was indeed involved, so I won’t explain beyond that. It’s hard to explain what Klasjie was up to without explaining Ruby’s involvement
Damn sounds like I really missed a big piece of the story there, gotta play now!
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I think it was a combo of Klasjie not wanting to end up on the police's radar, the Hardie Boys (particularly Ruby) wanting to cover for her cuz she was their friend, and the fact that the Hardie Boys hated the mercs already so why not make a show of his body. Everart just took advantage of the situation.
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klaasje devises the plan, because shes in hiding and otherwise she looks like a likely suspect that will get investigated. the hardie boys go along with it both for the sake of protecting klaasje (who they like/have sympathy for/perhaps are somewhat manipulated by), probably also some drunk posturing, and also because evrart wants to escalate tensions and start an all-out war
there is definitely ruby involvement but its not all ruby
The analysis about what kinda cop you are is Kim's report to your partners where he recounts the past few days to them.
Yeah there's that which I liked, I was just expecting one last dream sequence bit where your brain lectures you about all the shit you did, but yah just get in the car. But idk, maybe that's a fitting ending, a sign that Harry is pulling himself back together.
I haven’t played this yet and am stuck on the character creation screen. What build should I do that’s inland empire focused? Do I need endurance? Is encyclopedia useful or can I just look it up on a wiki?
Alright as far as I can tell these are skills that are smart to invest in: perception, logic, visual calculus, physical instrument, volition, empathy. Inland Empire is definitely interesting and useful, plus there’s a lot of items that boost it.
Endurance isn’t bad. Encyclopedia is meh. I don’t think there was any skill that was straight up useless, but I used Visual Calculus and Empathy a lot.
What kind of stat spread at the beginning? Thinking 5421, but idk
3333 is what I went with. There's items to boost your stats and the primary game mechanic is coming back to try again later after you fail a roll. With an even spread all of your character's inner voices will get an even amount of screen time so you'll really get to know them.
Encyclopedia can get you a thought cabinet perk that makes it easy to make money, giving you some money every time you pass a passive encyclopedia check, but just pick what abilities you think fits the character you want to try and play. The game is incredibly lenient on character builds, and there are even some thoughts that only chime in when their stat is too low. So if you want to do an Inland Empire build just pick other stuff that you feel makes sense. Might not be the answer you're looking for but I really don't think there is a need to try to make a build unless you're trying to hit the dialogue trees for a specific skill.
I recommend at least 2 Endurance, but you don't need to focus on it any more than that unless you want to use it for a Physical build (i forget what term they use to categorize the red abilities).
This is good to know. I’ve fucked myself over hard in old school rpgs by not investing enough in some skill that shouldn’t have mattered as much as it did.
Does a 5421 stat spread make sense?
Another point, unlike like other RPGs that end to reward dumping a ton of point into a handful of skills, DE tends to reward a more jack of all trade approach, so as you play you probably want to dump at least a few points into other skills. But having a lot of points in one or two is still a viable thing to do.
Your default equipment limits your Savoir-Faire skill, so if you want to be a criminal you need to take off your pants.
They're not really like RPG stats. They affect the chance that you're able to do certain things. But most things have multiple ways of doing them. So you can kind of tailor it to the type of person you want to be. I didn't find myself using the physique stuff as much, but there were times it was useful. It really doesn't matter all that much.
