I've given it a lot of thought. Disco Elysium is like a perfect storm of features, themes and tropes and the singular experience of it can't be replicated to the same level of perfection. The skill system only really makes sense BECAUSE of the particular elements that make up Harry. His depression, his self doubt, his amnesia. His amnesia alone is super core to the game and it would be strange to have another amnesiac lead... it would cheapen it. But without the amnesia you lose a huge vein that enables and supplies the absurdity of dialogue choices you get in the game. And without the amnesia you have to find other ways to enable the character to re-evaluate who they are at a fundamental level which is AGAIN core to the experience of the game. If you are a cop in the theoretical sequel then we are forced to tread the same water of exploring what kind of cop you are, how you feel about the power hierarchy, and your complicity in the problems plaguing whatever setting you are in.

I think an ideal Disco Elysium sequel would be so different it would be worth considering a new title so as not to give people a false expectation. You keep the idea of the skill system, and the dialogue as combat sensibility (this really just means you are verbally wrestling with other characters like Joyce and Evrart), but I think you have to figure out who the character is first, you figure out what internal contradictions they're struggling with, and then you choose NEW skills that bring this particular struggle to the forefront.

And I think they could do that again without being part of ZA/UM... and perhaps they are free to take risks they wouldn't be able to if they were still there. But I don't want to end on too positive a note because we don't know exactly how they feel about it or how it'll turn out and it still fucking sucks what happened to them.