When I did a fascist play through I still took great efforts to avoid the racist dialogue options. I was okay with Kim thinking Harry was a fascist apocalyptic weirdo, but I did not want him to think Harry thought less of him. Never. Kim is too pure for the dark world of DE
It does until you find the absolutely amazing times he just goes along with Harry acting like an idiot - like the impromptu dance party in the church that Kim can join in on, or being so good at that one pinball machine that he stops hating pinball for long enough to congratulate Harry. Kim giving in to the dumbassery makes for some of the best moments in the game. Not so much any of a fascist route though.
My favorite detail is an esprit de corps check that tells you Kim calls you officer when he’s angry with you and detective when he isn’t. He was so over this conversation at the start
@@lonesavior That club scene's absolutely brilliant for how much context it gives to Kim's character. It kills me that it's basically a breaking point for him on top of a ton of small things you never learn about him beforehand, like how patronizing he feels that you only address him by his first name and not his rank. One of the most telling aspects about the development is how they use red checks like the club as not just telling you you failed, but making you learn how to live with the failure by giving you something to take away from it. It's an amazing summation of the game's theme.
Makes you wonder when you're doing the autopsy report and say "the brain is very vulnerable to compromises in its blood supply" and Kim says "I think that may well be the moral of *every* story, officer" and grins saying it.
Imagine if you were down to 1 health and 1 morale and you immediately died after Kim says “fuck” at you….. bro he’d think he killed you with a swear word
I am SO shocked Kim's VA had Kim as his debut role (from what I can tell) he fucking nails the genuinely good dude trying his best to help someone who is scatterbrained at the best of times and at the worst, well, "FUCKING insane"
I believe it was the narrator's first role too. They knocked it out of the park, and their performances are integral to the gameplay experience. The writing is great, but I feel like the minimal mechanical depth to the gameplay made convincing VA work a necessity. It's a pretty risky way to design a video game, but it sure paid off. At least, it resulted in a game which is committed to an endlessly engaging world, narrative, and characters
"Video games turn you psycho and make killers" Yeah then how come I deliberately make sure I don't dissapoint the one man who I would give the whole world for and would crumble if I was ever an asshole to.
Video games don't turn people violent. They were already violent. There are hundreds of millions of people who play video games. Even hundreds of millions of people like myself who have been playing games since a very young age. There aren't hundreds of millions of violent psychotic killers. lol
Legit thank you for this comment / context, I haven't played yet (I'm cool with spoilers) and like, knew this Was Bad bc Kim hated it so much, but not what 'the Icebreaker' actually meant
@@j.b.aw.6968 Joyce also mentions that volta do mar is a technique used by travelers to stay sane in the pale, so it's a little like the Composure skill with the added meaning of navigation/direction. It's both Kim's strong moral compass and his ability to stick to it regardless of the circumstances. What an icon
@@Zynet_Eseled no skills or thoughts. you get the notepad, and the car. and what those don't solve... tell the Harry to do something and see what happens
@themonsterkingr454 Harry goes on a 45 minute long tangent about communism to a teenage girl, gets a 30-minute long lecture on the nature of the pale from an ultra liberal while you just stand there, sighing.
@@themonsterkingr454 Kim- "Hey Harry we need to fix this problem" Lieutenant double yefreiter Harrier (Harry) Du Boi (Tequila Sunset)- "Hold that thought Kim I'm talking to the wind about the current condition of the city, I need to help her stop the construction of the atom bomb in 22 years or she'll die. The voices in my head tell me that I can be 27% sure whatever your talking about connects to this. And my necktie just suggested we get coffee first" Kim- " yeah okay. Sounds good. Just don't heckle civilians for money. What's an atom bomb." Harry- "according to this dead guy I found, its hotter than a whiskey sour on a Sunday afternoon, and smaller than my will to live." Kim- "understandable" Drama- "he does not understand a single word"
Hearing people who don't usually swear throw out an f-bomb doesn't normally affect me, I swear so much I barely notice other people swearing usually, but the emphasis Kim put on that "Fuck" hit different. That connected with some part of my brain, buried deep within. God, I love Kim.
Yeah, I used to curse a lot. Now, when I do it, something really terrible (or stupid) has been said to me. It's been about two years now since I've cursed consistently out loud. I think they're more powerful when withheld and used at opportune moments.
1:13 I love it when successful passive skill checks just lead to the skills doing the total opposite of what they're meant to do. There's a reaction speed check that's just "Uhm... Uhhh" on succeeding it.
The thing I really like about this conversation is that it’s an understated way of making fascist quest all for naught. You go through five minutes of building you up as this noble creature of suffering and adopt a moniker for it, and trying to instill that worldview in Kim immediately makes him smack some sense back into you and completely tear down your false pretenses.
@@Guille-mz7xf I think only Kim takes notice immediately after you leave the mirror. You either learn to keep your new outlook quiet from others, or Kim will immediately make it “uncool” to the point you don’t want to do it anymore. Either way, fascist Harry works “quietly”.
What's even funnier about this is that it's almost indistinguishable from adopting communism. Everyone either hates you or thinks you're an idiot. EXCEPT with communism equipped, harry thinks mostly about helping people. It makes a lot of sense when you remember the fact that when the game devs for this game were accepting an award for it, they thanked Marx and Engles.
@@visoriannull832 Harry fundamentally takes on extreme interpretations of every ideology in the game as a coping mechanism for the tragedy that is his life, and it’s amazing to see the amount of care given to extending an understanding of why each ideology appeals to his fractured mind. Each quest makes him something of a Don Quixote, searching for a purer purpose through political thought, failing spectacularly with it, but still fundamentally developing him and inspiring others beside him.
Kim is literally the reason I've had such a hard time getting through Disco Elysium. I love him so much, he's so pure, and I want him to LIKE ME SO MUCH!
When you are morally and mentally kidnaped by a character in a videogame who is the kind to be an international treasure while still being realistic, you know the writting is godly
in some ways its fun to keep him on a low simmer the whole game, the ending where he gets to summerize everything is funnier because he's like "Well he appears insane but then it turned out everything he did was in fact all connected, even the church nightclub, the cryptid, the drugs, the communism..." he gets to eat a little crow. teleporting is the funniest part because he's like "YOU JUST CLIMBED THE LADDER WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED"
LMAO! In my first playthrough I was apparently a Mazovian socio-economicist AND a hustler and confused Kim how I could be both at the same time. lol. I have no idea what I did to get that. I figured I was supposed to ask people for money so I did every chance I got.
@@suicune2001 I think it happens if you get offered ultraliberalism from your conscience and get Indirect Modes of Taxation thought. If you accept, even if you don't lock-in the thought later, I think it marks you down as an ultraliberal.
@@suicune2001 I ended up with equal parts communist and ultraliberal and Kim was very confused as to how I'm "very vocal' about both views when in reality I failed to realize that apparently I assumed the wrong context for what ultraliberal was supposed to mean and didn't realize it was basically the capitalism option
@@aSlimyDragon LOL! In my first play through, I somehow wound up being a Mazovian socio-economist who wants to liquidate the ruling class and an ultraliberal hustler who is always on the grind. XD I don't see it as confusing. I want to liquidate the ruling class - STRAIGHT INTO MY POCKETS!
Each political prompt comes from a different part of the skillset: your brain wants you to be communist, your heart wants you to be moralist, your body wants you to be fascist, and your agility wants you to be capitalist.
@@Sunrise_Parabellum1945 nah i was great friends with kim even as a racist and fascist. he's a totally chill guy, but it probably helps if you have high empathy and esprit de corps
If you were to choose the "Noble Sufferer" option, Kim's off-handedly supportive of it Kim doesn't think anyone should call themselves that, but he does seem to like the concept of Harry quitting the drink even in the name of suffering
@@cosmicspacething3474Excerpt from the notebook of Kim Kitsuragi: Detective from Precinct 41 - sloppy bearing, yet strong track record - retrograde amnesia - strong investigative instincts - racist (intentional or subconscious?) - "the icebreaker" (fascistic delusion of grandeur???) *MORE INFO NEEDED
If you choose the Firewalk option when you talked with the station kim also mentions that nickname in the Cousteau sentence. I really like all the details this game has.
I just tried a second playthrough, going a completely different way than how I first went through, and I couldn’t bring myself to continue after clearly disappointing Kim by punching the shit out of Cuno. Realized I couldn’t take a whole game of letting him down. Glad to be able to watch it in bits and pieces elsewhere
@@suicune2001 I also lied to him about not having my badge or gun, and it felt awful not telling him the truth and leaving him to find out in the shittiest possible ways. I don’t know how this game managed to make me care so much what a fictional character thinks of me, but here we are
@@archsteel7 Same here, I like Kim way to much. Want to do a Fascist play through but I just can't, because I would have to be a dick to him (as far as I know), and I don't want to do that. And how he praised me for being a Moralist at the ending to.
punching cuno is important for the good cuno ending though that nessecitates letting kim get shot at the end though I think it's healthy for everyone to get punched in the face at least once early in their life so they dont fuck around and find out at a much worse time
Kim is one of the best companions I have seen in a video game. It always made anxious to make decisions that may disappoint him. During the tribunal, when I saw that he REALLY thrusted me, i was so touched and so happy! But as in real live, shit can always happen. I failed the roll despite the high chances I had of succeeding. It broke my heart! However, as the game wants to teach us, we learn about our failures so better things can come. Having Cuno as a companion was so fun, and for me, one of the most touching parts of the game, was confronting my squat with my friend Cuno by my side, seeing how he finds the company that he desperately needs by him side. If you didn't have it in your playthrough, let the poor Kim to be shot so you can explore the island with Kuno. But don't worry, we are told that Kim doesn't die, he is in the hospital recovering.
Yep! Kim is so incredibly well-written! We'd take a bullet for him! I have done the Cuno route and even the message you see in his room breaks my heart. I don't remember if I uploaded that footage. I think I did. Even after being shot, he's concerned about YOU. He's worried you'll blame yourself and spiral downward.
That was a display of Kim's massive Authority. If you try to get him to tell you about himself, you get into a "brow off" The check was unbeatable until the recent release
Man I love moments like these with Kim, this one and whenever you confront Kim about his sexuality he drops it there as well. And Harry is just like “….. ok…” and I think it’s realistic like that.
I remember when I talked to Kim he said he was gay. I asked him "if he was a part of the homo sexual underground" and he said yes. Idk tho, doesn't matter to me either way, he'll always be my favorite character!
What a perfect game. Truly; the dialogue always had me in stitches and on the verge of tears nearly always. My god, why isn't this game far more revered.
Hands down one of the best games ever made. Apparently it originally came out without voice dialogue. The voice acting really sells it for me but the dialogue itself is also really great.
@@suicune2001 I couldn't agree more, the voices every one of them are fitting and haunting. When a bit of harrier's addled mind speaks up I hear it deeply; the dialogue is intoxicating.
@@suicune2001 though I do like cuno's original actor over the "remaster" otherwise a masterclass in game design, and deserves far more than it's gotten, than any game in my opinion. This is truly the most human peice of art I've ever encountered; it's messy and sad, but hopeful and wants better. More than music; movies, literature. This stands as a pinnacle above it all. Even the story of its conception is a force of hopefulness in this void of an existance.
@@Greendawn-di3dl Agreed. When I first started playing, I was going to be the worst person possible just for fun. But very early on where you have that call to your co-workers and one of them stood up for you while everyone was making fun of you, really hit me hard. I decided right then and there I'd take a redemption arc. So when we wound up in the church and the guy was telling Rapheal to stop drinking, even Kim had to agree. I even got the sobriety thought and the message was so great. I anguished when I found my car for the first time. Then I had the moment where we sat on the swings while we waited for the water to go down. I tried to whistle but just wound up spitting instead. Kim smiled but encouraged me to keep trying. I didn't want to stop being Rapheal. Being Harrier meant I had to take on all the responsibility of being a screw up and not even remember. But I eventually gave in. At the end his partner accuses Harrier of getting all those people killed, I could feel him slip back into depression and despair. Then Kim came to the rescue. This is the kind of art only a game could produce. The kind that really hits you in ways you'd never expect. Then you go back again and again and find different parts of humanity buried there in little stories and perspectives.
To be fair Kim is stoic throughout all the crap you do but the moment you get a legit angry reaction then you know you fucked up or you're being too ridiculous that you got on his nerves. It's like when you see the calm quiet person beat the shit out of someone because a hot topic button was pressed a little too hard.
one of my fav interactions is when kim raises his voice at the racist lorry driver, one because i love seeing kim stand up for himself two its one of the times you get to see him exercise Full Authority on someone who deserves it.
@@jjju3 *Full Authority.* _Damn,_ imagine if Amplified Skills were a thing. How they'd work, if it'd have to be your signature skill, etc. Maybe other similar skills would drain into that skill for a check and allow you to have one roll with the Amplified skill maxed out.
I need to know how you made Harry look like he finally showered, I have left him shave in the old woman’ shack and he turned into the picture of the saddest clown on earth
@@thexguy415 Yep!! I chalk it up to he has brain damage and is just easily manipulated by Gary. :( Geez, I just wondered how his co-workers would take to the change after they get back to the office. Yikes.
Hmm... I guess Kim really just doesn't like the word Icebreaker. When I did this quest I told Kim that I was "The last kingsman." And then he said, "The last kingsman..." he repeats pensively, inspecting your face. "That's fitting, I suppose. Almost as if you *did* manage to turn back time. If only for yourself." "Alright, detective," he reaches out and pats you on the arm. It feels strangely encouraging. "Let's get going, we've got a killer to catch." Empathy is right, and pretty literally too. It's not that Kim won't accept the new you; Kim just doesn't get the Icebreaker metaphor, but he'll understand if you say it another way.
Maybe it's because you're adding another label to yourself. We already walk around saying, "I am a cop! TELL ME EVERYTHING YOU KNOW! I am Raphael!" He probably doesn't want, "I am Icebreaker!" to go along with that.
Kim swearing at me makes me feel like a real asshole. Like how badly do you have to be fucking up for the most patient man in the world to lose his temper? I’d be like a kid, just looking at my shoes. “Sorry, Kim.”
I love that Kim yells at you so loudly it causes you _physical damage._ Like conceivably he could yell at you with such intensity that you die on the spot.
You know...the whole master switch concept might make some meta sense. I mean, according to a certian divine figure, you were always...off. its played for mostly laughs in the game, but its clear that the detective has severe mental issues. Perhaps he heard that exact phrase before, from someone...?
I would say he has schizophrenia or something similar and clearly he's an addict so yeah, something is definitely off about him. (even his own inner voices are like "WTF is wrong with you?" Also, Kim is just badass so his disapproval would absolutely turn a switch in my head. lol
@@suicune2001 The three situations where all of your skill come together and agree on the same thing: the Mercenary Tribunal, where they all join forces to try and keep Harry alive. Meeting Dora in the dream, where they all come together to hate themselves, a reflex of Harry's own self-hatred when he thinks of Dora. And the Icebreaker, where they all come together to agree that, when having to choose between siding with Harry or Kim, Kim is always the obvious choice, because he's Kim
Bro is NO LONGER Raphael Ambrosius Costeau... 💀😳 Also, yeah.. Kim must have like 99 in Authority. Dude just says "Fuck" and even your own thoughts defect to his side. What a chad.
It's that type of writing and just general decency you come to imagine from a responsible adult and just hearing it in such a tone that makes it all that much more serious
I felt actual physical pain hearing Kim drop that F-bomb. Not since Devil May Cry 5 has an F-bomb been so emotionally impactful, but in this case it hurt while that one was hype.
