It’s been a few years since this review, and all I’d like to mention is if you want to play this game, don’t buy it. Pirate it. If you haven’t heard, an estonian businessman seized control of ZA/UM and kicked the creators out of the company. It’s being puppeted by scum. Which, is incredibly ironic given the content of this game.
Literally the only time I save scummed was to save Kim (I had a 95% chance to save him too, I just rolled a critical failure.) I could not let that happen to him.
@@ColossalRay if youve been going for 100% i recommend trying just once. i was stunned by how much that specific ending tugged my heartstrings (also kim can get shot and still live)
Also my personal highlight was dancing with the kiddos and Kim... in a strange, holy place. The Shivers activation in that moment brought me near to tears. I love DE.
Your calling Kim a twink icon made my hand click the like button of its own volition before I'd even finished the video. Love your description of The Pale as discourse. I have heard The Pale described as a world built upon something other than power and capital, a world we cannot imagine because we accept the world around us (Martinaise) as the natural state. Anything other than this is spooky scary sci-fi to be afraid of. What a great video, I cannot personally be mean to Kim as it hurts me in the feels and gives me the big sad and kills my vibes. You are a trooper for even getting halfway through that playthrough.
> I have heard The Pale described as a world built upon something other than power and capital, a world we cannot imagine because we accept the world around us (Martinaise) as the natural state. That twist is tickling my funny bone and wrinkling my brain. It's a beautiful, poetic and very funny satirical jab towards people like me, and is only partly dismissed by me because it feels slightly more on the nose than what Disco Elysium usually throws around.
Shivers: you feel a nice warm feeling on your chest. It raises your hair on the back of you're head. Revachol calls Empathy: there's passion on his words. He means it Suggestion: you should consider subscribing Authority: No, you should subscribe Logic: it's the obvious choice. Limbic system: subscribes*
@@ScrapTakes Healed Morale 1+ Empathy [legendary:success]: He means it. It was a true genuine compliment Shivers[low:passed]: A warm comfy feeling is taking over your body. you feel a sense of gratitude while reading his response. Conceptualization [medium:fail]: I got nothing witty to say. You could just thank him for his video and response? Volition [medium:passed]: that would be better response Logic: make it short Ancient Reptilian Brain: you put the Disco in my Elysium baby
Another part of the *vibes* that goes underapprecited (except by jacob geller) is the shivers skill. Just really leaning into the vague sense of this cold dying world around you and the other people trying to live in it. 20/10 extremely disco.
On my playthrough of getting the achievment "Get to the lowest point with Kim" I had to stop because, when he gave me an ace's high, I declined and felt so bad I stopped playing.
One of the greatest moments was when I was fangasming to the guy with a cigarette and Kim could barely keep his laughter. Also when I had internalized Wompty Dompty thought with high Encyclopedia stat. Since then I was swimming in money and XP.
This is my favourite game of all time. I am on my 5th play through, 160+ hours into the game and still discovering new dialogue options. I have consumed every bit of disco elysium content on RU-vid and your video essay is a great addition. I love your take on the game and the editing is superb. Thank you for your contribution sir! The day that ZAUM announce a new game or DLC in this incredible fictional universe cannot come soon enough! Liked and subscribed!
Thanks very much! Yeah I'm trying to enjoy the perks of being a small channel and focus purely on production quality so its really nice to see people appreciate that 😁
related to the final part: the devs, especially one of the main devs robert kurvitz is a huge communist, lenin bust on his work desk kind of thing, and it's really interesting to see how he characterizes his own ideology in the game. Like you said the ideologies do not give happiness to the people who espouse them, and you can clearly see that through how communism is described in the game, one quote that stuck with me is "communism is about abject failure", not because of any flaw with the economic theory (marxist economic theory of value and labour is still used today by capitalists even) but it's more about how it gave hope, only to watch that hope get stamped out, bombarded by artillary fire, crushed by the personification of the status quo, the moralintern. The "solution" description for communism itself talks about how you realize the enormous impossibility of a communist revolution under the oppressive moralintern, and how the dreams that kraz mazov gave you now create nothing but pain, as you can see a better world that is impossible to reach. At the same time though, another quote that really stuck out to me was the one by the communist student Steban in the communist political vision sidequest, "In the dark times, should the stars also go out?". where Ioseph stands for regret, hopelessness and the glorifying of a past revolution so much so that it attains a golden untouchable status, to the point that theres no more chances for another revolution, Steban instead is the opposite: there's still hope out there as long as there are stars, and the stars will always shine.
The game also outright tells you it’s theme if you ask rethoric if communism is love when you get the thought. Communism and love share one thing, they have both horribly failed in Martinaise, but that doesn’t mean that we should give up
At the same time, the hopeless idealism of the communists has lead them to believe in crazy things like them basically accumulating communism mana to become Saiyans. Idealism that makes those Mazovians kinda irrelevant (or effectively backing the Samarans - North Korea) as the Social-Democratic unions actually do stuff for workers.
There's a lot of focus on what could have been. The sheer weight of the bright future that was stamped out in its crib. But in the end I think that future can never be killed, only returned to its slumber over and over. But the misery that will awaken it will never go away while it sleeps. Sooner or later it will awaken for good. Maybe in our lifetime, maybe long after. But at some point.
@@PristianoPenaldoSUIIII throughout history, the one thing that has always been true, is that things always change. For that we're lucky, inevitably one day something better will arise
Funny to hear someone else’s story recap when it’s different from mine! I found out that Klassje was on the run from our conversation and let Ruby go so she never killed herself. DE is so great at choices impacting the rest of the story without the “Everyone will remember that” type handholding
I can’t exactly explain why, but this game gave me a new perspective on love. Harry spends the game stressed about people leaving, about things changing. I’ve spent a good portion of my life not experiencing things because I know it will end one day. This game sort of put a good spin on that “everything ends eventually” mindset. If Harry and Dora had stayed together, one of them would’ve died eventually. Everyone ends up alone, somehow. And that’s ok. What matters is if you cherished the time you ere together or not. Then you can find new people in your life- like Kim. Idk if this makes any sense but that’s just how I feel. As a person with an anxiety disorder, this depressing game somehow made me not as scared of change, and I commend it for that. You’ll probably never see the speed freaks, Cuno, Lena, or any of the other people you helped again. But at least you got to bond with them.
This was great. I've watched a dozen video essays, because I just can't get enough of Disco Elysium but you are the first one to go at it with actual humor and normal observation. Love it.
@@ScrapTakes Perfect middle ground! Not focusing solely on the emotional aspect, not bringing out the Theory Bible(tm) to explain a blown up statue, but talking about the game's politics and how they made you feel
I feel that Disco Elysium is like reading a book, a really good one that you can see the imagines exactly like your imagination point on and this is something that i never experienced in anything, this is something powerful and extremely rich, vivid to the core of it's creation, it's magic, what Disco Elysium did was magic and everybody should at least once in your life as enjoyer of video game should try it because will got you good.
I've only managed to play it once. It was so powerful an experience I think it gave me Stendhal Syndrome, and now hearing a single tidbit of the soundtrack is enough to overwhelm me.
You begin to forget yourself the more you argue about who you are. What you believe becomes murky and confused. It's a sort of loss, who you are now, is not who were or who you will be. You are thousands of forgotten selves. Poetry is how those first expeditions staved off the forgetting of selves, long enough to see the Insulindian Miracle. Art, Poetry, music and passion are how humans beat away the Pale, how we remember that we are more than what we believe. More than an ideology.
Brilliant. I teared up at the last part about human connection being the only time you feel like you've affected the world in any meaningful way. I also *loved* your metaphor about being born into this world, and quickly being told that you must discover what to believe. Thank you for a Disco Elysium video essay that says something new and profound. :)
disco is my favorite game of all time and i loved how u interpreted the pale! its hard to encapsulate what disco means to me and what its about through words (as its so much more of a 'feeling'), and this video was the perfect balance of vibes and also "big brain" thought moments, lol. also the music in the background was lovely!
This is one of the best essays I've enountered on this game. I just finished my own second playthrough after first playing a few years ago, and you've found a way to read DE that feels really close to my experience. Thank you for taking the time to articulate this
Incredible video I had done a playthrough back in 2019 Played it a second time in 2022, after Covid, during the war, I finished my studies. I have never feared death and the future as much as in the past few days playing this game. It is a masterpiece, but it can be hard on you. 11/10 would recommend. Your video really put words on what I was feeling. I felt miserable the past few days even though I was enjoying how masterful this game is. I might have underestimated the impact it was having on me. A game I will probably never forget. Even more after a second playthrough.
Came up twice in recommended, tried it the second time. You capture an excellent confluence of school of life and game reviewers like mandalore and Seth. Quality vid, great writing.
The quality of this writing/editing is insane considering your sub count. I wish i was making videos this well at 2k subs!!! Keep up the great work, fantastic video!
This was a pleasure to watch! Loved the text, delivery and visual humor. I hadn't exactly watched many DE essays yet, just a few reviews, which mostly described how choosing stuff is fun and the crazy variability (or a disappointing lack of it). It was immensly satisfying to hear how you highlighted the role that Kim as a character and the choice between disappointing him and making him trust the detective played in the experience. Because damn it played a huge role for me. I really enjoyed your take on how the ideologies were presented in the game and on *what was the point*. And the cherry on top is the beatiful versions of the DE ost on the background. Thank you for making this video!
Disco Elysium Political Compass alignment chart: Moralist: Lawful Neutral and successful Communist: Chaotic Good and depressed Ultraliberal: Chaotic Neutral and successful Fascist: Lawful Evil and depressed
This video was a joy to watch! The editing is really funny, and I found myself nodding a lot, but also smiling and laughing while I listened. Thank you so much for your work!
This is a great video! I love the brief shift from almost Pythonesque cutout animation to Bill Wurtz-flavoured history-telling, an the song-covers are amazing. Subscribed!
really great editing, also a really well done Bill Wurtz style history! I listen to your versions of the soundtrack almost every day, they're fantastic. You should really consider making more of those, you seem to have a knack for it.
Thanks so much, I think you're the first one to catch the Bill Wurtz bit! Yeah, blown away by the response to the soundtrack, just a shame that no other game has a soundtrack as strong as Disco Elysium's
This game is savagely well written, especially the political quests. Even though the devs are socialists themselves it was really fun to see them poke fun and deride the short comings of their own politics as well as all the other possible factions in the game. I probably fall in the ultraliberal camp in my own politics and almost laughed a lung up when I found that shipping container. Especially when I realised I can bump the magical avatar of rampant capitalism for 100 real 😂 Disco Elysium is by far my favourite game of the last few years because of the writing. I really hope they expand the universe in some way. I’d love to play a sequel or another game in the universe but a book or anything in that world would be so awesome.
I’m so grateful to have found your video, your final summary is magnificent describing how the history of mankind is unknown until the moment we’re born and the push to “pick a side” is forced upon us within such a sliver of time our lives inhabit. You have a wonderful sense of humour and your even-handed interpretation was very much needed for a hefty game like this. Subscribed!
Fantastic vid and hilarious editing! Stoked about your next playthroughs. Also my human harry highlight i think is when you, kim, and the bartender guy at the hotel are all just nodding at each other it cracked me up
LOVED THIS! Best take on the game I've seen so far. This game is so hard to pin down, but your commentary along with your editing has done it the best from all the DE analysis videos I've watched. Just the right amount of intellectualizing + Vibes™. What a fantastic game, I wish everyone would pick it up.
love this- i was so confused with the ideologies simply because i didnt pay much attention at first, but after kim expressed disappointment once, i made sure to keep my options straight. this really cleared it up, as well as what the Pale even was (i missed the explanation from the phasmid, unfortunately). edit: “its not for everyone, but its definitely for me” is exactly how i feel about this game. easily in my top 3 favorites
Ive been on the fence about this gane for a while. But holy damn did "is there somethibg sinister in moralism? No god is in heaven and everything is normal on earth" has wholeheartedly convinced me
The worst thing I did in this game was shave off my mutton chops. Even worse than becoming a massive racist so measure head would let me into the harbor.
This game is very interesting to me. I think because I am such a film/tv series and gaming fan in terms of visual storytelling & interactive storytelling, that something about this game essentially feeling like a semi interactive novel is just bouncing off me. I think the writing is mostly wonderful, the sense of humour is incredible, the backstory/lore of the world is interesting, the art design is beautiful, the characters interesting, etc.. But I'm truly struggling with the complete lack of systems or interactivity, as well as how unnecessarily long winded MANY of the dialogue interactions feel. It feels like the game is using its amazing art work and great concepts to trick me into reading an extremely leisurely paced academic novel, like your mother hiding vegetables inside a deep fried pastry hahaha. I will likely keep coming back to this and maybe eventually fall in love with it, but it is the first "Slow/indie" game I've ever played that is truly making me question my attention span. Maybe it's because I didn't grow up playing point & click adventure games or reading many novels, but I was expecting more of a CRPG akin to something like oldschool Fallout/Wasteland where there are still gameplay/mechanics/challenge to complement the dense writing.
Yeah I do get where you're coming from, it's definitely not a game for everyone or every mood. The way I play it is to turn off the voice acting after the first hour or two and just skip through the dialogue at the speed I read, which helps it feel a bit quicker and lighter. (Apologies to ZA/UM who went to the trouble of recording a million words lol)
@@ScrapTakes LOL Yeah I think the voice acting actually works AGAINST the pacing, I initially booted it up and was like thank god everything is actually voiced. But because there is SO much dialogue and they speak & perform it at such a laid back pace it can get a little crazy waiting for these guys to finish lol. I think I will try this and just go at the pace of my reading which is about 10x faster than the voice acting
Thank you so much for this video, added a whole new depth to a game that I had just finished and deeply adored. I don't think any other game could ever resonate with me as much and knowing the message and what to really take out of that resonation makes it all the more worth it.
I came across your video after I finished the game for the second time. It was the best review video not only for Disco Elysium but for any game, both in terms of text and visual-editing. I don't know what to say, great job, thanks, you should produce more content.
The fascist ideology is also not meant to let you finish the game If you internalize the fascist thought you will loose moral every time you pick a fascist dialogue option
Which is a shame from a gameplay freedom standpoint, albeit completely justified (see spoilers). I would've loved to hear what Kim has to say to your superiors about you having become a fucking ultra-nationalist. SPOILER TALK: The "Nationhood" thought makes you depressed and hopeless because nobody is capable of committing the atrocities necessary to establish an ethnostate. Just like "true" communism it's a thought experiment, a fever dream that cannot come true in the real world. This turns you into a bitter, depressed drunk and you lose morale every time you bring up nationalism again.
Hey, I just wanted to drop in and say that I really, really enjoyed this review. I like your style so I subbed, hoping for more content. This video really just hit a perfect spot for me.
If you haven't had a chance yet, I'd really advise you to take the time to do the full communist vision quest. It hammers home a lot of the comments you made about human connection while still being hilariously sardonic.
Your channel is so underrated. I hope that in near future you blow up. The quality of your presentation as well as very well thought of structure of your essay really deserves recognition
Great video. I enjoyed hearing your personal take on what was presented and appreciated that you stated your personal leanings beforehand so we could better understand the lense that you viewed the game through. Was legitimately surprised to see your subs and only a few videos as the quality standard of this video was so high I expected to see you'd been at it a lot longer. Keep it up.
AMAZING VIDEO! Perfectly conveys my feelings on the game as well as presented some new experiences I appreciate! Love your delivery and humor too keep up the great work!
Great video, thank you! I like your editing and points of view. Also the interesting thing is - you kinda reminding me of Roy and Gart at the same time. This fact is making the whole DE vibe of this review even greater.
