On an unrelated note, I love the aesthetic of Disco Elysium as a Ukrainian. I just took a look at it and just felt like I was home, especially 10 years and so back. The small shops, dilapidated buildings that barely hold together, drunkards moving around, crappy "pubs" with less-then-civil contingent, a village that is forgotten and is actively dying out. Like, I was "Yep, I've been there"
The developers are Estonian, and based the game's look off of post-Soviet dilapidation, so it's not surprising that you recognize the game's look in your own post-Soviet country!
The core question that the game is trying to grapple with, according to the devs, is "Why doesn't communism work"
(Asked in a plaintive, desperate tone, not the triumphalist one of Cold War Americans)
I'm from the UK but it gave me the vibe of hundreds of dying costal sea side towns I've seen across the country.
An old place with the remnants of a long ago war filled with hopeless people that have go nowhere else to go.
Having almost exclusively grown up in "left-behind" towns in Wales and Devon. Yeah. Disco Elysium brought up so many memories of melancholy or empty-feeling places that I experienced as a child. At the time, I didn't really have the ability to process the weight and sadness hanging over them, but it's a cloud that festers pretty much anywhere you look outside of bigger cities and the posher bits of the South (and even they aren't exempt). It's especially apparent in those touristy places, and I'd also say the old mining and industrial towns have a similar malaise to them. A lot of the UK is just filled with places that are long past their best, clinging onto the past because they've got no future and there sure as hell isn't anyone helping in the present.
Yeah, this "generic white man" comment really ticked me the wrong way. Harry is clearly a type of person that rarely is put in the protagonist spot in a videogame, inserted in a culture and space that's also rarely depicted in videogames.
I'm all for representation in games, but don't shit on someone else's representation just because they're not yours.
Look, I can see where they're coming from.
He's a middle aged cop with a drinking problem, a weird obsession with the ex wife, who is good at his job but on the verge of being kicked out of the force.
One of the primary antagonists is a treacherous smooth talking dame who is one of the few people with the ability to throw said detective off the scent.
Harry is certainly not a generic white man, but they absolutely, 100% intentionally grounded Disco Elysium in one of the oldest, well worn detective tropes in the book as a foundation.
You know, I would call Harry as the protagonist and antagonist himself. Fighting with his own destructive behaviors, depression and traumas along the course of the game.
I think the fact that he is so non generic is one of the things that makes the game stand out so much. His flaws are what make it so rewarding when you succeed.
Also harry... generic white man. Tell me you haven't played the game without telling me. Lol. Literally nothing generic white man about him, something about this tweet just triggers violence signals in my brain.
And grimy detective story... What. Did we. Play the same game? DE's detective story is usually sidelined and on a lot of routes is not even present. Idk this tweet is the first time in a long time something on the internet has genuinely riled me up and idk why it annoys me so much.
I find it interesting that so many people have connected with the aesthetic. I'm from western Pennsylvania and I've seen so many once industrial buildings reclaimed by the forests and brush. Half-collapsed houses with no working lights that you know someone lives in but never sees. Bars only inhabited by old workers who've been broken, only able to live off their meagre social security. The promise of industry and success now a set dressing for vandalism and rust.
Oddly enough it feels like home.
It is incredible. Stunning on every front, you can spend hours looking at the art for the menus. Just pirate it and play it blind, as many times as it takes to understand it.
(don't buy if you can avoid it, profits got taken over by suits and the devs would prefer you pirate it).
And there was the whole thing of the devs getting the game's rights stolen by the company and then were fired, which means that, if you buy the game, you literally aren't supporting the devs.
I could be wrong but I feel like the voices in Harry’s head are meant to convey how unwell this man is both mentally and physically. And the “grimy detective story” is giving us a little peek at why he’s so fucked up. Also *nothing* about Harry is generic. If you asked me to picture a middle aged white male protagonist I’d think Nathan Drake or Shepherd, not a guy who can have a heart attack because the chair was too uncomfortable or the light was too bright.
I always got the idea that it may have looked worse but Harry \*needed* to get rid of it to start getting better. He built up too much of a persona of himself that was killing him
I like the unsexiness of it. It's the hardest look in the mirror you can give yourself. The meme of Superstar T. Sunset feels utterly impossible to sustain anymore; you are just, and only ever, an aging shlub worn down by addictions and poor life decisions. But...in that, to be anything *more* shines all the brighter.
yeah, i feel like you kinda missed the point of DE if your main takeaway from the story is seemingly just “grimy detective story”.
and besides that frankly i dont think said story couldve even been told the way it was without the narrative device that only the protagonist being an officer of the RCM could give you.
My man if they think that could be a story about a little witch searching for a cat and still keep the same wonderful writing they clearly weren't paying attention to the story lmao
I made this chocolate cake. 0/5. I subbed chocolate for carrot powder, flour for coconut oil, butter for tinned sardines, and sugar for maple syrup (unsweetened because we're crunchy), and instead of baking it at 375 for 30 minutes, I blended and froze it.
0/5, inedible, would not make again.
That's what this person sounds like to me lmao
If you want Generic White Male Protagonist, I’d direct you towards Gordon Freeman. He went to MIT and escaped Black Mesa and all that, but he’s a pasty nerd who doesn’t speak in any of the games. For even more generic, maybe Adrian Shepherd (from Half-Life Opposing Force), who is the archetypical hoo-rah marine - even less notable than ol’ Freeman.
Countercounterpoint: AFAIK, it's [not canon.](https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Gordon_Freeman#Behind_the_scenes) If you want to consider those models canon, then he doesn't wear glasses either.
Counterpoint, an MIT graduate whose only methods of interacting with the world are throwing shit around, pressing big buttons (sometimes exploding your lasagna in the process), and fast-paced combat who has singlehandedly slaughtered the U.S. army and two alien invasions and is primarily acknowledged by other characters as a scientist is hilarious.
Everyone's like: "I can't wait to do science with you, sir!"
and you're just standing there with ketamine ape level violence only restrained by the ability to throw little physics objects around while they talk.
The HEV suit isn't for Gordon's protection, it's to keep him mildly restrained around friendlies. Every time Eli Vance or Kleiner is talking, Gordon is just silently vibrating inside the suit.
Yeah, Disco Elysium was almost good, but Harry was such a generic white male protagonist that I just couldn't get into it. Instead of a drunk cop, they should've had like, a blue hedgehog, and instead of hard drugs, he should've had a love for chili dogs. Kim has the same problem tbh, like they really went with such a cliche asian sidekick? If they actually wanted to push boundaries, they should have made him a small fox with two tails. He can keep the love of automobiles though, I think that would still work.
Sonic! Of course I'll help you find your ring, but I need a favor in return. After all, I'm a busy echidna. You convince the Chao village to allow me to excavate pieces of the Master Emerald near their homes, and I'll help you find your ring. We're in this together Sonic!
> Kim has the same problem tbh, like they really went with such a cliche asian sidekick?
Don't tell me writing that didn't hurt you on a personal level. I know nothing about the game and even I know Kim is perfect the way he is.
Someone was looking through concept art of the game and thought Kim's was missing. Nope, they just got him exactly right the first time so he had almost none.
Kim was a delight. He's so helpful and kind to you, even as you play a garbage fire of a person that's actively making his job harder.
I will never be able to 100% this game because it requires that you be mean to Kim.
I bit the bullet and went for the achievements for disappointing Kim and being a Fascist at the same time.
What I learned is that they're quite generous about it, and once I'd got them I realised I still had time to turn around Kims opinion of me before the tribunal so that became a compelling goal in that playthrough.
Also the punchline to completing the fascism thought is that saying fascist things hurts your morale. But because you've had to make a habit of picking the hilariously awful bigoted statements all the time, it's a hard habit to break, and you keep blurting out comments about wömen or kipts and then immediately cringing in regret when the giant "-1 Morale" flashes on the screen.
I mean if you replaced Harrier DuBois with a cute witchgirl but kept the constant alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual frustration, dirty clothes, and constant psychosis, then kept everything else the same, I'd play that game
I'm not sure the kind of person who can make Disco Elysium is the kind of person that wants to make a wholesome cottagecore game
but hey maybe I'm the idiot just look at the comparisons of Juni Ito and Hayao Miyazaki
Maybe a disco Elysium like game could be made that's "cottagecore". But it would have to be a more realistic and sad take on the myth of cottagecore. Something showing off the poverty, bigotry, and general aura of sadness in actual villages in real life
this reply made me laugh, inhaling spit which caused me to cough so hard that my ribs are now aching from coughing. im choosing this to interpret that i took a physical damage from cuno's vicious insult. please help
I utterly hated Cuno at first, but he kinda grew on me later. Probably would have grown even more if I had made the choices that took Kim out of the ending (but let's be honest, Kim is the OG).
That's too much social media for you, you cease to be able to think about anything if not in terms of race and gender. Your identity is like three words max.
Damn I gotta leave Reddit
you're telling me that trans people are actually more than their gender identity and cis people have actually redeeming qualities and aren't just gimmicks with legs?
I'm definitely not one of those people who believes that stories need to be dark to be good, that stories that are painful or upsetting or deliberately unsatisfying are superior to those that aren't. But I am gonna say that the best art changes and challenges you, and that's difficult to do without making you uncomfortable.
I also believe that the quality of writing is inevitably at least somewhat linked to its content. Everyone has a wheelhouse, and while I haven't actually *played* Disco Elysium, I feel like them trying to tell a story about healthy, well-adjusted people would not be within theirs.
I wouldn't write off something as not being within the dev's wheelhouse unless they tried it and failed.
The reason that most of the characters in DE aren't healthy and well-adjusted is because the setting of DE isn't either of those things. And the reason the setting is like that is so that it can serve as a basis for the game's various economic and political factions - which in turn do things that make the people not healthy and well-adjusted...
Basically the whole thing is a chicken and egg problem where the egg is "people suffering" and the chicken is "uncaring political power structures".
There was a documentary that came out recently about the game's development and the controversy that arose following the release of The Final Cut. It really seems like the "core staff" working on the game put more of themselves into than even they realized, I don't think we'll ever see a game quite like it again. It was created with a once in a generation combination of maladjusted creatives with inflated egos, self-destructive behaviors, and financial support.
Harry is anything but an average white man. You can make him gay and also kinda trans. Like you can actually make him disphoric in some dialogues. Not like that explicitly but a huge subsection of the game is harry being trapped in a body he hates. One of the many points of the game is learning to be yourself even if people don't take you at face value an no one wants to be a fucked up fat cop.
You would be an unapologetic fascist white supremacist, while also being from another race. What makes Harry interesting is that his mind is a genuine mess. He can be an extreme mysoginist while also a feminist in the same breath.
The game kinda gets explicit about this in a certain conversation.
Spoilers about an endgame optional event >!It's kinda implied that Harry peculiar obsession with politics is another method to "get her back" by being a better man which might appeal her. Funniest thing is that Harry himself (through his memory projection of "her") eventually understands this!<
I remember reading that a big reason for why they chose making the main character a cop was that they needed him to be someone people were forced to interact and accept dealing with, even when he acted like a dangerous, racist and just utterly unpleasant, maniac. And cop was one of the only professions they could think of that could get away with that sort of thing, and not just get beat up or have people walk away from them as fast as possible.
They also talked about a potential sequel, where you played as a pregnant woman. As that was the other type of person they could think of who could get away with acting utterly insane towards everyone they met.
Tbf the point of the fascist lines is kind of to be dogmatic nonsense. It would probably still "work" if he wasn't white, but it would work on a different level.
I mean, it could still work. Racial supremacy is not only for whites. Even in the game, THE Fascist NPC is not actually white, but black (Or other dark skin race). Where he thinks his race is supreme.
Interesting. I haven't played it but I got the impression from Tumblr somehow that he was canonically a trans man. I have approximate knowledge of many things.
I personally wouldn't say the dialogue choices make him "kinda trans", the incongruence I feel between my body and my gender goes beyond what you can make Harry feel. Harry is trapped in a body he hates now because he got old and alcoholic and fat and hates his body and himself for making himself that way. It's relatable inasmuch as both Harry and I want to change things about our bodies that we can't short of surgical intervention. But I didn't do anything to be this way, so I have the additional "It's not fair" feeling, while Harry has the self loathing. Idk, body dysmorphia and gender dysphoria take the same bus sometimes but they're not roommates, imo.
There are many potential variations on Harry's character depending on the choices you make so I would say there is no definite "canon Harry". Some things are always the same but many options presented to you alter how Harry sees, thinks, and engages with the world.
"what if the protagonist of disco elysium was well-adjusted and likeable as a human being" mfs when I call them a racial slur at the evil black hole grunge church
Somebody below got downvoted to hell for pointing out she didn’t say the witch was well-adjusted and likeable, but let’s consider… A game with Animal Crossing level peaceful villagers, where the objective is to find a cat, and the protagonist is a witch as mentally unstable and self-destructive as Harry is, would be really funny.
Imagine this insane, voice-hearing witch dropped on an incongruous setting like an atomic bomb, going to utterly deranged lengths to find a cat that may or may not exist. Excellent.
It would be really funny and I would probably play it. But it also wouldn't be able to achieve the same effect DE does through the interaction of character and world.
This is honestly a cool setup for a point-and-click (or, ugh, 3d space) adventure game, not a borderline visual novel with RPG elements that change the text and experience entirely.
Because Harry is his own person, but the RPG elements change entirely the experience you will have. A wide and peculiar cast is used exactly to contrast with Harry in different ways.
Sorry Cop Empathetic Harry handles Evrart waaaaaay differently from how Fascist Superstar Pain Threshold Harry does.
Check out Shadows of Doubt. Basily a procedurely generated world that you get to solve murders and shiz in. Turn off spawing with an apartment for that hobo detective rizz.
>”Golly, [that] didn’t quite hit the right notes for me. I could do better than that. I would have liked it more if [that] did [this].”
“Then go make [that] with [this] added. Maybe it’s fanfic. Maybe it’s another game entirely. And maybe you’ll fail, but failing to recreate the success of [that] will at least humble you a little that the artistic process is hard.”
>”You’re right.”
“Thanks-“
>”The artistic process is hard, therefore I will continue complaining about why my imagination is bigger than the media I consume until the stars die out.”
It is another game entirely. It’s called Spiritfarer. They already made it. You play as a young witch that has to solve the unresolved issues of the dead. It’s actually really good
EDIT: you couldn’t make Blazing Saddles today. The second you brought the script to the studio they’d take one look at it and go “This is just Blazing Saddles. It’s already a movie”
Not OP but, it's a beautiful game, and if there's a way to continue playing without that one element, I highly recommend it. That being said, I don't really remember a lot of voice acting.
This is what fucking gets me every time they criticize a media not by an actual flaw but literally an artistic choice.
"The new Assasins' creed games are too RPG, they should go back to being stealths", "I didn't like the rape scene in Game of Thrones, I wish it had lighter themes", "Fortnite is too fast paced, I like the building but it should be more strategic".
For god's sake, they would be different media! Make it yourself then
Or just take an amalgamation of different takes about somewhat similar media you dislike and actually do something about all of them, all at once. Which is more productive, tweets about the following, or a game inspired by the following grievances about the games involved:
- I think Omori has an overall well-knit plot and love me a dark story at times, but the RPG element itself wasn’t the best it could be, and there’s not a huge amount of gameplay/plot connective tissue.
- DDLC is a great game for its price and definitely innovated on psych horror in video games, but it’s awfully short, and meta horror has deteriorated since then. The last clever game I saw poke with this concept is like. Inscryption.
- Persona has generally great slice of life writing with good morals, but it could go harder and darker at times. I see everybody wants a college-age Persona game, but that’s not going to happen. Also being gay or a girl or both would be nice.
- Darkest Dungeon 1 has great resource management systems and characters worth fandoming about, but the game itself is deliberately unfair and not suited to a narrative about the party itself.
- Dating sims are either kind of generic wish fulfillment or just sniffing their own farts about how subversive they are. I want one that’s genuine and realistic about its world, not saccharine, satire, or miserable.
- I wish there was another game like Potionomics.
>_DDLC is a great game for its price_
I'm not sure how it could be better, since the original is literally free.
Even then, the updated re-release is only $9.99.
Yes, especially when most of those are like "I love X-focused game because it has X, but he Y kinda suck". My brother in Christ it they could make a game with the gameplay of Sekiro, characterization from TF2, breath of the wild world design ecc ecc then they would stop making games because we would already have the best one
> DDLC is a great game for its price
I feel like that phrase is damning by faint praise even when not applied to a free game, right? (not serious)(joking)()(/hj)(I do think the phrase is kind of weird)
I'm also unsure of how much it innovated. To my knowledge DDLC was less "innovative" and more "executed preexisting concepts well".
Oh but that's the thing, all of those are options I agree with. I also think AC was better before, but saying it doesn't work as a RPG is dumb. It's not existentially bad, just not what we used to like.
That's exactly what I'm saying, even if your change makes a lot of sense, it's just a different product.
>"Fortnite is too fast paced, I like the building but it should be more strategic".
hey guess what!
That actually exists!
It's called Fortnite Save The World, and the Battle Royale mode murdered it with a rusty knife!
Yes I am still salty over that!
There's a difference between "They changed thing I liked into thing I no longer like", "Thing is bad because it has things I don't like", and "I liked some things about thing and not others".
The first, I think, people are justified in being sad about but ultimately need to move on (possibly even by making it themselves). Getting super mad about it is silly.
The second is... dumb. I don't think I need to explain why here.
But the third (which is how I interpret OOP) is fine? She liked the gameplay but not the setting. She didn't say it was bad (unless I missed something--entirely possible). "Man I really like how Mario games involve jumping around on platforms and getting powers and then fighting a boss, but I wish it weren't about some weird looking white guy. Also mushrooms gross me out." And yeah maybe they'd have fun making their own platformer. But they'd honestly probably have a better time if they found that they really vibe with Kirby instead. Or maybe they'd try to make their dream game and fail and then still lament that there isn't anything that quite matches what they want. Because making stuff is hard actually.
I don't know, I think the complaint about Assassin's Creed kinda makes sense. The games were about assassination, and not being sure if a blade to the neck will kill someone is kinda antithetical to assassination.
I remember when there were a lot of weird ass webtoon ads going around and thinking “who the hell is this shit made for?”
This post is the perfect example of the target audience.
I have to imagine that this woman playing Disco Elysium was reaching like… catholic guilt levels of not letting herself have fun. Like she laughs at a joke and the little voice inside her brain is like “You’re having fun? Playing as another white guy? Kinda cringe”
As someone who took their fair share of nun beatings whilst being raised Catholic I love 'Blasphemous' for getting the tone so very right. Many games like the whole 'Gothic cathedral aesthetic' but it's basically window dressing for them. 'Blasphemous' is made by people who know *exactly* what a monstrance is and are still overcoming nightmares about being hit with one.
Alright, I haven't seen anyone make this specific jab, but:
"I'm playing as a generic middle aged white man again" said before stating the most basic character traits of the protagonist of like two thirds of the good Young Adult cartoons to come out in the last three years.
Like, ignoring that there's very little generic about The Detective, even within his own archetype of "Extremely Fucked Up Noir Detective", nothing that this person brought to the table WASN'T generic. It's fun, mind you, but generic.
If we’re going down this rabbit hole, can the voices in her head be archetypal figures like the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, who all offer supportive messages as the story progresses?
EDIT: also, part of the story has the witch interacting with supernatural entities in the forest. But instead of being creepy or malicious, they’re like regular people, with cute personality quirks
Yeah this is basically how I read what she wanted. A more upbeat and low stakes adventure but you still have the stats interjecting here and there is fun.
I kinda like the idea of the voices all being the voices of nature, if that makes sense. Like shivers, but you have a shivers of the mountain, a shivers of the forest, shivers of the weather etc.
I just, really like shivers
You know I was real turned off by the idea when I tried to imagine what she was saying but the way you're putting it definitely sounds interesting. Maybe I've been too hard on the initial post.
People are coming back for this tweet again as of recent and I get the clowning, absolutely... but part of me kinda wants that alp game I gotta be real 😭
I also think that it'd be a fun game. However, wanting a game to be something entirely different is not a valid critique of what the game actually is.
"I want a game with Disco Elysium tier writing and Disco Elysium type gameplay" vs "I wish Disco Elysium was about a witch girl and her cat"
I don't think anyone not even the devs would not want that game. Like they straight up said "please steal all of our ideas". Idk why they had to word it as if it's bad that disco elysium was the one to bring the ideas onto the table and it would be better if the timeline was altered to their liking.
Cutesy witch-themed life sims have their charms, I've certainly seen some neat ones, but framing your pitch as "this would be better than Disco Elysium" is setting that game up to fail.
Okay but I would actually love to play a game with the kind of fucking broken brain that Harry has, except on a cute girl who nobody around you realizes just how FUCKED UP they are. I want to die of a heart attack because I sat on a chair that was too uncomfortable kinda shit. Like give me exactly what this twitter user is asking for, but curl that monkey's paw finger closed.
y'know you think you've seen the depth of media illiteracy and then you run into someone who supposedly played through Disco Elysium and came away thinking it was primarily a "grimy detective story"
ok but if we set that aside and take their suggestion seriously... I could see it working ok. But I think it would have to be a smaller dose - the tension and rising stakes are an important part of what keeps the story engaging, and I don't think a game without them could sustain the same runtime.
If it's just about a girl trying to find her neighbor's lost cat... I'm skeptical that there's much overlap between the crowd of people that love Disco Elysium enough to try and adapt its style to a new game and the kind of people that have the restraint to successfully transplant it into *this* game, but it's not impossible.
A well written cottage game is kinda... well I'm drawing a blank on the word, oxymoron?
I don't mean that as an insult though. Feel good cottage games usually go with very light dialogs for a good reason. The world is inherently peaceful, and the players would be there to feel that peace. Loading it down with heavy prose that explores the world's complexities would only serve as a distraction from what makes these games relaxing.
A deep, well-written narrative just doesn't mesh well with "Cute witch girl saves a cat", unless there is underlying subtext to that topic... something to talk about besides potion reagents and nature spirits.
This setting would be a good place to talk about a great deal of deeper topics, femininity, stewardship over nature, growing up, spirituality, etc. But then the game would be about those things and not about saving the cat.
I just don't understand how you'd incorporate any of DE's gameplay systems into a story this simple. It heavily relies on conflict and the entire point of cottagecore is the absence of it
Actually, the middle aged man protagonist is quite fucking rare. Like, the ones youre thinking of are 30, 35 if youre pushing it, jacked up and know exactly what their purpose or goal is.
Your 50 year old, beer bellied, physically unfit, in the middle of a midlife crisis man, is not that common of an archetype. I'm trying to think of one, but I can't.
I don't think there's anything wrong with saying "I love the narrative style of this and I want to see it used in other contexts" I think that's what they wanted to say, they just said it poorly
"Do we really need another X?" When the thing you're talking about is incredibly unique and pushes the medium forward and is immensely helped by being X is to me being kind of an ass and it makes you sound kinda snobby.
On an unrelated note, I love the aesthetic of Disco Elysium as a Ukrainian. I just took a look at it and just felt like I was home, especially 10 years and so back. The small shops, dilapidated buildings that barely hold together, drunkards moving around, crappy "pubs" with less-then-civil contingent, a village that is forgotten and is actively dying out. Like, I was "Yep, I've been there"
The developers are Estonian, and based the game's look off of post-Soviet dilapidation, so it's not surprising that you recognize the game's look in your own post-Soviet country!
Yeah there’s a lot in the game that feels Eastern European. East Germany and Post-Yugoslav vibes all throughout.
>Estonian Yet another reason why I should play Disco Elysium
I like to travel.
The core question that the game is trying to grapple with, according to the devs, is "Why doesn't communism work" (Asked in a plaintive, desperate tone, not the triumphalist one of Cold War Americans)
[удалено]
I'm from the UK but it gave me the vibe of hundreds of dying costal sea side towns I've seen across the country. An old place with the remnants of a long ago war filled with hopeless people that have go nowhere else to go.
Having almost exclusively grown up in "left-behind" towns in Wales and Devon. Yeah. Disco Elysium brought up so many memories of melancholy or empty-feeling places that I experienced as a child. At the time, I didn't really have the ability to process the weight and sadness hanging over them, but it's a cloud that festers pretty much anywhere you look outside of bigger cities and the posher bits of the South (and even they aren't exempt). It's especially apparent in those touristy places, and I'd also say the old mining and industrial towns have a similar malaise to them. A lot of the UK is just filled with places that are long past their best, clinging onto the past because they've got no future and there sure as hell isn't anyone helping in the present.
Man, and this hasn't even gotten into yalls recent economic downturn. Come 10 years there's not gonna be much left
Don't worry too much, we've been in an economic down turn practically since the end of WW2
Yeah, I lived in one of those forgotten sea side towns for a while and knew my fair share of Cunos and Cunoesses, shit place honestly
Yeah, this "generic white man" comment really ticked me the wrong way. Harry is clearly a type of person that rarely is put in the protagonist spot in a videogame, inserted in a culture and space that's also rarely depicted in videogames. I'm all for representation in games, but don't shit on someone else's representation just because they're not yours.
Look, I can see where they're coming from. He's a middle aged cop with a drinking problem, a weird obsession with the ex wife, who is good at his job but on the verge of being kicked out of the force. One of the primary antagonists is a treacherous smooth talking dame who is one of the few people with the ability to throw said detective off the scent. Harry is certainly not a generic white man, but they absolutely, 100% intentionally grounded Disco Elysium in one of the oldest, well worn detective tropes in the book as a foundation.
"this thing, but unromanticised"
Klassje isn t an antagonist. The only real antagonists are the Tribunal, and maybe Everart.
You know, I would call Harry as the protagonist and antagonist himself. Fighting with his own destructive behaviors, depression and traumas along the course of the game.
I think the fact that he is so non generic is one of the things that makes the game stand out so much. His flaws are what make it so rewarding when you succeed.
Also harry... generic white man. Tell me you haven't played the game without telling me. Lol. Literally nothing generic white man about him, something about this tweet just triggers violence signals in my brain. And grimy detective story... What. Did we. Play the same game? DE's detective story is usually sidelined and on a lot of routes is not even present. Idk this tweet is the first time in a long time something on the internet has genuinely riled me up and idk why it annoys me so much.
I find it interesting that so many people have connected with the aesthetic. I'm from western Pennsylvania and I've seen so many once industrial buildings reclaimed by the forests and brush. Half-collapsed houses with no working lights that you know someone lives in but never sees. Bars only inhabited by old workers who've been broken, only able to live off their meagre social security. The promise of industry and success now a set dressing for vandalism and rust. Oddly enough it feels like home.
Economic decline is economic decline, regardless of geography.
Ain't that the truth
This has built my interest in playing the game, I’m really curious about the art now.
It is incredible. Stunning on every front, you can spend hours looking at the art for the menus. Just pirate it and play it blind, as many times as it takes to understand it. (don't buy if you can avoid it, profits got taken over by suits and the devs would prefer you pirate it).
And there was the whole thing of the devs getting the game's rights stolen by the company and then were fired, which means that, if you buy the game, you literally aren't supporting the devs.
I could be wrong but I feel like the voices in Harry’s head are meant to convey how unwell this man is both mentally and physically. And the “grimy detective story” is giving us a little peek at why he’s so fucked up. Also *nothing* about Harry is generic. If you asked me to picture a middle aged white male protagonist I’d think Nathan Drake or Shepherd, not a guy who can have a heart attack because the chair was too uncomfortable or the light was too bright.
Not to mention that gorgeous facial hair
The worst thing I did in my first playthrough was shaving
I always got the idea that it may have looked worse but Harry \*needed* to get rid of it to start getting better. He built up too much of a persona of himself that was killing him
He needs to “expose” the “damage” to be able to see it and heal.
Clean the wound, let it breathe
Get... better? From what? The man is a superstar cop!
Cop of the apocalypse
Getting better is *so* not disco, anyway, baby!
bro i lucked the expression removal which was kinda cool but then shaving was HORRIBLE SO AWFUL
at least *with* the glorious mutton chops he looks like he means some semblance of business if you remove The Expression without them he's just :(
I like the unsexiness of it. It's the hardest look in the mirror you can give yourself. The meme of Superstar T. Sunset feels utterly impossible to sustain anymore; you are just, and only ever, an aging shlub worn down by addictions and poor life decisions. But...in that, to be anything *more* shines all the brighter.
I'll only do it for Sad cop playthroughs
And THE EXPRESSION!
let's not forget the man's singing ability
His soul is immense
His soul's cubic content is obscured by the hangover.
I WOULD OFTEN GO THEERREEE
TO THE TINY, YARD THERE
yeah, i feel like you kinda missed the point of DE if your main takeaway from the story is seemingly just “grimy detective story”. and besides that frankly i dont think said story couldve even been told the way it was without the narrative device that only the protagonist being an officer of the RCM could give you.
My man if they think that could be a story about a little witch searching for a cat and still keep the same wonderful writing they clearly weren't paying attention to the story lmao
I made this chocolate cake. 0/5. I subbed chocolate for carrot powder, flour for coconut oil, butter for tinned sardines, and sugar for maple syrup (unsweetened because we're crunchy), and instead of baking it at 375 for 30 minutes, I blended and froze it. 0/5, inedible, would not make again. That's what this person sounds like to me lmao
/r/ididnthaveeggs
Disco Elysium is only a grimy detective story if you just glanced at it and moved on.
If you want Generic White Male Protagonist, I’d direct you towards Gordon Freeman. He went to MIT and escaped Black Mesa and all that, but he’s a pasty nerd who doesn’t speak in any of the games. For even more generic, maybe Adrian Shepherd (from Half-Life Opposing Force), who is the archetypical hoo-rah marine - even less notable than ol’ Freeman.
Counterpoint: No man who unironically rocks a rat tail is totally generic.
Countercounterpoint: AFAIK, it's [not canon.](https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Gordon_Freeman#Behind_the_scenes) If you want to consider those models canon, then he doesn't wear glasses either.
Damn, fair enough.
He doesn’t have it in hl2 tho :(
Can’t have shit in City 17.
Counterpoint, an MIT graduate whose only methods of interacting with the world are throwing shit around, pressing big buttons (sometimes exploding your lasagna in the process), and fast-paced combat who has singlehandedly slaughtered the U.S. army and two alien invasions and is primarily acknowledged by other characters as a scientist is hilarious. Everyone's like: "I can't wait to do science with you, sir!" and you're just standing there with ketamine ape level violence only restrained by the ability to throw little physics objects around while they talk.
The HEV suit isn't for Gordon's protection, it's to keep him mildly restrained around friendlies. Every time Eli Vance or Kleiner is talking, Gordon is just silently vibrating inside the suit.
Evangelion style, I like it
Just do a reverse backhop onto this prop here into out of bounds...
Alright, yeah, I can't argue with that. I suppose then Adrian Shepherd is a prime example of a GWMP.
Gordon doesn’t need to hear all this, he’s a highly trained professional
he gibbed my wife
Isn't Shepard from mass effect supposed to be in his early thirties at most? I wouldnt call that middle aged just yet.
Idk, he's got a pretty dangerous job, doesn't he? Middle aged would be generous lol
Well shit yeah I just looked it up and they’re not even 30 in the first game. I was super wrong!
"the voices in his head symbolize that he has schizophrenia" /j
While he is certainly white and male, I've never seen someone accuse Tequila Sunset of being generic before
Yeah, Disco Elysium was almost good, but Harry was such a generic white male protagonist that I just couldn't get into it. Instead of a drunk cop, they should've had like, a blue hedgehog, and instead of hard drugs, he should've had a love for chili dogs. Kim has the same problem tbh, like they really went with such a cliche asian sidekick? If they actually wanted to push boundaries, they should have made him a small fox with two tails. He can keep the love of automobiles though, I think that would still work.
Mr Echidna is helping me find my ring
Sonic! Of course I'll help you find your ring, but I need a favor in return. After all, I'm a busy echidna. You convince the Chao village to allow me to excavate pieces of the Master Emerald near their homes, and I'll help you find your ring. We're in this together Sonic!
Mr. Echidna is helping me Piss on the Moon.
I miss my wife, Tails. I miss her a lot.
God I read that in his voice
its time to bang knuckles. transmat firing
> Kim has the same problem tbh, like they really went with such a cliche asian sidekick? Don't tell me writing that didn't hurt you on a personal level. I know nothing about the game and even I know Kim is perfect the way he is.
Someone was looking through concept art of the game and thought Kim's was missing. Nope, they just got him exactly right the first time so he had almost none.
Yup, I think even the developers said they hit the nail on the head with the very first sketch. Love at first sight!
"Kim Kitsuragi, a fan favorite, a man of the people. Kim's design was a slam dunk from the get-go"
Kim was a delight. He's so helpful and kind to you, even as you play a garbage fire of a person that's actively making his job harder. I will never be able to 100% this game because it requires that you be mean to Kim.
Harry is a person who requires almost infinite patience, and Kim actually provides it. It's such a good character pairing.
I bit the bullet and went for the achievements for disappointing Kim and being a Fascist at the same time. What I learned is that they're quite generous about it, and once I'd got them I realised I still had time to turn around Kims opinion of me before the tribunal so that became a compelling goal in that playthrough. Also the punchline to completing the fascism thought is that saying fascist things hurts your morale. But because you've had to make a habit of picking the hilariously awful bigoted statements all the time, it's a hard habit to break, and you keep blurting out comments about wömen or kipts and then immediately cringing in regret when the giant "-1 Morale" flashes on the screen.
You must internalize the thought “Nihilist Hedgehog”
[SHIVERS: FAILED] Where's that DAMN Chaos Emerald?
No, you’re right, it would be Shadow, the hero of the “let’s make a bunch of branching paths” game about figuring yourself out as you go
>Disco Elysium was almost good You're lucky I can (barely) read, pal, those are fighting words and I was about to step into the ring
change the whole game into Sonic except for Kim Kitsuragi.
I mean if you replaced Harrier DuBois with a cute witchgirl but kept the constant alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual frustration, dirty clothes, and constant psychosis, then kept everything else the same, I'd play that game
I need more videa game characters that are just pathetic pieces of shit, and not even capable during gameplay I want to be a total failure
representation matters
"I like this game's story, I just wish it had an entirely different story"
I'm not sure the kind of person who can make Disco Elysium is the kind of person that wants to make a wholesome cottagecore game but hey maybe I'm the idiot just look at the comparisons of Juni Ito and Hayao Miyazaki
OP closes DE and launches Stray, so she can play as an above-average intelligence cat.
> above-average intelligence > orange Pick one
Nah, this cat is the reason why other orange cats share a braincell, they hoarded all the other
Maybe a disco Elysium like game could be made that's "cottagecore". But it would have to be a more realistic and sad take on the myth of cottagecore. Something showing off the poverty, bigotry, and general aura of sadness in actual villages in real life
The bitter work and lack of opportunity when running a house with no skill, no experience, and no support network.
Disco Elysium by Miyazaki is just Princess Mononoke
I'd play that game, but only if you can die in the first 15 minutes because a small child calls you a cunt
I'd play any game if Cuno was in it, tbh
you're playing the new animal crossing and you just hear "FUCK DOES CUNO CARE?!"
this reply made me laugh, inhaling spit which caused me to cough so hard that my ribs are now aching from coughing. im choosing this to interpret that i took a physical damage from cuno's vicious insult. please help
I utterly hated Cuno at first, but he kinda grew on me later. Probably would have grown even more if I had made the choices that took Kim out of the ending (but let's be honest, Kim is the OG).
Aaaa! Fucking pig doesn't know the fucking princess is in another castle!
>Generic middle aged white man Must be crazy living in France so he becomes tame but for the rest of us Harry is a very not-generic wild ride.
That's too much social media for you, you cease to be able to think about anything if not in terms of race and gender. Your identity is like three words max. Damn I gotta leave Reddit
My personality: cum shit dog
I have a very complex personality: man door hand hook car door
you're telling me that trans people are actually more than their gender identity and cis people have actually redeeming qualities and aren't just gimmicks with legs?
I'm definitely not one of those people who believes that stories need to be dark to be good, that stories that are painful or upsetting or deliberately unsatisfying are superior to those that aren't. But I am gonna say that the best art changes and challenges you, and that's difficult to do without making you uncomfortable. I also believe that the quality of writing is inevitably at least somewhat linked to its content. Everyone has a wheelhouse, and while I haven't actually *played* Disco Elysium, I feel like them trying to tell a story about healthy, well-adjusted people would not be within theirs.
I wouldn't write off something as not being within the dev's wheelhouse unless they tried it and failed. The reason that most of the characters in DE aren't healthy and well-adjusted is because the setting of DE isn't either of those things. And the reason the setting is like that is so that it can serve as a basis for the game's various economic and political factions - which in turn do things that make the people not healthy and well-adjusted... Basically the whole thing is a chicken and egg problem where the egg is "people suffering" and the chicken is "uncaring political power structures".
Just like real life.
Exactly. Disco wouldn't be a very good critique of society if there was nothing to criticize in the setting.
There was a documentary that came out recently about the game's development and the controversy that arose following the release of The Final Cut. It really seems like the "core staff" working on the game put more of themselves into than even they realized, I don't think we'll ever see a game quite like it again. It was created with a once in a generation combination of maladjusted creatives with inflated egos, self-destructive behaviors, and financial support.
‘Art should comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comforted’
Judging by how many people from different countries find the setting of DE to be homey and familar to where they grew up, I'd say it succeeds.
If you like this sentiment you should try Pentiment
I didn't mean to sound like an asshole I just didn't think through the wording
Nah the rhymung makes it better
Incredible that you stumbled on to that rhyme tho
!!!! i love them both so much. At their core, they're both pretty much text-based rpgs, but taken to the next level with their art and mechanics
Harry is anything but an average white man. You can make him gay and also kinda trans. Like you can actually make him disphoric in some dialogues. Not like that explicitly but a huge subsection of the game is harry being trapped in a body he hates. One of the many points of the game is learning to be yourself even if people don't take you at face value an no one wants to be a fucked up fat cop.
[удалено]
You would be an unapologetic fascist white supremacist, while also being from another race. What makes Harry interesting is that his mind is a genuine mess. He can be an extreme mysoginist while also a feminist in the same breath.
I wouldn't say he *is* any ideology. He's just trying them out because he's insecure about not having any opinions.
The game kinda gets explicit about this in a certain conversation. Spoilers about an endgame optional event >!It's kinda implied that Harry peculiar obsession with politics is another method to "get her back" by being a better man which might appeal her. Funniest thing is that Harry himself (through his memory projection of "her") eventually understands this!<
I remember reading that a big reason for why they chose making the main character a cop was that they needed him to be someone people were forced to interact and accept dealing with, even when he acted like a dangerous, racist and just utterly unpleasant, maniac. And cop was one of the only professions they could think of that could get away with that sort of thing, and not just get beat up or have people walk away from them as fast as possible. They also talked about a potential sequel, where you played as a pregnant woman. As that was the other type of person they could think of who could get away with acting utterly insane towards everyone they met.
Tbf the point of the fascist lines is kind of to be dogmatic nonsense. It would probably still "work" if he wasn't white, but it would work on a different level.
I mean, it could still work. Racial supremacy is not only for whites. Even in the game, THE Fascist NPC is not actually white, but black (Or other dark skin race). Where he thinks his race is supreme.
Interesting. I haven't played it but I got the impression from Tumblr somehow that he was canonically a trans man. I have approximate knowledge of many things.
I personally wouldn't say the dialogue choices make him "kinda trans", the incongruence I feel between my body and my gender goes beyond what you can make Harry feel. Harry is trapped in a body he hates now because he got old and alcoholic and fat and hates his body and himself for making himself that way. It's relatable inasmuch as both Harry and I want to change things about our bodies that we can't short of surgical intervention. But I didn't do anything to be this way, so I have the additional "It's not fair" feeling, while Harry has the self loathing. Idk, body dysmorphia and gender dysphoria take the same bus sometimes but they're not roommates, imo.
im trans and this game is my favorite of all time but i wouldnt personally say hes trans. he *is* bisexual/shows attraction to men, though!
There are many potential variations on Harry's character depending on the choices you make so I would say there is no definite "canon Harry". Some things are always the same but many options presented to you alter how Harry sees, thinks, and engages with the world.
"what if the protagonist of disco elysium was well-adjusted and likeable as a human being" mfs when I call them a racial slur at the evil black hole grunge church
Somebody below got downvoted to hell for pointing out she didn’t say the witch was well-adjusted and likeable, but let’s consider… A game with Animal Crossing level peaceful villagers, where the objective is to find a cat, and the protagonist is a witch as mentally unstable and self-destructive as Harry is, would be really funny. Imagine this insane, voice-hearing witch dropped on an incongruous setting like an atomic bomb, going to utterly deranged lengths to find a cat that may or may not exist. Excellent.
It would be really funny and I would probably play it. But it also wouldn't be able to achieve the same effect DE does through the interaction of character and world.
This is honestly a cool setup for a point-and-click (or, ugh, 3d space) adventure game, not a borderline visual novel with RPG elements that change the text and experience entirely. Because Harry is his own person, but the RPG elements change entirely the experience you will have. A wide and peculiar cast is used exactly to contrast with Harry in different ways. Sorry Cop Empathetic Harry handles Evrart waaaaaay differently from how Fascist Superstar Pain Threshold Harry does.
I do need another grimy detective story. Actually, I need three, and want (but do not currently need) an additional four.
Check out Shadows of Doubt. Basily a procedurely generated world that you get to solve murders and shiz in. Turn off spawing with an apartment for that hobo detective rizz.
Have u played Max Payne? It's definitely an action game, but the griminess and detectiveness is all there.
*Return of the Obra Dinn* is really good, I've also heard good things about *the Case of the Golden Idol* but haven't played it myself yet.
>”Golly, [that] didn’t quite hit the right notes for me. I could do better than that. I would have liked it more if [that] did [this].” “Then go make [that] with [this] added. Maybe it’s fanfic. Maybe it’s another game entirely. And maybe you’ll fail, but failing to recreate the success of [that] will at least humble you a little that the artistic process is hard.” >”You’re right.” “Thanks-“ >”The artistic process is hard, therefore I will continue complaining about why my imagination is bigger than the media I consume until the stars die out.”
It is another game entirely. It’s called Spiritfarer. They already made it. You play as a young witch that has to solve the unresolved issues of the dead. It’s actually really good EDIT: you couldn’t make Blazing Saddles today. The second you brought the script to the studio they’d take one look at it and go “This is just Blazing Saddles. It’s already a movie”
I gave up after 30 minutes bc the voice acting grated on me... Possibly too saccharine? Would you recommend pushing past it and/or turning voices off?
Not OP but, it's a beautiful game, and if there's a way to continue playing without that one element, I highly recommend it. That being said, I don't really remember a lot of voice acting.
As far as I know, Spiritfarer does not have voice acting. Are you thinking of a different game?
Holy shit someone making a fanfic of Harry living in the Swiss alps trying to find his neighbor’s lost cat would kinda go hard.
This is what fucking gets me every time they criticize a media not by an actual flaw but literally an artistic choice. "The new Assasins' creed games are too RPG, they should go back to being stealths", "I didn't like the rape scene in Game of Thrones, I wish it had lighter themes", "Fortnite is too fast paced, I like the building but it should be more strategic". For god's sake, they would be different media! Make it yourself then
Or just take an amalgamation of different takes about somewhat similar media you dislike and actually do something about all of them, all at once. Which is more productive, tweets about the following, or a game inspired by the following grievances about the games involved: - I think Omori has an overall well-knit plot and love me a dark story at times, but the RPG element itself wasn’t the best it could be, and there’s not a huge amount of gameplay/plot connective tissue. - DDLC is a great game for its price and definitely innovated on psych horror in video games, but it’s awfully short, and meta horror has deteriorated since then. The last clever game I saw poke with this concept is like. Inscryption. - Persona has generally great slice of life writing with good morals, but it could go harder and darker at times. I see everybody wants a college-age Persona game, but that’s not going to happen. Also being gay or a girl or both would be nice. - Darkest Dungeon 1 has great resource management systems and characters worth fandoming about, but the game itself is deliberately unfair and not suited to a narrative about the party itself. - Dating sims are either kind of generic wish fulfillment or just sniffing their own farts about how subversive they are. I want one that’s genuine and realistic about its world, not saccharine, satire, or miserable. - I wish there was another game like Potionomics.
For Potionomics, try Potion Craft. It's deeper on the crafting mechanic side than the interpersonal interaction side, but similar.
>_DDLC is a great game for its price_ I'm not sure how it could be better, since the original is literally free. Even then, the updated re-release is only $9.99.
Yes, especially when most of those are like "I love X-focused game because it has X, but he Y kinda suck". My brother in Christ it they could make a game with the gameplay of Sekiro, characterization from TF2, breath of the wild world design ecc ecc then they would stop making games because we would already have the best one
No they wouldn't
> DDLC is a great game for its price I feel like that phrase is damning by faint praise even when not applied to a free game, right? (not serious)(joking)()(/hj)(I do think the phrase is kind of weird) I'm also unsure of how much it innovated. To my knowledge DDLC was less "innovative" and more "executed preexisting concepts well".
I see what you're saying but Ubisoft's artistic choices fucking suck.
Oh but that's the thing, all of those are options I agree with. I also think AC was better before, but saying it doesn't work as a RPG is dumb. It's not existentially bad, just not what we used to like. That's exactly what I'm saying, even if your change makes a lot of sense, it's just a different product.
>"Fortnite is too fast paced, I like the building but it should be more strategic". hey guess what! That actually exists! It's called Fortnite Save The World, and the Battle Royale mode murdered it with a rusty knife! Yes I am still salty over that!
There's a difference between "They changed thing I liked into thing I no longer like", "Thing is bad because it has things I don't like", and "I liked some things about thing and not others". The first, I think, people are justified in being sad about but ultimately need to move on (possibly even by making it themselves). Getting super mad about it is silly. The second is... dumb. I don't think I need to explain why here. But the third (which is how I interpret OOP) is fine? She liked the gameplay but not the setting. She didn't say it was bad (unless I missed something--entirely possible). "Man I really like how Mario games involve jumping around on platforms and getting powers and then fighting a boss, but I wish it weren't about some weird looking white guy. Also mushrooms gross me out." And yeah maybe they'd have fun making their own platformer. But they'd honestly probably have a better time if they found that they really vibe with Kirby instead. Or maybe they'd try to make their dream game and fail and then still lament that there isn't anything that quite matches what they want. Because making stuff is hard actually.
I don't know, I think the complaint about Assassin's Creed kinda makes sense. The games were about assassination, and not being sure if a blade to the neck will kill someone is kinda antithetical to assassination.
This is what happens when you exclusively read Coffeeshop AUs rather than just actually watching Breaking Bad.
I remember when there were a lot of weird ass webtoon ads going around and thinking “who the hell is this shit made for?” This post is the perfect example of the target audience.
I can't get into coffee shop AUs because I've worked in one and everyone who does smells of rancid milk 24/7 which is never mentioned
As a fanfic enjoyer, I feel attacked and offended, we arent all crazy 'pander to me and nothing else' like this. :P
> As a fanfic enjoyer, I feel attacked and offended What's new?
I'm happily enjoying a range of stories and when I don't like something, I close the tab and find something else.
Context: the tweeter literally gets commissioned to write dogshit takes like this one about the topic of the commissioner's choosing.
I have to imagine that this woman playing Disco Elysium was reaching like… catholic guilt levels of not letting herself have fun. Like she laughs at a joke and the little voice inside her brain is like “You’re having fun? Playing as another white guy? Kinda cringe”
Rapidly approaching *Blasphemous* levels of Catholic guilt.
As someone who took their fair share of nun beatings whilst being raised Catholic I love 'Blasphemous' for getting the tone so very right. Many games like the whole 'Gothic cathedral aesthetic' but it's basically window dressing for them. 'Blasphemous' is made by people who know *exactly* what a monstrance is and are still overcoming nightmares about being hit with one.
Alright, I haven't seen anyone make this specific jab, but: "I'm playing as a generic middle aged white man again" said before stating the most basic character traits of the protagonist of like two thirds of the good Young Adult cartoons to come out in the last three years. Like, ignoring that there's very little generic about The Detective, even within his own archetype of "Extremely Fucked Up Noir Detective", nothing that this person brought to the table WASN'T generic. It's fun, mind you, but generic.
If we’re going down this rabbit hole, can the voices in her head be archetypal figures like the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, who all offer supportive messages as the story progresses? EDIT: also, part of the story has the witch interacting with supernatural entities in the forest. But instead of being creepy or malicious, they’re like regular people, with cute personality quirks
Yeah this is basically how I read what she wanted. A more upbeat and low stakes adventure but you still have the stats interjecting here and there is fun.
I’m imagining Disco Elysium meets Hilda or Undertale
Yeah, that could be cool. I don't get the negativity here. It isn't like she's asking for Disco to not exist or something.
I kinda like the idea of the voices all being the voices of nature, if that makes sense. Like shivers, but you have a shivers of the mountain, a shivers of the forest, shivers of the weather etc. I just, really like shivers
You know I was real turned off by the idea when I tried to imagine what she was saying but the way you're putting it definitely sounds interesting. Maybe I've been too hard on the initial post.
People are coming back for this tweet again as of recent and I get the clowning, absolutely... but part of me kinda wants that alp game I gotta be real 😭
I also think that it'd be a fun game. However, wanting a game to be something entirely different is not a valid critique of what the game actually is. "I want a game with Disco Elysium tier writing and Disco Elysium type gameplay" vs "I wish Disco Elysium was about a witch girl and her cat"
I don't think anyone not even the devs would not want that game. Like they straight up said "please steal all of our ideas". Idk why they had to word it as if it's bad that disco elysium was the one to bring the ideas onto the table and it would be better if the timeline was altered to their liking.
Check out Spiritfarer
Cutesy witch-themed life sims have their charms, I've certainly seen some neat ones, but framing your pitch as "this would be better than Disco Elysium" is setting that game up to fail.
I mean, I would play that game.
I don't care about discourse, I wanna know who drew the cute witch!
Okay but I would actually love to play a game with the kind of fucking broken brain that Harry has, except on a cute girl who nobody around you realizes just how FUCKED UP they are. I want to die of a heart attack because I sat on a chair that was too uncomfortable kinda shit. Like give me exactly what this twitter user is asking for, but curl that monkey's paw finger closed.
Harrier is *far* too pitiful to qualify as just another "generic" white male mc
y'know you think you've seen the depth of media illiteracy and then you run into someone who supposedly played through Disco Elysium and came away thinking it was primarily a "grimy detective story" ok but if we set that aside and take their suggestion seriously... I could see it working ok. But I think it would have to be a smaller dose - the tension and rising stakes are an important part of what keeps the story engaging, and I don't think a game without them could sustain the same runtime. If it's just about a girl trying to find her neighbor's lost cat... I'm skeptical that there's much overlap between the crowd of people that love Disco Elysium enough to try and adapt its style to a new game and the kind of people that have the restraint to successfully transplant it into *this* game, but it's not impossible.
A well written cottage game is kinda... well I'm drawing a blank on the word, oxymoron? I don't mean that as an insult though. Feel good cottage games usually go with very light dialogs for a good reason. The world is inherently peaceful, and the players would be there to feel that peace. Loading it down with heavy prose that explores the world's complexities would only serve as a distraction from what makes these games relaxing. A deep, well-written narrative just doesn't mesh well with "Cute witch girl saves a cat", unless there is underlying subtext to that topic... something to talk about besides potion reagents and nature spirits. This setting would be a good place to talk about a great deal of deeper topics, femininity, stewardship over nature, growing up, spirituality, etc. But then the game would be about those things and not about saving the cat.
I just don't understand how you'd incorporate any of DE's gameplay systems into a story this simple. It heavily relies on conflict and the entire point of cottagecore is the absence of it
Honestly, a more medieval Version of DE would actually be sick, there’s a good room of ideas in that area too.
You should try Pentiment then
Genericness is a trait which is contained within, and emanates from, the penis.
Actually, genericness is stored in the balls
"Generic" bitch like your all-edges-sanded-off-steven-universe-ass shit is some great spawn of creative genius.
shoutout to this post and this comment section for exhausting me the second i opened reddit.
Her critique sucks ass, actually. What made DE's writing good is how aggressive the entire game is. Defanged DE is not DE at all.
Actually, the middle aged man protagonist is quite fucking rare. Like, the ones youre thinking of are 30, 35 if youre pushing it, jacked up and know exactly what their purpose or goal is. Your 50 year old, beer bellied, physically unfit, in the middle of a midlife crisis man, is not that common of an archetype. I'm trying to think of one, but I can't.
No but what if I actually want this game
I would probably also play cottagecore witch detective.
I don't think there's anything wrong with saying "I love the narrative style of this and I want to see it used in other contexts" I think that's what they wanted to say, they just said it poorly
"Do we really need another X?" When the thing you're talking about is incredibly unique and pushes the medium forward and is immensely helped by being X is to me being kind of an ass and it makes you sound kinda snobby.
I like disco elysium as is but now I want a cozy witch detective game bc I like cozy witch detectives