Disco Elysium Travel Logs

[danutz_plusplus]

Ok I think I'm near the end. I'm on the small island; had the depressing dream that was hinted at throughout the story.

I am curious about the way I solved the firefight that was started by the mercs, and what is scripted to happen.
In my case a lot of the Hardie's died, I got shot but lived. So did Kim.
Is the firefight scripted to happen at the end of the week, or can you find someone to handover before that?
I also did manage to have final talk with either Joyce or Evrart.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I've finished the game. Overall I really liked it, and there's definitely things I need to pick up on in another playthrough, considering the amount and diversity of skill checks.

While most of the game was wonderful, the very final part, especially once you sail for the little island, felt very railroaded.
Also, I'm not sure what the showing of the phasmid, right at the end, was supposed to signify, other than maybe Harry's partial insanity.
Plus, the fact that the phasmid is really cuts a little bit at the soul of Lena's quest, about her relationship with Morell, where she starts to question the nature of their relationship, now that they've failed to find that around which they sort of built their relationship.

On the other hand I really liked how the whole murder starts off with nothing personal, just a lone deserter, sickened by the state of the world and that was left behind by the rest of society, was simply trying to start a "fire".

Overall a pretty great game. With a bunch of very thoughtful side quests. A very solid murder mystery and detective story. So good!

 

[purpleblob]

@danutz_plusplus remember the lady you talked at the book shop? Did you end up finding her husband?

 

[danutz_plusplus]

@danutz_plusplus remember the lady you talked at the book shop? Did you end up finding her husband?

Spoiler

Yup, that was a very interesting and sad little quest. How it starts as a sort of a goof, and then slowly turns dark, and you finally stumble onto his body in the cold, probably dead at least in part due to being drunk.
It was so depressing how something so common and banal managed to happen and have such a strong impact.
An interesting analysis on that, that I heard in a solid analysis of the game, was that you could extrapolate that had Harry remained with his wife/wife-to-be this could've easily been a possible future of his

 

[purpleblob]

Spoiler

Yup, that was a very interesting and sad little quest. How it starts as a sort of a goof, and then slowly turns dark, and you finally stumble onto his body in the cold, probably dead at least in part due to being drunk.
It was so depressing how something so common and banal managed to happen and have such a strong impact.
An interesting analysis on that, that I heard in a solid analysis of the game, was that you could extrapolate that had Harry remained with his wife/wife-to-be this could've easily been a possible future of his

In my game, I failed the skill check pass and delivered the news to her in THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE.

Spoiler

Harry proceeded on just dropping the news "Hey, remember our discussion about your husband? Yeah, I was right - I found him dead, see I was right about you not knowing where he was!". Then she (obviously) got devastated by the news and when she asked for advise on how she should break the news to her children, Harry was like "Tell them immediately - what's happened is happened, why do you need to delay?"

................

I was like Oh. My. God. You insensitive prick!

Surely enough, the moment I stepped the out of her house, Kim blasted Harry. Rightly so. All that plays out without stopping due to 1 single dice roll fail. I couldn't live with this consequence and reloaded to make sure that I pass the skill check so Harry can deliver the news like a normal human being.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

In my game, I failed the skill check pass and delivered the news to her in THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE.

Spoiler

Harry proceeded on just dropping the news "Hey, remember our discussion about your husband? Yeah, I was right - I found him dead, see I was right about you not knowing where he was!". Then she (obviously) got devastated by the news and when she asked for advise on how she should break the news to her children, Harry was like "Tell them immediately - what's happened is happened, why do you need to delay?"

................

I was like Oh. My. God. You insensitive prick!

Surely enough, the moment I stepped the out of her house, Kim blasted Harry. Rightly so. All that plays out without stopping due to 1 single dice roll fail. I couldn't live with this consequence and reloaded to make sure that I pass the skill check so Harry can deliver the news like a normal human being.

Yeah, that's bordering on cartoonish jerk behavior.
About reloads, I've certainly abused save scumming for a couple of skill checks.
Even ones that had 3% chance, just because I was curious of the outcome.

 

[bkrueger]

Yes, skill checks are very meaningful in this game. Because of this, whenever I hear somebody complaining that it isn't a "real" RPG, because there is no fighting, I always feel that they haven't really played it.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I was reading up on a guide for a second playthrough, and was shocked when I read it has over 9000 skill checks? Jesus christ on a stick!

About no fighting, there actually is at least one turn based firefight. The tribunal shootout. I loved that one.

 

[JDR13]

DE didn't feel like an RPG to me, but that's not meant as a disparaging comment. Many of my favorite games are from genres other than RPG.

I plan on giving it another shot someday if I can find the time to fit it in somewhere. I bounced off it after a few hours because I wasn't in the mood that kind of gameplay at the time.

One problem for me is how excruciatingly slow it was. I don't mean the pace of the story, I mean how literally slow everything moves onscreen. It seemed to take forever just to walk across one area. That was right after release, not sure if they sped it up since then. I remember a lot of people having the same complaint.