More Disco Elysium!

[asakiyume]

I had a good ol' time with another session of Disco Elysium--and have now hit a wall (died twice in quick succession) and realize I'm going to have to start doing Real Video Game Things^TM like reading advice on Reddit and jiggering my stats, and [whiny voice] .... whhhhyyyyyy... I was enjoying this so much as a choose-your-own-adventure where I couldn't do anything wrong but now I have to pay attention to stuff like [air quotes] "health" and "morale"? (Though I was quite pleased to have improved my morale by speaking consolingly to a postbox--SOMETHING I WOULD DO ANYWAY.)

Anyway, these moments cracked me up (first and third)/ gave me pause (second one)

Empathy


Nice takedown of the notion that because you're *feeling* empathetic, you actually *are* empathic. Not so! Not only could you just be wrong in your intuition about what's going on with the person (something that once happened to me IRL with a kind of sitcom hilarity), but, as here, you may be completely lacking in insight on how to address the situation.

Second Racist


The first racist you meet is a standard white European-style racist with a French accent. This guy, your second racist, seems, IDK, sort of Central Asian/Turkic in character. ... It was interesting to me to see a different flavor of racism from the one I'm most used to. Not that I didn't know other flavors existed--you don't spend years in Japan without knowing that other flavors of racism exist--but I don't see them much. Points for inclusivity, Disco Elysium! Of diverse racisms!

... But also, I had sympathy for "to serve is noble," and "petulant individualism" made me grin.

NOTE: The retort in white (number 1) isn't the one I chose; I picked one of the replies in red. Guess which.

Your character asks your partner what he thinks of all this, and the answer cracked me up:

Kim's Assessment


But I need to have a consult with the healing angel and her significant other if I am ever to reach the Third Racist.

Comments

Re: The Truth About Truth

[missroserose]

Hrmm. The tradeoffs are real, but honestly not as zero-sum as they might seem at first. The game is structured to discourage minmaxxing initially, but once you've achieved a certain level of basic competency, you can specialize pretty heavily. Plus there are so many choices/conversational paths that come down to random chance (viz. the exchange I quoted above); your stat choices have some effect on what's more likely to come up but you can play again with identical stats and still have to find alternate means of solving the same problems. I guess my point is, don't worry too much about missing out, because there's literally no way to see it all on one playthrough, and also you'll have more choice as to where to put your points as the game progresses.

I'm so glad you're doing the Intuitive build. For my money, that's the best one—Inland Empire and Conceptualization are my favorite stats in the game. Fun fact, though: if you put too many points into one skill, the game starts penalizing you for it. At one point I think I managed to put seven or eight points into Conceptualization, and I started having these random and wild thoughts about the artistic potential of the world around me—which was cool, except they started adding negative modifiers to skill checks, because I was too distracted by trying to invent neo-modern futurism to pay attention to the conversation I was having at the time 😂

Re: The Truth About Truth

[asakiyume]

Awww, I love a game that's entertaining even as it's penalizing you!

Yeah, I can see that about alternate routes. My encyclopedia scoffed at my attempt to come up with any information about the statue, but then the guys playing boules told me everything I could want to know, so take THAT encyclopedia.

But I'm so dumb. It took me until playing yesterday to realize I needed to right-click on money to pick it up.

Re: The Truth About Truth

[missroserose]

DROPPED COIN — The tarnish and grime of the street can't quite hide the glitter of silver. Cash! Visions of all the things cash can buy you bloom in your mind. Food. Shelter. Sweet, sweet alcohol. Other things, that swim half-shadowed beneath the lights but loom large in your subconscious.

YOU — Pick up coin.

INTERFACING [Trivial: Failure] — Hmm. The coin is there, your hand is there, and yet—you cannot seem to quite connect the one with the other. The coin fumbles from your sausage-fingers to continue lying in the street, its glitter now closer to an insouciant wink. You mutter an imprecation before reaching again, only for your fingers to once again fail to grasp it, causing your words to increase in volume.

YOU — "Goddamn piece of mother-loving—"

INTERFACING — Your illiquid syllables of frustration have attracted the attention of the lieutenant. He adjusts his glasses slightly, taking in the tableau. "Harry—"

YOU — "—worthless sonuva—"

KIM — "Harry!"

INTERFACING — You look up.

KIM — "It's glued to the street."

Re: The Truth About Truth

[asakiyume]

its glitter now closer to an insouciant wink

--God I love this game!

Re: The Truth About Truth

[missroserose]

I will take that as a high compliment to my writing 🌹

Re: The Truth About Truth

[asakiyume]

Oh that was you!!

VERY good, very good--I thought you were quoting the game!