Is this yet another gigaflop game like Rue Valley was? Literally no discussions despite it wasn't even a full month yet since the release.
Anyway, i mainly just wanted to seethe about how little thought they put into the game. I didn't really play that much yet(only on the 2 day basically), but already see 2 pretty annoying examples:bagman, a conspiracy guy you see on the tv essentially in the start of the game, doesn't have any dialogues whatsoever if you decide to call him right on, you just greet him and then the only option is just immediately finish the dialogue, like the devs didn't even think about a probability of player wanting to talk with some quirky schizo without much reason to do so. Also you missing out on 3 pilots backstory if you don't immediately give them a beer or pay them, since the dialogue option disappear forever if you finish discussing this conversation topic without actually choosing it.Most of the skill checks just don't do anything at all, besides giving you some small sum of experience at best. A lot of the plot-related skillchecks just end up leading you to completing the task even when you fail it, just with some fatigue/anxiety/delirium increase. Most of the passive skill checks are guarantee to succeed no mater how low your corelating skill is, without failure response version with rare exception. There also the reverse situations with guaranteed to fail stat checks with incredible high roll number requirement, that you have no way to complete since the skill cap in this game is like 7. Oh right, they also have a Kim Kitsuragi voice actor in there, but they force him to voice some ugly nigger instead of another asian guy so it's just doesn't work at all.
>>4001786racism is not allowed outside of /b/
It's good, certainly top tier in the narrative rpg genre. Well written spy story doesn't get old so it should have lasting presence. The ending is pretty fun and tense.Theres some undercooked aspects like the clothing system, and conditioning. You likely want a mod that maxes a stat for cheesing rolls without manually going through all clothes for the stat dozens of times. Conditioning increases max potential for a stat which is weak and its hard to keep track of all the "dont click philosophical dialogues" type stuff.Few nice VA performances like silhouette.Holocene best girl.
>>4001780You have to wait until the video essayists start making videos on it so normies can have thoughts about it. Disco Elysium was the same. Just a weird niche CRPG when it came out, then all of a sudden everyone who played it was an expert literary critic.
>>4001798Racist board, fuck off. >>4001832 It's literal a massive step backwards compared to DE, both in story and gameplay,(well, or at least these few mechanics that imitates it being there) and it's pretty noticeable problem, considering DE wasn't that great already, despite what that crowd wants you to believe.
>>4002108>Just a weird niche point and click adventure gameFTFY
>>4001780>Zero Paradesmore like zero interest lmao
>>4003142>MELANINPHOBE!!!1
Solid game. Just slightly behind DE. Whiners can whine all they want.
zero gay pride parades for dead shills.
>>4001832>The ending is pretty fun and tense.Agree with this. Very fun. Really wish they had more missions like that in other parts of the game. The spy game sequences were really fun imo and paired with the high stakes feeling at the end was perfect. If they do more like this I hope they add more of those action sequences, and add more options or ways to execute them.
Man, what the fuck, you cannot even say to that grumpy guy working in the apartment complex that his punk ass son died. Why they even bother to mention that he is a Kurt's father in Tonio dialogue if they couldn't even make as little as that.
Player choice???
Do you bros like my drip?
>>4004375its emblematic of the games failure to create a working clothing systemnever saw that head thing on my playthrough
>>4004388>never saw that head thing on my playthroughYou get it as a reward for failing one of the skill checks when you trying to run away from the fascist spy, when Herschel trying to disguise herself.
>>4001780Haven't had a chance to play it yet since I've been avoiding it until some QOL patches and also because of the disco controversy. I do think the game's premise and the presentation has potential, but it's basically living in the shadow of Disco. Not much to do about that, that studio was a walking red flag after the controversy and people who couldn't jump ship when it started unfortunately are getting dicked by the circumstance
Did you pick conditioning early, or only after you capped a skill to increase the cap?
The levels of gives they put into this shit are literally in the negatives. Like, wdym they not even add an alternative dialogue there in case you actually wearing a mask? There is some rare reaction on the mask, and i even seen one for the glasses - when it's protects you from Frederick's saliva or something, so why not add it into places where said reaction make the most sense?!>>4005478I pick thoughts mostly with roleplay in mind. It's not like skill minmax is that much rewarding in this game, since some skill checks going to force you to get some bullshit rolls with your dices even with really high leveled skills. I playing with intellect-main Herschel and end up failing numerous int checks despite the fact anyway.
>>4005790Thanks man.Current build is mostly focused on entanglement,poetics, shadoplay and sensors.Will get up instincts too.Plan was to somewhat emulate inland empire builds from the first game. Might go with Animal Magnetism and Umbral Host for now.
>>4001780It's good, on par with DE I'd dare say but the ZAUM baggage is poison to discussion and people tend to veer away from it. Also, the DE comparison is a problem since the game has a much different vibe. CASCADE is not a literally me MC like Harry was.
>>4006684>a literally me MC like Harry wasmy condolences, anon
Just finished it. Kinda disappointed by game Devil Ex Machina'd Yana in the finale showdown on the train, forcing you into cliched choosing between the lives of two of your companions, instead of allowing you to actually save them all. Still, it's isn't that big of disappointment as a realization that i'm now going to be forced to wait another half-a-year, at best, before having a chance to play in another Disco-like... >>4006684Esoteric Ebb mogs both og DE and this game, btw.
>>4006773My final showdown was with Yana, Tempo and K. I went for Yana first since she obviously needed help, but I really wanted to save everyone. K survived on her own though, thank God. But I don't know if Tempo died. It's left open for interpretation
>build autism kicks in after 10 hours in the gameOh fuck, I wanted to go for a build that is somewhat Inland Empire from DE and went with 4 in the faculty of intellects and 2 in the Faculty of Action.Instincts and Sensors would have been great in that sort of playthrough though.Start over with 3/3?
>>4009007no, if you minmax conditioning you can get high stats in basically all faculties if you want. when you decondition a thought you maintain the bonus if you invested skill points>>4006684cascade is a literally me mc for me>>4006773i've been trying esoteric ebb and i'm finding it a lot harder to get into
>>4001780saw it discussed on one of the porn boards and from the screesnhots, seems to be quite well written.But it's again more like an adventure game, not RPG in theusual DnD sense (adventure and combat). I'll probably give it a pass because I'm a simple fantasy addict, but appears to be well done.It would be unfortunate if it doesn't sell because of armchair commie boycotts and tribalism.
Is it possible to do the beginning of the game without reaching 20 anxiety or am I savesscumming for nothing?
>>4013419Its apparently possible, but its intended tutorial stuff. You dont need to savescum to progress the game normally.
Love this dork like you wouldn't believe. Glad I failed the roll to shoot him in the bar.
It seems the game always roll a 1 on every check I attempt. Could it be some sort of anti-piracy measure?
>>4001780One of the appeals of this game is playing a girlfailure spy with 500 IQ leaps of logic and great luck, but I feel like it just can't compete with DE's mixture of character exploration through the lens of loss and romantic tragedy or quirky schizo humor. Also, worldbuilding and design took a lot of steps back since ZA/UM ousted all the creative talent unironically because of the jews
I'm actually kind of enjoying it
>>4001780Layoffs, daym shame.F
>>4019211Yep, in this market situation I wouldn't be on any AA studio on particular to succeed unless its backed by tencent to make gacha or some suchAnd zaum had the reddit haters on their backs.
>>4019211>>4019326This game was legit mid, be honest, they deserve this.
>>4019211>>4019326>>4019345The game was a strange mix of quality, jank, soul, and slop that I think cannot properly be quantified by "mid." That being said, accurate assessment. Worse than Disco, better than Rue, a bit wordy without the charm sometimes, other times more charm. It's not as deeply engaging as Disco but I think it actually handled the surface level situation better. It's a good mini-spy flick.
>>4001780Have you guys checked this out it looks pretty coolhttps://zeroparades.com/one-shotYou can also watch the cast play it here as wellhttps://youtu.be/kKrtVakjEGw?si=FjwSWqO5BSSYj0N7
Did I do something wrong, or Eszti is an oxygen thief? I don't think she ever does fucking anything beyond having a melty at you.Come to think of it, the entire Ass Effect suicide mission team are oxygen thieves in the original plan - they don't do anything until you're riding with Golem and his goons, and that happening is massively off-plan. If you don't go for a shootout then it turns out that you took a team for the sole purpose of burdening yourself with finding a way to not get them killed. Melita also ends up not doing fucking anything.And after all is said and done - why is Septimus? Why is Dutchess, Expat Ex-pilots, Constanz, Oskar, Reno and Frederik? I understand characters existing for theme, atmosphere and detalization, but all those don't seem to have any thematic content beyond sex jokes. At least Bagman fixes the disk, UV functions as someone you sell out for spy shit, and Reno provides forged documents, but of those only UV seems actually relevant, due to her elements of authenticity and betrayal. Subcomandante and Reno, beyond their role as plot ticket dispensers, are just le funneh conspiracy podcaster and le closeted local rich guy. Like 70% of NPCs in the game should've been cut as pointless bloat.Speaking of fags and sex jokes, I've heard a lot about how ZP is supposedly much raunchier than DE, but it feelst to me like all the sexuality in game is unnaturally corraled into weird shit. In DE, Klaasje and Lely, Harry and Dora were expressing just good normal human fucking from attraction for one another, despite being far from the only form of sexuality present. In ZP, sexuality does not exist unless it's some weird perverted shit stemming from trauma and shit - phone sex about bombings, gay sex about crime, voyeurism about zoophilia, BDSM about obesity. It feels wrong, which might be the point, but for how much of this stuff is in game, it's never interrogated on how the End of History means that nobody fucks for the fun of it.
>>4019870>Speaking of fags and sex jokesDid you Tongue the enemy?That was pretty neat
>>4020101She doesn't commit tho.
>>4019870Melita (as the controller) is just there to keep you on task and make the big calls for you, whether or not something is too big of a mission, etc. All the funding shit is even further above her which is why she leaves you out to the dogs when you inevitably lock into a shit situation. She's also implied to be *very* into you but the Opera doesn't allow her to meet you
>>4019870>DutchessShe's there as a clue into psuedopod, the pilots, and frederik. Frederik Oskar and Reno are part of the main quest more or less but also to show you how SHIT the situation is everywhere. Oskar and Frederik are about you getting rapport and pumping a vip for information (like a spy) while you also get to see capitalist degeneracy in action between the phone sex addict and the drunkard who got the hots for a fat goblinoid woman and drunk himself stupid. Anyway>sex jokes and romanceYou can both try (and fail) to make moves on Melita and learn some fucked up shit about the Opera that way along with Holocene's thesis, you can flirt with and seduce Silhoutte who's another gay trauma victim but the flirting actually feels like a mix of natural spy shit and normal flirting, and you can playfully tease goat eyes though mainly I figure to pump him for information.Hershel's kind of a psychopathic spy in that way.
>>4020542That's the thing - Melita is the entire assignment's controller. She the rear and support of the entire operation, ostensibly it's she who is tasked with zeroing out the lich, we're just her means of making it so. And in this capacity, she passes on the goals to Hershel and.. arranges the finale boat? And that's it? I guess she can crunch Holocene's sipher on Opera decryption gear, I didn't take that option, but Shadowplay alluded to it. Beyond that she's fucking useless. I'm instantly reminded of DE and how useful were calls to the precinct to our clock-punching desk riders. Meanwhile the controller for a major clandestine overseas op who has major geopolitical events, her career and quite possibly her life outside the freezer riding on this and with undoubtedly vast information resources can't bother with much beyond "well have you tried rob vending machines or becoming a capitalist if you need money?"Nothing wrong with her being terrible at her job, but it doesn't seem like the game wants to portray her that way at all. One could also refer to Opera's status as the worst clandestine agency, but that one doesn't land that well either when we know of Hauzmann and PROBABLE, and their history of a shitton of successful ops all over the world. And at the same time we don't know of anyone that cool from the Weeping Eye or EMTERR. And the guys we do face end up, respectively, going rogue 2 for 2 after not even realizing their possession of an omega-class asset, and being the Disney villain punching bags in every single ending for absolutely no reason aside from their big boss' ego trip.
>>4022000If you read Holocene's entire thesis (which is pretty lengthy I know) and talk about the Opera to every spy you meet, you get some insight onto how incompetent they are. You're basically perpetually underfunded, outplayed by the Eye and EMTERR constantly, and you're still given impossible or useless tasks. The highest tier of the Opera is implied to be somewhat in-bed with the Eye and EMTERR as well. I don't think it's so much Melita is terrible at her job, which is to basically be a liason and support for your task, but a lot of the writing on the wall seems to imply you were set up to fail TWICE so that La Luz has an excuse for invading Portofiro and the free countries. It is sort of true that the writing that the Opera being incompetent doesn't land that well when the only big name spies you see are Hauzmann and PROBABLE (both Opera spies previously presumably before probable moved up the ranked and Hauzmann defected to freelance work,) but if you think about it>The only PROBABLE mission we see is a failure based on poor information and miscommunication between the Superbloc and the Opera>Hauzmann is implied to need the mechanical heart because of a failed Opera mission he was likely set up to fail in>HOLOCENE was a super-communist defector from the start and only works with you because Cascade was surprisingly competent compared to what he researched of the Opera, even going so far as to say you were hung out to dry in his reportThe gang succeeding against the Weeping Eye is more a symptom of Cascade's surprising competence than the ego trip from Golem. Golem was one of the pro-unified imprint voices in the Luzian government so him risking danger is pretty in-line with thinking he's expendable.I won't deny Melita does nothing other than optional emotional support for Cascade and the whole Opera is useless deeplore doesn't land that well though
Yes to the surprise of no one it was commercial failure.
>>4019211Did they seriously expect it to match Disco in sales when they fire the original creative leads and alienated portion of the customer base?
>>4022252I think they expected enough returns to keep 70 ish devs on payroll to make their next AA isometric narrative rpg game
>>4022253Isn't the studio roughly 300 people big?>>4022250>>4022252To be fair there's too much cultural baggage for this game to take off anyway, a bit of a retarded move by the devs and the owners to not rebrand before they sold.
>>4022294Seem like it was desperation, they can't exactly sit on their asses doing nothing.
>>4022334Disco Elysium 2 will still make bank. Still milk it for all it's worth.
>>4022399They had a de 2 project that was canceled when the implosion happened. Its unclear if they even have the rights to it now.
>>4022294>rebrandAnd lose all value? The only thing they have going for them is the ZAUM brand.Zero Parades proved their limitations.
>>4002108why are you so bitter about it? do you instantly know what games are good the moment they are released?there are too many games to play, man. "everyone is talking about it" is a pretty good filter, all things considered
>>4001832>Holocene best girl.100% and I particularly liked that interaction near the end where he locks eyes with you
>>4013487>Love this dork like you wouldn't believe.Me too, bucko.
>>4022406>Its unclear if they even have the rights to it now.IIRC the current position is that the rights to DE are divided up in such a manner that nothing can be produced without both ZA/UM and Kurvitz's say-so.
>>4022399>>4022406Martinaise is the IP of one of the sacked devs so likely not, he's been home cooking that campaign in TTRPGs for over a decade iirc
>>4024117>>4024168Holocene and Kaleidoscope definitely had me the most engaged, they're such funny nutjobs. Holocene going on about metacognition and advanced cognitive maneuvers while he just sticks his head out of the window and pretends to be unentangled. I also love his "disguise" and his outright astonishment when you do silly shit like "functional invisibility" or use power word stop on Estoc. This game is pretty funny sometimes, makes up for Cascade acting like a family guy character every now and then
