i had it by myself when kim was gone delivering the corpse. I imagined that Kim came back to a Harrier who had rediscovered himself, and was a much more respectable man.
The moment for me was right at the beginning. When Gartt asks you to pay your bill and you choose the option to walk away unnoticed. If you fail, you end up running while flipping him off, which for some reason is the most favorable outcome. It leads to being given a valuable item to sell and a discount that you would have never gotten if you passed the check. That's the moment I realized this game was going to be more than a "pick the good option get the good ending" game.
spoilers. I think what's cool about the "hello" is that It's so obvious who it is from just that one line. The game hasn't explicitly stated your relationship with her, leaving the possibility of being married, having kids, or being separated; but Harry's inability to stomach thoughts concerning his relationship to her tells you everything. He passes out when he reads the note she's written that you keep stuffed in your work clipboard. You lose morale at the very mention of her. When you hear that voice though there was no doubt in my mind. This is the woman he confuses with God herself.
Pretty spot on interpretation, but I didn’t know about the note in Harry’s clipboard. There’s so much in this game I still have to discover, I’ll keep my eyes out for this note when I replay the Final Cut in the upcoming month or two. Thanks for your insight :)
The end of the game you can actually ask the other detective who the girl is and he says it's just somebody you dated and broke up with like 6 years ago lol. You weren't even married.
@@andrew3606 "just" is, I think, an unfair reduction of their relationship. Be it a girlfriend or a wife, it's clear she meant something to Harry. I've never married, but I had myself the most loving and supporting girlfriend a guy could ask. Until I didn't. It's been 4 years - Harry's got me beat by just two - and every time I spot a picture of her, her name comes up in the conversation or I so much as accidentally glance at her profile while scrolling through discord, my heart sinks in a way that almost feels like a tear through my body. I actively sobbed during the dream sequence, every word Dora spoke, in that deified veneer of Dolores Dei, dealt real life morale damage. If you find the phasmid before dreaming, you can tell her you'll name the new species after her. She says she would hate that. If it were anyone else, she would love it, but not me. Not Harry. Fuck, that was the first blow. Then she said every day she thinks of me less and less. Sometimes whole months pass by before I cross her mind. Not for me. For me she's there every day, at least once. That's when I began to cry. Relationships like these, they don't need a signature in a piece of paper witnessed by a public servant to leave an impact. All it needs is love for a hundred days followed by a single bad day. It's like watching the last flames of a burning building die out and watch as the charcoal cools.
@@KalilIllinois Aight you didn't have to write out the paragraph guy, I was quoting the character from memory. It's literally 1 line of dialogue said dismissively...bro...
My moment was when my clothing choice was brought into question. The first night Kim points out my lack of other shoe and that left me gobsmacked. Or when it was mentioned that I had a collection of FALN clothes.
i really like that during your final moments with your *beautiful* tie, when you ask "who broke my heart" it replies with "you both did, bratan -- deep down you know it was the both of you" it would be so easy to just say that they broke up because Harry was a drunk, or a superstar cop, or whatever, but knowing that your relationship turned out like this because it just wasn't meant to be humanizes Harry a lot and gives his character more room to have a better life
Having actually checked on the context of the relationship, the reason it didn't work was /her/ expectations for lifestyle. She could never get over herself and her need for luxury when Harry was clearly working his ass off, and the obvious lack of gratitude turned him into a self-loathing simp. The amnesia was the best thing to ever happen to him, in a twisted way. Forgetting about her will allow him to move onto something healthier in his life, eventually. She didn't deserve him.
@@Adanu191 Harry only got obsessed with his job after the breakup. This culminates in him multiple cases a week with the power of alcohol, smokes and drugs to get a promotion.
@@rangergxi The breakup was only 6 years ago, and he was a cop for 18. It was stated that he had a very high success rate, even for an 18 year veteran. There is no way the first 12 years didn't have a decent rate of cases solved. He didn't even want a promotion, since he refused taking it twice. The breakup was more likely to be the beginning of his downward spiral. Probably everything suffered in the final 6 years. It does seem like a big point of contention was that he didn't make enough money, so she married someone that did. Ironic for someone that got Harry into communism, for her to then break and go for a high earner capitalist.
What I absolutely love about this interaction is Shiver's reaction to you calling her again "Run. To the church. Home. Anywhere but here. Anything but calling her again." gives me this sense of a primal fear, flight or fight instinct kicking in, which fits in with the animal spirit theme around Harry, for ex. the ancient reptillian brain VA being the same VA for the successful karaoke skill check
Whenever I made the phone call in game, I was just as terrified as Harry. I understood and experienced the dread he was going through at that moment. Even though I was sold on this game from the conversation with Kim during the first night, the phone call helped solidify it.
Mine was right away, as soon as the game started. Not hyperbole, I put all my points into mental stats so I would intentionally have a frail and unhealthy physical character that had to solve every problem with wits and a sharp tongue. First thing I do when I gain control of Harry, is reach up and try and get the tie off the ceiling fan. I hurt myself, have a heart attack, and die right there and then. I was giggling for a full five minutes while I remade my character and started all over again, making sure to save this time lol.
My moment was something so simple and I don’t know why but just the interaction with the pinball machine and Kim .. idk it was just so real to me like Harry and Kim actually exist
I got a feeling that Disco Elysium is going to be a very good game the moment Kim asked Harry "What's with all the running?" because I turned Capslock on all the way so Harry would get to places faster. I was like "woah! this game keeps track of if I'm running or not?!", that's how much thought & detail they put into the game.
Funny thing is: It doesn't really. Kim will remark on it even if you walk everywhere, because the developers realized that 99% of all players would run all over the place.
The moment for me was getting the reality lowdown from Joyce, and realizing that this world was doomed. "The pale outweighs reality two to one -- there is more pale than there is matter. And the ratio is slipping."
i found it interesting that during my first playthrough i steered away from all payphones. i don't even know why. maybe it was the money? but even when i had over 20 real in my pocket and a call costs 0.10, i still didn't use any of the payphones in the game. they seemed like a very bad idea, especially after calling precinct 41 on the radio (that radio call was the moment when i suddenly fully realised that i might've forgotten everyone, but some people still remember ME, and it was a sort of a "oh shit, this is gonna be awkward" moment). when i called the payphone on my second playthrough i was so sure i know who's gonna pick up the phone that i was caught off guard when it turned out to be a prank call haha xd and when the interfacing check appeared i thought "ah.... there we go... this is gonna be bad"
SPOILER AHEAD IN THIS COMMENT: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED I think the defining moment for Disco Elysium, for me, at least was the Doomed Commercial Area. You go through a maze of failed businesses. Exploring dirt covered room after room. Eventually you are lead to the Dicemaker. I won't go into detail about the discussion, because it's not necessarily relevant, but what comes out of it, is. You unlock the thought 'The Precarious World'. This one thought hit close to home for me, especially the last line. 'You can either play or you can crawl under a boat and waste away -- turn into salt or a flock of seagulls. Your enemies would *love* that. Or you can fight. The only way to load the dice is to keep on fighting.' It not only encapsulates the point of the game, which is to try and strive through your failure, make something out of nothing, make someone out of nothing, but life. You can either attempt to be happy, keep fighting back, do everything you can to be better and make the situation better. Or you can waste away. Thing is, the latter will lead to your downfall, a 0% chance. The former, however, gives you a chance. And no matter how small it is, no matter how large the problem(s) seem, it is still, and always will be, a higher chance than 0. P.S. Great video. I can see the makings of a good content creator in you.
Thanks so much for the kind words and extremely thoughtful comment, I appreciate both a ton :) Also I never thought about the Novelty Dicemaker in the way you articulated it. But now looking back on it, the concept of chance is so inherently embedded in Disco Elysium's identity I'm surprised it didn't hit me as much on my first playthrough. The Doomed Commercial area was one of my favorites as well, but more for its mystique as well it being the first area I thoroughly explored. I'll never forget how awesome it was breaking through the door in the back of the bookstore to explore it. Truly a great feeling when the dice roll went in my favor. But honestly, thanks for commenting this. Disco Elysium is a game that unveils more and more of itself as time goes by. And I love hearing other people's experiences because I take a lot away from them. I'm excited to look at the Novelty Dicemaker in a new light when Final Cut comes out and I replay the game! Also the "Dicemaker" song is among my favorite in the soundtrack, truly an underrated gem
Sailing to the small island, blasting Sad fm. I was going through my own white mourning at the time, realised playing the game how much of a flawed individual I am, how I brought it up on myself. I don’t know about Harry, but I managed to get in touch with her again, although being together is not an option. Wish the dude the best for the future ✌🏻
Yes indeed it is! The phasmid reveal from the OST is among my favorite songs for one of the best moments in the game imo th-cam.com/video/psNKPe4pOHI/w-d-xo.html
Personally, the moment that sold me on the fact that this game was going to be great was that, after investigating during the first day, and waiting for the debriefing on the balcony with Kim, I opened the ledger's compartment, and that entire secuence played out. From that moment, from how the letter was redacted to how your thoughts slowly start to reminisce about that one happy memory, and of course how emotional the fall is, with the music swelling up as you drop the letter and try to hold onto something; that's when I knew that the game was going to be incredible. Also, right after the debriefing I had the First Dream, which sealed the deal on the game's quality. Edit: And, of course, to top it off... You get White Mourning, a little piece of Harry's past that should have never come back, probably one of the most hurtful and emotionally bleak thought Question-Answers in my opinion, and for that, it's probably my favourite.
I immediately paused the video when I realized what scene it was, liked the video, and am not going to unpause it. I genuinely don't want to relive through that. I loved it too, but it hurt on a fundamental level for me. I think... I think it made me discover my worst fear. Disco Elysium means a lot to me, so much that when I got to the ending area, I stopped for a day to ponder on what I'll come out as after it all. And the only thing I've learned is that Harry, or Rafael Ambrosius Costeau, or whatever you name this *entity* is what we should strive to be and *not* to be. He symbolized my worst fear, as a person. That I'll end up like him one day, because I know I can. Reading those thougths throughout the game, that internal monologue that it puts names to and disguises as skills - it feels so close to what I have in real life. I've talked to people and asked them, actually, cause apparently its not how normal people think. (not entirely sure, though even the game acknowledges that its not normal) When I saw his struggles, I realized I was living on the verge of spiralling down like that. I still am, honestly. I've lived that exact phone call, had that same dream he had at the end, though to an admittedly lesser degree. I would've done it again, eventually, if it wasn't for this game giving me insight. And from the schmuck, something admiral. You can crawl out of it. You don't rise like a phoenix from the ashes. It's a breath of clarity, and know that its today that it starts to hurt less. That endless dream won't be so endless anymore. Giving up and letting go are two different things, and I think people know that inherently, but don't know that sometimes you have to do both to move on.
It's a really great moment. You dial up the sliver of a memory hoping to salvage something from a better time but deep down you know it can't be done. I loved that Harry's ruinous relationship is such an essential part of this game and the story but no matter what you do, no matter how you build your character, dialogue choices you make or what items you equip, there is nothing you can do to get her back. It's a moment I am sure a lot of people can relate to.
I think for me it was the "ghost" In the doomed commercial area's calling machine. It sent real shivers down my spine, and made me wonder if the world is really as straightforward as i though.
Another interesting detail is that if you succeed an impossible volition check, you can actually back out of the call after dialing it and receive a surge of health and morale, as a wave of relief washes over Harry.
First off, LOVE YOUR VIDEO! I love hearing others talk about this game. I wanted to share my favorite moment as well. For me, what makes this game so special is when Harry finds his clipboard in the dumpster. I completely overlooked this for the first FOUR DAYS. And it wasn't till day five I got the title screen for the game. When I learned just how seasoned and experienced Harry was as a cop I just had so many emotions and thoughts and it was cool to see a character I had created fall back into his own personality. The moment Harry and Kim find his clipboard is so simple but the most impactful to me. Amazing game and again, amazing video.
I LOVE that this game makes you feel like a genuine detective. No detail is insignificant. No amount of sleuthing and questioning is unrewarded. But perhaps the moment that really made me fall in love with this game is investigating Harry's clipboard. Digging through your files, finding out who you were, what your name is, what kind of cop you were and how far you have fallen, and perhaps most importantly, what is in the envelope. When Harry opens the envelope and is so overwhelmed by his emotions, by his unwillingness to face what haunts him the most, the screen goes black. Its just powerful. And as a man who has dealt with the pain of divorce, it resonated with me on a level like nothing else. Those who know, know that feeling of remorse. That black pit of despair that threatens to swallow you. What a genuinely awful and difficult thing it is to bring yourself back from that pit. To start over. I had never felt more understood by anything or anyone. What a truly special game.
I couldn’t agree more. Probably my favorite moment in any game I’ve played, it really speaks to the core of what Disco Elysium is about(at least to me that is)
I was sold when he crashed into the lady in the wheelchair. I was blown away when I sat on the swing with Kim I was crushed when I used that damn payphone
This video came up in my recommended seemingly at random, and though I don't usually venture out to watch much other than my regular stuff, I did so this time. Kind of funny that it's the exact same way you discover this scene in the game, by going out and exploring. (I'll leave a bunch of spaces after this, SPOILERS after this point) ... (wahoo! spoiler time) I've got to confess, just the sight of the payphone makes me tear up a bit, and had me pausing the video immediately (even consider not watching it), considering how powerful the scene is and the level at which I connected with it. When I stumbled into the scene, and Harry started putting in the new number, I actually anticipated who would be on the other side of the telephone (I think based on a previous moment where he seems to remember the address of his previous home, or the number of the video rental?)... and hearing that soft, sleepy "Hello" really hit me like a train. While Harry deals with a lot of serious problems like alcoholism, and they're so well-written I empathise with him at every turn, I lack that personal experience with the matter and so while I adore the writing, I don't immediately connect on a personal level with Harry, and feel more like a friend trying to help him out. That's not the case with Dora, though. I've been in Harry's shoes before, and every single scene where he chases for her in vain, I feel like I've lived before - these all hit as if I was experiencing them personally. The payphone scene is probably my favorite from the entire game as well, I can definitely see why you chose it. For me, it's one of the most painful ones to go through as well, as I've called like this as well. I don't think I have enough words to describe how amazingly well-made the scene is, from Dora's voice on the phone (which is so soft, but invokes such a deep dread in poor Harry; I've been there), to the answers that Harry can give (which perfectly reflect that moment of painful silence when you're trying to figure out what to say, even down to the intrusive, ominous need to just blurt out "I want to die") to the overall atmosphere and the rich description of a very long distance call... not to mention the conversation itself, and the way she hangs up on him (been there, again. Right there, at that payphone in the snow, it feels like). When Harry punched the phone after the call, I think I felt that. I'm sorry for leaving such a long unwarranted text wall, especially when it has such a personal experience dump in it, but it's hands down one of the best scenes I've ever seen in any game, and I feel the need to praise it, given how well it was pulled off and how much it spoke to me on a deeply personal level. I couldn't help but notice the video has relatively few views and you're not exactly a big channel, but as someone who usually doesn't leave comments or likes, I feel like small channels like yours deserve it a lot (especially knowing how much it makes my day to get feedback on anything I make). It's a lovely video. I've subscribed, as well.
Thanks so much for this. Like it means a ton that someone cared enough about my video to leave a comment with so much thought. This comment was the highlight of my day so thank you :) Also I totally agree with your assessment of the scene, especially with you relating more to Dora than Harry. Don't get me wrong I empathize with Harry, but Dora's situation is I think a lot more relatable. Harry can't move on from a relationship that's long been over, and that's hard. But he externalizes a lot of those problems onto himself, others, and Dora specifically in this scene. I get the impression from this scene that Dora doesn't hate/dislike Harry as much as pity him. It's so depressingly sad anyway you look at it. There's Dora trying her best to move on, and then there's Harry desperately clinging to past relationships and still mentally living in an age of Disco long gone. This scene is just amazing, and it's one of the most moving scenes I've personally experienced in the medium of video games. I'm very much looking forward to see how ZA/UM convey this scene in March with the Final Cut. Thers's so much they can do with this scene, and I can't wait to hear it with full voice acting.
@@EpicGamerDan I'm so glad to have made your day! :) I also can't wait for the Final Cut, it's had my hopes up since the day it was announced. Honestly, I was super excited just to find out that I would get to hear more of Kim, but now that you bring up this scene... yeah, I think hearing Harry and Dora voiced here probably takes first place now. (on the other hand all my friends who wanted to play Disco Elysium this winter break are now waiting for Final Cut instead (>人
Final Cut will be a game changer not just for the content of the game, but also for the amount of people who are gonna give Disco Elysium a chance in the first place. I've talked to countless people who said they find Disco Elysium interesting, but they're intimidated by the amount of reading and think it would get boring. I disagree with this since ZA/UM went out of their way to create an amazing UI for the text of the game(Robert Kurvitz did a great interview on GameSpot about this). But this is still a worry some have, and I can see Final Cut bringing in a lot of new people. And all my friends who I recommended the game to are waiting for Final Cut as well. Also you're right that the only time in the game that the player gets to interact with the real Dora is the payphone. The Dora we see in the dream is Dolores Dei of the Dolorian Church of Humanity in Martinaise. But I wouldn't say it's fair to claim that Dolores Dei in the dream is actually representative of the real Dolores Dei or her ideals. Instead Dolores Dei is a personification of Harry's relationship with Dora and other deeply rooted personal problems that Harry suffers. People just tend to say it's Dora in the dream because the dream tackles a lot of Harry's issues about Dora very directly. And I agree with your assessment earlier about being so entrenched with Harry's perspective throughout the game. I think being entrenched with Harry's perspective is important to get the player to empathize with Harry, but when you take a step back there's a lot of nuance to many situations in Disco Elysium. But that's what I love about this game, there's so much complexity to the world building, character development, and writing. It'd be hard for me to not be interested in the world of Revachol. The payphone situation is just one of many situations in Disco Elysium that possesses a beautiful complexity. And honestly I'm just excited to see what ZA/UM does next after Final Cut. There's so much they can do with this world and its characters, the possibilities are endless.
@@EpicGamerDan That's very true! Personally, I never had a problem with text-heavy games (before Disco Elysium, my main contender for favorite game of all time was Planescape: Torment, which is also something of a "novel with some graphics slapped ontop of it." Though the graphics and combat system are often dealbreakers for it as well...) but it's one of the most common reservations people have about these kinds of games. I certainly hope that Final Cut will bring in way more people; at the very least those who were on the fence about playing the game, if not new people outright. And indeed, I couldn't have put it better myself about Dolores Dei being the personification of the relationship and Harry's problems, rather than an accurate image of Dora herself. I feel the same way; the image of Dolores Dei is something holy and incredibly distant, and Harry likely simply associates Dora with that feeling of something that's very far away, that's unattainable, something between worthy of worship and ominously cold and distant. And I agree *so* much on there being so many aspects to the characters and world of Disco Elysium, and the writing for it all is excellent. Every historical event mentioned in passing, every person you meet, every scene and the different ways it can play out... I think, in some regards, seeing everything through Harry's eyes also adds onto that complexity, given his thoughts, actions, or even his political beliefs. As for seeing more works set in the universe of Disco Elysium, I'm also pretty excited for the future. I've been keeping an eye open for news about Robert Kurvitz's book "Sacred and Terrible Air" / "Püha ja õudne lõhn" which I'd heard is being translated into English; it takes place in the same universe, but several decades later from Disco Elysium's plot (and features the Pale as a big element in the plot, if I'm not mistaken). There's also the TV Series, which... admittedly, knowing TV series adaptations, I don't have super high expectations of, but I'll definitely give it a chance. As for ZA/UM themselves and what they might work on after that? Who knows, really? Given that the two works set in the universe feature the Pale, it might remain a plot point for any work set in the same universe. Another thing that could be taken as a hint is the post-credits scene you get if Harry aligns himself primarily with communism (I haven't seen it myself, I narrowly finished as more Moralist than Communist; I've read about it on Reddit though).
There were so many impactful moments in the game.. the payphone, the dream, finding the phasmid, Cuno caving in and talking as himself, delivering the news of the working class man's death, getting Kitsuragi and the kids to dance with you.. Even the tie which, throughout the whole game tries to convince you to drink and take drugs.. but that at the end sacrifices itself so that you can have a chance at the tribunal. This game is fucking beautiful.
I remember slowly realizing this was important when he slowly input the very long phone number, and realized what this meant when the person on the phone knew Harry's name, and once the call was ended, I didn't call back. I was like "Come on Harry, the past is gone. Let it go so it won't hurt you anymore." I genuinely felt awful for the man and couldn't bring myself to put him through that conversation again.
This, alongside the dream sequence did something games rarely ponder over in any significant manner. In both instances, I tried to make amends, apologize and try to reason that I was trying my best and that I didn't hate her. And despite all my efforts and lines, it was clear that there was no going back. That whatever Harry agonizes and loses morale over, will never come back. You can't fix this relationship because it is beyond salvageable. But despite that, you are given the option to try in vain, even though you know better as a player. You want to make it work for Harry, but it's impossible. There's something very human about what happened in those moments; grief. Harry buried his misery in work, drugs and debauchery in an attempt to cope, but it's all unraveled and he's forced to face the music; she's never coming back. He has to move on, and it's never going to be easy. Your attempts to bring it back causes you actual in-game pain. That is clever work. Such a good game.
Disco elysium is full of amazing and beautiful moments, thar made me think and feel, much more then i could ever imagine i would, in any other form of art
The moment that's still stuck to me was standing in the rain, right in front of the nearly abandoned Doomed Commercial Building, listening to a ghost on the call box say "It felt so nice to finally forget about you..." I finished the game this past week as of writing. I couldn't help but shed a tear as it said that. I miss my best friend...
My defining moment was with the Deserter at the end in the fort. To me, he symbolizes everything. You, Kim, the union, the moralintern, Revachol. He was everything, he was the most important piece of the puzzle. He also has an Amazing voice too
I know that game does not focus on this feeling solely, but for me it was the moment you stepped in a hut on the left side of the map (coastal village). Discovering the disheveled place that is this village and being invited to stay by an older person who has nobody left in the world screams eastern europe to me. I was digesting whatever symbolism game threw at me throughout the plot, and tried to apply it to reality, but that shack was just too real to digest. It hit me like a truck and i almost started crying just from the scenery and a tune that plays in it. That track also plays in Cuno's flat, and it conveys the same eastern europe energy. Yknow i often find sad-sounding soundtracks comforting, or pleasing to ear, but that track is just pure sorrow, and i dont want to hear it.
YES! EXACTLY! I was already loving the game, but this is the moment that made me certain this is the best game I have ever played in the 20something years I've been playing them I had just finished the church arc (a really funny moment, followed by a spooky mysterious moment) and was stumblling home at 2am, drunk, high, after a smoke, and this moment could not have been more perfectly placed. I actually had a couple things I wanted to do at 2am so as not to lose daylight, but after the call, I got so imersed into the game, I *involuntarily* roleplayed, which I absolutely never do - I punched the box (even though I knew it would just take away a health point) and I went straight to bed because I needed to decompress, and I had 0 motivation to run around to get loot or complete petty side quests.
Couldn’t agree more. This is the moment where I kinda realized that Disco Elysium is probably my favorite game I’ve ever played. The spontaneity and the ability to miss the call makes it all the more special. I’m excited to see how the voice acting changes the scene though when I play Final Cut in the next few months.
The singular "hello" is bone-freezing. What also echoes within me still is the . . . . phasmid's "I exist" for the simplicity of this grandeur statement Very cool video!
my moment, my first one, was the scene of harry and kim on the swingset, waiting for the ice to melt. im not sure what it was about it, but in the moment i knew this game would be special. my second one was the phasmid. its what broke me. i cried at 3 am over a bug and thats when i went "i already loved this game, now it might be one of my favourites"
really cool video, didn't even remember this scene. my 2 moments with the games wer, the combersation with the drug dealers, with the man that was destroyed by alcohol and like harry, ones lived a normal life. forgot his name but this was a very impacting moment in the game for me. the secon one is not a emotional one but one that flip the table to me. the moment when you open a container just talking to the blue painted metal door ist on the least, facinating. really amazed me and made my think about the crativeness of the game itself. games like this doesn't show up every day and chanels like this either. (sorry for spelling mistakes, english is not my native language)
i loved this so much, i ended up getting here alone after making Kim move the body, and had no idea if what i found was a dream, a mistake in my head, or i actually said these things.
I first played the game post-Final Cut, and for me the moment that absolutely defined my entire experience, a moment I later cited in an academic paper, a moment that I can never stop thinking about, is the ending of the Communist vision quest added in the Final Cut.
I love that you can just say "I am the LAW" to her, which has just been this funny refrain you can fall back to at this point. But seeing it come back here is weird, like knowing its an absurd defense mechanism for his life
Same here. This moment in the game changed the whole perspective for me. In my first playthrough I missed it. I didn't pass the check and then forgot about it. I came back to the phone last year. When Dora hung up I was as devastated as Harry. Hunching. Crumbled. In a deep mental pain. Because let's be honest, we all had broken hearts in our lives. I had to quit playing for a while. And then I decided to fix Harry. I replayed the game again. Quit drinking and doing drugs completely. Quit being Superstar Cop, became a Sorry Cop and never f*cking regretted it.
I played DE back when it came out and sadly I wasn't pulled into it at the time. I had heard about how great it was but my mental was different back then. Come to the end of this year, I gave it a go again. I always knew that I would, this time with the voice narration, the moment that resounded to me the most was the description of death in the beginning. "Nothing baby" "There is nothing. Only warm, primordial blackness. Your conscience ferments in it -- no larger than a single grain of malt." For some reason the writing resounded with me, this time I wanted to "feel". I played the game straight for days. It is now my favorite game of all time.
The phonecall reminded me of a Danish arthouse film called Submarino that I watched on a date. It haunts me to this day because of how relatable this movie felt to my own life. In the beginning, the protagonist, a depressed alcoholic, has a phonecall similair to Harry's and punches the payphone. He injures his hand doing this. Throughout the movie, the injury gets worse and worse untill he collapses from septic shock and wakes up in a hospital bed with his hand amputated in the end. I highly recommend it, but be warned, its not a feel good film.
Something I noticed when I went through this moment was how out of my control Harry felt. Looking at his dialogue options, it all felt like nothing I would want to say. Which I don’t think is a coincidence considering that Volition, your skill that wants you to be a good person and offers the most control over Harry’s impulses, is the one hurt most deeply by the Ex-something. He begs you to hang up the phone, and he begs you to throw away the apricot chewing gum wrapper when you first discover it. The other skills seem curious or foreboding, but Volition is truly heartbroken.
My few moments were, the ending, completing the “cleaning out the rooms thought”, discovering the pale, and just replaying it figuring out things. Everything with Kim is amazing
I had so many moments like this: - Winning the pinball machine with Kim - Meeting Kim for the first time - Seeing Kim protect Harry and everyone else in what is (unquestionably) the most loyal and badass moment he has, he definitely followed through on that esprit de corp check... - Talking to Kim on the balcony - The kineema, OH GOD THE KINEEMA! - talking to Kim about his (not crashed) Kineema.. - Backing Kim up when the racist guy used his vocal chords - The ending, my god the ending! - The insect - The Mega Rich Light Bending Guy - Kim commenting when I took the boots and completed the set - just Kim being an absolute chad - Sad FM is such an incredible moment Sadly I completely forgot about the karaoke as I was having such a blast, but I'll 100% do it every other playthrough
For me, it was the moment when you met the phasmid,i was too caught up with the investigation and when i completed the check and i saw it,I got so derailed because of my childlike curiosity, and it was beautiful.
Good video. DE sold me almost immediately, once I got adjusted to the over-the-top VAing of the reptilian brain and limbic system. I love how the game characterizes Harry by forcing you to play out as a total failure at first, to (IMO) great comedic effect. Btw it's hapenstance, not hapenchance.
A big revelation to me was Harry himself being well himself. It’s been stated he’s blacked out and lost memory before. What made me think was, if Harry was given the same options after memory lose, he’d slowly turn back into himself. People are expectant of Harry whenever he’s started spewing the same thing over and over. Dora is aware and I noticed myself how Harry just can’t not be how he is. He just has to tell Dora things the way he does. Etc…
I will always remember the moment that I told the pawn shop guy that I should've shot myself. The reaction where he didn't know how to react sticks in my brain.
Ngl as someone who already likes Disco Elysium the biggest takeaway from this video is that apparently *happenchance* is a word. Fully got whiplash when the initial happen- didn't end with -stance.
been to years but i just finished the game so whatever. To me, this scene was made infinitely better with kim. When you try to call his name but only a whimper comes out really set the scene for me, even made me tear up.
This video touches on something that I have slowly learned, time and time again: If there's something in Disco Elysium, it was meant to be there. Now obviously that sounds right, of course the developers intended to put something in there, but what I mean is that every single time the game says there's something to do--*they want you to do it.* You said "I could have easily left after making the prank phone calls" and that's exactly what I did!! I thought it was just a funny little money sink, but as I've seen more and more of other people's play throughs, I realize that basically no such thing exists. There was a reason, and I missed out on not pushing forward. I feel this is genuinely exemplified in the fact that in the final moments of the game; I didn't rest in the bed in the fort. I thought to myself "The day is young, we're right here, we don't want this guy to get away!" and so I kept up through the entire day... and later realized that I missed perhaps one of the most important moments Harry can have, finally confronting his entire perspective of deifying his former lover, and the guilt, the regret, the anger that his past wells up inside of him. That, luckily, I could go back and see by reloading a save--but this small moment, of *genuine* confrontation, speaking with her, is lost to my Harry. (Well, until the next time I play, of course) Also, great video! I appreciate the short length of it, the succinctness, you have a good grasp on these things.
For me it was talking to Measurehead the fact that they took the time to explore what kinds of racism would exist in this world and made it just as inchorent as real world racism and the fact I had zero context going in was too funny and they did this all for a joke character.
Two years too late to comment, but I missed both the Dream and the phonecall. The latter because I was in the zone. I almost met Ruby and felt like I needed to move it - as a character not as a player, - so I left the phonebooth after a few prank calls. The former I missed because Harry metaphorically forced his shit together for this final stretch. So, I guess my Harry actually did move on throughout the course of the game - and funnily enough, I started the run with, like, 1 in Volition and by the end it was one of my highest stats, so it fits.
My moment is when I looked into the eyes of Klaasje and used my Volition to completely warp my perception on the game. Things I've come to know as trustful, became untrustful. My *skills* were useless, aside from Volition. And when I reached the end of the game, with our meeting with God, it happens again. Klaasje and Dora, no matter how skilled we are, have us wrapped around their finger. It takes more than willpower to get over it, but it is possible, but Harry doesn't have anything else other than that, if he even has that Volition. Getting over and letting go of Dora is an inhuman task, an impossible hurdle to simply do alone. But depending on which endings you got, Harry isn't alone anymore, maybe more sane, even.
Have I been pronouncing happenstance my whole life, or have you? I actually just called it a night on this game after that scene, but I cracked open a bottle and then shut it down after being sober the whole playable game. I didn't save, but for tonight, that is how it ended for me.
Yesterday I cried for my ex-gf after finding and reading the letter in the blue heart clip. This is not my first run. She left months ago, I hadnt cry before...
They were both terrible for each other. Dolores states that in the dream mentioning that she first ran away from him and she was the one to beg Harry for forgiveness. I think that was a true memory. Even though Harry's dreams paint him as someone who she hated, the one guilty of everything - remember what the phasmid says at the end of the coversation - "That woman - turn from the ruin, she was hell on earth" (that sentence changes depending on political view chosen by player, but always means the same thing). We know it is not really phasmid talking (as with the hanged man), it is Harry's imagination. Hence I believe they mutually kept being toxic.
This game is the trump card any gamer can pull out when having a pointless argument with movie or book snobs that claim video games can't match theyr version of the art that is story telling. It's a pointles argument because in mine and I'm sure many of yours opinions - video games are superior in their story telling especially due to the unique ability to interact and influence their narratives. And not only do WE know this...but deep down, even the aforementioned snobs know this to be true. Anyway my point is, this video game is the beez kneez. And I know I praised the story a bunch but I'd also like to mention that I love this type of overall gameplay and infact, this is the only video game with this camera type that I can put in my "BESTEESSSSTEST VIDEO GAMES EVER MADE!" Hat. The other one is the original Diablo when I played it on PS1. There is of course Dota style games I loved playing with similar type camera. As well as RTS games like Red Alert and Warcraft, oh and ofcourse Final Fantasy Tactics 'War of the Lions' ( which I forgot to mention is not an rts, it's considered like a JRPG maybe? It's turned based, grid tactics game of the absolute peak quality, chefs kiss absolutely no notes brilliance of a game :) go play it asap as heck!); But I can't count those because they are in entirely different genres.
For me, it was sitting on the swing set with Kim - staring at the crashed motor carriage, Harry inching closer to the realization.
i had it by myself when kim was gone delivering the corpse. I imagined that Kim came back to a Harrier who had rediscovered himself, and was a much more respectable man.
That moment stuck with me more because that was the first time my version of Harry learned / heard his name. Since Kim says it at that moment.
The moment for me was right at the beginning.
When Gartt asks you to pay your bill and you choose the option to walk away unnoticed. If you fail, you end up running while flipping him off, which for some reason is the most favorable outcome. It leads to being given a valuable item to sell and a discount that you would have never gotten if you passed the check.
That's the moment I realized this game was going to be more than a "pick the good option get the good ending" game.
Same. Kim is so kind and patient and Harry is such a mess... it was really touching
spoilers. I think what's cool about the "hello" is that It's so obvious who it is from just that one line. The game hasn't explicitly stated your relationship with her, leaving the possibility of being married, having kids, or being separated; but Harry's inability to stomach thoughts concerning his relationship to her tells you everything. He passes out when he reads the note she's written that you keep stuffed in your work clipboard. You lose morale at the very mention of her. When you hear that voice though there was no doubt in my mind. This is the woman he confuses with God herself.
Pretty spot on interpretation, but I didn’t know about the note in Harry’s clipboard. There’s so much in this game I still have to discover, I’ll keep my eyes out for this note when I replay the Final Cut in the upcoming month or two. Thanks for your insight :)
The end of the game you can actually ask the other detective who the girl is and he says it's just somebody you dated and broke up with like 6 years ago lol. You weren't even married.
@@andrew3606 "just" is, I think, an unfair reduction of their relationship. Be it a girlfriend or a wife, it's clear she meant something to Harry. I've never married, but I had myself the most loving and supporting girlfriend a guy could ask. Until I didn't. It's been 4 years - Harry's got me beat by just two - and every time I spot a picture of her, her name comes up in the conversation or I so much as accidentally glance at her profile while scrolling through discord, my heart sinks in a way that almost feels like a tear through my body. I actively sobbed during the dream sequence, every word Dora spoke, in that deified veneer of Dolores Dei, dealt real life morale damage. If you find the phasmid before dreaming, you can tell her you'll name the new species after her. She says she would hate that. If it were anyone else, she would love it, but not me. Not Harry. Fuck, that was the first blow. Then she said every day she thinks of me less and less. Sometimes whole months pass by before I cross her mind. Not for me. For me she's there every day, at least once. That's when I began to cry. Relationships like these, they don't need a signature in a piece of paper witnessed by a public servant to leave an impact. All it needs is love for a hundred days followed by a single bad day. It's like watching the last flames of a burning building die out and watch as the charcoal cools.
@@KalilIllinois Aight you didn't have to write out the paragraph guy, I was quoting the character from memory. It's literally 1 line of dialogue said dismissively...bro...
@@andrew3606 This guy just open his heart,and write something beautiful and all you have to say is this???Sheesh...
Its not Dora saying hello for me, its Harry changing his entire posture just hearing her voice.
Heartbreaking.
My moment was when my clothing choice was brought into question. The first night Kim points out my lack of other shoe and that left me gobsmacked. Or when it was mentioned that I had a collection of FALN clothes.
Imagine showing up to work one day wearing a full suit of military armor, a plastic bag in one hand and a sword in the other.
i really like that during your final moments with your *beautiful* tie, when you ask "who broke my heart" it replies with "you both did, bratan -- deep down you know it was the both of you"
it would be so easy to just say that they broke up because Harry was a drunk, or a superstar cop, or whatever, but knowing that your relationship turned out like this because it just wasn't meant to be humanizes Harry a lot and gives his character more room to have a better life
Couldn’t have said it better myself, totally forgot about the beautiful tie. Thanks for the comment :)
Having actually checked on the context of the relationship, the reason it didn't work was /her/ expectations for lifestyle. She could never get over herself and her need for luxury when Harry was clearly working his ass off, and the obvious lack of gratitude turned him into a self-loathing simp.
The amnesia was the best thing to ever happen to him, in a twisted way. Forgetting about her will allow him to move onto something healthier in his life, eventually. She didn't deserve him.
@@Adanu191 Harry only got obsessed with his job after the breakup. This culminates in him multiple cases a week with the power of alcohol, smokes and drugs to get a promotion.
@@rangergxi Ah. Trying to find something to fill the hole she left behind.
Doesn't change my mind, but at least he tried.
@@rangergxi The breakup was only 6 years ago, and he was a cop for 18. It was stated that he had a very high success rate, even for an 18 year veteran. There is no way the first 12 years didn't have a decent rate of cases solved. He didn't even want a promotion, since he refused taking it twice. The breakup was more likely to be the beginning of his downward spiral. Probably everything suffered in the final 6 years.
It does seem like a big point of contention was that he didn't make enough money, so she married someone that did. Ironic for someone that got Harry into communism, for her to then break and go for a high earner capitalist.
This was the hardest moment for me aswell, even worse than the dream.
Agreed. The dream was hard, but this just came so out of nowhere that I feel it impacted me a lot more
What I absolutely love about this interaction is Shiver's reaction to you calling her again
"Run. To the church. Home. Anywhere but here. Anything but calling her again." gives me this sense of a primal fear, flight or fight instinct kicking in, which fits in with the animal spirit theme around Harry, for ex. the ancient reptillian brain VA being the same VA for the successful karaoke skill check
Whenever I made the phone call in game, I was just as terrified as Harry. I understood and experienced the dread he was going through at that moment. Even though I was sold on this game from the conversation with Kim during the first night, the phone call helped solidify it.
Mine was right away, as soon as the game started. Not hyperbole, I put all my points into mental stats so I would intentionally have a frail and unhealthy physical character that had to solve every problem with wits and a sharp tongue. First thing I do when I gain control of Harry, is reach up and try and get the tie off the ceiling fan. I hurt myself, have a heart attack, and die right there and then.
I was giggling for a full five minutes while I remade my character and started all over again, making sure to save this time lol.
My moment was something so simple and I don’t know why but just the interaction with the pinball machine and Kim .. idk it was just so real to me like Harry and Kim actually exist
I got a feeling that Disco Elysium is going to be a very good game the moment Kim asked Harry "What's with all the running?" because I turned Capslock on all the way so Harry would get to places faster.
I was like "woah! this game keeps track of if I'm running or not?!", that's how much thought & detail they put into the game.
Funny thing is: It doesn't really. Kim will remark on it even if you walk everywhere, because the developers realized that 99% of all players would run all over the place.
The moment for me was getting the reality lowdown from Joyce, and realizing that this world was doomed.
"The pale outweighs reality two to one -- there is more pale than there is matter. And the ratio is slipping."
i found it interesting that during my first playthrough i steered away from all payphones. i don't even know why. maybe it was the money? but even when i had over 20 real in my pocket and a call costs 0.10, i still didn't use any of the payphones in the game. they seemed like a very bad idea, especially after calling precinct 41 on the radio (that radio call was the moment when i suddenly fully realised that i might've forgotten everyone, but some people still remember ME, and it was a sort of a "oh shit, this is gonna be awkward" moment).
when i called the payphone on my second playthrough i was so sure i know who's gonna pick up the phone that i was caught off guard when it turned out to be a prank call haha xd and when the interfacing check appeared i thought "ah.... there we go... this is gonna be bad"
Harry Du Bois is one of the best characters brought to screen alongside Arthur Morgan and suchlike
SPOILER AHEAD IN THIS COMMENT: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
I think the defining moment for Disco Elysium, for me, at least was the Doomed Commercial Area. You go through a maze of failed businesses. Exploring dirt covered room after room. Eventually you are lead to the Dicemaker. I won't go into detail about the discussion, because it's not necessarily relevant, but what comes out of it, is.
You unlock the thought 'The Precarious World'. This one thought hit close to home for me, especially the last line. 'You can either play or you can crawl under a boat and waste away -- turn into salt or a flock of seagulls. Your enemies would *love* that. Or you can fight. The only way to load the dice is to keep on fighting.'
It not only encapsulates the point of the game, which is to try and strive through your failure, make something out of nothing, make someone out of nothing, but life. You can either attempt to be happy, keep fighting back, do everything you can to be better and make the situation better. Or you can waste away.
Thing is, the latter will lead to your downfall, a 0% chance. The former, however, gives you a chance. And no matter how small it is, no matter how large the problem(s) seem, it is still, and always will be, a higher chance than 0.
P.S. Great video. I can see the makings of a good content creator in you.
Thanks so much for the kind words and extremely thoughtful comment, I appreciate both a ton :)
Also I never thought about the Novelty Dicemaker in the way you articulated it. But now looking back on it, the concept of chance is so inherently embedded in Disco Elysium's identity I'm surprised it didn't hit me as much on my first playthrough. The Doomed Commercial area was one of my favorites as well, but more for its mystique as well it being the first area I thoroughly explored. I'll never forget how awesome it was breaking through the door in the back of the bookstore to explore it. Truly a great feeling when the dice roll went in my favor.
But honestly, thanks for commenting this. Disco Elysium is a game that unveils more and more of itself as time goes by. And I love hearing other people's experiences because I take a lot away from them. I'm excited to look at the Novelty Dicemaker in a new light when Final Cut comes out and I replay the game!
Also the "Dicemaker" song is among my favorite in the soundtrack, truly an underrated gem
Sailing to the small island, blasting Sad fm. I was going through my own white mourning at the time, realised playing the game how much of a flawed individual I am, how I brought it up on myself. I don’t know about Harry, but I managed to get in touch with her again, although being together is not an option. Wish the dude the best for the future ✌🏻
Same dude. Blast that yit on full blast! Im coming fireman!
My "moment" was using visual calculus to map the trajectory of possible sniper shots at the whirling and rags.
The music as well, it’s from the phasmid encounter right? God the game has such a good score.
Yes indeed it is! The phasmid reveal from the OST is among my favorite songs for one of the best moments in the game imo
th-cam.com/video/psNKPe4pOHI/w-d-xo.html
Personally, the moment that sold me on the fact that this game was going to be great was that, after investigating during the first day, and waiting for the debriefing on the balcony with Kim, I opened the ledger's compartment, and that entire secuence played out. From that moment, from how the letter was redacted to how your thoughts slowly start to reminisce about that one happy memory, and of course how emotional the fall is, with the music swelling up as you drop the letter and try to hold onto something; that's when I knew that the game was going to be incredible. Also, right after the debriefing I had the First Dream, which sealed the deal on the game's quality.
Edit: And, of course, to top it off... You get White Mourning, a little piece of Harry's past that should have never come back, probably one of the most hurtful and emotionally bleak thought Question-Answers in my opinion, and for that, it's probably my favourite.
I immediately paused the video when I realized what scene it was, liked the video, and am not going to unpause it. I genuinely don't want to relive through that. I loved it too, but it hurt on a fundamental level for me. I think... I think it made me discover my worst fear. Disco Elysium means a lot to me, so much that when I got to the ending area, I stopped for a day to ponder on what I'll come out as after it all. And the only thing I've learned is that Harry, or Rafael Ambrosius Costeau, or whatever you name this *entity* is what we should strive to be and *not* to be.
He symbolized my worst fear, as a person. That I'll end up like him one day, because I know I can. Reading those thougths throughout the game, that internal monologue that it puts names to and disguises as skills - it feels so close to what I have in real life. I've talked to people and asked them, actually, cause apparently its not how normal people think. (not entirely sure, though even the game acknowledges that its not normal) When I saw his struggles, I realized I was living on the verge of spiralling down like that. I still am, honestly. I've lived that exact phone call, had that same dream he had at the end, though to an admittedly lesser degree. I would've done it again, eventually, if it wasn't for this game giving me insight.
And from the schmuck, something admiral. You can crawl out of it. You don't rise like a phoenix from the ashes. It's a breath of clarity, and know that its today that it starts to hurt less. That endless dream won't be so endless anymore. Giving up and letting go are two different things, and I think people know that inherently, but don't know that sometimes you have to do both to move on.
I've loved reading this. The world needs to fill people's lives with more things of depth, so we can all have insights and revelations like you did
Same here, bro
It's a really great moment. You dial up the sliver of a memory hoping to salvage something from a better time but deep down you know it can't be done. I loved that Harry's ruinous relationship is such an essential part of this game and the story but no matter what you do, no matter how you build your character, dialogue choices you make or what items you equip, there is nothing you can do to get her back. It's a moment I am sure a lot of people can relate to.
Detective Cuno is the real defining moment.
I think for me it was the "ghost" In the doomed commercial area's calling machine. It sent real shivers down my spine, and made me wonder if the world is really as straightforward as i though.
For me it was when I failed the skill check and ran and middle fingered the garte and jumped into Lena.
there is a payphone attached to the building directly beside whirling in rags. That's where i encountered this exchange
Another interesting detail is that if you succeed an impossible volition check, you can actually back out of the call after dialing it and receive a surge of health and morale, as a wave of relief washes over Harry.
First off, LOVE YOUR VIDEO! I love hearing others talk about this game. I wanted to share my favorite moment as well. For me, what makes this game so special is when Harry finds his clipboard in the dumpster. I completely overlooked this for the first FOUR DAYS. And it wasn't till day five I got the title screen for the game. When I learned just how seasoned and experienced Harry was as a cop I just had so many emotions and thoughts and it was cool to see a character I had created fall back into his own personality. The moment Harry and Kim find his clipboard is so simple but the most impactful to me. Amazing game and again, amazing video.
I LOVE that this game makes you feel like a genuine detective. No detail is insignificant. No amount of sleuthing and questioning is unrewarded. But perhaps the moment that really made me fall in love with this game is investigating Harry's clipboard. Digging through your files, finding out who you were, what your name is, what kind of cop you were and how far you have fallen, and perhaps most importantly, what is in the envelope. When Harry opens the envelope and is so overwhelmed by his emotions, by his unwillingness to face what haunts him the most, the screen goes black. Its just powerful. And as a man who has dealt with the pain of divorce, it resonated with me on a level like nothing else. Those who know, know that feeling of remorse. That black pit of despair that threatens to swallow you. What a genuinely awful and difficult thing it is to bring yourself back from that pit. To start over. I had never felt more understood by anything or anyone. What a truly special game.
My mind always come backt to this scene, too. The most defining moment of this masterpiece, or even the whole experience of my gaming.
I couldn’t agree more. Probably my favorite moment in any game I’ve played, it really speaks to the core of what Disco Elysium is about(at least to me that is)
I was sold when he crashed into the lady in the wheelchair.
I was blown away when I sat on the swing with Kim
I was crushed when I used that damn payphone
This video came up in my recommended seemingly at random, and though I don't usually venture out to watch much other than my regular stuff, I did so this time. Kind of funny that it's the exact same way you discover this scene in the game, by going out and exploring. (I'll leave a bunch of spaces after this, SPOILERS after this point)
...
(wahoo! spoiler time)
I've got to confess, just the sight of the payphone makes me tear up a bit, and had me pausing the video immediately (even consider not watching it), considering how powerful the scene is and the level at which I connected with it. When I stumbled into the scene, and Harry started putting in the new number, I actually anticipated who would be on the other side of the telephone (I think based on a previous moment where he seems to remember the address of his previous home, or the number of the video rental?)... and hearing that soft, sleepy "Hello" really hit me like a train.
While Harry deals with a lot of serious problems like alcoholism, and they're so well-written I empathise with him at every turn, I lack that personal experience with the matter and so while I adore the writing, I don't immediately connect on a personal level with Harry, and feel more like a friend trying to help him out. That's not the case with Dora, though. I've been in Harry's shoes before, and every single scene where he chases for her in vain, I feel like I've lived before - these all hit as if I was experiencing them personally.
The payphone scene is probably my favorite from the entire game as well, I can definitely see why you chose it. For me, it's one of the most painful ones to go through as well, as I've called like this as well. I don't think I have enough words to describe how amazingly well-made the scene is, from Dora's voice on the phone (which is so soft, but invokes such a deep dread in poor Harry; I've been there), to the answers that Harry can give (which perfectly reflect that moment of painful silence when you're trying to figure out what to say, even down to the intrusive, ominous need to just blurt out "I want to die") to the overall atmosphere and the rich description of a very long distance call... not to mention the conversation itself, and the way she hangs up on him (been there, again. Right there, at that payphone in the snow, it feels like). When Harry punched the phone after the call, I think I felt that.
I'm sorry for leaving such a long unwarranted text wall, especially when it has such a personal experience dump in it, but it's hands down one of the best scenes I've ever seen in any game, and I feel the need to praise it, given how well it was pulled off and how much it spoke to me on a deeply personal level.
I couldn't help but notice the video has relatively few views and you're not exactly a big channel, but as someone who usually doesn't leave comments or likes, I feel like small channels like yours deserve it a lot (especially knowing how much it makes my day to get feedback on anything I make). It's a lovely video. I've subscribed, as well.
Thanks so much for this. Like it means a ton that someone cared enough about my video to leave a comment with so much thought. This comment was the highlight of my day so thank you :)
Also I totally agree with your assessment of the scene, especially with you relating more to Dora than Harry. Don't get me wrong I empathize with Harry, but Dora's situation is I think a lot more relatable. Harry can't move on from a relationship that's long been over, and that's hard. But he externalizes a lot of those problems onto himself, others, and Dora specifically in this scene. I get the impression from this scene that Dora doesn't hate/dislike Harry as much as pity him. It's so depressingly sad anyway you look at it. There's Dora trying her best to move on, and then there's Harry desperately clinging to past relationships and still mentally living in an age of Disco long gone.
This scene is just amazing, and it's one of the most moving scenes I've personally experienced in the medium of video games. I'm very much looking forward to see how ZA/UM convey this scene in March with the Final Cut. Thers's so much they can do with this scene, and I can't wait to hear it with full voice acting.
@@EpicGamerDan I'm so glad to have made your day! :)
I also can't wait for the Final Cut, it's had my hopes up since the day it was announced. Honestly, I was super excited just to find out that I would get to hear more of Kim, but now that you bring up this scene... yeah, I think hearing Harry and Dora voiced here probably takes first place now.
(on the other hand all my friends who wanted to play Disco Elysium this winter break are now waiting for Final Cut instead (>人
Final Cut will be a game changer not just for the content of the game, but also for the amount of people who are gonna give Disco Elysium a chance in the first place. I've talked to countless people who said they find Disco Elysium interesting, but they're intimidated by the amount of reading and think it would get boring. I disagree with this since ZA/UM went out of their way to create an amazing UI for the text of the game(Robert Kurvitz did a great interview on GameSpot about this). But this is still a worry some have, and I can see Final Cut bringing in a lot of new people. And all my friends who I recommended the game to are waiting for Final Cut as well.
Also you're right that the only time in the game that the player gets to interact with the real Dora is the payphone. The Dora we see in the dream is Dolores Dei of the Dolorian Church of Humanity in Martinaise. But I wouldn't say it's fair to claim that Dolores Dei in the dream is actually representative of the real Dolores Dei or her ideals. Instead Dolores Dei is a personification of Harry's relationship with Dora and other deeply rooted personal problems that Harry suffers. People just tend to say it's Dora in the dream because the dream tackles a lot of Harry's issues about Dora very directly.
And I agree with your assessment earlier about being so entrenched with Harry's perspective throughout the game. I think being entrenched with Harry's perspective is important to get the player to empathize with Harry, but when you take a step back there's a lot of nuance to many situations in Disco Elysium. But that's what I love about this game, there's so much complexity to the world building, character development, and writing. It'd be hard for me to not be interested in the world of Revachol. The payphone situation is just one of many situations in Disco Elysium that possesses a beautiful complexity. And honestly I'm just excited to see what ZA/UM does next after Final Cut. There's so much they can do with this world and its characters, the possibilities are endless.
@@EpicGamerDan That's very true! Personally, I never had a problem with text-heavy games (before Disco Elysium, my main contender for favorite game of all time was Planescape: Torment, which is also something of a "novel with some graphics slapped ontop of it." Though the graphics and combat system are often dealbreakers for it as well...) but it's one of the most common reservations people have about these kinds of games. I certainly hope that Final Cut will bring in way more people; at the very least those who were on the fence about playing the game, if not new people outright.
And indeed, I couldn't have put it better myself about Dolores Dei being the personification of the relationship and Harry's problems, rather than an accurate image of Dora herself. I feel the same way; the image of Dolores Dei is something holy and incredibly distant, and Harry likely simply associates Dora with that feeling of something that's very far away, that's unattainable, something between worthy of worship and ominously cold and distant.
And I agree *so* much on there being so many aspects to the characters and world of Disco Elysium, and the writing for it all is excellent. Every historical event mentioned in passing, every person you meet, every scene and the different ways it can play out... I think, in some regards, seeing everything through Harry's eyes also adds onto that complexity, given his thoughts, actions, or even his political beliefs.
As for seeing more works set in the universe of Disco Elysium, I'm also pretty excited for the future. I've been keeping an eye open for news about Robert Kurvitz's book "Sacred and Terrible Air" / "Püha ja õudne lõhn" which I'd heard is being translated into English; it takes place in the same universe, but several decades later from Disco Elysium's plot (and features the Pale as a big element in the plot, if I'm not mistaken). There's also the TV Series, which... admittedly, knowing TV series adaptations, I don't have super high expectations of, but I'll definitely give it a chance.
As for ZA/UM themselves and what they might work on after that? Who knows, really? Given that the two works set in the universe feature the Pale, it might remain a plot point for any work set in the same universe. Another thing that could be taken as a hint is the post-credits scene you get if Harry aligns himself primarily with communism (I haven't seen it myself, I narrowly finished as more Moralist than Communist; I've read about it on Reddit though).
There were so many impactful moments in the game.. the payphone, the dream, finding the phasmid, Cuno caving in and talking as himself, delivering the news of the working class man's death, getting Kitsuragi and the kids to dance with you.. Even the tie which, throughout the whole game tries to convince you to drink and take drugs.. but that at the end sacrifices itself so that you can have a chance at the tribunal. This game is fucking beautiful.
When just opening this video, I knew it's going to be the payphone, and I watched it anyway.
I remember slowly realizing this was important when he slowly input the very long phone number, and realized what this meant when the person on the phone knew Harry's name, and once the call was ended, I didn't call back. I was like "Come on Harry, the past is gone. Let it go so it won't hurt you anymore." I genuinely felt awful for the man and couldn't bring myself to put him through that conversation again.
That gave me literal shivers
The scene still gives me shivers to this day, telltale sign that Disco Elysium is a game like no other I’ll probably ever play. Truly a masterpiece
Detective. Arriving. On the scene.
This, alongside the dream sequence did something games rarely ponder over in any significant manner.
In both instances, I tried to make amends, apologize and try to reason that I was trying my best and that I didn't hate her. And despite all my efforts and lines, it was clear that there was no going back. That whatever Harry agonizes and loses morale over, will never come back. You can't fix this relationship because it is beyond salvageable. But despite that, you are given the option to try in vain, even though you know better as a player. You want to make it work for Harry, but it's impossible.
There's something very human about what happened in those moments; grief. Harry buried his misery in work, drugs and debauchery in an attempt to cope, but it's all unraveled and he's forced to face the music; she's never coming back. He has to move on, and it's never going to be easy. Your attempts to bring it back causes you actual in-game pain. That is clever work.
Such a good game.
Disco elysium is full of amazing and beautiful moments, thar made me think and feel, much more then i could ever imagine i would, in any other form of art
The moment that's still stuck to me was standing in the rain, right in front of the nearly abandoned Doomed Commercial Building, listening to a ghost on the call box say "It felt so nice to finally forget about you..."
I finished the game this past week as of writing.
I couldn't help but shed a tear as it said that.
I miss my best friend...
for me its when you see the phasmid and you realize that lena was not delusional
My defining moment was with the Deserter at the end in the fort.
To me, he symbolizes everything. You, Kim, the union, the moralintern, Revachol. He was everything, he was the most important piece of the puzzle.
He also has an Amazing voice too
Oh, I wonder what moment he's going to choose
...oh... 😢
The choice of music is so good! Hearing the island music is so beautiful and it’s great
Awesome video. Love this game so much, there are so many little surprises to be found. Keep on making great vids! :)
Thank you for the compliment, I greatly appreciate it! And more vids should be coming very soon :)
I know that game does not focus on this feeling solely, but for me it was the moment you stepped in a hut on the left side of the map (coastal village). Discovering the disheveled place that is this village and being invited to stay by an older person who has nobody left in the world screams eastern europe to me. I was digesting whatever symbolism game threw at me throughout the plot, and tried to apply it to reality, but that shack was just too real to digest. It hit me like a truck and i almost started crying just from the scenery and a tune that plays in it. That track also plays in Cuno's flat, and it conveys the same eastern europe energy. Yknow i often find sad-sounding soundtracks comforting, or pleasing to ear, but that track is just pure sorrow, and i dont want to hear it.
YES!
EXACTLY!
I was already loving the game, but this is the moment that made me certain this is the best game I have ever played in the 20something years I've been playing them
I had just finished the church arc (a really funny moment, followed by a spooky mysterious moment) and was stumblling home at 2am, drunk, high, after a smoke, and this moment could not have been more perfectly placed.
I actually had a couple things I wanted to do at 2am so as not to lose daylight, but after the call, I got so imersed into the game, I *involuntarily* roleplayed, which I absolutely never do - I punched the box (even though I knew it would just take away a health point) and I went straight to bed because I needed to decompress, and I had 0 motivation to run around to get loot or complete petty side quests.
Couldn’t agree more. This is the moment where I kinda realized that Disco Elysium is probably my favorite game I’ve ever played. The spontaneity and the ability to miss the call makes it all the more special. I’m excited to see how the voice acting changes the scene though when I play Final Cut in the next few months.
The singular "hello" is bone-freezing. What also echoes within me still is the
.
.
.
.
phasmid's "I exist" for the simplicity of this grandeur statement
Very cool video!
The small youtuber urge to make a video abt disco elysium
It’s truly a rite of passage for any small TH-camr to make a video about this amazing game :)
The moment that stuck with me was the firing squad wall reconstruction bit.
my moment, my first one, was the scene of harry and kim on the swingset, waiting for the ice to melt. im not sure what it was about it, but in the moment i knew this game would be special.
my second one was the phasmid. its what broke me. i cried at 3 am over a bug and thats when i went "i already loved this game, now it might be one of my favourites"
really cool video, didn't even remember this scene. my 2 moments with the games wer, the combersation with the drug dealers, with the man that was destroyed by alcohol and like harry, ones lived a normal life. forgot his name but this was a very impacting moment in the game for me.
the secon one is not a emotional one but one that flip the table to me. the moment when you open a container just talking to the blue painted metal door ist on the least, facinating. really amazed me and made my think about the crativeness of the game itself.
games like this doesn't show up every day and chanels like this either. (sorry for spelling mistakes, english is not my native language)
i loved this so much, i ended up getting here alone after making Kim move the body, and had no idea if what i found was a dream, a mistake in my head, or i actually said these things.
I first played the game post-Final Cut, and for me the moment that absolutely defined my entire experience, a moment I later cited in an academic paper, a moment that I can never stop thinking about, is the ending of the Communist vision quest added in the Final Cut.
I love that you can just say "I am the LAW" to her, which has just been this funny refrain you can fall back to at this point. But seeing it come back here is weird, like knowing its an absurd defense mechanism for his life
The note from her in the clipboard absolutely broke me the first time I got it.
I remember experiencing this in one of my playthrough’s and it was so sad
Same here. This moment in the game changed the whole perspective for me. In my first playthrough I missed it. I didn't pass the check and then forgot about it. I came back to the phone last year. When Dora hung up I was as devastated as Harry. Hunching. Crumbled. In a deep mental pain. Because let's be honest, we all had broken hearts in our lives.
I had to quit playing for a while.
And then I decided to fix Harry. I replayed the game again. Quit drinking and doing drugs completely. Quit being Superstar Cop, became a Sorry Cop and never f*cking regretted it.
When I tried to hang up the phone and the game was like "Lol nope", that was my first oh fuck moment in the game
I played DE back when it came out and sadly I wasn't pulled into it at the time. I had heard about how great it was but my mental was different back then. Come to the end of this year, I gave it a go again. I always knew that I would, this time with the voice narration, the moment that resounded to me the most was the description of death in the beginning. "Nothing baby" "There is nothing. Only warm, primordial blackness. Your conscience ferments in it -- no larger than a single grain of malt." For some reason the writing resounded with me, this time I wanted to "feel". I played the game straight for days. It is now my favorite game of all time.
The phonecall reminded me of a Danish arthouse film called Submarino that I watched on a date. It haunts me to this day because of how relatable this movie felt to my own life.
In the beginning, the protagonist, a depressed alcoholic, has a phonecall similair to Harry's and punches the payphone. He injures his hand doing this. Throughout the movie, the injury gets worse and worse untill he collapses from septic shock and wakes up in a hospital bed with his hand amputated in the end.
I highly recommend it, but be warned, its not a feel good film.
Something I noticed when I went through this moment was how out of my control Harry felt. Looking at his dialogue options, it all felt like nothing I would want to say. Which I don’t think is a coincidence considering that Volition, your skill that wants you to be a good person and offers the most control over Harry’s impulses, is the one hurt most deeply by the Ex-something. He begs you to hang up the phone, and he begs you to throw away the apricot chewing gum wrapper when you first discover it. The other skills seem curious or foreboding, but Volition is truly heartbroken.
My few moments were, the ending, completing the “cleaning out the rooms thought”, discovering the pale, and just replaying it figuring out things. Everything with Kim is amazing
I had so many moments like this:
- Winning the pinball machine with Kim
- Meeting Kim for the first time
- Seeing Kim protect Harry and everyone else in what is (unquestionably) the most loyal and badass moment he has, he definitely followed through on that esprit de corp check...
- Talking to Kim on the balcony
- The kineema, OH GOD THE KINEEMA!
- talking to Kim about his (not crashed) Kineema..
- Backing Kim up when the racist guy used his vocal chords
- The ending, my god the ending!
- The insect
- The Mega Rich Light Bending Guy
- Kim commenting when I took the boots and completed the set
- just Kim being an absolute chad
- Sad FM is such an incredible moment
Sadly I completely forgot about the karaoke as I was having such a blast, but I'll 100% do it every other playthrough
I'll have to come back to this video, still playing the game. Still gonna drop a like and comment for the algorithm tho.
For me it was Harry's singing performance oh boy how beatiful that was
For me, it was the moment when you met the phasmid,i was too caught up with the investigation and when i completed the check and i saw it,I got so derailed because of my childlike curiosity, and it was beautiful.
HOLY SHIT I DIDN'T KNOW... WOW THIS IS GIVING ME CHILLS
No one mentions failed karaoke and that’s a crime
I never laughed so hard while feeling so sad
For me was when you try to do a hit and run with the Middle finger after you fail that check
Good video. DE sold me almost immediately, once I got adjusted to the over-the-top VAing of the reptilian brain and limbic system. I love how the game characterizes Harry by forcing you to play out as a total failure at first, to (IMO) great comedic effect.
Btw it's hapenstance, not hapenchance.
Wow, why you don't have more views and subs? Your narration, the script, the production values are top notch. Subbed.
Thanks so much, appreciate the kind words and support a ton :)
A big revelation to me was Harry himself being well himself. It’s been stated he’s blacked out and lost memory before. What made me think was, if Harry was given the same options after memory lose, he’d slowly turn back into himself. People are expectant of Harry whenever he’s started spewing the same thing over and over. Dora is aware and I noticed myself how Harry just can’t not be how he is. He just has to tell Dora things the way he does. Etc…
I will always remember the moment that I told the pawn shop guy that I should've shot myself. The reaction where he didn't know how to react sticks in my brain.
Wow I had no idea you could talk to Dora I want to play through this game again now plus they added voice acting 😍
Ngl as someone who already likes Disco Elysium the biggest takeaway from this video is that apparently *happenchance* is a word. Fully got whiplash when the initial happen- didn't end with -stance.
been to years but i just finished the game so whatever.
To me, this scene was made infinitely better with kim. When you try to call his name but only a whimper comes out really set the scene for me, even made me tear up.
Beautiful game
This video touches on something that I have slowly learned, time and time again: If there's something in Disco Elysium, it was meant to be there. Now obviously that sounds right, of course the developers intended to put something in there, but what I mean is that every single time the game says there's something to do--*they want you to do it.* You said "I could have easily left after making the prank phone calls" and that's exactly what I did!! I thought it was just a funny little money sink, but as I've seen more and more of other people's play throughs, I realize that basically no such thing exists. There was a reason, and I missed out on not pushing forward.
I feel this is genuinely exemplified in the fact that in the final moments of the game; I didn't rest in the bed in the fort. I thought to myself "The day is young, we're right here, we don't want this guy to get away!" and so I kept up through the entire day... and later realized that I missed perhaps one of the most important moments Harry can have, finally confronting his entire perspective of deifying his former lover, and the guilt, the regret, the anger that his past wells up inside of him. That, luckily, I could go back and see by reloading a save--but this small moment, of *genuine* confrontation, speaking with her, is lost to my Harry.
(Well, until the next time I play, of course)
Also, great video! I appreciate the short length of it, the succinctness, you have a good grasp on these things.
Unlocking the White Mourning thought was the moment for me.
You know I always failed this skillcheck until after my first playthrough but holy damn yeah I definitely get why this was *your* moment
The moment that sold me is being about to shoot Cunoette
And I missed all that because I found the payphone with Kim and accepted that it's broken. Jesus Christ this game is insane.
I love this game. It is a masterpiece. It touches me very, very deeply.
You definitely should have more people watch your videos!
Thank you! I appreciate the kind words 🙏
This plot of the game reminds me the movie Paris, Texas
soooo much
For me it was talking to Measurehead the fact that they took the time to explore what kinds of racism would exist in this world and made it just as inchorent as real world racism and the fact I had zero context going in was too funny and they did this all for a joke character.
Two years too late to comment, but I missed both the Dream and the phonecall. The latter because I was in the zone. I almost met Ruby and felt like I needed to move it - as a character not as a player, - so I left the phonebooth after a few prank calls. The former I missed because Harry metaphorically forced his shit together for this final stretch.
So, I guess my Harry actually did move on throughout the course of the game - and funnily enough, I started the run with, like, 1 in Volition and by the end it was one of my highest stats, so it fits.
that goddamnes payphone....
_It's you, isn't it?_
My moment is when I looked into the eyes of Klaasje and used my Volition to completely warp my perception on the game. Things I've come to know as trustful, became untrustful. My *skills* were useless, aside from Volition. And when I reached the end of the game, with our meeting with God, it happens again. Klaasje and Dora, no matter how skilled we are, have us wrapped around their finger. It takes more than willpower to get over it, but it is possible, but Harry doesn't have anything else other than that, if he even has that Volition. Getting over and letting go of Dora is an inhuman task, an impossible hurdle to simply do alone. But depending on which endings you got, Harry isn't alone anymore, maybe more sane, even.
Have I been pronouncing happenstance my whole life, or have you? I actually just called it a night on this game after that scene, but I cracked open a bottle and then shut it down after being sober the whole playable game. I didn't save, but for tonight, that is how it ended for me.
Yesterday I cried for my ex-gf after finding and reading the letter in the blue heart clip.
This is not my first run.
She left months ago, I hadnt cry before...
shouldn't have made that phone call
They were both terrible for each other. Dolores states that in the dream mentioning that she first ran away from him and she was the one to beg Harry for forgiveness. I think that was a true memory. Even though Harry's dreams paint him as someone who she hated, the one guilty of everything - remember what the phasmid says at the end of the coversation - "That woman - turn from the ruin, she was hell on earth" (that sentence changes depending on political view chosen by player, but always means the same thing). We know it is not really phasmid talking (as with the hanged man), it is Harry's imagination. Hence I believe they mutually kept being toxic.
Heh, happenchance.
I did my playthrough without seeing this lmao.
I didn't want to be rude and keep calling, I think I stopped 2 away from _her_
This game is the trump card any gamer can pull out when having a pointless argument with movie or book snobs that claim video games can't match theyr version of the art that is story telling.
It's a pointles argument because in mine and I'm sure many of yours opinions - video games are superior in their story telling especially due to the unique ability to interact and influence their narratives.
And not only do WE know this...but deep down, even the aforementioned snobs know this to be true.
Anyway my point is, this video game is the beez kneez. And I know I praised the story a bunch but I'd also like to mention that I love this type of overall gameplay and infact, this is the only video game with this camera type that I can put in my "BESTEESSSSTEST VIDEO GAMES EVER MADE!" Hat. The other one is the original Diablo when I played it on PS1. There is of course Dota style games I loved playing with similar type camera. As well as RTS games like Red Alert and Warcraft, oh and ofcourse Final Fantasy Tactics 'War of the Lions' ( which I forgot to mention is not an rts, it's considered like a JRPG maybe? It's turned based, grid tactics game of the absolute peak quality, chefs kiss absolutely no notes brilliance of a game :) go play it asap as heck!);
But I can't count those because they are in entirely different genres.
You mean "Happenstance" --- "Happen-chance" isn't a real word
… it’s a real word, the words are synonymous
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/happenchance
what the fuck is 'happenchance'
It’s an informal word referring to a random event happening by chance or luck.
www.lexico.com/en/definition/happenchance
@@EpicGamerDan Fascinating. Love learning new words and that one is on the list for sure!
Anyhow, love the love for DE