Disco Elysium

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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Disco Elysium is a cop roleplaying game released in 2019 by ZA/UM. Set in a city reeling from revolution and occupation, the player is tasked with investigating a murder after their character awakes from a three day bender. Accompanied by a more sober cop from a different unit, the player is drawn into exploring the politics and history of the city as they work on their case.

One of the more notable games to originate from Estonia.

Tropes used in Disco Elysium include:
  • The Alliance: The Coalition of Nations occupies Revachol following the failed communist revolution.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: For a few characters and groups:
    • Are Everat Claire and his brother a blatantly corrupt duo ruling over the union for personal gain, or is he a hero of the workers who stands up to major corporations to get them their fair share and does what needs to be done to achieve that?
    • Were the Communards justified in their actions during the revolution?
  • Audit Threat: It is possible to demand documents from certain characters at specific points, or to otherwise threaten fines from the RCM.
    • Played with by Everat Claire. After the player realizes he got information on the player character from the census bureau. He outright admits he got it from corrupt officials, and then says the player should do something about those officials.
  • Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop: The Revachol Citizens Militia is seen as this in universe by the dockworkers. People from outside Martinaise often have a higher opinion.
  • The Big Guy: Measurehead is a huge muscular man, one who can simply stand in a narrow passage to serve as a Beef Gate.
  • Bigot vs. Bigot: a common trope in this game. There are political and societal extremists of all sorts, namely the Moralist International, the leftists, the fascists, the ultraliberals, and the racists.
  • Booze-Based Buff: The dockworkers union gives striking workers special borsht spiked with vodka.
  • Broken Record: The player character can occasionally repeat themselves.
  • Buddy Cop Show: If the player has a good working relationship with Kim, they’ll bounce ideas about the case off one another, make quips, and talk about life.
  • By-The-Book Cop: Kim Kitsuragi. Even without comparing him to the player character (Either as another example or as a contrast otherwise), Kim is methodical and focused on the case and doing things by procedure.
  • Character Portrait: Extremely stylized character portraits are used. In particular the background colors symbolize alignments, with signal blue representing moralist views, and deep crimson symbolizing affiliation with the Union.
  • Cheshire Cat Grin: The portrait of Everat Claire sports one.
  • City of Adventure: Revachol, and more specifically the neighborhood of Martinaise.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Egghead rarely talks about things that are not “Hardcore!
  • Comedy of Errors: A few.
    • The bender the player went on led to a number of missing objects.
    • How Idiot Doom Spiral ended up as a drunk locked out of his house and wealth.
    • The businesses of the Doomed Commercial District, if one doesn’t subscribe to the hypothesis that it’s cursed, or simply a function of capitalism.
  • Comic Trio: The three drunks in the fishing village.
  • Corrupt Bureaucrat: The Census Bureau has a corrupt employee inside willing to leak documents.
  • Clueless Detective: The player character, especially while recovering from amnesia.
  • Computer Equals Tapedrive: Inverted, it is explicitly stated that no computers exist that use tapes. A long time ago this was invented in universe, but is since Lost Technology due to a concurrent communist revolution.
  • Cowboy Cop: The player character is not a conventional detective.
  • Crapsack World: The player sees Martinaise first hand, and what is discussed of Jamrock doesn’t sound a lot better. It’s all but stated much of the wealthy world is gilded on suffering like that witnessed by the player character.
  • Da Chief: Jean is in charge of the player character.
  • Defective Detective: The player character is one at the start of the game, having spent three days on a bender instead of investigating the murder victim hanging outdoors.
  • Defictionalization: Some of the clothing in the game, such as Kim Kitsuragi’s jacket was produced by ZA/UM.
  • Dirty Communists: Some characters do not like communists in universe.
  • Dirty Cop: The player character can accept bribes, be needlessly brutal, and otherwise conduct themselves in an unbecoming way.
  • Forgot to Pay the Bill: The player character has not paid their hotel bill at the start of the game, making acquiring money on the first day important.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Revachol is clearly based on French culture and history with many francophone names and clear allusions to the Paris Commune. That said, there are influences from other real world cultures as well.
  • Hearing Voices: The thought cabinet often interjects their opinions during the game. These voices can offer advice or urges that are helpful, harmful, inconsequential, or otherwise
  • Interservice Rivalry: Exists between different units in the Revachol Citizens Militia. Why Kim Kitsuragi is paired with the player character, even though they’re from different units.
  • I Own This Town: Evrart Claire and his brother basically control the union, and by extension Martinaise. It is telling that even people who dislike him or his ideology still take work from him.
  • Killer Cop: The player can become one by intentionally shooting Cunoesse.
  • Large Ham: Egghead loves to talk about how things are "HARDCORE".
  • Memetic Mutation: Several on a fandom level.
    • When the player character gets stuck in a loop, in particular:

Mr. Evrart is helping me find my gun.

  • Noble Bigot with a Badge: The player character can act like one.
  • Open Says Me: You do play as a police officer - when used appropriately this trope is Justified. Invoked by Evrart, who calls the police door opening machines.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Jean wears a wig and sunglasses when in Martinaise.
  • Police Are Useless: Many in Martinaise hold this view due to the RCM avoiding the area for some time. The antics of the player character prior to the game starting do not help.
  • Politically-Incorrect Villain: Measurehead openly is racist against the player character, among others.
  • Rabid Cop: The player can act like one, jumping to violence when not appropriate.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Kim Kitsuragi is frequently a voice of reason.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The player character and Kim Kitsuragi.
  • Riches to Rags: Idiot Doom Spiral is a drunk hobo, but if his stories are to be believed he was once fairly well off before he lost he lost his keys, and his life began spiraling down as a result.
  • Scenery Gorn: Downplayed. It’s clear Martinaise used to be beautiful, but is still a bombed out reminder of a decades old conflict. The player can point out bullet holes, only for Kim to point out this was a mostly rehabilitated site of a revolution and invasion.
  • Schizo-Tech: The technology in the game is vaguely at the level of the 20th century in our timeline.
  • Snooping Little Kid: Played with. Cuno sees a lot be he’s less useful or cooperative than most examples.
  • Third-Person Person: Cuno refers to himself as Cuno.
  • Untrusting Community: Martinaise does not like law enforcement. Even some of the outsiders are less trusting of the player character specifically after he failed to remove the body for several days and instead went on an unprofessional bender.
  • Wannabe Secret Agent: The Pigs desperately acts like a police officer, wearing hand cranked police sirens, and waving the players pawned gun around.
  • Weird Trade Union: The dockworkers union is pretty normal on the face. It’s what happens behind the scenes that makes it unusual.
  • Would Hurt a Child: The player may do so, Reality Ensues.