The studio getting bought by a billion dollar conglomerate and the lead getting committed to an asylum is the only thematically just end to the series.

I solved the entire game as a supercop, became good friends with Kim, found the pigs, sobered up. it was very wholesome.

In honor to the marxist creators of the game, I sailed the high seas, in order to give the game a try - I wouldn't want to offend them with my dirty money.

"I'd like to dedicate this award to my reformed Orthodox Rabbi, Karl Marx."

My very first playthrough of Disco ended when I tried to punch a kid and the strain was too hard for my weak body and i died of a heart attack. 10/10

"The lead dev spent all his time preaching communism while doing no work himself." Sounds like a textbook communist to me.

A thing I saw pointed out is that while you can run into people who deeply believe in communism, fascism, ultra-liberalism, etc., Harry taking up any of the political causes is something of a joke. And that makes sense: try as he might his core identity is washed up alcoholic, he doesn't genuinely seem to feel for any of these things, so instead he takes up this persona of what he thinks the ideal communist, fascist, ultra-liberal is. A funny thing I will note, though, is that despite all this *he is super effective.* In just five to ten days he solves just about ever facet of a murder, and that's with using his discretion as he'd like to deal with everything surrounding it. The guy who got in his feelings going off about an ice-cop-hat-fuck-show in front of some poor drugged out girl on the sea ice is, unironically, one of the best detectives the RCM could have.

For me the perfect ending for Harry is him quitting his job and go out finding more mythical creatures like The Insulindian Phasmid, exploring the world and most importantly Henry finally having true happiness

The Soviets may have screwed over the creator of Tetris but at least he won in the end.

"The studio shut down and the lead developer is locked in an insane asylum." Perfect time to buy the game.

I will never get over that hilarious real-life joke; of people leaving their faith, and their church. Only to unwittingly/unconsciously pool their starved sense of idealism and belief over something else. To turn politics into faith, to turn political idols into figures of worship. And that same, dogmatic lifestyle...it's like, then why the heck did you leave your faith in the first place?!

Rene is really good even outside of being a foil to the main culprit, and I'm glad you didn't skip his character.

I grew up in a post-soviet country. And disco elysium was that one game that described living in such a country very VERY well. I noticed a lot of people who criticize or praise the game don't really get it. And that's understandable, since they can't get it, they never experienced living in a post soviet hellhole. They don't understand how it feels to see once a big and very flawed country disappearing overnight, all its shaky systems built upon fear destroyed, multiple bloody revolutions everywhere, people deaths, leaving wounds on society that never heal. They never saw how everything collapses, education going to shitter, corruption spreading, populace either not caring or can't do anything. And this hell never really ends, we can only pretend it's over after 30 years, but the damage is already done. The system gave birth to multiple totalitarian shitholes with no future. Revachol is an amazing example of such a failed state. Political activism in any form is not welcome there, you might think the establishment is on your side, but it isn't. Democracy, capitalism, communism - those are just words, silly concepts to fool simple folk like their opinions worth something. The only language that works and gets you places is money, hence corruption on every level imaginable. I always disliked how people see Disco Elysium as some commie propaganda when it wasn't. Now, I don't know if it was the authors' intention or wasn't, but they nailed the feeling of this dread very well, and I never felt like they say "this particular political movement works, you should follow it". And the game was honestly fun. Didn't even know their company ended up where it ended. And that's kinda sad, but also ironically fitting with the game's themes.

“Communists can’t even boil water correctly.” Is a fucking roast holy shit.

Union leader sounds like Linkara...but fatter...

we all have to thank Shota for forcing loli on gunpoint and forcing him to play Disco elysium

That whole infra-materialism plot point is hilarious if you know about lysenkoism.

Dross really is the worst parts of the human condition made into one man…

One of the messages in this game is basically "Don't make politics your whole personality or a way to cope a tragic event in your life"

The game resonated with me a lot more because I am Estonian. The experience was like, wow that can totally be a allegory for Estonia and the ex Soviet type of thinking. environmental details of a bygone era like the damage from a old war or symbols and monuments for a regime best forgotten,it hit home. First time I played it I even didn't know it was made by Estonians. Only thanks to the credits I knew. Very good game and one of the best reviews of the game I have seen thus far. Thank you

11:00 actually, the book "That Sacred and Terrible Air" is much older than Disco Elysium, what's new is it's translation to English. That was the first work Kurvitz wrote for the Elysium setting, but it basically sold nothing in Estonia. The faliure of that book sent Kurvitz into the depression and alcohol-and-drugs-fueled binge that would later inspire Harry's character.

Played as a moralist, law jawed, cop of the apocalypse, with stats put in everything but intelligence. It was very interesting playthourgh, Harry could basically read people like a book and then open them up like a can opener despite not being book smart, was a ace shot, so good at his job he was able to save the most lives, did believe in the church's religion or at least showed due reverance (which changed the dialogue for that final dream sequence adding context to why he saw his exwife like that) and tried to stop the Pale from growing, only to step back because he had a job to do, treated people fairly despite his utter hatred of commies, which left Evert up a creek without a paddle when he did everything you can to be a utter thorn in his side (Letting the Hardie Boys live is indeed the better option for that outcome) and finally despite being so alone before he was able to reconnect with the outside world, completely get off the drugs and booze, find new friends and possibly a new love interest. The game is brilliant and I do wish it would it got that expansion and sequel but sadly the vocal crazy minority that calls themselves the game's main fanbase and mistreatment of the real people who worked on the game, while that commie took all the credit saw to it that will never come to be.

Harry feed the deep fryer the bag of ice

Harry is a true super star girlboss and the world will respect his authority

That cryptozoologist mission line was the best. Like the entire game i thought it was just a joke i played just to get xps. Then it actually happens at the end with like my favorite character Kuno.

luv me disco, luv me Kim, luv me voices, 'ate commies

Rene isn't a representation of fascism, he's a representation of the "old" politics - aristocracy, monarchism, etc. He is a living fossil of a time and ideology that is long gone, which is one of the reasons he's so "chill" despite his regrets. There is simply nothing left in the world for him anymore. Everything he ever believed in was gone and forgotten which brings to him some closure. This is in comparison to the fascists and communists ironically *united* in their struggle against the Liberal Moralists (the game points out both side's collaborationists tendencies, as you noted).

Argo’s recent tweet genuinely feels like it was made solely to address the recent comments attacking the documentary, not only blaming it for the studio’s downfall but it was “fake” and “aged like milk” In reality, it only makes said commenters more out of touch with the very devs they claim to be their “comrades.” I wouldn’t be surprised if the devs made the communists insane to spite Kurvitz, and he was so delusional that he thought the communists looked good Also Dros literally exhibiting “incel behaviour” but being praised by people who call those they disagree with “chuds” reaaaally speaks a lot

A case needs to be solved that involves a massive conspiracy involving many groups that are a part of it. Disco Elysium: **words, words, and more words.** Max Payne 3: "Guns, lots of guns."

Loli doing the full Rust Cohle/Dale Cooper routine with Harry just makes sense. Not sure if you caught it, but Inland Empire is also a nod to David Lynch. Also, Fat Angus isn't Titus' brother, although he does have a brother who's mentioned to be a window repairman. He's the guy who replaced the broken window in the hostel.

So this was an actually diverse writting team with commies and different types of "anti-commies". Makes sense since the team is Estonian. Estonia used to be communist, but after the fall of the USSR, they became the most libertarian of the baltic states, maybe even of all eastern europe.

I never met those two students. I honestly couldn't care less about the politics in this game during my playthrough. My main goal was to fix Harry. That's still all that matters to me. I just want to see this man contempt and thriving

My favorite thing about cosplaying as Harry is that all the people who recognize me assume that I'm a fellow commie and that capitalism is what killed the devs. I don't have the heart to tell them that I did a fascist run.

Shit Dros is a permanent Twitter resident

When I told my husband I bought this game recently, he asked if it was charged to my PH account and on sale because he didn't want the devs to be supported.

Disco Elysium is the new Starship Troopers for Media Discourse. Nobody knows what they fuck they are talking about and it ignores what happens in it.

On my playthrough of the game, I played a sober cop who was logically gifted. It was very fun to see Harry get his life back together and solve the case using his intellegence to solve the case. It was funny to see Harry's knowledge on random facts actually hampering the case in some cases. Very often, Encyclopedia gives actively not useful facts and rhetoric and drama making stuff up to support an ideology or to make things more dramatic than they actually were. I like that the skills act as additional party members. The more you level up the skills, the more they get to interact with your choices. I really think that more rpg games should make this the standard. It makes it so that skills add to the experience and give you more information whilst also occasionally throwing a wrench into things for flavor. Its a really good game. Even if some of the creators themselves are dumb or hold bad ideas.

Redditors are final discovering the channel

Finally a substantive video on this game. For some reason, anytime someone from the "media literacy" crowd talks about this game all the media literacy leaves their body

People only hate the millionaires but they have no problems letting some millionaires have power over them this is why you don't listen to hypocritical people

Quick clarification: Sacred and Terrible Air was published in 2013, While the game was published in 2019. However the book was only translated recently, it was not written and shoved into canon by Kurvitz later on. It was there since day one. Rest of the video is fine though from what I can tell.

Your analysis of Evrart and Titus was perfect, yet so rare. I don't know why, but every single analysis of Evrart on the internet is the same "No! He's actually a wise and capable Revacholian hero, because one of my 24 skills said he believes in something he once said, probably".

You and Shota kicked my ass into playing this game a year and some change ago. I still am very satisfied with the decision to listen to you guys and go through a proper couple of playthroughs of this magical, lightning-in-a-bottle game. So thanks funny Berserk man.

Im glad Saul is a recurring character.

People think Dros is a cool character? He sounds like how solipsists on Twitter describe Incels.

The whole Xenoblade 2 thing. I always see people saying it was bad and I felt like I was in the minority of really liking it. Almost convinced myself to not like the game. We gotta keep bugging Kirsche to play that series.

I first played this game when my mom died and I was drinking myself to death. Small Church in Saint Saens, I listened to on the way to her funeral. Helping Harry get himself together helped me do the same. It was never a strictly political game or a story about politics. It was about being at your lowest point and how you handle it. Rise above or wallow. Grow or blame. Close off or get to work.

I thought I'd talk about the Facist playthrough in Disco Elysium a bit because I think it's an interesting counterpoint to your views on the Communist path, and secondly because there's hardly any let's plays of a fascist Harry, it being algorithm poison. Now my first playthrough was full moralist sorry cop Harry, but my second was hardcore Dirty Harry, and what surprised me the most was how nuanced the fascist playthrough was, and how wonderfully the themes mirrored Harry's own self destructive obsession with Dora. You see, where the Communards believe they can will a better world into being, the Moralists are cowards who talk a lot about a better world but don't do anything to change the status quo, and the Ultraliberals don't care and openly stripmine society, the idea of the Fascist path is this: it's over. Once Revachol was great and glorious and perfect, but that world died. It died a long time ago, and then there was the horrors of the revolution, followed the humiliation of the Coalition, and now the slow descent in its present day. There is no fertile ground for that world to suddenly spring back into being - by now it's been crushed under the weight of history, barely alive in living memory. This is why the Fascist Thought doesn't give you bonuses when you say fascist things, and hurts you instead. The actual bonus is better stat modifiers when you drink heavily. Don't fool yourself. That world is over. Drink to help yourself deal with reality, if you can't accept it sober. In the political vision quests introduced in the later update, the fascist one is about Harry's quest to "Turn Back Time". Again, this path is a huge reflection of how Harry can't deal with the loss of his ex-wife, and this quest pulls no punches. At one point you sit down with Rene and ask about how to go back to the past and save everything - defeat the Communards, restore the Monarchy, win the girl. He flies off the handle and lays into you. The says you're an idiot, a fantasist, a fool. There was a time once when that could have happened, but that was a long time ago. Maybe he could have done better, maybe people should have done more, maybe they just needed to be a bit luckier, but none of that matters now. It's over. It's been over for a long, long time. Deal with it. You can't turn back the clock, you can't fix what was, and it's never going to be like it used to. After that, and a few conversations with some other fellows you get the opportunity to shave your face and gain a weird grin, but that's all secondary in my opinion. This path, although it's not very youtube friendly at times, is probably the healthiest path for Harry to go down, as it makes him deal with the fact that It's Over. Yeah, it's all a bit fucked up because Harry is a collection of character defects masquerading as a human being, but that's to be expected. Anyway, that's my piece, as there's not much information about the Fascist playthrough out there, and I found it surprisingly sophisticated at times, though it is very heavy handed at parts saying that "racism bad", overall it's at least an interesting depiction to contrast with the rest. Also, I'm an unabashed Jean Vicquemare apologist. Harry is a drunk, junkie piece of shit that spends more time looking into defunct game companies than actually solving the murder. You've been like this for years and he's had enough of your shit so when you tell him to fuck off he finally leaves, only to turn up the next day to see if you're in as bad a shape as he's heard, and from then he stays nearby and keeps his eyes on you. When you're out on the ice with Acele, a failed Authority check reveals that Jean is watching you from the shore with binoculars. Also you can talk to him in Whirling-in-Rags about development on the case and he'll give you small guidance and restore your mental health bar. And although he leaves before you find Ruby, (but leaves the shrink behind to observe you) and so misses the tribunal, afterwards when he hears you are awake, the heads over except you've already headed to the island. Jean Vicquemare propaganda aside, good video even if it dwelled a bit too much on the communist stuff for my liking, but I guess some people have to be beaten over the head with the message before they get it.

My only complaint about the whole debacle of ZA/UM is that the management didnt do shit about the creators until they got their money.

If they despise you then you're in good company.

when I played the game, I was suicidal and wanted to end myself. It did help a bit because the mc was in a similar situation. In a way it made me feel less alone.

Droz and the Communist students sound like they were written by someone who has known a lot of Communists, and either stopped being a Communist or never was one to begin with. Everything they say is (more or less, the wording is different) exactly what Communists believe. They genuinely, absolutely believe what Loli is saying about everyone needing to believe unendingly in the Communist system, because Man (collectively) is His own Creator (all capitalisations are necessary).

Only two guys in the room always have your back, no matter what. Volition and Kim are the GOAT Also the Saul Gman AI is concerningly accurate

The communist agriculture thing actually existed btw, its not based on the Holodomor but on Lysenko Trofim.

Wherever there is trouble, there is always a simp in the center of it.

I remember watching Noah Caldwell-Gervais' review on this game and the way he talked about it made me think it was pretentious boring communist tripe. Then I watch your video and now I'm actually thinking about giving the game a chance. I can sort of see what you mean by how this game seems like a Rorschach test.

I do find it interesting that the developers who support communism showed the willingness to criticize their own political belief and show its flaws in their game.😺

You nailed it. Great summary, great analysis. It's been a few years since I've played the game myself so it was nice to get a refresher on some details I forgot and some that I've missed. The only thing I disagree with is that Rene is a fascist, despite the game calling him a fascho. He's a monarchist and imperialist, which isn't the same.

As someone who’s definitely left leaning, appreciate your deconstruction of the union and the fanatic aspects of the factions. Honestly the political stuff is bunk, Harry and Kim’s relationship (or lack thereof) was what the game should have been more about

Okay, fine. I'll finely play the "commie game", Loli.

atta boy you finished it tonight

Rubie calling u human can opener was like the best shit i ever witnessed and from their i started to working on forensics and trying to become a detective.

I'm Estonian and I haven't heard or read about the controversies. I just bought the game at a discount when it was on sale and played it. The writing was fantastic and I enjoyed it a lot. Though I will admit that it took me several tries to get to the end, because I couldn't decide which stats I wanted to keep, so I kept rerolling. Later on, when I heard that it's a commie game that's pro communism or whatnot I just thought that it was dead wrong and the people saying it have no idea what they're talking about. Spoilers, but at the end, the last commie soldier is the most loathsome, pathetic, radicalised incel loser, who got so indoctrinated that he decided to live in a swamp for decades, hating and avoiding the world, whilst fantasizing what it would be like to live among the people he desperately wants to hate. This is the most loyal of all the communists, the biggest loser in the world, a walking contradiction, next to which even the useless alcoholic schizo cop looks like Jesus. Ain't no way this game is pro commie, sorry.

People who think that Iosef Dros is cool, are just typical Bunkerchan users, It's like looking in the mirror for them.

This is a game that should be discussed with people who have different interpretations of it, I think it being talked about in one way like "Communism good" is such a bland and one dimensional way to look at it. You can Definitely see the game as that, but trying to force other people to see it like that is very toxic. I blame internet essays for trying to indoctrinate and tell people how to think, and that goes for the Persona games and they also try to do this with the Fallout games aswell.

It definitely sounds like the "squid game effect" yknow... the nain guy said it was a whole critique on capitalism... just to have themes of the opposite. And a bunch of retorts to such. Seems like you gotta actually extrapalate to see the actual dread thats happening

Cue the Shia clapping alone in the theater video. But for real great vid Loli.

Minor correction, "A Sacred and Terrible Air," actually came out BEFORE Disco Elysium was even an idea. Overall good video though.

Don't forget kids - You can separate the art from the artist. Usually.

Need videos like this for Persona. All of them. Counteract those video essays, Loli!

Few people really focus on the spiritual angle of the game, but with the comparison between religion and communism here I should mention that Dros is literally(literally) the antichrist Everything about him- every physical trait, every mental trait, every action he takes and the resulting impact on the world, everything about his place in the story and how you interact with him, every single describable aspect of his character that you can think of is the exact opposite of Dolores Dei- right down to the imperceptibly black lungs certainly hiding inside his body

The IP being lost to corporate greed is just the natural thematic ending to this story. Love it.

I regret to say that I was one of those "I refuse to play the commie game" types of people, but you convinced me to give it a chance after you streamed it about a year ago. I'm glad I gave it a shot because it was a great game that I loved the whole way through, I even convinced my irl friends to play it. Hopefully this video will get others to do the same.

The Chad Rene vs the virgin dros.

All hail the fazmid the good innocent stick bug praise the criptied

Is it just me, or are much of the comments under this video by people who havent watched the video all the way and are just trying to continue the arguments from the documentary. No one is talking about your analysis of characters like Dros and the Hardies, or how cool the contrast between Dros and Renée is. Instead its more people complaining about the back and forth between Kurvitz and the Corpos, or complaining about the Documentary some more rather than this video which is over half being just Loli's own observations and interpretations of the themes

the only thing i know about this game is that GIVE PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENICS GUNS I LEIK STIKBUG

All of the voices are right, but also all the voices are wrong. The bird never went extinct. 🎩 🐍 no step on snek!🇭🇰🇺🇸

It's less of an endorsement of communism but more like a broken reflection/contemplation of a post communist world. The idealism burned out into cold reality. Disco is an allegory for communism I think.

Is it me but dose dross sound like alan moore

This game and the story behind it is just a perfect microcosm of the absolute brainroting politics of the 2020's

i wonder how many butthurts this video caused

Dude I fucking love Kim. And Harry. Both are the every man that if you play the game for the best outcomes which let’s be honest we regularly do, they are the individual struggling with being an individual but manage to come out on top of all this stupid shit with politics

I always thought that the Mega-Rich-Light-Bending was like that beacuse of Harrier's perception. Like he was genuinely bamboozled of how rich the guy is in contrast to himself. I'm quite confident there are some dialogues that point out that Kim does not see anything weird but just an ordinary guy instead

I took your advice and watched the People Make Games documentary. It was very well researched, but dear God I wish I could unsee that comment section. I'd forgotten how obnoxious Disco Elysium fans can be.

Im a superstar. Its the face of a superstar.

I interpreted the Deserter as one of the greatest critiques of the communist. Not communism, but the person who believes in that ideology in the modern day. The Deserter is bitter old man, angry that his ideology was destroyed and that he never got a chance to die in glorious battle. The Deserter only extols a few things about communist rule. That they rose up and fought against the bourgeoisie and that the Party legalized pederasty in '04. No talk about the material improvements communism brought to Revachol, just that a lot of young people got to kill and die and that the proletariat could legally reenact Epstein's Island. The Deserter exists as a violent voyeur, bitter that pretty much everyone has moved on from the past. He murdered people because he wants them to feel pain. He spied on Klaasje through his rifle and a hole in her wall, doing who knows what without her noticing. I have seen comments of people that view the Deserter's anger in a positive manner, that they too feel that the dream of communism is dead and they are few remaining who fight for it. However, that dream died. It died in Disco Elysium after a failed revolution was crushed in a brutal retaliation with no marked change on human livelihoods. It died in our world after millions died for five year plans and command economies collapsed. All that are left are bitter, angry, sexually perverted ideologues whose only response to defeat is to dream of future violence. The Deserter is a pathetic loser who refused to let go of a past he was never part of. The same holds true for the modern communist.

Two lore mistakes I've noticed. They don't affect the larger arguments though. 42:00 "He knows he is a target. He knows Moralintern is watching him" Not entirely true. If you try to rat out Klaasje to the Sunday Friend but packpedal in the final moment and say that Evrart needs to be arrested, the Sunday Friend will reveal that Moralintern can't do anything about him. Moreover it is revealed that Claire travels to Safre(which is on another isola), where he negotiates the drug trade. 1:14:41 "Dros tried to teach him[Evrart] communist doctrine" Not him. If you pass some passive checks you realise that it was Edgar, who visited Dros. Edgar is Evrart's brother. Unlike Evrart, who is very pragmatic in his leftism, Edgar was described as a more straightforward leftist, a social democrat with a strong Mazovian influence. With a degree in humaties studies or smth. Although it is still a possibility that Edgar is prone to ideologival sweettalk, just like Evrart with Harry. Dros also says that Edgar is much smarter than Evrart.

1:27:04 amen brother, the amount of people that do Naoto and Kanji dirty , would love to eventually see your take on the game

skipped a beat when I saw this thinking i was subbed to a breadtuber

The Pale seems somewhat similar to The Nothing from the Neverending Story, not exactly, but the basic similarity is there. Also, infra-materialism would totally work in the Outer Planes depicted in Planescape: Torment.

I think the game does a good job in not taking any sides and criticizing every side

The game definitely feels like the writers were brawling in between writing the script, as so many concepts seem completely at odds with each other. Personally, the biggest message to me was that political extremism is a poison and an addiction, used to cover up ones own flaws and problems. Harry can take drugs just as much as he can devote himself to a political ideology he barely understands. I always felt uncomfortable with just how much leniency people give the Deserter, a literal serial killer and borderline rapist, simply because he was a commie, but commies will excuse anything as we've learned with just how many bullshit excuses are given for Mao, Lenin, and Stalin.

As a smelly European, we have no idea how ballistics work.

Ever notice that the matchbox tower has a strong resemblance to the Tower of Babel?

I tried the game rolled the dice with 70%+ chance of winning and lost rolled the dice with below 20% chance of winning and won that kinda pissed me off and stopped playing Yeah...I know...skill issue...

as a serb who constantly hears about stories of people being shot for saying something or knowing too much in yugoslavia i hate commies and hated everything about disco elyisum after watching the video and playing it i love the game and lt kitsuragi is my favorite character seeing harry solve the case and become an individual in the ending was great but looking at other playthroughs its so depressing to see harry stop being him the crazy nature of him is gone just an ideology

Holy shit i just realized this company is like the doomed commercial zone

Having played the game myself, I did get the vibe that the game was simultaneously treating socialist extremists in often too good of a light at many points, and when not, providing a sortof morally-grey, detailed understanding, while providing only the most childish and surface-level mockery of racial hatred and neofascism. The latter of which came off as misunderstood for the true nature of the evils that misbegotten ideology permits in favor of lumping it into racism, xenophobia, and 'race-realism' so recklessly spewed by the NSDAP's leaders and other ignorant racialists of times past and present. It's for that reason moreso than a woman ignorantly touting a neet and his enabler for education on moral philosophy do I consider the game as distinctly left-biased. It's, to put succinctly, given me the vibe that the developers are well-educated on and often subscribing to socialist ideology, while holding a very poor and closed-minded understanding of what drives both racialized nationalism and corporatism. Thus, the bias. It's a form of well-intentioned yet intentional ignorance; A dangerous lack of understanding paired against whitewashing. To be as clear as possible, I don't believe the final content of the game is pro-communism or even necessarily pro-socialism, but that the developers had a clear and open bias that painted the final product a particular, not-inconsiderable shade.