Confession from someone wo tried to get into this game 3 times

[legandargamer]

Over the past months since I got this game, on 3 separate occasions I ended up dropping it after only an hour of playing due to it not really ever clicking with me for lack of a better word. Now I can recognize that like 95% of the reason why is my fault, but I still wanna go through and try and figure out why. Cause I have heard many glowing things about this game from both strangers online and close friends of mine. Plus I've never run into this problem as badly I have with Disco Elysium and I think it's good if I figure out why.

1) I don't play TTRPG's: Disco Elysium very obviously take a lot of inspiration from TTRPG's, what with the dice rolls, skills, all that. And while I do know more about TTRPG's then the average Joe just cause I'm curious about games and do play the occasional board game, I've never sat down to play a session of DnD or Pathfinder or whatever. I just do not have the attention span to sit in a room for more then 2 hours. This means that a lot of DE's twists and subversion's that I can feel are there just go right over my head.

2) I have a real bad habit of not wanting to "miss content" and trying to play what I consider as optimally: Now when I say "optimally" I don't necessarily mean "meta", although that does have an influence. What I mean is more "I will go all in on whatever play-style I walk into even if it's very gimmicky and even if I have to reset hours of progress." And for whatever reason DE just manages to trigger both of these bad habits of mine worse then I've seen for a long while. Probably not helped that I've restarted this game 3 times but still.

3) I can second guess myself and get paranoid pretty easily: this is pretty related to the previous one and is mostly related to "what kind of build I should go for". I know I want to do an Int & Psy focus but the specifics of that elude me. There's also the fact that the reason why I quite my second playthrough was because I incorrectly had the assumption the game had a strict time limit which just caused me to nope right out cause time limits of any kind give me very severe stress. I can also get lost and confused very easily which also doesn't help with any of this.

am I overthinking all of this? absolutely. Should I have played more then an hour each run before calling it quits? most definitely. But i think it's still good that I aired all of this out cause, as I said, I can get self-conscious real easily about this stuff and I think it's good if I work it out and also maybe get some help.

Edit) I have now made it to Day 3 and have about 30 hrs logged in to give people an Idea of how things are going. Safe to say It clicked XD

[Archivista]

your only problem with this game is your lack of attention span

[7DeadlyGulas]

Originally posted by legandargamer:

Over the past months since I got this game, on 3 separate occasions I ended up dropping it after only an hour of playing due to it not really ever clicking with me for lack of a better word. Now I can recognize that like 95% of the reason why is my fault, but I still wanna go through and try and figure out why. Cause I have heard many glowing things about this game from both strangers online and close friends of mine. Plus I've never run into this problem as badly I have with Disco Elysium and I think it's good if I figure out why.

1) I don't play TTRPG's: Disco Elysium very obviously take a lot of inspiration from TTRPG's, what with the dice rolls, skills, all that. And while I do know more about TTRPG's then the average Joe just cause I'm curious about games and do play the occasional board game, I've never sat down to play a session of DnD or Pathfinder or whatever. I just do not have the attention span to sit in a room for more then 2 hours. This means that a lot of DE's twists and subversion's that I can feel are there just go right over my head.

2) I have a real bad habit of not wanting to "miss content" and trying to play what I consider as optimally: Now when I say "optimally" I don't necessarily mean "meta", although that does have an influence. What I mean is more "I will go all in on whatever play-style I walk into even if it's very gimmicky and even if I have to reset hours of progress." And for whatever reason DE just manages to trigger both of these bad habits of mine worse then I've seen for a long while. Probably not helped that I've restarted this game 3 times but still.

3) I can second guess myself and get paranoid pretty easily: this is pretty related to the previous one and is mostly related to "what kind of build I should go for". I know I want to do an Int & Psy focus but the specifics of that elude me. There's also the fact that the reason why I quite my second playthrough was because I incorrectly had the assumption the game had a strict time limit which just caused me to nope right out cause time limits of any kind give me very severe stress. I can also get lost and confused very easily which also doesn't help with any of this.

am I overthinking all of this? absolutely. Should I have played more then an hour each run before calling it quits? most definitely. But i think it's still good that I aired all of this out cause, as I said, I can get self-conscious real easily about this stuff and I think it's good if I work it out and also maybe get some help.

I think you need a therapist bro.. these sound more like unresolved personal issues than anything to do with Disco Elysium.

[legandargamer]

Originally posted by 7DeadlyGulas:

I think you need a therapist bro.. these sound more like unresolved personal issues than anything to do with Disco Elysium.

Yeah that's probably more then fair. Like I said I was most definitely overthinking all this. Plus I think I just needed to vent it out a bit yknow?

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

Just try not to worry and control everything so much dude.

Whats the fun in worrying so much. Stop it.

[Donathan Cheadledge]

You're thinking too hard. Each point in turn:

1. D&D is both more complicated and less balanced than the skills and checks in disco. There's probably not as much going over your head as you really think - the game more subverts the whole ttrpg video game genre and then just sort of vibes being its own thing from there.

It does subvert the idea of game branching dialogue too, but only in the sense that this game makes all options feel more viable than in other games.

2. All builds are viable. Going all in on a few particular 'copotypes' each playthrough is pretty much recommended. You will never come out of this game feeling like you ran the 'wrong build' as in other RPGs. All the skills become useful at different points and help to achieve the end goal.

3. There are no real 'specifics' of a focus. Point points in the main groups, then once you play for a bit you get a feel for what the skills 'do' (using the term do loosely - mostly different skills just bring up different kinds of dialogue and you pick what sort of thing you want to see more of, unless you're trying to reset and pass a particular white check.) The in game time only passes when you're actually in a dialogue and the game can go as many days as you want (tho it sometimes gets slightly bugged if you go more than 5 but it's very unusual to do that anyway).

Conclusion: calm yourself down and just enjoy the process.

[Gilgamesh]

My biggest problem getting into this game is going through miles of dialogue and missing a roll I wanted to make. Can't save during dialogue, and I don't feel like doing that ♥♥♥♥ over and over and over again. Uninstalled.

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

Another neurotic perfectionist.

[Dopey Shepard]

and? You should have refunded then after the first hour

[Space is the Place]

I get you OP, I had a similar experience and I actually get your 3 points since I´m the same. My RPG experiences are mostly limited to Final Fantasy and Bethesda games, which to me that´s what RPG meant for many years. I also like to make perfect runs on games. ANd I also have tons of problems coming to terms with decisions on games with RPG elements.

My advice is that you do as I eventually did, I gave the game a rest and then returned after reading somewhere what the builds constitute and was given the advice to save scum constantly. Once I did that, I was finally able to explore and understand much better the flow of the game.

Nowadays, I´ll say Disco Elysium it´s one of my favorite games of all times. It´s really asmazing man, all the good things you have heard and even more are waiting for you, but you gotta persist. Don´t overthink about the perfect run, it´s not that type of game, in fact, you will see all content in any playtrough, what changes over different playthroughs it´s the perspective of the character on what´s happening, not what´s happening in itself if that makes sense. And this is one of the few titles that not only have failure as a possibility, but in fact in some scenarios you would want to fail, not kidding, I have save scum to lose on ocasions because the result was more suited for what I was chasing on that playthrough.

GIve it a shot, trust me, when it clicks with you, it truly clicks.

[Paul]

I postponed playing this for 5 years (I preordered it in 2019 before release).

I saw some really cool recreation in UE5 on twitter of the game's first room, and its vibe seemed so cool that I finally decided to play it.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjRrWcq1wOE

I do not play table top games, and I much prefer first and third person AAA games over top down these days (although I can still enjoy top down game, JA3 was my GOTY last year).

I also have a gaming OCD and wants to see everything etc.

I created a character (5 - 3 - 2 - 2) that I thought would be fun to play, not completely incompetent at anything, and still reasonably smart and with decent psy.

At first, the intro (with ancient lizard brain etc) I was like WTF.

But I just kept playing and pretty quickly, within about 2 hours, I was enjoying it.

Now, I am 40 hours in, in day 4, still far from the end I think, and pretty much all I want to do right now is play more Disco Elysium. It is really well written and atmospheric.
Characters are interesting and fun to talk to. Internal monologues as well. The central detective mystery is cool. And it can be laugh out loud funny.

[bolland98403]

I didn't like this game, either. Move on. (As I will, after a few more comments whinges.)

[⬇️↘️➡️🤜]

No matter what build you do, you are going to miss content on your first run anyway, so don't stress about it.

Also, there are no "good" builds, since it's not a game that relies on combat or unavoidable scenarios like boss battles (most of the time) unless you want to go for a specific outcome.

While it might play like a TTRPG, it's a lot more open regarding your choices. You can always replay it to see different options or look them up online.

Take it slowly, try immersing yourself in the story and play the character as you see fit. Maybe base it on your real self, imagine a character you'd like to play or simply go with the flow, you'll enjoy it a lot more.

[Babbles]

Originally posted by ⬇️↘️➡️🤜:

That has to be the coolest Steam name ever ... I am in awe.

[Dixon Sider]

Its funny that people think therapy is a solution lol. Imagine going to a therapist and telling them "I need help, I dont enjoy this video game. Just look at these reviews, whats wrong with me?"

My suggestion would be to wait for a time in your life that this type of game best suits you. What you do for work, the current season (IRL), or what hobbies you are into all come together to form what it is you want to get out of gaming.

Right now I am looking for high intensity fast paced games. My job is mentally demanding, its getting warm outside, I have been exercising more often lately. Just keep it in your backlog until the type of game suits your needs.