playing zero parades demo and it just feels..... so empty to me. of course, i will try to compare it to disco elysium simply because it still IS trying to emulate disco elysium. like i can't fail the creatives since they're standing on the graveyard of a game that won best indie game, but from the get-go, you aren't really given much freedom on how your character is going to be. they drop the lore on you in the MOST uninteresting way.
this is just from the first ten minutes of playing the game, and already it's lumped with Big Words that's reminiscent of disco elysium. the difference is that you're a failcop and your stats talk to you and they're humorous about it. in this game, you're a spy with a heavy political agenda. you're Big Commie Spy. it isn't even satirical, it's just on-the-nose i was rich but i was awakened by the mass' plight.
like it tries so hard to both be harry and kim all at once. but it comes across as flat. and when you fail, it doesn't even come off as funny. it just is. you just failed.
and that's another thing i want to talk about. disco elysium rewards you for failing and for trying again. it's hopeful. it shows that trying again will reap rewards as long as you keep trying. but in zero parades, the stakes are so high (failed three times as soon as playing the game because it needs you to reach a total of 10 out of 11) and if you fail? you fail. you get delusion and anxiety instead of your HP and morale. and when you exceed your anxiety, you won't get a black screen but they will punish you for failing by lowering a skill of yours down to a point.
it's quite harsh too, especially on a female character. why is there a need to punish her? isn't it just much better to let her fail and then let her try again? or aren't there any tools that can help soothe her anxiety instead of bargaining to lower it instead of a black screen?
alao idk what to say with this being in her file. you don't get to explore the character on your own. they just spoonfeed you and put some funny haha line that isn't really funny haha. i don't know why the main character's sexuality is so important in this point in time. it came off as weird....
still don't know what to say about this. i tried making her goofy but it comes so flat to me and there's no one else to bounce off of! not even the skills talk about how MASSIVE OF A FAILURE you are or how embarrassing that was. or not even a comfort from one of the lines. you trudge on forward as if nothing happened.
this is. i don't know what to say. it's just.
i couldn't help but compare this to harry moment because there's been so many times he pulled that "it's his fault!!!" line at kim when he knows he's in trouble. still though, it doesn't work in this particularly scenario because you're alone and not even the voices in your head can help you out. they just say one line until another stat talks to you. what do you mean by that doppelgäng. i need to know (she never answered back or even commented on how much of a spineless piss poor fuck i am)
this scene really reminded me of kim asking harry, "the dead body. has it been taken down yet?" and you avoid him in six different ways but this one only gives you three dialogue choices until you reach to the third dialogue choice, which is "yes". but also this scenes shows how much you need someone else to react in the world because to YOU, as the character, your behaviour is normal. so this exchange with melita doesn't feel like anything. it doesn't feel like what you said is incredibly fucked-up because to us it's normal. not one of your stats talk. there's just dead air.
this was funny until it got old too fast because you can do it again and again. the "three to five thousand revolutions per minute", like am i stupid or what does that mean? is it because she's a communist that they added that in instead? what's going on here. genuinely.
i don't know. the fact that they had to spoonfeed you all these information at the first minute instead of exploring the world for yourself and finding out about these things. i know disco elysium tends to drop a thousand-worded lore on you that's thicker than the lord of the rings trilogy but it doesn't do it in the first minute of the game. it makes you explore. you literally don't know shit, which makes things more interesting because as the player, you don't know who harry is either and even is his reactions to certain memories of the past that it also catches us off-guard.
zero parades gives you a character that already has a sexuality. that already has a political ideology without your choosing. i think my main problem with this game is that it still latches itself onto the success of disco elysium that trying to break away from it and creating a new gameplay becomes even more difficult. because that is what ZA/UM is known for. and the shitheads in-charge are now trying to recreate a disco elysium that takes itself too seriously, while also trying to be goofy that misses the beat. even the narrator is trying to be the narrator in disco elysium, and the changes in the voice when portraying the other skills can come off as.... well. i don't know how to describe it.
even the beginning is very much harry talking to ancient reptilian brain and limbic system. but it's just a drop of your character's history and not.... a dive into your character's psyche and emotions. and what was she doing in the bathroom anywqufnejsjdsm
also to say that the entire thing felt painful as it was only herschel being goofy and nobody else adding to it. disco elysium's characters are just as goofy as harry, if not more. they're just as comedic with the way they talk to harry, but zero parades.... this is just the demo so i wouldn't say too much but again, a help from your skills saying how bad that was or how the description of you failing would've been interesting to see.
this would've worked, i think, if the main character is a spy that requires the help of a deadpan journalist that can help her navigate the world. i love having a female character and a female narrator for a change, because THERES TOO MANY CISHET MEN!!!!!! but like i can't help but feel it be so empty. also can't help but feel about herschel being a cool, hot woman is them stereotyping a spy like can't we have old woman yuri instead with herschel being a fat woman who deals in intel gathering. isn't that what spies are
i really tried. so hard. to disengage my brain from diso elysium brain. but each click is just a reskinned version of disco elysium, with the texts and logo being too small at times and almost difficult to navigate. they could've gone with klaasje's story instead of all this, with a life prior to martinaise. to the investigation.
herschel would've been more likable if she didn't get stuck with the harry du bois formula because it wouldn't have worked on her world + career. i don't think the spy world would be as forgiving as a bunch of undermanned cops in a city too.
it almost feels as though they went for style instead of substance but we'll see.
janainaart
gummygunk
dailybridgerton
yousharknotpass
areudirty
kianamaiart
origamiaround
2087
germansingergirl
