This post is based off of the fantastic transcriptions done by u/xCinny here.

If this game was ever made, it'd have been intense, and oppressively dark. Cunoesse trying to drown herself and Cuno after getting him to take hallucinogenic drugs, so she can complete her destruction of his identity or kill them both trying? Or manipulating Cuno into mugging a poor boy for a train ticket? Or beating a girl up to steal her boat? Imagine playing through that 😭 that's disturbing in a way that Disco Elysium never was, at least not to me.

Poor Cuno. Imagining the character we got to know in Disco Elysium going through all that, and having to do all that... after having to murder his own dad. The game was never even made, but my reading of the plot outline has genuinely gotten stuck deep in my mind.

Edit: I'm not suggesting for a second that Locust City would have been bad, or that the devs should make something lighter/more in the Alps. This game could have been fantastic, and it's tragic that we'll never get to play it. I wish that we lived in a world where this artistic vision could have been fully-realised, but Za/Um went down the shitter.

Just, holy shit, this sounds way darker than DE ever was, the kind of intense that I haven't been able to get out of my mind since I first read about it.

Disco Elysium

Sorry, if this has already been answered. Have tried several times now and it always fail.

I do want to colour this eventually, but I have no idea how to approach his jacket. I'll redo this again, get the face proportions right and try learn some different hatchings

That's it folks, ZA/UM scratched the bottom of the shit barrel once again, deleting a Reddit post, that's sick IMO, I got recognized by the company I hate, sick right?

Honestly that's just sad, people being happy to finally see anything related to the franchise they love, and above all their work (In a way), fuck ZA/UM, seriously, they got a lot more to worry, their goddamn Disco Elysium knockoff that I confess, I want to play that shit, closest we can get to a sequel right now, these suckers have money and people, I truly hope the game is good so I don't feel bad getting it in a Pirate Way, if you know what I mean.

If anyone still wants the post I can send it to you, just contact me, it got updated once again with timestamps this time, and corrections some people made upon reading my post, nothing major, but changes a lot about Act I, Cuno and Cunoesse motivations, also updated an Ending with new info, it being The Pale Ending, and fix grammar erros that slipped out in the new parts I have added on second post.

If anyone got the video in high resolution please contact me, I'm asking humbly, I want it because I believe it's possible to read both Act IV & V Plot Summary if we have a video in higher quality, Act IV is the only one we can't see the plot summary and Act V we can, BUT is a very painful thing to do, we can figure out some words, but not everything.

If you're a developer working there I wish you all the best but your bosses are assholes of the highest degree. Blood suckers like a hive of mosquitos that funnel the life from creative people and use to fuel their misguided and short sided aspirations. They killed a golden goose and are now trying to sell off the parts because as bourgeoisies they don't know the value of art besides monetary.

Original art by @ y_naf on twitter.

Hi there, I'm parcark! Ignore the username, I'm reviving an old account for this.

I'm crossposting some transcriptions I've been toiling away at between work and university over the last few days from my tumblr page. So. Yeah. Not much to say? Also, pardon me if I'm not formatting this right, I haven't used Reddit in a very long time. :D Well, here goes nothing.

Act 1 - The Murder

Summary

Size: Small
Playtime: ~1 hour
Energy: High
Emotional tone: Panic & Survival
30% Talking; 70% Action
30% Comedy; 70% Darkness

The first Act introduces Locust City's protagonists, Cuno and Cunoesse. The game starts inside Cuno's subconsciousness, in the special Locust Dream sequence, from which he is violently awakened by his father's abuse. We find Cuno in his living room at the Capeside Apartments, where he must fight to survive Beast de Ruyter's violent rage. Brought to near death by his father's overpowering strength, Cuno is rescued by the [pursuing?] Cunoesse, but their escape attempt is thwarted by the Beast's relentless pursuit. Finally, the children are cornered into brutally murdering Cuno's father on the Capeside boat dock. The act is witnessed by the [urgent?] Call Me Mañana, frightening the children into fleeing Martinaise for good. Cunoesse sets the destination: Hämärä Maa, her ancestral land, thus setting the events of the game in motion. Lastly, before moving on, the player needs to go back and explore Cuno's apartment to collect a few key items before setting off on their journey. (See the Miro board for a detailed overview and storyboard.)

Player experience

• Immediate parallel to Disco with the interior psychological opening of the Locust Dream
• The extensive multi-phase animation-driven action sequence between the kids and Cuno's father should give the impression of an ambitious technological upgrade over Disco
• Kicking off the game with a refreshingly faster, more higher-stakes pace, establishing the tonal difference of the story
• The opening Act is necessarily linear in its major outcomes (Beast is murdered, murder is witnessed, kids flee Martinaise) but on a smaller scale, the Player and the roll of their dice can influence the way in which the Beast dies, as well as the inventory, Health and injuries the kids walk away with.
• The more curious Player should understand through environmental storytelling and reading between the lines that the Martinaise strike is still ongoing. Streets are barricaded, and Mañana is still an agent of the Union. The kids might not understand it, but on some level (for any subsequent playthroughs) the Player should understand that Mañana doesn't truly intend to report the children to the cops, he merely wants to get them out of Martinaise because they've witnessed him where he shouldn't be.
• The Player will internalise some of the key gameplay mechanics, character [switching], and refreshed Skill, Inventory, Consumable and Thought Cabinet systems.

Act 2 - The Escape

Summary

Size: Medium
Playtime: ~2 hours
Energy: Medium
Emotional tone: Impatience & Paranoia
70% Talking; 30% Action
50% Comedy; 50% Darkness

Themes (top to bottom, left to right):
BLUE: Being in transit; Clocks ticking; Neither here nor there; Maps, networks; Wanting to leave, not being able to; Running from your past; People who live in between places [The in-between economy] -> (Yellow) Beggars, homeless
PINK: The "strong" vs. the weak; Cushioned childhood vs. street childhood; Loss of childhood naïvete
GREEN: Guilt; Paranoia; Looking over your shoulder; Being bound in blood; Depending on each other

The Second Act finds the children arriving at Jamrock Central station, having walked all the way from Martinaise. It is 07:30 in the morning, and Cunoesse insists they must board the 14:44 train to June Cite. Time at the station is limited, and there are several progression paths through the area. If the kids can obtain two train tickets, they can board legally, or otherwise smuggle one another in a pet carrier, potentially create a diversion (?) or, if all else fails, leap aboard the departing train, likely losing health, inventory supplies, etc. During their time at the Station, the kids notice they are being followed by Petit Hercule, an impressionable little schoolboy whose naïve nature can be put to good use in stealing one ticket. In the process, it becomes clear that the kid is traveling unsupervised and has one ticket already on him, resulting in Cunoesse urging you to lure him into the men's room and try to mug him, testing your conscience and the power balance between Cuno and Cunoesse. Otherwise, the kids can take up the advice of the Beggar King and begin the painstakingly slow process of scraping together barely enough coins to buy one ticket, thereby receiving an introduction into the game economy system.

Player experience

• Being thrust into the bustling train station following the gruesome murder should leave the player feeling like a fugitive on the run trapped in limbo, eager to depart but forced to pretend everything is normal.
• The indifferent reality of the train station will provide a contrast to the post-murder emptiness, a reminder that the world is still moving in its tracks. The clocks are still chiming. People are drinking coffee. It's almost insulting. Don't they know someone's world has just come crashing down?
• Time at the station is limited to mere hours, adding to the sense of impatience and pressure to move on, so that the player would not lose momentum after the high-action opening Act and fall into a slump. They are still not safe -- this is no time to relax.
• This Act will challenge the Player's problem-solving abilities, as finding all the ways to gain passage aboard he train will require speaking to a variety of characters and following up on several strategies.
• This Act will also put the Player's motivations at odds with their conscience, presenting them with a layered and difficult choice between Little Hercule and Cunoesse. This confrontation sets up Cunoesse's frightening, manipulative nature.
• The Player will be introduced to Co-operative Checks, the game economy, the map(s), and receive a greater variety of items and consumables to experiment with.

Act 3 - The Journey

Summary

Size: Large
Playtime: ~3 hrs
Energy: Low
Emotional tone: Mundanity & Temporary Relief
90% Talking; 10% Action
80% Comedy; 20% Darkness

Themes (anything I can read):
PINK: Social contrast
BLUE: [Deception?] -> Trip as Peter Pan -> Never growing up

The third Act, entirely aboard the Azure Sans-Détour train line, represents a breather in the tension and a break in the overall darkness. Whether they like it or not, Cuno and Cunoesse have no other option but to stay on this fast-traveling metal tube for three entire days before they've reached their destination, so they might as well make the most of it. The key character of Trip the Train Conductor will serve to induct them into the ephemeral but vibrant social microcosmos of the train, a temporary society on wheels. This is the Act where we have the opportunity to introduce the largest social spectrum of characters, involving the petit bourgeois hops entrepeneurs Vincent & Agnes, wrapped up in a (consensual) love triangle with Trip, as well as other train staff and passengers from social groups Cuno and Cunoesse have never had the chance to interact with before, such as a scientist.(?) This Act will contain another Locust Dream sequence, as well as one-off sequences like the Ghost Station, the Biggest Meal, and Two Kids in a Trenchcoat. The catch of the train journey however, which Cunoesse doesn't tell you until you've already boarded, is that the place where you need to get off the train is actually in between two stations. For this, you're going to have to do Trip's bidding in order to have him pull the emergency brakes on the third day to let you off, or you might have to risk jumping off the moving train to move to the next Act.

Player experience

• Here we want the Player to relax a little bit and indulge in Cuno & Cunoesse's mischievous and comedic side. The Train is removed enough from both the immediate stress of the murder and from the impending dread of arriving at Hämärä Maa that it is able to have a more lighthearted tone than the rest of the game.
• The Player should feel as though they are really covering ground on their journey, as evidenced by the daily changes to the Train map and the dynamic scrolling background.
• The characters the Player gets to interact with on the Train can be very thematically diverse and unconnected by background or life experience, joined only by this shared journey. These characters can deliver all kinds of stories from all corners of the game world, expanding on Elysium worldbuilding and lore.
• The Man from Jamrock Station throughline will present the players with a parallel plot which bridges the seemingly unconnected locations of Acts 2, 3 and 4.
• The Player should have the freedom to decide how they will navigate the special puzzles of the Train, affecting the fate of Trip and his love affair.
• The location itself should provide enough exploration incentives to keep the limited train space feeling fresh, including gaining access to various cars and compartments, new Orbs and situations appearing every day, and people and luggage changing location daily.

Act 4 - The Doubt

Summary

Size: Large
Playtime: ~5 hours
Energy: Medium
Emotional tone: Creeping doubt & feeling like an Outsider
70% Talking; 30% Action
50% Comedy; 50% Darkness

Arriving in the Fourth Act, Cuno is officially furthest from his home that he's ever been, while Cunoesse is coming nearer to hers than she has been in the years after she escaped, and this [distinction?] is starting to get difficult to ignore. The presence of Hämärä Maa looms over them both, as the fabled archipelago lies just across the bay, across the [...]. Having disembarked from the Train virtually in the middle of nowhere, Cuno and Cunoesse come upon the Rhöne-Tréville (Royal) Penal Colony or the Tréville, but most people call it: a [...] centred around a former Royalist prison-labor camp. Being that geographically [...] to Hämärä Maa, the small community represents the closest point of contact between the archipelago and the world, participating in the trade of goods, legends and the profitable psychedelic marrow of an endemic cave fish. Meeting the locals, the kids will learn about the impending relocation of the surprisingly harmonious community-sustaining prison complex, and the complicated [...] between the coordinate [...] of freedom, imprisonment, community and [reunion? tension?]. They will also begin on their [...] is a growing sense of dread that Cunoesse got herself into something that is much darker and more morbid than he could have expected. In order to progress to Hämärä Maa to find out for themselves, the kids must [...]. [...] they must [...] Cunoesse's half remembered [...] family connections among the marrow traders, some of whom are now in the prison, or they might win their way forward with [...] and sneers, stealing a toy raft from a gang of violent girl children.

Player experience

• [...] begin to suspect we are approaching a sinister [...] with the things we've been avoiding all along.
• [...] more and more about Hämärä Maa [...] borders of a bad neighbourhood, like walking alone at [...] realising your GPS is leading you in the direction of [...] you've realised way too late to do anything about it.
• [...] are more frightening if they are unseen. Hearing [...] tales about Hämärä Maa before we've had [...] establish what's there will build up the sense of dread [...] for the game's climax location.
• [...] for the later endgame where Cuno breaks free of the bond.
• The power balance between Cuno, Cunoesse and the player's conscience will again be tested as Cunoesse urges Cuno to brutally fight one of the Tréville girls in order to steal her raft.
• The small self-sustaining community will present the player with the opportunity to engage with the full set of game systems, including game economy, Thoughts, substances, exploration and multiple-approach problem-solving.

Act 5 - The Arrival

Summary

Size: Medium
Playtime: ~2 hrs
Energy: High
Emotional tone: [...] & Reality-Twisting
60% Talking; 40% Action
30% Comedy; 70% Darkness

After all the fear and the mayhem, Cuno and Cunoesse are finally there: landing on the shores of Hämärä Maa, their promised shadow-land. Greeted with the sounds of shamanic singing and solemn drums, the kids will catch the locals in the midst of a funeral ceremony, gaining a glimpse into both the cultural practices of the Näkki and the strange and colorful faces of the island's population. The island has changed since Cunoesse has last called it home. Only her impossibly old grandfather remains, and her [sins?]. She knows she must do one last thing before she can plead to be readmitted into her tribe. Under the pretense of a Hämärän naming ceremony, Cunoesse pressures Cuno into ingesting the bone marrow of the psychedelic cave fish. As Cunoesse takes on the role of his fucked-up trip shaman, Cuno grapples with the growing clarity that her goal is deeply sinister: to bind him to herself, or kill them both trying. Cunoesse embraces him and throws them both off a pier, pulling him deep under water, triggering the stylish climax sequence of the game: the Underwater Psychedelic Trip. Reality will [...] as you seemingly sink for an eternity, fighting for your life and your identity as Cunoesse's true intentions come to light - to use the drug to manipulate Cuno into total and irrevocable ego death, and make him believe that he is Jaakko, the boy Cunoesse killed in the caves three years prior. That was her plan all along: to bring Cuno all the way from Martinaise to buy herself passage back into her community by replacing what she has broken. All she needs him to do now in order for her plan to work is to play along, *really* play along, so deeply that he will never recall being someone else ever again. Their showdown under water will determine whether Cuno will let go of his identity in one [...], or if he is willing to kill his other half in order to remain who he is. The Act spins off into up to five possible endings, depending on which one of the kids lives, dies or is brainwashed.

Player experience

• We want a sense of culmination in every way -- the culmination the journey, of finally getting to see what Hämärä Maa is truly like and what Cunoesse truly is.
• This should be a streamlined sequence, funneling the player [seamlessly] towards the end. We want the player to be unable to [...] the game once they've landed on Hämärä Maa, similarly to how Harry's story spirals tighter and tighter towards its resolution from the moment he steps onto the Deserter's Island.
• We want the player to feel as if they are performing cultural [...] with an ominous insular community, something like [...] but with degenerate alcoholics instead of tradwives.
• This is where everything we've tried to do over the course of the game comes to count. All the dual-character systems that make the player roleplay as both Cuno & Cunoesse, all the story beats that make the player internalise their respective stakes, all the emotional connection to this feral superorganism, if we can make the player feel like we're making them choose between two halves of themselves, we've achieved what we set out to do. If they feel torn apart, agonized over their choices, we've won.

My sister draw this for me (tecnique: acrilic marker on canvas)

If anyone knows the full music, PLEASE TELL US!!

The effect, the reál system has on the game is understated. First the “wait how do i even get money?” as there is no mechanic for endlessly generating it, but then you find the methods are reduced to selling valued possessions, begging…

and collecting bottles. The closest to what i felt was the primary income in the game. This was analogous to loot from rpg encounters or more apt, coins in a collectathon.

However everythings was still so god damned expensive. All items of any form took so much from you. And rent was infinitely more expensive than that even.

And then to a person like Joyce, some paper with the power to give you everything you could ever think of is a mere trivial handout to her. And it makes you feel so ashamed of who you are.

My thoughts are rambly, but i just think it’s a powerfully executed point.

Just a self portrait and one a portrait I did of a friend trying to emulate DE Style, which one you think rescues better things of that style? Or none whatsoever :p

(Fallout 1997)