Disco Elysium: The Final Cut arrives on Nintendo Switch, let's find out what's new
Disco Elysium
In the Estonian capital Tallin, back in 2015, a group of amateur artists gathers in the old city, united only by a plan that is too ambitious to be actually feasible: "revolutionizing PC RPGs". Initially the ideas fly and the group decides to create a huge open world RPG, at least until it gets to the point of having to note the limited technical skills of its members (not to mention their general inexperience in the field of video games). The plan therefore changes, it becomes less crazy and impracticable and the initial development period foreseen for the project goes from "a year and a half" to a more realistic "we have no idea when we will complete it" ... all with a couple of name changes of the software house itself to accompany the work.The game born from this curious (and at the time naive) combination of talents was called No Truce with the Furies and over time even it has gone to meet a last minute name change. Today we know it as Disco Elysium: one of the best RPGs of the last decade (if not ever), seen by many as the true heir of the Planescape Torment concept, and actually a title capable of overturning the vast majority of the canons of the genre with its innovative ideas. All excellent reasons to play it, of course, but in case you haven't, know that all this goodness is coming to Nintendo Switch, thanks to a port of the Final Cut edition. We talked about it with the developers, who in addition to telling us a bit of their story (which can also be traced to a large extent in their original blog), they anticipated what to expect from this version of the work.
An old world, a new vision
A setting of Disco Elysyum The description of the first meeting of the ZA / UM put in black and white above, in reality, does not do entirely justice to the team (but we stick to their words, so don't think it's our will to belittle their work). In fact, although they almost describe themselves as amateurs in disarray, in addition to being already more knowledgeable than many in the magical field of development, they did not exactly start "from scratch" in the conceptualization of their child. The world of Disco Elysium, in fact, comes from a board game born decades earlier: a campaign called, in fact, Elysium and built over time by some of the original members of the team that would later turn into the software house. In short, even if initially only nine people worked on the project, the narrative background and events were already well underway when there were no computers in the studio yet. An undoubtedly solid starting point for an RPG built almost entirely on the narrative element.Even considered that basis, however, the quality of Disco Elysium remains absolutely exceptional for a game born from a team with zero experience previous experience in the field of programming. Anyone else would pat themselves on the back in joy for the perfect center placed, but not the ZA / UM, who had - as explained above - far more ambitious plans in the beginning.
Their work, after all, has been re-evaluated and "cut" twice, becoming the video game we know and appreciate today only after a significant downsizing. The publication of a Final Cut therefore arises precisely from the team's desire to get closer to the initial plan with additional content, complete dubbing and more refinements. Were that not enough, the mixture of detailed feedback from the fanbase and additional experience resulting from the work done in the field, pushed the developers to devote themselves to platforms outside the PC (and in particular the advice from users seems to have been fundamental to understand better how to manage the interface).
With Switch, however, the challenge of a hybrid and portable console has been added, so the house has decided to rebuild all the title menus for that version. The main interventions seem to be linked to the visual impact of the interface, the size of the text and the desire to make Disco Elysium as pleasant as possible on a small screen. When it comes to adjusting the texts, however, the ZA / UM do not seem to have limited themselves to simple larger random letters. To say, they seem to have considered the scale used by optometrists to best adjust everything based on the distance kept when using the Switch in portability (in case their obsession with details is not already clear).
An exploration phase inside a Disco Elysium warehouse The discussion linked to the technical sector of the port, on the other hand, was less detailed and focused on optimization. Critical for developers to make the most of the game on consoles, since on platforms other than the PC it is more difficult to maintain high performance. To have a worthy fluidity without having to excessively scale down the graphic impact, it seems that the shaders have been reworked and various other elements have been reworked. Overall, however, the ZA / UM said they were very satisfied with the work done.
The chat with the ZA / UM was short, but at least the Disco Elysium developers showed some confidence in the Nintendo Switch version of the game and, considering their maniacality, we do not doubt the value of the upcoming port of the Final Cut version. Unfortunately, we have not been able to try the game live, but it will happen shortly, and if it turns out to be actually valid ... well, we certainly don't have to tell you again that it is a product that RPG fans should not miss, right?
