Disco Elysium is one of those incredible games that make a case for gaming being a perfect medium for discussing very real, very serious issues. It does this whilst also being written well and set in a world that has had so much thought and care put into it.

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While players romp around the city of Revachol trying to solve a murder, it can be all too easy to miss some of the finer details or fail to solve some of the game's more devious puzzles. This is true whether on one's first playthrough or second, so it definitely pays to keep both eyes and ears open for the delicious worldbuilding.

10 The Cultures of Elysium Resemble Our Own

The Drunks in Disco Elysium
The Drunks in Disco Elysium

This is possibly the most obvious bit of trivia that anyone can pick up about the game. The vast majority of the nations mentioned in the game have direct parallels with real-world countries and societies. Notably, Revachol is a mixture of France and a post-communist Eastern European country, as evidenced by the historical failed communist uprising and the huge amount of French influences.

Some of the nations have little twists to make obfuscate their inspirations. Oranje is quite obviously the Netherlands but absolutely drowning in capitalism, Seol appears to be a mixture of Japan and Korea, and Ubi Sunt? (the question mark is part of the name) seems to be a send-up of the Irish and the Welsh.

9 The City is Alive... Maybe

If players put enough points into some of the more esoteric of skills, they will eventually come across odd visions and dialogues that seem to appear directly in the main character's head. While this is most obvious with Shivers, it also occurs with Inland Empire and Esprit de Corps.

It seems to be implied that the city of Revachol itself is alive and can communicate with the player character. It informs the detective about things he couldn't possibly know, gives him glimpses into the lives of people he knows – and people he doesn't – and in The Final Cut, it even has a separate voice actor to the rest of the detective's inner monologue. That's proof enough.

8 Suzerainty

Disco Elysium opening Suzerainty board game

Easily missed, Suzerainty is a board game that the player can purchase from the bookstore in Revachol. The game is an obvious parody of games like Settlers of Catan and Civilization, where the goal is to expand and dominate the other players whilst keeping track of multiple resources.

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Even if players picked the board game up, they may still miss the fact that they can actually get Lieutenant Kim to play the game with them. He needs to be convinced but breaks easily and the pair can spend a few hours bonding over the strategy game.

7 Elysium Uses Radiocomputers

Disco Elysium Harry uses a Radiocomputer

An easy way to set a fictional world apart from the real one is to take an invention and do away with it completely, replacing it with some sort of analog. The steampunk genre often does this, with steam-based technology persisting after the industrial revolution.

In the world of Disco Elysium, information is not stored on hard drives or discs, but on filament tape that can often be found stored in cubes. These are read by radiocomputers that communicate over airwaves and form the basis of a few sidequests that may be missed if players don't explore well enough.

6 Pyrholidon Might Be Based On a Real Soviet Drug... Or It Might Not

Disco Elysium is not shy about referencing drug use. In fact, one of the main character's skills is a raging addict who will do all it can to make the detective smoke, drink, and otherwise abuse his body with illicit substances. One of these is the hallucinogen pyrholidon, originally an anti-radiation drug used during the war.

It is tempting to conclude that this drug is a reference to the very real aprofene, a very powerful hallucinogenic developed within the USSR during the Cold War. This would match up with the lore behind pyrholidon presented in the game, but it's also possible that its name is derived from the much more benign 2-Pyrrolidone. This is a simple compound used in the production of multiple medicines, including respiratory stimulants and nootropics.

5 The Ancient Reptilian Brain Theory Is True In Elysium

Disco Elysium Ancient Reptilian Brain opening text

The first "character" met during the narrative of Disco Elysium is the enigmatic "Ancient Reptilian Brain", a snarling and imposing disembodied voice who goads the player during their monumental hangover.

Paired with the Limbic System, these two characters make up two-thirds of a neuroscientific model of how the human brain developed. Neuroscientist Paul D. Maclean proposed that different parts of the brain were responsible for different aspects of behavior.

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It was posited that the "reptilian complex" is responsible for aggression and ritual, while the "limbic system" is in charge of emotion and motivation. While on Earth this theory no longer holds water in the scientific community, it seems pretty true for the inhabitants of Elysium.

4 The World Is Ending

disco elysium the whirling rags balcony

Information about the very weird in-game phenomenon of "the pale" is a little difficult to come by in Disco Elysium. There are two main sources of information, and they are both locked behind some difficult skill checks. Players can either grill Joyce for information that requires a high Conceptualization check to access or encounter a new instance of the pale inside the little church on the coast.

The pale is a form of nothingness, enveloping and warping all it touches. Traveling through it is difficult and psychologically draining, and the world of Elysium is full of it. And it's growing. Inevitably, the pale will consume Elysium and all life on it.

3 We Can Probably Solve THE SQUARE BULLET HOLE MURDERS

The Square Bullet Hole Murders is the flamboyant name of one of the player character's cases that remains unsolved, but the game does offer some clues as to the solution. The case deals with, predictably, bullet holes that are perfect squares and crime scenes lacking any bullets.

With a high enough Shivers skill towards the end of the game, the player will get a strong hint as to the case's solution. It will tell them of a man loading a square bullet into a square chamber, eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring. With spring comes warmer weather, warmer weather melts ice, and ice often comes in a particular shape. It's quite the "a-ha!" moment.

2 That Slur Is Not The Slur You're Thinking Of

Disco Elysium Offensive Jackets kim and harry confront the youths

So, one quite memorable feature of Disco Elysium is that while some characters (Cuno comes to mind immediately) insist on using homophobic slurs the game does players the favor of covering up such speech with horrific static sounds. It's jarring and the game probably would have been better off without including the word at all.

Except – they didn't. The censored word is actually "Flaubert". It's still a homophobic slur in-universe but it's not the one that players will be aware of. This makes sense really, as the game is full of made-up slurs for various ethnic groups, why would it be any different for homosexuals?

That said, making players believe that they are using the f-slur and drawing such attention to it is quite the... choice.

1 The Insulindian Phasmid Actually Exists

Disco Elysium Insulindian Phasmid encounter with Kim and Harry

Early on in the game, the player will meet Lena, a woman described by the game as the Cryptozoologist's Wife. Inevitably, they will also meet her husband, the Cryptozoologist. They are in Revachol looking for the Insulindian Phasmid, a gigantic cryptid that disguises itself like reeds rather like a stick insect disguises itself amongst sticks.

The Phasmid is a very peculiar being and the encounter that the player can have with it is very significant, and heavily depends on the choices made throughout the rest of the game.

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