GutterPutter

Never mind the copyright strikes from ZA/UM for a minute, the leaked spinoff expands the RPG classic’s intent beyond the creators’ departure.

Over the past few weeks, the Disco Elysium community had just been hit with the biggest leak they wouldn’t have expected. An alleged project titled Locust City, starring the two foster siblings in Cuno and Cunoesse, was shared by fan and small-time content creator Jamrock Hobo via a past presentation that tried to sell its premise. The game itself was supposed to be about the duo’s escape from their home district in Martinaise into a morbid adventure. I won’t divulge any more information due to spoilers. What I could say however is that the initial set of information that could be found there has big implications regarding its lore and its settings.

Knowing that the game developers in ZA/UM are pretty harsh with their copyright strikes, I wouldn’t show any of the actual images, footage, or music in Locust City. What I could at least argue around is the gameplay and the outline of its plot. There are already a handful of websites that have talked about the game’s content and learning about what it could have been is pretty bittersweet. Yet, the heart of Disco Elysium always rests in its literary writing that sparked virtually all forms of discourse regarding any theory or any significance regarding the parts of the game. This post will consist of my notes regarding the pieces there and what it means to the future of the (dying) franchise.

One last note, this will have spoilers surrounding both Disco Elysium and Locust City. If you haven’t played it before and you don’t want to get bombarded with either unknown terms or plot points that are best kept secret, it would be for the best if you were to play the game or watch a playthrough beforehand.

The Limbic System and the Ancient Reptilian Brain are Universal

Before Locust City, a popular theory surrounding the main protagonist Harry DuBois argues that his voice is either one of the Limbic System or the Ancient Reptilian Brain. Both of them are supposed to be his most subconscious personas that only emerge in his slumber with self-loathing commentary being the metaphorical soil of his depression. What would have been a small trivial matter was not only challenged by the shared voiceovers in Locust City, but also it also could hint at a wider context surrounding the supernatural side of the game’s world.

The two voices also appear on Cuno and Cunoesse albeit in a layered manner which implies a greater degree of compatibility – but what does that look like? The motif of Cuno’s eponymous Locust City is supposed to represent his development as the game progresses which aligns with DuBois’s Inland Empire skill – one that he even shares with. Cunoesse’s psyche skills, on the other hand, are all entirely based around deception and mental warfare which is similar in some respect to Shivers’ and Espirits de Corps’ toying with localism and camaraderie. They all appeal to the kind of potential that resides in the two.

Meanwhile, the climax depicts a psychedelic conflict between the foster siblings which symbolises the most subconscious parts of the two’s relationships coming to light. There, the furies are all entirely out, which calls into question both the Cuno and Cunoesse’s co-dependency on each other and their future. As the two represents the future, the dreamlike nature of the climax hints as well the potential route they will head down to depending on the ending – and from there will the role of the Limbic System and the Ancient Reptilian Brain be cemented as it once had done to DuBois.

Split Development, Split Potential

In one of the endings of Disco Elysium, you can bring Cuno with you to the island if your main partner Kim Kitsuragi gets wounded in the previous fight. You could then optionally persuade Jean Vicquermire and others to consider taking Cuno up for an apprenticeship after you return. While the reasoning behind the proposal can come off as pitiful and the circumstances controversial, comments made by your colleagues alongside quips by your skills imply that Cuno has the knack at being a detective.

Locust City deviates from the main game’s mechanics by splitting the skills between Cuno and Cunoesse – three each from the four main stats with some being substituted for others The skills there help to form a distinctive foil between the two. Cuno’s motorics and physical skills are more concerned with him performatively acting tough compared to his more sensitive side from his psyche and intellect skills. Cunoesse’s skills contrast with him by relying on coercion and primacy to make up for her limited endurance and resilience. 

In other words, Cuno puts up a strong exterior to make up for his vulnerable interiority. Cunoesse puts up a strong interior to make up for her weak exterior. Locust City is likely planned with the intent of not only allowing us to play as both, but to encourage us to get them to work together throughout their journey. Each one will have a specialty that would have been more fitting in one situation that would have otherwise fallen flat in another. Combine this with the simultaneous dialogue system for the thought cabinet and we can see fully in detail the value that they each have that would decide their future going forward.

Speculative History, Not Alternative History

One of the main themes in Disco Elysium is its casual and oftentimes bittersweet fondness of the past as it moves on to history. Be it the Deserter who was shaped by his cowardice and trauma as a former child soldier or Harry DuBois’s nostalgic fondness of disco, almost all of the characters are affected by the Ancetennial Revolution. Despite being born almost long after the event, Cuno and Cunoesse are both victims of the aftermath as the impoverished state of Martinaise made them juvenile drug addicts with a hunger for violence.

What is especially interesting about this theme is that one of the outlines for pitching the original game has described its setting as “a fantasy universe built around – the Seventies.” The focus on the historical decade that follows the middle of the Cold War and the rapidly evolving global economy enforces both the verisimilitude of the world and the consequences of long-past revolutions. This recontextualizes Cuno and Cunoesse’s development as being more in line with many of the Baby Boomers and the Gen-Xers whose childhood would eventually radicalise them towards populistic pursuits.

With Cunoesse’s origin in Katla, she is comparable to both the indigenous minorities whose victimhood in colonisation have pushed them for violence and to the diasporic ethnicity whose roots have made intermingling nearly impossible. Cuno’s experiences in the slumber has already been explored in the original game as being a commentary on how poverty breeds social malaise and eventual crime. In Locust City however, the two would embark on a journey that might come off as a morbid response to Stephen King’s The Body. Whatever their relationship might end up looking like would all be shaped indirectly by the very world that they live in, paralleling the likes of many who went through the same problems they did.

Conclusion

Whether it be a sequel or a downloadable content, the leaked contents surrounding Locust City helps us to examine the world of Disco Elysium much more closely. Much like its predecessor, it aims for social commentary that is reinforced by pieces of urban fantasy and a self-referential form of skill system. The project shows that it has a lot more to say about the children who are all growing up in times of crises. While its shelving and likely scrapping is a tragedy, there should be no doubt that Locust City helps to open the door towards understanding Disco Elysium more.

Would we get a game like that again? Will we have a world that’s this intricate again? Who knows? What the leaks have outlined however is a clear direction in which the project helps to direct its predecessor. By carefully tinkering its gameplay with its writing like the conversation between Cuno and Cunoesse, they don’t serve as secondary to each other so much as they do function in conjunction. To put it thus, the game mechanics and the writing are virtually indistinguishable from each other in building the characters. Locust City would have been made with the intent of making us a lot more conscious about our actions and how it affects others on a continually active basis. 

Now, with much of the original developers and creators gone and a mobile version of the original game is in the making, much of the nuances and effect will be lost in the process. It is a big shame in what ends up happening. Compared to the likes of Fallout or The Elder Scrolls, ZA/UM would have the potential for its game to become a flagship in showing how the medium can be made for artistic purposes. Locust City heavily hints at that, but its shelving now all but ensures that we are only left with the what-ifs.