Quote: There is a radio in the distance. A radio of the world. Playing sound: Good morning, Elysium. Soon you will return to the world
Blurb (from TVTropes): One miserable morning, you awaken from pain and darkness in a trashed motel room with the hangover to end all hangovers. You have no idea where, or even who, you are, but some details begin filling in as you explore: you are a police detective visiting Martinaise, harbor district of the city of Revachol, jewel of the Insulindian Isola, in the year '51 of the current century. Perhaps most importantly, you were sent here three days ago to deal with a lynched corpse, but instead went on a deranged bender of drug and alcohol abuse.
Now, you must resume the investigation with the aid of Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi, a fellow detective from a rival precinct. But of course, it won't be as simple as it seems — the victim, a security contractor for a major international shipping company, stands at the center of a labor dispute involving the local dockworker's union, corrupt businessmen, communist agitators, and foreign interests, with blood on the streets looking more likely by the day. Everyone involved is eager to use you for their own ends — and of course, you're no titan of mental stability, what with the two dozen voices in your head vying for your attention...
Why is it worth your time: The aforementioned voices in your heads are your skills. As you get your skills higher, they become more talkative and interact more with you and each other. Overall the game places a lot of emphasis on crafting an identity and making your own choices. While the player character has a past and a personality that goes along with said personality, the main character's amnesia means that you can choose to follow that past or create your own identity. How you choose to shape your personality also affects your ability to connect with and learn about other characters and engage with sideplots, with certain dialogue checks being easier if you level up certain skills - though there is always a small chance (3%, to be precise) chance of success or failure.
Plural/1+ tags: abuse low-focus, people: the dead, people: copies (you can talk to the victim's corpse if you pass a check), people: nonhumans (you can also talk to your necktie in certain circumstances), voices, visions, otherworld (in the form of dreams), type: spiritual, type: medical(?), type: setting-specific (to elaborate: it's theorized in-game that the skills/voices are a result of some combination of an in-universe phenomenon known as The Pale and the player character's pre-existing mental problems, but it's ultimately left unclear as to exactly why this is happening), teamwork
Content Warning: It's a murder mystery where the player character is a cop who struggles with addiction to/withdrawal from alcohol and other substances. Other warnings are spoilers, see below
Note: due to the nature of the game, compiling a full and accurate content warnings list is rather difficult - I had to ask on Discord for help, and even then I still probably missed some things. Some of these things are unavoidable, while others can be avoided with varying amounts of difficulty
Suicide Substance abuse and addiction, including the ability to use alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs for stat boost in exchange for health damage Vomit Graphic description/depiction of a corpse Ableism Fantasy racism that maps very clearly on RL equivalents, including usage of in-universe racist slurs and dogwhistles Cannibalism (very optional, you kind of have to spec for it to even see the option) False rape accusations (the first one is a pair of hooligan kids shouting that they're being assaulted by the cops while said cops examine a body, which no one hears [or if they do, they don't care], second one is a lie by a third party and the supposed victim says it was all consensual, albeit done under the influence of drugs and alchohol) A conversation about an actual rape which is optional and signposted as "don't ask about this" Internalised homophobia Regular homophobia, incuding the censored usage of real-world slurs Kink used to self harm Child abuse (mostly implications but while I did not pass the relevant check on my play-through I’ve heard it can become more explicit) If you make the right choices there are heavy implications that a child was forced to kill another child One character's backstory involves being abandoned as a baby Police corruption and police brutality Corruption in general Capitalism and its failings/the bad things that come from it The country the game is set in used to participate in colonialism and is now under the control of the in-universe equivalent of the UN or NATO Cosmic horror and imminent apocalypse Major character injury (avoidable but rather luck-based) Minor character death (some avoidable, some not) The player character can die in many ways, some rather unexpected
In addition, the game portrays fat people poorly, and "autistic" gets used as a prerogative in one conversation
Accessibility notes: All dialogue/lines appear on-screen, and all dialogue and most narration is read out loud, though menus and such aren't. There exist let's plays/streams but I haven't seen any of them and the nature of the game, involving lost of little variations and branching choices, means that a completionist playthrough is basically impossible. Translated into Japanese, Spanish, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Polish, Turkish, and Arabic, though audio is only available in English. Available on Steam, Gog, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox X|S, and Switch
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Date: 2025-03-07 05:44 am (UTC)Quote: There is a radio in the distance. A radio of the world. Playing sound: Good morning, Elysium. Soon you will return to the world
Blurb (from TVTropes): One miserable morning, you awaken from pain and darkness in a trashed motel room with the hangover to end all hangovers. You have no idea where, or even who, you are, but some details begin filling in as you explore: you are a police detective visiting Martinaise, harbor district of the city of Revachol, jewel of the Insulindian Isola, in the year '51 of the current century. Perhaps most importantly, you were sent here three days ago to deal with a lynched corpse, but instead went on a deranged bender of drug and alcohol abuse.
Now, you must resume the investigation with the aid of Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi, a fellow detective from a rival precinct. But of course, it won't be as simple as it seems — the victim, a security contractor for a major international shipping company, stands at the center of a labor dispute involving the local dockworker's union, corrupt businessmen, communist agitators, and foreign interests, with blood on the streets looking more likely by the day. Everyone involved is eager to use you for their own ends — and of course, you're no titan of mental stability, what with the two dozen voices in your head vying for your attention...
Why is it worth your time: The aforementioned voices in your heads are your skills. As you get your skills higher, they become more talkative and interact more with you and each other. Overall the game places a lot of emphasis on crafting an identity and making your own choices. While the player character has a past and a personality that goes along with said personality, the main character's amnesia means that you can choose to follow that past or create your own identity. How you choose to shape your personality also affects your ability to connect with and learn about other characters and engage with sideplots, with certain dialogue checks being easier if you level up certain skills - though there is always a small chance (3%, to be precise) chance of success or failure.
Plural/1+ tags: abuse low-focus, people: the dead, people: copies (you can talk to the victim's corpse if you pass a check), people: nonhumans (you can also talk to your necktie in certain circumstances), voices, visions, otherworld (in the form of dreams), type: spiritual, type: medical(?), type: setting-specific (to elaborate: it's theorized in-game that the skills/voices are a result of some combination of an in-universe phenomenon known as The Pale and the player character's pre-existing mental problems, but it's ultimately left unclear as to exactly why this is happening), teamwork
Content Warning: It's a murder mystery where the player character is a cop who struggles with addiction to/withdrawal from alcohol and other substances. Other warnings are spoilers, see below
Note: due to the nature of the game, compiling a full and accurate content warnings list is rather difficult - I had to ask on Discord for help, and even then I still probably missed some things. Some of these things are unavoidable, while others can be avoided with varying amounts of difficulty
Suicide
Substance abuse and addiction, including the ability to use alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs for stat boost in exchange for health damage
Vomit
Graphic description/depiction of a corpse
Ableism
Fantasy racism that maps very clearly on RL equivalents, including usage of in-universe racist slurs and dogwhistles
Cannibalism (very optional, you kind of have to spec for it to even see the option)
False rape accusations (the first one is a pair of hooligan kids shouting that they're being assaulted by the cops while said cops examine a body, which no one hears [or if they do, they don't care], second one is a lie by a third party and the supposed victim says it was all consensual, albeit done under the influence of drugs and alchohol)
A conversation about an actual rape which is optional and signposted as "don't ask about this"
Internalised homophobia
Regular homophobia, incuding the censored usage of real-world slurs
Kink used to self harm
Child abuse (mostly implications but while I did not pass the relevant check on my play-through I’ve heard it can become more explicit)
If you make the right choices there are heavy implications that a child was forced to kill another child
One character's backstory involves being abandoned as a baby
Police corruption and police brutality
Corruption in general
Capitalism and its failings/the bad things that come from it
The country the game is set in used to participate in colonialism and is now under the control of the in-universe equivalent of the UN or NATO
Cosmic horror and imminent apocalypse
Major character injury (avoidable but rather luck-based)
Minor character death (some avoidable, some not)
The player character can die in many ways, some rather unexpected
In addition, the game portrays fat people poorly, and "autistic" gets used as a prerogative in one conversation
Accessibility notes: All dialogue/lines appear on-screen, and all dialogue and most narration is read out loud, though menus and such aren't. There exist let's plays/streams but I haven't seen any of them and the nature of the game, involving lost of little variations and branching choices, means that a completionist playthrough is basically impossible. Translated into Japanese, Spanish, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Polish, Turkish, and Arabic, though audio is only available in English. Available on Steam, Gog, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox X|S, and Switch
Length: Medium - about 25-35 hours of gameplay
Audience: adults