Disco Elysium’s Gameboy Demake Highlights The Game’s Compelling Mystery

thegamer.com:

Demakes are seeing a resurgence in games; an Elden Ring demake was just announced a couple of days ago, and Bloodborne was also given the fan demake treatment in the form of Bloodborne PSX. Then there’s Disco Elysium, which had been faithfully transported back to the days of the Game Boy, complete with all the technological constraints of the console: the pale green hues, the 8-bit soundtrack, and the compact screen resolution. The detective, too, has been shrunk down to the size of a Game Boy-era Pokemon trainer, as he wakes up in a small hostel room, which is littered with the somewhat sparse debris of his previous drunken night.

There’s a particular charm in Game Boy titles, given that they’re so closely tied to our childhood nostalgia. But it’s also through this Game Boy aesthetic that Disco Elysium, a game known for its elaborate, novel-length dialogue and musings, had been artfully condensed for a more diminutive experience. Aside from being a sheer nostalgia trip for fans, this is also a fascinating experiment in restraint and austerity. Think of this Disco Elysium demake as Disco Elysium-lite, an RPG with the parts of its meat and muscle stripped from its skeleton; what will become of Disco Elysium without the extensive conversations, the thoughtful skill structure that hints at Harry’s fucked up limbic system and sprawling mind palace, and its distinct oil-painting art style? Will it still be as compelling as the original?

Related: Disco Elysium Is A Painful Elegy As Told By The Grieving

The answer, unsurprisingly, is that it loses some of that original Disco Elysium charm. And of course it does; for the sake of fitting the core of the tale into the Game Boy experience, some of the game’s most compelling details