Topic: 🍁 PUSH SQUARE GAME CLUB 🍁 | November | The Plucky Squire ⚔️

I’ve raced through to day 4 now and am well on top of things. I’ve got lucky passing some low skill checks so I’m not sure there are too many things I’ve missed so far (with some alt paths on ones I have messed up). I’ve got so many skill points I haven’t assigned yet either as I’m saving them for any difficult checks that might come up.

I’m still enjoying this as a second run though and have managed to continue as an ultra liberal “traditionalist” but also played the “I am the law!” card enough times to unlock that thought.

I won’t say too much more to avoid spoilers but might post in the game thread instead so people can check in there for some more spoiler heavy posts.

Rolled the credits tonight after 50ish hours. I’m not sure i can put my experience into words just yet but it’s easily one of the most important and invigorating gaming experiences I’ve had in the last decade or so, and I’ve played some corkers.

I’m already building another playthrough in my head.

Shockingly good and an incredible piece of artistry!

Hardcore to the Mega!

I’m into Day 4 now. Dealing with all the new area’s shenanigans. It seems like the game just keeps going. I would have thought I’d be closer to a resolution at this point but I’m still running around trying to play both sides in this conflict and feel no closer to solving the crime than I was on the first day. Every lead I follow just points me to another lead.

I need to sit and construct some more organized thoughts on the game at this point. In short, I’ve continued to like it and I think it’s convinced me to try out more CRPGs, but it is dragging a teeny bit now. I have to admit that when I’m caught in a long-winded lecture about cryptids, race theory, or metaphysics, I just tune out and start clicking through the dialogue as fast as I can just to get on with it. There’s some legitimate fun moments and hilarious lines, but it’s too often buried in meaningless babbling. To be fair, every piece of well-written fiction has a lot of detail about its world, but this is just too much. I’m probably at 25 hrs and I’m ready for it to start wrapping up.

Thankfully there’s a fast travel system that I figured out now, although it’s extremely bare-bones and absolutely not explained at all. I had to search a guide to understand how to implement the fast travel system. For those who haven’t figured it out yet, you have to buy the map of Martinese at the bookstore for 0.90 Real and then read it and it will eventually load into your menu and you hit R1 on your task list in the menus and you can see the map. It’s a decent map and shows you where you still have skill checks pending around the map if you want to revisit those which you failed the first time around. The fast travel, however, is only between three places - the main area by Whirling-in-rags, the fisherman village, and the church. And it appears you have to be standing at the fast travel spot to be able to select one of the other two spots to travel to. At the Whirling-in-rags spot, I found luck by standing just a few steps south of Kim’s automobile. And even then, it was tricky and I had to move the analog stick to the right to select the spots on the map. It was finicky. But once I got the hang of it, it does save some of the boredom of trekking back and forth across the map.

Next up, dealing with the church and going back for repeat interviews with Klausse and Titus. I really need to figure out who the 8th Hardie gang member, the lady driver, is. I’ve tracked down the woman’s truck and broke into it and searched it, but I haven’t met her yet.

@Th3solution The game opens up a bit once you can cross the bridge but you can spend a lot of time to-ing and fro-ing trying to figure bits out. The church side quest is a really cool part of the game though!

It's hard to say what else you could do at this point as there are so many small things that help unravel the case.

Which political ideal did you end up going with at the end of day 3 though?

I've finished off Day 2. Had to do some unpleasantness to get inside the docks area, but after that things went a lot smoother. I found some important clues for the investigation, and got lucky with some dice rolls at crucial moments. Things didn't all go great though. I got a couple of game overs, so had to reload things.

Now that there's more threads to dig into, and things are opening up more, things are getting interesting.

@Thrillho I played a little further and things really have opened up now and I see a light at the end of the tunnel. In Ch 4 I was able to get an accusation from Klaasje that Ruby is the killer. I retrieved the bullet from the corpse. Not sure I believe Klaasje yet, but at least I have something besides the fake confessional of Titus and his Hardie boys. I’m hoping to get something solid now with Ruby, and at least offer her up as a suspect to avert the imminent civil war between the Union and the company mercenaries. I have a clue that Ruby might be hiding along the coast… maybe in the village or the church? I still haven’t touched the church yet other than to talk to the musicians outside in the tent about the spooky things going on there. I also am stumped about the murder weapon, only assuming it’s an old military rifle that was uncovered like the one I found in the basement. I’m hoping when/if I find Ruby, I’ll have a clue about its whereabouts.

I have 3/4 of the armor set and a full thought cabinet, having unlocked every slot possible and filled them all. I’m considering deleting one or two thoughts from the cabinet so I can unlock more but we’ll see.

As far as political ideals, I’ve been wavering to and fro experimenting with various responses but most of the game I’ve been a moralist and tried to keep balance. But for the end of day 3 I committed to the ultraliberal “indirect modes of taxation” path. I just was able to become an art patron for Cindy the SKULL and finally get into the cargo container over by Evert and met with the mega-rich billionaire guy who traded her art for some stock in a mercury mining company. Now I just need to hire a personal brand strategist.

This game is so crazy. 😅

Unfortunately I might not get a chance to play Disco Elysium this month, I do wish to play it but EA Play have roped me in with their offer so I have to rattle through Dead Space instead.
Hope everyone is enjoying it.

Another random observation —
I am fairly certain that the odds percentage that you’re showed before doing a dice roll is not accurate. Maybe I was naive to think the game is being truthful to me about my chances of passing the checkpoint, but it seems evident (through save scumming 😅) that there’s certain check points that the game will only let you through if you’ve devoted a set amount of skill points into the path it wants you on.

This became abundantly clear for me at (spoiler for Day 3-4ish timeframe dealing with convincing Titus of something at the Whirling-in-Rags) — I reached the point in the Klaasje thread where she has accused Ruby of shooting Lely and I had to convince Titus that it was a plausible scenario before I could advance the thread to have him disclose Ruby’s whereabouts. I heavily suspected that the locked door in the kitchen led to the door on the upstairs patio outside Klaasje’s room where the shot was allegedly fired. I knew I had to use knowledge of that door and passageway to convince Titus, and I was fairly certain the item in the tree outside the window was the key to that door and what I needed to advance. With my setup I had a 42% chance on the roll and failed, so I reloaded and changed my clothes to boost the stat (I think it was Perception, but not sure) up to 58%. I reloaded and tried at that percentage about 4-5 times and kept failing it. So I used some of my stockpiled skill points and got the percentage up to 72% and reloaded and still kept failing the checkpoint even after another 3-4 times. Statistically speaking, it’s very much illogical that I would be failing a roll like 10 times in a row when my statistical probability was way over 50%. So I finally spent another skillpoint into Perception and boosted the probability to like 83% and it finally passed and I got the bronze key. Thankfully I had been holding onto skill points for just this kind of contingency

But anyways, it’s pretty clear that there’s some behind-the-scenes throttling of your probability of passing a check and the numbers they show aren’t exactly accurate. I didn’t have the patience to continue to make the roll and calculate the actual pass percentage, but I wonder if the game would have ever let me pass, despite being at 58%.

The RNG here seems to be taking a page out of the book of a slot machine, where you are led to believe it’s winnable, when in fact it is not. Or at least it’s a much smaller pass rate than you are led to believe.

Has anyone actually passed a roll where the chances are less than 10%? I’d be curious if it ever happens on those 3% rolls. I’ve not had one pass, but then again, I often have just skipped those and plan to come back after leveling up the stat.

Edit: And I realize the number they show you is never said to be an actual pass rate percentage but the higher the number, the more likely to pass, and I’ve had no problems passing many 58% rolls, but this one just kept failing me.

And I just realize my post above is so conspiratorial that I now am convinced that the game has gotten inside my head. 😂 I’m questioning everything.

Also, I’m hearing internal voices argue with each other back and forth. I hope this is normal.

DRAMA (easy success) - they are paranoid enough to ask an Internet forum whether they are normal. Tell them what they want to hear my Liege, make them believe it.

@Th3solution yeah perfectly normal mate, nowt to worry about, totally happens all the time!

LOGIC
[High: Success] It would certainly seem puzzling to keep missing those odds but statistically it can still happen.

VOLITION
[High: Failure] But it hurts so much when I don’t get them!

DRAMA
[Low: Success] The pain! Oh, the pain!

@Th3solution And yeah, I’ve had some sub 10% chances pass on this run. It’s clever that sometimes you get lucky but other times a pass still might not actually achieve anything good anyway.

As for where you are with the case did you pass the visual calculus check on the window to Klassje’s room? Don’t fret about the weapon too much otherwise but you’re right that finding her is the next big step but the game will encourage you to do more side stuff first once you find where you probably need to go…

I’ve kind of ignored the thought cabinet a bit on this run. It’s one of the few times I look at a guide to see if the solution (no pun intended) will give me a benefit I want. Finger pistols was still essential though.

And I have gone with the ultra liberal choice too on this run (although I did save beforehand to do the “traditionalist” one for the trophy which is quite clever and funny as you’d expect from the game). I guess you know how to find your brand strategist?

@crimsontadpoles Day 3 is fun as the map opens up. On my first play I “died” a couple of times but that’s because I didn’t know how to heal myself. Left on the d-pad heals health and right for morality if that’s what has caused you problems so far.

Hi all sorry I haven't participated last few months, been taking a few months off social media

@Thrillho I did lose from running out of morale, but that was mostly just my curiosity getting the better of me. In the heat of the moment, I was eager to see what would happen if I ignored the warning to heal immediately.

I also got a proper loss. That was from confronting someone about something, and choosing bad option choices that got them even more annoyed.

@R1spam @Thrillho

INLAND EMPIRE
[Medium: Success] The game is playing you, Sol. Don’t you know? You are a puppet on the stage of life. Flailing, crumbling, splintering in a sea of mathematical nothingness. Embrace the psychedelic non-existence of the pale.

@Thrillho As far as the question on the case — No, I failed the visual calculus check on the window. So I can only assume what I’ve been told by both Titus and Klaasje is the truth - that his brother (I think it was) replaced the window promptly after it was broken by the gunfire.

And yeah, regarding the ultra liberal pathway, I caught on that I need to go to that drunk guy, Idiot Doom Spiral. One of my voices in my head told me to check with him. So I just need to do that whenever I next play.

@Th3solution It can offer more information towards the case but missing one check or piece or evidence here and there doesn’t seem to make a huge difference overall, as evidenced by the fact I seem to have got a handle on things despite the body remaining untouched 😁

And yeah, that’s the next step for that side project too. I just finished that part off last night and it was quite funny.

As for me, I hit the big late game moment outside the Whirling last night (you’ll know what I mean when you get there)

Onto the home straight for me now.

And the credits rolled for me last night.

Quite happy how things turned out as the case wrapped up nicely. I think I actually preferred the last section of the game in this run though as Kim got shot so I had Cuno come with me to the island and back me up at the end which was way more fun. I recruited him to the force too.

Gutted though as the hardcore trophy didn’t pop. It seems it’s because I started the mode after starting the game rather than from the main menu.

Seems I’ll just have to do it again on my eventual third playthrough then..

I look forward to more of you finishing the game to talk about it

This game is very different from what I am used to but I have so far enjoyed it. I played for only about 1 to 2 hours and did not think I would enjoy it as much as I have. I'm intrigued and seeing how far I'll be able to get into it without making a decision that is at 0% success and I suffer for it.