Some things about the demo stood out to me, and I'm pretty surprised more people aren't talking about them. Perhaps the backlash against ZA/UM is so strong, most people don't want to be seen talking about the game.
To preface this post: the game is good. It's good as hell. Even with complicated feelings about ZA/UM's ownership, I can recognize good for what it is. The game is supremely well written. The art style is just as good as Disco. The characters are pretty much all compelling and intriguing. The animation is well done. I wouldn't be surprised if this game completely revitalizes ZA/UM's reputation. Whether or not it should is a different story...
On a related note, I wanted to talk about the game in the context of Disco. I don't actually know this for sure, but it's obvious the game was, at least some time in its development, supposed to be set in the Disco universe. La Luz is incredibly similar to the Coalition. I understand that there is a need (legally) to separate Zero Parades from Disco Elysium, but the roots are plain as daylight. Zero Parades' soul is Disco Elysium, whether it's able to fully come out of the closet or not.
Cascade's characterization is interesting to me. It seems obvious that ZA/UM knows they struck gold with the thought cabinet and all of Harry's competing voices in his head, but I was a bit hesitant as to how they were going to pull them off with a completely different protagonist. Harry is borderline schizophrenic; Cascade is not. She is much more grounded than Harry, but her status as a rogue spy really gives her the ability to be unhinged as well, sometimes moreso than Harry was. Harry is constrained by his profession and Kim. Cascade's profession is unhinged to begin with. As a result, she can act more unhinged, but still feel like a more grounded character. I don't know if I just played her a certain way, but it seems to me like she'll have less obvious social fopauxs than Mr. "I-want-to-have-fuck-with-you."
That being said, there were moments when I felt like the writers were writing her too similarly to Harry. I know a lot of people like the monkey part, but I felt it was grasping a bit too much towards inland empire, which should be reserved for Harry. Cascade can be poetic, but she's more James Bond than hobo cop. I think Cascade's characterization will be a bit more strict; she retains her memories and is less of a blank canvas than Harry.
I thought that the set up for Cascade's memory gaps was well done, and distinct enough from Harry's alcohol-induced delirium, although it's clear that they were going for a similar set up. Having her frozen for a period of time, and her handlers not wanting to proceed with the mission after pseudopod is zeroed provides the game with a palpable mystery that feels natural rather than an excuse to get the player on the same page as the protagonist. I really enjoyed trying to figure out why I was sent to Portofiro in the first place, slowly piecing the puzzle together, and it ultimately culminating with a visit to Tempo's crime scene of an apartment.
I also think it was a good idea to make Cascade a staunch communist. Sure, there were other political larps you could pull off in the Final Cut, but the game was very clearly thought up with a socialist perspective. Although I think the ability to have other ideologies was an asset to that particular game, I like the idea of Cascade being a more static character with ideology baked into her origin. That doesn't mean she'll stay that way (there'll probably be an option to betray the People's Republic, their hands aren't exactly clean), but I think that making Cascade a communist is forthcoming and a good read of the kind of people that will be playing Zero Parades in the first place.
I really jibe with the game's overarching theme of intelligence and informational warfare. Cascade is a spy--a profession where intelligence is everything, but this role is further juxtaposed with other sorts of informational warfare. A great example is the La Luz "propoganda" we see. La Luz has a lot more money and resources to make flashy entertainment, so much so that the people of Portofiro are losing their own culture in exchange for that of the other. I think it's very emblematic of America's cultural autocracy as well, as the people of the world lose their cultural heritage in favor of that which is the most flashy and "algorithmically optimized," as the music vendor says. Its not that La Luz entertainment is strictly propoganda--it just has more resources than Portofiroan culture can ever hope to scrape together, and people are naturally appealed to it as a result.
Speaking of real-world symbolism, I think that the Bag Man subplot is a really well-thought out representation of the conspiratorial media that has bled across so much of society. It is tempting to latch on to conspiracy when something just doesn't feel right, but a lot of the people that peddle these wares are just as corrupt as the government they claim to be fighting against. I rolled my eyes at bag man at first, seeing him as just another Alex Jone's parody, but after seeing the affect he had on the old man who went missing, I think it's clear that this representation will deliver the nuance I've been looking for when conspiracy is parodied in popular media.
What I'm really wondering is whether ZA/UM will have the balls to call out businessmen and those with "capital" in this game, especially with the ZA/UM "restructuring." To my knowledge, there's been no rich people in the game so far, and I'm really wondering how they'd pull it off, given all the baggage ZA/UM is currently carrying.
I went into the demo thinking Zero Parades would be a Disco Elysium rip-off. While I do think that a lot of that influence is still there, I think that Zero Parades borrows just enough from Disco Elysium to capture the same vibe, but runs far enough in a seperate direction that it really stands alone as competent art. I eagerly anticipate the May release, and will probably buy it on May 21st. I understand that supporting ZA/UM is questionable, but it's obvious that a lot of very talented people are working on this game, and I don't think they deserve to get fired as well for the shady business practices of the higher ups.
Do you guys have anything about the demo that interested you? I know I can't get it out of my head, and I really want to play the demo again, but I don't want to burn myself out before release.