The Diary Game 19/03/2022 - Disco Elysium - The Final Cut (Nintendo Switch): dark in a colorful world.

Disco Elysium was one of the games of 2019 which, unfortunately, we could not pay due attention to at the time of its initial appearance. Meanwhile, the creation of those from the ZA / UM studio has won numerous awards, being relaunched in the edition of The Final Cut even on consoles.

And, with the release of the physical version of Disco Elysium - The Final Cut for Nintendo Switch (scheduled for this week, March 15 - 20, 2022), I decided to make up for it by taking a closer look at this edition of the game.

Over time, I've seen many situations where "cult" titles on the PC failed to enjoy the same success when ported to consoles, the other being also as true as possible. So, the inevitable question arises: does a game like Disco Elysium "fit" on Nintendo's Switch console?

And this dilemma can be viewed from many angles. Technically, unlike other more demanding titles, the adaptation of Disco Elysium on Switch has no problems. Given the combination of genres in which the game belongs (point and click adventure combined with pen and paper RPG, presented from an isometric perspective), the visual fidelity does not matter much, the gameplay being focused on extended conversations and exploration, not rapid reactions.

You could say that the game runs absolutely decently on the Nintendo Switch, and even if there are still small framerate drops, they really don't matter. The loading screens, which appear when you switch from one "scene" to the next, are not exactly annoying either, being much shorter than the exchanges of lines in this game.

However, I've encountered some issues with the lack of intuition of the control scheme: for example, to interact with objects or characters around you, you must first point the right stick at them and then press A when this prompt appears. over your "target". This mode of operation is not exactly intuitive and not at all clarified in the game menu, in which you are shown that the R button is dedicated to interactions. Who knows, there may be additional explanations in the documentation that accompanies the physical edition of the game, but for this test, I did not have it available.

Alternatively, you can interact, navigate the environment, or navigate menus and dialogs using the console's touch screen. Personally, I'm not a fan of this method: I don't like to cover my "playing field" with my fingers, and it's so small on a console like Nintendo Switch Lite.

If you get over these small inconveniences, this Final Cut for Switch offers the full Disco Elysium experience: absolutely all the dialogues are spoken, including the ones with the different parts of the main character's "subconscious". The (very) extended replica of the game thus makes it easier to follow. You can also adjust the text size for better visibility in portable mode or on the Switch Lite model.

The only real problem with this edition of the game is the relative mismatch between the topics covered and the image and audience that Nintendo Switch has gathered over the years. A console that has gained popularity especially thanks to the "colorful" games, with cheerful characters like Mario, preferred primarily by children, may not be exactly the perfect "home" for Disco Elysium, a game "dark" Which does not lack mature themes such as sex, crimes, alcohol abuse or mental instability.