While the Disco Elysium behind-the-scenes fiasco is more complex than ever, the original studio behind the game revealed their new game, Zero Parades, at Gamescom earlier this year.
Now, at Sony’s September State of Play, snippets of gameplay have been unveiled, and further comparisons to Disco Elysium have been made after a striking resemblance between the two titles.
In fact, for people who aren’t in the know about the wider legal battle ensuing between developers, you may be fooled into thinking this is a sequel from the trailer.
It will be interesting to see how ZA/UM fare without many of their leading devs, following a mass exodus amid accusations of fraud and toxic working conditions.
Zero Parades Gameplay
The lead character of Zero Parades, now subtitled For Dead Spies, will be called Hershel Wilk (with the alias “CASCADE”), a washed-up spy who is called back in to gather a crew for an unspecified task.
This, alongside the drama that comes from being haunted by your past will presumably allow for some role-playing flexibility, as you pressure the locals of the setting into divulging their secrets. It’s unclear how (if at all) these skills differ in functionality from those in Disco Elysium, but moments in the trailer could suggest a more action-oriented focus, which might fit the espionage genre.
Disco Elysium Similarities
It’s likely that Zero Parades will look to follow in the footsteps of Disco Elysium, despite the developers looking to distance themselves from the title with a new franchise.
Combat doesn’t look to be a central focus like it does with other isometric RPGs, the dialogue is presented in the same way with skills seeming to function similarly to how they do in Disco Elysium, and the dice rolls for successes and failures look nearly identical.
ZA/UM Controversy
With nearly all of the former developers of Disco Elysium leaving to establish their own splinter studios, Zero Parades looks to be one of the first games to emerge (that is, if Dark Math Games’ Tangerine Antarctic doesn’t get there first).
This is an important to development as it sets the template for what’s to come from the original studio being behind. Disco Elysium. Fans of that title may naturally see Zero Parades as the “true successor” with other efforts being genre clones, in the same way that people categorise non-FromSoftware Souls-like games.
In any case, the result will be seen when the game launches in 2026.
