Bust. A. Move.
First, the Ancient Reptillian Brain speaks to you. He describes the total darkness, back again so soon. He then talks about the unformed skulls in your spine. You don’t know what he’s talking about. The music isn’t gone, you are. Your Spinal Cord speaks to you, reassures you about that talk about unformed skulls. You don’t know, rather, you don’t remember what is going on around you, it’s total darkness. One thing is certain though, you have to BUST. A. MOVE.
All of a sudden you see, no, you feel yourself dancing harder than anyone has danced before. You finally feel one with the world you’re in.
—————————————–Spoilers for Disco Elysium Ahead——————————————
This dramatic little opening is pretty much how the dance check in Disco Elyisum starts if you hit a successful roll.
You, as this articles title suggests, bust a move. You bust a move so hard you feel the roof is about to collapse yet you keep dancing, you ask your newfound EDM/Hardcore speedfreak friends to join in, they do. And finally you ask your partner Kim who reluctantly joins in and yet cuts a rug like no other.
This is a moment in the game that I wanted to see for hours, I wasn’t expecting it to have the effect it did on me and I imagine it blew away a tonne of other players as well, the fact that you can fail this moment and not see it to completion is also just a terrifying though, the worst possible outcome is… pretty bad.
Once you begin busting a move you’re gonna want to pass the Red Shivers Check presented in front of you to see one of the best scenes this game has to offer. And I promise you, it’s worth it. If you have not played Disco Elysium yet and have only read this article up till now I’m gonna suggest you go play it and come back, or don’t I’m not your mom.
Shivers is a skill among your 24 skills such as Empathy, Authority, Half-Light or Electrochemistry. Shivers, in my opinion, is the best skill in the game. It’s description reads, “Raise the hairs on your neck. Tune in to the city.” You converse with Shivers, it tells you about things going around the city of Revachol. Sometimes it directly helps you, describing places you’ve been before. It may lead you to an item that will help progress a quest line. Or it just helps you understand the world you’re in better. Regardless of what it’s telling you, every time Shivers does pop up to chat I welcome them with open arms.
[Shivers – Challenging 12] Turn on the hyper-drive!
This is the check presented before you, if you are successful you get to hear some of the best dialogue in the game.
Shivers [Challenging: Success] – “On the coast of the Martinaise Inlet, in a small weather-beaten stave church built 380 years ago by members of the Occident, most likely to guard against an anomaly at it’s center, an officer of the RCM is contorting his body into idiotically rigid shapes, as he invents the future of dance music… It’s the *hardest* anyone has ever danced.
The screen goes dark and you ask what’s going on with you. Suddenly, a surprise, a new, unfamiliar voice speaks.
Shivers – “I AM LA REVACHOLIERE. I AM THE CITY.”
You SPEAK to the city directly, and she sounds beautiful. She knows everything about you. She knows about… her. She knows how you patrol her streets as an officer of the Revachol Citizens Militia. She describes that when you wear your coat, you wear her soul with you.
Shivers – “I NEED YOU. YOU CAN KEEP ME ON THIS EARTH. BE VIGILANT. I LOVE YOU.”
These are the final words you hear her say to you before you wake up from the ground, eyes rolled to the back of your head. You get up and continue the task of solving the case. There is still a murder to solve. You still need to get your shit together and get back to the case now. But how can you, after all that?
This interaction shook me, everything I did to progress in the game I felt like I was doing with more purpose now. I felt one with the city of Revachol and it’s beautifully insane people.
This seemingly innocent, goofy check in a game full of wacky moments swept the rug from beneath my feet, it ended up being my favorite scene in the entire game. It’s something I think about constantly way past me beating it.
If you want a review for the game here it is. It’s a 10/10 Masterpiece. This one scene although huge and amazing is just a small scene from a game full of small scenes that will equally blow you away. If you haven’t played it yet and have read this article all the way through I still encourage you to play it for yourself, discover Revachol, be one with it.