Zero Parades, The Ultimate Spiritual Successor To Disco Elysium, Has Arrived At Gamescom2025

A City of Miracles and Madness Awaits

Given initial impressions, the lineage between the two projects is clearly apparent among players. Notably, the debut trailer of Zero Parades possesses a distinct visual and tonal similarity to Disco Elysium. Additionally, this connection is thoroughly reinforced in the game’s official description on Steam. Furthermore, the listing revealed that the protagonist is a broken individual, haunted by a failed mission from their past, utterly burned out, and potentially even cursed.

Not only that, but the operant becomes ensnared in a sprawling conflict over cultural and ideological dominance. Set within a meticulously crafted new city, players will uncover unique secrets, collective traumas, and strange miracles as they navigate the location. So, what’s special about the narrative premise of Zero Parades?  The familiar and profound psychological depth, as well as intricate world-building, are established to set the game apart from Disco Elysium.

Zero Parades Offers Zero Friends, but Twisted Bankers

Players traveling through this world are required and expected to build alliances. Although the listing explicitly states that friends are necessary to get anywhere, the central problem within Zero Parades is exposed: the player doesn’t have any. To make every character in the game stand out, they’ll each possess their own deeply personal agendas, firmly held beliefs, and hidden secrets. Given these distinctions, players can find numerous ways to exploit them for their own ends. Consequently, players will have to navigate a treacherous social landscape filled with various antagonistic forces, including:

• international bankers
• foreign techno-fascists
• psychic doppelgängers
• a paranoid television presenter
• a man who literally has a box for a heart

Beyond its diverse character and intricate world-building, the game’s design offers Zero Parades something unique as well. Primarily, failure is incorporated into the gameplay as a fundamental mechanic, not merely a possibility. In a shocking twist, an operant’s dice are, quite literally, in the hand of fate. As the game warns that rolls will not go the player’s way, they’re forced to improvise in the face of setbacks constantly and live with the consequential aftermath.

Disco Elysium’s Formula, Applied to Espionage

Following this approach, Zero Parades promises a deeply reactive experience where narrative progression is not halted by failure but is instead shaped by it. Unfortunately, he significant and very public departure of so many key creative figures from the original game, including leads under acrimonious circumstances, has led to development challenges. That said, does the remaining team at Studio ZA/UM possess the necessary creative vision and technical skill to execute such a complex and nuanced narrative system?

According to Opening Night Live host Geoff Keighley himself, the studio behind the reveal has undergone numerous changes and is now composed of a different group of individuals. With that, creating a successor to a game as lauded as Disco Elysium would represent a Herculean task. Whether Zero Parades has what it takes to make a name for itself remains the number one goal the developing team must figure out how to accomplish.