8/10
This is a good game.
It won't work for everyone—especially those unable or unwilling to move past their preconceptions—but it's undeniably a good game.
Of course, any discussion has to begin with Disco Elysium. A masterpiece. A once-in-a-generation game. As if inheriting that legacy wasn't enough, this game also has to carry the weight of all the ZA/UM drama attached to it.
For me, the biggest thing working in its favor was a simple assumption: Disco Elysium isn't just difficult to replicate—it's difficult to even find your own voice in its shadow. That naturally lowered my expectations.
Then Esoteric Ebb came along and proved that finding a unique voice was possible after all.
I still don't think Zero Parades completely escapes Disco's shadow. There are moments where the similarities are obvious, and honestly, that's only natural. But that never stopped it from finding ways to resonate with me or developing an identity of its own.
A huge part of that comes down to Portofiro. Not immediately, unfortunately, but as the game progresses, the city slowly settles into the center of the experience until it becomes a character in its own right. And credit has to go to Cascade as well. Maybe not a perfect protagonist, but through circumstance, perspective, and the way the game positions them within the world, they become genuinely memorable.
In short, I went into this carrying almost every prejudice that could have made me bounce off it. Did it shatter all of them and become a new all-time favorite? No.
But it did manage to become something special.