GOOD COP LT KIM KITSURAGI,

Disco Elysium’s finest

Lieutenant Kim initially comes off cold and judgemental. It’s hard to blame him. The detective RPG Disco Elysium begins with what probably feels to him like some cosmic joke. He arrives in Martinaise to solve a murder case, and is met with a decomposing victim, no suspects, and a hungover, amnesiac detective as his temporary partner. Kim remains aloof throughout the investigation, but an empathetic enough detective can manage to uncover brief moments of vulnerability from Lt Kitsuragi. Those hard-earned interactions have been enough to make him the game’s breakout star. Which was not at all what the team at eveloper ZA/UM expected.

“Honestly, we’re surprised people like him so much,” says lead writer Robert Kurvitz. “Of course, we always adored him. All these years playing the game, testing it, writing it. We got to spend a lot of time with Kim. And we always felt he’s a real person and our friend.”

All of Disco Elysium’s characters feel like real people. Each one has a history and memories that, unlike NPCs of other RPGs, aren’t keen to spill their guts at the protagonist’s feet upon first meeting. As the detective’s partner, Kim has multiple threads to his backstory waiting to be unraveled. “We wanted Kim to open up through the scenes and situations you get into,” Kurvitz explains. “Not by clicking on him and cleaning out his tree.”