Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM’s Zero Parades: Director’s Cut is one of the most engrossing games you’ll ever play on Nintendo Switch 2. A gorgeously scratchy spy thriller with dialogue that rivals literary giants, the often-melancholic and always-hilarious adventure game is a perfect fit for Nintendo’s handheld.
Just like Disco Elysium: The Final Cut on Nintendo’s predecessor, Zero Parades: Director’s Cut is an unfortunately ropey version of a fantastic game. While visuals are similar, the new game is infinitely sharper than Disco on the newer handheld with phenomenal clarity of its hoarder-like world, allowing you to revel in every detail of the grimy island state of Portofiro.
In handheld mode, which is where I played the bulk of the game, Zero Parades sings, just so long as you aren’t sprinting across its map. Load times are snappy, visuals are great, and the extensive voice acting doesn’t suffer from obvious compression like Disco could on Nintendo’s prior handheld. You’re getting the full-fat experience here, and the addition of touchscreen controls offers a nice bonus that you can only get on Switch 2 or a PC handheld.
That experience just so happens to be one of the most engaging stories you’ll find on Switch 2. In the shoes of a fallen spy, you explore the state of Portofiro not only trying to solve your case, but also attempting to discover what it was in the first place. From the off, it’s a tale woven with comedy and tragedy, and there’s a sense of danger around every corner of this classically quirky locale.
As you interact with the game’s cast of colourful friends, foes, and everything in between, your choices are governed by stats and dice rolls—tabletop style. Charisma will take you far, but it won’t help you fix that fax machine, and failing to fix that fax machine will hand you a heavy dollop of anxiety. Just like Disco before it, Zero Parades turns every interaction into something at least slightly stressful, and that arguably fits the spy thriller angle a little more than its predecessor.
What you end up getting is one of the most reactive and thoughtful games of the generation. In this expanded form, everything feels just a little tighter than before, and ZA/UM have succeeding in polishing the game’s core. If you liked Disco Elysium, you’ll like this, even though many who worked on that original game did not work on this successor.
As a Director’s Cut version of the game, this version of the game is stuffed with new content. The game’s voice acting has been revised and expanded with more voiced lines across the entire experiences and less mistakes. There are still instances where the game’s text doesn’t perfectly match the voiced lines, but it’s much better and more full than the game’s released version.
Additionally, there’s a new story with the Quisach Roundabout, expanding on the world of Portfiro in ways we won’t spoil here. Controller binding is now completely custom, there’s a larger collection of stat-enhancing clothing, more NPCs have gorgeous portraits, and there’s been a gorgeous reframing of the game’s art through new lighting and effects that add to the atmosphere of the truly unique setting.
What’s most impressive, though, is the addition of Backstage Mode, an interactive “making of” with commentary that shows how the game is constructed. It’s a delightful, albeit spoilery, addition that breaks down Zero Parades in an informative and thrilling way. We don’t see many additions like this in games, and it’s fantastic to see here.
Zero Parades: Director’s Cut is a thoroughly impressive and enthralling spy thriller that can sometimes be made a tad annoying by its main narrator’s over-exaggerated drawl. It’s also a game that comes with a significant amount of baggage with many still working to compare every element of the game to its predecessor. While the two trade blows, sometimes its simply best to take a step back, and take Zero Parades as what it is rather than what it isn’t.
The main issue with the game’s latest re-launch, however, is the state of its console ports. For the most part, Zero Parades: Director’s Cut is a fantastic game that looks nice and plays well, but it does unfortunately suffer from some technical missteps, especially on Nintendo Switch 2.
On both PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, Zero Parades: Director’s Cut suffers from some of the worst traversal stutters I’ve seen on the platform. Running around the world triggers massive lurches, sometimes even so bad that the game has not had enough time to load in the boundaries of the screen as you move through it. This issue also presents on PlayStation 5, which we also tested, as well as on PC handhelds, although it is at its worst on Switch 2 at the time of writing.
During testing, there were also some unfortunate graphical artifacts and some progression issues which have since been fixed on all other platforms. However, at the time of publication, that patch is still going through certification on Nintendo Switch 2. The traversal issues are not fixed by this patch, which is live on PlayStation 5.
Despite its technical issues, which are very prominent, Zero Parades: Director’s Cut is one of those games that you should definitely try. It’s a pretty janky port, yes, but the core game is thrilling, and with a vast amount of re-playability, you could find yourself coming back to the game on train rides for the rest of the generation.
