Six years after Disco Elysium came out, we have a look at a new CRPG coming from ZA/UM: Zero Parades.
During Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025, we got a look at a trailer that blended cinematic and gameplay. Host Geoff Keighley describes Zero Parades as "a dive into the shadowy world of espionage, where the truth can be stranger than fiction, and every failure isn't the end, but the start of a new path."
The trailer gives it the look of a neon-soaked noir, and a narrator tells the tale of a brilliant, relentless, magnetic spy called Herschel. We see her leaning against a telephone as strange scenes play out, like someone slumped in a chair as objects whirl around them.
The trailer states, "your friends are you. Each a separate limb of the whole." Whatever that means, it's kind of weird and I like it. I have no idea what's going on, but I didn't with Disco Elysium either and I still loved that.
Zero Parades is being developed by ZA/UM, but it's important to note several key members of the original development team are no longer at that studio following layoffs and people leaving. It's been hard to keep track of who is where and making what in recent years, but the mobile version of Disco Elysium actually had people seriously impressed, and Zero Parades certainly has the same look as the original.
For more, check out the Gamescom 2025 schedule so you can keep up to date on all the new announcements, games, and trailers.
