PST. The one and only. DE never even came close.

Story wise, yes. DE main quest is a classic detective story. Music and art of DE though is probably one of the best in RPG genre.

Planescape: Torment?

I assume as much. It’s been sitting in my “to play” queue for a while, because it frequently comes up as an example of a similar game (or even possibly the only similar game?)

Unfortunately its age definitely shows when you see the complicated controls and such. (I grew up with consoles and prefer controllers. Sue me.) Maybe this is a reason to dig out my old Steam Controller

There isn't really anything else just like it. The cRPG genre is the closest you'll get, but they are usually more combat focused. Baldur's Gate 3 just came out and is very good. Detroit: Become Human is another great story game and was recommended to me by someone who also enjoyed DE.

If you are a puzzle person you might like Return of the Obra Dinn.

There isnt really anything like Disco though. Just 'if you like x you might like y.'

I second this request.

Specifically, I would love to hear about more games that actually reward role playing.

In Disco Elysium, you adopt beliefs ("thoughts" in your "thought cabinet") and then are rewarded for choosing dialogue and performing actions consistent with those beliefs. You can have a wide variety of experiences with the same exact story in DE based on the beliefs you choose and adhere to.

The art, writing, and worldbuilding in DE is excellent but what really sets it apart for me is that actual and literal role playing.

There are plenty in the sense that there are many games with morality scales that reward your participation, I think they are sometimes called red/blue morality in a derogatory sense? Superjerk vs jesus, force lightning vs whatever bargain bin replacement the light side gets.

In a lot of other games the reward for roleplaying is getting to roleplay. But thinking about it from another perspective, games where the mechanics reinforce and contextualize that, you might like Caves of Qud for the reputation system, Tyranny because the whole thing is just framing for the kind of role you'd play in this particularly fantastical setting, and Fallout New Vegas because its fun going into it with a character or concept in mind and just going nuts with it.

None of them come close to DE in what I understand you to be looking for, we could only be so lucky.

Thank you for the suggestions! I will slowly check them out... a friend of mine worked on Fallout:NV! Can't believe I've never played.

    None of them come close to DE in what I 
    understand you to be looking for, we could only 
    be so lucky. 

I was hoping that some games would, quite frankly, simply ape Disco Elysium's thought-cabinet mechanic to an extent!

I'm surprised they haven't, especially considering DE's success, particularly with indie fans and creators. I thought DE might spawn sort of a mini-genre.

I think what makes Disco Elysium stand out is how much it encourages playing a quirky character.

It's possible to play a "boring cop" or a "sorry cop". But the game portrays that the character you're playing was ... not really that.

I really liked Pentiment from Obsidian Entertainment. It's written/directed by Josh Sawyer (of Fallout New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity and Icewind Dale 2 fame) and an incredible art team.

It's a game set in late medieval/early mordern Bavaria and you try to solve a series of murders in a town over the period of 25 years.

It's very different from Disco Elysium but it's really rich in both themes and art. No other piece of media has made me experience the weight of history like this one. It's about how history is about what we choose to remember and how we choose to interpret things. It's about how small nudges can alter people's lives and how we co-exist with the stuff and stories of the people that came before us.

It's extremely well researched, one of the only games I can think of with an actual bibliography in the credits.

Most importantly it moved me to tears on multiple occasions, and it really made me appreciate both history in general and the history of my own local environment in particular.

Highly recommended, it's not that long and it's easy to pick-up even if you aren't that familiar with games.

The Torment games (both Planescape and Numenera) are good. So is Tyranny. I'd say Torment: Tides of Numenera is maybe the most similar game I know, as it is also an RPG with hardly any combat.

You asked for 'similarly impressive games', these are some I enjoy: Outer Wilds, Deus Ex (2000), Dishonoured Series, Prey (2016)

I found Tyranny to be very impressive.

I think Ruina [1] is extremely good as a single-person made RPG with very well-crafted world. I really enjoyed the roleplaying aspect of it (it came from a TRPG scenario by the author). Not sure how good the English fan-translation is though

[1]: https://rpgmaker.fandom.com/wiki/Ruina:_Fairy_Tale_of_the_Fo...