Life is Strange - Square Enix, Remember Me, rewinding time

Everyone knows that Max-Victoria in the Chloe’s dad lives timeline is the one true pairing.

Just finished this this weekend. Took me a week on and off, episode 1, then 2, then everything else (the equivalent of binge watching). If I had to wait for the episodes to come out over six months I would die inside. Just like TV, whole season Boxset/Netflix or GTFO. Fuck waiting for the episodes one by one.

The part I like is the Veronica Mars bits: teenage sleuth dealing with teenage drama on the side. The rewind mechanics works, and mid way through the game they even give you a skill upgrade. Oh sorry I’m speaking strictly in terms of the game mechanics… As a game it also gives player agency more than TV: instead of passively watching how Veronica pieces together the clues to solve the mystery, the player controls Max to put it all together.

The missing person/murder mystery did keep me going to the end. The cliffhanger at the end of Episode 4 is a WTF moment. O RLY? Episode 5 up the ante to the n-th degree, and I think it actually worked. In the end my Max didn’t save Chloe, because I thought if the megastorm still happens then Max can just rewind and redo it again.

It is also interesting to read about other people’s choices. If all RPG games have this feature it would be great.

Is it manipulative? I read that some grown men admitted to have cried at various sections of the game. The fate of Kate and wheelchairChloe can be really tragic, but I think I played my cards right to avoided one tragedy, and the other one doesn’t matter because of time rewind (and whether you choose to help wheelchair Chloe to die probably depends on your pre-existing view on euthanasia.). So no crying here. I would be interested in what women think about those outcomes however.

Max as a character I just play it straight, i.e. act what she would have acted in-character, my input is strictly on what I wish this in-character Max would do. Would an in-character Max kiss Warren or Chloe? I really don’t know. But this puppet Max under my control sure did not!. Chloe is supposed to be a grrl opposite to Max. Both are likeable enough IMO.

But there are technical issues. Their hair while in the swimming pool looks just like when it is dry! That’s not what hair looks like in water! And there were lip-sync problems for me in the storm hit diner.

The art direction and voice acting are generally good. The two main characters sound and look good, the voice actor for Max is a bit better than Chloe IMO, but the voice acting quality is inconsistent for the peripheral characters. The environment looks reasonably good. But this is a last gen console title, and it shows.

All in all, love it.

You didn’t save Chloe yet you didn’t cry at the funeral? The butterfly?! Cry with laughter that Larry David was taking the service?!

I would argue that even though that timeline (probably) no longer exists, the choice of what to do about Chloe in the wheelchair timeline is still meaningful because the Max that made it is the one you continue playing.

I need to get back into this. I stopped at the beginning of Episode 3 I believe.

I love the way the spoiler tags look on the new forum. Very cool. So you can see how much people wrote behind the spoiler tag even though you don’t know what they wrote.

I much prefer collapsing spoiler tags, personally, because it’s tidier and has no risk of accidental reveal, but it looks like there’s a “hide detail” function that might offer that.

Woohoo, RPS reports that more Life is Strange is on the way!

I would love more games like Life is Strange. Not sure I actually need more LiS itself. But I have said that about sequels that turned out amazing in the past, so we will see.

I’m cautiously optimistic. Follow-up efforts can be tough since people have expectations from the first one, but if they manage it…hooray!

I kind of wish this game wouldn’t get a sequel. But since that ship is sailing, I hope it will be a different kind of story with different characters. I like where the original game left things.

Agreed! I’ll be very disappointed if it were to continue on with the same characters (as much as I loved them) instead of starting fresh.

Besides, whichever ending you go with, I’m pretty sure Max will have spent the next few years in in-patient therapy to deal with what she went through.

Another game with the same abilities / structure would be a bit disappointing. I’d actually really like a follow up with no “magic” in it at all tbh.

… OHMAGOD. #icantbelieveitsreallyhappening #myfanfictionletmeshowyouthem.

However i would be dissapointed if we’re still dealing with Max. Even though i loved the characters there’s just no good way to extract them from either ending of Life is Strange 1 and ship them /cough into a new setting.

Oh, this isn’t even being made by Dontnod. It’s Deck Nine Games.

Also, the season pass does not include the bonus episode. You have to buy the deluxe edition to get it.

Looks like you missed this post in the other thread (which is easy to do, since it’s not a thread related to this game):

That post’s video and the comments that followed were about this new bonus prequel episode by Deck Nine Games.

Looks like the deluxe edition is $25 which might be a bit much for a three episode series but isn’t exactly crazy money either. I’m probably in.

The bonus episode will include Max.

I do think they let the cat out of the bag unintentionally - as DONTNOD has not committed to saying whether LiS 2 continues the story of Max and Chloe or not - as they describe the bonus episode as being able to play as Max “for the last time”.

I was pretty disappointed in hearing Ashley Burch wouldn’t be able to reprise her role as Chloe because of the VA strike, but the interview linked above w/@Nightgaunt made me much more confident the property is in good hands.

Ugh I didn’t notice that when I preordered it on Steam and I’ve never heard of Deck Nine Games until now.

Watch the video, I think they’ll do a good job recreating the original feel of the game.

Hey, guys! Just to avoid confusion, I’m a Game Director at Deck Nine Games on Before the Storm (one of two game directors, the game-designy one). I didn’t post about it in this thread because I wanted people to feel like they could talk freely about LiS and BTS here. Please do so!

I don’t want to talk too much here because I’ll just be rattling off talking points that I got to express in livestreams and interviews during E3. We’ll be revealing more in the future! Suffice it to say, Deck Nine Games was created to make narrative, cinematic adventure games, and we’re extremely privileged to have been asked to live up to the very high bar set by Dontnod. (See? Talking points. But honest ones!)