Video Game / Life Is Strange: True Colors

"I see the truth about you."

Alex Chen: I'm going to find out what's really going on.
Ryan Lucan: You'll need help.
Steph Gingrich: I've got your back.

Life Is Strange: True Colors is a 2021 narrative adventure game and the fourth main entry in the Life Is Strange series. It is the second Life Is Strange game developed by Deck Nine, with the first being 2017's Life Is Strange: Before the Storm. Square Enix returns as the publisher.

It's April 2019, and Alex Chen (Erika Mori) has recently exited the foster care system and moved to the small town of Haven Springs, Colorado, to reunite with her older brother Gabe (Han Soto) after an eight-year separation. Seeing the move as a chance to start over, she and Gabe have a heartfelt if awkward reunion and Alex is introduced to the rest of the town and welcomed with open arms.

Sadly, Alex and Gabe's time together is cut short when Gabe dies that very night in a demolition accident, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding it soon come to light. Complicating Alex's new life is her psychic ability to sense, understand, and immerse herself in the emotions of other people. Doing so has the inherent risk of her losing control over herself, made all the more likely when surrounded by people going through the stages of grief for their lost friend.

Joined by two of Gabe's best friends - local DJ Steph Gingrich (Katy Bentz) and park ranger Ryan Lucan (Eric Emery) - Alex works to unravel the mystery behind Gabe's suspicious death and learns to find her place within Haven Springs. She'll make new friends and enemies alike, and the choices in front of her will determine the future of not just herself, but the town she's begun to call home.

Life Is Strange: True Colors was released globally on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5, Google Stadia, and Windows via Steam on September 10th, 2021, and for the first time in the history of the series, the game was released in its entirety without a waiting period. A bonus episode in the deluxe edition, titled Wavelengths, follows Steph's own early days in Haven Springs. A Nintendo Switch version was released later in the year on December 7, 2021.

See the full debut presentation here.

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Tropes found in the main story of Life Is Strange: True Colors:

• 20 Minutes into the Past: A staple of the Life is Strange series: True Colors was released in September 2021 and takes place in April/May 2019.
  • Although the current year is erroneously referred to as 2020 a couple of times in the main game — and the timeline doesn't really make sense unless you take 2020 as the current year (see Writers Cannot Do Math, below) — suggesting the possibility that True Colors was originally meant to take place a little closer to the present day, though with this trope still in force. (If this is the case, it was likely rewritten to avoid the necessity of referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.)
• Abandoned Mine: The old Haven Springs mining tunnels play a significant role in the story. At the end of chapter 1, it's where Alex, Gabe, and Ryan search for Ethan, and at the beginning of chapter 5, after Alex falls down into the collapsed mine where several workers died due to Jed's actions.
• Abusive Parents: John Chen regularly fights with Gabe and neglects his work duties. He eventually abandons the two to be picked up by CPS. However, it should be noted that John is extremely torn up due to his wife's death, and he refuses to bring Alex into any of his quarrels with Gabe. The above-mentioned abandoning was done after he accidentally hit Alex and was ashamed of what he did.
• Accomplice by Inaction: Applies to Diane and Mac mostly. They were both aware of the mining operation going ahead with people in the area, and were both willing to cover it up. Mac is a downplayed example, however, in that he displays a lot of guilt for it and eventually comes clean.
• All There in the Manual: The emotional aura bursts Alex experiences when she's sharing someone's intense emotion are called 'nova'. This term is only used in the trailers and never in the game itself.
• Alone with the Psycho: A downplayed example, where Alex is lured out to the forest under the pretense of finding an old mine only to then be confronted by Jed holding a pistol.
• Answer Cut: A classic example in Chapter 4 at the Spring Festival:
  Alex, talking to Ryan about the band: So who's playing?
  Steph, holding drumsticks: Yours truly!
  Alex: Seriously? That's awesome! Wait, who else?
  Steph and Ryan share glances before looking meaningfully at Alex.
  Alex, with dawning realization: Steph... who else is playing?
  [Jump Cut to Alex standing on the stage and holding a guitar]
  Alex, looking very displeased: I hate you both.
• Art Evolution: The hand-painted style of the previous games is far more subdued in this entry, allowing for cleaner and more realistic graphics and character designs. It's also the first game in the series to use motion capture for facial expressions^note The remastered version of Life Is Strange quickly followed the trend, but not Before the Storm, and at least some key set-pieces (such as the scene with Gabe, Ryan, Alex, and Ethan at the ravine in chapter one) were also fully mo-capped.
• Ascended Extra: True Colors features the return of Before the Storm's Steph Gingrich, this time as one of the primary supporting characters and one of two potential romance options for Alex. She even gets her own DLC episode.
• Aura Vision: Alex sees the emotions of others as an aura around them (or their head).
  • She sees an extremely diverse aura around Jed during their final confrontation, showing how much fear, hate, and sorrow he has for his own actions that led to the deaths of his miners over eleven years ago.
  • She's even able to see in pitch darkness due to her aura vision which comes in handy near the end of the game
• Badass Boast: Alex can give one to Jed near the end of the game.
  Alex: I know who you are. I've seen the worst parts of you.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: After taking a rather nasty fall between chapters 4 and 5, Alex is left with several bleeding wounds on her face, and her clothes are appropriately tarnished. However, her glasses survive the trip unscathed.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The fairly timid and typically jokey Pike will stand up for Alex if she takes his fear away, refusing to take anymore of Diane's shit and threaten to finally bring out the evidence that they knew about the situation surrounding Gabe's death.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Alex can have this with either Steph or Ryan on the rooftop of the Black Lantern during the Spring Festival. In fact, it actually releases a shockwave of joy across the mountains to show how much the two are in love.
• Big "NO!": How King Tabor dies in the Final Battle of Ethan's LARP.
• Bilingual Bonus: Alex's beloved mouse plushie is called 'Shu-Shu'. Shǔ (鼠) is Chinese for 'mouse' and the term 'shu-shu' is like saying 'kitty' instead of 'cat'.
• Bittersweet Ending: Surprisingly, sweeter than more bitter compared to Deck Nine's last entry in the franchise. By the end of chapter 5, Alex finds out about Jed's betrayal and successfully exposes Typhon's shady practices. However, as many characters point out, Gabe is still dead and the town is likely more splintered than ever thanks to how much has been uncovered. Jed, one of the town's most friendly inhabitants, is revealed to have left his employees to die in the mine during a tunnel collapse. Alex can also potentially leave Haven Springs to focus on her music with either Steph or Ryan, or she can stay and potentially build a life there with either of her love interests. The duality of the endings are even lampshaded by a vision of Gabe, who makes it clear that both paths could lead to happiness and adventure.
• Black Eyes of Evil: The final boss of the town-wide LARP has some after Alex absorbs Ethan's joy, seeing the town as a fantasy world.
• Bland-Name Product: The social media platform in the game is called 'Myblock', a twist on Myspace and Facebook (with a bit of Nextdoor mixed in). The Playbox also makes a reappearance from Life Is Strange 2.
• Bleed 'Em and Weep: Jed is definitely not dry-eyed as he pulls the trigger on Alex.
• Bookends: The game can potentially begin with Alex coming to Haven Springs to start a new life with Gabe, and end with Alex leaving Haven to start a new life with Steph or Ryan.
• Bowdlerise: Alex's cover of Radiohead's "Creep" in the first chapter changes the line "You're so fucking special" to "You're so very special", which is also the line used in the radio edit of the song.
• Breaking Speech: Alex delivers one in the climax to Jed which makes him confess.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Alex gets hit with this hard when she witnesses Gabe getting crushed to death in a rockslide ignited by a mining operation. And then there's also her getting shot by one of her trusted friends and falling down a mineshaft nearly to her death. By the time she's able to limp to the Black Lantern, she's covered in dried blood, scratches and bruises.
  • Hell, this happens before the events of the game. Chapter 5 shows how strenuous home life was after the death of Alex's mother. Alex herself tried to keep things together but it only resulted in her father leaving and then dying in a mine collapse, Gabe getting sent to juvenile detention, and Alex getting ground through the foster system until her early 20s. During this time in foster care, as the player can see in her messages, she tried and failed to develop a network of close friends, and some even spouted racist vitriol at her.
  • The same applies to Ethan, who even blames himself Gabe's death as his sneaking out led to them searching for him, and in turn, Gabe's death.
  • While he doesn't get it as hard as Alex, Ryan also gets put through the wringer. First, his best friend dies in a horrific accident, leaving him wracked with guilt and self-loathing over not being able to save him. When Alex comforts him at the ravine where it happened, Ryan will break down crying in her arms. And much later, the knife gets twisted further when he learns that one of the people responsible for his best friend's death was his own father, and that he also directly tried to murder Alex. It's even worse if your choices result in Ryan not taking Alex's side immediately, which can potentially ruin his friendships with Alex and Steph. In the routes where Alex romances Steph or Alex tells Ryan she can't forgive him, Ryan ends the game standing on a cliffside overlooking Haven Springs, visibly upset at what he'd done.
• Breather Episode:
  • Occurs in both chapters 3 & 4. The LARP session is a quick break from the plot to help cheer up Ethan, who feels primarily at fault for Gabe's death. The spring festival also qualifies as it allows for Alex to relax, potentially buy a rose for a love interest, perform in front of an enthusiastic crowd, and then go on to kiss said love interest. And then Deputy Pike arrives to place Alex under arrest for stealing Diane's USB drive.
  • True Colors itself also serves as one for the franchise as a whole. Before the Storm and Life Is Strange 2 were each considered darker than the entry that preceded them, making True Colors appear much Lighter and Softer by comparison. Notably, after Gabe's death in chapter one there are zero possible character deaths for the rest of the game, and all of the endings are positive outcomes for Alex to varying degrees. Even when True Colors deals with some of the heavier topics from earlier games, like serious injury or sexual assault, it's with a much lighter touch than its predecessors, with fewer on-screen depictions^note Alex's text history implies that she has been sexually assaulted in the past, but it's nowhere near as integral to the plot as the assaults that fuel the mystery in the Arcadia Bay arc and less lingering on long-term consequences^note Alex's injuries in chapter five appear severe at first, but are ultimately far less serious than the permanently life-changing harm suffered by Sean in season two.
• Broken Pedestal: The town at large can have this after it's revealed Jed Lucan, one of the most notable members of the community, lied about the story that made him famous and also allowed Typhon to cover up the evidence, which in turn led to the death of Gabe.
• But Liquor Is Quicker: Alex's text history reveals that she was on the receiving end of this. The text conversation that followed strongly implies that it was not consensual on her part.
• But Now I Must Go: One of the endings involves Alex (along with her possible love interest) leaving Haven Springs behind to seek a life of adventure as a travelling musician.
• Cacophony Cover Up: Typhon's Evil Plan. The detonation was meant to cover up a second detonation in a nearby mine.
• Chekhov's Gun: Gabe's matchbook with one match left that Alex finds in chapter 3 is used later in chapter 5 to light the lantern she finds after falling down the mine shaft.
• Cliffhanger: Chapter 4 ends with Alex getting shot by Jed and falling into the abandoned mine. This trope is downplayed however by the presence of the next chapter option after the screen moves to the stats.
• Closet Key: If Alex chooses Steph to hit on Diane so that she can use the distraction to steal the USB drive with the evidence of Typhon's wrongdoing, Diane will act genuinely shocked by Steph's flirting, mainly because of how much she is open to it, even asking Alex if she is blushing. Alex tells Steph afterward that she revealed something in Diane she might not have been aware of.
  • Notably Averted with Steph and Alex's relationship: unlike past protagonists Max, Chloe, and Sean — all of whom are implied to experience their first major same-sex crush during the course of the story they star in — there's no question that Alex was aware of her bisexuality well before she met Steph, as her text history suggests past relationships with both men and women before she arrived in Haven Springs.
• Color-Coded Emotions: Alex can see the emotions somebody is feeling, as represented by an aura around them or their head, and the color indicates what emotion. Red is anger, blue is sadness, yellow is joy, and purple is fear.
• Color Motifs: Colors play an important role in the aesthetics of the game. The title refers to Alex seeing through other people's emotions, which becomes a pun as this is represented by actual colored auras. The game is set in spring, with flower decorations everywhere, making the scenery have vibrant colors. The interface also prominently features bright red and purple. Oh, and we are in Colorado.
• Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth: During the LARP sequence, several encounters can be solved without violence with the right incentives, either in the form of bribes or methods of non-lethally disabling the enemy. Only two encounters require a mandatory battle, one being the final boss.
• Company Town: Haven is controlled by Typhon.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When using her power, Alex strikes the same arm-extended pose as Max and Daniel did before her.
  • A "Firewalk" poster can be seen in the record store, which is the band Chloe went to see at the beginning of Before the Storm. You can also catch a glimpse of the tabletop miniature model Steph used in her D&D game with Chloe and Mikey, sitting on a shelf behind her counter at the record store.
    • Wavelengths reveals that Mikey posted a box full of their old D&D stuff, including the miniatures, to Steph after she moved to Haven Springs.
  • Steph saying, "You think it's that easy to get rid of me?" in her intro trailer is reminiscent of what Rachel said in the hospital at the end of Before the Storm ("You're not getting rid of me that easy.").
  • Alex's Gilligan Cut during the Spring Festival is reminiscent of Chloe's during Before the Storm.
• Contrived Coincidence: By the end of the game, the player will have learned that Alex's father came to the secluded Haven Springs to start a new life years before Gabe did exactly the same. Downplayed in that Gabe did initially come to Haven Springs looking for their father, but his apparently random decision to stay even after the lead went cold and eventually make a life in the town where, unbeknownst to him, his father's death was covered up does still play into this trope.
• Cross-Referenced Titles: The first chapter is titled "Side A" and the last one is "Side B".
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Gabe being knocked off a cliff by a boulder and then dropped into a raging river after Ryan cuts his lifeline (albeit to save Alex) and then possibly hit by more rocks definitely qualifies.
• Cruel to Be Kind: In order to ensure her recovery, Alex has to leave Charlotte to her own devices against taking her anger away. Doing the latter will only result in Charlotte becoming detached emotionally and worse off than she already was.
• Cuckoo Nest: Alex has some Sanity Slippage in the third act and during her Nightmare Sequence she imagines herself back at the institution she supposedly departed from in the opening scene implying everything we've seen since has just been a figment of her imagination.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Mac is no match for enraged Alex.
• Cut the Safety Rope: Ryan decides to cut the line tethering Alex and Gabe together to save Alex, sealing Gabe's fate.
• Death Glare: Alex gives one in chapter 5 to Jed for trying to kill her.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Alex is this of the shy foster kid stereotype. She does have her moments of snark and warmth, but she's also heavily traumatized by her time in foster care around so many volatile emotions, which has led to her appropriately rejecting her 'curse' rather than seeing it in a positive light.
• Developing Doomed Characters: Gabe's death was revealed in the announcement for the game. However, the players as Alex spend an entire chapter with him before he bites it.
• Dissimile: On seeing the floral arrangements left at the bar in Chapter 4, Alex mentally likens Eleanor to "a mafia boss, except instead of crime, she spreads flowers."
• Distinction Without a Difference: When Alex asks Riley if, instead of being completely honest in her college application, she would be lying, the latter denies saying that she would rather go for "strategic half-truthing".
• Distracted by the Sexy: A ploy invoked by Alex, Ryan and Steph in order to snatch a USB stick from Diane.
  • Also attempted by Steph, during the foosball game.
• Don't Look Down: Alex gives Ethan this advice when pulling him onto the tree trunk over the abyss.
• Double Entendre: When Alex proposes marriage to Steph along with ALL of its associated benefits it doesn't take much to figure out what she means by that.
• Dramatic Gun Cock: When Jed lures Alex out to the mines, he takes out a gun while she has her back on him. Alex turns back to Jed cocking his gun.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the turmoil she's endured over the course of the game, Alex can potentially leave or stay at Haven Springs with Steph or Ryan as her romantic or platonic partner. This is probably the first time in the franchise where both options qualify as an example of this, with both choices having their benefits as Gabe points out.
• Empathic Environment: Literally. If Alex senses a particularly strong emotion, it explodes into a 'nova' that shapes the world around her to reflect the emotional state of the person she's reading.
• Everytown, America: Haven Springs, Colorado, is another example in the true Life Is Strange tradition. Older-styled buildings with hanging flags and signs sit along a brick road main street, everyone is cheerful and welcoming to Alex, and the close-knit nature of the community is emphasized.
• Evil, Inc.: Typhon is a big mining conglomerate that operates close to Haven Springs. As Deputy Pike points out, they also have plenty of lawyers, politicians, and shady resources to silence Alex if she tries to keep investigating.
• Face Death with Dignity: Both averted and played straight in the same scene. The memory of John Chen and the Helldivers miners' deaths shows John Chen screamed for Jeb to save them. The miner he was with calmly stated it was over and Jeb wasn't coming back as the mine shaft filled with water that would drown them.
• Fake Band: The songs in the Black Lantern's jukebox are actual licensed songs given different names and attributed to fictional bands.
• Feedback Rule: At the Spring Festival when Alex is on stage, the mic gives off a feedback when she speaks to amplify the awkwardness of the situation.
• Festival Episode: The first half of chapter 4 focuses on the Spring Festival.
• First Time Feeling: After Alex helps Ryan deal with his anger over Gabe's death and his part in it, Ryan recalls a happy memory with Gabe. The joy he experiences is the first time Alex has ever felt something like that with her powers.
• Fish out of Water: Alex and Diane are both this to Haven Springs, with the latter only having arrived a few months ago and the former who starts the game getting introduced to the town.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: During Gabe's funeral at the end of Chapter 2, Alex taps into her power and sees that everybody has a gold aura (indicating either peace or joy) except for Diane, who seemingly doesn't have anything. When Alex senses this and focuses on her, we see that Diane has an aura of fear, indicating that she may know something about the true circumstances behind Gabe's death.
• Flashback: There's a long one at the beginning of chapter 5, where Alex is taken on a journey through a variety of significant events in her life to examine how it all collapsed and caused her to go into foster care.
• Flowers of Romance: Alex can give a rose to either Steph or Ryan at the Spring Festival to make clear her romantic interest in them.
• Foot Popping: Alex does this with her foot if she chooses to kiss the much larger Ryan at the Spring Festival.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Jed Lucan is initially presented as an ally who is then revealed to be a villain in the town-wide LARP, which foreshadows his true nature by the end of chapter 4. Him reacting negatively to Steph telling Alex the story of how he saved his co-workers sets up how he, in fact, left a large amount of them in the mines to die. It also sets up his self-hatred, which Alex can call him out on in their confrontation. Additionally, in the Typhon files on Diane's flashdrive, his vote is listed as "secured," which makes sense since they basically own him. Furthermore, Jed's appearance and circumstances resemble the depiction of a bearded miner running from ghosts on the Mine Haunt arcade cabinet in Gabe/Alex's apartment.
  • Ryan taking the role of a snake during the LARP also sets up his possible betrayal of Alex in chapter 5, depending on previous choices. However, given the fact he does come around regardless, this is a more downplayed example.
  • Alex taking on the role of a bard sets up one of the possible endings where she leaves Haven Springs to focus on her musical career.
  • Alex accidentally hitting Gabe during a fight with Mac and his startled reaction sets up the later reveal that their dad had accidentally hit her in a similar context, which was what led to him abandoning them out of guilt.
  • The ghosts in the mine haunt game cabinet foreshadow that Jed didn't save everyone in the mine.
• Friendly Rivalry: Steph and Ryan can debate with Alex to get her to decide who'd be the "hotter distraction" for Diane, but this is about as far as it goes.
• The Friend No One Likes: Most people in town tend to have a negative opinion towards Mac, predominantly due to his temper issues.
• Gamer Chick: Applies to both Steph and Alex, as they are both heavily invested in LARPing and video games, as seen in an epilogue and in a memory in Alex's apartment.
• Game Within a Game: The game includes a Lode Runner-esque platformer called Mine Haunt and a licensed copy of Arkanoid as playable arcade cabinets.
• Gay Option: Steph is this for Alex.
• Gilligan Cut: At the Spring Festival, Alex asks who is performing alongside Steph onstage. This earns her quizzical stares from both her and Ryan before she repeats her question. And it then cuts to Alex with her guitar and a spotlight in her eyes:
  Alex: I hate you both.
• Glass-Shattering Sound: During Alex's dream sequence where potential parent couples refuse to pick her, she finally screams causing the glass windows to shatter.
• Golden Ending: Managing to receive the unanimous support of the Haven Springs Town Council and Ryan during Alex's final confrontation with Jed counts as this.
• Gory Discretion Shot: We never see what becomes of Gabe's body. Only Alex's horrified and heartbroken reaction. Given the fact he was crushed to death by a rockslide, it's probably for the best.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Typhon serves as this to the main story. They're Alex's main target and yet the only ones who associate with them that Alex confronts are Diane and Jed. By the end of the story, their CEO is forced to resign after the secrets behind Gabe's death are leaked.
• Grey Rain of Depression: When Alex taps into Steph's grief, this is all she sees outside the windows of her apartment.
• Guide Dang It!: Getting everyone to side with Alex during her confrontation with Jed is not likely to happen on your first playthrough without a good dose of luck. Getting Ryan's support in particular requires a very specific combination of choices across multiple episodes.^note Don't take Charlotte's anger in Chapter 3, do take Pike's fear in Chapter 4, and also have the support of at least three out of the four total determinant characters.
• Gut Punch: A pretty heavy one in chapter 5 where depending on your choices, Ryan can be turned against Alex by his father, who tried to kill her. Doubly so considering that he was one of the first people Alex told her secret to. If the player chooses to not forgive him or romances Steph, it's possible that he suffers from a huge Heroic BSoD on the roof of the Black Lantern.
• Had to Be Sharp: When Gabe notes Alex obviously has some experience fighting after her beatdown of Mac, Alex notes that growing up in the foster system meant she had to learn to take care of herself.
• Headbutt of Love: Alex can have this with Steph after they kiss on the roof of the Black Lantern.
• He Knows Too Much: Jed attempts to clean up Alex's investigation by taking her out to the abandoned mine and shooting her, however, the wound proves to be nonfatal.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Downplayed. The player can choose Alex's character name in the LARP from 3 options: Alexandra, Alto or Alwynn.
• Hollywood New England: When Steph asks Alex where she should go when she leaves town, one of the available options is Salem, Massachusetts. Alex will then joke that Steph would blend in well with the "Massholes" that live there (if she doesn't join a coven, that is).
  Alex: What if you infiltrate a bunch of Massachusetts bros? Hang out in a dank bar til 2, shouting "Go Sox!" at the TV.
  Steph: You know what? Yeah. That sounds wicked rad. Get real tough and edgy, really integrate into the whole scene.
  Alex: You start challenging dudes twice your size to drinking contests. You never lose, obviously.
• A House Divided: At the midpoint of chapter 5, the council meeting can be split after Alex reveals Jed and Diane's deception. Based on previous choices, some, none, or all of the members will stand with Alex and Steph, who sides with Alex no matter what. Based on player stats, this trope is played straight as the overwhelming majority were able to get only some members to their side.
• Hurricane of Puns: In the first chapter, Gabe and Alex engage in this after Alex dresses up a gnome in Eleanor's flower shop. Riley, tending the counter while Eleanor is taking care of the flowers around the block, isn't particularly amused.
• Injured Player Character Stage: After the flashbacks at the beginning of chapter 5, Alex has to walk around the dilapidated mines under Haven Springs while heavily injured from a fall and a bullet wound.
• It Always Rains at Funerals: Played with. It isn't raining at Gabe's wake, but when Alex taps into Steph's sadness, she perceives it as raining outside to reflect Steph's mood.
• It's All My Fault:
  • Both Ryan and Ethan feel this way in regard to Gabe's death.
  • Alex has this big-time concerning how her family collapsed after the death of her mother. She feels that she should've been the one who should've kept them together, even as a vision of Gabe points out the fact that she was only eleven.
• LARP: All of Haven Springs' residents participate in one in Episode 3.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Jed's actions eventually led to the death of Gabe and his and Alex's father, John. Just over a decade later, Gabe's sister uncovers everything he's tried to hide and exposes his true colors in front of some of his most trusted friends.
• Last Request: From her hospital bed, Alex's mom wants her to promise that she will be strong for her brother and father.
• Lighter and Softer: While still dealing with a lot of heavy topics and featuring quite possibly the darkest protagonist backstory in the series, the game comes nowhere near Life Is Strange 2 in terms of depressing and gritty subject matter portrayed within the game itself. Notably, both of the endings are portrayed as overall positive outcomes for Alex, a stark difference to the three previous games in the series, all of which were criticized for presenting endings that were extremely bittersweet at best and unremittingly dark at worst.
• Love Interests: Steph and Ryan both are, or Alex can go with neither of them, depending on the player's choices.
• Manly Tears: Jed sheds some as he prepares to shoot Alex. He can completely break down later on as well as Alex confronts him during the council meeting.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Was Alex's conversation with Gabe on the rooftop in the epilogue real or was it a figment of her imagination?
• Meaningful Name:
  • Alex Chen perceives people's emotions as different colors depending on the emotion, hence the subtitle "True Colors". This power helps her find out the reason behind her brother's death.
  • The name Lucan has the Italian meaning of light. Ryan Lucan is the first person who displays an aura of joy that Alex can see. In other words, a light in the sea of anger, sadness, and fear that Alex is used to.
  • Typhon was one of the worst monsters from Classical Mythology. Zeus lost the first fight he had with it. A company having that name says bad things about the company.
  • In Greek mythology, Lethe is the personification of oblivion, and the dead in the underworld were forced to drink from the waters of the River Lethe to make them forget their mortal lives. Eleanor Lethe, owner of Lethe Flowers in Haven Springs, is revealed to have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
  • The Black Lantern. As in, a lantern that produces darkness instead of light. How fitting that the owner should be an antagonist to someone who experiences emotions as colored lights.
• Mind Screw: The beginning of chapter 5 starts with Alex talking with Dr. Lynn again. The discussion ends with the reveal that no one else is in the room, marking the beginning of an extremely twisted Nightmare Sequence.
• Mistaken for Dog: One of the MyBlock-threads you can read was from a poster that posted a picture of a large cat they had found in their garbage can and asked if someone had lost it. The poster was quickly informed that it was actually a mountain lion cub that should absolutely not be interacted with. The poster then sheepishly asked what one should do if it "happened" to be on their bed.
• Money Spider: During Ethan's LARP, coins are dropped by Ryan's character after his defeat.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • When Alex and Gabe arrive at the apartment, they soon begin rocking out to Kings of Leons together as they had as kids. Then Mac shows up to confront Gabe about his suspicions that he was involved with Riley, resulting in Mac assaulting Gabe and Alex losing control (a result of feeling Mac's intense anger) and beating Mac up, leading her to accidentally punch Gabe when he tries to break them up.
  • The LARP being held for Ethan starts out well, with Ethan especially having a great time. Then the Typhon blast siren goes off, reminding Ethan of Gabe's death...
  • Alex can have a very touching scene with Steph or Ryan on the roof of the Black Lantern where they can talk about their future and potentially solidify a romantic relationship. The possible ensuing Big Damn Kiss cements the heartwarming moment. And then when Alex heads back downstairs, she's arrested by Deputy Pike for stealing Diane's USB.
• Multiple Endings: There are two major options for the ending, with variations depending on Alex's romantic interest and her relationships with the other townsfolk.
  • Stay in Haven Springs. This ending will see Alex settling down and living the life she fought so hard for with either Steph, Ryan, or neither as her romantic partner. Depending on the relationships with other characters, it will also see her hanging out with them as she grows accustomed to not worrying about the future.
  • Leave Haven. This ending will see Alex leaving Haven Springs with her romantic partner, or on her own. The game ends with a cutscene of her getting ready to play in front of a crowd at a club, with photos on her guitar case showing her and her partner taking advantage of living life on the road.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Alex can use her powers for some fairly mundane things to help random citizens. You can help a bird watcher and win a "Guess the Jellybeans" game, just to name a couple.
  • In the climax, Alex can use her powers to light up the cave walls to find her way; previous events in that cave were so intense that their emotional aura is still visible all these years later.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Jed suffers from this big time if Alex chooses to forgive him, eventually leading to his arrest and Typhon getting booted from Haven.
  • John Chen is nothing short of horrified with himself after he accidentally elbows Alex to the ground during a fight in the past with Gabe. So much so that he leaves immediately and allows Gabe and Alex to be collected by the CPS.
  • Ryan is implied to be left with this feeling if he doesn't believe Alex at the council meeting and she doesn't forgive him afterward. In such endings, he's last seen on a cliffside overlooking Haven Springs, visibly devastated at having lost Alex and (presumably) Steph because of his actions.
• My God, You Are Serious!: This is how Alex reacts once she realizes that Steph and Ryan's plan to distract Diane by one of them asking her out on a date so that Alex can steal her USB drive with information on Typhon is not a joke.
• Never Give the Captain a Straight Answer: This exchange when Jed reveals his secret to Alex:
  Jed: I know what they buried in the mountains.
  Alex: Tell me.
  Jed: I'll do one better. I'll show you.
  Cut to the next scene with them in the mountains
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Alex tries to help Charlotte by taking her anger away, it leaves her feeling completely despondent and empty inside, due to the fact that her anger is a significant part of her grieving process.
• Nightmare Sequence: A major one at the beginning of chapter 5, giving players an insight into Alex's troubled upbringing and her trauma.
• No Bisexuals: Averted. Alex is bisexual, a fact that isn't up to the player's choice. If one looks through her old texts, it's shown she has had past, brief relationships with men and women.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: If Alex tries to help Charlotte by taking her anger away, it results in her feeling completely numb to everything around her, as well as despondent to Alex's pleas for help during the town hall meeting in chapter 5. Meanwhile, taking away Pike's fear for a partially selfish reason has an entirely positive outcome.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When Mac assaults Gabe and his anger affects Alex, she loses it and tackles him before giving him a vicious beating, leaving him bloodied and bruised.
• Noodle Incident: Something about a guy in a gorilla suit, chasing a guy in a banana suit, who jumps off a cliff and into a pool, at a Mexican restaurant...
• Not Quite the Right Thing: In chapter 3, absorbing Charlotte's anger will result in Alex lashing out at Ryan and Steph and Charlotte eventually turning against you in chapter 5. In fact, leaving her in her anger is actually the better option.
• Obviously Not Fine: Alex can brush off the council's concerns as she limps into the Black Lantern, insisting she's fine. The bullet graze in her forehead and the fact she's half-covered in blood say otherwise.
• Oh, Crap!: Jed and Diane have a subtle moment of this during the council meeting when Alex walks in covered in blood from Jed's murder attempt.
• Orphanage of Fear: Alex had a pretty bad time at childcare. She was continuously bullied by her peers and was refused multiple times by potential foster parents for being "special".
• Orphaned Punchline: During Gabe's wake the scene cuts to the end of Reginald's speech where (only he) is laughing about his final line "And then he said: I know - that's why the K is silent!".
• Pair the Smart Ones: The geeky Alex and Steph, known as the 'queen of the Haven nerds', can be paired up depending on the player choices, both having extensive knowledge of things like fantasy media. This also applies to Alex and Ryan, albeit as nerds for different reasons (Ryan's love for nature and Alex's geekier interests although Ryan quickly got into the LARP).
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": At the beginning of chapter 5 during the Nightmare Sequence, Alex finds her guitar case locked with a five-digit code she has to input. It turns out it's her foster care file number.
• Plot Armor: An egregious case with Alex. At the end of chapter 4, she has a bullet graze her head and she tumbles down an abandoned mine, falling and crashing into wooden support planks. However, she recovers fast enough to limp back to town without any traumatic injuries other than a few scars apparently.
• Plot-Triggering Death: The main events of the game are incited by the death of Gabe Chen, Alex's older brother.
• Police Are Useless: All that Pike can say on Gabe's death is that he's conducting an investigation. Three young adults who have next to no law experience are able to pull up more evidence of shady dealings than him. Justified, however, as Pike is deathly afraid of what Typhon are capable of and is regularly impeded by them.
• Precision F-Strike: Diane gives this reaction if Deputy Pike loses his fear and stands up for Alex.
  • Shortly after, Steph can give this reaction if there's not enough support or evidence to convince Ryan.
• Psychic Powers: Alex's empathic ability is explicitly said to be psychic by the game's developers, putting it in this category.
• Pun-Based Title: Alex's power allows her to see colored auras around people, representing their currently felt emotional states — their true colors, in a sense.
  • In addition, chapters 1 and 5 are named "Side A" and "Side B" respectfully, as for A-side and B-side that Phonograph records sometimes have.
• Removed from the Picture: Alex keeps a photo of her family with her parents ripped out. She sees the same yet complete photo at Gabe's place and applauds him for his maturity.
• The Reveal:
  • Chapter 4 shows that Jed and Diane both know what happened to Gabe and why it happened.
  • Chapter 5 also reveals that John Chen, Alex and Gabe's dad, was one of Jed's old employees who died in the Haven tunnels when Jed left him and a group of miners to drown.
• Rewatch Bonus: Playing through the game a second time reveals a lot more subtle signs pointing to Jed's betrayal.
• Salem Is Witch Country: Salem, MA is one of Steph's choices for a new place to live when she leaves town; she deems the place "the Halloween capital of the world", and she and Alex joke about her joining a coven.
  Alex: You join a coven.
  Steph: A lesbian coven.
  Alex: Is there any other kind? You hang out in graveyards and perform rituals to speak to the dead.
  Steph: None of which ever work, but that's okay, cuz I get a load of old tombstone rubbings to decorate my apartment with.
• Scenery Porn: A mainstay of the series by now. Haven Springs is shown to be a beautiful and quaint Colorado town. Arguably the best-looking setting in the Life is Strange series.
• Science Cannot Comprehend Phlebotinum: In Alex's nightmare of her at foster care, the system gave Alex countless meds to help deal with her "emotional issues". She admits that worked just a little, but could never cure her. As pointed out by Gabe, they were unknowingly dealing with someone gifted with mysterious powers.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Alex ends up being arrested by Deputy Pike for stealing Diane's USB drive and is taken in for questioning. As Deputy Pike explains to her she is potentially facing five to ten years in prison unless she agrees to sign an agreement with Typhon under the terms of which Typhon agrees to drop the charges against Alex in exchange for her silence. Alternatively, she can use her power to take away Deputy Pike's fear of Typhon which gives him the courage to immediately release Alex from custody and continue the investigation of Typhon misdeeds.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Following the Tantrum Throwing moment detailed below, Steph will become upset at Alex and storm out of the apartment. She can later apologize for this, saying it was unfair of her to bail on Alex during her emotional meltdown after Alex had helped her cope with her grief over Gabe's death.
• Serkis Folk: Like prior games, this installment uses motion capture. However, the improvement in graphics allows for the actor's performances to shine far more.
• Sexual Euphemism: What Alex is referring to exactly when she offers, "My hand in marriage. And all of its associated benefits," to Steph doesn't take much imagination to figure out.
• Shame If Something Happened:
  • This threat is used to keep Diane silent about not postponing the blast that killed Gabe.
  • It's later used against Alex by showing that Typhon has been monitoring her, Ryan, and Steph, with the implication that they could suffer if she doesn't agree to drop her investigation.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Ethan can serve as this to Alex and Steph, most blatantly during the LARP game if Alex chooses to flirt with Steph, with him commenting, "This just got real."
  • Alex can play matchmaker for a not-yet couple who have trouble admitting their feelings to one another.
• Ship Tease: Both Alex and Steph, and Alex and Ryan get a good level of this during the story mode. However, it isn't too blatant to feel as if the game is pushing you towards a certain romantic interest, and players can even choose to downplay some of the more intimate moments between either pairing.
• Slice of Life: True to other games in the series, most of the game time is spent doing mundane things: doing your job, socializing, running errands, and participating in various events such as LARP and the Spring Festival. There are even optional tasks such as cleaning up your room or weeding the plants on the rooftop that gets tracked by the game. Wavelengths takes it up to eleven: the whole DLC is literally about Steph running the radio station/record shop.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Ethan is a downplayed example. While he displays guilt and trauma over Gabe's death, the biggest segment involving him entails a town-wide LARP. By the beginning of chapter 4, he's gone to spend time with his dad.
• Shout-Out:
  • Upon learning of Typhon's DIONE project, Alex quips about the evil company picking supervillain names for their sinister plots — a reference to both Greek mythology and "Dione" being Thanos' intended name.
  • Alex mentions having rewatched A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) with the others.
  • The action figures on the shelf in the record store: one resembles Deadpool, and the other is wearing a rebel flight suit.
  • The robot toy in the apartment resembles a Transformer.
• Slow-Motion Fall: Alex, when Jed shoots her and she falls into the abandoned mineshaft.
• Stab the Sky: Ethan does this in episode 3, just before the final battle of the LARP.
• Tantrum Throwing:
  • Charlotte will smash the sculpture she was working on while talking with Alex about how she feels.
  • If Alex absorbs Charlotte's anger, she'll later snap after hearing Gabe's phone call to Typhon and smash Gabe's Foosball Champion bottle in a fit of rage.
• Tentative Light: The lantern at the mine only lasts so long until it dies and sends Alex back into the dark. Her sight adjusts soon though.
• That Cloud Looks Like...: Ryan recalls a fond memory of him and Gabe doing this activity.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Up to player choice. In the last chapter, after a lengthy "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Alex can either forgive Jed or condemn him for his crimes.
• Treacherous Quest Giver: In the LARP game, King Tabor turns out to be the villain in disguise who sent Alex and Ethan to retrieve the jewels for his own goals.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Chapter 3 gives us the LARP where the entire section plays like an RPG, with Ethan and Alex being party members who battle monsters. Becomes doubly so when Alex hooks into Ethan's emotions just before the boss battle with the main villain of the LARP. The entire scene changes to Ethan's imagination of a fantasy world and the UI even changes to an RPG battle screen.
• Video Game Caring Potential:
  • Alex can do things around town such as offer advice to a new restaurant owner, encourage two friends to become a couple, help a birdwatcher win a contest, lift an insecure jogger's self-esteem, help a heartbroken dog owner (who she can help again later on by helping him with a jellybean guessing game), and assist a girl studying by playing a song she likes.
  • She can also offer a free drink to Duckie during the LARP when he's behind the bar. The next chapter can see her going out of her way to cheer him up during the Spring Festival.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Typhon is the company that serves as Haven Spring's driving economic force; however, Alex quickly learns that they have quite a few shady secrets under their belt. Jed also applies given he's seen as a father figure by many, and he also does his best to provide guidance for Alex, despite the later reveal that he abandoned several of his own miners to die.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Steph is one of the main romance options and will promptly go on the offensive when Alex reveals Jed and Diane's true intentions, as well as if Ryan sides against Alex.
• Virtual Paper Doll: Players can customize Alex's wardrobe depending on the chapter. The pre-ordered version of the game also comes with an outfit pack that has a very blatant cat motif. Another outfit pack gives players access to outfits inspired by previous games in the franchise.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: During the LARP, Alex can propose marriage and all the associated benefits to Steph in exchange for a sapphire that she and Ethan need to regain the three magical gems and save their town from a monster invasion. Steph is left momentarily speechless before getting back into character and insisting on a proper trade. Though the proposal itself is improv on Alex's part, she'll wink at Steph as she's leaving to make it clear her feelings are genuine.
• Walking the Earth: Steph makes this proposal to Alex if she's given a rose. Depending on the player's choices, the game can also end with Alex taking Steph up on her offer and leaving to play music with her or choosing to leave with Ryan.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 5 shows just how traumatizing Alex's life has been up until the events of the game.
• Wham Line: At the end of chapter 4, when Jed shows Alex the old mine.
  Alex: Jed, why are you sad?
  [Jed cocks a gun and aims it at her.]
• Wham Shot: At the end of chapter two, the citizens of Haven launch a lantern in honor of Gabe. Alex feels the yellow auras with melancholy joy from everyone... except Diane's aura, which is purple with fear, revealing that she is somehow connected to Gabe's Cruel and Unusual Death.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • If your choices result in Ryan refusing to believe Alex at the council meeting, Steph will furiously lambaste him for distrusting Alex after everything they'd been through together.
  • Alex can give a truly resonant one to Jed at the council meeting, calling him out for accepting Typhon's bribes and allowing them to cover up Gabe's death. She can even condemn him for his actions, after which he breaks down into tears.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Twelve years ago, Alex and Gabe's father died in a mining accident. However, he didn't leave the family until Alex was 11 years old, and she's 21 years old during the events of the game. He left two years after dying...??
  • Potentially somewhat explained by the evidence suggesting that the current year in-story was changed from 2020 to 2019 at some point during development. (See 20 Minutes into the Past, above.) It still doesn't really make total sense but it just might be possible to squeeze all the key events into the timeline that way, since Gabe clarifies that their dad left when he was "nearly fifteen" and Gabe himself dies at aged twenty-six, potentially closing the gap to a little over eleven years rather than twelve-plus (presumably Alex is just close to her twenty-second birthday when the game takes place^note Supplementary materials reveal her birthday to be in July, a couple of months after the events of the game, so this does indeed kind of work.). However, elsewhere in the game, it's implied that John was Wandering the Earth for at least a couple of years before reaching Haven Springs, whereas this explanation would require him to beeline directly there with unerring foresight; so even this solution doesn't really cover all the facts.
  • Eleanor Lethe's age is also a little bit off, though not impossibly so. Official materials give her age as 54 and her granddaughter Riley's as 20, making her only 34 years old when Riley was born. It's possible that Eleanor and her child were both teen parents (the latter might even go some way to explaining Riley being Raised by Grandparents), but it's a tight timeline nonetheless. It becomes very weird though when coupled with Eleanor's Alzheimer's — an uncommon (though of course not unheard-of) diagnosis in under-65s. Basically, Eleanor seems to have been given an arbitrary age a good decade younger than how she was written, for no apparent reason.
  • The game is set in the spring of 2019. Jed rescued the miners on December 30th, 2008. However, when talking about it to Alex at the end of Chapter 4, he says "12 years ago, I made a mistake" referring to the fact that it was HIS fault they needed rescuing in the first place, and many of his team didn't make it out alive.
  • A time-related example; When Alex and Gabe leave the record store, Gabe says his shift "starts in 20" and Ryan is left manning the radio station after Steph is called away. After the fight at the Black Lantern, Gabe says he has to go start his shift. Upon going downstairs however, it seems that Steph and Ryan have been sitting at the same table for some time before Ryan had to take Gabe away for first aid.
• You Lose at Zero Trust: Averted. Jed will end up confessing to his crimes regardless of whether anyone supports Alex during her final confrontation with him or not.
• You Monster!: In chapter 5, Alex has the opportunity of calling Jed one.
• You Should Have Died Instead: When Alex reads Mac's fear, she hears Riley think that he should have died in place of Gabe.

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Tropes found in the DLC chapter Wavelengths:

• 20 Minutes into the Past: Like the main game, and even more so since it's a prequel to it. "Wavelengths" was released on September 30th, 2021 and takes place between March of 2018 and New Year's Eve of the same year.
• Ambiguous Situation: Steph will reminisce fondly about Rachel but will only show distress over her murder if the "Sacrifice Chloe" ending was chosen in Season One. This makes it unclear whether Chloe and Max ever brought Rachel's murder to light after the "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" ending, or if she's still considered a missing person in this continuity.^note Life Is Strange 2 had previously hinted that Jefferson was still prosecuted for his crimes after the storm — at the very least the abduction of Victoria and probably the murder of Nathan — but it's highly likely that Rachel's body would never be found after the storm destroyed the town even if Max and Chloe came forward, which they may not have done.
• Bottle Episode: Wavelengths focuses entirely on Steph working in the record store, and she is the only character to appear in the flesh throughout the episode until the ending, where the plot moves to the exact moment Alex walked into the store.
• Cutting Off the Branches: A minor example. Wavelengths treats Chloe and Rachel as a known romantic couple in Steph's memories, with no option for the player to feedback on whether they actually played them that way in Before the Storm. Justified in that a romantic relationship between the two is implied to have happened between the prequel and the original game regardless of your choices; this is just the first time it's been outright stated in canon.
• A Day in the Limelight: The bonus episode puts the player in Steph's shoes as she manages Haven Springs' local record store and runs the radio station in the year before Alex arrives.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Steph is completely alone on-screen throughout Wavelengths (at least until the brief epilogue scene), communicating with other characters via Zoom, phone calls, and mail. While in-story it's simply the case that she happens to be on her own during the periods of time shown on-screen, it resonates with the fact that the game was released 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Most players — but especially people like Steph, who were single and living far away from family — could identify with her rattling around in an otherwise empty building and seemingly never leaving.
  • Taken to even more meta heights when you learn that sections where Steph left the record store and interacted with other Haven Springs residents were reportedly cut due to production constraints caused by the pandemic.
• Holiday Episode: Wavelengths has four sections, each corresponding to a season and referencing a celebration therein. Steph starts her new job around the time of the 2018 Spring Festival in Haven Springs. She's then shown doing themed shows for Pride Month in the summer, Halloween in the autumn, and New Year's Eve in the winter.
• Melancholy Musical Number: Steph can choose to make the track she's producing a sad song with appropriately melancholic lyrics that allude to her trauma and grief over the destruction of Arcadia Bay or the murders of Rachel and Chloe, depending on the player's Season One ending.
• Offscreen Breakup:
  • Steph's parents George and Lita appeared to still be together in Before the Storm^note Judged by the fact that they send Mikey or Drew a get-well card in the hospital signed by both of them, but Wavelengths reveals that they divorced sometime between then and the first game, with George moving to Seattle while Lita stayed in Arcadia Bay. The upshot is that in the "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" arc, Steph's mother died in the storm but her dad survived.
    • It's worth noting that this is slightly contradicted in the novel Life is Strange: Steph's Story, which has George and Lita's break-up taking place when Steph is around 12 years old. (The book hints that they remained Amicable Exes, which is presumably why they were still sending joint greetings cards years later, if indeed this isn't simply a Continuity Snarl.)
  • Thanks to the episode's frequent use of Time Skips, it's possible to have Steph in a new relationship at the end of a section only to discover that she and the latest girlfriend have broken up in the intervening months.
• Seasonal Baggage: The DLC shows off the seasons changing throughout the episode as Steph works at the record store. We only see glimpses of the outside weather, though, as the whole episode takes place in the record store.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Steph gets a call on the radio station's phone where a guy makes orders on the record store for some songs for his girlfriend. Steph, realizing that all of these are breakup songs, mentions to the poor guy that she suspects his girlfriend wants to leave him. Later said girlfriend calls back, saying that while it wasn't her intention, Steph telling that realized that she really wants to break up. Even after Steph telling her how she got to the conclusion^note in reality, the girl just wanted the songs for her guitar lessons, the girlfriend considers Steph a psychic. As these telephone calls are all made on air, the whole town now regards Steph a psychic, who plays along. She becomes popular even as a self-admitted "fake psychic".

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