Life is Strange

I really like Time Crash stuff, so I thought it was really really neat what happened.

There are just a few gameplay issues I had. You can just miss important stuff and decisions (that the game will mark against you) that you have no way of knowing that you missed, be it because the game wouldn't select the thing you were trying to look at, or because you were looking at other things during a timed event, and you had no way of knowing if said event happened.

Another issue is the game advancing at awkward times or in weird ways that will keep you from doing everything you wanted, and there was no indication that your action would advance the plot when you didn't want it to. The bench in episode 5 comes to mind, like, when literally every other "sit" command had Max sit down and contemplate her situation why does this one suddenly advance the plot?? There was still stuff I wanted to do, and there was nothing indicating that it would continue the rest of the game.

I also have no idea why people liked Max x Chloe so much (especially pre-episode 5). I really only started seeing it at the very end of the game, and that's mostly because it was kinda shoved on you (albeit not badly).

I can think of two reasons: They have a lot of tension and cute bonding moments to just be friends and Girl on Girl Is Hot.

People that liked Chloe liked Max x Chloe.

I mean... I like Chloe, but I never adored her like I've seen a lot of other people do.

I much prefered Warren, who a lot of people didn't like (apparently).

I'm also kind of annoyed that your decisions and choices mean literally nothing by the end of the game. They're made moot either because you set time on it's correct course, or because everyone you helped and everything you did died (exception to the final choice, of course).

This would be an interesting look at fate and futility... if the game's entire shtick wasn't "your decisions matter" and pushed that theme up until the end, where that suddenly isn't the case (except for the last decision and the last decision alone).

(Though please note that I'm not saying that this is a bad game, just that there are issues I have with it).

...honestly, Steins Gate does everything this game does but better in literally every way.

Warren came off as too much of a creepy nice guy to some people, at least in the early episodes. He won me over in Episode 4.

Agree with you on the endings. No matter which you pick, you render the game pointless.

Pretty much every decision game does that except for Until Dawn.

I'd say the second season of the Walking Dead managed that at well. Compare how season 1 always ends with The Stranger making the same arguments against Lee regardless of how you played him, and Lee always dying no matter how you dealt with his arm, to Season 2'd ending.

You're right about Until Dawn being the best example of this, but I want to give some credit where it's due.

I don't hate Warren like some fans do, but I never cared for him. He had nothing that really seemed all that interesting to me compared to characters like Chloe or Kate or, hell, even some of the minor characters like Taylor and Dana. His whole conflict is "Hey Max, wanna go to the movies with me?" and that's about it. I'd like if they did more with him beyond his infatuation with Max. I'm still bummed him and Brooke don't have much interaction. They'd make a way better couple then him and Max.

As for why Pricefield's popular... Well besides the obvious, probably because Max and Chloe have a lot of great chemistry and interactions with each other as well as some totally adorable moments. I wouldn't say they started "shoving it in" by Episode 5. If anything, Episode 3 really felt like the point where they were giving Pricefield a lot of fuel(Namely the kiss dare and the pool scene). Now granted, I've never done a playthrough where I do accept Warren's invite to the drive-in, so maybe I might be missing some Grahamfield moments, but Warren's crush on her felt kinda shallow to me. I didn't hate it, but it definitely felt like that kind of "Young guy crushing on girl who's a few years older then him"(I know Warren's not super young compared to Max, but he is younger IIRC).

As for the endings... Yeah, won't completely defend them. They are great ideas, but I wish you could explore the outcome. And yes, I know their are a shitton of fanfics about what happens after the endings, but I wish we actually got to see our consequences instead of everything we've done basically ending up being completely pointless.

Also I don't care what anyone says, I still headcannon that not everyone died in Bae over Bay's ending. DONTNOD didn't say anything about the death count or who died, so it's up to the players to come up with a outcome. And I choose not everyone died. Don't have to agree, course.

Until Dawn and Life is Strange feel like Quantic Dreams and Telltale (Respectively) done right in terms of gameplay.

edited 18th Aug '16 8:50:52 PM by ScottPilgrim2013

I assume she is turning the clock back.I figure she moves her position in the timestream so that she can be behind the door.

edited 18th Aug '16 9:03:30 PM by GethKnight

The reason I liked Warren so much is because he's one of the few completely genuine characters in the game.

The fact that the game doesn't give all that much in the room of Warren moments despite the fact he's supposed to be a love interest comes across as lopsided and like the game is trying to push Chloe.. which doesn't work if you, say, have issues with Chloe like I did.

Until Dawn is totally a better David Cage game then anything Cage has made.

I didn't really see how Warren was "Genuine". He came off as really bland and cliche. Also a bit of a prick at times. Like I said, I don't hate Warren, but I never really cared for him.

Warren's certainly a realistic human being.

Realistic? Maybe. Interesting? Not so much.

Oh I don't call most realistic characters interesting either. The opposite actually. I was just giving my guess on what Epic Bleye meant.

Well, that, and the fact that the normal character that helps Max simply because he wants to in a cast that all has issues, ulterior motives, or is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold is a nice breather.

I guess that can help, but I just never could make myself care for him. Again, that probably has to do with me not "Going Ape" with him, but he felt more plastic then the Alpha Bitch trio of the school. It's kinda hard to say what would make him work for me. Maybe just spend less time on his attempts at dating Max and more on things like his nerdy likes and such.

xwhatever - I still think the point of the Save Arcadia Bay ending is that all of your choices up to that point have been meaningless. The final choice is between having everything you did matter, or having it not matter.

I can't deny though, that, mechanically speaking, your choices during the game have no effect on the final choice. It's just a stone cold fact.

Warren basically felt obligatory to me. He didn't have much of an identity or personality beyond being an okay guy that you can go for if you don't like Max/Chloe so much, and he was all but irrelevant to the plot.

Have you ever seen an adaptation where a character was hastily added to the story who had nothing to do with the source material and thus doesn't really do much beyond hang out, be kinda cool, maybe lend a hand once or twice for things the characters just handled themselves in the original, but mostly just kept popping up to remind people that he exists? That's what Warren seemed like, except Life is Strange isn't an adaptation of anything so it's weird how little involvement he has with any of the game's plotlines.

But yeah, as others have noted, some people got a "Nice Guy" vibe from him. Qualities I'm sure were meant to make him endearing just left a lot of players feeling creeped out.

They sort of do. If you regret the consequences of your choices, it's easier to justify wiping the slate than if you think you did really well and helped a lot of people. Things like whether Victoria was killed, whether the train got derailed, whether Kate killed herself, etc. can color a person's perspective on whether they've created a timeline worth remaining in.

edited 19th Aug '16 10:10:33 AM by TobiasDrake

I agree with that, but that's a narrative and emotional thing the player has, I was speaking in terms of pure mechanics, which is what I thought people were referring to (ie, choices made early don't make new choices available at the end, or take them away, it's always the same choice). It's absolutely valid that your personal experience of the game affects what choice you make at the end, but every player gets the same choice.

Also, it's possible to derail the train? Damn.

You can derail the train?

No, sorry, I might have misremembered the consequences of breaking the train switch.

That's all fine and dandy, but it doesn't make sense thematically in the least. The game's whole thing was "your choices matter!" and when the last choice goes "just kidding! none of them mattered!" no matter which choice you pick, it completely clashes with the rest of the game's entire purpose and themes.

This is why I said that Steins Gate is superior in literally everyway. You have a similar idea behind it, but it's got far more reasoning behind why this stuff is happening and it's themes are consistent- including themes of the futility of your choices and actions throughout the whole story rather than just at the end.

Not necessarily both. The Chloe ending basically makes all your choices nonexistent by unwriting Max's involvement in the timeline, but the tornado ending is deliberately ambiguous on the amount of damage it does to the city.

In the aftermath, we never see a single person living or dead. We see lots of destruction, but not a single body. The diner where several major characters were holed up makes a brief appearance looking remarkably intact, strongly suggesting that the people inside it made it out okay. David's in a bunker, so his safety is without question. If Max talked her off the ledge, Kate was also supposed to leave town that morning, so she's safe too. Meanwhile, the lead-up to the dream sequence gives Max an opportunity to help various other characters to at least have a chance of finding shelter.

Ultimately, while there were undoubtedly a LOT of people killed in the tornado, the game leaves it to audience interpretation how many of the characters we met and interacted with throughout the game survived.

EDIT: In essence, the climax of Life is Strange asserts that sometimes, no matter how hard you try to do right by others, bad things happen as a consequence of your choices. Sometimes an unforeseeable consequence.

Sacrifice Chloe is about embracing nihilism. Accepting that the world would be a better place if Max had stayed in her shell and never made the effort in the first place.

Sacrifice Arcadia Bay is about accepting the hard truth that actions have consequences and the only thing we can do is try to brace for them when they come, do what we can to mitigate the damage, and start moving forward again once they've passed.

edited 19th Aug '16 12:18:24 PM by TobiasDrake

How much is dooming hundreds to die accepting the consequences for your mistakes? Sacrificing the town to save Chloe is a selfish choice: stating that Max's love for Chloe is more important than the life of the townsfolk. Maybe some survived, but Max has no way of knowing who would survive.

Max, and by extension, the player, do not suffer consequences. If the player doesn't care about the townsfolk, then they get to ride off happily with Chloe.

edited 19th Aug '16 1:17:44 PM by SilentColossus