History VideoGame / LifeIsStrange

* RiddleForTheAges:
** So how did Max gain the ability to time travel? It's never fully addressed, there are barely any hints as to how or why she got it.
** Exactly why Max got a vision of the storm ''before'' she got her time powers, [[spoiler:despite her powers supposedly being responsible for the storm]] goes completely unexplained.

* RunningGagged: Alyssa suffers a harmless misfortune in every episode with which Max can intervene...until the final episode, when Max needs to try and save her from one such misfortune during the storm -- which will kill her.

** Episode 4 offers a pretty cruel one. [[spoiler:Help Alternate!Chloe commit suicide or refuse. She gets mad about the latter, but Max has to live with the former]].

** In Episode 5, instead of running for shelter, Max and Chloe are at the beach, standing in front of the giant tornado that is about to destroy the town, [[TalkingIsAFreeAction and talk about how they'd do anything to keep each other safe]].

* CoversAlwaysLie: A minor case. The game's official art shows Max using her power while holding out her left hand. In the game, she does this with her right hand. Max actually reproduces said image in her journal.

** The Prescotts. Their corruption spreads back over a century - [[spoiler:in their secret barn, you can find photos and letters showing they were ruining people's lives right from the beginning]]. They're running (or at least funding) [[spoiler:an illegal photography operation]] and might have been doing so for a long time. Sean Prescott is a greedy CorruptCorporateExecutive who seems to be trying to take over the whole town, and who willingly withholds help and treatment for his son Nathan's severe mental health issues. Meanwhile, Nathan is an aggressive, high-strung JerkJock who legally and violently threatens anyone who treads on his toes, appears to carry a gun with him at all times, and, willingly or not, [[spoiler:drugs and abducts girls for Mr. Jefferson to use in said illegal photography operation]]. The only exception out of all of them is Nathan's sister, [[OnlySaneMan Kris Prescott]], who works in the Peace Corps and seems to be oblivious to everything that's going on in Arcadia Bay.

* IllPretendIDidntHearThat: Mr. Jefferson says this three times. The first two are to Victoria in Episode 3, first for [[spoiler:coming on to him]] and second for [[spoiler:trying to blackmail him]]. Strangely, in Episode 4, [[spoiler:Jefferson declares her the "Everyday Heroes" contest winner anyway, said contest being one of the main reasons she kept coming on to him]]. The third time being to Max in Episode 5, where she can snark him out in the middle of his lesson [[spoiler:after she finds out that he helped cover up Rachel's murder, he helped Nathan kidnap Kate, and he murdered Chloe and Nathan.]]

* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Convincing Victoria to [[spoiler:be wary of Nathan]] results in her [[spoiler:turning to Mr. Jefferson for help and getting kidnapped and murdered in Episode 5. Going to the CoolTeacher for help with a troublesome student ''sounds'' like the right thing to do, except when said teacher is real threat behind said student]].

** Chloe, on the other hand, suffers much more dangerous misfortune each episode, which Max must then rescue her from. [[spoiler:Episode 3 plays with this, making Max the cause of said misfortune as a cliffhanger]].

* PhlebotinumBreakdown: Max is unable to use her time travel powers when she has to [[spoiler:save Kate]]. It is implied to be due to [[HeroicRROD earlier over-use of said powers]].

** Exactly why Max got a vision of the storm ''before'' she got her time powers, [[spoiler:despite said powers supposedly being responsible for the storm]] goes completely unexplained.

As Chloe and Max try to patch their rusted friendship, and figure out how the other has changed in their mutual absence, Max learns of [[TheAce Rachel Amber]], a former Blackwell Academy student who disappeared six months ago under mysterious circumstances after meeting someone who allegedly "changed her life". Chloe, who had formed a strong bond with Rachel after Chloe's father died and Max moved away, is desperate to find her. In an effort to try and reconnect with her old friend, Max decides to help Chloe look for Rachel. At the same time, Chloe and Max try to investigate the ramifications of Max's new power, spurred by Max's recurring visions of a tornado wiping out the town in four days.

* FirstInstallment: To the Life is Strange franchise.

*** Resolving the confrontation with Frank by either [[spoiler:trying to shoot Frank or not]]. In the former, [[spoiler:you're out of bullets, so it does nothing]], but he'll still leave while warning that he won't forget the attempt, although Chloe will be relieved and much happier than if Max doesn't pull the trigger. If you do the latter, [[spoiler:he takes the gun]] and leaves with a warning to Chloe alone. Chloe will [[spoiler:be glad it was taken despite her earlier enthusiasm for the weapon, though she'll also claim that she could manage to find another if necessary. She still nags you about it later, but doesn't seem to be too pissed off.]]

*** Resolving the confrontation with Frank by either [[spoiler:trying to shoot Frank or not]]. In the former, [[spoiler:you're out of bullets, so it does nothing]], but he'll still leave while warning that he won't forget the attempt. If you do the latter, [[spoiler:he takes the gun]] and leaves with a warning to Chloe alone. Chloe will [[spoiler:be glad it was taken despite her earlier enthusiasm for the weapon, though she'll also claim that she could manage to find another if necessary. She still nags you about it later, but doesn't seem to be too pissed off.]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: To [[Series/TwinPeaks]] and [[Film/DonnieDarko]].

** The optional photos can vary on being obvious to somewhat obscure, and several need to be taken from specific angles. The game does offer hints via the placeholder photographs, but these can be hit or miss. For example, the first photo in Episode 3 requires taking a picture of a figurine in Victoria's room. What the game doesn't tell you is that the figurine is glow-in-the-dark, which you learn by rifling through the trash and finding the box it came in. Then you have to trigger that effect by shining your light on it for a few seconds. The figurine isn't even selectable until you've made it glow, so the player might dismiss it as a mere background element. Probably the most sadistic examples are the final photos in Episode 5. They're very well hidden in the nightmare sequences, which are not only much more difficult to navigate than any other part of the game, but also the last place you'd even suspect to contain photo opportunities because, you know, it's a living nightmare where taking photos is the least of anyone's worries.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: When Max and Chloe [[spoiler:sneak into the school after-hours to search for evidence, Chloe is confident David won't report her to the police if he catches her, since that would be an embarrassment. She turns out to be right, since David will cover for her if he gets the message from the cops about spotting her car on campus]].
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Nathan boasts of being above the law because his family owns half the town. Since the police is heavily implied to be on his father's payroll, the cop in the diner admits it when questioned by Max, and reporting Nathan to the principal does nothing so it's not an unjustified opinion. [[spoiler:Though you can get the principal to suspend him in the wake of Kate's suicide attempt, he just threatens to sue the school and treats it flippantly. His father, however, does not take it so well, and by the time you see him in Episode 3, Nathan's not in that great of a mood. Episode 3 also shows that Nathan's father has bought Nathan's record expungement on more than one occasion, and if Nathan is suspended or expelled, he threatens to pull his funding to the school unless Nathan is reinstated]].

* SlowMotionFall: [[spoiler:Chloe, when Mr. Jefferson shoots her at the junk yard and also when Nathan shoots her in the bathroom at the end]].

* StalkerShrine: In Episode 5, [[spoiler:during the NightmareSequence, Max can open up Warren's locker and find a shrine filled with photoshops of Max's face on bikini models and a bikiniclad Max doll]].

** A twofer that spans Episodes 1 and 2: In the middle of Episode 1, you have to visit Max's friend Dana to get back a flash drive that Dana borrowed. While doing this, you can look around the room. Look in the trash can and you'll find [[spoiler:a pregnancy test]]. Of course, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome since you did this right in front of Dana, she'll notice and call you out for snooping into her private business]]. At this point, you're meant to use Max's time powers to undo this action, but you can choose not to, in which case talking to Dana in Episode 2 will trigger a special sequence where Max apologizes and patches things up with Dana.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** It seems that Nathan is a typical popular jock at school. He's in with the Vortex Club (the popular clique) and if you accuse him of having a gun in Episode 1, the general reaction from faculty will be "but he's a Prescott!" However, his steadily-increasing unsettling behavior--violently lashing out, threatening students, and other sketchy doings--eventually catches on. Even members of the Vortex Club will admit to being freaked out by him.
** Chloe uses the junkyard as an impromptu shooting range. You can tell her which targets to hit, like bottles and tires. However, if you tell her to shoot at an old car bumper, the bullet will ricochet off the metal and into Chloe's side, necessitating you to rewind time to prevent it.
** The game gives a fail scenario if you shout a warning too soon about [[spoiler:Max's kidnapper]] lying in wait for the rescuer. After all, he is in range to [[spoiler:slug Max]]; why would he not silence her?

* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** If you look closely at Kate's notes in Mr. Jefferson's class at the start of the game, you can see that she's drawn a noose hanging from a tree with a pool of blood below it. [[spoiler:An early sign that Kate is suicidal.]]
** In the parking lot Max visits in Episode 1, there is a graffiti at the bicycle stands saying "cars = death". Later it is revealed that the main source of Chloe's angst is that her father had died in a car accident. [[spoiler:At the end of episode 3, Max uses her powers to save him, which results in a timeline where Chloe ends up in a car accident instead.]]
** "Santa Monica Dream" by Angus and Julia Stone plays late in Episode 1. [[spoiler:The song's chorus, which begins with "goodbye to my Santa Monica dream" foreshadows that Chloe will never make it to California to live out her dream with Rachel, much less find her alive.]]
** A short-term one in Episode 1 when Max is in Chloe's room. If you look at the closet and the window, Max mentions her childhood memories of using the closet as a hiding place and daring each other to climb down from the window. At the end of the same scene, David enters the room and Max has the option hide in the closet. After the confrontation, they leave by climbing down the window.
** While sitting in the diner in Episode 2, Max mentions that she wishes the moment would last forever and that though she could technically keep rewinding, it wouldn't really be a "moment". [[spoiler:In the climax of the episode, she manages to completely freeze time by essentially doing a slow, constant rewind]].
** In Episode 2, there is an optional photo at the Two Whales Diner. The hint in the journal shows the Diner Sign next to the sun. However, when taking the picture, the sun is blocked by the sign. [[spoiler:The sign foreshadows three of the upcoming anomalies:]]
*** [[spoiler:The sun is blocked: the solar eclipse of Episode 2.]]
*** [[spoiler:"Two '''Whales''' Diner" Sign: the whales stranding of Episode 3.]]
*** [[spoiler:"'''Two''' Whales Diner" Sign: the twin moon of Episode 4.]]
** In Episode 1, Max first sees Chloe's truck double parked in a handicapped spot, and in Episode 3, they can choose to steal money from the handicapped fund in the principal's office. [[spoiler:By the end of the episode, after Max has altered the timeline so Chloe's father lives, the alternate Chloe is paralyzed from the neck down and in a wheelchair]].
** In Episode 2, the spirit doe appears in the junkyard despite nothing supernatural going on in that area. In Episode 4, [[spoiler:Max and Chloe learn that Rachel was buried in the junkyard. The spot where the doe appears is exactly where she was buried]].
** In that same junkyard, there are some syringes that look like they were just used recently. [[spoiler:This place is likely where Rachel was overdosed and killed.]]
** There are some hints to who has been the BigBad all along:
*** In Episode 1, [[spoiler:Mr. Jefferson dismisses a particular philosophy of photography by saying he could easily frame any of the students in a dark room and capture their moment of desperation.]]
*** Another hint comes from [[spoiler:his artwork, which almost exclusively focuses on younger women in vulnerable positions.]]
*** [[spoiler:Jefferson victim blaming Kate in Episode 2, just before her suicide attempt. In the same scene, Jefferson looks surprised when Max mentioned Rachel Amber.]]
*** In Episode 3, you find the duct tape needed to make the pipe bomb [[spoiler:in Mr. Jefferson's classroom]].
*** In Episode 4, [[spoiler:you find a note addressed to Nathan telling him to "stop calling (the writer's) name in public". Max guesses that this must be from Nathan's father, but why would Nathan call his father by name?]]
*** The mere fact that you could [[spoiler:blame Mr. Jefferson for Kate's suicide attempt]] in Episode 2 indicates that that character plays a larger role than the player might think.
*** [[spoiler:While the Dark Room functions as a sinister sounding name for what amounts to a torture dungeon, it is also a photography reference, where a darkroom is a workshop for processing light sensitive photographic film.]]
** Max first discovers her power in Episode 1, when Nathan shoots Chloe in the stomach. Chloe is wearing a shirt with a skull on it at the time. [[spoiler:In Episode 4, Chloe receives a bullet to the skull.]]
** When Max is talking to Mr. Jefferson in Episode 2, she tells him that she doesn't want Kate to become "the next Rachel Amber". [[spoiler:In Episode 4, it's revealed that Kate and Rachel were both drugged and nonconsensually photographed in humiliating and sexually suggestive positions]].
** If you look closely at Max's character model during the opening cutscene of Episode 1, when she wakes up during the storm, you can see [[spoiler:a tiny little mark on her neck, right where Mr. Jefferson sticks her with a needle in Episode 4, set the night before the vision takes place]].
** In Episode 4, Max mentions ''Star Trek'' in her journal. [[spoiler:She refers to a moment where having saved a doomed person messed up time in the series - the thing she has to painfully understand in Episode 5.]]
** The graffiti littering the environments in the game foreshadow [[spoiler:that saving Chloe's life in Episode 1 causes the storm. This includes phrases like "JUST GOTTA LET GO" (which is positioned right behind Chloe when she dances on her bed in Episode 1), "THIS IS BIGGER THAN YOU" and "PLEASE JUST KILL ME" written all over the place]].
** During an early scene in Episode 5, [[spoiler:Max tears her Everyday Heroes photograph in two with the words "Sorry San Francisco, but Chloe comes first". Choosing the Sacrifice Arcadia Bay ending has Max repeat this action on the butterfly photograph, making the same statement non-verbally]].
** A relatively minor one: At one point, Mr. Jefferson begins to deliver a lecture on {{Chiaroscuro}}. When the BigBad is finally revealed [[spoiler:to be Jefferson himself]], it's by way of a FaceFramedInShadow thanks to [[spoiler:Max dropping her cellphone]].
** One of the few failure screens that shows the immediate consequences of not being fast enough to solve a puzzle is when you prevent Chloe from getting murdered by Nathan in Episode 1, where Nathan tries to get Chloe to get up. [[spoiler:As it turns out, this was how that encounter was supposed to go from the beginning.]]
** Kate being [[spoiler:DrivenToSuicide]] at the end the Episode 2 is foreshadowed early on when Max looks at her violin and notes that she stopped playing a week ago. [[spoiler:Giving up preferred activities is a warning sign of suicidal ideation.]]
** When you put together the clues to find the Dark Room, David's coordinates will reveal that he was following four cars: The first, TWNPKS, is Chloe's truck. The second, SXFTNDR, is Nathan's. The third, TWLGHTZN, belongs to an unknown individual who has a car that strongly resembles Nathan's, and the fourth, TPFTHLK, is Mr. Jefferson's, seen at the end of Episode 2. [[spoiler:If you pay attention to the coordinates that each car was recorded at, it turns out that Nathan and Jefferson's cars were at the exact same location the night Kate was drugged, the Prescott Farmhouse. This turns out to be the location of the Dark Room, and foreshadows Jefferson's involvement in the whole thing prior to the twist at the end of the episode.]]
** Max writes in her journal that she'll become a victim of whatever's happening at Blackwell if she keeps playing "amateur detective". [[spoiler: Indeed, at the end of Episode 4, she's drugged and kidnapped by Mark Jefferson, and in the subsequent episode, he taunts her about how she should've focused on her schoolwork instead of "private detecting" with Chloe.]]
** Episode 2 sees Max having to manipulate a lever in order to switch a train onto another track in order to prevent Chloe from being run over. This could be taken as a visual reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem the trolley problem]], which asks whether it's more ethical to allow five people to die or to kill one person to save them. [[spoiler:The game presents you with this same choice on a much larger scale at the end of Episode 5.]]
** Nathan's license plate is "SXFTNDR" (Series/SixFeetUnder) which is a clue as to what [[spoiler:he did to Rachel, and what Mr. Jefferson will do to him]] .
** The first thing that the player will actively rewind when Max discovers her powers is accidentally smashing her camera. A short time later, it gets destroyed anyway in a scuffle with Nathan, which Max realizes too late to rewind. In the ensuing scene, she tries to fix it using tools borrowed from David, only to find that it's futile and accepts William's old camera from Chloe. [[spoiler:The very next thing you do is save Chloe from being killed in a scuffle with Nathan. You then spend the game saving her from strange accidents, until the beginning of Episode 5, where she's killed in circumstances that make it impossible to rewind. You spend the chapter trying to save her, after being rescued by David, only to realize that the only way to save the town is to let her die or let the town be destroyed.]]
** In Episode 1, when Max explores Chloe's house and sits on the swing, she thinks back to her childhood memories with Chloe. She says she doesn't believe that she could ever be a photographer, and Chloe says that she's already a photographer and her pictures will some day be in a museum. In Episode 5, [[spoiler:in one of the alternate timelines Max wins the Everyday Heroes contest and her photo ends up in an exhibition. Apparently it's also the most popular of all the photos there.]]
** At the party in Episode 4, Max says in internal monologue: "If that tornado came right now, I would just sit here and watch for a while", [[spoiler:foreshadowing the Sacrifice Arcadia Bay ending.]]

* MuseAbuse: Taken UpToEleven by [[spoiler:Mr. Jefferson]] who explains that the torment in the faces of his "models" is what makes his photographs so special.

A remastered version was released in 2022 as part of the ''Life Is Strange Remastered Collection''.

This new power comes in handy with the other major difficulty in Max's life: Arcadia Bay. Coming back after five years of total absence is difficult enough, and Max's social life is made complex by her choice of high school: Blackwell, an elite institution to which Max has a full ride scholarship, studying photography. [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters The town and school are filled with a diverse cast of characters]], all of whom have their own secrets and agendas. Max must not only do her best to help Chloe find the missing Rachel, [[BigManOnCampus whom everybody seems to know]], she must navigate the treacherous waters of personal relationships with the people around her, and not all of them have good intentions at heart.

A remastered version was released in 2022 as part of the ''Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection''.

** The only consequence that comes with [[spoiler:watering Lisa the plant]] is that [[spoiler:the plant will stay alive and healthy.]]

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Chloe, whose hair is dyed blue. One of the background characters, Alyssa, has hair different shades of purple.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: InUniverse: If Max ignores Kate's call in Episode 2, Chloe says that she'll survive. [[spoiler:Taking it automatically clears one of the prompts at the climax. However, if the player ignores it, she very well may not.]]

In March of 2021, a remastered version was announced alongside a remaster of ''Before the Storm'' as part of the ''Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection'', set to launch in early 2022. The remaster will also see the games released on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch for the first time.

* CassandraTruth: Nathan ''wields a gun'' in girls' bathroom. When Max tries to expose this to the Principal, he just brushes it off. If only David could install some ''metal detectors'' instead of cameras.

* AdultFear: Nathan ''wields a gun'' with himself. In the school. And when Max tries to expose this to the Principal, he just brushes it off. If only David could install some ''metal detectors'' instead of cameras.