Life is Strange

x3

Well, yes, and I accept that that's what the game eventually went with. I just think it was a missed opportunity. It seemed like the logical direction to 'go' with Rachel when Ep 1 was out, but the series doesn't say much about Rachel. We get images that she was complicated and not as Chloe saw her, but those moments say more about the people reflecting on them than they do Rachel herself and the game doesn't really give a full picture of her. Developing her into a foil or counterpart to Max and thus the player could have created an interesting dynamic.

This is pre-Beyond the Storm which I haven't actually played.

LIS 1 doesn't say much about Rachel, all we have is Chloe's biased view. But it's interesting that despite being a popular girl, nobody seems to be missing her too much (except Chloe of course).

BTS is the one that gives her more characterization. We still know only what Chloe knows, but we as an audience can view her without Chloe's bias. This makes her a more complex and ambiguous character than in the original game. This game also makes her, to some degree or another, a foil to Max, Chloe, and even Victoria.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

One thing I disliked about Before the Storm is that it really wants to sell Chloe/Rachel as soulmates when, if Chloe has one, it's Max. For better or worse, Rachel had broken up with Chloe and was actively seeking new boyfriends at the time with our serial killing photographer being her current crush.

I understand how they wanted to tell a beautiful romance between the two but...well, I feel like an equally good story would be the heartbreak of loving someone who doesn't feel the same way.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 14th 2020 at 10:09:44 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

I think you are taking this soulmate thing too seriously. I myself don't believe that there is any "soulmate" thing going on, in an objective sense, between Chloe and either Max or Rachel. But the story is told from the main characters' perspective, and they at least think that there is. Which is pretty normal for someone who falls in love. But we get to see how it ends badly when Rachel just dumps Chloe for Frank. As for Max and Chloe, the story is cut short, in one way or another, before we could know how their relationship would turn out in the long run. If you save Chloe then LIS 2 will confirm that they are still together after 3 years, which is better than with Rachel at least.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

The story in Before the Storm doesn't have to take a romantic route, though the option is there. While it's clear that Chloe is madly in love with Rachel (at least by the time of Life Is Strange), I never read their relationship as a romantic one. I thought it was, as you said, an unrequited love.

My interpretation is that Chloe and Rachel were a thing for a short time and Rachel broke it off before wanting to stay friends. The Reality Ensues being that Chloe remained madly in love with Rachel while being her friend.

Which is why it ruins so many friendships to start a relationship.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 14th 2020 at 11:36:48 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

The story in the original works better if Rachel and Chloe were dating, so that's why I interpreted their relationship as romantic in the prequel.

Rachel's letter to Chloe didn't feel like a breakup letter.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

To be fair, most people assumed that Rachel and Chloe were a thing before Before the Storm so Before the Storm making them out to be canon it just keeping in line with what Life is Strange heavily implied. That being said, Chloe and Max being romantic is completely optional if you disregard Life is Strange 2 apparently making them canon. You can just as easily refuse to kiss Chloe as you can choose to kiss her and you can also go the romance route with Warren if you want (Though most people ship Max and Chloe anyways and I've never seen anyone actually do that. Still, it's an option.).

I think the game's leave it pretty open-ended how Max/Chloe and Rachel/Chloe feel about each other. At least, it can swing either best friend/lovers. Chloe clearly has strong fixation on Rachel, but at least on my initial run I didn't immediately see it as romantic.

I don't really know what a soulmate is. But I think Chloe and Rachel's montage in BTS counts and Chloe clearly thought well of her. It was nice seeing that friendship/relationship... start at least, and get a sampling of what LIS implied.

Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).

Fuck, thanks for reminding me of that. That last shot of Before the Storm fucking haunts me.

I've noticed the fandom almost exclusively goes for Max/Chloe, but going by the stats a surprisingly high number of people choose the Warren route. 68% of people according to the wiki.

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

I fired up the game after a long time just to see the current stats stats. It says that 64% kissed Warren in Ep. 5, and 79% kissed Chloe in Ep. 3. But while you can influence Max's affection towards Chloe in the BFF—lover scale, Chloe is more clearly in love with Max.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

Again, I never read Max and Chloe as anything more than friends. I never got the sense either of them was crushing on the other, and the kiss came across to me as more of a dare than an actual romantic thing. Are there even any overt romantic options between Max and Chloe?

In fairness, me not reading relationships as romantic could just be a me thing, rather than the game trying to present things in a certain way.

Just played The second game a while ago. Better in some ways, worse in others. I like how the choices mattered more, but I didn't really like the whole ACAB angle. (The game came out before ACAB was a thing, but still.)

Also, I don't think the Bad Orange Man is mentioned anywhere, so what does he have to do with anything in this game?

Good thing I chose to keep Daniel on the right path. I think my favorite ending is the one where Sean gets to Mexico but Daniel doesn't.

There are some optional text conversations between Sean and his friend freaking out about Trump getting elected. They don't use his name, but it's clearly him.

They allude to him constantly with Trump's Border Wall the final obstacle.

Their grandpa also has a Maga hat.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Oof, I missed that and I finished that episode last week.

I had to google what ACAB was. Anyway, meh, a friend told me that LIS 2 was a little "political" but I think it's handled subtly enough. Granted, the game came out a while ago and it was probably a hotter topic at the time of release.

Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).

While I do like LIS 2 I can't say any part of it's quite captured things like these:

Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).

I mean...the first LIS literally had a subplot about an abusive capitalist taking over the town.

DONTNOD's first game was a cyberpunk analysis of how memory modifying technology would affect the world.

It's a little shifty to start complaining about "politics" just because the Inciting Incident of 2 involved a corrupt copper.

TV Tropes's No. 1 bread themed lesbian. she/her, fae/faer

There are political topics in LIS1 too, but they are handled much more subtly than in LIS2. That's what annoys many people.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

LIS 2 is good but the problem is people wanted more Max or female coming of age stories.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Maybe I'm missing your point, but it seems to me that's not a problem with a game, that's a problem with the players. It's a problem with media consumers in general; they/we just want more of the same, and that's what leads to the endless reboots and remakes and annual releases of Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed. DONTNOD are one of the few devs out there who are trying to make something a little different, and I worry a bit that they've found their niche here with episodic narrative-driven games, though so far they haven't truly fallen into the rut; Life Is Strange 2 is their only 'sequel' so far, and it's not even a true sequel, and it's worth remembering they didn't develop Before The Storm.

[remembers I'm bummed because Tell Me Why is xbox exclusive]

Anyway, I get it, people loved Max and Chloe, I loved Max and Chloe, and that whole game, it's one of my favourites ever, but their arc is pretty much played out. Move on to something else; more importantly, let DONTNOD move on to something else.

If I had more to say, I forgot it, which is probably for the best, and sorry, I kinda went off on one there based on what was a fairly unassuming comment :D

Edited by artfulscruff on Nov 16th 2020 at 8:37:02 PM

I actually appreciate that LIS2 went with a new, different story with new, different characters. I like it how they chose to explore an entirely different kind of relationship than in the first game. I didn't really like its tone how it handles the political topics, but that's not overly bad either, so I could still enjoy the story. But still, it didn't have a lasting effect on me as LIS1 did. That's because I, a geek who spends his free time playing video games, can more easily relate to Max and Chloe's characters than that of Sean and Daniel. And, as I mentioned a few pages earlier, this is probably the main reason why LIS2 became less popular. The average gamer just feels the same as I am.

It's also interesting to notice another difference between the two games. Not necessarily a fault of any of them, just as a side note. LIS1 is driven more by characterization, while LIS2 is driven more by external events. What I mean by this is that in LIS1 the main conflict comes from the characters themselves, with all this serial killer plot is more of a backdrop. The same is true for BTS. Meanwhile, LIS2 is about how the situation, the need to be on the run, shapes the characters.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

Maybe I'm missing your point, but it seems to me that's not a problem with a game, that's a problem with the players. It's a problem with media consumers in general; they/we just want more of the same,

It's still a problem players have with the game if it's not capturing the same spirit/relatability that the first game had.

I agree people are looking at it the wrong way. I enjoy LIS 2 in spite of it missing Max and Chloe because we already see their adventures continued in comic book format.

That said, I like that Dontnod allowed a new story to take hold while not abandoning the old one. I really hate the artsy "must create something new/divorce oneself from the old" attitude. If LIS had ended without BTS or the comics I'd have been firmly disappointed with the first 2 episodes of LIS 2 no matter how gripping the story.

Edited by FOFD on Nov 16th 2020 at 9:56:27 AM

Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).