Thanks For Crying.

[rionaleonhart]

I finished Life Is Strange last night!

The 'finding bottles to shoot' sequence was a bit frustrating, but I was very entertained (whilst also being horrified) afterwards, when I screwed up my aiming instructions so badly that I accidentally made Chloe shoot herself. Sorry, Chloe! Sorry for the trauma, Max.



I was so upset by the scene with Kate on the roof in Chapter Two. I actually cried a bit during it. I screwed up on my first attempt and she jumped and I, er, reloaded the last checkpoint. I know, I know, it was a big dramatic moment because Max's power faltered and she couldn't rewind and THERE WERE NO DO-OVERS, but I really really wanted to save Kate, come on.


reipan came into the room halfway through Episode Two, watched a bit of the interaction between Max and Chloe and immediately declared, 'I'm going to be so pissed off if those two don't make out.'

She continued to watch me play, occasionally exclaiming, 'BE MORE INVESTED IN THIS PAIRING.'

'I'm almost certain Chloe has a crush on Max,' I said. 'I'm just waiting to get a better idea of how Max feels about Chloe.'

I reserved judgement until the pool scene in Episode Three, after which I put down the controller and said, 'Okay, yeah, it'll be a travesty if they don't make out.'


You know what I love? Videogame characters having playable hallucinatory breakdowns. It's something that shows up quite a bit, actually; off the top of my head, I've seen it in Final Fantasy VII, Uncharted 3, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, Assassin's Creed: Unity, and now Life Is Strange. The nightmare sequence delighted me.

Well, all right, there was a terrible stealth segment, but most of the nightmare sequence delighted me. I'd forgotten that Square Enix had a connection to this game and therefore it was doomed to get really weird towards the end.

When the nightmare sequence gave you all the out-of-character options for things to say to Mr Jefferson, I stared for a moment, briefly contemplated 'My selfies are shit' as the thing Max would probably hate saying least, and then decided that I might as well go as big and ridiculous as possible. I chose the 'I love you, Mr Jefferson' option. And it was SO CREEPY.

My first venture into the fandom was, I'm ashamed to admit, a hunt for creepy Jefferson fanart, so perhaps my declaration of love wasn't far off. He's absolutely vile, of course, but he's an oddly compelling character. Maybe a bit too eeeeevil, but I suppose it's difficult to portray a teacher who drugs, ties up and photographs his students without making him pretty eeeeevil.


In the end, I saved Arcadia Bay. It's frustrating that none of my earlier actions ultimately had much impact (besides, you know, inflicting lasting hellish psychological damage on Max), and it would have been nice if there had been some way to cheat the final choice by going back in time to evacuate the town, but I still wept a little at the ending. Also, Chloe and Max made out, which is very important.

I'm surprised that over 70% of players kissed Warren! I didn't even get the option to kiss him, which I suppose is because I'd spent the entire game carefully keeping him at arm's length. Sorry, Warren. I just didn't think Max was into you.



So that was Life Is Strange! It's been an interesting experience. It has its flaws as a piece of interactive fiction, and there are moments when it almost feels a bit too dark and bleak, and there's the uncomfortable sense that the characters might say 'lollerskates' at any moment, but overall I've enjoyed it a lot.

I think Max herself was my favourite character. Her internal observations were good fun, and her relationship with Chloe was fascinating, and I liked her conflict over whether she's nice out of the goodness of her heart or just because she wants people to like her. It was pleasant to inhabit her for a while. Even if she did once say 'wowser' three times within the space of ten minutes.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Kate died in my playthrough and I felt sad about it, but I didn't reload as I always try and stick with the choices in these games. I figure that a first playthrough is for making five million mistakes and you correct them if you go back through. Even if Kate died due to the correct answer being a bible verse that literally meant "lol kill yourself", so I avoided it since she was trying to, y'know, kill herself.

I do think it makes more narrative sense for Kate to die, though. Some of the scenes make more sense. The shot in the ending montage is of a candlelit vigil to Kate outside the roof (it really plays on that "now that she's dead, suddenly everybody cares" thing), a lot of the whiteboard things outside of people's rooms are variants of "Sorry Kate", Victoria's dedication to Kate makes more sense, at the beginning of episode 3 if you check Max's computer people are sending her trolling "couldn't save Kate, loser" type of things, Kate's dad sends an email thanking you for trying and inviting you to Kate's funeral, when Chloe is a bit of an ass outside the pool Max snaps because Kate has just died etc. I don't know what happens if Kate doesn't die, but in the nightmare sequence there's also a segment where you catch Kate in the corridor mourning herself at a candlelit vigil at her door, then she repeats her jump through that door. I didn't like that Kate died, but I think it made sense for the narrative.

I also appreciated that it was a bullying narrative as I've spent so much of my life being bullied. I identified a lot with Kate.

Haha, yes, I was going to mention the terrible stealth segment. I explored a lot in the episodes, got to the terrible segment and went "er, not happening". Although I did see somebody exploring in it in a youtube LP and it brings back the bottle collection minigame while Max muses about how it must be hell, which I thought was funny. :P

I find Nathan probably more fascinating than Jefferson, he's a right old bundle of neuroses. (Did you catch that the messages that Max assumes are from Nathan's dad are actually from Jefferson?)

I felt that this game has more weight to the choices than most "make choices" games. Having said that, they're not so much choices that directly affect the ending as they effect how Max feels, character interactions etc. Up until maybe episode 4 Chloe spent the entire game pissed off at me as she never liked my choices. YOU STAYED HIDDEN IN THE CUPBOARD. YOU SPOKE TO YOUR FRIEND. YOU DIDN'T SHOOT A MAN. YOU WOULDN'T LET ME STEAL MONEY. WHY ARE WE EVEN FRIENDS, MAX?

I still find that beginning sequence fascinating and quite telling, with Max ghosting through the crowds with her music and literally nobody paying attention to her. Without her powers, she really was completely unremarkable, grades-wise too. It's like nobody even noticed she was there.

Shout out to my favourite scene: finding Rachel's body. I really think Ashley Burch nails the voice acting in the emotional scenes, too. I didn't like Chloe a lot of the time, but I always tended to sympathise with her.

I also appreciated the world building that went into the very small section of the game in the alternate reality where Chloe's dad lived. From the texts, all the detail in the room/around Chloe's house... lot of effort for a small section. And even if that choice wasn't entirely meaningless, since Max remembered her decision. (The photo jumping is bugged on certain graphics cards, btw - shout out to the steam forums for giving an alternative. You're supposed to focus the picture, but it's either a blackscreen or the picture always looks the same, I can't recall which. Fortunately you can be cued into when it's in focus via sound effects.)

I also had the most random crossover idea based entirely on the word "Blackwell". BLACKWELL SERIES/LIFE IS STRANGE. The Prescotts give lots of money to Blackwell academy MAYBE BECAUSE THEY ARE SECRETLY BLACKWELLS. Thus the Blackwell legacy passes down to Nathan and Joey is his spirit guide. They would hate eachother so much, also Nathan would think he's even crazier. Maybe the ghost of Rachel could bob up or some shit and it'd get really crazy. RANDOMEST CROSSOVER EVER.

[rionaleonhart]

Kate's dad sends an email thanking you for trying and inviting you to Kate's funeral

Oh, God, that's heartbreaking.

YOU STAYED HIDDEN IN THE CUPBOARD. YOU SPOKE TO YOUR FRIEND. YOU DIDN'T SHOOT A MAN. YOU WOULDN'T LET ME STEAL MONEY. WHY ARE WE EVEN FRIENDS, MAX?

Ahahaha, all the things Chloe wants you to do are the worst. With the possible exception of the bit where she asks you to kiss her.

(Did you catch that the messages that Max assumes are from Nathan's dad are actually from Jefferson?)

Oh, wow, I hadn't realised! But that makes a lot of sense. I'd sort of been semi-spoiled for the fact that Mr Jefferson was bad news, or at least I'd heard that the 'I could capture any of you in a dark place' bit was foreshadowing, so I spent the whole game thinking 'okay, Mr Jefferson's behind the disappearances'. Then I actually discovered the Dark Room and went 'all right, I think I got the wrong end of the stick; clearly the real villain here is Nathan's dad.' So the 'OH NO, IT'S MR JEFFERSON' reveal managed to blindside me even though I'd suspected him for the entire game. I can't believe I was thrown off Mr Jefferson's scent by suspicious messages from Mr Jefferson.

Choice differences:

- Lisa survived for me! Purely because I failed to notice her in the first chapter, I suspect. I could so easily have overwatered her.
- I didn't erase any names from the Vortex Club party list.
- I... don't think I erased the cop's answerphone message? I don't remember that at all.
- I didn't warn the homeless woman. I didn't realise there was warning to be done. Whoops.
- I took the photo in the past.
- CHLOE SHOT FRANK IN THE LEG AND I FELT REALLY BAD ABOUT IT but I'd already had to go through the conversation a thousand times to prevent Chloe from being eaten by the dog and I didn't fancy another thousand while I tried to work out where I'd gone wrong.
- Kate helped me find Nathan's room. There's an entire scene with Kate in her hospital room in Episode 4 if you save her.
- I didn't work out the PIN for Nathan's phone. (I was far too amused by the nightmare scene where suddenly the walls are COVERED IN NUMBERS and Max is just so sick of it.)
- I saved the fisherman! Is he the one who gets electrocuted when you turn on the sprinklers to get rid of the fire? I used the sprinklers, went past the fire, and then turned back time to when he was alive.
- I didn't change Joyce's mind about David. I just said 'this is a decision you'll have to make on your own' and she decided against him. Sorry, David.

[(Anonymous)]

Mr Jefferson was onto your suspicion and found a genius plan to turn it all around: by implicating himself! (Apparently one of the car registrations in the "link all the clues together" bit is Jefferson's, too. You don't use it to solve the puzzle, but if you know what you're looking for it's showing he's actually suspicious. I can't corroborate that as I haven't gone back and looked.)

Yes, I was only trying to be a good plant owner. :(

The answer phone message if I recall is blaming Chloe for something. I don't remember what for, but probably something we'd done earlier in the episode or smoking pot or something. I erased it so David didn't know.

The warning to the homeless woman was that there was going to be a tornado.

I took the photo at one point I think, but was having a nightmare with those keys and I rewound past it looking for where to put them.

BUT FRANK. I actually really liked Frank. xD I felt pretty badass going there with no gun (after having missed about 4 chances to get a gun over the last few episodes) and getting out safe. I wonder if it's actually easier with no gun, since I imagine Chloe is pretty trigger happy.

Yeah, sadly no Kate for me. Fortunately, Nathan's room was easy to find based on its Very Obvious Whiteboard Message. It's nice that they didn't just forget about Kate though and gave her an extra bit for living.

I liked the bit with the PIN for Nathan's phone since it had a lot of red herrings. I picked up on it fairly quickly, but I did rewind a few times - I didn't get it in the first 3 attempts. (Haha, those numbers haunting Max... much like the bottles!).

I think so! I tried to save him, Max was like "no can do" so I thought "hmm, not saveable" and moved on. SORRY, FISHERMAN, IT JUST DIDN'T OCCUR TO ME.

I'd been a bit uncomfortable with the scene where David gets kicked out, but I was trying to gain some Chloe karma after she hated me for like everything else. Then after he pretty much helped save my life and I went "btw, Chloe's dead, sorry about that" and he shot Jefferson in rage I kind of figured he deserved a good word. No Chloe, David grieving, Joyce would be grieving, felt it would be better for neither of them to be alone and Max wouldn't want it to be a reminder of her role in splitting them up which had really resulted in nobody being any happier. Maybe I should have left it - David isn't a saint by any means, and Joyce can make her own choices, but felt it would be unfair if I didn't say "yeah he can be a bit of a dick, but he did mean well here, don't want to leave it with you thinking he's some creepy stalker for no reason".

[rionaleonhart]

The warning to the homeless woman was that there was going to be a tornado.

YOU KNOW, MAX, IF YOU'D WARNED MORE THAN JUST ONE PERSON THAT THERE WAS GOING TO BE A TORNADO, YOU COULD HAVE SAVED YOURSELF A LOT OF HEARTBREAK.

Not having the gun didn't help me with Frank; Chloe wrestled it off him and wounded him! (I also kept missing chances to reobtain the gun.) Although perhaps you can't kill him if Chloe doesn't have the gun to begin with.

I did consider putting in a good word for David, and I was a bit sad when Joyce decided against him, largely because of your reasoning; after everything that had happened, it would be best for neither of them to be alone.

[(Anonymous)]

THEY'D THINK SHE'S CRAZY, OKAY. BUT IT'S OKAY IF THE HOMELESS WOMAN THINKS SHE'S CRAZY. NOBODY WILL BELIEVE HER.

Chloe, I love that you aren't a helpless damsel in distress, but now is the time for diplomacy, not wrestling! (I loved that whenever you redid the Frank scene and my Max was like, "Chloe, please, stop making smartass comments. I know how it's going to go, and it's not going to go well!") We're not very good at acquiring guns, are we? Although interestingly enough one of the ways you can reobtain a gun is letting Warren beat up Nathan, then taking Nathan's gun, if I recall. That one's kind of an interesting one, since it could implicate Nathan in something that he had nothing to do with for once.

I'M SORRY I WRECKED YOUR FAMILY, JOYCE. I WAS ONLY TRYING TO BE A GOOD FRIEND. BUT CHLOE PROBABLY NEEDS SAVING FROM HERSELF.

[(Anonymous)]

Here were my choice trees:

Episode 3 major choices - https://postimg.org/image/p3tglski1/
Episode 3 minor choices - https://postimg.org/image/mnrn7y2fd/
Episode 4 major choices - https://postimg.org/image/49lphpfih/
Episode 4 minor choices - https://postimg.org/image/ihbe6cs7d/
Episode 5 major choice - https://postimg.org/image/iilbzru15/
Episode 5 minor choices - https://postimg.org/image/kbo8o3f7t/

I missed a lot in episode 5, it seems!

-

While they're uploading, I'm finally on episodes of Quantum Leap I haven't seen before. And I know I said some elements of the show are sort of bleeding effecty, but the premiere of season 5 was another REALLY bleeding effect-like episode. The personality of the person Sam leapt into is bleeding into him, and vice versa. Actually, one thing Quantum Leap has taught me is that Scott Bakula is a really great actor. Normally you see him playing Sam playing at being somebody else. In Shock Theatre, he really thinks he's those people and his mannerisms totally change as he's not playing Sam, he's playing them. Again, in the season 5 opening you watch him yoyo between Sam and the person he's leapt into, and they're completely different, even in the way he talks. It's fascinating.

I really do think you'd like the show. Do you know the premise of Quantum Leap? I will try and quote Voice Over Lady from memory... this'll be interesting. Probably not word perfect, but you'll get the gist of it.

"Theorising that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists. Pressured to prove his theory or lose funding, he prematurely stepped into the Quantum Leap Accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an Observer from his own time who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see or hear. And so Dr Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home."

Oh, and here are two fairly decent music videos on the series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz4aQi_RNKQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDOkOtspUOg

(There is a surprising lack of Scott Bakula playing women in these videos, though. He had to quite a lot of times over the series!)

-timydamonkey