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    Life Is Strange | [NO SPOILERS] Burn it down by PopovaJr

    February 18, 2020

    Life Is Strange | [NO SPOILERS] Burn it down by PopovaJr

    [NO SPOILERS] Burn it down by PopovaJr

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:31 AM PST

    [S1 E2] A few months ago, I posted an infographic showing stats for a certain scene in S1 E2. I have now seen 2000 attempts at that scene, so I made another.

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:23 AM PST

    [No Spoilers] Been practicing painting and really proud of how this piece came out.

    Posted: 17 Feb 2020 07:50 PM PST

    [ALL] Purple Rose by Dorianpavus

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:22 AM PST

    [No Spoilers],I love when max is wearing that shirt, Is hella cool.

    Posted: 17 Feb 2020 07:08 PM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] this action will have consequences

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:28 AM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] Hey everyone! I’ve made an Instagram filter based on the beautiful cosplay by torimori_cosplay. Life Is Strange is one of my favorite games and it means a lot to me (also love lis2). Thanks to LIS I found out about José González, Syd Matters, Sparklehorse <3

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 03:35 AM PST

    [ALL] This scene is one of my favorites

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:46 AM PST

    [No spoilers] Tattoo by me. Instagram @TheSnakePretzel

    Posted: 17 Feb 2020 07:12 PM PST

    [BtS] Eliot Hampden at the end?

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:56 AM PST

    I saw there were ways for him not to get expelled. In which circumstances does that happen?

    submitted by /u/Nouche_
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    [S2 E5] Red is Death - Fanart by Kysachaya.

    Posted: 17 Feb 2020 10:51 PM PST

    [S2 E5] A Broken Soul. - Fanart by Kysachaya.

    Posted: 17 Feb 2020 10:49 PM PST

    [ALL] Why Before the Storm fails as a Life is Strange Prequel

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 01:30 PM PST

    (This contains spoilers for Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2)

    Prequels are an interesting form of media to me. Interesting in that they can be heavily used to further explain things that might not have been fully delved into in its original source material. Some prequels end up being highly regarded in that sense, such as Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me or Red Dead Redemption 2. Prequels often need to tow the line of being their own thing, but with enough connections to the original medium's story that one can see a prequel and its original medium as a single fleshed out story.

    Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a 2017 prequel to the award winning 2015 game, Life is Strange. Before the Storm revolves around Life is Strange's secondary protagonist, Chloe Price, three years prior to the first game. This game's main story revolves around Chloe meeting the popular Rachel Amber, and how they first met. In three episodes, the game manages to tell a story that answers absolutely nothing about any questions anyone might have had about Rachel's actions from the first game.

    As I said, prequels exist in a weird space. Prequels should be their own stories, but should be additional content to the original medium. A game such as Red Dead Redemption 2 is very much its own story with characters we are familiar with, seen in a different light. How did the gang John Marston belong to turn on him? Red Dead Redemption 2, while not my type of game, I can fully see as a good example of a video game prequel. It is not a rehash of the original game. It tells its own story. But it utilizes characters we already know to tell a story about how John ended up where he did in the original Red Dead Redemption. It works as its own game and story. It also works as a prequel to further answer questions one might have had about Dutch's gang prior to the original game.

    Life is Strange: Before the Storm fails in both aspects. It does not work as its own game, nor does it work as a prequel. Before we begin, I will point out some of the things I do like about the game. As per usual, the music in this game is spot on. The soundtrack performed by Daughter works perfectly for a game that is supposed to be about Chloe Price. I would say the soundtrack is the best thing about the game, and it's worth buying solely because of how great the music is. The atmosphere works as well. Life is Strange is a much calmer game with this sense of longing and nostalgia in it. Before the Storm has a very punk-like rebellious attitude, and that mood emanates from the game and it's main protagonist. Much of the side stuff is fun as well. One good side plot in the game revolves around fleshing out David Madsen's, Chloe's future step-father, a bit more. It gives us a bit more understanding of his character and why Joyce might feel driven to him. It also, however, shows why Chloe holds a grudge against him. Not solely because he can be not good, but also because he represents the replacement of her deceased father, William. Chloe does not want to replace her father, so she more often than not tries to push David away because of that. Chloe's dreams of William and showing how hurt she is and how much she misses him are also quite good.

    Those are about the only good things I can say about the game. And those things are extremely small. Music and atmosphere are great, but if they serve a horrible story then there is really no point to them. Those two things should enhance a game's presentation, not be the only good things in the game. In a game like this, characters and story should be the most important things. And unfortunately, this game falls flat in both respects.

    Characters and their relationships are some of the most important aspects to what sets a Life is Strange game apart from other games in the same genre. Before the Storm's main protagonist duo are Chloe Price and Rachel Amber, their relationship covering the first three days of them meeting, being thrust into a mystery that they must solve while the seedy underbelly of Arcadia Bay rears its ugly head up towards them. If this sounds familiar, it's because it is. The basic structure of Life is Strange: Before the Storm is the exact same structure as the original Life is Strange. Life is Strange's main premise is Max Caulfield reunites with her best friend, Chloe Price, after five years of not speaking. Their relationship is thrust forward by a burgeoning mystery they must solve while the seedy underbelly of Arcadia Bay rears its ugly head up towards them.

    Back to my original example of Red Dead Redemption 2, the basic plots are extremely different. The original Red Dead Redemption is very much about John hunting down the old members of Dutch's gang while exploring the dying Old West setting. Red Dead 2 is the opposite. Arthur, as a member of the gang, participates in many of the robberies and other jobs the gang takes up in order to make money to support themselves while exploring a more lively Old West setting. They are their own distinct stories with different plot structure and story beats.

    Before the Storm follows all of the same story beats as the original game, but because Before the Storm is only three episodes, many of those beats end up rushed to hell and back. Several story beats are the EXACT SAME THING:

    • Max saves Chloe from dying in the bathroom | Rachel saves Chloe from being possibly killed by Damon's thugs
    • Max is threatened with her scholarship being revoked| Chloe is threatened with her scholarship being revoked
    • Max and Chloe fully reunite by chance | Chloe and Rachel meet again at school by chance
    • Max and Chloe investigate a mystery related to Rachel | Chloe and Rachel investigate a mystery related to Rachel
    • Max and Chloe hang out at a junkyard where revelations about Rachel occur | Chloe and Rachel hang out at a junkyard where revelations about Rachel occur
    • Max deals with a guy, Warren, whom she doesn't have feelings for | Chloe deals with a guy, Eliot, whom she doesn't have feelings for
    • A side character, Kate, is hospitalized after a suicide attempt and you visit her in her room | A side character, Mikey, is hospitalized after being assaulted by Damon and you visit him in his room
    • Max can be suspended pending expulsion for blaming Nathan for Kate's attempt | Chloe can be suspended pending expulsion for ditching school
    • Max and Chloe, in the pool, reveal some of their truest feelings for each other (regarded by some as the best scene in the game) | Chloe and Rachel, in the Tempest, reveals some of their motivations and feelings (regarded as the best scene in the game by some)
    • Max and Chloe relax in Chloe's room, where Max and Chloe grow closer | Chloe and Rachel relax in Rachel's room where Rachel and Chloe grow closer
    • Max and Chloe investigate a main antagonist, Nathan, but later learn of a real antagonist, Jefferson, pulling the strings | Chloe and Rachel investigate a main antagonist, Damon, but later learn of a real antagonist, James Amber, pulling the strings
    • Shock reveal that Rachel has been dead all this time | Shock reveal that Sera is actually Rachel's biological mother
      • Both reveals result in Chloe or Rachel losing any restraint or rational thinking
    • Chloe gets shot in the head by Jefferson, propelling Max to go to extremes to save her | Rachel gets stabbed by Damon, propelling Chloe to go to extremes to find the truth for her
    • Max risks her life by confronting Jefferson in order to save Chloe | Chloe risks her life by confronting Damon in order to get the truth for Rachel
    • Max is confronted with a final binary choice where all other choices she made don't matter | Chloe is confronted with a final binary choice where all other choices she made don't matter

    These story beats are the exact same. Sure there are some tweaks to them, but that doesn't make them any less lazy. Pulling off the same story beats and same plots makes Before the Storm not stand out. You can make the dynamic of Chloe and Rachel different from the dynamic of Max and Chloe, but if the story beats are the same then it, again, almost doesn't matter at all. In fact, when you have a dynamic like Chloe and Rachel's you have to be careful because that dynamic can seem toxic and destructive as a result. Max and Chloe's dynamic is a lot more calm and methodical to the mystery they're investigating. Only the discovery of Rachel's death pushes Chloe to the brink. Even before the revelation of who Sera is, Rachel self destructs several times and doesn't think about the consequences of her actions. The problem is that both Chloe and Rachel are self destructive, which results in a toxic relationship where both push the other into more broken habits than reeling the other in.

    The Max and Chloe dynamic does have Max attempting to reel in Chloe's self destructive behaviors. When placed in the aforementioned story beats, it doesn't seem as toxic as when placed with Chloe and Rachel. The story beats being the same is a detriment because it seems like a less well written version of the first game.

    The other main problem is that, as a prequel, it fails to answer anything about Rachel as a character. One of the main selling points of Before the Storm is that it was finally going to allow us to see who Rachel really was! However, because the game is set only within the first three days of them knowing each other we end up knowing NOTHING in the end about the Rachel from the original game. We get a very skewed perspective of who Rachel is. This game also attempts to set up a romance with Rachel, which again doesn't work because the first game makes it clear that their relationship was one-sided in romantic nature. As a result, it ends up skewing Rachel to look worse by the time of the first game. We do not know why Rachel ended up with Frank. We do not know why Rachel ended up with Jefferson. We do not know how Rachel ended up close enough for Nathan to drug and kidnap her. We do not know Rachel.

    Red Dead Redemption 2 allows us to have an intimate look at every member of the gang. An intimate look how they all ended up hateful and resentful of John and by extension Arthur. These antagonists we hunt down in the original suddenly have more meaningful personalities. We grow attached to them, so it ends up hurting when they all turn on Arthur and John.

    Before the Storm isn't like that though. I don't know Rachel well enough to feel hurt when she turns on Chloe and lies to her about Jefferson and Frank.

    The entirety of Red Dead 2 is slowly building up to the original game's story. The end of the game is an extended epilogue where you play as John, and that story ends with setting up the plot for the first game. We know exactly what's going to happen to Arthur in the end because he isn't around for the first game. We know there is a likely bad end for Arthur simply based on that. We know what happens to everyone in the game, but we don't exactly know how it all happened. Red Dead 2 works because the story is its own thing and the game answers those questions on how Dutch's gang fell apart at the seams.

    Before the Storm doesn't answer any question at all. It answers how Chloe and Rachel met, but that was never the most pressing question of the first game. There were many other questions asked, but that was not one of them. Instead, the games creates MORE QUESTIONS than answers! That's not good. A prequel should not create more questions than answers. Some examples are:

    • If Nathan has someone good and caring in his life like Samantha, why does he end up completely losing it by the time of the first game?
    • If Rachel "truly loved Chloe" why does she end up going around with Frank and Jefferson behind her back?
    • If James Amber is willing to kill someone for his daughter's safety, why does he completely give up the search for her only after a month or two?
    • If Chloe spends the entire game basically writing about how much she hates Max, and eventually closes her journal/letters with her saying farewell once and for all to her, why does Chloe so easily take Max back?
    • If Frank is willing to murder Damon to save Chloe as well as allow Chloe to pay her debts in odd jobs for him, why does he stalk Chloe and hold her at knife point for a debt? It makes sense in the first game from the perspective of just being a shady drug dealer, but BtS makes it clear their relationship is a bit more complex than just "Dealer and customer."
    • Chloe says that only Rachel was ever there for her after Max left, but the introductions of Steph and Mikey make it much harder to believe considering how much they enjoy Chloe's company.
    • Why do both ending choices result in the Dark Room? If you withhold the truth from Rachel, she loses her main motivation of leaving Arcadia Bay (that being her losing her love and trust in her family.) So why does she still end up trying to escape the Bay even if she continues to have a good relationship with her dad?
    • If you tell Rachel the truth, why would she not give the same to Chloe about Jefferson and Frank?
    • Why does Blackwell go from being a senior college prep school in the first game to a normal high school in the prequel?
    • If Chloe has a better understanding of David as a person and his problems, and vice versa, why do the two continue to blow up at each other over the smallest details?
    • How is Chloe's mental state worse in the first game than it is at the beginning of Before the Storm?
    • How is a 12 year old Warren already in Blackwell in class with Chloe, who is 15 nearing 16?
    • If this game goes out of its way to demonize Max so badly and make Chloe hate Max more than anything else, again, why does Chloe so easily take Max back into her life?

    There ends up being so many more questions than there are answers. The game fails on both levels of what a prequel needs to be. It needs to be its own story, but still have connections to the first game. It also needs to answer some questions that might come up in the first game that are left unanswered. Before the Storm is neither its own story nor does it try to answer any pressing questions about the original game that went unanswered. A prequel, if played before the original, should also inspire people to want to continue the story and play that original game. Before the Storm, at large, even failed at that with a majority of people I know who did play BtS first refused to play the original because of the fate of Rachel. Again, going into Red Dead, most people probably already know the ending of John Marston, it's one of the most heart wrenching endings in video game history. But knowing the fate of our cowboy hero does not make us NOT want to finish his story.

    Before the Storm has some good in it, but to me, the bad outweighs the good. If the game had tried to be its own story, with its own twists and turns? Perhaps it would have worked better as a prequel. But it's failure to do anything a prequel should do makes it not that good. Even as a standalone game, the writing just falls flat a lot of the time. Most of the time it seems like the writers wanted to just rewrite the original game's story but with more melodrama and turning it up to eleven for the Chloe Torture Porn Hour. The idea of Before the Storm isn't bad, but the execution is so bad that for me, it's never worth going back to replay. I just turn on Daughter and listen to them instead.

    submitted by /u/BeMoreChillFan
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    [ALL] Why does LIS2 Get so much Hate?

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 01:22 AM PST

    Like I always see a lot of people just completely bashing it or pointing out every little thing they didn't like about it and then they're always comparing it to the first season. I wish people wouldn't bash that game so much.

    submitted by /u/throwawwayyyyyacc
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    [ALL] What makes Life is Strange for you?

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:33 AM PST

    As I mentioned in a previous post I (along with a few others) are working on a LIS passion project. It's still early in stages of production so we're still brainstorming ideas.

    What makes Life Is Strange stand out for you guys? What do you love and hate about the series? What would you, if given the chance change about the series?

    submitted by /u/alexmason32
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    [NO SPOILERS] BTS sequel idea?

    Posted: 17 Feb 2020 11:47 PM PST

    What do you think would make for a better sequel? Continuing Chloe's story to fill in the 3 years that leads up to LIS, play as Rachel and see how she gets in the dark room or play as Nathan where we see the downward spiral of Nathan, see how he gets involved with Jefferson and learn what happened to Samantha and just how he gets to be the character he is to become.

    submitted by /u/dalekofchaos
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    [NO SPOILERS] Did Sean DO anything throughout the whole game?

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:00 AM PST

    I'm not saying this to be mean or anything, but I've been sitting in LiS2 and the ending. I liked it, but did Sean actually do anything throughout the game? I mean, stuff happens TO him, and he reacts accordingly and all that, but compared to other protagonists like Clementine, Max, Ellie, the characters from Until Dawn, etc. Sean just seems really bland. He doesn't have much of an inner life or desires outside of "I Have To Keep Daniel Safe". The most that we get is that he likes to draw and he loves his family.

    It reminds me a lot of the issues people have with Kara's story in Detroit: Become Human, stupid "twist" aside. Their entire character motivation and development comes from other people and revolves around keeping one person safe. Lee Everett was in a different situation but he was handled much better than Sean was.

    submitted by /u/xANoellex
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    [ALL] Chasemarsh fanfic based on the ending of S1E3

    Posted: 17 Feb 2020 07:30 PM PST

    Hello everyone! Not sure what the policy is on shameless self promotion, but I've been working on a little fanfic project that I thought I'd share in case anyone is interested.

    The premise is mostly based on the world created by Max at the end of Episode 3, but is mostly from Victoria's perspective. The main thrust of the story begins with Prime!Max hijacking Alt!Max's body, and the havoc that causes in Vic's life. Also Kate Marsh is a little crazy-pants who is obsessed with Victoria for timeline fuckery reasons. There's some Chasefield in there but it will swing more heavily to Chasemarsh after the first few chapters because I'm a total garbage person.

    It's at 5/13 planned chapters so far, which I thought I'd mention that since some folks are less interested in WIP fics. Also I guess some NSFW stuff in there, but nothing overly graphic.

    Anyway, if there's anyone I haven't completely lost yet who'd like to check it out, the link is below. This is my first ever fanwork, so I welcome any comments and criticism you may have!

    https://archiveofourown.org/works/22546498/chapters/53876410

    submitted by /u/DM_Meeble
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    [NO SPOILERS] Opinion on Rachel Amber

    Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:29 AM PST

    Was she a bad person or not ( in your opinion )

    submitted by /u/TitusTheKing
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    [ALL]Who's a better protagonist, Sean or Max?

    Posted: 17 Feb 2020 04:48 PM PST
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