• Breaking News

    Monday, August 9, 2021

    Home Unlabelled Life Is Strange | [NO SPOILERS] Punk Rachel by Summerfelldraws

    Life Is Strange | [NO SPOILERS] Punk Rachel by Summerfelldraws

    August 09, 2021

    Life Is Strange | [NO SPOILERS] Punk Rachel by Summerfelldraws

    [NO SPOILERS] Punk Rachel by Summerfelldraws

    Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:53 AM PDT

    [No Spoilers] Chasemarsh Monday: Center of attention (by Fennyboi)

    Posted: 09 Aug 2021 05:30 AM PDT

    [NO SPOILERS] Peaceful Times by by C.Rangea.T

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 06:42 PM PDT

    [BtS] [S1] When the storm passes. My final love letter to Life is Strange: Before the Storm.

    Posted: 09 Aug 2021 06:11 AM PDT

    TLDR 2,5y ago I was depressed trans girl playing LiS. Today I'm no longer depressed and still trans and I decided to play it again. Here's summary of the story.

    I haven't been on this sub for long, but I wanted to share my LiS-connected life story if somebody wants to read it. It delves into my memories of depression and trans-issues so be aware of that. Mostly, I write that for myself, to show my newfound appreciation for a game I hated for 2 years. However, if anybody takes anything out of it, that's always added value.

    When "Before the Storm" was announced, I was excited. I was honestly never the biggest fan of the supernatural part of the series - in my eyes it often took away from simple life stories of the people in them. So when we heard the news that Chloe will be the protagonist - I was really happy. She didn't had any powers so I expected the story to be much more grounded than in the first game. I'm of course not saying that supernatural elements are inherently bad, I just always focused on the human problems in them.

    When I started to play BtS 2,5 years ago, I completely sunk in. I was practically living the story for a couple of days. I was listening to soundtrack on my way to uni classes, I was coming back to walk around in circles in all locations to get all the secrets and talk to everyone.

    And I was really, really depressed at the time too.

    It's hard to explain just how much depressed. I haven't left the house in weeks, besides going to few classes I had to attend, and even there I was playing Stardew Valley to kill time and wall myself off of everything. When I returned home I played LiS to bring out all the pain, sadness, loneliness and no sense of direction that I felt at the time. I was so angry and so sad, I couldn't do anything. I was grieving for my teenage life, which I never felt like I had - the sense came from coming out as trans at the age of 21. I felt like I was just born. And yet I was already two decades around. Memories that I had felt wrong. I didn't know who I was. So I immersed myself in the LiS teen drama. To live out, and to suffer through again and again all the feelings and experiences I was to never live out myself.

    It's not hard to imagine that coming into this game with this sort of mindset was a recipe of destruction. Main theme of LiS is after all acceptance of agency of others and the fact that you or someone you love might be a victim of this agency. (You can of course just call it fate and we'll reach the same place logic-wise, so I don't want to dwell to much on it. Just wanted to point that out that if you prefer 'fate' explanation, it's all good). And I already felt like I had no agency in my life. I was basically a shipwreck thrown around with no sense or control.

    In video games discourse there's a discussion about agency of the player and agency of NPC. Basically - in most games you as a player, and your character, have all the agency you can possibly have. You shape the world, you influence the events. If you do everything right, then everything will be right. After all, that's what you deserve. In this way - games are fair.

    But Life is Strange is different. In first two games, you can't win. You can't save Rachel, and although you can save Chloe, the entire game is built around the moral stance that you really shouldn't. But let's focus on Rachel. Whatever you do, however caring you will be - her being alive or not is not yours to decide. Someone that's not you somewhere made a decision about hurting Rachel and you can't save her. It's beyond your agency. You can't win here. Just as you can't win in life sometimes. Of course, the action movie like plot about serial killer is... whatever, but in general, the wisdom and the principle stands - bad things happen, good times don't last forever, you're not the only hero in your story and your story will be influenced - good or bad - by the actions of others. If you played 1st Life is Strange then you know what happens. Everything that happens there exists on borrowed time and always will end up in a hole at a junkyard.

    Why then, WHY, when everything tells you what happens, and you have foreshadowing on every step - I felt so cheated when I saw the final scene?

    Because don't underestimate me, I was furious. Smack-my-xbox-pad-on-the-wall-till-it-doesn't-look-like-anything mad. I felt like I was tricked. Like I was lured into this story, into all this good emotions and attachments and then the story was turned inside out and suddenly I wasn't in control of anything. It all felt too similar to my life at that point. I hated this game. I hated every minute of it. It felt like the worst kind of breakup, the kind that leaves no one happy and all people involved deeply scarred.

    But It's been 2,5 years now. I'm no longer depressed and I'm still trans. I wanted to see, to live the story again and see how my perspective would change. And it did dramatically. I loved it again, from the start. I played through the whole story, Chloe fell in love with Rachel again, for good or bad. The scene during the Tempest cracked me up in a good way just like it did last time. I made different decisions too. Not because I wanted to 'try something different' as we sometimes do, but because my perspective changed so dramatically. My Chloe felt...older. She was no longer a paragon of truth with full disregard for the consequences. At the end, she chose to follow suit of other adults around her - to lie and protect the one person she fell in love with so deeply. My Max didn't got involved with relationship with Chloe, understanding that it would be taking advantage of her because of her grief over her father and Rachel. And, what's perhaps most important - I accepted the death of both Rachel and Chloe.

    Because I think that today I understand what this game tried to say all along. That good times do not always last. That pain and loneliness may creep out of nowhere and will never be expected. That we are not the only deciding factors in our lives. We are boats against the current. And we of course may scream in frustration and anger and hopelessness but always it will be scream in a void.

    I think that's what makes LiS two first iterations of LiS series special. This unheard of in video game storytelling concept that some things just...happen. And there is nothing that we can do. Not even time travel powers will change them.

    Last thing I wanted to speak about is the sensitivity that shines through the dialog. My favourite piece of this is conversation between Steph and Chloe when she asks us about our emotions toward Rachel. And when we say that it's confusing, she says that the understands and offers help and in her voice we hear sadness and empathy. Steph is openly queer character, we can imagine that she's been in this moment before and she feels connected to Chloe through this emotion. Unity of weakness and tough experiences.

    So yeah, to sum it up. I never expected this fall in love with this game again. But I did.
    I love you Life is Strange. See you next time.

    And since I'm a person that has to always show things I love, I will be having my ear pierced to wear Rachels' earring.

    If you actually read this far, from the bottom of my heart - thank you.

    submitted by /u/merci_ann
    [link] [comments]

    [NO SPOILERS] Chloe portrait by Vindoweld

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 03:35 PM PDT

    [NO SPOILERS] Franklin gets hella roasted by Chloe (Life is Strange/GTA 5 meme)

    Posted: 09 Aug 2021 12:12 PM PDT

    [ALL] How many people who dislike Rachel have considered...

    Posted: 09 Aug 2021 06:20 AM PDT

    the role astrology plays in the story?

    Yes, astrology is a pseudoscience, but imo the devs have made it an important part of characterization. With Rachel it's particularly interesting to me as a fellow Leo, and one who most people are surprised to find out is a Leo, I actually think the devs really leaned into less commonly acknowledged Leo traits when writing Rachel. The Leo stereotypes are surface level things: vanity, selfishness, wanting to be the center of attention, etc. and I won't deny that Rachel shows signs of those things, but there's a lot more to the Leo profile than most people think.

    They'll grant that Leos have social skills, but it's seen as something innate about Leos, and not examined in any more depth than that. The thing is though, in Leos like Rachel at least, it doesn't come from nowhere. As the story takes great pains to emphasize, Rachel is extremely observant. People who subscribe to the mAsTeR mAniPuLaToR theory will probably say yes, of course she is, most sociopaths are. But! Speaking as a Leo (who I remind you, most people don't read as a Leo), it's far more likely that her observation skills come from somewhere more benign: a desire to connect.

    In order to spend that much time studying people, you probably have to be deeply interested in people to begin with. It's hardly surprising that if you're that interested in people you might want to connect with them, but how to go about it? This brings me to another Leo trait that doesn't get talked about nearly enough: massive insecurity. It's true that Leos want to be liked, but that's true of all humans. Depending on previous life experiences, it's not uncommon for a Leo to have serious doubts about their abilities and innate value. That self-doubt rubbing up against the desire to connect leads to studying people, in the hopes that if you go in with enough intel you can account for your perceived "weaknesses".

    There are definitely maladaptive Leo traits that Rachel exhibits, but every sign has its positives and negative permutations. Most people don't have maladaptive traits for no reason, that word literally implies adapting to bad circumstances. But there's no reason to argue that Rachel is some kind of sociopathic succubus, especially when you look at how the devs have integrated astrology into the story. She's a teenager under a lot of pressure from her dad who desperately wants real connections in her life, and uses her Leo observation skills to help her seek them out. Those same skills could have given her a false sense of her ability to manage her interactions with people, and that kind of hubris + the desire to connect = being a great target for adult men to groom.

    Anyway that's my take on her Leo-ness. If you want deeper analysis of any of the star signs of characters in the story I highly suggest the site StarsLikeYou, which was the first place I ever read anything about my sign that resonated. Astrology is not a science but I think it matters to the story if the devs decided it matters, which I believe they did.

    [And here's a disclaimer to clarify I'm not a Rachel apologist, nor am I some kind of Amberprice fanatic. In my version of the story both Amberprice and Pricefield are valid, because three years is a long time in the life of a teenager. I just think people can be too quick to project things on Rachel, without acknowledging the fucked up power dynamics around her relationships with the important adults in her life, and how many adults had to fail her for her life to end the way it did.]

    *Edit to add a link to another fun way to look at the signs, the "astrology is fake, but" series of articles from The Hairpin.

    submitted by /u/FramedMugshot
    [link] [comments]

    [BtS] That’s 2 done now. Good game, but i prefer the first game. Also, why did they change chloes VA? I couldn’t get used to it haha

    Posted: 09 Aug 2021 02:14 AM PDT

    [NO SPOILERS] Happy Cat Day ! �� - Fanart by Nyx_artt.

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 09:48 PM PDT

    [S2 E1] Sean Diaz Wallpaper By:Me

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 02:53 PM PDT

    [S1] (I guess?) Max Caulfield Roasts Franklin

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 09:03 PM PDT

    [NO SPOILERS] My game trophies and graffitis are broken help (ps4)

    Posted: 09 Aug 2021 10:16 AM PDT

    So i recently finished the game and im going back to get grafittis and for some reason when i do graffitis it doesnt show up its just transparent for some reason nor gives me the trophy for the graffiti so can anybody find a solution to this please ?

    submitted by /u/Palevac
    [link] [comments]

    [NO SPOILERS] (Help) Menu options greyed out in Life is Strange 2

    Posted: 09 Aug 2021 01:39 PM PDT

    "Return to last checkpoint" and "Exit to main menu" have been greyed out since yesterday. Google didn't help me out with this one

    This wasn't an issue at first cause I don't have any need to exit (I can close the window with my keyboard), but now I want to go back make different choices in the game, and this option is greyed out too.

    Additional info in case needed: Downloaded from Steam onto Mac, playing episode 3 but this has been going on since episode 2.

    submitted by /u/CultureShock_
    [link] [comments]

    [S1] [ALL] Does "polarized" kill your enjoyment of the game?

    Posted: 09 Aug 2021 07:25 AM PDT

    The strange pacing, pointless meandering and forced resolutions. The symbolism of the dream sequence, I do understand, but the execution of max's subconsious is poor.

    The way former friends are conveniently placed in the most absurd situations like lemmings so max can rescue them, which is very out of character, as the previous episode somehow managed to make her a believable person, not a hero of the week character. So, I don't think this sudden change is how a human being of that age would react to such traumatic scenerio, which made the forceful hand of the writers very apparent towards the end.

    And then warren basically explaining the developer's logic behind the storm was disappointing as well. As this could have been explained within the metaphysical sequence, if they didn't choose to fill it with wacky meta.

    ​

    The chaotic nature of episode 5, wheter intentional or otherwise, erased any empathy and relatability the game had managed to build over the last four episodes for me, making me feel completely apathetic towards the end. To such a degree, the first time, I chose to save chloe for the sake of absurdity, just to follow in line with most of this episode. It didn't matter.

    As, normally, I don't think I could live with the guilt of having destroyed hundreds of families, after knowing the pain that a single family experienced with chloe after loss.

    ​

    Without touching on the limited gameplay and almost entirely pointless dream sequences. I really liked the choice at the end, despite the poor writing that artificially lead the characters there, and regardless of how it invalidated the consequences of my previous actions.

    ​

    Anyway. That's it, really. An endearing and beautiful game that falls apart towards the end, where characters become plot devices to fulfill a forced resolution that the developers didn't know how to execute organically. A comforting and sometimes emotionally effective experience I will often re-visit, only to be left disappointed time and time again.

    ​

    PS: Sorry for any mislabeling of the thread, grammar errors and structure.

    submitted by /u/LiSaccount
    [link] [comments]
    Read more
    at

    No comments:

    Post a Comment