Lurker > Robazoid

I watched Stranger Things a month ago and I'm glad I have this opportunity to discuss one part of the ending. There was something I didn't get but none of the discussion I've seen anywhere has talked about it so I'm afraid I missed something obvious

Near the end, Hopper and Joyce leave everyone else to sneak into the government facility and save Will. They get immediately captured, because of course they do that's a terrible plan, and then Hopper offers to tell them where Eleven is as long as they let him go save Will and leave everyone else alone. The government agrees, so he tells them where Eleven is and the conspiracy goon squad goes off to capture her. Like... was that really Hopper's plan? Even being incredibly generous and assuming the government keeps its word by letting everyone else go and only takes Eleven, he still sold out a tragic little girl. Sure, it sort of worked out in the end, but that was because the monster attacked and Eleven used her powers, and there's no way he planned for that. He could've at least given them a fake address or something

Anyway, this didn't ruin the show for me at all, Stranger Things is great, it just bugged me that they completely glossed over this betrayal
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1. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/local-man-ruins-everything

If it's possible, though, I specifically want you to rank this picture of Flareon:

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/853/614/b16.png

2. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/o-rly

The classic

3. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-told-you-about-stairs

Because why not

4. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/principal-skinner

Specifically the 'pathetic' meme

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/211/614/e93.jpg
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I liked parts of the nightmare. The initial classroom scene was unsettling, as was the repeating hallway. I also loved the path of memories near the end, but that might've meant more to people like me who'd been playing the game as it released and needed a reminder. I was super invested in the story by the time Episode 5 came out, so all of those memories meant a lot to me!

Other parts of the nightmare fell flat, though. Like, Max is watching Chloe make out with everyone. Alright... what does that even mean? And the less said about the sneaking section, the better. What a waste of time.

Anyway, I might have more comments if you post more comments! Also, I don't know what system you're getting BtS on but check if there's a deluxe edition for a slightly higher price. They're going to release a bonus episode at the end for people who own that and it might end up being worth it
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mnkboy907 posted...

I guess one thing people should be wondering about is if their sexuality stays the same or also makes a swap. As in, a straight man becomes a straight woman and thus they're suddenly into dudes.

That's fine. As a 10/10 woman I'll be able to land a handsome, rich doctor or something
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It was roughly 12 weeks. I remember because I was expecting 10 so those last two weeks nearly killed me!
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HaRRicH posted...

I don't remember what Logan did to Daniel.

Near the beginning of Episode 1 when Max is listening to music while walking down the hall, you can see him shoving Daniel against a locker and looking at them implies it's a regular occurrence
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Well I finally went in and found spots on my first list for games I was saving for my second list that probably won't happen now

Changes:
Advance Wars removed from 21, placed under 3. Beat a game released between 2000-2009
E.V.O.: Search for Eden removed from 34, placed under 38. Beat a game you'd dropped or had a long hold on (I'd never actually beaten this game before so I must've dropped it several times growing up!)
Tales from the Borderlands removed from 29, placed under 44. Beat a game based on licensed stories/characters (Telltale licensed Borderlands, or at least that's my understanding after doing no research)

Additions:
11. Beat a game made by a developer you like
Dark Souls III

17. Beat a first-person shooter
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

19. Beat a platformer
Mega Man X2

20. Beat an action game
Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed

21. Beat a strategy game
Stellaris

28. Beat a game with the supernatural as a central theme
Ys II
(There are demons and whatnot, that counts)

29. Beat a game with comedy as a central theme
Deep Space Waifu
(Comedy and naked anime girls were basically the only two things this game had!)

34. Beat a game with an animal lead
Yooka-Laylee

37. Beat a game that's been in your backlog for a long time
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void
(Had it since release, only just beat it this year)

42. Beat a game with a Metascore above 90
What Remains of Edith Finch
(The Xbox One version got 92 on metacritic, somehow, so I'll count it)

48/50

All I need to do now is Revenge and two more Atelier games to finish the trilogy, though I'm not sure if I can make that happen. I'm playing a lot less games lately and not wanting to go back to that crummy second Atelier game was part of the reason why, so I dunno. I might stumble across a revenge game by the end of the year, though!
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HaRRicH posted...

Oh shit.

Episode 3, ladies and gentlemen.

I know I'm a bit late because you've already started Episode 4, but, yesss, the end of Episode 3 is so good. I'm a fanboy for the entire game now but the end of Episode 3 was where I really got hooked.

It was also the last episode that was released by the time I played the game, so yeah, I had to wait two agonizing months to see the story continue.
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It should have. If I remember right, you had an opportunity before you walked over to Chloe at the front door
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Does it have to be my entire life or could people just dramatize one portion of it?

With the right writers, I think just about everyone could have a romantic comedy built out of their life or fill ninety minutes with wacky workplace shenanigans.

If it has to cover my entire life, though, LOL 1/10 I'm so boring
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Is it Gemcraft?
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Yuna
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Oh, right, In America high school is the last four years. In Canada high school is only considered the last three grades so that's what I'm used to. Whoops
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Cody11533 posted...

It turns out the reason Max was ignoring Chloe was because she was busy playing DnD. That bonus episode featuring Max is just 3 hours of DnD, because it was so well received in episode 1.

I'm actually not sure how Max would handle D&D so I'd be interested in seeing this! She's normally shy and unconfrontational but I could see her getting into the fantasy

Menji posted...

I forget, what is the time difference between this and LIS?

It's a little over three years. BtS takes place in May 2010, LiS takes place in October 2013.

...Actually, now that I think about it, doesn't that mean a bunch of characters should've graduated by the time Max gets to Blackwell?
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Dantezoid posted...

what about ashe roba

I'll support her after Lightning goes out, obviously
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Anyway, now that we're out of boots I want to make my shifting priorities clear so that no one feels betrayed. I'll save Yuna first, then Rinoa, then someone else if I ever get a third save. Whichever one of those two survives the longest will then get my full support until they go out as well. Then I'll move to Lightning because she'll probably still be around by then.

This means I'm dropping Eiko and Garnet because I don't see FFIX winning three years in a row (oh who am I kidding, Vivi is going to win again isn't he) and I'm also dropping Terra/Agnes because I don't see them having the strength to make it very far. Yuna and Rinoa I could see actually winning if they start gathering support!
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VeryInsane posted...

Roba may I interest you in Final Fantasy Tactics

I plan to play it as soon as I get a new phone because I don't think my current one could handle it

Espeon posted...

Next year, you and me. We get Sazh and Snow back in and we go full FFXIII general on this bitch. You in?

I'll be in too if I'm still participating next year!
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Eiko

I hate to skip over Agnes but I think she'd be easier than Eiko to nominate back in if she winds up getting booted
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If you had a dog you'd probably be lighter just from all the exercise of taking the pooch on walks

Uhh 150 pounds
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Yay, someone else played this.

Cody11533 posted...

Played through it last night. I really loved season one, but with a different team doing Before the Storm, I had some hesitation before the good reviews won me over and I bought it. I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

I mentioned this in my earlier topic, but I was hesitant about Before the Storm too. I'm a Life is Strange turbo-fan and I didn't even keep up with trailers or anything, I was convinced Before the Storm would be average at best. Obviously I was pleasantly surprised too when it turned out to be great!

Cody11533 posted...

-That ending really kicked things up. I wasn't expecting anything supernatural, but I would love for something strange to play a role in the story. There's definitely something odd about Rachel and her banshee scream. I wouldn't be surprised if it is somehow connected to the woman her dad met in the park, that lady was way too mysterious to just be her dad's new fling. Also, I think I agree with the theory that Rachel's spirit somehow caused the storm that destroyed Arcadia Bay. Maybe because she was killed there and never got to escape like she wanted, so it was an act of vengeance? And I could see Chloe's death as the one thing that could soothe Rachel's spirit and prevent the storm.

Yeah, this was my fanfiction theory to address a bunch of (what I saw as) plotholes following Episode 5, so just the idea that it might be going that direction is great for me. It requires a few small revisions to the plot, but otherwise I thought the theory covered everything a lot more satisfactorily than the non-answer Warren gave. That said, the actual story of Before the Storm probably won't go this direction at all so I probably shouldn't get my hopes up >_>

Johnbobb posted...

Cody11533 posted...

-The (not) DnD session might have been my favorite part on the whole, it was that good. I would legitimately play more of that if they made it a standalone thing.

I demand to see a DnD session in both of the upcoming episodes

I am 100% in favor of this, the D&D scene was amazing
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CelesMyUserName posted...

you didn't even know who Shadow was by the end of the game IIRC!

Yeah, but once I realized he went from cool ninja dude to one of the worst FF characters ever, so it all worked out in the end
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Terra
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One final bump

I hope more people play this once it's fully released, at least!
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Well, I bought it. I probably won't have time to try it out until the weekend though
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Garnet
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Yuna
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Yay, Life is Strange

The snowglobe was on a shelf-type closet next to Chloe's actual closet, if you're curious.

What do you think about LiS so far? When I first played it, I thought Ep1 was neat but it certainly wasn't the one to hook me.

EDIT: Whoops, realized I was sorta wrong about where the snowglobe was and fixed it in an edit.
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I'm always happy to see other people playing Life is Strange!

XIII_rocks posted...

Surprised at how bad episode 5 is thought of here

This is one of those things that's probably hard for someone playing it now to understand. Playing the game as it slowly released meant that there was a lot of time to overexamine things and get our hopes up, and then Ep5 let a lot of us down by having past choices not really matter (just like every other choice-based game ever, sadly enough). I've warmed to Ep5 a lot since release, but I still sometimes think back on what it could've been and how easy it would've been to make a 10/10 ending if they had a bit more time, money, or put in a bit more effort.

XIII_rocks posted...

I wasn't a big fan of Chloe though so I probably won't pick this up

But Before the Storm is so good that it might turn you into a big fan of Chloe! I'm only partly joking, too. Depending on what you didn't like about her, BtS might improve your opinion. If she felt like a jerk for no reason, for example, seeing where she's coming from by playing the prequel might actually help.

Then again I love Chloe so I'm also definitely biased
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Bump
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Johnbobb posted...

Although Rachel causing the tornado raises more questions, primarily "why does letting Chloe die prevent the tornado? It's almost like herrage is what causes it somehow

There are ways to explain it. My own fanfiction reason has been that Chloe dying before the storm really got started somehow allowed her spirit to calm Rachel's spirit but I guess we'll see if this is even the direction the game goes with this. More than anything I just really hate Warren's explanation for things and want it erased

Johnbobb posted...

Maybe someday will get a pre-pre-quel explaining why Max was such a dick when she moved away.

My theory has always been that post-William Chloe probably wasn't the easiest person to deal with. Add in how shy Max is and there might've come a point where she didn't know how to approach the situation anymore so she just ran away. Still, the deluxe version of 'Before the Storm' will eventually have a bonus episode about Max, so maybe this will be the pre-prequel that will explain everything!
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Oh whoops, I missed this topic earlier. Since you marked spoilers too I won't bother to tag this post. I apologize for the length of this but I really liked the episode and have stuff to say!

I agree about the woman being important, she's probably the biggest unanswered question I have after the episode. No way she's just some random lady, but I can't even begin to guess who she might be.

I liked the wildfire too, it was a poetically dire way to end the episode and fit with the mood of the two girls.

As for Rachel, this is probably the biggest thing I want to talk about. Her scream certainly seemed to cause a burst of wind, which could've just been thematic, but I'm still super hyped to see if that goes anywhere. In Episode 5, (spoilers for regular Life is Strange, I guess) Chloe theorized that the tornado might be Rachel's angry spirit or something like that, I forget the exact wording. If they give Rachel some sort of power to make that a reality, they might actually retroactively save Episode 5 for me. Fuck Warren and his 'time is strange' BS explanation, I want Hurricane Rachel

Anyway, in the other topic you mentioned that the Chloe/Rachel relationship seemed to build too fast. I thought that was neatly done, actually. At the end Rachel revealed that she planned the whole trip to see who her father was meeting, and that means she dragged Chloe along on purpose. I took all the backtalk hardcore choices with Chloe so Rachel called her a badass. Not sure how that conversation would go if I went the other way but I thought that made sense. Rachel basically manipulated Chloe to come along and back her up depending on how things with her father went.

I don't think Rachel is a bad person or anything, but this episode certainly seemed to confirm a lot of my preconceptions about her. She seems awfully manipulative, and at one point there was even a dialogue option for Chloe to point out that everything she likes involves lying, acting, and playing games. Still, she's fascinating. The writers did a great job bringing her to life, it was like meeting someone I'd already heard so much about and they were exactly as I'd imagined.

It also made a lot of sense to me that Chloe went along with it so easily. Max obviously left a huge hole in her life and everything else isn't going great either. Then Rachel shows up, and I think that might be the first time in a long while that someone actually tried to connect with Chloe on her level. She enjoyed the D&D game, sure, but Rachel wanted to skip class and go do fun troublemaker things. Add in the clear bisexual awakening Chloe seems to be going through (one of her journal entries talked about fantasizing about some Blade Runner chick and considering what it meant) and it makes sense why she fell so hard for Rachel so fast. I guess what I'm saying is that their relationship was rushed but it still made sense, I dunno

Speaking of Max, man, fuck Max. Those texts showed that Chloe did everything possible to keep in touch and Max flaked out super hard. It made me sad. Having the journal entries being Chloe talking to an absent Max was a nice touch, too. It kept her in the narrative even though she wasn't in the narrative

The last thing I want to say is that 'Smash' scene at the junkyard was brilliant. This was what I was talking about in the other topic with the writers really understanding Chloe's character. It would've been so easy to just have her cry, but no, fuck that, that isn't how Chloe processes things. She lashes out, so she's going around smashing things. Then she sees her dad's car... and it would've been so easy again to have her break down at this point. But they didn't, they had her smash it a bit too. That might be my favorite Life is Strange sequence so far, and that's saying a lot.
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Johnbobb posted...

The new characters being introduced all seem solid (in particular, playing DnD with Steph and Mikey was so much fun and really emphasized Chloe as a fun and lovable character instead of just a bratty teen.

BlackMageJawa posted...

Whoo, Dungeons & Dragons! Honestly, I'd love to play an entire game like that.

Yeah this part was great. It's especially impressive for being a small, optional moment. I still need to replay the episode and see how it goes if I make choices where Chloe shows less enthusiasm, but I loved seeing that side of her. just having a good time being an elf barbarian

I'll have more to say too once one of you finally finishes this!
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Eiko
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trdl23 posted...

Whoa, BtS is that high? I might have to try this after all.

Well, you have to remember how much I love Chloe. That's almost certainly inflating the score a bit, but they also did a really great job with her, along with everyone else!

My Immortal posted...

My fear about the game is it isn't really going to add anything new since we already know Chloe's story, so it won't feel like it had a purpose really.

Would you say that is not true?

This is hard for me to answer given the kind of person I am. I've never cared about spoilers, for example, because I've always been more interested in how stories come together rather than being surprised by where they're going. In terms of adding characterization to Chloe, Rachel, and so on, this game has a ton of purpose. So far, though, there's no big 'mystery' like Life is Strange had (no time powers, no missing girl, etc). Like, there are certainly unanswered questions but they're all interpersonal and, given that this is a prequel, you can kind of guess where certain things will go.

That said, the game has already surprised me by certain directions it's taking. I wouldn't rule out there being some enormous revelation in later episodes.

For now, though, I think it's safest for me to say that people should only get this if they're interested in a new perspective on the world of Life is Strange and want to spend more time getting to know the characters. Before the Storm knocks it out of the park in that regard.
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Terra
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Well I'm done the episode now. I'm absolutely blown away, it just kept getting better and better. If the quality of this prequel holds up it might actually surpass Life is Strange itself, and I don't say that lightly.

Most of what I have to say would be spoilers and I still need to organize my thoughts so I might wait until others have played it (which other people totally should, come on everyone it's great) but what amazed me most was just how well the writers understood Chloe. She's every bit as nuanced and amazing here as she was in Life is Strange. It was unreal.

Honestly, despite Life is Strange being my favorite game ever and Chloe being my favorite fictional character ever, I went into this without much hype. In my experience, stories don't usually do well when they're expanded like this. I was afraid they'd exaggerate Chloe into the hateful jerk a lot of people seem to see her as, and that the story would be blatant excuses for fanservice. Before the Storm actually crafted a shockingly meaningful and emotional story, though. I'm still sitting here just... in awe of it.

In short, I'm hella impressed.

LiS Ep4 > BtS Ep1 > LiS Ep3 > LiS Ep2 > LiS Ep1 >>> LiS Ep5

I'd honestly say LiS Ep4 and BtS Ep1 are close to equal, but I give Ep4 the edge because it had the hype of a lot of past choices coming together in satisfying ways and... well, that's hard to pull off in a first episode >_>

Now the wait for Episode Two begins! Someone else should play this
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I only got about 3/4 of the way through it so far before I had to stop to go to work, but that was enough to form an opinion on it. I figure I should post a topic in case anyone is on the fence and waiting for someone else to try it

I say this as quite possibly the biggest Life is Strange/Chloe Price fanboy on the board, so take this with a grain of salt, but so far it's like a wonderful dream. 12/10

Minor spoilers about my favorite things so far

Chloe playing Dungeons and Dragons is something I never knew I needed in my life but now I don't know how I ever lived without it. That sass-talk mechanic is also the best thing ever but I don't know how the ardent Chloe haters will feel about it

If anyone else plays this, we can discuss it and stuff, especially once I finish later tonight. I can already tell I'll have more substantial things to say once I see the full picture!
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I tried to watch this as though the anime didn't exist, to judge it by its own merits like this was a wholly original concept.

It was still like a 3/10 movie at best
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I don't care what anybody says, that's one of the best sci-fi films ever made.
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Yuna
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Belle.
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Belle
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Bump
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Bump again

One of these days I really should try and find spots on my list for the games I was saving for my second list, since it doesn't seem like I'll be finishing two after all
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Terra
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Yuna
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Bump
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Bumpo
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Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Didn't lumina get really far last year too

Yeah, she was Team Lightning Jr last year. I guess Serah has that honor this time around!
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Losing Lumina sucks but she had her big year last year I guess.

Are we out of hard boots yet?
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