Board 8 > I beat Life is Strange finally and now I want to talk about it. *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Because steam sale finally made me pull the trigger.

I felt like episodes 1-4 were a full mystery game and then episode 5 dropped acid. Not that that was bad, but god damn.

I hate how everything boiled down to a binary ending after everything, but the rest of the game was good enough that I'll give it a pass.

I don't know what the spicy choices were throughout the game, but I know I screwed up a few things (like Kate died and that was apparently preventable "whoops")

Also I managed to get all the bonus pictures up until the very last episode, where I managed to miss three. Excuse for a replay at some point I guess.
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Pretty much no one likes that ending. Luckily the next game is a prequel so it will probably be entirely ignored
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Did you go fuck yourselfie?
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I feel I thoroughly fucked myselfie, yes.
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Also Kate can be saved, it just requires getting almost all of the "Hey let's not say this to the suicidal girl" choices right. I think I flubbed one, the bit where Jefferson was slut shaming her in the hallway, but she still lived
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I assume you chose the right ending
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Sacrifice Chloe.

(Despite Chloe being the best character in the game. (William #2))
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There was no way I was sacrificing Chloe after she saved Max from Evil Bitch Queen Max. You are my ladybro, Chloe
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I got thoroughly lucky with Kate, because I didn't pay attention to the Bible verses, but picked one of the good ones and got her to live.
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I didn't have any problem saving Kate - it didn't seem that hard but there was a guess choice about her sister or something that I got right (I assume anyway)

did you like it? seemed like you did if you cleared it in under a week.
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transience posted...

I didn't have any problem saving Kate - it didn't seem that hard but there was a guess choice about her sister or something that I got right (I assume anyway)

There's certain family members that shame her about the incident, so if you try to invoke her mother or aunt, it doesn't end well.
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Uhmmm I thought the endings were good
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I sacrificed Chloe in a second because literally everyone dies if you don't and that was made pretty clear.

And Chloe is a monumentally worthless person, even if she started to not suck later in the game.
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Also I like how the Kill Chloe ending presumes that Warren's theory about stopping the tornado was right, with no basis to back that up except...well, nothing really. "It was Warren's idea and he's smart! He got a B+ in Chemistry when I cheated on his behalf!"
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Warren watched a lot of movies too though.
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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

I sacrificed Chloe in a second because literally everyone dies if you don't and that was made pretty clear.

yuuup

As much as I love Chloe, she's not worth sacrificing an entire town of people
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I don't like Chloe a whole lot but I thought Max would pick Chloe over everyone so I went with that
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Sacrificing the town was a no brainer for me. No one there was worth saving. And I sure as hell didn't spend the whole game to lose Chloe again.
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Menji posted...

Sacrificing the town was a no brainer for me. No one there was worth saving. And I sure as hell didn't spend the whole game to lose Chloe again.

Well, except for all the people with friends and family who have futures in their lives instead of a burn out piece of shit like Chloe who will never amount to anything and will have no impact on the world I guess. I mean, I guess that Chloe and Max could have each other while they drive on past the wreckage of the thousands of people's lives they ruined as a result of an entire selfish decision, but still.
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There's more to Arcadia Bay than just the few dozen or so people you meet in the game.

Literally thousands of innocents die because of your choice
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I liked the ending, and the weird half of episode 5 a lot. Especially when you think about the rest of the game in that context. It's one of the few choice-centric that actually has a strong opinion that it is trying to argue to the player. It's not neutral at all. That makes the binary ending feel a lot better, since it's really just 2 perspectives of the same ending and the same message.

Also I think the months waiting in between episodes did a LOT to improve the experience, the hype was awesome.
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I liked it a lot, yeah.

Also I friendzoned Warren at every turn and it was hilarious.

I thought the whole point of the game was the acceptance of fate, so I went with sacrificing Chloe. Since in every timeline she ends up dying somehow. So I'd fully expect some final destination nonsense to happen a day or so after then ending to kill Chloe anyway. She still got the justice for Rachael and gets to be the savior of the town.

I'm a fan of bittersweet endings though.
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I liked the ending too. The ending was, in my opinion, an inevitable one to come to, it was pretty much pointing that way from the very start of the game - the important part was the journey to get there and the realizations along the way that inform the final choice. I didn't feel like it "made my choices not matter" at all. It wasn't really about that.

I went full "Yeah Max is completely in lesbians with Chloe" just because that's the way it looked like the plot was going
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Well, the writer of the game said he wanted to add them kissing at the end of the "We just murdered thousands" ending. But then he said that it wouldn't really seem right, but that they're probably going to kiss later.
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Max goes to such lengths for Chloe that it just made logical sense to go all the way. plus that town is full of idiots.

I liked the ending of episode 5 but not the nightmare. that felt extremely heavy handed.
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FFDragon posted...

I thought the whole point of the game was the acceptance of fate

I think it goes deeper than that. I think it's about accepting the consequences of your actions. Not necessarily about accepting fate, because the game also very strongly argues for changing or confronting fate. The Bae ending is the culmination of that, and it is a perfectly valid ending in the eyes of the game.

But the Bae ending is the first time that Max (representing the player's desire to optimize everything), actually accepts that for her to change fate, some huge shit will happen, and you have to be okay with that. That's why we know for sure that Chloe won't die in that ending, and Max won't keep rewinding stuff.

Personally I like the Bay ending because it takes on the "accepting consequences" thing in a more interesting way, since Max has to choose not to intervene and save Chloe, and it still ends up having a hopeful and positive outlook on the future.
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well yeah, I guess I should have said the acceptance of fate specifically when it comes to Chloe

in order to go against the natural order of things you have to be willing to sacrifice thousands of other people

which is a very basic one vs many choice in the end, but whatevs
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I like the ending, though I personally believe with the story they're telling, I don't think there should have been a choice. The game didn't explain why one choice would suddenly stop the sequence of events that are happening, at least not satisfactorily. I would have been fine with no choice and one ending for everyone.
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Chloe is a terrible character because she's a piece of shit to best dad David.
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I blamed David and got him suspended lol
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Look at it this way FFD is a terrible user because he's a piece of shit to best dad David
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He got better by the end!

But sorry, Best Dad William is already in the same game.
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David beats his children for smoking weed
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David is one of the best-written game characters in the past three years. He's not a dynamic character, but the way he's presented shows how much depth he always had; it just takes a while to see it.
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See, I don't support beating your child, but from David's perspective, this fucking brat Chloe is just so shitty. She is totally worthless and does absolutely nothing with her life every day, she's a drop out, and every day he's trying to support this leech of a girl and his wife while his wife and Chloe's mother surely is just frustrated and depressed that her daughter just won't try to improve herself.

It's like, of course he harbors some kind of resentment towards her. And that's the kind of thing he would have had to deal with for the rest of his life, because Chloe showed absolutely no signs of ever wanting to change from being anything but a stoner loser living at home. Sure, he could have sat her down and talked to her about it, but I feel like if her mother had likely tried that and failed, she wouldn't sit down and talk to him about it at all and would probably just fly off the handle and start bitching him out the second he says something she doesn't like.

We see a lot of the best of Chloe because she's with her best friend Max for the majority of the game, but we see her do some crappy things (like getting pissy because you answered a phone call), but when you take a step back and actually think of Chloe when she's away from Max... it's hard to think of her positively in any way.
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Yeah but if you call her on the phone thing (hoho), she does back off like five minutes later and goes "Okay that was shitty of me"
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I'm pretty sure Chloe only half-apologizes for it a chapter or two later. I remember it not being immediately after because there was a while where I was like "Wow, that was super shitty." And then much later saying "Okay... well, at least she is aware of something shitty she did."
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digiiiiiiiii posted...

I like the ending, though I personally believe with the story they're telling, I don't think there should have been a choice. The game didn't explain why one choice would suddenly stop the sequence of events that are happening, at least not satisfactorily. I would have been fine with no choice and one ending for everyone.

Yeah, sacrificing Chloe to stop the storm is a total crapshoot. Best to just keep her alive.
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Can you now imagine a Life Is Strange / FFBE crossover with 5* Max, and a raid boss fight against a Mr. Jefferson with tornado powers
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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

She is totally worthless and does absolutely nothing with her life every day

She's also like 16
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OrangeCrush980 posted...

digiiiiiiiii posted...

I like the ending, though I personally believe with the story they're telling, I don't think there should have been a choice. The game didn't explain why one choice would suddenly stop the sequence of events that are happening, at least not satisfactorily. I would have been fine with no choice and one ending for everyone.

Yeah, sacrificing Chloe to stop the storm is a total crapshoot. Best to just keep her alive.

They 100% explained the reason for the storm and why it would for sure not happen in the Bay ending
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my problem with the "sacrifice Arcadia Bay"-ending is it just doesn't work.

the true antagonist of the game is the universe. fact is, the universe hates Chloe and insists that she must be dead at a certain point. If she's not, then things will happen that will kill her. an early example of this was when she suddenly became stuck in front of a moving train. The tornado is just another expression of this. My problem with the ending is that there's no reason to believe this will stop with the tornado. It's much more likely to keep on escalating. in my headcanon, the timeline that follows after the tornado is that Max has to use her timelord powers to the fullest to prevent more and more catastrophes from killing Chloe, until the universe finally throws something her way that she simply can't handle. like a "wipe out dinosaurs"-tier meteor or something of that magnitude.

another reason why the Chloe-ending simply doesn't work is that it involves Max flat out ignoring the most important and sincere plea Chloe has ever made. Chloe begs Max to save the city, by ignoring this, Max shows that she doesn't care about Chloe's agency and instead chooses to be selfish. Max is infinitely more powerful than Chloe and fully capable of bending both her and events to her will, twisting their relationship into a real nasty shape. Chloe is also going to live with the mother of all Survivor's guilts.
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Calintares posted...

my problem with the "sacrifice Arcadia Bay"-ending is it just doesn't work.

the true antagonist of the game is the universe. fact is, the universe hates Chloe and insists that she must be dead at a certain point. If she's not, then things will happen that will kill her. an early example of this was when she suddenly became stuck in front of a moving train. The tornado is just another expression of this. My problem with the ending is that there's no reason to believe this will stop with the tornado. It's much more likely to keep on escalating. in my headcanon, the timeline that follows after the tornado is that Max has to use her timelord powers to the fullest to prevent more and more catastrophes from killing Chloe, until the universe finally throws something her way that she simply can't handle. like a "wipe out dinosaurs"-tier meteor or something of that magnitude.

another reason why the Chloe-ending simply doesn't work is that it involves Max flat out ignoring the most important and sincere plea Chloe has ever made. Chloe begs Max to save the city, by ignoring this, Max shows that she doesn't care about Chloe's agency and instead chooses to be selfish. Max is infinitely more powerful than Chloe and fully capable of bending both her and events to her will, twisting their relationship into a real nasty shape. Chloe is also going to live with the mother of all Survivor's guilts.

Everything you just described is why I like the ending, though. Your interpretation is 100% valid but it's speculation and it's also assuming that the story should have Max make the right choice. Not everyone comes to the conclusion that the 'fuck Arcadia Bay' option is correct! You might feel that's 100% the wrong choice and I am inclined to agree but the fact that the choice is given, to allow us to come to that conclusion ourselves, is what makes it good. It doesn't have to be a choice with two correct answers.

On the other hand, fuck the universe throwing a hissy fit and fuck that town, which as the game hammered was rotten to the core
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Everything you just described is why I like the ending, though. Your interpretation is 100% valid but it's speculation and it's also assuming that the story should have Max make the right choice. Not everyone comes to the conclusion that the 'fuck Arcadia Bay' option is correct! You might feel that's 100% the wrong choice and I am inclined to agree but the fact that the choice is given, to allow us to come to that conclusion ourselves, is what makes it good. It doesn't have to be a choice with two correct answers.

Isn't the point of this kind of choice to showcase the emotional growth of a protagonist throughout their journey? Sure, it could be a case where both of the choices are shitty if it's trying to (poorly) make a point like The Last of Us did, but it's unlikely that's the case.
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I liked the way Last of Us went about it

Joel was so desperate to get his dead family back that he literally turned into a mass murderer and told his new "daughter" a lie that will inevitably make her hate his guts. Not a happy ending by any stretch, but it was also clearly not meant to be the end. It's just going somewhere really dark
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I don't have time to say much but I'm legally obligated to post in every Life is Strange topic, so I'm glad you liked it, FFD!
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I consider Life is Strange to be very overrated
However the ending to episode 4 was amazing
My biggest regret was that I got spoiled on it
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DeathChicken posted...

I liked the way Last of Us went about it

Joel was so desperate to get his dead family back that he literally turned into a mass murderer and told his new "daughter" a lie that will inevitably make her hate his guts. Not a happy ending by any stretch, but it was also clearly not meant to be the end. It's just going somewhere really dark

It depends on what Last of Us 2 does with it. But man, as a closer to a game that had not gotten a sequel? Really really terrible way to end IMO. It fit the protagonist but it wasn't a great way to end things for the audience, really.
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