Board 8 > just finished episode 3 of life is strange and omg

(+) Yeah! (+)

i liked the nightmare as a thematic reinforcement of every fear and insecurity max had to deal with

but boy was it super tedious to actually play!

also i can't possibly be the only one who didn't mind the first bottle search sequence at all? i didn't have any trouble finding every one of them and just liked taking in the atmosphere at the time.
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sneaking section is the worst and really kills the momentum of an otherwise great episide

I still think it makes up for it in the end though
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i literally don't know what i'm supposed to do in the sneaking section
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what part are you at? I got stuck in an enclosed area with Jefferson for an ungodly amount of time. I'm not convinced that it wasn't a bug.
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it looks like a museum island and jefferson's walking aroind with a flashlight. the lighthouse is in the background. i have no idea how to get off the island.
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yeah that's where I got stuck. I closed the game and came back and was okay.
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... wait what.

you didn't like "do" anything?

odds are i'm getting around to this tomorrow and not tonight. hopefully it'll reinvigorate me...
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I remember getting stuck there too

The issue is that the path you need to take to leave doesn't look like a path and I didn't try walking that way because I didn't think I would be able to walk that way

Unfortunately I don't remember anything specific about the path.

The whole nightmare sequence sucks
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My Immortal posted...

The issue is that the path you need to take to leave doesn't look like a path and I didn't try walking that way because I didn't think I would be able to walk that way

this is gonna be a fucking problem, lmao
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I might have checked out a playthrough on youtube just to understand what the heck I was supposed to do. I forget.
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SeabassDebeste posted...

dumb question but how many outcomes are there to the frank conversation

(i've had frank shot and had him stabbed in the knee (chloe overpowered him? really???))

Tons

It's such an epic sequence, can't believe they pulled it off, while also brilliantly incorporating time travel shenanigans. Totally destroys any other adventure game or visual novel choice sequence.
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can someone lonk the vid for how to escape jefferson

don't wanna search myself due to spoilers
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I wouldn't say she overpowered him so much as she kind of tipped him over when he had a knife in his leg
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I can't link to a video since I'm at work so hopefully someone else does but I remember the sneaking section being easy. You just hide behind obvious walls and the rewind removes all tension of being spotted.

Also the nightmare was 95% terrible, 5% great, and they so easily could've just had the great parts but... this can wait until you're done.
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Mobilezoid posted...

I can't link to a video since I'm at work so hopefully someone else does but I remember the sneaking section being easy. You just hide behind obvious walls and the rewind removes all tension of being spotted.

this isn't the issue. the issue is i have no idea how to escape it. i can't see the path out.
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Weird, I had no trouble with that part at all. Might have been lucky I suppose.
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Same for me, had no problems with it. Even did it again to get the photos in that section that I missed.
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Alright, so we pick up with Max in the Dark Room... Max in the Dark Room... Max in the Dark Room... and I really enjoy the way the series handles flashback here (since Max experienced blackout) - the constant use of whatever photo is nearest to go back a little bit in time, maybe make incremental changes. Jefferson is getting off hard, and it's a little surprising that Nathan was completely used, though it makes sense in order to centralize the villainy here.

Getting into the alternate reality is almost suspiciously easy... yeah. It is too easy. Perhaps the coolest part here is how quickly it happens, which is extremely worrying. Everything about the San Francisco trip timeline has dream-like qualities to it (with Chloe's texts about "step-Hitler became step-hero!" perhaps being the clincher). Anyway, it's naturally wiped out, because Max was apparently too dumb to warn Chloe not to be caught at the beach (?!) during the tornado she 100% knew was coming.

(I'm being more than a little bitter here, but I tend to feel upset about fake happy endings, even when I know that fakeness is coming. Maybe that's the intent - I know that we're going to rewind into a shitty timeline, but even so, the game is able to get emotional attachment from me. Chloe's series of texts is fantastic here - in this timeline, Chloe finishes by congratulating Max, who replies "NO EMOJI!")

But is it even worth delving into that? We all know that it couldn't last, so we tear up the photo, and... boom, right back into the Dark Room, and I'm pissed about not having the journal anymore. One of the best parts of the game. It's a little unclear at which point we contact David in this timeline, but I'm grateful to have him back, and if his redemption in the previous storyline felt a little 'tell, don't show,' then this timeline absolutely reverses that. It requires our help, but he overpowers Jefferson.

A super-amazing choice hits us when we confront him - telling him the truth about Chloe versus letting him be ignorant. Dropping the bombshell is a scary option, and in-game. it feels like twisting the knife - David freaks out, shoots Jefferson, and then collapses, utterly drained. I actually back away from it afterward because of how grim it is - David doesn't deserve to be punished like this after what we've already put him through, and his redemption (which will be erased).

Saving everyone outside the diner (except the fisherman, no idea how to do that - I rewound the electrocution but he died in the fire) is a little tedious, but worth it, I'd say - it feels pretty rewarding (and huzzah for warning the homeless person). Grimmest is probably Evan's wordless demise as a collapsing board smashes him in the head and he just drops.

This segment also makes me feel good about Frank and Joyce. But I don't tell Joyce to forgive David. That's up to her, right? I dunno, when the game kinda says otherwise at the end, I feel like a douche. I also feel a little bad for telling Frank the cold truth, but the guy's a grown man, and he never got closure on Rachel. It's beautiful when he finds out she died by overdose - "I killed my lioness."

Sitting at a table in the Two Whales, with Pompidou on our lap and the world ending outside, is the greatest of peace.

Finally, it's time to chat with Warren, and he gives us the photo... though we're briefly worried that he's so jealous of us and Chloe that he'll tear it up out of spite. But he's sporting, and he even proposes the theory (that Max is also starting to realize) that we're responsible for the storm. I feel so bad for him that I can't resist giving him a hug. After all, guys and girls can hug and it doesn't necessarily mean anything romantic... except that after I choose the option, we can see that it obviously means way too much to Warren. So we rewind the shit out of it, friendzone him harder than ever before, and then finally, finally go see Chloe.
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It's magnificent to see her. It's been hours and hours since the last time we've seen Chloe alive - we're coming off at least three separate timelines in which she's died - and it's awesome the dialogue tree we have to go through in order to ensure that she listens. I thought for sure Chloe was going to be upset as hell that we kept the paralyzed universe away from her, but she actually responds positively when we tell her that we killed her. (Though honestly, who is she not to respond positively? We're the superhero around here.) Yet somehow, we end up on the beach. I guess the lighthouse is safe...?

... That's when the game just shits itself. This next segment is so unflinchingly bad, at such an unflinchingly critical moment, and so unflinchingly long, that it actually ruined the ending for me. I've been moved to near-tears several times this game already watching the relationship between the plaintive Max and the aggressively vulnerable Chloe.

But the ending, where it all comes pouring out and we (obviously) sacrifice all of Arcadia Bay for Chloe? I barely batted an eyelash. The nightmare sequence was actually bad enough to ruin the emotional torque of the ending. With my mood influenced by that shit section, the ending felt over-acted and overly familiar, and I feel really upset that I missed out on something emotionally crushing. Couldn't we get a longer palette cleanser? Something that could more adequately let us get back into the moment so we could feel emotion? Maybe a longer section to show us who survived (or didn't survive) the tornado?

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*

J. Deitz
David Foy
Adam B.
Lisa Simpsons
Thomas Farber
Anthony Kaes
John Doe

Anyone have the guide for the references here?

* The museum is actually one of the funnest sites of the game. A douchebag dad tries to tell his family about how impressive his photography knowledge is... but the sign next to the photo undermines his fake encyclopedic powers. Then, there's a guy deeply admiring a portrait of two women kissing.

* Principal Wells is deeply regretful that he didn't do enough, and acutely aware of his own shortcomings (such as his taste for prestige) in the alternate timeline. Of course it doesn't stick.

* Even Nathan gets some redemption here when his final call as a living human in universe T-1 is to warn us about Jefferson. It's kind of nice that the series works so hard to redeem three insufferable pieces of shit in Nathan, David, and Frank - but I think the image rehabilitation is at least a little incomplete here.

* Only good thing about the nightmare sequence: some of the text messages. Especially Pompidou sending one.

* Is it just my game glitching, or do Max's lips not move when she talks to Warren?
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Congratulations, welcome to the endless circle jerk where someone will tell you that you picked the wrong thing regardless of which thing you picked

Also go play Before the Storm, it's really good
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The nightmare is certainly terrible but I really liked the hall of memories at the end there so it wasn't all bad. Sacrifice Chloe still managed to make me cry on my most recent playthrough, too.

Overall, though, I thought all of Episode Five was hella disappointing. I'm glad you at least enjoyed parts of it!
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team save Chloe right here. the game does a bad job here, but I thought the real choice, the only choice that whole game, was saving Chloe. I spent a real long time sitting there making that final choice but decided that there was no point to the game without saving Chloe.
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Yeah, my complaint about the ending is entirely due to how little there is to the save Chloe ending compared to saving Arcadia Bay. It almost seems like they didn't expect any one to make that choice, or at least didn't want players to choose that.
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saving Chloe is for losers!
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I like how the only rationale provided that killing Chloe would stop anything was provided by Warren, and then Max is just like "Maybe you're right, noted science class failure friend!"
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Saving Chloe is objectively the wrong choice. The game makes it really clear. My headcannon with that choice is the rest of their lives is spent like Final Destination where Max constantly has to keep saving Chloe and they are both miserable
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nah. it basically invalidates the entire game! Chloe lives forever along with Max, destroyer of worlds
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anyway, it's too bad the nightmare crushed your enthusiasm. the ending just finished you off. I still think that game is great despite the way it botches the landing.
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The ending is really good, because it actually judges you for your choice. Both choices are valid, but one is obviously evil and selfish.

That's really cool, because the whole contradiction of the game and the time reversing and choice-based games like this in general is that you can get everything you want and make everyone happy. Basically, if there's a choice you like and a choice you don't, then it's not actually a choice. You need to be angry and disappointed with your choice for it to actually have any weight.

This concept is expressed a lot throughout the game (allowing Kate to die is the strongest example, but only if it happens) but the final choice makes it super explicit that that is the core message of the game. It sounds kinda cheating to say that you are not supposed to like the ending, but I think this game does more than enough effort to make the message meaningful and deserved.

That being said, the Save Arcadia Bay ending is the "good" one and like all the choices in the game, you need to see it to get a complete understanding of the game.
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Also the storm is a metaphor, which so many people seem to miss for some reason
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Actually Saving Arcadia Bay is the final example of Max thinking that she is the be all end all superhero savior, and by making juuuuuuust one more cosmic alteration she can finally fix everything, in spite of the tornado ostensibly being a result of her carrying this train of thought in the first place.

Also throwing your best friend under the bus to save a town only slightly less corrupt than Silent Hill is bad
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Uhhhh thanks for providing an example of a completely wrong interpretation
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What a well thought out rebuttal. "No u"
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Hmm, to me I don't think I picked up enough of the events around AB really being Max's fault. After all, she doesn't intentionally rewind the first time, and the vision of the storm precedes anything else. If anything, the storm comes off as a warning of what's going to happen, and Max is supposed to prevent it.

We're also told throughout the game that something is deeply fucked up about how the Prescotts and Blackwell have been handling/running the institutions of the city. The apocalyptic signs feel more like divine retribution for the sins of those evil forces than a result of Max's actions.

The conclusions that Warren/Max/Chloe eventually draw are obviously correct in-universe, but I'm not sure it came across. Maybe if I were to replay the game, it would become clearer that it was some sort of punishment for Max instead of a punishment for the city being so douche-y.

But "abusing" Max's powers allowed:

- Chloe to live
- Jefferson to be brought to justice
- Rachel's body to be discovered
- Frank to be redeemed/come to terms with what he did
- Prescott family's corruption to be investigated
- Nathan to have a shot at redemption
- David to be redeemed/able to face Joyce
- Victoria to be saved
- Kate to be saved

Sure, we wind up blowing Blackwell off the map by sacrificing it at the end, but 1. the game doesn't show us enough repercussion to prove how terrible the storm was 2. it doesn't do enough to convince me that Arcadia Bay is worth saving unless Max has used her powers already and 3. definitely doesn't do enough to convince me that it's worth saving without Chloe there.

The game calls Max a superhero more than once. Chloe says something about how "great power means great blah blah blah." A superhero would sacrifice herself to save thousands... a superhero might (?) even sacrifice their most loved one. But if the storm is proof that Max isn't a superhero - no superhero punishes the world simply by using their power - then why should we behave like a superhero?

Nonetheless, the fact that the "sacrifice AB" ending is kind of clipped and that the "sacrifice Chloe" ending is apparently longer is probably evidence enough that I didn't make the canonical choice here.

Is BtS a straight-up prequel? Or does it have time travel/is it an alternate universe? No need to spoil me, but I want to know at least the premise to see if it's worth it for me.
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Straight prequel.
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You should probably watch the 'sacrifice Chloe' ending on YouTube so you can judge yourself
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no time travel. if you like Chloe it's worth a play, and you definitely seem to so I'd recommend it. it's not as good as LIS but it kinda can't be by design.
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foolm0r0n posted...

Also the storm is a metaphor, which so many people seem to miss for some reason

Can you help me understand this? I have heard this but cant figure it out myself.
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Max = desire to help everyone
Chloe = desire to change her past
Max + Chloe = Spiral of changing past to help and messing up and changing again = Storm

Bay ending = Max who is okay with Chloe dying = no Storm
Bae ending = Max who only cares about Chloe + Chloe who doesn't want to change the past anymore = no Storm
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foolm0r0n posted...

The ending is really good, because it actually judges you for your choice. Both choices are valid, but one is obviously evil and selfish.

I do not deny that, I just wish that ending was more fleshed out. That said, I understand why it isn't.
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My Immortal posted...

You should probably watch the 'sacrifice Chloe' ending on YouTube so you can judge yourself

Yeah, if only because the Sacrifice Chloe ending is definitely the better crafted of the two endings.
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I did feel rather underwhelmed by the ending post-choice. The choice itself is beautifully constructed and the whole scene is wonderful, but the pay-off isn't there. The save Chloe ending is especially disappointing; seeing AB destroyed for a few seconds as Max and Chloe drive away after we basically killed everyone we met throughout the game should generate a much stronger emotional response, but the characters don't really express it. I remember I ended up loading my save file again to make the choice to save AB because it just felt so lacking, and while it was a little better, it also didn't quite hit the mark either imo. Both endings felt rushed for a journey so character-heavy.
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I saved Chloe to spite the developers
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Omniscientless posted...

seeing AB destroyed for a few seconds as Max and Chloe drive away after we basically killed everyone we met throughout the game should generate a much stronger emotional response, but the characters don't really express it

They expressed just as much as you did
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i just watched the sacrifice-chloe ending on youtube

it's obviously more of an ending than sacrifice-AB was - in part because it adheres so much more closely with time-travel tropes that i'm familiar with, in part because it gives last words, in part because it has more emotion, in part because we actually get the max-chloe kiss here... which alone might be more rewarding than any part of the sacrifice-AB ending

might also help that i'm now days removed from having to play through that disastrous nightmare, so i'm not dead to the game

it's still not a strong conclusion, but i'm gonna try not to let that detract from a really great experience overall!
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SeabassDebeste posted...

it's still not a strong conclusion, but i'm gonna try not to let that detract from a really great experience overall!

I feel like this is where a lot of people's opinions settle when it comes to Life is Strange. Either that or they find an interpretation that works for them (and as foolmo demonstrates, people can get quite defensive of those interpretations!)

It's still my favorite game but I had to come up with my own alternate fanfiction explanations for certain things in order to keep it there. I hate the time travel cliche of Max's power being responsible for everything
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episode 3 and 4 are more than strong enough to overcome the weak parts. I almost don't consider the final ending to matter all that much in the grand scheme.

if you haven't played the walking dead, you should.
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I mean it's a literary game with an ending that is tough to figure out. You can criticize the devs for poor delivery or whatever but you do still have a responsibility as the player to understand what they were saying.

Episodes 1-4 were fun and plot driven, which is really cool, but the way the ending wrapped up all the themes made the whole experience feel complete and memorable instead of just a series of fun events. It puts it on a level that game stories rarely dare to go.
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I think it's great that you have an interpretation that you enjoy, but I don't appreciate how you often act like yours is the only interpretation and anyone who disagrees with it is wrong.

I've seen lots of views on Life is Strange over the last few years and on some level I think they all have merit. I view it as a testament to the strength of the story that its various pieces can be put together in so many different ways.
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I don't think it's the only interpretation. The only thing I reject is that there is no interpretation and that it reads like a straight plot-driven TV season finale or something.

Questions like "why was she sure the storm would be gone when Chloe died??" are what I criticize for not trying to understand the themes and metaphors of the story. It's like kids asking "why didn't Romeo just wait 5 seconds for Juliet to wake up before killing himself??" which totally misses the point of the story. That's not a valid interpretation and it's reductive to the writing of this game and game writing as a whole, which is struggling really hard to move beyond just basic plot-driven stories.
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