she was the last person in that outside area that I saved. all she did was beg for me to help her and I did and afterwards thanked me. but then she saved me and said "we're even." didn't get any of that bad dialogue. I wonder what triggers it.
I got the same dialogue hey_monkey's talking about and to my knowledge I helped her in every episode. Huh.
I did think at the time that her reaction to seeing Max was weird.
Victoria was knocked out next to Max at the beginning of the episode 'cuz I warned her about Nathan in the previous one. Damn it, Dontnod! *shakes fist*
I mean, literally every moment of that scene is her imagining Chloe hooking up with all the people in her life and being put down by Chloe as unworthy of her attention. Don't know what it could say but jealousy and fear of rejection.
So I finished it earlier today and while I want to better formulate my thoughts and emotions I do want to say a few things ahead of that. I started this game with my girlfriend back when episode one launched in January. At that point, we had been dating for a year and I had slowly indoctrinated her into playing story heavy games like Life is Strange with me. We enjoyed it and she refused to let me play the game without her. This kept me from getting through it as quickly as I would have otherwise, but eventually we cleared it and eagerly awaited the next episode. The second came and we made our way through it much the same way, I can still remember sitting on the couch together panicking when he had to figure out how to save Kate. By the time episode three came out, I was 1,000 KM away from her, back home for the summer trying to make some money so that I could continue to go to school. I texted her about it and promised that I would do a playthrough with her when I was back for good in August. Same thing happened in July when the fourth episode released. I was excited for her to see these episodes and I could not wait to be back on the couch watching her react to the events unfolding.
And then I was back and we were no longer together. It came out of nowhere and didn't have any real logic to it, it just kind of happened a few days into being back. I was devastated, but we all know how breakups go.
So when I booted up Episode 5 this morning I had no idea what to expect. For the majority of the game, I felt the same way as the most of you, emotionally responsive in the right places, all the regular reactions to the twists DontNod love to lob.
And then I got to the final choice and I knew I had to give up Chloe. But it wasn't entirely letting Chloe go that hurt, it was the photo she handed me, I felt like it represented a piece of me as well. Like, I was going back to a time and place that didn't exist anymore. A place where I played this scene out before with somebody beside me. From there all I can honestly recall is raw emotion and lots of tears. And admitting that letting Chloe go was the right thing to do made me realize that I hadn't been letting go of anything these past few months. I was and had been dwelling and apparently it took a story about two friends and time travel to realize that (Life is Strange, eh? ZING). The proceeding events unfolding the way they do further cemented how I felt, how I feel. By the time the little butterfly that started it all settled on the coffin, tears streaming down my face, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my chest. It's my GOTY because of what it taught me and what it made me feel.
Anyway, TLDR; My GOTY is Life is Strange because it made me realize that you have to let some things and people go because it is best for all of those around you. Also that I'm a big emotional mess when it comes to games made by the French.
I need sleep as this probably makes zero sense, hahaha.
I don't recall any reference to Victoria dying in my game. She definitely wasn't in the Dark Room.
The Last of Us spoilers ahead:
The games could, potentially, have very similar endings. It's interesting to hear people talk about both options. I felt like my Max wouldn't have gone through everything for nothing. She'd grown so, incredibly close to Chloe, and was willing to watch the world burn for her. I think it pulled it off better than TLoU, actually--I was happier making the choice to save Chloe than being forced to kill the doctors in TLoU. I think it's a shame if we get a season 2 and saving Chloe isn't canon, because I think that's the stronger ending.
I don't think what we did was pointless. Max has changed and how she interacts with people has changed too. I think she'll be way more supportive with Kate to protect her and she's no longer scared of Victoria so she might change her into a better person too. We saw a bit of that interaction when she went back again. Max has grown and learned a lot from Chloe's sacrifice. So in the end, she will change people's lives but without the need of time travel.
There's some billboard thing on a poll on the building next to the one Alyssa is stuck in. It falls down and Alyssa saved me. It wasn't some flying debree for me - it even stays on the ground afterwards.
The flying debris you might be thinking of that Ethan kid you save.
Speaking of, it was weird there was a moment for him given how he was probably the kid with the least amount of interaction with in the rest of the series.
I mean, literally every moment of that scene is her imagining Chloe hooking up with all the people in her life and being put down by Chloe as unworthy of her attention. Don't know what it could say but jealousy and fear of rejection.
If you read the journal at the final scene you see what Max thinks of that scene. If you got the friendship Chloe end she isn't jealous, she's hurt that Chloe is saying hurtful things about her. If you got the romantic Chloe end she is jealous and hurt that she's flirting with other people.
she was alive next to me but after traveling a few times through time in the photos, she's gone and he says he got rid of her. I never heard the scream either
You can read it like that, but there's a fair amount that can change depending on your prior actions also, which does feed into the funeral ending, at least. The focus on the end is understandable, but I really, really think the journey is at least half the point. I wish the end had been more dynamic, but I can deal with it. I loved it, even.
So I finished it earlier today and while I want to better formulate my thoughts and emotions I do want to say a few things ahead of that. I started this game with my girlfriend back when episode one launched in January. At that point, we had been dating for a year and I had slowly indoctrinated her into playing story heavy games like Life is Strange with me. We enjoyed it and she refused to let me play the game without her. This kept me from getting through it as quickly as I would have otherwise, but eventually we cleared it and eagerly awaited the next episode. The second came and we made our way through it much the same way, I can still remember sitting on the couch together panicking when he had to figure out how to save Kate. By the time episode three came out, I was 1,000 KM away from her, back home for the summer trying to make some money so that I could continue to go to school. I texted her about it and promised that I would do a playthrough with her when I was back for good in August. Same thing happened in July when the fourth episode released. I was excited for her to see these episodes and I could not wait to be back on the couch watching her react to the events unfolding.
And then I was back and we were no longer together. It came out of nowhere and didn't have any real logic to it, it just kind of happened a few days into being back. I was devastated, but we all know how breakups go.
So when I booted up Episode 5 this morning I had no idea what to expect. For the majority of the game, I felt the same way as the most of you, emotionally responsive in the right places, all the regular reactions to the twists DontNod love to lob.
And then I got to the final choice and I knew I had to give up Chloe. But it wasn't entirely letting Chloe go that hurt, it was the photo she handed me, I felt like it represented a piece of me as well. Like, I was going back to a time and place that didn't exist anymore. A place where I played this scene out before with somebody beside me. From there all I can honestly recall is raw emotion and lots of tears. And admitting that letting Chloe go was the right thing to do made me realize that I hadn't been letting go of anything these past few months. I was and had been dwelling and apparently it took a story about two friends and time travel to realize that (Life is Strange, eh? ZING). The proceeding events unfolding the way they do further cemented how I felt, how I feel. By the time the little butterfly that started it all settled on the coffin, tears streaming down my face, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my chest. It's my GOTY because of what it taught me and what it made me feel.
Anyway, TLDR; My GOTY is Life is Strange because it made me realize that you have to let some things and people go because it is best for all of those around you. Also that I'm a big emotional mess when it comes to games made by the French.
I need sleep as this probably makes zero sense, hahaha.
I'm a fair bit older than the LiS characters, but I recognise a lot of my youth in their stuff. Time travel, guns, you name it. But seriously, it struck a chord, and cool to see it did with other people, even if shitty things happened to make that resonance occur. I absolutely love this game.
So, I've finished the game yesterday night and after sleeping on it I decided that I liked the ending.
I chose the Sacrifice Arcadia Bay / Save Chloe option and and would do it again. Yes, it's the egoistic choice, the selfish one, the obviously morally wrong one, but it's the only real choice that fit my Max and how I've been playing her. I've been playing her to have a crush on Chloe since the beginning, and for my Max, Chloe was the most important person, so it was a hard choice to make but the only real one she could make. There was simply no way in hell Max would ever not save Chloe. Not after all she'd gone through. That would have been out of character.
To be fair, if I was in her situation (save my wife vs. save everyone else) I would do the same. Call me an egoist or a shitty human being, but I'd do it.
From a dramatic point of view though, I liked the Sacrifice Chloe ending better. It was really well done, while the Save Chloe ending kind of lacked in comparison. I still don't get why Chloe and Max just left Arcadia Bay. I'm not sure if the ending wanted to imply that there were no survivors, because if it did, it was doing a poor job. The destruction didn't look worse than in the timeline where Max went to the diner to see Warren, and there were clearly people alive. If they really wanted to completely eradicate the whole town, they should've blown it up and wiped it off the map, leaving only a wastelend. Maybe then I'd buy it. What I'd liked even better though would for the ending to just end with Chloe and Max watching the storm, leaving it open what happens after that. The two of them hugging on that cliff was the perfect ending shot in my opinion and they should've ended it there. An epilogue (to see who survived and who didn't and how my choices affected them would have been nice as well).
Now, on the subject that the choices didn't really influence the ending, I agree, but I still think it makes sense in the context. The two endings we've been given have, at least that what I've taken away from them, another implication than just "Save Chloe" or "Save Arcadia Bay." Every choice we've made so far led to the storm coming. It didn't matter how many world lines Max went through, the outcome was always the same. She could save individual people but not prevent the storm from coming. The only way to do that was do not do anything at all. In other words: the only way to win the game was not to play at all. So the final choice kind of was a choice of accepting that. Max could either let Chloe die, not mess around with time at all, negate everything she did during the game, and accept that she simply is not powerful enough to beat the forces behind the storm; or she could say fuck you to those forces, accept that it's going to happen anyway and make the "best" out of it, which is at least saving her most important person, Chloe.
As a player, that's kind of a cool idea, I think. Take Telltale Games for example, the ending to The Walking Dead
doesn't really change no matter what you do. Lee dies, there's nothing you can do to prevent that, but the journey up to that point is different depending on your choices.
Life is Strange is kind of the same. The ending (the storm) will always be the same, but the way there is different depending on how you play. However, other than The Walking Dead, Life is Strange gives you another option. Want to prevent that storm from happening? Here's how: Don't play the game. Undo everything, go back to the very beginning of Episode 1, and refuse to act. Boom, there you go. You get an ending that technically happened in episode 1.
I really liked this idea and I really liked the game. It was an amazing journey and I am, even though I have my criticism, quite happy with the ending.
...The ending (the storm) will always be the same, but the way there is different depending on how you play. However, other than The Walking Dead, Life is Strange gives you another option. Want to prevent that storm from happening? Here's how: Don't play the game. Undo everything, go back to the very beginning of Episode 1, and refuse to act. Boom, there you go. You get an ending that technically happened in episode.
In regards to this -- it's not a complete reset, at least not to Max, to Max it was still worth going through that week before rewinding to Chloe's death. Max will still have the memories of her last few days with her best friend, and they're invaluable. It's similar to how the alt. reality plays out, Chloe spends time with Max once again for a day (few days? I can't remember how long you were there for, at least overnight), they share a few moments, and then Chloe's okay with dying -- of course the scenario is different but the spirit of the thing is there. That and all of the interactions with side characters will very likely help Max continue through school, she'll have an easier time getting along with Victoria, Kate, Dana, David, Joyce, even Warren.
Edit: I realize I'm just explaining the incredibly obvious; the game use supernatural elements to convey a really compelling coming-of-age story.
Thought it was shit. I hate that they tried to redeem everybody in this game at the 11th hour. He still killed Rachel, and technically even Chloe. He's still an irredeemable piece of garbage even if he got buttmad and sent a weepy voicemail.
I mean, literally every moment of that scene is her imagining Chloe hooking up with all the people in her life and being put down by Chloe as unworthy of her attention. Don't know what it could say but jealousy and fear of rejection.
But why would Chloe hook up with any of those people at all? They're all people Max has unsure feelings about, too. To me it was showing that she was afraid that Chloe was flirting with evil - that she didn't believe her. This has been the first week she's seen her in a long time after all, who knows what her affiliations are outside of seeing Max. That to me seemed like a big fear.
So, I've finished the game yesterday night and after sleeping on it I decided that I liked the ending.
I chose the Sacrifice Arcadia Bay / Save Chloe option and and would do it again. Yes, it's the egoistic choice, the selfish one, the obviously morally wrong one, but it's the only real choice that fit my Max and how I've been playing her. I've been playing her to have a crush on Chloe since the beginning, and for my Max, Chloe was the most important person, so it was a hard choice to make but the only real one she could make. There was simply no way in hell Max would ever not save Chloe. Not after all she'd gone through. That would have been out of character.
To be fair, if I was in her situation (save my wife vs. save everyone else) I would do the same. Call me an egoist or a shitty human being, but I'd do it.
From a dramatic point of view though, I liked the Sacrifice Chloe ending better. It was really well done, while the Save Chloe ending kind of lacked in comparison. I still don't get why Chloe and Max just left Arcadia Bay. I'm not sure if the ending wanted to imply that there were no survivors, because if it did, it was doing a poor job. The destruction didn't look worse than in the timeline where Max went to the diner to see Warren, and there were clearly people alive. If they really wanted to completely eradicate the whole town, they should've blown it up and wiped it off the map, leaving only a wastelend. Maybe then I'd buy it. What I'd liked even better though would for the ending to just end with Chloe and Max watching the storm, leaving it open what happens after that. The two of them hugging on that cliff was the perfect ending shot in my opinion and they should've ended it there. An epilogue (to see who survived and who didn't and how my choices affected them would have been nice as well).
Now, on the subject that the choices didn't really influence the ending, I agree, but I still think it makes sense in the context. The two endings we've been given have, at least that what I've taken away from them, another implication than just "Save Chloe" or "Save Arcadia Bay." Every choice we've made so far led to the storm coming. It didn't matter how many world lines Max went through, the outcome was always the same. She could save individual people but not prevent the storm from coming. The only way to do that was do not do anything at all. In other words: the only way to win the game was not to play at all. So the final choice kind of was a choice of accepting that. Max could either let Chloe die, not mess around with time at all, negate everything she did during the game, and accept that she simply is not powerful enough to beat the forces behind the storm; or she could say fuck you to those forces, accept that it's going to happen anyway and make the "best" out of it, which is at least saving her most important person, Chloe.
As a player, that's kind of a cool idea, I think. Take Telltale Games for example, the ending to The Walking Dead
doesn't really change no matter what you do. Lee dies, there's nothing you can do to prevent that, but the journey up to that point is different depending on your choices.
Life is Strange is kind of the same. The ending (the storm) will always be the same, but the way there is different depending on how you play. However, other than The Walking Dead, Life is Strange gives you another option. Want to prevent that storm from happening? Here's how: Don't play the game. Undo everything, go back to the very beginning of Episode 1, and refuse to act. Boom, there you go. You get an ending that technically happened in episode 1.
I really liked this idea and I really liked the game. It was an amazing journey and I am, even though I have my criticism, quite happy with the ending.
Thought it was shit. I hate that they tried to redeem everybody in this game at the 11th hour. He still killed Rachel, and technically even Chloe. He's still an irredeemable piece of garbage even if he got buttmad and sent a weepy voicemail.
Yeah, I thought he was just a framed puppet for Mr. Jefferson at the end of episode 4. However, episode 5 cements pretty hard that Nathan was indeed a piece of shit. I don't care if its mental problems, it's hard to sympathise with a character that kidnaps, sexually harasses, and murders women.
I sacrificed Chloe because the game seemed to strongly indicate that it was her destiny to die young whether it was by Nathan, train, stray bullet, drug dealer, health complications or psychos, so even if the tornado destroyed AB, it just seemed like it was going to be Final Destination: The ABC Family Version. It seemed pretty clear that regardless of what Max fixed, fate gonna fate and Chloe is going to die in some other random unpreventable way. I like Chloe alright, but I'm not as taken with her as some others are.
My only real disappointment was the the whole Rachel Amber story. I thought it was really going to go somewhere, maybe somehow linked to Max's time manipulation powers in that Max seemed to occupy the vacancy Rachel left in some respects. I kinda wanted Rachel to be Max's alter ego or alternate self in some respects, in that they could inhabit the same reality to a degree, but never the twain shall meet. And what one did, could have an inverse affect on the other in some way.
random thought - the memory walk at the end of the episode might actually work better for players who've been part of the journey since January, since by now all those scenes with Max and Rachel actually do feel like memories that you have accumulated over the course of the season in the past few months, rather than a reminder of something that you have just experienced a couple hours ago if you play through all the episodes in one sitting. I thought it was a really neat touch, anyway
My only real disappointment was the the whole Rachel Amber story. I thought it was really going to go somewhere, maybe somehow linked to Max's time manipulation powers in that Max seemed to occupy the vacancy Rachel left in some respects. I kinda wanted Rachel to be Max's alter ego or alternate self in some respects, in that they could inhabit the same reality to a degree, but never the twain shall meet. And what one did, could have an inverse affect on the other in some way.
I thought the way they handled Rachel was great. In a game with time travel powers, you'd expect a twist like that in Rachel's story, but then reality happened. Rachel was dead and gone, and her death was horrible, and there was nothing Max or Chloe could have done about it because it was already too late before they even started. Probably the best emotional gut punch in the game, only topped by the bathroom scene redux in Episode 5.
Thought it was shit. I hate that they tried to redeem everybody in this game at the 11th hour. He still killed Rachel, and technically even Chloe. He's still an irredeemable piece of garbage even if he got buttmad and sent a weepy voicemail.
look at it another way - outside of Jefferson, most of the characters in this game are not just black and white walking cardboard copies. They have human qualities and some are deeply flawed - in Nathan's case, it's clear that, despite having done some despicable things, he was really messed up kid that needed help. He could have been a better person if things had gone differently for him
Try to put yourself in that situation. Your most important person (be it your friend friend, lover, significant other, child, dearest family member) vs. a lot of people. Sure, the logical analysis here is that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one, but is it really that easy a choice to make?
As a player, a third party, you're obviously diconnected enough to make that logical choice, but if you play it in-character, it's different. Unless your Max is literally Spock.
Clearly the game favours multiple timelines instead of just one, and there's a different max living out the consequences of each change.
So by making the final choice, we're not really making a choice of what happens to Arcadia Bay - It happens anyway, in one timeline, whereas in another Chloe dies.
All we're doing is picking the timeline this Max will live in - so it's not like you can ever truly save acadia bay. All you're doing is letting "other Max" deal with that.
I'm not sure if the ending wanted to imply that there were no survivors, because if it did, it was doing a poor job. The destruction didn't look worse than in the timeline where Max went to the diner to see Warren, and there were clearly people alive.
I took the deer being present to signify the worst. Deer would go nowhere near that kind of scene if there was even a hint of activity. There's nobody left.
That end could have been stronger though, for sure - in length and in hammering home the consequences.
I thought the way they handled Rachel was great. In a game with time travel powers, you'd expect a twist like that in Rachel's story, but then reality happened. Rachel was dead and gone, and her death was horrible, and there was nothing Max or Chloe could have done about it because it was already too late before they even started. Probably the best emotional gut punch in the game, only topped by the bathroom scene redux in Episode 5.
Its more the inconsistency of how she's built up in the first 2-3 episodes and then quickly becomes disposable in the last 2 episodes. It seemed like it was going to be a Lara Palmer/Twin Peaks sort of thing and you discover more about her and her connections through Max, the outsider. About halfway or so, she just becomes a simple plot device and not much else, and any mystery her character had is just gone. Given the game's overall theme, I sort of think the dark room murders became a distraction to what it was really about. I think there were opportunities to tie everything together a bit better IMO
Its more the inconsistency of how she's built up in the first 2-3 episodes and then quickly becomes disposable in the last 2 episodes. It seemed like it was going to be a Lara Palmer/Twin Peaks sort of thing and you discover more about her and her connections through Max, the outsider. About halfway or so, she just becomes a simple plot device and not much else, and any mystery her character had is just gone. Given the game's overall theme, I sort of think the dark room murders became a distraction to what it was really about. I think there were opportunities to tie everything together a bit better IMO
Clearly the game favours multiple timelines instead of just one, and there's a different max living out the consequences of each change.
So by making the final choice, we're not really making a choice of what happens to Arcadia Bay - It happens anyway, in one timeline, whereas in another Chloe dies.
All we're doing is picking the timeline this Max will live in - so it's not like you can ever truly save acadia bay. All you're doing is letting "other Max" deal with that.
Not exactly. Max returned to the first time she ever used her powers, and by doing nothing to save Chloe, those others timelines never existed. So yeah, she did save Arcadia Bay at the cost of her best friend.
Try to put yourself in that situation. Your most important person (be it your friend friend, lover, significant other, child, dearest family member) vs. a lot of people. Sure, the logical analysis here is that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one, but is it really that easy a choice to make?
As a player, a third party, you're obviously diconnected enough to make that logical choice, but if you play it in-character, it's different. Unless your Max is literally Spock.
I took the deer being present to signify the worst. Deer would go nowhere near that kind of scene if there was even a hint of activity. There's nobody left.
That end could have been stronger though, for sure - in length and in hammering home the consequences.
Not exactly. Max returned to the first time she ever used her powers, and by doing nothing to save Chloe, those others timelines never existed. So yeah, she did save Arcadia Bay at the cost of her best friend.
Try to put yourself in that situation. Your most important person (be it your friend friend, lover, significant other, child, dearest family member) vs. a lot of people. Sure, the logical analysis here is that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one, but is it really that easy a choice to make?
If I were in that situation, I'd still be questioning how the hell we knew any of it worked. I mean, it was basically Chloe just pulling a popular fan theory out of her butt and saying "this is totally it!"
Man, it wasn't even Chloe doing it. It was the devs doing it through Chloe.
Its more the inconsistency of how she's built up in the first 2-3 episodes and then quickly becomes disposable in the last 2 episodes. It seemed like it was going to be a Lara Palmer/Twin Peaks sort of thing and you discover more about her and her connections through Max, the outsider. About halfway or so, she just becomes a simple plot device and not much else, and any mystery her character had is just gone. Given the game's overall theme, I sort of think the dark room murders became a distraction to what it was really about. I think there were opportunities to tie everything together a bit better IMO
She wasn't built up to anything, she was a missing person that the characters where looking for. Once they found out she was dead, she stopped being an important part of the story and just became a motive to stop Jefferson.
