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Life is Strange | Spoiler Thread

I'm not sure how many of you already knew about these, but I found some unused files and scenes posted on YouTube. Some were minor changes, but some show the cut content that could probably mean they had a lot more planned regarding the mythology, the storm and a few characters.

These were probably cut due to the game's small budget and time constraints, so you can't blame the developers, although it would be amazed to see the game fully explored. Not that it takes anything away from it, by the way.

(Some of these videos repeat a few scenes/audios, but all of them have different things.)

Life is Strange Episode 2 Beta vs Final changes part 1

Life is Strange Episode 2 Beta vs Final changes part 2

Life Is Strange - Episode 3 - Unused Dark Room scene and Beta Intro

Life Is Strange - Unused audio, Leaked Ep5 Audio (I don't think these are audios from Episode 5, but still...)

Life is Strange clips with unused audio

Nathan's Other Side (Very insightful!)
 
I wonder what my spirit animal is.
~Kinggi~ said:
Watching let's plays like the giant bomb and other misc stuff of this is a great way of healing withdrawal. Such a weird feeling. I can play this whenever but thats not even the thing about it. More just the feeling of watching the characters discover new things and its gone now, but watching other people have their reactions is pretty satisfying.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's nice to check out other peoples reactions.
 
Temporal Mess said:
I liked how they handled Rachel. She had this whole cult worship thing going on at the start but the more you found out about her the more you realized that she was just another incredibly flawed human being who had affairs, picked bad partners, etc.

Aside: All this is reminding me that I still need to watch Twin Peaks.
Click to expand...

Do it. As soon as possible.
 
I watched a LiS stream after finishing the game. This couple was playing through the nightmare segment and Twitch collectively shit their pants.

It was great.
 
RobertoSAGuedes said:
I'm not sure how many of you already knew about these, but I found some unused files and scenes posted on YouTube. Some were minor changes, but some show the cut content that could probably mean they had a lot more planned regarding the mythology, the storm and a few characters.

These were probably cut due to the game's small budget and time constraints, so you can't blame the developers, although it would be amazed to see the game fully explored. Not that it takes anything away from it, by the way.

(Some of these videos repeat a few scenes/audios, but all of them have different things.)

Life is Strange Episode 2 Beta vs Final changes part 1

Life is Strange Episode 2 Beta vs Final changes part 2

Life Is Strange - Episode 3 - Unused Dark Room scene and Beta Intro

Life Is Strange - Unused audio, Leaked Ep5 Audio (I don't think these are audios from Episode 5, but still...)

Life is Strange clips with unused audio

Nathan's Other Side (Very insightful!)
Click to expand...

Nice, I'm gonna watch them.

Btw, good to see you here, Roberto. Gamus lives on NeoGAF ;)
 
RobertoSAGuedes said:
I'm not sure how many of you already knew about these, but I found some unused files and scenes posted on YouTube. Some were minor changes, but some show the cut content that could probably mean they had a lot more planned regarding the mythology, the storm and a few characters.

These were probably cut due to the game's small budget and time constraints, so you can't blame the developers, although it would be amazed to see the game fully explored. Not that it takes anything away from it, by the way.

(Some of these videos repeat a few scenes/audios, but all of them have different things.)

Life is Strange Episode 2 Beta vs Final changes part 1

Life is Strange Episode 2 Beta vs Final changes part 2

Life Is Strange - Episode 3 - Unused Dark Room scene and Beta Intro

Life Is Strange - Unused audio, Leaked Ep5 Audio (I don't think these are audios from Episode 5, but still...)

Life is Strange clips with unused audio

Nathan's Other Side (Very insightful!)
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for this! I felt like there must have been some stuff cut that explained some of the unanswered questions.

Gbraga said:
Do it. As soon as possible.
Click to expand...
I've been meaning to do it for a couple of years now. But the announced return of the X-Files and now Life is Strange finishing is really making me want to get my ass in gear.
 
I will save Chloe every time.

Burn Arcadia.

sowhatwhocares.gif
 
Manu said:
Platinum get. Felt like saying my final goodbyes to Life is Strange.

I'm seriously feeling kinda sad now.
Click to expand...

kinda? I played it yesterday and I'm still depressed

this is gonna take me a few days to get over... again.
 
Overall... eh.

I'm really having a hard time following along with the very strict narrow path the game wants you to interpret everything and take it all face value to find any solace in those final choices.

Too many holes you have to ignore or just agree 'work this way', too much mumble jumble baseless jargon you just have to accept the game isn't lying to you about.

In the end, it's their story so they get the right to the above. However, I think the episode should have focused much more on facing Mr. Jefferson psychologically, the manipulation of Nathan, dealing with veronica, and the more personal monstrosities he committed and the overall outcome of that. I feel like the tornado was holding everything back since Ep. 1 and was sort of a cheesy, way too grandoise for their own good, plot that had to be tied up and it just made everything wayyyyyyyyyyy too complex and weird.

When you're facing Jefferson, his ruse, his demise, there's some powerful stuff there even if it all feels really rushed. But then it just kinda ends... you get a happy ending in the gallery. The end, but not because you know the whole time through this you still have to deal with this tornado that's going to blow shit up. Shit starts getting weird now with all this jumping around time and then kinda boring as you retread the games story multiple times in clip show format while nothing gets resolved or explained. I remember what happened thanks, and you don't even highlight my choices, just the base story. Come on.

That's where it lost me. Also, the acting is great in parts (the psychological horror stuff!) and stilted/crappy in others (the action movie/tornado jargon stuff).

So yeah, eh. Not the ending I would have done, but I didn't hate it. Just kinda weird I guess and I don't see eye to eye with their interpretations of the cause of the tornado and such.
 
Krabboss said:
Why didn't the world similarly go to great length to correct Max's meddling when she saved William's life?
Click to expand...

I have, like, an abstract explanation for this. I'll try my best to get it across.

It seems like, even though Max can rewind time, the "river" as a whole is always flowing forward. Typically she can only change the events of the immediate past, and when she uses a photo to go back further she has a very small window of time before she's snapped back to the "present," albeit the present of a different reality.

So, when she changes the past and saves William, whatever space Max occupies in the spacetime continuum doesn't take years to react. As far as everyone else is concerned it happened years ago, but from Max's perspective it's been a matter of minutes.

I'm probably not doing a great job here, but it makes sense to me, sorta.

EDIT: To put it in other words, there's an "absolute time" that Max always has to return to, and the absolute time was already fucked when she saved William's life.
 
Octavia said:
When you're facing Jefferson, his ruse, his demise, there's some powerful stuff there even if it all feels really rushed. But then it just kinda ends... you get a happy ending in the gallery. The end, but not because you know the whole time through this you still have to deal with this tornado that's going to blow shit up. Shit starts getting weird now with all this jumping around time and then kinda boring as you retread the games story multiple times in clip show format while nothing gets resolved or explained. I remember what happened thanks, and you don't even highlight my choices, just the base story. Come on.
Click to expand...

Things do get explained though.
 
In the timeline where William lives the whales are still washing up on the beach. The storm might still be coming in that timeline not because of Chloe but because of William. Why both storms have to happen in that particular week in October, despite a space of 5 years between both savings, I got no idea about though.
 
I wish I had never seen the amazing steins gate, before playing this game. The I might of accepted its chaos theory tropey predictable ending.
 
add me to the massive list of people who felt empty after the game finished.

It doesn't help that one of the geek remix girls is on honeymoon so they won't get to do a let's play in it for a while, I loved listening to their insights on the game.

Something just clicked with this game and watching people root through the symbolism like I used to do in English class with books really heightened my enjoyment of the game in a way that hasn't really happened for me too many times before in this medium.
 
Watching GB playthrough. Totally forgot that Chloe's keys was that panda (jax?) thing from Remember Me.

So much stuff to go through. Love it.
 
RobertoSAGuedes said:
I'm not sure how many of you already knew about these, but I found some unused files and scenes posted on YouTube. Some were minor changes, but some show the cut content that could probably mean they had a lot more planned regarding the mythology, the storm and a few characters.

These were probably cut due to the game's small budget and time constraints, so you can't blame the developers, although it would be amazed to see the game fully explored. Not that it takes anything away from it, by the way.

(Some of these videos repeat a few scenes/audios, but all of them have different things.)

Nathan's Other Side (Very insightful!)
Click to expand...

That sure makes it sound like Nathan was meant to have some sort of power as well. Who knows how that ended up hurting him when combined with his mental issues.
 
RobertoSAGuedes said:
I'm not sure how many of you already knew about these, but I found some unused files and scenes posted on YouTube. Some were minor changes, but some show the cut content that could probably mean they had a lot more planned regarding the mythology, the storm and a few characters.

These were probably cut due to the game's small budget and time constraints, so you can't blame the developers, although it would be amazed to see the game fully explored. Not that it takes anything away from it, by the way.

(Some of these videos repeat a few scenes/audios, but all of them have different things.)

[
Click to expand...

I'm really glad the supernatural for the most part was restricted to Max. My two biggest concerns, especially after episode 4, was a time travelling Rachel or cult villains. Considering the sci-fi concept of the game, it would be so easy to stuff the game with fantastical elements and lose the human story. Was absolutely worried we might end up with another Indigo Prophecy. Ideally, Max's powers would be nothing more than a catalyst for her to take action. Personally thought having her power take center stage with the tornado for the finale was a misstep, but absolutely glad the conspiracy angle didn't pan out.
 
I thought that the whole Prescott family had some kind of prior knowledge of the storm or other timepocolypse stuff. From Nathan raving about how "the storm is coming" to the article that you find in the barn about an Prescott ancestor investing a lot of money in bringing shelters (like the one the Dark Room was in) to Arcadia Bay. It would have been super interesting if it had turned out that way, imo.
 
I don't care what anyone says, this is now the ending as I like to have seen it

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5041915?view_adult=true

(maybe with the exception that Warren, Frank and Joyce MIGHT be dead)

I'm also going with Max seeing the storm before saving Chloe as a sign that if anything, her powers were bestowed onto her to save Chloe, as she'd have never gone to the washroom if it hadn't been for her vision. She got her powers TO save Chloe.

My head-canon.
 
epmode said:
Rachel is very clearly a reference to Laura from Twin Peaks. The characters are incredibly similar.

Speaking of which, I'd be interested in a Fire Walk With Me kinda thing if Life is Strange continues.
Click to expand...

Gbraga said:
I take it just as part of the deconstruction of her character, a direct Laura Palmer reference. She starts as this incredible muse, a perfect paragon of beauty and kindness, but the more you know about her, not only she gets closer to normal people, but more fucked up than most. But there's still this beautiful aura about her, you can't help but like her. At least I couldn't.

Which is yet another reason why I'm disappointed we didn't meet her in the Nightmare. She even said we would in her text. D:

Just showing up and saying "I'll see you again in 25 years" would be OK.
Click to expand...
So, I need to watch Twin Peaks is what I'm gathering? I dunno who that is lol.
 
Temporal Mess said:
I thought that the whole Prescott family had some kind of prior knowledge of the storm or other timepocolypse stuff. From Nathan raving about how "the storm is coming" to the article that you find in the barn about an Prescott ancestor investing a lot of money in bringing shelters (like the one the Dark Room was in) to Arcadia Bay. It would have been super interesting if it had turned out that way, imo.
Click to expand...

Lots of red herrings or plot points that never made it through tbh. There's another one that I need to remember...
 
I don't know if anyone else feels this way but:

Ever since the end of Episode 2 I have been thinking about how they could end this. I also started going down into a hole with reading other fan theories. In my mind, for the past 5 or so months, I thought that you would have to choose between Chloe and Arcadia Bay. They're two very logical conclusions to this story. Also, I prepared myself and made up my mind on what I would choose (unless something drastic happened) and that was saving Chloe. I think because of this the ending didn't really "hit" me in the feels because what happened, or what choices I had to choose from, where choices that I already knew were coming. I didn't hit me as hard as Episodes 3 or 4 (or even 2). The real hurt came after the credits rolled and I realized that this is it. I doubt we'll get a Season 2 (at least starring Max and Chloe) and I doubt we'll get a extra Episode 6. I don't want this to be over.

All that being said. The save Chloe ending was very unsatisfying. She has this powerful speech at the end about how nobody deserves to die and she doesn't want to be selfish for once. This actually made me stop and think about the other option. But ultimately, for me, it's Bae over Bay. And Chloe is magically Okay with this? No resistance. No anger. Nothing. Some extra dialog would have been nice. Also, are we to assume EVERYBODY died? The town was still there. It's not like everything got vaporized. I imagine some died but not everyone. Did Max a Chloe not bother to search the rubble? The sacrifice Chloe ending I think had more closure. The save Chloe ending felt rushed and half-assed.
 
Smiley90 said:
I don't care what anyone says, this is now the ending as I like to have seen it

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5041915?view_adult=true

(maybe with the exception that Warren, Frank and Joyce MIGHT be dead)

I'm also going with Max seeing the storm before saving Chloe as a sign that if anything, her powers were bestowed onto her to save Chloe, as she'd have never gone to the washroom if it hadn't been for her vision. She got her powers TO save Chloe.

My head-canon.
Click to expand...

I'm ok with people dying, its not the same as murdering the town as some people have blown it out to be, I consider it more akin to the William choice, you are changing timelines or not as the current one that you are in is the save chloe ending.

This one was really good as well and helped me deal, http://archiveofourown.org/works/5038093
 
GGNKovalski said:
The real hurt came after the credits rolled and I realized that this is it. I doubt we'll get a Season 2 (at least starring Max and Chloe) and I doubt we'll get a extra Episode 6. I don't want this to be over.
Click to expand...

This is the worst part of all. I'm not ready to say goodbye to these characters. Even if they make something just as good in the future, there will never be another Max and Chloe.

The media critic in me says it would be tacky to extend this particular story in any way. But god dammit, that's exactly what I want.

Smiley90 said:
You know what this feels like? Not like finishing a video game. It feels like finishing a book where you've fallen in love with the characters. There will never be a first time again for reading it. This is it.
Click to expand...

Yep. With a couple days of distance, only now am I starting to realize how hard it all really hit me. This is a once-in-a-generation kind of game.
 
Smiley90 said:
I don't care what anyone says, this is now the ending as I like to have seen it

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5041915?view_adult=true

(maybe with the exception that Warren, Frank and Joyce MIGHT be dead)

I'm also going with Max seeing the storm before saving Chloe as a sign that if anything, her powers were bestowed onto her to save Chloe, as she'd have never gone to the washroom if it hadn't been for her vision. She got her powers TO save Chloe.

My head-canon.
Click to expand...

God that was amazing. 11/10
 
I just finished Episode 5 so these are my initial thoughts.

I can understand how some people were disappointed at the ending, where sacrificing Chloe feels like it was all for not. But I feel like it was emphasized in Chloe's last speech that what was important was the time and experience Max and Chloe got to have. Without Max's time powers, Chloe would have been just someone she once knew as a child and is now gone.

Another way to think of it is say you have a distant sibling you don't see often but were once close with as children. One day you abruptly hear the news of their sudden passing; wouldn't you want one more opportunity to get to know them before they're gone? Perhaps the theme of Life is Strange can be seen as nobody can live forever, but the memories and experience we have with them last a lifetime (cheesy I know).

In any case wow what a fantastic game, but unfortunately all things must come to an end. Even with a season 2, it just won't be the same without Max and Chloe. sad face
 
I think the Save Chloe ending would be quite a bit better if it didn't have any music, just the sound effects. Would make it a bit more subtle and sad
 
AlphaStriker said:
In any case wow what a fantastic game, but unfortunately all things must come to an end. Even with a season 2, it just won't be the same without Max and Chloe. sad face
Click to expand...

For cereal.

I'm mad that it ended, and that Square-Enix didn't immediately give them a cool billion to make this the best adventure game of all time.

Oh, I hope we get even more games like this. I can punch a pillow all I want over what the endgame wasn't, but it's an I care because I love sort of thing.
 
I feel like the villains are the story's biggest problem.

Nathan is portrayed alright, but kinda sputters out regardless of your choices. (I wish we got more closure on the entire cast to be honest. Regardless of your choices, you don't get to see enough. The criticism that it feels like your choices don't matter isn't without merit. The game could have solved that by showing our choices affecting the ending in a few subtle different ways)

Jefferson however, is nothing. He's a great big nothing of a character. A traditional psycho who lacks any depth or nuance in any regard. In a story that seems to pride itself on giving characters depth who typically might not get it in another story, that's really bad.
 
I'll echo what many have said that the Sacrifice Chloe choice is the "good" ending, since she keeps dying in different ways throughout the story and it's related to the incoming storm and balancing the universe again. I'm very satisfied with that unfortunate choice I had to make. But good came out of it since Nathan and Jefferson are going to jail.

As for destroying Arcadia Bay, it's too bad it wasn't fleshed out more due to those time and budget constraints. Not sure what the developers had in mind but here's what I'd have liked to see. After the storm destroys the town, Chloe and Max go down to see the aftermath. They see dead bodies everywhere, including Warren and Chloe's mom. At seeing this Chloe breaks down and Max embraces her. You see this look on Max's face like "oh boy did I do the right thing?"

Cut to one year later and Chloe and Max are in the big city on a road trip. Chloe and Max have just finished eating and are at a crosswalk. Behind them a couple dead birds fall out of the sky, freaking out passersby, but they take no notice. Chloe begins to walk across the street and gets ran over by a speeding car, killing her instantly. Max screams and rewinds time, the first time since the big storm, then frantically pulls her back. Chloe's like "what the hell-" then the car zooms by, and she realizes oh shit and embraces Max.

Chloe starts crying "Jesus Christ I thought this was over with." Cut to Max's face, she's thinking to herself "no, no, no..." and a trickle of blood comes from her nose. Cut to credits.
 
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