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I finally got around to playing this and completely fell in love with it. It probably has flaws or whatever but so does everything. I chose to sacrifice the bay as a complete no-brainer because every time I was upset it was because something bad happened to Chloe. And gently caress being utilitarian in the face of friendship and magic time powers. I haven't seen the other ending yet, but I didn't get the impression that not being hit by a tornado was going to unfuck that town anyways.
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Jul 5, 2016 04:44
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I wish I hadn't watched the other ending because I felt like it cheapened the ending that I got.
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Jul 5, 2016 04:51
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I definitely preferred to save Chloe, but it still bothers me that it results in the rest of the people you care about to die horrible deaths. I get you need to make a Big Decision, but for a game that admirably encourages discussion and support for the subject matters it deals with, I kinda wish there was something you can do that doesn't make you feel like a poo poo in one way or another.
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Jul 5, 2016 05:10
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I was trying to count how many times this game made me cry or just about cry, and I lost track somewhere around 20 part way through ep. 4. I might have emotional problems, but is anyone with me on this?
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Jul 5, 2016 05:16
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The game was about as emotionally affecting for me as a Law & Order episode. Chloe in particular was boring as sin. I still like and respect what the game was trying to do (right up to the ending, which was genuinely clever and a perfect example of game writing striving above its medium), but the character writing was weak enough so that I was pretty detached from the whole thing.
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Jul 5, 2016 05:20
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PunkBoy posted:I definitely preferred to save Chloe, but it still bothers me that it results in the rest of the people you care about to die horrible deaths. I get you need to make a Big Decision, but for a game that admirably encourages discussion and support for the subject matters it deals with, I kinda wish there was something you can do that doesn't make you feel like a poo poo in one way or another. I doubt that everyone dies in the Bae ending, considering you can still see buildings standing. It's been a while, but I still feel about the same regarding the ending. Natural disasters are, well, natural. Actively choosing to go back in time and helplessly listen to your best friend/girlfriend bleed out alone on a bathroom floor isn't.
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Jul 5, 2016 05:34
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Oxxidation posted:The game was about as emotionally affecting for me as a Law & Order episode. Chloe in particular was boring as sin. I didn't have a problem with the character writing, I thought it was actually very good especially Chloe's. Just as context Fallout 4's character writing made me put that game down forever so it isn't like I'm just desensitized to it. But to be fair, I've yet to see proof that Bethesda employs professionals for their writing. Chloe is an emotional hair trigger, and I have known people just like her, and have felt like I had to talk the way Max does to keep her finger off of it. Not trying to say you're wrong, obv. it's an opinion thing, but it does ring true for me.
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Jul 5, 2016 05:55
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Oxxidation posted:The game was about as emotionally affecting for me as a Law & Order episode. Chloe in particular was boring as sin. I'm sorry you have to find out this way, but you may be a robot. 
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Jul 5, 2016 06:03
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FYI this is on sale for $8 on Xbox One right now!
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Jul 5, 2016 06:28
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Food for thought: the jail is most likely going to be the sturdiest structure in town. If anybody survived that storm, it's probably Nathan and Jefferson.Kobogartimer posted:I was trying to count how many times this game made me cry or just about cry, and I lost track somewhere around 20 part way through ep. 4. I might have emotional problems, but is anyone with me on this? I essentially shotgunned the whole game in one sitting over the course of a day and then went to bed immediately after I finished (sacrificed Chloe, deeply regret it now). No breaks, no reflection, no time to decompress. Didn't cry once while I was playing the game. The next morning, however, it all hits me at once and I just collapse sobbing in the shower. Repeat for over two weeks. This game hit some very specific emotional baggage for me. You know what, gently caress it. E/N Overshare. Let's tell a story. It's about a protagonist reconnecting with their childhood best friend after leaving and having had zero contact for around five years. The best friend dyes her hair now and wears a beanie everywhere, but they're mostly there to distract from her sad eyes (she's got abandonment issues which our protagonist feels partially responsible for, on top of a history of being sexually assaulted). She's a bit of a delinquent, but she cares. She's pretty openly bisexual and there's something romantic building between the two that is unfortunately sometimes overshadowed by the fact that she's still kind of in love with a dead girl. In the end, our protagonist makes a decision that means they can't ever see their friend ever again, even if they still love them. Mine dyed her hair purple. Mine is still alive, I just ended up losing her to the voices in her head. I had to sever for my own mental and physical well-being. I had to do it (Chloe never threatened to stab Max), but I still felt like I abandoned my best friend when she needed me. So yeah. I sacrificed Chloe my first time. And six months later, I still cry in the shower from time to time.
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Jul 5, 2016 06:28
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I'm liking it so far and I finished Episode 3. The fetch quests do slow things down, but that's my only complaint.
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Jul 5, 2016 06:43
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Oxxidation posted:The game was about as emotionally affecting for me as a Law & Order episode. Chloe in particular was boring as sin. This, but literally the exact opposite in every respect except for ultimately liking the game.
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Jul 5, 2016 09:00
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This, except every single thing about Life is Strange owns.
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Jul 5, 2016 09:28
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exquisite tea posted:This, except every single thing about Life is Strange owns. ya this
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Jul 5, 2016 10:09
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exquisite tea posted:This, except every single thing about Life is Strange owns. The ending is good, too. I stand by my earlier interpretation and still believe that it's a lot more challenging than people give it credit for.
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Jul 5, 2016 10:13
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Beefstew posted:The ending is good, too. I stand by my earlier interpretation and still believe that it's a lot more challenging than people give it credit for. I made a big effortpost about it in the LP thread and yeah, I agree - it goes the extra mile by actually incorporating long-running themes and imagery and references from the whole game up to that point, including the otherwise painfully on-the-nose Catcher in the Rye shoutouts, to make a point about responsibility and owning up to the consequences of your actions and the nature of good intentions. You have to scrape away a lot of dull, artificial character drama to get at it, but it's probably one of the cleverer things in a game plot in the last few years. Of course, gamers are gamers and wildly misinterpret it as something it's not just because two boring girls kiss a couple of times. What are you gonna do.
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Jul 5, 2016 13:15
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i'm glad there's only one correct way to interpret media, it sure would be tiring if multiple people could look at the same thing and come away with wildly different impressions that we had to treat as equally valid
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Jul 5, 2016 13:48
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AriadneThread posted:i'm glad there's only one correct way to interpret media, it sure would be tiring if multiple people could look at the same thing and come away with wildly different impressions that we had to treat as equally valid But you know, gamers.
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Jul 5, 2016 13:58
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AriadneThread posted:i'm glad there's only one correct way to interpret media, it sure would be tiring if multiple people could look at the same thing and come away with wildly different impressions that we had to treat as equally valid It's a little frustrating to see people wishing for better writing in games and then, when one actually tries for something that's in the same zip code as literary and even kind of succeeds, a lot of those same people decry the ambitious parts while focusing on the title's most trite, shallow aspects. I mean, LiS was still enough of a success for DontNod to keep working, so I'm not sweating it. They're not a perfect studio by any means but I like the ideas they bring to the table.
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Jul 5, 2016 14:02
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Oxxidation posted:It's a little frustrating to see people wishing for better writing in games and then, when one actually tries for something that's in the same zip code as literary and even kind of succeeds, a lot of those same people decry the ambitious parts while focusing on the title's most trite, shallow aspects. so would you say character relationship, particularly a gay relationship is neither ambitious nor literary then?
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Jul 5, 2016 14:11
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AriadneThread posted:so would you say character relationship, particularly a gay relationship is neither ambitious nor literary then? No. Stories aren't special just because they have lesbians in them. It's been done for ages and nothing about Max and Chloe's dynamic struck me as all that interesting or innovative. That's not to say their sexuality is a bad thing, either. It's a neutral thing. It has no bearing on the characters or story at all. I was way more taken in by Max's internal drama and how everything in the game was ultimately a reflection of her inner self, not to mention how Chloe's otherwise cliche personality got filtered and tossed around by the circumstances of Max's own issues. Lots of people like the game for its character writing, and there's nothing wrong with that! What rubs me the wrong way is decrying what's also a very ambitious and well-thought out plot arc because it didn't service those characters the way those people wanted, especially if they try to tie it to some larger theme about how lesbian relationships always need to end badly or something like that. It's totally senseless.
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Jul 5, 2016 14:20
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The funny thing about all this to me is that Max can also not have a lesbian relationship with Chloe whatsoever. Gaze into the minds of the gamer, my children.
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Jul 5, 2016 14:28
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exquisite tea posted:The funny thing about all this to me is that Max can also not have a lesbian relationship with Chloe whatsoever. Gaze into the minds of the gamer, my children. Yeah, that's another thing to consider, but in any case the relationship between Chloe and Rachel(?) leans pretty blatantly in that direction, so LiS definitely doesn't shy away from same-sex relationship portrayal regardless of the player's choices.
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Jul 5, 2016 14:29
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Oxxidation posted:especially if they try to tie it to some larger theme about how lesbian relationships always need to end badly or something like that. It's totally senseless. What would you say to the idea that nothing, absolutely nothing, exists in a vacuum, and that considering a work within the context of a larger body of literature is, in fact, a worthwhile pursuit?
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Jul 5, 2016 14:46
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Oxxidation posted:No. Stories aren't special just because they have lesbians in them. It's been done for ages and nothing about Max and Chloe's dynamic struck me as all that interesting or innovative. You may think the plot was 'ambitious and well-thought out' but a lot of people disagree. For how strong the first two or three parts were I found it pretty lazy and falling apart by the end. quote:especially if they try to tie it to some larger theme about how lesbian relationships always need to end badly or something like that. It's totally senseless. http://www.autostraddle.com/all-65-dead-lesbian-and-bisexual-characters-on-tv-and-how-they-died-312315/ exquisite tea posted:The funny thing about all this to me is that Max can also not have a lesbian relationship with Chloe whatsoever. Gaze into the minds of the gamer, my children. The Max-Chloe relationship is the driving thread of the game, whether it's platonic or not, without that relationship, it's initial failure and Max's desperation to make it 'right' you would not have this story. That it can be set up as romantic is exciting to a lot of people that don't often get to see their interests reflected in the media they consume. Being able to see yourself in media can be a powerful tool of connection for people, be it for discussion, wish fulfillment, behavior modeling, whatever, a reflection that people like you are acknowledged and included in society. One of the drawbacks when representation is so thin, is that you also take on the burden that what you're creating, whether you intend it or not, takes on added weight. Art doesn't get to exist in a vacuum, the creator may be free to do whatever they want with their work, but doesn't mean they're free from criticism.
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Jul 5, 2016 15:00
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Plom Bar posted:What would you say to the idea that nothing, absolutely nothing, exists in a vacuum, and that considering a work within the context of a larger body of literature is, in fact, a worthwhile pursuit? That's what I'm doing. Life is Strange slots pretty neatly into latter-day magical realist traditions (maybe not so much the more classical writers like Marquez and his contemporaries, but I haven't read as much of them as I should) with a smattering of coming-of-age stories like, as mentioned, Catcher in the Rye, in case Max's last name wasn't a big enough tipoff. I think that's a lot more important than TvTropes-esque lists about how many lesbian relationships end up with a corpse because, as mentioned, the sexuality of the characters is a neutral thing. The ending runs off themes of regret, sacrifice, and the need to live with your mistakes, and that's what drives Chloe's possible death. The nature of her relationship with Max isn't relevant beyond the fact that she was a person with whom Max was very close, and then took too long to reconcile with before it was too late. Oxxidation fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Jul 5, 2016 |
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Jul 5, 2016 15:10
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Oxxidation posted:That's what I'm doing. Life is Strange slots pretty neatly into latter-day magical realist traditions (maybe not so much the more classical writers like Marquez and his contemporaries, but I haven't read as much of them as I should) with a smattering of coming-of-age stories like, as mentioned, Catcher in the Rye, in case Max's last name wasn't a big enough tipoff. I think that's a lot more important than TvTropes-esque lists about how many lesbian relationships end up with a corpse because, as mentioned, the sexuality of the characters is a neutral thing. The ending runs off themes of regret, sacrifice, and the need to live with your mistakes, and that's what drives Chloe's possible death. The nature of her relationship with Max isn't relevant beyond the fact that she was a person with whom Max was very close, and then took too long to reconcile with before it was too late. Funny how certain kinds of people are more likely to end up doing all that regretting and sacrificing than others, though.
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Jul 5, 2016 15:16
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Thuryl posted:Funny how certain kinds of people are more likely to end up doing all that regretting and sacrificing than others, though. It's true that the game is crazy centered around Max to an almost solipsistic degree, but that kind of made it better for me because it made the otherwise uninteresting characters a lot more tolerable. It's telling that the final act's nightmare sequence has the entire cast just constantly reiterating Max's name, Max's thoughts, Max's hangups, Max-Max-Max all the time, and ends with Max confronting a version of herself who rips her up one end and down the other for her selfishness. Life is Strange is all about Max. Everyone else is basically a prop.
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Jul 5, 2016 15:20
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it may be neutral to you, but it's not to others
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Jul 5, 2016 15:27
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AriadneThread posted:it may be neutral to you, but it's not to others Which is fine. But the writing isn't weak just because it fails to match your values. Paladinus posted:Imo, a white thirty-something man in a trench-coat can be a fitting and a well-written protagonist in a game. Only if he has an estranged daughter figure and a life on the dangerous fringe of society. Oxxidation fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Jul 5, 2016 |
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Jul 5, 2016 15:30
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Imo, a white thirty-something man in a trench-coat can be a fitting and a well-written protagonist in a game. E: Oh, there are more pages. But I guess it's still relevant to the ongoing discussion.
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Jul 5, 2016 15:34
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Oxxidation posted:Which is fine. But the writing isn't weak just because it fails to match your values. The writing isn't strong just because it matches yours. It can be all these things because different people are going to value different aspects. A lot of people love Doctor Who, I find it intolerable garbage. No one's objectively right or wrong. Isn't death of the author fun? For the most part, I don't see anything wrong with your interpretation of Life is Strange. I just don't find it an interesting way to read the story, even if it sidesteps the disappointment from my own reading.
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Jul 5, 2016 15:55
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AriadneThread posted:The writing isn't strong just because it matches yours. Oh, no worries. People who love Doctor Who also find it intolerable garbage. I'm not saying anything about liking or disliking, just that on a strictly structural, "here is the story and its ideas" basis, the plot works and achieves what it was trying to accomplish. You can dislike it in spite of that, but it doesn't change the fact. I wasn't thrilled with the game myself, it wasn't until the very end of Chapter 2 that I started enjoying it out of anything other than morbid fascination at how inept the dialogue was.
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Jul 5, 2016 15:58
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Sticking solely with the ending because it's been over half year since I've played; I don't think the game does enough work to sell the final choice. I think they put far too much pressure on the climax. So much of the game is Max obsessing over the past, and when the climax asks which future she wants, putting all these lives at stake unnecessarily muddles the board. It's a lazy way to increase the tension and the weight of the consequences to Max's choice. I didn't find the dialogue to be that bad? Like, it wasn't... great, but I got used to it eventually.
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Jul 5, 2016 16:22
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Oxxidation posted:morbid fascination at how inept the dialogue was. there are some places where it's clear they didn't get the branches quite linked together right and it came off as someone just reading off a checklist, but for the most part the dialogue was pretty spot on, both for teenagers and for Oregon hipsters
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Jul 5, 2016 16:25
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I've just started to play this game and I'm having quite a blast but do Chloe get more agreeable later on after episode 1 because right now she's pretty drat insufferable?
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Jul 5, 2016 16:37
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Sylphosaurus posted:I've just started to play this game and I'm having quite a blast but do Chloe get more agreeable later on after episode 1 because right now she's pretty drat insufferable? Her character coming on strong is intentional and she turns around quite a bit, especially in Episode 3.
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Jul 5, 2016 16:40
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morallyobjected posted:there are some places where it's clear they didn't get the branches quite linked together right and it came off as someone just reading off a checklist, but for the most part the dialogue was pretty spot on, both for teenagers and for Oregon hipsters Yes. I think the only real major flaw in the writing is Samuel's character. Life is Strange is good, especially Episode 5.
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Jul 5, 2016 17:42
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The only bits of writing I thought were weak were Jeffersons dark room monologues and what felt towards the very end like the authors fumbling to justify the stakes with ham handed exposition delivered via characters that are untrustworthy sources of information even when they aren't speculating wildly about guaranteed unknowns.
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Jul 5, 2016 18:05
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Paladinus posted:Imo, a white thirty-something man in a trench-coat can be a fitting and a well-written protagonist in a game. It worked for Watch_Dogs!
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Jul 5, 2016 18:17
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