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Sure, but love lost still looks a lot different to not having loved.
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Jan 28, 2018 12:13
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:Sure, but love lost still looks a lot different to not having loved. I don't think it's ever explicitly stated in the first game exactly what their relationship was like (though it's pretty clear that Chloe carried a bit of a torch for Rachel). Much like her mom, no matter how good things were for Rachel the desire to escape was always there. It's what lead her to hook up with Chloe in the first place, it's what lead her to Frank, to Nathan and Jefferson and ultimately to her own demise. I don't think she meant to intentionally hurt anyone but she also struck me as a person that could never truly be satisfied. Add in her dad's penchant towards secrecy/manipulation and her own ability to seamlessly blend herself into any crowd and that's not all that great a combination. Like I said, Rachel may have unfortunately been doomed from the start. Does kind of suck for Chloe though, she did so much for Rachel's sake (hell, she probably would have been killed at the mill along with Sera if Frank hadn't shown up when he did) and was either totally honest with her or kept a secret that could destroy her family for years just so Rachel had a chance to be happy and she responds to that unwavering devotion by basically stabbing Chloe in the back. But, just like her dad warned her about, Chloe got herself too close to the flames and as a result wound up getting badly burned when it turned out her angel wasn't as perfect as everyone thought she was. Larryb fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Jan 28, 2018 |
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Jan 28, 2018 12:25
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:I imagine that's what the plan was, to have Rachel's commitment be ambiguous. You've got two men in Chloe's life telling her to be cautious about her feelings blinding her to betrayal. But it's not really reflected enough in Rachel's character. All acts of betrayal are in the original LiS, and we don't even get another massive mood swing or any manipulation. I'm honestly really glad, and I'm not trying to criticise BtS for not meeting up 1:1, I just couldn't see Rachel and Chloe acting as they do in the time between the two after what they experience in BtS together. I see the final decision point in BtS as the first crack in their relationship and why it ultimately falters. Either you tell Rachel the truth and push her away from her family, into the culture of Blackwell and the Vortex Club, then ultimately drugs and Jefferson, or agree that it's okay to lie to protect someone you love, in which case Rachel's secret relationships are just tit-for-tat. I think Deck Nine probably knows the player is going to be familiar with Rachel's reputation from Season One, so they purposely set up all these little hints that Rachel is really just manipulating Chloe, only to flip the script at the last minute and invite YOU to hide the truth first. Of course we know that this final choice is illusory and both these things happen at the same time, but over the course of three years it's easy for me to see how Rachel could become frustrated and bored with Chloe, and Chloe increasingly clingy and directionless.
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Jan 28, 2018 13:37
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"But sometimes, there's a greater beauty yet to come". Rachel only seems beautiful and perfect on the outside but underneath she's a huge mess and at times can even come off as a little frightening (though considering her family situation that's understandable. If anything she could have come out a lot worse) whereas Max is rather plain looking and shy on the outside but has an inner beauty that goes straight down to her core (it does show signs of being corrupted a bit as things progress but she never fully loses herself). Chloe seems to walk the middle road, she's usually willing to help when push comes to shove but she has her own demons to face as well. Because of her devotion to Rachel, Chloe got burned but also was given the chance to later reunite with someone that would show her that same devotion if not more so. As a result Chloe was able to accept who she truly was and helped stop Max from going down the same road that she and Rachel did. By the end of the first game, all the masks are more or less gone and we see many of the characters for who they really are. Even Max isn't perfect of course. With the possible exception of Kate and Samuel (and maybe Steph, Mikey and Samantha), barely anybody in Arcadia Bay is truly innocent and they all in some way helped contribute to the problems we see across the two games. I like that very little about this series is presented as being explicitly black & white, it makes the characters feel all the more relatable as a result. Larryb fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Jan 28, 2018 |
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Jan 28, 2018 14:42
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Larryb posted:"But sometimes, there's a greater beauty yet to come". But what does William use to show that greater beauty? The stars. Which Rachel later tells us are just as illusory. That's a pretty downer note if the greater beauty is Max.
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Jan 28, 2018 16:00
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:But what does William use to show that greater beauty? The stars. Which Rachel later tells us are just as illusory. That's a pretty downer note if the greater beauty is Max. 
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Jan 28, 2018 16:04
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:But what does William use to show that greater beauty? The stars. Which Rachel later tells us are just as illusory. That's a pretty downer note if the greater beauty is Max. It could also be possible that the greater beauty is Chloe herself. She is the one who ultimately pulls herself and Max back from the brink and, much like the stars, a lot of her public persona is an illusion created to mask her own fears and loneliness. The real Chloe Price is smart, talented, loyal and almost suicidally heroic (though admittedly she's also not very good at that). Despite her rough exterior and tough girl attitude Chloe's better nature nearly always manages to shine through (not to mention the fact that she's really bad at lying). If what she projected was literally all Chloe was she wouldn't be much better than people like Damon to be honest. Larryb fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Jan 29, 2018 |
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Jan 28, 2018 16:23
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So according to this the physical edition of Before the Storm will not only include everything from the Deluxe edition as I figured but for some reason it will also contain the first episode of the orginal Life is Strange as well. Off the subject but was it ever really explained what Sera's connection to Damon was? The file James had seemed to imply she worked for him but Damon himself doesn't really seem to know all that much about her aside from what James said. Frank's line about her causing trouble for people all over town doesn't really seem to gel with what we actually see of her as well. Larryb fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Jan 29, 2018 |
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Jan 29, 2018 19:06
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Larryb posted:So according to this the physical edition of Before the Storm will not only include everything from the Deluxe edition as I figured but for some reason it will also contain the first episode of the orginal Life is Strange as well. Considering that she only came back to town to reconnect with Chloe, I'm willing to bet her connection with Damon was entirely James created.
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Jan 29, 2018 19:35
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Larryb posted:Off the subject but was it ever really explained what Sera's connection to Damon was? The file James had seemed to imply she worked for him but Damon himself doesn't really seem to know all that much about her aside from what James said. Frank's line about her causing trouble for people all over town doesn't really seem to gel with what we actually see of her as well. e:Unless Frank's who she's referring to as the thug James sent to scare her off. WhiskeyWhiskers fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Jan 29, 2018 |
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Jan 29, 2018 19:35
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:Not really. Seems like rewrites of her character between episode 2 and 3. I suppose Frank's line could be about James' scheme, but why she's hanging out with Frank if she's been off the gear for a year isn't explained at all. I'm fairly certain that the thug was supposed to be Damon (though it's kind of weird that he'd threaten Rachel for information about her dad when he's already been working for him in secret for a while). But yeah, good point, if she'd been clean for a year and was serious about turning her life around why was she still hanging out with the local drug dealers at all? I'd buy the idea of some last minute rewrites regarding Sera though considering even her name got changed a few times. Originally it was going to be "Ruth" (sorrow) , then "Vanessa" (a genus of butterflies, also the name of Max's mother in LiS) and finally what we have in the final version (which I'm assuming was spelled the way it was as a reference to Seraphim, a type of angel associated with fire). So it's possible they orginally intended on portraying her in a somewhat less sympathetic light. Larryb fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Jan 29, 2018 |
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Jan 29, 2018 19:48
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I think James Amber only tried to have Damon sell drugs to Sera at first, and when that didn't work, used him to intimidate her away from seeing Rachel. Frank's line about Sera causing trouble could have been her figuring out Damon's whole network and the extent to which James was involved, which might have been why she went to go see him. It's been awhile, I'd have to reread the letters from Ep. 3.
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Jan 29, 2018 19:51
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I just liked how there was this big dramatic setup of Damon injecting the woman who made a long hard journey to get off of drugs. Then Chloe wakes up and Sera is like "Eh"
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Jan 29, 2018 21:53
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DeathChicken posted:I just liked how there was this big dramatic setup of Damon injecting the woman who made a long hard journey to get off of drugs. Then Chloe wakes up and Sera is like "Eh" It does sort of strike me as weird that she just kind of seems to give up at the end after being clean for a year and spending so much time trying to reconnect with her daughter again (though to be fair it is possible to convince her to reunite with Rachel at the end). Off the subject but I recently stumbled upon this Life is Strange fan film called "What If?" (which some of you may remember as the working title for the original LiS). For a low budget production (there's a bit of shaky cam here and there) and taking a few liberties with the plot (Jefferson is removed from the equation entirely for example) it's actually pretty good with some surprisingly decent acting for the most part as well. Larryb fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Jan 30, 2018 |
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Jan 29, 2018 22:12
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DeathChicken posted:I just liked how there was this big dramatic setup of Damon injecting the woman who made a long hard journey to get off of drugs. Then Chloe wakes up and Sera is like "Eh" I just figured that Sera was lying about being clean and actually had a high tolerance for opiates.
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Jan 29, 2018 23:53
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When this time arrives next week, we'll all say farewell to so many things. Blackwell Academy. The Two Whales Diner. The bench by the lighthouse. The junkyard. Arcadia Bay. And the Arcadia Baes.
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Jan 30, 2018 11:03
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Eshettar posted:When this time arrives next week, we'll all say farewell to so many things. Blackwell Academy. The Two Whales Diner. The bench by the lighthouse. The junkyard. Next week? Last I checked the bonus episode wasn't coming out until March. Still curious what it's going to be about considering if it's true that it takes place in July of 2007 (there's a date written down at one point during the trailer for the Deluxe version) that's a full year before William died and Chloe's life started going to hell. But then again there's no reason it has to stay in just one specific point in time either. While I didn't really mind the new cast it'll still be nice to hear Burch and Telle reprise their roles again though. But that aside I will miss these characters and wouldn't mind seeing them again in the future. But not for a while of course, we should at least give the new cast a chance before running back to the same well again.
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Jan 30, 2018 11:16
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Whoops. Sorry about that.
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Jan 30, 2018 11:19
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At any rate, so far this is all we really know for sure right now regarding Farewell: - It involves young Max and Chloe with us once again playing as the former - Ashly Burch and Hannah Telle will be coming back to reprise their roles (a few lines from the episode were also featured in the behind the scenes video a while back where this was revealed) - This song will be featured at some point during the episode We'll probably be getting a trailer in a few weeks that gives us a bit more information. Though honestly, as much as I look forward to seeing how The Legend of Callamastia (Feat. Max Caulfield) ultimately comes to a close (or perhaps to be more accurate, how it began) I'm actually looking forward to the official reveal of Life is Strange 2 a bit more. Incidentally, today marks the third anniversary of the original game's release. Larryb fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Jan 30, 2018 |
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Jan 30, 2018 11:44
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So re-watching the credits for Hell is Empty I noticed there was a voice credit for Samantha's mother (as well as mistakenly giving Samantha the last name of her voice actress), where exactly does she appear/is heard in the game?
Larryb fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 17:03
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Depending on your interactions with Nathan in Episodes 1/2, Samantha's mother can appear in the hospital room voiceover threatening to sue Sean Prescott for Nathan breaking two of her ribs.
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Jan 31, 2018 17:05
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exquisite tea posted:Depending on your interactions with Nathan in Episodes 1/2, Samantha's mother can appear in the hospital room voiceover threatening to sue Sean Prescott for Nathan breaking two of her ribs. What determines this? If I remember right I got the bit between Nathan's dad and the psychiatrist. I told Samantha to give him space and defended Nathan in episode 1
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Jan 31, 2018 17:07
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Not sure but I got that result and I A) did not help Nathan and B) told Samantha to comfort him. Sorry Samantha you probably ended up in the dark room at some point oh well!
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Jan 31, 2018 17:10
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Samantha's name is not actually on any of the binders in the Dark Room (I originally thought that myself), but I suppose it's possible that the binders we saw weren't the only ones Jefferson had. Speaking of Samantha, there's also an x-ray of her that was found in the game's files. It's possible we originally were going to have the option of visiting her at one point.
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Jan 31, 2018 17:11
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Actually now that I think about it, I probably saved Samantha since she rejected Nathan in my BtS endslides instead of that really eerie one where she sidles up next to him while he's reading a photography book.
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Jan 31, 2018 17:13
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I completely forgot about Samantha, what a wet fart of a character that was.
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Jan 31, 2018 17:14
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Paul Zuvella posted:I completely forgot about Samantha, what a wet fart of a character that was. The first game had a few characters like that as well but yeah, she was just a shy girl who was really into Nathan for some reason and never really contributed anything beyond that (you can go the entire game without even speaking to her after all). Though if you do tell her to help Nathan in Episode 2 he doesn't gently caress up his lines during the play later and then later in the hospital you can hear them awkwardly flirting with each other. Plus it obviously doesn't last even if you do get them together since Nathan is even more unstable come the first game so I'm not really sure what the point even was. My guess in that scenario is she either wound up dumping him not long after or at worst she ended up in the Dark Room and we just never saw her binder. Larryb fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 17:25
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Larryb posted:The first game had a few characters like that as well but yeah, she was just a shy girl who was really into Nathan for some reason and never really contributed anything beyond that (you can go the entire game without even speaking to her after all). Though if you do tell her to help Nathan in Episode 2 he doesn't gently caress up his lines during the play later. Im not so sure about that, every named character in the Original served some kind of purpose towards developing either Max or Chloe in some way, where as Samantha seemingly exists for them to show Nathan being creepy
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Jan 31, 2018 17:29
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Paul Zuvella posted:Im not so sure about that, every named character in the Original served some kind of purpose towards developing either Max or Chloe in some way, where as Samantha seemingly exists for them to show Nathan being creepy I guess, though in the grand scheme of things I don't think characters like Stella, Hayden or Daniel really contributed all that much. Larryb fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 17:32
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Larryb posted:I guess, though in the grand scheme of things I don't think characters like Stella, Juliet, Hayden or Daniel really contributed all that much. 
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Jan 31, 2018 17:34
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I dunno I got a kick out of Samantha going "you shut the gently caress up!!" at Drew in her tiny little mouse voice if you backtalk him
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Jan 31, 2018 17:41
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Speaking of which, Before the Storm probably could have used a few more NPCs to talk to (Taylor was originally going to be in the game but wound up getting cut out completely for instance). For example, it might have been nice to see Chloe and Kate interact with each other (plus see a bit how she was before Nathan and Victoria turned her life into a living hell). In fact, as far as I can remember the only unnamed character you can actually talk to in BtS is the guy with the dog when you first enter the mill in Episode 1. A lot of the areas in general just felt a lot smaller in comparison to the first game (even the junkyard seemed to be scaled down a bit). Macaluso posted:I dunno I got a kick out of Samantha going "you shut the gently caress up!!" at Drew in her tiny little mouse voice if you backtalk him Yeah, that was pretty good I'll admit. Larryb fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 17:41
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I kind of just put the whole school year situation out of my mind and just roll with it. Otherwise it gets way too weird. Like, as far as I know, in America, once you finish 12th grade that's it, you go to college or whatever it is you do, but you definitely do not do more high school. Nobody is sitting there wanting more high school. I know it's a boarding school and finishing school, which puts it out in la-la-land as far as my personal experience goes already, but there's really no reason this can't just be a boarding school with a regular 4 year track. Jefferson could easily be doing electives for 11th and 12th graders. Finishing schools just for seniors would also not have a football team most likely. I find this is all easier to get than some 13th grade situation, which is anathema and actually makes me feel a little ill to contemplate.
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Feb 1, 2018 05:01
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Blackwell having a football team was a thing in the first game as well. I'm not sure how things work in France but maybe it's a case of the writers not really understanding how the American school system works? Fortunately as far as potential plot holes go it's a pretty minor one all things considered. Also, as far as minor nitpicks go some of the songs we see Chloe listening to in the game actually came out after 2010 (the song she and Rachel were listening to on the train was first released in 2015 for example). Though back to the first point, where in the game is it specifically stated that Chloe is in her second year at Blackwell? Larryb fucked around with this message at 14:02 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Feb 1, 2018 13:23
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She tells Samantha she read Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf last year in Miss Hoida's class. I'm pretty sure Max talks about Miss Hoida being the English teacher taking time off for depression.
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Feb 1, 2018 14:50
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Chloe would have had to be a sophomore in 2009-10 for the timelines to match up. Max is one year younger than Chloe and begins her super-senior year at Blackwell in September 2013, meaning Chloe and Rachel would have graduated in the Spring of 2013 assuming they both completed the +1 finishing program. The real answer though is that Dontnod didn't know how the American school system works exactly and oh well whatever just go with it!! Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, by the way, is a play about a couple who mutually preserve an elaborate lie to protect themselves against a past trauma. It's the same book Rachel is reading in the ending montage where Chloe dyes her hair.
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Feb 1, 2018 15:11
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Not to mention the fact that Victoria, Nathan, Dana, etc. are all somehow in the same class as both Chloe and later Max, but like you said it's probably best not to think about it too hard. As for the others, it's possible that Mikey was still around in LiS and we just never saw him, Samantha too probably unless she became one of Jefferson's subjects (or Nathan's for that matter, he did try doing it with Chloe after all). Steph and Drew most likely graduated and Eliot gets expelled no matter how you do in the Backtalk against him. It might be nice to see the BtS cast again one day though. Steph was probably my favorite of the bunch and in retrospect I kind of wish they'd done a little more with her (she and Max would probably get along pretty well to be honest). Hell, as others have mentioned you could probably take the tabletop segments from BtS and build an entire game around them. Kylie Brown as Rachel was also really good but any game involving her as the protagonist (which you'd almost have to do if you decided to continue on from BtS) would most likely end in misery. But like has been said before, we still know basically nothing about LiS 2 at this point (it might not even involve time travel for all we know) so it's probably best to give the new cast a chance first before we go running back to Arcadia Bay again. That said, I hope DontNod takes note of what worked and what didn't in both the original and this and uses that knowledge to give us an even better experience in the sequel. Any further word on that live action web series they were making or is that still stuck in development hell at the moment? Larryb fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Feb 1, 2018 15:40
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That or do the Steph D&D game someone suggested awhile back. Drag the cast of misfits into it. Nathan can be a mood swinging half-elf with a mushroom problem.
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Feb 1, 2018 16:07
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DeathChicken posted:That or do the Steph D&D game someone suggested awhile back. Drag the cast of misfits into it. Nathan can be a mood swinging half-elf with a mushroom problem. That's more or less what I was getting at with the tabletop idea. To make it more interesting you could swap back between the daily lives of the players and the fantasy world of the game (which would work more or less the same except for the addition of some kind of combat mechanic). Basically have two stories that start becoming more thematically linked as the game goes on. Larryb fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Feb 1, 2018 16:18
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Larryb posted:That's more or less what I was getting at with the tabletop idea. To make it more interesting you could swap back between the daily lives of the players and the fantasy world of the game (which would work more or less the same except for the addition of some kind of combat mechanic). Basically have two stories that start becoming more thematically linked as the game goes on. They did something similar to that during the Damon scene if you don't go out and help Drew. I thought it was a really cool framing thing where you heard Damon beating the poo poo out of Drew while the camera kept doing dramatic shots of the D&D figures on the ground in his room But yeah I love the idea of going back and forth between the D&D fantasy world and the real world. Also I still want that remaining time of the story between BtS and LiS and have it focus a lot on Frank. I would just like more Frank, he is a good character
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Feb 1, 2018 16:28
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