AJ is a sweet and quiet kid. He does what he's told. But he could take a bite out of your arm if you surprise him, and he's a crack shot with a revolver. He's not your typical rugrat. He appears to be younger than Clementine was at the start of the series, and he has no knowledge of the pre-apocalypse world. So it's up to you, as Clem, to teach him right from wrong; how to cooperate with other people; and crucially, how to trust anyone in a lawless world.

The first episode of The Walking Dead's final season, which comes out today, has everything you'd expect in the series: Tense zombie encounters; humans struggling to survive against all odds; and crucial player choices. But the relationship between Clementine and AJ is its heart and soul, mirroring her dynamic with Lee. AJ hangs on your every word, and your decisions shape him as a person. Even a seemingly innocent bit of advice could have dangerous repercussions in the future. Just like parenting in real life (something I'm gearing up for myself), you'll never know how, exactly, your behavior will influence your child.

While it's hard to judge an entire season based on a single episode, so far this entry feels close to Telltale's first season of The Walking Dead, which was a revelation. It was an almost perfect combination of solid writing, meaningful narrative choices and great characters. It put the developer on the map, and revived the nascent genre of adventure games (we wouldn't have Life is Strange without it). But since then, Telltale spread itself thin across a swath of popular properties -- Fables, Game of Thrones, Minecraft, Borderlands, Batman -- all the while struggling to recapture the magic of The Walking Dead's first season. (The company was so overwhelmed it delayed the second season of The Wolf Among Us to 2019 -- five years after the first ended.)

Now, though, Telltale is leaner and more focused. It's just unfortunate it took laying off a quarter of its staff last year to reach this point. As the developer told us, it's aiming to end The Walking Dead on a high note. That starts by going back to basics, with a more Clementine-focused story. But this final season is also a chance for Telltale to show us how much it's learned over the years.