Hi folks and fellow editors. :)

For a long while now, I've been keeping a record of useful quotes I've gathered from various interviews and articles that have historically helped me to answer some of the most common questions repeatedly asked in the fandom; a handful of these being: Amberprice (canon?), Warren Graham (creepy stalker?), Rachel Amber (manipulative?), Chloe Price (toxic friend?), and even fans questioning the body in the junkyard being Rachel, because we don't see her face.

From personal experience, it's been quicker to resolve fan questions with a quote from the mouths of the devs and writers themselves. :)

So here's my list of go-to quotes, plus some recent content from interviews conducted during the development of Season 2 that I think might be useful. I plan to update this blog as more quotes come to my attention that I think may be of interest.

P.S. Any spelling and grammatical errors may be from the articles themselves, as I have directly copied and pasted comments of interest.





Amberprice in DONTNOD’s first game

August 2014 - Interview with Jean-Maxime Moris (Creative Director of Life is Strange and co-founder of DONTNOD Entertainment) and Michel Koch (Co-Game Director and Art Director for Life is Strange).

Interviewer lead-in: Chloe hints at something more between her and Rachel, though she keeps it vague.

"There is ambiguity," Moris said when I asked whether there was a romantic relationship between any of the girls. "But it is mostly still a friendship story before everything," Koch added. "It's a friendship story and a mystery." Moris continued, "Yeah, there is ambiguity, but what's really driving the game is this friendship. At that age, especially – at any age – but at that age, you know, there can always be ambiguity there."





Amberprice in Deck Nine’s prequel game

November 2017 - Interview with Deck Nine Games’s Co-game Director, Chris Floyd after two of the three episodes of BtS were released.

How do you approach romance in this game, and the ambiguity of Chloe and Rachel Amber's relationship?

Chris Floyd: “The series as a whole really has never backed away from any real-world sensitive topics or anything like that. So, we knew we wanted to address that. Yes, Chloe and Rachel's relationship was intense and there was was absolute love there from Chloe toward Rachel at the very least from season one. We felt like it was important to allow players some choice in how romantic that got to be. And also, in particular, how quickly. There's no saying how that developed based off of season one, anyway. We know it was intense, but romantically intense? Well, that felt like a place that we could give the players some important choices. So, we're very proud to present -- if those are the choices you make -- to present what we hope is an authentic and believable and non-stereotyped gay relationship. But we also think, if you feel like a platonic relationship or a slower-developing romantic relationship maybe fits -- after all, we're a game that takes place over the course of three days. They're teenagers, that can happen, but it doesn't have to happen. We're really happy to leave that to the player's choice.”[note 1]



December 2017 - interview with Chris Floyd (Co-Game Director at Deck Nine Games).

Interviewer Jessica Meno: "One of my favorite things about Before the Storm is this focus on Chloe and Rachel’s relationship. I think it goes beyond the boundaries of just friendship, but really lets the players explore what kind of relationship they want to craft from that. And I feel like that was really good on the team’s part, because it’s this push away from heteronormativity, and you know, the players get to decide. Would you mind discussing that a little bit?"[note 2]

Chris Floyd: “Thanks for saying that! I really enjoyed that. You know, obviously their relationship is at the heart of the whole game, I think, that’s really the core of it. We knew from what Chloe says about Rachel in the first Life is Strange that that relationship was very important. We even know that it might’ve been romantic; there are a lot of hints in that direction. When we came to that element of the game, we said, “Well, we’re going to have a game that takes place over just three days, so where can that relationship go? And what directions can it go?” And of course, we’re a game about choices and consequences, so we said, “Well, if we can put some of this in the hands of the players to decide, you know, what that relationship is or at least how quickly that it develops in certain ways, let’s do that. Let’s give them that choice.” But to make it a romantic relationship was something that we felt was right based off of what was in the original game, or to make it a possibility of that. So yeah, we looked at how the player can influence that, and what we did was we looked for places a player could make small choices about how intimate or how flirtatious you want to be with Rachel. And those little things add up, and they start to change some of the larger choices later on in the story. That was kind of our overall pattern for how that plays out.”

How the prequel came about (its inception - who approached whom first)

November 2017 - Interview with Chris Floyd, Co-Game Director at Deck Nine Games.

Lead-in by article writer Jessica Conditt: Deck Nine hired experienced writers and shopped itself around to major publishers, offering to take on emotionally complex projects with branching dialogue paths.

Game director Chris Floyd didn't expect much to come of these early meetings.

Chris Floyd: "And it was Square [Enix] that came back to us and said, 'What do you think about making the next game in the Life is Strange franchise?'" Floyd said.

As fans of the series, developers were floored. And they were in.





Later in the same article, in more detail:

Was it Square Enix's idea to ship the prequel to a different studio?

Chris Floyd: "We as a studio had kind of pivoted to this whole genre of cinematic narrative adventures. We built a tool set specifically for making them, and we built up a team of expert storytellers from film and movie industries as well as the video game industry. So, we went to Square and lots of different publishers saying, "Hey, these are the kinds of things we're ready to make. We have state-of-the-art tools. We have a great team." And it was Square that came back to us and said, "What do you think about making the next game in the Life is Strange franchise?" And we honestly hadn't really expected that was on the table, to be able to make something in this amazing franchise. We were all such big fans of what Dontnod had accomplished. But it's such a unique vision that they have that we really were kind of surprised when we got offered it. So, as I say, now we try to live up to that privilege."

Square’s stance on Deck Nine sticking to canon

November 2017 - Interview with Chris Floyd, Co-Game Director at Deck Nine Games, commenting about how much (or how little) they stuck to things from Dontnod’s first game.

How involved are Dontnod and Square Enix in Before the Storm’s development?

Chris Floyd: "Obviously, the foundation that we're building on is what Dontnod established in the first game. And a lot of what we spend our time thinking about, worrying about, is, are we staying true to that original game? To the characters that are established there and the canon that has been established? But when it comes to the development of the story and the game and the gameplay itself, really to Square's credit, they've really said, "Deck Nine, you guys have to own this yourself." And I think because that worked so well for them with Dontnod, with the original game, they've proved for us to do our best work we really had to have ownership of it."

Junkyard body is definitely Rachel

October 2015 - Interview with Co-Game Director Raoul Barbet and Producer Luc Baghadoust.[note 3]

Interviewer Zulai Serrano: You might have heard many fan theories about Rachel Amber’s death by now. Some fans had a hard time believing it was actually Rachael Amber’s body in the ground because they didn’t see her face. Sorry guys, Rachel Amber is dead.

“It’s her. There’s no doubt about it. We’ve seen some people on the Internet we don’t see [Rachel Amber] so maybe it’s not,” Barbet said. “It’s her but for different reasons. Regarding the age rating, showing a dead body would affect it.” Baghadoust added, “The fact Chloe is recognizing her is enough. It’s just the way we wanted to show the scene with the music and cameras…We took a lot of time on this. It could have been not so great if [we showed her.]”

Chloe doesn't know Rachel as well as she thinks

Quotes taken from the same interview as above.

The reveal of Rachel Amber’s body in the junkyard was an emotional scene for many Life is Strange fans even though they don’t know much about her. Max’s investigation in Rachel Amber’s disappearance has shown how little Chloe knows about her and raised more questions than answers.

“[Rachel Amber is] a mysterious person,’ Barbet said. “You don’t know much about her, but you can feel through Chloe’s obsession how important she was for us. You have the realization when Max dresses like Rachel and she lived the relationship through Chloe’s story.” Baghadoust added, “The thing about Rachel is Chloe thinks she knows her. It’s not the same as Frank…As a player we wanted to make you curious and if you want to learn more you will. You’ll also discover what Chloe is thinking is not so simple.”

Was Rachel intended to have a bigger role?

January 2016 - Another interview with Michel Koch where the community asked questions.

baron calamity asks: Did Rachel Amber have a bigger role in the story at one point?

Koch: "She was like she is in the game. We really wanted to push this mysterious character that you would never see. We really tried to create her and have characters talk about her to the point that she was in the game, even if you never see her. We really wanted to have her be one of the main characters, but one that's never seen. It's quite hard, quite dark, the way you discover her, but that's something we also wanted to push, because... it's like some times in real life, when you have someone that's been missing for months. Most of the time, the reality is, that person is dead. We knew for a lot of players, there was this fantasy of finding her alive or that she was a time traveler or she was something else. But for us, Life is Strange is not a fantasy game, even if there are sci-fi elements. It was about real life and it was something dark and hard, but the most logical outcome was that maybe she's dead. Creating the scene where you see the pain of Chloe when she discovers, even without showing the body ever, it was important for us to show this scene and how Chloe would react, to really push more on the characterization of Chloe."

Max and Chloe’s story is over for good (according to their creators)

October 2015 - Confirmation about LiS concluding Max and Chloe's storyline for good (confirmed by Raoul Barbet and Luc Baghadoust).

"We can say the story will end in episode five. It’s our last episode,” Barbet said. “Max and Chloe’s story is complete.”

The first game is “narratively complete” (confirmation from DONTNOD)

June 2015 - Statement about the first game being narratively complete (with no intention of any expansions).

"Whether or not Life is Strange continues with a second season, Baghadoust said that the series as it is now remains narratively complete."



2016 - Another statement on this finality (from Michel Koch).

As we approach the end of the interview and the topic of conversation naturally moves onto the future of Max and Chloe and Life is Strange, Michel Koch utters a sentence with such finality: “Their story is done.” The co-director on Dontnod’s acclaimed adventure is brief and straight to the point about its two protagonists. “Something we know for sure is that in the course of those five episodes of Life is Strange we told the story we wanted to tell about Max and Chloe.”

DONTNOD never wanted mysteries/things explained

This video is the source of the two quotes below (video timestamps are shown before the quote).

7:06 - “This is what we wanted to tell about them and not more. I think for a lot of players it’s enough, and it’s even something interesting to not have all the explanations sometimes. We all like some mysteries staying, I think, in the story. Even as a viewer or player, I’m happy to not have all the answers.” - Raoul Barbet (Co-Game Director, Life is Strange).

7:52 - “But I can completely understand that some players are disappointed, because some want really precise answers to some topics, but as its creators, we didn’t want— it was on purpose that we didn’t want to give too many precise answers, also something we really wanted to keep for the story was this kind of mystery.” - Raoul Barbet (Co-Game Director, Life is Strange).

DONTNOD had their story planned out from the beginning

This video is the source of the two quotes below (video timestamps are shown before the quote).

8:59 - “The whole game was written from the beginning--the whole story--so we didn’t change the story along the way.” . . . “But we were able to adapt and change some minor things before the first episode (it was easier), but even after the first episode released, based on the reaction of the audience, we were able to make some small changes. For example, Kate’s scene in Episode 4, if you managed to save Kate at the end of Episode 2, we hadn’t the hospital scene at first, but we realised how much Kate was important for the audience and felt it was important to add it. - Raoul Barbet (Co-Game Director, Life is Strange).

9:45 - “We hadn’t planned to have this scene at the beginning. It was only a phone call and text. But, yeah, it was important to really see Max with Kate and also to have Chloe talk about this.” . . . “So there are some small scenes like this, because on a production point of view and planning, of course, we can’t add or delete a whole scene with all new characters; it would have been too difficult during the production. But some small adjustments were possible.” . . . “And for the robbery scene you talk about, it’s a very early stage of writing. It’s when you think about with this power with the relation of the character, or you can talk about this in a scene in an interesting sequence as a player on a gameplay point of view, so we think about a lot of different stuff. So it was for the beginning of the Max and Chloe relation when Chloe is aware of the power. Of course, as you know, Chloe could have some good ideas like doing a robbery or stuff like that, but it was at the very early beginning, and we changed this for--I think it’s a mix now between what you see in the diner and the junkyard scene when you just have fun with the power. It was the same idea behind the robbery.” - Luc Baghadoust (Producer, Life is Strange).

DONTNOD on adding/changing/deleting scenes

This video is the source of the quote below (video timestamps are shown before the quote).

10:08 - “We can’t add or delete a whole scene with all new characters; it would have been too difficult during the production. But some small adjustments were possible.” - Luc Baghadoust (Producer, Life is Strange).

Chloe’s “Hella” (language intention)

June 2015 - Discussing Chloe's Hella (the intentions of this).

Koch added that these phrases — particularly Chloe's fervent use of the word "hella" — help players connect with the character.

"You need some time to create worlds and ways of speaking to a character that will grow with you," Koch said. " ... But, starting with Episode 2, we've seen [people] saying that they love Chloe for saying 'hella' because it feels that they knew the character. They knew she would say that. When you are writing characters, you need sometimes to create expressions for them, if you want them to be different and relatable."

The origin of "Hella" (writer's perspective)

August 2016 - Interview with writer Christian Divine on how the word is indigenous to the area Chloe is from.

Christian Divine - "I'm very familiar with the Pacific Northwest," he said. "I go up to Oregon, Portland, and Seattle all the time. I'm there all the time, and as a Northern California boy, the word hella is probably one of the most indigenous expressions you'll hear. It's been around forever and ever, and around 2013 I noticed that young people around me were saying it again. It was so funny, like wow, people are saying hella again. I haven't heard that in awhile." Life is Strange takes place in a fictional town in Oregon. When Divine began work on the game, he considered the word "perfect for Chloe." "What you're trying to do when you're writing characters from a certain region," he said, "you can do some research or if you know, you can put that information in there and develop and give a kind of realism to the characters."

Warren’s persona (as intended)

August 2015 - Discussing Warren’s persona (intentions) with Michel Koch.

"I think that he's a good guy," Koch says, "but, of course, a bit insecure with girls, so he tries to hide that underneath with some humour and bad jokes. He might seem a bit pushy, but he is in love with Max, and he cares about her. We didn't see [his actions] as a creepy way to hit on Max. But, yes there is this kind of awkwardness [to Warren]. He is really messing up sometimes because he isn't saying what he should say, but that's because he's shy and it's funny to see how he tries and sometimes doesn't get what he wants." Warren's ham-fisted attempts at some sort of physical intimacy with Max did give me a bit of a chuckle. Koch tells me the inspiration behind the character. "I'm a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is why I like looking at archetypes, like, uh Xander. He has this kind of awkwardness in him and is always saying the wrong things, but he's a good guy!"

Ashly’s Role in the prequel game

December 2017 - Interview about Ashly’s role in BtS as Writing Consultant (what it entailed).



Ashly, after playing Chloe in the first season, could you instantly tell what felt right for her to say (and what didn't) when you were writing and consulting on the script for Before the Storm?

Burch: "It was mostly stuff like nuanced little tweaks of things that didn't necessarily feel like her. Would she be this vulnerable this quickly? Would she maybe try to obfuscate this emotion with a snide remark? How much is it stuff coming out sideways, and how much is she actually open? It was mostly just trying to track her psychologically, being true to the first season, while also remembering that a lot of the stuff that happened to her to make her the way she is in the first season, hasn't happened yet. I've been playing a lot of Super Mario Odyssey, and it makes me think of those Trace-Walking challenges. It's basically like that: you want to keep mostly within the shape. It feels like the first game is a lot of Chloe's story told through Max's eyes. I think that Before the Storm is very much Rachel's story told through Chloe's eyes."

January 2018 - Deck Nine Games’ Narrative & Level Designer, Christopher Means, pondering on how people see Amberprice (upon him seeing the hand-holding Chloe and Rachel pre-order figurines).[note 4]

(1/2) These are cute, but they do highlight an odd way we digest story in games. These characters are 95% tragedy. Tortured by the plot, the most canonical-ish ending finds them murdered by unhinged men, yet it's uncommon to see them depicted as anything but happy and together.

(2/2) Perhaps it's wishful thinking or head canon, a memorialized image we give important figures after their death, or a simple wish to avoid the morbid. It's not wrong, it's just curious. It could be the level of attention required to work on BtS, but I always see tragedy.

(3/2) It occured to me that Romeo & Juliet didn't seem to garner this kind of revision in the minds of fans. They remain romantically doomed. Perhaps because the doom is direct, displayed in theatrical spotlight. Ex. Aeris in FF7 is memorialized, but commonly as tragic loss.

What is a Life is Strange Game?

August 2018 - Michel Koch’s thoughts on what a Life is Strange game is.

Michel Koch: “So, what is a Life is Strange game? It's having a set of relatable characters, facing real-life issues in a world which is as close as possible to the real world just with a twist of some supernatural elements that we can use to emphasise some story aspects, like with the rewind it was to emphasise Max's inability to make decisions and inability to go forward with her life.” “What's important to us is that powers are definitely a part of the LIS universe, but definitely not the focus. The focus is the characters, their story, and the idea of supernatural powers is something we use to emphasise the issues and the problems that are already there. The 'Rewind' appeared for Max when she needed it most, when going through stress or when something triggered it. In Life is Strange 2 there is the same idea, that supernatural elements bring another layer to the story we want to tell.”

Opinions haven't changed on this since development of LiS 2

March 2019 - The Square Enix blog sat down for a chat with co-Creative Director Michel Koch and Writer Jean-Luc Cano to discuss the latest season (LiS 2).

Interviewer Duncan Heaney: One thing I loved in Episode One is how subtly Daniel’s powers are represented - particularly in the opening section. There’s nothing showy - it’s fast and matter of fact. Why did you choose to present it this way?

Michel: “Well, Life is Strange 1 and 2 are not about the powers. We’re not creating, you know, ‘sci-fi’ stories. We use supernatural twists to add another layer to the story and characters - to increase the characters weakness.” In the first Life is Strange, Max is still a teenager. She doesn’t know who she really is or what she wants to be. She’s at the point in her life where she has to make decisions. So her rewind power amplifies that weakness - she’s no longer locked into one path, which makes it even harder to pick the right thing to do. In Life is Strange 2, Sean has to take responsibility for Sean - basically become a father. By giving Daniel powers, it amplifies the amount of responsibility he has to deal with. Jean-Luc: “So powers need to be couched in reality, right? They have to seem like they fit in the world we’re creating. But, as Michel says, Life is Strange is not about superpowers. We don’t want the player to ask where the powers come from and we don’t explain it. It’s not about what the power is, but how the characters deal with it.”

Why Chloe wasn’t nice at the beginning

Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet’s comments on Chloe from the first Director's Commentary video that came with the Limited Edition boxed set and was unlocked to digital edition owners.[note 5]

Michel Koch - "One of the fans' favourites and of course a character we really love, Chloe. She's one of the most important characters, because, at the end, the choice is about her. It was really important to create this character the best way possible so the player would learn to care more and more about her, but we really wanted her to be not that nice at the beginning, so when she's evolving during the different episodes and she's getting nicer to Max, people would care even more about her, because she has changed and she likes the fact that she's changed. If she was the nicest person from the beginning, it wouldn't be, I think, as effective in going forward and changing towards Max." Raoul Barbet - "Sometimes, some players hated Chloe from during the first episode, and I think it's not a bad thing, because you can dislike a lot of things about her personality, and after in Episode 3 and, of course, at the beginning of Episode 4, there is really something more to this character, and I think it's like in real life with a friend; there is always some things you don't like. The relation between Max and Chloe talks about that, and I think it's really interesting to see how the player will learn to like more and more Chloe."

Why Arcadia Bay is special - doe symbolism

Michel Koch’s comments on Arcadia Bay and the doe from the first Director's Commentary video that came with the Limited Edition boxed set and was unlocked to digital edition owners.

Michel Koch - “We have a lot of symbolism with totem spirit animals. We have the doe, and you can clearly see in Episode 4 that the doe is linked to Rachel, and it’s basically somehow a presence of Rachel that’s guiding Max at moments. I’m not sure a lot of players noticed that, but in Episode 2, actually, when you see the doe in the junkyard, it’s precisely where Rachel is buried. There is this mystic feeling around the town, and since we didn’t really want to clearly explain everything, it’s part of what makes Arcadian Bay a bit different and a bit special.

Did Rachel ever give Chloe that letter Max can find in the junkyard hideout?

Raoul Barbet’s comments on Rachel’s junkyard letter from the first Director’s Commentary video that came with the Limited Edition boxed set and was unlocked to digital edition owners:

Raoul Barbet - “This is a big letter that Rachel wanted to write to Chloe and maybe didn't... never gave it to her.”

DONTNOD’s attention to the little details and hiding things to be found

Comments from Raoul Barbet, Amaury Balandier, and Laurent Cahour (Lead QA) in one of the nine Director’s Commentary videos that came with the Limited Edition boxed set and was unlocked to digital edition owners.

Raoul Barbet - "In Life is Strange, we really tried to put a lot of attention to the details, so we have a lot of various levels of things, and if you look around, you can find some really, really small details that are useless to the main story but interesting." Amaury Balandier (Lead Environment Artist) - "Actually, we started to play with that, putting more and more things in corners, in dark areas, to see if the players can spot it or not, and usually they did." Laurent Cahour (Lead QA) - "They noticed things that we thought they could not notice, like on a shirt, we have letters that when you put in the right order, it says 'No Fucks Given", and they noticed."

Diversity and female leads (no pushed agendas)

2016 - Interview with Michel Koch.

"I don’t think that’s the reason for the success or popularity of Life is Strange," Michel suggests. “But I think diversity is important. When we started writing the game we never set it out like a checklist that needed to include a female playable character, but we were always thinking about what was best for the themes of the game. What we tried to do was create good characters and the best possible situations that best represents reality. Ultimately the way we thought about Life is Strange is that we never tried to push an agenda.”





Max and Chloe's relationship and the ending

Quote taken from the same interview as above.

“Everything we had in the game, all the choices and the consequences, was created to lead up to this point. For the player to make a decision based on their vision of Max & Chloe,” Michel reveals. “There is no canon ending. It’s up to you based on how you felt about the characters.”

Deck Nine designed their game to be played first

December 2017 - GameSpot speaks with Ashly Burch (Chloe’s original voice actress and story consultant for the prequel) and Deck Nine’s Co-game Director Chris Floyd.

For newcomers, which game should they play first?

Ashly Burch: "I'm not sure, that's an interesting question. They're both designed to be stand-alone--I'm sure the first game wasn't expecting prequels or sequels. But I am curious to see how people would react if it was played sequentially." Chris Floyd: "We tried to design it so that people would come to our game first, we didn't spoil anything from the original game, and tried to make it a self-contained story so that it can easily roll into the next one. But most players on Before The Storm are familiar with the game, and they're playing it because they're fans of it. I have spoken with other journalists who haven't played the original game and started with this one, so I am curious to see how their experience with the prequel will color everything they see in the first Life Is Strange."

Season 1 Easter Eggs, References, and fan service in Season 2

March 2019 - The Square Enix blog sat down for a chat with co-Creative Director Michel Koch and Writer Jean-Luc Cano to discuss the latest season (LiS 2).

It must be tempting to cram each new Life is Strange 2 episode with Easter Eggs and references to Season One - how difficult is it deliver callbacks without negatively impacting the story?

Michel Koch: “It’s tricky - callbacks and references to previous games shouldn’t impact story. There’s always opportunity - these games exist in the same world after all, but we add them only where it makes sense. So the Arcadia Bay scene in the first episode is a good example - it was an organic way to reference the earlier games that fit logically into that part of the story.” Jean-Luc Cano: “If you add too many callbacks or, you know, ‘fan service’ there’s a risk that we start to follow the story of the first game. That would be the wrong move. We’re moving on from the story and setting of Season 1. But there are a few more subtle references planned for this season - I don’t want to spoil anything though!”

Ashly Burch quote about criticism

I'm including this quote here because it has come in handy to show others that even Ashly Burch herself has strong views that game criticism doesn't always mean you are hating on something. It can simply mean you are coming from a place of wanting something to be better and do better.

Metal Gear Solid, Boss Fight Books, 2015 - Ashly Burch



"I owe a lot to this game. That doesn't mean it's immune to my criticism. That doesn't mean it gets a free pass. That doesn't mean I can't point at it and say, "Stop it---you're being an idiot." Because when you love something, you want it to be the best it can be. You want it to learn from its mistakes. You want it to grow and nurture others in the same way it nurtured you. . . . Gamers are fiercely devoted people. . . . When we love, we love hard, and we love deeply. And sometimes, when someone tells us that the thing we love is flawed, we get defensive. Because that's what happens when you love something---you want to defend it. You want to protect it. . . . We should want more. But the only way we can do that is by pointing at something that isn't working, and naming it. We need to feel comfortable saying: I love this game, but it's sexist. I love this game, but it's racist. I love this game, but the story is atrocious. I love this game, but I don't see myself represented in it. And when we hear a complaint like that about a game we love, we have to stop that little seed of defensiveness from spilling over into anger. We have to recognize that a critic's concern doesn't say anything about us, and it doesn't make us wrong for liking that game. We're all on the same team, and we're all just trying to make this medium the best it can be. For everyone."

Notes