Farewell Arcadia Bay: Part 1

Warning: This entry contains spoilers for Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Before the Storm.

As promised in my entry for Life is Strange: Before the Storm, I’ve finally played the bonus “Farewell” episode where we get to hang out with Max and Chloe for one last time and have our final adventure in Arcadia Bay.

In fact, life ended up getting a little stranger for me due to an interesting set of events during the last couple of weeks. With that in mind, I’d like to save the mini-review of the bonus episode for the end of this entry and focus on the other things that happened so unexpectedly.

My parents were visiting over the long weekend and I was having a discussion with my dad, who used to be a teacher back in Fiji, about how most people don’t seem to have a problem with sweeping the “problem children” of the world under the rug, and that, as a teacher myself, I didn’t have that luxury, nor did I want to be the kind of person who would do that based on my own past.

As our discussion progressed, I mentioned the debates I’ve had with some people online who, in my mind, exemplified what I was talking about. I explained how they viewed these “problem children” as people who shouldn’t have their story told because they weren’t “decent” people in regards to their inability to learn from their mistakes or show any form of personal growth. Additionally, there were a lot of people who seemed to want to deny the existence of such people in the world and seemed to be fine in pretending that they did not exist in real life.

This debate was referring to the characters and events of Life is Strange: Before the Storm. The irony of the entire debate is that it was proving everything the game is trying to point out. How easily a person can be forgotten and deliberately ignored by the world simply because they are the problem child no one wants to deal with.

Feeling adventurous?

Later that same night, I made a decision out of the blue. I suggested to my parents that we play a video game together… something which I have never asked of my parents before. But there I am, at 33 years old, asking my retired parents to truly experience a video game for the first time.

At first, they were hesitant, with their perceptions of video games only extending as far as Mario Kart and the all too common first-person shooter genre they’ve heard about but never really seen. However, it didn’t take much convincing at all after their initial hesitation. I told them that this was a story based game that would feel as if they were watching a short TV series. Furthermore, I explained that it’s about teenagers in a town that is not unlike the one where I teach.

Life is stranger than you think

The next day, we all sat down in the lounge room together and I set up the limited edition disc of Before the Storm on my PlayStation 4. My reasoning for choosing Before the Storm over the first game is that it’s a much more grounded (as in less fantastical) game to experience with a more approachable story due to it lacking the first game’s time power mechanics.

As the title cards rolled into the start screen, with that damn good music playing, I explained the concept and premise of the game to my parents including the fact that this was a prequel to another game. At the time, I had no idea how this was going to turn out or whether this was a good idea at all to begin with, but I went for it anyway.

And so we started our journey…

I decided to play my way through Before the Storm pretty much the same way I did on my first playthrough back in late December, channelling my inner-Chloe, and making all the choices I thought fit the character best rather than what choices I would make personally.

After finishing the first episode, we got to the next episode selection screen and I turned to my parents to ask them what they thought. Their answer was to tell me to start the next episode… and so we did.

It was pretty clear that they were getting into it and we ended up playing through all three episodes back to back. They were so engaged that we ended up having a late dinner because none of us realised how late it had gotten by the end of the last episode.

As we finished that last episode, I had a pretty long conversation with my parents about the game, about teenagers, about the perception people have of other people in the world they deem less “decent” than themselves and all the issues facing young people in our western societies. It was interesting to get their point of views on these things because of their unique experiences living in Fiji and how, even though the story and characters in Before the Storm seemed so far removed from that time and place, they were still able to make connections back to their pasts.

The best part about the entire thing is the fact that they had grown somewhat attached to Chloe Price during the events of Before the Storm, and while they didn’t agree with the way she handled things, they understood why things are different for her as a teenager, the reasoning behind all of her actions and what drove her as a person.

The Max Process. Invented by an American teenager named… Max Caulfield. Around 2008.

I let my parents know that there is a short bonus episode we could play that featured this “Max” person Chloe was always referring to. They immediately agreed to play it the next night after I got home from work… and so we did.

We played through the Farewell bonus episode together and again, we discussed a range of things and their thoughts on Chloe, but they were also quite interested to know more about Max. I explained to them that the first game features Max as the main character and that, in that game, she has the ability to manipulate time.

To cut straight to the point, my parents want to go through the first Life is Strange when they visit again over the Easter break.

Life really IS strange.

The trouble with teenagers

Swinging back around to the conversation I was having with my dad, I mentioned that I was debating with people online. I don’t usually do this, but I was talking to people via the comments section of a YouTube video that was heavily criticising practically every aspect of Before the Storm.

Again, none of this is surprising, these games aren’t perfect and I am well aware that many can’t stand the types of people being represented in this game, whether they’re in fiction or real life, and would rather not be around them at all. I also get the feeling that people think this game is trying to glorify the worst traits of these characters as something positive when the truth is that it’s not trying to do that at all.

I’m not going to go over all the things I said in the comments section, if you’re curious, you can always just find what I wrote on that page and see it all in context. That said, I would like to form a response here to the YouTube video itself and the criticisms handed down to the game. I’m fairly confident that it has really missed the mark on what kind of game, story and premise we’re dealing with in Before the Storm.

So here goes…

Right from the start, I think the reviewer in the video is missing a key point about Life is Strange and, by extension, the intention of Before the Storm. I agree with the idea that these games are focusing less about what’s being said and more about what it says about the characters, but the choices you make in the game also say a lot about you, the player, and who you are as a person.

Not only is this a series that has you reflecting on the characters who represent the kinds of people you find in real life, whether you like them or not, but it’s about the player reflecting on their own values and beliefs as well via the choices they’ve made throughout these games… and this is an important point that is being overlooked.

When you take this rather big point into account, you begin to realise that there is no “one canonical ending” (as the reviewer puts it) because the first game’s final choice is putting a mirror in front of you and showing you who you really are by the choices you have made.

Who is Chloe Price?

Furthermore, the lack of supernatural powers, the shift in tone and the sharp contrast between the lessons learned throughout the first game with Before the Storm’s stagnation of its main characters is done very much intentionally to show you another key point that is sorely overlooked by the reviewer.

That point is that not everyone learns a lesson, not everyone grows and betters themselves, not everyone has it within them to rise above and change as many characters from many sources of fiction so often do… not everyone has that power and not everyone even gets the chance to make changes in their life for the better to begin with. As I said in the comments section of that video, I have seen it because I am a teacher and because I am an adult who has watched some of the people he has grown up with falter, stagnate and fall. It also pains me to say that I’ve witnessed some of the students I have taught follow these same paths… and it’s not such a simple black and white problem you can fix with the snap of a finger or a wave of the hand.

This is what, I think, Before the Storm brings to the table. It is a stark contrast to the first game’s hopeful message that people can grow and learn if given the chance. It’s reminding you that in real life, there are many people who, for whatever reason, aren’t able to do what these fictional characters so effortlessly do in a story crafted just for them to learn something at the very end. Indeed, Chloe does eventually learn a lesson by the end of Before the Storm, but it’s a very cynical lesson that doesn’t actually help her grow as a person.

Yes, the future is already set for this prequel and it is very well aware of that fact (considering the scene that plays after the end credits of the final episode) and uses it to paint a darker picture than the first game ever did. Before the Storm showed me what I already know about the world and have already seen as a teacher, the brutally honest reality that no matter what anyone does, some people simply cannot be saved, even when we all try our damned hardest to help them, even when we keep trying well beyond the point of no return… and it fucking sucks.

Why does this game need to exist? Why did it need to be episodic? Why is this character doing what they’re doing? In what world do human beings act like this? These are all very simple questions to answer.

A moment of reflection…

The reason it needs to be episodic is simple: To give you time to reflect between each episode, just as the first game did. It’s the crux of what Life is Strange is trying to get you to do because it gives you these moments inside the game as well as outside the game… moments of reflection.

The reason this game exists is to be a counterpoint to the first game, to remind you that while some people have the opportunity to learn and grow, others don’t. Let’s take one of the key aspects about both games into account, how one game features supernatural powers under your control and the other does not. Max has a conduit in which she can convey the story of her learning and growth process to the player via this time manipulation mechanic. Chloe, on the other hand, has no supernatural powers. In fact, she has no power at all, she’s just an average teenager, period.

So what happens if we looked at this realistically, where Max is just an average teenager and supernatural powers do not exist, what would this story look like? For Max, she will still learn and grow, it will take a different shape, but she will learn from the loss of Chloe Price many lessons that she will take with her into adulthood.

Chloe, however, won’t learn anything. She’s dead. She died on the cold floor of the girl’s toilets in Blackwell Academy, bleeding out as she remembers all the people she loved who abandoned her, she finds her life meaningless, herself useless, she is simply unwanted, ignored and overlooked. To her, everyone had forgotten about her a long time ago and no one cared enough to save her.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm is forcing you to look at this human being that the world has forgotten.

This “problem child” who has been swept under the rug by a world that doesn’t want to have to deal with her bullshit and those like her are put in the spotlight, with their world view being represented in every single little detail. Everything you see in this game is being presented through the eyes of a teenager who is going through a particularly tough time in her life. Fuck the rules, fuck this sign because it’s telling me what to do, the atmosphere and the music of this game are all showing a world through the eyes of this teenager who is losing her way.

The reason why you find this game so confusing is because Chloe is much more a child than Max is in the first game. You are judging her by the rules and expectations we set for adults in the adult world, however, she is not an adult. She is experiencing an earlier part of her adolescence where she is being slowly forced out of the childish teenage world with its particular set of rules and into the adult world that has a different set of rules. The characters this game focuses on the most are the ones going through some heavy emotional challenges, and having this all occur during puberty makes that even more difficult for them.

Figuring things out…

In what world do human beings act like this? In the world of teenagers who end up saying and doing plenty of stupid things without even realising that there is anything wrong with what they’re saying and doing in the first place. It doesn’t even register to them AT ALL.

I have a particular habit I’ve formed in my few years of teaching that I enjoy in a strange way. Whenever one of my students does or says something stupid, I like to repeat what they had just said or talk them through what they had just done in a measured tone. It’s a way of getting them to think about their words and actions which is something most teenagers aren’t capable of doing yet.

You should see the looks on their faces when they realise what they have said or done was completely stupid as well as the reactions of others around them who have the same realisation. That moment of realisation is what I enjoy the most about that entire exercise and it starts a learning process for these students for something they have never considered before.

Pretty soon, I get students starting to think about what they’re saying when they’re around me. They know I will call them out on it and that I’m brutally honest when it comes to putting the spotlight on anyone who doesn’t consider their words and actions before they jump straight into them without a thought in the world. Hell, students I have taught over multiple years have admitted to me that they’re better off thanks to the times I called them out on the stupid crap they’ve said and done in the past.

All of the criticisms this video has on the focus of these “edgy teen” themes as well as the people in the comments section who seem to deny this nature about teenagers in general, whether they’re adults who look back on their teenager years or teenagers themselves, is extremely telling. No one wants to admit that they said and did stupid shit as teenagers. “I wasn’t stupid as a teenager like the characters in this game are.” Are you sure that’s how it happened? “I am a teenager and I don’t say stupid shit.” How do you know the things you’ve said aren’t stupid?

These “edgy teen” themes explode onto the screen in Before the Storm a hell of a lot more because Chloe doesn’t have the vehicle of change and reflection that Max does with her time powers. Max is given an unfair advantage over all other teenagers in that she can see the consequences of her actions laid out in front of her by her ability to see all the diverging paths.

How is Chloe and Rachel’s relationship believable? Why is the game trying to make Chloe out to be witty and intelligent? Why is the game celebrating the worst aspects of these characters? Why does this mundane day-to-day story feel rushed and pushes past key details it wants you to forget about? Why does this story have underwritten characters throughout it? Again, these are all very simple questions to answer.

“Dad, turn it up!”

I’ve touched on this before, how the game is designed to put you into the world of a teenager, right down the music itself. With the first Life is Strange, you were painted a picture of the world through Max Caulfield’s eyes and mindset, while in Before the Storm, the world is seen through the eyes of Chloe Price. This means that many of the mechanics and even the pacing of the game, the exclusion of certain details and seemingly underdeveloped characters are structured in such a way to service this mindset.

Chloe and Rachel’s relationship is believable when you consider the fact that Rachel is using Chloe as she uses everything else in her life to get her way and Chloe is desperate not to feel alone any more. We see both of these teenagers encounter each other when they’re struggling with issues of their own and they use each other for support in the most immature way possible. The fact that it’s rushed and turbulent all the way through even adds to the realism because it’s consistent with the mentality of teenagers at this stage, simply jumping into things because they’re driven by the feelings they are having at any given moment.

The reviewer earlier decried the back-talk challenge gameplay mechanic, a system that along with everything else, represents a part of Chloe’s character. In essence, it replaces the supernatural time manipulation mechanic from the first game as a way to differentiate Chloe from Max and the style in which she handles the world around her in comparison to Max. His particular nitpick is that Chloe is able to convince her way past an adult, not taking into account that she is interacting with someone who most likely has a middle school level of intelligence, at best.

Furthermore, all the back-talk challenges that occur throughout the three episodes make sense. Let’s take the two interactions that happen with Principal Wells in the first and second episodes as an example. The first instance has Chloe exploiting the Principal’s ever vigilant protection of Blackwell Academy’s reputation which has him folding like a deck of cards whenever it is threatened.

The second has Chloe intentionally putting herself on the line to protect a girl she has only really just met (which I have seen happen plenty of times in real life) by using the same exploit, giving Wells what he wants by allowing him to get rid of the “problem child” from his school while retaining the student he feels has greater potential, thus, again, safeguarding Blackwell’s reputation. He wants an optimum outcome, and Chloe hands it to him on a silver platter. Wells being the opportunist he is, takes it.

Does this mean that Chloe is actually witty and wise to the world? No, it doesn’t and while Chloe is satisfied that all this back-talking she’s doing is getting the results she wants, it’s not hiding the fact that Chloe is still a child and these are childish things she’s doing. This also extends to the way Chloe interacts with the world. She finds herself to be witty and clever, but you can plainly see that she is not and that her attempts are only making her worse.

And of course she doesn’t learn anything from this, the entire point is to show you the difference in Max and Chloe and how they interact with the world through their unique gameplay mechanics. You hit the nail right on the head when you see that Chloe sees herself as being witty but you’re clearly shown that she is a childish fool… and this says EVERYTHING about her character and how and why she isn’t able to grow as a person.

Chloe learns nothing from these encounters because she gets what she wants out of them without really thinking about the consequences of what just happened. Her narrative arc doesn’t see her grow because she is not Max, she is not learning from these things, she’s just bludgeoning through life without stopping to consider alternatives, something we’re so use to doing with Max.

These kinds of flaws are very apparent with Rachel as well, who is a very different person from Chloe, and has her own issues. Again, I’ve talked about this in my review for the game, but Rachel doesn’t know who she is. All she does is act for the world, giving them what she thinks they want to see. The image of the perfect schoolgirl is a façade, and in a way, she’s constructed her own method for people to ignore who she truly is inside.

Nothing is realised about Rachel across all three episodes because this story is being seen through the eyes of Chloe Price. You, as the player, realise what Rachel is, but Chloe does not and your initial reaction is to characterise this as bad writing… when it’s not. It’s showing you that Chloe is so desperate for someone to hold onto that she will ignore all the warning signs that are flashing right in her face in regards to Rachel Amber.

Chloe is so desperate to feel close to someone as she did with Max that she’s willing to do anything for this girl who gets her way and, yes, is a bitch who is able to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. When you consider who and what Rachel is, she isn’t the kind of person anyone should admire despite the fact that people seem to adore her. If you think that’s not realistic, then you really should look at the how celebrities who are clearly not the best role-models for anyone are well regarded by society in general.

Eliot.

And then there’s Eliot. He is a purposefully underdeveloped character who the writers seemed to have forgotten because that is the entire point of his character. He is the person who, at one time, Chloe used as an emotional crutch, but is now left discarded and forgotten by her throughout the events of this game. You’re purposefully not given a whole lot to work with because Chloe is so focused on other things that he’s become nothing to her. And this is yet another example of a teenager the world has ignored, who, in his own way, acts out when you see it explode onto the screen at the worst possible time for Chloe.

As for all the wacky situations of teenage bullshit… holy shit, if you ever end up working at a school in your life, I’m sure you’d end up with a brain aneurysm caused by the bullshit you’ll end up seeing.

Who gives the middle finger to a sign? Apparently this one student who was having trouble opening the locked door to the boys toilets felt the need to as I walked by. He stuck his middle finger up at that door in an act of defiance when he thought no one was looking. I literally asked, “Did you just stick your finger up… at a door?” to which he felt embarrassed and asked if I could unlock the door for him cause he really needed to go.

As for the entire scene with the play? Holy fuck, I’ve seen plenty of combinations of shit like this before, especially a teacher who is so engrossed with the event they’re overseeing that they’ll overlook something happening to a student who needs some kind of help and letting other people deal with it instead.

All these events, actions, reactions, etc, that you find so unbelievable are so believable to me because I’ve seen these kinds of things happen all the time considering my job involves teenagers on a daily basis.

And people in the comments section were ready to counter my arguments by saying, “well your school must be horrible then, because none of this kind of stuff happens in my school.” How do you know? In these fictional tales, you’re often exposed to a lot of things you don’t really pay attention to in your real lives that do happen around you. In the real world, you end up being too busy focusing on your own little bubble to realise they’re happening, but they are happening, whether you’re there to witness them or not.

When a certain student in your high school passes out during band practice for no reason, did you consider it was because their grandfather died and they haven’t been able to sleep due to severe depression and thoughts of suicide they’ve had lately? How about when the teacher in charge of the band continues on without them and doesn’t seem so concerned about them because they’re on a tight schedule and they have to find a way of salvaging the situation because this is the last rehearsal and they just can’t cancel the performance. Or the students who have given the student who passed out a hard time who have only compounded the problem but they know nothing about the dead relative or anything.

What happens when you put hundreds of these teenagers together, who have these perceptions of themselves where nothing they say or do can possibly be regarded as stupid, who don’t think about the consequences of their actions, who aren’t able to do so to begin with? What happens when you have staff who have mountains of responsibilities compounded onto them to take care of these teenagers as well as set up all the curricular and extra-curricular activities that are involved in school life? The answer is that out of the ordinary, sometimes crazy, things happen.

It’s not unique to my school, hell, the school I work at is nowhere near as bad as it can get, it’s something that you have to deal with regularly at every school that deals with teenagers, just as schools that deal with younger children have their own unique challenges.

Smile for the audience

Human beings DO act like this, when they exist in this bubble world of “school”… but you’ve seemed to have forgotten what that world is like and demand that everything be measured by the rules of the adult world and adult expectations.

When you repeat the statement “human beings don’t act like this” in your video, you’re essentially saying that teenagers are not human beings. The point this game is trying to make you realise is that, these people ARE human beings. They’re human beings who haven’t yet learned how to deal with a lot of things that can happen throughout their lives, who don’t have the tools to deal with any of it, not yet.

And yes, there are some contrivances in the story to move it forward, but you’re getting angry at things that do make complete sense when you keep in mind, this is all through Chloe’s perception. That’s why you don’t see the fight between Frank and Damon, she’s fucking out cold because she had the gall to stand up to a fully grown criminal. And it happens quickly, things accelerate beyond your control because they ARE beyond your control, again, teenagers launch themselves into situations based on what they feel at any given moment without thinking about it.

What you find to be conveniences, I see to be Chloe not thinking about her actions and moving forward in ignorance. Eventually, these things will catch up to her and she will face the consequences of her actions, but from her perspective, these dropped points don’t matter because she’s simply not thinking about them. She is so narrowly focused on her relationship with Rachel and her need to feel close to someone that it’s blocked out the rest of the world around her.

You have a perception that this is a story that has been told badly because it seems like you don’t really understand what this story is trying to convey to begin with. The conversations I had in the comments section for that video as well as the conversations I had with my dad afterwards go into why this game’s story is so important, and why it needs to be told this way.

It’s that idea of the lack of understanding people have towards these kinds of teenagers and the utter hostility they have towards their existence that Before the Storm explores in the way it presents its story. It’s being brutally honest about a lot of things and crafts the story in a way that is very confronting. Indeed, while I have been critical of the criticisms in the video itself, I think the very fact that you and the people in the comments section have these feelings towards this games mirrors the feelings many people have towards teenagers in general.

In that way, Before the Storm succeeded in everything it was trying to convey.

That’s why this game is so important to someone like me, a teacher, who is always warned about how easy it is to want to sweep these “problem children” under the rug. Not wanting to deal with them is a natural thing for humans to feel, but for someone like me, I can’t indulge in that kind of thinking. And for a game to put all of this out there, I applaud it because it allows these kinds of discussions to happen in the first place.

Had Before the Storm been a story about a teenager who learned and found some kind of personal growth, it would have been poorer for it, because every other story out there has its characters grow in some way, whether it is positive or negative. Before the Storm shows you what happens when people go nowhere. More importantly, Before the Storm tries to make you look through the eyes of someone who thinks like this, forcing you to experience their world.

Just as the first Life is Strange put a mirror in front of you and showed you what kind of person you are through the choices you made, Before the Storm puts a mirror in front of you and shows you what kind of person you are through the way you perceive these teenagers and their world.

Don’t look away in disgust, this is what the world is for some people out there. It’s time to realise that and to reflect on what that means.

Farewell, Max and Chloe

OKAY! Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system…

It’s been a long time coming now, our final chapter in Arcadia Bay with two characters we have gotten to know very well over the last few years thanks to two groups of extremely talented people. And while these games aren’t perfect… they don’t need to be, because I feel I understand what this series has tried to communicate to me all along. It’s also serendipitous that the first game came out during my first year of teaching and that Arcadia Bay is not unlike the town where I teach.

I’m so glad I got to step into the shoes of Max Caulfield one last time, because it ended up confirming some things I had already talked about in this entry and in my review of Before the Storm. How the music is instrumental (I’m not trying to make a pun here) in capturing the world view of the character you’re playing as.

Hearing that acoustic folk sounding music playing throughout the bonus episode was refreshing and did a lot to help you ease your way back into the mindset of Max Caulfield. I especially loved the distinct way Max orders her thoughts in comparison to Chloe. It all felt… right.

Chloe Price and Max Caulfield

There’s a lot I love about this short bonus episode and why it exists to begin with. It’s a little extra episode that doesn’t fit into the narrative of the main three episodes, sure, and it’s a final send off for our two main characters who we have been with for the last few years, but it’s so much more than that too.

It’s also a cleverly made bridge that explores and compares the characters of Max Caulfield and Chloe Price, as well as serving as a bridge between where their relationship ended after Max left for Seattle to where it began again in the events of Life is Strange. On top of that, it further solidifies Chloe’s stagnation in character and forms a bridge into Before the Storm and the moments we have with her throughout the first game.

It also echoes many of the moments we see throughout the series. Anyone who is observant enough and remembers all of these moments are able to point them out very easily… and once you do see them, this seemingly innocent pirate adventure tastes even more bitter-sweet. This bonus episode really is made to be a love letter to the fans and… a harsh reminder.

Starting off our final day with Max and Chloe, I spent a good long nostalgic look around Chloe’s room just as Max did. I noticed very quickly that I reverted back to the way I played the first Life is Strange by taking some time and really just looking around at the environment. I knew that this would be my last chance, so I really took it all in. Again, I ended up playing the me that is Max Caulfield because I have a lot more in common with Max than I do with Chloe in the way I perceive of the world around me.

Each piece in the room had its own little story to tell about these two character’s relationship, and I was so eager to hear it all. And of course, I was so happy to hear Hannah Telle and Ashly Burch as Max and Chloe once more… I’ve criticised the voice acting of these games before and I always hear others say how the voice acting in these games are so bad… but I’ve really come to appreciate all the work that has been put into the series by all the voice actors. I feel that my initial criticisms of Life is Strange were incorrect because I can’t imagine the voice acting of this game being any other way, and if they were, they just wouldn’t fit. The way the voices are done for Life is Strange, Before the Storm and Farewell are exceptionally well done in conveying what they need to convey for this series.

We also end up getting a really great combination of everything Dontnod Entertainment has set up with Deck Nine’s improvements in motion capture and facial animations. I would really love to see a re-release of the first Life is Strange using the Unity engine and techniques that were used to create the episodes for Before the Storm. In fact, I would kill for a complete package collection of these two series together, updating the animations/motion capture, visuals, sound design, etc. Ah, nevermind me, I’m just dreaming out loud here.

Captain Bluebeard

Also, am I the only one who laughed their ass off when you realise the start of Chloe’s dance looks the same as the hippy dance you saw Max do in Life is Strange? And then laughed even harder when you saw Max dance in response to Chloe? What a bunch of dorks!! I love it!

As their adventure progressed throughout the day, I, like many, started to ask myself when this day was occurring, it seemed to be happening while William was alive because Chloe was still in good spirits about a lot of things and definitely before Max tells her that she’s leaving for Seattle… so where did this all fit into the timeline of William’s death? We were kept wondering all the way through with little hints dropped everywhere for us to find.

But the thing that sealed it for me was the picture Max and Chloe had taken together that was on the counter along with the earlier comment Chloe made that she thought her parents would be home already. I knew what was coming and I tried my best to prepare myself, but, of course, when it comes to this series, you are never really truly ready for how things turn out.

I tried to confess to Chloe in her room that I… that Max was moving away, but that didn’t end up happening… and then down in the lounge room I finally broke the news. It was hard to watch and even harder when I assured Chloe that we’d write each other letters and that things wouldn’t be so bad.

We played hide and seek in waterfalls…

Then, the episode ended all too soon, like their friendship… and we got the real confirmation of what day it was. When Joyce walked through that door and I spotted Officer Berry behind her, my heart dropped like a stone. I put the controller down because I knew this was it… this was our last time seeing these two together.

The events that followed through to the end credits were our last moments with both Max Caulfield and Chloe Price and they were gut wrenching. As sweet as the moments were on their final day together as carefree children, these final shots remind us of the reality Chloe has to now live.

For Chloe Price, there is no happy ending, just like how there is no happy ending for many people out there in the world. And although people look harshly on Chloe and those like her, we have to remember that these are still human beings we’re talking about. They may have been born into a horrible life, they may have had something traumatic happen to them that was out of their control, they may have done it to themselves, whatever the case is… the least that we can offer is some level of compassion.

As for me, with what little power I have at my disposal, I will do what I can for the students I encounter who end up feeling lost and alone in their lives. It’s not much, but at least it’s something.

I absolutely refuse to look away and pretend they don’t exist for my convenience.

Wow, that was another long entry that took quite some time to write…

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve done something I haven’t done before by added a “Part 1” at the end of the title to this entry. Part 2 will come out once I finally sit down and play the first Life is Strange with my parents come early April. I honestly can’t wait to see what they think about that game considering they’ve experienced the story in timeline order (more or less) and not release order. I wonder how things will turn out once we get to that final choice…

It’s also interesting to hear their perspectives on the story, the people being represented by the story as well as the game itself and how it is able to give a unique perspective in relation to the choices you’re able to make in comparison to a TV show or movie which are purely linear.

Anyway, that’s the end of my post-Life is Strange reflection moment, see you all around for part 2 when that happens.

I’m sure it’s gonna be hella awesome.

EDIT (18 March 2018, 1:29 PM):

Just wanted to mention that this entry has really taken off and that, while I usually just write articles on this site for myself, I’m glad that it’s gotten out there and that people are enjoying it.

Additionally, I would like to make a clarification on my views of Rachel Amber. I don’t really think she’s a “bitch” as may have been indicated in the article. This article is partly a reply to a YouTube video that I discovered not long ago and I was mirroring the words spoken by the narrator of that video in order to speak directly to him.

To get a better understanding on my position in regards to Rachel Amber, it’s better to read my review of Before the Storm where I explain how and why, both the player and Chloe, are mesmerised by Rachel’s mysterious nature. I also add further clarification for my position in the comments section of that same review.

In short, Rachel isn’t trying to be malevolent, rather it’s her immaturity that is causing potential harm to Chloe in combination with Chloe’s desperate need to be close to someone. The irony is that the Chloe we see in the Farewell bonus episode would have most likely seen right through Rachel, had Max stayed in Arcadia Bay… but as I said in the article, Chloe is ignoring all the warning signs that are flashing right in her face in regards to Rachel Amber.