Yay, finally! I'm so excite. Ok, uhm... "Get The Hell Away From Us, Weirdo!" Janny Hate Edition
Previous Thread: Life is Strange is an episodic interactive drama from DONTNOD Entertainment. Set in the Pacific Northwest in the town of Arcadia Bay, the player follows the story of Maxine Caulfield and her seemingly newfound ability to turn hella gay and rewind time. At the prestigious Blackwell Academy, Max must prepare with Chloe Price for the incoming storm of returning to her hometown after five years. Available on Steam, PSN and Xbox Live.
>As Max and Chloe are leaving the ruins of Arcadia Bay behind, there's one more tragic story unfolding >Alice and Lisa stuck in Max's room, Alice hasn't eaten anything in days, the dorms are destroyed and no one comes looking for them >"No one's gonna come save us, this is the end, we'll starve to death..." >Alice...you can survive this and go back to your owner. All you have to do is... all you have to do is eat me." >"What? No, fuck that. Lisa, you're my number one priority, I'm not eating you!" >"Alice, think about it... how many times this week did you try to nibble my leafs? I'm a plant, Alice, you're a bunny, maybe it's time I accept my destiny... OUR destiny." >"Lisa, I can't make this choice!" >"No Alice, you're the only one who can"
Thanks to photoshopgril for putting together the background image and the second chart, polaroidgril for assembling the album covers/artist names/etc. onto the background image, Dr. Zaius for helping in general.
I have a torrent of all the games music, Morali's OST, the Vortex Club party, all the licensed songs (most in lossless format), and all the albums they were taken from.
I will be seeding this for the foreseeable future, so even if it says no seeds, leave it up long enough, and I'll come online. PC can't be on 24/7, you know?
A short film called "Arcadia Bay" that features coastal oregon, visions, journal-keeping and polaroids. Apparently (according to the redditor) developed in 2014 and then released in April 2015 with no prior knowledge of the game.
Who copied who? Since dontnod changed the name to Arcadia Bay on the suggestion of Chris Divine, I don't think this can be just a coincidence. This amateur filmmaker must have copied the game, right?
Connor Hall
The double/extra moon flickers away as Max and Chloe drive off to the junkyard into Jefferson's ambush where he shoots Chloe. Chloe is going to die in the not too distant future in the AU. Now this is just a theory but the moon incident is proof that Chloe is connected to the storm and looking at her state in the AU, it seems like it's her fate to die in 2013 The double moon, and everything else, happens because Chloe is deviating from her fate and the universe is handling that badly. The extra moon goes away because Chloe is heading to her death which then eases the universe again. Max's tornado visions only happen in the first two episodes just before Chloe is in serious danger and then also in episode 1 when they're at the lighthouse even though Chloe isn't in any danger other than if she somehow ended up falling off the cliff but the freak snow happens right then so that vision might have been because of Max telling Chloe about her power right after which sets them on the path that is the rest of the game where Chloe's life is in danger quite a few times and also maybe just because Max tells Chloe about the supernatural stuff going on which sets the scene for altering the flow of time even more. Probably grasping at straws but still.
William Jones
Come back already
Liam Long
>>DARK KATE
>Kate is supposed to be the kind, true love waits, virginal character who is pure and without sin >Actually a heavy drinker, hides bottles of wine in her dorm room. When she said "I don't get wasted" she was referring to her incredibly high alcohol tolerance. There are nights where she polishes off a whole bottle by herself, then baptises her panties listening to Dana fuck her “boyfriend of the week” next door.
>What about her friends, Stella, Alyssa and Brooke?
>We know Stella's a meth head. Drug habit impoverishes her, forcing her to work long hours in after school jobs. Came from an abusive family which gave her a strong desire for a good older male in her life. These desires have turned sexual, she would literally throw herself at Jefferson, if Victoria wasn't doing it already. As is, she publicly announces she wants to make a move on her teacher.
>Alyssa's an obese sexual predator, targeting virginal characters then dumping them when she's taken their innocence and they begin to bore her, as was the case with Warryn Graham. Summarily dumped him after he finally managed to give her an orgasm after two hours of trying, announced “It's over when the fat lady sings”. Attempts to add Max to her list of conquests, by plying her with the offer of wine. Publicly reads “50 shades of grey” style erotic literature when between virgins to deflower.
>Brooke is a pervert, who flies her drone around the boys dorm, using its high def camera to its best advantage. Obsesses over beta molestation victim Warryn Graham, she thought she'd have her turn after Alyssa discarded him. Secretly planning to “permanently deal with Max”, since Warryn's infatuation with her is blocking their true happiness together.
Landon Howard
The intention could be that Chloe is linked to the storm. Most people assume this because the story suggests it. Chloe herself does, and Max to a degree.
But the second moon flickering off as a sign of "easing" the universal disconnect doesn't make too much sense because when Chloe actually dies afterwards, the storm still comes. And just fundamentally the idea that the universe goes all mad over Chloe but ignores everything else - even in a completely different timeline - is ridiculous.
The most "reasonable" explanation is that Max's accumulated time fuckery and especially the first fateful rewind sets all the shit into motion. So it just so happens, more or less, that Max has to in the end rewind to and not use her powers in that specific incident to undo her time fuckery. But Chloe is only circumstantially relevant here in that without her, Max would not have triggered her powers, or so we have to assume. This is what I think the devs actually intended. That Max powers cause the storm, and the powers are tied to Chloe by their "soulmate"-type friendship.
Other interesting explanations include stuff to do with Rachel and the Prescotts. The universe actually wanting to off Chloe is the most boring, simple and nonsensical (both logically and narratively) explanation, I think.
Owen Jones
>The most "reasonable" explanation is that Max's accumulated time fuckery
the most accumulated time fuckery that happened was by far saving William. Yet the result was exactly the same, and only after a 5 year wait.
>Input A gives C >Input B gives C >chaos theory
Ryder Lee
Fuck the janitor in his raw ass
Daniel Wood
I see what you mean and it does make more sense if the storm and everything is connected to Max rewinding and not just the universe wanting to off Chloe. The elephant in the room is just that if you try to rationalise further or more in-depth than just "messing with time is bad and wrong" or why Max would even get the power to rewind if it just breaks reality when she does, you'll only get a headache and everything will begin to fall apart. I mean, I will accept the notion that messing with time is bad and wrong and I do still love the game but the fact that the mystery can't really be looked into afterwards and theorised on just for fun without breaking everything is a bummer.
Brayden Lee
I want to get wasted with Dark Kate!
Adrian Garcia
"Accumulated time fuckery" as in Max using her powers repeatedly to change stuff. William is a big fateful change, but it doesn't set into motion an odyssey of numerous further rewinds and Focus adventures like saving Chloe does for Max. AU Max never discovered or used her powers. The "C" still arriving in the AU is in this context more to be understood as an extension of all her previous time fuckery, since well, the AU existing in the first place is just another time fuckery in a chain of others.
But hey, I never said it makes absolute sense. "Reasonable" is in quotation marks for a reason.
Well, the powers (even disregarding narrative functions, writer intentions and interpreting it as a metaphor and stuff) are then just the manifestation of Max's profound connection to Chloe, coupled with a bit of Arcadian magic sprinkled on there. It's the magic of lesbian love, so to say. Not something the universe have given her, but a deep power she willed alive herself (although looking at it from the writer's perspective it definitely is something they gave her to have her suffer for their narrative ideas). And this can make sense because even if the narrative seems to want her to "let Chloe go", she can keep holding on too, and then the idea behind her power gets to be that you can and should try your all for the people you care about, and that you can make a change and overcome your regrets and stuff.
"Rachel and the Prescotts" is a cool bandname, I just realized.
You! Explain this pottery thing to me. I- It doesn't have to do with Harry Potter, d- does it?
Ethan Gutierrez
Hmm, but if you're measuring time fuckery in "the times she used her powers to change stuff" and not in "how much stuff she has changed", then there is never any solution and it keeps spiraling out. Even the final choice is just another use of powers, increasing time fuckery even further.
Chase Sanchez
Yeah, the message the game gives you about how it's important to treasure the people you hold dear and do everything you can for them is nice and one to put in the bag. Not buying the idea that the rewind power is the power of love+friendship given actual power, though, even if it is a nice thought. It was for a bit of mystery magic and unique gameplay element and not overthinking it is probably best. I think I will just give up overthinking and theorising completely since nothing good really comes out of it and the game already is clear in its message and what you should take with you from it unless we also take all the things Michel has said additionally into consideration because then it's just contradictions.
Angel Stewart
Nope. Pottery is a tool of refined art in a game, even greater than imagination
Isaac Davis
>I- It doesn't have to do with Harry Potter, d- does it? It's like poetry, it rhymes.
Isaac Ortiz
>Even the final choice is just another use of powers, increasing time fuckery even further. Correct. Can't argue against that. The only thing I could say doesn't close the circle logically, but narratively. Where the Chloe incident is the origin of everything. So going back and erasing that inception to undo the time fuckery is at least narratively a fair concept.
Yeah, we will never make satisfying sense of everything, because the devs didn't have a grand idea here and there's plenty annoying little things that make our tasty theories (like "Rachel's Revenge" or "Occultist Prescotts") taste weird.
And while the narrative message can be cool (we can listen to our heart and actually make a change in Chloe's live - save her and be with her and say "fuck you" to the universe and by extension the devs crooked idea of moralism and adulthood "responsibility") in the end the sheer fucked-upness of both endings always is a downer for me no matter how I look at the story otherwise. So what I like to do most is either disregard Episode 5 entirely or make up neat headcanons that make everything paradisical to spite this fatalism crap where everything must always suck. One example is Max figuring out and solving everything a couple of hours, days, whatever after either ending.
Did someone here start it? Or is it more commonly used? Sounds like a dad joke, but cuter. I can see Max using it. God, her dad looks like such a dad joker and Max obviously loves that shit.
Jaxson Johnson
>Did someone here start it? Or is it more commonly used? Sounds like a dad joke, but cuter. I can see Max using it. God, her dad looks like such a dad joker and Max obviously loves that shit.
Lucas Walker
Is this one of those games that is better to watch than to play?
Gavin Kelly
No, it's the exact opposite.
James Taylor
This guy looks like he's made the one or other dad joke in his life alright. Is he (in)famous for that?
Asher Perez
He is THE dad joker and also has quite a good imagination even if he might have gone too far in a few places.
Jacob Edwards
I don't think I've ever watched a full Star Wars film and never got the Indiana-Jones obsession either. Please no violence.
Isaac Robinson
Do give you a real answer:
When George Lucas was making Star Wars episode 1, he said this quote:
"It's like poetry, sorta, they rhyme" in a behind-the-scenes documentary they shot here:
He was referring to the story of the prequel trilogy and how its themes should echo that of the original trilogy. As we all know, the Star Wars prequels turned out to be complete ass and so "it's like poetry, it rhymes" is now a meme for any writer who's full of themselves and want to justify shitty writing by ascribing some greater significance.
Joshua Ward
I will refrain from posting an angry Max, then. Even though I really think you should at least watch the original Star Wars trilogy because it's really good but my opinion is also heavily biased because I really like Star Wars even to the point where I don't find the prequels that awful other than 2 Don't bother at all with the movies Disney is making now because they are just absolute garbage.
Mason Butler
Thanks so much! Now I can appreciate it properly.
Thank you too; while angry Max is adorable, I don't like having her angry at me! And maybe I will watch the original trilogy sometime. I did watch some of them (and played the lego game and some other star wars game I can't remember, I only remember diving down with jar jar binks(?)), but never completely, and I don't remember much of anything.
Lucas Perez
Is that Max Maul or Darth Maxul?
Jaxson Barnes
Cax Maulfield!
Jonathan Rogers
>Max is the villain
Michel pls.
Evan Cooper
Oh snap
Aaron Campbell
Why are the graphics so bad in this game?
Gavin Lee
Unreal Engine 3 and a shoestring budget.
The art direction is really good, but it is not a technical looker by any means.
Levi Peterson
No video game is.
Gabriel Sullivan
...
Noah Diaz
Victoria should be nicer to other people instead of bringing them down to forget about her own weaknesses!
Carson Lopez
She's insecure. :(
Ethan Walker
I don't have my screenshot folder here, else I'd probably now post one from the nightmare sequence where everything is reversed, or an Evil!Max one. Take hm... this instead.
Jack Baker
...
Juan Baker
That's an interesting Max, for sure
Lincoln Robinson
>We will never see Ryan Caulfield react to Max's safe return and Chloe's new appearance or the news that the two girls are together >We will never see Ryan dispense his own brand of justice upon Mark Jefferson
Tyler Parker
I think so. That's a cool shot too, with Chloe in the background, just before the vision and the train hit and everything goes all crazy; calm before the storm-esque.
Christian Hernandez
>calm before the storm >the storm user pls
Ethan Allen
Chloe doesn't know how to tongue-kiss!
She's probably never deeply kissed someone and thinks it's like a kiss on the lips, but bumping your tongues together instead.
Alexander Hernandez
Now you're making me look at and think about the composition and other artistic values in my Max screenshots instead of just what emotion they convey and being part of a collection for the sake of just collecting. Digging your image there, though. Got a nice feel to it
Landon Martin
I would think it's the opposite. She can do all the explicit stuff, but it's the more loving and gentle stuff she has little experience with. She would be incredibly shy with Max because it's something so much more than just a drunken/ high fling or attempt at stress-relief. She would be scared of rushing Max and of her own ability to not go overboard, but in the end things work out find for the both of them.
Charles Robinson
I'd show you pictures of how good Chloe is at tongue-kissing but everyone will yell at me for being too LEWD
Jacob Perez
Do you have any pictures of how good she is at hugging instead then?
Asher Brooks
...
Logan Foster
plenty
Thomas Martin
Thinking about it again, clearly what is happening there is that Max is full of shy anticipation and Chloe is way over-eager because Max is so tasty.
Max pictures should always be about Max first and foremost! So there's nothing wrong with that. But there are screenshots with definite artistic value (even without Max!) to be taken. I'm still disappointed we didn't get a "Polaroid" mechanic to go first-person viewfinder mode and shoot custom pictures of the world and stuff that would then be saved in polaroid format in some LiS folder.
Yeah, I agree completely.
I just think tongue-kisses to be more on the loving and gentle side of things and wanted a funny interpretation for her having her tongue stuck out like that.
Pricefield tongue-kisses are totally fine. There's one in the game after all!
Carter Morris
You're evolving into an artist
Ian Cox
Clothed hugging please.
Sebastian Hernandez
>Pricefield tongue-kisses are totally fine l-like this?
John Bailey
will this do?
Charles Richardson
Das it. I'm pretty partial to nosekisus myself.
Easton Davis
>you will never curl up in bed with chloe time to end it all
Robert Stewart
It will do fine.
Adam Price
...
Hudson Hernandez
>But there are screenshots with definite artistic value (even without Max!) to be taken. I snapped a bunch of those too but replaying the game for Max screenshots once is more than enough for me. I studied art for 3 years and my magnum opus was a collage symbolising how much trash you have to wade through on the internet. I'm not an artist past the basics if even that
Wyatt Gutierrez
Did someone say screenshots?
Jaxson Davis
>how it all begun
Connor James
661 more than me. Rock on!
Joseph Perez
fuck, i finished this game 15 minutes ago and i'm still crying. will i ever recover from this /lisg/
Parker Butler
>will i ever recover from this No.
Sebastian Davis
We have fresh blood.
Welcome to the support group.
Now lets get you initiated.
Lets start with this jpg
Ian Roberts
I consider your Max screenshots to be art! And I do have like 50GB of fine art, so I know what I'm talking about!
Carson Morris
Even if you don't think you're an artist, you can always become a better one. I have faith in you.
Sebastian Morgan
wh
whuh
Isaac Scott
A scrapped ending where Chloe survives the bathroom incident and ends up in the hospital instead.
Why is there a black outline on your screenshots? Consolecutiepeasant?
Oliver James
i have no idea honestly. maybe because of borderless windowed mode
Elijah Lewis
>spoilering doesn't work inbetween words anymore 4CHANNOFUN
Likely. Nice timing on that one though. Or did you just spam F12 there?
Caleb Gomez
just good timing
Logan Jones
Only if you read fics and create a headcanon so that Max, Chloe, or whatever characters you liked get proper closure and happiness. That's the closest you're going to get to recovery.
Robert Ross
Thank you for the kind words, user. My Max folder now feels just a bit less pathetic Thanks for bolstering my morale. I'll get back to writing my minimum of 1000 words per day after tomorrow even though it's creatively taxing. Writing is art in some way, right? I can't draw, paint or sculpt to save my life
Julian Flores
*insert screenshot of Max lifting her mug as a toast*
>Writing is art in some way, right? I can't [...] sculpt Eh; poetry, pottery - all the same. What kind of writing? If you don't mind me asking.
Andrew Martin
Writing is art in my book.If you ever write something LiS related, we'd be happy to read it.
Jordan Myers
>decided to sacrifice Chloe >the polaroid image of the heavenly sunset
Enough to bring me to tears.
Hunter Bell
Aw. There.
Carson Hill
Just short stories I'll try writing a LiS thing in the weekend, then. I just don't know what I'm most afraid of in that regard: Not getting the characters right or Michel possessing me halfway through the process.
Ayden Rodriguez
we'll keep you safe from Michel, user.
William Martin
>that image It just keeps happening
Gavin Stewart
I'm thinking the thing will be a cozy and comfy something that can't possibly become tragic.
Jack Clark
It's just another bad dream Max.
Isaiah Edwards
Just a few tips: Don't fall into the trap of calling characters numerous things, just their names are fine nearly all of the time. And don't try to force phrases from the game into the dialogue (Wowser, hella - I'm looking at you, Rowan). There's a lot of gaps in the established story so be creative to fill them in and have fun! Or make everything and everyone miserable if you plan on making a game out of your fic. I have my own plans to eventually type something out as well.
Zachary Lewis
Good to hear. We've had enough tragedy.
Leo Rivera
>It's Max's overuse of her power that's causing the tornado >Solution is to go back to bathroom and let Chloe die >Because if it wasn't for that meeting in the bathroom, Max would have never discovered her power >So apparently the idea is to make a timeline where Max never discovers her power >But we already did this (alt universe/w Wheelie Chloe), and the same paranormal events were still happening at exactly the same times >Let's ignore that for the moment, and point out Max discovered her power as a direct result of seeing Chloe die >Presumably, Chloe not dying would have the same effect (actually a better chance) at stopping her from discovering her powers >But this is what we actually did in the first rewind, went back to the bathroom and engineered a scenario where Chloe didn't die, so Max wouldn't have to rewind >Ah, but that was after Max had already rewound once. Maybe the butterfly photo takes you back to the first time Max enters the Bathroom. >Except that we had to re-take the Butterfly photo the second time we went into the bathroom, so that photo should lead to the second time Max entered the bathroom, where she already has her powers > And they already established with photographing Kate and David, that you don't get to keep the photos after a rewind (except for the purposes of the optional photo collection thing, you don't keep them in game). >So the photo must lead to the post-rewind bathroom >Whateva, let's ignore that for the moment as well and assume the photo does take Max back to the first time she enters the bathroom >Then since this is the first time in the bathroom, doing exactly what she did the second time, triggering the alarm and saving Chloe, would have prevented her from discovering her powers. Since letting Chloe die the first time around is actually what led to Max discovering her powers.
Cooper Morris
Poor Max would probably be scared to sleep after everything. She'd try her best to stay awake for days before giving in and falling into another nightmare. But the first night she comes clean about the entirety of the dream with Chloe, and falls asleep in her arms, the nightmares will be gone.
Oliver White
But they're not?
Michael Peterson
Since the readers (you) are going to already be familiar with the characters beforehand, I'd find it pretentious and frankly just tedious to refer to Max as "the brunette", "girl in the hoodie" or whatever that isn't just "Max" when we all already know who Max is.
Jackson Hill
Or we assume the first bathroom scene is part of the vision. Or that the polaroids represent "pieces of time" and thus identical moments when used after the fact (that's why they can't exist without the correlative moment in time). Or we just say shit doesn't have to be logical, magical realism and all that, and that it would fit in a magical narrative for the origin to be where we can undo stuff. We've been over that; It's obvious that shit ain't logical because the devs straight up admit that it doesn't always make sense. Clinging to magical realsim may be lazy BS for the writers, but for us... we have to do something to feel closure, right? And if you can't find logical closure...
Chloe fought her out of one nightmare already. They'll make it.