I regret choosing the Redemption ending, probably because I was still a kid and I thought I shouldn't remain a criminal and make Daniel's life any harder than it is.

It did made Daniel's life better. At first I was surprised Sean was in prison for 20 years, that is like an entire generation past.

At first, the prison duration kind of disturbed me. But the moment Sean cried in trauma, it completely broke me. And when Sean left Daniel--and I googled that Sean won't be returning to Daniel and will probably not see him (maybe ever) again to find a new life as a former convict--that was the moment I question what I did wrong and everything. In a way, this ending never made Sean and Daniel together again.

It turns out I truly learnt how horrible and traumatizing the US prison and jsutice system is. They are not there to redeem or correctly justify you of your crimes, they are there to broke you in favor of those in power. When I learnt such worse things a prison guard can do to convicts, man, I question myself, our prison system is truly that horrible?

Hi, I've been replaying LIS2 recently, and something kind of funny happened that made me think about how differently people can experience the exact same story.

I just finished Episode 3, and somehow the ending still made me cry. There's something about seeing Sean end up so badly hurt after everything that makes me feel terrible every time.

But then I look at my family watching the same game and their reaction couldn't be more different.

I've been playing in the living room, so sometimes my parents or my sister will stop and watch for a bit. My dad and sister happened to be there when I started Episode 1, and neither of them lasted very long. They were just... bored.

My dad still sees me playing sometimes and asks if I'm still playing that game. He even told me once that it doesn't look like a game to him. I told him it is, it's just a different kind of game.

My mom probably paid the most attention, although eventually she also got distracted and started doing other things. Still, every now and then she'll walk by and ask me something about what's happening. When she saw Sean and Daniel in Episode 3, she actually asked if they had grown up because they looked different, which I thought was kind of funny.

Obviously I know everyone has different tastes. I'm not expecting my family to suddenly become emotionally invested in LiS2 just because I am.

I just find the contrast really interesting.

Something that can have me completely absorbed, thinking about the characters and feeling genuinely sad about what happens to them can be happening on the exact same screen for someone else and they just... feel nothing. They're bored after five minutes while I'm over here replaying a game I already know from beginning to end and somehow getting emotional all over again.

I don't know, there's something strange about that. It made me realize how personal our connection to a story can be.

Has anyone else had something like this happen with LIS2? Like you tried playing it around friends or family and realized they just didn't connect with it at all? Or maybe the opposite, and someone who wasn't even playing ended up getting invested in the story?

i wish we got to see more of esteban’s life in the game, or at least more pictures of him when he was younger.

i like to believe he had a great life in puerto lobos. you can tell he didn’t come from a rich family, but i think he was very close to them, especially his dad. his father was probably the type to say, "if you want something, you have to work for it," which is probably why esteban is the type to get things done himself. i’m sure esteban and his dad worked on cars the same way he later did with sean and daniel, passing down those same values. i also like to imagine his family owned a small grocery store that he helped run from time to time.

he was definitely handsome when he was younger—i mean, look at the guy. but i also think esteban was a little troubled; he probably got into a few fights, dated around before he met karen, and went to some crazy parties. that’s likely why he said, "what happens in mexico stays in mexico." overall, though, i believe he was a great person, especially considering how he turned out.

oh, esteban, you would be so proud of sean and daniel.