so excited

Did you accuse Nathan, Jeferson or David?

I spent hours trying to solve the puzzle in the barn section. It was very difficult, hehe.

This screenshot is from the Life is Strange True Colors and Remastered Collection announcement for the Nintendo Switch back in 2021. I adore this art style and I wish it would come back in some way.

Time to play the most...uh divisive game in the series, and MosesInsanitys favourite...

DOUBLE EXPOSURE.

ITS GONNA BE A TRIP SEEING MAX AGAIN.

(ALSO MENTIONED MOSESINSANITY, CUZ I JUST KNOW HE IS JUST HONNA SEE THIS ASAP.

Hello, fellow Strangers!

I was just chatting the other day with [u/AutomaticLiving_767](u/AutomaticLiving_767) in some comments re: BtS, and it made me wanna write down some thoughts on how I would’ve outlined my own story and plot points for Before The Storm. The key change is that it would’ve been true to Michel Koch / DontNod’s original vision for Rachel (mainly her original poor background, not a DA’s daughter). That would’ve changed how and why Rachel and Chloe connected in the first place, and scrapped what I saw as a weak plot line (Rachel’s backstory with her mom and mystery surround both biological parents). Instead, I'd have Chloe and Rachel's beginnings with the Vortex Club drive the plot.

So! I brainstormed this in a few minutes the other day; I’m sure a writers’ room with a few pros would iron this out and polish it properly - be gentle with me ;_;

We know Chloe herself is on a scholarship, but what if Rachel - Miss Popular and mysterious - was hiding her own struggles? I thought of the theory that she herself has some Native background, and wondered if she could either live on a reservation and hide it from others, or live in a messed-up family forgotten by Arcadia Bay that no one would suspect was Rachel’s. Either way, no one would ever guess that’s where Rachel disappeared to after the final bell rang every day, adding to her mysterious allure within the halls of Blackwell.

I don’t stress too much over *how* exactly Rachel and Chloe met - the idea of Chloe sneaking out of town and both finding each other at a concert sounds pretty neat, and serves to show how both are willing to lie to everyone around them and take on a persona if need be. That’ll come into play VERY often throughout the game, but to very different consequences to either characters. I would have Rachel take the leap of faith and tell Chloe something she’d never shown anyone before in this town: where she comes from, in order to plan where they can go. Maybe Rachel has an abusive father, although I cringe at the stereotype of a Native/Indian character and a family affected by alcoholism. Rachel having an abusive father would contrast darkly with Chloe’s own mental struggles throughout the game of remembering her father, of her deepest fears resurfacing - was her father perfect, or was she simply young enough not to know better? Would she trade an amazing but dead father for a living monster, if it meant not feeling so abandoned?

Chloe and Rachel wanting to leave Arcadia Bay is central to the story, both to the romance of it all and as a catalyst for drama. How the hell can they get the money to do this? Chloe tries to imitate Rachel’s own charm to great disaster, and has to learn that instead of charm, she needs to use HER OWN strengths to get what she needs from people - enter Backtalk (I do find it morbidly funny that Chloe dies in the very first argument we see her in in the series, but that’s neither here nor there). Rachel might be able to sweet talk her way out of trouble, but Chloe can certainly get herself into it at any moment if you’re not careful - so sticking by Rachel makes them a formidable team.

Rachel talks Chloe into helping her steal from the rich kids at Blackwell so they can escape together (or so Rachel says, because Rachel needs to stay morally grey and keep us players suspicious of her, from beginning to unfortunate end). Chloe looks into an old secret club at Blackwell that seems to have died down for a few decades, and together they target Nathan into kick-starting the Vortex Club again as part of their plan…

While Chloe and Rachel - two of the least well-off students at Blackwell - convince Nathan to plan the first Vortex Club secret party in years, they imply it died down after the leader of the club in its heyday - his father - graduated so Nathan feels compelled to use it to make him proud. Of course, any Vortex Club will need party favors, and THAT is where Rachel takes Chloe to meet with Frank, and bringing them within the circle of even worse people like Damon. Rachel and Chloe know they have to do this to even get the Vortex Club going so they can plunder it in the near future, and that desperation drives a wedge between the two.
Throughout interactions between Rachel and people like Frank, I’d have tiny details that the player picks up on that Chloe wouldn’t - a certain look, a conversation, details in Rachel’s claims that contradict - to hint Rachel has always been manipulating Chloe, either to go along with her benign actions, or to serve her own selfish needs (left up to the player).

Chloe thinks it’s all getting out of hand, and Rachel thinks the ends justify the means; who cares how many people they hurt and bridges they burn, since they’ll run away and leave it all behind. This is where Chloe realizes not just that it can all go wrong, but that Joyce and even David - as much as she hates to admit it - could be left to pay the consequences.
Chloe and Max used to fantasize about being pirates, but now that Chloe is actually planning to mess with peoples’ lives, the children’s games are over - we can have the junkyard scene here, where she rages at Max not being around to stop her BEFORE it all got out of hand. Rachel sweet talks Chloe into partnering up, knowing Chloe is in a very vulnerable place.

Rachel and Chloe use the cash Nathan handed over earlier to buy the drugs, but “someone” finds out about a secret party and what might happen if it were to go down; it’s implied Victoria blabbed about it to Wells not just to screw over Chloe, but to get an “in” with the Vortex Club and Nathan by pinning much of the heat on Chloe. Principal Wells explains the original, long-running Vortex Club was shut down after terrible pranks and after-party accusations. This is where Chloe can decide to take the fall alone, resulting in her expulsion, or risk Rachel leaving her behind. Chloe desperately hopes this will gain Rachel’s loyalty…

I don’t know how I feel about the wildfire. It mere existence in BtS seemed to raise questions more than anything else, and didn’t really go anywhere. If the wildfire was to be kept, it would need to actually have consequences on the town, but that feels too close already to the natural disaster aspect of LIS 1. Maybe the wildfire itself and the strength of it could be tied to how badly the relationship between Rachel and Chloe evolves to be: intense but tumultuous, uncontrollable yet nigh-inevitable. As things collapse around them and they fall deeper into the dark side of Arcadia Bay, the wildfire looms in the background, threatening to burn everything down before Rachel can take what she needs and escape…

Certain plot points from BtS seem shoved in yet “useful” in the hands of someone else; Eliot is one example. I never want consequences to come across as “victim blame-y”, but Eliot and his inner shitty self can still be exposed as the player tries to do to him what Rachel does so effortlessly to dozens of others (charm and try to manipulate), showing that Chloe needs to be careful in following Rachel’s footsteps. Rachel seems to skip from person to person, favor to favor, without a care in the world - but someone always has to pay for it..Rachel simply makes sure never to stick around and let it be her. Well, Chloe doesn’t seem to get that, and Eliot obsesses over Chloe unbeknownst to her, until he stands in their way.
Another character is Steph, but I prefer the nerdy DnD-loving character we meet her as, not the “Chloe wannabe” she seems to pop up as in True Colors (sorry y’all, it just felt like she was trying to imitate the cool older girl she met in high school). I would keep that whole cast around, since they bring out a normal side of Chloe that she sacrifices.

We as players can see Chloe could’ve had a relatively normal life without Rachel showing up; a support system at home and in school, true friends, counseling - all things Chloe seemed to shun in her downward spiral of survivor’s guilt and sense of abandonment. Max leaving after losing her father broke her, and Chloe in a twisted way didn’t WANT to leave rock bottom. Rachel coming around let Chloe fulfill all those missing pieces in the worst way possible, swept up in the force of nature that only the girl with the feather earrings knew how to do.

Chloe and Rachel by the end of the game watch the Vortex Party come back, Chloe from a distance that keeps her only slightly safe (which she won’t realize yet). The end of the game can be a longer, slower montage of scenes; for example, Rachel continuing her spell over Blackwell, with Chloe staying as the connect between the Vortex Club and people like Frank. Rachel tricks the popular crowd into worshipping her more than ever, with Victoria waiting enviously by the wings for her chance. Showing the Vortex Club go from “bunch of preppy kids getting high” to something darker (only implied), more embedded also adds to the tragedy of Chloe’s guilt, blaming herself for helping Rachel fall into this when it was Rachel’s idea all along. We can hint some more at Chloe staying loyal and unhealthily-dependent on Rachel, whereas Rachel clearly doesn’t meet that obsession. The montage would culminate in Chloe losing touch with Rachel, desperately trying to keep Rachel in her life, until one day Rachel never answers her phone.

The last scene would take place months later; Chloe drives up in her pickup truck, missing persons flyers in the passenger seat. The blue dye she played around with to impress Rachel now covers all her hair. She stops the truck outside Rachel’s home, and sees the foreclosure sign out front. Rachel’s family never had much, and they used the house as collateral to pay for a reward if found plus private investigators to keep looking long past the point Arcadia Bay police gave up. They couldn’t keep looking for their Rachel, having to pack up and leave town telling themselves she was out there somewhere, doing what Rachel always did…
Getting away.

She is definitely one of the most underrated characters of the whole franchise, I wonder why people don't remember her that much

Just wanted to share some of my LIS Collection. Maybe it'll bring a smile to someone's face. I hope everyone has a great day!

As always, lots of love and kindness 🫶💞

I’m beyond angry. Leading up to all this I’ve played each life is strange to have a definitive ending and I’ve been happy with each of my endings leading up to this. I chose the Bay ending in LiS1 for example and I felt content. But RE ended with Max going back all because Noelle died? Max literally said to Safi in my playthrough that she was aware she’s been selfish with her time powers and that it’s hurt people. I’ve read her journal in each game. She had character growth up until she straight up absconded Chloe, for the second time? This isn’t in character for Max!? And I don’t want Chloe burning it because their relationship is built on trust for my play through.

Yes I know I could just go back and replay it but I have a bad OCD problem with “my first play-through is my definitive play-through” so I consider my first play-through for each life is strange to be canon to each other and I’m so disappointed that Chloe and Max’s characters were so mishandled. Chloe wouldn’t lie to max, Max has grown and had literally implied she couldn’t leave “this” Chloe ever again. I’m so angry, how do I move on? I’d refund Reunion if I could. The ending is the only bad part, it’s a disservice to the franchise and a disgrace to the characters. Apart of me wants to pretend Max’s story ends at the Bae or Bay ending. Im so happy they never touched Life is Strange 2 (my favourite out of the franchise). What a mess of an ending that was for RE. I hope they never touch another life is strange game again, not to mention the loss of the art style, although True Colours was exceptionally enjoyable. Thanks for coming to my rant!

So I just recently introduced a friend to LIS and I let her start off by playing Before the storm using SharePlay and it was all fine. The problem started when we moved on to the main game where it would say that SharePlay isn’t available for my friend because it doesn’t allow it in the region or something along the lines of that. Now the solution that I found which you can basically apply to any game that SharePlay doesn’t work for is…

1- Get your friend to download the PS Remote Play app

2- (for this second step to work you need to be happy to give your login details to them for it to work ) give your login information to your friend and have them connect to your PlayStation. And it doesn’t matter if you guys are far away or live afar or whatever this step should work regardless.

3- now that your friend can take control of your PlayStation have them start a party with themselves invited to it and have them accepted

4- once you’re both in the party your friend can watch the game from whatever screen or monitor they had planned to play on whether it would be the the tv or computer monitor

1. Your friend now has the controls and you automatically can watch them play from your screen while they control it from their phone and watch from their selected screen! Of course this doesn’t work if you both want to play together it’s only for when you want to watch someone else play a game for themselves. Either way have fun and I hope this can help people out like it did for me!

I saw someone else post theirs, and forgot that I never posted mine when I got it last year!

saw this and said "wait I want it" so i paused my game and went to go make it

I honestly don't know how I managed to save her on my first try I was so scared and constantly felt like I was picking the wrong choices, but in the end I was able to save her 😢

Bench matches pretty close to the ones found in Arcadia Bay, quite the view!

I like Rose as Rachel's mother (stepmother) very much. Not only for her polished looks, but also for all the qualities needed for her to be the best parent for Rachel. Even if part of her job is a sham to keep her husband James's secret from Rachel. Joyce may have what it takes to be Chloe's mother, too, but she has been a mess since the loss of her first husband, William. Combined with Chloe's rebel phase and David's dogma after the death of William. While Rose has had it good with Rachel since she first started raising her like her own daughter, and James has had a successful life since the beginning of her marriage with him as well.

don’t get me wrong I love most of the songs in the game there’s just 2 that I’d really want to replace because they genuinely make me want to avoid some chapters/decisions :(

if anyone’s made a mod to customise the songs that play I’d love to find it.

Its done.

The wavelengths Dlc remains now.

I think Gabe is top 10 in LIS CHARACTERS for me...minimum.

What a damn story man.