I think as far as Rachel and Chloe’s relationship is concerned it deserved to be more than a montage at the end. I certainly do agree many elements were rushed. And I still don’t quite understand why Rachel risked, what many would argue, losing the love of her life to be with frank or to spend time with Jefferson. I mean if you go back and play the original the letter Rachel wrote to Chloe about her meeting someone “implying Jefferson” is so off and does not add up at all, why would she be writing a letter to someone she is clearly in love with about meeting someone else? I just don’t understand many of these things and I guess the point was for it to all remain a mystery, but I feel like we’re supposed to maybe ignore reality and just enjoy the time Rachel and Chloe got to spend with each other.
There's definitely a lot more to Rachel than what we learn in Before the Storm. Sometimes though I do think we view her with Rose tinted glasses on. That we get lost in the idea of her and Chloe being this perfect, happy couple forever. But unfortunately, that isn't the case and it's something I will address further.
Funny, I feel the opposite. Seems to me that there are loads of people hyper focused on what Rachel allegedly did with Frank and Jefferson, and eager to judge her (but not them) for it. Lots of people interpreting all of her actions as manipulative and malicious. I can only hope we all don't expect the people we love IRL to be perfect, particularly in their teen years. Why can't she both legitimately love Chloe, and also be a flawed human being?
This last discussion with Sera was so confusing and kinda "absurd" that I thought it was a dream. Therefore I didn't take her too seriously. I didn't realize that it was reality until the point, where she leaves the room. I was torn between thinking that she's crazy and neurotic on one hand and on the other hand that the one dose destroyed her that quickly that she was thrown years backwards again.
With the way they started that whole interaction, I definitely thought it was a dream as well! Not sure if that's a good thing but I do want to address this because I've seen a lot of people think the same thing as well.
Yeah, right, I wasn't sure if this is a good thing either. But since I am a generous mind I interpreted this doubt of reality as a brilliant trick of deck nine and assumed they planned it to confuse they player :D
I was thinking that was a dream, because Frank and Damon were still fighting and she is free, smoking in the mill like, nothing happened here xD I tough that Chloe would wake up and help Frank or help Sera escape, that could be a good decision I think.
I think it's a dream, the same kind of "dream" Chloe had with her dad in the car while going to the mill, almost like an hallucination. I think they did that with her dad because we *know* he is dead, and therefore it must be a "dream", and they used that like a hint, to let us know Chloe might have more of those hallucinations on the future (The scene with Sera).
I'm not really sure how I feel about this, but maybe because Sera got injected with heroin it made her want to re-do drugs all over again and she instantly felt a huge loss of motivation because she knew her addiction would start over again. Hence why she magically changed her opinion so fast, I viewed her conversation much like that, like an excuse to escape because now that she has heroin in her body she knows she will do it again and not be a good mother to Rachel. I also believe the huge underline of the fall of her parents is what leads Rachel to become a liar later on, having multiple relationships with frank and Jefferson, lieing and hiding things from Chloe. And I also believe too that since her mother was a drug addict, Rachel became addicted to Jefferson drugging her in the dark room, since he quotes that they had multiple sessions. In psychology I learned drug addiction is apparently hereditary too, its pretty uncommon but can happen. I also have a lot to sort out as far as my thoughts, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Keep up the great work, I LOVE hearing your opinions! :)
There's definitely that element of of her being injected that can explain some of Sera's thinking, but I think there's a lot more here that doesn't really explain her reasoning, which I myself am trying to still look into and make sense of :) And thank you!
Jefferson was using GHB, which is a non-addictive drug. Rachel wasn't a Jefferson drug slave. Their "sessions" were her legitimately having her pictures taken because he's a famous photographer who probably promised to make her famous as well.
I completely agree! You were able to put in to words the feelings and thoughts that my mind hadn’t even completely understood yet. I knew something was off but didn’t quite know what, and your thoughts really helped me fill that hole.
We got Max's story, now Chloe's, and I really think a game about Rachel's story could work. Especially as a sequel to Before the Storm. Taking place after Before the Storm, we could explore the relationships Rachel has with Frank, Nathan, Jefferson, and Chloe. We could shape them the same way we got to determine Chloe's relationship with David and Joyce, and Max's relationship with Kate (saving her or not) and Chloe. We could see a lasting impact of Chloe's relationship with her family dependent on our choices in BTS, from Rachel's view. And depending on the intimacy level between Rachel and Chloe, we could determine the nature of Rachel's relationships with the three men mentioned above. We could also see Nathan acting vastly different depending on his relationship with Samantha. I'm sure you may be thinking about how this would work with many people already knowing the events of Life is Strange. Well, canonically many of the choices we were already able to make in BTS goes against what we know in LIS. If we choose to accept David, it doesn't make sense that he and Chloe hate each other so much. We also have the choice of being romantic with Rachel or not, which could change a lot. I don't think I even need to go into detail about how much protecting Rachel from the truth or not could potentially change her life. Life is strange could be said to take place on a different timeline in which Rachel made all the "wrong" choices. And we the players could make a big decision at the end of the game to decide what path she would go down. Do we want Chloe to be reunited with Max, or run off with Rachel? In the original life is strange, we got to save Kate and determine Arcadia Bay's/Chloe's fate, so saving a character from death doesn't seem that out there for the series. Why can't we do this with Rachel?
I like it :) It would be interesting to view Arcadia Bay from Rachel's perspective. But in a way, I think that would take away a lot of the mystery and ambiguity of Rachel as a character, some thing that's kind of been a staple of hers since Season 1 and I think you could still say the same in BTS, even when we've spent so much time with her. But maybe if they replace this mystery with something more interesting I would be down to play it.
I think everyone who loved the first 2 episodes felt cheated by the ending, it felt so different from the earlier episodes... none of our choices mattered, it was ridiculous, and I'm not talking about the ending, throughout the whole episode everything was already set. Having the money/not having it/keeping it/giving it to Damon didn't have ANY consequence, both Damon confrontation went the exact same way regardless of your decisions. Same for everything else. Also the pacing was off, everything was rushed and there were so many bugs I couldn't even count all of them! And what about cutting Rachel off half the episode? The main reason people played this game and loved the first 2 episodes was the relationship between her and Chloe and they just thought that the best thing to do for an epic ending was leaving her behind? Wtf? We discover everything about Sera in the first 5 minutes, then the whole focus of the game is to find her so Rachel can meet her (which was a bad idea anyway, no one cared about her or Damon that much, we just wanted to know who she was) and when we finally find her she didn't even talk to Rachel once! Even if you succeed in getting them to meet (which is almost impossible) they just hug without a word for literally 3 seconds and that's it, what the hell?? It's pretty obvious a lot of content was cut and if the leaks were true they basically ruined what could have been a perfect game, I don't know what they were thinking. And that after the credits scene was an untasteful low blow that made everything even worse. I know I sound super harsh but I really loved this game up until the second episode, I cared so much about Chloe and Rachel and everyone else (another thing, they forget about every other character, the hospital scene was the only time they mention them and it's not even that good of a scene) and I had so many expectations and they just didn't deliver. What a waste of potential 💔
of course there were consequences lol they were subtle, but there (whether choice keeps the ring or you donate something to the firefighters fun etc. if David will apologize (probably) etc. the pacing didn't feel of for me (there were breaks etc.) I didn't encounter even one bug Rachel's also missing in half of episode 1 + 2 respectively (and?)
Piratekiller99 exactly, very minor consequences and mostly regarding things done in the first 2 episodes, and nothing that changed the major plot... in LIS you could let Kate die and kill/wound Frank in the 2 main confrontations, here you never had this kind of power with anyone or anything. Good for you if you didn't have any bugs, the Drew/Mickey hospital scene was especially bad I had to restart it to get it to work properly! That never happened with the other episodes... as for Rachel missing all the action of course she wasn't in every single scene in the first 2, Chloe is the main character, but she was in a lot more scenes and had a lot more influence on everything... she was in the vast majority of the first episode and she had a major role in the beginning and ending, and also had a big scene in the middle, of the second episode. In the third one she had a big scene at the very beginning then nothing then a brief scene at the junkyard, a even shorter scene at the hospital and that's it, she didn't do anything else. Also, I forgot to mention in the main comment, we barely played at all in this episode... everything was a cutscene, it was like watching a movie, which didn't help with the feeling of not making choices that counted. I wonder what was the point of having a scene at the mill when after walking in and making a single choice during the confrontation everything was a cutscene, and the main villain is killed offscreen too in a confusing way since everything wasn't already boring and meaningless (and the scene was so badly animated a lot of people thought it was a dream and Sera was dead, also Chloe who was kicked right in the ribs and in the head, couldn't get up and passed out, is left on the floor and then when she weaks up is totally fine and can walk without a single pain)! Also the ending cutscene, 6 minutes of just music when you clearly can see their mouths moving forming words... they spent time animating the mouths and then just did nothing with it. Oh and no matter what happens, Rachel ends up having her bracelet in the very last scene we see of her which is set shortly before her disappearance according to Chloe's clothes and hair... even if Chloe/Sera returned it to her Frank should have it. I really wanted to love this episode, I'm sad more than anything, I'm not even angry. I consider Brave New World one of the best episodes of the whole LIS franchise and after something that good this wasn't what I expected. There were a few good moments (I loved how they described what addiction can do to you and how easy it is to get back to it and I loved a lot of the things showed in the ending cutscene though some talking was needed there) but the overall episode was bad to me and I feel like a lot of things were rushed and cut. I'd rather have 4 good BTS episodes than 2 great ones and a rushed one plus a bonus episode that won't add anything to the main story and will be just fluff and cute scenes between Max and Chloe as kids.
You have to be realistic in terms of choices, you can't create a whole new game for each branch of the decision tree you create. It's a trade-off between "I spend more time/money making insane branches, make, QC and implement them to please the nerds that play the game a thousand times" and "optimize my resources to concentrate on more important aspects of the game". What decknine did however is use those small deviations along the tree to make the player feel that the choices they made had a considerable impact (aka the "Oh I wonder how the other people that chose X can now reach this part of the game" feeling). You never _finish_ a game if you don't impose time limits, I'm sure the devs wanted to spend more time deviating the beaches, forever, but you have to stop where you consider you end up plesing the majority of people, even if that means tricking them.
well it's the final episode (ep 5 didn't change much either), plot-wise they can't let certain characters die or so (LiS exists after all) You could change whether Eliot has to leave Blackwell, whether Samantha and Nathan get together (ok, previous episode's choice but still, they got limited time to present choices especially when they still have to reveal outcomes), whether Joyce keeps her engagement ring, ok afaik it doesn't matter whether you give daman his money (junkyard), but that's part of the plot. ok there was only one big place to discover (hospital), but you still could repair the vehicle, discover rachel's room, her father's room. it's ok imo I don't think it's too bad, it's not LiS it's BtS, they made some stuff better than dontnod (facial stuff etc.) and some stuff might have been not so good (priorities). Frank and Rachel aren't together, so Frank shouldn't have it, yet. (I think she got the blue hair shortly after BtS but had several years before LiS) you don't need any voice over in the credits, it's better to leave that to the imagination. it would just distract anyway since anything they are talking about would be out context because of the big time gaps. Music alone evokes much more emotion. oh well, dunno what else to say ^^ I'm glad we got something like this, especially of course ep 2 :) (just like you)
I chose to hide the truth because I thought it could possibly lead to an ending where Rachel doesn't go down the path of self destruction. I don't think meeting her mother would have caused her harm, but knowing the truth about her father would have made her lose trust in people that are close to her. She definitely deserved to know the truth, but I didn't think she could handle it at that moment..
You know, that thought did cross my mind for a second when I did get to that choice. But my immediate thought afterward is that Frank was involved with this business of scaring Sera. I think a possible future for Rachel, if you did hide the truth might be that when she meets Frank, he tells her the truth about what really happened with her mother. Then he becomes the only person she can trust in Arcadia Bay because Rachel now believes Chloe is just another lair. Like her father. Sending her down that path of self destruction again.
There is one massive point I feel everyone needs to understand about Sera and why she didn't want to meet Rachel after the attempted overdose is her history of addiction. I know that sounds lame to most people, but I am a recovered addict that has had my fair share of problems and struggles with addiction, including relapse. Sure, Sera didn't get herself high on her own, she was forced to, but as an addict, I know the feeling of hopelessness and complete loss of self respect she felt in this moment. Even though this isn't her fault in the least, Sera has relapsed. For a long time and until she likely gets help with her addiction again, she is going to feel completely useless and less than garbage and is likely to start using again of her own accord. It's a horrible fact about us addicts but it only takes a second to loss years of work staying clean and in that moment and for a long long time to come, it doesn't matter how long you were clean as you are right back at the bottom of your life in terms of how you feel. Despite what a lot of people feel, this is a very accurate rendition of addiction. It won't makes sense what she is saying unless you have been in her shoes, trust me. And I hope that none of you who see this have to suffer a life with the cloud of addiction always looming over you as I have for nearly all of my adult life.
I feel like the 3 episode decision was a mistake. I still loved Episode 3, but it could've used one more episode to tighten it's focus. If not another episode, then it could've been reworked for a less dramatic plot instead of involving drug dealers in a battle of custody have a more grounded, everyday feeling by having James supervise Sera and Rachel's meeting while finding some "finale tension" to throw in without forcing it. I *loved* it's message, because it's very grounded and it's something that we must decide more than once in every aspect of life, but that doesn't make the decision any easier. I loved that. The execution of the "lies subplot" I always felt was pretty solid, but started to get pushed unnecessarily in the talk with Sera and if you _do_ manage to get Sera to meet her, it was still underwhelming because it was just for a few seconds in the ending montage. But this episode was a bunch of miscommunication and poor decision making by the characters. James's concern was understandable, but he's acting like Sera even looking at Rachel is enough for Rachel to be fucked over by addiction. He could've easily had them meet under his supervision, especially since he knows how ambitious Rachel is. There was no need to include thugs into something that could've been handled maturely by James. That said, I can still kind of see where James is coming from. What if Rachel wants to keep in contact with her? Can Sera be trusted with Rachel alone when he's on the job? It's hard to look at one year of sobriety when you have such vivid memories of *several* years of addiction and trust her to be with Rachel without proper supervision. I have an understanding of the several issues running through his head, but using known criminals as scare factors and sabotage is boneheaded to say the least, no matter the reasoning. There are much brighter ways of handling situations like these. All in all, I loved this episode still, but Episode 2 is still the best for me. I played this game to understand Chloe and Rachel and the first 2 episodes presented their magic beautifully and made my heart flutter. This episode lacked that and the strain it put on my heart still has me hurt. Especially the post-credit scene. Fuck that completely.
I agree with much of what you've point out. I was so angry with this choice to cast aside Rachel and Chloe's relashionship and instead give us a sloppy plot, some fan service and a shitty emotional stroke at the end (It was a low kick in the fandom's stomach, cuz If you think about it, It doesn't serves much as a proper cliff hanger for S1, putting yourself in the eyes of a newcomer... The tone is wrong and the infos are Just empty, I would've think Rachel had become a snob photographer and was simply ignoring Chloe's calls, confirming wrongly that she's a bitch. That's just Dumb to lead to an assumption like that). I also got Very angry at the lack of real impact from our last choice: some Minor differences on the final cutscene... And that was It! Very frustrating. Anyway, tnx again for a great vídeo (and Chloe's hand at the bedroom scene was really gross indeed, got me bad chivers when I spotted it hahaha). I'll be waiting for your full Review. ;)
Just subscribed after seeing your video on Rachel and who she is. You deserve more subscribers, also your voice is soothing. The Life Is Strange: Before The Storm was truly heartbreaking especially after knowing Rachel is going to die 💔
Thank you so much! The reality of Rachel Amber unfortunately hits you at the worst times :( But I did overall enjoy Before the Storm for what it did for her and what she did for Chloe.
The whole time playing before the storm I had the future of Rachel in the back of my head. I knew where her story was going to end. When it came to the final decision, I chose to hide the truth because I knew that her last 3 years on the planet would be less painful than if I told her the truth. If I didn’t know about Rachel’s fate, I may have chose differently. I don’t know. The episode as a whole did feel like it was deviating from what I loved about the game. Chloe and Rachel’s relationship was the best part no doubt. Although I did still love the moments like with Chloe and her dad. The ending montage with the dark room scene straight afterwards really gave me a sickening feeling. One moment your happy for the characters and then your dragged down to a feeling of absolute dread. If they had the intention of reminding everyone that it doesn’t all work out, then they done a brilliant job for me. Can’t wait for your analysis bro. I really am enjoying your videos
I agree 100000% with you! I liked the episode, but I was disappointed too. I expected more. The previous episodes focused on what mattered: Chloe and Rachel. This episode has lost focus ... it seems like they have changed something ... like what happened with episode 5 of LiS. Of course, the dark room scene was unpleasant and very unnecessary. I hella hated it. I already know what happens, I do not need to be reminded ¬¬ But at the end of it all, I thank immensely Deck Nine and Square Enix. It was wonderful to be able to visit Arcadia Bay once again and still enjoy unforgettable Amberprice's moments and... They did a great job with Rachel. I think she was perfect in all the ways (be they good or questionable). Ps .: I love your channel! Good job! :)
I think you need to replay Before the Storm. The main plot is about the lies we tell the ones we love with Rachel and Chloe's relationship being the conduit for this moral dilemma. From the first episode there is discussion on lying and truths and the morality of this lying. I'm 100% sure this is how they intended the game to end from the first draft.
I would just like to say that I really, really appreciate the time and depth you put into your videos. I feel like this channel is the beginning of a certain greatness that people like me or anyone who watches these videos can enjoy. Keep up the great work man
WOW first off Happy Christmas from the UK, second you nailed my feelings of Hell is empty. I was torn after playing the lest episode and couldn't figure out why i didn't like it as much but hearing your points put it all together and now i wish Deck Nine could watch this and change the bits in this last episode to make it feel like a true ending!! I can't wait to see your in-depth review, but at the same time I want there to be more game for you to make videos on.
Thank you so much! I’m glad I’m not the only one :) And don’t worry, we still have Season 2 from Dontnod to go and of course I’d like to revisit the original Life is Strange at some point, so there’s going to be plenty to love and complain about!
Ah that's right we do have season 2 to look forward to and the "farewell" chapter to go so lots to look forward to as well as season one! and yeah i bet there will be lots to love and complain about!!
Sera's conversion felt like last minute like it felt lazy and didn't give much creative thought into it. It was all like: "Crap were in the last episode and we don't know how to end the episode since were running out of ideas. What do we do?! Omg I just had an idea why don't we steal a moment from episode 5 in life is strange and copy with but make Sera be stupid for a moment and just give it up becuz plot demands it! I'm brilliant"
I felt just the same as you and i 'm 100% sure decknine couldnt do what they wanted to do. I highly recommend you read the leaks of episode 3 on tumblr, maybe it could help you for your analysis video :) and great video as usual !
I really miss your analysis about these characters and their story. You bring together so many ideas from so many different angles. I agree with your first impressions about this chapter. It starts out as a nice continuation of chapter 2, and then I’m breaking into the DA’s office, burning evidence, stealing money, and confronting drug bosses. None of the decisions I’m forced to choose make sense, and there are so many other better options that are ignored.....So much exposition.....I thought the final dilemma would be how to stay out of jail and not whether or not to tell Rachel what happened. How is any of this a secret now? Anyway, your work is amazing, and I wish you nothing but the best with what you’re up to now.
U explained it wonderful as always. Ya, I think the interaction between the chars and the enviroment with the music is what make we all love about LIS series, and is something we missed a lot in ep 3./. There weren't those greats moments like in the last two. In the bonus " farewell", even if is more shorter, we can feel those touching elements better than ep3. Interaction, friendship, enviroment and music like if u were there. Ty for share ur comments^^
Love to see how passionate people are with this game.. I know I am. You are creating awesome community here! I am in Life is Strange bubble now. I would just love to know all the things that happened between Before the Storm and Season 1.
*** I just realised I typed a lot, would mean a lot if you go through the whole thing *** So yeah.... let's be real, the episode was pretty bad. It kinda makes the whole game not good. Don't get me wrong, I love the game, but the whole plot of Rachel and her mother, Sera was messy. I really don't know what to think about Sera. I initial thoughts were that, this is about giving Rachel her father. But I don't understand this whole plot. The thing that made Before the Storm special, the only thing that mattered, was missing. Amberprice. I watched Jacksepticeye's play through. He had some good suggestions. Put the whole plot of Rachel meeting her mother aside and tell us about the events that led to April 22nd, 2013. With how the game is set up, one day per episode, it wouldn't be possible, I know. But maybe tell us the story of how Rachel ended up where she did. The first 2 episodes, they were perfect. Things went south at the last one. So keep the whole thing, how Chole met Rachel, how she found about her dad. Maybe that broke Rachel. Maybe something else happened, that drove her to get the things she wants, even if it went going to the extremes. Maybe tell us about how she ended up with Frank and how she ended up with Jefferson. Of course we are seeing it from Chole' s perspective, which makes it even more interesting. Maybe Chole didn't tell every thing that happened to Max, in the first season. Another big disappointment was the whole 'showdown' with Damon. The whole thing was set up, like there was a something big going to happen. Then everything ends in like 1 second. You know how it went. Frank somehow magically kills Damon. So my thoughts, maybe give Frank a gun and he comes to save Chole and kills Damon on screen. That would be good, or at least better than what actually happens. The music really plays an important role in Life is Strange, both seasons. I absolutely loved it. So 'Burn it Down' being cut and the discontinued music bothered me. In the end, before Wolf Alice - Bros begin, there is a mashup of different songs put together. For me, after hearing every song individually for like 10 times, that really bothered me and the song thing didn't seem to flow smoothly. Maybe I'm the only one who thought that. My conclusion is that ,this plot of Rachel and her real mother was messy, and they could have done something different. What's that something different? I don't know. I love your videos, and I'm waiting for the whole Analysis video. I know it takes time and it's worth the time. Also, really good structure to the video, you know, how things were ordered, from first till last. The whole thing in 20 mins. Great editing work too. The music really plays a great role in your videos too. I like the thing where you stop speaking, and there is a brief silence , which is filled by the music or some special scene from the game. Great job, and keep up the great work.
Thanks for your comment, of course I read the entire thing! When we were first learning about Before the Storm and that it was going to take place over 3 consecutive days when Chloe and Rachel meet, I'll admit I was a little disappointed. But considering how all three episodes went, yes even this one I think that was the right choice. I didn't really expect them to answer any of the questions about Rachel's disappearance or how she meets Jefferson or anything like that. I think that would've drawn too much attention away from what was really important. Seeing how Chloe and Rachel meet and how they become close friends or something more, which for the most part was an incredible experience for Before the Storm. There's hints here and there about how Rachel becomes the person she does, someone who would get involved with Jefferson or cheat on Chloe and I think that's all they needed to be. Hints and nods. And yeah, the showdown with Damon wasn't too climatic, the very opposite actually. I'll expand on this a little more in my analysis video ;) And thanks for your feedback! I'm trying new things all the time with my editing, like taking a small break from talking to let the scene do the talking for me. Much more effective than me constantly talking which is what I used to do a lot with a lot of my older videos. Thanks again for taking the time to send me your thoughts!
WilliamHella " Taking a break from talking, to let the scene do the talking ". That's a much better way to put it. I can see that events that led to Rachel's disappearance is not necessary. And I agree that seeing the development in the relationship between Chole and Rachel was an incredible experience( I'll just use your words, because I'm not good). The first 2 episodes, great. Last one, the focus is turned to a new issue, which doesn't matter if you hide the truth. I love the BTS for telling the story of Chole and Rachel, but about the whole other story of Rachel's mother... I don't know. I'll shut up now and start the wait for your Analysis video. I know you will address everything there. Thanks for reading the whole thing and putting your time here. Continue the great work👍🏻. Btw, I love Life is Strange for the story it tells. I can't not love it even with it's shortcomings(Does that make sense?). Wonder what's in store for the best season of Lis.
"how Rachel becomes the person she does" Important question: have you ever made a mistake? Have you made a decision that hurt someone else, perhaps without intending to? Were you ever manipulated or confused by someone (say, an older adult man) with more power than you - who maybe offered you something you needed (food? shelter? a way out of town?)? Have you ever lied to a romantic partner? What was it in your background that made you the type of person capable of that? Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and you've led a perfect pure life completely above reproach. For the rest of us, I hope we can take a breath, consider our own teenage years and how we've grown since, before aiming loads of harsh judgment on a deceased teenage character. Also consider: if an adult man commits statutory rape, was his victim "cheating" in her existing relationship? Language can reveal a lot about perspective, eh?
The Eliot character is a personification of all the people who say Rachel is a manipulative bitch when she's not. The devs are 100% shitting on people who hold that opinion.
Dear god I have been loving this game. If I am being truly honest here, I don't really care at all about the problems since I'm such an emotional mess while playing this. Chloe means so much to me as a character an seeing her with Rachel, it's hella emotional. I love your videos about this game since I personally just cry and laugh without even thinking about the badly made parts. You are literally my only source of analysing this game since when I try and look into it myself I just break into this emotional mess... I don't know why I wanted to share this...
I'm glad I can provide that :) and I totally get you. On some level I do wish I could just love episode 3 and forget all my issues and problems with it. I'd probably be much happier in a really weird way. But alas, I can't :(
Totally agree with you! Doesn't make any sense the way Sera suddenly changes and it seems it was a poorly made plot device to give players an ending choice/dilemma. Awesome vids btw!
I agree with everything you said.. love these review videos.. all was well said ✨ I really hope they don’t leave this Rachel Amber story here tho there’s still unanswered questions about the events leading up to her disappearance x
I agree with you. BTS its suppouse to be a game to complement the first LIS, answering questions we had at the time like, "Who exaclty was Rachel?", "How she and Chloe met?", "How she fall in love with Frank and Jeff?", "How was her related to the Vortex Club?"... Some questions were well answered but others were not, simply because they decided to creat a new sort of background story about Rachel's dad and her blood-mother. I'm not saying I didn´t liked the story, I loved that game and loved to explore more about Rachel's family. But, like u said, focusing the last episode on this particular story wasn´t exactly what I wanna to see. It would be great if they decide to make a new episode showing Rachel's relationship with Frank and Jeff and how she was hiding all of this from Chloe and why she did that... I WANNA KNOW MORE GODDAMMIT HAHaha OBS: And I really wanna know if, in the junkieyard when Damon showed up there with Frank, Rachel was already together with Frank. Like, they had a pretty strange eye contact right there. And Chloe met her in the old mill where Frank were as well... so... Rachel and Frank were alredy in a relationship before she met Chloe?
I played LIS right before the BTS come out. Rachel's death didn't effect me that much, because I didn't knew who she really was although it's Chloe's best friend, but after playing BTS It got me into tears.. that I knew her Faith is already sealed in LIS. Her realation ship with Chloe was magical and amazing, and I enjoy every second playing BTS, at this point LIS Is just one bad..Bad dream.
As for Serah's reasoning, I don't think it's actually that bad: Rachel has a stable loving home with James and that's going to be utterly destroyed if she finds out her father is a criminal and a hypocrite. Serah never wanted to disrupt Rachel's life and can't provide for a 16 year old girl. She also has self-esteem issues of her own. Plus, Serah is high on heroin when she makes this decision and that's not going to ive her a clear head.
There's definitely a lot about the situation I didn't cover in this video. But rest assured I want to look at everything possible with it and give a more in-depth break down of it in my analysis video.
Also the entire plot with Sera is that she's filing a custody suit. With her history she would have to pass a drug test and she feels like shes going to relapse and not pass that drug test after Damon gives her another hit.
Finishing the third make me appreciate the second episode so much more. Just like you said the second episode is the greatest episode in the whole series
Honestly i was really shook when they showed the phone after finishing i was so depressed and whenever i think of the game i think of price amber and the phone
It would be way more interesting if Sera revealed she was a witch. I'm pretty sure that was planned (The song Witches, the raven, rachels weird fire powers, hell even the promotion art had sera crossed out with upside down crosses and no no no written over her) And then you'd have to decide if Rachel got to know the truth about her or if you'd decide to hide it from her. Would've been way more satisfying and to be honest it wouldn't require any more effort then what they did
Great video. Always enjoy listening to your commentary about BtS. As to episode 3, wow. Where does one start? I've watched the whole prequel at least 30 times, seen multiple review and analysis videos, participated in YT, Twitch and Twitter discussions with scores of players and fans of the game; with special regard to StopMeOh's Ola, a great little gal with whom I share much of my thoughts on the game. One thing I have come to realize is that the last moments of it (E.3) beginning with the office scene, and going through the mill/Sera quagmire, and concluding at the hospital, seem to have confused more players and fans than actually informed them. Too many players skip so fast through the details, hardly or never reading pertinent documents, or texts, that they always fall into the same mistake of formulating their choice of actions and opinions from being misinformed. Or, perhaps they are just so emotionally overwhelmed they do not see the reality of what the plot is saying. Another thing, and sadly, is that dialogue choices often deprive players and viewers from important information that would help them see the entire picture; not just the one they think they'd like to see. In my continuing research into the world behind the game, I've been lucky to stumble across more actual dialogue that was never used in the game at all. Dialogue from Sera that, clearly, admits to the seriousness of her addiction, and confirms Mr. Amber's claims that Sera had often put Rachel's life in danger. At this point in time, I return to Deck 9 and Chris Floyd's twitters periodically to prod them into working on some DLC for BTS. Such product would likely be snatched up quickly, and likely be the best way to explain and clarify some of the confusion of the prequel. Any way, again, great job. Keep it going.
Thanks for your thoughts Thork. I think you hit the nail on the head with how this episode failed to convey the right information properly to the player, it's something I want to focus on in my analysis video because I think it's another contributing as to why this episode was such a let down. Not the entire reason, but definitely apart of it. I've heard Sera's cut audio as well, where she reveals more about how she put Rachel in danger. I don't know whether I'm going to comment on this in my analysis in great detail but I think I will mention it. Thanks again for your comment!
If you see this before the analysis video - I would love to see if you have any thoughts about the very last letter Chloe writes to Max? (spoiler - it echoes what you've said in other videos about the theme of "living in the moment", and imo shows some of the emotional growth Chloe was experiencing after meeting Rachel and before her disappearance)
This was an amazing video and I want to thank you for spending so much time investigating and talking about this game (btw sorry for any spelling mistakes, I'm from Germany and english isn't my native language). Overall, I feel like DeckNine did a great job at creating Before the storm. The voice actors are pretty good (especially Rhianna Devries who had to step into the shoes of Ashly Burch - and she did a good job at showing a way more vulnerable Chloe in my opinion). Although I love this series and I really liked episode 1 and absolutely loved episode 2, I think episode 3 should've been longer. I liked the most part of episode 3, but the ending felt rushed and didn't satisfy me as a player. I'm still asking myself, how Rachel started to bond with Frank, Mr. Jefferson and even Nathan (I mean, we discover a photo of him and Rachel in her room but she never mentions him). Why would she betray Chloe in the first place? Is she somehow connected with the fire/wind? Does it even make a difference in her life if you chose to hide the truth from Rachel or if you tell her everything in the end? Also, I would've been interested in getting to know more about the relationship of Rachel and Chloe, instead of focusing on Damon and Sera. It felt like Rachel nearly spend half of the episode laying in the hospital, which was just unneccessary and completely took away this powerfull character. Hopefully, the developers will release the material which was cut off from the episode, because even though I love the game, I'd stil like to get more information concerning Chloe's and Rachel's story.
Thank you Wasnothere, awesome English as well! I do think a lot of the unanswered questions we got weren't going to be addressed entirely by Deck Nine, so I didn't have too many expectations on that front. I think it's clear from the previous two episodes that the main focus of the story is Chloe and Rachel and how they become friends or something more, which I think they did amazingly for those two episodes. But at the same time they shifted focus away from this really important story element, which is were all this underwhelming and disappointing responses are coming from, combine that with not learning anything about Jefferson or Frank and then it starts to feel even more underwhelming, even if I didn't expect them to address it. It's unfortunate but I totally get where your coming from. Thanks for the response!
WilliamHella Yeah, it's really unfortunate that they shifted away from the main story, as you explained. But hey, it's still a fantastic game tho. Thanks for your response
cant wait til you get to the alternate choices/endingszz im holding myself off from seeing any "all endings" videos bc watching your vids is truly more rewarding and the comment section is idiot free!
The missed calls from Chloe scene from a season 1 POV just makes me think they're assholes for adding that but i'd say for a newcomer to the LIS series, it's appropriate because it is a major foreshadow for what is to be revealed.. But really, they are asshole for adding that right at the very end lol
My take on Sera's motivation change comes more from general knowledge of addiction and all its attendant problems (depression, self-loathing, etc) than the game, but my read on it is this: Sera's at her lowest point after getting shot up. She's at this point maybe convinced she's going to fully relapse, and some part of her, no doubt, blames herself, and she hates herself for it. Relapsing is a serious, serious blow to your self-esteem. We know it's not her fault, but in her current state, Sera probably blames herself, or at least doesn't trust herself to be able to kick the habit again. She's terrified that every worst fear about herself is confirmed, and that all of James' (and Damon's) judgement was right - that she's nothing more than a junkie. The tragedy is that it doesn't have to be that way. Maybe if we'd talked to her the next day, sober, she would have changed her mind again. In fact, this seems to be kind of what happens if you convince her to meet Rachel. She finds the strength to get clean again, and she doesn't fully relapse. tl;dr I don't think the motivation change is totally out of the blue or unreasonable, and she's high af and obviously not thinking 100% rationally.
Thanks Groose, there's definitely that aspect of Sera's argument I want to cover more. It's difficult to put myself in her shoes when I've had no previous history with drug abuse, but I feel that itself may have been a misstep in this episode. Some relate more to her struggle more than others when really I think everyone needs to see something they relate to in that situation. If I could I think it would certainty have changed a lot about how I feel with the conversation and the episode as whole. Will expand more on this :)
Damn, even the end of your Video was willing to tear me up. ;( Great Impression, looking forward to the "hella" long Review next Year. Best for 2018.^^
I just discovered you're channel and binged watched you're first and second analysis. You do a great job covering everything, and I love you're videos. When is this episodes full analysis coming out? Anytime soon?
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoy them :) Unfortunately I think it'll be around late February or maybe early March when it's finished. Episode 3 is a little more difficult to write about for reasons that'll be clear in the analysis video aha. But rest assured I'm working on it every chance I get!
it did felt like an absolute mess and that they sld've give more epoxides about Rachel and choles' adventures more but more episodes sld be more about how Rachel and chole started to go distant and not be close anymore, her involvement with Nathan and mr. Jefferson, and how frank and Rachel ended up together adding more episodes and focus more on those wld've been a bit more satisfyingly ending along with knowing how it happend
I can appreciate that there were some tough deadlines for Deck Nine. Releasing just before Christmas would've been hella stressful for them. Sadly, I don't think it alleviates the pain of a disappointing final episode. It was rushed and things were clearly cut. Additionally, any choices you've made throughout the game were not reflected in the ending nor do they drastically affect any of the scenes leading up to the finale. Is it terrible for me to say that this episode has ruined the game for me? All the fantastic writing and character development we've enjoyed in the past 2 episode was squandered in this last episode... and consequently I value all the characters less :( My biggest gripes (spoilers!): - Why were we even introduced to Samantha and Nathan if they hardly appear in the final episode? - Eliot's scene was awkwardly inserted (I suspect something may have been cut) - He made some good points about Rachel but because of the context of Chloe and his interaction we don't care what he has to say! -Cheap heart grab at the end (you know what I'm talking about) -The endings hardly vary -Chloe and Rachel's relationship took second place to Sera and Damon's story line -The side plot of Damon and Sera was rushed and we didn't get to see much of it (Chloe just passing out and awaking to Sera explaining everything was cheap) -The episode ended abruptly and was relatively short compared to the previous one -Chloe didn't really have a final scene with Joyce or David (probs not necessary but would've been nice) -We only had the illusion of consequences! (e.g. choosing the snitch - this had no impact on the story) I feel like I've just torn the game a new asshole but I want to say that up to the final episode this game was FANTASTIC. Deck Nine really respected the original life is Strange and they had the potential to wrap this up amazingly but... Rant over. Full disclosure! These are my opinions.
Honestly I just why did the story to be about how Rachel Met Chloe and their aventures leading up to the Rachel‘s disappearance I honestly just want them to fill the plot holes that were missing in the last game about Rachel
the whole sera thing is that u actually CAN convince her to the will of reaching out to rachel again its a small percentage and its hard to get there but its possible
I love this game for the small moments exploring the hospital or blackwell playing dungeon and dragon listening to the muisc as you think about what happen in a world were all games are set pieces irs weird to have a game that just so small and amazimg
Well, it was not as good as we might expected, but let me say there is something that imho was just perfect in this episode and in the whole bts, the relationship between reality and appearance, what is true and what’s not. I’m not sure how, these events that bring Rachel to understand that true and false are not as separated as we might think, and that appearance might be as true as what’s ‘really true’, somehow justifies entirely the idea that we’ve had of her in the first season. After having seen that the world is not like she thoughts it was, in the bedroom scene with the stars, she (and also Chloe) decides to believe in the appearance, just because that doesn’t hart as much as real life does. So she disconnects form reality and decides to believe in what she thinks is good for her, Chloe for example, maybe Frank in the future, or Jefferson. I don’t know, maybe it sounds pretentious, but I think that after having seen how her father and ‘mother’ acted with her, she come to believe that ‘acting’ doesn’t mean ‘pretending’, just as ‘false’ doesn’t necessary mean ‘false’. So maybe she really loves Chloe, maybe not, maybe she really doesn’t know it yet, but that’s not important because it’s not important what ‘really’ means. She does both, and it’s the same with Frank and Jefferson. She pretends and decides to believe in what she’s pretending, independently from how things really are. It’s like on the stage of the tempest, she is acting and not acting at the same time. Believing in ‘pretending’ is the lesson she takes from the events of before the storm, and that’s enough for us because in this way we can understand her future actions. P.s: I love your videos! Way better than every other LiS video I’ve ever seen. I hope the video analysis will be if possible even longer than the one of ep2 ahah Anyway sorry for my English, I’m from Italy and our language just has a different syntactic structure so maybe this comment will be unreadable I hope not.
That was very interesting Marco, I think there's every possibility that Rachel might walk away from this situation, regardless of your choice with the thinking that acting isn't lying. That could just be putting on an appearance that other people just want to see without revealing her true self, her reality. Will look into this! And thank you! To be honest I don't really have a set length in mind whenever I make analysis videos. Once I write something up, regardless of whether it's 10 pages or 50 pages, if I feel it covers everything that I want to talk about, that usually determines the length. But I can say now, it will definitely be a long video.
Love your channel from the topics you talk about till the thumbnails thanks for your content you got my subscription and I hope there is gonna be alot more in the future :)
But i think, that Sera wanted Chloe to lie to Rachel, bc Sera dont want Rachel to know, what her father have done (i mean didnt give Rachel the letters of Sera, try to push Sera back to her addiction, etc.) bc that would kill James for Rachel and then Rachel hasn't got any parents left. And to the "out cutted scenes": i think Deck Nine had reasons bc they cutted some scenes out. Maybe they didnt matched to the other scenes...
I was finally able to finish this episode today and I agree with you. I did really enjoy it a lot but that final choice wasn't as intense as the one in polarized. I still had a great time with the game and I think I like the original and this game equally.
I think the storm and tornado had something to do with the cell service being crap, even when she goes outside to call, the call cuts out and quality is bad. That's just a thought but you are right, even without the storm, cell service doesn't work great underground but I live near caves and you'd be surprised how good of service you can get in them.
From what was set up in episode 2, we were ready for an intimate moment between Rachel and Chloe that was never shown on screen. Don't tell me they were "just friends". And yes, no question about telling Rachel the truth. James may have loved his daughter, but he needed to be taken down for what he did.
I was also extremely conflicted... When I first finished the episode, I felt really sad because it seems like they ignored all of the potential they created. I've realized that maybe that was just my Amberprice fangirl showing, and now that I'm not waiting for "the big scene" to happen I've been a bit easier on it. This Reddit post is, in my opinion, a marvelous read and has helped me to appreciate the episode on my subsequent playthroughs: goo.gl/jrmU5s But I liked your point on the whole interaction with Sera feeling forced in order to give you a final choice. I love decision making games and love talking to people about why they chose what, so I definitely think there should have been a final choice. And I spent a decent amount of time thinking about this one solely because I cared so much about Rachel and I was scared of hurting her (in the end, I told her the truth). But the whole Sera conversation seemed out of place...why did her attitude change? How did she get out of her ropes and how is she still alive after taking the heroin? It was definitely the weakest scene to me.
Thank you Erin. I have seen that post, it's very beautifully written and it did point out things to me I hadn't realized in my first play through. I agree with a lot of things in it, especially on how Chloe evolves in Before the Storm, becoming this person who has something to fight for and will never give up on. It's something I do want to focus on when I look at this episode in more depth. If there's one thing Deck Nine nailed with BTS, it's an amazing and raw portrayal of Chloe.
I completely agree with everything you said. I also didn’t need to think about making the last decision to tell Rachel the truth. It was quite disappointing really, since I was expecting some unbelieveable, amazing episode with a final decision that would cause indecisiveness like LIS episode 5 did for me, as well as more background on Rachel’s relationships with Frank and Jefferson. Also, I feel like Chloe’s phone calls at the end would spoil the answers for first-time players who would go on to play LIS. Could you explain the forest fire’s spontaneous extinguishment? Does it have anything to do with supernatural forces, or just with that consistent fire metaphor? What do the looks between Rachel and Frank in the junkyard imply, exactly??? And has anyone realized that Mr. Amber’s overprotective, dishonest behavior is kind of what causes his daughter’s death? If it weren’t for his lies, Rachel and Chloe would have probably escaped on that night of the play.Keep up the videos! I love hearing your insightful thoughts, and I’m surprised you’re not more popular!
Thank you! You do bring up some good points like the fire and James hypocrisy which I do plan on covering in my analysis video :) As for getting more background on the whole Rachel/Frank/Jefferson thing, I think we got just enough in this episode, such as the looks they were giving to kind of foreshadow what would happen with that. Obviously it's not an exact description but I don't think we needed one given to us in BTS. It's Rachel and Chloe's story (until the ending) and I think having anything more than what we got would've taken away from that. But I see where your coming from :)
I think you’re right actually! It is Chloe and Rachel’s story. The mystery of it just kills me and makes me really want to know every single thing. I guess not knowing EXACTLY what happened between Rachel and Frank And Jefferson is sort of the point-to leave up to interpretation how we perceive Rachel. LIS does a good job at making us want more, and I hate to see Chloe’s, Rachel’s, and Max’s story end!
The one thing I didn't like at the beginning and probably through out the whole episode was Mr Amber's voice actor performance. He has the exact same voice in every scene.
No good news unfortunately :( Things are moving along, I've written a lot and recording when I can. But it's looking to be a late February video, maybe early March if worst case scenario but it will be out before Farewell. Sucks but I'm working on it everyday and trying to make it the best video it can be!
11:00 I'll have to disagree with you. Sera is not talking to Chloe, that is a dream. Just like Max's dream in the original game, the dream reflects all the doubts Chloe has about tanking such a highly transformative desition like telling Rachel all the things she found out about her father. I assume this "fight against personifications of your doubts" mechanics are the ones that convey an adversarial point of view to the player in the most effective way. Still watching the video thought.
Just to clarify why I think that the scene where Chloe talks to Sera is actually a dream. On the way to the mill, Chloe interacts with her dad in a dream-like way without the game defining a clear dream|reality boundary, like it's been done before, we just assume that her dad is not actually there because he's dead, so she must be dreaming/hallucinating. I think this is deliberate, a way to tell the player "the things you think you see might not be the ones you actually see". William, it'd be nice if you could consider this possibility when making your review as I think this explains quite a few things from that forward, and (IMHO) it hints at the theory of that Max has no powers she just enter into a deep dream because her mind didn't know how to cope with the death of her best friend being killed after she abandoned her for 5 years, by blurring the lines between dreams and reality.
I feel like it sld at least mentioned about the mystery of frank and Rachel's relationship along with Mr. Jefferson and Nathan with Rachel I feel like it cld've made a better ending.
also i really loved how Life Is Strange never really cared about or felt the need to talk about people’s sexual orientations. everyone loved who they wanted without judgement, that really made me happy and feel better about myself.
Yes, I absolutely agree with everything you've said! It just didn't feel as if DeckNine put as much work into this episode as the others, to be honest. Great episode with great scenes, but it also came with a lot of disappointment, and frankly, I felt kinda empty and betrayed after playing it. I don't mind the last scene, even though it made me shudder and gave me horrible chills. I think it was a good slap back to reality, but all the things prior to that were the main things that let me down. I really wasn't that much interested in Sera and James and everything. I know their conflict arc could've been way better if Deck Nine approached it another way, but I just found myself being like "oook... now can we get back to AmberPrice or at least other more interesting characters and conflicts?" I would've liked to see more of how Chloe's relationship is with her family, about Chloe's relationship with Rachel, maybe even more of Rachel and Frank or Nathan with Samantha. But they suddenly threw at me all the Sera and James bullshit, which caught me off guard and didn't capture my genuine interest at all. Also, yeah, the last big decision really changed nothing major, so I was confused about why it was even there. At least the first season had a bit more variety to the differences between the two final choices. Here, it was more like "hey, we gotta make you feel like this final choice matters somehow, although it virtually changes nothing, joke's on you, haha". Overall, I loved this video! All of your analysis videos about LIS are absolutely amazing and keep up the great work! I look forward to seeing more from you :)
Thank you :) I use the GeForce experience application for Nvidia cards. Really great program for capturing high quality footage. File sizes can be huge though. Then I use Adobe Premiere to edit it all, really great tool once you get used to it.
You are not the only one having mixed feelings about this episode... It was not that bad, but it was not good either. I feel like there should´ve been at least one more episode. I won´t repeat any of the stuff you already said because I completely agree but there´s still some content left that would have made the game better. Not enough to make a new game but I was never expecting it though. But yeah. The relationship with Frank and Mr. Jefferson needs more details. More than just looks at the junkyard. I´d love to hear your opinions on this thought of mine. At the dark room Jefferson talks about relationship between a student and a teacher. I feel like the game absolutely wants you to tell Rachel the truth so that it can give some background why Rachel would start using more drugs and start hanging out more with Frank who would give her the drugs. Jefferson became Nathan´s "father-figure", to quote Mark partly because Nathan´s father did not give him love or anything like that. There was a relationship between a student and a teacher! I bet that happened with Jefferson and Rachel too. Maybe ms. Amber gave up on acting, she wanted to be a model more as we remember. But this gives her another reason to hook up with Jefferson. 1/2
2/2 Who has the most awesome cameras in Arcadia Bay - Mark Jefferson. Who knows if he ever wanted to even kill Rachel. She was there because she wanted. She was used to drugs and maybe it was okay to her to be drugged before the photo-shoot because then they could create the right atmosphere. Also Nathan. What went wrong with him and Rachel. A rejection? Jealousy? The desire of impressing Jefferson. Or all of these. It´s not that easy to say who killed Rachel. We know that Nathan overdosed her. But there is Jefferson on the background. And then there is Frank who is broken after he hears that Rachel is dead. Who was the only good thing in his life. Frank admits that he got the drugs for Nathan, so in that way all of those guys who had something going on with Rachel actually killed her. I probably sound like an idiot for saying this, but I think the crush was one-sided. I think Chloe is bi and Rachel is straight, but does not want to hurt Chloe´s feelings because some girls are like that. I know from my own experience that a girls friendship with another can be a little sexual but still they can think it is normal. That does not happen with guys that often so that made Chloe live in uncertainty, or at least believe there was something more. At the same time Rachel was a player which is kinda sad. But yeah it is still a good series. I liked this game. Edit: I had to edit my comments because of typos sorry
Thanks for the comment Johna! I do see where your coming from on Rachel's future, but I do think that whatever choice you made would still lead to Rachel ending up where she did. Instead it's only the reasons that changes. Protecting Rachel from the truth might mean that when she gets close to Frank she learns the truth from him. Telling Rachel the truth, might set something off in her and send her down a path of self destruction. Both resulting in her death tragically. And don't worry I question Rachel's real feelings all the time! Whether she feels anything genuine for Chloe or not. I don't think her sexuality plays a huge role in it. It's rather whether she's just using Chloe or whether there is something there between them. Friendship or Relationship wise.
WilliamHella Well said! And Thank you for making great content. I can see your passion and love for the series through your videos and all of these comments. Keep up the good work.
It was very strange for Sera to give up all of a sudden, and frustrating to see that storyline go nowhere and kind of collapse upon itself. Were you disappointed that the mystical elements (Rachel's possible fuelling of the fire and how it mysteriously went out when she was stabbed) were not addressed or do you prefer that it's left up to the player to decide if there's something supernatural going on or not? Also, thank you! Something was off but I couldn't decide what it was until you said it: AmberPrice. The ending wasn't about AmberPrice.
Thanks Laura :) To be honest, for me I'm kind of glad the supernatural elements didn't have too much focus. I think they're a great way to make the game feel a little more mystical but addressing them directly I think would've been the wrong thing to do. I think we got enough in BTS to speculate on but whether there's an actual "answer" to what's going on rather than leaving it to our interpretation I'm not to sure. Sorry if this is confusing but I will address it in my analysis video so thank you for bringing it up :)
One subtle thing that many people seem to have missed is how the candles at the Amber house burned more intensely when Rachel got angry at the end of Episode 2. All these little hints suggest that there might be something going on, but then again, maybe not.
I've sat through at least 20 plays of this, and while I understand how, many viewers and those playing the game, might feel a bit cut-short by episode 3, I think its a two-way street. The developers gave/give us a lot of information to process, and much of it can lead to nothing, or isn't even discovered in the play through. Both can taint one's perspective of the entire game. I have a (hopefully right) hunch, that some DLC might still be in store for BtS. My personal take on the Sera subplot comes down to this: Chloe is the one that decides if Rachel learns the truth or not. Thus, in a year or two, should Rachel uncover the whole thing, what will her reaction to Chloe, be? If Chloe tells her, I'll bet she doesn't tell her everything, despite what the choice prompt literally said. Case being: while James Amber initiated contact with Frank Bowers (I believe) to talk crap to Sera and scare her away, Damon took over the deal to get out from under criminal investigation. If one reads all the texts between Amber and Merrick, it is clear the thug wants back a lot of money the cops took from him, and the investigation into his involvement in an assault, dropped. When Sera doesn't go away, Amber is at a 'between moments' spot as to whether to go along with Merrick's "this chick might need more hands on" suggestion or forget the whole thing. But when Merrick attacks Rachel, I believe he is about to switch strategies, and go after Merrick, putting the Sera issue aside until Rachel recovers. It is then *Chloe* who gets involved, phones Merrick, reinstates the communication, burns the evidence, takes Merrick the money, and essentially gets Sera turned back into a junkie. Does Chloe tell Rachel THAT part of it? As to Sera's sudden turn about, yeah, that's hard to understand. But, unless one is or has been addicted like she has, it is too simple to criticize her behavior in the situation. Still dig your reviews. Here's hoping Deck 9 comes up with some DLC to further answer all our questions.
Thanks for your thoughts :) There's definitely much more to this situation than what I covered here in this video. Sera's part in it all was what annoyed me the most due to how integral it is to everything else so that's what got the most attention. There's definitely a lot of open-endedness to exactly what Chloe tells Rachel, and what happens to James and his career as the D.A (like wouldn't Rachel, if she wanted to release that information to the public? There's evidence all over his office and emails to back her claims). And I think giving us a lot of information to process was also a big mistake in this episode but didn't get to put it in the video. The plot became needlessly complicated and tried to fit in so much in so little time, that I think a huge part to all of this was a failure to communicate the story in a simpler way. That's something I will cover in my analysis video so I'm glad you brought it up now.
HedvigU Are you kidding? This episode was disappointing but at least not as bad as the sloppy finale of season 1. Pointless scenes, tedious nightmare sequence/puzzles, and things that are still unanswered to this day. Episode 5 was garbo.
It’s a different version of the song “Witches” from Daughters album. I’ve tried finding it online before but the only version I could find is the one that plays in the mill scene unfortunately. Great music though.
SPOILERS LIS SEASON 1:I also hated that they included that last scene at the end of the episode. There was no need for it! The story ends on that flash of future events with Rachel and chloe. Everyone who has played LIS Knows Rachel is going to die but they should've have letted us enjoy those Last scenes, enjoy their past and finish of that way instead of reminding us of what lies ahead. I dont Know, I came into Before the storm knowing I was a masochist because I Knew I would bond with Rachel and at the end it wouldnt even matter... But now I Know how wrong I was. Rachel is on of the Best characters in life is strange and her love for chloe, plus chloe's love for her is the Best this game has to offer. I Know she'll die but all those moments were worth it. I came out of that game smiling for all the moments it offered me while before playing it I thought I was gonna come out crying. I cant even imagine how People who played this one first will feel when they find Rachel. All I Know is that when I was Max and they found Rachel 's body I was very sad for a friend, now if I went back and played it not knowing what would happen I' d feel Chloe's pain.
My comment is too long so I had to split it into a couple more, so follow the replies for the other parts! Sorry! I am fully on board with all your points. And this isn't a knock at your video (which was exceptionally high quality and engaging) or any of your opinions, which like I said, I do agree with. But let me put forward some of my own counter opinions for a debate, as well as play a bit of Devil's Advocate - As a quick summary of what is below, none of it really bothered me that much when I finished playing it, if you get what I mean? I'm just so happy we got to experience another adventure in Arcadia Bay that lived up to, and at times even exceeded, the quality of the first season. Which most people, myself included, thought was an impossible task when it was announced that a completely new developer who, let me stress, had NO previous project releases to their name, took charge. So let me try and give you another perspective to some of the criticisms you have made in this video, while rounding off my own impressions at the end. In the order of: Eliot, Sera/James plot, Amberprice, the final choice, the technical issues. This might be a long comment so hopefully it's not too mundane, if you don't have time to read it all, don't worry, it's a good coping mechanism for my Post Life Is Strange Depression anyway, so excuse the incoming stream of consciousness :) But first, I know this is how you format your channel, and perhaps I'm being too pedantic here, but would you describe these as your _first_ impressions, to be precise? And before I go any further, I'm not trying to be intentionally passive aggressive here, like I said, I'm playing Devil's Advocate a little. I ask this because I understand it takes a lot of time and effort to record and edit these videos, and I do strongly believe that perhaps the impressions of the episode the night you finish it are perhaps a little more authentic than a few days later. But that's just my opinion and my experiences. For example, I absolutely loved episode 3, but it was only when I began searching for other people's opinions and impressions that I suddenly found agreeable and reasonable criticism that did not bother me at the time of playing nor did it interfere with my overall enjoyment of the final episode. And I'm trying not to let them sway my opinion about the game either, as like I said, I thoroughly enjoyed it myself before seeing what other people had to say, so if the majority of other people say they did not like it then I won't let that change my first impression. And if these really are your complete and genuine first impressions then brilliant, nothing wrong with that at all, you're definitely not alone, I'm just asking solely because I know a lot of people I've spoken to personally about this game have had opinions continuously sway from bad to good about this episode due to the impact of some of the reviews. So just making things clear :) Now, onto Eliot. From D9's point of view and a game-play point of view, I understand why they took him down the path they did. To me, it served as the voice that attempted to give you the other perspective of Rachel, one that might rightly or wrongly persuade your opinion of the final choice, one that might counter your own personal head-canon and one that may help you gain a better understanding of Rachel, that she is not black, or white, or grey. For me, it showed how special Chloe and Rachel's relationship really was, as once Eliot began listing the things they had done for each other, it seemed crazy and stupid to him, but it was so much more to Chloe and Rachel. At the same time, as painful as it is to admit, his actions are definitely relatable to a lot of people, if perhaps exaggerated a little for dramatic effect. And I believe he comes under the "right intentions but wrong execution" theme that seems to be a thing in Life Is Strange. He's a lot more complex than people are making him out to be I think, and while I agree he was there as a barrier to get past, and I do also have some question marks over the way we dealt with him (calling the police after breaking into the DA's office and burning evidence? Not what I would do in that situation anyway!), I do think personally that Eliot's character arc is interesting, especially as everyone thought he was just another Warren we could reject! Sera and James story plot seems to be very conflicting, and you describe it as focusing away from the important part of the game which is the relationship between Chloe and Rachel. I love Chloe and Rachel and I am the biggest Amberprice shipper, much more so than Chloe and Max without question. So much so that many of my social medias now contain pictures of the two together as my avatar/banner and my name displaying "Amberprice" (haven't got round to doing it on RUclips yet though!!) I read a comment, I can't remember where, which I believed completely nailed it. It said that episode 1 was about falling in love, episode 2 was about being in love and episode 3 was about proving their love. What I'm about to say may be a little weird and hard to get behind, but imagine being in Rachel's shoes and seeing how determined Chloe is to help her with finding her Mother. This would mean a lot more to me than a kiss or holding hands. The whole Sera plot for me was a way to show how much Chloe's character has evolved since episode 1 and how much Rachel really means to her. Remember in episode 1 where Chloe was terrified of the "skeevy douches" and on the train where she couldn't find any words to say to Rachel. Now look at what she's doing during the second half of episode 3. I think we have all unconsciously witnessed the full transformation of a shy, introverted, lost Chloe Price into the fearless, loveable punk hipster we know and love in Season 1. If this isn't blatant Amberprice staring us right in the face then I don't know what is. So I think this got more justice than just the ending montage like you mentioned, however I do understand where you are coming from. And my only criticism looking back at the whole barn scene was I wish the Frank/Damon fight was more visible as that was left a bit too ambiguous in my opinion, especially after Frank previously lost a fight with Damon when fully fit. But it's nothing for me to get upset about and feel empty after the episode finished.
And now for the final choice. Firstly, let me cover the first point you made where you felt the whole thing with Sera doing a complete 180 was forced for the final choice to be a thing. Now obviously I have no idea what D9's initial plans were, but I can strongly argue that this final choice was fresh in the developers mind while creating episode 1. The foreshadowing for the theme of telling a horrible truth or living a better lie was amazing. The amount of times I ran into an indirect hint at the end choice throughout the game when replaying Episode 1 and Episode 2, it definitely wasn't coincidental. If you haven't already, I'd recommend giving the series a second play-through, just like in season 1 there is so much hidden content and foreshadowing. Makes me feel like I'm blind, it's genius at times. So the final choice definitely wasn't forced, however they may have had more planned for Sera, we will never know. I think a massive part of why Sera changed her mind like she did was BECAUSE of the fact she was influenced by drugs. I'm not a heroin expert but I'm inclined to believe that had a big part to play. "All her troubles....gone". She was no longer feeling desperate to see Rachel because of the drugs, as well as the knowledge that she will likely be hooked again (Damon - "this shit is hard to shake off") likely got her to that conclusion. Which is backed up by the fact that it is actually possible for them to meet still. Clearly she hasn't lost it completely, the drugs are affecting her decisions a lot. You are still able to convince her despite this. I don't know, that's my view on it anyway. And while I picked "truth" over "lie" as well as you for my final choice, I did think it was a difficult decision with a lot of emotional baggage either way. But for Chloe and Rachel's relationship, I thought this was the better outcome of two evil's. Maybe that seemed selfish as it should be what's best for Rachel rather than what's best for Chloe, but after Rachel told Chloe in her bedroom that she was the "only person in the world she had left to trust", I wanted to make sure of that. As for the minor technical issues you pointed out, I do agree there was more to be seen in this episode but I do believe that was because they were on a tight schedule to release this before Christmas. Not only for an increase in sales but also for relevancy, for the community, for staff going on vacation and for the rest of the LIS timeline (including DONTNOD's Season 2 and D9's Bonus Episode) not being interfered with/postponed. A lot of the community were speculating the episode to drop Dec 7th, and if not then Dec 14th latest, so they did leave it until the last possible date really (and by doing so they broke their own protocol of releasing Thursdays with trailer a week before etc, which DONTNOD also followed but on a Friday I think?). And I know I've said this a lot but this was Deck Nine's first ever release, let alone first MAJOR release with a hugely successful predecessor and hugely passionate community. So technical issues were something I did not worry about in the slightest (unless completely game breaking) and episode 1 and 2 in particular were near flawless, like I said I think time constraints and pressure from above played a bit of a part here. Nonetheless an entirely reasonable criticism I know I'm rooting for D9 a lot here, partly because I really enjoyed the whole season, which surprisingly seems to be a minority opinion. But also partly because I don't want them to be begrudged by the community's feedback after all the hard-work and the unquestionable passion and commitment they showed the game and community that made me fall in love with the Life Is Strange world more than the first season did, which blows my mind considering how negative my mindset was going into it before it was released. I know the developers probably have much thicker skin than me, but I hope they don't take it to heart and I hope they get another chance to gift us with another Arcadia Bay experience. And while typing this I realise it may seem like I'm unfairly targeting you as someone who is nonconstructive and is bashing the developers at every opportunity - that's not what I'm trying to articulate at all, I think your video was excellent, you love the game as much as I do and you are welcome to your own opinion. This is sort of my general response to all the criticism I have seen being aired towards the D9 team. The atmosphere, the music, the voice acting, the facial animations and character animations, the writing, the character evolution's, the focus on character relationships rather than rewind puzzles. All why I hold BTS at a higher regard than Season 1 overall. An unpopular opinion for sure, but one I strongly believe in. Would love to hear what you think. I came to your channel after Chris Floyd shouted you out on Twitter, and I have watched your first impressions and analysis of episode 1 and 2 before this video. Thoroughly enjoyed my stay so thank you for the hard work you put into creating your videos, and I hope you get the much higher subscriber count your channel deserves in the near future :) Thanks for reading!
Thank you so much for your comment Duubz, I really enjoyed reading that :) First off I totally get your skepticism on whether this can really be considered my "first impressions" since it has been a week from the last episode releasing and I do mention in the video that a lot of people are torn on this episode just as I am, there's always that danger of reading other people's thoughts on the game that could potentially influence how I view this episode and believe me I'm just as aware and wary of this happening. I don't have much else to give other than my word, but I'll say that with every episode, I always try to give my exact first impressions right after I've finished and I believe that's reflected in every first impressions video I've made. If I can I always start putting my thoughts down in writing as soon as I finish it. Doesn't always start chronologically throughout the episode but whatever left the biggest impact on me. The first thing I wrote for this video were my thoughts on the Sera conversation, then from there I start writing how I felt on other things. Then when most of my thoughts are down, it's formatting and putting them in an order that flows smoothly for the video. All of this is done without checking forums or watching lets plays and seeing other people's reactions. However, since these videos can take a while to put together, it's impossible not to see and read what other people thought of the episode online. And while my views definitely align with a lot of what I've seen, I always try to keep my thoughts as original and as authentic as possible from what I've originally written down right after finishing. Is it a perfect system? I don't think so, but there's no avoiding the internet these days, so it's what I have at the moment. As for your other comments, you've definitely brought up a lot of things that I didn't mention in this video, which I do plan on mentioning in my analysis video. I have seen that comment about love in all three episodes and that definitely showed me a few things I hadn't picked up on originally and it's a great write up on Chloe's transformation as a character. Sera being on drugs I think definitely plays a role on what's going on with her decision making, but I think there's a lot more with the situation as whole that feels a little contrived. Love to expand here but it'll be in the video :) There's definitely a lot more I want to say on the technical aspect, I've started replaying this episode again and discovered that the save game bug from episode 2 has unfortunately not been fixed and that did kill a little bit of my progress. Easy work around but I think some people who might not know about it can fall victim to it and have there choices wiped away playing episode 3. There's definitely realities of game development that can play a part in these sorts of things happening. But I still wish there was more focus on these sorts of things before release. There's a lot more to say that I'll cover in my video and I do appreciate you taking the time to let me know your thoughts. Sorry I couldn't cover everything! There's no doubt that we and Deck Nine obviously love Life is Strange so I'm excited to see what they do next as a studio. Thanks again for your comment
Thanks for the response! It's a great debate to have, while I agree with all your points, there is definitely much more to it like you said, and I do discreetly believe some people in the comments (and the community in general) are focusing more so on the negatives than they should, perhaps because of the final phone scene has left a bitter taste or perhaps because we know it's most likely all over for Arcadia Bay. And perhaps D9 are just victims of their own high expectations. Or perhaps it's just me! I'm just basing my opinions on how I felt as soon as I put the game down, which I will never forget! I won't ramble on much more. I look forward to your analysis!
I don’t know what everybody thinks, but I think that Before the Storm needed one more episode. Probably there are people that think that this is enough, but I feel that something is missing. We all know from Life is Strange what happens to Rachel, that she’s drugged and etc. But I really wanted to know how Rachel met Mr. Jefferson or got to talk with Nathan, or even started speaking with Frank. I was really curious about that stuff while playing Life is Strange and Before the Storm. Guess I will never know.
Agreed. I really enjoyed the second episode, the best among the three to me, which is part of the problem why 'hell is empty' turned out to be a bit disappointing. It felt a bit rushed as though a lot of different elements were thrown at you (Elliot scene, the whole North's situation). I personally wanted more connection with the first season and maybe have some influence regarding both Nathan and Jefferson. Another season that lets you not only explore the Rachel - Frank - Nathan - Jefferson relationships, but also change the whole outcome of the first season would be magical.
There's definitely going to be a review. I'm still working on it and it's taking a lot longer than I anticipated to really dissect this episode, I wish I can give better time frames for release but it's still going to take awhile unfortunately.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I think as far as Rachel and Chloe’s relationship is concerned it deserved to be more than a montage at the end. I certainly do agree many elements were rushed. And I still don’t quite understand why Rachel risked, what many would argue, losing the love of her life to be with frank or to spend time with Jefferson. I mean if you go back and play the original the letter Rachel wrote to Chloe about her meeting someone “implying Jefferson” is so off and does not add up at all, why would she be writing a letter to someone she is clearly in love with about meeting someone else? I just don’t understand many of these things and I guess the point was for it to all remain a mystery, but I feel like we’re supposed to maybe ignore reality and just enjoy the time Rachel and Chloe got to spend with each other.
There's definitely a lot more to Rachel than what we learn in Before the Storm. Sometimes though I do think we view her with Rose tinted glasses on. That we get lost in the idea of her and Chloe being this perfect, happy couple forever. But unfortunately, that isn't the case and it's something I will address further.
Funny, I feel the opposite. Seems to me that there are loads of people hyper focused on what Rachel allegedly did with Frank and Jefferson, and eager to judge her (but not them) for it. Lots of people interpreting all of her actions as manipulative and malicious.
I can only hope we all don't expect the people we love IRL to be perfect, particularly in their teen years. Why can't she both legitimately love Chloe, and also be a flawed human being?
This last discussion with Sera was so confusing and kinda "absurd" that I thought it was a dream. Therefore I didn't take her too seriously. I didn't realize that it was reality until the point, where she leaves the room. I was torn between thinking that she's crazy and neurotic on one hand and on the other hand that the one dose destroyed her that quickly that she was thrown years backwards again.
With the way they started that whole interaction, I definitely thought it was a dream as well! Not sure if that's a good thing but I do want to address this because I've seen a lot of people think the same thing as well.
Yeah, right, I wasn't sure if this is a good thing either. But since I am a generous mind I interpreted this doubt of reality as a brilliant trick of deck nine and assumed they planned it to confuse they player :D
I was thinking that was a dream, because Frank and Damon were still fighting and she is free, smoking in the mill like, nothing happened here xD
I tough that Chloe would wake up and help Frank or help Sera escape, that could be a good decision I think.
I think it's a dream, the same kind of "dream" Chloe had with her dad in the car while going to the mill, almost like an hallucination. I think they did that with her dad because we *know* he is dead, and therefore it must be a "dream", and they used that like a hint, to let us know Chloe might have more of those hallucinations on the future (The scene with Sera).
wow, I didn't even noticed Rachel looking at Frank multiple times. Mind blown to your ability to notice such small details... Really impressive.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this, but maybe because Sera got injected with heroin it made her want to re-do drugs all over again and she instantly felt a huge loss of motivation because she knew her addiction would start over again. Hence why she magically changed her opinion so fast, I viewed her conversation much like that, like an excuse to escape because now that she has heroin in her body she knows she will do it again and not be a good mother to Rachel. I also believe the huge underline of the fall of her parents is what leads Rachel to become a liar later on, having multiple relationships with frank and Jefferson, lieing and hiding things from Chloe. And I also believe too that since her mother was a drug addict, Rachel became addicted to Jefferson drugging her in the dark room, since he quotes that they had multiple sessions. In psychology I learned drug addiction is apparently hereditary too, its pretty uncommon but can happen. I also have a lot to sort out as far as my thoughts, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Keep up the great work, I LOVE hearing your opinions! :)
There's definitely that element of of her being injected that can explain some of Sera's thinking, but I think there's a lot more here that doesn't really explain her reasoning, which I myself am trying to still look into and make sense of :) And thank you!
Jefferson was using GHB, which is a non-addictive drug. Rachel wasn't a Jefferson drug slave. Their "sessions" were her legitimately having her pictures taken because he's a famous photographer who probably promised to make her famous as well.
Angel Majao I actually don’t recall that, where in the first game does it say that? I’m curious now, you’ve shed a new light on me!
I completely agree! You were able to put in to words the feelings and thoughts that my mind hadn’t even completely understood yet. I knew something was off but didn’t quite know what, and your thoughts really helped me fill that hole.
Thank you Emma, glad I could help :)
We got Max's story, now Chloe's, and I really think a game about Rachel's story could work. Especially as a sequel to Before the Storm.
Taking place after Before the Storm, we could explore the relationships Rachel has with Frank, Nathan, Jefferson, and Chloe. We could shape them the same way we got to determine Chloe's relationship with David and Joyce, and Max's relationship with Kate (saving her or not) and Chloe.
We could see a lasting impact of Chloe's relationship with her family dependent on our choices in BTS, from Rachel's view. And depending on the intimacy level between Rachel and Chloe, we could determine the nature of Rachel's relationships with the three men mentioned above. We could also see Nathan acting vastly different depending on his relationship with Samantha.
I'm sure you may be thinking about how this would work with many people already knowing the events of Life is Strange. Well, canonically many of the choices we were already able to make in BTS goes against what we know in LIS. If we choose to accept David, it doesn't make sense that he and Chloe hate each other so much. We also have the choice of being romantic with Rachel or not, which could change a lot. I don't think I even need to go into detail about how much protecting Rachel from the truth or not could potentially change her life.
Life is strange could be said to take place on a different timeline in which Rachel made all the "wrong" choices. And we the players could make a big decision at the end of the game to decide what path she would go down. Do we want Chloe to be reunited with Max, or run off with Rachel?
In the original life is strange, we got to save Kate and determine Arcadia Bay's/Chloe's fate, so saving a character from death doesn't seem that out there for the series. Why can't we do this with Rachel?
I like it :) It would be interesting to view Arcadia Bay from Rachel's perspective. But in a way, I think that would take away a lot of the mystery and ambiguity of Rachel as a character, some thing that's kind of been a staple of hers since Season 1 and I think you could still say the same in BTS, even when we've spent so much time with her. But maybe if they replace this mystery with something more interesting I would be down to play it.
dude, I'm obsessed with your LIS content. so happy i found your channel and i'm really looking forward to the analysis video for ep 3!
Thanks so much! Hard at work on it now :)
I think everyone who loved the first 2 episodes felt cheated by the ending, it felt so different from the earlier episodes... none of our choices mattered, it was ridiculous, and I'm not talking about the ending, throughout the whole episode everything was already set. Having the money/not having it/keeping it/giving it to Damon didn't have ANY consequence, both Damon confrontation went the exact same way regardless of your decisions. Same for everything else. Also the pacing was off, everything was rushed and there were so many bugs I couldn't even count all of them! And what about cutting Rachel off half the episode? The main reason people played this game and loved the first 2 episodes was the relationship between her and Chloe and they just thought that the best thing to do for an epic ending was leaving her behind? Wtf? We discover everything about Sera in the first 5 minutes, then the whole focus of the game is to find her so Rachel can meet her (which was a bad idea anyway, no one cared about her or Damon that much, we just wanted to know who she was) and when we finally find her she didn't even talk to Rachel once! Even if you succeed in getting them to meet (which is almost impossible) they just hug without a word for literally 3 seconds and that's it, what the hell?? It's pretty obvious a lot of content was cut and if the leaks were true they basically ruined what could have been a perfect game, I don't know what they were thinking. And that after the credits scene was an untasteful low blow that made everything even worse. I know I sound super harsh but I really loved this game up until the second episode, I cared so much about Chloe and Rachel and everyone else (another thing, they forget about every other character, the hospital scene was the only time they mention them and it's not even that good of a scene) and I had so many expectations and they just didn't deliver. What a waste of potential 💔
of course there were consequences lol
they were subtle, but there (whether choice keeps the ring or you donate something to the firefighters fun etc.
if David will apologize (probably) etc.
the pacing didn't feel of for me (there were breaks etc.)
I didn't encounter even one bug
Rachel's also missing in half of episode 1 + 2 respectively (and?)
Piratekiller99 exactly, very minor consequences and mostly regarding things done in the first 2 episodes, and nothing that changed the major plot... in LIS you could let Kate die and kill/wound Frank in the 2 main confrontations, here you never had this kind of power with anyone or anything. Good for you if you didn't have any bugs, the Drew/Mickey hospital scene was especially bad I had to restart it to get it to work properly! That never happened with the other episodes... as for Rachel missing all the action of course she wasn't in every single scene in the first 2, Chloe is the main character, but she was in a lot more scenes and had a lot more influence on everything... she was in the vast majority of the first episode and she had a major role in the beginning and ending, and also had a big scene in the middle, of the second episode. In the third one she had a big scene at the very beginning then nothing then a brief scene at the junkyard, a even shorter scene at the hospital and that's it, she didn't do anything else. Also, I forgot to mention in the main comment, we barely played at all in this episode... everything was a cutscene, it was like watching a movie, which didn't help with the feeling of not making choices that counted. I wonder what was the point of having a scene at the mill when after walking in and making a single choice during the confrontation everything was a cutscene, and the main villain is killed offscreen too in a confusing way since everything wasn't already boring and meaningless (and the scene was so badly animated a lot of people thought it was a dream and Sera was dead, also Chloe who was kicked right in the ribs and in the head, couldn't get up and passed out, is left on the floor and then when she weaks up is totally fine and can walk without a single pain)! Also the ending cutscene, 6 minutes of just music when you clearly can see their mouths moving forming words... they spent time animating the mouths and then just did nothing with it. Oh and no matter what happens, Rachel ends up having her bracelet in the very last scene we see of her which is set shortly before her disappearance according to Chloe's clothes and hair... even if Chloe/Sera returned it to her Frank should have it. I really wanted to love this episode, I'm sad more than anything, I'm not even angry. I consider Brave New World one of the best episodes of the whole LIS franchise and after something that good this wasn't what I expected. There were a few good moments (I loved how they described what addiction can do to you and how easy it is to get back to it and I loved a lot of the things showed in the ending cutscene though some talking was needed there) but the overall episode was bad to me and I feel like a lot of things were rushed and cut. I'd rather have 4 good BTS episodes than 2 great ones and a rushed one plus a bonus episode that won't add anything to the main story and will be just fluff and cute scenes between Max and Chloe as kids.
You have to be realistic in terms of choices, you can't create a whole new game for each branch of the decision tree you create. It's a trade-off between "I spend more time/money making insane branches, make, QC and implement them to please the nerds that play the game a thousand times" and "optimize my resources to concentrate on more important aspects of the game". What decknine did however is use those small deviations along the tree to make the player feel that the choices they made had a considerable impact (aka the "Oh I wonder how the other people that chose X can now reach this part of the game" feeling). You never _finish_ a game if you don't impose time limits, I'm sure the devs wanted to spend more time deviating the beaches, forever, but you have to stop where you consider you end up plesing the majority of people, even if that means tricking them.
well it's the final episode (ep 5 didn't change much either), plot-wise they can't let certain characters die or so (LiS exists after all)
You could change whether Eliot has to leave Blackwell, whether Samantha and Nathan get together (ok, previous episode's choice but still, they got limited time to present choices especially when they still have to reveal outcomes), whether Joyce keeps her engagement ring, ok afaik it doesn't matter whether you give daman his money (junkyard), but that's part of the plot.
ok there was only one big place to discover (hospital), but you still could repair the vehicle, discover rachel's room, her father's room. it's ok imo
I don't think it's too bad, it's not LiS it's BtS, they made some stuff better than dontnod (facial stuff etc.) and some stuff might have been not so good (priorities).
Frank and Rachel aren't together, so Frank shouldn't have it, yet.
(I think she got the blue hair shortly after BtS but had several years before LiS) you don't need any voice over in the credits, it's better to leave that to the imagination. it would just distract anyway since anything they are talking about would be out context because of the big time gaps. Music alone evokes much more emotion.
oh well, dunno what else to say ^^
I'm glad we got something like this, especially of course ep 2 :) (just like you)
I chose to hide the truth because I thought it could possibly lead to an ending where Rachel doesn't go down the path of self destruction. I don't think meeting her mother would have caused her harm, but knowing the truth about her father would have made her lose trust in people that are close to her. She definitely deserved to know the truth, but I didn't think she could handle it at that moment..
You know, that thought did cross my mind for a second when I did get to that choice. But my immediate thought afterward is that Frank was involved with this business of scaring Sera. I think a possible future for Rachel, if you did hide the truth might be that when she meets Frank, he tells her the truth about what really happened with her mother. Then he becomes the only person she can trust in Arcadia Bay because Rachel now believes Chloe is just another lair. Like her father. Sending her down that path of self destruction again.
It´s 4am in Germany but this Video is much more important in the moment
Thanks so much, but get some sleep!
There is one massive point I feel everyone needs to understand about Sera and why she didn't want to meet Rachel after the attempted overdose is her history of addiction. I know that sounds lame to most people, but I am a recovered addict that has had my fair share of problems and struggles with addiction, including relapse. Sure, Sera didn't get herself high on her own, she was forced to, but as an addict, I know the feeling of hopelessness and complete loss of self respect she felt in this moment. Even though this isn't her fault in the least, Sera has relapsed. For a long time and until she likely gets help with her addiction again, she is going to feel completely useless and less than garbage and is likely to start using again of her own accord. It's a horrible fact about us addicts but it only takes a second to loss years of work staying clean and in that moment and for a long long time to come, it doesn't matter how long you were clean as you are right back at the bottom of your life in terms of how you feel. Despite what a lot of people feel, this is a very accurate rendition of addiction. It won't makes sense what she is saying unless you have been in her shoes, trust me. And I hope that none of you who see this have to suffer a life with the cloud of addiction always looming over you as I have for nearly all of my adult life.
Dude you got my sub I hope your channel thrives through out the years to come.
As long as there are more LIS games we can play I will do what I can to nitpick what I must!
I feel like the 3 episode decision was a mistake. I still loved Episode 3, but it could've used one more episode to tighten it's focus. If not another episode, then it could've been reworked for a less dramatic plot instead of involving drug dealers in a battle of custody have a more grounded, everyday feeling by having James supervise Sera and Rachel's meeting while finding some "finale tension" to throw in without forcing it. I *loved* it's message, because it's very grounded and it's something that we must decide more than once in every aspect of life, but that doesn't make the decision any easier. I loved that.
The execution of the "lies subplot" I always felt was pretty solid, but started to get pushed unnecessarily in the talk with Sera and if you _do_ manage to get Sera to meet her, it was still underwhelming because it was just for a few seconds in the ending montage.
But this episode was a bunch of miscommunication and poor decision making by the characters. James's concern was understandable, but he's acting like Sera even looking at Rachel is enough for Rachel to be fucked over by addiction. He could've easily had them meet under his supervision, especially since he knows how ambitious Rachel is. There was no need to include thugs into something that could've been handled maturely by James.
That said, I can still kind of see where James is coming from. What if Rachel wants to keep in contact with her? Can Sera be trusted with Rachel alone when he's on the job? It's hard to look at one year of sobriety when you have such vivid memories of *several* years of addiction and trust her to be with Rachel without proper supervision. I have an understanding of the several issues running through his head, but using known criminals as scare factors and sabotage is boneheaded to say the least, no matter the reasoning. There are much brighter ways of handling situations like these.
All in all, I loved this episode still, but Episode 2 is still the best for me. I played this game to understand Chloe and Rachel and the first 2 episodes presented their magic beautifully and made my heart flutter. This episode lacked that and the strain it put on my heart still has me hurt. Especially the post-credit scene. Fuck that completely.
I agree with much of what you've point out. I was so angry with this choice to cast aside Rachel and Chloe's relashionship and instead give us a sloppy plot, some fan service and a shitty emotional stroke at the end (It was a low kick in the fandom's stomach, cuz If you think about it, It doesn't serves much as a proper cliff hanger for S1, putting yourself in the eyes of a newcomer... The tone is wrong and the infos are Just empty, I would've think Rachel had become a snob photographer and was simply ignoring Chloe's calls, confirming wrongly that she's a bitch. That's just Dumb to lead to an assumption like that). I also got Very angry at the lack of real impact from our last choice: some Minor differences on the final cutscene... And that was It! Very frustrating.
Anyway, tnx again for a great vídeo (and Chloe's hand at the bedroom scene was really gross indeed, got me bad chivers when I spotted it hahaha). I'll be waiting for your full Review. ;)
Thank you!
Just subscribed after seeing your video on Rachel and who she is. You deserve more subscribers, also your voice is soothing. The Life Is Strange: Before The Storm was truly heartbreaking especially after knowing Rachel is going to die 💔
Thank you so much! The reality of Rachel Amber unfortunately hits you at the worst times :( But I did overall enjoy Before the Storm for what it did for her and what she did for Chloe.
The whole time playing before the storm I had the future of Rachel in the back of my head. I knew where her story was going to end. When it came to the final decision, I chose to hide the truth because I knew that her last 3 years on the planet would be less painful than if I told her the truth. If I didn’t know about Rachel’s fate, I may have chose differently. I don’t know.
The episode as a whole did feel like it was deviating from what I loved about the game. Chloe and Rachel’s relationship was the best part no doubt. Although I did still love the moments like with Chloe and her dad.
The ending montage with the dark room scene straight afterwards really gave me a sickening feeling. One moment your happy for the characters and then your dragged down to a feeling of absolute dread. If they had the intention of reminding everyone that it doesn’t all work out, then they done a brilliant job for me.
Can’t wait for your analysis bro. I really am enjoying your videos
I agree 100000% with you! I liked the episode, but I was disappointed too. I expected more.
The previous episodes focused on what mattered: Chloe and Rachel. This episode has lost focus ... it seems like they have changed something ... like what happened with episode 5 of LiS. Of course, the dark room scene was unpleasant and very unnecessary. I hella hated it. I already know what happens, I do not need to be reminded ¬¬
But at the end of it all, I thank immensely Deck Nine and Square Enix. It was wonderful to be able to visit Arcadia Bay once again and still enjoy unforgettable Amberprice's moments and...
They did a great job with Rachel. I think she was perfect in all the ways (be they good or questionable).
Ps .: I love your channel! Good job! :)
Thanks so much! I am grateful for being able to visit Arcadia Bay once again. That alone makes BTS amazing enough for me.
I think you need to replay Before the Storm. The main plot is about the lies we tell the ones we love with Rachel and Chloe's relationship being the conduit for this moral dilemma. From the first episode there is discussion on lying and truths and the morality of this lying. I'm 100% sure this is how they intended the game to end from the first draft.
I loved the mothers day scene and repairing the jeep :)
Drew's room was also fun
and the many hints at the Prescotts were well placed :)
I would just like to say that I really, really appreciate the time and depth you put into your videos. I feel like this channel is the beginning of a certain greatness that people like me or anyone who watches these videos can enjoy. Keep up the great work man
Thank you so much Max
Wow, this has such high quality, I am amazed that your channel hasn't blew up yet. Keep it up!
Thank you!
WOW first off Happy Christmas from the UK, second you nailed my feelings of Hell is empty. I was torn after playing the lest episode and couldn't figure out why i didn't like it as much but hearing your points put it all together and now i wish Deck Nine could watch this and change the bits in this last episode to make it feel like a true ending!! I can't wait to see your in-depth review, but at the same time I want there to be more game for you to make videos on.
Thank you so much! I’m glad I’m not the only one :) And don’t worry, we still have Season 2 from Dontnod to go and of course I’d like to revisit the original Life is Strange at some point, so there’s going to be plenty to love and complain about!
Ah that's right we do have season 2 to look forward to and the "farewell" chapter to go so lots to look forward to as well as season one! and yeah i bet there will be lots to love and complain about!!
Sera's conversion felt like last minute like it felt lazy and didn't give much creative thought into it. It was all like:
"Crap were in the last episode and we don't know how to end the episode since were running out of ideas. What do we do?! Omg I just had an idea why don't we steal a moment from episode 5 in life is strange and copy with but make Sera be stupid for a moment and just give it up becuz plot demands it! I'm brilliant"
I felt just the same as you and i 'm 100% sure decknine couldnt do what they wanted to do. I highly recommend you read the leaks of episode 3 on tumblr, maybe it could help you for your analysis video :) and great video as usual !
Thank you! I'll check them out :)
I love how open and honest your videos are! Definitely my favorite first impressions and analysis videos for LiS and BtS out there!
I really miss your analysis about these characters and their story. You bring together so many ideas from so many different angles. I agree with your first impressions about this chapter. It starts out as a nice continuation of chapter 2, and then I’m breaking into the DA’s office, burning evidence, stealing money, and confronting drug bosses. None of the decisions I’m forced to choose make sense, and there are so many other better options that are ignored.....So much exposition.....I thought the final dilemma would be how to stay out of jail and not whether or not to tell Rachel what happened. How is any of this a secret now? Anyway, your work is amazing, and I wish you nothing but the best with what you’re up to now.
U explained it wonderful as always. Ya, I think the interaction between the chars and the enviroment with the music is what make we all love about LIS series, and is something we missed a lot in ep 3./. There weren't those greats moments like in the last two. In the bonus " farewell", even if is more shorter, we can feel those touching elements better than ep3. Interaction, friendship, enviroment and music like if u were there. Ty for share ur comments^^
Finally
Lars Feicks yes but how long until the analysisXD hopefully soon last one took for ever but was def worth the length
Peter Gomersall but the last one was amazing I can wait because I know that the analysis & review will be even better then the first two
Love to see how passionate people are with this game.. I know I am. You are creating awesome community here! I am in Life is Strange bubble now. I would just love to know all the things that happened between Before the Storm and Season 1.
*** I just realised I typed a lot, would mean a lot if you go through the whole thing ***
So yeah.... let's be real, the episode was pretty bad. It kinda makes the whole game not good. Don't get me wrong, I love the game, but the whole plot of Rachel and her mother, Sera was messy.
I really don't know what to think about Sera. I initial thoughts were that, this is about giving Rachel her father. But I don't understand this whole plot. The thing that made Before the Storm special, the only thing that mattered, was missing. Amberprice.
I watched Jacksepticeye's play through. He had some good suggestions. Put the whole plot of Rachel meeting her mother aside and tell us about the events that led to April 22nd, 2013.
With how the game is set up, one day per episode, it wouldn't be possible, I know. But maybe tell us the story of how Rachel ended up where she did. The first 2 episodes, they were perfect. Things went south at the last one. So keep the whole thing, how Chole met Rachel, how she found about her dad. Maybe that broke Rachel. Maybe something else happened, that drove her to get the things she wants, even if it went going to the extremes. Maybe tell us about how she ended up with Frank and how she ended up with Jefferson. Of course we are seeing it from Chole' s perspective, which makes it even more interesting. Maybe Chole didn't tell every thing that happened to Max, in the first season.
Another big disappointment was the whole 'showdown' with Damon. The whole thing was set up, like there was a something big going to happen. Then everything ends in like 1 second. You know how it went. Frank somehow magically kills Damon. So my thoughts, maybe give Frank a gun and he comes to save Chole and kills Damon on screen. That would be good, or at least better than what actually happens.
The music really plays an important role in Life is Strange, both seasons. I absolutely loved it. So 'Burn it Down' being cut and the discontinued music bothered me. In the end, before Wolf Alice - Bros begin, there is a mashup of different songs put together. For me, after hearing every song individually for like 10 times, that really bothered me and the song thing didn't seem to flow smoothly. Maybe I'm the only one who thought that.
My conclusion is that ,this plot of Rachel and her real mother was messy, and they could have done something different. What's that something different? I don't know. I love your videos, and I'm waiting for the whole Analysis video. I know it takes time and it's worth the time. Also, really good structure to the video, you know, how things were ordered, from first till last. The whole thing in 20 mins. Great editing work too. The music really plays a great role in your videos too. I like the thing where you stop speaking, and there is a brief silence , which is filled by the music or some special scene from the game. Great job, and keep up the great work.
Thanks for your comment, of course I read the entire thing!
When we were first learning about Before the Storm and that it was going to take place over 3 consecutive days when Chloe and Rachel meet, I'll admit I was a little disappointed. But considering how all three episodes went, yes even this one I think that was the right choice. I didn't really expect them to answer any of the questions about Rachel's disappearance or how she meets Jefferson or anything like that. I think that would've drawn too much attention away from what was really important. Seeing how Chloe and Rachel meet and how they become close friends or something more, which for the most part was an incredible experience for Before the Storm. There's hints here and there about how Rachel becomes the person she does, someone who would get involved with Jefferson or cheat on Chloe and I think that's all they needed to be. Hints and nods.
And yeah, the showdown with Damon wasn't too climatic, the very opposite actually. I'll expand on this a little more in my analysis video ;)
And thanks for your feedback! I'm trying new things all the time with my editing, like taking a small break from talking to let the scene do the talking for me. Much more effective than me constantly talking which is what I used to do a lot with a lot of my older videos. Thanks again for taking the time to send me your thoughts!
WilliamHella " Taking a break from talking, to let the scene do the talking ". That's a much better way to put it. I can see that events that led to Rachel's disappearance is not necessary. And I agree that seeing the development in the relationship between Chole and Rachel was an incredible experience( I'll just use your words, because I'm not good). The first 2 episodes, great. Last one, the focus is turned to a new issue, which doesn't matter if you hide the truth. I love the BTS for telling the story of Chole and Rachel, but about the whole other story of Rachel's mother... I don't know.
I'll shut up now and start the wait for your Analysis video. I know you will address everything there. Thanks for reading the whole thing and putting your time here. Continue the great work👍🏻.
Btw, I love Life is Strange for the story it tells. I can't not love it even with it's shortcomings(Does that make sense?). Wonder what's in store for the best season of Lis.
"how Rachel becomes the person she does"
Important question: have you ever made a mistake? Have you made a decision that hurt someone else, perhaps without intending to? Were you ever manipulated or confused by someone (say, an older adult man) with more power than you - who maybe offered you something you needed (food? shelter? a way out of town?)? Have you ever lied to a romantic partner?
What was it in your background that made you the type of person capable of that?
Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and you've led a perfect pure life completely above reproach. For the rest of us, I hope we can take a breath, consider our own teenage years and how we've grown since, before aiming loads of harsh judgment on a deceased teenage character.
Also consider: if an adult man commits statutory rape, was his victim "cheating" in her existing relationship? Language can reveal a lot about perspective, eh?
The Eliot character is a personification of all the people who say Rachel is a manipulative bitch when she's not. The devs are 100% shitting on people who hold that opinion.
Dear god I have been loving this game. If I am being truly honest here, I don't really care at all about the problems since I'm such an emotional mess while playing this. Chloe means so much to me as a character an seeing her with Rachel, it's hella emotional. I love your videos about this game since I personally just cry and laugh without even thinking about the badly made parts. You are literally my only source of analysing this game since when I try and look into it myself I just break into this emotional mess... I don't know why I wanted to share this...
I'm glad I can provide that :) and I totally get you. On some level I do wish I could just love episode 3 and forget all my issues and problems with it. I'd probably be much happier in a really weird way. But alas, I can't :(
5am in the morning, that don't matter. I NEED to watch this!!!
Btw, really good video keep it up, I agree on all your amazeballs points!
Thank you, but get some sleep!
Totally agree with you! Doesn't make any sense the way Sera suddenly changes and it seems it was a poorly made plot device to give players an ending choice/dilemma. Awesome vids btw!
I agree with everything you said.. love these review videos.. all was well said ✨ I really hope they don’t leave this Rachel Amber story here tho there’s still unanswered questions about the events leading up to her disappearance x
Thank you! And I do hope we learn a little more about Rachel as well :)
Big fan of the life is strange keep up the good work and keep doing these kind of videos
I agree with you.
BTS its suppouse to be a game to complement the first LIS, answering questions we had at the time like, "Who exaclty was Rachel?", "How she and Chloe met?", "How she fall in love with Frank and Jeff?", "How was her related to the Vortex Club?"... Some questions were well answered but others were not, simply because they decided to creat a new sort of background story about Rachel's dad and her blood-mother. I'm not saying I didn´t liked the story, I loved that game and loved to explore more about Rachel's family. But, like u said, focusing the last episode on this particular story wasn´t
exactly what I wanna to see. It would be great if they decide to make a new episode showing Rachel's relationship with Frank and Jeff and how she was hiding all of this from Chloe and why she did that... I WANNA KNOW MORE GODDAMMIT HAHaha
OBS: And I really wanna know if, in the junkieyard when Damon showed up there with Frank, Rachel was already together with Frank. Like, they had a pretty strange eye contact right there. And Chloe met her in the old mill where Frank were as well... so... Rachel and Frank were alredy in a relationship before she met Chloe?
I played LIS right before the BTS come out.
Rachel's death didn't effect me that much, because I didn't knew who she really was although it's Chloe's best friend, but after playing BTS It got me into tears.. that I knew her Faith is already sealed in LIS.
Her realation ship with Chloe was magical and amazing, and I enjoy every second playing BTS, at this point LIS Is just one bad..Bad dream.
I feel the same, I really like seeing how they met became close in Before the Storm, for the most part it was a great story!
Looking foward to full review! And bring on Farewell!
As for Serah's reasoning, I don't think it's actually that bad: Rachel has a stable loving home with James and that's going to be utterly destroyed if she finds out her father is a criminal and a hypocrite. Serah never wanted to disrupt Rachel's life and can't provide for a 16 year old girl. She also has self-esteem issues of her own. Plus, Serah is high on heroin when she makes this decision and that's not going to ive her a clear head.
There's definitely a lot about the situation I didn't cover in this video. But rest assured I want to look at everything possible with it and give a more in-depth break down of it in my analysis video.
Also the entire plot with Sera is that she's filing a custody suit. With her history she would have to pass a drug test and she feels like shes going to relapse and not pass that drug test after Damon gives her another hit.
YES your analysis of this game is INSANELY good! I LOVE IT
Finishing the third make me appreciate the second episode so much more. Just like you said the second episode is the greatest episode in the whole series
So glad I discovered your channel! Thank you for such an amazing video 😊
Thanks so much!
Honestly i was really shook when they showed the phone after finishing i was so depressed and whenever i think of the game i think of price amber and the phone
It would be way more interesting if Sera revealed she was a witch. I'm pretty sure that was planned (The song Witches, the raven, rachels weird fire powers, hell even the promotion art had sera crossed out with upside down crosses and no no no written over her) And then you'd have to decide if Rachel got to know the truth about her or if you'd decide to hide it from her. Would've been way more satisfying and to be honest it wouldn't require any more effort then what they did
Great video. Always enjoy listening to your commentary about BtS. As to episode 3, wow. Where does one start? I've watched the whole prequel at least 30 times, seen multiple review and analysis videos, participated in YT, Twitch and Twitter discussions with scores of players and fans of the game; with special regard to StopMeOh's Ola, a great little gal with whom I share much of my thoughts on the game. One thing I have come to realize is that the last moments of it (E.3) beginning with the office scene, and going through the mill/Sera quagmire, and concluding at the hospital, seem to have confused more players and fans than actually informed them. Too many players skip so fast through the details, hardly or never reading pertinent documents, or texts, that they always fall into the same mistake of formulating their choice of actions and opinions from being misinformed. Or, perhaps they are just so emotionally overwhelmed they do not see the reality of what the plot is saying. Another thing, and sadly, is that dialogue choices often deprive players and viewers from important information that would help them see the entire picture; not just the one they think they'd like to see. In my continuing research into the world behind the game, I've been lucky to stumble across more actual dialogue that was never used in the game at all. Dialogue from Sera that, clearly, admits to the seriousness of her addiction, and confirms Mr. Amber's claims that Sera had often put Rachel's life in danger. At this point in time, I return to Deck 9 and Chris Floyd's twitters periodically to prod them into working on some DLC for BTS. Such product would likely be snatched up quickly, and likely be the best way to explain and clarify some of the confusion of the prequel. Any way, again, great job. Keep it going.
Thanks for your thoughts Thork. I think you hit the nail on the head with how this episode failed to convey the right information properly to the player, it's something I want to focus on in my analysis video because I think it's another contributing as to why this episode was such a let down. Not the entire reason, but definitely apart of it.
I've heard Sera's cut audio as well, where she reveals more about how she put Rachel in danger. I don't know whether I'm going to comment on this in my analysis in great detail but I think I will mention it. Thanks again for your comment!
If you see this before the analysis video - I would love to see if you have any thoughts about the very last letter Chloe writes to Max? (spoiler - it echoes what you've said in other videos about the theme of "living in the moment", and imo shows some of the emotional growth Chloe was experiencing after meeting Rachel and before her disappearance)
I kinda understand why sara asked you to lie to protect rachel
This was an amazing video and I want to thank you for spending so much time investigating and talking about this game (btw sorry for any spelling mistakes, I'm from Germany and english isn't my native language). Overall, I feel like DeckNine did a great job at creating Before the storm. The voice actors are pretty good (especially Rhianna Devries who had to step into the shoes of Ashly Burch - and she did a good job at showing a way more vulnerable Chloe in my opinion). Although I love this series and I really liked episode 1 and absolutely loved episode 2, I think episode 3 should've been longer. I liked the most part of episode 3, but the ending felt rushed and didn't satisfy me as a player. I'm still asking myself, how Rachel started to bond with Frank, Mr. Jefferson and even Nathan (I mean, we discover a photo of him and Rachel in her room but she never mentions him). Why would she betray Chloe in the first place? Is she somehow connected with the fire/wind? Does it even make a difference in her life if you chose to hide the truth from Rachel or if you tell her everything in the end?
Also, I would've been interested in getting to know more about the relationship of Rachel and Chloe, instead of focusing on Damon and Sera. It felt like Rachel nearly spend half of the episode laying in the hospital, which was just unneccessary and completely took away this powerfull character.
Hopefully, the developers will release the material which was cut off from the episode, because even though I love the game, I'd stil like to get more information concerning Chloe's and Rachel's story.
Thank you Wasnothere, awesome English as well! I do think a lot of the unanswered questions we got weren't going to be addressed entirely by Deck Nine, so I didn't have too many expectations on that front. I think it's clear from the previous two episodes that the main focus of the story is Chloe and Rachel and how they become friends or something more, which I think they did amazingly for those two episodes. But at the same time they shifted focus away from this really important story element, which is were all this underwhelming and disappointing responses are coming from, combine that with not learning anything about Jefferson or Frank and then it starts to feel even more underwhelming, even if I didn't expect them to address it. It's unfortunate but I totally get where your coming from. Thanks for the response!
WilliamHella Yeah, it's really unfortunate that they shifted away from the main story, as you explained. But hey, it's still a fantastic game tho. Thanks for your response
cant wait til you get to the alternate choices/endingszz im holding myself off from seeing any "all endings" videos bc watching your vids is truly more rewarding
and the comment section is idiot free!
putting this on my tumblr. You got it again! Thank you, your videos are awesome.
Thank you so much Cassandra! I saw your comments on my other videos, really glad you're enjoying them and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts :)
The missed calls from Chloe scene from a season 1 POV just makes me think they're assholes for adding that but i'd say for a newcomer to the LIS series, it's appropriate because it is a major foreshadow for what is to be revealed.. But really, they are asshole for adding that right at the very end lol
ANGIE I actually want to see the reactions of people who never played or heard of LIS.. Really wonder what the comparison would be like
Very well done video, keep up the great work man
My take on Sera's motivation change comes more from general knowledge of addiction and all its attendant problems (depression, self-loathing, etc) than the game, but my read on it is this: Sera's at her lowest point after getting shot up. She's at this point maybe convinced she's going to fully relapse, and some part of her, no doubt, blames herself, and she hates herself for it. Relapsing is a serious, serious blow to your self-esteem. We know it's not her fault, but in her current state, Sera probably blames herself, or at least doesn't trust herself to be able to kick the habit again. She's terrified that every worst fear about herself is confirmed, and that all of James' (and Damon's) judgement was right - that she's nothing more than a junkie. The tragedy is that it doesn't have to be that way. Maybe if we'd talked to her the next day, sober, she would have changed her mind again. In fact, this seems to be kind of what happens if you convince her to meet Rachel. She finds the strength to get clean again, and she doesn't fully relapse.
tl;dr I don't think the motivation change is totally out of the blue or unreasonable, and she's high af and obviously not thinking 100% rationally.
Thanks Groose, there's definitely that aspect of Sera's argument I want to cover more. It's difficult to put myself in her shoes when I've had no previous history with drug abuse, but I feel that itself may have been a misstep in this episode. Some relate more to her struggle more than others when really I think everyone needs to see something they relate to in that situation. If I could I think it would certainty have changed a lot about how I feel with the conversation and the episode as whole. Will expand more on this :)
love ur content about ur thoughts and
the story and how they build it .
Damn, even the end of your Video was willing to tear me up. ;( Great Impression, looking forward to the "hella" long Review next Year. Best for 2018.^^
Thank you! And same to you :)
Hey William 👋 i honestly love every video you make and look forward to the next ones (no matter how long they take) *cough*ep 3 analysis*cough* 😂 lol
I just discovered you're channel and binged watched you're first and second analysis. You do a great job covering everything, and I love you're videos. When is this episodes full analysis coming out? Anytime soon?
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoy them :) Unfortunately I think it'll be around late February or maybe early March when it's finished. Episode 3 is a little more difficult to write about for reasons that'll be clear in the analysis video aha. But rest assured I'm working on it every chance I get!
WilliamHella Just keep making awesome videos. I like how you don't nitpick everything in you're videos and focus on character arcs and personalities.
You're videos are hella awesome.
As usual a very good video. Thank you for taking your time to make these reviews. I really enjoy watching them. Keep it up!
Thank you!
Damn i love ur videos So much you explain everything exactly Just how i experianced lis bts. When is The episode 3 analysis coming out
it did felt like an absolute mess and that they sld've give more epoxides about Rachel and choles' adventures more but more episodes sld be more about how Rachel and chole started to go distant and not be close anymore, her involvement with Nathan and mr. Jefferson, and how frank and Rachel ended up together adding more episodes and focus more on those wld've been a bit more satisfyingly ending along with knowing how it happend
I can appreciate that there were some tough deadlines for Deck Nine. Releasing just before Christmas would've been hella stressful for them. Sadly, I don't think it alleviates the pain of a disappointing final episode. It was rushed and things were clearly cut. Additionally, any choices you've made throughout the game were not reflected in the ending nor do they drastically affect any of the scenes leading up to the finale. Is it terrible for me to say that this episode has ruined the game for me? All the fantastic writing and character development we've enjoyed in the past 2 episode was squandered in this last episode... and consequently I value all the characters less :(
My biggest gripes (spoilers!):
- Why were we even introduced to Samantha and Nathan if they hardly appear in the final episode?
- Eliot's scene was awkwardly inserted (I suspect something may have been cut) - He made some good points about Rachel but because of the context of Chloe and his interaction we don't care what he has to say!
-Cheap heart grab at the end (you know what I'm talking about)
-The endings hardly vary
-Chloe and Rachel's relationship took second place to Sera and Damon's story line
-The side plot of Damon and Sera was rushed and we didn't get to see much of it (Chloe just passing out and awaking to Sera explaining everything was cheap)
-The episode ended abruptly and was relatively short compared to the previous one
-Chloe didn't really have a final scene with Joyce or David (probs not necessary but would've been nice)
-We only had the illusion of consequences! (e.g. choosing the snitch - this had no impact on the story)
I feel like I've just torn the game a new asshole but I want to say that up to the final episode this game was FANTASTIC. Deck Nine really respected the original life is Strange and they had the potential to wrap this up amazingly but...
Rant over.
Full disclosure! These are my opinions.
Thanks for your thoughts Alex! Agree with pretty much everything you said :)
Honestly I just why did the story to be about how Rachel Met Chloe and their aventures leading up to the Rachel‘s disappearance I honestly just want them to fill the plot holes that were missing in the last game about Rachel
the whole sera thing is that u actually CAN convince her to the will of reaching out to rachel again its a small percentage and its hard to get there but its possible
I love this game for the small moments exploring the hospital or blackwell playing dungeon and dragon listening to the muisc as you think about what happen in a world were all games are set pieces irs weird to have a game that just so small and amazimg
Well, it was not as good as we might expected, but let me say there is something that imho was just perfect in this episode and in the whole bts, the relationship between reality and appearance, what is true and what’s not. I’m not sure how, these events that bring Rachel to understand that true and false are not as separated as we might think, and that appearance might be as true as what’s ‘really true’, somehow justifies entirely the idea that we’ve had of her in the first season.
After having seen that the world is not like she thoughts it was, in the bedroom scene with the stars, she (and also Chloe) decides to believe in the appearance, just because that doesn’t hart as much as real life does. So she disconnects form reality and decides to believe in what she thinks is good for her, Chloe for example, maybe Frank in the future, or Jefferson.
I don’t know, maybe it sounds pretentious, but I think that after having seen how her father and ‘mother’ acted with her, she come to believe that ‘acting’ doesn’t mean ‘pretending’, just as ‘false’ doesn’t necessary mean ‘false’. So maybe she really loves Chloe, maybe not, maybe she really doesn’t know it yet, but that’s not important because it’s not important what ‘really’ means. She does both, and it’s the same with Frank and Jefferson. She pretends and decides to believe in what she’s pretending, independently from how things really are. It’s like on the stage of the tempest, she is acting and not acting at the same time. Believing in ‘pretending’ is the lesson she takes from the events of before the storm, and that’s enough for us because in this way we can understand her future actions.
P.s: I love your videos! Way better than every other LiS video I’ve ever seen. I hope the video analysis will be if possible even longer than the one of ep2 ahah Anyway sorry for my English, I’m from Italy and our language just has a different syntactic structure so maybe this comment will be unreadable I hope not.
That was very interesting Marco, I think there's every possibility that Rachel might walk away from this situation, regardless of your choice with the thinking that acting isn't lying. That could just be putting on an appearance that other people just want to see without revealing her true self, her reality. Will look into this!
And thank you! To be honest I don't really have a set length in mind whenever I make analysis videos. Once I write something up, regardless of whether it's 10 pages or 50 pages, if I feel it covers everything that I want to talk about, that usually determines the length. But I can say now, it will definitely be a long video.
Hey, I just subscribed today and I'm already in love with your videos! Not related to LiS but where are you from? I can't place the accent lol
Love your channel from the topics you talk about till the thumbnails thanks for your content you got my subscription and I hope there is gonna be alot more in the future :)
Thank you so much SnakeEater :) There'll be plenty more in the future!
But i think, that Sera wanted Chloe to lie to Rachel, bc Sera dont want Rachel to know, what her father have done (i mean didnt give Rachel the letters of Sera, try to push Sera back to her addiction, etc.) bc that would kill James for Rachel and then Rachel hasn't got any parents left.
And to the "out cutted scenes": i think Deck Nine had reasons bc they cutted some scenes out. Maybe they didnt matched to the other scenes...
I was finally able to finish this episode today and I agree with you. I did really enjoy it a lot but that final choice wasn't as intense as the one in polarized. I still had a great time with the game and I think I like the original and this game equally.
How in a hell Rachel's phone got a signal in the dark room at all ???
In 1st season Max had to go out from the bunker to call Warren.
I think the storm and tornado had something to do with the cell service being crap, even when she goes outside to call, the call cuts out and quality is bad. That's just a thought but you are right, even without the storm, cell service doesn't work great underground but I live near caves and you'd be surprised how good of service you can get in them.
Still waiting for the full analysis
From what was set up in episode 2, we were ready for an intimate moment between Rachel and Chloe that was never shown on screen. Don't tell me they were "just friends". And yes, no question about telling Rachel the truth. James may have loved his daughter, but he needed to be taken down for what he did.
I was also extremely conflicted... When I first finished the episode, I felt really sad because it seems like they ignored all of the potential they created. I've realized that maybe that was just my Amberprice fangirl showing, and now that I'm not waiting for "the big scene" to happen I've been a bit easier on it.
This Reddit post is, in my opinion, a marvelous read and has helped me to appreciate the episode on my subsequent playthroughs: goo.gl/jrmU5s
But I liked your point on the whole interaction with Sera feeling forced in order to give you a final choice. I love decision making games and love talking to people about why they chose what, so I definitely think there should have been a final choice. And I spent a decent amount of time thinking about this one solely because I cared so much about Rachel and I was scared of hurting her (in the end, I told her the truth). But the whole Sera conversation seemed out of place...why did her attitude change? How did she get out of her ropes and how is she still alive after taking the heroin? It was definitely the weakest scene to me.
Thank you Erin. I have seen that post, it's very beautifully written and it did point out things to me I hadn't realized in my first play through. I agree with a lot of things in it, especially on how Chloe evolves in Before the Storm, becoming this person who has something to fight for and will never give up on. It's something I do want to focus on when I look at this episode in more depth. If there's one thing Deck Nine nailed with BTS, it's an amazing and raw portrayal of Chloe.
Lol Rachel's hand good eye!
I’m really disappointed in the last episode..
Yeah its glitchy... i also noticed that when Chloe talk to frank on the phone in her room her phone clipping tho her hand did you noticed this?
I did see that! And going back through my footage quickly I did catch it happening. I'll show in next video.
Gongrats on 1k
Thanks! Pretty incredible we got to this point :)
I completely agree with everything you said. I also didn’t need to think about making the last decision to tell Rachel the truth. It was quite disappointing really, since I was expecting some unbelieveable, amazing episode with a final decision that would cause indecisiveness like LIS episode 5 did for me, as well as more background on Rachel’s relationships with Frank and Jefferson. Also, I feel like Chloe’s phone calls at the end would spoil the answers for first-time players who would go on to play LIS. Could you explain the forest fire’s spontaneous extinguishment? Does it have anything to do with supernatural forces, or just with that consistent fire metaphor? What do the looks between Rachel and Frank in the junkyard imply, exactly??? And has anyone realized that Mr. Amber’s overprotective, dishonest behavior is kind of what causes his daughter’s death? If it weren’t for his lies, Rachel and Chloe would have probably escaped on that night of the play.Keep up the videos! I love hearing your insightful thoughts, and I’m surprised you’re not more popular!
Thank you! You do bring up some good points like the fire and James hypocrisy which I do plan on covering in my analysis video :)
As for getting more background on the whole Rachel/Frank/Jefferson thing, I think we got just enough in this episode, such as the looks they were giving to kind of foreshadow what would happen with that. Obviously it's not an exact description but I don't think we needed one given to us in BTS. It's Rachel and Chloe's story (until the ending) and I think having anything more than what we got would've taken away from that. But I see where your coming from :)
I think you’re right actually! It is Chloe and Rachel’s story. The mystery of it just kills me and makes me really want to know every single thing. I guess not knowing EXACTLY what happened between Rachel and Frank And Jefferson is sort of the point-to leave up to interpretation how we perceive Rachel. LIS does a good job at making us want more, and I hate to see Chloe’s, Rachel’s, and Max’s story end!
Nice video dude! I've been watching you for a while your videos are great!
Thanks for sticking around! More to come..
The one thing I didn't like at the beginning and probably through out the whole episode was Mr Amber's voice actor performance. He has the exact same voice in every scene.
Definitely didn't have that much vocal range on him, or just wasn't allowed to use more. But I feel the same way.
A lot of the voice actors that werent Chloe and Rachel were disappointing. The Mikey, Steph and Drew characters had good voices too.
Any news on the analysis & review video?? I don't think I'll be able to wait much longer lol
No good news unfortunately :( Things are moving along, I've written a lot and recording when I can. But it's looking to be a late February video, maybe early March if worst case scenario but it will be out before Farewell. Sucks but I'm working on it everyday and trying to make it the best video it can be!
WilliamHella Oh it’s okay!!! Take the time you want/need :) As long it’s a hella long vid 😂
11:00 I'll have to disagree with you. Sera is not talking to Chloe, that is a dream. Just like Max's dream in the original game, the dream reflects all the doubts Chloe has about tanking such a highly transformative desition like telling Rachel all the things she found out about her father. I assume this "fight against personifications of your doubts" mechanics are the ones that convey an adversarial point of view to the player in the most effective way.
Still watching the video thought.
Just to clarify why I think that the scene where Chloe talks to Sera is actually a dream.
On the way to the mill, Chloe interacts with her dad in a dream-like way without the game defining a clear dream|reality boundary, like it's been done before, we just assume that her dad is not actually there because he's dead, so she must be dreaming/hallucinating. I think this is deliberate, a way to tell the player "the things you think you see might not be the ones you actually see".
William, it'd be nice if you could consider this possibility when making your review as I think this explains quite a few things from that forward, and (IMHO) it hints at the theory of that Max has no powers she just enter into a deep dream because her mind didn't know how to cope with the death of her best friend being killed after she abandoned her for 5 years, by blurring the lines between dreams and reality.
I feel like it sld at least mentioned about the mystery of frank and Rachel's relationship along with Mr. Jefferson and Nathan with Rachel I feel like it cld've made a better ending.
also i really loved how Life Is Strange never really cared about or felt the need to talk about people’s sexual orientations. everyone loved who they wanted without judgement, that really made me happy and feel better about myself.
Yes, I absolutely agree with everything you've said! It just didn't feel as if DeckNine put as much work into this episode as the others, to be honest. Great episode with great scenes, but it also came with a lot of disappointment, and frankly, I felt kinda empty and betrayed after playing it.
I don't mind the last scene, even though it made me shudder and gave me horrible chills. I think it was a good slap back to reality, but all the things prior to that were the main things that let me down. I really wasn't that much interested in Sera and James and everything. I know their conflict arc could've been way better if Deck Nine approached it another way, but I just found myself being like "oook... now can we get back to AmberPrice or at least other more interesting characters and conflicts?" I would've liked to see more of how Chloe's relationship is with her family, about Chloe's relationship with Rachel, maybe even more of Rachel and Frank or Nathan with Samantha. But they suddenly threw at me all the Sera and James bullshit, which caught me off guard and didn't capture my genuine interest at all.
Also, yeah, the last big decision really changed nothing major, so I was confused about why it was even there. At least the first season had a bit more variety to the differences between the two final choices. Here, it was more like "hey, we gotta make you feel like this final choice matters somehow, although it virtually changes nothing, joke's on you, haha".
Overall, I loved this video! All of your analysis videos about LIS are absolutely amazing and keep up the great work! I look forward to seeing more from you :)
Thanks so much! Totally agree with a lot of what you said in addition :)
What do you use to record and do your videos? Your a great RUclipsr to gain these subs
Thank you :) I use the GeForce experience application for Nvidia cards. Really great program for capturing high quality footage. File sizes can be huge though. Then I use Adobe Premiere to edit it all, really great tool once you get used to it.
Will there be a reupload of your analysis of episode 2? So sad, that it got blocked, I thought it was really great ^^'
Good news! It's back up for viewing: ruclips.net/video/kpxJNygkkOA/видео.html
And thank you!
You are not the only one having mixed feelings about this episode... It was not that bad, but it was not good either. I feel like there should´ve been at least one more episode. I won´t repeat any of the stuff you already said because I completely agree but there´s still some content left that would have made the game better. Not enough to make a new game but I was never expecting it though. But yeah. The relationship with Frank and Mr. Jefferson needs more details. More than just looks at the junkyard.
I´d love to hear your opinions on this thought of mine.
At the dark room Jefferson talks about relationship between a student and a teacher. I feel like the game absolutely wants you to tell Rachel the truth so that it can give some background why Rachel would start using more drugs and start hanging out more with Frank who would give her the drugs.
Jefferson became Nathan´s "father-figure", to quote Mark partly because Nathan´s father did not give him love or anything like that. There was a relationship between a student and a teacher! I bet that happened with Jefferson and Rachel too. Maybe ms. Amber gave up on acting, she wanted to be a model more as we remember. But this gives her another reason to hook up with Jefferson. 1/2
2/2
Who has the most awesome cameras in Arcadia Bay - Mark Jefferson.
Who knows if he ever wanted to even kill Rachel. She was there because she wanted. She was used to drugs and maybe it was okay to her to be drugged before the photo-shoot because then they could create the right atmosphere. Also Nathan. What went wrong with him and Rachel. A rejection? Jealousy? The desire of impressing Jefferson. Or all of these.
It´s not that easy to say who killed Rachel. We know that Nathan overdosed her. But there is Jefferson on the background. And then there is Frank who is broken after he hears that Rachel is dead. Who was the only good thing in his life. Frank admits that he got the drugs for Nathan, so in that way all of those guys who had something going on with Rachel actually killed her.
I probably sound like an idiot for saying this, but I think the crush was one-sided. I think Chloe is bi and Rachel is straight, but does not want to hurt Chloe´s feelings because some girls are like that. I know from my own experience that a girls friendship with another can be a little sexual but still they can think it is normal. That does not happen with guys that often so that made Chloe live in uncertainty, or at least believe there was something more. At the same time Rachel was a player which is kinda sad. But yeah it is still a good series. I liked this game.
Edit: I had to edit my comments because of typos sorry
Thanks for the comment Johna! I do see where your coming from on Rachel's future, but I do think that whatever choice you made would still lead to Rachel ending up where she did. Instead it's only the reasons that changes. Protecting Rachel from the truth might mean that when she gets close to Frank she learns the truth from him. Telling Rachel the truth, might set something off in her and send her down a path of self destruction. Both resulting in her death tragically.
And don't worry I question Rachel's real feelings all the time! Whether she feels anything genuine for Chloe or not. I don't think her sexuality plays a huge role in it. It's rather whether she's just using Chloe or whether there is something there between them. Friendship or Relationship wise.
WilliamHella Well said! And Thank you for making great content. I can see your passion and love for the series through your videos and all of these comments. Keep up the good work.
Wait did they really show the photos of rachel tied up ?
Nah I put that there, sorry if it was a little misleading.
love the channel bro really good lol im a 22 year old truck driver and this game get me everytime
thanks for replying
also sorry to drone on but i was going through a rough time and these videos help
All good friend, I’m glad they help
It was very strange for Sera to give up all of a sudden, and frustrating to see that storyline go nowhere and kind of collapse upon itself.
Were you disappointed that the mystical elements (Rachel's possible fuelling of the fire and how it mysteriously went out when she was stabbed) were not addressed or do you prefer that it's left up to the player to decide if there's something supernatural going on or not?
Also, thank you! Something was off but I couldn't decide what it was until you said it: AmberPrice. The ending wasn't about AmberPrice.
Thanks Laura :) To be honest, for me I'm kind of glad the supernatural elements didn't have too much focus. I think they're a great way to make the game feel a little more mystical but addressing them directly I think would've been the wrong thing to do. I think we got enough in BTS to speculate on but whether there's an actual "answer" to what's going on rather than leaving it to our interpretation I'm not to sure. Sorry if this is confusing but I will address it in my analysis video so thank you for bringing it up :)
unless you make the right choices previously ;0)
One subtle thing that many people seem to have missed is how the candles at the Amber house burned more intensely when Rachel got angry at the end of Episode 2. All these little hints suggest that there might be something going on, but then again, maybe not.
Ohhhh man it took me forever to make the final decision and I still feel like I made the wrong choice. R.I.P. me
I've sat through at least 20 plays of this, and while I understand how, many viewers and those playing the game, might feel a bit cut-short by episode 3, I think its a two-way street. The developers gave/give us a lot of information to process, and much of it can lead to nothing, or isn't even discovered in the play through. Both can taint one's perspective of the entire game. I have a (hopefully right) hunch, that some DLC might still be in store for BtS. My personal take on the Sera subplot comes down to this: Chloe is the one that decides if Rachel learns the truth or not. Thus, in a year or two, should Rachel uncover the whole thing, what will her reaction to Chloe, be? If Chloe tells her, I'll bet she doesn't tell her everything, despite what the choice prompt literally said. Case being: while James Amber initiated contact with Frank Bowers (I believe) to talk crap to Sera and scare her away, Damon took over the deal to get out from under criminal investigation. If one reads all the texts between Amber and Merrick, it is clear the thug wants back a lot of money the cops took from him, and the investigation into his involvement in an assault, dropped. When Sera doesn't go away, Amber is at a 'between moments' spot as to whether to go along with Merrick's "this chick might need more hands on" suggestion or forget the whole thing. But when Merrick attacks Rachel, I believe he is about to switch strategies, and go after Merrick, putting the Sera issue aside until Rachel recovers. It is then *Chloe* who gets involved, phones Merrick, reinstates the communication, burns the evidence, takes Merrick the money, and essentially gets Sera turned back into a junkie. Does Chloe tell Rachel THAT part of it? As to Sera's sudden turn about, yeah, that's hard to understand. But, unless one is or has been addicted like she has, it is too simple to criticize her behavior in the situation. Still dig your reviews. Here's hoping Deck 9 comes up with some DLC to further answer all our questions.
Thanks for your thoughts :) There's definitely much more to this situation than what I covered here in this video. Sera's part in it all was what annoyed me the most due to how integral it is to everything else so that's what got the most attention. There's definitely a lot of open-endedness to exactly what Chloe tells Rachel, and what happens to James and his career as the D.A (like wouldn't Rachel, if she wanted to release that information to the public? There's evidence all over his office and emails to back her claims).
And I think giving us a lot of information to process was also a big mistake in this episode but didn't get to put it in the video. The plot became needlessly complicated and tried to fit in so much in so little time, that I think a huge part to all of this was a failure to communicate the story in a simpler way. That's something I will cover in my analysis video so I'm glad you brought it up now.
Still better than ep5 of season 1 ;)
Arash The Great Nah I don't know about that.
HedvigU Are you kidding? This episode was disappointing but at least not as bad as the sloppy finale of season 1. Pointless scenes, tedious nightmare sequence/puzzles, and things that are still unanswered to this day. Episode 5 was garbo.
Episode 5 was amazing IMO lol
Episode 5 was poop
Check out "Life is Strange 2: After the storm" trailer: ruclips.net/video/btwX3u1FO_A/видео.html
Awesome Video! And yeah... i totally agree with you... this Episode is kinda... .weird
Hey mate , what's the name of the first song. I can't find it in the LIS Playlist.
It’s a different version of the song “Witches” from Daughters album. I’ve tried finding it online before but the only version I could find is the one that plays in the mill scene unfortunately. Great music though.
WilliamHella Thanks! In my opinion the music of before the storm is awesome though.
SPOILERS LIS SEASON 1:I also hated that they included that last scene at the end of the episode. There was no need for it! The story ends on that flash of future events with Rachel and chloe. Everyone who has played LIS Knows Rachel is going to die but they should've have letted us enjoy those Last scenes, enjoy their past and finish of that way instead of reminding us of what lies ahead. I dont Know, I came into Before the storm knowing I was a masochist because I Knew I would bond with Rachel and at the end it wouldnt even matter... But now I Know how wrong I was. Rachel is on of the Best characters in life is strange and her love for chloe, plus chloe's love for her is the Best this game has to offer. I Know she'll die but all those moments were worth it. I came out of that game smiling for all the moments it offered me while before playing it I thought I was gonna come out crying. I cant even imagine how People who played this one first will feel when they find Rachel. All I Know is that when I was Max and they found Rachel 's body I was very sad for a friend, now if I went back and played it not knowing what would happen I' d feel Chloe's pain.
My comment is too long so I had to split it into a couple more, so follow the replies for the other parts! Sorry!
I am fully on board with all your points. And this isn't a knock at your video (which was exceptionally high quality and engaging) or any of your opinions, which like I said, I do agree with. But let me put forward some of my own counter opinions for a debate, as well as play a bit of Devil's Advocate -
As a quick summary of what is below, none of it really bothered me that much when I finished playing it, if you get what I mean? I'm just so happy we got to experience another adventure in Arcadia Bay that lived up to, and at times even exceeded, the quality of the first season. Which most people, myself included, thought was an impossible task when it was announced that a completely new developer who, let me stress, had NO previous project releases to their name, took charge.
So let me try and give you another perspective to some of the criticisms you have made in this video, while rounding off my own impressions at the end. In the order of: Eliot, Sera/James plot, Amberprice, the final choice, the technical issues. This might be a long comment so hopefully it's not too mundane, if you don't have time to read it all, don't worry, it's a good coping mechanism for my Post Life Is Strange Depression anyway, so excuse the incoming stream of consciousness :)
But first, I know this is how you format your channel, and perhaps I'm being too pedantic here, but would you describe these as your _first_ impressions, to be precise? And before I go any further, I'm not trying to be intentionally passive aggressive here, like I said, I'm playing Devil's Advocate a little. I ask this because I understand it takes a lot of time and effort to record and edit these videos, and I do strongly believe that perhaps the impressions of the episode the night you finish it are perhaps a little more authentic than a few days later. But that's just my opinion and my experiences. For example, I absolutely loved episode 3, but it was only when I began searching for other people's opinions and impressions that I suddenly found agreeable and reasonable criticism that did not bother me at the time of playing nor did it interfere with my overall enjoyment of the final episode. And I'm trying not to let them sway my opinion about the game either, as like I said, I thoroughly enjoyed it myself before seeing what other people had to say, so if the majority of other people say they did not like it then I won't let that change my first impression. And if these really are your complete and genuine first impressions then brilliant, nothing wrong with that at all, you're definitely not alone, I'm just asking solely because I know a lot of people I've spoken to personally about this game have had opinions continuously sway from bad to good about this episode due to the impact of some of the reviews. So just making things clear :)
Now, onto Eliot. From D9's point of view and a game-play point of view, I understand why they took him down the path they did. To me, it served as the voice that attempted to give you the other perspective of Rachel, one that might rightly or wrongly persuade your opinion of the final choice, one that might counter your own personal head-canon and one that may help you gain a better understanding of Rachel, that she is not black, or white, or grey. For me, it showed how special Chloe and Rachel's relationship really was, as once Eliot began listing the things they had done for each other, it seemed crazy and stupid to him, but it was so much more to Chloe and Rachel. At the same time, as painful as it is to admit, his actions are definitely relatable to a lot of people, if perhaps exaggerated a little for dramatic effect. And I believe he comes under the "right intentions but wrong execution" theme that seems to be a thing in Life Is Strange. He's a lot more complex than people are making him out to be I think, and while I agree he was there as a barrier to get past, and I do also have some question marks over the way we dealt with him (calling the police after breaking into the DA's office and burning evidence? Not what I would do in that situation anyway!), I do think personally that Eliot's character arc is interesting, especially as everyone thought he was just another Warren we could reject!
Sera and James story plot seems to be very conflicting, and you describe it as focusing away from the important part of the game which is the relationship between Chloe and Rachel. I love Chloe and Rachel and I am the biggest Amberprice shipper, much more so than Chloe and Max without question. So much so that many of my social medias now contain pictures of the two together as my avatar/banner and my name displaying "Amberprice" (haven't got round to doing it on RUclips yet though!!) I read a comment, I can't remember where, which I believed completely nailed it. It said that episode 1 was about falling in love, episode 2 was about being in love and episode 3 was about proving their love. What I'm about to say may be a little weird and hard to get behind, but imagine being in Rachel's shoes and seeing how determined Chloe is to help her with finding her Mother. This would mean a lot more to me than a kiss or holding hands. The whole Sera plot for me was a way to show how much Chloe's character has evolved since episode 1 and how much Rachel really means to her. Remember in episode 1 where Chloe was terrified of the "skeevy douches" and on the train where she couldn't find any words to say to Rachel. Now look at what she's doing during the second half of episode 3. I think we have all unconsciously witnessed the full transformation of a shy, introverted, lost Chloe Price into the fearless, loveable punk hipster we know and love in Season 1. If this isn't blatant Amberprice staring us right in the face then I don't know what is. So I think this got more justice than just the ending montage like you mentioned, however I do understand where you are coming from. And my only criticism looking back at the whole barn scene was I wish the Frank/Damon fight was more visible as that was left a bit too ambiguous in my opinion, especially after Frank previously lost a fight with Damon when fully fit. But it's nothing for me to get upset about and feel empty after the episode finished.
And now for the final choice. Firstly, let me cover the first point you made where you felt the whole thing with Sera doing a complete 180 was forced for the final choice to be a thing. Now obviously I have no idea what D9's initial plans were, but I can strongly argue that this final choice was fresh in the developers mind while creating episode 1. The foreshadowing for the theme of telling a horrible truth or living a better lie was amazing. The amount of times I ran into an indirect hint at the end choice throughout the game when replaying Episode 1 and Episode 2, it definitely wasn't coincidental. If you haven't already, I'd recommend giving the series a second play-through, just like in season 1 there is so much hidden content and foreshadowing. Makes me feel like I'm blind, it's genius at times. So the final choice definitely wasn't forced, however they may have had more planned for Sera, we will never know. I think a massive part of why Sera changed her mind like she did was BECAUSE of the fact she was influenced by drugs. I'm not a heroin expert but I'm inclined to believe that had a big part to play. "All her troubles....gone". She was no longer feeling desperate to see Rachel because of the drugs, as well as the knowledge that she will likely be hooked again (Damon - "this shit is hard to shake off") likely got her to that conclusion. Which is backed up by the fact that it is actually possible for them to meet still. Clearly she hasn't lost it completely, the drugs are affecting her decisions a lot. You are still able to convince her despite this. I don't know, that's my view on it anyway. And while I picked "truth" over "lie" as well as you for my final choice, I did think it was a difficult decision with a lot of emotional baggage either way. But for Chloe and Rachel's relationship, I thought this was the better outcome of two evil's. Maybe that seemed selfish as it should be what's best for Rachel rather than what's best for Chloe, but after Rachel told Chloe in her bedroom that she was the "only person in the world she had left to trust", I wanted to make sure of that.
As for the minor technical issues you pointed out, I do agree there was more to be seen in this episode but I do believe that was because they were on a tight schedule to release this before Christmas. Not only for an increase in sales but also for relevancy, for the community, for staff going on vacation and for the rest of the LIS timeline (including DONTNOD's Season 2 and D9's Bonus Episode) not being interfered with/postponed. A lot of the community were speculating the episode to drop Dec 7th, and if not then Dec 14th latest, so they did leave it until the last possible date really (and by doing so they broke their own protocol of releasing Thursdays with trailer a week before etc, which DONTNOD also followed but on a Friday I think?). And I know I've said this a lot but this was Deck Nine's first ever release, let alone first MAJOR release with a hugely successful predecessor and hugely passionate community. So technical issues were something I did not worry about in the slightest (unless completely game breaking) and episode 1 and 2 in particular were near flawless, like I said I think time constraints and pressure from above played a bit of a part here. Nonetheless an entirely reasonable criticism
I know I'm rooting for D9 a lot here, partly because I really enjoyed the whole season, which surprisingly seems to be a minority opinion. But also partly because I don't want them to be begrudged by the community's feedback after all the hard-work and the unquestionable passion and commitment they showed the game and community that made me fall in love with the Life Is Strange world more than the first season did, which blows my mind considering how negative my mindset was going into it before it was released. I know the developers probably have much thicker skin than me, but I hope they don't take it to heart and I hope they get another chance to gift us with another Arcadia Bay experience. And while typing this I realise it may seem like I'm unfairly targeting you as someone who is nonconstructive and is bashing the developers at every opportunity - that's not what I'm trying to articulate at all, I think your video was excellent, you love the game as much as I do and you are welcome to your own opinion. This is sort of my general response to all the criticism I have seen being aired towards the D9 team.
The atmosphere, the music, the voice acting, the facial animations and character animations, the writing, the character evolution's, the focus on character relationships rather than rewind puzzles. All why I hold BTS at a higher regard than Season 1 overall. An unpopular opinion for sure, but one I strongly believe in.
Would love to hear what you think. I came to your channel after Chris Floyd shouted you out on Twitter, and I have watched your first impressions and analysis of episode 1 and 2 before this video. Thoroughly enjoyed my stay so thank you for the hard work you put into creating your videos, and I hope you get the much higher subscriber count your channel deserves in the near future :)
Thanks for reading!
Thank you so much for your comment Duubz, I really enjoyed reading that :) First off I totally get your skepticism on whether this can really be considered my "first impressions" since it has been a week from the last episode releasing and I do mention in the video that a lot of people are torn on this episode just as I am, there's always that danger of reading other people's thoughts on the game that could potentially influence how I view this episode and believe me I'm just as aware and wary of this happening.
I don't have much else to give other than my word, but I'll say that with every episode, I always try to give my exact first impressions right after I've finished and I believe that's reflected in every first impressions video I've made. If I can I always start putting my thoughts down in writing as soon as I finish it. Doesn't always start chronologically throughout the episode but whatever left the biggest impact on me. The first thing I wrote for this video were my thoughts on the Sera conversation, then from there I start writing how I felt on other things. Then when most of my thoughts are down, it's formatting and putting them in an order that flows smoothly for the video. All of this is done without checking forums or watching lets plays and seeing other people's reactions.
However, since these videos can take a while to put together, it's impossible not to see and read what other people thought of the episode online. And while my views definitely align with a lot of what I've seen, I always try to keep my thoughts as original and as authentic as possible from what I've originally written down right after finishing. Is it a perfect system? I don't think so, but there's no avoiding the internet these days, so it's what I have at the moment.
As for your other comments, you've definitely brought up a lot of things that I didn't mention in this video, which I do plan on mentioning in my analysis video. I have seen that comment about love in all three episodes and that definitely showed me a few things I hadn't picked up on originally and it's a great write up on Chloe's transformation as a character.
Sera being on drugs I think definitely plays a role on what's going on with her decision making, but I think there's a lot more with the situation as whole that feels a little contrived. Love to expand here but it'll be in the video :)
There's definitely a lot more I want to say on the technical aspect, I've started replaying this episode again and discovered that the save game bug from episode 2 has unfortunately not been fixed and that did kill a little bit of my progress. Easy work around but I think some people who might not know about it can fall victim to it and have there choices wiped away playing episode 3. There's definitely realities of game development that can play a part in these sorts of things happening. But I still wish there was more focus on these sorts of things before release.
There's a lot more to say that I'll cover in my video and I do appreciate you taking the time to let me know your thoughts. Sorry I couldn't cover everything! There's no doubt that we and Deck Nine obviously love Life is Strange so I'm excited to see what they do next as a studio. Thanks again for your comment
Thanks for the response! It's a great debate to have, while I agree with all your points, there is definitely much more to it like you said, and I do discreetly believe some people in the comments (and the community in general) are focusing more so on the negatives than they should, perhaps because of the final phone scene has left a bitter taste or perhaps because we know it's most likely all over for Arcadia Bay. And perhaps D9 are just victims of their own high expectations. Or perhaps it's just me! I'm just basing my opinions on how I felt as soon as I put the game down, which I will never forget!
I won't ramble on much more. I look forward to your analysis!
Duubz. Tell me more I'm interested
What do you want to know more of? :)
I don’t know what everybody thinks, but I think that Before the Storm needed one more episode. Probably there are people that think that this is enough, but I feel that something is missing.
We all know from Life is Strange what happens to Rachel, that she’s drugged and etc. But I really wanted to know how Rachel met Mr. Jefferson or got to talk with Nathan, or even started speaking with Frank.
I was really curious about that stuff while playing Life is Strange and Before the Storm. Guess I will never know.
Agreed. I really enjoyed the second episode, the best among the three to me, which is part of the problem why 'hell is empty' turned out to be a bit disappointing. It felt a bit rushed as though a lot of different elements were thrown at you (Elliot scene, the whole North's situation). I personally wanted more connection with the first season and maybe have some influence regarding both Nathan and Jefferson. Another season that lets you not only explore the Rachel - Frank - Nathan - Jefferson relationships, but also change the whole outcome of the first season would be magical.
So, are we never getting a full review for the third episode?
There's definitely going to be a review. I'm still working on it and it's taking a lot longer than I anticipated to really dissect this episode, I wish I can give better time frames for release but it's still going to take awhile unfortunately.
I understand. Just wanting to know as I really am looking forward to it.