Thread #562773046
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Throwback edition
Previous thread: >>562214019
Life is Strange Reunion is out now!
>Life is Strange
(LiS) - An episodic narrative adventure game by developer Don’t Nod (DN). Set in the fictional coastal town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon, it follows Max Caulfield, a shy, awkward photography student who discovers she can rewind time and—perhaps more urgently—that she’s very, very gay. At the heart of the story is Max’s reunion with her estranged best friend, the rebellious, blue-haired Chloe Price. Their bond becomes the game’s pulsing queer core as they unravel the mystery of Rachel Amber’s disappearance. What begins as a teenage reconnection blooms into a messy, tender queer odyssey about grief, desire, and the impossible choices we make for the people we can't truly live without.
>Official Websites:
https://lifeisstrange.com/
https://dont-nod.com/en/
>Life is Strange Series Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36149206
>Lost Records Series Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1902960
>/lisg/ Permalink:
http://orph.link/lisg
>FAQs, Old Threads/Strawpolls, Soundtrack/Music & Leaks:
http://orph.link/lisgarchive
>/lisg/ Community Written Fan Fiction:
http://orph.link/story
>Compilation of Fanfics:
http://orph.link/fanfic
>/lisg/ Content Producers:
http://imgur.com/a/DOAKn
>Art of LiS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=265yHETXRXo [Embed]
>/lis/ sings:
Obstacles
https://web.archive.org/web/20200324102651/https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=WjPsOkijFh0
Glass Walls
https://www.mediafire.com/file/1y584yhvq5p2y35/Glass+walls+lisg+editio n.mp3
No Below
https://www.mediafire.com/file/cpi79dyuahemkd4/Lisg+sings+no+below+all +v.mp3
Discussion of other LiS games in the series like Life is Strange 2, TC, Don't Nod's other media like Lost Records, the upcoming TV show and other similar games is welcome!
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>>562773209
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Have you been doing your daily meditation??
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>>562773903
FireThe sad death of the entire franchise, obviously
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How are they gonna do the series with two completely different ending from the game? I hope they expand the after ending more but it seems like it's gonna flop. Also, will they reuse some of the ost in the series?
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>>562799162
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>Woah Max, you saw me and several other students burn to death in the observatory before you jumped back in time to stop it?
>Alright, let me make sure to place all the flammable chemicals I have in the observatory in one place, so if they do catch fire it will spread like crazy
>Oh you saw Chloe burn there too?
>I'm sure you won't mind if I take Chloe there anyway, and take no extra measures for multiple escape routes except a ladder you already told me falls
What the fuck was his problem?
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>>562806789
I'm honestly amazed Max never brought up that Moses and Chloe should just not be on campus when the fire happens. Like the most obvious way to prevent them from dying is just remove them from the situation
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>>562807767
The idea was to always pinpoint the origin of the fire which, with the power of awful writing, happens no matter what. The game then refuses to let you prevent it by way of trial and error and doesn't give you every sensible option related to it e.g. what you suggested and in effect, gives you three hamfisted endings. Game could've been and should've been more.
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I honestly feel like there is some kind of mass psychosis going on. Everyone was criticizing Double Exposure, mostly for valid reasons. Then Reunion comes out, and it’s not really better. It barely has a story at all. It feels like one of the emptiest games I’ve ever played.
But because it gives us some empty characters wearing the skins of Max and Chloe, suddenly everyone loves it? I get it. I think people are just tired and resigned at this point. But come on, have some standards. No one would be praising this game if it didn’t have Max and Chloe in it.
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>As Max and Chloe are leaving the ruins of Arcadia Bay behind, there's one more tragic story unfolding
>Alice and Lisa stuck in Max's room, Alice hasn't eaten anything in days, the dorms are destroyed and no one comes looking for them
>"No one's gonna come save us, this is the end, we'll starve to death..."
>Alice...you can survive this and go back to your owner. All you have to do is... all you have to do is eat me."a times this week did you try to nibble my leafs? I'm a plant, Alice, you're a bunny, maybe it's time I accept my destiny... OUR destiny."
>"Lisa, I can't make this choice!"
>"No Alice, you're the only one who can"
>eat Lisa
https://orph.link/sacrificelisa.mp3
>eat your own foot
https://orph.link/sacrificepaw.mp3
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>>562773323
Safi is actually having a resurgence in fan arts more than Amanda ever will
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>>562799162
>>562805398
Care to explain, Jonathan Zimmerman, why characters who were smart and sensible in the previous game are acting completely brain-dead here? Why did those who were "good under pressure" turn into paranoid wrecks? Why did those who had the strength to keep their dignity end up begging and humiliating themselves like pathetic losers?
Explain yourself, Jonathan.
>>562808782
>>562809946
Lately, my main source of entertainment is watching them praise the exact same things in Reunion that they absolutely trashed in DE. Way more engaging than this creativity bankrupt game itself.
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>>562809946
I honestly feel like at some point the fanbase got replaced by younger people who just want to look at fanart and see girls kiss. Because I genuinely do not understand how anyone can go from the incredible story of Life is Strange to Reunion and think that this was a worthy ending. You really have to have no standards.
And don’t even get me started on Max and Chloe. How are these supposed to be the same characters from Life is Strange? They have almost none of the original characterization. They just feel like some bland Deck Nine version of them. I’m really disappointed in this fanbase. We deserved a much better story, and instead people are celebrating what feels like the worst possible follow-up.
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>>562816816
one lower than Double Exposure
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>>562812480
But that’s the problem with both Double Exposure and Reunion, and honestly, Reunion does it even worse.
In Reunion, Max and Chloe seem to have only one purpose: to love each other. That’s it. There’s nothing else to their personalities, and they don’t even do that particularly well. Aren’t these kids supposed to love epic love stories? Because this was not one. I genuinely feel like I’m going crazy.
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>>562821580
It’s kind of cozy, and it has some nice small-town vibes. But it’s also a bit boring, feels very much like a walking simulator, and most of the characters are kind of forgettable, aside from Alex and Steph. It just doesn’t quite have enough to really stand out.
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>>562807767
They were supposed to stay at the bar, but Moses got the idea that they could be more helpful on campus watching for fire. It's pure plot convenience to get all the main characters together for the climax.
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>>562812107
Tbh, you are somewhat right. But it was the last game, and they were crunching like crazy just to finish it before they went under. It is what it is. I think most people would have wanted something different if they could choose. But have you noticed how insanely dead the fanbase has become? Give it a few years and it will be completely dead. The TV show will be its own separate thing. But we will live on forever here on 4chan
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Damnnnnnn Samantha looks like that now?????
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>>562841593
>Chloe remember both being murdered and surviving the storm with Max?
It should be that easy but the game does a mess out of things so now Chloe has nightmares of her death but if you choose Bae she also believes Arcadia Bay was never hit by a storm or that somehow she's still in good terms with Joyce, and if she's death she remembers her murder but not her going along with Max or the breakup.
Reunion also retcons people having memories about their merged selves so it's like Max revealing she had power to everyone didn't matter at all.
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>>562841593
Safi mentions in the epilogue that she still has awareness of the Lighthouse ghost zone where her dead self lives, so ending Chloe must have memories of both living and dying.
A person being aware that they died in another timeline is apparently what causes a Time Paradox, the Time Paradox tried to force Chloe to die by disabling Max's rewind, but then Max brute-forced past it by freezing time until she could drag over a cart. That doesn't really resolve the Time Paradox in any way, so Time / Destiny should still be trying to kill Chloe now (?)
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>>562808782
>empty characters wearing the skins of Max and Chloe
it is 100% max and chloe, they feel exactly as they did in the first game but appropriately older. Reunion absolutely nailed Max and Chloe
Reunion went out of its way to address feedback about DE and tried to fix everything people hated about it, which is why everyone likes it more
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>>562872035
Same. The Pricefield was great, but everything else was pretty boring. I really wish Amanda and Chloe got to interact more. They had great chemistry. Seeing Charlotte's sculpture and the Puerto Lobos keychain were fun Easter eggs for past games.
I was also really hoping we'd get an update on Alex or Steph, especially since Chloe is friends with Steph and they're both in the same business of travelling musician.
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>>562878008
>I really wish Amanda and Chloe got to interact more. They had great chemistry.
I'm still thinking about this. Total wasted potential. Even with the limited resources they had they could've easily squeezed in more scenes for them.
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>>562808782
>some empty characters wearing the skins of Max and Chloe
Zimmerman and that other woman have this brain-dead idea that character development is just about how much screen time they get. You can tell by how they handled the side characters like Moses and Loretta, not just the leads.
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>>562822572
It's honestly kind of frustrating how little they actually tried to change things or prepare for the fire.
>Focus becomes entirely on finding out who personally starts the fire
>For some reason authorities just ignore hearing a threat of arson to the point to where only a campus cop cares about it
>They could have just closed the observatory for the day to make sure it was empty
>They stocked up with ONE fire extinguisher instead of buying a dozen
>Left flammable chemicals in a building where you know a fire is going to break out
Hell, they didn't even do something like pull a fire alarm before the fires go off, which would cause an evacuation even if it is a false alarm
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’m honestly surprised that Deck Nine gets all the hate. Do people not remember the interviews that were posted here before? Every single word they wrote had to be approved by Square Enix. And then there are the Glassdoor reviews, which painted a picture of weak leadership at Deck Nine that basically just did whatever Square Enix wanted. At that point, you’re blaming the instrument instead of the one holding it.
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Omg the fucked it. They FUCKED it, right in the final stretch. But that other 60% is pretty solid, especially considering the development context. Its clear they learned a lot and actually gave a shit so without dev constraints it would have bern goated.
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>>562936486
gender and sexuality
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kinda unrelated but what do you think about denuvo bypass with hypervisor in reunion?
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>>562937430
The first game has misogyny as one of its themes. It isn't over-the-top, but a lot of the harm inflicted is gender-based. I won't get into specific examples in case you actually want to play it, but it's not all-men-are-evil, more like men and women need to treat women better. It's handled about as well as you can hope for from some French guys in 2015.
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>>562936990
>>562938042
If Amanda is hosting these C.A.G.S. meet-ups, she better be personally testing the products. I want to see her with a gag, ngl
>>562941020
Honestly, it's not the worst example of handling this theme in this medium, mainly because the issue is shown through personal drama rather than through slogans. It's a very fine line to walk, and the risk of devolving into pure activism is always extremely high
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Chloe cute.
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>>562948495
Unironically, that might be exactly why they handled it so carefully. Maybe they just found the right balance intuitively.
But again, it's done very competently there. Those who care about the theme will see it, while those who usually get annoyed by such topics won't be triggered by it
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I keep putting off finishing Reunion because I don't want to close the book on Pricefield forever....
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>>562959808
I hope, if it isn't canceled, after they finish the story of the first game they make an original Max and Chloe on the road story instead of continuing the story of the later games. As much as I like 2, I think it would run into the same audience problems as the game did, and the rest of the games are mid or worse.
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Neat cameo
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>>562962897
>>562963345
>>562963663
>Maisy Stella, known for her role in Nashville, is approximately 5'0" to 5'1" tall
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>>562946887
>I want to see her with a gag, ngl
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>>562985853
The custodian guy felt like distinctly Japanese humor and forcefully brought to my mind that this is a Square-Enix game. These games are so overwhelmingly western that it makes me wonder if SE guys in Japan were more involved in Reunion due to Deck Nine downsizing
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>>562991470
Flopped and forgotten
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>>563015505
>It is also Life Is Strange at its most disappointing; the product of Deck Nine at its most defeatist.
>The pair get some moments to talk through their shared trauma as well as tooth-achingly sweet moments sure to make fans squeal, but it all feels empty. Max and Chloe feel like flat reproductions of their 2015 selves, frozen in the moment fans never want them to leave.
Based
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>>562938341
>decide to try out hypervisor despite the constant fear mongering on reddit
>run the vbs script to disable some windows security needed to start the game
>turns out those security features (like memory integrity or virtualization based security) were already off of my system by default (memory intergrity tanks the fps in games anyway)
>the only thing to do was to restart the pc and disable driver signature enforcement, which re-enables itself every time you restart the pc anyway
>put the game files and the hypervisor "crack" files in defender exclusions so it won't block starting the game
>profit
>after finishing the game, just in case run a full system drive scan in Malwarebytes: no viruses found, also nobody hacked my pc, as many people were trying to "warn" me
Well, in my case that was surprisingly easy to set up and I was playing the game 5 hours after the release lol. Just don't be a retard and don't download sketchy files from the internet, only from trusted sources
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>>563024387
Reunion wasn't made with love or even nostalgia, it was made as an apology to "win back" the fans after the fallout from DE. But, mind you, if DE was a smashing success, they would've kept telling you/Chloefags/Pricefielders to go fuck yourselves.
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>Chloe "I will take a plaque when all of this is over, or a statue"
>choose "statue" and Max says "your tattoos will glow in the dark"
The blackout tattoo will glow in the dark? Or does she have any other tattoos now, like >>562944301 >>562973194
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>>563027047
>if DE was a smashing success, they would've kept telling you/Chloefags/Pricefielders to go fuck yourselves
Looking at the pathetic sales numbers for Reunion, it’s easy to imagine they’re already wishing they’d done exactly that
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>>563027047
>But, mind you, if DE was a smashing success, they would've kept telling you/Chloefags/Pricefielders to go fuck yourselves.
Oh yeah, absolutely. A part of me is glad that DE flopped just because it forced them to finally accept that they completely failed to give the audience what they wanted.
It genuinely amazes me how they had a formula for printing money and just refused to do it. And not only that, but over the years Chloe/Pricefielders fans got so much shit from them
>Interviews/social media comments talking about how you'd have to be a bad person to pick Bae
>LIS2 infamous line of "that's the past, you're the future" from a dev self insert
>Had the fucking AUDACITY to bait that Chloe "might" be back in DE, just for the option to have her alive be meaningless for the plot and give the shitty 'they broke up off screen' option
>Safi so obviously being the replacement Chloe that was shoved down our throats, being told that we should care about her instead of actually trying to make us care for her through good writing
I'm glad these fucking bozos got direct feedback that their game fucking sucked and the ones that weren't fired had to give me my pricefield slop, probably with resentment in their heart. Get fucked
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>>563028483
Which is hilarious, because who the fuck cared about Diamond as a character? Like she wasn't even a main focus in DE, she was just one of many side characters. The most I can say about Diamond is that she wasn't an off putting character, but at the same time she wasn't interesting. She was just bland and I really didn't care about her and Vinhs whole Abraxas club plotline
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>>563028389
If they’d actually fixed what was wrong with DE and doubled down on that in their marketing, instead of wasting their last breath trying to pander to a loud minority, the sales wouldn’t be in the gutter right now
>>563028434
Check the Reunion sales data. Pricefield clearly isn't what the 'audience wanted, and it’s definitely not a 'money-printing' formula
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>>563029073
>Check the Reunion sales data. Pricefield clearly isn't what the 'audience wanted, and it’s definitely not a 'money-printing' formula
It is what the audience wanted, you can confirm that based on the stats of the choices on people who played Reunion
The issue is that a majority of the playerbase completely lost faith in the series after DE. It burned a lot of goodwill with the fans, and that much is obvious with the panicked reaction to bring back Chloe in Reunion.
It's natural that after getting burned on DE, that most fans would hesitate on buying Reunion even if it has what they wanted
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>>563029073
They would've had better gains if they didn't cause friction in the first place, even if Pricefield is just a vocal minority. Frankly, I don't think DE should've starred Max and instead should've just had a new MC just like True Colors.
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>>563029509
>It's natural that after getting burned on DE, that most fans would hesitate on buying Reunion even if it has what they wanted
Reunion is considered soulless anyway, even when fans are told it brought Chloe back and has basically backtracked on everything from thre previous game. People know a cheap cashgrab when they see it.
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>>563029509
>you can confirm that based on the stats of the choices on people who played Reunion
Funny argument, considering the game has zero actual player agency. People don't even get how they ended up with those results when they didn't even pick them
>It's natural that after getting burned on DE, that most fans would hesitate on buying Reunion even if it has what they wanted
Yeah, blame it all on DE. That's a weak argument, anon. The engagement numbers are lower, but they’re still comparable to DE. People just aren't buying a 'game' that has zero game and is nothing but shipper fan service
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>>563029073
>Pricefield clearly isn't what the 'audience wanted
Meanwhile nearly 80% of people who played LiS1 romanced Chloe, and in Reunion nearly everybody. And LiS1 was played by millions of people, which gives you millions hypothetical Pricefielders.
The fact that they don't want to buy "what they wanted" though, is a different topic. Plus, it's been 10 years.
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>>563030440
>LiS1 was played by millions of people, which gives you millions hypothetical Pricefielders.
Most of those people have already moved on and they’re never coming back. No need to act surprised, though, it's not like this happened overnight. The audience has been shrinking with every single game
>Meanwhile nearly 80% of people who played LiS1 romanced Chloe
And? Over 70% of players kissed Amanda in DE, and that wasn't '10 years ago' like you said. Those players are way more likely to come back for a sequel than people who played a game a decade ago. But the devs turned their backs on them just to pander with fanservice. No wonder the sales look like this
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>>563030021
>People don't even get how they ended up with those results when they didn't even pick them
So you didn't romance Chloe in LiS1 and didn't choose to kiss Chloe in Reunion yet it tells you you romanced her? Sure thing, lol.
Somehow I know how I ended up with every result in RE. The only thing I didn't know was how to make Moses and Chloe be "friends" in the ending stats.
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>>563030021
>Yeah, blame it all on DE. That's a weak argument, anon
It's really not. Fans have been asking for more Max and Chloe for over a fucking DECADE. And then when they finally decide to do it, they had the nerve to bring back Max and tell you to your face "if you picked Chloe, they broke up. It was never going to work out, fuck you, enjoy Safi :)"
They destroyed goodwill with the fans who had been asking for more Max and Chloe. We know this for a fact because of the hard rewrite and backtracking on so many things from DE
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>>563031198
>Fans have been asking
>goodwill
Things like these are just speculation. You can't measure that. But engagement and sales numbers are concrete data. And they clearly show that interest before DE was extremely low (with or without Pricefield), and it's even lower for Pricefield as fanservice. It's only been a year and a half and the market hasn't shifted that much, and the fanbase shouldn't have shrunk this drastically, yet here we are
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>>562936990
Wondering how much of this subtle lore-building was inherited from the original team's notes. It's pretty obvious these assets were finished way before they started messing with the sequel's script. Cause a lot of the stuff in this game feels way more 'low-key' than most of the heavy-handed writing.
>>562959808
Reality is slowly setting in for them looking at these numbers. But not for everyone:
>No one would buy that game with Diamond
She's screaming this under a post literally showing that the Pricefield-bait version isn't selling either.
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>>563031863
>Things like these are just speculation. You can't measure that.
We literally can. Why do you think in response to backlash from DE, that D9 rewrote things to bring back Chloe? They already had a plot in mind with Diamond being a playable character.
We both know they did it because they panicked and thought it was something the players wanted more than their original idea.
Cope and seethe all you want, but you can't change that
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>>563038653
If it were an actual competent game with a consistent plot, interesting mechanics (some of which were cut from DE, by the way), real branching paths, more than one romance option - and if they actually marketed that - it would have outsold any fanservice. Selling less than this is literally impossible
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>>563039325
You sound like a Square Enix executive. Adding branching paths, multiple romances, or any of that would not have helped. The story is focused, just not in a way you liked. They clearly just wanted to give the core fanbase a positive send-off, especially with the TV show coming soon. And there was no real way to make any game sell well after Double Exposure. But if you honestly think that Marvel-style nonsense with Diamond would have sold better, then you are delusional.
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>>563043474
>Adding branching paths, multiple romances, or any of that would not have helped.
Oh yeah, adding choices and actual branching to a choice-based game. What a crazy, "wrong" idea.
Jesus...
>They clearly just wanted to give the core fanbase a positive send-off, especially with the TV show coming soon.
And how's that working out? Did they manage to give a "positive send-off" to the 3 people who actually bought this slop?
>Marvel-style nonsense
None of that was ever in the plans
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>>563044770
Again, that sounds like something a clueless Square Enix executive would say. None of that is what made the original game popular in the first place. What made Life is Strange work was the human connection between people.I’m sure sticking to the original plan would have made all those Amanda, Vinh, and Diamond fans very happy. Oh right. They don’t exist. You and the remaining 20 people at r/LifeIsStrangeDE can keep the cope alive, I guess
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>>563047160
Alright, let's break it down. Imagine you're SE and you make a mistake - without any market research, you assume a game featuring Max's return will sell so well that you decide to split it into two parts. All the financial burden of character creation, locations, and assets falls on the first part, while the second is expected to recoup everything and then some. Then you hit reality: sales are a flop, there's no demand.
But what you DO have - and it's your only real capital at this point - is the people who actually bought the game. You know that 70% of them liked it. Most likely, those 70% would buy a direct sequel. These people were invested in the game for various reasons - whether it was Safi's problems, the romance with Amanda, listening to NPC chatter, or Diamond getting powers. Doesn't matter.
And then you find yourself with a sequel already deep in development that can't be canceled, and you make the most idiotic decision possible: not only do you decide to give nothing to the people invested in the game, you stop talking to them entirely. Instead, you run to some other people whose numbers and potential engagement are unknown, and you promise them the moon.
The game comes out. Those who were invested in the previous one get nothing, and those who were promised everything get what they wanted, but only on paper. Just to check a box. The game itself is terrible in quality and even worse in content -partly because the remaining resources were spent on this 'brilliant' pivot.
As a result, sales are low, engagement is dead, and maybe a few people are actually happy. The game will be lucky to even break even, let alone make up for its predecessor. Oh, and it's also the end of the entire franchise. So, tell me, was that a 'normal' decision or not?
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>>563048875
The game was not good, and you’re right that a lot of it felt like checklist material for people who just want to see girls kiss. It had no real substance, and it was not a dignified ending for the series or for Max and Chloe. I really do not understand why people’s standards are so low. At the same time, there has clearly been much more positive engagement around Reunion than there ever was around Double Exposure. There’s so much more fan art and discussion in fandom spaces, while Double Exposure inspired almost none of that.
And the rest of your logic is very flawed, and I think you know that.
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>>563048875
>Then you hit reality: sales are a flop, there's no demand.
>But what you DO have - and it's your only real capital at this point - is the people who actually bought the game. You know that 70% of them liked it. Most likely, those 70% would buy a direct sequel. These people were invested in the game for various reasons - whether it was Safi's problems, the romance with Amanda, listening to NPC chatter, or Diamond getting powers. Doesn't matter.
This is what stumps me the most. They already had an established audience for what comes next. A paltry amount sure, but it's most likely a guarantee that whoever bought DE will return for its conclusion. They could've even gone the usual route of the "EPIC CONCLUSION TO THE LIFE AND STRANGE SERIES" which is a definite head-turner and could've garnered a few more customers but the marketing then turns a 180, signalling to their established base that none of their decisions mattered and the story they were invested in is gone. It even retroactively shits on the people that played the first game, none of their choices mattered at all.
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>>563049890
>At the same time, there has clearly been much more positive engagement around Reunion than there ever was around Double Exposure.
Oh, that's really nice. Now tell me how exactly that helps the actual salesnumbers?
>There’s so much more fan art and discussion in fandom spaces, while Double Exposure inspired almost none of that
The problem is, the people making that fan art are the same ones who've been drawing it for years. This game didn't bring in anyone new. As for the discussions, I'm active in those spaces too, and I wouldn't say the hype is anything special
>And the rest of your logic is very flawed, and I think you know that
A bird in the hand instead of a mythical crane in the sky? I wouldn't call that flawed. Practical maybe
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>>563049890
They also make a mistake and assume they would have recouped money with the sequel. SE expected DE to be an hit from the get go and DE2 to just add to that. It's barely recouping the money spent for both games, and that's not good
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>>563051964
But my point still stand, DE2 as it was originally planned with Diamond as the second main playable character and the people with powers plot would have been a worse flop. You can't refute this point because you already aknowledged there's no demand to the type of story DE offered
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>>563052216
>you already aknowledged there's no demand to the type of story DE offered
My point was that regardless of the demand level, they completely ignored it and replaced it with something purely illusory. Ironically, this is now being reflected in very real, very low numbers
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>>563052825
>DE didn't bring in anyone new either
DE showed the actual size of the audience the franchise has left at this point
>They had nothing to lose by changing direction
Well, the abysmal sales figures tell otherwise
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>>563048875
The real asset is Life is Strange, Max, and Chloe. And if the TV show does well, some soulless executive will probably try to cash in on the brand, whether that means selling it off or pushing some kind of reboot. That's is probably why we got Reunion instead of Double Exposure 2.
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>>563053774
Explain this to me: how would a game where both people invested in DE and Pricefielders got what they wanted sell worse than a game where only the Pricefielders got a half-baked, poorly executed fanservice like in Reunion?
>>563053951
>The real asset is Life is Strange, Max, and Chloe
That hasn't been true for a long time. The game is dogshit even with them in it, and that's why it sold poorly.
It matters even less for the TV show. If it's actually good and Amazon handles it right, it'll be fine. But if it's garbage and Amazon fumbles it again, it's going the way of Paper Girls or whatever
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>>563055140
>But if it's garbage and Amazon fumbles it again, it's going the way of Paper Girls or whatever
They really handled that badly. It was like a gutted show that airs on the sci-fi channel as a rerun during the wee hours
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>>563055383
According to sales aggregators, DE's total sales haven't hit the 500k mark. Since that's the number being thrown around, let's assume it's capped out right there. 7 out of 10 people liked the game, which means we have about 350,000 people
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>>563055140
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Max and Chloe have name recognition, and that matters. They are the faces of Life is Strange, the characters most people know, and the ones most strongly tied to the series’ success. That alone makes them easier to sell than anything new.
>>563055815
Amazon is betting heavily on video game adaptations right now, and the people involved in this project actually seem competent. I think it has a pretty fair chance of succeeding.
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>>563055658
>so DE2 was always going to be crap, thank you for admitting the truth
You’re intentionally ignoring the first part of my reply addressed to you - the part about what the game should have been like to satisfy the largest possible part of the fanbase
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>>563055140
>Explain this to me: how would a game where both people invested in DE and Pricefielders got what they wanted sell worse than a game where only the Pricefielders got a half-baked, poorly executed fanservice like in Reunion?
Holy shit the reading comprehension of the retarded pricefielders left in this thread not being able to parse this. I'm fairly convinced now they're all ESLs that just can't understand anything at all.
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>>563056560
It would have been very difficult to combine those two completely different visions into one game, and it would have required far more time and resources than anyone was willing to spend after Double Exposure
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>>563056162
>Max and Chloe have name recognition, and that matters
You're living in a delusion, just like an SE executive. Let's see how much that name recognition actually matters: in just two weeks, the game featuring them has already tanked to the 220 in top sellers. Twitch interest is zero. Viewer ratio is a pathetic 18.1. Same story on YouTube. It's quiet everywhere you look, and that's just for the game.
As for the show, you've got it backwards: no matter how big the name or the heroes, it's the show that brings the audience to the game, not the other way around. Especially when we're talking about a game that's well-known but still very much a niche
>>563056628
>First of all, what makes you think a DE2 would be the game Pricefielders actually wanted?
In the state it was originally planned? Doubtful. But if they added fanservice in reasonable amounts instead of stupidly using it to replace everything else, then that's exactly what it would've been
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>>563062241
I think the fire plot is mostly unchanged from the original plan for DE2 other than Chloe being involved in the investigation. This idea that an amazing story existed and was scrapped just seems unlikely. Even if there were great story elements that we missed out on, it would have been lackluster in execution due to a lack of dev time anyway.
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>>563069428
you can tell exactly what was made before the pivot. the beginning and the mabon party actually have some polish, unlike the rest of the game
>than Chloe being involved in the investigation
that's exactly where all the resources went. they should've made her just part of a single investigation branch instead of the whole thing
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>>563070510
I mostly liked Reunion even outside of the fanservice aspect, so I can't say it was wasted time. It's serviceable, but I can see a better game in it if they had more time. The climax is actually one of the best in the whole series.
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>>563069428
>I think the fire plot is mostly unchanged from the original plan for DE2
I do believe they changed the main reason for the plot from a supernatural powered cause to a more mundane event like Vinh and the other guy setting Caledon on fire
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I’m surprised by this debate. Do people not remember that Double Exposure was originally one game that got split into two? And this was meant to be the start of several games and spin-offs. At least that was the plan.
The next part was going to be Diamond and Max discovering bigger conspiracies tied to Safi’s family, Max’s powers, and even a link back to Arcadia Bay. That was all being set up for future games. It was also introducing two new characters with powers. And Chloe was being saved for something later down the line.
It was never going to work, and the writing team was glad they got to change direction
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>>563088903
How would I know that. But a lot of things were mocapped that went unused.
>>563088970
They didn’t rewrite the entire game. They just changed it.
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>>563090654
>They didn’t rewrite the entire game.
they could’ve easily left that out if it doesn't make sense anymore. it wouldn't have affected the overall plot of Reunion at all.
>They just changed it.
what exactly did they change?
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>>563039325
I have no idea why you believe that. DE was a trainwreck, and the studio very clearly responded and pivoted to what they believed would sell the best after the backlash.
You're entirely ignoring that a majority of the people who got burned with DE were never going to put their faith in ANY sequel. Especially when it's a very easy game to just watch a streamer/youtuber play without spending any money on it and not feel like you missed out on any gameplay
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>>563048875
>You don't understand, there was MARKET RESEARCH TO SHOW PEOPLE WANTED MAX BACK
People have been asking for another Max and Chloe game for a fucking decade. I have no idea why you're refusing to acknowledge this. You're in a fucking general that has posted max and chloe content for more than 10 years.
>Dude SE just made an idiotic decision with absolutely no research at all to what the fans wanted!
No, more like SE came into the room, flopped their fat dick on the table and said "Rewrite this piece of dogshit immediately to whatever a majority of the fans want", and surprise surprise, it ended up being bringing Chloe back
It's laughable that you think this wasn't a decision based on research, internal data, and what they thought would sell the most after experiencing the backlash of DE
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>>563048875
>or Diamond getting powers.
Absolutely no one gave a shit that Diamond was getting powers. In fact, it's a huge reason why people made fun of DE for their "avengers assemble" tier ending of Safi running off to find people with powers, with absolutely no plan in mind on how to do it.
In fact, Diamond and the decision to give her powers was so unpopular, that they went from originally planning to have her be a playable character, to giving her a fucking phone call cameo at the end of the game. You are fucking delusional if you believe that anyone cared about Diamond. You keep screeching about 'data this, data that', but at the same time believe that the rewrites were simply done on an impulse and not a data driven move in response to all the feedback from the flop
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>>563103604
>majority
You're throwing those words around pretty easily while ignoring the fact that DE's sales matched its engagement perfectly. As for how many people burned out and wouldn't return - that's all just pure speculation
>watch a streamer/youtuber
The stream numbers are pathetic too. Nobody is interested in the game in its current form
>>563104107
>People have been asking for another Max and Chloe game for a fucking decade. I have no idea why you're refusing to acknowledge this
They have, but now that we finally got that game, the sales made it clear that there aren't actually that many of them. They simply can't sustain the sales needed for the game to even break even
>You're in a fucking general that has posted max and chloe content for more than 10 years.
I've been lurking here long enough to know that for most of that time, it was just one person posting the same shit on repeat. You can see for yourself how often this thread has to be dragged back from page 10 - and it's only been two weeks since the release of a game dedicated entirely to Pricefield
>>563104648
>Absolutely no one gave a shit that Diamond was getting powers. In fact, it's a huge reason why people made fun of DE
Maybe, but if you actually look at social media and read the reviews - especially the low-score ones - you'll see it's the second most asked question after "where are the other romance paths?" Whether the idea was good or bad, they planted it in people's heads and then just completely failed to address it or provide any payoff
>You keep screeching about 'data this, data that', but at the same time believe that the rewrites were simply done on an impulse and not a data driven move in response to all the feedback from the flop
I have no idea what data they used for the rewrites, but judging by the engagement being comparable to DE and the sales being even lower, whatever they made is definitely not what people wanted
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>>563113082
>I've been lurking here long enough to know that for most of that time, it was just one person posting the same shit on repeat.
Kek, you mean the "comfy" times that keeps being thrown around here? What a fucking joke. It's a shame the earliest archives are only from 2019 onwards but that's been going on even before that. Once the LiS 2 and TC hype died down, the general regressed back to that infantile shit.
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>>563115467
The story in these games... it still blows me away.
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>>563076449
1 absolutely climaxed with this scene. Maxgoing through hell in the dark room only to drive straight into the storm for her one last hope of saving Chloe while wearing her necklace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FRVoa1L3LI
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>>563113082
I've gotta be honest here. It just seems like you're too stupid to understand the simple concept that if people didn't like a game, they aren't likely to come back for the sequel, even if the sequel promises to fix things. There's really no point in a conversation if you can't accept this. It's like being unable to understand why customers who got food poisoning from a burger place wouldn't come back even if you promise the next burger won't make them sick
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>>563113082
Jesus, this is just sad. The idea that there are hordes of DE fans who refused to buy Reunion because the worst romance options in the entire series were not included is just pure delusion. That’s just your own wishful thinking. You’re just using Max for some weird personal fantasy
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Wolf-bros...
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>>563141265
>Sean and Daniel
Complete flop. Devs literally had to bail.
>Alex and Steph
Released at the perfect time, yet barely broke even. They panicked and brought Max back to save the franchise.
>Max and Chloe
Marketed as the "epic finale," but sold a pathetic 60k copies in two weeks. Already tanked to #257 on the top sellers.
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>>563143921
And bringing Max back failed too. But it was probably their best chance. Like it or not, DE was just the wrong game, and the timing was terrible too. It didn’t help that it was poorly written and had unlikable characters.
But what does it matter now? We just have to accept that it’s over.
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>>563126158
>7 out of 10 people who played DE liked it.
You keep throwing this statistic around, but I don't think it's based on anything real. The steam reviews for the game are mixed, and very obviously the rewrites happened because D9 did not have confidence that enough people liked the direction they were going in.
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>>563144848
Bringing back Max without Chloe was always going to end badly. I have no idea why the writers thought it would work. Especially since once you remove Chloe and the rewind powers, there's not really a reason to have Max be the protag other than nostalgia baiting. DE with a new protag and more polish could have been okay. But with Max people were hoping/expecting for the type of quality we got from the first LIS, which obviously DE did not have
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>>563146494
>very obviously the rewrites happened because D9 did not have confidence that enough people liked the direction they were going in
Don't even look at what D9/SE are doing. They're completely clueless and prove it with every single move. Imagine being so delusional that you start pushing ads a few days after launch just because of 3k positive reviews. It's a narrative game, ffs. They're literal idiots.
I bet they're genuinely wondering right now why sales are so abysmal. Even with a cut marketing budget, this is nowhere near the numbers they expected from Pricefield bait
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>>563147995
technically he's right, 68% is basically 7 out of 10. steam only has a binary choice anyway.
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>>563146641
Obviously. And it also needed to follow up the story of Life is Strange in a meaningful way, which means the best time to make that sequel was probably five years ago.
I also think the whole Chloe situation is kind of funny. They probably had focus groups and surveys telling them that Chloe was controversial, so they decided to try making a sequel without her. But that ignores the simple fact that the people most interested in a sequel were fans of Max and Chloe.
And then they replaced her with Safi, who is worse in almost every possible way. I really do think the people behind Double Exposure were just deeply incompetent.
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>>563144848
>unlikable characters
suddenly all these unlikeable characters are fan favorites now. Pricefielders caught Safi-mania out of nowhere. i've seen many of them saying they just want to vibe with Amanda and wish the Turtle was a real place. those who actually played DE are just sitting here like wtf? crazy how fickle people are, lol
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>>563149692
>I really do think the people behind Double Exposure were just deeply incompetent.
This really is the core of the issue. The concept of bringing Max back without Chloe was already a bad idea, especially when you insult the fans who chose to save Chloe by telling them she dumps Max off screen. It would have taken incredible writing to make up for the already bad concept, but what we got was just terrible
>Safi is absolutely intended to be a replacement Chloe, while being an insufferable terrible person, ie her choosing to traumatize Lucas's kid for petty revenge against Lucas
>We get TOLD that Safi is such a great person and important to Max without actually seeing their relationship develop or anything like that. We hardly get any scenes with her before she's dead and timelines split
>Other than being told that Safi is super important to Max, we the player don't really see a compelling reason why Max would risk a storm all over again just to save her. It worked with Chloe in the first game because Max saved her when she had no idea it would cause a storm
>Turns out Max doesn't have to choose when it's not Chloe and can just undo the storm, spitting in the face of the first games ending entirely
The entire LIS franchise can be a case study for why sometimes you should just give the fans what they want instead of insisting you know better. It's ridiculous that between DontNod and D9 it took them 10 years of kicking and screaming about how Max/Chloe are the past, to finally accept that if they wanted to sell more copies they had to bring them back. And even then they fucked it with DE because they were sure they knew better.
If a proper Max/Chloe sequel came out 5 years ago it would have sold like hotcakes
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>>563154020
>If a proper Max/Chloe sequel came out 5 years ago it would have sold like hotcakes
What happened to the 'If MUH CHLOE was in DE it would've sold millions' rhetoric, clown? Abandoned it already? Seeing how hard Reunion is flopping, you had to shift the goalposts retrospectively?
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>>563154597
If Chloe was in DE it would have sold better than it did. That doesn't change the fact that they struck when the iron was fucking ice cold when fans had been wanting more Max and Chloe ever since the first game. From the trailer of LIS2 people were telling them they wanted more Max and Chloe and were ignored
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>>563149692
>I really do think the people behind Double Exposure were just deeply incompetent.
Key decision makers were definitely incompetent. But seeing how clunky and surface-level the writing in Reunion is, for both the leads and the DE cast, the people who wrote them in DE actually went up in my book a little
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>>563150639
>>563151351
They’ll figure it out eventually
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>>563166775
>>563166598
Reunion was ass, but so was DE and you will keep seething your story was completley shat on by hack Zimmerman
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>>563167987
>n-no y-you
ya love to see it kek
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>>563168639
>>563168551
Are you going to keep coping that Deck Nine is shameless and without any ounce of artistic integrity and will bend down to any small or bigger backlash?
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>>563168887
>y-you should seethe at w-what I'm s-seething at
LMAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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>>563170321
>I know, I-I'll move goalposts. T-That'll show them
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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>>563169348
>>563170705
Chill out, dude. This guy spent 18 months seethung over DE and calling it slop, just to end up with Premium Slop 2.0. Same assets, same NPCs, but now with a mid and bloated version of his favorite character as 'apology bait'. He’s on suicide watch right now, go easy on him
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>>563170882
Oh, I'm well aware. Been here long enough to see the usual drivel the shitfielders shit out. It shifted from "you love slop" to "doesn't matter it'll be slop anyways" to "actually it isn't slop because my ship is in the game". The circus never ends.
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>>563171416
Yeah, just vibing while it burns down. Cheers, anon.
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>>563172428
Right back at ya.
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>>563147883
D9 is beyond clueless. Imagine spending all that money on nostalgia baiting Max and Chloe fans just to peak at 18k viewers on Twitch.
Two weeks in and it's already sub-1k? Lmao. Even the most hardcore shills can't spin this.
900 average viewers for a brand new LiS game with Max? That's not just a flop, it's a funeral.
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>>563178297
They are people with really weird opinions who have nowhere else to go. They have the wrong opinions about just about everything tied to LiS, and if they ever shared those opinions with the writers of the game, the writers would look at them like they were aliens. They know that’s true, and it just makes them bitter. Especially that DE mod, who is a weirdo.
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>>563200551
>LGB
>who you are attracted to
>T
>surgical mutilation, synthetic hormones, and denial of biological reality
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>>563206830
Why so hateful towards trans people? Why you make it seems like gender reassignment surgery is like mutilation, which is not? I'll never understand the amount of nonsense to which you retards always fall into
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>>563210058
It's more a strong annoyance than hate. And 99% of that annoyance comes from the pronoun shit. You don't get to rewrite language to indulge your narcissism. If you are clearly a dude but with long hair and girl clothes, I'm still going to call you a dude. You're welcome to exist and be happy or whatever, but fuck off expecting me to change my language rules for you.
This really is my primary issue. It's fucking irritating.
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>>563218745
Who knows, they might include her in the show if they're truly doing their own thing. It just won't line up quite well with the events, if they make it work at all, since iirc, the official reason she dropped out of Blackwell was lack of tuition money. She's not really relevant at all unfortunately unless she helps with Rachel's disappearance.
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>>563221821
I wasn't prepared for how much the song's absence would affect my overall enjoyment of the game. That song is the audio personification of LiS to me. Every time I hear it, I picture a beautiful cliff on the Pacific overlooking a sleepy small town in autumn at sunset with a lighthouse nearby.
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>>563220225
I got fitting end when everyone lived?
>>563226934
I wonder if Morali said no.
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>>563228761
>>563231063
Wait, it's possible to save everyone? I just assumed based on the ending choice of whether or not to give Max the photo, someone had to canonically die.
Why THE FUCK would Max ever consider time hopping back through the photo, undoing her relationship with Chloe, and potentially risking fucking it up and someone else dying, if she saved everyone? Like what's the point? To save the building so the school doesn't have to rebuild? At what point can Max decide that it's good enough that she doesn't need to go back
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>>563231746
In the original game Max has the option to destroy the photo and be done with it, which is something she shouldn't be lingering for the rest of her life. Pretty dumb of D9 to make her regress like that but whatever
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>>563231491
The easiest person to die is Jenette. You can very easily miss the poster that lets Max deduce where she is, because you are running towards the observatory and dont think to stop on the route to look at a noticeboard just out of sight.
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let's go
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The world is a strange place. The VA of Safi joined a super small Safield discord server. Filled with super horny teenagers who posts porn of mainly Max getting rammed by Safi. Did Hannah ever do something like this?
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>>563289920
>Did Hannah ever do something like this?
Of course not, also the SafiXMax shippers are just generalist toxic yuri fans, they'll jump to the next big thing once they realize their ship just hasn't a market nor long lasting interest
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>>563291970
>>563292392
A lot of these fans are just fans of girls kissing. I kind of doubt they have even played the game at all. You can see that in how many of them love Amberprice without understanding a single thing about that relationship.
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Which Chloe concept would you have gone with?
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>>563322016
concept art from Jan-Wah Li
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Daddy Square Enix is not going to be happy…
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>>563361139
TOTAL BOMBED, I guess. Lmao. Absolute embarrassment.
Imagine failing to hit the Famitsu Top 30 when the entry barrier is literally just a few thousand copies. This is what happens when you pivot your entire game to cater to a loud minority.
Actions meet consequences.
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I'm replaying through DE + RE, and I wish they had done more with pic related. Probably the most interesting plot point in those games and it's immediately forgotten.
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>>563377518
unironically, that was one of the most common complaints from shitfielders themselves
>>563377615
pretty much
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>>563220225
The worst ending has the most dimes song https://youtu.be/xRNcsODlmcE?&t=2182
Goes perfectly with the montage
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I HATE ALL PRICEFIELD HATING NIGGERS ITT
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>>563378921
>We brought it back
lmao >>563361139
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>>563379571
>Max's nightmare
I know the nightmare scene is semi-real in DE, but is there any context to show it continued Alderman's story rather than referenced him?
>>563379850
I think fans care more about it than the writers ever did.
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>>563380203
>is there any context to show it continued Alderman's story rather than referenced him?
Pretty sure there were more scenes in different locations. In one of them, he was meant to be stuck between worlds and stalking Max. I just don't remember if there was a choice to actually save him or pull him out
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>>563379129
The DLC to the worst selling Life is Strange sold poorly. What a surprise. But I am sure continuing the trainwreck that was DE would have worked. DE fans are truly the worst faction of the LiS fanbase.
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>>563384365
DE sold exactly according to its engagement - no more, no less. RE has similar engagement metrics, yet the sales and viewership are lower
>>563384381
If they properly handled a healthy dose of fanservice for the pricefielders and marketed it as 'we fixed all the issues from the last game' - absolutely yes
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>>563384725
>If they properly handled a healthy dose of fanservice for the pricefielders and marketed it as 'we fixed all the issues from the last game' - absolutely yes
Being this delusional. There really is no hope for you my friend
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>>563386218
I mean, what is there to even wonder about? Just look at the facts: the game comes out, the initial interest is low, so it sells poorly. You're left with three groups: people who liked it and would probably buy a sequel, people who were meh about it for objective reasons, and shippers who were pissed because it wasn't about their ship.
When you have a sequel coming out soon, the only logical move is to try and satisfy all three. Tell the first group that the stories and characters they liked will continue. Tell the second group that you've fixed the issues - no more mid-game pacing slumps, better mechanics. And tell the third group they'll get their fanservice and a happy ending. That's it. Any other approach is a guaranteed failure, and that's exactly what we're seeing right now
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>>563387042
A hard truth and a very hard one to swallow at that. It really didn't help they got the absolute worst directors and writers to handle the job. How they can go from the Expanse game to whatever reunion is, regardless of the time crunch, is baffling.
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>>563387042
>Tell the first group that the stories and characters they liked will continue. Tell the second group that you've fixed the issues - no more mid-game pacing slumps, better mechanics. And tell the third group they'll get their fanservice and a happy ending
This game was already being crunched hard to be out in less than a year, blame Square Enix and D9 management for roping everyone into a shitty deal
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>>563342586
>>563344587
After that anon's hints, I was low-key hoping they'd throw an Epstein files joke into Amanda's stand-up set. But the writers turned out to be total pussies, and lazy as hell too. They didn't write any actual jokes at all and all we got was just a single callback to a joke from the previous game. It was purely lame and sucked hard
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>max literally toys around and plays with this on a whim, with a flick of her wrist
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>>563387042
Double Exposure only reached those sales numbers because of marketing and because they pushed the game hard across different channels, including influencers. The next game was never going to get that same kind of push, because the resources were not there anymore. I would guess that even now, plenty of people who played Double Exposure do not even know that a new game has come out.
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As a die hard Pricefielder who waited to play DE until Reunion came out, I like Amanda. She's a good character to franchise and I can see why her and max have fans. I dont understand why people gave them such shit when the game out.
Pricefield is still the OTP, though.
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>>563395712
There are three main reasons. First, for Pricefielders, Max being with anyone else is pure blasphemy. Second, Amanda is objectively a better person and more mature than Chloe - she's self-sufficient and doesn't need constant saving. Third, because of that, Max finally let go and lusted after Amanda for real. It caused massive envy, and it still does, judging by how they're commenting on the romantic aspect in Reunion
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>>563395712
>>563396820
My issue with Amanda and Moses is that they don't have any flaws. They're boring. D9 tried to make them cool and relateable without being tryhard, and they end up with a big pile of boring
>snarky native american lesbian bar owner who likes punk music and also does stand-up comedy
>intellectual black space nerd who likes anime and MtG
it reeks of trying too hard without trying too hard
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>>563400010
As for Amanda, she definitely has flaws, or rather, she had them. She's clearly meant to be 'Amanda 2.0' in this game, because the whole point of her romance is to question your morals. They made her this way just to make it as painful as possible to lie to someone who's actively trying to be their best self.
As for Moses, I had a whole theory about his 'perfection', but it's moot now that the sequel basically retconned everything
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>>563401680
Real drama comes from external stakes and moral dilemmas, not just having characters treat each other like shit for 'depth.' Liking toxic slop doesn't make you a connoisseur of fiction, it just means you have the emotional maturity of a 14-year-old on Tumblr
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>>563402049
>Real drama comes from external stakes and moral dilemmas, not just having characters treat each other like shit for 'depth.'
Literally the whole set up of LiS1, Max and Chloe have drama coming from external stakes and Max deals with moral dilemmas
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>>563398310
It’s extremely noticeable. A lot of the side characters in Life is Strange had their own fan clubs, fan art, and fan stories for years after the game came out. But the Deck Nine games never really managed to write side characters that could live on in the same way. And I do think Double Exposure was their worst attempt.
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>>563403690
This is just 'the grass was greener' type of whining. The only reason those characters had fan clubs is because the audience were literal kids back then. LiS1 side characters weren't special, and for the most part they were poorly written archetypes that literally ran on high school stereotypes with terrible and inexcusable actions.
Ho back to Tumblr or whatever the fuck you crawled from.
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>>563388071
>they got the absolute worst directors and writers to handle the job. How they can go from the Expanse game to whatever reunion is
Haven't played Expanse, but yeah, the writing and directing in Reunion are abysmal
>>563390098
>lazy as hell too. They didn't write any actual jokes at all and all we got was just a single callback to a joke from the previous game
This too. They just skimmed the lore-book and called it a day. Zero effort put into actual writing
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I'm kinda depressed it's over.
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>>563436395
It will never be over here at /lisg/.
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Happy Birthday Swann! 47 today!
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>>563443921
>And if Joyce is alive, then David should still be with her, no?
David should be surprised to suddently find that Chloe and Arcadia Bay exist together, but much like the other past LiS1 characters is handwaved away and whatever trauma might be related to the merge won't be addressed at all because of convenient plot amnesia
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>>563436395
I thought I wasn't going to be, but then they had to go and show those clips from the first two games and now I'm bummed the fuck out I'll never see these characters again. Those games helped me through the toughest part of my life.
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>>563387042
>When you have a sequel coming out soon, the only logical move is to try and satisfy all three
This is literally the exact same line of thinking that killed DE lmao
>Okay, we're bringing back Max, so we have to pick which ending from the original game is canon
>Actually, what if we "respect both endings" and let you pick which ending you went with, but ultimately it changes literally nothing because we're too cowardly to pick an ending and say that's the canon one
There's literally terms like designed by committee that tell you why it's a bad idea to try pandering to everyone instead of your core demographic
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>>563400010
>>563400957
Funny enough they accidentally wrote Amanda to be a bad person in Reunion because they didn't think hard enough about the implications of Lucas being at The Turtle all the time. It clearly implies that Amanda is okay with Lucas being there even though she knows he drove a girl to suicide. She fucking kicked someone out for not liking her grilled cheese before, but Lucas can stay lmao
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>>563445371
>>563443921
>>563436395
People would have called it nostalgia bait, but you know what would have been nice?
>Night before the fire, Chloe tells Max that she needs to try to relax, that they should go out for dinner or a drink
>When you get there turns out Chloe arranged to have Joyce, and maybe David too, drive out to see Max
>Small scene of Max catching up, asking about Arcadia Bay, and Joyce saying how happy she is to see the two of them together again
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>>563452467
Just another example of peak lazy writing and zero quality control in this game. Literally all they had to do was check the lorebook or read the messages for five seconds.
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>>563455732
All they had to do was make a new place that we could run into Lucas at. But they obviously wanted to reuse as many assets as they could.
Ironically it makes Amanda come across like a horrible person who will look past what Lucas did because she wants to keep getting maybe $50 a night from him drinking lmao
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>>563456027
Lazy hacks probably just used the Recovery benefit lot as a massive cop-out to justify him being there
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>>563457508
The Lucas situation and a few small things really made parts of the plot feel lazy, or like a first draft they didn't think about a lot.
>Vihn successfully steals the body remains from the Abraxas house and gets away with them
>RETURNS TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME to burn the remains in the dumpster instead of going literally anywhere else, like the fucking woods with a bonfire
>Moses is shown to be this incredibly smart guy who can somehow figure out Maxs powers
>At the same time he's an absolute fucking idiot wanting to go exactly where Max said he and Chloe die in the fire to "help out"
>When the observatory is on fire, Max finds a back entrance and goes in to save Moses and Chloe. But instead of taking them out the way she came in, she takes them to the fucking roof
I feel like with Moses they knew they were writing him to be an idiot at the end and that's why they threw in the whole "Oh I get scatterbrained under stress" bit
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>>563436395
>>563449323
the ending montage hit me right in the feels. I went into Reunion with zero expectations and was shocked by how much I enjoyed it. It feels fucking good to have Max and Chloe back again. After all that suffering they get their happy ending.
the live action's still on the horizon so there's always that to look forward it
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>>563465145
That ending was anything but happy. It literally shat all over everything established in LiS1 and LiS2's Bae route. You're just a brainlet with shit taste and zero media literacy. People like you enabled this slop, and now the series is ruined
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>>563466495
NTA I think the ending is happy enough on immediate impression, but there are some implications with the photo jumping that doesn't sit right. The original game made it clear that there was only one timeline that Max was rewriting with her powers and Reunion goes in the multiverse direction instead, probably because of DE's use of parallel timelines. I already didn't love the change to photo jumping where Max fully returns to that moment rather than her consciousness entering the past temporarily, but again, they did that shit in DE for no good reason and maybe that influenced things. Either way, the idea that Max is disappearing from the timeline she's in and abandoning her friends is not happy and pretty fucked, actually. No idea why they would do that.
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>>563478680
I remember after DE came out delusional fans defended how they handled Chloe and kept peddling "they respected both endings"
The writers didn't respect the Bae ending at all. They very clearly wrote a continuation of Bay, and then gave you some flavor text that changed nothing about the plot if you picked Bae.
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>>563473697
To be fair that is only a possible theory Moses has. He even says it’s not fact, it’s just a question he has because he hasn’t played the first game. The first game makes it clear that there is no new timelines, it’s just one that is overwritten.
Just recognize speculation is just that and know that’s not how it works.
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>>563482474
Not that anon, but I think overall making it so Max can permanently jump back in time through photos and stay, instead of projecting her mind to the past temporarily really muddies the waters on things. Especially since jumping to the past and changing things seems to not influence a storm or anything like that to happen.
It opens up even more complications, not just about the ending. How much can Max use this power with no consequences? Could she take a photo of herself before a lottery drawing, get the winning numbers, and then jump back in time to win the lottery? And as long as she can always jump back, there's no real stakes to the plot or really anything in her life
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>>563486431
Lmao >>563486959 This anon gets it. We didn't like DE, and in the end we won because the devs back peddled on it. And the fact that it makes you so angry you're in here screeching about it is just the cherry on top
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>>563387042
It’s pure management incompetence. They mistook Twitter noise for actual market demand.
They saw 3,000 negative reviews from multi-accounting cultists and panicked. Instead of building on the 350k-500k people who bought the previous game, they did a desperate pivot to please the crowd who only cares about this game for Tumblr screenshots.
Now they have their fake positive reviews, but the sales are non-existent because they alienated the only real audience they had left. Classic SE fumbling the bag.
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>>563506527
>350k-500k people who bought the previous game
Square Enix called the sales of DE very poor, it bombed hard for their standards. Do you really believe they cared that much to continue a direction that would have been commercially unsuccessful and critically panned?
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>>563515178
She doesn't really have anything to fall back on. The game doesn't say if she has any other qualifications iirc, the prequel comic and Out of Focus may say otherwise though. It beats being stuck in an office but everything about it really hinges on the band's success which, in part, is her ability to book gigs, do promotion for them etc. and that's a lot of pressure. If Izzie grew up and stopped being a neurotic mess, then they might have a chance. Otherwise, >>563516143 is right. That's the best ending for her or in the other timeline with Rachel.
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>>563516143
>>563516961
As much as i liked Reunion, i still think of the comic as my canon. The ending is such a wholesome, satisfying end that i feel better about it.
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>>563516143
The comics have their flaws, but Chloe seems like a real person in the comics and her actions build on her personality in Life is Strange. I couldn't tell you a single thing about the personality of Chloe as shown in DE and Reunion
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>>563506527
What’s to say they haven’t already gotten most of the sales they were ever going to get? Let’s say DE sold around 400k copies across all platforms. It seems completely plausible to me that Reunion has sold around 200k copies based on what we can see. The player base was just that small. I just don't see any direction they could have gone with the time and resources they had that would have gone better.
It’s honestly ridiculous how badly DE sold. It’s by far the worst-selling LiS game.
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>>563533883
Judge for yourself
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>>563534312
>Safi and Diamond actually were just chasing fucking reddit rumors and conspiracy theories trying to find people with powers
This is actually fucking hilarious. Her entire plan of "finding people like us" was looking up fucking ghost stories or rumors online and fact checking them lmao.
I can't believe they thought anyone would get invested in the finding other people with powers cliff hanger
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>>563516143
>>563516961
"broke band manager" is kinda where I expected Chloe to end up
>dropped out of high school
>stoner
>abrasive personality
she'd be lucky to get a job flipping burgers before she inevitably cusses out her manager and gets fired
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Since Reunion came out I decided to bite and play Double Exposure.
As usual it's not nearly as bad as you idiots make it out to be, Amanda's nothing special and the writing's nothing special and the way they've written Chloe out is comically bad but I'm enjoying myself overall.
Also Safi best girl and Gwen an ugly little shit.
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>>563549674
typical pissfielder today:
>buys DE after playing RE
>thinks the game "isn't as bad as they said" (average filtered lorelet who can't form his own opinion)
>actually enjoys Safi
>seethes over Amanda
>inserts the rest of the standard NPC kit here
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>>563549674
My thoughts exactly, except Safi is a raging cunt.
If they had written a better excuse for Chloe not being there I might have liked the game as much as True Colors. The laziness of it was insultingly dumb though.
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>>563552109
I was in a similar boat regarding Safi back then, but I decided to hold off on any final conclusions since the game was such a massive sequel-bait. I actually liked Amanda too. Not a Pricefielder, but I was genuinely curious to see how they'd handle that dynamic
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>>563551761
>buys DE after playing RE
I didn't play Reunion, I'm playing through DE to get the context needed to understand everything in Reunion.
My bad for not being overly explicit with you idiots.
>filtered lorelet
No, the game is definitely not as bad as you're making it out to be, flawed as it is.
>seethes over Amanda
Whatever gave you that impression?
Is anything, based on my post you could say I'm seething about Gwen.
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>>563554127
>to get the context needed to understand everything in Reunion
Half the shit that happens in Reunion is completely untied from DE so you do you
>the game is definitely not as bad as you're making it out to be
It's mediocre and forgettable like the rest of the Deck Nine games
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I like LiS2 and think it's the most mechanically sound game in the franchise.
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>>563549674
>Also Safi best girl
I genuinely don't know how people can like Safi. We get basically no meaningful moments with her, and instead of making the player like Safi, we're just told how much Max likes her.
On top of that though, Safi is written like a malicious sociopath, and a fucking stupid one at that
>Uses her powers to get Gwen fired for selling drugs on campus. She did this because Gwen helped cover up what Lucas did
>Meanwhile instead of actually getting Lucas fired by a similar method, Safi transforms into him and goes to his home, screaming at his child, traumatizing an innocent kid. The most pushback you can give to this choice is "that's kinda messed up" and Safi defends the decision without acknowledging how horrible it was
>She was genuinely too stupid to use her powers to expose Lucas until Max came around
Her powers are practically custom built to expose Lucas, and yet she did fuck all. When Mayas book got stolen, instead of letting her fucking kill herself, Safi could have easily shape shifted into Lucas, recorded a video admitting he stole it, and that would have settled everything
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RE robbed baychads of their hard-earned ending
Also
>We should head to the observatory. That'll be the safest place to be when the observatory fire breaks out tonight. Luckily, we made sure the campus shut off the water ahead of time. Did I ever tell you about fire blanket? He wasn't a good friend.
?
Also
>Choose the suspect you want to accuse. BTW, the correct answer is [...]
???
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>>563571740
Safi could've been a really cool protagonist, I think. Having to make decisions about who to become and when, who to be and talk to to best get information, how badly you want to fuck with people, deciding if they deserve being fucked with in that way or not... That could've been interesting, presented some real dilemmas! And we could've gotten to know her better. But as a side character we don't actually spend much time with? She sucks.
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>>563574657
>>563571740
I want tofixSafi
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>>563577769
perfect example of how people like characters due to hotness
>bitchy
>obsessed with muh journalism, archetype of yellow journalism/sensationalism
>only cares about her platform and podcast
>lies to everyone to get what she wants
yet people give her a pass cuz shes hot
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I already miss them....
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>>563642673
>I was putting together a video. I have 15 hours of interviews and 100s of screenshots outlining how something like Double Exposure happens, focusing on what I observed and repeatedly was told were the four most culpable influences to the title's failure, specifically:
>Square Enix London's wholesale misunderstanding of the IP
>Deck Nine MGMT's alleged allowance of toxicity, sexism, and racism from a small, but vocal and protected group of employees
>Double Exposure's production team being categorically unqualified, leading to frequent mis-scoping, crunch, chaotic scheduling, and bullying
>Double Exposure's narrative team refusing to work with other departments, accept feedback, or hold their own members accountable
>There are other factors. So many. The game director was a coward who never made decisions and only reacted. The HR director would call employees into her office just to gossip. The audio lead wasted a whole day in slack general chat ranking Taylor Swift records. A senior artist asked "why are there so many brown people?" when playtesting the game for the first time.
>But then it gets messy. Because the same game director once publicly swore to personally defend any trans employee who faced harassment, with violence if necessary. And the same HR director quit over failed bonus promises and spent her last week trying to approve as many forgotten personal expense reports as possible.
>And the same audio lead walked off the studio when a female sound designer was offered $15k less than a male employee in the same role, only returning when he saw the updated paystub. And the same artist invited a recently fired POC, queer employee to an unofficial work social, when everyone else viewed her as radioactive.
cont.
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>>563644146
>Meanwhile, the villains of my story come off as insecure wannabe tech-bro tyrants or completely checked-out turbo bitches. And yes, a producer's bullying made my life specifically harder. That man specifically and directly harmed me. And a writer's wholesale crusade against every other department specifically made it more difficult for me to do my work at Deck Nine, and directly lead to multiple other women quitting. There is real, documented, actual harm.
>And the reasons for demonization are greater than my own. The 10+ Deck Nine employees I have talked to always highlight the four pain points above. Always, even when they were from the production or narrative departments. They might have listed other problems as well, but every employee referenced all four above points as causes of DE's failure as a title.
>I am rather desperate for quality art. "True" art. I think we all are. So I have been operating from a heuristic that if the causes of artistic failure are explored and public, the likelihood of future failure must decrease. Therefore it should logically be worth it to name and shame the perpetrators of that failure.
>But also I wonder what is the trade off?
>On the one hand: I hate how closed door everything is. I hate that people can so thoroughly fail, through specific, intentional action, directly leading to layoffs and studio closures, and it is never revealed. The hard fact is that if Double Exposure was better written or better scoped, it would have been better received and sold more. And if Mark Lyons had taken firm action against literal nazi ideology, maybe the woman-led narrative team would have opened up to other departments more and accepted feedback better.
cont.
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>>563644240
>And if Square Enix London did not micromanage the project to death, maybe every member of the more qualified production team from True Colors would not have quit. There are four, very specific failures, that each contributed to the death of a company and dozens of people losing their jobs.
>On the other hand: I recently went to an event from one of the people I interviewed, and it was... mesmerizing. Their work was completely intoxicating and I heard some version of "this is the best [blank] I've ever seen," at least half a dozen times.
>And at Deck Nine they were... average? They're work was fine. They worked hard, but no one would have called them a genius. Not at Deck Nine. That only happened after years outside of that environment.
>I want to stand for heroism and against villainy. But I am less concerned with waving banners for or swords against the ordinary people who are simply attempting to navigate life. So if an average Deck Nine employee is a genius outside of it, maybe a villain at Deck Nine, removed from that environment, is alright. Just an average, non-genius, non-heroic person just trying to exist.
>Actions already have consequences. Existence should not.
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>>563644146
>>563644240
>>563644363
She really loves the attention from her lies huh
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>>563644146
>>563644240
>>563644363
"Amanda is rad."
– LadyDevHeart ©
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>>563644146
>>563644240
>>563644363
I have no doubt there was some kind of conflict within Deck Nine that helped kill both the company and Double Exposure. But I do not think this woman was just a passive participant. DE has a lot of issues that feel tied to performative diversity and diversity for its own sake, and that was clearly being prioritized over good storytelling. My guess is that the writing team pushed a lot of that, and probably took any criticism of it very personally. I also understand why Square Enix would start micromanaging everything, because Deck Nine was clearly incompetent and had writers who were not qualified. One thing led to the other. I get so annoyed every time I read anything this woman writes. Honestly, who cares that they lost their jobs? They clearly deserved to lose them. They were idiots.
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>>563644146
>>563644240
>>563644363
Look, girl, it's over. Give it a rest. Nobody cares about your vendetta against your ex-boss anymore. Every new post just proves you're becoming unhinged and obsessed. This isn't going to end well for you.
Maybe ask yourself how it feels to watch them shit all over the work you put your soul into, especially since you're the one who fed the beast that caused this in the first place.
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>>563658281
Soon
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I wish she would "Loretta's March" my um I mean I would Loretta her I mean okay um
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>>563701014
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>>563789445
>>563790454
hagmax is unironically one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen
Chloe is a lucky bitch
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>>563795354
>she doesn't look enough like the original Max
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