Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Review (So Far) - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

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Hello gamers. Welcome to another episode of the Kind of Funny Games cast for Monday, October 14th, 2024. I am Andres Cortez, and I'm joined by Joey. I was going to say Joey Noel. Gregorio Miller, Blessing Adioia Jr. and Roger Pocorny. I was called Rohelio in my Spanish class. Roelhoel. Oh, nice. I like that. Yeah. You know what? Shout out to Roelio, born on the same day as me. We always had the same birthday. Do you ever celebrate it together? No, I mean, yeah, sometimes they bring in little cupcakes or whatever, but it was usually like, you know, it's like, oh, Roy has the same birthday as me. I don't know what happened to him. I hope he's okay. Google.

What's the Spanish word for blessing? Blessing? That's a good question. I don't know. Let me know in the comments down below right now. I wanted to show off a quick little trailer gamers because today we're talking about the review for chapters once. Yeah, that's the BSING. A quick little, oh, bendiccion.

Oh, bendicion. Ben Dicillon. Yeah. Yeah, Ben Dicillan. I like that. Ben Dicillan. Because people can call me Ben for short. Oh, I like that.

You wanted to be a Ben. This is the Life is Strange double exposure review, but a lot of gaming happened over the weekend. And there's been a trailer that's kind of been showing up in a bunch of different places for a game called Europa. Oh. The game is out now. I bought it on Steam. Was like, let me fire the sucker up. And this game's going to make you feel, guys.

Yeah. Really? Let's go. Like, I don't even know if I love it, love it so far, but it is such a great cacophony of music, just swelling, and the piano is freaking fantastic. And it's got this really great movement system of, you're just kind of floating with this little machine. Yeah.

And it reminds me of like, you know, when you play GTA and he was just like, let me just, for the next six hours of me playing this game, I'm just going to be firing this car off a ramp, sitting like floating out to the air. This game has a really great movement system, but my goodness, it just really, really makes you feel,

and it's got a very interesting premise. I forget, no combat in this one, is that right? Yeah, not really. You're just kind of floating around all over the place,

kind of solving some puzzles, and I'm only about 45 minutes in, but it is, it's really dang good so far. And I challenge anybody to, like, try this out and not feel something. Oh, this is a puzzler, puzzleer.

Yeah, yeah. It's really enjoyable so far. This is called Europa. It's a EU R-O-P-A. This was on my list for a me and Joey game, possibly, after some of the trailers and stuff I had seen of it. But there's also just such fun enjoyment in the movement of it all. Just like, you know, you see where you need to go and it's downhill. It's like, oh, hell yeah, I'm just going to float, levitate all the way down there.

And then you start to get introduced to more little movement things where there's all these blue floating orbs in the sky that refill your little, like, it's not even a jet package. just a kind of like a low gravity sort of machine. Really, really enjoyable. Having a good time with it so far. I wanted to see it through. How does your groove in chat says reminds me of the Pathless. Yeah. From the PlayStation 5 launch that I fucking loved, right?

Which was very much about traversal and solving puzzles. As I look at this, I'm like, oh, snap, this is giving me those fuels. And I love that game. Right. The idea is just like getting lost going in any direction, just solving whatever puzzle that you come across. That shit. Yeah, that seems cool.

The music is top two. That was one of those games that everyone's like, oh my gosh, looks like a breath of wild clone or whatever. Do you feel that way or do you feel like or just the art style and no, I think it's just the art style, the shading, the cell shade sort of vibe that may make you think that but it's just because there is no combat because there are no NPCs you're walking up to to say, hey, go check out that. It's just a very experiential type of game. You're not really going through it expecting to be given a whole lot or to be able to, you're not going to little towns and this and that. It's not really that. It's just very much, you're picking up the

these little pages and you're kind of hearing the story of this planet that has, you know, maybe we are trying to move towards, you know. All the press releases have described it as the meditative action adventure game. Yeah. So that's the kind of vibes you're getting from it. It's a good vibe. And the music is, again, so good that like I'm tearing up at like two in the morning, like, man, I'm just feeling.

And I'm playing on my sleep. No, you need to make it until three. It's fine. It's trying to feel something. That's an insane behavior of like, it's 2 a.m. You know what? I'm going to stop you're all five. That's the weekend plan

That's how I do it on the Steam deck Steam deck just changed gaming for me Oh 100%. Here's a question, were you tired? Like you knew you're usually play a Steam Deck in bed, right? Yeah, see my whole thing, well you all laugh But like my thing is like, you know, when I finished Life is Strange

Chapter 2 last night, actually that's a bad example. Friday, I finished it. And it was that thing where it's like, I got 30 minutes in me. And so it's like, I don't want to start one of the other games I need to start a game, learn how to play a game.

And it was like even metaphor, I was like, I had played that earlier in the day. I'm like, I want to play that, but that's too dense. I'm like, I'm just going to go to Diablo and hit things until I go to bed. I wouldn't want to jump in and learn a new game. Yeah, but I don't know. There was just, you know what, it wasn't even too. I think that's around where I ended.

Because it was the day before me and Blessing went to go hoop up. And man, we took it to the streets. We were just bawling out there. It was good stuff. And I was bawling at night in my bed. Tears everywhere. Everybody remember, this is kind of funny gamescast. Each and every weekday, we get to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and

topics and video games live on YouTube, Twitch, and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with a kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live, and get a daily exclusive show. For Jats to be a part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. You already got the gamers talking about the Pokemon hack on Kind of Funny Games Daily. The stream is Dragon Ball Sparking Zero with Bless and Mike. And tomorrow, or I'm sorry, and you can get. the afternoon podcast, which is the kind of funny podcast today,

tomorrow on YouTube and podcast services, or you can listen in live if you are a kind of funny member. You're not going to want to miss this one. It's a one-on-one, Tim and Gia talking about Gia's cancer journey today. So, yeah, if you're a member, definitely check that out or check it out for free tomorrow. Yeah, so a lot of people on the suburb of being like, I had no idea this is a thing.

It's like, well, yeah, Tim didn't say anything. This is just a very close thing. And honestly, you know what I mean, for withholding that kind of thing. You know what I mean? We could have monetized that. We could add like Gia shirts. Now, would we have cut...

Would we even cut her in money? Yeah, yeah. It's a good point. I mean, it really, this really is the Larry David anonymous sort of thing. I donated all this stuff out of my name, and this anonymous guy. Wow, anonymous.

Thank you to our Patreon producers. Carl Jacobs and Delaney Twining. We appreciate you all very, very much. Today, we're brought to you by New World Eternum, but we'll tell you about that later. I don't know. Is that still the sponsor? Oh, yeah.

Okay, cool. You'll turn them all month long. Thank you, New World. Everybody, we are... Let's talk about the topic of the show. Life is Strange, double exposure. The review so far, it's episodes one and two. Life is an upcoming episodic adventure game,

developed by Deck 9 and published by Square Enix, the fourth main installment of the Life is Strange series. It's a direct sequel to Life is Strange. The plot focuses on an older Max Coughfield discovering her supernatural ability to rewind time has instead evolved into the power to transfer her consciousness to other timelines. The game will be released on October 29th,

and the Nintendo Switch version will be released later. You don't want to play that version, I'm sure. I can't. I can't imagine that's going to go well. Really? Did you see the PC requirements? No. They're pretty high. Really?

Yeah, so it's like, hey, man, the game looks great. It does, but I don't know. Especially, I mean, like, you know, and I know this is deck nine, so this is more of, like, you know, what they've learned from true colors, what they learn from before the storm, of course. But, like, true colors, I loved so much, and it was a great-looking game.

It looked great. It's crazy to play this one, and then I was like, well, I want to go back and look at Life of Strange One stuff, and I know it's not fair, but it'd go back and be like, oh, yeah, this is what Max used to look like, and what Life is Strange used to look like, and it looked like so detailed here, compare, and they got hair physics, even on a PlayStation, you know what I mean?

They have evolved, for sure. I mean, we're probably going to get screenshot comparisons, like the way Mortal Kombat looked on Switch. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of great shots there. Now, here's sort of a little controversy that Greg wanted me to bring up, because players who pre-order the ultimate edition of the game get access to the first two episodes on October 15th.

So a full 14 days before the game releases. 14 days. That's wild. Insane. And now this could bring up a lot of issues because will spoilers matter? Will spoilers hit the internet? Will that affect people's experiences? So yeah, I put this in there because I thought it was almost weird

because they didn't put this on any of the press materials they sent over. I'm like, don't forget, this is what. So like when they were like, Life is Strange, here's the first two episodes. We'll get you the rest later. I was like, all right. It's a preview. Of course, we preview games all the time, blah,

and then this morning when I was like, can we call this as a review? Because I'm like, I look through the document, I'm like, oh yeah, they're calling a review here. And then I looked at this. I was like, right, I forgot about the drama when they announced the fact that this was happening. And fuck yes, the spoilers matter.

Holy shit. Like this game, even this review, of course, will be spoiler free. I do want to point out, we will spoil all of life is, All of Life is Strange before this game is on the table. So Life Strange 1 before the storm, for some reason if true colors or two came up, which I don't know if they would.

Yeah, I don't think too, so. But I'm just saying, you know, I want to make sure we're clear that that's all on the table. Nothing would be spoiled from this. And it's funny because even this one was like, hey, make sure you please don't spoil this thing. And I was like, oh, yeah, of course, when I got to that thing.

But like, to be, to be, yeah, this is going to be a huge thing of like, people were so worried about spoilers. Like, all right, yeah, but whatever. Like, no, like, Will it be a huge thing? Because I feel like... For this community, I think so.

But can you not just stay away? This is one of those ones where I think it's a dumb decision to put it out this early to have the first two episodes out this early because, yeah, you don't want to be spoiled, but at the same time, it's not like this is Avengers Endgame. Like, it's not like this is a thing that everybody... I mean, I would stop you and tell you that yesterday, a clip from 2015 in the original spare bedroom

got shared by a Life is Strange fan site. It's like, hey, I never caught this interview with Greg and Michelle from the original Life of Strange studio. And it was all these breakdowns, them reporting as if it was like, the Life is Strange community does treat this like endgame, like that this is like a huge deal. I should say this specifically endgame, but they care about this in the same way so many people care about XU.

I guess I also consider myself like, Life Strange community might be pushing it, but I'm somebody who fucking loves Life Strange. I pay attention to it. And like, it's so easy for me to not see Life is Strange on the internet unless I really like going to search for it. But I think that's in COCO, that's the thing where I'm a big Life is strange fan as well.

I think it's a different level of fandom. But there are in the subredits and have the tattoos and have the tattoos and have the thing, or just on Twitter, I think that when you have this kind of information infiltrate a part of that, and they then want to share fan art, screenshots, whatever, theories, like, I think that's going to do the inevitable. Oh, fuck, what? You know, the reviewer from IGN is putting up this thing, and I didn't want to know that that was a reference that could have been made or whatever, because it's like, again, the little

nods this game does to Max's past. I'm always like, ah, I know who that. I know, oh, I got the end. Yeah, there's enough small things that even if it isn't the big spoiler, like, you know, I would be very mad if I was a life of strange fan and I didn't I didn't have enough money to buy what's like $80 or whatever. I'd want to go in this with everybody right and have that hey it's midnight we all saw end game and then we can talk about it in our forums. Greg get you a little laptop ready to type up something for me. Here's a future games cast topic okay. Yeah, I'm ready. What level of capitalism are you okay with the most?

Oh, games cast. But yeah, a little gamescast topic for the future. The small little light one. Yeah, just like, you know, releasing a game two weeks early and paying a, uh, double the cost or whatever or micro transactions for buying pay to win stuff or you know there's a lot of different things that have obviously entered the gaming sphere to make money off of of gamers which is the one that we're like if we had to pick one this is the one i'd be a coolest one no what we should do is kind there was an old game over greggy show with like the the core four where it was me nick colin and tim right where it was like take all these hobbies and you rank them from what you know from you couldn't give it up to whatever i would cut that kind of thing right so if we can if we go

through and we find the five capitalism things and then rank them that'd be a very interesting topic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Costumes, loot boxes, all that fun stuff. God damn it, man. This kid with the glasses, he's got it. Hey, gamers, after, I want to talk to talk about all classes. I want to talk

back, I want to talk about our Max's friend, Safi. Safi. She was murdered, okay? Whoa. God damn. That was the trailer. Yeah, exactly. There's no, I mean, we're the basic concept that the trailers give away in the game instead of them. It's gonna matter.

It's the fucking trailer. This is what I'll say. I didn't watch the trailer. This death fucking blew me away. I also didn't watch the trailer. I had no idea what this game was about. I was like, fuck. Did you miss all the times we reacted

to this trailer for like five times? I know you were on a fucking react. And guess what? I blink the shit out. Like I don't like doing the reacts because I am not watching the, I'm not paying attention to the trailer shit, no. Hmm.

Oh. All right. Yeah. No, I like, fucking did not pay attention to the trailer because I did not want to know. Fair enough. But I think, again, the, literally

the elevator pitch of the game, I think you have to be able to say. Yeah, or else how are you all going to talk about it? Also for this conversation, I think we're going to talk a lot about it.

There it is. You know what I mean? Right there. Again, I didn't, I could stay away from the trailer. You also didn't know that Barrett wore hats. You just don't notice

a lot of things for us. It's okay. I'm with you, though, but sometimes I blank things out of my brain as well. This is, we're talking about the Life is Strange episodes one and two.

We don't know when, three and four coming out. Maybe we do know. I don't know. October 29th, the entire game comes out, Andy, five episodes. Holden comes out.

Where are we at with this? How much time did it take to play it? What are you all giving this so far? Review so far, yeah. This will be one that'll change. I assume we get towards the 29th that we can play everything. Greg.

It's a great question. So to answer your questions, what I'd say the episodes are two hours apiece, right? Just like traditional life is strange. They clocked in right around there. My PlayStation clocks. this four hours. Again, it's a fascinating question of what to give this as a review so far because we did

come in today and I wasn't even, I didn't play it thinking review. I thought preview and all this other stuff. So it's also a cumbersome one to review. I feel with no spoilers. These are ones that this will beg a spoiler cast when we get to the end of this. But right now on the kind of funny review scale, one to ten. Obviously your point five's matter. Don't listen to Andy.

I love point five. I'll talk with me about 4.5. I would say probably for me, a Big Life is Strange fan who's played them all, I would say it's an 8-5. I think it's great. And I think it gets close to being amazing because, again, how good it looks, how well it runs. I think the performances are great.

I've never been a big Max Vio fan. I think she's better in this one, but I still don't think she's incredible or whatever. But I think they do a really great job of making me excited for a story I wasn't excited for. When they announced they were going back to Max and doing this, immediately my hackles were raised because I have strong opinions about where I left Max and Chloe at the end of Life of Strange One. And so I wanted that to be protected in sacrosanct, right?

Sacrosanct is what I meant to say that, but I just put eligible. Also, you're raised in hackles? Yeah, you ever heard that? No. Have you heard of Joey? Yeah. Okay, thank you. What's a hackle?

I don't think, I don't know what the actual, I mean, I mean, I'm, I always talk it as like, I think these are hackles, they come up like this, right? I thought it was like a gait or some, you know, like a protective. It might be like an animal thing.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I like want a cat. I'm a logo hackle right now. You seen a cat. Anyways, though, where was I? Oh, I wasn't, I wasn't stoked for this. I didn't want to go back to Max.

I like how we, you know, Life is Strange too. It wasn't my favorite thing by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoyed the ride. True colors I thought was amazing. I would have preferred to continue,

or at least a thought I would have preferred to continue. Even here, there's a bit of a learning curve of getting dropped in and finding out, all right, where is Max? And what are we doing? But they do an amazing job of surrounding you with a really great cast of characters, making you care really quickly about the cast of characters, about the DNA of this town in Vermont, this university town you're at.

And, you know, she's the guest art, a resident artist of for this semester or whatever. They do a really good job of dropping you in there and then raising the stakes with this death and then going a bit further, right? One of the questions I would have, that is not a spoiler because it's in the trailers or right and you even said it right of like she doesn't use her rewind powers anymore right did you guys get dialogue or find any writings talking about that because in the one of the trailers we reacted to she definitely says like I swear I'd never use them again but here I remember that here when she uses her power she's surprised to find it and then at

one point I thought she said in it that they don't work so I wasn't yeah I pressed a left trigger by accident in the beginning of the game and that's that's what the rewind button was in the first game and she says like oh it doesn't work anymore like She says explicitly. Like, hey, it hasn't worked anymore. The trailer made it sound like she was like, I swore off it. And then eventually there's dialogue in the game and it's like, oh, it's broken. So I started this game and there's actually a reference in, I'll step back on that one because I don't even want to tease at it.

I started this game expecting it to be very, okay, it's life is strange one. How do we prevent this death? We're jumping. And then the stuff they start doing with the universe I thought was very clever. And I'm very excited to see where it goes based on where we end a chapter two. I love that, Greg. We'll move on to everybody else, but first off, I just want to get out there that a hackle is an erectile hair along the back of a dog or other animals that rise when it's angry or alarmed. You really pronounced erectile.

Erectile. Really crushed that. Annunciation. Roger, where are you at with Life of Strange double exposure? Yeah, I'm going to echo a lot of the things that Greg said, but I'm going to go a little bit higher. I'm going to say it's a 9.0 out of 10. Amazing. Everything about this was an amazing experience.

of course there's going to be inherently one or two choices. I'm like, ah, that's not really the way that I meant for it to go, but either way. The entire experience is the elevated version of what I wanted from the original Life Strange game. I didn't really have that connection with the original Life Strange. Again, granted, I played that when I was maybe like 13, 14. So maybe I was a little too young for it or whatever it was. But I really, really, really loved true colors.

And this feels like that continuation. I mean, it's deck nine. They have perfected what they've been doing with the art side. with the mocap, with the actual writing, like the writing in this game is so sharp. It is incredible the amount of times that I have been, I have like, a character talks to each other, and I'm like, oh, that's a weird thing for them to say.

And then immediately the next line is, they're pointing out the thing that I was just thinking in my head. Like, it happened over and over and over. And I think that just shows how well they are able to write people in the Pacific Northwest. Like, they know these, you know, liberal college kids, like the back of their hands. Remember, you're in Vermont. Oh, yeah, yeah, but it's still the same vibes. I mean, you know, the other thoughts.

Where's Vermont? That's a good question. I don't know. I don't know what geography. Nobody knows yet. I don't know. No one's ever figured out. I spent a Christmas there.

It's beautiful. Oh, really? You should tell me where it is and I'll go there. The P&E Pacific Northeast. You can drive there from Montreal. Either way, I really love my time with this game, and I can't wait for the future of it. Hold on.

I just see Google Maps open on Blessings' computer. He really is turning in. Mike. I was like, where is it actually? It's a state. You know, if you know it's the state? Jesus Christ.

I'm joking. I'm not. Bernie Sanders is from. It's like, what's so offensive about it? I expect the California kids not to know Vermont.

You're from the East Coast. It's like right by New York. Yeah, but then like, where's Pennsylvania? Where's, you know, Maine? We don't know where of them are. Up down left right. Yeah, that's where in Maine. Up down left right.

Lookers left. Maine's like the Florida of the Northeast. It really is. That's such a great point, Bussing. Is that up? What the, what do you mean? Oh, my God. You're joking. I'm joking. I'm joking about that one. I'm joking about my main story. He just asked of Maine is up. I was making the, I was the joke. I know the one was up. That's the only one that I know though. Oh, okay. Man, it really is. I'm learning a lot here. I'm learning a lot here. I'm learning a lot here. There's Vermont right there. Right next to New York. I don't know if Bussig ever said anything. That's the one I always forget. See, I was trying to name the colonies recently in the 13 colonies. That was one of the ones. Was it a colony? Was it?

Why were you trying to name the colonies for five? Because I was just like the United States from 13 original colonies. Chatham, scottom, tell all about them one by one. You don't know the 50s say Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas. I don't know the preamble to the state. Damn, because, yeah, I listen to the extended edition. Anyway, get back to Rod. Sorry.

I really, really love this game. The issue with it, though, that... Here we go. This is why I was like when I came in with the idea of like, hey, we Is this why a different game? Tell me why. Jesus. We're about a thousand.

You're like to go out of my way to make sure Roger could not make a point during his opening. Oh shit. I'll give it a nod. You're a more. I don't know what's happening. This is fucking incredible.

You gotta take the ship at the top. You got to start over. The, when we came into the office, I was like, hey, we should, you know, do a review in progress. it's a better headline and this is a review in progress, right? It's episodes one and two.

It's pretty complete. It's not just a regular preview as we normally do. But when I started thinking about my score, I was like, oh shit, this is a weird one, because I think more than any other game that I played this year in terms of for a preview or playing the first four hours of any game that I could pick out of the lineup of 10, 15 games that are coming out that I really want to play, this game could really fuck it up in the ending. Like this game could absolutely fall apart in the last few episodes in a way that I think would drop this from a nine to a seven.

That's going to be so excited to see exactly where it lands later on. Absolutely. And again, we can't spoil or talk about anything that happens with any of the spoilers, but the ending of episode two sets up some really interesting things that are exciting, but also could really fuck up the entire game. So I'm interested in it, but I am very, very high on it, and it feels like the sequel to True Colors that I've always wanted. So I'm happy that we're going, we're taking the sequel to the feeling of True Colors and we're going back and kind of fixing the things that I had issues with in the original life is strange. I'm definitely with Roger as when I finished it last night because I didn't

realize we were giving it a score. But now that I'm thinking about it, I would probably give it somewhere between a 7.5 and an 8 because it's at the Marvel Disney Plus show thing. With all the stuff that's happening, I'm really, really into. But I'm very apprehensive about being excited about it because we've been burned kind of in different scenarios by being very excited about the story. And then having having it. fall apart. I feel like this is threading a needle particularly where I'm like, ooh, I hope it's as cool as maybe it could be, but I am a little bit reserved in my excitement for it because of that. Yeah, when will the quicksilver actor become boner, whatever his name was.

Rob Bonner. Yeah. That being said, I think I'm scoring it low initially to give myself, I would rather go up. Room to grow. Yeah, then start really high and then bring it back down. so that's kind of where I'm at. Love it. Bless, how about you? So far after the first two episodes, I'll give it an eight out of ten. I think it's at a great place so far. As room to grow, and like Roger mentioned, I think it has room to royally fuck up where they've set the story up to go so far.

You know, booting up Life is Strange double exposure, it is kind of fascinating how this game, this game series is kind of like a warm cup of hot cocoa for me, where it is like very comforting. It is very, I think Roger mentioned that the writing is like very sharp. It's very good. And as I play it, you know, I have a thing sometimes we'll start a new game and I'm like, all right, let's go.

We're going to start a new game from scratch. We're going to learn the controls. We're going to set up the characters. Oh, my life sucks. Well, like, sometimes when you start, and I don't think it's just us, right? I'm sure there's a lot of people when you start up a bunch of games, right?

It's the thing of sometimes starting a new game can be a chore because that rev-up process can be like a- you're learning new language. You're learning a new language, right? You just want to get to the good stuff. For me, life is strange upon starting, upon starting episode one for this one,

it was kind of immediately being thrown in and being like, oh yeah, I'm back to life is strange. Yeah. This is comforting. Like, I like this. You know, and I think it is like a mixture of presentation. I like the art style this time around, like the game. I think they found a cool mix of fidelity and art style in a way that I didn't think that you could do. Like, the characters look really good and they all have kind of like this soft texture to them.

And there's something about it that feels very life is strange. And it feels like a good translation into where the series had come from in the past. The writing and like having it be a story centered around. on Max Caulfield, when they first announced that, when they first revealed that, I had the thing of, oh man, do I want deck nine, who was not the original studio, to make a Max Caulfield story?

So far, I think they're nailing it. I think they're doing a lot of good stuff to make it feel like I'm almost just picking up where I left off. That said, I'm not picked up Life of Strange One or Life of Strange Before the Storm since those games came out. And so, like, it's hard for me to put myself back

in that place that I was eight years ago, seven, eight years ago, which feels insane. it does feel like I am getting the part two to Max Calfield story, which is really cool and really nice. The characters they've introduced this time around, I like them a lot, right? I was talking to Roger the other day about like, man, they just do, they know how to do character writing for, I think, the tone that they're going for.

Like, you know, Life Strange one, it was young, it was like high school. Life of Strange True Colors, I think it was more young adult in here. It's way more young adult more than anything. And I think they're nailing it. Like, I'm, I believe in these relationships. I believe in the way they talk. I believe in the way they interact on social media. The choices so far I really like and I think they matter.

And I think they've done a really good job of giving you a lot of chill moments in the story to just talk to characters, gets no characters, gets to know the world that you're in, which is like a, you're in, what, like an art college? College town, yeah. Yeah, like a college town situation. And, you know, you're getting a lot of that. But then when they ramp up to important choices, it almost is like a, oh, shit, okay. cool, I got to lock in.

I got to figure out what that choice is going to be in this moment. And it ramps up very nicely. Like the way, I think Life is Strange. If they nail anything in these games, it's always, you know, that final reveal at the end of a chapter or the final decision at the end of the chapter makes you go, oh shit, I didn't see this coming. And they're doing that really well here. I'm having a blast so far. I'm excited to see where they're going to take it. And I'm also nervous to see where they're going to take it.

The one more thing I'll say, too, with this is that the power they introduced here, I think, is pretty cool. I think there's interesting things you can do with it storytelling wise and already we've encountered puzzles that you know I like it's not necessarily the most mind-blowing powers but I think they've in the recent life strange games they've found interesting ways to use like more low-key powers like in true colors what her power was I'm a mood ring yeah her power was empathy and before I played the game I was like oh that's fucking dumb and then playing the game I'm like oh but it leaves really cool gameplay stuff

and at least really cool reveals. And this one is a similar thing of, it is kind of like your, do we want to talk about what the powers? Yeah, we've already talked about jumping between universes. I think that's fair. Again, this is all,

your mileage will vary on what you think a spoiler is, but we're not going to give you specific examples, but again, it shows you going between universes. Exactly. So you're jumping between two different universes to kind of like, you know, navigate what's going on in both,

and you're kind of using one to figure out what's going on in the other a little bit. And I'm really enjoying that stuff. I think they're using that type of gimmick slash mechanic in a really interesting way so far. So I'm enjoying it. One of the things I want to jump off from there, right, is that I enjoy the jumping between universes as well.

But one of the cons I would put on isn't so much on the jumping part, but we'll come back to it. But it is the fact that, like, I think the game looks so good, the writing is so good, that sometimes when you're solving these puzzles, it's so, like, almost immersion breaking, where it's like, I need to get this key from this guy,

so I need to distract somebody. And like, you're doing the thing, in a crowded area. And it's like, why wouldn't anyone else be like, what the fuck are you doing? Then you do it. And then to a lesser extent, but I think still part of it,

like, the jumping between universes is like, sometimes it's well hidden, but other times it's like, it's not really, like, what are the other people seeing when I do this? Yeah, that's a genuine, like, confusion point that I have, right, of like, does she not exist between,

like, you know what I mean? Like, when she... Is she going to encounter herself again? Yeah, exactly. I know that that's probably. probably maybe what they're going for, but like it's very vague. And I'm like, oh, I don't understand like the true principles of what they're going for. Like those two disappear from the other land.

You read like from the description of Wikipedia, right? And one of the things you said is like her consciousness jumps to the other universe or something, right? Like that's incorrect. Like she goes to the other universe. Like you pick things up in the other universe and take it back to your universe. So it's like, no, she's physically there, which does mean she's not physically there, which again would be like me just. Yeah, they're gone.

Holy shit. You can't do that in the middle of the Walmart. That also comes back to, again, the thing that Rogers talked about where it's like, okay, how are you going to, like, can you royally fuck this up in the way that you're doing this? Because I had those same questions. And now, like, after chapter two, I'm like, maybe we'll get answers to those questions, maybe not. I don't know if they're going to be able to explain it. I would like a prediction section here of, do you think they land this or do they fuck it up? Because I think they're going to land it.

I think, like, I think the way they, again, like, the, you. The initial... Is that based on hope and you just... It's based on what we got here. It's what we got here. Because again, like, when this game got pitched, I was like, okay, cool. It kind of sounds a lot like Life of Strange One.

Like, let's go back and save Chloe, right? So, like, we're doing that again. New-newish power. Okay. Like, the way they've done it here, I'm like, oh, you're clearly building to something else here and the breadcrumbs and tidbits and the things you did earlier that I thought was a weird thing.

That doesn't even make sense. Okay. To then get here, like, oh, this is this. I think they're going to take it in a really fun way. I think they're going to land the plane most of the way. Like, I don't think that this is going to be the universal beloved ending, or everyone's going to be like, man, I played the first game.

I was a little hesitant. I played this one. If you're hesitant and you're like a hater of this, of the idea of them even doing a sequel that is made by deck nine and not don't nod, I don't think it's going to, you're going to be like, wow, I'm blown away by this. I think it's, you're going to have the split camps. But I think for us, it's going to work out. I think it's going to be totally fun.

I think that they don't land it. I think at least as far as we've gotten so far, is going to be hard enough to land it if it was a singular path story because there's so many decisions and stuff like that. I feel like there's way more room for it to get fucked up. I also, just as a person, am like, I'm going to lower my expectations.

So I'm not disappointed and I would rather be surprised at the end. Yeah, I'm kind of on two days. different minds of it. Maybe you're in two different realities. Oh, whoa. I think I'm with Roger that I think they landed mostly or at least they land it somewhat. I think emotionally, I think we're going to be in a place where we're like, all right, cool, this makes sense. We like it. But I think in terms of the actual, does this story make sense? I don't know if we're ever going to get there. Like in terms of what the power is doing and all this shit. Because whenever you introduce like multiple timelines or multiple universes in a fictional story, I am so rarely satisfied with the answers. Like right now we're in like a place where there are so many different things that are doing multiverses, right?

So many different movies, so many different TV shows and all this show that are doing multiverses. And I feel like for the most part, I'm so tired of it because I feel like it really ever makes sense to me. And that's where I'm at here. To the point to the questions that Greg's making as far as like, do people see her doing the shit? Like is it her consciousness or is she actually physically walking into it? Is it you suspending your belief or disbelief? So far, so far I'm suspending my disbelief with the whole. hope that we get those answers, but I don't know if we're going to get those answers.

I think we have answers. Like, I think the game does it. Somebody in the chat was like, well, maybe time stops from where she goes. And no, because that's a part of the thing of you can pulse and see what's happening on top of whatever universe you're in, you see the other one was like ghosts. Yeah, I mean, I think my biggest concern is not if they explain the multiversal stuff in a way that I feel is like, oh, that's plausible, right? Like, I'm already, like, I'm in for the ride, right?

I know whatever it is, whatever it is, that doesn't like annoy me enough. I'm just more concerned of like, is this going to be a retread of the first game? Like, because this is so similar already, like the idea of her best friend is shot and her, and now she's trying to go back and potentially save it. But you don't think the ending of two and like the buildup to it? I think that sets up like, oh, we're going a complete different direction. I don't think it's a complete different direction. I suspected that they were going that direction and now we're talking around all this stuff.

But like, yeah, we can stop. Yeah, but like it's, it is, I don't think, I think this game's going to get really meta. they know exactly what, like, the fact that this is retreading a lot of ground from the first. Oh, yeah. Right? Like, you, we were talking about this before the show, like, when we were both, like, Kate, she was going on and I'm talking to you about Life Strange, right? And one of the things I mentioned is, like, is Max dumb?

Like, is she a fool? Is she an idiot? Because she's fucking with time again. And it's like, you've done this before, and you saw where this landed us before in the first Life of Strange game. And it feels like she's doing it again in a way where it's like, you know, and you made the thing of like, well, is she fucking with time? where she just jumped between dimensions.

And to Greg's point, it's like you can take something to another dimension, like put it in your pocket and take it to the other dimension. Yeah. That's fucking what time. Yeah. And so I understand where you're coming from Roger, but I think I'm also excited about the idea of this more so being a reflection of Max from the first game of her maybe already having those lessons learned

and getting to the place where she's probably going to have to apply some of those learnings and go, oh, I see what this is and having to make choices based off of that. I think what's interesting about it too, though, on this one is like, she's not doing this by choice, right? Like there's an intense ringing. She gets a headache. She stumbles into it. And she's already wrestling with the idea.

It's not so much about in, as I was talking, I was going to say, talking to you guys, I was talking to Janet last night because we play the same games now. I'm like, you know, there's Earth one, Earth two,

right? And we're starting with what Earth 1 was. And it's like, she's not trying to use the information from Earth 2 to bring back her friend in Earth 1, right? It's more like, well, can I stop it in Earth 2? Or is it also a threat in Earth 2?

and like, but what is she going to do with that information? I don't know. And then there's a million other things happening. Um, I put up a YouTube live poll. Because it's a 33 out of 40 score combined. Does it go up or down when the game fully comes out? That's how you're all score like, on a net. Oh, I like Fimitsu.

Yeah. We're doing the Fimitsu score right now. I'm also trying to put it up in, uh, fuck, that's good. I'm trying to put it up in Twitch as well, but I don't really know how, because I'm not, you know, I'm not on the main channel or whatever. If only we had somebody to do. What do you want me to put up? Only if somebody from the stream team was just, you know, could do that.

Just wasn't lounging. It's definitely nice. It's so like my baby! It's definitely forward slash poll. It's not an explanation point. So, yeah, I wanted to have that poll also go up in chat. Now, Greg, I feel like it feels like it just happened yesterday. Oh.

Because I had to look up what other games like Life and Change would come out in the past couple years? Because I feel like we just talked about this. that's how fast time goes by, that when you all reviewed true colors, you mentioned how much the environment and the surroundings of it all felt like its own character. You loved kind of walking through that area.

Yeah. How, you know, what are the comparisons you make to the exploration here? They're fucking crushing it. And I think they're crushing it and they're doing such a good job of using the two different universes. One universe, obviously,

mourning the death of a student, or a grad student in her. I'm also kind of fought. That was what I wrote. I was like, I can't tell who's a student. Yeah. He was a teacher.

It's like, it's like the Spider-Man one thing of like you have the teacher and it's like, oh, wait, you're not a student. Like every person I talk to, it's like, I don't know what I'm related to this. Max is the resident artist. I believe Safi did her undergraduate and is now a grad student. Oh, I thought she was a teacher. No. No, I think Greg's right. Oh, yeah, okay, yeah.

The whole time I was like, they are all so earth-shatteringly hip that it's impossible to be like, who is. You're all the youngest professors I've ever. Moses, I'm like, I think. And they talk with their students, like, whatever. Like, they'd be cursing with their students and shit. Like, what's up, honey? Like, what's up? Smoked the cigarette with me.

So, what was the question? The environment. Environment is super. It's everything I loved about true colors in this college town. What's the, it's University of Caledonia? I can't pronounce the school. Caledonia? Caled.

I don't know what else. I think that's. Caledonia. Because the guy's last name is also Yeah. So it's whatever. It's a university thing. But the university itself is super cool.

There's a lot of good stuff going on. The characters are great. All the environments are detailed. There's a bar you hang out in all the time. The, what, the turtle? The snapping turtle. It's got a bunch of cool shit and cool characters going on.

Like they've done a great job of really flushing it out. And let me tell you, if you were worried about the woke mind virus of voting. Oh, yeah. You fucking get out of your. a MAGA, we got flags up here. If you're going to a life is strange game for MAGA influences, you're going the wrong place.

They won't. But I love it out. It's like, this is awesome. If we're doing the thing where we're trying to go blow for blow of life is strange true colors versus double exposure, in terms of the like environment conversation, I think I still side with true colors. Just for the fact that like, I think we've seen more of it too. That's true.

But I think even in the first couple of chapters of true colors, it is just a block, right, that they're working with. Like, it's one neighborhood. And, like, being able to kind of have the entire game take place in that one neighborhood allows them to flesh it out in a way where it feels, like, more of a real location. Whereas true colors, no, not true colors. Double exposure is a bit more like previous Life Strange games where it is like these isolated locations that you keep popping up in.

And, like, some of those locations I'm kind of like, I could give or take. Like, the bar is cool. But then there's like a outdoor school area. The quad, yeah, like the quad area where I'm like, I don't like navigating around that place. Oh, I do. Yeah, it doesn't work for me. And then, like, it does the thing where it pulls in a salad of strings for Missouri, even, like, Max's a resident artist's, like, uh, apartment or whatever.

I'm like, this place is fucking sick. That's so crazy. It's so big. Yeah. But even true colors, I like, I like, I like walking out of that bar. That made you, that neighborhood is beautiful. That made you feel like you lived in that town. Yes.

Which I do, yeah, they've, they've eliminated that here where there isn't the free roam, not that it was like free roam, you completely. But it was like a small open world. Yeah. And I think, I wonder how much of that is feedbacks, like, and also wanting to, if you liked Life is Strange number one, right? If that was your connection,

do you want to make it? It's also they have to make it almost double the amount of work, right? You make one area and you have to split. I did laugh a little bit, which is an awful thing to laugh at, but when you switch between the universes, it just says at the top,

alive, dead. How do we make it the most on the nose so you know we are? One thing I do want to call out is it was that I haven't talked about and we haven't talked about. We talked about how good the writing is. I really appreciated the,

I feel like so many of the, when you get the choice, it really is a man like neither the they're gray i don't think it's as easy as this is the good one and this is the bad one even when i would make the one of like no fuck you man i'm doing this and then let there'd be like information give me five minutes like fuck shit i don't know if i did the right thing here but i did the thing i think i teetered longer on these choices than any other life is strange game because i was like and i think they pay off so far and the little just the little things of like you're not going to do that oh you did that fuck okay and that's what's

cool about this is like I feel like every character they give the they do the thing where it's like oh that's the evil professor it's like oh no maybe there's something going on here and it's like oh that's a good professor oh no maybe there's something's going on here like every character has the back and forth back and forth where no one is at least right now like fully evil like it is it is the back and forth I think that's

interesting and something that I am hopeful for for this game again like we have the spoilers for Life Strange one right we have the big twist where it was you know a professor right I mean or the teacher that was that killed Rachel and all that jazz so I'm hopeful that they go in a different direction here

and it isn't just another like the secret is oh my god it's you know the bad guy is actually one of the bad professors or whatever so yeah I like that there is just this general vibe of grayness around all the people Steam deck anybody play on Steam deck? No I was playing on PlayStation 5 gotta get them trophies it's gonna be good platinum

I mean you're not representing the audience we need better representation if I knew you play it I would have played on PC I can go to PCgamer.com So far the poll results right now and whether the total score will go up in the YouTube chat, because again,

y'all's combined scores equals 33 out of 40. 50% of the audience say that it'll go up. And over on the Twitch side, forward slash poll is winning the poll and forward slash poll is losing the poll. So thank you to Mike. I have no idea what he wanted this poll for. And the two votes are slash poll or exclamation point point.

I hate Mike. I think it's going to go up. I bet it goes up. I think Joey's it'll come up. I hope it does. I'm rooting for it to go up. I don't, I want it to.

I think it's going to say the sin. Yeah. I think, I hope it goes up. I think, I think all of our scores are going to be different by the time we finish it,

though. Yes. I think the next three episodes that we play are going, are going to have a big impact. Yeah. I hope it's the most polarizing thing ever. Like,

it might be. I hope two y'all hate it and too y'all love it. Well, thank you all for your thoughts on life is strange. Anytime, um, double exposure. I don't say true colors.

Any final thoughts? I want to ask the, the table. How do you feel about the actual double exposure, like, mechanic? You mean when we're taking photos? Yeah. Oh, I rarely use it. Are you picture people? Like, do you, you care about that? I do. In games in general. So, but let me introduce the concept. Yeah. Right. So one of the things that was actually lost a lot in Life is Strange 1 is that Max's passions photography, but we really didn't do much with it. This one, you are

actually taking photos quite a bit in the world or whatever. The parents are like, there's no career in this. Polaris. Exactly right. You're picking. at Polaroids or whatever, but then you're taking your own photos. And yeah, so when you take a photo that she'll then post to social media, right, and describe what's going on, you can do a thing called double exposure, which of course is a real photography thing, right, of layering image on top. I did it for the first couple, like, oh, this sucks. And so now I just sit there and I hem and haw about where I wanted to go. I love that, man. Like, I love being able to take

the photos. I knew the first photo we took. I'm like, this is going to end up somewhere, either to the social media or if it's, she's going to put it on her wall. So yeah, every single time they give me the camera and they say, hey, take a photo. I'm finding, I'm trying to find her style, man. I'm trying to figure out, oh, how's the actual way that she would frame this up? Yeah, the composition of it all. And my favorite thing is, when we went to later on in the game, you can, like,

see, like, her actual, like, in-world, like, universe photos that she takes. Like, she has a mini, like, gallery. And I looked at it, I'm like, that's not how I would done it. I wouldn't have done it like that. This is against me. This is against my max. My max wouldn't do this. I do the double exposure probably about 50% of the time.

Like, sometimes I will do it for, like, you know, add like an artistic touch to it. overdo it, right? If I'm adding the double exposure, I'll, like, shift quite a bit, just to give like a little outline over the original image. And I think it's a cool effect. I like it a lot. What I think's funny about this is, like, as soon as, like, you get going and like, pretty much

as soon as you're on sticks with Max, maybe that's an exaggeration. You get the camera up. And as soon as I did, it was like, oh, no wonder lost records, Bloom and Rage kicked it, right? Remember, like, when Lost Records, Bloom and Rage is from Don't Nod, the people who made the original life is strange and life is strange too. And so remember, they were supposed to come out this year with their thing where it is,

you're a teen girl getting ready to ship off to college and you have to use a camcorder and make your own videos and do your own thing. And it was like, this got announced and they were like, we're going to move our date. We want everybody to enjoy it. We're not very, you know, like they're doing their thing. We're doing our thing. And so to get this, I want to pick up the camera. I was like, oh, like, it is not near, in double exposure.

It is not nearly as intense isn't the right word. Integrated into the story, I guess, as free form as the, camera work is because the camera work is change around, get up and downs, do the thing that gets edited into a video package in Blumen Rage, then you hear more that you get V-O from your character talking more about, so it's like, that's way more

intense and well done, but it was funny to get this one to pick up the camera, like, oh, okay, yeah, this is doing a very similar thing. I like the question from Dylan and chat of how much are we missing, if at all, don't nods very French idea of what is cool? That was a big part of Life is Strange 1 and 2's appeal for me. And so far I've been disappointed to not hear one hella.

I'm like, where the hellas? That was a Chloe thing, man. I know it was a K&W thing but I'm like Rella is really like not an East Coast thing I feel like

But you think that that would be part of like Yeah Like let Max say it To bring it to Bring it to Vermont The Pacific North I think about how long

She's maybe lived over in Vermont Or whatever Like maybe it's just It's there's a whole thing about that Of her just road tripping Throughout the entire world Or country Where did everybody pick

For obviously from the start Like the game Doesn't read your save or anything But it gives you a choice Early on Of like did you save Chloe where is you let Chloe go. I like Chloe go.

I made the right decision and let Chloe go. Save Chloe. Don't worry about it. Wow. As always, I made the right decision, Andy, all right? I honestly couldn't remember what I had picked. So I was like,

I'm just going to pick this. Andy, if you had a loved one that you had to sacrifice to save the entire Bay Area, would you sacrifice them? Or would you just like, you know,

take them and leave? And then fuck up the Bay Area. We get destroyed by a big tornado. Love of your life and the Bay Area is filled with shitty people. Or pet friend at 17. And also seven out of ten of the people

you've met in the Bay Area are just garbage people. And also the person that you love, their family lives in the Bay Area. That's also something to that. They're not good. I mean, so does it is, does it become a nuke and just like destroy?

Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and the person that you love tells you let me go. Not correct. Not correct. That's not correct. That is a misstatement.

statement of facts. I know we've gone wrong. We can watch the video footage if you want, all right? I was giving a bum rap. I'm kind of funny games daily, and I'm prepared to fight whenever the moment comes. I mean, sometimes you just got a five for love,

you know? Yeah. You got a five for life. This town has been horrible to you, and your loved one. Horrible. But then the loved one's parents die as well. Only the mom,

who's in a dead end job and hates her life. You've been dating for maybe a few weeks. It's not been, it's not like you've been, like, you've been, like, you've been, Oh, no, no. Fuck on. You live like 17.

They've been best friends. They were best friends forever. They're best friends. They're best friends. But like they kiss for the first time in the game, don't they? There's a lot. It's getting very, very intense here. I'd like to dive deeper into this controversy after a word from our sponsors.

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on PlayStation 5 and was caught off guard by how much he enjoyed it and how many hours he said he could see himself sinking into the final product there's boss fights cool enemies crossplay resource gathering and crafting so yeah this sounds like a great game pre-order new world to turn them now on playstation 5 or xx series x or s to get the azoth stalker wolf mount and prepare for launch on october 15 here's the thing indy god himself is telling you that chloe needs to die oh wow the world has been trying to kill this girl for five episodes straight. And so at what point do you say, fuck fate,

all right? Fuck this. I've been, because this is core to my entire argument of it. Of like, the ending I submitted that we can watch or not watch or whatever, which Chloe talks about it. Do you want to actually present the case against me?

Do you want to talk about how this conversation came up? Yeah, it was a blessing of Madeline, we're on KFGD, and it would think it was some life of strange news or something like that, right? to... Yeah, I forget it. I think I was the one that brought it up, right?

Of like... It might have been a question at the end. I think you guys were doing like reader mail or something like. Oh yeah, the reader mail is Bay or Bay or Bay or? Like, who do we choose? We choose Bay with the Y or did we choose Bay with the E? And I of course went with Bay with the Y, right? Because for me, the whole point of Life is Strange is a game, it's a game about letting go, right? It's a game about, I think, like, you know, healing and being able to accept what fate is. And for me, that culminates with you letting go of Chloe to, in order to, like, you know, maintain the natural order of things. Um, I took that. And, and, and, you know, I took that. And, and,

And I mentioned how much I like to dunk on Greg about this. Which I've never heard this dunk before and I love it. Yeah. Where Greg, when we talk about The Last of Us, Greg's always in the mind that Joel is the bad guy in the last of us because Joel saved Ellie over saving humanity. And for me, that comes in direct conflict with Greg's choice in Life is Strange, where Greg chose Chloe over choosing Arcadia Bay.

So what I want you to know is that I was half listening to the show when this happened on Games Daily, right? And so I caught part. And so I came in and I said whatever I said. And you immediately asked me another question. I was like, I'm not briefed enough on what we're actually talking about. I just walked out. And so you then jump cut to me driving home.

And I was like, I was like, I went and listened to the games daily. I'm like, all right, I got it now. And I'm like, but am I wrong? Because you were all like what Barrett said of like, she says sacrifice me. She says sacrifice me. So I went and watched both endings, the Life is Strange one again to prove to get refreshed on what it was. And it is the idea that like to enter into this conversation. I did my research.

On the top of it, right? like the presentation if you want to play it, Bear, we don't have to listen, listen. It can play there. Is Chloe laying it out of like, listen? I've, this world, also look at this game compared to what you're supposed.

Jesus. This world has been trying to kill me as long as you've proven you love me. I understand all that, but like maybe I should die. Like my mom doesn't deserve this. Even my stepdad, he calls her a stepdad for the first time, doesn't deserve, you know, this.

Like, I, But she, it is very much a, I don't know, I don't know, this, that the other, only you can make the choice, Max. And so I think, you know, bless, I love your interpretation that life is strange is all about, this is all about letting go, right? Whereas I think really it is about Max having to make this choice of what does she care about this townful. And I don't even get into, like, I don't think the town's full of good people. So it's like, whatever, this place of horribleness, the death of Rachel Amber, this fucking horrible. photography professor Max just survived being

abducted and almost killed you know whatever like do you do this or do you want to go with this what I think is your true love right in terms of what the game is presented how it's all gone but anyway so my point is to why I don't think I've never ever considered this question

which I love as much as we talk about games I've never thought of them even being in the same bucket right because Chloe says here all this stuff she makes the case of like maybe I should die but it is one of those, maybe I should. Only you can make the choice, Max. And then you make the choices, Max, whether you choose to let Chloe live or die.

And then in my world, of course, I let Chloe live. And Max really represents my thing, because you have the last photo you would jump through that you're given here. Like, if you want to, you can jump back in time to this moment and then relive everything and let me die. And so in the Sacrifice Arcadia Beatrice, which this is not, Max takes the photo, right, and just lets it go into the tornado. and is like, no, fuck all that. Like, I'm sick of all of this trying to dictate my choices and trying to tell me what it's going to be.

Like, I'm choosing you and they drive off together happily, right? Like, this is, this is key, one of my key points is that Chloe is not upset that her, she's upset that her mom's dead, obviously, and that the town's ruined. But it's not like, fuck you, Max, you made the wrong choice.

Sure, yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, I don't think the game would ever be like, hey, you made the wrong choice either way, right? but the core of my argument is during that section. Chloe's the one that gives her the idea. She's like, no, Max, you should just sacrifice me. She, of course, she doesn't say, you know, you got to do this or you're a bad person, but she's like, hey, maybe you should just do this.

Like, here's the photo, like, you should sacrifice me. Even my mom deserves to live. My stepdad deserves to live. Like, her saying that to me is like, oh, well, yeah, of course. Like, if that's what you want for me, like, I'm not going to take away your family, right? I'm not going to kill your family. My thing is, like, she's saying they deserve to live. Chloe also deserves to live.

she knows that. And so I don't think it is they deserve to live, choose them. It's her presenting the thing. And I think it's the same way where if me and Andy are there and there's one piece of pizza left. It's just like, oh, I want that piece of one. Oh, but it's like, you know, it's like you make the case for the other person, but you also do want that thing. I think Chloe wants to live as well.

Which is why she turns it over to Max, if you choose. And I think my, my interpretation of it is does Chloe deserve to live? Because she died, right? I think that's why I interpret it as a letting go thing and more of a grief thing of Max's inability to grieve and her keeping like keeping that pull of, oh, I can't let Chloe go.

Because the first chapter of the game starts off with, I forget why, but she got shot in the bathroom. Yeah, she was like, yeah, it was like a drug deal gone bad in the bathroom, right? Chloe gets shot and then Max discovers her rewind powers and is able to like rewind to like bring her back to life. And then over this, over like multiple chapters, right? Like Chloe keeps coming into risk. Max keeps saving her all this stuff, right?

And like the town keeps kind of spinning out of control, literally with a tornado coming through to fucking destroy everything. And so I always took it as a, oh, this is about Max. to let go, this is about mex, needing to be, to, you know, be able to start that process of grief and understanding that, like, she can't save everybody. Like, this is a thing that you need to be able to let go in order to, like, I guess, allow things to go on in the natural state that they should. Yeah, and bucking fate just keeps on, you know, the tornado gets bigger, right?

Like, things get worse, right? Yeah, and also, like, to go up to what you said, right, where at the ending, Chloe is happy with the decision, right? She's also happy when she dies. Like, she's not, like, angry. you're like, oh, fuck, I didn't think you were to do that. We don't get that even though, right? Because we go into the photo.

Oh, I mean, but like when she makes the decision and they say bye to each other, like, yeah, cool, cool. Like, that's, that's it. She's like, damn, that's fucked up. I was just trying to fuck it. I was just giving the option. It would be nice. This is just like the Krogan jennephage, Greg, you know?

Yeah. Well, I think what's, you know, again, though, to the point of, like, this whole conversation of like, well, Chloe's supposed to die or whatever, right? Like, I think, and that's obviously, what's fascinating about life is strange, which I always thinks kind of crazy that it's not there's never a you were given this power because there's a not that I expect God

to come talk to Max but there's no there's no you got bitten by a radioactive fucking timekeeper this is what you had and you had it and what's interesting especially here right where we're talking about this where we pick up with this game and not having the ability anymore is that you were giving this ability for this

one thing and this one choice and not even talking about life is strange double exposure right in life is strange too you can run into your stepdad and not, you're not Chloe or Max, you see the stepdad who talks about Chloe being alive if that's what you did and how you played it, right? So it's not like,

it's not final destination that for the rest of her life, Chloe is getting killed and Max's like, fuck, you know what? Oh God, the Coke machine fell on you. It's like, this was a thing to do this one choice for some reason that was hoisted on Max and involves Chloe to go that way. And so I think it's like, Chloe could have died there or could not have

But I don't think it's like That is the only way it was meant to go or whatever Like obviously he's gonna die one day Why is Joel a bad person? Right? Like Joel, you can, I feel like take your logic Then spin it right? Or then Joel is like well, they could

They could have found another person right? Like I'm not actually doom in humanity Like they're just killing this one girl And fuck everybody else like why She deserves a life. She deserves happiness. My thing is with the Joel thing Is that I think he's always,

I've always thought and I will be 100% honest here is that I have not had the time to go watch all of the cutscenes from Last of Us One and Last of Us 2. So I know I'm kind of combining some Last of Us 2 stuff. But Last of Us 2 reinforces my belief the entire way of Ellie wanted her life to matter.

And I know that's aligned from Last of Us Part 2. But Last of Us Part 1, I thought she... And again, I can't give you a concrete example because it's been so long. I thought she made it clear to me, Greg Miller, the player, that this has to be for something. And I want it to be for something. I forget the exact wording, but you are right,

that there is a scene where, like, her and Joel have, like, a one-on-one, and, like, they're talking, and she is like, yeah, like, this has to be for something. And so, for me, it's this idea that it's that conversation, or maybe just vibe, if we're, if I'm incorrect or Blessings Incorrect about Last of Us, compared to Life is strange, which literally is, hey, I can make the case, obviously, and I know you love me, I can make the case for why I should die, though, you pick, and I'll be happy with that.

Yeah, it's the conversation after that. I think it's the fact that Ellie's agency was. stolen. And again, two, you know, Joel's a bad guy. Like,

obviously Joel's the complicated character. They're all complicated characters. The fireflies could not have handled this in a worse way. Like, they're here. Boom. Yeah. Wake up.

Oh, she's fucking going to die right now. Like, why are we in a rush? Why not? Like, I would have loved, it would have totally neutered what I'm sure Neil and the team we're going

for, but I would have loved a conversation of like, welcome. Sorry, we had to knock you out. You're sitting down. This is what it is. And we're going to do that and blah,

blah, and like, then it's like, I, yeah, but again... It's also humanity versus like, I don't know, 3,000 people in Arcadia Bay. Oh, way small than that. And that's the thing, too.

And now you get into, again, my own personal interpretation on it. When I look at the last of us world, like, and this is the longstanding Greg joke, right? I was like, as soon as all this started, I'd be like, sip my coffee watching all this start. I'm like, well, hey, Jen, where are the knives? You know, I'm going to fucking kill myself immediately. I want to live in this thing.

So, like, to have a chance, even I know, like, how are they going to manufacture the vaccine? How are they going to? I'm well aware of all of that. You know what I mean? But it's like to have a chance to do that, to save all of humanity from this fucking nightmare they're all living in,

I think matters in a different way of Arcadia Bay where I think both Chloe and Max have axes to grind with Arcadia Bay. And my whole thing with it is like, both of them deserved happiness. Both Max and Chloe deserved happiness. And I don't see how sacrificing Arcadia Bay makes them happy in the end. I mean, everyone's going to be happy eventually to some degree or whatever.

I mean, it's a great conversation. I love it. It's never one I thought of because I was like, oh, well. And again,

I, even with, like, I don't even know the right way of saying it, right. I don't feel like life is strange ending

is a right and wrong ending. Whereas Joel, like, it's not even Joel fucking over humanity that gets me. It's Joel having his desires wants and interpretations

override Ellie. That's where Joel crosses the line for me, where not even giving, and then to find out, later that it was that and get into all these things. And so many people threw in my face when I'd say this back in the day and probably in the chat now, maybe your comments of like, back of the day, it was like, you just want

to understand, Greg, you're not a dad. And it's like, oh, man, way to try. And like, now that I am a dad, like, you're bringing in so much of your own baggage to like, again, if I'm jumping to now, right? Like, not now with Ben, a three-year-old who doesn't know any, you know, if it ain't fucking monster trucks, he doesn't know it. You know what I mean? But, like, Ben is a 13-year-old who would be telling me, like, no, I.

I want to do this. I want this to matter. Like, look at this shithole we live in. You know what I mean? Like, I would respect that. I would hate it. It would break my heart. I'd probably, you know, end up killing myself.

But, like, I would be like, I got to believe in you. Whereas I think Joel's robbing her of that moment, that agency. And then not only robbing her of it, but then, like, salting the earth. So it can never happen again. Yes, it's a fiction. Maybe there is going to be another doctor who can figure it. But it's like, really of like, not only did I make the decision for you, I fucking eradicated everything.

everyone in case you want to go back and make it happen. Yeah. Yeah. It's such a good conversation because I, I view live streams the same way. Like everything you just said about last of us, right? For me, the-

You really love that diner. Yeah. Yeah. But like, for me the life of strange thing is, I guess I view the tornado as being Max's fault. I guess is the thing of it where, oh,

see, and I, without, without Max saving, without Max saving Chloe, right? Like, that tornado wouldn't have happened.

The tornado happens because, Max keeps fucking with things, right? And that all starts with her being like, oh damn, Chloe shot, I'm going to bring her back to life and I'm going to try and keep her alive. For me, that is the thing of, you are fucking humane.

Or at least you're fucking Arcadia Bay, which for me is the same as fucking Humane. And see, for me, and I love that. I love that interpretation. For me, it's, again, with her letting go of the thing and basically being like fuck fate, it's the idea of like, she didn't ask for this. She didn't ask for these powers.

She didn't ask to be able to rewind time. She didn't experiment. She didn't work out to get them. You know what I mean? It's like, it was hoisted on her. and it gave her the chance to reconnect. And I think it's an option that I took of fall in love with Chloe as either you fall in love with Chloe as a best friend or as a romantic partner. Right.

It gave it, it gave her all that. And so then to get to the end to be like, well, we're tearing it away. Somebody has to. And it's again, to be in that situation of like, even if I was to let Chloe die, do I know that it's not, there won't be a tornado here,

but what about the other thing and the other butterfly effect? And it's like, fuck it. Like you've given me this thing. And I don't. know why and I don't know what the rules are and you're fucking playing God whoever did this. Like I'm going to choose this and then to what I assume is here like in the game we're talking about it. I'll choose it and then just never do it again. I'm never going to rewind again.

Yeah. No, that's that's interesting. I mean, I'm interested to see how your game looks, right, in terms of the choices with double exposure and stuff because for mine like I, there's a social media aspect in this game where you can pause the thing. You can go into basically Twitter and you can see. I love snooping. Yeah, and you can see all the text messages. And then for me, I see people from Arcadia Bay. Right, like I'm able to see, yeah, you've seen it too. I mean, you probably don't know how deep you went into it, but a lot of people from Arcadia Bay that are like popping up.

To be clear, in mine too. Like, I think we are talking, especially for you who didn't play, right? Like, the Arcadia Bay tornado killed a lot of people. It didn't, it didn't eradicate the every, not everyone is dead. Okay, so I thought it was going to be taking out the whole area. No, no, no. Let's say, I'm a Greg. The tornado, like, cuts across the island.

like the peninsula or whatever. Gotcha, got you. It takes out all of, like, it takes out all of sunset and inner sunset. Ah, okay, got you. It makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

I mean, that is a lot of, a lot of good spots, nothing sunset. You think about building a new house, you know, how the housing crisis would maybe, like, fix itself. One of the favorite boarding shops?

If I had a rewind power, I would go back and, uh, change our conversation about the, about where Vermont is. I mean, it's just something for me to learn, right? Yeah.

Maybe, maybe Mike could teach me some self. We can teach each other some stuff. It would be a great stream. It's all a learning process. Well, everybody, this has been the Kind of Funny Games cast. Each and every weekday, we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics and video games live on YouTube,

Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free. Watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. Enjoy the next stream, which is Dragon Ball Sparking Zero with Blank. Blessing and Mike. Maybe Blessie could do some little tutorializing with Mike. I feel like we've all been struggling with the game.

I'm just not super good at it. I'm really, really bad at playing Dragon Ball Sparking Zero. Montreal, really close to Vermont. Oh, wow, interesting. Look at that. Driving distance. We're all learning stuff. Until next time, gamers, it's been our pleasure to serve you.