So I want to talk about the Ending of "Life is Strange" [MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!]

[SweetShark]

Life is Strange​

FINAL WARNING!!! If you didn't played the game, I suggest to leave NOW! Very good game, I suggest you to play it. 8/10.

For me and the the people who played [or even watched] "Life is Strange", we know how the story ends:
Either you go back in time and let your childhood friend Cthul...I mean Chloe die the first time you ever used the Time Travel powers, or either you just let the Giant Tornado devour the whole town full of people, possible most of them get killed.

I think most of us made the logical conclusion that "better sacrifice one person than dozen of them". A very well known "cliche" used in many viceogames/movies/comics/etc.
So I did this and even it was indeed really sad seeing Chloe dying, it was something to be expected.

However I didn't expected to see the results of the "Bad" Choice. Letting Chloe leave and don't want to accept a hard reality of a logical "good" choice.

I think is one of this rare occasions the game touch the "Grey Area" . Because in reality there is no Bad or Good Choice to make in the end.

Of course this was clearly obvious [for me anyway] after I saw the other ending:

*start video at 13:26*

​

At one point I thought Chloe will get agree because of Max's "selfness". Sacrifying a whole Town, full of people, man, women, children just to save Chloe.
But Chloe didn't done that. She just accept this fate and hold Ma's hands and watch together the Town getting destroyed in the progress...
Note also Chloe made the first move to touch Max's hands. Not Max. This show that Chloe is a human being at the end: She is afraid to die.
Yes, the obvious choice is here to be made, but Chloe is glad that she will be alive as much every single human being.
This wasn't a Bad Ending. This was just one of the possible Endings you could get.

*want to write more, but I must do something else first*

 

[Zhukov]

Nah, it was a shit ending.

The choice was contrived as hell to begin with. Especially since they never offer any explanation as to why Max's time shenanigans would cause a fucking tornado. No explanation at all. Not even some kind of vague suggestion that that's the universe correcting itself or what have you.

But even worse is what happens if you choose to save Chloe. Her and Max simply hop in a car and drive out of town. Straight past the diner where Chloe's mother was taking shelter. Don't even stop to check if she's alive or wounded and bleeding to death. Or anyone else for that matter. Makes no damn sense.

The sacrifice Chloe ending would have been half decent as the only ending, although it still doesn't address the question of why there's a bloody tornado.

I enjoyed the game as a whole, but the ending felt like the developers were compelled to offer a choice for the sake of having a choice and just half-arsed it.

 

[SweetShark]

Nah, it was a shit ending.

The choice was contrived as hell to begin with. Especially since they never offer any explanation as to why Max's time shenanigans would cause a fucking tornado. No explanation at all. Not even some kind of vague suggestion that that's the universe correcting itself or what have you.

But even worse is what happens if you choose to save Chloe. Her and Max simply hop in a car and drive out of town. Straight past the diner where Chloe's mother was taking shelter. Don't even stop to check if she's alive or wounded and bleeding to death. Or anyone else for that matter. Makes no damn sense.

The sacrifice Chloe ending would have been half decent as the only ending, although it still doesn't address the question of why there's a bloody tornado.

I enjoyed the game as a whole, but the ending felt like the developers were compelled to offer a choice for the sake of having a choice and just half-arsed it.

Sorry, but the ending for me was Perfect.
The reason was the thing you just wrote; Where this Power MaX got "gifted" come from?
Does God gave this power to show Max that holding this kind of powers, can destroy the balance of the World?
Was the power the different Spirtual Animals you met in the game like the deer and the squirrels?
It was Aliens? Satan? Fate? Cthulhu?
We don't know. That why this ending work so perfectly.
Max knows only one thing: She have this powers and she must make these difficult or even dare say, impossible choices with the hope to make a difference which she believe are right. Not the "Entity" who gave her power. This power have a Neutral Origin. Something completely Unknown.
That why this work. Let's say we knew the power was from a God of Time himself and wanted to test the limit of Human dedication of someone who want to save a person he/she care and love. It wouldn't work of course. Sure is interesting, but then we come back to the Bad and Good Ending logic we all know....

 

[happyninja42]

snip

Except it doesn't work. There is no reason for it. It's a complete Catch 22, having the powers, fucked up everything, and she needed powers to fix what she fucked up with her powers. If she never had the powers, there never would have been a problem to resolve in the first place. And to imply this is some test from god, like Abraham and his son, well that just goes to show that God is a fucking asshole, to give a girl the choice between letting her best friend die, or letting an entire town of people die, all just to teach her "You shouldn't play around with Time little girl, I hope you've learned your lesson". Fuck that kind of a god, that's a dick move from start to finish.

The ending does not hold together, even the creator hinted that it might not. He posted a long post of thanks to the fans on steam, where he said "Most time travel stories unravel at the climax, here's hoping Life is Strange doesn't do that." That seriously implies that they weren't confident in the ending they wrote themselves into, and frankly I agree. I LOVE Life is Strange, it's one of my favorite games of all time at this point, but the ending sucks, and it totally falls apart narratively under scrutiny.

To say "it's a perfect ending because it's all a mystery" doesn't actually address the issue of the ending, and how it totally negates any choice the player made from start to finish. It's a cop-out to let the ending slide.

 

[Zhukov]

[snip]

I do not consider "well maybe God did it for unknown reasons" to be a convincing endorsement of a story's plot points.

 

[Casual Shinji]

But even worse is what happens if you choose to save Chloe. Her and Max simply hop in a car and drive out of town. Straight past the diner where Chloe's mother was taking shelter. Don't even stop to check if she's alive or wounded and bleeding to death. Or anyone else for that matter. Makes no damn sense.

Yeah, this was fucking stupid. Seeing as how Chloe is all traumatized over her father's death, you'd think she might have some issues with leaving her mother to die. This ending could've worked if it drove Chloe insane and made her despise Max. The choice is presented as a selfish one anyway, so might as well drive home the point that Max only cares about what she wants, and not what Chloe wants. But even then it would just come out of nowhere for Max to suddenly let a whole town get killed off.

The whole tornado business felt like consequences for the sake of consequences.

 

[happyninja42]

But even worse is what happens if you choose to save Chloe. Her and Max simply hop in a car and drive out of town. Straight past the diner where Chloe's mother was taking shelter. Don't even stop to check if she's alive or wounded and bleeding to death. Or anyone else for that matter. Makes no damn sense.

Yeah, this was fucking stupid. Seeing as how Chloe is all traumatized over her father's death, you'd think she might have some issues with leaving her mother to die. This ending could've worked if it drove Chloe insane and made her despise Max. The choice is presented as a selfish one anyway, so might as well drive home the point that Max only cares about what she wants, and not what Chloe wants. But even then it would just come out of nowhere for Max to suddenly let a whole town get killed off.

The whole tornado business felt like consequences for the sake of consequences.

The thing I find interesting about it, was how often I saw let's players kill chloe in ep 4, because it was her wishes, and she didn't want her family to suffer any further for something that was inevitable. And yet, when the exact same scenario comes up in the finale, they wouldn't kill Chloe, and let an entire town of people die to save one person. A person who specifically tells you she doesn't want to live at the cost of everyone else's life. So it felt a little strange, to have that disparity. Not to mention it was a bit of a telegraph as to the climax of the game in that bit.

Again, I love the game, love it to bits, especially episode 2. But I can't defend the ending at all, as it really does fail to stick the landing. But, as much as I was able to predict how it would end, and there wasn't any real surprise, I did enjoy the story, and the way it was told. So I could excuse a bad ending, considering how much I enjoyed the journey getting to that ending.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

The impression I got was that Chloe was always meant to die in that bathroom and that the purpose of Max getting the powers was to allow her the opportunity to reconnect with Chloe and get closure on their relationship, not to alter Chloe's fate. As for the tornado, I assume it represents the forces of chaos that Max unleashed by messing with time; the more Max used the powers, the more intense and prolonged her premonitions of the finale became. The prevalence of the butterfly motif, referencing the Butterfly Effect, seemed a fairly obvious link between the powers and the tornado.

While I love the game and thought it was really interesting and different, the wheels really do kind of fall off in episode five. Like a lot of mystery/intrigue type stories, they stumbled on the ending. Though to be fair, I get the feeling they kind of ran out of money.

 

[happyninja42]

The impression I got was that Chloe was always meant to die in that bathroom and that the purpose of Max getting the powers was to allow her the opportunity to reconnect with Chloe and get closure on their relationship, not to alter Chloe's fate.

Except she doesn't have closure in their relationship. She goes back in time to the beginning, where Chloe still doesn't know she's there, and lets her die. The only "closure" is in Max's head. Which, you could almost see all of it as some fever dream of Max's, and not that she ever had powers. Chloe died never knowing Max again, thinking she'd abandoned her like everyone else. She never knew what happened to Rachel, Chloe's parents had to deal with more grief and whatnot.

And this again, still points to a dick being who decides this is the best way for Max to grow up and be an adult? "I know what I'll do, I'll make her try and save her childhood friend, but have it where the effects of this rip the space/time continuum, and force her to make a personal choice to let her best friend die, or let an entire town die. That will surely be a good moral lesson for her! But hey, it's ok because she'll get closure!" That's just terrible, no matter how you slice it. I mean what about Chloe's mom? Is it fair to say that her soul crushing grief of losing her beloved husband, and only child, is a good cost, so that Max can feel better about herself and life? To mature, and basically just grow the fuck up? Because that's what this is really. It's a coming of age story, told in a time travel, warping narrative. And like the movie Signs, the end lesson, comes at such a terribly shitty cost (the horrific death of an innocent person to convey some cryptic message to the protagonist) it leaves me feeling frustrated and angry at the concept of this being a good narrative.

As for the tornado, I assume it represents the forces of chaos that Max unleashed by messing with time; the more Max used the powers, the more intense and prolonged her premonitions of the finale became. The prevalence of the butterfly motif, referencing the Butterfly Effect, seemed a fairly obvious link between the powers and the tornado.

Yes it does, it's also very Final Destination-ish, both of which were alluded to in the game in the form of license plates on cars and books and stuff, clearly indicating the influences the game devs were going for. As were Donnie Darko, Quantum Leap, etc. I don't think anyone has ever really argued that particular point.

While I love the game and thought it was really interesting and different, the wheels really do kind of fall off in episode five. Like a lot of mystery/intrigue type stories, they stumbled on the ending. Though to be fair, I get the feeling they kind of ran out of money.

I don't think so, considering how insanely big that game blew up after it's release, I find it hard to believe they ran out of money. If anything they likely had a much larger budget to work with on later episodes, and more creative freedom, given the runaway success it had with eps 1&2. Purely speculation on my part, but I just don't see them being in more of a pinch as the game grew in popularity.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The thing I find interesting about it, was how often I saw let's players kill chloe in ep 4, because it was her wishes, and she didn't want her family to suffer any further for something that was inevitable. And yet, when the exact same scenario comes up in the finale, they wouldn't kill Chloe, and let an entire town of people die to save one person. A person who specifically tells you she doesn't want to live at the cost of everyone else's life. So it felt a little strange, to have that disparity. Not to mention it was a bit of a telegraph as to the climax of the game in that bit.

Again, I love the game, love it to bits, especially episode 2. But I can't defend the ending at all, as it really does fail to stick the landing. But, as much as I was able to predict how it would end, and there wasn't any real surprise, I did enjoy the story, and the way it was told. So I could excuse a bad ending, considering how much I enjoyed the journey getting to that ending.

That whole euthanasia part in Episode 4 was so weird to me, because it was supposed to be this emotional moment, but I knew I was just going to erase it anyway once she was dead. It would've been cool if the game had continued on from that point and actually made you feel the consequences of your actions. And again, kinda strange how Chloe didn't even bother to say goodbye, or even "write" a note, to her parents. I know her and Max are supposed to have this bond and whatnot, but I'd figure her loving, self-sacrificing parents would be just the tiniest bit more important in her life. But no, just let this childhood friend I haven't seen in years pull the plug and let them find me body the next time they check up on me, spending the follow years of their lives lamenting the chance to say goodbye to their own flesh and blood.

 

[happyninja42]

The thing I find interesting about it, was how often I saw let's players kill chloe in ep 4, because it was her wishes, and she didn't want her family to suffer any further for something that was inevitable. And yet, when the exact same scenario comes up in the finale, they wouldn't kill Chloe, and let an entire town of people die to save one person. A person who specifically tells you she doesn't want to live at the cost of everyone else's life. So it felt a little strange, to have that disparity. Not to mention it was a bit of a telegraph as to the climax of the game in that bit.

Again, I love the game, love it to bits, especially episode 2. But I can't defend the ending at all, as it really does fail to stick the landing. But, as much as I was able to predict how it would end, and there wasn't any real surprise, I did enjoy the story, and the way it was told. So I could excuse a bad ending, considering how much I enjoyed the journey getting to that ending.

That whole euthanasia part in Episode 4 was so weird to me, because it was supposed to be this emotional moment, but I knew I was just going to erase it anyway once she was dead. It would've been cool if the game had continued on from that point and actually made you feel the consequences of your actions. And again, kinda strange how Chloe didn't even bother to say goodbye, or even "write" a note, to her parents. I know her and Max are supposed to have this bond and whatnot, but I'd figure her loving, self-sacrificing parents would be just the tiniest bit more important in her life. But no, just let this childhood friend I haven't seen in years pull the plug and let them find me body the next time they check up on me, spending the follow years of their lives lamenting the chance to say goodbye to their own flesh and blood.

It was a condensed version of the plot of the game entirely. The fact that the ending get's erased (just like the euthanasia scene), and how everything boiled down to her friend. Though I try to not be too judgemental, as I personally feel that any attempt to tell a coherent time travel story, that doesn't fall apart due to "but what if" scenarios due to time travel options, is essentially a lost cause from the start. If you actually allow the character in the story to directly change time, any outcome that is chosen, someone will go "well why didn't they just go back and do X, and solve that problem from the start? No tears, no deaths, everyone's happy". Time travel stories are messy, plain and simple. So I try and give them some credit, that they told a really compelling story (to me anyways) up to that point. And that no matter how bad the ending was, the amount of emotional impact I had when playing the ending of Episode 2, made up for not really sticking it at the end.

 

[happyninja42]

snip

I agree with most of your post, except the bit about making new endings. I don't really think there is any good way, given how the storyline develops over the entire game, to make a "better" ending. I think they were doomed from the start honestly. Time travel is messy, wibbly wobbly, timey wimey crap. Stories that use it as a plot device, are playing with nuclear fire, that might end up burning down their entire narrative. Sadly, that's what happens with LiS. And I don't think it's worth the effort to "fix" it. It's a flawed game, that tried really hard, and in a lot of ways, was a wonderful game. It didn't stick the landing at the end, but that's hardly justification to shit on the whole thing. That's like saying, to stick with my gymnastics routine, that the entire 3 minute routine before the landing, that was great, is somehow retroactively shit, because the gymnast stumbled at the end.

I've heard they are making an LiS 2 (not confirmed, I just heard it), and assuming it still follows Max, and she still has powers, perhaps they will write a tighter story this time. Or perhaps it will follow someone else, who has a similar situation to Max, and they write a tighter story this time. Or they never make a sequel, and it's forever a beautiful little game that aimed for the stars, and fell a bit short, after a lovely flight.

 

[SweetShark]

[snip]

I do not consider "well maybe God did it for unknown reasons" to be a convincing endorsement of a story's plot points.

Sure, I get why many will hate the unanswered questions leave the game. However doesn't mean everything need to have an answer.
I love game like "Virginia", "Firewatch" or movies like "Donnie Darko". Not the cup of tea for anyone. I like to "fill" myself what actual happens in the game.

 

[SweetShark]

Imagine I gave you $1,000 and said "Go ahead and do whatever you want with it." A week passes by and suddenly, I come up and say "Hey man, you have two choices- either you go back in time where you never spent the money or I go ahead and kill everyone in your town." Either way, it's a dumb concept because why did I give you the money if that's going to be the outcome(s)? It defeats the purpose of doing anything, and while I did really enjoy Life is Strange, the endings really broke the camel's back.

This is not a fair example because you left out a important element to the mix: Chloe.
Lets just accept for now that the reason why Max got the Time Powers in the first place was to prevent Chloe from dying.
However she had also many other choices to make by using her powers. Either it was a good or bad choice it was up to Max [player] to chose.
But here is the thing: What if the power was only meant to be used to save Chloe?
Yes, you help the people around you. Yes, find you clues which grant you a way to find about the mystery of the missing friend of Chloe. Yes to everything you do in the game in general.
But near the ending of the game, all these actions doesn't matter. Because we already saw what happened even when we found the Killer: The Town still get destroyed. Your choices didn't to jack sh*t because there is a freaking Tornado ready to destroy a Town.
Also take note that the alternative Tornado happened at the same day, which means it wasn't about how many times had to use her powers.

That why the the ending had the two choices: Even you let Chloe die or the Town people die.
Yes, Max seems like a soulless person or even a psycho if she was the "good" girl and in the end she chose to kill all the people in Town. But the power was never to save humanity. Just Chloe.

 

[pookie101]

ive thought about the ending alot as is my favourite game.

they missed an opportunity with an alternate ending where max goes back to the bathroom. freezes time, takes one last kiss with chloe and unfreezes time taking the bullet meant for her. it would of tied up the story nicely as max kept sacrificing everything through out the story to save chloe.

one last sacrifice, saves the town from destruction, saves chloe from being killed, nathan still breaks down and reveals the truth implicating jefferson

 

[Redryhno]

The problem with the ending is that the minor bit of actual characterization Chloe and Max had through the game was thrown completely out the window if you pick the "fuck the town" ending(I've seen people try to spin it as save Chloe, but if her not dying is what caused it, it's just going to keep happening) and you just killed and ruined the lives of everyone because you didn't let some blue-haired buddy die. And if you pick the "let Chloe die" route, Max has literally no impact on anyone's lives, like less narrative impact than Indiana in Raiders(and even he saves more than a few people that would've died otherwise).

I mean, there are so many characters that just get thrown to the wayside in the game, Chloe's stepdad that, while a bit of a dick, does actually give more of a shit than the people that should about most of the kids, Mr.Junkie"Artist" could've been such a better reveal if he'd been more involved than the like five minutes of screentime he had through the entire bit fulfilling nothing but the "suspiciously interested teacher" role, the rich siblings had reasons behind their actions yet about the only decisions you could make about them were that they were dicks and they deserve everything you ever did to them because "BULLIES", I still stand by the opinion that Warren got shafted for how much shit he had to put up with from and because of Max and Chloe.

But we're somehow supposed to care about the long-lost friend that turned into a "anarchist" ***** that doesn't give a shit about anyone but what they want simply because her dad died? That pulls a gun simply because they "have a feeling" the ex must've had something to do with it despite the guy looking for Rachael the entire time as well? I mean, I get that they wanted to play up nothing but the "teenager with problems" bit for pretty much everyone in the game, but they really could've written it better with at least having one grounded character that doesn't get forgotten immediately.(I get trauma, I lost my best friend last year, and something still feels off without her being around, but there's a limit to my sympathy and it stops around episode 2 with Chloe)

Max's powers reminds me of The Flash. He can run really fast but if he uses it to a point of overdoing his power- he ends up screwing everything up. He did it to save his mom in the Justice League movie, but in return it created a paradox.

To be fair, most Flash's at least realize where they fucked up and do everything they can to fix it immediately. Max sorta just goes with the flow until she can't ignore it anymore and then panics and fucks something else up.

 

[springheeljack]

ive thought about the ending alot as is my favourite game.

they missed an opportunity with an alternate ending where max goes back to the bathroom. freezes time, takes one last kiss with chloe and unfreezes time taking the bullet meant for her. it would of tied up the story nicely as max kept sacrificing everything through out the story to save chloe.

one last sacrifice, saves the town from destruction, saves chloe from being killed, nathan still breaks down and reveals the truth implicating jefferson

Oh damn that should have been the ending instead of the Chloe dying one I never thought of that. That would have been perfect because the entire game you are trying to save Chloe from dying constantly. It would make sense that would be your final action on earth

Yeah I had some problems with the ending but there was so much about the game that I just loved (The characters, Chloe, the overall story,Chloe the pacing, oh and Chloe how could I forget about her) that I was able to forgive the merely satisfactory ending. Plus time travel stories are always hard to do and I felt that Life Is Strange did very well.
I mean in the literal first time travel story The Time Machine the book ends with a unsatisfactory ending

 

[Casual Shinji]

I love game like "Virginia", "Firewatch" or movies like "Donnie Darko". Not the cup of tea for anyone. I like to "fill" myself what actual happens in the game.

It depends on whether those cups of tea are building intrigue and then leave you hanging. I'm okay with not getting all the answers or when stories present themselves as kind of vague, but when one of the main appeals of your story is the building of intrigue then this needs to have some sort of satisfying release point or revelation towards the end. Though what's satisfying is different from person to person. But it's what made games like Firewatch and Inside fall flat for me despite really liking them.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

The choice was contrived as hell to begin with. Especially since they never offer any explanation as to why Max's time shenanigans would cause a fucking tornado. No explanation at all. Not even some kind of vague suggestion that that's the universe correcting itself or what have you.

Except it doesn't work. There is no reason for it. It's a complete Catch 22, having the powers, fucked up everything, and she needed powers to fix what she fucked up with her powers. If she never had the powers, there never would have been a problem to resolve in the first place.

Here's the thing: Everything you did for / against people ends up never happening so what was the point of playing the game?? The endings to this game are very bad because not only are they poorly written and there for the sake of forcing the player into making choices, but it also goes against Max's character as a whole. You don't win either way, your actions up to this point are meaningless because either you sacrifice everyone you've helped / got involved with, or you go back and your actions never happened.

Friends, I disagree. Mostly.

The circumstances surrounding the Tornado/Eclipse/Dead Animals/Etc and Max's use of her powers seemed pretty obvious, and reasonably well "explained" by the story (we never get much of an exposition dump, but fuck exposition dumps, they're lazy storytelling). Chloe was never meant to be saved. Every time the universe tried to course-correct by killing Chloe and Max intervened, things started to fray more and more aggressively.

But Max didn't just have those powers to save Chloe, and saving Chloe is not the only thing Max did. I hate to reference another highly contentious time travel/alternate realities game, but I'm reminded of Infinite's "Constants and Variables". Chloe dying is a constant, and Max learns this (to her dismay) over the course of the game, while doing a lot of other really good and important stuff. Most prominently stopping a budding serial killer in his tracks. While the story re-centers itself on the relationship between Max and Chloe for the end, the relationship between Max and Chloe wasn't the only thing the game was about. Max has a character arc to complete, and Chloe is part of that, but it's not "Max and Chloe, the game".

Where I don't disagree is Zhukov's assertion that the alternate ending is garbage. It is CLEARLY an afterthought. It's a fraction as long, questionably written, has the characters acting bizarrely, and completely retcons everything the game has carefully revealed to us up to that point in time about Chloe and the consequences of keeping her alive. Following the game's own internal logic, the next natural disaster is going to be a whopper, and Chloe is just going to keep dying anyway. It was an unfortunate consequence of passive pressure to "have multiple endings" in your choice driven game in order to avoid accusations that "nothing anyone did mattered" if all narrative threads culminated in one outcome (regardless of whether or not that one outcome is the one a properly told story demanded).

 

[Redryhno]

Where I don't disagree is Zhukov's assertion that the alternate ending is garbage. It is CLEARLY an afterthought. It's a fraction as long, questionably written, has the characters acting bizarrely, and completely retcons everything the game has carefully revealed to us up to that point in time about Chloe and the consequences of keeping her alive. Following the game's own internal logic, the next natural disaster is going to be a whopper, and Chloe is just going to keep dying anyway. It was an unfortunate consequence of passive pressure to "have multiple endings" in your choice driven game in order to avoid accusations that "nothing anyone did mattered" if all narrative threads culminated in one outcome (regardless of whether or not that one outcome is the one a properly told story demanded).

Honestly, if they'd had even some kind of whispered dialogue other than that god-awful indie music over the ending about Max realizing what she's done, then it honestly could've been a powerful ending(sorta, I have pretty much no interest in any of them as characters, so the impact would probably be different person to person). I mean, all the choices she made were largely made moot because at least half the town is either dead or injured beyond recovery as it is, and all we get is a calm - but disgustingly hopeful given the circumstances - song and drive through it all with all the roads miraculously undamaged.

I mean, there's so much the game could've done better, but their endings are fucking awful, which considering the subject matter, should be the simplest things to write about. Of course, considering the way the game was released and the narrative told, I wouldn't be surprised if they made it up as they went along because they found a new InsignificantDecisionWalkingSim.