by ThePurplePantywaist » 27 Oct 2015, 14:20
#
lifeisstrange -
have we been trolled ? #heavyspoilers
Episode 5
This post sums it up very nicely:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/di ... 8444979171
It's really frustrating how they orchestrated the whole story as a setup for that silly, pointless decision between bay or chloe. They abandoned everything, logic, common sense, most basic human behaviour like running away from a tornado, just so the player has to push left or right at the end.[...]
We got trolled, basically.
And it's such a glaring gap between this amazingly shallow set-up for a gut-punch and the rest of the story, the dialogs, the characters etc. I mean sure, it's a bit tropey all around but so good, too.
Or, as it was said here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/#p2
There is no way in hell that noone could see that gigantic f-6 hurricane incoming. So why the fricka-frack are there people down on the goshdarn shoreline eating lunch like YOLO. THERE IS NO WAY. There are ♥♥♥♥ing WHALES IN THE STREETS. NO ONE IS DOWN BY THE BEACH. Joyce should not have been there, Warren should not have been there. NOONE should have been there unless they were a cop making sure NOONE was still down there.
So I thought to myself, why are there people here. Then it dawned on me. Its a moral thing. Something is going to happen that ties in all these dumb♥♥♥♥♥ still hanging around town while the world is ending. Poor. Sloppy. Lazy. PLOT DEVICES. FFS.
Let's stay with this plot device thing - throughout the whole story our heroine Max can manipulate time, and does so primarly to help or save other people. We never learn why or how she got her power, but she had visions about the end of the world (or at least Arcadia Bay, the city where the game takes place) before.
But in the end she suddenly learns her power is the (only) reason for this tornado (from which nobody can flee, more on that in a moment). So, to stop it from happening, she has to - use her power one last time. We complain about the available endings in a moment, but this by itself does not make a lot of sense:
As said, she has visions of the tornado, before she got her powers. And other people (Nathan Prescott, his father, Kate, maybe even more I have missed) know about the coming tornado or at least have some impending sense of doom, but - so far as we know - do not have super powers.That Warren gets the whole "Superpowers cause superstorm" thing so fast, but still does not run either, raises questions too, to say the least.
Here (
http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/di ... 8444222200 ) is even more to this effect.
On user postulates the theory, that the
Tornado is destined to happen, and the only thing that can prevent it, is Chloe dying at that point in time and space - Chaos theory (there is, after all, a butterfly present).
http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/di ... 8444488473
Could be. But it brings new problems: The Tornado is then no magic thingie, therefore it should have been predicted by weatherservice and everybody should get out in time. Even more, Max could (ab)use her superpowers, save Chloe nonetheless and then have the freaking city evacuated. The choice Chloe or City would not make any sense any more. Well, not that it makes that much sense to begin with.
So far, so bad. What about the endings? Don't worry, they are not any better.
Either sacrifice your bestest friend ever (or love interest, depending on what you chose and how you interpret it) or sacrifice half a city (which for whatever reason did not have the common sense to flee from an incoming hurricane! After an explicable eclipse, and dead whales in the street nobody runs from a damn hurricane!).
For your bff you have jumped literally through time - multiple times. The whole episode, nay, most of the game was about saving her, again and again and again. And again.
So, we chose her - and what do we get?
The two teenage bffs drive off into the sunset through the trashed city. Your bff does not even mind to check up if her mother is lying dead in the street (not to mention almost everybody else, who you have met during the game, because most likely they all were too dumb to flee) or was saved nevertheless.
The whole montage is rather short and, again let me quote that post from above:
NO. No game. No DonTNod. NO. I didnt want a ♥♥♥♥ing Disney ending but the one we got? You can go ♥♥♥♥ yourselves with it. It was lazy. Halfassed. Hamfisted. Boring.
The other ending, where you sacrifice your bff/love of your life, is better in regard to cinematic quality. It is, btw, what she seems to want - and let's face it, it was probably the first really selfless thing she ever did. Here you see the stuff happen, towards which you have been working for quite some time - the bad guys going to jail and such. Then cemetery, burial and music. Does not sound exciting? Right you are, it isn't, but still way better than the other ending (and better than ME3). (And it ignores all decisions we ever made during the whole game. As does the other ending, see below.)
Nevertheless, there is a huge plothole there:
So Super Max travels back to the point in time and space, where and when she got her superpowers. (Or, more likely, the first moment, where she realizes, she has them - if that makes any difference). Let's ignore, that she had visions of the future (!) before (!!).
When she returns, she still has her memories (there never was any explanation, how or if her memory works when she timejumps, just that she forgets everything after a while.)
So she knew exactly what was coming and could have saved Chloe without using (or "awakening") her superpower. As she also knew, the principal would not believe her.
She could have taken a picture of Nathan with the gun. Knocked him out, and told Chloe where the dark room was before she forgot etc.
Come on, Super Max, you could save your bestest friend/love of your life. Put a little oomph in it! At least try!
It was never convincing for me, that Chloe must die to stop the storm - Max not having/using superpowers - ok, I can take that. But that and Chloe dead? Sorry, Plot device. Bad Plot device. The kind of bad plot device which at the ending can easily ruin the whole story.
Here (
http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/di ... 431675940/ ) someone argues, that the sacrifice would end in an eternal time loop anyway. While their arguments are convincing, the solution is simple: time travel magic. We have seen that before, haven't we?
And let's not forget, we were promised, that our choices mattered. Both endings erase almost all the choices we ever made - either by going back in time and having a fixed story or by killing off everybody we've met - the only choice that remains, is whether Max x Chloe is a romance or just friendship.
It is pretty easy to come up with better endings yourself. Some fans did so.
Here is one video (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ6apssT4iM ), maybe a tad too happy, but well made.
I personally like this one (
http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/di ... 427543245/ ), where Malkav0 did, what we were promised: They wrote an ending, which incorporates all choices we made. That's what I was expecting.
PS:
There are a lot of obvious Twin Peaks parallels - besides number plates, names, Rachel=Laura... I like to add, that both start great and end really disappointing (the admin
complains here about Twin Peaks, but in German ).
Obvious also are a lot of Butterfly Effect - references.
For a even longer list of referenced media, compare here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/di ... 440728628/
PPS:
This is why you should
never, never, NEVER pre-order ! Game is still good, last episode still better than ME3, but I should not have preordered it.
#[u][b]lifeisstrange[/b][/u] -[b] have we been trolled[/b]? #heavyspoilers [u]Episode 5[/u] This post sums it up very nicely: http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/0/490123938444699760/#c490123938444979171 [quote]It's really frustrating how they orchestrated the whole story as a setup for that silly, pointless decision between bay or chloe. They abandoned everything, logic, common sense, most basic human behaviour like running away from a tornado, just so the player has to push left or right at the end.[...] [border]We got trolled, basically.[/border] And it's such a glaring gap between this amazingly shallow set-up for a gut-punch and the rest of the story, the dialogs, the characters etc. I mean sure, it's a bit tropey all around but so good, too.[/quote] Or, as it was said here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/#p2 [quote]There is no way in hell that noone could see that gigantic f-6 hurricane incoming. So why the fricka-frack are there people down on the goshdarn shoreline eating lunch like YOLO. THERE IS NO WAY. There are ♥♥♥♥ing WHALES IN THE STREETS. NO ONE IS DOWN BY THE BEACH. Joyce should not have been there, Warren should not have been there. NOONE should have been there unless they were a cop making sure NOONE was still down there. So I thought to myself, why are there people here. Then it dawned on me. Its a moral thing. Something is going to happen that ties in all these dumb♥♥♥♥♥ still hanging around town while the world is ending. Poor. Sloppy. Lazy. PLOT DEVICES. FFS.[/quote] Let's stay with this plot device thing - throughout the whole story our heroine Max can manipulate time, and does so primarly to help or save other people. We never learn why or how she got her power, but she had visions about the end of the world (or at least Arcadia Bay, the city where the game takes place) before. But in the end she suddenly learns her power is the (only) reason for this tornado (from which nobody can flee, more on that in a moment). So, to stop it from happening, she has to - use her power one last time. We complain about the available endings in a moment, but this by itself does not make a lot of sense: As said, she has visions of the tornado, before she got her powers. And other people (Nathan Prescott, his father, Kate, maybe even more I have missed) know about the coming tornado or at least have some impending sense of doom, but - so far as we know - do not have super powers.That Warren gets the whole "Superpowers cause superstorm" thing so fast, but still does not run either, raises questions too, to say the least. Here (http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/0/490123938444171928/#c490123938444222200) is even more to this effect. On user postulates the theory, that the [i]Tornado [/i]is destined to happen, and the only thing that can prevent it, is Chloe dying at that point in time and space - Chaos theory (there is, after all, a butterfly present). http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/0/490123938444171928/#c490123938444488473 Could be. But it brings new problems: The Tornado is then no magic thingie, therefore it should have been predicted by weatherservice and everybody should get out in time. Even more, Max could (ab)use her superpowers, save Chloe nonetheless and then have the freaking city evacuated. The choice Chloe or City would not make any sense any more. Well, not that it makes that much sense to begin with. So far, so bad. What about the endings? Don't worry, they are not any better. Either sacrifice your bestest friend ever (or love interest, depending on what you chose and how you interpret it) or sacrifice half a city (which for whatever reason did not have the common sense to flee from an incoming hurricane! After an explicable eclipse, and dead whales in the street nobody runs from a damn hurricane!). For your bff you have jumped literally through time - multiple times. The whole episode, nay, most of the game was about saving her, again and again and again. And again. So, we chose her - and what do we get? The two teenage bffs drive off into the sunset through the trashed city. Your bff does not even mind to check up if her mother is lying dead in the street (not to mention almost everybody else, who you have met during the game, because most likely they all were too dumb to flee) or was saved nevertheless. The whole montage is rather short and, again let me quote that post from above: [quote]NO. No game. No DonTNod. NO. I didnt want a ♥♥♥♥ing Disney ending but the one we got? You can go ♥♥♥♥ yourselves with it. It was lazy. Halfassed. Hamfisted. Boring. [/quote] The other ending, where you sacrifice your bff/love of your life, is better in regard to cinematic quality. It is, btw, what she seems to want - and let's face it, it was probably the first really selfless thing she ever did. Here you see the stuff happen, towards which you have been working for quite some time - the bad guys going to jail and such. Then cemetery, burial and music. Does not sound exciting? Right you are, it isn't, but still way better than the other ending (and better than ME3). (And it ignores all decisions we ever made during the whole game. As does the other ending, see below.) Nevertheless, there is a huge plothole there: So Super Max travels back to the point in time and space, where and when she got her superpowers. (Or, more likely, the first moment, where she realizes, she has them - if that makes any difference). Let's ignore, that she had visions of the future (!) before (!!). When she returns, she still has her memories (there never was any explanation, how or if her memory works when she timejumps, just that she forgets everything after a while.) So she knew exactly what was coming and could have saved Chloe without using (or "awakening") her superpower. As she also knew, the principal would not believe her. She could have taken a picture of Nathan with the gun. Knocked him out, and told Chloe where the dark room was before she forgot etc. Come on, Super Max, you could save your bestest friend/love of your life. Put a little oomph in it! At least try! It was never convincing for me, that Chloe must die to stop the storm - Max not having/using superpowers - ok, I can take that. But that and Chloe dead? Sorry, Plot device. Bad Plot device. The kind of bad plot device which at the ending can easily ruin the whole story. Here (http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/0/490123938431675940/) someone argues, that the sacrifice would end in an eternal time loop anyway. While their arguments are convincing, the solution is simple: time travel magic. We have seen that before, haven't we? [b] And let's not forget, we were promised, that our choices mattered[/b]. Both endings erase almost all the choices we ever made - either by going back in time and having a fixed story or by killing off everybody we've met - the only choice that remains, is whether Max x Chloe is a romance or just friendship. It is pretty easy to come up with better endings yourself. Some fans did so. Here is one video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ6apssT4iM), maybe a tad too happy, but well made. I personally like this one (http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/0/490123938427543245/), where Malkav0 did, what we were promised: They wrote an ending, which incorporates all choices we made. That's what I was expecting. PS: There are a lot of obvious Twin Peaks parallels - besides number plates, names, Rachel=Laura... I like to add, that both start great and end really disappointing (the admin [url=http://forum.kortz.at/viewtopic.php?p=6622#p6622]complains here about Twin Peaks, but in German[/url]). Obvious also are a lot of Butterfly Effect - references. For a even longer list of referenced media, compare here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/0/490123938440728628/ PPS: This is why you should [b]never, never, NEVER pre-order[/b]! Game is still good, last episode still better than ME3, but I should not have preordered it.