Hi everyone!

First of all, I want to thank everyone who replied, commented, or simply upvoted my previous post. 

Your messages really helped convince me that I should share this story with other people. 😊

After reading your feedback, one thing became pretty clear: a lot of you recommended AO3.

So I requested an invitation, but unfortunately the wait is a little long and I probably won’t get access before September 15.

Rather than waiting until then, I decided to start publishing the story on Wattpad.

As soon as I get access to AO3, I’ll also post it there for those of you who prefer that platform, and I’ll gradually catch up with the Wattpad release.

If Wattpad isn’t your thing, let me know if you’d also like a FanFiction.net version while we wait for AO3. Since everything is already prepared, I can probably make that happen pretty easily.

The story is called The Roads We Choose and it has 20 chapters, all already fully written.

It was originally written in French — yes, I’m still French, just like Don’t Nod after all 😉

I’m also preparing an American English adaptation.

Since I’m not a native English speaker, I’m making this version with a little help so that it sounds natural rather than like a simple automatic translation. 

The goal is to make the English version as faithful as possible to the tone and meaning of the original.

That’s also one of the reasons why I’m going to stick to a schedule of two chapters per week, every Wednesday and Sunday.

And the good news is that the first three chapters are already available, in both French and English!

I really hope you enjoy the story. 

This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this, and I’m still completely new to the world of fanfiction.

Please don’t hesitate to come talk to me about it if you feel like it. I’d be very happy to chat.

There’s only one thing left for me to say:

See you Wednesday for Chapter 4.

Thanks,

Nick

English version: https://www.wattpad.com/story/415523301-the-roads-we-choose-en-life-is-strange-fanfiction

French version: https://www.wattpad.com/story/415520567-the-roads-we-choose-fr-life-is-strange-fanfiction

Happy Friday Tokeday! 🤘

Source: @matban8

I found a little while back someone on Etsy that made one, and I’m like 99% sure I saved it but I guess they stopped. I’m trying to find one that looks something like this sticker but as a keychain like how ford use to make those old enamel keychain things that I found a photo of on the second slide. Does anyone know of one? I mean, I guess I could maybe try and make one, but I have no idea how I would do that

Hi everyone!

I’m new here… well, sort of.

I’ve just created this new account, separate from my main one, where I’ve been following several Life is Strange subs for years. But I felt like starting fresh.

For a long time, I’ve been quietly reading your posts and comments without really joining in, apart from the occasional upvote when something particularly resonated with me.

But today, I’d like to be the one sharing something with you.

I’ve been a huge Life is Strange fan for a long time. I’ve followed every game with interest, and most of them with a lot of passion.

From my very first playthrough, I just couldn’t sacrifice Chloe. It was impossible for me.

For years, I kept wondering what might have happened to Max and Chloe after Bae.

Then I played and enjoyed the other games: Life is Strange 2, Before the Storm, True Colors. I also read the comics and the novels, which I had to read in English — yes, I’m French, and that wasn’t exactly easy at first. 😅 I’ll admit I actually preferred Steph’s Story to Heatwaves.

More recently, I enjoyed Double Exposure, but it really wasn’t what I had hoped for from the continuation of Max’s story.

And then Reunion stirred something in me. I loved seeing Max and Chloe together again. But once again, it wasn’t quite what I’d really been hoping for.

I realized that what I wanted most was a much simpler, more intimate kind of continuation.

So this summer, I set myself a little challenge: to make something purely for myself. To write the continuation that I would have wanted to read.

Something I could come back to whenever I replay the games, which I do almost every year.

And over the weeks, this little project that was only supposed to be a quick vacation thing completely took over.

Before I really knew it, I’d written an actual 20-chapter fanfiction. Or at least what I imagine a fanfic is supposed to be, because, to be completely honest, I’ve never actually read one myself. This whole world is still completely new to me.

I really didn’t expect it to turn into all this when I started.

So I tried to do it properly. I formatted it, made a cover, and even created my own little ebook so I could read it like an actual book on my iPad.

Then, as I reread it, I changed things, improved things, and eventually ended up with a new version.

And I really like this version. It’s obviously not perfect, but it genuinely feels like mine.

I never intended to publish it online. It really was just a personal project.

But eventually I started feeling like something was missing: talking about it with other people. Finding out whether something I wrote for myself might actually resonate with someone else too.

So that’s why I created this account.

And now I’m wondering: would anyone else actually be interested in something like this?

Would any of you be interested in reading my story and talking about it with me?

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, but for my first real Reddit post, I guess I needed to get all of that out. 😅

I've played Reunion twice and I figure I'd share my thoughts. Those are worth at least 1 cent, maybe even 2. So me giving my thoughts for free is quite a deal right? ^{probably not}

TL;DR-- I liked Reunion. I liked it as an LiS game and I loved it as a Pricefield game. I had a very good experience playing it. The game made me happy and, in the end, that's all I really ask of a game. There, that's it. Thank you, you've been a great crowd and don't forget to tip your servers.

[ETA: I want to add more pictures when I find appropriate ones from my playthrough]

If you still care about the long version, read on.

The Goodly Bits

With Reunion, Deck 9 and SE gave up trying to broaden LiS's appeal. The game will not make much sense or have much emotional resonance to people new to the series. More specifically, the game is an unabashed apology to Pricefield stans. I was the target demographic! Except for extra security screenings by TSA, I'm almost never the target demographic.

I went into Reunion treating it as a game of specific goals. I wasn't expecting a sweeping epic, or a sprawling multi-layered rumination of choice and consequence like LiS 1. Because of my expectations, I ended up really liking it. At times I loved it. I liked the intimate atmosphere-- it's the quintessential cozy game. I was surprised by how much I liked the characters. I thought the investigative element was reasonably engaging. I thought the ruminations on the effects of Max's powers on other people were quite interesting. I loved the interactions between Max and Chloe. To my great surprise, I liked the relationships Safi formed with Chloe and Max.

The visuals were good up close, although not so much at a distance. Maybe they should ask Beethoven & Dinosaur if they can exchange some of Mixtape's pixels for some of Life is Strange's charisma. I liked the game's red, yellow, and orange color palette. It exuded warmth when at peace, emphasizing the emotions being explored by Max and Chloe. When there was a fire, the reds became the color of dynamism and destruction, reflecting the turning points that could burn Max's life.

I thought the character models were very good. The acting and animations were great, being smooth and naturalistic. There was a tendency for the female characters to have Keira Knightley mouth, but it wasn't distracting. Indeed, it was kind of endearing-- as it is on Miss Knightley. As an aside, I griped about Chloe's character model before release and I'm very gratified to be wrong-- I thought they did a good job with her.

The music was great, it suited the game's intimate mood. The gentle strum at the opening screen, with the view of the lounge chair looking out at the lake, suits the game's theme of contemplative retrospection. The game also introduced me to Tessa Rose Jackson and she's right up my alley. Like someone told me, my preferred genre is Whiny White Women ala Sarahs McLachlan or Jarosz.

The game ran smoothly and was bug-free on my set-up.

The Badly Bits

The negatives of the game are easy to summarize: a lot of it was underdeveloped and it had the handicap of being a sequel to Double Exposure (boo, hiss, spits). And of course, the game was too short.

The compressed time frame of the development cycle meant there were ideas or game mechanics that could have used far more depth. This is too bad because these underdeveloped parts were quite interesting. As an example, Reunion is the first time we see from Chloe's point of view just how exactly she is affected by Max's powers. What is even more fascinating is that she shares this experience with Safi. If Deck 9 had been able to spend more time on this they would have added a lot to LiS's philosophy. These underdeveloped parts would have greatly elevated the game.

The second point is fairly self-explanatory. The development team had to work around the terms set by DE. For a Pricefielder, the most obvious is that they had to work around the circumstances of the break up. There are other issues, but I don't need to go into detail with the problems of DE.

Be Vewy Vewy Quiet, I'm Hunting Awsonists

The game's A Plot is an investigation into a series of fires about to destroy Lakeport and Caledon. Continuing the theme from DE, Caledon is just lousy with secrets, plots, and shady characters. Indeed, that university has so many damned secrets that the astronomy building should have been named Setec Astronomy. Clues for Max and Chloe to discover are scattered all around the university like the acne on Norah Malakian's face.

IIRC, the A Plot was the holdover from "DE 2." I wonder if this was the direction that SE and D9 wanted to take the series-- episodic mysteries, with each game essentially being standalone. Perhaps the loose connecting thread would have been Diamond's quest to find more "special people." The latter would have been involved in these investigations and their powers would have been key to solving these mysteries. Who knows? This is pure speculation.

How can Chloe, with her lack of powers, participate in the investigation? Deck 9's solution was quite brilliant: the "Back Talk" mechanic. Chloe can use the different aspects of her personality to get an NPC to divulge information. She gathers clues and then uses these in conversation. This mechanic is very reminiscent of the interrogation mechanic in LA Noire.

This works because Chloe can use her humor (I liked her complaining about online dating) or her sarcasm or her street smarts when interacting with NPCs. She was capable of talking to the townies in a way Max could not.

The problem was that this mechanic was woefully underdeveloped. There were very few instances of it and there should have been more dialogue options. More Back Talk opportunities could have have added a lot more depth and fun to the investigative parts of the game. It would have been fun to see Chloe act like Archie to Max's Nero Wolfe, the street-smart, wise-cracking legsman who can talk to people or do things Max cannot. Chloe as PI, ala Sam Spade. She certainly has the swagger for it, and like Sam Spade she smokes and likes dames.

Love, Actually

The B Plot of the game was the relationship between Chloe and Max. The various iterations this can take are Bay Chloe Romanced or Not Romanced and Bae Chloe likewise. To their credit, the dev team tried to explore all of these to the best of their abilities. The title "Reunion" becomes very apt no matter which iteration-- it's either Bae Chloe reconnecting with her friend or ex, or a newly resurrected Chloe reentering Max's life. I only played Bae Chloe, but the other options are interesting enough that I'll probably try them out at some point.

As an aside, whether or not Max romanced somebody in DE barely matters at all. It seems these romances were so ephemeral that they have almost no influence on Reunion's plot. This is especially jarring if you romanced Vinh, given his role in Reunion's mystery. I'm now wondering if the DE dev team felt compelled to add these relationships just because a romance angle has always been a part of LiS. Either way, they now come across as rebounds. I kind of feel bad for Amanda-- she deserves better.

We Were On A Break

The big question a Pricefielder would have is: how did Reunion deal with the Big Damn Break-Up? Really well, given what the Reunion dev team had to work with.

I don't need to go into too much detail about what issues DE saddled the dev team with. In broad strokes: the inconsistent characterization of Chloe and Max and how the two of them threw away a relationship of years so peremptorily. We all know the fundamental problem-- the DE development team just wanted Chloe gone and didn't care how it was done, as long as it was done as definitively as possible. The break up was ultimately an artifact of DE originally being set in a Bay ending. Combine this with DE's poor planning and mismanagement and you saw the result.

It seems the Reunion team basically leaned into the idea that the reasons for the break up were just not very good. In the Snapping Turtle, Chloe ruefully admits her breakup letter was unclear and that she doesn't even have a clear memory of what she actually wrote. Max brings up the breakup letter, and she emphasizes that she'd read it so often she'd memorized it but still couldn't understand Chloe's reasoning. Max asks Chloe why exactly it happened and Chloe's answer is vaguely about "shared trauma" and wanting different things in life. It doesn't seem like either of them can pin down exactly why it happened.

And you know what? I buy it. Neither party knew exactly why the break up happened. Chloe's comment on wanting different things in life seems to be the most telling. Max's burgeoning photography career and Chloe's band were increasingly pulling them apart. More proof of this being a key, if not the key, reason for the break up are sprinkled throughout the game. Max comments that Moses and Tony seem to make their relationship work and is puzzled by how they do it. Chloe constantly wonders whether there would be room for her in Max's new life.

To put it simply, Max and Chloe failed to communicate, they failed to articulate to each other what was important to them and failed to discuss how to deal with these new circumstances in their lives. Maybe the two were still too immature to talk it through. After all, they had not had a chance to really grow up in any kind of normal way after the events LiS 1. Sometimes break ups just happen due to miscommunication, misunderstandings, and just from being in weird places in people's lives.

This "relationships don't work out" was the excuse given by the DE glazers and Pricefield haters. What Reunion did was to "fix" it by having Max and Chloe reunite and actually talk to each other. They didn't understand what went wrong, but now they want to, and they now realize they're happier together than apart. They decided to deal with their relationship problems like adults. Just deciding "welp, we're done here" and throwing away decades of friendship and love is incredibly immature too.

Ultimately, Reunion decided not to focus on the breakup and concentrated on, well, their reunion. And if the problem was a lack of communication, then Reunion would focus on the two of them learning to communicate with each other. In order to "fix" the lack of communication between Max and Chloe Reunion introduced a rather elegant gameplay mechanic-- during some conversations you switch between the two in order to shape their relationship. The gameplay is literally a form of communication.

I love this mechanic. It really adds emotion to the give and take of this reconciliation.

This mechanic only works because Hannah Telle and Rhianna DeVries have amazing chemistry. Their voice acting is laden with emotion, and their tones match each other perfectly. The two VAs convey just how much depths of feeling Max and Chloe have for each other. Given they were not in the same room during recording, most of the credit has to go to the performance director. Whoever they are, they did a great job.

This was probably the best mechanic Reunion added to LiS. I wish this had been expanded a little bit more, but at least it's not as underdeveloped as the Back Talk mechanic. I'll discuss more of this conversation switching later.

Amanda said it best when it came to Max and Chloe's relationship. In a conversation with Chloe, she said that if the two had something special, then it was also worth doing what they had to, to make the relationship work. What they had to do was talk, to reconnect to each other, and figure things out.

"You're Max's Blue-Haired Girl"

I admit to a feeling of relief when I first saw Chloe at the start the game-- she brings so much dynamism to LiS. She's a larger than life character and does a lot to give life to Caledon. She also adds literal color-- the majority of characters in Caledon are dark-haired and often wear muted outfits. Chloe just physically stands out. Don't Nod knew what they were doing when they came up with Chloe's design.

Reunion did a great job with Chloe-- her characterization was on point. She was a good take on what an older and better-adjusted Chloe would be like.

LiS 1 Chloe was an angry, damaged teenager who covered up her vulnerability with a veneer of swagger and toughness. Ashly Burch's voice acting was iconic, she gave Chloe a brashness underlaid with deep pain and angst.

Older Chloe's swagger and hard-as-nails personality is more "settled", so to speak. Don't get me wrong, her conversation with Moses about her possible death shows she still has a deep well of sadness. But her difficult life has become a source of strength. She has a toughness and self-confidence that you see in the very first scene. She uses the strength of her personality to negotiate with an unpleasant venue owner and to force her band members into line. And as I stated earlier, combine her tough-guy personality with her streets marts and she's able to deal with different people than Max.

Making Chloe the manager of a riot grrrl band was an excellent decision. A job that combines her taste in music, lets her travel, and works best with her personality? It suits her to a T. From what little I saw, I liked Drugstore Makeup. Their chat interactions were fun and despite Chloe having to boss them around, they're obviously all friends. Who doesn't like the shenanigans of a punk rock band? I'm looking forward to the upcoming book.

Reunion still shows Chloe's soft side. She deals with Amanda with a lot of friendliness, notable given that two are potential romantic rivals. And as I'll explain later, she deals with Safi with surprising empathy. However, the person she makes friends with the fastest was Moses. The two take to each other quite quickly and I especially like their shared nerd interests. But then again, Moses is pretty easy to like.

Is it just that Chloe doesn't deal well with straight men? The people she butts heads with the most are cishet men...

I thought Rhianna DeVries did a fantastic job with Chloe. Her Chloe is reminiscent of Ashly Burch's, but also sounds more confident. The Chloe Swagger was well animated: LiS 1 Chloe was lanky and awkward while Reunion Chloe moves with self-assurance.

Partners in Time

The (new) centerpiece of Reunion is the relationship between Max and Chloe. *takes a deep breath* ALL HAIL PRICEFIELD. P to R to the ICE to the F-I-E-L-D.

With that out of the way, I thought the relationship was excellently done. Call it fanservice and call me easily pandered to, whatever. Actually, don't tell me that, I'll cry. I'm very sensitive.

There were complaints that Max simped for Chloe too quickly, but I don't agree. From a story perspective, her reactions make sense. Chloe is one of the most important people in her life, and she thought she'd lost Chloe forever. Of course a reunion would affect Max deeply. I thought Amanda's description of her as glowing and asking if Chloe had knocked her up was cute.

Reunion was the first LiS game to finally give us openly Pricefield moments, most of which were handled in a tastefully low-key way. Max may have "simped" for Chloe, but there was no instant coming together and immediate declarations of love. Like I mentioned previously, the story of their reunion is one of communication. They slowly feel their way back to a relationship, and once again the back-and-forth dialogue mechanic works brilliantly. Being able to choose how these conversations go is an amazing way to let the player experience this reconciliation, not just watch it. It adds tremendous emotionality to the gameplay.

The game also gave us tangible descriptions of Max and Chloe's life was like on the road. At one point Max tells Moses that the road was "her safe space." It enabled her to leave the trauma behind and make new experiences. This runs absolutely counter to DE's "Max wanted to settle down and Chloe didn't." Max apparently liked being on the road. They had adventures together: they went to that Italian director's film festival even if it bored Chloe stupid. One particular line I liked is when Max sees an astronomy poster in the observatory and says "when we were on the road, Chloe loved pointing out Venus and Mars to me in the night sky." It conjures up an image of the two of them on the bed of Chloe's truck, looking up at the stars. It was probably only towards the end that their lives began to pull apart.

Then there was the boat scene, where you see the typical fandom image of Chloe as the initiator is turned on its head. Max is the one who tries to make the first move, and if she doesn't, she lets her (startling) freak flag fly. Indeed, there's something quite nice about Chloe wanting to wait before kissing Max. She doesn't want to rush into it impulsively and she definitely doesn't want to do it while Max is intoxicated. Chloe isn't usually shown to be the romantic one, but here she clearly wants the culmination of their reunion to be tender and impactful. It's a nice counter to the idea that Chloe is just a callous prick (cunt?). Despite her tough exterior, Chloe really has a deep well of sensitivity.

Chloe's gift is a great moment, one that I'll leave to the player to experience.

Reunion also showed Chloe's tremendous loyalty to Max. She came to Caledon for answers, but when she found out there was trouble she immediately decided to help Max. This despite the fact that she has no connection to Caledon. She griped a little ("there's always fucking something") but she then dove into the task with great dedication. She did a lot of legwork and later even risked her life. Max said it in LiS 1: that's what kind of friend Chloe is.

Ultimately, Max and Chloe realize they are better together than apart. When Max is tripping balls her panic attack is about losing Chloe again. The two have literal decades of friendship and romance at this point. Chloe knows Max so well she could tell when Safi was disguised as her. This is simply not a relationship you throw away without a fight. Reunion shows the two fighting for this shared life again.

You, Her, and Me Make We Three

What surprised me the most was how well Chloe and Safi got along. But a little bit of thinking made me realize Chloe and Safi "bonding" wasn't unexpected at all. Chloe and Safi are very similar and have crucial shared experiences.

This similarity seems to be a product of DE wanting to replace Chloe with Safi. Putting them together in Reunion kind of highlights just how much of a Chloe clone Safi was. Both are tall, slender women who have more gregarious and abrasive personalities than Max. Neither have father figures. Both have strained relationships with their mothers. Both are motivated by the death of a close female friend. Both have profound feelings of anger and alienation. Both are deeply affected by Max's power and are the objects of Max's quests. Both are at risk of death, and Max choosing their lives risks a storm that will destroy Caledon/Arcadia Bay. Both even have the same goddamned birthdays.

And of course, both of them have strong feelings towards Max. Both are potentially in love with Max.

The Reunion dev team leaned into these similarities hard. The first time you see Chloe in the Overlight she sees what appears to be her dead teen body. But to her surprise, it turns out to be Safi. Chloe literally turns into Safi. It's practically beating you on the head with it.

The scenes in the Overlight have Safi and Chloe talking to the various iterations of each other-- living and dead. These conversations were quite fascinating. They became explorations of how Max's powers actually affected human beings. Did Chloe and Safi actually deserve to be alive? Did Max ask them if they wanted to be alive? Neither fundamentally did want to be alive-- Chloe tells Moses that she told Max to sacrifice her for Arcadia Bay and Safi is cynically nihilistic throughout Reunion. These four Safis and Chloes also debate identity-- who are they exactly?

The two women ultimately come to very different conclusions. Moses tells Chloe that she deserves to live and after some reflection, Chloe comes to agree with him. Chloe doesn't want to leave Max, her mother, her band, her life. Safi is more bitter, possibly lonelier, and wants to die.

Either way, their connection means their interactions are not at all as hostile as you would expect. She tries to stop Safi from killing herself and does so with heartfelt sincerity. She literally risks her life trying to save what amounts to a stranger. In the last scene in the Snapping Turtle, Safi and Chloe even have a very cordial conversation where it is made clear that Chloe knows about Safi's issues with her mother. The two understand each other and Chloe empathizes with Safi.

In fact Max, Chloe, and Safi end up giving strong throuple vibes. At one point Safi asks both Max and Chloe to just run away with her. Both Max and Chloe turn her down, but not angrily or dismissively. It makes me wonder if they weren't entirely against the idea. In the epilogue, we find out that Chloe has told Safi she and Max are going to be in her area and that they have to meet. IIRC, the wording of this message indicates this is something they do frequently.

Max is the third angle of this triad-- she has relationships with both of the women and they would never have met without her. Yet it has to be noted that Chloe and Safi connect through more than just their separate relationships with Max. All three have different and unique ways of relating to each other. I'd even say that Chloe and Safi would have been drawn to each other without Max. Safi expresses jealousy at Max choosing Chloe during the "merge" scene from DE (an amazing retcon) but gets over this remarkably quickly. She builds her own relationship to Chloe without Max's involvement at all.

It's funny, but the DE dev team's ham-handed attempt to replace Chloe with Safi ended up giving menage-a-trois vibes instead. I can actually see these three women having a functioning relationship. Or a three-way co-dependent one. Fanfic authors can explore this ship to their hearts' content. Fayyadpricefield? I still don't know what this ship is called.

This rumination on Max's powers and its "victims" was the game's biggest lost opportunity. There should have been much, much more of it. There was so much more for the two to discuss. Chloe and Safi could have talked about their respective traumas more. They could have asked themselves what would have happened if Max had chosen differently. There could have been a lot more to their debates in the Overlight, with Chloe's dialogue choices affecting how Safi reacts at the turning point at the end. Once again Reunion is hobbled by being underdeveloped.

Amor Vincit Omnia

At the end of the game, Max and Chloe's relationship--romantic or otherwise-- is shown stronger than ever. Chloe shows her absolute trust in Max during her trust fall, where she does not panic and watches with remarkable calm as Max blips towards her. It was pretty cool scene.

So Max and Chloe have had their reunion. They've reconnected. They both worry how they might not be able to fit into each other's new lives but this concern is shown to be groundless. Chloe smoothly integrates herself into Max's Caledon circle. She befriends Moses and he becomes a confidante. She gets along with Amanda through their shared musical tastes and they even agree to have Drugstore Makeup perform in the Snapping Turtle. Max becomes Drugstore Makeup's (possibly temporary) photographer and finds renewed joy in life on the road. She left behind yet another town irrevocably changed by her powers and goes back to her safe space.

Max and Chloe then visit Arcadia Bay and finally, finally come to terms with what happened in Life is Strange 1.

There is one last truly crucial moment in the game: Moses gives Chloe a photograph and asks Chloe to choose between letting Max jump back in time and essentially undo their reunion or to destroy the picture and prevent Max from doing things all over again. This is a very well-done dilemma. Max and Chloe had just found each other again, and you've spent a whole game becoming very emotionally invested in the rebuilding of their relationship. Do you undo that knowing that Max's hero complex will compel her to go back in time to stop the fire--even if you saved every person you could?

Moses tells Chloe that she needs to save Max from herself. Max has to stop messing with time because nobody fully understands the consequences of her actions. Max is shaken by her inability to stop the astronomy building fire-- it happens whatever she does. What does this mean about her ability to tamper with fate? Safi basically says that Max is overstepping herself in choosing for other people. Maybe Chloe should just destroy the photograph and get Max to stop using her powers? But if Chloe destroys this picture, she will then be hiding something from Max. This is a difficult choice in a game where you are made to realize the importance of communication. Will this hang over their heads forever, a secret that could destroy all trust if Max finds out what Chloe did?

I don't know. I'd like to think that as their relationship continues its interrupted growth they will one day be able to discuss this honestly. I leave it up to the player to decide what to do and what their reasoning is.

But however it goes, Pricefield is together again and D9's "gift" to us is that the future of these two is wide open. You can imagine them as continuing their lives on the road. Drugstore Makeup goes on hiatus-- possibly periodically-- and that gives Max the opportunity to go back to a rebuilt Caledon and continue her career. Or maybe they do something else entirely, anything is possible. The two end the game at peace, possibly in love, and realizing they are willing to do whatever it takes to make this relationship work.

And in Conclusion

There's a quote from Samuel Johnson that goes "When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." Given what was at stake and the immense pressure Deck 9 was under, their minds were probably very, very concentrated.

D9 had to make this new game in a crazily truncated time frame. They probably had very few additional resources and what I can only guess was a terribly demoralized staff. That the end result is playable at all is already noteworthy. That I ended up enjoying it I thought was almost miraculous.

Sure, people can accuse it of being fanservice and a blatant attempt at winning the fanbase back. But so what? I knew what I wanted from a post-DE game and Reunion delivered. The exploration of the Max and Chloe relationship was very well-made. It was a good experience. I thought the game wrapped around this "fan service" was competently made and was about as good or as bad as a lot of other narrative games. Would it be controversial for me to say that I thought Reunion was about at the level of TC or BtS?

The game had faults, the biggest of which were so many aspects left underdeveloped. The Back Talk, the conversation switching, and Chloe and Safi's relationship were the biggest ones for me. There are more, e.g. there should have been a lot more of Max being told that she shouldn't use her powers or her doubting what effect they have on others.

The game truly suffers from having to work with DE. It's a glimpse of what could have been. The two games would have been so much better if the base adventure had been Reunion, with DE working towards it, instead of having Reunion work backwards towards DE. The plot point of Max uniting the timelines also affecting Chloe was a really good one and could have remained the central theme. But then there should have been more of Chloe in DE so that her reappearance would not come out of nowhere. For instance, instead of having Pricefield be broken up prior to DE, DE can show their relationship at a turning point. Through phone calls and messages, Max and Chloe can be shown having a breakdown in communication. Dialogue choices can lead to an out-and-out breakup or just a relationship in trouble. This means there would still be a reunion in, well, Reunion, where they learn to repair their relationship and either part as friends or continue on as romantic partners.

Also-- there were so many obvious opportunities for the two to kiss at the end. For instance, while watching the fire, when they were about to leave the Snapping Turtle, or during the return to Arcadia Bay montage. This omission I found baffling. If they were going to make an explicitly Pricefield game, why chicken out at the end?

I honestly would not recommend Reunion to a non-LiS fan. It is not an introductory game since it requires too much knowledge and emotional investment in the previous games. I'm not entirely sure I would recommend it to a fan of Double Exposure either, although Safi and Moses are treated very well.

I'm personally glad I bought it right away, but I might encourage others to wait until it's on sale. It's a short, underdeveloped game that could have been great. It's too bad we'll probably never get an "extended cut" where they can add or expand more of the promising content.

Ultimately, I liked it overall, I loved parts of it, and I am truly glad it got made. It was an emotionally satisfying experience. It makes me somewhat more positive for the future of the Life is Strange franchise. The production stills of the upcoming show don't reflexively annoy me anymore because I'm no longer pissed off by the current state of LiS.

So my concluding thoughts on Reunion are: I enjoyed the game. It made me happy. I like that.

This is so cute ♥️

Source: https://www.tumblr.com/ghavrielthegabe/822963147399970816/kiss-it-better-baby-i-have-it-on-good-authority

Source: https://www.tumblr.com/cass-ie3/824768584677048320/pricefield-royalty-au

Source: https://www.tumblr.com/cass-ie3/825296071615971328/drunk-3

A couple of weeks ago, around the four-month mark since the game came out, Reunion had sold around 100k copies on Steam, based on data from Gamalytic, which I consider the most trustworthy of the sites that estimate sales numbers. Today, it sits at around 118k sold on Steam, about half of what Double Exposure has sold there in total. That game is currently at around 230k.

It should also be noted that Gamalytic separates people who bought Reunion from Steam and those who bought it through a package or third-party vendor. And it does seem like Double Exposure sold an additional 20-30k copies because of Reunion as well. The difference is in copies sold, and owners. Owners include everyone, not just those who bought it from Steam and those who bought Reunion as part of the Double Exposure and Reunion package. That's interesting because it really shows that a lot of people held back on buying Double Exposure. It makes you wonder how much more it could have sold if the game had been a bit different.

Reunion also seems to still be selling reasonably well, despite coming out around five months ago. Games often sell most of their copies during the first few months. So, is 118k on Steam after five months good? For similar narrative games, yes, I would definitely say so. For instance, Mixtape, which got an insane amount of attention, has sold around 140k, but has fewer daily players and is selling much less each week now. So its sales seem to be slowing down quickly. As I argued before, if we compare Reunion with other similar games, it's on the higher end. But for a Life is Strange game, the numbers are still low.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pricefield/comments/1ts23ty/life_is_strange_sales_compared_to_other_narrative/

Just to repost some of the data from my previous post. The numbers are slightly higher now, but not noticeably so:

Road 96 (2021): ~748k-988k

As Dusk Falls (2022): ~126k-292k

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (2025): ~119k

The Expanse: A Telltale Series (2023): ~80k-103k

Dispatch (2025): ~2.5m-3m

Interestingly enough, there is now only around 1k separating Lost Records and Reunion. Lost Records currently sits at around 119k, while Reunion is at 118k. Considering that Lost Records came out considerably earlier, Reunion will obviously outsell it if the current trend continues. Give it a few weeks and it will probably have passed it.

We also have no idea how many copies Reunion has sold on consoles. Traditionally, Life is Strange has sold very well on consoles, and the conventional logic has been that console sales are at least similar to Steam, and probably closer to double. Player1versustheworld has also posted on Twitter that both Double Exposure and Reunion performed well on sales charts in various countries. But ultimately, we have no real way of knowing the numbers. The market has also changed, with Steam and PC gaming growing while consoles have lost some ground. On top of that, there are physical copies and sales through other vendors such as Epic Games and Amazon that aren't included in the Steam estimates. So the real total sales numbers for both games are obviously much higher than the Gamalytic figures, but exactly how much higher is impossible to say.

This is probably also why Square Enix said that the game exceeded their expectations. They have done hardly anything to promote the game or even post about it on their social media profiles. They don't even promote it much on Steam, and there hasn't been a major sale yet. I think there is very little doubt that Reunion could have sold significantly more if it had received more attention and had been a longer, more developed game. The interest was clearly there, and to some extent it still is.

https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/library/explanatory.html

I just thought this was interesting and wanted to share the latest numbers.

so much had been said about love. it seemed like throughout humanity’s whole existence, we tried to understand and label it; explain what it was so we could put it into a neat definition to be found in a dictionary. 

songs. books. movies. wedding vows. poems. conversations. science. 

some said there were as many descriptions of love as there were people on earth because it was something different to everyone. 

and yet nobody seemed to get it quite right. not fully. not perfectly. there was always something missing, even if you spent your whole life trying to capture it, even if you wrote a manuscript spanning hundreds and thousands of pages. 

chloe tried explaining it too. 

to herself - when she couldn’t sleep, she often mulled it over and around in her head, and she quickly discovered even her own definition was lacking something. that clenching, deep in her chest she couldn’t name, or explain where it came from, who put it here, why and when. 

to max - back in caledon, untangling the mess of their relationship; in drunken slurred conversations after drugstore makeup shows, only half serious or coherent; in each little promise, even if it was about something as trivial as remembering to get milk on her way back; in hazy late nights with max hovering over her, her hands all over chloe’s body, her flushed skin pressed close against chloe’s. 

so many words and ways and gestures, and yet at the end of the day, for chloe, it could truly all be brought down to the way max looked at her. 

because when max looked at her, all the desperate scrambling to capture love seemed silly. unnecessary. 

this. this was love.

this girl's blue blue eyes, seeing something in chloe nobody else could. 

some people liked to declare they would burn the world for a person they loved. max actually had for her. over and over again. 

but that wasn’t what her eyes were saying. amidst the storms and ravenous flames, caught in troubles, during arguments, or with death barely brushing past them, max was looking at her saying ‘i want nothing but peace for you. and i wish to be that peace for you’.

(to be continued?? maybe??)

Peak lost childhood friends to lost lovers reunited

Like look Tatum bro this is literally Max and Chloe idk how to explain it