On Course to Misery

So the first time in a while (first time period?), let me diverge from talking about RPG stuff to talk about other things.

A few days ago, the conclusion to Life is Strange came out. I'm going to keep this spoiler-free for those of you haven't played or purchased it yet. You absolutely should.

The long and short of it a girl stumbles into time travel and shenanigans and misery follow. Given that it is/was Back to the Future day, it was only appropriate to finish out this awesome story today. Unfortunately, anyone who's ever watched Doctor Who has a vague idea of how these things always work out.

That's all I'll say about that.

The ending might be sort of predictable, but I'm not sure the story was ever really about the end of it. The journey getting there was... memorable. After every choice you make, you're always left wondering if you've done the right thing. Have you made the world better or worse? Have you even affected a damn thing? The characters all feel real; all with stories worth telling and experiencing.

Max (our time-stumbling girl) strikes a particular chord with me. Maybe it's that fact that creative folks (all folks?) always seem to exist on the edge of anxiety and depression, that omnipresent and rather overbearing fear of failure. Maybe it's her general hopefulness and excitement over what she's stumbled into; after all, everyone loves time travel. Maybe it's just because we see the world through her eyes and she's both our mouthpiece and window into it. Maybe it's that thirst for adventure and life and all of her dreams and all that youthful vigor. Maybe it's a little of all of that.

But I think a big part of it is that since we are Max, for lack of a better way to describe it. She stands on her own as a believable character--it's not like taking over some mook in an FPS game and becoming a god of death. She takes on a bit of who we are. We leave her with little elements of ourselves, as her own personality merges with ours to deal with the evolving story. By the end of the game, as you sit on the precipice of the final decision you have to make, it's not just Max the character choosing her destiny, but you as well.

Admittedly, there are some parts of the game that could be better written. I feel like the ending should be... more substantial. Or something. I don't know. Sometimes the little puzzley bits feel out of place. A sort of 'get back to the story, stop making me jump through hoops.'

But it's still well worth the journey. It's a narrative that proves video games are a perfectly viable medium for telling worthwhile stories. Narratives that can strike us in ways that books or movies can't. Narratives that not only take us on a trip of self discovery and love and sadness, but ones that put you right into the eye of the storm.

Somehow, it's a story as much about yourself as it is about the characters.

tl;dr
helio83: cyrax i finished life is strange and i am sad
helio83: pls send help
Cy: What is "life is strange"?
helio83: misery