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Life is Strange 2 Episode 5 Thoughts

Hey everyone,

first of all let me apologise for lack of posts lately, life's been getting me, I had lots of work and then it was vet's visits again, doctor's appointments, taking care of life stuff. I know you understand that, I just wanted to say I'm sorry. This weekend there's some special content coming.

Second of all - I wanted to ask, how did you enjoy Life is Strange 2 episode 5? I wanted to share my initial thoughts before I record a video about it. I actually enjoyed that episode a lot. I think overall my favourite episodes were episode 2 (because how wholesome it felt, because of Christmas atmosphere, having Chris around) and episode 5. It probably wasn't what I expected, I thought the endings would be more black and white, in my opinion we ended up with a bunch of grey-ish endings, none of them really good nor bad.

I feel like I know what they were trying to tell us - that because of how system treated Sean and Daniel, there was no true redemption for them, especially not for Sean, which sucks because he really was trying his best, he was a good person, yet he never really got that decent ending for him. I was kind of expecting for him to either end up with Lyla or to end up with Daniel in Puerto Lobos, happy, fishing or running a workshop, not being criminals. We didn't get that. This is a spoiler, but I feel like you probably already played the game: there's no good ending in Mexico, either way Sean ends up a criminal. I mean... isn't it a bit racist? I might discuss that in a video.

Overall the episode did provide some nice scenes and moments - being able to hear David talk about Chloe and Max? Absolutely precious. We didn't get to see them, but that's okay, I heard some rumours we might see them again one day ;) just between us. I love how David and Chloe's relationship changed. I'm glad we got to see their photos and most of all I'm glad they're happy.

Second thing I really enjoyed was seeing Karen again, spending time with her, having that redemption arc. Fireflies scene was definitely my favourite in this entire game and one of my favourites in the entire franchise. Question is, why didn't they provide more scenes like that? Why didn't the episode include any songs? I feel like we missed out on that.

Overall even though they did throw in generic racism yet again, the episode was enjoyable. I think I like the fact endings weren't that obvious, at least they managed to surprise me and they managed to make me cry. Life is Strange 2 wasn't as important to me as Life is Strange was, then again it's hard to jump that high. I know they tried their best, but I also feel like they made a bunch of mistakes which I already discussed in my videos: being too black and white about racism (no pun intended), not enough licensed songs, changing locations around so we don't really get to know anyone properly, Mexico idea wasn't the best either ;) anyway, these are my initial thoughts, I'd like to know what you think?

I hope you're all good, have a great day and stay safe,
Ola

Comments

I think your summary hits almost all my issues with this game. The racism, the changing locations, and the goal to get to Mexico. First, racism. The conflicts with racists always got my eyes rolling. I'm not saying racism doesn't happen, but the fact that it was conducted in the game by strangers who suddenly show up (sometimes literally out of nowhere like with the vigilantes), made the scenarios feel injected artificially. It would've served the experience better if the issue of racism was handled by characters known by the Diaz brothers, so that there may have been some nuance and redemption. Imagine if the Grandfather had taken on this role, it would've made this conflict more realistic and powerful. Second, changing locations. Each episode felt like whatever trouble that Sean and Daniel were getting into, they always had the option to just leave. Unless you factor in the FBI on their tail, it never felt like this tactic was a compounding problem for the Diaz bros. Agent Flores showed up, what, twice? Once in the hospital, then again for a moment at the border? I thought for sure that after episode 3 ended with the destruction of the pot farm, the Diazes would also have some drug cartel after them as well. But no, just an FBI file. All this running away and getting away with it weakened the tension for me. Lastly, Sean's drive to escape to Mexico never felt like a credible solution. Mexico is widely known to have cartel and corruption problems, and on top of that, there is an extradition treaty between the US and Mexico. They'd still have that threat of being caught and handed back to the US. He may have escaped racism, but not the law. My biggest gripe with this game, finally, is how uncompelling it was. If you are going to make an episodic game, it has to have compelling questions to keep me wanting to find out what will happen next. Even the small mystery of what happened to Karen came to a slow, unsatisfying, totally normal conclusion. (This was almost as big a flop to me as Rachael's mom story in BTS) In LIS 1, there were bold subplots and intriguing teasers to keep my interest high. Just comparing the teaser scenes (the ones that show up after each episode's credits) between LIS 1 and LIS 2 will show there is a major contrast in intrigue. Sorry for the long rant. I don't mean to kick DONTNOD around too much as they are highly talented. I criticize because I believe they can do better, and hope they treat the franchise with more care. It seemed like they made LIS 2 to break boundaries, to be controversial and topical, but they strayed too far from what made LIS 1 such a fun experience.

First of all episode 3 was my favorite and my of my favorite screen was with Cassidy. Episode 5 was my second favorite. My two favorite screens in episode 5, was the Max & Chloe part I loved that :). The another screen was the screen with the lanterns that was beautiful, don’t really understand why they have show Daniel powers like that before? Second of all did Sean get one of the worst layers in the U.S? Because Sean should well not be punished for his brother sins? And last of all you should make a video about the endings.

Didrik Svahn


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