Few moments in video games ever have the community buzzing quite like this. The controversial Mass Effect 3 ending. Samus Aran’s big reveal. Aerith in Final Fantasy VII. And I’d even put Life Is Strange‘s ending up there with all those big moments. The original Life Is Strange ended its five-episode run with one big decision: save Arcadia Bay, or save Chloe. Considering that the Arcadia Bay ending gets a much longer and more fleshed out montage, it’s widely accepted as the canon ending, but we shouldn’t discount the Chloe ending either. That ending sequence is just as poignant, even if it’s underlined with guilt and sadness over dooming an entire town for someone you love.
Developers Dontnod left the endings ambiguous, but with the announcement of Life Is Strange: Double Exposure and the return of protagonist Max Caulfield, the community has come right back to debating the controversial Bay versus Bae debate all over again, and I’m here for it. The announcement trailer shows off Max and her new (also dead) friend Safi, along with an evolution of her powers that allows her to step into parallel worlds. But, as fans were quick to point out, there’s no sign of Chloe Price at all. Did Chloe live or die? How has Max been since that fateful encounter at the lighthouse? If Chloe died, could Double Exposure end with Max stepping into an alternate timeline where she still lives? So many questions!
As if to add fuel to the flames, Life Is Strange Narrative Director Felice Kuan has also taken to Twitter to tease fans a little about Chloe’s fate. When asked whether Chloe was still alive in this timeline, Kuan simply said, “YOU tell ME.”
This could mean any number of things. There could be a narrative setup decision at the start of the game that lets you choose which ending you prefer, or Chloe could somehow be involved in Double Exposure, and Max will be able to see her again in another timeline. Regardless of what this means, the Life Is Strange community is buzzing over the ending of the original game again. The game’s subreddit is back with debates over which ending is canon, which is right, and which one should serve as the setup to Double Exposure.
It’s almost as if I’m back in 2015 all over again, arguing with friends and colleagues about why it made sense for Max to choose Chloe. It’s been said countless times over, after all, that Chloe had become the most important thing in Max’s life. We’d spent the entire game fighting to save her and now that we’re at the end, what are we gonna do? Just suddenly choose not to save her? No way.
Then there’s the other side of the coin. It’s immoral to sacrifice the lives of many just for one person, not to mention the fact that said person was meant to die at the very beginning of the game. But the draw of Life Is Strange is just how human it is, and what Max feels towards Chloe. Whether it’s right or wrong, Max choosing to save Chloe is a very human choice that makes sense.
It’s a difficult decision that players still argue about to this day, and seeing these arguments resurface with the announcement of Double Exposure definitely feels nostalgic. It’ll be interesting to see how Deck Nine handles Max’s new adventure, and I’m almost certain that Chloe will be involved in the story in some way. It just remains to be seen if we’ll finally get closure to the canon ending of Life Is Strange.
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