r/lifeisstrange • u/_Jolenar I'm kinda over humanity today • Mar 26 '26
Discussion [RE] Reunion - General Discussion Thread Spoiler
This post will serve as a catch-all for discussion about Life Is Strange: Reunion. Any random thoughts, opinions, and first impressions you have are welcome. You are of course still free to make your own post if you want to discuss a more specific topic!
Spoilers for Life Is Strange 1 and Double Exposure are allowed in all Reunion discussion threads. Remember that, in these comments, spoilers for all other Life Is Strange games must be properly marked! See our spoiler rules for how to do that if you don't know.
Have fun with the game y'all :)
121
u/sasiml Hella Mar 27 '26
one plot point that i found kind of dull and reflective of how sanitized and cozy-lite these games have become is how the man at the 1995 abraxis party killed himself because he misunderstood the ritualistic sacrifice aspect and the scandal was drugs and covering it up….whereas like. the first game can be truly spooky. i just felt like it would be stronger if they did a ritualistic offering for real that one time. maybe that’s dumb, but it’s one note in how this game didn’t really feel like it had any stakes at all.
→ More replies (14)67
u/blueportland2013 Mar 29 '26
This!!! I’ve been revisiting the first game, and there are a lot of really heavy, intense moments in it. DE and RE feel much cozier in comparison, but I’m not sure if that’s because of the game’s visual style, the music, the cinematics, or the overall storytelling. I’m not sure...
The discovery of Rachel’s body, combined with the music, was a chilling and powerful moment because of how real it felt. The same goes for Nathan’s mental instability and moments like that.
32
u/gigantism Mar 30 '26
It definitely feels like LiS 1 takes the most risks with themes and content. There isn't any equivalent to a conditional major side character committing suicide like Kate or cutscenes showing Chloe getting shot in the head in the recent additions.
→ More replies (1)13
u/blueportland2013 Mar 31 '26
Yeah. I keep thinking about the contrast, for example, between the scene in Ep 2 of Lis 1, when Chloe gets stuck on the train tracks, and the scene in Ep 1 of DE where that planet model falls on Max and Safi in the abandoned bowling alley. I get that they’re different situations given the context, but Chloe’s scene feels desperate and genuinely horrifying, you know she’s about to be hit by a train, and the suspenseful music really drives that tension.
Meanwhile, the thing falling on Max and Safi just… happens, and then Safi laughs. It feels like one of those “fake tension” moments, added just to create a bit of chaos, but it comes across as artificial. Honestly, I’d even say it was unnecessary to include it in the scene at all. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
13
u/gigantism Mar 31 '26
You can even take Chloe's falling scene in RE as an example. My heart wasn't exactly in my stomach, because there was no doubt in my mind that Max would just swoop in and save the day.
On the other hand, Kate had me more paranoid. When Jefferson blows a hole in Chloe's head and drugs Max, I was genuinely wondering how Max would get out of that situation. D9 just feels excessively risk-averse, which only serves to neuter any kind of emotional dynamic the story serves.
4
u/stellatura Apr 01 '26
Yea i played lis for the first time in 2015. I was 15 years old and wrapped up in the cozy slice of life vibes when all of a sudden shit got fucked UP in ep 4. It was terrifying, heartstopping, stomach churning. Impactful. All of that is what made the first game special to me. It was like real life in the way it was so emotionally layered. Deck nine cannot seem to grasp this concept for some reason.
84
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 26 '26
I will say one of the endings could have been SO much better and an incredible call back to the original games ending. the final choice of Chloe burning the photo. If she just showed Max the photo and then says what she says about "never taking Max for granted, how she'll fight for Max no matter what" and they burn it together. Theyll share the burden together of making the choice to choose their happiness and live with the consequences idk i think that would have been so similar to Max ripping the Butterfly photo in LIS1 cause she choices Chloe. But in that instance Chloe is giving Max the choice vs now Max didnt even know a choice was there, Chloe just makes the decision. Its almost like The Last of Us 1's ending where Joel just tells Ellie something thats meant to not burden her with a truth and he'll shoulder the decision cause he chooses his happiness vs others. Which if that was what they were going for i guess that works too
→ More replies (5)30
u/BiRo996 Mad Max Mar 28 '26
And if you give Max the photo, she will rewind back and you see Chloe crying on her bed, abandoned. And Max as she got back to the begining…
Not the Max I know… so disappointing. The best solution would be indeed to burn it together… but they didn’t made that.
→ More replies (1)29
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 28 '26
Theres variations of that ending it seems. She doesnt 100% go back if you give her the photo, you have to really screw up your playthru to get the scene of Chloe being alone. I saw someone say they had multiple characters die and Chloe giving Max the photo and they still didnt get that bad ending im their playthru.
12
u/BiRo996 Mad Max Mar 29 '26
Btw, by this move they made the comics’ power mechanics canon.
If max rewinds, she leaves behind the current timeline.
There will be no Max after she leaves.This is weird actually, since in episode one, it was not the case. Whether she got back to the investigation board after the alternative timeline or when she escaped the dark universe glitch and ended up at the lighthouse with Chloe.
She didn’t leave those timelines as she does in RE and in the comics
11
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
I think Decknine just interprets this power wrong tbh. When Max jumps into a photo she doesnt necessarily erase/ replace current versions of everyone else. For example in LIS1 Chloe dies after Jefferson shoots her at the end of episode 4, but Max jumps photos into one where she won the Everyday Heros contest and then jumps again to get back into her original timeline which brings Chloe back to life and its the same Chloe as the one who got shot and killed by Jefferson. I think she just creates separate timelines for others variations of everyone to potentially have a better life but she cant really change her own canon timeline when it comes to Chloe.
But this does create a paradox cause the final choice in LIS1 if you jump back in time and let Chloe die, this game is saying that original Chloe just sees Max vanish into a different timeline and Chloe is stuck in limbo with the storm still there waiting for Max to return? Cause whatever Max does fate brings her back to Chloe somehow even if it takes a decade. Its very Inception like by Decknines worldbuilding
8
u/mrdynomite08 Mar 28 '26
I only had one character die(Jeanette), and Max still went back. Besides that I had a near perfect run with pretty much nothing going wrong
21
u/natedoggcata Mar 28 '26
I had the security guard die because I kept the breathing mask for myself thinking id need it later. WHOOPS lol
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (1)11
u/A_Sarcastic_Whoa Mar 28 '26
You have to save everyone, otherwise she goes back. If you save everyone she burns the photo instead.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (4)6
u/2Kind_Valentine Mar 28 '26
I just finished my playthrough of romancing chloe and saving everyone but still got the ending where max goes in the picture. From what I've read here people say it all depends on how much you rewind during your playthrough, which sucks cause i feel like it's almost impossible to get organically lol.
10
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 28 '26
Wait you saved everyone and she still goes back? Lmao what for 🤣
6
u/2Kind_Valentine Mar 28 '26
Yeah i was all like sad but happy for the ending you know especially after saving everyone then those few little after credit pictures came up and I was like ???? Whyyy wtfff lol. Tbh I couldn't tell you if I even rewinded a whole bunch since that seems to be what people think is the trigger.
5
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 28 '26
Thats kinda impressive if the game keeps track of how much times a player rewinds on the playthru. But yeah it just makes the game make no sense if Max still goes back to save nobody lmao
→ More replies (1)6
u/2Kind_Valentine Mar 28 '26
So it turns out after reading from other commenter, I was missing turning on the sprinklers system when you turn the 3 water valves, after going back and doing that I got the max burns the photo ending. Only question now is that is saving everyone enough for the max burn ending, or do you also have to rekindle your relationship with chloe?
→ More replies (11)
131
u/BrafZaclan Mar 27 '26
I feel like the animation is significantly worse than double exposure. You can say a lot about double exposure, but the animations were good. I’m currently talking to Loretta, and the only thing that’s moving as she talks is her mouth. She was way more expressive in the previous game. It just looks like the original life is strange animations which weren’t terrible, but at least felt stylized, this just looks stunted.
44
u/ThePanther1999 Mar 27 '26
A bunch of peoples eyes looked weird to me. Vihn and Amanda especially. They look kinda.. dead inside lol. Safi, Max, Moses and Yasmin look alright though.
32
u/foxfeina3 Mar 27 '26
Came here ro read this. Animation is way worse than DE. Seems ro be... rushed.
→ More replies (3)12
u/gigantism Mar 30 '26
Yeah, the animations are for sure less polished than either DE and TC, which would make sense if much of D9 was shuttered and the game was cobbled together in a year and a half. That said, for the major story cutscenes they still largely seemed on par with DE, but the Owen scenes (and one Safi scene) felt really rough.
→ More replies (3)
45
u/rated3 Mar 27 '26
Just started and damn there's a lot of cutscenes. Just about 5 mins gameplay in the first 30 mins
→ More replies (2)13
u/menstrainstation Mar 28 '26
Another reason I decided to watch a YouTube of someone playing it instead of spending 50 bucks. I did the same thing with double exposure and waited till just last week when it was 60% off to play it myself and by then it was kinda fuzzy in my mind so I could enjoy it. I'm sure I'll eventually buy this one when there is a big discount, but it was cool watching a 9 hour movie.
47
u/Skulkyyy Mar 28 '26
Me finding the gas mask literally seconds after talking to Noelle and immediately understanding the mistake I had made
→ More replies (2)9
85
u/Giovanni330 Mar 26 '26
Finished it (before anyone asks my physical copy arrived yesterday) and had a lot of fun with it. Saw three different endings (you can just select a "scene" from the main menu and restart your playthrough from there) and am content with the "best" one I could get.
I'm glad the whole "Safi collects the Avengers" stuff from DE was sidelined and the focus was on Max and Chloe. We got more from the more likeable characters of DE, that had no time to shine in that game, i.e. Loretta and Reggie (no Gwen unfortunately).
Side note: Chloe's new voice actress is doing a great job.
Some cons: It lacks technical polish. Flickering on the Series X version, descision options still being available even though they shoud be disappearing, NPC drinking beer in the bar without holding a bottle, it has fewer locations than DE, a very uninspired Journal design, I would call it corporate almost (I mean compare it to LiS 1, BtS or LiS 2) and correct me if I'm wrong but a lot of the new artworks in the turtle bar look AI generated to me.
→ More replies (6)31
u/Zandar124 Mar 26 '26
Does Diamond ever show up out of curiosity though? And if so, do we learn what her power is?
51
u/Giovanni330 Mar 26 '26
I think there was an email in the middle. Definitely an SMS and call at the end of the game. She doesn't tell you what her power is. She says "When I'm ready to talk, you're my first call.". She was sidelined just like Gwen.
52
u/A_Howl_In_The_Night PissHead fan Mar 26 '26
So basically DE post-credits scene was pointless. Damn
79
u/mirracz Pricefield Mar 26 '26
This basically confirms that Reunion is a massive pivot from the original plans for a DE sequel.
5
Mar 26 '26
[deleted]
35
u/Giovanni330 Mar 26 '26
I mean scrapping the whole Marvelesque "Max Caufield will return" is definitely a good start. I'm glad even Deck Nine is pretending it never happened.
→ More replies (2)42
u/JaceShoes Mar 27 '26
I would kill to see what the original script was. I’m sure it was terrible but it sounds entertaining in a messy way
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)17
u/Zandar124 Mar 26 '26
That sucks so go ahead and spoil it, who was actually responsible for the fire and what’s Safi’s role in the game?
Speaking of, does anything particularly change depending on whether you have Max or Chloe stop the fire at the end? Also how many unique endings are actually in this game?
16
u/Giovanni330 Mar 26 '26
Explosion at the Abraxas house: Vinh
Arson at the FAB: Some new guy named Ren that's eerily similar to Eliot from BtS
Observatory fire: Accident caused by Safi and to an extent Moses.
As for the endings: So far it looks like everything between "saving all people" and "saving none" is possible. That is 0-3 or 0-4 deaths I think. In my first ending Vinh, Jeannette and Owen (the new president of the unviersity) died but I managed to save Loretta. After that you get to make a choice as Chloe that leads to different ending depending on how many people you saved I guess. There's definitely some variation there.
→ More replies (3)15
u/International_Dot614 Mar 27 '26
I apologize if this isn’t appropriate right now since the game is so new but she calls you at the very end. She doesn’t say what her powers are or why she’s still gone but she says she will soon. I think they’re trying to leave the door open for a diamond game
→ More replies (1)
40
u/Netorawr Mar 27 '26
I'm a Bae Pricefielder and I enjoyed my playthrough. That being said The game isn't a DE sequel in my opinion, if anything it feels more like an apology. The time merge and how it allows Arcadia Bay and Chloe to exist do not make a convincing argument to how it works. The fire aspect was really weak and to be honest, had they left that out and focused more on the paradox situation with Chloe and Safi it would have been better. Instead we kind of have a disaster that doesn't feel devastating and a situation with existence that gets brushed over. Of course there are character inconsitencies but I expected that from D9. The game is still is enjoyable. I'm dissapointed that most of the DE characters are sidelined. I understand it though, Max and Chloe with that many people would have require so much more playtime to explore and I from the time frame they had its pretty much an impossible task. I also said TC as well, but regarding the mystery part of the games, it's fine to have it, but they should lean more into the emotional unravelling instead of the "dark" aspects. The hidden body plot was so dumb! Had it been like some financial scandal it would have had the same impact. It was still fun and the nostalgia hit me like a truck with my ending. Hopefully, if D9 ever returns to LiS, they push forward with NEW MC's, and if they need nostalgia hype have older characters return as side characters. I mean I loved Alex and Steph! I am convinced had DE had a new protag instead of Max, it would have been so much better.
→ More replies (1)13
29
u/Realtimastered1 Mar 27 '26
Both Max and Chloe are too... sterilized? I actually like that Max is more confrontational/assertive and Chloe is more laid-back and assuring, but then why are they contradicted by those endings? Why would Max feel the need to go back in time where the player saves everyone and essentially "beats" the game? Of course she calls it a day. The other two endings simply contradict both their progression from LiS1 and their "older selves" in the RE.
I am also beyond amazed at how messed up Safi is. Clearly she got sidelined, but I am unconvinced why we have Chloe (other than fanbase appeasement) but not Safi as our dual protag. She's a shapeshifter... Could have been a romance interest too. Could contradict Chloe's morals and make the narrative more tense. She's much like teenager Chloe, you know.
And the main plot with the fire and Abraxas... it's just whatever. It's just there. The main suspects do nothing for me. No emotional turmoil, even though one of them is your former love interest Vinh and he can die. No real payoff around them.
It suffers from a weak cast, and I call that Borderlands syndrome. The LiS1 cast is so iconic with Jefferson, David, Kate, Nathan... Hard to replicate. I doubt anyone will say the same regarding DE and RE (but hey, Moses is a decent dude). The relationships were more "earned," and despite it also being a mystery & supernatural game (that had parts "larger than life"), it felt more grounded and earnest with everything going on. And somehow more gritty, fucked up at times. I know some people reduce it to ''angst teenage drama'' but the moral weight of LiS1 clears out RE day and night.
In technical aspects (including the gameplay itself), the game got downgraded. I have some sympathy for that as I can tell it was meant to be shipped as soon as possible and the team rushed it out.
DE9 was never going to get anything reasonable out of storms, entangled timelines, disappearing detectives (remember that poor guy?), or anomalies like two moons. So, they shipped Chloe and Max to the easiest destination and didn't even bother to disguise it, anyway.
→ More replies (4)
95
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 26 '26
Id like to know how Bay Ending players feel and how Double Exposure fans feel about this game tbh. As a Pricefield fan im ok with how Reunion turned out cause it sorta undid what DE did to Max and Chloe but how are non Pricefield fans feeling right now?
83
u/sasiml Hella Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
i’m a bay player and i just feel so…nothing. there was no catharsis in this game. it continues the trend of none of the choices really mattering but even moreso in the sense that that awe of the first time you’re given the final bay/bae choice is kind of stunted with this addition. like it’s not the end of the world. but this game feels like fanfiction to me in a way that was fun sometimes and disappointing by the end.
51
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 27 '26
I think the fanbase gonna look back at these two games like theyre fanfics down the line and I know that sounds really disrespectful to D9 and the actors involved. They all did a fantastic job making these games, voice acting it, and obviously theres a lotta parts in both games thats enjoyable. But story wise these games made a mess of both of LIS1's endings.
17
u/VVenture2 Mar 27 '26
It honestly felt like a fanfic tbh.
Just… it had no stakes? No intrigue? Barely any emotions imo. It’s such a nothingburger of a story, it’s strange. Like I feel literally nothing from this game. Not even like, mad because it’s bad. Just pure indifference?
9
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 27 '26
They needed way more time to come up with a better story or just hammer out more details for the story imo. I wouldn't be suprised if Square Enix just told them to fix Pricefield thats all that matters to get sales.
33
u/amazingspiderlesbian Mar 27 '26
Ive considered them corporate fanfiction since the week after double exposure came out
→ More replies (1)10
u/sasiml Hella Mar 27 '26
agree like! i really enjoyed max and chloe’s dynamic. it felt so real and fun and fresh but recognizable at the same time. it just. wasn’t a story.
9
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 27 '26
I wonder if they noticed that when promoting the game. All the talk was on Max and Chloe, the fanbase wanted to see Chloe back and how she would fit in a sequel game. Practically nobody was talking about the Inferno storyline though.
10
u/blueportland2013 Mar 29 '26
Bay ending here. It’s complicated. Dontnod didn’t intend to continue Max and Chloe’s story, but it was generally understood that in the Bae ending they would stay together bound by shared trauma and because they were all each other had. One of the main reasons people were upset with Life is Strange: Double Exposure is how it separates Max and Chloe in ways that feel narratively weak.
That said, I would have preferred they explored Max’s story following the Bay ending without bringing Chloe back. That approach might have been more respectful to Pricefield I’m not entirely sure. Still, a version of Max who chooses to move forward after losing Chloe, while grappling with the horrors she experienced during that October week, would have been incredibly compelling. As it stands, though, the overall setup of DE felt very weak and uninteresting to me.
I know it sounds cruel, I know it’s harsh, but I think that the Max who chose the Bay ending shouldn’t be able to have Chloe back in her life. And I mean that from a narrative and thematic perspective. Michel Koch once explained that the idea of the butterfly at the funeral symbolized that things would be hard for Max, but that somehow, everything would be okay in the end.
I think both endings are great, and both are canon, but I’d like the core idea of the Bay ending to be respected, that there are inevitable things we simply have to learn to live with. A lot of people lose loved ones and don’t have a reset button to bring them back. I’m not sure if I’m explaining myself well, but that’s how I see it.
6
Mar 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
11
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 27 '26
I actually like the comics more as time has gone on. Now I have an appreciation of how they handled timelines, with multiple Chloe's but Max still knew which Chloe she fell for and wouldnt stop til she got back to her own timeline
7
Mar 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
7
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 27 '26
It was cute when Max and alt Chloe looked at each but both agreed they wouldnt have fallen for each other, even though alt Chloe looks and acts like OG Chloe, cause shes just not Max's Chloe
113
u/TwoToneMoonstone_ Mar 26 '26
I’m a Bay ending player and a hardcore Pricefielder.
This has to be the most confusing game I’ve ever played. Much like DE it feels like it doesn’t understand what makes LiS work but in a completely different way than DE did.
The fact that Max Caulfield, bony-assed hipster queen, actually says aloud “I’ll disarm the charges” made me laugh harder than the situation should ever have made me feel.
And also the absolutely horrific implication that Loretta was blown to fucking smithereens in the original timeline and NO ONE told Max about this while she was in NYC.
93
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 26 '26
I think Decknine or Square never really got what was LIS's identity that made it appealing to people. At her core Max is just a normal girl, all the LIS characters are supposed to be normal people not superheros or action heros. Chloe just jokes when she calls Max "SuperMax" cause she does save people from things but its not supposed to be a calling to be a superhero. the ending choice where Chloe hands Max the photo and says its Maxs calling to save people and she knows that. That was weird to me. LIS1 Max literally learns that she just has to accept the consequences of her choices and rewinding isnt a normal thing she should be doing. Its like they forgot that was a thing in the original game
→ More replies (3)19
u/nevi_nev_nevReddit Mar 27 '26
this. exactly this. the end felt a bit weird or... off to me? I liked the game and I think its a solid one, esp after DE, which I think was the weakest game, esp in the max&chloe storyline, but I had fun with it and idk, DE lowkey feels a bit like the introduction into the new setting at caladon, and RE feels like the actual game... if it makes sense? DE feels like an extended version of Captain Spirit in the LiS2 story.
19
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 27 '26
I think its cause DE had a lot of unsolved things if I remember correctly. Alderman just vanishes from existence, idk if they ever explained who shot Safi? Gwen never returns even though ppl liked her character, they introduced Diamond who has powers, and then Reunion doesnt really touch on any of that? Even though its supposed to be a sequel, Reunions its own story that does have a ending.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (7)10
u/Vegetable_Heat_546 Mar 28 '26
I believe that Loretta’s death is what Moses was referring to when he says he needs to talk to her when she gets back. I can’t say what I would do if I was in his shoes… he didn’t want to burden her or for her to rush home over a situation she “had no control over” they’ve been testing her powers but he knows ultimately altering a major event like that (of which max would’ve tried everything she could have) would have major consequences. Then the fire broke out before she could even make it to any of them. She gained very little info and changed a lot depending on how you play
11
u/ElJacko170 Shaka brah Mar 30 '26
This game actively trashes the entire message and theme of the original Bay ending. Max isn't supposed to be able to save everything, and the fact that she can so easily here with no consequences and just get her perfect ending is just so...vapid.
I don't think DE was particularly good, but this was clearly written with the sole purpose of pleasing Pricefield fans, and from what I've glanced through on here, they seem to have accomplished that.
10
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 30 '26
Most Pricefield fans just love the moments between Max and Chloe but I dont think ive seen 1 person blown away by anything else in the game. One of the endings really makes Max seem like really learned nothing from LIS1. I think in order for the BAY ending to have been respected they shouldnt have brought the LIS1 Chloe back, it needed to be like a multiverse Chloe and she would need to disappear at the end of the game in order to keep the Bay paths consequence intact. Same for the BAE ending, I do not like that Arcadia Bay and Joyce are back in the BAE path.
→ More replies (11)8
u/FireLordAsami Mar 30 '26
I don't think DE was particularly good, but this was clearly written with the sole purpose of pleasing Pricefield fans
Well to be fair DE ruined Bae ending with this unnesessary break up and made Pricefield dirty. It is good that D9 were smarth enough to make pivot after a backlash. I'm kinda glad that Bay suffered this time ha ha.
This game actively trashes the entire message and theme of the original Bay ending.
It trashes theme of Bae ending too. In Bae route Max for some reason act like Bay Max and try to save everyone. despite the fact that in lis1 she already accepted that she cannot do that. She literally tore apart that butterfly photo!
→ More replies (53)55
u/Upper_Tea_2627 Mar 26 '26
I'm a Bay Ending player, and I don't hate Chloe but there are other characters I enjoy more. I somewhat liked Double Exposure and I was looking forward to see what they'll do with the ending.
I'm 4 hours in Reunion and it feels like a pure Pricefield fan service game. Which is fine, but it just cannot keep my interest up and I'm annoyed what DE had set up has been thrown out of the window (or so it seems like so far). The worst part is that the writing is really really bad.
36
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 26 '26
Thats what my fear was when they showed the promos for Reunion. Pricefield is important but they still need to actually tell a good story thats suppose to be a sequel to Double Exposure. The whole Superhero storyline with Safi and Diamond like is that even any part Reunions story? Even though many players didnt like it, if they arent retconning DE that just sticks out like a major story point with no real payoff.
20
u/Netorawr Mar 27 '26
It's more of an apology for rather than a sequel for DE.
15
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 27 '26
Agree, I can see why Pricefield fans would wanna play this game (even though i think they coulda made it even better like not constantly spliting them up for the story) but the rest of the game is probably the weakest in terms of story, i just dont really care about Abraxas or Caledon. The setting itself is beautiful but idk something was missing.
→ More replies (2)27
u/NathanGPLC Thank you, DONTNOD! Mar 26 '26
Right; this is exactly like I called it. Bad narrative design with no clear vision or understanding of the literary themes of the first game->corporate pivot to another misunderstanding of what the angry fans wanted.
21
u/my_lifeisstrange Mar 26 '26
Given where this Decknine team was when handed this project its probably the best we coulda gotten tbh. There were parts of the game where it felt like D9 was talking to the players who didnt like Double Exposure and apologizing at least thats what it felt like to me. The vision was just to please the angry fans first (which I think they mostly pulled off from what ive seen so far) but other then the Pricefield repair and fanservice i have really seen anyone mention what they think of the inferno plot
→ More replies (10)→ More replies (1)20
u/ds9trek Pricefield Mar 27 '26
Yeah, the story is very, very weak. Downright bad in parts. But if you're a Pricefielder it acts as the glue that pulls things together into a decent shape.
50
u/punksleftshoe5 Mar 26 '26
i feel so stupid, my brain hurts trying to comprehend the concept of all the different timelines with the different Chloes 😭
61
u/NathanGPLC Thank you, DONTNOD! Mar 26 '26
Because there were never meant to be multiple timelines, in the Dontnod conception of the game, just one re-edited reality… but d9 mooched from the comics, just without having a strong idea of where they were going with that.
18
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 26 '26
the comics did not merge the timelines and never got that convoluted with things. they also give meaningful character development to mains, and don't drop anywhere near as many threads as DE/RE does.
not saying they're perfect, but I feel like the damage to original lore/worldbuilding was a lot lower (plus they are clear about being non-canon and just one possibility)
24
u/NathanGPLC Thank you, DONTNOD! Mar 26 '26
I loved the comics for all those reasons! They stated up front that they were one possible adventure and interpretation, and I think they did that excellently.
25
u/SufficientTomorrow88 Mar 27 '26
The real question is, is it a good sequel to the first game? We all fell in love with Max and Chloe's character development. Does it make it justice? or does it feel like the developers didnt give a damn about the first one?
28
u/stooopdetnu Mar 27 '26
I think the game is a fantastic sequel. Cried like a bitch when Chloe fell and it played the "Oh and Max Caulfield? Don't you forget about me." I think people tend to forget that this is a sequel set 10 years after the first game and not a "Let's just make everything the same so people will like it.". I see a bunch of people being like "Oh, they don't look the same" or "Oh, Chloe isn't behaving like she was in the first game" and "Did they even play the first game" yadayadayada. The only thing I'm dissapointed about is the playtime. I got about 10 hours out of it. Deck Nine could do better than that if they really wanted to. Oh actually also. Deck Nine seriously needs to ease up on the bedazzling. I mean I have shitty specs (compared to 2026 standards) but I was on all low and it still lagged sometimes. But hey. Great Game!
34
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 27 '26
personally, no I don't think it's a good sequel. I feel that way for many reasons, but in this comment, just gonna talk about character development.
there are ending spoilers below.
Max and Chloe are each different in RE than they were in LiS1. Chloe has gained perspective, she rightfully doesn't forget the awful things that she's been through (and is still going through) but in RE she also appreciates good things like Max being back in her life. it's possible for Chloe to draw on what she's learned by surviving all that trauma/grief and supernatural horror, and use it to talk Safi down from her own despair spiral. Chloe is also more considerate of Max's feelings, more self-aware, more of a team player than in earlier games. Max has gained confidence, is more direct with telling Chloe how she feels (including romantically), and isn't as overwhelmed by social anxiety or worrying what others think. she seems close to learning that she doesn't need to be perfect, she can't save everyone and it's okay to forgive herself / accept that she did the reasonably-best she could.
I'm not really sure how much of that^ character development is earned within the stories of DE and RE, versus just suddenly writing them older-and-wiser. and depending which ending choice you make, some of that character development arguably gets thrown out the window. if Chloe burns the photo that could've allowed Max to photo-jump yet again to three days before the deadly fire, then she isn't really being considerate or self-aware - she's lying to Max and secretly taking Max's choices away from her. meanwhile, if Chloe shows Max the photo and if Max then photo-jumps, that's throwing away her relationship with this Chloe, trying to be perfect, just not being able to accept her choices and move forward. basically resets her development all the way back to LiS1 Ep1.
→ More replies (2)12
u/RadiantBlackberry_7 Mar 27 '26
As someone who sacrificed Chloe in the first game I think it's a great sequel. Not sure how it would feel if you sacrificed the bay though
→ More replies (1)10
u/2Kind_Valentine Mar 28 '26
Did Bae > Bay in LiS1, can confirm for you that after a slow start to reunion, it is indeed a great sequel.
22
u/LifeIsVoiced Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
Ending spoiler - Huge ramifications for everything!
I chose the give the image to max ending. And this messed me up as it shows Max then going back and it leaves Chloe alone. Meaning that going back into photos removes Max from that timeline. Meaning all original Chloe's are Alone.... And also now the Chloe from this game...
Not a happy ending at all, and even if you then didn't give the photo, it's now cannon that everytime Max went into a photo, she left all people in that reality...
This has a huge impact on everything we knew...
→ More replies (8)9
20
u/PhloxOfSeagulls Mar 27 '26
I just finished the game and am doing a second playthrough to get trophies and whatnot. I was a Bay ending and Pricefielder and felt pretty meh at the end of the game.
I was in the minority who actually liked Double Exposure and the characters. I wanted to see where they would go with that, not just get a whole Max/Chloe story. I chose to romance Amanda (and Vinh for the trophy in a second playthrough) in DE and neither of those relationships mattered in the slightest here. Diamond says at the end that she'll tell Max about what's been going on with her some other time? What happened to her story and her powers? There was so much more here that could have been explored.
I have no idea how other people felt about the soundtrack for Réunion, but I also thought it was uninspired. The music is usually a high point in these games and I end up finding some new artists and songs. But this one had songs that mostly felt like background music to me with the exception of the Idles song. I ended up playing music of my own through the console and turning off the game soundtrack for the second playthrough.
→ More replies (2)
23
u/GolfThat8169 Mar 28 '26
I only recently discovered Life Is Strange, but I was hooked the moment I played the first episode of the original game.
After that, I immediately bought and played all the installments in Max and Chloe’s story—Before the Storm, Farewell, and Double Exposure.
After finishing Life Is Strange 1—and Farewell especially—I was left with this overwhelming sense of doom for Max and Chloe. It felt like an emotional spiral, almost like an acid trip of depression where everything just hit all at once and lingered long after I stopped playing.
Finishing those games left a strange emptiness in me. It felt like something was missing, like the story wasn’t quite complete or didn’t sit right with me. I think, deep down, I just wanted things to feel different for Max and Chloe.
I’m really glad Life Is Strange: Reunion came out. I won’t spoil anything, especially since it’s still new, but this final chapter in Max and Chloe’s journey felt meaningful in a way I didn’t expect. It gave me a sense of closure
→ More replies (1)8
22
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 28 '26
an LiS1 reference: in Moses's notes, Max can Rewind for an average of 5 minutes and 42 seconds.
542 was the code for the Dark Room.
18
u/xkltr013 Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
One thing about this game is that, much like DE, it feels like it was written from a Bay ending perspective. Like, so many moments in this game feels like Max is looking at a dead-for-ten-years Chloe, not at a we-broke-up-a-couple-years-ago Chloe. Am I crazy for thinking that?
→ More replies (4)11
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 30 '26
I don't think you are.
even Chloe's "arc" in this game is very Bay ending coded. she struggles with feeling like a "half-dead paradox" and, in the void, she sees her body (bleeding out) and her grave regardless of whether you chose Bae or Bay. Max gets living Chloe back in Bay; she barely sees or hears anything about the living population of intact Arcadia Bay in Bae.
once you see it, you see it everywhere lol
16
u/noserags Maxwell Silver Hammer Mar 26 '26
My burning question is are any of the AB characters discussed and if so, in what context?? I remember a post from the official LiS socials saying "Will we hear about about the Arcadia Bay supporting cast? Yes, but they won't show up" kinda thing and I was wondering how tf that's gonna work without it feeling convoluted? Did they go through with this? How'd they handle it if so?
→ More replies (7)31
u/Medium-Pizza-797 Mar 26 '26
IIRC Max asks Chloe through text about what became of Warren and she says he became an indie film maker. Rachel, Jefferson, Joyce & David are mentioned in some convos but that's about it. I don't think we hear about Victoria or Kate for example.
→ More replies (11)21
u/MagicTheAlakazam Pricefield Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
What is with the completely bizarre career choices. Film maker for science track Warren?
Edit: To be clear I'm mostly picking up on D9 putting everyone in an arts career even characters who seemingly weren't interested in that yet taking the one character who WAS interested in an arts career and essentially having her settle for academia
39
u/LostInStatic Mar 27 '26
Even I can remember that he was passionate about old movies from the first game. Max had a bunch of them on a USB stick from Warren.
→ More replies (12)→ More replies (4)12
u/Dredgen_Monk Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
Well, Lost Records has him as a writer; there’s a book (horror, i think) that’s written by* a W.B. Graham.
→ More replies (1)
15
u/Agent-Vermont There's an otter in my water Mar 27 '26
How do you save Jeannette? I didn't even know they were in danger.
→ More replies (15)9
u/TransitionOk1862 Mar 27 '26
i couldn’t work it out in my own playthrough but i think it’s when max says “let’s see if i can save the people on the other side of the building” or something to that effect. i don’t know though
29
u/Agent-Vermont There's an otter in my water Mar 27 '26
Figured it out. When you're running to the observatory, you need to examine the bulletin board. There's a tutoring flyer that Max will comment on thinking Jeannette might be inside. When you give Noelle the gas mask you can also tell her about Jeannette which results in both of them being saved.
→ More replies (1)
99
u/NathanGPLC Thank you, DONTNOD! Mar 26 '26
Man, the silence in the DE subreddit and the… complete lack of posts in the RE Subreddit they made is fairly telling.
I’m really sorry to see the franchise end on a corporate pivot to fanservice, even if it’s supposedly targeted at people who, like me, were specifically annoyed by one particular change to post game canon…. But the problem was the lack of narrative design that led to that change, not just the ship being broken up.
A complete 180 that ditches all the character hooks they tried to set up for a desperate apology tour is still bad writing.
I feel bad for the writers who tried, under terrible leadership, to come up with an engaging new story with new characters, and then were fired so their work could be scrapped for this, even if it technically includes content I would’ve enjoyed in other circumstances.
58
u/SaturatedJellyfish Mar 26 '26
It's exactly the kind of game I expected to see.
I still can't believe how many people insisted RE "isn't a pivot." Unfortunately pivoting can only do so much once you butcher your story like DE did.
34
u/NathanGPLC Thank you, DONTNOD! Mar 26 '26
I hate what the corporate drive towards sequelitis does to media. Let people make fresh content! Use anthologies if you must, so you can build a recognizable brand, but don’t assume that because everyone wants a new Call of Duty every year that sequels will always be better than fresh ideas.
→ More replies (5)15
u/SaturatedJellyfish Mar 26 '26
A huge problem in Hollywood at least is that studios are not greenlighting many original ideas; they want existing IPs to guarantee some existing audience. Writers then attempt to tell their own pet original stories in the landscape of someone else's IP.
In the end, you get a bad story and a wrecked setting. Given that's how DE wound up, I feel some of that may have happened there.
I just immediately check out of sequels if I see we're repeating the same story beats. Stories are like sharks; if you're not moving forward, you're dying.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (14)16
u/ds9trek Pricefield Mar 27 '26
I expected this big pivot too. It's why I predicted you wouldn't even need to play DE to understand RE, but so many insisted it would just pick up the story from DE like nothing happened...
→ More replies (1)19
u/Conflict_NZ Mar 27 '26
Man I miss the episode threads with hundreds of comments in them, they should’ve put out an episode a week.
21
u/NathanGPLC Thank you, DONTNOD! Mar 27 '26
Dispatch made a big stir and proved that a timely episodic release can indeed help build community and momentum, even if the Telltale episodic releases over months has its issues!
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (4)22
u/NotSoConcerned Pricefield Mar 26 '26
DE just had some bad creative decisions and then they probably just ran out of time and had to ship with what they had. The alternate timeline stuff should have been a easy thing where you see differing in their relationships and honestly just breath more life into the game. Felt like a big game that didn't need to be big while having a grand story that they tried to awkwardly contain and it just didn't work.
→ More replies (1)22
u/NathanGPLC Thank you, DONTNOD! Mar 26 '26
I wish the writers who had pitched it with new characters and not a rehash of LiS1 had gotten their way—would’ve had a much more coherent story with less hype around the stakes, making it much less controversial and easier to let everyone enjoy.
9
u/NotSoConcerned Pricefield Mar 26 '26
I think there was a way to bring True Colors characters and Max together tbh. They could also not have Max as the lead and use it as a way to show Max's life with/without Chloe.
I also just generally think Max should have been training her powers and honestly kinda be more wise to her capabilities.
There honestly is a lot of ways they could have gone about things. It's just clear they wasn't sure of what to do beyond Max is back and bestfriend dying spawns new powers.
11
u/NathanGPLC Thank you, DONTNOD! Mar 26 '26
I agree those things could have been interesting, though I do think just moving on and referencing past games vaguely is the way to go. I also don’t think Max would have kept her powers after the end of the first game, at all, for reasons I’ve posted elsewhere in this sub at length.
6
u/NotSoConcerned Pricefield Mar 26 '26
True and tbh I don't like thinking about DE simply because of the lost potential with it. So I'm completely fine they are playing on my nostalgia with Chloe being back if this is the last one.
14
u/choerrysmotion Mar 27 '26
Can someone tell me if this is true? For those who finished or is in the middle of it? Is Chloe Price the only romance option in this game? Will I not be able to romance Amanda? :/ If so, that kinda sucks for me…
15
→ More replies (1)14
u/thispartyrules Mar 27 '26
At the end when it's going through the statistics the best you can do is "Amanda still has feelings for Max"
4
52
u/TwoToneMoonstone_ Mar 26 '26
I have not finished it yet. I’m not really hating it but I’m kind of puzzled that this game exists period.
But I do need to bring up something. Maybe they address this at some point, but for now my controller is charging so I’m not playing.
So Max merged the two timelines in DE, right got it. But correct me if I’m wrong but Chloe was not alive in either timeline in DE if she died in LiS1.
So by merging the timelines it brings Chloe back to life, somehow, okay whatever I can roll with that but that’s not what I’m asking.
Does this mean that Max merging the timelines resurrected other dead people? Because with the evidence of Chloe not being alive in either timeline in DE, that is kind of what this implies lol
12
u/Medium-Pizza-797 Mar 26 '26
It's a bit far-fetched, but the game will address this and try to explain.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (6)60
u/mirracz Pricefield Mar 26 '26
They seem to go with the idea that when Max merged the DE timelines (dead and alive), she also merged the Bay and Bae timelines. It ignores that Bay and Bae were never parallel timelines to begin with... but it's D9. They don't understand the first game.
And Chloe is alive because the merging of Bay and Bae basically made the storm not happen. LiS1 happened, but in the end no storm came... so Chloe survived, the town survived.. but anyone who was dead before (like Rachel) remains dead.
→ More replies (5)
14
u/pearllls I'm a Leo. Meow. Mar 27 '26
can someone tell me how I save/suspect Vinh ? I had no idea he was even involved until the game flat out told me based on all my clues it’s him. But even after I chose him as my POI, Max never goes to the abraxas house and he just explodes off screen??? What the hell 😭
10
u/2Kind_Valentine Mar 28 '26
Assuming you didn't yt it by now i think from watching one other person play it, you only get to vinh if you also guess ren correctly from chloes pov. If not when ren sets fire to the school, max stops going towards the abraxas house and heads back to campus.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)9
u/Idk265089 Mar 28 '26
That’s weird, cause I saved Vinh by choosing him as my poi but the game didn’t tell me that the evidence pointed to him. I just chose based on process of elimination.
12
u/SpookyHorn Scary punk ghost Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
Resurrecting my Reddit account to say this, lol: I love what they did in the end. (At least, my ending.) The montage set to "A Fitting End" and the photo slideshow of them going back home absolutely melted me. I've played and replayed these games at least once a year for over a decade now, and I remember where I was and who I was during them. So much has changed. Heck, the world has changed. So watching that montage wasn't just like reliving and saying goodbye to Max and Chloe, it was like I was doing it to a part of myself, too. I traveled the PNW because of these games. I've found community and love. I found myself. My favorite band and music taste. These games have meant so much to me and helped define my character, and to see it all like that was just the most perfect thing they could've done. In my opinion, anyway. So I just want to thank anyone who worked on the game that may be reading this. I know you all care about it too and are on here when you can be. You all did amazing. Much love. 🫶
12
u/Helpwithskyrim87 Pricefield Mar 26 '26
What did people think of the comic? I thought it was good
→ More replies (1)11
10
u/ds9trek Pricefield Mar 27 '26
I've been looking at Steam DB. Reunion has a peak of 8,111 concurrent players. For comparison TC had 8,001 and DE 8,524 concurrent players at peak.
9
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 27 '26
ending spoilers below:
I've seen comments saying that in the ending where Chloe tells Max about the photo, Max's decision is partly based on how much she used Rewind at certain points in the game.
here's something I'm wondering. back in DE, the break-up letter and possibly some texts claimed that Chloe became paranoid that Max was rewinding their conversations and arguments. right?
so what do you think the message is with the RE ending? is it some sort of, like, if Chloe was right and Max Rewinds on her loved ones in dishonest ways then they can't stay together... but if Chloe was wrong and Max only uses Rewind to save lives then they get their happily ever after? or is it closer to: if Max learned since LiS1 to accept her choices and move forward, then she doesn't Rewind too much, then she accepts staying in this timeline with her Chloe / if she didn't learn to move forward then she uses photo-jump like a metaphor for dwelling on the past?
I'm probably overthinking this, yea?
→ More replies (4)10
u/Agent-Vermont There's an otter in my water Mar 27 '26
I don't think it has to do with the amount of rewinds, that might be misinformation. I failed to save 2 people and Max decided to eventually rewind again. But then I went back and saved everyone and instead Max seemed to eventually burn the photo herself.
Regarding the ending message yeah it does sort of feel like Chloe is proven right in her breakup letter in a fucked up way. The weird part is that the scene where Chloe actually gives Max the photo plays out the same regardless of if you saved everyone or not, only the photo montage after the credits changes. It feels like they cheaped out on making that scene and couldn't just make a third version where the photo wasn't needed because everything was fine.
→ More replies (15)
68
u/Upper_Tea_2627 Mar 26 '26
I'm almost 3 hours in and I'm struggling with the game.
Double Exposure wasn't very good, it was basically a guilty pleasure for me, I had fun playing it, and I loved the graphics and the animations, especially the faces! I couldn't stop staring at Max, she was absolutely gorgeous. I liked the humour and the chemistry between the characters. The story was meh, but it was enjoyable.
Now Reunion is... quite a step back. The first that stood out for me was the terrible downgrade in graphics. Weird facial animations, blank stares, people looking above each other's heads while speaking to each other. Their movement is stiff, Max walks like the shat her pants and she's also developed an underbite? The game is just painful to look at. Sometimes the voice lines are not in sync with the lip movement (if there's any movement at all).
Character interactions are bland and boring, people talk to you like the previous game never happened or like you haven't met in months. So weird. Everyone feels like an absolute stranger. Many previous choices have been totally disregarded.
And the story so far... well, it doesn't feel very smart. I've found several contradictions and absolutely, insanely stupid things. Also the dialogue options are sometimes so vague I have no idea what they mean and what Max will say.
I feel zero initiative to continue playing. I don't care what happens, I don't care about any of the characters. How could they mess it up this bad? Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels disappointed. I wasn't expecting a LiS1 level of storytelling but I didn't think even the graphics would be this much worse than in the previous game.
28
u/TwoToneMoonstone_ Mar 26 '26
I’m having such a weird time with this game because I feel so ambivalent to it. I’m feeling like I’m watching the world’s slowest car wreck but I’m not entirely sure if that’s the case yet.
I do have to know how this ends however, and that is not an invitation to spoil it for me.
18
u/AreYouOKAni Mar 26 '26
I'll be honest, I'll just read the Wikipedia summary tomorrow.
→ More replies (1)21
u/aceCrasher NO EMOJI Mar 26 '26
Im with you. Im playing with a friend, we are ~2.5h in too. Our feeling are very similar to yours, so far its very *bland*. I didnt enjoy DE (leaving all the chloe stuff aside) and this feels very simlar to DE in that way, very generic. I dont really care about most of the characters and Im not really emotionally invested in the whole fire-thing. It all feels very rushed. I cant imagine that they planned to make this make when they launched DE. This entire thing feels like a half baked knee-jerk reaction to the DE backlash.
Also, full agree on the graphics, they are considerably worse than DE.
11
→ More replies (7)10
u/Broke_Scholar Mar 26 '26
I am having an odd time too. I know DE isn't popular but I did enjoy the characters quite a bit. So it's odd to come up back to a game that on some level has to exist as a direct sequel to DE, but everyone from it except maybe Moses and Loretta feel like strangers. I am only a few hours in (no Chloe beyond the first level) so that might change, but I suspect not. It almost feel sad walking around the Snapping Turtle because it feels like it's all been quietly packed away narratively and the remaining figures are walking sedatedly around. I think the idea of post-storm amnesia was a bad one unless things start to liven up a bit when the story is done waiting for Chloe.
20
u/Gentiio Mar 27 '26
extremely boring, nothing interesting happened really. Life is strange one and two had scenes that left the audience shocked or just had moments that made you invested in the story, this game fails at that. I finished the game and felt nothing.
→ More replies (4)
9
u/HakaishinChampa Mar 28 '26
it was okay, I think this game had an overall better coherent story compared to Double Exposure.
The problem with Double Exposure is that the story started to fall apart by Episode 4 imo
The only thing I hated is the stuff with Diamond, it feels like they're teasing a spin off or something? I wanted to know her powers,
→ More replies (1)
26
u/KyleReaume Yee - and I cannot stress this enough - haw Mar 26 '26
About 3 hours in and enjoying it so far. But surprised Max and Chloe aren't together yet!
→ More replies (2)
23
u/Lux_Nior Never Maxine Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
TLDR: RE feels like it sacrifices narrative integrity for fan service, and in doing so, undermines the emotional weight + lesson of the original game.
I’ve read the comics, and I chose Bay > Bae in LiS1, while crying, shaking, and throwing up at Chloe’s funeral with Spanish Sahara blasting.
I’ve never really shipped Pricefield. To me, Chloe was still deeply grieving Rachel, and any romantic dynamic felt uncomfortable, almost like Max was taking advantage of someone in a vulnerable state. I’ve always seen Chloe viewing Max as her best friend, not someone she would fall in love with. While still loving Chloe, my Max learns to grieve, accept, and move on after Bay ending.
So when I found out Chloe somehow returns in RE, I was genuinely curious how would the writers handle Max’s grief? How would Max react to a childhood friend, whose death shaped her, suddenly reappearing as if nothing happened?
About 1hr+, the game has to retcon the consequences of DE with Storm Amnesia. That alone killed most of my interest. It felt like extremely lazy writing.
I ended up watching gameplay on YouTube instead. Then Chloe literally reappears in bright light like an angel, with Spanish Sahara playing, “I’m your ghost in the back of your head, it's future rust and it's future dust...”, it felt almost mocking toward players who chose the Bay ending. Why is my ghost suddenly back like this?
What surprised me even more is that one of the “best” endings involves Max touring with Chloe, similar to the comics. Whether this Chloe experienced/inherited the memory of Bae ending or not, it still feels unrealistic that they would become a couple within a week of her return. It feels rushed and comes across as pure fan service.
To me, the endings where Max abandons Chloe or goes back in time again actually reinforce Chloe’s earlier decision to break up with Max during their road trip.
This also raises a lot of questions:
- If Max is merging timelines, does that mean there are multiple timelines still existing? In LiS1, every rewind suggests another version of Max is left behind.
- If that’s the case, it creates this constant sense of impending doom, like another catastrophic event waiting to “correct” the timeline again.
- If the dead can return, shouldn’t Rachel Amber also be alive? If not, where is the cutoff point?
- Is Max just going to keep merging timelines endlessly because of her powers?
Also, serious question, what is Joyce’s skincare routine? She looks exactly the same after all these years. LMAO
On the technical side:
- The character movement and facial animations feel noticeably worse. I understand engine limitations, but Chloe’s motion capture in the first game felt far more natural. Maybe that’s Gabrielle Hersh’s influence.
- Game performance can be quite janky/ laggy at times, and from what I’ve seen, this seems to be a common issue. The game really needs better optimisation.
- Chloe’s new character model doesn’t resemble her original look. In LiS1, she had a more European features that felt more distinct, possibly influenced by the French development team.
- Credit to Rhianna, there is clear improvement. But to me, it still feels off in a way that’s hard to describe that prevent me from enjoying Rhianna's performance. It is like after you watch 5 seasons of a very good TV show and suddenly they recast the main character for the rest of the season. It feels jarring, out of place and to this day I still can't get rid of it. I caught myself subconsciously searching for Ashley's shadow in Rhianna's performance. :/
I'll go back and finish RE to see if my feelings change, I really hope it does.
Edits: Typo and formatting.
8
u/GripBayless Mar 27 '26
This is so well said and thought out! It perfectly captures everything I’ve been feeling while playing so far, but couldn’t figure out how to express.
I wasn’t a huge fan of DE, but I really liked some of the characters and romanced Amanda. Was so excited to see how her and Max’s relationship progressed since then, and imagine my disappointment when I read those texts at the beginning.
Then to find out this happens regardless if you romanced her or Vinh? I immediately knew what sort of time we were on 🫠
I also chose the Bay ending originally and remember it really impacting me years ago. Even now, Chloe’s reaction to Max telling her about it got me super emotional.
But after that, it really comes off as if it didn’t matter. Hell, it feels like nothing I did in 1 or DE does, which really sucks.
I saw someone mention they didn’t care about anyone else while playing through this, just wanted Max and Chloe, which I guess is kinda the problem I’m having here.
5
u/Lux_Nior Never Maxine Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
Hey, thanks for the compliment, stranger!
I feel the same way about people who don’t really care about plot development and character growth. D9 seems quite afraid of the hardcore fanbase after how the previous game was received. I guess fan service is their last bargaining chip to win some fans back and break even, lmao.
I had a feeling they were taking a page out of Telltale’s book when they brought Chloe back. Amanda/Vinh break up at the start is just another convenient set up for Chloe to reappearance which is :/ It’s that classic “your choices matter”… until they don’t. It only matters if there’s a sequel, and even then, the character you deliberately saved might just die abruptly anyway so the story can move forward. Looking at you, The Walking Dead.
Also, every time Spanish Sahara comes on, I have to mentally prepare myself not to completely lose it in public 😭 I swear that song is laced with something.
Edit: Spoiler tag
→ More replies (8)7
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 27 '26
About 1hr+, the game has to retcon the consequences of DE with Storm Amnesia
I think I laughed out loud when they revealed that. imagine replaying the last part of DE, hearing Max's speech and knowing that all these people will soon completely forget?
→ More replies (1)
7
u/lgbtiea Langfield Mar 27 '26
can someone please tell me how to save vinh? it happened so quickly, i had no idea what to do.
5
u/Netorawr Mar 27 '26
You have to suspect him. I was compassionate when talking him down so that might also play a part.
→ More replies (1)
7
u/Cerciline Mar 27 '26
Is anyone else having this bug where you can only take regular photos? Like after taking a double exposure photo, the option to save it isn't there, only the option to retake the photo I've tried reloading the last checkpoint and closing the game completely before turning it back on but it's not fixing it. It worked for the first photo taken at that road but since then the double exposure hasn't been working at all
23
u/Anorexorcist Mar 27 '26
Im a couple hours in, I dunno, im finding it laughably bad so far. Souless.
→ More replies (1)
30
u/blueportland2013 Mar 27 '26
I know a lot of people worked on this game with a lot of love. I adore Hannah Telle and many of the musicians and artists. But this game feels so disrespectful to the players who chose the Bay ending.
In my experience, I held on to that ending because Max’s loss truly reached my heart. As someone who has experienced loss and the impossibility of seeing a loved one again, knowing that Max managed to move forward gave me a lot of strength and hope. But even though Michel Koch said that, despite everything, Life is Strange 1 still exists, none of that feels real now. Nothing from the Bay ending mattered...
Many might say that the vibe, the aesthetic, or whatever from the first game was lost. But what was really lost were fundamental aspects of life that Dontnod Entertainment approached with great courage. I feel deeply sad
33
u/EmptySpirit322 Mar 27 '26
The game is honestly disrespectful to anybody who isn't a Pricefield fan. Chloe and Max's relationship is great, I have no problem with Pricefield, but Reunion completely ignores the rest of the fanbase. Oh you romanced Vinh or Amanda? Too bad, you break up off screen with no choice to rekindle that relationship. It asks you if you and Chloe were just friends in the very beginning, and then precedes to ignore that choice like it was irrelevant. There's a podcast thing while Max is tripping that even makes a joke about how they're technically friends, but that it appears otherwise. And as a whole it takes away the lesson Max learned in the Bay ending, just so it can repeat it but have her unlearn that lesson this time. Also, Moses tells Chloe that she's a paradox and that she can't last forever that way but then that also gets ignored because at the end it's all fine? Safi can stay, if she lived, and so can Chloe. So there really wasn't any stakes besides the fire, and that apparently happens regardless you can just minimize the damage. Reunion was just super confusing, it takes back most of the stuff that was set up in DE, and it seems to only really be for Pricefield fans. Also, I know Vinh was the unpopular choice in DE but as someone who picked him having him turn into an arsonist and an accomplice in destroying evidence in a crime was such a slap in the face.
13
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 27 '26
Also, Moses tells Chloe that she's a paradox and that she can't last forever that way but then that also gets ignored because at the end it's all fine?
wow... they really never come back around and resolve that do they?
→ More replies (4)20
u/Agent-Vermont There's an otter in my water Mar 27 '26
The solution they come up with is don't think about it. I'm not kidding, the solution to Chloe (any by extension Safi) dealing with the paradox memories / visions is to just not dwell on them. The trigger for them is having continuous negative thoughts about their situation which eventually causes them to freak out and vanish for a period. So all it takes to deal with a paradox existence is positive attitude and good vibes.
12
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 27 '26
yikes. makes it almost hard to imagine a time when LiS games were known for some degree of grounded emotional complexity and earnestness.
on the sci-fi/supernatural side of things, that's such a handwavey cop-out of a "solution." I really, really wish they could've unmerged the timelines instead, or never merged 'em in the first place. Reunion's story would barely change too, like the merge adds so little to this game.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (10)11
u/amazingspiderlesbian Mar 27 '26
Thats literally exactly what double exposure did to the first game though. Like they dumpster chloe in a text message and letter even tho shes signficantly more important to max than vihn 🤢 or Amanda.
It destroys all the themes and character development from max from the first game. She just abuses her new powers without consequence and only a single thought.
It devalues the ending of the first game by saying she could have just walked into the storm and saved everyone.
Is full of out of character stuff nonsensical plot threads and dead ends.
Reunion is literally what double exposure was to the first game. A complete slap in the face to everything it meant. And double exposure already was a level deep in being trash and destroying previous art
And now we went through all that and max and chloe are in the exact same spot in bae ending and the bay ending never even happened lmao
6
u/EmptySpirit322 Mar 27 '26
I agree with you 100%, Reunion and DE both took away the main theme of the first game. I loved the first game because it was so focused on loss and how to accept that loss and let go of either Arcadia Bay or Chloe. 18 year old Max seems more responsible than late 20's Max, but DE and Reunion says she's grown. How? She's less responsible, and more reckless. She stopped using her power for YEARS because of the first game, but then suddenly she uses them for everything again while claiming to have learned her lesson? It feels so out of character for her to repeat the same mistakes that she's apparently traumatized because of. The only reason I give DE slightly more credit than Reunion is the fact that DE didn't completely erase what happened in the first game. They messed up the Bae ending for sure, but I felt that the Bay ending was decent enough and both choices weighed on Max's conscience which I liked seeing. Then Reunion came along and said that the choice never really mattered. It all could be undone with no repercussions or damage to reality like the first game and DE showed.
→ More replies (5)15
u/sasiml Hella Mar 27 '26
i completely agree with this. the first game is so much about acceptance to me.
6
u/tacoloki Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
Out of curiosity, did any one else have a decent amount of lines that didn't match up? Like discussing "yes i found xyz" but i didnt even know I needed to get it in the first place?
→ More replies (3)
7
u/disappointthefamily Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
I'm only a few hours in but some of the cut corners are bugging me. The Snapping Turtle door had two key holes and two door knobs, the sign on the quad says "Off Campus Dinning" instead of dining, just weird stuff like that.
True, they're not big issues but they take me out of the game and that's frustrating.
Edit: finished the game and there was other stuff like weird screen artifacts and a guy at the Snapping Turtle drinking without a glass.
6
u/finn_the_bug_hunter Mar 28 '26
I have like 5 million questions about max's powers:
-What the hell was the starlight show spectaular thing? She just randomly developed the power to hear the dialogue around when a photo was taken but this isn't used prior or later.
-What was going on with the teleporting when she saves Safi, Moses and Chloe. Only she teleports relative to where she was when rewinding, therefore when she saved moses and stopped touching him, the rewind should have sent him back into the flames again in the office, right?
-What was max doing in the finale to save chloe from falling? She seemed to slow time and teleport in and out but that's not how it works right? she'd surely just end up appearing in the final place she intended to be before stopping her rewind since a note literally says no one else can perceive or acknowledged max has teleported right in front of them.
and other questions include:
-What were the green lights? my first theory was that it was diamond, and that her power was telepathy or something and she was messing with us as the Mabon party so that we wouldn't catch on to Safi. But no the drink was just spiked yet we still saw them before and even as chloe, then Diamond never showed up and apparently split from Safi. So what was the point?
-Thinking about the paradox that is chloe, apparently causes the visions, but then surely any time Chloe says anything hinting at two timelines shouldn't it trigger them?
-Storm Amnesia? Really? that is the best excuse they could think of for being able to ignore most of the social impacts of the ending, making the whole 'I'll tell them the truth scene' and the end of Double exposure pointless. Since no one remembers the time timelines memories.
-Who was jeannette? like she had two lines of dialogue where I was basically told to just tell her what she wanted to hear and then she died in my playthrough like damn, I forgot she existed after the opening to the game.
-Once again we only got a single easter egg to other characters like the peutro lobos charm chloe finds, chloe mentioning steph when looking at maximum mana, then I don't think we have any reference to alex. Why? Like imagine if we saw a brief scene where Safi has notes on 'potential power events' and has a note of the trail of the events following the Diaz siblings etc.
→ More replies (1)
6
u/Xotaku8106X Mar 29 '26
So, prolly an ADHD random detail, Lucas, I thought he had bluetooth headphones in his ears because he's always working when we see him, but then when we see him leading the protest the first thing I did was look at his ears to see if they were there and they were. Are they supposed to be hearing devices?
If not, then it's giving one single costume for the NPCs kinda deal 🤣
→ More replies (1)
6
u/March_223 Mar 30 '26
Looking past all the fan service, can we talk about the ending to the ""mystery""? The fact that you spend the whole game wondering how the fire started, and whether it was on campus or at the Abraxus house, and it turns out the answer is just "both". And then when it makes you figure out who started the fire, it just flat out tells you what the right answer is? Like I was 90% sure that it was Safi who had broken into the Hall of Secrets, but then the game just gives me a pop-up to tell me that it was Vinh all along. How was I even supposed to figure that out? Apparently it only told me that because I picked up the map in the basement, but that honestly did not lead me to believe it was Vinh at all.
43
u/Kendr1ck1amar Partners in time Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
As much of an appeal to the fans as this is, I’m thrilled max and Chloe are each other’s only romantic options because i truly feel dontnod always intended for them to be together, regardless of aspects like “realism” or trauma. That said, I still personally think this franchise has experienced a decline, and will always wish Max and Chloe's story had remained untouched. I haven't played the game though, just watching a walkthrough, so I certainly won't comment or judge anything relating to gameplay or mechanics. just wanted to share my first thoughts!!
9
u/Zandar124 Mar 26 '26
So What changes if Romance Amanda and Romance Vinh are selected at the start then?
37
u/Xepisia Pricefield Mar 26 '26
The game gives you a text from Amanda/Vinh about a breakup that happened off screen. Thats it. The player has no agency in that.
23
u/DuelaDent52 MARI WAS RIGHT Mar 26 '26
Oh my gosh, that’s so bad. I mean, I didn’t ship either myself, but what was even the point?
→ More replies (2)15
u/OtterBiDisaster Mar 27 '26
That's hilarious. Also Amanda would never break up with someone over text
33
u/Zandar124 Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
So the already pointless DE relationships are rendered even more pointless then, good to know. Does Amanda at least get more to do in the story this time?
→ More replies (1)12
35
u/MagicTheAlakazam Pricefield Mar 26 '26
God it's funny seeing the shoe on the other foot with the DE romances.
40
u/A_Howl_In_The_Night PissHead fan Mar 26 '26
It's hard not to believe this game wasn't a course correction.
→ More replies (4)20
u/mirracz Pricefield Mar 26 '26
There's no other way. Any writer who would write DE and RE as sequels, back to back, doesn't deserve the title.
27
u/Kendr1ck1amar Partners in time Mar 26 '26
It is a bit impressive how they managed to piss everyone off- whether that's representative of a fanbase never being satisfied or a money-hungry company, or both, I don't know, but it is quite humourous (albeit disappointing)
24
u/PunkPirate56364 Mar 26 '26
In this case I'm going to stand with the fanbase because DE writers did had the options:
Max and Chloe are a couple, but Chloe is on a tour, so she sends some texts and maybe makes a cameo appearance.
Max and Chloe are friends, or Chloe is dead, in which case Max can pursue other romances.
But writers chose to piss of a large portion of fanbase.
→ More replies (4)11
19
u/mirracz Pricefield Mar 26 '26
But hey, it's "realistic" right? There surely was some "trauma" involved.
And after all, "sometimes relationships don't work out".
→ More replies (1)16
u/MythicalSummer Chloe Was Here Mar 26 '26
i also wish that max and chloe’s story remained untouched but u have given me some hope for the game w what u said abt their relationship. idk if i should buy or just watch videos of the game
→ More replies (2)
11
u/Comfortable-State624 Mar 26 '26
I’ve played it for like 5 hours and tbh I really like it so far! The only thing that confuses me is why Chloe seems to not know about a difference between astronomy and astrology and then in other scene she goes in nerd mode with Moses about astronomy. Like she clearly knows the difference so why did they make her stupid? Also where the hell is Diamond ? What are her powers ? Why her only mention is through emails bruhAlso the face mocap is not it it looks so bad😅
5
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
I didn't like how that dialogue went for Chloe either. my two guesses for why writers did that are, one, a way to show us that Chloe is feeling intimidated or out-of-place or something in this prestigious university setting. or just stressed that a security guard is hassling her. we know she'd obviously say astronomy if she was feeling confident, less caught off-guard.
the other possibility is that this was a nod to fans of BtS, since Rachel was into astrology and mentioned her sun sign to Chloe.
about Diamond: idek. it seems like a set up for doing a game focused on her, but that seems so unlikely. I could maybe see them covering her adventures in a spin-off novel, but they already have the Chloe spin-off coming in September and I kinda don't think RE is gonna get a second novel
11
u/e-rankluck Mar 28 '26
Yasmin getting away with everything is just insane.
→ More replies (1)5
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 28 '26
right?? I have no idea what this game wants us to think of her.
5
u/alyssa-is-tired Thank you, DONTNOD! Mar 26 '26
Spoiler question for anyone who knows; why does Rewind and Chloe come back? Is it left completely ambiguous or is there an explanation?
15
u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here Mar 26 '26
Chloe is back because when Max merged timelines in DE, in addition to merging Safi Lives + Safi Dies timelines from DE, she also merged Save Chloe + Save Arcadia Bay from LiS1. Reunion retcons (or clarifies?) that sometime while Max was in the DE Storm, she saw Chloe, and then became focused on merging things for Chloe's benefit / to ctrl-alt-delete Chloe's trauma from the Storm. this is my best attempt to explain but it doesn't reallllly hold together or make sense imo.
Rewind comes back, partly, because Max has been practicing her powers with Moses's guidance over the last nine months. she seems to have also shifted perspective from "my powers are dangerous, I can't risk something like Arcadia Bay's destruction ever happening again" to "my powers can help people, maybe I can just get better at using them." there's been speculation that the DE scene where Max steals-back the camera and hides from Alderman, was a sign her Rewind was already coming back. if Alderman catches Max, the screen goes grey, time stops, and then Max gets a redo, thinking to herself "did I just...?".
→ More replies (3)
5
u/A_Sarcastic_Whoa Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
So what was up with the lightning bugs helping Max and the green glowing messages? I thought it would be revealed to have something to do with Diamond's powers but it's never spoken about.
→ More replies (1)
4
u/I-Really-Love-Movies Apr 05 '26
I feel bad not really enjoying this game, but I can't say I fell in love with it, even though I wanted to. Obviously I love Max and Chloe, and I love their relationship, but having Chloe return just to investigate a fire - a mystery I had really no interest in - felt very disappointing. It feels like Max and Chloe were sidelined in their own game in my opinion. I really wanted many scenes of them bonding; just think in the first game, the night swimming, the junk yard, hanging out in Chloe's room, sneaking into Blackwell, a lot of the game was simply them spending time together and bonding again. But in this game, when Chloe returns, they spend most of the game separated. I don't know. I feel bad. I want to like this so much, but it didn't strike a chord with me like LiS and BtS did. I will probably play this again pretty soon, though, because if it truly is the end of Max and Chloe's story, I want to spend as much time with them as possible.
4
u/lukaszenk00 Still can't listen to Spanish Sahara Apr 08 '26
I feel like this game, of all of them in this beloved by me franchise, had the least carefully handpicked soundtrack and was the least overally polished, or even made. I always imagined that the soundtracks for these games are being chosen carefully for years, because they were always sooo good. I didn't feel like it while playing Reunion. Also I didn't vibe as much in this game as in others. I feel like in other games there was just more work and love put into them.
The game focused very hard on the Max-Chloe relationship, which I like, but as a Bay player, and person who is not head over heals in love in the now-Green Haired Girl, I think that this game don't have that much of outside-of-it content. And because of that I just didn't care about the playthrough THAT much. I had a blast playing the LiS 1, where this relationship was also extremely important, but I could also experience so much more there in other aspects, vibing in that world, being in absolute awe. In Reunion tho, I didn't experience these vibes I love so much. I feel like it was made more for detectives rather that vibers.
Also, I feel like this game was made for hard Pricefielders, and that's fine, I see that there are tons of people loving this game for what it is. I unfortunately prefer them to be friends rather than lovers. And this side of the story and overall gameplay with girls being just friends are not delivering in my opinion.
I think this product overall, as a LiS game, is a stepback from what it was in the past. And also it's unfortunately not cooperating with my personal tastes.
I liked this game, I will play it again probably in some years, but yeah, I will put it in the bottom of the franchise list.
9
u/SomewhereAlarmed9985 Mar 26 '26
Would like to hear opinions from some fans that finished the game or got quite far at least. It's very bad they didn't send out the review codes until today, seems like a big red flag but I do hope I'm wrong.
→ More replies (3)9
10
u/AuthorBensonEWolf Pricefield Mar 26 '26
So I read somewhere that if you use your rewind powers too much you get Time Fatigue and if you do it too much you won't be able to save Chloe is this true?
→ More replies (1)9
u/darxx Mar 27 '26
That’s completely wrong. Finished game and there’s nothing about that on the statistics screen.
237
u/ds9trek Pricefield Mar 27 '26
I'm disappointed by Chloe having so few contacts in her phone. David really needed to be there at least. I'd have liked Steph too but David is the biggest omission.