#PSA
Early on in the game, there is a song by "r*diohead" that is played. Please press ESC on keyboard or the START button on your controller, select the OPTIONS, go into LIVE STREAM and DISABLE LICENSED MUSIC. You can go through the whole segment and then turn it back on, because to reward you for getting through the dogshit, there is an eminem song later in the game. I won't say which, or what scene, or in what circumstance, but just look forward to it. It was necessary to show Alex's growth from crappy music taste to decent human being.

The game itself is good but just like life is strange 1 before it, it never really grew outta the 2012 tumblr pinterestagram 21 pilots type of writing. But it is still good and fun for the most part! It's very slice of lifey and quaint

It was cozy, if nothing else.

The pacing was weird and each chapter could be summarized in a single sentence. A lot of stuff was optional, which would have been fine if the main story had more meat. For a mystery there are only really 3 steps to uncovering the truth.

What stood out was how Alex's empathy superpower is so underbaked. She can only sense four emotions, and the game never puts her in a position where she needed to have literal superpowers instead of regular human empathy. One scene really stood out to me where Steph looks at a bottle labelled "Foosball Champion" and becomes visibly upset. Alex uses her superpower to investigate, then asks Steph for a match of foosball to cheer her up. Steph asks "How'd you know I liked foosball?" What do you mean "How'd you know I liked foosball?" That kind of thing happens every single time. Maybe I'm just gifted in emotional intelligence and empathy, but it never felt like superpowers were at all necessary and were only added because that's the Life is Strange gimmick.

I had fun, I'm glad I played it, and it was a nice change of pace. But it didn't leave a strong impression and I probably won't think about it a week from now. It's just... okay.

this game surprised me a lot. it doesn't have the most complex story, no big twists or mysteries, but the lower scale of the plot works in it's favor. it's an intimate story, an emotional rolercoaster with a simple but gut wrenching conclusion. the gameplay gets surprisingly creative at times and i really appreciated that, however the choices you make don't seem to have much impact in how things turn out.

alex and steph are easily the most likeable characters in the entire franchise, i want what they have <3

primeiramente queria dizer que eu não estava dando NADA para esse jogo, principalmente porque a franquia estava meio apagada depois do lançamento do 2 e true colors chegou com preço de triple AAA (o que sinceramente, não faz nenhum sentido e, se eu fosse julgar o jogo com base no seu preço, a nota seria 1, não tem nada que justifica).

fico muito feliz que eles trouxeram a steph de volta, mesmo com uma aparição tão curta em lis bts, ela é extremamente carismática (e apaixonante... aiai)

também gostei MUITO da protagonista e do gabe, eles trouxeram vida pra essa história.

mas para mim, o ponto alto, foi o capítulo 3 e o LARP, ninguém faz igual LIS!!!! menção honrosa a todos os nerdolas <3

agora posso viver feliz e com mais uma paixão inesquecível adicionada na conta. (rachel amber e steph, you'll always be remembered)

pretendo voltar pra esse jogo ainda depois de comprar a DLC de 70 REAIS!!! sinceramente, a lavagem de dinheiro...

Not much to say about this game. The characters were likeable, but not very interesting. The dialogue is just as cringe inducing as ever. The powers barely felt like they mattered. The big reveal of a new ability, I just didn't end up using, so as far as my playthrough goes that power might as well not even be in the game. Most of the big moments in the story felt like they ended up resolving themselves. That entire final chapter feels like they had no idea how to wrap the story up. Like a complete afterthought.

It was a decent 10 hour distraction. But I bet I'll forget about it, and still just think about LiS1 and Before the Storm as the only truly good games in the series. Ryan's a hunk though.

só de me lembrar desse jogo eu fico PUTA
fico puta pq eu tava muito hypada e comprei na pré venda (!!!) achando que iria ser foda. no lis 2 eles evoluíram pra caralho a questão das escolhas realmente mudarem o jogo e vários finais diferentes, então o certo seria lis true colors superar o 2 nessa questão... né? SÓ QUE NÃO MUDA eh literalmente igual o primeiro que não importa suas decisões, só tem dois finais (sacrificar chloe/arcadia - ficar em haven/sair)
só que diferentemente do primeiro que -apesar dos pesares- é PERFEITO, esse é uma bosta

Full Review + Trophy Review and Tips Below

True Colors is the first Life is Strange that I have connected to on an emotional level where I was fully immersed in the world, characters, and story. Emotions are a universal language, and they are creatively represented here in the best paced and structured Life is Strange in the series.

I’ve played every Life is Strange and I’ve experienced them as games that are structured around some huge pivotal moments that many times fail to reach their potential. For the first Life is Strange I reviewed, “… is a frustrating game because of how good it "should" be but how it continuously fails to meet its potential. The story is engaging but is chock full of cheesy dialogue, bad voice over and strange decisions.” Before the Storm was a step up, mainly because I felt it was a tighter experience due to the 3-chapter story arc. For Life is Strange 2 I wrote, “The relationship building and acting in this game is a huge step up from the original Life is Strange. Thankfully Life is Strange 2 never hits the lows of the original but also struggles to hit the highs.”

I provide this context because unlike many, this is a series that I never fully connected with, that is until True Colors. Alex’s path to acceptance and self-discovery as she attempts to make a home for herself in Haven had me fully invested. I quickly connected and appreciated Jed, the owner of the local tavern who gives of a loving yet stern JK Simmons vibe. I couldn’t wait to tell Mac to “F*** off” and was happy I got the option to do so. I fell in love with Alex’s relationships with friends and potential partners within the story, but most importantly and I clicked with Alex herself, I felt for her and was truly engaged with what I consider, the most interesting power in the series.

Discovering how her power affects Alex, how it haunts her and the reason why it developed in the first place had me glued to my controller. Seeing people’s strong emotions represented visually was a creative way to immerse you further. Whether it was scared child, a paranoid adult, a grieving partner or a joyous friend, the game uses these moments to further develop its protagonists and push the story forward.
True Colors feels like a huge step up in every department from the writing, voice acting, animation, pacing, and on. I don’t know if the chapters were shorter in this game than past iterations, all I can say is that they felt tighter and extremely well placed. Including a chapter that focused heavily on a LARP that I was surprised didn’t break the pacing and to my shock, was a legitimately fun time.

This story does not require any knowledge of the previous games and for that reason I recommend people give this story a chance, even if Life is Strange hasn’t attracted you previously, I’m glad I did.

Trophies
Difficulty: 1/10
Time: 10 hours
Trophy Guide: Not Needed
Trophy List Score: 9/10

Life is Strange is designed to immerse you in the story and the trophy list complements this by focusing on additional memories/feelings while avoiding becoming a distraction. Items will be highlighted by a glow corresponding to the feeling that is attached to it, and you can focus on it to receive some additional context. Each chapter will have 5 memories for you to discover and some chapters will have an easy side quest or two to complete.

You can easily replay chapters to mop up any missing trophies however, I found using a guide made it easy to avoid any repeat play. With clues such as, “on the table after unpacking”, I wasn’t worried about any story spoilers. The only one I would avoid is locations in the final chapter as they are very easy to find, and a location of a memory could result in a spoiler.

Tips:
- This is an easy platinum, just enjoy the story and use your powers in every room to discover hidden memories.

Time: 11 Hours
Date: 4/22/2022

I played this on Game Pass before it was removed and I have to say, this game is kind of all over the place. While there are some overall interesting situations in the game (like the larping scenario for example) too much of the game is either unbelievable or unrelatable from a character perspective.

Why would this person do that? Why does no one care about that? Why would this person react this way in that situation? I was asking these questions a lot through the game.

I can take the unbelievable sci-fi super power stuff but the characters and overall story needed more work...

Life is Strange 1 entered the stage at a time where decision based videogames were dominated by Telltale, whose games aren't really faithful to the appeal of the genre. If you've never played a Telltale game, all you have to know is that the decisions you make in them are not relevant long-term. The Walking Dead series, their most well known work, is filled with characters who you can save only for them to die or be taken out of the story regardless and more choices that only shape the story superficially. Life is Strange 1, regardless of its actual quality, broke the mold bygiving you a tool to interact with the decisions as a whole: time travel. The ability to not only be able to take back decisions you make but also be able to gage if the consequent action matched its description (which was a problem in the genre).

Inversely, True Colors feels much more caged in the conventions of the decision-based genre. Sporting the power of super empathy, you control Alex Chen in her new life in a small town while dredging through the inhabitants interpersonal drama and solving a mystery. Considering that very superficial synopsis I just gave, it really blows hard how much the game focuses on the mystery rather than the drama, specially in later chapters. As much as the town is presented as a community, the townspeople's problems are very disconnected from eachother and are given very little time and space to properly have any sort of impact on the main plot (aside one, albeit significant, part of the final chapter) or the town as a whole unless you really love to read their faux facebook.
The main plot, which is given much more attention, also is a huge letdown. It's very rushed, there is barely any motivation to learn the true story behind the accident aside from the need to have an overarching plot, and it's also a bad fit for the gimmick of empathy. It's an uninteresting, hack script that in its conclusion trips itself up by only being able to humanize a murder by personal association (it's a game about empathy!! hello??).

Empathy really gets the short end of the stick here, man. It only functions as a pseudo telepathy more than anything and the rules around it are wildly inconsistent. It's need of a character focused plot gets sidelined by the main plot in ways that leave it unimpactful and a wasted gimmick. Like they really had no clue what to do with this shit than having you read minds, c'mon dog.

Where I really feel its trapped by the genre are the really forced moral dilemmas. The foundation for a lot of them is so bad that I took the decisions almost instantly, there's barely any reason for them to exist in the first place. I lost my shit when the game went "you can stay here and live a wonderful life" (that's me summarizing a long ass monologue) OR "you can use soundcloud". It really feels like the game HAD to have choices to justify itself but they couldn't come up with anything so they just had to come up with the most stupid shit.
Speaking of choices, God I hated when the game REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAALLY wanted me to get it on with the love interests. They both sucked. I still got in a relationship with one of them for some reason, which I have no idea why.

The game as a whole lacks a lot of thought behind it. I really wish the game just focused more on Alex. I do like her as a protagonist, but her spotlight is relegated to the last chapter and I'm not sure where I seat on its execution. I do like her journey of finding a home and her experience with mental institutions but the game doesn't really focus much on it. She's stuck in a game that scattershots its premises while barely bothering to connect them in a way that makes the experience feel cohesive or fulfilling

"It's a terrible day for rain"

"But it's not raining"

"Yes... it is"

Life Is Strange: True Colors is much more a journey through emotion and grief than it is a video game. This is something I thought would be a pleasant use of a few afternoons, but what I found became a cathartic experience that dealt with my own insecurities of leaving home and starting anew, losing those we love and finding confidants in my closest friends. In the maybe ten hours I spent in Haven, I felt like I, as Alex Chen, was real. Though she has the powers to feel the emotions, good or bad, of those around her and I don't, she is believable.

Coming to Haven to reunite with her long lost brother, seperated after joining foster care, Alex moves to a small town in the Rockies, far away from city life and society at large. Here throughout the story's events she meets new friends, drifts from her loved ones, relives past tragedy, and discovers her past. The first chapter is a build-up to an unfathomable tragedy which will rock (pun intended) her world and turn it on its head, sending her on a path for truth and inner trauma.

Who do we turn to in times of sadness and despair when there are no family members to support us? How do we shed the degree of vulnerability and approach friends for help? How do we navigate the problems of others while healing ourselves? True Colors approaches these topics with the utmost degree of care, making Alex a realistic figure dealing with the death of someone very close to her. While she searches for the truth and enrolls the help of her closest friends in town, Steph and Ryan, she realizes that she isn't the only one dealing with the loss. Fellow citizens are hurting too, they are displaying their fear, anger, misery all in different ways. As Alex, you the player have to way the consequences of valuing your motives over theirs? Can we be altruistic in the time of sadness, and does that help us move past tragedy? That is ultimately what True Colors does best. It shows us, and especially as someone who has been through traumatic experiences (not of the same cause as Alex,) that the best path to healing ourselves is by demonstrating that we want to be helped. By treating others with respect and care, that will reflect upon us. When you're down and out, your actions previously will impact how those reach out to help you.

Alex Chen is funny, she's cute, and she's wholesome, but also very... human. I feel like a lot of choices matter games and slice of life's like this miss the mark, making characters one dimensional and overtly passionate without the necessary logic to support it. Alex isn't this. She gets bummed by the things that should bum her, she gets down by the things that should bum her, but she's not afraid to lighten the downtrodden mood by making an out of hand sarcastic joke. She knows that people don't want to hear "oh feel better" when they're sad, they want someone who can demonstrate that they care to console them. That's something I absolutely loved about this game. When I'm down, when my friends are down, the last thing I want to hear is "I'm sorry that happened." I want someone who will sit with me and talk it out, and that's where Alex makes a difference. She sits down and cares for the citizens of Haven, who in turn care for her. When Steph is mourning the loss of a close friend, Alex invites her over and they play foosball with eachother, reminiscing over old memories and familiar friends. It's the realism of this that helped me through tragedy. When I had something hit extremely close to home to me, me and my buddies went to IHOP and laughed the night away.

Man, I really loved Steph, not just because she was the romanceable option I picked but because she just felt... so believable as a friend and eventual lover. She demonstrates how much she cares for Alex and her brother Gabe, how she is a soul always dreaming of more. She loves music, but she loves the joy of just... being alive. Every moment I got to spend with her as Alex felt was fantastic, often being the most memorable parts of the game for me. Their relationship felt so much like "love" for eachother rather than romance for romance sake. Their degree of care reminds me of Squall and Rinoa from FFVIII, and Manami and Yukio from Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad. They love eachother (should you go down that romance arc,) not just for the plot, but because it makes sense for them to. They share a common loss, they share a passion for music, they share the will to be so much more than what fate has written for them. It's hard to drive home how well the developers made the way they look at eachother and smile feel so apt. Ryan was great too, I really enjoyed him as a best friend to Gabe and Alex and Steph, but I chose not to romance him as Alex because Steph just felt right.

One major aspect of True Colors that spoke me to me was the phenomenal selection of music for the game. The setting, as mentioned previously, is a picturesque town in the Rockies of Colorado. These are the people who wear flannerls, Carhartt hats, drive Subaru's, and love flowers and the outdoors. What kind of music makes sense for this game? A lot of indie, but appropriate Indie and singer-songwriter songs. The moment early on where I ran into Steph's record store and sat down to listen to "Scott Street" by one of my favorites, Phoebe Bridgers, meant a lot to me. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine myself as Alex Chen, falling in love with the calm and fragile voice that Phoebe carries. Other moments, like where Alex covers the Violent Femmes "Blister in the Sun" felt so... right! The Violent Femmes are a indie band out of the flannel wearing, outdoors loving state of Wisconsin, and playing their jubilant songs acoustically in front of a festival crowd was a perfect love letter to the game and the band, perfectly capturing the vibe the track brings to me. There's much more, but mxmtoon as Alex does a lovely job bringing this song and the credits to life.

In all, I'm probably rambling here, but Life is Strange: True Colors felt like, therapy strangely enough. I think I'm too stubborn for therapy, but with games, music, and film, I find like I'm able to heal and move forward with myself because I get to interpret what the connections and meanings of said media means to me. Much like Alex, I've lost and dealt with trauma, and I've had the friends to rely on. I've had the power of music, the power of nature, the power to keep on keeping on. While some people may find this style of game a little... extra, I felt like it all hit the mark. There's a beauty in humanity, in who we love, in how we move on. While we keep the tragedy with us, it's how we consult our memories and use them to become a better us. Life is Strange: True Colors is a fantastic journey through healing.

I thought the first Life is Strange was pretty good despite its flaws and True Colors was closer to that for me than LiS 2 was (which I still need to finish). Though it was definitely kinda short and a bit rushed.

Alex was a good character, and while her power to tap into emotions wasn’t quite as interesting as rewinding time, it made her more earnest in comparison and I enjoyed the interactions she had with the people of Haven Springs. I was into the game’s more comfortable small town vibe too even if there wasn’t much to explore in it. The rest of the cast was decent and the facial animations definitely improved a lot over past games, though some of the dialogue still seemed a bit stilted to me.

The plot itself was okay. It sets up a mystery surrounding Alex’s brother and his circumstances with the first two chapters which was interesting, but I thought it didn’t really get much focus after until the last chapter where it just speeds through the climax of the story. Instead the pacing would slow to a crawl as you’re forced through tasks like a LARP that lasts up to an hour in Chapter 3. And your choices barely make any difference, but I don’t expect otherwise from these games at this point.

🎮 Platform: PS5
⌚ Time to finish - 9h
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - Easy trophy, offers some additional info but didn't add much. I wish it added more to the story.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Good but definitely not optimized. You have a game like horizon at 60fps and then you have this game which is super choppy on pan. Its very jarring at 30fps and feels more like 10fps. At 60fps it feels like 30 fps. Anyway game is beautiful engine needs work.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Great. Visuals and music add alot. I wanted to visit this mountain town.
📚 Main Story / Characters – The story is cliche. The interactions among the characters are cliche. There were enough characters and i routinely got confused with those characters that got less screen time. This is because the cliched interactions didn't leave an impression of the characters and their names when they were introduced. This entire game is about character interactions and overall I felt it was run of the mill and was just going through the motions with occasional wow moment. Don't get me wrong there are definitely twists and wow moments, but you have to wait an hour or 2 till the end of the episode to get there, the rest of it is routine. I liked them overall but nothing out of the ordinary. For example (not spoiler) you play larp for almost an entire episode! Sure its meant for relationship building, but I already Role played in Life is strange 2, and in wavelengths, do I really need to do it a 3rd time? I did not care much for most of the characters so I did not feel like it was fun building relationships with them, it felt more about pressing buttons. This is a shame because there are so few characters and the potential is there! But again they are cliche so hard to care for them.
🤺 Combat – None
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – Not much to explore. Trophy allows you to explore some but overall exploration didn't add much.
🚗 Movement/Physics – SLOW! Can she move faster please!!!
📣 Voice acting – Excellent. Facial expressions are awesome.
🥇 Best thing about the game - MUSIC!! Wish there was more. It explores emotions, since I am already a little "woke" i got it. But It always helps people to go through stories that are about emotional intelligence.
👎 Worst thing about the game - Nothing. Its a fine game.
💡Final Thoughts:

Did I use the word cliche enough? Life is strange 1 is the best of the series. I had high hopes for this game. Her power is cool but not that interesting. What you do in the game is not too interesting. You get to know all the characters but no one really that deep. The ending is wrapped up in a very cliche style. Things that happen to main character are not explored deeply. She ends up being a therapist for other people, when probably she should be the one getting support. Sure this can be seen has her being strong, but we don't get to explore her mental state. Maybe I am spoiled by games like Last of us 1/2/Drake/life is strange 1 etc.

Vibrant emotion

It can be hard to understand people sometimes. To know exactly why people feel the way they feel and to feel the extent of that feeling to its true form. There's something special about starting a brand new game of True Colors and reading all of the text messages of our protagonist right before anything happens at all. Seeing all the interactions she had with people years before this game even came out and seeing the text threads right before the actual story begins is an amazing touch because I feel when stories and characters begin that past events don't get revealed unless it's important for the story and timing. At the first minute of being able to move your character, she has these text threads spanning years ago and a journal displaying her thoughts about some people she "felt" before. It really feels like she already had a hell of a life right before the first second and now we're here for one of her most important chapters, going to Haven Springs to see her brother.

It's say to say the overall mystery is interesting from start to end with some caveats. The main arching narrative doesn't really turn gears into the very end since it feels like it spends its time trying to get you invested into Haven Springs and it's small and tight knit community. There's another factor to the text threads and journal entries I neglected to mention and that's the facebook equalivent of an overall community space for everyone in the town. These things update frequently and manages to give a lot of interaction between character that aren't just Alex herself. Speaking of Alex, I think she's actually great as a protagonist. She feels believable for someone of her age and has her own idea of humor and creative process. Most of this is illustrated in her examining objects which I'm sure was in the original Life is Strange too, making some corny jokes here and there can be a bit much but it makes sense considering it's all her mind most of the time anyway. I think I enjoyed the game the most interacting with the denizens of Haven Springs the most, the small town locale makes it easy to only focus on a few characters and flesh them out each appropriately. There's something satisfying about seeing everyone see Alex for what she really is instead of something not from this world.

Apart from examining stuff, talking to people and making choices is one of the game mechanics is Alex's so called "ability". She's able to detect how people are feeling with an intricate level of detail to the point that she also feels the same way the person does if it's at an extreme level. Like imagine if you were Disco Elysium and you completely maxed out the Empathy stat, that's essentially how Alex is. You only really use it for information and rarely actually use it in a more proactive state but I kind of never minded that honestly. A decent chunk of the time you have freedom to explore Haven Springs and check in with the local residents to help them with certain tasks or examine stuff for Alex to give her thoughts on it. It feels a bit more open than the first game from my experience but it does feel a bit to traverse through sometimes especially your home where you have three levels and each one is separated by a loading screen followed by another one just to leave as well. Other than it's pretty straightforward with what you can do in the game including playing a couple of games of Arkanoid every now and then and another arcade machine in Alex's room.

The music feels alright with its acoustic guitar center but I think the most surprising and baffling thing to me was that the main character actually did a cover of Radiohead's Creep. I was just in complete awesome and in complete disbelief someone actually put that in a video game and it actually makes sense. Haven Springs itself and the game in general is gorgeous with how it blends its mountains and nature with the town itself. It definitely feels like home away from home in a sense.

I'm usually not one for these narrative adventure titles but I feel like always taking a chance outside your comfort zone at least in media can always surprise you and True Colors did just that. An emphatic and cathartic journey that may rush to the finish line but still makes it on the podium.

miraculously not the trainwreck i had feared. the cast of characters and setting are immensely charming and i'm always down for games that scratch that cinematic gaming itch (at least when they aren't like some other titles are).

this is probably the most consistent Life is Strange game to date. it doesn't reach any of the highest highs of nearly all of the other three games but it didn't come with any of the lows either. progressing through the episodes was relatively smooth and miles away from the absolute shitshow of random stealth sections and the like from before. honestly the only thing that truly went wrong for me (and this is a bit thing, i'll admit) was the music. the score was fine but the licensed stuff was generally not my thing and parts of it approached parody feelings.

not a bad effort and it leaves me feeling much better than i was before with Deck Nine taking up the series from here on out if things continue.

Life is Strange is all about capturing a specific time, place, and feeling, and bottling it into a decision. The magic of it all is how real it all feels — the people you meet, who trust you, who betray you, who love you. The ramifications of your decisions, no matter how small or innocuous, are felt throughout your community. True Colors has mastered the art form introduced in the original Life is Strange and, against all the odds, surpassed it.

DONTNOD Entertainment’s 2015 Telltale-killer Life is Strange is, to this day, one of my favorite games of all time. Max and Chloe’s coming-of-age story set in the Pacific Northwest was thematically cohesive in all the best ways, showcasing all the love, loss, tragedy, joy and pain of your freshman year of college magnificently. It reminded me of a time when everything was both simple and wildly over-complicated and dramatic, and getting to live in that time for 15 hours again was wonderful.

DONTNOD's follow-up, Life is Strange 2, just didn't hit me quite the same way, and I found myself unable to really connect to Daniel and Sean. I did quite enjoy Deck Nine's shorter prequel game about Chloe and Rachel (maybe I'm just a Chloe simp), Before the Storm, and was pleased to see that they'd come back to the series to create True Colors after Square Enix and DONTNOD parted ways. DONTNOD's follow-ups to Life is Strange, including Life is Strange 2, Vampyr, Tell Me Why and Twin Mirror, have all been fine, at best. True Colors outdoes everything that DONTNOD has produced on every level and at every turn. Almost every time an exciting narrative twist or new gameplay element or powerful moment showed up in True Colors, I couldn't help but wonder why it was something that the studio behind the original just couldn't pull off.

Our story begins with our 21-year-old protagonist, Alex Chen, arriving in Haven Springs to begin a new life and move in with her older brother, Gabe. From the moment, she touches down in the picturesque Colorado mountain town, it is clear that Alex is not a typical game protagonist. Reading through her journals and text messages when she steps off the bus reveals that Alex is… well, probably not a person you’d want to be friends with. True Colors makes no effort to portray Alex as quirky or endearing; instead she is presented as a typical human with big ups and big downs, and the Alex earns the player’s affection throughout the story through her words and actions.

Like the other games in the series, the driving force of True Colors is Alex’s superpower. She is an empath, meaning that she can see colored auras around other people that indicate which strong emotion they’re feeling and can dig deeper to find out why they feel this way. Compared to the other powers we’ve seen in this universe (rewinding time, sonic screams, telekinesis) Alex’s power is… well, underwhelming to say the least. She describes it as a curse, and at first it’s hard to disagree with her. She sees the truth of what everyone around her feels, unfiltered, and hears their most hateful, depressing, and disgusting thoughts against her own will.

Throughout the course of True Colors, Alex learns to harness this power for the greater good, but in a certifiably non-heroic way. When someone feels deep fear, for instance, she can peer into their heart and see what causes the fear, why they’re afraid, and exactly what they need to hear to fight that feeling. It is emotional manipulation on the highest level, but Alex’s interventions into these social situations seem to make everyone’s lives better. Some characters find her a calming presence for that reason; others are wildly uncomfortable around her. She always knows exactly what to say in any situation, but it’s up the player to decide whether she should say it.

The absolutely phenomenal cast of characters is what elevates this game above its predecessor. Ryan and Steph serve as Alex’s main sidekicks, and you can romance either one of them (but not both, sadly), but the supporting cast around them just feels real. I’ve met people like Eleanor, like Riley, like Duckie or Jed before. They finely walk the line between believable small town folk and people you’ve met over the years in a way that none of the previous games have managed. Every character is developed out with backstory, layered relationships with Alex and other residents, and complex emotions that understand that humans are not really good or bad.

Deck Nine Studios is based out of the Colorado mountains, and setting the game close to home was the right decision. Dialogue, vernacular, slang and cadence don’t feel like a bunch of French guys in their 30s writing for teenage girls (the original Life is Strange); it all feels natural, conversational, and comprehensive. Motion capture adds so much to True Colors, and all around it feels like a much higher budget affair than previous entries. The voice acting of the main cast is fantastic, and the supporting cast mostly excels, too.

The soundtrack is excellent, and if you’re into the alt indie stuff the previous games relied on you’re in for a treat. Alex has a marvelous singing voice (courtesy of singer mxmtoon) and her musical performances are certainly highlights of the game. Music plays a big part in True Colors, from Steph and Adam’s record store to Gabe’s guitar he leaves as a gift to Alex. Thematically, it works wonders for the story and atmosphere.

There are many, many small decisions that have micro-ramifications throughout dialogue, but as is usual about three times per each of the five chapters Alex encounters a literal game-changing decision. The effects are not going to be immediately obvious; in fact, the whole story is so seamless no matter which of the dozens of branches you follow that you’d never know it was choice based unless you watch another playthrough. My single grievance with True Colors is that even on next-gen consoles, it’s locked to 30 FPS (it does offer Ray Tracing though). I recommend the PC version for this reason.

Alex is a brilliantly written and developed character, aided by probably the best game performance of the year by Erika Mori. She’s a protagonist that has to earn your trust, rather than asking for it implicitly at the start. When her horrifying past reveals itself to the player in the final act, I think anyone with a heart will find themselves in her shoes for just a moment. She feels like a human. Simultaneously brave, kind, enraged, thoughtful, selfish, vengeful and hopeful. Layered, complex, unpredictable until she isn’t. True Colors is an apt title for this game; it’s not just about Alex seeing others true feelings, but understanding her own multicolored trauma.

Life is Strange: True Colors is not a coming-of-age story like its forbearers. Alex has already grown and become the person she’s going to be by the time the story begins. True Colors is a story about grief. The painstaking, hour by hour confrontation with reality when a loved one is lost. When everything in your life is taken away from you with one single light snuffed out. It’s pure existential terror, and this game handles the heavy topic in such a way as to make it feel real without beating down the player. While grief is the main driver of the story, it’s truly about starting over. New beginnings, and all that. Not finding a place to call home, but forging it with your own two hands.

Deck Nine's philosophy with game mechanics is, "change the rules as needed for whatever you're trying to do". It's fine, because it's not a game about having consistent emotion-reading mechanics. It's a game about things like understanding your own emotions, knowing when you're pushing someone else too hard about theirs, and forgiving yourself for things you had no control over.

Made for the indie, chic, nostalgia-seekers that also don't understand the complexity of emotions. Be kind to yourself and other people.

Played on Linux via Proton 6.3