The dialogue written for the teen girls in this game is some of the most unintentionally cartoonish I’ve ever seen in a teen drama, regardless of medium. This is like faith-based movie scaremongering about the lifestyle of modern teens cartoonish. It actually boggles my mind and makes me kind of depressed to think that this is viewed by the gaming industry and a large portion of the community as a serious and insightful examination of… I don’t know what exactly.
I have nothing against dialogue that’s kitschy or cartoonish as long as that quality lends itself to the overall effect of a piece of media. I also have absolutely nothing against media that many consider low-brow. That’s not my critique here. When you put cartoonish writing in a piece of media that takes itself intensely seriously and that quality of the writing isn’t intentionally used to a worthwhile end you get The Room or Doug Walker’s The Wall or well… Life is Strange.
I really don’t know what else to say. This game and the fact that people like it broke my brain. Is this a case where people who like this game like it in spite of the bad writing? I guess I could see how that’s possible, but what is there to like in spite of its writing? I just really don’t get it / would definitely appreciate someone explaining it to me.
The nicest thing I have to say about this game is that the setting is quite cozy and nicely designed. I’ve spent some time in the Pacific Northwest and the game’s representation of a medium sized town in that region feels fairly accurate. I can also understand people liking the music, which mostly consists of indie folk that feels heavily influenced by the Bright Eyes album “I’m Wide Wake It’s Morning.” I adored that album as a teenager, so the music kind of worked for me (although it mostly just made me wish I was listening to Bright Eyes instead). Lucky for me the publisher did pull out the cash to license an actual Bright Eyes song so I did get my wish for a couple minutes.
Another positive - Life is Strange contains the most unintentionally hilarious NPC dancing I’ve ever seen in a video game. Please go onto YouTube right away and look up gameplay from the Vortex (?) party to see for yourself - I promise you won’t regret it. Video games - especially 7th-gen and earlier almost never get NPCs dancing at a party to look natural or convincing (big props to devs of Hitman 3 for absolutely nailing this though). The dancing in life is strange is something else though - it has to be seen to be believed.
Those are pretty much all the nice things I have to say. I probably would have liked this game had I played it when I was a precocious 13 year old back in 2009, who felt very cool for listening to Beach House and Animal Collective and who desperately wished the Max Caulfield of his school would walk up to him on the bus and ask if he wanted to share earbuds to listen to the Juno soundtrack. Unfortunately for me I played this game as a somewhat cynical 20-something , and the adolescent indie vibes only served to make me realize that the mindset that would have allowed me to be won over by them had been inevitably left in the past.
So I suppose I can understand people liking the vibes in spite of the writing. I like plenty of things that are quaint and twee but not this. For me, the writing is bad enough and disruptive enough to prevent me from genuinely enjoying anything in spite of it, and the vibes simply aren’t appealing to me at this point in my life. The vibes would definitely be more appealing if characters spoke like actual teenagers.
I’d still very much appreciate hearing from someone who loves this game. People’s enjoyment of it has been frankly puzzling to me for years, and I’d like to have this cleared up.
I have nothing against dialogue that’s kitschy or cartoonish as long as that quality lends itself to the overall effect of a piece of media. I also have absolutely nothing against media that many consider low-brow. That’s not my critique here. When you put cartoonish writing in a piece of media that takes itself intensely seriously and that quality of the writing isn’t intentionally used to a worthwhile end you get The Room or Doug Walker’s The Wall or well… Life is Strange.
I really don’t know what else to say. This game and the fact that people like it broke my brain. Is this a case where people who like this game like it in spite of the bad writing? I guess I could see how that’s possible, but what is there to like in spite of its writing? I just really don’t get it / would definitely appreciate someone explaining it to me.
The nicest thing I have to say about this game is that the setting is quite cozy and nicely designed. I’ve spent some time in the Pacific Northwest and the game’s representation of a medium sized town in that region feels fairly accurate. I can also understand people liking the music, which mostly consists of indie folk that feels heavily influenced by the Bright Eyes album “I’m Wide Wake It’s Morning.” I adored that album as a teenager, so the music kind of worked for me (although it mostly just made me wish I was listening to Bright Eyes instead). Lucky for me the publisher did pull out the cash to license an actual Bright Eyes song so I did get my wish for a couple minutes.
Another positive - Life is Strange contains the most unintentionally hilarious NPC dancing I’ve ever seen in a video game. Please go onto YouTube right away and look up gameplay from the Vortex (?) party to see for yourself - I promise you won’t regret it. Video games - especially 7th-gen and earlier almost never get NPCs dancing at a party to look natural or convincing (big props to devs of Hitman 3 for absolutely nailing this though). The dancing in life is strange is something else though - it has to be seen to be believed.
Those are pretty much all the nice things I have to say. I probably would have liked this game had I played it when I was a precocious 13 year old back in 2009, who felt very cool for listening to Beach House and Animal Collective and who desperately wished the Max Caulfield of his school would walk up to him on the bus and ask if he wanted to share earbuds to listen to the Juno soundtrack. Unfortunately for me I played this game as a somewhat cynical 20-something , and the adolescent indie vibes only served to make me realize that the mindset that would have allowed me to be won over by them had been inevitably left in the past.
So I suppose I can understand people liking the vibes in spite of the writing. I like plenty of things that are quaint and twee but not this. For me, the writing is bad enough and disruptive enough to prevent me from genuinely enjoying anything in spite of it, and the vibes simply aren’t appealing to me at this point in my life. The vibes would definitely be more appealing if characters spoke like actual teenagers.
I’d still very much appreciate hearing from someone who loves this game. People’s enjoyment of it has been frankly puzzling to me for years, and I’d like to have this cleared up.