The infamous larp scene, how could anyone possibly forget?
LiS: True Colors was a controversial title even before release, not because LiS 2 was a flop and already tanked audience expectations, but because of Alex Chen. One visit to the official content posted on YouTube is enough to summarize the public perception of this character, her powers of "empathy" in reality are powers of telepathy, you'd somewhat understand this from the trailer but the fact that it is not framed as such doesn't help the case for this game.
LiS: True Colors loves to play safe, all the characters are different shades of nice, for a murder mystery the game is too relaxed and never do the stakes feel like they are weighing down on Alex. The town seems to be healing her slowly and you can't help but root for her a little, Alex feels like a complete character even when she seems to have a bit of a savior complex as she's going from person to person fixing their issues. I like this aspect of storytelling, but it's unsophisticated nature begs for more exploration, these depictions of LOUD emotions that can manifest for Alex as she is slowly consumed by these powerful emotive forces are accompanied by simple but effective imagery and changes in the environment, and all these segments are fun. You're in for a treat as you see these wonderful fluid animations, Deck Nine gives a gentle wave of goodbye to the long gone days of characters with stilted fish eyed faces with quivering lips as they talked.
Besides an offputting internal conflict and resolution for Alex in a neat 20-30 minutes in the end (which has been the main point of contention for mostly any sane person who played this game), Deck Nine made me feel thirsty, thirsty for more plot developments, thirsty for more character interactions, thirsty for more conflict, safe doesn't mean bad and it was necessary to give confidence back to the franchise and this title does exactly that.
True Colors puts LiS back on the map, a hope that seemed stifled after LiS 2. But it's fate lies in the hands of the game that proceeds it.
LiS: True Colors was a controversial title even before release, not because LiS 2 was a flop and already tanked audience expectations, but because of Alex Chen. One visit to the official content posted on YouTube is enough to summarize the public perception of this character, her powers of "empathy" in reality are powers of telepathy, you'd somewhat understand this from the trailer but the fact that it is not framed as such doesn't help the case for this game.
LiS: True Colors loves to play safe, all the characters are different shades of nice, for a murder mystery the game is too relaxed and never do the stakes feel like they are weighing down on Alex. The town seems to be healing her slowly and you can't help but root for her a little, Alex feels like a complete character even when she seems to have a bit of a savior complex as she's going from person to person fixing their issues. I like this aspect of storytelling, but it's unsophisticated nature begs for more exploration, these depictions of LOUD emotions that can manifest for Alex as she is slowly consumed by these powerful emotive forces are accompanied by simple but effective imagery and changes in the environment, and all these segments are fun. You're in for a treat as you see these wonderful fluid animations, Deck Nine gives a gentle wave of goodbye to the long gone days of characters with stilted fish eyed faces with quivering lips as they talked.
Besides an offputting internal conflict and resolution for Alex in a neat 20-30 minutes in the end (which has been the main point of contention for mostly any sane person who played this game), Deck Nine made me feel thirsty, thirsty for more plot developments, thirsty for more character interactions, thirsty for more conflict, safe doesn't mean bad and it was necessary to give confidence back to the franchise and this title does exactly that.
True Colors puts LiS back on the map, a hope that seemed stifled after LiS 2. But it's fate lies in the hands of the game that proceeds it.