This article contains spoilers for the Life is Strange franchise.
Since its release in 2015, Life Is Strange has been beloved by fans. The story game follows Max Caulfield, a photography-loving teenager living in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay, who discovers she can warp time when she witnesses her childhood best friend Chloe Price’s death.
With this power, Caulfield “revives” Price and accompanies her in solving the disappearance of Rachel Amber. Caulfield and Price must solve the mystery before Oct. 11, when a big storm that could destroy the town will occur.
The game, owned by the company Square Enix, continued in a prequel in 2017. These games were ahead of their time in many ways. Though it wasn’t the first choice-based game, players found it captivating because of its artstyle, complex storytelling and the symbolic imagery. Whether good or bad, every choice you make in Life Is Strange is supposed to matter.
Life Is Strange also hasn’t strayed away from tackling difficult topics, which further plays into the realistic storyline. The game doesn’t hold back when you’re faced with impossible decisions, creating a discomforting yet irresistible experience.
Lovers of the game know that the last, and perhaps the hardest, choice in the game is between saving Price or saving Arcadia Bay. If you choose Arcadia Bay, you have to watch as Price is killed once again, then subsequently have to sit through her funeral, where all actions that you picked in the game are reversed. It’s a brutal ending scene, with a deeply emotional impact on lovers of the franchise.
It’s somewhat concerning that this choice, in the end, doesn’t even matter. If player’s they’ve played “Life Is Strange: Double Exposure,” which was released in 2024, it’s clear the creators were basing the game on saving the town, not Price. With the new announcement of “Life Is Strange: Reunion,” fans get a canon that may not have matched their original choice.
In “Double Exposure,” Caulfield brings up Price. The game follows Caulfield in a different stage of her life, tackling not only college but also the murder of a close friend, Price. In the game, Caulfield explains Price’s death, stating that it was her fault Price died. This should mean Price is dead, but it doesn’t seem this way with a new announcement.
“Life Is Strange: Reunion” was announced and will release in March of this year. It seems, though, that we won’t be getting a story where Price’s death haunts the narrative, but instead a new narrative where the past games don’t matter.
In the trailer, when Price shows back up, Caulfield is confused about how she could be here, further playing into the “Arcadia Bay” ending. Price tells her how she remembers the other timelines Caulfield created in the first game, pressing her if she was the one who caused it.
This brings up the question of whether or not Price has her own powers, in the same field as Caulfield, and why they didn’t appear earlier. What’s gone from a mix of a science fiction murder mystery is slowly becoming completely mystical, with not a lot of grasp on reality.
The trailer is framed like this, and it will definitely be the last time Caulfield and Price interact, but it’s hard to say, knowing the history of these games. Along with these, it’s concerning that we may be getting solid answers to everything. A part of the game’s appeal is the mystique and the unknown.
There’s no world where the Life Is Strange original story could continue and leave all fans happy. Perhaps the franchise should’ve stuck with prequels, as players got in “Life Is Strange: Before The Storm,” which follows Price and Amber.
It could’ve gotten away from Caulfield’s story, like how they managed to do in both “Life Is Strange 2” and “Life Is Strange: True Colors.” Though there are connections to Caulfield and the first games in both, it’s not strictly about her.
Of course, fans know and love Price and Caulfield, but the constant stretching of their story makes the story more complicated, and the choices get less and less important. It’s not to say that the franchise is going downhill, but it seems that the more content we get, the further we stray away from its origins. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see where the story goes in this next installment.
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