Life is Strange Episode 1: Chrysalis (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbone, X360)

Telltale has seen much success with their story-driven, interactive movie like games in the last few years. As such, it's a bit surprising that there aren't many others who have tried to get a piece of that pie. Now Dontnod Entertainment has teamed up with Square Enix to bring along something that is clearly going for the audience that buys Telltale's games, but fortunately isn't just a copy-cat, rather setting out to try to do its own thing.

 

Episodic, interactive, graphic adventure video game indie movie
The word 'indie' gets thrown around a lot nowadays, as indie games have found the kind of success through digital distribution they could never have imagined before when physical releases were pretty much the only way to find real success. However, Life is Strange is perhaps the first game that really feels like one of those stereotypical indie movies with an unknown cast, soundtrack filled with non-mainstream bands with melancholic music and set in smaller towns with a more personal slice of life type story than something bombastic & epic.

All that said, the story starts out with a bang. The main character is Maxine Caulfield, a somewhat self-conscious teenager who has just returned to her hometown recently to study photography and you are near what seems like a destructive tornado approaching her old new hometown Arcadia Bay, until she suddenly wakes up. Just a dream or a vision of what's to come? That is a bit unclear as Max wakes up from the dream in the middle of a lesson. Startled by the vivid dream, she decides to go to the bathroom after class to freshen up. In the bathroom, she witnesses an argument between a boy and a girl that leads to the boy shooting the girl. Freaked out by what she just saw, she suddenly notices she's in the middle of the lesson that she thought had already ended. It seems Max has somehow gained the power to move through time.

What follows is the slow-building first episode of a five-episode indie drama. The first episode's 3-4 hours are mostly spend with introducing the people of the town and setting up the main mysteries of the story; mainly, what was that tornado all about, Max starting to experiment with her new-found powers and starting to unravel all the behind the scenes shenanigans that are going on in this small town, some of which might have something to do with the disappearance of this Rachel girl whose Missing-posters are all over campus.

The writing in this first episode is a bit uneven. Most of the time it's serviceable enough that it shouldn't take the player out of the experience and they succeed decently well at giving characters distinct personalities that feel natural, but there are some jarring lines of dialogue here & there. Luckily even though they don't always quite talk like actual real-life people, the characters still mostly feel like actual human beings with a past that has shaped their personalities & lives and the game sets up potential storylines for most of them that seem like they are worth seeing till the end There's some not-so-sunny things going on with many characters and we'll undoubtedly get to uncover a lot of secrets many of these characters have, which will hopefully make up for some good drama.

Welcome to Arcadia Bay
So what do you actually do in Life is Strange? Well, it's a story-driven game, but with quite a lot of exploration and optional discussions. One thing that sets Life is Strange apart from Telltale's games in a positive manner is that it does feel a bit more like a traditional graphical adventure game and less like just an interactive movie. You are more in control of your character & her actions and there are even some puzzles to solve. Exploration is rewarded with all kinds of objects & things Max will comment on, easter eggs about Square Enix games and meeting more people that will shed light on the dynamics & going-ons of the small town. There's also a side quest of finding certain events, moments & things to photograph. A lot of Life is Strange is about the interaction between Max and Arcadia Bay's inhabitants. Getting to know people, finding ways to get more information about certain things and figuring out what you should do in surprising situations. The game does also have some hidden things you can find to do that could affect future events and which you can only find by thorough investigation of the different locations.

There's plenty to interact with in the game, most of it not in any way integral to the story

Max's time-rewind skill comes into play a lot during the game. The time-rewind skill is handy in that you can remember conversations you have even if you rewind time. For example, if you don't remember someone's name immediately and they complain about it to you, you can just rewind time and use your newly gotten information to get a better reaction. Items are carried through time, which is mostly used in puzzle-solving. You can also alter your decisions based on the immediate reactions of other people to your actions, though what long-term effects they'll have aren't clear, so most of the time you are still forced to live with your choices not knowing what kind of ramifications it might have in the future. Is the goodwill of a bullied girl better in the long term when you angered the security guard to get that goodwill? There are some fairly strickt limits as to how much you can rewind. Most of the time you can only rewind until the beginning of the discussion and there are some bigger decisions that are locked in after certain checkpoints the game will notify about in a "after this point this decision made cannot be changed anymore, do you really want to continue?" manner.

Tunes of a small town
Life is Strange isn't the most technically impressive game, but it's adequate enough to carry the experience and to not affect the experience too negatively. The art style is the kind that it looks good even though the budget isn't on AAA level and everything runs perfectly fine on at least PS4. It has some areas that could use some improving, like lip synching, but otherwise the art style comes together with the small-town feel & soundtrack to successfully create the perfect kind of atmosphere for this kind of indie movie imitating game. At best it feels like Twin's Peak, even if the writing isn't up to par. Speaking of the soundtrack, it's quite good. It's exactly the kind of indie folk music that can create that kind of melancholic sense of nostalgia of small town life that fits the vibe Life is Strange is going for. The soundtrack is the perfect companion to the whole Life is Strange experience.

The game does have its pretty moments despite budget restrictions

Verdict: INTRIQUING. This first episode won't blow up anyone's mind, but it is a strong enough start for this episodic small town drama that you'll most likely be left wanting to see more, especially if moody, melancholic low-key indie dramas are your thing. Unlike Telltale's games and despite the dramatic beginning with tornadoes & school shootings, Life is Strange so far is less about who lives and who dies or making constant life or death decisions and more about a somewhat slow-building drama about life in a small town hit by a tragedy in the not so distant past with many people who have something to hide. You aren't fighting against impossible odds against a zombie apocalypse and you aren't fighting to stop the downfall of the whole Fables society as much as you are seeing Max slowly getting used to living in her old hometown again, growing a bit more confident as an independent young adult person and gathering knowledge of the town, its inhabitants and all the campus & small town drama and politics/intrique as they have become since she first moved out of there. Based on the first episode, this seems like something that could grow to be quite special if they can just keep the awkward dialogue to a minimum and build on the promising premise adequately and end it up with a suitably climactic & intriquing, yet personal finale. Even if you aren't ready to jump in just yet, this is one episodic game to keep your eyes on.


INFO BOX

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer(s): Dontnod Entertainment

Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Playstation 4 (tested), Xbox 360, Xbox One

Release Date (Europe): January 30th, 2015

Number of players: 1

What we know? Kingdom Hearts III (PS4/Xbox One)

"What we know?" will be a frequently infrequent series of articles about what we know  (& some speculation) about upcoming games that are still ways off and thus still somewhat shrouded in mystery. I'll try to summarize as much as we know about the projects based on interviews, preview, official announcements and, if possible, what we know based on prequels. This is the first article in this series and it is about a game that has been on my Most Wanted list ever since I finished Kingdom Hearts II in Spring 2006.

Basic info:
Platform(s): PlayStation 4 & Xbox One
Release date: TBA
Director(s): Tai Yasue & Tetsuya Nomura

Background
Kingdom Hearts III is the next installment in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. It has been a long time coming. Kingdom Hearts II was originally released in December 2005 in Japan and after that the franchise has seen numerous spin-offs on handhelds, which are meant to expand the story & set up Kingdom Hearts III in numerous ways. After somewhat lackluster sales of the few last handheld KH titles and the state of handheld gaming outside Japan, SQEX made the decision that Kingdom Hearts needs to return to home consoles as soon as possible (since the best selling KH titles are still the original two PS2 KHs games), which possibly lead them to scrap Birth By Sleep Vol. 2 and make Dream Drop Distance instead, which would bridge the gap between the end of KHII and beginning of KHIII. And so, after almost a decade of waiting, the third mainline Kingdom Hearts title is now actively in development.

Development
Kingdom Hearts III is being developed by Square Enix's Osaka-based team which Tetsuya Nomura has dubbed as the reigning "Kingdom Hearts Team" after the original KH Team spent years with Nomura on Final Fantasy Versus XIII/XV. They are quite likely developing the game with help from the Tokyo offices and probably with plenty of outsourcing as well, as the Osaka Team isn't big enough to handle the development of a PS4 level Kingdom Hearts game alone (though they have been hiring lately).

The development of Kingdom Hearts III began soon after Osaka team was done with the last entry in the series, Dream Drop Distance for 3DS, although at the time and until recently the team has also developed the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 & 2.5 HD ReMixes concurrently, with team members switching between working on KHIII & the ReMixes as need be.

The earliest hints of Osaka Team working on KHIII came in the months following DDD's western release. It was hinted that Osaka team had a new project underway and that this project would be much bigger than anything they had worked on by that point. Given that the next step from Dream Drop Distance for the KH franchise could be nothing else but Kingdom Hearts III and how Nomura had dubbed the Osaka Team as the new "official" KH team, it was pretty clear that this project could be nothing else but Kingdom Hearts III.

Luckily we didn't have to wait for too long for the confirmation that this is the case, as Tetsuya Nomura announced Kingdom Hearts III during Sony's E3 2013 press conference. Unfortunately, the game was still early in development so they didn't really have much to show, but at least it was confirmed that the game was in development and had been for some time by that point.

In addition to the short announcement teaser trailer at E3 2013, Kingdom Hearts III made another brief appearance at a Disney event in Japan in Fall 2013, which showed the first glimpses of an early playable build with some of the new gameplay features they were planning for KHIII. This would turn out to be the last time we'd see KHIII in public in 1,5 years and counting (excluding the short footage shown to a small group of priviliged fans who were at KH2.5's launch party, which hasn't leaked to the general public).

Since it's 2013 showings, not much has been shown of KHIII, but there has been some information about the game. Most recent big news headlines were caused by the announcements that Tetsuya Nomura was the director of FFXV no more to focus on KHIII and that KHIII would be using the Unreal Engine 4 instead of Square Enix's own Luminous Studios like was originally announced. This is presumably because the Luminous team has been integrated into Final Fantasy XV's development team, which is bad for KHIII because Osaka team admitted that they'd need the full support of the Luminous team to help them get up to par with current gen level game development as well as helping with some more technical problems they run into, and they actually thought they would get that support around E3 2013. Since then, situations have changed, so either they had to wait for the Luminous team to be freed from FFXV, or they could switch to UE4 and get Epic's support immediately. Tai Yasue has guaranteed that this switch has not affected KHIII's development much at all nor does it mean they have scrapped any of the work done so far. The biggest problems seem to have been with the "Kingdom Shader" technology they were creating to create a unique look to different worlds and getting that to work with UE4.

Beyond that they have talked a little about the world choosing process and how they had yet to choose all the worlds by Fall 2014, so don't expect KHIII to be released anytime soon. Late 2016 is probably the earliest anyone should expect to play KHIII, though it's likely that the game will not be released until we are further into 2017.

Story
Kingdom Hearts III will be the end of the "Dark Seeker Saga" that focuses on the villain Xehanort. In Dream Drop Distance it was revealed that Master Xehanort's reincarnated human form is trying to arrange a clash between 7 warriors of light and 13 seekers of darkness (the "real" Organization XIII) that will help with reforging the X-blade that will give its wielder access to the mysterious Kingdom Hearts & all its powers.

Kingdom Hearts III's story will focus at least partly in the good guys preparing for the eventual final battle with Master Xehanort & his other incarnations. This means that the good guys need to fill out their ranks, as currently the only keyblade wielders capable of fighting are Sora, Mickey, Riku & Lea. So who are these 7 lights & 13 darknesses? Well, potentially Sora, Riku, Mickey, Kairi, Lea, Aqua & Ventus will make the 7 lights, though don't be surprised if somehow people like Xion & Roxas enter the fray if something happens to one or more of those seven (Sora's struggles with the darkness inside him might mean he could be out of the picture if something bad happens to him). The problem with this is that only Sora, Riku & Mickey are actually available and ready for battle. Kairi isnt' really a Keyblade wielder yet & Lea had barely gotten to the point that he can summon a Keyblade at will by the end of DDD, so they will still need to be trained to become strong enough Keyblade wielders to help with the fight against the 13 darknesses. In addition to that, Aqua is lost in the Realm of Darkness and Ventus is locked away in Castle Oblivion, which was - coinsidentally - "made" by Aqua, so they'll need her to rescue Ven. 

Riku gained the power to awaken sleeping hearts in Dream Drop Distance, so his skills are probably crucial to the story of KHIII. In addition to that, it seems they need the "Key to Return Hearts", which is one thing that Sora is seemingly going to search for in KHIII.

The 13 darknesses are harder to pin down too accurately. Young Xehanort, Fake Ansem, Xemnas, Braig/Xigbar, Isa/Saix, Terra and Master Xehanort are the ones that we can be certain are currently part of the 13 as they have been shown or, in Terra's case, heavily hinted at being one of them. That's only 7 out of 13, so there are still 6 seekers of darkness we can't be too sure about. They could be old Organization XIII members Nomura didn't want to reveal in Dream Drop Distance or Xehanort-created creatures of darkness like Vanitas. It's also possible that the relatively recently made relevant KH Chi will introduce one of the 13, considering they are building up its importance. And there's always the possibility that one of the lights turns to the dark side (Sora seems like a real possibility).

So, to recap, KHIII's story seems to focus at least partly in the preparations to fight against Master Xehanort and the other 12 seekers of darkness. To do this, they'll first need to find the Key to Return Hearts and rescue Aqua from the Realm of Darkness. After this, Aqua can restore Castle Oblivion into its original state, the Land of Departure from BBS. Then, they'll possibly use the Key to Return Hearts to return Ven's heart to himself from inside Sora, after which Riku can use his powers to awaken Ven's heart.That should theoretically mean they have the 7 lights all ready to fight Xehanort, but we know KH likes to throw curve balls at us so expect some surprises along the way.

Another aspect of KHIII's story will tie into things that are happening in KH Chi right now. While Chi seems to take place in the distant past, around the time of the Keyblade War that lead to the separation of worlds, they seem to be introducing new plot threads that seemingly have a connection to Master Xehanort. We have a KHIII video where we hear two characters speaking about the Keyblade War and lost masters (see HERE), these characters might be Young Xehanort and a young Eraqus. It seems that what happened all those years ago in the Keyblade War has a lot of relevance to what is going to happen in KHIII. 

Gameplay
Not much has been said about the gameplay. Supposedly they'll move away from BBS/ReCoded/DDD type command deck and make something more like the other mainline KHs, though they won't necessarily abandon everything related to the command deck and they won't develop KHIII without utilising some of their experience with those three games and adding their own touch to the original KH combat. In relation to the combat, Nomura has made a funny remark that he had been testing some end game build of Sora and had asked Osaka Team to maybe tone it down a little bit because Sora was simply too overpowered & unbeatable.

So far they've only shown a couple of new combat features. The first one is something that isn't a completely new concept for the franchise although they haven't been featured as player usable skills yet. I'm talking about Keyblade transformations. For example, Sora's Keyblade is seen transforming into two guns that shoot fireballs. The other new combat feature takes inspiration from Disney park attractions/rides, the two examples shown so far is a pirate swingboat and a rollercoaster like train ride.

It's still unclear whether Kingdom Hearts III will only allow gamers to control Sora like the other two  mainline titles (apart from some prologue and a random special occasions) or if the game will have a multiple playable main characters like BBS, Chain of Memories & DDD. Nomura has repeated many times that he considers the mainline KH saga as Sora's story and he will always be the main character of these mainline titles, so that could. On the other hand, so many KH games have featured more than one playable character by now that it would be somewhat of a shame if Kingdom Hearts III returned to a single character game like its mainline predecessors.

Other small tidbits about the gameplay include a comment from Nomura where he claims that they'll really improve the AI in Kingdom Hearts III. Hopefully this is true because Donald, Goofy & other AI controlled characters have been almost useless in past KH games. They will also aim to make Sora more agile in KHIII, so we'll probably see something akin to the DDD's Flowmotion moves that gives Sora more movement options when running around the game's environments, although I doubt they'll repeat the somewhat criticized Flowmotion feature as is.


Summary
So, at this point we don't really know a whole lot of concrete info about Kingdom Hearts III, but there are enough snippets of info and some pretty solid ground for speculation that we can make some educated guesses into some aspects of the game. Hopefully 2015 brings along at least a couple of trailers featuring gameplay and the first proper look at the story of KHIII to clear up some confusion. At 2.5's launch party, Tai Yasue mentioned that they would likely show & talk more about Kingdom Hearts III in 2015, so expect KHIII to maybe be at this year's E3 or at least at a Japanese event like Tokyo Game Show in September or Jump Festa in December.