"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.
"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.
Nancyfly
1 year ago