Payton Klaer

What’s a piece of media (movie, book, TV show, etc.) that left a lasting impression on you?

It’s October 11th, 2023 and I’m writing this sitting at my desk in my apartment while listening to Obstacles by Syd Matters through the speaker of my phone. There’s no way I can start this piece with the profoundness I feel deep inside. It’s something that starts deep in my chest and makes me want to stop, lie in my bed, and stare at the ceiling until I feel normal again. It makes me want to do something. Whether that be going for a run (I’m not a runner) or scream (I don’t do that either) or write something as equally profound (which I can only attempt).

So, yes, I’m going to write about Life Is Strange again. I’ll die before I’ve talked about this game enough.

If you’re new to my soapbox, hi. Nice to see you here.

Life Is Strange was a video game that released in early 2015. It’s an RPG following the main character, Max, who has a vision of a massive apocalyptic-sized tornado wiping out her entire town, Arcadia Bay in Oregon. A little later, she witnesses her childhood best friend (who she hasn’t seen in years) get shot in the bathroom. Don’t worry! Chloe is okay because Max learns she has the ability to rewind time! Which, of course, she does. And this time she manages to save Chloe.

The game follows the two girls as they rekindle their friendship and try to solve a missing persons case all while messing around with Max’s rewind ability. It’s got cringe-y dialog (lots of “hella,” “ready for the mosh pit shaka-brah,” etc.), not great graphics to today’s standards, and an absolutely insane series of plot twists. But above all else, there are decisions made by the player that influence the story. And it completely altered my entire trajectory for life.

The player’s impact on the game is something I had never seen done before. Nothing allowed me to have a say in what happened in visual media. I had never heard of the butterfly effect until Max took a picture of a blue butterfly moments before she rewound to save Chloe’s life. I had never seen two women who could be more than friends in mainstream media. This game was a series of firsts for me.

Every year I find myself naturally gravitating back to playing through the game again. If you couldn’t tell, it’s about that time. It’s not something I think about doing – it just happens. I open the game and it says the last time I played a save file was approximately a year ago.

At this point, you might be wondering why I opened this piece the way I did. October 11, 2023. I opened TikTok a couple of hours ago while I was bored and saw a Life Is Strange video. It really caught me off-guard. I mean, I hadn’t ever seen Max or Chloe on my for you page in the literal years I’ve had this app. Besides, who even thought about this game anymore?

Turns out, the tornado en route to Arcadia Bay hit on October 11, 2013. It’s been exactly ten years since the ending events of the game.

I feel like I should do something. I need to mourn the loss of everyone who died to the tornado (or the other ending, which I won’t spoil). This is a huge deal to me and it’s fictional. It’s a video game. But at a certain point I realized that Life Is Strange is everything to me. It’s who I am. It’s the type of video games I fall in love with. It’s what made me want to create stories.

There have been four Life Is Strange games since the original including a prequel, two squeals, and a side-game to the most recent release. And the superpowers just keep coming. Telekinesis. Enhanced emotional senses/manipulation. Each game expands on the universe more than the last – and characters from the first game haven’t gone away. They keep appearing in the new works. Just like me, the developers can’t let go of the masterpiece of a story they told almost ten years ago.

The best way I can honor this life-changing game is by telling you to play it. If you can’t do that then watch it on YouTube (bonus points if it’s Jacksepticeye’s play-through, that was my first exposure to it). It’s almost always on sale and most times the first episode is free. Go have your heart ripped out by this game and report back.