A Young Max Will Appear In Bonus Episode
In addition to the E3 2017 trailer reveal of Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, Square Enix has shed more details on their official site and Reddit about the upcoming game. As noted in the trailer, the three-part prequel will focus on a younger Chloe and her friendship with Rachel before the events of the first game.
First off, they revealed that the first episode will debut on all three consoles (Xbox One, PS4, PC) at the same date of August 31, 2017. The prequel will be handled by a different studio, Deck Nine Games, as DONTNOD will be busy with the other unrevealed Life Is Strange game. Not much is known about the devs, but I see that they did work on a Neopets game for PS2.
One change that kinda hurts will be that Ashly Burch, Chloe’s original voice actor, will not voice Chloe here, but instead will get to user her Emmy-nominated writing skills to write for the game and help Chloe sound right. Instead, Rhianna DeVries will be voicing Chloe this time around.
Besides that, the team confirms that there will not be a time rewind mechanic as Chloe will have to think before she commits to any dialogue she chooses. “Chloe’s sharp tongue will require her to live with whatever she says and as before, every single action and choice will have a direct consequence in the short, mid and long term,” Toby Palm writes on the Square Enix post. Although Chloe won’t seem to have any deus ex machina powers, the game will still have an element of supernatural strangeness, Palm hints.
Next, we get some pretty big news too about the game’s first heroine, the ever-maudlin, Maxine Caulfield will return in a bonus episode that will be about a young Max called, “The Farewell.” This bonus episode will only be available to those who order the Deluxe Edition of the new miniseries. Here’s the words straight from Palm:
“We know that many of you would love to see more from Max. Due to the way in which the first game ended, we didn’t want to canonize one group of players’ choices over the other – a sentiment echoed strongly by our community. That being said, we will still be giving you one final chance to play as Max through the self-contained bonus “Farewell” episode, which takes place long before the events of Before the Storm. This stand-alone bonus episode, will release after episode 3, and is only available as part of the Deluxe Edition of Life is Strange: Before the Storm. Rest assured, anyone purchasing the complete season of Before the Storm will get the full story. Max’s ‘Farewell’ episode really is just a bonus episode for those who would like to play as her one final time.”
The last words are important as it hints that the other Life Is Strange won’t star Max as the main character.