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DiscussionLife Is Strange: Double Exposure has a realistic portrayal of TIM behavior
I was a little surprised to see this and I expect TIMs to start complaining about it shortly, as they did with Sirona Ryan in Hogwarts Legacy.
Early in the game you're introduced to Gwen, whose deep obviously-male voice is immediately noticeable. The first thing he says to the female protagonist (Max) is to awkwardly say "I'm a hugger, um, are you a hugger?" while opening his arms to request a hug from a woman he's never met before. Upon being told no he cackles and says "I hope you can forgive the crazy lady with no boundaries".
He's standing there helplessly looking at a locked cabinet in a library, needing to retrieve a book that's inside. Max finds another copy of the book in the library but he whines that the one in the cabinet is a special edition with additional content, as he just stands there doing nothing. Max finds a tool and easily pries the cabinet open for him.
The second time you meet him, he complains about his former boss being a transphobe, saying he was afraid that his boss would find out he's trans. I laughed out loud at this part, as if anyone would not immediately recognize that man-voice.
Overall the game is similar to the other ones in the series, an interactive mystery-solving movie with a sci-fi twist. But fans of the series are really upset that it disregards the story and relationships from the first game, which really meant a lot to many fans. (Anyone reading this probably knows the ending, but I'm avoiding spoilers just in case, it's something that shouldn't be spoiled for anyone ever.)
I agree with them that it feels like this game was designed to have a different protagonist, then they decided "let's make it Max from the first game" hoping it would boost sales. For that reason (and not the TIM) I don't recommend the game.
Makes sense actually. From what I see half of the "women" working in the gaming industry is just TIMs. They insert themselves in the games left and right
Is this person portrayed as a good guy who eventually gets the "hug" from the female character so to speak? Sounds to me like propaganda to convince young female players there's a level of bullshit they're expected to put up with from TIMs
Unless the game ends with the female protagonists getting a reward for tasing him in the nutsack I'm skeptical
Yeah, I don't think this is good news for LIS fans. Plenty of trans characters end up sounding insane and narcissistic because the creators think it's a given that trans people deserve everything and we should all let them walk all over us. It's much more likely that a mainstream franchise like LIS is doing trans propaganda than some deep commentary on trans cultists.
Only the first two sections of the game are available to play now so it's unclear what the full story is. He's also under investigation for selling drugs to students, which I'm almost certain that Max will find out is a false accusation and help to clear his name, and it's likely they'll end up being good friends because that's how TIMs are always portrayed in movies and games these days. But no one knows for sure yet.
I couldn't believe it when the trailer revealed that, once again, Max was going to use her wacky sci-fi powers to prevent a friend's murder. Despite the fact that doing so in the first game causes a butterfly effect that kills an entire town in one of the endings.
Like, regardless of whether the player chose Bae or Bay in the last game, it makes NO SENSE for Max to make this same mistake again with a new person after all she endured with Chloe.
And yeah, the TIM sounds insufferable. Is he a mandatory character you need to interact with? Or can he be ignored if the player doesn't want to deal with him?
Like, regardless of whether the player chose Bae or Bay in the last game, it makes NO SENSE for Max to make this same mistake again with a new person after all she endured with Chloe.
I've just finished the first chapter and have to say that I disagree with that a little. But that might be because I chose the Bay ending, which means you get many references about Chloe being dead and Max still mourning her. Even the anniversary of her death was recently, according to a text from Chloe's mom.
Then Safi dies, and you see Max' journal entry "NOT AGAIN NOT AGAIN NOT AGAIN".
With that background I can see an emotional Max reacting the way she does, just wanting to prevent losing another person close to her in a very similar way.
That said, it makes decidedly less sense when Chloe is alive and they just broke up or "grew apart". Especially since Max then would have the town on her conscience. Even if we accept that Chloe was THAT important to her, it's still a tough outcome.
You have to interact with him, but you don't have to hug him. It seems that you probably have to participate in helping him clear his name (he's accused of selling drugs to students), but he gets real pissy if you choose to examine the evidence instead of going along with whatever he wants.
Also Max has a line while she's alone where she talks about supporting gender neutral bathrooms. Gotta have that propaganda.
it makes NO SENSE for Max to make this same mistake again
I have to admit I didn't even think about that. You're 100% right, Max should know that messing around with reality either accomplishes nothing, or potentially does a lot more damage.
Yet another reason that this should have been a new character who doesn't know any better, instead of awkwardly forcing Max into the protagonist role again whether it fits or not.
Soooo much to unpack with that TIM scene
First off, why are they sharing a joint!? This is a post-COVID world! We shouldn't be sharing spit with anyone we aren't dating! 🤮
OMG out of nowhere he starts whining about a transphobic boss who caught transphobia from YouTube!
"Before I came out". We're really supposed to believe that this dude ever fooled ANYONE into believing he was a woman! With THAT voice!? 🤣
And, of course, he also gets pissy when Max questions why he sabotaged her friend's book deal with some edgy line like "Some mysteries are better left mysteriously mysterious!"
"I didn't ask for your help, Max"
YES YOU DID, DICKHEAD!!
Ah, I was wondering if they'd cram some 🚂s into it. Between that and what I hear about Chloe there's not much reason for me to play this one. Unless they really stick the landing somehow (I hate this episodic release thing) and I don't have to spend any money to play it.
Ugh. They're not releasing the whole game all at once!? Lame!
I know that this was how the first game got released. So I don't know why I'm surprised. But this new trend of releasing a game in chunks with no idea when/if it'll be finished is dumb and I wish it would stop. I refuse to play anymore of the FF7 remake for precisely this reason (at this rate, the FF7 remake won't be finished for at least ten years. So the Life Is Strange sequel may very well outlive us all. LOL)
Any excitement I would have had about FF7 died when I found out it was going to be divided into chunks. And then made into an open world slog. I long for a good, tightly told, reasonable length JRPG.
I don't know if it's better or worse that, at least the original LiS, was one game broken into 5(?) episodes. I didn't even play it until recently, so I played through one full game that was cut into chunks. Not one full game painfully stretched into 3 bloated games.
I played the first chunk of FF7 remake because my husband bought it. It is such a slog. Random side quests and fetch quests are EVERYWHERE (and you need to do some of them to get the good summons and materia). It feels more like Assassins Creed than Final Fantasy. And its a painfully obvious ploy to pad the play time and justify separating it into god knows how many separate games.
They also changed the story by adding in some weird multiverse bullshit in order to confuse the audience into thinking that Aerith might survive and/or someone else might die instead of her. Because I guess multiverses are mandatory now. 🙄
All the fans wanted was an FF7 remake with pretty graphics and voice acting. Instead we got this bloated mess that will likely take a decade to be completed
My husband, too. He wanted me to play it because he liked how much it explored Midgar. But I don't want to spend 40 hours doing fetch quests in Midgar. The slums and Midgar section in the original served its purpose fine. It establishes a setting and motives for the character, and provides the inciting action to get the ball rolling for the actual quest of the game. No I didn't need to know Jesse better or watch her fawn over Cloud. No I didn't need to hear the life story of everyone in sector 7. No I don't need more time with Biggs and Wedge.
What I would have wanted in a remake is to expand and clean up the writing a bit. It's not a secret a lot of people (myself included) didn't fully get the story just from the game. Somewhere between the script having space limitations, especially in English, and the rushed translations and lower localization standards at the time. There was a lot of room to improve how the story was told. (But I guess coherent story telling has never been Square's forte lol).
I couldn't agree more. I would have loved FF7: Coherent Storytelling Edition. Instead we got a FF7: Very Very Extended Edition that was designed primarily to appeal to superfans who would like to live in the world of FF7 and explore every single bit of that world (whether it's interesting or not).
No I didn't need to know Jesse better or watch her fawn over Cloud. No I didn't need to hear the life story of everyone in sector 7. No I don't need more time with Biggs and Wedge.
For real. Helping random Midgar citizens find their lost cats or glasses or whatever doesn't help me feel more sympathy for them when the shit hits the fan later on. I didn't need to visit Jessie's parents or watch her swoon over Cloud to feel bad when she died. I didn't need to know Biggs and Wedge's entire life stories in order to root for them.
A little more development of side characters is fine. But not when it adds a ton of bloat and doesn't contribute to the story (and is a blatant ploy to pad the run time)
What I would have wanted in a remake is to expand and clean up the writing a bit. It's not a secret a lot of people (myself included) didn't fully get the story just from the game. Somewhere between the script having space limitations, especially in English, and the rushed translations and lower localization standards at the time.
The one positive of the remake is Barret talking like an actual person instead of an 80s era Black stereotype. Those are the improvements that should have been focused on
Ugh, I was watching a video of someone playing the game and enjoying seeing Max's character and her friendship with Safi and when I found out there was a TIM I didn't feel like watching anymore. At least there's no romance option for him. I hate when women are forced to interact with TIMs/creepy men. I'll probably wait til the entire game comes out before watching playthroughs. I'm not sure I'd want to spend money on the game.
I was about the make the same post!
He's as cantankerous and quick-tempered as you'd expect of a TIM, prone to snapping when he doesn't get his way. I was surprised to see such an accurate portrayal, and I do wonder why they've made it that way. It's possible that they see no issues and don't realize how it looks.