How Life is Strange 2 (2018-) Introduced Fantasy to Reality

Fig. 1 - Life is Strange 2.

Life is Strange 2 (2018-) is a deeply emotive episodic videogame that revolves around a teenager and his young brother who are thrown into a series of adventures steeped with numerous struggles rooted in modern social and cultural realism. Towards the beginning of the game, the boy’s father dies at the hands of a police officer (who also is killed), and the siblings must go on the run out of fear they may be wrongly accused, arrested and separated (Fig. 1). The older brother, Sean, and the younger brother, Daniel, are of Mexican heritage living in North America, and the game does not hesitate to suggest the cruel behaviour they experience from other characters is down to the very real problem of racism in contemporary America, especially in relation to the police force. However, at this point (and despite these discourses of socio-cultural realism) the story makes a turn for the fantastical. When the boys’ father dies, a strong and violent power of telekinesis is awakened in Daniel. His fury blows the scene apart, and the policeman dies in the blast. In a quote from the Fake Geek Girls podcast: “[The Life is Strange series] is focused on teen drama and character interaction with the time travel nod to…the fact that the game is primarily organised around teen drama and character relations is what stands out to me.” This collision between fantasy and reality within the narrative of the Life is Strange series places the game within certain literary and film traditions of magical realism. Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as "what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe” (1999:1). In many magically realist stories aimed at young people, the pale drudgery of everyday life is juxtaposed with the “invasion” of a fantastical element that impacts upon or effects the protagonist. This relationship between reality and fantasy within magical realist texts is ultimately a perfect metaphor for how puberty and the rapidly-changing world looks through the eyes of a young person. In the case of the Life is Strange games, the series boldly utilises choice-based gameplay to ground the player in melodramatic teenage reality, whilst simultaneously using digital animation to create a beautiful world where fantastical elements, such as superpowers, can seamlessly meet and intersect with topical subjects (including even Donald Trump references). In this post, I’ll focus specifically on the follow-up adventure game, Life is Strange 2, as a way of exploring the stakes of its choice-based gameplay, as the player is invited to question the morality and/or consequences of their decisions. The landscapes and colours in the game fully exploit the realist potential of the animated medium, yet while the narrative is grounded in a clear sense of visual reality it simultaneously allows room for the presence of the fantastical. Both the original Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2 (Episode 4 out now!) contain very few fantastical elements. Only one protagonist in each game holds magical powers. In Life is Strange 2, Daniel’s sudden powers are just that, sudden, and our playable character, Sean, has to adjust his worldview to these new character elements. The magical “invading” the everyday becomes a strong point in the story, as the Life is Strange videogame series overall appears less interested in the fantastical, and instead more empathetic of how magic affects its characters in a very human and character driven plot.

Fig. 2 - From Life is Strange 2 (Episode 2).

Life is Strange 2 is a game that does not predominantly ask how this sudden world change could potentially affect society at large, but rather the narrative that unfolds across each episode focuses directly on how the protagonists are affected emotionally. The point of the game is for players to read the situation of the characters, and then make choices accordingly. We see this keen interest in emotions in one of the quieter, but arguably most poignant, moments of the game. In a cutscene (a moment of videogame footage which plays out unaffected by the player) Sean reaches out his hand and attempts to move a rock with his mind like Daniel can (Fig. 2). The player sees that Sean and Daniel have until now existed in a ‘realist’ universe not unlike that of the player. There is also the very human element of jealousy and comparison. If Daniel should have these powers, why not Sean? The ‘invasive’ magic during this scene adds huge stakes to the realism, and allows the player to experience the world of the game in a melodramatic and heightened way that the young protagonists may experience within their fictional lives in the game.

I find it fascinating that the creators chose to tell this story so rooted in realism in an animated game. Life is Strange 2 is indisputably set in a fantasy world where a young boy can have superpowers. Yet there are no recognisable fantasy tropes, including settings like castles or islands. The story takes place in fictional places familiar to the player, like the forest or the brother’s grandparents’ two-story house with their grandfather’s giant train set. Small details like the train set can be interacted with as part of the gameplay. If the player chooses, they can even pause the melodramatic plot to watch the train set. The player is in fact encouraged to interact with everything inside the game world, as there are small collectibles like stickers and key rings that give the player console trophies. Furthermore, the animation will touch these realistic settings with fantasy. For example, when Sean and Daniel sit together in the forest, the colour scheme is beautifully bathed in gold giving the scene a dream-like quality (see Fig. 3). Compared directly to live-action, the realistic style of animation with a slight stylised edge in Life is Strange 2 is the ideal medium to convey the invasion of fantasy into reality within magical realism. The stylised-but-realistic style of Life is Strange 2 also emphasises the almost-unbelievable state of our own reality. In a text conversation between Sean and his friend Layla, you see them commiserate the direction their country is taking politically when Donald Trump is elected. Layla notes “I don’t want to live on this planet anymore”, a nod to internet-speak and a sad reflection of Layla’s deteriorating state of mind in one. If the player chooses to continue contact with Layla, you learn that she is mentally struggling after Sean and Daniel run away.

Fig. 3 - From Life is Strange 2 (Episode 1).

As indicated in the title, Life is Strange 2 walks the line in both its design and narrative elements between life and strangeness, reality and fantasy. All of the attention to detail and scenery helps to establish the mood, while moments of the fantastic are combined with realistic but emotionally charged dialogue between characters to invest the player in the fate of these boys. Where fantasy and reality touch is ultimately brought together by the fabric of the game - the animation. In recent times, we have seen big Hollywood productions utilising VFX and nostalgia to project fantasy stories as realistically as technology possibly can. In these “live action” films, the VFX attempts to quash the fantasy, almost missing the point of telling these stories. But here, the story does not shy away from the contemporary world, despite it’s fantasy elements. The realistic but stylised digital animation allows room for magic and therefore heart. As a videogame series that laces its contemporary, realistic settings with moments of fantasy, Life is Strange 2 utilises heightened reality to connect the players with these young protagonists. This and its beautifully written story that is so grounded in reality might explain why so many keep this videogame series close to their heart.

References

Matthew C. Strecher, Magical Realism and the Search for Identity in the Fiction of Murakami Haruki, Journal of Japanese Studies, Volume 25, Number 2 (Summer 1999), pp. 263-298, at 267.

Biography

Grace Hebditch is a Marketing Coordinator at the London-based animation studio, Blue Zoo. An avid reader of novels and a huge fan of video games, Grace studied her BA in English and Film Studies at Oxford Brookes University. You can find her (constantly) on Twitter @grebditch.