Soapbox: Life Is Strange on Nintendo Switch indicates a better LGBTQ + representative to come

Note. Spoiler warning! The plot details of Life is Strange and its prequel, Before the Storm, are discussed in this article.

There’s a lot to be disappointed in the way the games industry has historically handled LGBTQ + representation, and trust me, I’m appalled by that too. After all, it was only this year that the last Harvest Moon completely denied its players the opportunity to have same-sex partners, but today I want to talk about the success stories, not the ones that are holding us back as we continue to move. towards a more welcoming future.

We recently found out that a full bundle of Life is Strange games is coming to Nintendo Switch (eventually, the release of the Remastered Collection was delayed until 2022), including the first game, the prequel. Before the stormand the newest game, True Colors. The first two games are about the relationship between Chloe, a teenage girl who explores the rubble of her life after the death of her father and her best friend moves in, and her new friend and blossoming crush, Rachel, a girl whose coldness hides secrets. deep.

Life is Strange, the first in the series, from the French studio DONTNOD, is an episodic narrative game about teenage Max Caulfield who returns to his sleepy hometown and tries to fix things with Chloe, the best friend he abandoned. The delicate queer narrative takes a back seat in the most supernatural and downright disturbing stories, and the ending, which lets you choose between saving one person or saving an entire city, is very much oriented towards the ending in which one of the characters queer of the game dies.

In Before the Storm, Chloe and Rachel’s relationship flourishes amid the drama of parents, petty crime, and a strangely lots of train jumps; the game is written by the American studio Deck Nine rather than DONTNOD, and in my opinion, it is handled with much more sensitivity (although DONTNOD has received praise for its trans representation in Tell me why, which I have not played). He wanted Chloe to be happy, and Before The Storm gives him that, albeit briefly, before Life is Strange runs him over like a speeding engine.

Before The Storm it was one of the first times that I saw an identifiable version of two women in love that was not told through a male gaze.

For me, at least, Before The Storm was one of the first times that I saw an identifiable version of two women in love that was not told through a male gaze. Chloe and Rachel are young and somewhat shy, although Chloe much more than Rachel, who takes the initiative, and their awkward and nervous kiss feels real.

Contrast that to the first Life is Strange, which, especially in light of Before the Storm, feels like Chloe trying to plug a hole in her heart with Max. His bravado and coldness are all false, manufactured out of great loss; she is afraid of letting people get close to her, because she will lose them again. Many people loved the relationship between the two, which is completely valid, but I couldn’t get into it. It didn’t feel like a healthy thing for Chloe, and Max deserved better than being a placeholder for Rachel.

But representations of messy and imperfect relationships that are also queer are important. There were times when Life is Strange seemed to enjoy hurting its characters too much, especially towards the end, the twist is particularly unpleasant, but the way Chloe handles teenage angst is realistic and easy to identify. She is not always a good person; neither Max nor Rachel. These renderings matter, to create a patchwork quilt-like kaleidoscopic idea of ​​what half be an LGBTQ + person. There is not always sun and rainbow; sometimes it’s ugly, raw and painful, jnot like it is for anyone else.

Life is Strange: True Colors, the newest game in the series, will introduce us to Alex Chen, a young Asian-American bisexual from a small town facing the loss of her brother and a supernaturally enhanced “curse” of empathy. .

Deck Nine is also handling True Colors, which means I have high hopes for the way he will handle Alex Chen’s bisexuality and his relationships with others. Not only do I identify with Alex as an overly empathetic bisexual woman who struggles to control and understand her powerful feelings, but also it literally looks like me, and I mean that in a good way (although I was here first, Alex).

I don’t know what True Colors is about, but I’m looking forward to it. I’m more excited about calm, personal, detailed games about the intersections of identity, belonging, and emotions than I am in larger stories dealing with bigger issues or stories that constantly torture their LGBTQ + characters, and Life is Strange, like evolved: it has become a series that deals with the lives of its characters, not just their loss.

Fortunately, I’m not the only one who feels this way – the Nintendo Switch has recently become home to a host of games that are about small, personal stories that have great meaning in people’s lives. A normal lost phone takes care of coming out of the closet; Ikenfell deals with loneliness and fear, even among like-minded peers; Night In The Woods is about turning your insecurities and anxieties into love, anger, and the power to fight the night. And those are just a few of them – we’ve made a comprehensive list of the best LGBTQ + games, if you’re interested.

Life is Strange is far from the first queer narrative we’ve seen on the Switch, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it’s part of a wave that heralds a change in things for the better.