Tell Me Why vs Life is Strange - which one is better?

[Boo Seta]

In your opinion, which one do you prefer? And why?

[Bealla Donna]

Life is Strange, the feeling from it is unlike no other. I bonded with the characters more and the music is just mesmerizing.
Tell me why is still good in it's own way.

[texasgoldrush]

Tell Me Why is DONTNOD's best narrative, but Life is Strange is the better overall game. Life is Strange 2 does choice the best however.

Tell Me Why doesn't have LIS's excesses, and it lacks the low points of both (or all three) LIS games. Its far more restrained to its benefit and the story is tighter as well.

[texasgoldrush]

Originally posted by sivyan:

I wholeheartedly agree with Kaliliyah.

It also really depends on what kind of person you are as that will decide which story you will identify with/connect to, so you might just need to play both to really figure it out for yourself.

Personally I thought the writing in Tell me why was weaker compared to life is strange, but then again I couldn't really connect with the characters, which might just be a "me problem".

Life is strange has 2 more episodes for 10 bucks less, which shouldn't be disregarded especially if you can't afford both.

The writing in the first game (especially its first episode) was kinda weak, especially with some of the smaller role kids. It does improve in later episodes and the dialogue between Max and Chloe was great.

LIS 2 and Tell Me Why have better writing overall.

[...]

I prefer the Life is Strange games, the mystery in Tell Me Why fell completely flat for me.

[petsut]

Originally posted by Kaliliyah:

Life is Strange, the feeling from it is unlike no other. I bonded with the characters more and the music is just mesmerizing.
Tell me why is still good in it's own way.

I totally agree. Life is Strange is epic. This whole story timeline and also the music. It is a masterpiece to me. I love this series.

[john doe]

this is deffinitly better then season 2 of life is strange but life is strange 1 and before the storm are better then this

[Dave Mongoose]

Originally posted by texasgoldrush:

Tell Me Why is DONTNOD's best narrative, but Life is Strange is the better overall game. Life is Strange 2 does choice the best however.

Tell Me Why doesn't have LIS's excesses, and it lacks the low points of both (or all three) LIS games. Its far more restrained to its benefit and the story is tighter as well.

I'd definitely agree with this. Tell Me Why is a more grounded story - no big threats or life and death moments but that helps the human drama shine through.

[Honesty]

Originally posted by texasgoldrush:

Originally posted by sivyan:

I wholeheartedly agree with Kaliliyah.

It also really depends on what kind of person you are as that will decide which story you will identify with/connect to, so you might just need to play both to really figure it out for yourself.

Personally I thought the writing in Tell me why was weaker compared to life is strange, but then again I couldn't really connect with the characters, which might just be a "me problem".

Life is strange has 2 more episodes for 10 bucks less, which shouldn't be disregarded especially if you can't afford both.

The writing in the first game (especially its first episode) was kinda weak, especially with some of the smaller role kids. It does improve in later episodes and the dialogue between Max and Chloe was great.

LIS 2 and Tell Me Why have better writing overall.

This.

I still can't wrap my head around people and their thoughts and opinions on what is, and what isn't "good writing" (or bad writing).

If a game kills off a ex-murderer-turned-murderer-again and is "beloved" by his fans, they will bemoan the entire game because this said "beloved" person was killed off. They will then spout things like "this game has bad writing" and it's just asinine and a total joke.

Especially when you read between the lines and trigger these people enough to the point that their real thoughts/opinions come out - and you find out they're just bigoted, idiotic fools.

I figured I'd get that out of the way, since people will let their weird ass emotions take over (and sometimes this goes the other way too).


Life is Strange 1, OVERALL, was not written well. This was ab-so-****ing-lutely apparent with the HUUUGE "hello fellow kids" vibe of the writing as a whole. The game also suffered from "other language syndome" and felt like some of the script went through google translate too many times. This was "corrected" in later episodes, and with the releases of Captain Spirit and LiS2 (and Tell Me Why).

A game that also "suffered" for this was "The Suicide of Rachel Foster." German company who made a very English/American game. The storyline in general was ... a touchy subject, and the rest of it was just the writing.

[Amygdala]

Originally posted by Honesty:

A game that also "suffered" for this was "The Suicide of Rachel Foster." German company who made a very English/American game. The storyline in general was ... a touchy subject, and the rest of it was just the writing.

I don't know if I liked the game or not, the hotel was really well designed and beautiful, it was nice learning the layout of the hotel, going through the same lobby and rooms to get around, unlike similar games like Edith Finch where you go through certain areas one by one, but I got lost a lot and the plot felt super slow until the end, and the suicide wasn't even really important except for motivating the radio-dude

[T9]

LiS 1 is already flat but LiS 2 is easily the weakest game. God this was painful and laughable at the same time.

[Usernamehere]

Knowing Dontnod, this isn't their usual way of doing things. They toned it down a notch for this one. If it was really Dontnod, the endings would've been something like "Sacrifice Tyler" or "Sacrifice Alyson" instead of what we got.
Just my personal opinion anyway, given how Life is Strange 1 ended.

[Marshall of the Templars]

The first season of Life is Strange has a lot of cringey dialogue, but there's a reason why that game is still beloved 5 years after its release, despite that game's flaws.

Tell Me Why has a more "professional" script, but that alone does not automatically guarantee that its a better game than the original LiS.

Originally posted by Usernamehere:

Knowing Dontnod, this isn't their usual way of doing things. They toned it down a notch for this one. If it was really Dontnod, the endings would've been something like "Sacrifice Tyler" or "Sacrifice Alyson" instead of what we got.
Just my personal opinion anyway, given how Life is Strange 1 ended.

Or that Dontnod would weaken an aspect of the story or that some characters are reduced to one dimensional caricatures to ensure that the game's theme/message is bludgeoned into the audience's minds, no matter how forced or inorganic the execution becomes.

[꧁<̴Iитєrnєт KIllєd Тнє TV Ѕтαr☆]

Originally posted by Bealla Donna:

Life is Strange, the feeling from it is unlike no other. I bonded with the characters more and the music is just mesmerizing.
Tell me why is still good in it's own way.

Funny you mention that because I could not relate to the characters of life is strange at all. They just felt a bit one dimensional. Tell me why seemed to connect better, perhaps due to the PTSD being shown in a more realistic way. I also felt the characters where more relateable and fleshed out.