'Good' Ending vs 'Bad Ending' Totes Spoilers

[NikkiLiz]

If you haven't finished the game and read this and then complain about spoilers, Go **** Your Selfie.




I see the Sacrifice Arcadia Bay ending usually called the 'bad ending'. Maybe because it's shorter, or because it's not the 'heroic' choice. But I feel really differently about it.

First, there's the obvious emotional tearjerker. If you Sacrifice Chloe, you lose out on her, but also all the memories you made together are only all in your head. That week you spent together are just your memories and no one else's. Ever. Essentially, you're a crazy person who remembers something that never happened, because Chloe got shot in a bathroom before you ever came back into her life and will die thinking you didn't care for her anymore, while you hide in a corner when you know you could help her. Major bummer.

But not only that, if you can't change the past... you ALSO can't save Kate. You can't save Victoria. You can't help stop Mr. Jefferson. You can't do ANYTHING with ANY of the knowledge you have of the future or the people around you. If you do, that tornado might happen, and then Chloe died for nothing. I know it shows Jefferson in handcuffs, but there's no indication of WHEN that happened, before or after Victoria is dead.

So the 'Good' Ending robs you of your best friend and those other horrible tragedies still happen. I really don't feel bad for letting the twister suck up that town, even if good people died.

The 'Bad' Ending is still heartwrenching. Max can't even watch the devastation, and Chloe forces herself to watch, knowing that this is the price of her life and that her mother is down there. Max is understandably depressed as they roll through what's left of town, but she still has Chloe there to cheer her up by being all alive and shiz. And the two of them leave that twisted little town forever, riding off into the sunset.

So screw you, 'Good Ending'. Screw you.

[Arawuusmies]

Actually both Victoria and Kate survive if you go with sacrificing Chloe. You can see them at the funeral.

[NikkiLiz]

Originally posted by Arawuusmies:

Actually both Victoria and Kate survive if you go with sacrificing Chloe. You can see them at the funeral.

When is that funeral, though? It never tells you. Or did it, and I forgot?

[Ogami]

Originally posted by TheBoot >:o:

But not only that, if you can't change the past... you ALSO can't save Kate. You can't save Victoria. You can't help stop Mr. Jefferson. You can't do ANYTHING with ANY of the knowledge you have of the future or the people around you. If you do, that tornado might happen, and then Chloe died for nothing. I know it shows Jefferson in handcuffs, but there's no indication of WHEN that happened, before or after Victoria is dead.



So screw you, 'Good Ending'. Screw you.

Jefferson gets arrested because Nathan spills the truth to the police after he gets arrested for shooting Chloe. All the things you see in that ending is in that one week, the funeral is on the day of the storm. As you can see when future Max (with the knowledge) and current Max (without) start to overlap as she sits on the bench at the lighthouse.
Because that was the moment in time she left Chloe on the cliff during the storm.
Also Victoria only dies because you try to warn her about Nathan. Something that does not happen in this timelime. (Fun Fact, if you dont try to warn Victoria during the party in episode 4 she is not in the dark room in episode 5 and also does not get killed by Jefferson.
Its actually better to not warn her.)


Also there is no "good" or "bad" ending according to the developers.
Both endings are 100% equal and both are "canon". It just depends on the player. And i take the word of the people who wrote the whole story over that of a bunch of people on the internet anyday.

Mind you, regardless of all this, i still will always sacrifice the town and safe Chloe. It was the goal from the beginning and sometimes you just have to accept the decisions you made, regardless of the consequences.
Saving Chloe was the goal that started everything so i see that through, no matter what.
Also time travel storys that end with "well duh, you should not have changed anything in the first place" are mega lame. Its the most used time travel cliche ever. Alone for that i would choose the other ending.

[Mook]

I simply enjoy sacrificing Chloe more because the ending just seems better. It has closure and more meaning than driving off into the sunset with a good song.

Sacrificing Chloe ending and the whole sequence seems like a true end, especially if we never see Max again in season 2. Which might be true because the devs said it's a new cast.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by ØniKanji:

I simply enjoy sacrificing Chloe more because the ending just seems better. It has closure and more meaning than driving off into the sunset with a good song.

Sacrificing Chloe ending and the whole sequence seems like a true end, especially if we never see Max again in season 2. Which might be true because the devs said it's a new cast.

Well that is the whole point. One ending gives you closure, the other is open ended.
In the "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" ending the worst hast happend (the storm) and Max & Chloe can look forward to an unwritten future. Nobody knows what lies ahead.
The other ending is a definite ending. Chloe is dead, nothing you did ever happened. The end.

Its just what you personally prefer more.

[NikkiLiz]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Jefferson gets arrested because Nathan spills the truth to the police after he gets arrested for shooting Chloe. All the things you see in that ending is in that one week, the funeral is on the day of the storm. As you can see when future Max (with the knowledge) and current Max (without) start to overlap as she sits on the bench at the lighthouse.
Because that was the moment in time she left Chloe on the cliff during the storm.
Also Victoria only dies because you try to warn her about Nathan. Something that does not happen in this timelime. (Fun Fact, if you dont try to warn Victoria during the party in episode 4 she is not in the dark room in episode 5 and also does not get killed by Jefferson.
Its actually better to not warn her.)


Also there is no "good" or "bad" ending according to the developers.
Both endings are 100% equal and both are "canon". It just depends on the player. And i take the word of the people who wrote the whole story over that of a bunch of people on the internet anyday.

Mind you, regardless of all this, i still will always sacrifice the town and safe Chloe. It was the goal from the beginning and sometimes you just have to accept the decisions you made, regardless of the consequences.
Saving Chloe was the goal that started everything so i see that through, no matter what.
Also time travel storys that end with "well duh, you should not have changed anything in the first place" are mega lame. Its the most used time travel cliche ever. Alone for that i would choose the other ending.

I believe you meant 'hella lame'.

[Farel]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Also time travel storys that end with "well duh, you should not have changed anything in the first place" are mega lame. Its the most used time travel cliche ever. Alone for that i would choose the other ending.

Well, time travel stories tend to always repeat a few different concepts: Sacrifice, humbleness or the inevitability of fate.
That's why most time travel story will either end with the protagonist making some kind of sacrifice for the greater good/the people he loves or he will accept that he should be happy with what he got and not change anything or he should realise that it's impossible to change things because of time loops and other stuff.

Using time travel to actually save the day without sacrifices or a deeper message, is usually a thing that only happens in comedy or fantasy stories, because it tends to be a bit of a Deus Ex Machina. I mean: If you solve all the character's problems with time travel, you might as well replace time travel with a magical artifact that resolves the plot.

That said, I think the ending of LiS is not trying to hammer in that you can't change time, but is rather a story ending with a sacrifice. It just let's you choose, what you sacrifce and what you save, i.e. what is more important to you: You best friend or a town full of people.

[Brewski]

It's funny to me that both endings are considered equally valid by the developers, and by the community as well judging from the near even split in the final decision, but only those who choose to sacrifice the Bay feel the need to write long justifications for it.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a dig at the OP, just an interesting phenomena I've noticed.

As someone who likes both endings for very different reasons, I understand the need to justify, to yourself or others, the choice to kill potentially hundreds of people including several of your own friends just to keep Chloe safe. We've been programmed over time to accept that the hero must sacrifice for the good of everyone for a story to be "good", so when that does not happen, it generates a need for justification. Something somewhat similar happened in the game The Last of Us with it's ending. I won't post spoilers here, but as a game that did not offer a choice at the end (there was only one ending), the ending was incredibly controversial, because it also did not end "heroically". That blew a lot of peoples minds.

And here, with Life is Strange, we have two endings.

If you sacrifice Arcadia, Chloe lives, but we know for certain hundreds will die, most likely including Warren and Joyce. On top of that, if Kate and/or Victoria are dead, we lose the ability to reverse that as well.

If you sacrifice Chloe, you save all of those people, including Kate, Warren, Joyce ad Victoria, all of whom we see at the funeral. However you have to give up the one person you most care about.

One ending "feels" heroic, and the other "feels" selfish, but in reality both endings are equally valid. It's just a matter of whether or not you see Max, at that moment, as more the hero or more the human.

So I guess my point is: Don't feel like you need to justify the decision beyond "it's what I felt like Max would do at that moment". That's all that's really needed.

[Blast Mahesh]

I like both endings

[Mook]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by ØniKanji:

I simply enjoy sacrificing Chloe more because the ending just seems better. It has closure and more meaning than driving off into the sunset with a good song.

Sacrificing Chloe ending and the whole sequence seems like a true end, especially if we never see Max again in season 2. Which might be true because the devs said it's a new cast.

Well that is the whole point. One ending gives you closure, the other is open ended.
In the "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" ending the worst hast happend (the storm) and Max & Chloe can look forward to an unwritten future. Nobody knows what lies ahead.
The other ending is a definite ending. Chloe is dead, nothing you did ever happened. The end.

Its just what you personally prefer more.

Yeah, but you see what I mean right? We probably aren't going to see them again so I prefer a true end to the story.

Also I was thinking/hoping Max would maybe be a side character or a co main character in the next game. Then maybe it would use your save file, if you saved Chloe then something else happened to her. If you didn't save her then you didn't. Then Max's powers are stronger and somehow, maybe with the help of the main character you can get Chloe back.

But they said whole new cast so probably not :c

[Farel]

Originally posted by ØniKanji:

Originally posted by Ogami:

Well that is the whole point. One ending gives you closure, the other is open ended.
In the "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" ending the worst hast happend (the storm) and Max & Chloe can look forward to an unwritten future. Nobody knows what lies ahead.
The other ending is a definite ending. Chloe is dead, nothing you did ever happened. The end.

Its just what you personally prefer more.

Yeah, but you see what I mean right? We probably aren't going to see them again so I prefer a true end to the story.

Also I was thinking/hoping Max would maybe be a side character or a co main character in the next game. Then maybe it would use your save file, if you saved Chloe then something else happened to her. If you didn't save her then you didn't. Then Max's powers are stronger and somehow, maybe with the help of the main character you can get Chloe back.

But they said whole new cast so probably not :c

I actually think it would be better to not have Max return in the sequel. The gap between both endings is simply too big.
In one ending Max sacrifices her best friend to save a town. It's a hard thing to deal with, but I think she would get over it eventuelly, become a famous photographer and just move on with her life.
In the other ending, Max sacrifices dozens of people just to save her best friend, who is her "number one priority" now. If something was about to happen to Chloe, Max would likely be devestated. Losing your friend is one thing. But losing the most important person in your life, after you killed an entire town for her, is a whole different story.

Plus, this would invalidated your choices in the previous game even more. People already pointed out, that the game's endings make your choices throughout the game meaningless. If you now kill Chloe either way, you suddenly have a game about consequences, where non of your actions have consequences (aside from giving you the choice to kill an entire town for nothing).

[Mook]

Originally posted by Farel:

Originally posted by ØniKanji:

Yeah, but you see what I mean right? We probably aren't going to see them again so I prefer a true end to the story.

Also I was thinking/hoping Max would maybe be a side character or a co main character in the next game. Then maybe it would use your save file, if you saved Chloe then something else happened to her. If you didn't save her then you didn't. Then Max's powers are stronger and somehow, maybe with the help of the main character you can get Chloe back.

But they said whole new cast so probably not :c

I actually think it would be better to not have Max return in the sequel. The gap between both endings is simply too big.
In one ending Max sacrifices her best friend to save a town. It's a hard thing to deal with, but I think she would get over it eventuelly, become a famous photographer and just move on with her life.
In the other ending, Max sacrifices dozens of people just to save her best friend, who is her "number one priority" now. If something was about to happen to Chloe, Max would likely be devestated. Losing your friend is one thing. But losing the most important person in your life, after you killed an entire town for her, is a whole different story.

Plus, this would invalidated your choices in the previous game even more. People already pointed out, that the game's endings make your choices throughout the game meaningless. If you now kill Chloe either way, you suddenly have a game about consequences, where non of your actions have consequences (aside from giving you the choice to kill an entire town for nothing).

Yeah I understand that, I just wish for them to somehow be apart of season 2. I think the game would be more successful in general if they kept something. Maybe instead of her dying anyway she is missing instead, depending on the ending you got. It wouldn't be too much dialogue change then. Then maybe you could go back to get her using her powers which may be stronger now.

[Palatine Katinka]

Unfortunately they've written themselves into a bit of a hole regarding Max & Chloe. By saying that both endings are equally valid (which I agree with) and that our choice has meaning that they don't want to devalue, they've put themselves in a position where they can't really continue the story without undoing one or both sacrifices and thus devalueing the end of season 1. Perhaps they can do something with other characters in season 2 that will completely overwrite the events of season 1, allowing a return of Max & Chloe for season 3, but it would have to be an action that didn't involve Max as she cannot be involved in undoing the sacrifice she made. Max has to stand by her sacrifice.

I'd like to see a cameo though. For example if a scene was set in Arcadia Bay Cemetery you might see Max visiting Chloe's grave or Max & Chloe visiting William's, depending on your save file. Or if they want to keep out of the Arcadia location a cameo of Max or Max & Chloe in a bookshop would be cool too.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Palatine Katinka:

I'd like to see a cameo though. For example if a scene was set in Arcadia Bay Cemetery you might see Max visiting Chloe's grave or Max & Chloe visiting William's, depending on your save file. Or if they want to keep out of the Arcadia location a cameo of Max or Max & Chloe in a bookshop would be cool too.

I honestly think we will get a 2nd hand cameo, for example finding a newspaper that talks about an "photo exhibition by famous photographer Maxine Caufield" or something like that.
Something that shows its the same world but gives no further details and could fit with both endings of the first game.

[Kegfarms]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by TheBoot >:o:

But not only that, if you can't change the past... you ALSO can't save Kate. You can't save Victoria. You can't help stop Mr. Jefferson. You can't do ANYTHING with ANY of the knowledge you have of the future or the people around you. If you do, that tornado might happen, and then Chloe died for nothing. I know it shows Jefferson in handcuffs, but there's no indication of WHEN that happened, before or after Victoria is dead.



So screw you, 'Good Ending'. Screw you.

Jefferson gets arrested because Nathan spills the truth to the police after he gets arrested for shooting Chloe. All the things you see in that ending is in that one week, the funeral is on the day of the storm. As you can see when future Max (with the knowledge) and current Max (without) start to overlap as she sits on the bench at the lighthouse.
Because that was the moment in time she left Chloe on the cliff during the storm.
Also Victoria only dies because you try to warn her about Nathan. Something that does not happen in this timelime. (Fun Fact, if you dont try to warn Victoria during the party in episode 4 she is not in the dark room in episode 5 and also does not get killed by Jefferson.
Its actually better to not warn her.)


Also there is no "good" or "bad" ending according to the developers.
Both endings are 100% equal and both are "canon". It just depends on the player. And i take the word of the people who wrote the whole story over that of a bunch of people on the internet anyday.

Mind you, regardless of all this, i still will always sacrifice the town and safe Chloe. It was the goal from the beginning and sometimes you just have to accept the decisions you made, regardless of the consequences.
Saving Chloe was the goal that started everything so i see that through, no matter what.
Also time travel storys that end with "well duh, you should not have changed anything in the first place" are mega lame. Its the most used time travel cliche ever. Alone for that i would choose the other ending.

Actually there's no evidence for that. Nobody knows when the funeral actually takes place because the game doesn't say. It's speculation otherwise. You already said most everything else I would have said anyway.

Originally posted by Palatine Katinka:

Unfortunately they've written themselves into a bit of a hole regarding Max & Chloe. By saying that both endings are equally valid (which I agree with) and that our choice has meaning that they don't want to devalue, they've put themselves in a position where they can't really continue the story without undoing one or both sacrifices and thus devalueing the end of season 1. Perhaps they can do something with other characters in season 2 that will completely overwrite the events of season 1, allowing a return of Max & Chloe for season 3, but it would have to be an action that didn't involve Max as she cannot be involved in undoing the sacrifice she made. Max has to stand by her sacrifice.

I'd like to see a cameo though. For example if a scene was set in Arcadia Bay Cemetery you might see Max visiting Chloe's grave or Max & Chloe visiting William's, depending on your save file. Or if they want to keep out of the Arcadia location a cameo of Max or Max & Chloe in a bookshop would be cool too.

The game was supposed to be larger anyway considering all the cut recorded lines they had. My guess was the original plan was to have 3 endings total with the third one being the one where everybody survives. If anything they might just mention Max. I really like the idea of that season 3 idea too.