Ren whines a lot?

[SpitefulFox]

So, just completed my NG+ playthrough and I once again had Ren tell me I'd been acting strange that night right before we go into the bunker. Does he always say this, or is he specifically mad at me about something? I seriously can't tell.

[dreamwolf27]

I think it's repercussions of not picking his side in the argument with Jonas in the tower. Any time I play negative to him or even neutral he says that. I can't remember if he says it if you play pro-Ren though.
It could also be just because of everything happening. I mean, everyone acknowledges at some how strained everything feels cause of the weirdness so. It's just how Ren handles it

[icaptcrunch]

He doesn't always say it. Usually it's because you rescued Clarissa first instead of him.

[SpitefulFox]

I rescued him first. I defended him from Jonas in the tower. I even got him and Nona to hook up on my second playthrough. He still says that to me. He seems like a pretty terrible friend if he's seriously that mad at me for taking Nona with me into town. >:/

[Anhie Poo]

If you choose him to go with you to get the key, he'll be extremely relieved and mention how he didn't realize how emotionally invested he was in that. (It seems to be implied that Ren has abandonment issues. He doesn't want to be left alone when Jonas wants to talk with Alex after getting off the ferry, and he sees a therapist for something.)

[Kibōchen]

Here is my theory of why Ren asks Alex why she was acting so "strange".

The player controls the main character of the story, capable of bending them to their very will. This is a rule in every video game that we play, whether you notice it or not.
Before we even pressed the play button, Alex was previously acting like as a very different person from the choices we could have her make throughout the course of the game. Ren knows Alex more than us, so we'll have no idea if we are actually playing as her correctly or choosing all of the wrong actions that Ren would know she would do. In other words, we, the players, are POSESSING Alex and influencing her every word and action, and that's why Ren found her to be acting so strange throughout Oxenfree.

If this is true, then that would make it the most self-aware game I've ever seen, and I have to congratulate the developers for incorporating that.