3/5 ★ – asoola's review of Life is Strange 2.

Life is Strange 2 is the game that I didn’t know I needed till I first played it in 2018. It remains to be one of my favorite games and the impact this game has on me is huge, this story needed to be told and I’m so glad I got to experience it. After my recent replay I remembered how much I loved the game and the story of the Wolf Brothers, not only is Sean & Daniel are amazing characters but the story didn’t shy away from the hard topics it discussed and I’m glad it was told the way it was told! The brotherhood between Sean & Daniel makes me so emotional, they didn’t deserve the hardships they dealt with but they depended on each other and managed to survive the harsh world around them. All of the characters not just Sean & Daniel were amazing though and the characters they met gave the brothers perspective on how the journey should end and I really love that! Also the story itself is really well written and it’s as good as the first game honestly, it’s a story I’ll never forget that’s for sure because I loved playing the game so much, it’s sad at times but those moments made me love the Diaz brothers even more. Protagonist talk time, I consider both the Diaz brothers protagonists so I’ll talk about Sean then Daniel! I’ll start with Sean since he is the older brother and the brother we always play as! Sean Diaz is a strong character his character development throughout the game is really well done too! At first Sean was the older brother that just wanted to be with his friends and have fun instead of spending time with his family (because he’s a teenager) but when the incident happens and he loses his dad he takes responsibility and the journey shows who Sean Diaz really is. He may have been a bit annoyed to take care of Daniel back before the incident happened but he still did it I realized that he truly cares for his family even if he didn’t show it much before the incident. Since I picked the choices that made Sean & Daniel closer not drift apart this is more shown in that route (High Brotherhood as they’re calling it) Daniel loves Sean and listens to him and Sean feels the same way he truly wanted to keep his brother safe even if it meant sacrificing his own freedom but more on that later. Point is Sean is a great protagonist and he’s just as good as Max I think, he learned his lessons and started appreciating the things around him more since he took things for granted before. I loved his character so much and he’s a character I’ll never forget. Now let’s talk about Daniel Diaz since his behavior is determined based on your choices I’ll say I’m gonna talk about High Morality and High Brotherhood Daniel since that’s the Daniel I surprisingly ended up with and that’s the version of Daniel I like the most! Daniel is a kid but despite that his growth in the game is fantastic not to mention it’s a really smart way to use choices this time around because since as I said he’s 9 years old he’s easily influenced by the choices his brother does. High Morality Daniel is truly caring and doesn’t hurt people unless he have to or asked to it’s nice to see because I really didn’t want Daniel to be affected by the harsh world around him and lose his childhood I wanted him to have nice things even if his living condition is harsh he doesn’t understand what happened at first but when he knows the truth you can see how Daniel being there really is a strength to Sean (as I said their brotherhood makes me emotional) I wish Daniel had a more normal childhood I wish he didn’t have to grow up too fast because of the situation he’s in but what happened happened and his strength through the entire ordeal made me realize how he’s a strong kid not because he have superpowers but because of how he handled his own situation with his brother. Sure he may lash out but that’s expected from a kid I never once felt like he’s a brat throughout my entire playthrough (and many replays) because at the end of the day he’s a kid that just lost his dad and home. I really adore his character and he’ll always be my supernatural son 🙂‍↕️. I did say all of the characters are amazing and other than Sean & Daniel my favorite characters are Chris, Cassidy and Karen but if I have to talk about one character in particular and why I loved that character it would be Karen. Her story is written very well and her issues were very real I love how the writers handled her story and her relationship with Sean, she didn’t try to justify what she did but she just wanted her son to understand what happened and why she left, Sean and Karen mother and son relationship isn’t magically repaired by just one talk because that’s not realistic instead you see in both Episode 4 and 5 how Sean can get closer to his mom and be more understanding. Sean’s anger is totally justified and Karen understands that that’s why I love how she always says “I hope someday you’ll understand.” She isn’t expecting forgiveness right away, and she doesn’t shy away from the fact that she doesn’t regret her choices but still she wants to help and she cares about Esteban, Sean and Daniel and she wanted to show Sean that not by just saying it but by helping and actually showing how she cares. The writers handled her story well as I said but I also love how the writers don’t shame women for wanting something that Karen didn’t want I think it’s really good storytelling overall. That’s all on characters and story I’ll say though the soundtrack is amazing and I’m so glad they chose a roadtrip instead of staying in one place to tell this story I think that’s the best way to tell the story of the Wolf Brothers 🐺. Now that’s all over let’s talk endings I actually like all of the endings this time around because when I played Life is Strange 1 I only liked one ending but with this one I really like all of the endings and I love how all endings showcase the injustice the brothers faced and how whether they make it to Puerto Lobos or not there’s still hardships and it’s not all sunshines and rainbows but the one I really love and prefer and the one I’ll be talking about in my review is, Redemption ending (the one with Lyla by the way). Why do I love the Redemption ending? Well there’s lots of things to why but I think it’s because they’re both finally free. Did Sean deserve to lose 15 years of his life because he was in prison for something he didn’t even do? No absolutely not and I’m not saying it’s okay but it fits the narrative to me! I saw how Sean would do whatever it takes to make Daniel happy and be safe and I think this fits his character in my opinion, Sean would do whatever it takes to make Daniel live a normal life to not lose his childhood and be a child once again. I don’t think this ending is all bad honestly injustice aside he’s free now and I think Sean & Daniel story is already making a change on the world, Sean lost a bit of freedom but he has all the freedom in the world now to rediscover the world to go on his own roadtrip and maybe even draw a story book about his & Daniel story so people can see how much harm racism does to innocent kids. He can do whatever he wants now without looking over his shoulder because he’s scared of being followed by cops. Sean despite the injustice is free and that what matters to me his life isn’t over and maybe it’s me being optimistic but I truly think he can live his life now being truly free and visit the places he always wanted to visit and maybe even document his trips in a blog just like Brody once did. Him going on his own at the end of the ending isn’t that bad actually it’s understandable he was imprisoned for 15 years of course he doesn’t want to settle down and be in a home with four walls I think he wants to experience freedom again and it makes me happy to see him doing good. And when he’s done exploring and makes a name for himself as an artist hopefully! He can then settle down whether it’s on his own or with someone by his side (Cassidy perhaps) or something. Point is this ending is hopeful and that’s what the journey of the Wolf Brothers was all about they had bad moments but they always found the good moments in the journey and after the journey. Seeing Daniel grow up and live a normal life while using his powers for good also made me emotional, he deserves to be a kid again and have a normal life doing normal things! Also seeing Sean & Daniel being surrounded by friends and family in this ending is one of the reasons why I love it so much! The Wolf Brothers will reunite again when Sean chooses to visit I truly believe that! Well that’s all I wanted to say about the Wolf Brothers journey and how it ends as I said all of the endings are really good but if I have to rank them it’ll be like this: 1) Redemption 2) Parting Ways 3) Blood Brothers 4) Lone Wolf. Side note: Now that I said everything I needed to say about the endings I have to mention one thing… The game contradicts itself in the final episode I think. Through the entirety of the game we saw how people generalized characters of color and how it’s bad and how not everyone is a bad person or the same and we shouldn’t be generalizing and it’s racism obviously but the game does exactly that in the finale. Suddenly in the finale we players learn that maybe going to Mexico isn’t the best course of action for Sean & Daniel and that maybe it’s not as easy to live there and other things as mentioned in the finale. And like I said above I love how all endings showcase the injustice the brothers faced and how whether they make it to Puerto Lobos or not there’s still hardships and it’s not all sunshines and rainbows however as I said this is about how the game contradicts itself by generalizing characters of color it’s not about what I liked! The fact the Puerto Lobos endings (minus one which is Parting Ways but that’s different because you the player don’t see Puerto Lobos we only see sand and a picture from Sean) are locked behind low morality choices is reason to why I think the game itself is generalizing characters of color. (Sure they’ll brush it off as “You taught Daniel to put himself and his brother first” but teaching him that is done by stealing and being… you continue the word and sure the brothers only attack to defend themselves but there’s lots of situations where as shown in the game in the high morality route that they could’ve gotten out without hurting people if that makes sense) The way the aftermath of Esteban death is talked about since it happened in one place and how the aftermath of relatives of Mexican characters (like the Mexican couple) deaths are talked about since it happened in another place is very telling too to why I think the game is being racist itself. Then there’s how Sean & Daniel looked in both Blood Brothers ending and Lone Wolf ending… Like I know it’s hot there but come on now they looked and acted like the criminals they were painted as by racist characters in the game and like why is that DON’T NOD? This is such a pity too because it definitely was generalizing characters of color. Maybe I’m contradicting myself too but it’s something I had in mind while replaying the game and I genuinely can’t remain silent about this point anymore and I had to say it. The game is great but this is a flaw in my opinion in storytelling. (I still love the game though!) Again that’s just my own personal opinion on the matter we can all agree to disagree on this! Also I know it’s not a Max story it’s the Wolf Brothers story but I’m a bit disappointed by how Sacrifice Chloe and Sacrifice Arcadia Bay choices were handled in episode 5 I loved seeing David and see how his character develops especially if you chose to sacrifice Chloe and the first game references were great but I wish Max had a cameo no matter what I think it’s a bit unfair that people who chose to sacrifice Chloe didn’t get much but the people that sacrificed Arcadia Bay got a cameo, I mean like I said it’s not a Max story but since the developers always said they wanted to respect both endings I wish they got more creative to include the Max reference no matter what because it definitely did feel like they didn’t care about the other option to be honest, but that aside I loved the little Life is Strange 1 references I got even if they’re not much I guess. Anyway Life is Strange 2 will always be a special game to me and I’m so glad I got to experience The Wolf Brothers story, I’ll never forget Sean & Daniel Diaz never ever. 🐺🤍