First time Souls player here, 6.4 hours in. Went in almost completely blind (as far as the specifics of the game go; I knew a fair bit about its genre and style already). Closest I've played to a Souls game is Jedi: Fallen Order (or Cuphead or Hollow Knight if I'm to believe those people who compare every difficult game to Dark Souls). Having a great time so far. Got a little frustrated on Taurus Demon because the run back was so long, but he ended up just walking off the wall and giving me the victory for free (which I would've posted on this subreddit if I had figured out how to post video) which at that point I welcomed even though I'd normally feel cheated out of a genuine victory. Currently trying to beat Bell Gargoyles (I correctly figured out that the game was subliminally telling you to go the church first before going to Blighttown, no need to congratulate me). Haven't yet beaten either of the black knights along the way (though I have taken the tearstone ring from one of them) - but at this point, I feel like I should have another go at trying to beat them considering my increase in armor, damage and skill since then.
I'm playing as a warrior, as I figured that was a good "starter" class. Investing my souls in a combination of Vitality, Strength, Dex and Endurance. Wearing chainmail armor, wielding a longsword (+2) and heater shield (and occasionally trying to use ranged weapons; keyword "trying"), planning on maybe trying a rapier as I quite like the stabby aspect of the sword. Trying to get good at parrying since I remember parrying being REALLY good in Fallen Order, but unsure if parrying works on everything you can block or if it's more limited to smaller foes/attacks.
Now, for my gift I chose the Old Witch Ring. The reasoning was that: 1) I could clearly tell the Master Key was gonna be really good but feeling like it's sort of cheating (similar to taking lockpicks for a map I'm not very familiar with in Hitman) and assuming every lock the Master Key unlocks can be unlocked with a different key anyway; 2) I couldn't yet tell what things like Goddess' Blessing or Twin Humanities meant or judge how good they were; 3) the "no apparent use" really intrigued me. It clearly implies that there IS a use, just one that won't become apparent straight away. I'm just wondering about one thing: will its use become apparent naturally as I progress through the game, or is it one of those things where you really won't know its use without some serious guidance? That is my only question currently: is the ring's use "play and find out", or is it "yeah you won't find out on your own"? Or is it just "yeah it really has no use, you picked a useless gift"?
Overall, the game is living up to its challenging reputation, but not frustratingly so. I assume many first time players are overwhelmed by the rather opaque menus and the many, many numbers they throw at you - but once you start figuring them out it's really rather helpful just how much information they give you. The only frustrating part is how they don't put checkpoints before bosses (as modern games would) forcing you to trek back a long distance every time. But man, is it a game that keeps you wanting to keep trying again and again. Even now I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I can boot up the game again to have another go. If only I could kill that gargoyle before the second one shows up...

Is there a way to get cheat codes for tomodachi life because each time I boot up CheckPoint and click on cheats for Tomodachi Life it says No available cheat codes for this title

On Speedrun.com, there are some fantastic resources to explore parts of the game that are otherwise inaccessible:
Kitty: Isolation - Resources - Speedrun.com
The first mod to take note of is the "Cheat Engine options" file under "Tools" section at the top of the page.
This cheat hack includes a cheat that allows you to "noclip" through walls, ceilings and floors - allowing you to finally explore all sections of the game that are otherwise inaccessible. Besides that, it allows additional cheats commonly found in other Alien Isolation trainers - be invisible to all enemies (the alien and humans will literally pass each other in complete peace and harmony), have unlimited supply of items & ammo, and be virtually immune to any damage except the alien auto-kill.
PS. Turns out the Alien's AI is even smarter than I expected. The Alien is cheat-proof LOL. If you provoke the Alien and then noclip into a room that is impossible for the Alien to enter, it simply loses interest and goes away, waiting for you to exit again.
The second mod to take note of (suitable really for those who have played and completed the game already) is the "STEVE - Kitty Mod Redux Edition" file under "Tools" section at the top of the page.
This file contains literally every single possible savefile for all missions and checkpoints throughout the entire game, both on NIGHTMARE mode and NOVICE mode. **PLUS There's an added benefit added in to these save files: on the Mission Saves for the earlier levels, as early as Mission 3 (the mission where the Alien stalking begins), you already have possession of the Molotov and the Smoke Bomb -> this will make life a lot easier dodging the Alien until you officially receive the Flamethrower much later in Mission 10.
-> NOTE: If you decide to start on the Mission 3 save, then if you use the Cheat mod mention above, technically you can use the "noclip" hack to cheat your way into locations that contain all other weapons of the game, including the Flamethrower, without affecting the natural course of the game. I have written a simple quick guide to getting all weapons quickly using this cheat below:

• At your starting location in Mission 3 at the Train Terminal of Lorenz Systech Spire, don't leave the Terminal; instead, simply call for the train going to "Engineering", and board it.
• Upon reaching Engineering, proceed to the 2 adjacent downward-leading stairs at the far end of the terminal, and you will reach a junction at the bottom of these stairs: here, there are 2 long corridors to your right & left which both lead to locked doors, and finally right in front you is a 3rd door which is unlocked and leads you straight to a room overlooking the massive Generator Room (which powers the whole spaceship).
• To acquire the Flamethrower, choose the 3rd open door straight in front of you, and when you reach the room overlooking the Generator Room, use the "noclip" cheat to pass through the window and then deactivate it to land on the platform right beneath you which leads into the heart of the generator. Ignore the switches, and just proceed straight forward to the very last door at the opposite side of the Generator Room to where you started. Use the "noclip" cheat again to get into the elevator, which takes you down into the Hive. Activate the elevator. Now, at the very beginning of the Hive section, a Flamethrower will be ready for you to pickup on a table right in front of you. Once you collect it, "noclip" your way back into the elevator you just used, and activate the elevator again to bring you back to the Generator Room. Upon returning to the Generator Room, "noclip" your way out of the elevator door, and retrace your steps straight back to your starting location (just underneath the overlook window that you "noclipped" out of the first time. When you are close enough to the overlook window which will be above you, activate the "noclip" cheat and move yourself vertically upwards, and then forwards, until you are able to fit back into the overlook room. DONE.
• To aquire the Shotgun and the Pistol (both at the same time), return to the original junction area just after leaving the Terminal where there are 2 long corridors either side of you and the 3rd unlocked door in front of you which leads to the room overlooking the Generator Room (mentioned above). THIS TIME, take the corridor to your RIGHT, which will lead to a door that is locked with an Ion pad. Use the "noclip" cheat to squeeze through it, and then take the door at the far back left of the room. You'll soon reach a ladder which can be climbed up - but you won't need to: at the base of the ladder are the Shotgun and the Pistol which can both be acquired at the same time.
• Finally, to aquire the Boltgun, follow the same route as the one above to get the Shotgun and Pistol - BUT, once you "noclip" past the Ion-locked door, instead of entering the room at the far back left, this time go instead into the open elevator at the far back right. Activate it to be taken up to the 2nd floor (there won't be a loading screen for this elevator). Once you reach the 2nd floor, exit the elevator and go straight ahead through the Boiler Room and enter the unlocked door at the opposite end. After entering the door, you'll notice a closed gate to your right - surprisingly this isn't locked and will open automatically when you approach it. Pass through it, and then take the very first door on your left - follow the path all the way until you reach a dead-end room: this is where you can finally acquire the Boltgun.
• NOW YOU CAN RETURN TO THE TERMINAL SECTION OF ENGINEERING AND HEAD BACK TO LORENZ SYSTECH SPIRE TO PROCEED WITH MISSION 3 AND THE REST OF THE GAME AS USUAL, BUT NOW YOU HAVE ALL THE WEAPONS OF THE GAME.

Hey!
I'm a new player that am hardstuck on the ice slide and I want to learn it specifically. I know this is technically cheating, but I'm kind of starting to give up on winning the map ;)
I want to grind the ice slide. I downloaded the map. Is there really no way to create a custom checkpoint for the ice slide? I have tried googling but it's all very confusing.
Disclaimer: I'm not trying to destroy the competitive integrity. I understand that argument completely but as a new player this gatekeeping ice slide is too much for me, to drive all the way there and just fall off every time, and I was enjoying myself quite a bit until I hit this brick wall but I can't do it anymore without taking some liberties on this occasion.

I just got the 3ds remake and I'm trying to use checkpoint, however the only cheat that worked for me is the infinite gold cheat. Every other one crashes my game and I've tried the v1.0 and v1.1 varients and still no success. Would anyone know what I'm talking about and how I can possibly fix this? Thanks!

A zealot on Auric Damn Consignment Yard just skipped through the entire level alone, leaving the team behind (even beyond mandatory team checkpoints). Is this an exploit or a cheat?
By the time we descended the first set of stairs he was already at the section with the 3 terminals to open the door.

I just completed the "Cockamamie Contest" quest with Oswald, and I was surprised to see him finish the race faster than me because he found a shortcut to the finish line, even though I had to go through all these checkpoints to win, and I TOTALLY should've beaten him! But nope, Oswald found a shortcut to get to the finish line first, and he TOTALLY cheated! And the worst part is that I thought the game would've let me call him out for this, considering that for the rest of the quest, he didn't do any of the other competition tasks the way he was meant to, and I won the rest of them by actually doing what I was supposed to. And yet, Oswald cheated through all of them, and I thought I was going to have to teach him that he has to put in the actual work with stuff like this. But nope! The game was like "NAH! Cheating is alright! :)"
Like...I can't be the only one who sees a problem here, right?

So i tried to get pokemons transferred on my pc but when i load up the game it doesn’t work. I also tried the cheats on checkpoint but it doesn’t work..

Not sure if this question belongs here, but am looking for a solution for quite a niche problem and thought you all might be able to help.
I run a few indoor climbing competitions a year. Competitors are given a paper scorecard to mars which climbs they have completed. This has 3 columns; climb number, zone (effectively half a point), and Top (full points). Various competitions range from a selection of 15 to 30 climbs.
Some of these events have over 400 scorecards being handed in, currently this takes a long time to manually enter into a scoresheet (which is currently a Google sheet). This has worked for a long time, but now with these events growing, it’s taking too much time to enter and also leaves us quite prone to human error.
I would like to keep the scorecards on paper for a few reasons: - Paper is easier to see if a mistake is made (entering into an app can be clunky) - other competitors can see your scorecard so people are less likely to cheat the faith based system. - a lot of competitors are children and not all have phones - people just like it, and their photos of their scorecards is good branding for us.
My question; is there a (cheapish) solution to scan the scorecards?
I’m considering reaching out to some AI test paper markers (nomoremarking.com for example) to see whether they could help. But am wondering if I’m missing a simpler, solution.
The ideal solution would be a designated scanner that pulls a scorecard through 1 at a time, it scans a barcode (or something similar) to determine who’s scorecard it is, then scans the rest of the card to determine their results. Enters this into a file that is usable for displaying rankings online - but maybe I’m dreaming!

What is TuesdAMA?

Public interview is the core communal tradition in the Zen lineage. It's so basic and essential and intrinsic that any individual or organization claiming to be Zen that does not sponsor weekly public interviews is not Zen.
AMAs have a bit of a history in Zen of being used to expose frauds, liars, cheats, new agers, meditation worshippers, and Western Buddhist posers... because anybody can say anything on the internet, but they can't be interviewed about it if they are frauds.
But what does it take to AMA? It's the same thing as the first day of any high school class: you stand up and say your name, where you are from, and what your interests are. Think about whether you are comfortable doing this, and why some people might not be able to without violating the Reddiquette.

Where do you come from?

I started by reading D.T. Suzuki, thought he was boring, but tried to find the source texts he was quoting. Wumenguan was the first text I found, "pre-internet".

What's your text?

I think the only reasonable claim to authentic historically accurate Zen is to start with the books of instruction written by historical Zen Masters, books like Blue Cliff Record, Book of Serenity, and Wumenguan aka Wumen's Checkpoint aka Wumen-No-Gate's Gate.
Churches can (and do) make all kinds of wild claims trying to attract followers, and it's not a basis for any authentic understanding of history.

Dharma Low Tides?

As I've said, Zen study requires YOU to TALK BACK to the tradition. Burn out tends to be putting to much in without letting anything out.

Stuff I've written about what we talk about

https://www.reddit.com/zensangha/wiki/ewk/writing
In particular, an examination of the language behind the 4 Statements of Zen, which are listed in the sidebar as the "what the forum is about".

Sorry for the incredible delay, I was super busy. Hopefully I'll get the next survey done sometime soon. Thank you to everyone who responded to the update survey! Our biggest group yet, 367 responses! ---
Which story was the most read?

1. Heaven's Secret 2 finale 79% (up from 69.5%, moved up from 3rd place)
2. Heaven's Secret Requiem 78.7% (fantastic debut!)
3. Kali: Flame of Samsara 77.9% (up from 74.2%, moved down from 2nd place)
4. Astrea's Broken Heart 75.1% (great debut!)
5. Song of the Crimson Nile 71.5% (down from 77.1%, moved down from 1st place)
6. The One, Vol 2 67.4% (up from 64%, steady in 6th place)
7. Soulless 64.1% (down from 66.5%, moved down from 4th place)
8. W: Time Catcher 60.5% (down from 61.9%, moved down from 7th place)
9. Garden of Eden 53.6% (down from 54.7%, moved down from 8th place)
10. Love, Sin & Evil 48.9% (up from 47%, moved up from 13th place)
11. Chasing You 2 46.7% (down from 50%, moved down from 10th place)
12. The Desert Rose 45.9% (down from 48.3%, moved down from 11th place)
13. Elite Tag 32% (down from 33.5%, moved up from 14th place)
14. Love from Outer Space 24.9% (not yet been polled)

I was also curious which stories were being diamond mined, now that diamond choices are becoming so expensive. Here are the results:

1. Elite Tag 54.8% (up from 31.5%)
2. Love from Outer Space 43.5% (not yet been polled)
3. The Desert Rose 41.4% (up from 13.9%)
4. Chasing You 2 35.5% (up from 16.7%)
5. Garden of Eden 34.9% (up from 15.7%)
6. Love, Sin & Evil 30.1% (up from 13.9%)
7. The One, Vol 2 28.5% (up from 25%)
8. Soulless 28% (up from 13%)
9. W: Time Catcher 20.4% (up from 11.1%)
10. Song of the Crimson Nile 17.7% (up from 13%)
11. Astrea's Broken Heart 13.4% (debut)
12. Heaven's Secret 2 13.4% (down from 15.7%)
13. Kali: Flame of Samsara 12.4% (up from 8.3%)
14. Heaven's Secret: Requiem 11.3% (debut)

Interesting to see that diamond mining is a LOT more prevalent this update than previous ones. I should add that 186 of the respondents are actively diamond mining out of 367 responses. That's 50.7% of readers.
---
As for what devices we used: 63.5% (up from 57.4%) of respondents used an Android device, compared to 44% (down from 44.3%) on iOS and 5.6% (down from 7.7%) on a computer.
---
How popular was each update?
---
* Heaven's Secret: Requiem 4.1
* W: Time Catcher 4.1 down from 4.3
* Kali: Flame of Samsara 3.8 down from 4.0
* Heaven's Secret 2 3.8 up from 3.6
* Soulless 3.6 down from 3.7
* Garden of Eden 3.5 down from 3.7
* Song of the Crimson Nile 3.4 down from 3.7
* Astrea's Broken Heart 3.3
* The One, Vol 2 *3.3 up from 3.2
* The Desert Rose 2.9 down from 3.4
* Love, Sin & Evil 2.8 down from 2.9
* Chasing You 2 2.7 down from 3.3
* Love from Outer Space 2.7
* Elite Tag 2.0 down from 3.1
---

SPOILERS AHEAD

---
The top 5 overall BEST scenes: Malbonte claims top spot for a last (but hopefully not final) hurrah! Luci takes second, and not even all that close, haha...

1. Malbonte
2. Lucifer
3. Joel
4. Zain
5. Amen

The top 5 WORST scenes: Obviously we all hate Ricky, but for whatever reason Lucifer is a close second here. Perhaps it was the ending?

1. Ricky
2. Lucifer
3. Mother of Life
4. Malbonte
5. War

---
Book by Book results:
LFOS - We all loved Ray this update, everyone else is far behind. We hated the Kurtz scene the most.
https://preview.redd.it/6jj07ww1qoyc1.png?width=603&format=png&auto=webp&s=83c9f690975c38807e9627ce34af72149668abe2
TDR: Adil and Zain are still neck to neck in this race, with Jack and Mustafa in the rear, and Cindy behind them, and uh oh yeah Saeed and Jaffar very far behind. It gets confusing with all these LIs. Interestingly, worst scenes go equally to Zain & Adil, and Cindy is mostly off the hook finally.
https://preview.redd.it/ibm6b805qoyc1.png?width=552&format=png&auto=webp&s=322e1ce58bc2938a52ebe2a4b32ca4dad3f1e2fa
HS2 - Malbonte was by far the favourite, with Lucifer struggling behind. Hunger, Mimi, and poor Dino far behind them. Predictably, the MoL was disliked the most, with Lucifer a distant second? Not entirely clear on why. Maybe because we couldn't live out our family-fantasies with the ending as it was.
https://preview.redd.it/i52njyc7qoyc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=46610e2ae242eccc0b7e1738381d23e588e3aa07
ET - People enjoyed Karl, Ari, and Emily the most this update, with Ricky, and distantly Daniel, Lennox, and Chris scenes most hated. Makes sense to me.
https://preview.redd.it/3ociyjo8qoyc1.png?width=570&format=png&auto=webp&s=8cd8ea39316028b5cc6f159ab8bfc31c3a668fee
SCN - Livius takes the lead this time, with Ash close behind and Amen struggling to wake up catch up. People were most dissatisfied with Ramesses' scene, as well as Agnia's and Amen's.
https://preview.redd.it/nbcx5my9qoyc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=80ed8ba1bb6c8804fe2ba85de02cb5a835b11c4f
CY2 - Alexander and Ezra are neck to neck in this update, everyone else is hugely far behind. They are also rated as the worst, together with Ella's scene.
https://preview.redd.it/t3vonbbbqoyc1.png?width=592&format=png&auto=webp&s=8b89e9b24bd11aad2e36cbfe9941d9324dfeb675
LSE - The vampire scene was rated best, with Tony and Chad faaar behind. Tony and Mr Collins were worst, I guess depending on who betrays your group (I wouldn't know, I've gotten them all killed XD).
https://preview.redd.it/mqvwletcqoyc1.png?width=590&format=png&auto=webp&s=9fee9486daef67e13ed88cf6064321e03930876b
WTC - This story is still so well-balanced, with Renato, Lucien, Shen, and Onyx at basically the same values. Vesper is far down the rankings though. Worst scene goes to Jorge... poor Jorge.
https://preview.redd.it/maw2cg2eqoyc1.png?width=561&format=png&auto=webp&s=41325e58167e1d24677afd3ba1c0d46cc19dd6ae
KFS - Ian is still ahead, with Ram, Doran, Sara and Kamal far behind. Raj has been relegated to worst scene. Pretty sure I had forgotten to put Doran on this survey until later, so it's not entirely clear who is most liked in this update! He could be much higher up.
https://preview.redd.it/tpmhcw2fqoyc1.png?width=605&format=png&auto=webp&s=112d44f745d4eb4764fd493f728803ad6ec1cb19
GOE - Castiel returns to the top, with Seong-hwa a close second (opposite from how it is in the story! Hah). Doo-yeong next and Dean and Lia behind. People disliked Aria's and Mi-Yeon's scenes the most.
https://preview.redd.it/617qiecgqoyc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=bdbaf8690ddbdbcd5daa857a3d2845cb51df8ec6
SLS - LOL I wonder how this will play out in the next survey, but for now, Cynthia/Walter is in first place, with Threxia/o in second, and Ava and Elliot behind. Of course, the Tiger scene grossed us out, and a small number of people disliked Threxia/o and Vincent, as well as Cynthia/Walter abandoning us.
https://preview.redd.it/8g76g3ehqoyc1.png?width=589&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e1f43825ef64210b9e5a7d5252fdd864136aebd
TOV2 - Joel stays on top, with the Host a distant sceond, and Ben/Bianca behind. Daphne and the Assistant were disliked most (good riddance to both), and next Bradley and Imani's scenes.
https://preview.redd.it/ormd68kiqoyc1.png?width=583&format=png&auto=webp&s=93c6b9371e1f4925c358c7b17407854f1cf429e4
ABH - David, who we saw the most of, was most popular, with Mikael, Raphael, and Cassiel pretty close behind. Felonia was most disliked, probably because it was a "hi-bye" scene for the only female LI.
https://preview.redd.it/b07timpjqoyc1.png?width=641&format=png&auto=webp&s=ccd9b8ab6f5af1c34aa27ef69d808e1b8cbd39e7
HSR - Cain is hugely popular, with Dmitry and Anna far behind. Kira, the infected, the monk, Dmitry, and General Lloyd were most disliked.
https://preview.redd.it/gt779wrkqoyc1.png?width=596&format=png&auto=webp&s=f5992fe4bd0e34c8cb4f99b23dea3c2687ebee3d
---

... And also ...

---
Did you notice the little "The One" reference Easter Egg in Love from Outer Space?
---
52.3% of people had missed it, but 47.7% did notice.
---
There was a lot to remember, did you remember who you picked to stand up for Kurtz in season 1?
---
40% of us had excellent memory, they remembered! 30% did not remember but guessed right, and the remaining 30% didn't remember and guessed wrong. Satisfying to see that 50/50 split.
---
Did you get Kurtz's last name right?
---
67.2% of us used the walkthroughs to get this answer, lol me too. 14.3% of us guessed and got it wrong. 10.1% thought Kurtz was his last name... yup... and 8.4% of us actually knew the answer!
---
Did you have enough style points to get Kurtz to trust you?
---
60.3% said yes, 39.7% said no.
---
Did you set up Sally and Kurtz?
---
52.2% of us said yes, 35.7% of us said no, and the remaining 12.2% set up a poly route with April as well.
---
Do you know what's going on in The Desert Rose?
---
34.3% of us know a bit, 27.8% have no idea what's happening and are only here for the diamonds or the LIs, 24.7% are pretty lost, and 13.1% are in fact fully aware of what's going on. (Can you share your notes with us?)
---
How was Zuleika's reaction to your LI?
---
We rated it a 2.3.
---
Were you able to play as Caro?
---
85.9% of us said yes.
---
Did you get married in TDR?
---
Only 33.3% of us got married!
---
How were the LI scenes this update?
---
We rated our LI's scene a 4.0, very nice.
---
HS2 ended in a huge cliffhanger type ending. What did you think of it?
---
39.3% of us wanted closure, but are okay with more HS featuring Vicky in the future. 37% of us actually loved it and were hoping for more HS with Vicky, and 23.6% of us are actually completely fed up with HS with Vicky and are dreading any future stories with her.
---
Did you enjoy the wedding?
---
53.1% of us lived out our dreams from way back in HS1, that's very sweet! 28.12% of us enjoyed it, 10.6% thought it was okay, 6.6% thought it was awkward (probably depends on who you romance!), and a very small 1.7% hated it.
---
Were you on high strength path?
---
92.1% of us were on high strength path.
---
How many of your friends came to help?
---
50.5% said 3 friends came, 24.2% said all 4 friends came, 19.1% said only 2, and 3.4% said only 1, with the remaining 2.7% having no friend come to help... aw...
---
How is it going with your LI in Elite Tag?
---
46.6% of us are perfectly happy with our LIs, 44.5% of us are just sticking it out but not happy, and 8.9% are replaying for a different LI.
---
Were you able to strike the deal with Granny?
---
90.4% of us said yes, 7.4% of us owed her a favour, and 2.2% of us didn't have enough wealth or clout.
---
Did you matchmake Sara and Corvo?
---
65.4% of us did romantically, 16.2% of us did platonically, 11.8% didn't like him so they did not, and 6.6% didn't want to waste the diamonds or another reason for not doing so.
---
Let's see how we invested our wealth:
---
89.4% of us invested in Daniel's show, 79.5% of us invested in the bodyguard, only 15.2% of us paid Noah to investigate for us, because 74.2% of us used clout to get him to do so.
---
Did you hook up with Chris?
---
64% of us did.
---
So, the Ricky situation. Some highlights: I hope he stands in orange juice with socks on, and thank you for in hell. :'D Thank you for your detailed and thoughtful responses. It seems like everyone is unanimous in our hate for Ricky comparing MC to Adrian, but not all of us are on the same page about the potential cheating, which makes sense. There were good arguments on either side!
---
Did you leave a note for Amen in SCN?
---
49.4% of us did.
---
Were you able to pass the checkpoint with Agnia?
---
95.4% of us did.
---
How do you feel about MC running away?
---
62.4% of us are happy about it, presumably because they're with the other LIs, because the remainder will miss their LIs that were left behind.
---
Did you let Ella go or get her executed in CY2?
---
74.6% of us got her executed for that sweet investigative point.
---
Did you search in the right place for LS&E?
---
58.7% of us got it on the first try, with the remainder having to search other places first.
---
Haha.... this was a spicy update. Did you do it with the tentacles?
---
57.3% of us forked over the 95 diamonds and were entertained, 15.1% of us thought it was too expensive, 14.1% of us did but were horrified, and 13.5% of us would NEVER.
---
Did you do it with the bat vampire?
---
63.6% of us don't have that vampire, 17.1% would NEVER, 16.6% of us did and thought it was hot, and 2.7% did but regretted it.
---
Did you add Sue to your romance with the cat vampire?
---
80.4% of us don't romance either one, so no. 10.3% said yes, and 9.2% said they didn't want to.
---
Who did you take to Geneva in WTC?
---
30.2% took Lucien, 26.1% took Shen, 23.9% took Onyx, 14.9% took Vesper, and the remaining 5% took no one.
---
Did you dress Renato up?
---
69.2% chose the trench coat, 19% the dark outfit, and 11.8% only chose the regular casual outfit.
---
What did you decide for Tallis?
---
54.5% of us have decided to matchmake Tallis and Onyx. 22.3% of us have opened the poly route, 15.9% wanted Onyx for ourselves so left them as friends, 4.5% wanted Tallis for ourselves, and 2.7% didn't save Tallis so none of this was an option.
---
Did you get the Guusje de Boer achievement?
---
69.1% did thanks to the walkthroughs, 22.7% did by themselves (good job!), the remaining 8.2% did not.
---
How would you rate your LI's scene this update in KFS?
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We rated it a wonderful 4.1.
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Doran Basu...
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43.9% of us already have a favourite LI, 33.9% of us plan to add him to their harem, and 22.1% shout "Marry me please!"
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Are you still romancing everyone?
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46.9% of us are only romancing some of the LIs, 40.7% of us are loyal to one LI at this point, 7.6% are romancing all male LIs (lol I can't wait to see the consequences), and 4.8% are romancing literally everyone.
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94.3% of us are working on the relationship with our group in Garden of Eden.
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Who did you kiss this update?
---
50% kissed Doo-yeong, and it was definitely not acting. 34% kissed Castiel, 26.9% Seong-hwa, 14.2% Lia, 11.3% Dean, and 6.1% no one.
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Who did you end up locking in with?
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28.4% chose Castiel, 25.1% chose Seong-hwa, 18.5% Doo-yeong, 13.7% Lia, 11.8% Dean, and the remaining 2.4% are single, perhaps waiting for the 6th LI.
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78.4% of us chose to ask the manager for help in exchange for being obedient, but the rest did not so they could speak openly with Seong-hwa/Dean.
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51% of us had to use diamonds to help Yeon-ah, and 52% of us had to use diamonds to distract the idols in Aria's scene.
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Did you share pizza with anyone in Soulless?
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79.4% of us said yes, yum! (And now I'm hungry...)
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Did you get it on with Threxia/o?
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78.6% of us did!
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Did you manage to lure Brother Kang without using your powers?
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86.9% did, the rest needed Vincent's help.
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Did you have a midnight swim in The One Vol 2?
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66.8% of us had one with Joel, 18.6% with Ben, 5.1 with Imani, 4.7% with Bianca or Lorenzo the head of security.
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96.9% of us won the paintball game.
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Did you say goodbye to Joel?
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80.3% did and also had sex, 11.8% weren't interested, and 7.9% did without sex.
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Did you get Joel's achievement?
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64.4% of us did!
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**Did you have enough points to pass the check for the special date with Ben/Bianca?
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72.1% of us did, 22.3% of us aren't interested, and 5.6% of us said no.
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71% of us are romancing Joel, 48.6% Ben, 30.2% The Host, 10.2% Bianca, 9.8% Imani, 9% Bradley, and 4.3% are on single path.
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Who is the most intriguing to you for now?
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27.6% Mikael, 23.1% David, 20.9% Raphael, 19.4% Cassiel, and 9% Felonia.
---
58.1% of us are on the Faith path, and the remaining 41.9% on Skepticism path.
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What path are you on in HS: Requiem?
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52.8% are on Whisper of the Devil, 47.2% on Voice of God path.
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Most intriguing LI for now?
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63.6% Cain, 20.4% Dmitry, 8.9% Anna, and 7.1% Greg.
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98/6% of us have high adaptability.
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63% of us say HSR surpassed our expectations, 31% said it was as expected, and 6% were disappointed.
---

I've mentioned this in a few comments, so I thought I'd share my personal ranking of all contestants thus far. *I may well change my mind on S4 contestants, so these are marked with an asterisk:

1. Jinda and Bindhu - Only on the list by a technicality
   
2. Stephen and Viv* - Well mainly Stephen. Imagine having to travel 50 days with him 24/7. Yikes!
   
3. Trish and Cathy - Constantly played the victim about "being the little old ladies of the group" despite being in their 40s, younger then 2 other people. Also had a massive advantage by being 2 middle aged women in a race which heavily depended on hitchhiking, so the "woe is me" schtick really rubbed me off the wrong way
   
4. Clare and Sue - didn't race that well, and gave off proper Brexit Karen vibes. Glad they went first
   
5. Marc and Michael - Unforgettable. Other than one of them refusing to go for a pretty walk?? Also chose the cheap, slow option on the elimination leg, which was stupid.
   
6. Isabel and Eugeni* - I thought they'd be my favourites from S4 at the start, with Isabel writing down Japanese phrases. Big Eugeni is just so narcissistic it's frankly uncomfortable
   
7. Mel and Helene - If there was a tougher budget for the celeb version, they'd have been knocked out much earlier. Clearly thought that Kevin and Claudia was the tactic to follow. Trying to find Helen's friend in Nice was quite funny though
   
8. Michael and Shuntelle - I liked Michael, Shuntelle was a bit annoying with her obvious disdain for the whole thing. Shame they went when they did really.
   
9. Alex and Noel - I liked Noel, couldn't ever really get behind Alex. Them looking after Billy and Bonnie in Sarajevo was nice.
   
10. Natalie and Shameema- Likeable, but not really memorable
    
11. Josh and Felix - Likeable, but not really memorable (but slightly more-- I enjoyed the fact that they got proper stuck in with trying all the local food, and their fight in Hanoi was quite endearing)
    
12. Kevin and Claudia - Actively dislikeable in such a way that they (well Kevin) became proper pantomime villain(s)
    
13. Owen and Alfie* - Let's hope they start to enjoy things a little bit more. I love people racing hard, but these 2 have started (last leg aside, so looking promising) a bit over the line.
    
14. James and Betty* - My least favourites at the start, but they're really growing on me. So they may end up being much higher.
    
15. Jo and Sam - Never in with a shot of winning, mainly due to Sam's need for food/comfort. Given his ADHD, you absolutely cannot hold it against him, and Jo is clearly a fantastic mum. Nothing against them at all, but not enough going for them.
    
16. Sharon and Brydie* - Think it shows how I've struggled to get on board with S4 contestants when my favourites only just make top 10 (and were kicked out early). Just wish they could have raced better
    
17. Emon and Jamiul - I think this is controversially low, because they were great contestants (and gave 3/4 of winnings to charity). But I do struggle to see past the way they won, trading in a MP3 player when they didn't have theomey. Left a sour taste in my mouth, hence their relative low position.
    
18. Harry and Emma - Maybe a bit of a cheat, because I already really like Harry beforehand (fan of mcfly, strictly, and cricket). But I do really like his competitive nature, especially in a version with no prize on the line. Also really liked their team cross-stitch as a way to pass the time.
    
19. Dom and Lizzie - Took me a long time to come round to them, but you could see their strides by the end. They came together as siblings nicely, especially after the seizures in Peru (which set them back massively). I wish them all the best
    
20. Tony and Elaine - Come from behind win in several aspects. Arrived into the Chinese checkpoint after Darren and Alex had even arrived, then pulled ahead. Never made a big deal about their age, even when Tony's back went in the final leg. Just seemed like fun people to be around.
    
21. Jen and Rob - Jen was hilarious, and more to the point, very human. I found it very easy to empathise with them. Plus, Rob is a saint. Really happy they now have twins.
    
22. Billy and Bonnie - If they didn't (suspiciously) go back to Prague from Munich, and didn't have to go home, they'd have won at a canter. Billy never made a huge deal about his legs, and Bonnie is one of the nicest people this show has had on (and looks like just a fun person to be around)
    
23. Monique and Laddi - Laddi is clearly a fantastic father, and they were a very positive pair throughout. Also seeing Monique learn to be a bit more willing to help/be kind to strangers was heartwarming
    
24. Zainab and Mobeen - Slow burners, and for most part, I preferred Monique and Laddi, but they just pulled ahead for me. The child arc was actually meaningful, and in a boring season, they managed to have some proper tactics which gave a point of difference (using work/homestays for lifts)
    

1.Darren and Alex -- Fantastic character arc, seeing Alex go from petulant to a leader was brilliant to watch. Also, despite them being a bit estranged, there was never any blame, and they became much closer over the season. Their success is potentially why we've had so many estranged parent/child teams since.

Nothing important, except that half way through my ox cart trip to checkpoint, we got attacked by a wolf and an ogre, no sooner did I get out of the cart to fight then the damn ogre basically kicked the ox cart down a near by ravine I to the river and I had to walk the rest of the way, kind of feel cheated outta my 200……
Edit…Just now a cyclops kicked over another ox cart on the way to Vernsworrh, with me in it…another 200

Yo,
This has been an issue I haven't been able to find an answer to online after hours of searching.
The cheat menu for Fire Emblem Fates, after using Checkpoint (selecting the file and toggling-on the cheats you want to use) only show FPS cheats when I boot up the game. I tried downloading different versions of the game and all that, but the issue remains the same. To my knoweldge, out of all the games I have played, this is the only one where I can't seem to get the cheats to show on the selected save file.
Any help or advice would greatly be appericated.

EDITING THIS POST AS I FIND MORE THINGS
Some of this is straight up useless, but I didn't spend several hours messing around in this level to not write down everything.
CLOCK//
(EDIT: the clock actually DOES read 4:00, I'm just not the brightest sometimes. I'll update the info in this post when it's not 1:30 in the morning)

• The reflections in the library show the door to be open with the clock reading 8:00. Manually changing the computer time to 8:00 seemingly does nothing, however. Setting it to 7:59 and waiting yields the same result
• Chimes at 4:00, and ONLY at 4:00 (AM/PM does not matter) [Thank you, u/JuiceCube!]
• According to the comment linked above, the reflected clock actually used to read 4:00. Unsure if this is true or an error on JuiceCube's part. If this IS true: What The Fuck? Unable to test this myself since I don't know the ARSENAL UPDATE's manifest ID :(
• Cleaning HUD disappears when the crosshair is hovered over the clock door

FLORP//

• Putting this beast on any pedestal does absolutely nothing, but he will sit there very politely
• Cannot be thrown away
• CAN be thrown into pits (this does nothing, he will just chill in the void)

BEACH//

• Enabling cheats will cause Agnes Gorge Trail and the beach to disappear
• Enabling cheats while on the beach will cause the sunset skybox and blue distance fog to persist even outside of the beach area. It will also cause the Babel tower to not respawn, leaving the building very short and sad. All of these will revert if a checkpoint is loaded
• Enabling cheats will not kill Florp if you are holding him

MISC//

• The cleaning HUD actually disappears when hovering over any doorway, open or closed
• The ladders are probably important, but I haven't been able to get anything out of them. Matching them to their reflections does nothing
• The large chandelier in the main room isn't centered. Literally unplayable
• None of the 4 locked doors have anything behind them when using noclip to look through them. This doesn't really mean much when enabling cheats could cause anything to disappear, though
• The outside of the library has no roof. It's just extremely tall

DISCLAIMER: this post will be heavy. We are dealing with themes of racism, neo-nazi imagery, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and things of that sort. It would be not explained in details, but i will link articles talking about it in lenght. Please be careful while browsing!
Hello again people of Hobbydrama. This time my introduction will be brief since the post will probably be very long, just wanted to say: thank you for sticking with me. Remember to read the disclaimer and also be aware that this post might contain spoilers, particularly for Life Is Strange 1 and 3!
What the hell is Life Is Strange?
“Ready for the mosh pit, shaka brah”
Life Is Strange is a series of adventure games published by Square Enix’s External Studios. Created by Dontnod Entertainment, the series debuted with its first installment which was released in five episodes throughout 2015 on PS3, PS4, XBOX 360, PC, iOS and Android. It also recived a remastered version for the Nintendo Switch in 2021. Which was…not very good tbh, but we don’t talk about that. The story of the first game revolves around Max Caulfield, a girl who discovers that she has the ability to rewind time at any moment, causing each of her choices to make events unfold differently. After predicting the arrival of a giant storm, Max will have to use her powers to try to save her city, Arcadia Bay. She starts this by saving her former best friend (and future love interest) Chloe Price by dying in a bathroom stall. Since that, the plot will also focus on the search of Rachel Amber, a girl who misteriously disappeared without leaving trace. The player’s actions will affect the game’s story, which can be rewritten once they are able to rewind time. The introduction of the possibility of rewinding time allows to go back and do any action differently from the one first done in certain narrative checkpoints. This structure also offers a polarity system: choices made modify and influence the story through short- or long-term consequences. I mean, technically is not really like that because the game has only two possible endings and the choices you make can’t change it, but they affect the way other characters see you and interact with you. Dialogue scenes can also be rewound by choosing a different response option. Once an event is restored the previously provided data can also be used in the future: for example objects found in the future will be preserved after rewinding time. This, as you can imagine, offers a lot of possibilities for puzzle mechanics and things of that sort.
The game was a massive success, winning a shiton of awards in the following years and gaining an immense fanbase. This was due to its emotionally raw plot dealing with themes such as depression and suicide, bullying, fear of abandonment, LGBTQ+ representation, growing up and of course time shenaningans that subjects the main character to an unbelivable amount of trauma! Yay! Jokes aside, the game was so succesfull that it spawned an entire franchise: a prequel with Chloe Price as a protagonist came out in 2017 and a comic spin-off) was published in 2018.
Also: Life Is Strange 2 and Life Is Strange 3 were made, but they are different stories with totally different characters not related with Max and Chloe in any means, besides some minor easter eggs. For the context of this post, is important to know that when Lis became a franchise, they started to explore different stories with different characters: the only one thing in common is that in this world some people have some kinds of superpowers for…reasons that are never really fully explained. Max had time-rewind, it’s heavily implied in the prequel that Rachel Amber had some kind of fire powers or, in alternative, powers very similar to Max’s based on what some characters says about her, Sean’s brother has telekinesis and Alex has an “emotional aura” reading ability
There are also rumors going on about an Amazon Prime series adapting the story of the first game, but nothing has came out of it at the time of writing this.
With that being said, let’s move on.
The weird dynamics between Dontnod and Square Enix
Now, before we focus on the gist of the drama, it’s important to clarify one thing: Dontnod no longer holds any ownership of the Life Is Strange franchise and doesn’t work on the series anymore, only SquareEnix and Deck Nine are in charge now. To explain why this happened we need to go on a tangent here.
Development of the first Life Is Strange began in April 2013: the idea of developing it in episodes was due to creative, marketing and, above all, financial reasons. Mind you, at the time Dontnod was a little french indie game developing company. Their debut title was Remember Me), which at first they wanted it to be a PlayStation 3-exclusive role-playing game, but was dropped by publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2011 on account of cuts in funding. It was presented at Gamescom the same year to attract another publishing deal. The following year, Capcom Europe acquired the rights and reimagined it as an action-adventure game.
In 2013, Dontnod was the most subsidised studio with 600 000€ aid by the French agency Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC), including aid for a new intellectual property project codenamed “What if?” (later retitled to Life is Strange to avoid confusion with the film of the same name.) for something like 200 000 euros. On 28 January 2014, Dontnod filed for rjudicial reorganisation, a form of receivership in France. The proceeding filing was discovered by Factornews and some media outlets like Polygon reported it as Dontnod filing for bankruptcy as a result of the poor sales of Remember Me. However, Dontnod responded to these reports explaining that they were in the process of “judicial reorganisation” to resize the company and denying bankruptcy..
In June 2014, Dontnod announced that they were working with Square Enix Europe on a new game, which was announced as Life Is Strange that year and released in 2015 over the course of five instalments, like i said earlier. The critical and commercial success of Life Is Strange caused Dontnod to be solicited by publishers, whereas they previously had to pursue publishers themselves. Is also important to note that Life Is Strange received attention for the choice to include a female protagonist in the game. Before signing the collaboration with Square Enix, Dontnod had in fact encountered distrust from the curators of the project, who had attempted to insert a male protagonist in Max’s place. Baiscally, Square Enix was the only company that was willing to publish them without questioning the gender of the main character. Remember this, because it will be important later.
Following the release and success of the first Life is Strange, publisher Square Enix chose American developer Deck Nine to develop a prequel game focusing on the life of Chloe Price, while the Dontnod team began developing a direct sequel. Development on the prequel began in 2016 with assistance from Square Enix’ London Studios. Ashly Burch, who voiced Chloe in Life Is Strange, was replaced by Rhianna DeVries due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. However, Burch and Hannah Telle (Max’s VA) both reprised their roles for the bonus episode “Farewell.” The script for the game was over 1,500 pages, written by lead writer Zak Garriss and a writers’ room. Remember this name because it will come up again.
Prior to its official announcement, images had leaked online indicating that a prequel to Life Is Strange was in development. Finally, Square Enix revealed Life Is Strange: Before the Storm on 11 June during Microsoft’s E3 2017 presentation. At that time, Dontnod had declared that prospective follow-ups to Life Is Strange would feature new characters and locations to the original, with the developers feeling that Max and Chloe’s story had run its course over the first two games. Game co-director Raoul Barbet explained that

“It’s a question we asked ourselves at the beginning. Is it Max and Chloe, Arcadia Bay? No, it’s about everyday characters, relatable characters with stories you can involve yourself in, because it reflects your own experiences. With some supernatural stuff on the top.”

Michel Koch added that

“everyone loved Max, Chloe, Rachel. But their story…it’s done. We have nothing more to tell. We don’t want to. Other people will do it, and it’s okay. But for us, we have nothing more to do. Take them and do whatever you want.”

You can read the full interview here
However this would turn out to not be entirely true follwing recent events, but let’s leave this information for later.
Development on Life Is Strange 2 began in early 2016 as the first game shipped its physical edition. Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet returned to direct the sequel, with Christian Divine and Jean-Luc Cano reprising their roles as co-writers.. The game, despite its very heavy advertising campaign, recived a mixed reception from the audience if not downright negative. The main criticism, besides problems with the writing, the characters and the story, was that people…simply didn’t really care about a new cast, to be honest. Particularly when they are not written as good as the character from the first game. They would have much preferred a sequel with Max and Chloe. Keep this also in mind, because it will be important in a bit.
At the same time, Deck Nine began working on True Colors after completing Before the Storm in 2017. You can probably notice that for this new chapter they decided to return to an episodic format (Life Is Strange Before The Storm was released all in once, for context I was wrong, it was relased episodically, the difference is that there was a "complete season" version earlier than the first game! It was also the first Lis game to contain a DLC), just like the first game and Lis 2, both made by Dontnod.
Now, it’s also important to specify that Before The Storm was also recived lukewarmly, mainly because the plot felt rushed and a lot of very important lore bits of the first game weren’t even addressed, like how the fuck Rachel ended up in the dark room. You know…it was just the main reasons people were exited to play the prequel in the first place.
For context, in Lis 1 there are many moments where it is hinted that Rachel tried to deceive and manipulate Chloe, all so she could escape Arcadia Bay without her. In short: Rachel is not depicted as a good person in this game. There is even an entire section where Max finds out that Rachel was cheating on Chloe with her drug dealer. People were intrigued by this and wanted to know what Rachel’s deal was: was she a good person? Was she evil? How did she die? Did she also had powers? Did she caused the tornado? Is she the tornado? Did she passed down her powers to Max?
When the prequel was announced everyone went ballistic. Are we finally going to play as her? Well, no. Instead we got a story centered around Chloe (which we already knew well thanks to the first game), no powers, weird gameplay based on literally insulting npcs and very little of Rachel. Additionally she was depicted as a strangely different character, way more nicer than the first game made by the original developers probably intended. Her entire affair with the drug dealer was…simply not mentioned at all despite being a crucial point to the lore? Plus we got this post credits scene that literally explained nothing and in fact raised even more questions that would never be answered. Thanks!
Back to the point: when Life Is Strange 3 came out it was recived equally lukewarmly in some points. (clarification needed: it was COMMERCIALLY recived better than Lis 1 and 2, it won a shiton of awards too. I'm talking mainly about a section of the fanbase. Obviously there were also people who liked it, however the point is another here.) Many people pointed out that it’s so similar to the first game in terms or plot, general vibe and characters that it feels almost like a blatant copy. The protagonist is a socially awkard, introverted nerdy bisexual girl with a loudmouth, reckless, secretly nerdy lesbian punk-girl love interest and the plot concerns a disapperance of a person, that Alex and Steph need to investigate onto. Sounds familiar yet?
Also, people argued that Alex and Max share a very similar name, they make the literal same pose on the cover of their respective games and Steph was redesigned to look very similar to Chloe, hat and all..
For some people, it was pretty evident that after the lukewarm reception of BtS and Lis 2 and the complaints about it being too different from the established formula, Square Enix wanted to win back the love of former fans who liked the ideas of the original game. The problem is that they didn’t quite understood why the Dontond game had that impact on people, and borrowed from it only the most superficial aspects. The point is that people liked the first game because the characters were alive, with motivations, they were original and capable of making you really empathize with them. The plot was engaging and the mechanics were something new never seen in the video game industry (at that time). People liked the way the story was written and the way the game played, not necessarily the presence of Max and Chloe. People just wanted new protagonists that were written at least as good as them, basically.
So basically the way of thinking in some parts of the fandom was on the line of: rather than trying to poorly imitate Max and Chloe in a new game with an “original story” (do not steal) in a desperate attempt to regain the fans’ admiration, making a direct sequel to the first game with those characters would have been a better choice.
The comic spin-off with Max and Chloe wasn’t doing that good either. Well, it was a commercial success but the fanbase didn’t really liked it that much.. For context: it was not published by Dontnod or Square Enix, the people behind it were from Titan Comics. The series is set one year after the events of the original Life is Strange, and is a continuation to one of two of the games possible endings, known as the “Sacrifice Arcadia Bay” ending. It is written by Emma Vieceli, with interior art by Claudia Leonardi and coloring by Andrea Izzo. In fact the team behind it is entirely italian, which i find very cool as an italian myself. However, the problems were the same as said before: weird plot, character assasinations, introducing new powers for Max that make absolutely no sense, (now she is able to have “visions” of a different timeline and mess with the literal course of time without any real explanation or sensible motivation for WHY she is capable to do this all of a sudden) and in general they read a lot like a bad fanfiction.
Also i think it’s important to mention that the comics gave us a timeline in which Rachel is alive and she is in a romantic relationship with Chloe, while Max is their third wheel friend. I find this extremely hilarious so take this pic. It fucking kills me everytime.
So, to sum up all this mess before going on: Dontnod doesn’t own the intellectual property of Life Is Strange anymore. This happened after Lis 2, for reasons not yet disclosed. Square Enix and Deck Nine are now the heads of the entire franchise and they are not the best at managing it. In a desperate attempt to reach Dontnod success following the bad reception of BtS and Lis 2, they basically copied and pasted the entire plot of the first game (or at least borrowed a lot of context from it) for Lis 3, causing a sensible distaste in some parts of the fanbase.
The hidden hate imagery and the abuse scandal
Ok. Now we are quitting being funny and silly. This is the section were it starts to get REALLY dark REALLY suddenly. So please, keep in mind that i’m hovering a gigantic trigger warning over your head. All the links in this section can be extremely triggering for some people. Read the disclaimer, please. Are we good? Good. Now we can talk about the more recent news that literally throwed the fandom in a maniacal frenzy.
An article (GIGANTIC TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS ONE) was published by IGN the 5th April 2024, in which it’s described a very strange and disturbing episode that happened in the Deck Nine offices.
IMPORTANT INFO SINCE SOME PEOPLE WERE CONFUSED: I report the article as faithfully as possible given that in its entirety it could be considered uncomfortable by some people. Please be aware that I have copy pasted parts. This is not to plagiarize, I'm not saying that the contents of this article or the points of this speech are my own words. Keep in mind that it is only to give everyone a fair perspective, especially for people who may not like the mentions of certain things in the original article. However excuse me, i should have clarified this earlier. Thanks for everyone that spoke on this.
To put it simply since the article is very long, during the development of the fourth Life Is Strange game near the end of 2022, a few developers stumbled upon hate symbols hidden in the textures. They initially noticed a reference to the number 88, but they simply tought it was an unfortunate coincidence. It was just a number, right? Maybe their boss didn’t knew the implications of it. But then they quickly started to find more problematic and inequivocable signs, such as references to a racist meme, the number 18, and the Hagal rune.. It was definetly not a mistake: someone was putting those simbols there on purpose.
The weirdest thing is that weeks went by, then months, and management remained strangely silent about this. The incriminated assets remained in the game and people started to get really nervous for obvious reasons. At the end, they removed the symbols but the culprit was never discovered. Again, very strange. The company was behaving almost as if they were trying to defend however was behind this attack. This issue however, literally opened the fucking Pandora’s box.
According to current and former employees across several departments, most of whom have chosen to remain anonymus, Deck Nine’s management has caused a very toxic work culture. They claim the C-suite has protected multiple abusive leaders, encouraged crunch, and allowed bullying of individuals advocating internally for more authentic representation in Life Is Strange. Yeah, you heard that right.
Square Enix in particular was another whole can of worms: the employees said that the company was way too “defensive” of the script of True Colors. In the sense that they seemed oddly reluctant or outright hostile to the diverse themes and ideas that Life Is Strange has always explored. For instance, multiple people recalled an incident during True Colors development where Square Enix told multiple developers they didn’t want Life Is Strange to be thought of as the “gay game.” Which…you know, it’s very weird coming from a franchise that, when under Dontnod management, was always pretty open about its bisexual protagonists.
Well, theoretically Max and Sean are driven entirely by the choice of the player, so they are “playersexual”. You can choose what gender to romance in both games, in theory. However, Max is way more implied to be canonically bi or at least to have a crush on Chloe indipendetly by your choice in the original game, while Sean is more “open” in that sense. However, the main point is not really that. Is that Lis as a franchise always explored queer themes, so this kind of reaction by Square Enix is pretty odd. They knew what they were working with, right? Mallory Littleton, a narrative designer who worked on Life Is Strange under Deck Nine, even said that

”There’s a lot of press out there praising True Colors for having the first bisexual lead in a Life Is Strange game, even if in our press guides from Square Enix, all the way up until review copies were out, we were not to say anything about Alex’s sexuality, period, at all. And then they did the advance copies, and all of these reviews came out saying how amazing it was to finally see an explicitly bi protagonist, and after that, Square was like, just kidding, Alex is absolutely, canonically, 100% bisexual.”

Additionally, multiple sources gave the impression that Deck Nine’s relationship with Square Enix for Life Is Strange was one of money convenience rather than a deep appreciation for the series. Square Enix liked that Deck Nine was willing to do the game for a lower budget than other studios, while Deck Nine needed a good IP, so the deal was born solely for economical convenience However, many developers said that the people in charge of Deck Nine seemed seriously unprepared for dealing with a game with “serious” themes, especially when it came to thoughtful portrayals of diverse individuals. And this is when the real shit started. I won’t go into much detail (read the article if you are curious) but people reported a SHITON of accounts of sexual harassment, bullying and transphobia.
Remember Zack Garris? Well, sources say that he began forming close relationships with a number of younger women, often in situations where he had some mentorship or power over them. He was basically love bombing them, staying late at the studio talking to them, inviting them to lunch, dinner, movies or even to his house. He would also instigate personal conversations and text some of this women after work hours about personal topics. If you want more info about his (frankly disgusting) shenaningans, once again read the article.
It doesn’t stop here however.
In short: nobody, male or female, was able to tell him “no” when he crossed personal boundaries due to his status. This feeling only increased over time, with several people reporting incidents of him lashing out against those who disagreed with his decisions. This was especially true with people fighting for more sensitive portrayals of diverse characters. A woman named Tate Littleton, for instance, recalled being formally reprimanded for criticizing Garriss’ reluctance to allow women in his scripts to express anger. Basically he didn’t think representation mattered because “he didn’t necessarily identify with every white man protagonist, and so other people shouldn’t identify with characters because they look the same.”
The main episode that made this entire thing knew in the first place was the removal of a transgender character from True Colors that took place very late in development. Which, again, sounds really unusual considering the type of media Lis has always been. Additionally, two anonymous employees declared that in 2020 Garriss called BLM a hate group when the team at Deck Nine wanted to post something for the protests that were happening in America. In another example he fought weirdly hard for a twist on True Colors’ final choice that a number of writers pointed out included a problematic portrayal of migrant workers (it eventually was removed, so at least we have that i guess). He would also go daily on rants about how everyone was being “too political”. There was also another instance of a scene Garriss wrote for True Colors that the writers felt they had to fight him excessively to change. For those who don’t know, in the final script of True Colors the main character Alex is taken into the woods by Jed, who she view as a friend at this point of the story. He betrays her, shooting her and missing, causing her to fall into an abandoned mine shaft. However, in Garriss’ original version, Jed spikes her drink at a bar and takes her out to the woods for an attempted murder. When they saw this version of the scene, a number of people pushed back, arguing that the scene would unintentionally cause associations with date rape. Multiple individuals had to fight extensively with Garriss about this scene before it was eventually changed.
Additionally, Garris distanced himself from his team of writers. He and another lead would make most of the story decisions, rewriting work from other writers without allowing them the opportunity to give feedback, even on stories centering marginalized characters. Toward the end of True Colors development, Deck Nine implemented a new, anonymous performance evaluation tool: this is what caused all of this to surface recently, mind you, we would have never known if it wasn’t for this. Some time time later, Garriss quit the team voluntarily. But this wasn’t the end: True Colors launched to critical acclaim, and following the wave of its commercial success, Deck Nine parared immediatly the development of another Lis game. But it was struggling with one plot point apperently, and the leadership suggested to bring Garriss back to fix it. As you can probably imagined, the narrative team went insane. Everyone begged them not to bring him back in a series of meetings, messages, emails, everything. HR was even involved at some point and they even suggested that Deck Nine would be legally liable for Garriss’ behavior if they invited him back after the shiton of reports. When the company CEO and CFO persisted in arguing that they needed Garriss, multiple writers handed in resignations. Finally, management relented and the man did not return.
You probably get the vibe at this point. It was a mess. However, Garris later tried to defend himself against the accusations, but he was ultimately never called back again. At least not officially. Because he then landed at Telltale Games, which was working on a project in close partnership with Deck Nine at the time. Only a few months after his departure, several of those who had protested his return were told that a few narrative team members had been holding story breaking sessions at Garriss’ home. So…ok i guess?
However, this is not even the main tea. Remember when i said that Dontnod abandoned the franchise after the second chapter and it was never clarified why? Well, it’s theorized that the main reason why they went away it’s because Square Enix wasn’t willing to make them publish what they wanted in Life Is Strange. Which is incredibly sad and ironic considering the development issues the first game had. The main proof people point over this is another game made by Dontnod in 2020 called “Tell Me Why”, which stars a trans male protagonists and is objectively very similar to a Lis game without being really a Lis game. The main character has supernatural powers, the gameplay is identical, the story has a very similar vibe, you get the gist. The analogies were…a little bit too close for some people. Now, it’s important to remember that this are only speculations and nothing is being officially confirmed, but judging by the time coincidence and what surfaced recently, some people started to think that Dontnod published this game indipendently because Deck Nine and Square Enix didn’t want the main character to be trans. Which honestly kinda makes sense. However, another thing happened that fueled the speculations even more: Dontnod has recently annuced their new game, “Lost Records”, which they directly called a “spiritual successor to Life Is Strange”. They even stated that in this game they will insert ideas that they would have liked to explore with Max and Chloe in Lis sequels, which they can no longer produce since the franchise and those characters are no longer in their hands. Quoting from this article:

”When we started to work on the very first Life Is Strange a long time ago, we had no publishers. We didn’t know exactly where we would sell the game or…if we would even sell it. […] At this time, we were in need of publishing, and Square was interested in buying the games; they bought the rights for it, and they bought the franchise. […] But since they bought the franchise, our hands were tied. We couldn’t really work as we wanted on what paths the character should go, what kind of game we could make, and how we would like to make the franchise evolve.”

Which in retrospect many tought all of this sounded really weird. Didn’t they said years ago that their vision of the series was always to make stories with different characters and that Chloe and Max’s story was “over”? Many people tought this was a weird claim and so speculations started.
Many belive that the initial plan was to have at least a proper sequel to Lis 1 under their management, but the idea went to shit when Deck Nine and Square Enix acquired the IP for BtS, gaining effective ownership to the franchise and to Max and Chloe. Dontnod could not effectively use those character anymore and so they were obligated to create something new.
This theory gains credibility when we take into consideration the fact that recently a leak about a supposed sequel to the first game with Max and Chloe surfaced. Is important to note that in 2021 there was also another leak in which a person predicted very specific details about True Colors when it was still codenamed “Siren”, basically describing correctly the plot, the final title, the name of the protagonist and her powers. They even predicted the remastered of the first game! Additionally, at the end of the post they mention that the team was looking to make a Lis 1 follow up game with Max and Chloe, so the more recent leak was lining up almost scarily with the former. Another thing that adds fuel to the fire is the fact that the leaker mentioned to have saw an initial concept of this idea in 2022 during a survey in which they showed some future Lis content and apparently there was also an NDA involved. However, since this idea (mainly the bit when they describe Max being able to jump into different timelines) is very similar to what ended up happenning in the comics, some people tought it was simply a scrapped idea that they later reworked into the spin-off. Others instead think that the comics served to introduce us to this very concept and that they are still working on this supposed game. At this point in time we don’t know what the future olds, but it’s confirmed thanks to the article concerning the hate symbols scandal, that a fourth Lis game is currently being worked on. However, we don’t know if it’s that sequel the leaker mentioned or an entire different thing.
The aftermath
So…yeah. As you can probably guess, this situation is a total mess. The fandom is still trying to process what happened, and many are unsure whether to continue supporting the series or not, given everything that happened behind the scenes. It created a bit of a Blizzard situation, if you know what I’m talking about.
Personally, I’m a huge fan of the first Life Is Strange and it played a huge part in my growth. The other games didn’t fascinate me as much as the first tbh, but I loved Arcadia Bay and its world, Max and Chloe, the mystery, the characters, the story, the emotions. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it was the game that changed my life and helped me come to terms with my sexuality. Seeing two girls get together romantically like this in a video game really triggered something in me. It helped me understand that my feelings weren’t wrong. That I wasn’t alone. That i wasn’t broken. I know that probably sounds very cheesy and cringe, but it’s the way it is and I can’t help it. You can imagine what my reaction was when I witnessed this mess unfold irl. In a way I felt hurt. It’s strange to think that a saga that has done so much for me is being run by people who would like to see me dead. Or at the very least, people who were not that open as they liked to present themselves. And I don’t have an answer to the question “should we still support this video game?” Honestly I do not know. On one hand I feel sorry for all the creatives who desperately tried to make Life Is Strange something special despite everything, but at the same time… my god. What the fuck.
I can’t help but wonder how Life Is Strange could have been if it remained under Dontnod’s creative control: what kind of stories they would tell, what future they would invent for Max and Chloe, what adventures they would get into. But maybe it’s better this way. Those girls have grown up, they went trought a lot, and maybe we just need to learn to let them go. After all, isn’t it the entire point of the game? Learning to grow? As for me, I will continue to replay Life Is Strange 1 periodically, I will continue to be part of the frankly amazing community that is the Lis fandom, I will continue to read fanfictions and support fan creations, being it fangames or fanarts. Because they can never take it away from me. They can’t take it away from us. Never.
Thank you for reading this far, i hope it was interesting and that you learned something new.
That being said…quit with the sad bullshit! I want to use this section to shoutout a fellow creator that is currently working on a fan-made sequel of the first game: Life Is Strange After the Storm. If you like this kind of stuffs, make sure to follow him on twitter and to support the project!
Ok now i’m really over. See ya!
EDIT: added clarifictions in the True Colors section. Changed a link in there too (i realized i put the wrong thing). Corrected some BtS informations. Added a clarification in the article section. Edited some formatting and corrected grammatical errors. Added a link in the Hagal rune section. Uncensored the word "nazi", since a person wrote me in private to make me know that my post would not be put down now that it's approved. Rephrased some words to not make them sounds hostile, since a lot of people were getting on my troath for this. I would also like to clarify while i'm here that i don't hate Lis 3 in its entirety nor i'm alluding that Lis 1 has not recived any valid criticism, since people are putting words in my mouth that i did, in fact, not say.
ALSO IMPORTANT CAVIAT: you are not in the wrong if you liked True Colors! It's ok! The game has it's moments and can absolutely be good. In fact, i personally liked some of its plot points and ideas. A good amount of people recived it very well. In this post i'm talking about general negative fan reception to explain why many people are growing disillusioned with the series and to make clear why people criticize it more than the first game, i'm not saying your tastes are bad/you are in the wrong. It's ok to like different things.