LIFE IS STRANGE 2'S FIRST episode premiered in the fall of 2018. Its release was one bolt of lightning in a perfect storm of national events in the United States.
The game is set in October 2016, weeks before the U.S. presidential election. Some characters who Sean and Daniel's encounter fret over what could happen if Donald Trump is elected. Others seem to relish the possibility. More than once, NPCs rant at Latinx characters, going so far as to chant about building "the wall."
It was a bold story. Where many triple-A publishers shied away from politics in their games set in America during the Trump administration, Dontnod's writers faced topics such as xenophobia, jingoism, and police treatment of people of color head on. As with Life is Strange—and practically every story ever—how effective it was depended on who you asked.
Life is Strange 2's release schedule was more scattered than the first game's. Episodes were spaced up to four months apart, causing players and critics to lose narrative threads between chapters. Predictably, not everyone cared for player-choices affecting a character out of their control. Still, more critical outlets felt the game made "powerful" statements about America, and that while not all dialogue hit the mark, the combination of writing and voiceacting by Gonzalo Martin (Sean) and Roman George (Daniel) made for poignant moments overall.
Of particular interest to Dontnod's team was how Life is Strange 2 resonated, or failed to, with Latinx players. Shacknews senior editor Ozzie Mejia, who reviewed all three Life is Strange games to date, came away from Life is Strange 2's premiere episode concerned with where the story seemed to be headed. "It's established throughout the first episode's opening minutes that Sean has an entire support system of friends and neighbors, but if he were to realize that he could rely on those people and try to fight a clear case of police brutality, then there is no story," Mejia wrote in his recap. "The narrative relying on such a huge suspension of disbelief makes it feel weak. And without spoiling further details of the story, Sean's ultimate plan for how to deal with the situation not only sounds ridiculous, but as a first-generation Mexican-American, it honestly made me feel offended. It's the first time I ever had to stop a game in the middle of a review, take a walk around the block, and ask myself, 'Is that seriously where this story just went?'"
Mejia was careful to avoid spoilers in his recap. He reserved judgment until the game was complete and he could get the 30,000-foot-view of the narrative. After Life is Strange 2 had wrapped up, he interviewed co-director Michel Koch about its themes, plot, and character development. The occasion presented him with the opportunity to elaborate on what had bothered him at the outset of Sean's and Daniel's adventure.
"The last several years, more so than ever, have been trying times for Latinx people like myself," he told Koch. "We're demonized, we're caged, we're scapegoated, I could go on and on. There are a few things about the plot that I have some reservations about, but there's one thing that I want to focus on, in particular. Was there a concern that the central plot point of Sean feeling his only solution was to flee to Mexico would be offensive to Latinx people. In a climate where we're told to our faces to 'go back where we came from,' was there a concern that Latinx people like myself would interpret the plot as 'A Mexican kid born in America is giving up and going back where he came from?'"
Koch responded with empathy. He explained that he could relate to how Mejia felt, because in France, a past president (before current-president Emmanuel Macron's administration) went so far as to tell anyone who didn't care for France to leave. It's a sentiment that, unfortunately, many world leaders have expressed, and not far removed from a perspective with more insidious undertones: "If you were born here, you'd fall in line; if you weren't, then you don't belong here."
In our interview, Koch went on to explain how he, Raoul Barbet, and the team at Dontnod viewed Sean's predicament and frame of mind. "When Sean sees what happened with the death of Esteban and the police officer and the police cars arriving, he just has to grab Daniel and run away. Don't get caught by the police. And then he has this dialogue in episode one where he doesn't know where to flee, because he doesn't want to surrender because he knows he will be separated from Daniel, so he thinks he cannot stay in the United States. And for us, it was this idea that maybe he would just have to escape the country to escape the police. So it was really for us, not this idea of 'I'm escaping the country because the country is racist or the country doesn't want me," but rather, 'I will be in jail and I will be separated from my brother.'"
Still, Koch admitted to Mejia that he could see how Sean's decision could "interpreted in the way that you're mentioning."
Ozzie Mejia ended his interview with Koch on the co-director's statement. I was curious how that sat with Ozzie more than six months after their conversation, so I followed up with him. "There's something about this story of two Mexican brothers going on this journey that still makes me feel like it's a story I wish could have been told by Latino people," he admitted. "That's no disrespect to Michel or the rest of the Life is Strange team at Dontnod, whom I've come to know over the years. They told the best story they could and there was no malice on their end."
In episode five, Sean converses with a couple about his situation and what he's been through. The conversation stuck with Ozzie. "Their reaction to Sean wanting to leave and their disbelief for his reasoning gave me the impression that Sean's actions from the very beginning were him reacting out of emotion and out of grief. And the closer Sean got to reaching the finish line, the more doubt started to surface."
Being able to analyze Life is Strange 2 from beginning to end gave Ozzie more to think about. Ultimately, he decided, Dontnod's team had done their due diligence. "My concern after that first episode was that this was subject matter that wouldn't be treated with nuance or respect. But the subsequent episodes and their treatment of the delicate subject matter gradually relieved those tensions. That scene in the detention center at the end, especially, felt very real to me."
Koch and Barbet admitted that research and empathy formed the bedrock of Life is Strange 2. They knew they were entering dangerous territory, and were determined to do the material justice. "In Life is Strange 2, we talk about a lot of issues that people all over the world are living and suffering through," Koch says. "These aren't our experiences or struggles. We didn't go through those issues ourselves, so it was important to make sure we weren't exploiting that for the sake of drama."
To write Sean and Daniel to the best of their abilities, Dontnod's co-directors and writer traveled to the United States and talked with Latinx people to get their perspective. "During the process, we always made sure we got feedback through user tests and talking with people," Koch says. "We wanted to make sure we wrote our characters in the right way. There's always a risk, and we're anxious about, 'Are we doing this the right way?' You can never be sure, but if you genuinely do your best and care about those issues and your characters, if you're not speaking for them but trying to show what they would endure, it can work."
According to Barbet, actors Gonzalo Martin and Roman George helped inform Sean and Daniel as well. "We shared a lot about the game's story with the actors. [Martin] brought a lot of strength to his character. As long as we do enough research, I think it can work. It's so important to respect the stories of people. And as French-white people, it's difficult to admit that we want to talk for them. But we want to create a game for them."
No matter what comes next for the Life is Strange universe, Barbet hopes that each story speaks to players, and to his developers. "It was important to take something from yourself, something personal, and put it in your stories. It let us talk about many different communities. It was as very difficult project for sure. The road trip format was difficult in its own way, because it meant always coming up with new characters and stories. But in the end, we are quite proud, because we talked about important subjects. It wasn't what the fans wanted at first, for sure, but people who played Life is Strange 2 ended up really happy with it."
