Life is Strange Reunion: The Return of Max and Chloe?

Anyone who played Life is Strange: Double Exposure, the latest chapter in the Square Enix franchise, knows how much the absence of Chloe Price weighed on the overall experience. And not just for those who, SPOILER FOR THE FIRST GAME, chose to sacrifice Arcadia Bay to save their blue-haired best friend, but also for those who made the more painful choice to let her go, bowing to the logic of a cruel and only seemingly ineluctable fate.

In Max Caulfield's return to video game screens, now an adult, the elephant in the room was simply too big: a few lines of dialogue, some text messages, and a handful of blog posts within the game's universe were not enough to justify a physical and emotional absence concerning one of the saga's most beloved characters, if not the most iconic. Chloe, capable of galvanizing visceral sympathy as much as scornful judgment, never left anyone indifferent, and her exclusion likely also contributed to the commercial flop of DE. For those orphaned by the ultimate bad-ass girl, something now seems to be stirring on the horizon.

Life is Strange: Stranger Than This...

It's recent news that PEGI, the European video game classification board, leaked – and then quickly removed – information regarding Life is Strange: Reunion, a chapter that, according to the synopsis, would mark the highly anticipated return of Chloe. The plot would see her arrive at Caledon University, already the setting of the controversial DE, tormented by nightmares and memories bordering on the absurd, while Max Caulfield faces a deep crisis after having a vision of a deadly fire destined to destroy the campus within three days.

It is reasonable to assume that, should these narrative coordinates be confirmed, the two best friends – for many players, something more – would return to investigate side-by-side to avert the impending catastrophe, once again utilizing Max's time-rewinding powers. But it's not excluded that Chloe might also reveal uncommon abilities: DE had already introduced secondary characters with special abilities, with plotlines that often hinted at the X-Men universe.

Sudden Change of Course

The failure of the last episode hit Deck Nine hard, forcing them to face not only community criticism but also a series of painful layoffs. Going against the will of the fans proved, once again, to be a gamble, and the impression is that they are now trying to rectify the situation before it's too late. Not by chance, a convenient narrative loophole was inserted at the end of DE, with parallel realities destined to merge: a fragile solution in terms of coherence, but functional to making both endings of the first Life is Strange canon and to guaranteeing Chloe's survival regardless of the player's choices.

If the operation, should it be officially confirmed, proves successful, it's not out of the question that Max and Chloe's adventures as a duo could become a constant in the series' future, with the hope that the quality of writing returns to the levels of the original by Dontnod Entertainment, still the most appreciated chapter by both public and critics.