Last year, my single favourite moment in gaming came in DontNod’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tell Me Why, when Tyler was ice fishing on the lake with Michael. I wrote about the scene a while back, explaining how special its rugged qu𓆏eerness was, this serigraph of masculinity starring a trans man and a gay Tlingit acting as a modern day Brokeback Mountain. It’s only September, but I’m already convinced I know my number one from this year, and it comes in Tell Me Why’s cousin, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Life is Strange: True Colors.
Objectively, True Colors is probably the best iteration of This Sort Of Game, ahead of other 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Life is Strange titles, Tell Me Why, and Twin Mirror. Certainly, Alex Chen is the best protagonist this series-plus-other-similar-games has ever had. The very first Life is Strange means too much for me to ever put anything above it, but True Colors is the only one challenging that standard in a major way - although Life is Strange 2 is also great ෴and we should be talking about it ♎a whole lot more.
Minor spoilers ahead for Life is Strange: True Colors
Part of what makes True Colors so special is its use of music, which is where 2021’s best moment comes in. During chapter four, Alex finds herself at the Spring Festival, where Steph and Ryan tell her a very special musical guest is playing. Turns out, that guest is in fac💎t Alex herself. When she learns of this, Ryan and Steph tell her they would have told her, but they were worried she would have wussed out. In one of the best scene transitions in This Sort Of Game ever, before Alex can answer, we see her standing on the stage, holding her guitar like a rabbit caught in the headlights but too busy turning its guitar to notice the lorry heading its way. Alex can then say “I wouldn’t have wussed out” or “definitely would have wussed out,” but it doesn’t really matter. That’s the genius of many choices in True C♛olors, they’re not there to shape the game, but to shape Alex.
Regardless of your response, Alex is the star of the festival with Steph behind her on drums, and they kill it. Playing a more folk pop version of the Violent Femmes’ Blister in the Sun, Alex and Steph light up the festival, and True Colors allows them this moment perfectly. Narratively, Blister in the Sun adds nothing to the g🔯ame. Yet we see the whole performance, watching Alex w𝔍ork the crowd and make the song her own. Life is Strange: True Colors is a game about joy, and few moments encapsulate this joy more than Alex’s moment in the spotlight.
Choosing Steph as your beau makes the moment even more special, as just moments before you go on stage you give Steph a traditional rose and essentially ask her out, which she accepts. To sweeten the deal even further, you can 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:even wear a Hawt Dawꦑg Man shirt while perform🌠ing.
This is not the only great piece of music in the game, however. Alex’s singing voice is provided by bedroom lo-fi artist mxmtoon, who also treats us to a rendition of Creep in the game’s opening chapter. We also get to listen to Kings of Leon’s Don’t Matter while rocking out with Gabe, and in later chapters can spin other tunes on t♈he record player. We also see a flashback to Alex as a kid, listening to Dido’s Thank You on her chunky he𓂃adphones.
Several characters in the Life is Strange universe are musicians, and that feels like a very deliberate decision. They tend to be very sombre, acoustic musicians without excess or unnecessary flair - they tend to be very like mxmtoon, and not much at all like Shawn Men🎶des, who is music producer on the TV show, for some re๊ason. This makes the characters feel more raw, and gives us a clearer look into their soul - Alex Chen continues thiꦏs tradition.
We also see Alex LARPing as a Bard in the game’s third chapter, with her musical abilities folded neatly into the story in the most joyful way possible. This all sets up the final decision, which is tied dir🐟ectly to Alex’s talent and passion.
Even away from Alex herself, the soundtrack is once again phenomenal, and our own Jade King sat down for a longer interview wit🦄h Ju🦹lia Stone, who scored the game. This score is used in the various Zen moments in the game, where all there is is the music and Alex. It’s a game that respects music deeply, from the casting of mxmto🌸on, the moments it dedicates to mu♏sic, and the way it shuts off the rest of the world, if only for a second. There are still three months left, but I look forward to telling you all again in December that Blister in the Sun was 2021’s peak.