What choice will GBEast make? [Spoilers Dawg!]

does it matter? You can literally reload to that choice right after the credits. i don't even remember which i choice first.

I think they are going to let themselves get guilt tripped by the "ghostly" Arcadia Bay people in the frozen Diner to choose them over Chloe. That's the wrong choice, by the way.

Also yeah, I have some serious grips with both endings too.

I'm guessing Sacrifice Chloe.

I also love the ending (or at least that one, though I don't think the other one is bad). It's one of my favorite endings to a video game ever. I have no idea how they'll react to episode 5.

I'm guessing they sacrifice Chole. But I know which is the real choice

I think they sacrifice Arcadiabay, they dont care for any of the characters and probably say "fuck them all".

They will sacrifice Chloe but there was not a power on earth that would make me do that when I played.

Also the people that are saying that the choices didn't matter completely misunderstood the entire point of the game.

There is a dog in Arcadia Bay... so, I'm thinking Alex may have some misgivings sacrificing town.

Also, curious why some claim this is a bad or real choice?

@mason20: Some people are salty that all your choices don't really culminate in anything. You either ditch the town in ruins, or you reset the whole timeline and a bunch of it never happens. Sorry there wasn't some magical elf judge watching you the whole time, so at the end of the game they can tell you whether you're a good person or not. Also I guess people are salty about the time travel power going unexplained, and the freak weather is never explained as anything more than the universe lashing out because Max disrupted the timeline by saving Chloe in the bathroom.

None of those things bothered me.

I agree with your point on the choices. Its like mark of the ninja or bastion. Did it matter? No.

Was it impactful? That is the point.

I would think they'll sacrifice Chloe. I think they'll feel it's the right thing to do and, similarly to the assisted suicide choice, will feel that if Chloe says she wants to, then they shouldn't make the decision for her. I didn't, mostly because Max and Chloe were really the only characters I cared about in the game, so even though narratively it's the "good" choice and, if this were a movie, that would be your emotional, Nolan-esque ending, I had no desire to make that choice.

Also, as was said, it would be completely undoing everything that happened in the game. Max's character didn't have a huge arc, and so even though she would certainly have been "changed" by the events of the game, she wouldn't be a significantly different person from the one she started as, and so the end result of the story would have been a wash with no real purpose other than the notion that "some people are meant to die."

The only problem I had with the entire game was the ending. Execution rather than concept - the 'save Chloe' choice felt so slapped together and soulless and was a very jarring and unrewarding end to the story. I really thought half the town was made up of assholes, so obviously I saved Chloe.

I think they'll save the town.

I think they'll save the town, but at least they'll probably realize with the goodbye smooch, etc. that Chloe and Max's relationship can end up being plainly romantic if you side that way while playing. It took Chloe yelling about loving Rachel in the 4th episode (once in a dialog choice that could be missed) for them to confirm that she wasn't straight, so having the game hit home one last time with the girl/girl relationships theme isn't the worst way to end things imo.

That being said, Bae before Bay.

Chloe wants to sacrifice herself for the good of the many. She doesn't want her mother to die for her. The GB crew will likely take her suggestion seriously.

I hope they see both endings, but I think they will pick the "sacrifice Chloe" one right off the bat.

They've got level heads and will convince each other that the choice of greater good is the right choice.

I beat this four days ago, and from what they say and how they play I think they will save the town.

What I find interesting with all of this is how the endings are basically a good and a bad one, where the good one is (in a way) bad for Max while the bad one is good for Max. She either does "the right thing" and loses her best friend, even so far as to her never knowing how much you really cared about her, or she does "the wrong thing" and saves her but kills most of her hometown.
I am in the camp of "all of this happened so Max could have a final adventure with her best friend", and so to me sacrificing Chloe is the only sensible choice.

No it doesnt matter its a video game.

I think the ending is pretty stupid not becouse the "lack of choice" in the choice but becouse if Max and Chloe can stand on the beach at the very edge of the storm and be safe, they literally just casually walk up to the lighthouse and then are alright it seems, then the rest of the town can probably casualy walk away from the storm and be safe aswell. I saved Chloe becouse of stupid handfisted "hard choices" and reasons.

I can only hope they sacrifice Chloe because that's the ending that had a significant impact on me. Rarely do games move me on any emotional level but that ending combined with the feeling that I genuinely got to know these imaginary teens really touched me in an unexpected way - something that stayed with me for several days to follow.

Guess I'm turning into a softie.

They'll sacrifice Chloe because they will make the decision as a team based on their own thoughts rather than what Max's potential character arc would imply.

I saved Chloe because that was what would actually happen in the situation I was in at the time (the two were obviously in love and Max had already fucked up all of time to get her to herself) which really made that drive across a ruined town in the end so much better (and more bitter I guess).

Sacrifice Chloe. I think GBE are going to notice the patterns/themes that "set up" this ending more, and that might push them to sacrifice Chloe. Not gonna debate the obvious split in how the game ended and the illusion of choice and whatnot since there have been good points made already.

I hope they let Alyssa's scene play out.

I hope they save but smart money is on sacrifice. The sacrifice ending is much more substantial though so that's a plus.

EDIT: Huh, guess this is my 10,000th post?

Sacrificing Chloe is the conclusion of Max and Chloe's character arcs. This video explains it better than I could (relevant bit at 11:20):

I feel like people complaining about those things just missed the point of the game.

Chloe sucks. Easy decision.

@starvinggamer said:

It's interesting how different the impact of the two choices are. If you choose to sacrifice Arcadia Bay, the toughest part is the moment you actual making that sorta selfish decision to doom the town just because you believe it'll make Max and Chloe happier to be together, and the ending that follows is kind of a relief of "yep, let's move on outta here". If you choose the sacrifice Chloe ending, the decision moment feels like doing the right thing, but then the toughest part is sitting through everything that follows that is all SUPER SAD.

If anyone has read a developer interview where they discuss the final cutscenes in length, I'd be interested in reading it, because I do agree that the one seems more substantial than the other. Curious whether they really think of one as the canon ending, or if they just had more ideas of what scenes to show for one ending as opposed to the other.

They will choose the only right choice, sorry but a decent human being would never choose one person over a whole town. Especially when that one person is someone who should have been dead in the first place.

You're absolutely right, and that's exactly what went through my head when I sacrificed Arcadia Bay. I couldn't do it.

I guess I'll never understand why, why kill so many people for her? She's selfish, abusive, ungrateful and doesn't deserve sympathy over her dad dieing when all she does is use his death as an excuse to blame everyone else for her problems. She is one of the worst friends a girl like Max could ever have. Sure Arcadia Bay is a fucked up town, and has its fair share of bad people, but its also full of good people who don't deserve to have their lives thrown away by a teenager who doesn't want to let go of an old friend.

@mr_faraday said:

I also didn't choose to sacrifice Arcadia Bay, but to play devil's advocate, some people's perception of Max is that she cares a great deal for Chloe because she was a wonderful friend when they were younger, and maybe Max feels some guilt over not being around during the roughest years of Chloe's life and wants to change that and one week isn't enough time, and the alternative to keeping Chloe alive is dooming her to a death where she is sad and frustrated and alone and never reconnected with Max. That hurricane would kill a lot of people, but if players really want Max and Chloe to be together and think that those 5 days with Chloe really meant the world to Max, then keeping Chloe is more important than keeping the town.

It does seem like the kind of decision where Vinny's moral compass will immediately kick in and he'll want to do the more ethical choice of save the town, Alex will also reach this conclusion quickly but be incredibly stressed out by having to be the ones who doom Chloe, and only Austin will try to see it from both sides and make a case for both options. Then again, this prediction could be way off, because I never would've guessed Vinny would be so gun-safety in all of the decisions with Chloe and the gun.

All anybody in that town ever does is bitch about how much of a shithole it is. Chloe might be kind of a dickhead at times, but she's Max's bud, fuck Arcadia Bay

@mr_faraday: If you step back from what the text of the two choices say, I don't think it's fair to say Max is choosing to kill a bunch of innocent people to save her friend. Rather, that ending represents a view of "I tried my best, and time's gotta do what time's gotta do." The back half of episode 5 is Max's mental breakdown from the weight of trying to police time coming crashing down on her and her acceptance that she just can't continue to do that. The decision comes down to the only two choices Max (and the player) are left with having reached that point, which are I can use my power one more time to undo this, or I can say I'm done trying to untangle this mess and I'm not letting my best friend go. For me at least, I see validity in both schools of thought.

BTW: For my own decision, I chose to sacrifice Chloe because it's what she wanted. Given the choice the guys made at the start of episode 4, that's why I think they're going to go that route as well as there is some similar thinking behind the two decisions IMO.

Both endings are trash so it doesn't really matter. The insulting part of the save the bay ending is that without your help everything magically turns out for the better anyway (Nathan caught immediately which results in Jefferson getting incriminated and Kate's suicide problem just works itself out somehow?). I don't need a game to tell me that I am a good person for saving an imaginary bird but when one choice is to blow up a town and the other is "everything would be better if you just didn't play the game at all" there's a problem. Both endings really feel like they weren't what was planned or based on some loose idea of "make a hard choice at the end" and then didn't really know how to execute on that. It feels like they want some kind of meta commentary of player agency and that we don't always affect stuff we want to but then didn't want to actually stick to that resulting in a perfectly resolved ending where the villains are all caught and it works out great for everyone that isn't Chloe or her mom.

The whole time tornado thing destroying the town because [Max's powers maybe???] was just really bad. It would have been better if the final choice didn't involve it at all.

The rest of the game was really good which is why the shit show last five minutes bug me so much.

@pyrodactyl: @vierastalo: Yeah, I was satisfied with the Destroy Arcadia Bay ending when I first played it....until I went back through the game a bit and then finally played the other ending. There was so much more effort put into the Kill Chloe ending. The authors clearly chose a "right", thematic ending for their story, I wish they had the balls to put it as THE end.

Sacrifice the Bay because Vinny loves chaos.

I think they will sacrifice Chloe, but there's a strong chance they'll swing to kill the bay. Won't be in chat, someone there must remind Alex that Haden "Vaping some dank OG bud" lives in that town;)

Only 16 hours until we find out either way :D

I think Alex and Austin will not even blink at sacrificing Chloe. Vinny doesn't like Chloe more, he just always chooses to see the world burn.

I'm far more interested in how the GBEast crew react to the episode as a whole (or maybe to be precise: how they react to each section of this episode).

Forumite reactions were all over the place here. Every bit of that episode can either rub you the wrong way or feel like it was what needed to be there.

• I don't like anything about the dialogue at the start. I could see the crew being so-so about it but could easily go either way.
• I love SF and how that concludes. Really glad they built out that whole section only to point out that's not what motivates Max. Doubt crew will like it as much as me but hopefully positive.
• Think the game is great in the escape and diner disaster bits, just solid gameplay. The music in the car (ok, the answer-machine call is maybe the one negative), the way it doesn't go on too long but is sizeable. Austin will give another "awww, Warren!" nod of this-kid-is-a-mess-but-note-hateable-for-it at the end of the diner.
• Moving scene with Chloe where the episode feels like it peaks the urgency from the last section, the rush to a conclusion is coming and...
• Long dream sequence. I liked it... to start with (while that rush of urgency is still flowing). Some fun puzzles and some really nice touches if you look for them. I could see the crew being as negative about the stuff here as I am about the opening dialogue. Also maybe brute-force the door puzzle or not realise it's a puzzle to start with.
• The stealth section in the dream is over-long and the references back aren't worth it. Can't see that getting anything other than criticism (the only bit everyone who talks about LiS hates in this ep?).
• I really liked walking through the memories, I think it's important for the game to have it, I wonder if the crew will be too busy talking or rush it and so get very little out of it.
• And then obviously the dream ends and we get the ending that everyone is already discussing.

@shivoa: I have to admit that the sections where you are seeing your experiences with Chloe were really impactful. It was one of the things that pushed me to make my decision. Just wish the stuff leading up to that section were more enjoyable.

I know a lot of people had problems with the ending. But i absolutely loved it. I honestly loved it because it wasn't a hard choice for me. Even though hundreds of people were going to die I chose Chloe in a heartbeat. I thought that was really impressive because I'm usually the guy that has to think on these things for a long time but it didn't take me long at all. I thought that said a lot for their character building that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had to choose Chloe.

It was an easy choice for me, but in the other direction. I despised Chloe.

I chose Arcadia Bay but I think they'll sacrifice Chole. I actually chose Arcadia because I just went through all this time to get the timeline perfect I didn't want to redo it, I assumed if you saved Chloe, Jefferson & Nathan wouldn't get caught so that's why I didn't pick it. Now I know they still get caught so it was obvious that was the "right" answer.

I can also understand the choice of killing the town though. I would sacrifice a whole town to save my significant other, no questions asked.

@shivoa: Regarding the stealth sequence, I think it was meant to be similar to Max Payne's nightmare sequences. I think the goal was to make it annoying and unpleasant for the player to try to put them in the same place Max was in during the nightmare sequence, but not to make it so long as to lose them. I mean a stealth section is a little too on the nose as to what people tend to hate in video games (along with escort missions).

This is not me trying to say "oh my god you just don't get" this sequence to anyone btw. LiS is hardly the first game to ever attempt something like that. But it does come kind of out of nowhere, where as games like say Papers, Please use a core gameplay mechanic throughout to create that feeling.

BTW, I thoroughly enjoyed this article from yesterday about the ending. It captuers a lot of the reasons why I adore the ending, even if some elements of episode 5 could have been executed a little better.

@cav829: Ye, I definitely located it along with crying babies and following white lines on the ground. As you say, stuff like this happens in various places. I'm still not entirely sure I've seen it done well enough that I didn't kinda wish they'd tried to express it some other way.

I went with sacrificing Arcadia Bay because i felt the other choice undid all the game you have just played. Most of the game you work to save Chloe and then letting her die in the end felt wrong to me. I guess both are viable and both are for sure bad ways to end.

Totally called how GBE would choose. I knew Alex and Vinny would kill Chloe and Austin would vote against.

I think saving Arcadia Bay is looked at as the good ending, but imo non of them are good endings. They are both grim with a slight ray of sunshine at the end but as you said i could not let Chloe die after the whole game.

The Sacrifice Arcadia Bay ending could have been so cool. What if you go that route and Chloe is horrified by your decision, and Max is left there, having willingly allowed her town and its residents to be wiped out and as a result forever pushing away the only person she truly cared about? That would have been awesome. Like the Life is Strange "Genocide run." The idea that both of them wouldn't even seem slightly upset by what they did is just crazy. I get the ending was rushed due to time/money, but it at least needed a brief "Graduate" moment of doubt tagged onto the end as they ride into the distance.