Life is Strange: Reunion Finally Brings Max and Chloe Back Together

Max and Chloe changed my life.

It’s the end of March 2015. Life is Strange Episode 2 has just dropped, to a groundswell of press and player excitement. The shocking, determinant fate of Kate Marsh on the Blackwell rooftop reverberates far and wide.

Curious, I pick up the game. The exquisite blend of everyday life, supernatural powers, small-town mystery and indie needle drops enchants me immediately.

I fell hard for Life is Strange — and haven’t stopped falling since.

I was working at Titan Comics then, and after the first game came to an end, I didn’t stop pitching a comic continuation until we launched “Life is Strange” #1 in November 2018 — the further adventures of Max and Chloe, down one particular timeline.

Max and Chloe changed my life again.

From that comic, I unexpectedly got the chance to join Square Enix itself, becoming part of the Life is Strange Brand team, getting to work on the series alongside countless colleagues, developers, and talent from all over the world — some of whom have been on the journey since the very beginning. Many, including the wonderful developers at Deck Nine Games, had a similar story to mine: they met Max and Chloe and were forever changed.

Giving Max and Chloe the Ending They Deserve

Which brings us, at last, to Life is Strange: Reunion, the thrilling finale to the Max and Chloe saga, a chapter that brings their book to a close. This is a full circle moment for both developers and fans — one that builds on everything that has come before. And even as the game delivers a reunion long-thought impossible, it also caps off our time at Caledon University in a literal blaze of glory.

But it’s still infused with all the emotional weight that Max — and we as players — have been carrying since that fateful moment by the Arcadia Bay lighthouse.  We couldn’t dismiss the tragedy at the heart of Max and Chloe. Their reunion could be no quick fix.

Max’s power allows her to undo everything… except the memory of her own actions. Of the way the world was before. Of everything she’s done — and everything she’s lost in the process.

Chloe’s return may be due to Max’s power, in particular, the power Max gained in Life is Strange: Double Exposure to Shift between parallel timelines — a power Max subsequently lost when she merged those timelines back together and recovered her ability to Rewind.

But Chloe is no prize to be won. No passenger in Max’s life or decisions. Both women have been shaped by their experience of the time they spent apart. Chloe’s choices, too, will shape the fate of Caledon: for the first time, Max and Chloe are co-leads of a game.

Working their way back to one another, they offer alternating views of the world, bringing you inside their different-but-complementary perspectives as the story develops — true partners in time.

Max

And — speaking of time! — the power to Rewind it is at Max’s fingertips once more.

As Moses, Max’s astrophysicist friend and beloved confidant, says, “We should act normal, search for clues, talk to suspects without rousing suspicion… Which is exactly what your powers are perfect for.”

Whether it’s unravelling conversations to artfully reveal a lie, turning back the clock to help one of her students, or abusing the laws of causality to escape danger, Max’s ability offers her a wide range of ways to investigate how the fire at Caledon will start — and to navigate the perils that come with poking her nose where it isn’t welcome.

But even with her growing confidence, and Moses’s assistance, Max doesn’t know — cannot know — everything about her ability. Least of all, how her powers may have evolved. For instance, Max now finds, after leaping into a Polaroid photograph to escape the fire, that she is able to stay in that past, starting all over again from the point she took a selfie.

Double-exposed between the past and the present, that selfie is the ultimate do-over for Caledon’s doomed weekend — and a sign that Max is once again in uncharted territory…

Chloe

As for Chloe, now the touring band manager of Drugstore Makeup, you’ll get to experience how she, too, has grown since you saw her last – without losing her essential character.

Whether it’s the sparing ‘power’ of Backtalk that still allows her to browbeat her opponents during key conversations, or just her whip-smart tongue during regular dialogue, Chloe has nothing to prove, and — when it comes to the rowdy townie crowd at the Snapping Turtle — zero ***** to give, if it means getting the answers she needs.

Chloe’s also not part of the University or its faculty — which means she can go where Max can’t, ask what she wouldn’t, and say the things that would never cross Max’s mind. But for all her toughness, Max has always been Chloe’s kryptonite.

Max and Chloe’s relationship is at the core of the story, a relationship that YOU will choose how to develop over the course of the game. Whether Chloe lived or died in Arcadia Bay, and whether she and Max were friends or lovers — these choices are key not just to the past you’ll confirm as you play, but to the future you’ll fight for the chance to build.

Stay Tuned

In the run up to the release of the game in just two months, we’ll have more to share about the fiery mystery at the heart of this new story.

We’ll also have more to share about the rest of the Caledon University crew, including Safi, Moses, Amanda, Vinh, and the many other returning faces from Life is Strange: Double Exposure, who will each get their chance to shine.

But I wanted to take this moment to throw the spotlight on why we’re all here. Why this saga, and this moment matters.

Like many of you, Max and Chloe changed my life.

Life is Strange: Reunion is your last chance to change theirs, coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC on March 26.