Life Is Strange: Before The Storm's prequel-prequel bonus ep reunites Chloe and Max on March 6
Love, love will tear us apart again
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm's third and final chapter arrived in December, bringing the teen trauma prequel full circle, but that isn't quite the end. Still to come is a "bonus" episode set even earlier than Before the Storm, visiting teensy Chloe and teensy Max before they were pulled apart. Square Enix today announced that the bonus ep, named Farewell, will launch on March 6th. It will only be available in the game's various deluxe editions, which is a bummer. New deluxe editions are coming, mind, including one with the soundtrack on vinyl for those who enjoy forcing squished dinosaurs to do karaoke.
The bonus episode is meant to be quite separate to Before the Storm, its absence from the regular edition not harming the base game, but it's still weird that Squeenix decided to split it off rather than rolling it in and bumping the price a little. [Please understand that talking about "bumping the price" is not intended to be punning on Chloe Price. Puns are wrong.] The regular Deluxe Edition costs an extra £6.23 on Steam, also including a few outfits and a cinematic mode where you can hang out and listen to a tune, or people who bought the regular edition can upgrade for £7.99.
All that Deluxe stuff is in the new physical editions, along with the soundtrack in various physical forms. The Limited Edition for £35/€40/$40 has the soundtrack on CD, then the Vinyl Edition has tunes on both CD and vinyl for £60/€70/$70. I don't usually mention physical editions because owning decorative possessions is an endless nightmare but hell, if you're going to pay extra to get Farewell anyway, maybe you want to suffer even more.
After some uncertainty, I've decide to skip Before the Storm. I'm very fond of the original Life Is Strange, quirks and all, but as Pip and I agreed, it definitely ended in tragedy. I don't want to see the tragedy which preceded that tragedy. The bonus episode is playing with the tragedy before that too, showing their friendship before Max moved away and their friendship fell apart and... no thank you. I don't want to continue exploring the many facets and hopes of Chloe's doomed friendships and romances. The original Life Is Strange ends with Chloe and Max recognising they must accept things and move on, and I moved on with them.
Nah, I'll skip Deck Nine's spin-off and wait for that mysterious new Life Is Strange coming from series creators Dontnod. I do hope they have moved on too. Leave Max alone, yeah?
I mean, I'm sure Farewell will aim to deliver fan-pleasing warmth and happiness, and it is nice that Max and Chloe's original voice actors are back, but I don't think it's for me.
