The first installment of Life is Strange released on January 29, 2015, and it has had two other full games, one demo, and is getting another full game in September of 2021. There wasn't a single online play-through gamer out there that wasn't playing this game in 2015. The buzz around this show was big for many reasons including its killer story, likable characters, laid-back playstyle, and dreamy music. The story was so well received that some fans even want it to become a live-action series. Would the series translate well into a show?
Considering that most of the game is actually just a playable movie, Life is Strange would definitely do well as a show. Life is Strange is about a teenaged girl named Max who discovers the ability to travel in time and bend it to her will. Her powers have some limitations, but she is able to correct the choices she made in order to save the people around her. Of course, like Ashton Kutcher's The Butterfly Effect taught everyone, changing the past greatly affects the future. Max gets visions of a great and terrible storm approaching, and there is a race to stop it from happening. Life is Strange also does what no other game did before it and sheds light on depression, bullying, and suicide. There is also LGBT+ representation and dated but charming slang. And the storyline about Max's photography teacher is shocking and adds a lot of horror and drama to the story.
There are a ton of reasons this game would translate well into a show. Despite its dated use of slang, it absolutely has relevant topics and themes. It aged very well and was ahead of its time in terms of inclusion. The developers that created the game did not want to make a game about overly sexualized women fighting bad guys; they wanted to make a story about two young girls who were friends. Many companies turned them down and would not fund their idea, especially since they refused to make one of the main characters a male. Finally, Square Enix allowed them the creative freedom to make something other than what studios at the time said was popular.
Part of the charm of Life is Strangewas its art style, but the story was the main thing that had gamers everywhere crying and laughing and gasping. It wasn't the most unique story ever, but the characters and their reactions really made the story work. Max wants to save people, and when she can't, that failure is very emotional and palpable for the player. When Max is going through a really rough time, her friend comes back. And when her friend Chloe needs help finding a missing girl, Max does whatever it takes to find out what happen. The character relationships are done very well, and their backstories are just as good.
Chloe's character has been feeling like her life is spiraling out of control ever since her dad died. When Max gets to go back in time to try and save Chloe's dad, the choice the player gets to make will definitely cause some tears. There is a lot of detail in each episode of the game that could allow some live-action actors to fledge out the characters even more. This story is quite sad and being able to see a real person act out the story would be very entertaining and heartwarming—or heart-crushing depending on which episode.
The sequels to the first game are just as good. Although there is one game from Chloe's point of view, most of the other installments feature new characters. If the series does well, it could become a big series franchise that would give audiences hours of entertainment and tackle subject matter similar to that seen in 13 Reasons Why, but unlike 13 Reasons Why—which seems to treat suicide like an immortalizing deed—Life is Strange doesn't glamorize any of its dark subject matter and treats it very respectfully.
A Life is Strange series would do just as well as the video game did, drawing in people of all kinds. The story is well developed and the characters are very recognizable and unique. The writing is very well done and would be gold in the hands of the right director and actors. The seasons could be broken up in a similar way to the game series, or combined all at once to develop some new unseen characters or plot lines. It's a beautifully done story with some science fiction elements which make it unlike other stories with similar themes. There was talk about a series being developed back in 2017, but nothing ever came of it. With the new installment, Life is Strange: True Colors, coming out this September, now might be a good time to start developing a script and assembling a cast.