Tag: Dontnod

Tell Me Why Review – Dontnod tackles a difficult subject

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Tell Me Why is from Dontnod Studios.  After their success with Life Is Strange, I was curious what other realms Dontnod would explore, and it seems the apple hasn’t fallen that far from the tree. 

Dontnod’s newest game is once again an episodic narrative game with characters who have special powers, deal with heavy issues, and feels almost like it could have been titled Life is Strange 3. 

The story revolves around a pair of twins Alyson and Tyler who are given a special power to share memories.  Yet again, this power is neither explored nor explained.  It’s just a storytelling element for the game to explore previous events.

It’s probably important to mention that Tyler is transgender, being born a female, and is now a male in the story. Yet the only reason I feel compelled to bring it up is due to how often the game pushes the issue as if it wants people to notice how progressive this is.  Dontnod even released a FAQ regarding this, and the fact is they handled the topic well, exactly how I hope other studios treat transgender characters.  

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The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit Review – A free but still incredible adventure

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The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit was a lead-in to Life is Strange 2.  It is designed to be a title that helped promote the new title in the franchise, but also is a standalone title for the majority of it, and is quite well made. 

Captain Spirit focuses on a young boy, Chris Eriksen, and his desire to be a superhero, a common dream of young kids, and a relatable one.  He imagines himself as Captain Spirit with a band of fellow superheroes who fight against a league of villains. 

Of course, this is just a fantasy, and while the trailer hints that Chris Eriksen has some kind of special powers, this doesn’t appear to be the case.  Instead, DontNod develops another interesting and unique character and shows why they are revered as great storytellers. 

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Life is Strange Review – A near perfect execution of the Adventure Game formula

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Telltale really made the modern “Adventure game” iconic in a number of ways, mostly in how formulaic they are.  The Telltale formula is to take a well known IP, and then add a new story to the world with minimal changes and choices that the player will have control over.  Players are just along for the ride, and ultimately it’s similar to a storybook.

But whether you pick up the Batman, Walking Dead, or Guardians of the Galaxy, as long as you like the IP, you’ll probably enjoy the journey.  If you don’t, well, it might be the wrong game for you. 

Dontnod’s entry into the genre is therefore quite odd.  Instead of attaching the storybook idea to an IP they instead decided to make their own world and tell a story there.  It definitely was a risky venture as having no established IP meant everyone would-be newcomers to the series and trying to make the “storybook” approach interesting to new fans could be challenging.  

But it’s only with great risk can great reward be obtained, and I think Dontnod is deserving of a massive reward.  

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