Life is Strange polarized me (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 22:19 (3120 days ago) @ Korny

The issue is how you define "ending". In a game such as Beyond (more so in Heavy Rain), there are a limited number of ways the scene before the credits can play out. This is because of the limitations that the developers have to account for. That said, while the final scene may be the same for everyone, the entire journey may be different, so you have countless "endings" along the way.

Pretty much every 'choice' game gets the 'journey' right. Of course the choices change things on the way. But these choices are forgotten about in the end nearly always. I'm not convinced it's impossible: Life is Strange had a linear story, yet it functioned fine with the choices you made and warped to accommodate them. The only difference is the ending did not.

You have to be able to change both the journey and the destination. You can get away with having one destination if you play the 'free will is an illusion' card, but that is really overdone in games, probably precisely because nobody has figured out how to really allow us satisfying narrative choice.

You don't need one ending per choice permutation. Some choices are small one by definition, and might only effect a line of dialogue here or there. But small choices can add up (imagine constantly giving dismissive responses to a character), and there are obviously big choices that should take the plot in different directions.

I'm not ashamed to say that I simply don't know if it can be done or not - if you can craft a story this way even without practical limitations. I am leaning toward yes however.