Upcoming narrative adventure from Life is Strange dev only features one playable character despite its ensemble cast
Mar. 4, 2024Switching perspectives can make you feel disconnected, explains Bloom & Rage’s creative director
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Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is shaping up to be an intriguing narrative adventure for fans of the original Life is Strange games, but despite having four main characters at the forefront of the story, it turns out that we’ll only be able to play as one of them.
The upcoming story-driven game stars four girls, Nora, Autumn, Kat and Swann – former friends who reunite 27 years after vowing never to speak to each other again due to a mysterious incident sitting at the heart of the narrative. While you might have expected that this would lead to the game switching between the four characters to tell their collective tale, speaking to Edge in issue 394, producer Luc Baghadoust and creative director Michel Koch confirm that this isn’t the case.
Koch – who was also co-director on Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2 – explains that although he does personally enjoy switching perspectives in games, the mechanic can lead to you feeling disconnected from what’s happening on the screen.
“I play a character in one scene, but then in the next scene I see this character talking to me, and I’m not choosing the words?” he says.
On the other hand, he hints that Bloom & Rage’s conversations may flow a little more organically than those that we’re used to from Life is Strange. While we can’t expect the game’s perspective to shift between the cast, you should feel as if you’re fully part of the group, but without the worry of being the only one driving the conversations forward.
“You might want to more clearly listen to someone or someone else, and try to intervene or interrupt someone while they are talking,” he adds. In addition, we can expect to see some “interesting things for interactivity” when it comes to making an impact and having “agency” in the game’s narrative.
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I’m one of GamesRadar+’s news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield’s student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming’s news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you’re sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.
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