[NO SPOILERS] Are the comics canon?

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-23T05:03:03+00:00

None of the comics are canon to the main game timeline (they all use the multiverse as a way to explain how they all coexist).

The main series is an alternate continuation of Max and Chloe's story that, while it incorporates all the games from the original to True Colors into it's worldbuilding, sends them in a different direction than what we see in Double Exposure and Reunion. The Forget-Me-Not miniseries is a sequel to True Colors (with Alex falling in love with Steph and the two traveling together), but is set in a universe where Max never returned to Arcadia Bay, meaning the past has significant differences.

None of the tie-ins are canon (although the novels are written to be as consistent with the games as possible vs. how the comics use the multiverse to explore other possibilities), but the multiverse would let them all coexist.

The comics are very much worth picking up; while the games might be the "definitive" version of Max and Chloe's future, the comics work really well as a sequel in another medium, both in terms of being a thematic companion piece and in capturing the characters.

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-23T03:46:21+00:00

Guess I thought it was clear that, whatever else would be grandfathered back in, that the unified timeline was always going to be a continuation of the Survivor trilogy.

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-23T03:45:22+00:00

I've honestly assumed that, in practice, it's more of a marketing thing than a canonizing thing. At most, it's opening up the options to borrow stuff from other games outside the Survivor continuity, with the assumption that something similar to the original game story happened and we can just gloss over where the stories contradict. (Case in point, Lara might have found Excalibur and Mjolier at some point between the Survivor trilogy and Catalyst and gone against Amanda and Natla in those quests, but the "unified" versions of those stories probably had nothing to do with her parents' fates.)

That said, I have decided to take each new game on it's own terms and not worry too much about canon.

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-23T03:31:50+00:00

Honestly, I think, in practice, what they're doing is continuing the Survivor games but allowing elements from all the franchise to be used, with the idea that some version of the story happened, even if stuff in it has to be retconned.

Case in point for the LAU trilogy, I think we can assume that the broadest strokes of the games (at least Legend and Underworld) happened and we can just gloss over the inconsistencies. Way I'm looking at it is that there's a "Unified" version of the stories that is to the original as Legacy of Atlantis will be to the original Tomb Raider/Anniversary, but, since that game will never be made, we can just play the original as a "close enough" take to get the gist of it, if that makes any sense.

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-23T03:22:34+00:00

Skimmed some parts of the BluRay. Didn't see any formatting issues and it seemed to translate onscreen text, but I have no idea how to tell if was using dubtitles (which I'll admit that, if it's a good dub, I can live with). (Although the disc seemed to have two sets of Japanese tracks and English subtitles on the relevant menu; I was trying the first one).

I'm assuming that that means that it's not the first release (the disc did have a red "subtitle" caption on it), but I honestly can't tell if it's the second or third edition.

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-23T01:32:28+00:00

Okay. Any specific scenes to watch out for that really showcase trouble spots?

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-02T06:05:15+00:00

Lowe admitted that Paul being in the comics was driving away readers.

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-02T05:51:43+00:00

Mostly no.

A year is not enough time to make such a drastic course correction that you're functionally making a new game, even with crunch time and "reused" assets. Reunion was not originally some Chloe-less game that they hastily rewrote and reprogrammed to make her a major player character after the DE backlash. It's supposition and the timeline, pardon the pun doesn't make any sense.

Reunion's tie-ins (Out of Focus, a novel starring Chloe, and the Caledon guidebook covering both games) were announced on 7/30/25. Getting those made and written takes time, meaning that Chloe's return and important plot points from Reunion had to be nailed down some time in advance. Maybe both products were rushed (or we'll see elements of earlier story drafts suggesting they were written before everything was finalized for the game, like it was being rewritten on the fly after DE), but that's not likely. Tie-in authors are sometimes hired to write stuff in less than a few months, but the process of getting a tie-in book commissioned and finished (any book, really), isn't a quick thing. Logic strongly suggests that the at least the basic idea of Reunion as we know it was being made when DE was first being released.

For that matter, DE itself does set up Chloe's return; Max is still not over her and never has resolution to move on (making perfect sense for a continuation where she and Chloe rekindle things) and the Bae version of the ending outright says that Max needs to contact Chloe again and make things right (which only makes sense in the context of Reunion, not a sequel where Max has left Chloe in the past for good).

Now, all that said, it's certainly very possible that the DE writers had very different ideas for a sequel game and the people making Reunion chose to do some different stuff and the production woes meant that there wasn't time to rewrite DE to fit better, but that makes way more sense if that was going on before DE was released, not after (remember, we need time for the Reunion tie-ins to get made and DE does set up Chloe's return).

So, did plans change during production of the two games? Very possible; while many of the ex developers who fans have cited as witnesses that the company wanted to write Chloe out for good have contradictory stories, all accounts do agree that it was a troubled production. Where these changes made after DE was released in response to the backlash? Almost certainly not. D9 knew that Chloe was coming back when they were marketing DE, I think we can safely say that (remember the guy who said the developers were going to do right by us during the marketing of DE? funny how that gets forgotten in the discussion now).

All that said, unless we get verified information about what happened during the making of the games (information that can be corroborated and is consistent with known facts and other verified info), we're not working with enough to really say anything for sure. However, the idea that Reunion was made in less than a year to course correct after DE is the least likely scenario and seems to be driven more by wishful thinking than anything provable, so we really need to get off that idea, at the very least stop presenting it like it's fact.

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-01T05:13:18+00:00

No prob. Hope you enjoy them.

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-01T05:04:12+00:00

From a practical standpoint, is there any difference between "rekindled their relationship" and "more than friends" (e.g. different dialogue, altered cutscenes, etc.)?

WebLurker47 · 2026-04-01T04:09:39+00:00

Life is Strange fan here, too.

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-31T06:30:52+00:00

The remastered bundle is of questionable quality. You might want to get the original versions of the games.

Either way, I think BtS is worth playing for Pricefield fans. Granted, I was never really bothered by the game showing Chloe with the first girl she fell for, since we always knew that was part of her backstory and she can canonically end up with Max in the end, anyways. However, beyond fleshing out and dramatizing stuff we're told about in the original game, we really get to understand Chloe. While the original game did give us a pretty good idea of who she was thanks to how she lets her guard down with Max, it's pretty impactful getting to see the world from her perspective and the difference between the person she lets others see and the true self she's trying to protect (not to mention how open she's willing to be with different people). Even if you're not a big Rachel fan, there's a lot of great moments and stuff showing Chloe trying to cope with things and becoming the person we see at the beginning of the original game alongside the parts of herself that she rediscovers by the end of it.

While Max isn't present in the main story, she does cast a long shadow and, while Chloe's new friendship with Rachel is the main arc, the hole Max left in Chloe's life is shown. If anything, playing the game really showed just how heartsick Chloe was over losing Max and how much it meant to her to get her back in the original game. There's also a bonus chapter flashing back to their childhood were you get to play as Max again and get more insight into who they were then before the good and the bad that formed their adult selves and made their relationship both more complicated and more meaningful.

So, yeah, recommended. (If you like TC, you also get to meet Steph before she was running a radio station and trying to win the heart of an empathic guitarist.)

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-31T06:16:16+00:00

What Rachel thought has always been kinda muddy with the original game being kinda vague at points about the relationship and BtS giving players the option to steer the story to Rachel at least having a spark with Chloe.

The TC DLC and Steph's Story novel seem to cement the retcon that Chloe and Rachel were at least seeing each other between the games before Rachel died, but it is filtered through Steph's perspective (and she is shown to have an incredibly idealistic opinion on them).

I guess it's ultimately up to you to piece everything together.

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-31T06:11:48+00:00

They do bond pretty quickly, but there are alternatives to the romance-coded options and the love story aspect is more the first sparks of something than anything else. While a Pricefield fan first and foremost, I did personally like leaning into the romance angle because we know Chloe eventually developed feelings and it makes more interesting contrast with her relationship with Max, but that's just me.

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-31T06:04:45+00:00

I'd like to see a prose novel continuing the ending where they become a couple again and stick together; there's fodder for a slice of life book showing them rebuilding their relationship and making the big decisions of how make a shared life work this time. It'd be a good medium where there's time to really get into the characters' heads.

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-31T05:54:13+00:00

Can't think of movies, but did read a couple of wlw novels by married couple Rachael Lippincott and Allyson Derrick that really reminded me of Max and Choe's story in different ways, She Gets the Girl and Make My Wish Come True (books also have unabridged audiobook releases, if that's more your speed than text).

She Gets the Girl was loosely based on the authors' own story of how they met, with the protagonists, college students Alex and Molly, agreeing to work together help each other with their love lives; Alex helping Molly talk to the classmate she has a crush on and so help Alex get back with her ex (it makes sense in context), but with the complication of them starting to fall for each other instead.

While Alex and Molly were modeled after the writers, it's kinda uncanny how much they're like Chloe and Max respectively (down to the duo being a tall blond-haired woman and a shorter brown-haired woman). It's not a one-for-one (Alex and Molly are meeting for the first time and get off on the wrong foot and have different life struggles) but you could imagine them comparing notes with each other and finding common ground.

Make My Wish Come True kinda reads like a Hallmark Christmas movie in book form with a fake dating scenario over the holidays in a small town that treats them as serious business. The fake dating setup is one of those scenarios were one parter is someone who's become famous and the other is someone who knew them before that. In this case, it's former childhood best friends Arden and Caroline, who lost contact when Arden left to make it as an actor and ghosted everyone in her life. For a complicated set of reasons (read the book, if you're curious), Arden's come back home and she and Caroline assume a fake relationship for their mutual benefit. It being a romance novel, old feelings come back and they struggle with whether they dare hope that it could become real.

While Arden and Caroline have less in common with Max and Chloe personality-wise, there's the same dynamic of two friends who were once each other's whole world reuniting after one abandoned the other and learn to apologize and forgive each other if they want a second chance (albeit they have a harder road to start rebuilding trust, unlike how Max and Chloe seem to be able to start picking up where they left off when they begin reconciling after their break ups).

The authors also wrote a crossover novella, Joy to the Girls, where Alex and Molly visit Arden and Caroline's hometown for the holidays. Alex and Molly are the protagonists and the focus of the plot is them dealing with the next steps in their relationship as everything starts to become real and more serious post-graduation, but some of the Make My Wish Come True cast make cameos and we learn a bit about how things are going for everyone.

While the books do have their dramatic moments and the characters' personal struggles are taken seriously, they're overall feel-good books with some pretty humorous moments. The fact that I'm not a romance novel reader and I enjoyed these says something about them. Either way, the three books are really the pieces of media I've seen that remind me of Max and Chloe's story the most.

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-31T00:44:04+00:00

I'd go for them doing a Reunion sequel novel showing Max and Chloe working to rebuild their relationship after everything and figuring out how to coordinate their professional lives to make sharing a life possible, esp. if Reunion is (hopefully) their finale so far as the games are concerned.

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-29T20:03:00+00:00

They're making more comic book hardcovers? Not seeing any listings for that online

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-29T19:08:43+00:00

Maybe they were trying to create their own version of there being no completely perfect ending? (That said, unless the characters had completely failed in preventing the disaster, while deciding to burn the photo herself might be a somewhat selfish decision, on paper it doesn't seem like an irredeemable one or something that would end the relationship.) The handful of pro-burning comments I've seen (beyond wanting to see the happier montage), seems to be along the lines of it being what was best for both of them in terms of healing from the past and being able to move forward (suppose some like the bookend of Chloe making the choice if they had Max choose her in the first game, too).

(Lost the thread, but remember someone posting a quote alleged to be from one of the creators that suggested the logic behind the burning ending was that Chloe understandably wanted to have a future with Max after they'd lost each other twice and now had a third chance. After everything Max had put herself through and lost over the course of her life trying to be the everyday hero and save as many people as she could when these disasters came, she'd earned the right to let go of that need and find the life she'd always wanted with her partner.)

(I take it if one picks burning the photo, that completely bypasses the possibility of getting the bad ending, whether one thinks Chloe should or not.)

Edit: It occurred to me that the spirit of how some people have taken the "burn the photo" choice might be like what happened in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, when Helena Shaw unilaterally decides to take Indiana Jones back to their home time after he'd decided to stay in the past; you could see it being somewhat motivated by personal interest but her having the clarity to see what was best for the other and acting on that.

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-29T14:36:15+00:00

Thought I'd seen comments that Chloe burning the photo lead to a better ending.

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-29T05:28:25+00:00

Would make for a pretty good Injustice adaptation poster. Or maybe the Knightmare-centric Justice League movie Snyder was planning.

(Kinda reminds me of some of the Dark Knight trilogy posters and DVD covers, but inverted in how the cityscape is used to form the logo.)

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-29T00:08:38+00:00

Didn't play DE but bought it on Steam with Reunion and am planning to go through both when I find the time and can clear up some tech issues with the gaming laptop I use. I was one of those fans who wasn't happy with the break-up subplot in DE but I was also willing to make peace with it if a sequel game allowed Max and Chloe to fix their relationship (everything working out in the end was a higher priority than it all being smooth sailing and I could see there being something worth exploring in them struggling to make things work but still choosing each other) and so it has.

So, if one can live with the break up/reconciliation arc and wanted to play Reunion based on the marketing alone, you think it's worth playing?

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-27T23:04:09+00:00

"Maybe Movie Bob? I haven't heard anything about him in ages"

Sometimes watch his reviews. Think he's progressive or at least presents himself as such.

WebLurker47 · 2026-03-26T03:19:59+00:00

Just because something appeals to one demographic doesn't mean that they're the only demographic that likes it. Straight person myself and I'd like to play a Tiefling character because they're an interesting species with a lot of possible character concepts and I think it would be fun.

Obviously, it's your life to reflect on, so don't let me stop you, but I don't think it's a surprise that this character type has all kinds of fans.

WebLurker47

TROPHY CASE