Dec 6, 2019

Which Life is Strange 2 ending did you get?

Life is Strange 2

What are all the different Life is Strange 2 endings? Choice has always been important to Dontnod's adventure series, but in Life is Strange 2, your decisions are felt more powerfully than ever. Sean and Daniel's epic journey across America may now be over, but the decisions you made across the game’s five chapters have shaped the pair's destination more than you might think.

Warning: Naturally, this article contains major story spoilers for Life is Strange 2. I recommend you experience the story yourself, as it was intended, before you dig into spoiler territory below. So, here are all the Life is Strange 2 episode 5 endings and how you get them.

How many Life is Strange 2 endings are there?

The first game ended in two main ways, but there are a whopping seven different Life is Strange 2 endings. If you’ve already finished your adventure and curious about how they all diverge, check out each one in the video further down this guide.

How does the endings system work, anyway?

Before I get to how each ending works, there are a few important things to note. At the very end of the game, Sean and Daniel are facing off against a police blockade at the USA/Mexico border. Here, Sean is presented with a choice: he can surrender and turn himself in, or use Daniel’s powers and escape.

The thing is, Daniel has a mind of his own. Throughout the game, the example Sean sets for him determines his ‘Morality’. If one large wolf appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen, the decision affects Sean, but if only a small wolf appears, it affects Daniel. If two wolves appear, both brothers are affected.

If you taught Daniel right from wrong—discouraging him from using his powers violently, for example—he will have high Morality. However, if Daniel sees this kind of behaviour from Sean, he learns from it, and is more likely to have low Morality by the end of the game. Your actions will have affected Daniel’s actions in previous episodes, but the final Morality score has the biggest impact on your ending.

Some stem from the same set of results during the showdown at the border, but are shaped by decisions in earlier episodes. Sean’s friendship with Lyla or his romance with Finn or Cassidy in episode 3 can add some minor changes to the game’s final cutscenes.

All Life is Strange 2 endings

Redemption

If Sean decides to surrender at the border while Daniel has high Morality, he tells Daniel that the story of the wolf brothers ends now, and the two embrace. Sean is arrested by Agent Flores, who says Daniel will be looked after—he then moves in with his grandparents in Beaver Creek. 15 years later, Daniel and Karen meet Sean as he leaves prison. That night, the pair camp out in the woods together before parting ways again the next morning.

If Sean chooses to call Lyla at the end of episode 1, she accompanies Daniel and Karen in this ending cutscene, and the pair will embrace.

Lone Wolf

If you surrender but Daniel has a low Morality, Sean throws away his car keys, but Daniel will refuse to accept your decision. Using his powers, he moves the car forward and past the border, before noticing that Sean has been shot and killed by police.

Many years later, Daniel has made it to Puerto Lobos, where he has built a small memorial to Sean. When he's attacked on the beach, he uses his powers to defend himself, but ultimately spares the lives of the gang members who approach him. Unsurprisingly, this is considered Life is Strange 2’s ‘bad’ ending.

Parting Ways

If you used Daniel’s powers to escape to Mexico, but he has high Morality, Sean begins driving forward and asks his brother to move the police cars in front of him. Daniel initially refuses, but eventually relents and opens the gate to allow the car through. At the last moment, Daniel leaps from the car, allowing Sean to make his escape.

Daniel moves into his grandparents’ house, occasionally using his powers, but appears to be under some kind of house arrest. Here he remains in contact with both Sean and Karen, receiving a collection of photos during the final cutscene.

Depending on decisions made in previous episodes, this ending has a few variations. If you romance Cassidy by listening to her song in episode 2, drink with her, join her for a midnight swim, kiss, refuse the heist, and enter her tent, she appears in a photo next to Sean.

You can also romance Finn by having Sean say he is attracted to some boys, agreeing to the heist, kissing him, and then saving his life in episode 3. In episode 4, Sean can visit Finn’s hospital room and forgive him for the heist to successfully romance him, after which he appears in the photo, instead of Cassidy.

If Sean romances neither Finn or Cassidy but still gets this ending, he appears in the photo alone.

Blood Brothers

If Daniel has low Morality when Sean asks him to cross the border, Daniel gets out the car and uses his powers to defeat the police officers and open the border gate. Daniel then re-enters the car, and the brothers drive into Mexico.

Six years later, Sean and Daniel are working in their father’s old repair shop in Puerto Lobos, where gang members arrive and threaten Sean. Daniel uses his powers to hurt the leader, but lets them live. The brothers go outside and sit on the beach, drinking beer and smoking together.

Dec 3, 2019

Thank You!

Life is Strange 2 - JoshuaSquareEnix

We are finally at the #JourneysEnd.

In celebration of the full release of Life is Strange 2, we sat down with Co-creators and Directors Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet, Co-creator and Writer Jean-Luc Cano and Producer Luc Badhadoust, who shared the following messages for you, the players.

Co-creator and Director Raoul Barbet

Thank you from Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet – Co-creators and Directors

When you start thinking about a new project, you never know where it’s going to take you.

After the first Life is Strange, when the three of us (Michel Koch, Raoul Barbet, and Jean-Luc Cano) first met to write this new story and these new characters, we never imagined how much impact Sean and Daniel would have on us, and how many incredible moments we would share along the way.

We have shared heartfelt moments in the process of creating the game, and in some poignant scenes within its episodes. We have also shared them with the community, and all the amazing people we have met – and of course with the whole team, who have worked so passionately and so hard all these years.

It has been a long and difficult production since we began with The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, and we are now proud to complete this journey together: both the team behind Life is Strange 2 and you, the players from all over the world.

We all now find ourselves before this final choice in Episode 5, in the middle of the desert...

We hope this story will speak to you, make you want to travel, and want to share it. Enjoy the game!

Michel & Raoul

Co-creator and Director Michel Koch

Thank you from Jean-Luc Cano – Co-creator and Writer

Here we are. The end of the road.

When you go on a trip, you often think first about the destination, where you want to go.

It's been four years – our first-ever brainstorm on Life is Strange 2 was on December 1, 2015 – since we started to walk the roads alongside Sean and Daniel. Four years during which we had a lot of good times, but also weathered a lot of storms. To question oneself, to propose new things, to explore new themes; all of this is not easy.

But in our toughest moments, there's something we've always been able to count on: you.

Your feedback, your messages, your encouragement – your criticism, too – they have carried us throughout this adventure.

In joy and doubt, in victory and in our search for answers, we were never alone. On all these roads, you were with us.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Today, the journey is coming to an end. For us, as was the case for Max and Chloe, the story of Sean and Daniel is over, and we now have to let them go. It's up to them to fly on their own, to take their independence.

It is therefore with great pride, but also a little sadness and nostalgia, that we wish good luck to our Wolf Brothers.

Their story is told. They are yours now, they belong to you.

Vaya con Dios, Wolf Brothers! The important thing is not the destination, but the journey...

Jean-Luc

Co-creator and Writer Jean-Luc Cano

Thank you from Luc Baghadoust – Producer

One could assume that we are used to releasing games and episodes: since January 30th 2015, we have released 5 Episodes of Life is Strange, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, and 5 Episodes of Life is Strange 2.

Each time, the team goes through periods of intense creativity that escalate to panic mode (as the days to release fly by). The excitement builds every day, until the moment the episode is finally out.

Each time we release, we watch the streams, the reactions, read the comments, EVERYTHING…

This time it’s special.

As Jean-Luc says, this is finally the end of the road. Just like Sean and Daniel on their journey, we have shared great moments and difficult times. We all held together in front of the elements, never slowed our momentum or our onward march, and met awesome people all along the road.

This is the time for the Life is Strange team at DONTNOD to thank everyone that helped us create this project, the players that gave the chance to the game and supported us from the start, and the ones who will soon discover the wolf brothers’ story.

We will never forget our journey, and we hope yours will be as memorable.

We hope to see you soon.

Producer Luc Baghadoust

On behalf of the whole Life is Strange team, thank you for playing Life is Strange 2.

Nov 20, 2019

‘Designing the Cast and World of LiS2′ with Rachele Doimo

Life is Strange 2 - JoshuaSquareEnix

At its core, Life is Strange 2 is a road trip game. Sean and Daniel’s journey from their home in Seattle takes them all across the western states of America: from the snow-covered gardens of wintery Beaver Creek, to the drifter camp under the giant redwoods in California, to the arid Nevada desert. Each environment adds something to the story and they are carefully crafted to feel unique but real: places you could almost go and visit in real life.

But locations only come to life when you put people in them. The biggest part of world building isn’t just where does this prop go, but asking yourself: why is it there? Who are the people that live there and what effect do they have on the environment, and the environment on them? Creating a world that feels lived in and is a place that makes sense narratively requires both careful environmental and character design.

To explore the creation of the memorable locations of LiS2, and the diverse cast of characters who live in them, we’ve sat down with Square Enix Art Director Rachele Doimo to discuss how the incredible art teams we work with at studios like DONTNOD bring everything to life

Let’s start with Environments first. And remember, as with our previous blogs: beware spoilers!

Can you tell us what research went into some of the environments covered in Life is Strange 2?

Everything started with a trip that the game directors did a few years ago across the USA. It was a journey through a continent that made quite a mark in their life and work. All the memorable places they visited and people they met have contributed to their vision of Life is Strange 2.

What were some technical challenges for the larger scope of Life is Strange 2?

Performance had to be monitored constantly from asset creation to final lighting pass on each shot. A high number of lights can significantly slow down performance, but at the same time, they can make a huge difference in the quality of each single shot so all assets in a scene, from character models, to props, to lights, to total number of polygons, have to be managed in order not to reduce the framerate.

Given the changing environments in each Episode of the game, were there any environmental assets you were able to re-use, or was it a case of starting with a fresh palette of trees, rocks, and ground textures every time?

Each location had to be bespoke. Only a small amount of props could be reused, which also impacted development time. Generic grass, for example, is used in multiple locations, but trees and specific flora needed to be consistent with the part of the country that each episode is set. Every asset and material contributes and builds towards the unique, captivating look of an environment in Life is Strange.

Into the woods in Episode 1 is the biggest environment to date. Do we see something similar in Ep4?

At the beginning of Episode 4, when Sean is heading to Heaven Point, the Nevada desert area is probably the largest location in the game, in terms of visible distance. Although not the highest in asset density, it hopefully successfully creates a sense of loneliness and highlights Sean’s separation from his brother: walking on a vast unknown road through an unfriendly territory.

With Life is Strange 1 we had a broad cast of characters but one that remained in a single location: Arcadia Bay. The town had a set number of inhabitants and wasn’t changing in the same way the environments do in LiS2. Though new characters were intermittently introduced, the cast broadly focused on a specific set of people.

In Life is Strange 2, the boys are on the road, passing through all manner of towns and communities on their journey south, which, out of necessity, required a much larger supporting cast – from the handful of major characters Sean and Daniel each Episode, to the innumerable secondary and background characters needed to populate each stop on their journey.

More characters were designed during the Episode 1 and 2 concept art stage than were designed for the whole of LiS 1. Rachele, with that in mind, we’d like to talk about how the art team develops characters that fascinate us, whether they feature in an episode, a scene, or are just seen in the background.

What’s the process of designing a cast of memorable secondary and tertiary characters?

The art process starts when an approved character biography is provided by the design team. This is the foundation of what the character should actually look like, the details of which all have to speak about who this person is and what they went through in life before the player encounters them.

Facial features and body shape are extremely important, but clothes and accessories play a crucial role too. Even small details like a pin on a jacket can add a lot to the character’s “visual story”. Designing a character is a rather long process that goes through many concepts and revisions, from the mood board stage to digital sketches, to the very detailed in-game model, which can itself be revised multiple times – but it is extremely fun and rewarding when you see them being brought to life in the game.

The design process for Cassidy's tattoos went through a lot of development to make sure they represented her personality and character. No detail is too small!

Some characters obviously get more attention in the narrative of Life is Strange 2 than others. Do lesser-seen characters get the same special treatment in art and design as more primary characters? What does this process look like?

The main cast obviously is where the art team has spent most of their time, especially at the beginning of the project, but secondary and tertiary characters are no less detailed or less looked after.

Main characters, in this case Sean and Daniel, are designed and created at the beginning and then serve as a benchmark for the rest. What is built during this process sets the style for the entire cast, the level of detail, the level of definition in the textures and the overall rendering style. In Life is Strange 2 there was a major need for extras and minor NPCs in every episode. While those didn’t need the same “uniqueness” as the leads, they certainly still had to be consistent to the narrative, place and role in the story.

Similar to the intricacies of her tattoos, Cassidy's overall appearance went through many iterations to get her style just right.

Who is your favourite character featured in Episode 3?

Very tricky question… I like all the drifters, of course! They are fun to play and watch. I have a particular soft spot for Cassidy – she is visually very interesting, without being conventionally dressed or styled, it really allows her personality to shine through. Her punk-inspired style, with worn-out clothes and purple hair, makes her a very iconic and memorable character. She is both contemporary and unconventional, both with her style and her charismatic personality.

Many thanks to Rachele for walking us through these elements of environment and character design. What were your favorite locations and characters on the journey so far – do you have a soft spot for a background character?

Join in the conversation, and stay with us all the way to #JourneysEnd!