Life Is Strange: True Colors was released earlier this month and was a brilliant entry in Square Enix’s narrative-focused adventure game series. For those that want to learn more about Haven Springs and the past of Steph, the Wavelengths DLC is out September 30. It focuses on the returning character from Before the Storm as she gets used to life in a small town.
RELATED: Life Is Strange: True Colors Review: A Return to Form
Ahead of the DLC’s release, ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Deck Nine Games Senior Narrative Designer Mallory Littleton and Steph voice actress Katy Bentz about the upcoming Life Is Strange: True Colors Wavelengths DLC.
Tyler Treese: Mallory, what were the biggest lessons you learned from working on Before the Storm that you were able to apply in True Colors? I’ve always liked the writing in the games but it almost feels slightly more mature here, a bit more consistent throughout, I was really impressed by the writing.
Mallory Littleton: Mature is a good word to use. Alex was going to be a bit older than our prior Life is Strange protagonists. We thought a lot about what that meant. And we really decided that we wanted the series to grow up with its players. Max is 18 in the first game, which came out six years ago now. And so we knew that the core audience that really clicked with Life is Strange themselves was growing older. And we wanted to tell a more mature story that they could continue to apply to their lives. So we chose a young adult who is getting a new start in a new place. I think that’s a fairly common experience. It’s a scary experience that I think everyone can relate to and learn from.
Katy, Steph was received well in Before the Storm, but did you ever think that you would wind up playing such a key role in a future game and then get her own DLC as a protagonist? It’s been wild to see this character be embraced so naturally by the fans.
Katy Bentz: Not at all. I had no idea this was going to be happening four years later. I’m just so incredibly grateful to have been given the opportunity to be able to breathe life back into Steph. The response from the fans has just been amazing and so heartwarming and it’s just so nice to see that she’s being well-received
Mallory, Steph being from Arcadia Bay and going to Blackwell Academy brings some really great connective tissue from the prior games into True Colors. In this DLC has some other familiar faces pop up. We get to see an update from Mikey, which is a really cool callback for Before the Storm fans. How fun was it to revisit some of those characters again and give little life updates, even if they’re not the focus?
Littleton: Oh my gosh, it was just so much fun. We knew that Rachel and Chloe know stuff and that you Chloe has hung out with Steph. And they have played tabletop together. They trade DVDs. And so they’re friends and we wanted to really look at Steph as a full character with these friends in her past and experiences that surround them and those memories. Thinking about the things that they could have done together and how they would have interacted in those circumstances and then crafting those little moments to stick into Wavelengths was really fun for us. We’re really excited to bring some of those familiar faces back and I think players are really going to enjoy it.
Katy, how was the process like doing a performance capture? Do you feel even more authorship over the performance now that it’s your own movement?
Bentz: Yeah, it was my first time ever doing full performance and it was so, so awesome. And just being able to play it and watch it. It just looks incredible. Deck Nine [knocked it] out of the park. I think as an actor, being able to perform everything, body, face, and voice just brings a more genuine performance. And when you play the game, you see that with all of the performance actors. You’re able to connect. It’s the same person. You’re living in that person and in that scene entirely. And it’s going into the game like that.
Mallory, this type of DLC, similar to Before the Storm, is more grounded. There are no real superpowers. When you’re playing as Alex, you’re going to get people’s thoughts and these sort of supernatural elements. So how does that change your writing?
Littleton: Yeah, I think the writing definitely changes. But I think Steph sorta does have superpowers and in her creativity and confidence. So in writing Alex, we know that we can create this content around hearing people’s thoughts and helping them work through little blocks in their lives or big blocks in their lives. But for Steph, instead of it being people’s thoughts or little blocks, we wanted bits of content like the dating app and a little tabletop game that you can play with Mikey. You get to learn a little bit about how she and Ethan clicked so well and became so close. The approach is definitely different, but we sort of look at the content as a whole and craft it uniquely for basically every scene of every chapter, including the DLC.
Katy, in Before the Storm, Steph is 16 and there’s been so much character development that goes on behind the scenes that we’re going to get to see a little bit of that here, but did that extra maturity for the character alter how you play her?
Bentz: Yeah. Definitely being able to figure out how to bring life into an older Steph was something that we all had to work for and work with. And it was fun. It’s cool to be able to see her older. It’s cool to be able to breathe life into a character with so many more emotions that the player gets to understand and feel. And especially with the DLC, you get to learn so much more about all the things, because you now hear her internal monologue. You hear not only her confidence, but her insecurities, her excitement, her fears, her everything. There’s just so much more to her. And it’s really exciting.
Mallory, True Colors gives players as much as they are willing to put into it. There are so many small storylines that can be missed if you’re not exploring different details and looking for the collectibles. How do you balance that writing, knowing that a lot of players might overlook key details?
Littleton: I guess the answer is you try really hard. [laughs] Obviously, we really want to ensure that the path that every player, even the ones who aren’t particularly inclined to take their time and explore every single detail, still get a story that holds together and makes sense and has all of that emotional impact. But at the same time, we also knew that this was going to be a game about building community and building a home. And that’s something that you sort of have to put effort into. You have to seek people out and see how they’re doing and try to help them. So we wanted the structure of the game to sort of reflect that effort in building community. Hopefully, we struck the right balance and that even folks who go straight and narrow through the game still get the full experience. But at the same time, if you do build yourself a little community, we wanted that experience to be really rewarding in its own right, as well.
Katy, being one of two romance options in the game, are you glad that more people choose Steph in their first playthrough? Is it competitive?
Bentz: Not at all. I think Ryan is such a great character as well. He has such a great arc and he’s well-written. Playing it personally, I really love Ryan, too. And there were times where I wanted to romance Ryan. I just told myself I wanted to romance Steph first. I’m going to do my Ryan playthrough next. Ryan and Steph are both amazing options. And I think whatever the player decides to choose for themselves is the right choice. It’s great that you’re given that option and you might not even want to romance any of them. You have your options. And I think that’s amazing.
Is it a bit odd romancing yourself?
Bentz: No. It’s easy for me, I guess. I don’t know. I’ve seen it so many times and I’ve played it now that I can disconnect and detach from Steph. She’s Steph. Yes, it’s my voice. Yes, it’s my body and my face, but as an actor, I’m just able to detach from it and just play the game and just see her as a character in Haven Springs. And just me personally, as a gamer, I enjoy her as a character. I think she’s well-written.
Mallory, early feedback has been so positive, but what has really struck you from fans? Was there any surprising feedback?
Littleton: We hope so hard that everyone enjoyed the stuff that we make and when they do, it’s always such a relief. It’s been fun to see people diving into all of MyBlock content because there’s actually quite a bit of stuff in there and it is kind of a lot of reading. We weren’t sure how many people were really going to get in there, but it’s been super fun to see the folks that take the time and read through it and find fun, interesting content that they want to talk about.
Katy, Steph is such a fun character. She likes D&D and she’s very free-spirited. What part of her character really resonates with you the most?
Bentz: I think just that she just is so true to herself. We get to experience so much more with her besides just that cool, nerdy, confident person that we met in BTS. And we’ve already learned that a little bit in True Colors. She just really is true to herself and she’s just a rock for a lot of people. If you have Steph on your side, you’re good. She’s there for you. And you get to see that in True Colors as well. It’s just really awesome that you can have a trustworthy friend in her.
Mallory, True Colors has nods to the past games, but it definitely doesn’t rely on nostalgia. It works as a standalone story, but long-time fans do get those nods and winks and they get a real kick out of it. What is that balancing act?
Littleton: All of the Life is Strange titles exist in the same universe, right? So we wanted to make sure that that was just apparent that it is a standalone game, but we’re not running off and pretending that we don’t have a history or a legacy and that the fan community that we have didn’t come from somewhere. We really like to acknowledge where the franchise started and keep those roots really at the front of our minds as we’re making it. We like to put in nods as often as they make sense.
