As part of its E3 livestream, Nintendo announced that both Life is Strange Remastered and Life is Strange: True Colours are heading to Nintendo Switch – but the announcement is marred by appears to be a growing trend – the disappearance of Life is Strange 2.
I’ve been a fan of the Life is Strange series right from the beginning, and it always surprised me somewhat that the games had never made their way to a Nintendo console until now – particularly as you can play both the original game and Life is Strange: Before the Storm on smartphones. Surely they’re not so heavy on the GPU to completely top out the Switch’s capacity?
Now that Switch ports for these titles are finally on the way, my excitement is marred by the total absence of Life is Strange 2 as part of the announcement. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why Life is Strange 2 isn’t part of the Remastered collection – the title’s fifth and final episode only came out as recently as December 2019 and so an updated version would be a tad premature.
What I don’t understand is why Life is Strange 2 can’t be ported in its current state to Nintendo’s hybrid console. Having played every title in the series thus far, I can easily say that Life is Strange 2 is my favourite entry of the lot, staying true to the series’ supernatural elements whilst also starting a crucial dialogue about the experience of immigrants living in the United States.
To have Life is Strange 2 as a no-show on Switch doesn’t feel like a one-off incident either, based on the initial trailer for Life is Strange: True Colours. As part of the game’s storyline, several citizens of Arcadia Bay – the town featured in LiS 1 and Before the Storm – will appear to add some weight to this shared universe concept that has been gradually building throughout the series.
At no point however was any reference made to the characters of Life is Strange 2 – giving the impression that as far as True Colours is concerned, the game might not have happened at all. If developer Dontnod is more concerned with building stories that capitalise on the fandom for Life is Strange’s original components, then I fear that the series’ second mainline outing could become a footnote in the discourse of interactive storytelling.
