#no wonder they didn't make Safi a romance option

[fynnlink]

Safield really is becoming the sapphic Cherik huh

No I will not elaborate.

The things they do to me in the finale

[tangent101]

Lost Opportunities in Double Exposure

This started out in response to someone else's comments but honestly, I realized I was going so far afield that it deserves its own area and not muddying up waters around someone else's comments and tags ^^ So... there was a missed opportunity here that would have helped shape the character of Safi and also been more respectful to Max and Chloe for both Bae and Bay settings.

Imagine if Safi were Max's therapist in the game. Her asking questions about the "blue-haired girl" and the like would no longer be casual nosiness, but instead is a therapist trying to break through the shell of a client. She could have asked harder-hitting questions rather than one-and-done stuff that immediately leads to Max dating other people (Amanda) in both Bae and Bay settings. And the death of Safi would hit even harder because now there's concerns that Max killed her own therapist.

Let's go one step further. You could have several added lines from therapist-Safi about how Max's attempts to date other people never work out. Amanda would now exist in the Bay storyline but not the Bae one. (Amanda may even have broken up with Max and insisted that Max needs to speak to a therapist - she's acting in Chloe's stead here and even if she's no longer dating Max she still cared for Max.) You can eliminate any romance option in the game (Max is still with Chloe even if they're in a trial separation in Bae, and Max is seeking counseling over her issues that led to her breaking up with previous girlfriends in Bay), and focus more on non-romantic friendships and on a therapist/patient dynamic for Max and Safi.

The reason Max and Chloe aren't texting each other in the Bae setting may even be that Chloe is going camping with David and they're going to be outside of any cell towers. (From personal experience, when you're 8,900 feet up on a mountain in the Rockies, you don't usually have cell coverage.) And the lack of texts in Bay from any exes is because the breakups were not on the friendliest of terms (due to Max not wanting to go to counseling).

We could even have a scene in the game where Chloe gets a voice line! Chloe is telling Max that she needs to talk to a therapist about what happened a decade ago, because it's still eating away at her and Max's refusal to talk about things is poisoning their relationship. But if the player chose Bay, then it's a blue-haired ghost-Chloe talking to Max in a dream and Max wakes up sweating and in tears wondering what the fuck is going on... and maybe that she does need to talk to someone. To a therapist.

Max could even talk about having "dreams" in which she's in Arcadia Bay and can change time and make things better but how things keep fucking up no matter how much she tries. In the Bay setting she mentions dreams of a week with Chloe that never happened and then how she has to let Chloe die at the end... and in the Bae setting she talks about horrific things like the Dark Room and her fears of sexual assault and the like.

We have here ways by which Chloe is not in the story in a Bae setting that is still respectful of Chloe and Max's relationship and with only a little bit of extra work allows for a separate Bay setting that still leads Max to seeking out a therapist... and also lets Safi become someone who is trying to help Max with her issues. It is not that difficult to do either, which raises the question of why didn't D9 do this?

The answer to that is that Deck Nine (and potentially Square Enix) has a problem with Ashly Burch and Chloe Price and thus assassinated her character. And hey, you know what helps sell games? Controversy. You know what a game company does not want to encounter? Apathy.

We have seen an initial round of anger and passion about what D9 has done to Chloe. But we are now seeing a decline in interest in the game. There's one of three reasons this could be the case. First? The mercenary decision to charge $30 extra to have two weeks extra to play the first two chapters of the game. People have responded but a lot of folks may be avoiding spoilers, and once everyone else can start playing the game we'll see a lot more people talking about it. Second? The fact that we only saw two chapters released, so the only ones talking about bigger spoilers are those who hacked the game and data-mined information from it. Third? The decision to move away from an Episodic format so that players aren't waiting a month or two for each chapter, thus allowing for increased hype as each new part is released (as the first two games were).

[arcadiabaytornado]

SPOILERS AHEAD Episode 4 Double Exposure Rapid Fire Thoughts After I Just Finished Two Route's:

A: I'm so conflicted on Safi. I like her personality a lot, and I do want her and Max to share passionate yet tender kiss, but the girl is a loose canon. And not in the "reckless but mostly harmless" way that was true for Chloe. Safi is reckless in the "The world hurt me so I have the right to burn it to the ground" kind of way, and that makes me nervous....It's also kinda hot though.

B: I'm about to be controversial on main I think...but I don't really like Amanda. It just gets on my nerves that every time Max does anything ever she's like "I don't like that side of you. :(" Okay. Girl. I don't think you like any side of Max other than her emotional unavailability.

C: I actually like Vinh a bit! Not as a romance option, but I think he's an interesting character with a lot of nuance. Plus, I do like his and Max's dynamic a whole lot. They just seem like fun friends.

D: Moses is still wonderful, but there was no doubt in my mind that would stay true. He honestly might end up taking my favorite character crown. (Also, his reaction to the gingerbread chimmy genuinely made me sad lmao.)

E: OH AND SPEAKING OF SAD Max talking about sacrificing Chloe/Arcadia Bay hit hard. "I choose the blue-haired girl" almost made me crawl up the wall because of the way Max said it.

F: I really didn't think Diamond or Reggie were going to be semi- important characters, so I don't pay much attention to them in Episode 1 or 2. When I replay the game I'm going to have to give them the focus they deserve.

G: I wasn't super big on any of the choices this episodes. They all seemed 1. Easy. 2. Like the game was pointing you in a specific direction. I feel like the Vinh/Safi choice should have been hard, but since the game basically grabs your shoulder and says "Safi needs to learn to solve her problems without her powers." the choice seems more clear than it should have.

H: I think I would rate this episode a 6.5/10 I think?? It felt really slow in certain places, but when the scenes finally got there they were pretty good! I really liked Max and Safi's talk along with getting to expose Lucas for his fuckary, but the final end scene just...didn't do it for me. Safi's Dad wasn't built up enough for me to care about it as a plot point, and Max once again back peddled on her development from the first game. So I feel conflicted about this chapter overall. IIIIIIIIII don't know where I'd rank this game compared to the others. I don't want to be a Debbie downer, but I am getting rapidly nervous that I'm going to come out of this experience going "Well. That was a game."