Life Is Strange: True Colors Team Sees Games as an ‘Engine for Engendering Empathy’ – E3 2021

A new trailer for Life Is Strange: True Colors shown at Square Enix’s E3 2021 presentation today spotlighted main character Alex’s psychic abilities of empathy. But for developer Deck Nine, Alex’s ability to fully feel and understand the emotions of others is heavily grounded in reality, despite being enhanced by the supernatural.

Speaking to IGN ahead of the reveal, narrative director Jon Zimmerman says that the team — which previously worked on Life is Strange: Before the Storm — already saw the idea of empathy as a core component of the series. True Colors just allowed them to make that even more explicit as a plot device.

“As a writing team coming off of Before the Storm, we had been very fixated and fascinated with the question of how games serve as an engine for engendering empathy in players by placing them in the shoes of their protagonist — by having them see the world through someone else’s eyes,” Zimmerman says. “From the fan feedback that we got from an incredibly wide range of people talking about what it was like for them to be Chloe, to inhabit that point of view.”

Deck Nine then followed that rabbit hole further, landing on the idea of a main character that was an empath, embodying the volatility and difficulty of feeling the feelings of others while also having an unprecedented opportunity for intimacy and connection with those in their life. As shown in the trailer today, not only does Alex have insight into the true feelings of those around her, but she appears to be able to take those feelings on. That means, depending on the player’s choices, Alex could relieve the anger or sadness of others at the cost of having to manage it herself.

Those big empathy moments, says producer Rebeccah Bassell, are comparable to a big musical number in a musical production. “It’s a moment where it’s a suspension of reality, where something is so great and intense that it has to be shown in this magnificent, fantastical way, because it’s the only way to make sense of it.”

While other Life Is Strange protagonists have had their supernatural powers grounded in real feelings and desire as well, Alex’s ability to connect with emotions perhaps has a more explicit link with the real, human ways in which people experience feelings. Bassell tells me that one of her favorite things about True Colors was that it gave Deck Nine an opportunity to show off the nuances of empathy, and specifically define it as something more profound than just “feeling your feelings.”

We had been fascinated with the question of how games serve as an engine for engendering empathy in players.

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“I think when people think of empathy, they think of…embracing everything, and ‘feeling things is good.’ And then there’s the other side, [where] a lot of young people are often told to be strong, or to be x, y, and z, to not feel all the things you need, to be professional or to be in control. And [that] really exemplifies both wrong ends of the spectrum of empathy.

“At the beginning of [True Colors], Alex is on the end where feelings are scary. People feel things, and it has a strong effect on [her], and [she] can’t control it. And then on the other side, when she does feel everything, it’s all-consuming and overwhelming. Neither of those options are going to be productive. So what Alex goes through throughout the game is [figuring out] how [she can] understand and empathize with somebody, and at the same time retain the boundaries of [herself] and not get lost in their emotion… I think we can all use that in our day-to-day lives.”

Specifically, the team also wants to distinguish between empathy and sympathy. As senior staff writer Felice Kuan tells me, Life Is Strange having such a choice-focused narrative was a guide to the team in emphasizing the separation. Alex frequently has to make hard choices as she investigates her brother’s death just after moving to a new town to live with him, and those choices will have the potential to have serious impacts on those around her. But while she has the ability to understand the motivations and feelings of those who her actions will impact, that doesn’t mean she or the player necessarily agrees with or wants to support them. Empathy does not equate to an unquestionable endorsement of another’s actions, after all.

But such a profound connection to the feelings of others can involve some pretty weighty mental health implications, as the team acknowledges. It’s hinted at in the trailer that taking on the anger of another person might have dire consequences for Alex herself even if the other person is relieved, and there’s a clear real-world throughline to the very human tendency to let the emotional states of others affect one’s own heart and head.

We always look to each other and to whatever research we need to bring the most authentic portrayal we can possibly bring.

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Zimmerman says the team had this in mind during the game’s development, noting that a lot of Alex’s journey ended up being very personal for the team. But they also talked to experts, with ZImmerman specifically pointing out that Deck Nine had brought in a consultant on the foster care system to make sure they treated the subject with both accuracy and, well, empathy.

“We always look to each other and to whatever research we need to bring the most authentic portrayal we can possibly bring so we don’t come lightly to any sort of impactful, traumatic, difficult issue,” he says. “And especially when it pertains to mental health, we want to make sure that we’re always treating that as sensitively as the subject matter demands.”

Life Is Strange: True Colors is planned for release on PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and Google Stadia on September 10, 2021, and the Life Is Strange Remastered Collection is coming not long after on September 30 as we learned today. We also spoke with Deck Nine about taking on the Life Is Strange legacy after multiple games from Dontnod, and how the games’ legacy of diverse characters offered the team welcome freedom to keep making bold choices.

Square Enix Presents is a part of E3 2021, which is running from June 12 through 15. This year’s E3 also includes events from Xbox, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Devolver Digital, and more, all of which can be watched and caught up on through IGN’s Summer of Gaming.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.