Life is Strange: True Colors is Deck Nine's return to the series

The next entry in the Life is Strange franchise has been revealed, as Before the Storm developers Deck Nine Games return to the series.

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As promised last week, Square Enix Presents had some news regarding the future of the Life is Strange franchise. There's a brand new game on the way, one that heads to a brand new corner of Square Enix's story-based franchise. On Thursday, Square and Deck Nine Games revealed Life is Strange: True Colors.

True Colors follows a new protagonist named Alex Chen, a young Asian-American woman who had bounced around the foster care system. The start of the game sees her move to Haven Springs, where she reunites with her brother after eight years apart. Alex's brother is later killed in what's reported to be an accident, but suspicions arise as to the true story behind his death. Over the course of the game, Alex begins to discover a psychic power that allows her to detect emotions in other people. Alex can use this power of empathy to know what others are feeling, but if she goes in too hard, it can backfire and she'll begin to feel those intense emotions herself.

Life is Strange: True Colors marks Deck Nine Games' first game in the franchise since Life is Strange: Before the Storm. This is an entirely new setting with all-new characters with the noteworthy exception of Steph, who fans may recognize from Before the Storm. In terms of story, True Colors looks to touch on the themes of family, friendship, loss, and also what it means to belong. All of this will be seen through the eyes of Alex, who will encounter various characters and two potential love interests. Alex will be voiced by actress Erika Mori, while her singing voice will be provided by singer mxmtoon.

Deck Nine is also taking some significant steps forward with its sophomore outing in the franchise. The studio is promising that Haven Springs' Main Street will be fully explorable and feature a number of secrets and side content. Technologically, Deck Nine is moving forward with a proprietary toolkit called Storyteller. This uses full motion capture to create smoother character and environmental animation, something that had been considered one of the series' weakest elements.

The other major item to note about True Colors is that it will still unfold over the course of five chapters, but the game itself will release as a full package rather than episodically. Life is Strange: True Colors will release on PC and consoles on September 10, 2021. If you want an insight into how Deck Nine put their first game together and how the Life is Strange series has progressed, be sure to check out our original long-read feature, From Chaos: The Aspirational Storytelling of Life is Strange.

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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