Psychic powers to be portrayed in a creative and intriguing way in Life Is Strange: True Colors
Life Is Strange: True Colors. (Square Enix)
Fresh details have emerged about the psychic powers of Alex, protagonist in Life Is Strange: True Colors.
A new PlayStation blog details how Alex’s powers of empathy will be shown through colour.
She’s able to read emotions as auras around other characters, which explode into novas of light and colour that offer valuable insight but can threaten to overwhelm her.
“As a dev team, we wrestled with the question of how to capture something as abstract as emotions,” says narrative director Jonathan Zimmerman.
“We found ourselves pushing the conventions of traditional Life is Strange storytelling, employing the tangible audio-visual representation of emotive sensations to drive the same response in the player that Alex herself feels each time.”
The team settled on four general categories of emotion, each with their own nova characteristics.
Sadness is a blue aura that’s fluid and consuming. When experiencing sadness the world becomes grey as if the sun has been blocked by a rain cloud, appearing darker and duller.
Fear is a spiky purple aura that jumps. Players will hear Alex’s heartbeat as the world becomes jagged lines and shadows. Jump scares and monsters are around every corner.
For anger, the team chose a violent red aura that flickers like flames. The world appears intense and hot, with sharp movements and amped up lighting that pulses with adrenaline.
Lastly there’s joy, expressed as a glowing golden aura. The world bubbles and vibrates with love and laughter and rich colours.
Within these nova sequences, Alex will have the opportunity to help people and balance their emotions.
The team has previously confirmed that True Colors will continue the queer legacy of the Life is Strange series, by drawing on authentic experiences.
Alex will have two love interests in the game, one male and one female, though we’re yet to find out more about how this bisexuality might impact the narrative.
Life is Strange: True Colors is due out on 10 September across PlayStation and Xbox consoles, Switch, PC and Stadia.
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