Life is Strange is a BAFTA award-winning game with a beautiful storyline developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. Its prequel, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, was developed by Deck Nine. This February, both Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Beyond the Storm have had remastered versions released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One with one exception: the Nintendo Switch. The Switch-specific remaster of the games, called Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection, was delayed not once, but twice! Now, we finally have a new release date: September 27, 2022.
Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection follows Max Caulfield, a seemingly normal senior photography student, and her best friend, Chloe Price. One day, Max discovered that she could rewind time when she saved Chloe from a deadly accident. Once the ability was discovered, the girls turned their attention to solving the mysterious disappearance of Rachel Amber. During their investigation, Max and Chloe discover that the quaint Arcadia Bay is full of more secrets than they thought. Add in government corruption, a forest fire, and a supernatural storm, and the girls are in for a dangerous adventure. They would also discover that messing with the past can have drastic consequences for the future.
The remastered versions of the games featured improvements across the entire experience. The visuals for both the characters and the environments were improved. The character animations in particular were vastly improved, particularly with facial expressions, due to the use of mocap (motion capture) technology. They also featured updated gameplay puzzles and lighting. The stories themselves, however, stayed the same.
Originally, the remastered collection was set to come out in 2021 but was delayed until February of this year due to COVID challenges. Because Life is Strange: True Colors got its remake much quicker, it was surprising that another delay was announced for the Nintendo Switch-specific version, but here we are! In the Tweet below, there’s a link to preorder your copy of Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection. Store pre-orders are open now, but digital pre-orders will open a little later, closer to the launch date.
The Arcadia Bay Collection will have all of the remastered features fully optimized for the Switch, and it will be available in stores and digitally. One source mentioned that only Life is Strange Remastered will be available in stores though. The prequel will apparently be a download code only.
All of the Life is Strange franchises have such a great focus on storytelling and lovely visuals, so it’s exciting that they are being remastered to do them justice. While there have been some mentions of diminished visual effects in the Switch version of True Colors, it is still nice for players to have all of the remastered games available to them.
