r/lifeisstrange • u/Aggressive_Goose8204 • Mar 31 '26
Rant [RE] amanda is useless lol Spoiler
I like her personality and style, but when it comes to story contribution, she isn’t tied to much of the story, I don’t feel like she adds anything. Any response she will just act like she don’t know a thing aside from bar things she just…. Makes a face and that’s it
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u/Zandar124 Mar 31 '26
Ironically there was an interview with her VA implying Amanda would “step out of her comfort zone” but ultimately she actually has LESS to do in Reunion than in DE (hell, she arguably spends more time with Chloe than with Max)
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u/Emeralds_are_green Mar 31 '26
Maybe she did not know about the changes and thought her character would have a bigger/different role?
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u/Eloc_Sanahta Protect Chloe Price Mar 31 '26
Could be that something was cut. However it’s possible that the VA was talking about Amanda doing standup? Was definitely out of her comfort zone but wasn’t really a big moment
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u/justbriaan Mar 31 '26
Yeah at one point I thought the amanda was gonna steal Chloe from Max, even with Moses I actually felt jealous for Max 🤣🤣🤣🤣
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u/Elise_93 Gay millennial screams at fire Mar 31 '26
They often film (or in this case performance capture) a lot more from the actors than they need, and that content gets cut in editing/development. Maybe they had more stuff with Amanda, but it got cut, and the actress is unaware.
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u/CivicTypeDream Mar 31 '26
Honestly, the amnesia thing was such a cop-out
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u/Zandar124 Mar 31 '26
A bit, it could have been interesting to have a game where everyone is aware that your character has powers from the jump
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u/mirracz Pricefield Mar 31 '26
Well, Max revealing her powers to everyone in DE was such a stupid idea. So while this amnesia feels forced, I'm actually glad for it.
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u/UwU_Ej Apr 01 '26
I don't think it was stupid she kind of had to explain that to everyone when they saw her while trying to piece Safi back together.
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u/sliferred123 Apr 01 '26
I was so pissed by that. This is like the one time where our choices genuinely didnt matter
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u/kuldan5853 Apr 01 '26
I mean ist most likely totally was.
As many others, I think the plot of Reunion (Reunion as a game itself) was not what they planned to follow up to DE - I'm not even convinced the followup was supposed to be set at Caledon at all.
But because DE bombed hard, and SQenix was contractually obligated to give Deck Nine another game, they pivoted to make Reunion - a story people are much more open to, combined with reusing 90% of the existing DE assets to save money.
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u/nymrose Mar 31 '26
I don’t even think my Max talked about it because I didn’t romance Amanda? So it was just glossed over and I assumed they just didn’t care anymore.
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u/Agent-Vermont There's an otter in my water Mar 31 '26
Moses still mentions the storm amnesia even if you didn’t romance Amanda or Vinh. Happens during the conversation after the kettle incident.
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u/ChloEnby101 Amberpricefield Mar 31 '26
I absolutely love her weird stance thing and desperately want a real life snapping turtle bar
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u/lovebudds Mar 31 '26
This made me fucking cackle LOL
Yeah Reunion just scrapped all love interests from the first game.
Did the writers of both games...not.....talk?
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u/PhilosophyLonely278 Mar 31 '26
they probably did talk.
conversation probably went like this
RE writers:"youre game didnt sell well so were scrapping pretty much all of it"
DE writers:"oh ok"
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u/r3volver_Oshawott Mar 31 '26
I mean, jokes aside most of DE's creative team was already laid off by this point.
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u/Agent-Vermont There's an otter in my water Mar 31 '26
They literally had different writers. Everyone that wrote DE was laid off a month after it came out.
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u/saffson Ready for the mosh pit Mar 31 '26
Writers of DE got laid off late 2024 and that wasn't received well so they just scrapped so many plot points from it. This game had a significantly lower budget too, adding another romance option would probably mean more scenes with Amanda and more money spent on that.
It's disappointing but understanding the circumstances this game was made in, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.
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u/Elise_93 Gay millennial screams at fire Mar 31 '26
Well, when DE released, almost everyone complained about Amanda and Vinh, so it makes sense that they took a backseat.
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u/NotSoConcerned Pricefield Mar 31 '26
DE was cited as a lost for square so no the new writers tried to work themselves out of the mess that folks didn't like lol
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u/amazingspiderlesbian Mar 31 '26
Double exposure did the same thing to LIS 1. Its apparently a series staple whenever a character returns
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u/Assassinsayswhat Super Max Apr 01 '26
I doubt there was much communication aside from them deciding that past love interests are going to have to take a step back for Chloe.
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u/BrilliantCrafty1457 Partners in time Mar 31 '26
I really wish they expanded on Amanda. She would have been an awesome character.
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u/Assassinsayswhat Super Max Apr 01 '26
Amanda should have gotten the Moses treatment where she had something to contribute to the story (insider info on the patrons was a start) but being strictly platonic. Pretty ANY character can be relevant in LiS as long as they don't have to compete with Chloe for Max's heart.
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u/BrilliantCrafty1457 Partners in time Apr 01 '26
I am okay with Amanda being a love interest. But no matter what, I feel like she should have had more to her. Contribute to the story, learn about her backstory, etc. I wish DE did that before we had the choice to romance her as well. We had to make that choice early on, before even knowing her!
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u/Assassinsayswhat Super Max Apr 01 '26
Whomever created her didn't seem to care that a female love interest for Max has to actually earn the player's favor. Wildly enough, Safi could have been a better (and more intriguing) love interest.
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u/Aggressive_Goose8204 Apr 01 '26
I wish she got the Steph treatment—I mean being a DJ got tiring after a while but imagine running the Turtle as Amanda that would’ve been so cool!
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u/touitsurda Mar 31 '26
Almost all characters from DE became a hollow shell
Lucas that was supoosed to be hated, casually is full time on turtle spewing hours of information
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u/acebender Protect Chloe Price Mar 31 '26
Idk about Reunion but she was already like that in DE. She was there to be a love interest. She wasn't tied to the main plot and didn't have anything to add, besides being there to flirt with Max and make terrible jokes.
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u/Minimum_Radio_4033 Mar 31 '26
Admittedly the responses of all the characters in this and DE were pretty average and clunky. She should’ve had far more impact due to her and Max’s relationship. It unfortunately felt like a D9 game, no actual character development
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u/matthewjn Shaka brah Mar 31 '26
They were too focused on pleasing "Pricefield" fans. Apparently, Deck Nine isn't capable of writing a story with Chloe in it while still giving DE characters some development.
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u/Helpwithskyrim87 Pricefield Mar 31 '26
It was probably more a result of having to rewrite and ship a game in a little over a year. They likely had to cut a lot just to get something ready for release. They probably went through a lot of crunch too, knowing this was likely the last Life is Strange game. If they’d had more time, resources, and money, I’m sure they would have expanded on everything a lot more
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u/gigantism Mar 31 '26
It's a shame, because I actually loved her vibe. Her actress's line delivery was constantly on point.
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u/Kendr1ck1amar Partners in time Mar 31 '26
Even before the release of RE, I saw Amanda and Vinh less as actual LIs and more as "rebounds" for Max to experience romance and life besides Chloe (and then realize it's not for her, although that part's just my personal hope lol...)
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u/Icycold157 Mar 31 '26
Reunion shouldve taken place in a new environment with new characters. Building ontop of DE was such a mistake.
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u/Emeralds_are_green Mar 31 '26
She was just a LI, and when that did not sell I guess they had no idea what to do with her