Life is Strange: Reunion - What we know so far

In january 2015, the first Life is Strange episode was released, and it's no exaggeration to say that the game quickly proved itself, as the other 4 episodes were released throughout the year, to be one of the best-constructed and written storytelling-focused games of recent years. LiS has enchanted legions of fans with its unique style, charismatic characters, impeccable soundtrack, different gameplay mechanics, and so on. It's a truly unique game in many aspects, and even though the last game released in the series, Life is Strange: Double Exposure (2024), had a lower-than-expected reception among the fanbase, a recent announcement has stirred the hearts of fans who never thought they’d get a canonical conclusion to the story that began 10 years ago.

Again in January, but now in 2026, developer Deck Nine, along with Square Enix, announced the new Life is Strange: Reunion, scheduled for release on March 26th of this year for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store. And, surprisingly to many, especially after how little she was mentioned in the previous game, Reunion brings back our favorite rebellious blue-haired (well… now green-haired) punk: Chloe Price! No less importantly, it promises a definitive conclusion for her and the protagonist Max Caulfield.

Which story ends up being concluded depends a bit more on each player, although the canon tends to lean in one direction. In the first game, we take on the role of Max when she returns to her hometown after years away, and besides having to deal with situations ranging from unpleasant classmates bullying her to murders, and of course, gaining the power to rewind time, she also reunites with her childhood best friend, Chloe. After saving Chloe's life using her powers and with a lot of Chaos Theory happening in Arcadia Bay, the player, as Max, is forced to make a choice: save Chloe's life "for good" and let the entire city be devastated by a deadly tornado, or save the city but rewind time and never save Chloe, letting her die.

In all of this, due to Max using her powers so much, two different realities are created: one where Chloe is alive, and another where she died. There are other differences between the two realities, as we discover in Double Exposure, which explores this concept by giving Max the power to switch between them, but Chloe's existence is what matters for the announcement at the moment.

In Double Exposure, since the game would mark Max's return, the vast majority of players expected to see at least something of Chloe as well, since their stories have always been very intertwined, but to the disappointment of many (myself included), we only got text messages and mentions in Max's diary about her, if she survived in her timeline. Another aspect that is left to the player's discretion regarding their relationship is its nature; Chloe can be her friend or her ex-girlfriend. Her previous choices are "revealed" through dialogues where Max establishes what happened to Chloe and the city in her playthrough, recounting her past to her new friends at Caledon University in Vermont, US, where the game takes place and where Max is working as a photographer.

Most fans of the first game agree that there's only one correct choice: save Chloe, and yes, kiss her when you have the opportunity. It's no coincidence that one of the biggest memes in the game's fandom is the phrase "Bae before Bay". In other words, forget the city, our girlfriend is more important. There's even an official comic book series that tells a bit of Max and Chloe's story after the ending where the city is destroyed, which is why many consider this ending to be "canonical".

With such a deeply invested fanbase in this relationship, many having consciously sacrificed an entire city for her (and I’d do it all again!), it's easy to understand why the announcement both thrilled and worried fans. So the question remains: What will happen next?

The Story

In Life is Strange: Reunion, we return to Caledon University, where Max is now a photography professor. This time, Max returns from a trip to find the university completely engulfed in a deadly fire, destroying the campus and claiming the lives of students, professors, and her friends. In a desperate attempt to save herself, Max reconnects with her "original" powers and travels back in time through a photograph (similar to the first game, where this is one of the ways Max's powers manifest). Now, she has 3 days to discover how the fire started and try to prevent the worst from happening again.

At the end of Double Exposure, Max merges the two timelines that separated after Chloe's fate, in an attempt to save the life of a friend, Safi (in this game, Max again has to solve a murder, but this time alternating between realities: one where Safi was killed, another where she’s alive). And, as a side effect of this merging and to Max's complete surprise, Chloe appears in Caledon. She’s having nightmares involving a life she never lived and seeks the help of the only person she knows with the power to travel back in time: her ex.

Gameplay

For the first time, we'll be able to do something that's exciting many fans: play as both Max and Chloe in the same game, switching between perspectives to access locations that one cannot, and vice-versa.

Max retains her time-rewinding powers, just like in the first game, and can use them to undo decisions, influence events, and manipulate conversations to achieve the desired outcome.

On the other hand, Chloe, as we saw firsthand in Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the only game where we play as her, possesses her Backtalk abilities. Basically, it's a mechanic where Chloe uses her eloquence and quick, witty responses to converse with and persuade people, often gaining access to places Max can't go.

Life is Strange is a narrative-driven game, released in episodes and focused on solving mysteries, so it's obvious that, since its beginning in 2015, theories have permeated the fandom and become a culture among fans. With the new game, it couldn't be any different, and since its announcement, several have taken shape and varying degrees of strength, depending on how many people believe in them or not.

Safi and the Superpowers Team

At the end of Double Exposure, it’s revealed that Safi, the friend Max brings together from both realities to save, also possesses powers, and her last stated intention is to unite all people who have such powers. One of the last scenes in the game is Safi arriving to speak with Diamond, another character from the university, who is shown for the first time with a bloody nose, something that throughout all the games in the series served as an indication that the person has powers and has used them a little too much.

Many fans have connected the dots, and the obvious conclusion is that Diamond also possesses powers. What those powers are, and what Safi's intentions are in bringing all these people together, we'll probably only know when the game is released. In the trailer, she appears to be on Max's side, but that could be an intentional misdirection to avoid giving us any clues yet. Diamond, in particular, doesn't appear in any trailers, despite the revelation that she has powers being a major plot point at the end of Double Exposure. Curious, at least.

It's worth remembering that Safi's powers are shapeshifting, so she can easily assume anyone's identity and cause all sorts of chaos. In the trailer, we see two Maxes looking at each other in one scene, and it's possible that one of them is actually Safi in transformation.

The Mysterious Man

In the trailer, we see the figure of a masked man, whose identity is unknown, and many fans believe he’s responsible for the fire. In one scene, Max appears wearing the same type of mask as him, which could indicate something like Max temporarily allying with him, or even that the mask is the source of his powers, as some fans speculate on social media.

He may have something to do with the secret group Abraxas, also introduced in the previous game, a prestigious secret society at the university, of which Diamond, mentioned above, is also a member.

Rachel, again

This theory is probably solely a product of fans' love for this particular character, and there's not even the slightest evidence that it could be true, but a lot of people are talking about it, so here we go.

Since the merging of realities affected many things in both, including causing Chloe's return, some speculate that it may have affected even a little before the story of the first Life of Strange began, and therefore, Rachel Amber may be alive. Rachel is the character whose murder we have to solve in the first game, and she was a friend and romantic interest of Chloe, who, according to theories, could even play the role of the game's villain after being snatched from her rest by Max's powers.

However, Rachel was already dead well before the divergence of realities, and remains so in both, so it’s unlikely that this is the big plot twist.

Life is Strange is one of those games that, while much appreciated by casual gamers who enjoy all types of games, became an instant classic among storytelling fans, captivating a huge and incredibly dedicated fanbase. For over 10 years, fans speculated about what the "canonical" ending of the romance between Max and Chloe would be, wrote fanfiction, cosplayed, devised theories, hoped for X or Y to happen, and now finally, after all this waiting, we’ll have the answer. All that remains is to wait and hope that Deck Nine exceeds our expectations. Ready for the mosh pit, shaka brah?

And you, are you excited for the release of Life is Strange: Reunion? Are you Team Bae or Team Bay? Tell us in the comments!