Update: For anybody that bought the deluxe edition of LiS: BtS, the bonus episode "Farewell" is out today for NA, EU ppl will have to wait a day longer. Unfortunately, there is currently no way to get it any other way so ppl who just bought the regular sesaon pass are sol.

This is so weird. Just saw this on Waypoint.

Seems like a strange choice to switch back to the original voice actor within the Season.

What do you think?

Edit: Looking a bit more into it, the episode "Farewell" is the bonus episode included with the Deluxe Edition of LIS:BtS and not the official final episode "Hell is Empty". This sits better with me, though it sucks that people who just bought the Season Pass won't get it.

I'm into it. The new Chloe voice is fine but she'll always be Ashly Birch to me. Seems fitting in the bonus episode as that's apparently Max focused.

Kinda sucks for the actress who was playing the role before, haven't played the new one yet but i could see the switch to get the chemistry back between the original two characters if max hasn't been in it yet.

Edit: if it's a bonus episode i guess it's not as jarring to go back and forth between actors.

Yeah as someone with very little skin in the game this strikes me both ways

• sweet to get Ashly Birch back in and recognized for being a core part of the character
• kind a of a slap in the face to the other VA though

But still, feels like a net positive?

Kinda shitty for the new girl, but if it's an extra thing then that's cool.

HUH. On one hand, yeah it sucks for the replacement voice actress. Not great to have such a relatively major gig for such a short time.

On the other hand, this has to have been her exact expectation going into the job. She did VO work during the strike--she was a scab. She had to have been expecting to lose the job once the strike ended and the big name actress was back at the table, so I feel a bit less bad for her given those circumstances. Also, y'know, scabbing in general colors my opinion of the situation.

As has been said, seems like a net positive.

Yeah, as a scab, you have to know that you have absolutely no job security once a strike is over. I think it's maybe gonna feel a little weird to players who have heard the new VA over the past few episodes, but it always seemed likely they would get the original VAs back as soon as the strike is over.

I don't know if I like this... They made the change, keep the change. I know it was because of the strike, but it seems odd. Did the person who played Chloe in the meantime understand that she wasn't permanent? I feel like it could have been more impactful to have Burch back at the start of a new season, rather than what might amount to an afterthought tacked on to a finished season.

I'm pretty happy with this. The only thing that would make it better is if they just had her (as well as the other former voice actors from the previous season) come in and re record lines. I don't particularly feel bad for the new voice actor. It is what it is. She's done a serviceable job but it's just not the same and won't ever be. When you're playing it you tend to forget, and there's long stretches where she kinda sounds similar enough that you just go with it, but then there's other times where it's so different it's jarring. Before The Storm ended up being a real good season and addition to the franchise in spite of the problems, the new voice actors and different developer. It's like Gregg Miller said on the bombcast about a month ago, this had no business being as good as it ended up being.

As far as people's concerns on adding in Ashly Burch in the middle of it, or tacking it on, this episode was always planned. My understanding is this episode is coming out last specifically because the developers were waiting and hoping that the strike would end soon, so that they could have Hannah Telle come back as Max specifically since you play as Max. So it ended up working out that it did and Ashly is coming back too. Which sort of begs the question on why they didn't just wait a few more months altogether and the whole season could have been Ashly Burch reprising Chloe.

It's a fucked up situation, but ultimately as said above, net positive.

I think including it with Before the Storm is a bit weird, but otherwise see no issue with this. The new actress had to know the situation before she took the job. She did the work, she got paid, her performance isn't being erased. Unless there was some shady stuff going on behind the scenes, I doubt she sees this as a slap in the face or whatever.

Also, this looks to be more of a companion to the original Life is Strange, so having the original actors back just makes sense. Again, it's just odd that it's being packaged this way.

The other actress has really grown on me. I think the two should have been kept separate from one another. Oh well.

Preferred the newer one.

For anybody that bought the deluxe edition of LiS: BtS, the bonus episode "Farewell" is out today for NA, EU ppl will have to wait a day longer. Unfortunately, there is currently no way to get it any other way so ppl who just bought the regular sesaon pass are sol.