Life is Strange's director always wanted to take the universe further, but says Square Enix was in charge of that
Dontnod's next game, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, will have a "larger universe"
Life is Strange's director says he would've loved to have developed the universe further, but that Square Enix decides where the series goes from here.
In GamesRadar+'s own Lost Records interview, Michel Koch talked about Dontnod's latest game, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, and how its development compares to the studio's most beloved series: "For Life is Strange 1 we were working with Square Enix [...] and at first there was no plan at all to have more than one game.
"It means that we never wrote the story and the characters while having in mind anything that could happen to them after the end of the game," the director explains. If you've played the first Life is Strange game, you'll already know the fate of childhood best friends Chloe and Max and why it's difficult to revisit their story.
"When the game was a success, Square Enix asked us for a second game," Koch adds. "We managed to fit Life is Strange 2 within the same universe, and even to create interesting links." He then says that due to the first game being written as a "complete story," the developer felt like "we were never able to fully create intricate and complex connections and follow-ups between the games."
Although extremely grateful to Square Enix for "believing in the project in the first place," Koch says he "would have loved to have more free reins to draft where all the characters and various plot would go," beyond the two games in the series. However, as Square Enix owns the rights and the IP, it's up to them what gets made.
"[Square Enix] planned and supervised the expansion, they hired Deck Nine to make other games within the franchise alongside ours, they found authors to write the comics, and crafted their own plan for this universe," the director explains.
In terms of how this compares to Lost Records, Koch reveals: "We are working on this first game as the foundation for a possibly larger universe. We are creating our characters and their stories for this game, but also while thinking of the possibilities to tell future stories with them, or other stories with the locations and the same game world."
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is set to release sometime this year, and is definitely one for Life is Strange fans to try.
