Max viewing a picture of Chloe and her disappeared friend, Rachel Amber

During the first episode of “Life Is Strange” Developers’ Diary, Dontnod Co-Founder and Creative Director Jean-Maxime Moris reveals that Square Enix was basically the only publisher that didn’t want to change the female protagonists or any other thing in Life Is Strange in order to make it appeal for a wider market. Square Enix already has a long history of having strong female characters such as Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII), Yuna (Final Fantasy X), Aya Brea (Parasite Eve), Zero (Drakengard 3) and Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) who have gained widely popular following.

In addition, Dontnod’s debut game Remember Me starred a strong female lead Nilin. However, Jean-Maxime Moris also stresses that their intention is not to make a political statement: “I’m able to step out the studio door and go to the publisher’s and basically speak one voice, nothing political: this is the great game we’re working on together.”

“Square Enix were basically the only publisher that didn’t want to change a single thing about the game. We had other publishers telling us make it a male lead character. Square Enix didn’t even question that once.”

–Jmax, Co-Founder of Dontnod