I don't like giving games a negative review because there's a lot of effort put into this, but because there isn't a "mixed" option I had to pick between the two... and there are more negatives than positives.

Long story short: this game had lots of potential, but it does a lot of mistakes. This game should've been left in the oven to bake longer, but SquareEnix probably wouldn't let that happen.

I'll start with the positives. The game looks gorgeous, but I feel like way too much effort went into the look of the game rather than the game itself. The voice acting is phenomenal and everyone's expression matches the voice. Lots of good work was put into that area. Max's voice actress knocked it out the park as usual, but Max puts on a more "Release the kra-can" voice in this game; more than I liked. The music, while not as iconic, is pretty good. The artists did a very good job. The supernatural power of this story is interesting.

That was all the positives, now come the negatives.
The story seems to change whenever it wants. It starts as a murder mystery, and that's over with Ep.2/Ep.3, then it becomes a revenge story, but it ends with Ep.4 and then becomes MCU.

The characters feel watered down and whatever part they're supposed to have is pretty minimal and I wish I could get to know all of them but the story is made in a way that they are unfulfilling and short-lasting. While the original LiS characters weren't super deep, lots of characters had their time to shine and got their transformation/growth. At the very least you got to know them but here they just come and go. I really did not agree with how they handled Lucas as a character by making him a laughably sad "villain". I've seen people treat him like he's worse than Mark Jefferson. He seems to be written to just be bad on everything and called it a day. He was especially written that his "second chance" moment is to be an even worse person. Fanfic level of character depth.
Oh and the character that this game is about (Safi) ... she's barely there except this game's version of social media. She becomes more present in Ep.4.
There's also a character that's treated as if they're very important to the point where there are 2 major choices related to them, and then they're gone/forgotten for the rest of the game. (the detective)
This game did not need to redo the storm. And this time Max decides to say "jokes on you storm" and even walk into it to defuse it. Makes the original storm weaker and makes this seem like a cheesy superhero move.

Speaking of depth, this game had a lot of references to stars and planets (even the UI has a moon-like icon to let you know which universe you're in), the big event in Ep.1 is the falling meteors.... and it has nothing to do with the story or the powers. I was really hoping that the story will have a Coherence plot where a passing comet splits the universe into many for a day. The original games were made to have the powers be a cherry on top; a tool that guides the story but not the focus of it. This story seems to be focusing a lot on the power, when that effort should've been put into making a coherent thought-out story and characters.
Not only that, this story is regurgitating points of the original... but worse, because it changes the context of certain things that make the original look worse/weaker now. I was honestly excited to see Max again and have a new story with her in it... but this is a hot mess express.

The UI has a True Colors issue: it's sterile. It lacks personality and looks like a website. Every time you select an option/choice, it does a loud click sound. Even the "Action will have consequences" tune is loud and bombastic.
The choices in this game matter the least in the franchise. The game is short and expensive compared to previous games, and I feel like this game could've benefited from an episodic style so that there's enough time for developers to improve/complete the game. Not only that, but it would give people time to think about the game and theorise. The biggest thing I missed in True Colors is theories. We got a complete story day one, and there was no need to make theories and have the fans discuss it.
Oh and charging extra $20 for "exclusive cat content" (which is needed for 100% achievements) is wild.


This game needed A LOT more thought and care. I'm aware that the development was messy, but I sadly cannot give a positive review of this game. I gave myself a few months to think about this game and see if my opinion will change, but it has only solidified. Some people like this game, but I sadly cannot.

Don't let all the negative reviews discourage you from playing this wonderful game.
This LIS installment is a good successor to LIS 1 in my opinion. The main issue people have with this game is basically how they handled Chloe by giving her little to no screen-time. Honestly, I liked Chloe's character but I've never really attached myself too hard to her to scream something like "Why is she not in this game?!!!". Yes, they went with "save Bay" ending as a canon and it was the most logical thing to do, because the whole point of LIS 1 was about Max learning the fact that she can't undo the things that happened to her or people around her by rewinding time, it would cause only more harm to the innocent people around her, which LIS Double Exposure captures really well - grown up Max is mature. While they could have went with "Bae" ending instead, it would have killed the whole point of this game - showing how people need to move on and live to accept the fact that we need to live here, in present, not in the past.
As for other pros, the world-building is great with some really interesting twists which I didn't expect. Having an option to romance both love interests is also a great addition, given the nature of Max's powers in this game, but I just wished they gived both love interests a little more screen-time and character development. Speaking of characters, they are well-written in my opinion, each one of them has their gimmick which makes it more engaging.
The only downside of this game is performance. It runs terribly on all PC specs due to the game being an UE5 which is heavily unoptimised, though you can play around with graphics settings to make it smoother. It's a shame they released it without DLSS option.

All in all, I recommend this LIS installment to everyone who is not a "tryhard Chloe" fan and understands why they chose the particular ending as a canon for this one. The ending of this game is also great and opens up a really interesting narrative which I can't wait to see!

This game is like meeting somebody you were friends with 10 years ago and slowly finding out they only wanted to meet up for lunch to try and get you to buy into their MLM scheme.