Square EnixBetween the success of movies like Sonic the Hedgehog and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as well as television shows such as The Last of Us and Fallout, it’s indisputable that we’re in a Golden Age of video game adaptations. A far cry from the early days of half–recognizable IP brought to the big screen, studios are now constantly on the lookout for something with a built-in audience to capitalize on — and with the schedule of adaptations set to arrive soon (another Resident Evil reboot, The Legend of Zelda), they’ve realized that video games are ripe for cultivation. Funnily enough, out of everything being picked for cinematic adaptation, narrative decision-based games have been overlooked… with one big exception.2015’s Life is Strange, the acclaimed graphic adventure game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix, is getting an official adaptation from Amazon Prime Studios, and they just cast their two main characters. Tatum Grace Hopkins and Maisy Stella will bring Max and Chloe to life as the two teen girls find themselves at the center of a time-traveling mystery that has massive repercussions for their personal lives and the small Oregon town of Arcadia Bay. But one of the reasons LiS was so praised upon release was that it was a decision-based game that forced players to live with the consequences of their actions, and although there’s some merit to adapting it, one can’t help but wonder how necessary a live-action version is.Life is Strange is one of the best-known and most successful decision-based games. | Square EnixTime-travel has been a cinematic predilection for decades now, and while video games have also dabbled in the concept of jumping back and forth between the past and present, what made Life is Strange feel so fresh is how the narrative actively confronts players with the ripple effects of their temporal meddling. When bad things happen, the blame falls partly on the players themselves.As a TV show, LiS will certainly benefit from the emotional and moral complexity of its whodunnit story, but it will inevitably be compared to other on-screen time-travel stories. Some games are relatively unaffected by the transition to screen, like Fallout, where a whole new story allowed viewers to appreciate the game world from a removed distance. But Life is Strange faces a paradox: fans want and expect to see the characters they recognize and the story they experienced, yet so much of that story’s emotional weight comes from spending hours helping it develop. If the show sticks to the source material, it’ll undoubtedly make fans happier than completely sidestepping it (like last year’s Until Dawn). Truthfully, a little bit of what makes the game so beloved will be lost in the transition to a medium that lacks gaming’s interactivity.