The gaming community can take its frames per second seriously in pursuit of the best possible experience, so some have been very disappointed to find that Life is Strange: True Colors maxes out at 30 FPS on consoles. This new addition to the Life is Strange franchise received some of the highest scores from critics since the original game released in 2015.
Console scores still managed to fare pretty well, ranking in the 80s across platforms on Metacritic. As a whole, reviews of Life is Strange: True Colors have remained steadily on the positive end of the spectrum. Thoughts on the impending Nintendo Switch version are absent from these numbers, so it will be interesting to see how the game fares in the face of more players on a smaller system. Deck Nine announced the delay of True Colors' Switch release about a month before the game launched on all other platforms. Typically, Nintendo Switch ports are found to be of slightly lower quality due to the console’s limited processing power, but many developers have managed to release huge games on the system with passable performance.
There seems to be reason for concern in regards to the Switch port of Life is Strange: True Colors, though, as a recent Reddit post by WtfWhereAreMyClothes points out that the game appears to be locked at 30 FPS on PS5. With the PS5 being as powerful as it is, it’s a bit odd that True Colors “can’t even hold 30 FPS consistently,” leading the Redditor to test the game on Steam and come to the conclusion that this is a case of “an incredibly lazy port.” Deck Nine actually announced the game’s framerate cap on consoles with a tweet before the Reddit post was even made. The lock supposedly “allowed [Deck Nine] to target higher cinematic fidelity on every platform,” but WtfWhereAreMyClothes is joined by many other players in the belief that with modern console hardware, 30 FPS has more or less become a thing of the past. While previous Life is Strange entries would be understandably capped on consoles, arguably the biggest appeal of the new generation is the increased processing speeds on the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X.
Hopefully the original game and its prequel will avoid similar issues when they rerelease as part of the Life is Strange Remastered Collection. Generally speaking, older games like these should be able to run quite smoothly on the latest hardware, including PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. However, it’s possible that if WtfWhereAreMyClothes is correct about the True Colors port being of poor quality, then a similar thing could happen with the Remastered Collection. The team is taking extra time with it, though, since the Life is Strange remastered collection was delayed until 2022, despite it being given an initial release date in September.
Life is Strange: True Colors has strayed from other games in the franchise, which have focused largely on typical sci-fi powers, such as telekinesis and the ability to rewind time. True Colors introduces emotions and empathetic manipulation as the powers of its main character. Leading up to launch, it was a bit unclear how these sorts of powers would translate into gameplay. Deck Nine, the game’s developer, spoke often of “emotional auras” that the main character, Alex, can connect to, but this is far from descriptive. Even a new gameplay trailer showing off her abilities left some ambiguity around what the physical world of the player would be experiencing during these moments. Fans can now fully experience Life is Strange: True Colors for themselves, though they may have some problems experiencing it on consoles.
Life is Strange: True Colors is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Google Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. The Nintendo Switch version is set to release later in 2021.
Sources: WtfWhereAreMyClothes/Reddit, Deck Nine/Twitter