I just finished Captain Spirit as well, and I found it rather tedious and pointless. The checklist design of the game just emphasizes how the game is all about aimless wandering. I actually got stuck for a long time because I couldn't find one of the key items to complete Chris' costume. I had to look up online where it was because I got tired of walking through the same 3 areas in circles for an hour.
When the actual plot arrives after 2 hours of aimless, boring wandering, I just rolled my eyes because it's the obvious storyline for a single father who recently lost his wife & succumbed to alcoholism. It's so by-the-numbers & blatant it makes David Cage look subtle by comparison.
The ending teases something actually interesting happening in Life is Strange 2, which tells me nothing because that's kind of the minimum one would expect from a sequel to Life is Strange.
Meh. I like adventure games, but I like them to have a point & tempo and this really...didn't have that.
Yeah, it was telling the thing was hidden in the "Demo" section of PSN, rather as a game. Maybe they felt like since it had its own isolated story of sorts that they could tout it as something more, but this is very much a Demo for the 2nd LiS game. It's missing decisions that actually seem important, and it's a very quiet story even by LiS standards.
I told my friends to use a walkthrough if they want to play it, because I had that very same problem you did with the costume. I found all the costume items, but overlooked you having to hold L1 (or is it R1?) to open up the special "Captain Spirit" button prompts you need to. The marker was a little too subtle for me until I was about halfway through. Not only that, but the padlock and phone passwords seemed a little too obscure for me to figure out.I kinda disagree with your characterization of Captain Spirit's story (especially that it's David Cage-ian, if we're using that as a pejorative). LiS 1 used pretty typical tropes too (Chloe being an angsty rebellious teen after losing her dad/constant struggle with the stern Man her mom is dating/lots of the Blackwell student population fitting into typical cliques), but the well-thought out parts of the storytelling has always been around the character building that comes form you exploring, having your character observe and make commentary on things in the environment, how the characters interact with you and the decisions you make, and those choices also giving a tilt to the kind of personality the protagonist has.
I'd suggest Captain Spirit is a half-success in that regard. Chris' character is well developed, he's a believable child in that situation, struggling with the loss in his own way that a child would - deeply affected by his Mother's loss and his father's absence/abuse, but resilient. He loves his father because any child that age would, even in those circumstances, which makes it heart wrenching if you choose to try and be helpful. Both this and David Cage games like Heavy Rain use the mundane tasks as part of the story, it's there for pacing as well, but especially in LiS games, it's all about how you build the characteristics of the protagonist. You can choose to go to breakfast the first time your Dad calls out to you that breakfast is ready, or if you dawdle, the third time he'll threaten you if you don't come out. You can choose to do all the chores your dad should be doing as the parent, or run out and start your play, you can cover for your Dad when the neighbor comes to the door, or you can not try, you can call out your dad on his daydrinking, or you can be quiet about it. You can sneak a cigarette, or not touch them. Things that don't have consequence in the larger story, but all small actions that build the larger tapestry of the character you're playing.
Was the game fun to play blind and trying to fumble around blind? No. If you find a site to give you a step-by-step of how to progress the demo, I think it's worth going through to whet your appetite, and has some tough moments (I teared-up when you find the secret treasure, it doesn't hurt that Chris reminds me a lot of my oldest son).
What I'm really curious about is how the demo ended. Are we to believe that Chris awoke some power in a tense moment to save himself? Or was his neighbor kid who witnessed it actually the one with powers? Is this going to be about a younger set of kids than LiS1 and more like the age of the kids from Stranger Things, or is there going to be a time skip from this demo so they're teens?
Either way, the table is set for LiS2, and i'm looking forward to the full game, which I expect will have less of these problems.
Looks like I had this game on my mind more than I thought. Sorry for the dissertation.