Ashly Burch (A Woman of Many Voices)
Ashly Syble Burch
June 19, 1990
A voice of many
Troy Baker and Nolan North are known as the men of many voices, but Ashly Burch is certainly a woman of many memorable roles. It's almost difficult trying to keep up with all the wondrous voice work she has done. To name a few games she's been involved with: the Persona series, Life is Strange, Horizon Zero Dawn, Mortal Kombat, Fallout 4, and Dota 2, but those don't even cover half of them (and that's also not including animated shows like Steven Universe).
However, I would like to focus on her role as Chloe Price from Life is Strange.
First, I should start with admitting that Chloe was definitely my least favorite character in the game. I was more fond of Kate Marsh and the protagonist, Max Caulfield. But despite how I felt about Chloe, there is no denying her strength as a confidant to Max.
Life is Strange is an episodic adventure game from Dontnod released back in 2015. It revolves around a strange phenomenon that begins to occur to Max. One day in class, she zones out and has a vision of destruction to her town (fictional town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon). When she reaches a lighthouse and sees the giant tornado knock it down, almost killing her, she snaps out of it and finds herself in the safety of her photography classroom at Blackwell Academy. After class, she heads to the restroom to clear her mind and rips up a Polaroid she had taken of herself for a competition when a blue butterfly enters through a small window. Max follows it and snaps a new photo when someone enters. She remains hidden behind the stalls and peers around to find Nathan Prescott. He's a spoiled rich boy with horrid anger issues (although, thanks to the prequel game that was released later, it's clear Nathan suffered with a mental illness and was poorly treated).
After Nathan tries calming himself down, a blue-haired girl enters and demands money from him or she'll spill his secret. Angered by her threats, he pulls out a handgun to scare her and accidentally shoots her. Max cries out, holding up her hand, and time rewinds, taking her back to her photography classroom. Thus, Max awakens her rewind power.
This time, when she returns to the restroom and retraces her steps (yes, she had her photograph again and tears it up), then waits for Nathan and the mysterious girl to show up again. Before he can shoot the girl, Max pulls the fire alarm, and the girl escapes. Nathan leaves as well, but not before spotting the torn Polaroid on the floor.
The player then has the choice of telling the principal about Nathan. If the player chooses to tell on Nathan, the principal doesn't necessarily believe that, considering the Prescott family has been quite generous with their money to the school. Even so, he assures Max that he will look into the matter. Max then contemplates going back and changing her decision. Either way, Max will get confronted by Nathan later. She goes to meet up with her friend Warren (an adorable science nerd who has such an obvious crush on her) in the parking lot and that is where Nathan finds her. If the player chose to tell the principal, his name would have been heard over the intercom and Nathan will bring that up during the confrontation. The only way he knows it had to be her is because of her torn photograph and the fact that the fire alarm was pulled inside the restroom.
Warren shoves Nathan away from Max, and they begin to physically fight on the ground when an old truck skids to a stop in front of them. Max is nearly hit, then looks up and realizes it's the same girl from the restroom. However, now with a closer view, she realizes it's her old best friend, Chloe Price. See, Max used to live in Arcadia Bay before her family moved to Seattle prior to the game's events. She moves back to A.B. when she learns that her favorite photographer, Mark Jefferson, is teaching at Blackwell Academy. Since the school is a private, Max was able to live there while her parents stayed in Seattle for her father's job.
Anyway, Nathan attempts to go after Max, and Chloe instructs Max to get into her truck. They drive off, leaving Warren to continue fighting Nathan alone.
Max and Chloe go to Chloe's house where Max realizes a lot can change over time. Chloe is now a rebel teen with tattoos, blue hair, and she smokes weed. Max freely snoops around her room and stumbles upon a photograph of Chloe and a girl she had seen on "missing" posters. Chloe explains that the girl is Rachel Amber; a beautiful and mysterious girl who became Chloe's rock after Max moved and neglected to stay in contact. Rachel has been missing for a while, and Chloe refuses to believe she would have just left without informing her first. After all, they had plans to run off to California together.
The game's entire mechanic is based on Max's power and how the player can take advantage of it, but the overall story revolves around Rachel's disappearance and solving it whilst stopping a destruction of Arcadia Bay. Thus, Max ends up revealing her powers to Chloe when she nearly faints and has another vision of the tornado. Because of a newspaper she sees in the vision, she realizes the tornado is supposed to strike on Friday, giving her five days to figure out two mysteries.
Chloe's role is quite important. I wasn't fond of her constant outbursts and fits, especially when Max wants to be there for Kate Marsh. Kate is a Christian girl who turns suicidal when she gets drugged and acts out at a party, tainting her reputation by the entire school who deem her a slut. Since no one except Max bothers to help her, she tries jumping off the roof of the dorms. However, the player gets a chance of saving her by halting time and racing to the roof (which leaves Max awfully exhausted). If the player truly paid attention to Kate's interests and problems, they can save Kate. If not, Kate jumps. Therefore, I did think it was rude of Chloe not to let Max comfort another friend. Although, after learning the whole story, I understand why she would get upset about it. Max is so easily ready to be there for others when she wasn't there for Chloe after Chloe's father was killed in an accident.
And even after the hell she went through with losing her father and seeing her mother remarry, Chloe proves just how selfless she is during the very final decision of the game.
Through various events and supporting Max every time, they solve the mystery of what happened with Rachel Amber (I'll spare you the spoilers in case you ever want to give this game a try). Nonetheless, the moral of the story is not to take advantage of powers and let fate take its course. Okay, here's one spoiler ahead!
The only reason the tornado was even happening was due to Max using her power. Rewinding time can have horrid effects on our timeline and- well, actually, Warren explains it best when he says:
Warren shoves Nathan away from Max, and they begin to physically fight on the ground when an old truck skids to a stop in front of them. Max is nearly hit, then looks up and realizes it's the same girl from the restroom. However, now with a closer view, she realizes it's her old best friend, Chloe Price. See, Max used to live in Arcadia Bay before her family moved to Seattle prior to the game's events. She moves back to A.B. when she learns that her favorite photographer, Mark Jefferson, is teaching at Blackwell Academy. Since the school is a private, Max was able to live there while her parents stayed in Seattle for her father's job.
Anyway, Nathan attempts to go after Max, and Chloe instructs Max to get into her truck. They drive off, leaving Warren to continue fighting Nathan alone.
Max and Chloe go to Chloe's house where Max realizes a lot can change over time. Chloe is now a rebel teen with tattoos, blue hair, and she smokes weed. Max freely snoops around her room and stumbles upon a photograph of Chloe and a girl she had seen on "missing" posters. Chloe explains that the girl is Rachel Amber; a beautiful and mysterious girl who became Chloe's rock after Max moved and neglected to stay in contact. Rachel has been missing for a while, and Chloe refuses to believe she would have just left without informing her first. After all, they had plans to run off to California together.
The game's entire mechanic is based on Max's power and how the player can take advantage of it, but the overall story revolves around Rachel's disappearance and solving it whilst stopping a destruction of Arcadia Bay. Thus, Max ends up revealing her powers to Chloe when she nearly faints and has another vision of the tornado. Because of a newspaper she sees in the vision, she realizes the tornado is supposed to strike on Friday, giving her five days to figure out two mysteries.
Chloe's role is quite important. I wasn't fond of her constant outbursts and fits, especially when Max wants to be there for Kate Marsh. Kate is a Christian girl who turns suicidal when she gets drugged and acts out at a party, tainting her reputation by the entire school who deem her a slut. Since no one except Max bothers to help her, she tries jumping off the roof of the dorms. However, the player gets a chance of saving her by halting time and racing to the roof (which leaves Max awfully exhausted). If the player truly paid attention to Kate's interests and problems, they can save Kate. If not, Kate jumps. Therefore, I did think it was rude of Chloe not to let Max comfort another friend. Although, after learning the whole story, I understand why she would get upset about it. Max is so easily ready to be there for others when she wasn't there for Chloe after Chloe's father was killed in an accident.
And even after the hell she went through with losing her father and seeing her mother remarry, Chloe proves just how selfless she is during the very final decision of the game.
Through various events and supporting Max every time, they solve the mystery of what happened with Rachel Amber (I'll spare you the spoilers in case you ever want to give this game a try). Nonetheless, the moral of the story is not to take advantage of powers and let fate take its course. Okay, here's one spoiler ahead!
The only reason the tornado was even happening was due to Max using her power. Rewinding time can have horrid effects on our timeline and- well, actually, Warren explains it best when he says:
I would advise to stop watching after 2:28 if you truly don't want to be spoiled.
Anyway, the only way Max can save Arcadia Bay is by going back (one last time) to the day she discovered her power and do nothing about Nathan shooting Chloe. As I said, fate must take its course. However, the player can decide to let the tornado destroy the town (and everyone within it) and ride off into the sunset with Chloe. Can you guess which decision I went with? Sorry, Chloe... but I couldn't let Warren and Kate die in a storm like that.
But despite how I felt about Chloe, I can still acknowledge how wonderful of a character she is, and she's extremely developed once you delve deeper into her story. She's gone through the worst, yet she's kept her head high.
Ashly Burch herself has talked about how much she adored the character. The video game voice actors strike occurred during the development of the prequel game. Burch took part in this strike, preventing her from voicing Chloe, which devastated her. Still, she stood up for a cause she believed in, which was getting her colleagues and herself better pay.
Next time you're playing a video game, listen closely. Ashly's voice might be heard! Really, I was pleasantly surprised when I was wandering through a vault in Fallout 4 and stumbled upon an interesting character. I spoke to said character without much thought and gasped when I recognized her voice. The same happened when playing Mortal Kombat X and realizing she was voicing Cassie Cage.
Burch takes great pride in her work, and it shows with the characters she's played, all of which are inspirational and courageous women.
Anyway, the only way Max can save Arcadia Bay is by going back (one last time) to the day she discovered her power and do nothing about Nathan shooting Chloe. As I said, fate must take its course. However, the player can decide to let the tornado destroy the town (and everyone within it) and ride off into the sunset with Chloe. Can you guess which decision I went with? Sorry, Chloe... but I couldn't let Warren and Kate die in a storm like that.
But despite how I felt about Chloe, I can still acknowledge how wonderful of a character she is, and she's extremely developed once you delve deeper into her story. She's gone through the worst, yet she's kept her head high.
Ashly Burch herself has talked about how much she adored the character. The video game voice actors strike occurred during the development of the prequel game. Burch took part in this strike, preventing her from voicing Chloe, which devastated her. Still, she stood up for a cause she believed in, which was getting her colleagues and herself better pay.
Next time you're playing a video game, listen closely. Ashly's voice might be heard! Really, I was pleasantly surprised when I was wandering through a vault in Fallout 4 and stumbled upon an interesting character. I spoke to said character without much thought and gasped when I recognized her voice. The same happened when playing Mortal Kombat X and realizing she was voicing Cassie Cage.
Burch takes great pride in her work, and it shows with the characters she's played, all of which are inspirational and courageous women.
