Chasing Beth

Chasing Beth (CB) is the sixth game set in the Elsaverse, and the first one in the saga's second story arc. It's also the first game in the Elsaverse originally made with the Ren'Py game engine and it was released for Tora Productions' patrons on December 15, 2021, before becoming available to the general public one day later. Chasing Beth represents yet another turn in Tora Productions' style, simplifying the gameplay elements and removing non-canon paths to give more weight to the intended narrative, intertwining two main storylines that run in parallel until the climax scene, and presenting an already established couple as the main protagonists of the romance part of the game: in CB, players are not asked to try and start a relationship with a girl, but to try and overcome a struggling point in their on-going relationship. And, in another example of subverted expectations, and for the first time ever in the Elsaverse saga, the woman the game is named after, Beth, is not the game's actual love interest, although the player's character will end up having sex with her in a bonus scene after completing the game.

Chasing Beth takes place several months after the events depicted in Saving Chloe (2018) and Darkness Falls (2018-2019), and inmediately after the short story Elsaverse: Transitions (2020-2021) or even colliding with its final episodes.

Premise
Players take on the role of Joel Dresden, a journalist who is suffering from PTSD due to being injured in a war and gets the assignment to write about a vigilante that has started to act in Sangrive. Suspecting this vigilante may have something to do with his own past, Joel tries to find this mysterious person and not only for professional reasons, while sorting out his struggling relationship with Serena... and his mental singularities as well.

Plot Summary
Despite being in a relationship with Serena for some months now, Joel is yet to tell her about the reasons for his PTSD: a critical moment during the war he was covering as a reporter when the unit he was embedded with was attacked and he almost died. Now, she's also suffering from the physical consequences of a traffic accident and their relationship is in a tough spot. Joel's empathy and his special ability to see the human side of stories are helping him to deal with these difficult times: in his mind, he sees and hears Tanya and Tony, a happily married couple that gives him lots of solid tips about human behavior and relationships whenever he asks them. What he thinks is a coping mechanism created by his mind to deal with the fact that he almost died in the war is allowing him to make ends meet, as he now writes a popular advice column for a local newspaper, the "Sangrive Times", that readers think is actually written by those Tanya and Tony, or 'T&T'.

One day, his editor Hanne chooses him to write about the vigilante that has started to act in the city, hoping for Joel to focus on this guy's most personal side; however, when Joel hears that the vigilante is using 'Tainted Arrow' as a nickname, he quickly links that name with the female chopper pilot who saved him in the war, as 'Tainted Arrow' was precisely her callsign. With Serena's help, Joel makes an effort to recall his traumatic experience in the war, but he never heard the real name of his savior, so he gets in contact with one of the soldiers who accompanied him back then, named Zach Sinclair. Zach agrees to help Joel and search for the pilot's real name, while also offering his wife Abigale's services as a therapist to help Joel deal with his PTSD.

Meanwhile, Serena gets a phone call from Paul, her former co-worker and best friend, and also the man she was secretly in love with for more than ten years. She never told him about her feelings because he was still obsessed with his teenage love, Chloe Reyes; as Serena feared, when Paul finally managed to get back with Chloe some months ago, he left his job at the spot just to be with her girlfriend, and they haven't talked ever since. Serena has been trying to move on and has found a perfect match in Joel, but now that Paul informs her that he is going to marry Chloe, she realizes she is losing him also as a friend. Conflicted about her feelings, Serena gives Joel permission to dump her, but he chooses to stay and support her. However, things get more complicated when Joel gets a message from Paul, addressed to his advice column, in which Paul confesses he always felt something for Serena too and is also conflicted about his feelings. Joel tells Serena about Paul's doubts and suggests that they should meet to speak up their hearts and clear things out; much to Joel's and Chloe's relief, in that meeting Paul and Serena agree that now they both love their current partners too much and want to be with them, although they also miss the time they used to spend together at work, so they agree to see each other regularly to preserve their friendship.

While patching up his relationship with Serena, Joel has learned that 'Tainted Arrow' real name is Beth Lagrange, and he is trying to follow her actions against the local street gangs not only to write about her but also to properly thank her for saving him back at the war. Joel gets some help from Michelle Won, a detective from the Sangrive Police Department who is working on the case, and who tells him that the way his ability to see the human side of stories seemed to improve a lot during his college years is not exactly an unheard story in Sangrive. Eventually, as he is convinced that the detective actually wants to help Beth, Joel promises Won to keep her informed about the vigilante's story in case it's somewhat similar to his. However, Joel is also worried about his mental health, as he has been noticing some weird reactions from Tanya and Tony in his mind: they acted as if they already knew Detective Won and Chloe Reyes and seemed quite affected by it despite the fact that he had never met those women before. This pushes Joel to ask for an appointment with Zach's wife, and he starts to deal with his PTSD with some professional help at last.

In parallel with Joel's inquiries, Beth Lagrange has been recording a memorial video with her best friend and casual lover, Emily, in which she goes through the most important events in her life: from the martial arts lessons she took as a child and how she fell in love at first sight with helicopters, to her time at the war and the exact moment in which she realized she has kind of a superpower that lets her overcharge her senses and react quicker to stimuli as if time is moving in slow motion. Nowadays, Beth is fighting crime as a vigilante because it helps her to deal with her own traumatic experience at the war; her friend Emily is helping her in her missions, as she has an unnatural ability too: Emily can heal other people's wounds and injuries just by imposing her hands on them, at the price of having to experience the pain of those injuries for a few hours. The video is intended to serve as a testimony of their actions in case something goes really wrong.

One evening, Joel gets to a park where Beth is expected to strike next and watches how she takes down several gang bangers with her amazing fighting skills, but then the gang leader shoots her. Shocked by the gunshot, Joel loses his consciousness and sees Tanya and Tony trying to make him react while telling him that their actual names are Tatiana and Anton Blackhawk and that they are not exactly a product of his troubled mind. Encouraged by them, Joel comes to his senses and charges against the gunman, saving Beth's life; then, he watches dumbfounded how Emily magically heals her friend. Joel tries to take the girls to Beth's home, but detectives Michelle Won and Nathanial Blake are already there, watching the memorial video, and he decides to bring them to the safety of his own place instead, where Serena doesn't seem impressed when she learns about Beth's and Emily's powers, as it happens that she already knew some people with powers too.

During that night, Serena and Emily talk to each other and Emily heals Serena's injuries from the car crash, absorbing her pain; then, in the morning, the four of them talk with Detective Won and Beth decides to put her vigilante career to an end. Following Won's advice to protect Beth, Joel writes an article about the vigilante's fake death in which he states that she was just an ordinary woman with no supernatural powers. That same morning, he also talks internally with Tanya and Tony; now that they feel Joel is mentally ready to know the truth, they tell him that he is actually a medium with the ability to talk with the dead, as long as they are from a certain parallel world like themselves: when they died, their souls found Joel's mind while he was fighting for his life after being saved by Beth, and they have been living there ever since. When she was alive, Tatiana Blackhawk had the power to get strategic insight into people's feelings, and Anton's power allowed him to amplify other people's powers, which explains why they can communicate so easily with Joel and why Tanya/Tatiana's tips are always on point; Joel's ability to see the human side of stories is not a power on itself but a byproduct of his connection with dead people, as he is still getting deceased human's feelings even though he can't properly communicate with them. Finally, Anton and Tatiana ask him to gather some info about their children, Trisha and Michael Blackhawk, as they fear that Trisha could be in some danger. After Joel publishes his fake story about Beth's death, he and Serena make love again, their physical and emotional issues already solved or on their way to being solved.

Achievements
Unlike previous games, Chasing Beth doesn't have an achievement system as such. However, there are several checkpoints that players must pass to progress the story, with a different T&T scene triggering when players fail. Those failure scenes have a dedicated gallery and are automatically unlocked there when players pass the checkpoints; since a bonus scene is unlocked by watching all of them, they can be listed as Achievements:


 * "Morning": Treat Serena with the right amount of sensitivity and non-sexual intimacy when you wake up.
 * "Hanne": Be professional around your boss, Hanne.
 * "Flashback": Trust Serena with your traumatic past and your current assignment.
 * "Evening": Support Serena through her down moment.
 * "Confession": Choose to stay with Serena after her confession about Paul.
 * "Eve": Be consistent when talking to Eve at the precinct (either professional or friendly).
 * "Psych1": Talk about yourself in the therapy session with Abigale Sinclair.
 * "Psych2": Tell Abigale about what you saw when you were injured at the war.
 * "Snakes": Be calm and respectful when talking to the Snakes' gang bangers.

After watching all of the nine T&T scenes, either by failing the in-game checkpoints or by watching them on the T&T Help Scene Gallery, a bonus sex scene with Tanya and Tony is unlocked in the Sex Scene Gallery.

Post-credits Scene
Another difference from other games in the saga is that in Chasing Beth, the post-credits scene is not a scene but a visual short story titled Stand Up. In this story, Tanya's and Tony's son, Michael Blackhawk, is coming back to Sangrive after spending some time away. He's perfectly aware of the powers' existence and quickly notices that a woman in the street is a Distractor who can draw others' attention to herself; what he doesn't know is that this woman is called Maria and she is the stripper Charles Reyes convinced to join him in Elsaverse: Transitions (2020-2021). Since she is seriously attractive and he's not immune to her power, Michael agrees to help her and finds himself caught in the trap set up by Charles, who asks him to join his squad of gifted people too, claiming that the Blackhawk family is in debt with the Reyes family. Shocked by that claim, since that alleged debt had been paid with the death of Michael's parents, Michael refuses to join him and Charles has to hastily run away from the apartment as detectives Blake and Won show up at the door looking for him. After failing to catch Charles, Won is surprised to see Michael there, and it's hinted they've been a couple in the past or at least had a very close relationship that ended poorly; however, she doesn't resent him and he seems to still feel something for her. During their private conversation, Won talks about powers and asks Michael if he has one, and Michael nods.

Bonus Scenes
Another singularity of Chasing Beth is that it has two bonus scenes and not just one as the rest of the games set in the Elsaverse. Both scenes are of a sexual nature.

The first bonus scene is automatically unlocked in the Sex Scene Gallery after completing the game, and it shows a foursome sex session with Joel, Serena, Beth, and Emily. Storywise, the scene just follows up on the flirting between Emily and Serena, and also on the challenge that Beth came up with while in the war to not have sex with anyone who hasn't beaten her in unarmed combat. It also shows Serena's first anal sex experience.

The second bonus scene is unlocked by watching all of the nine Tanya and Tony help scenes, either by failing the in-game checkpoints or by watching those scenes in their dedicated gallery. This bonus scene is accessed from the Sex Scenes Gallery and it's a flashback in which Tanya and Tony, or Tatiana and Anton, talk about settling down in this realm and having their children in Sangrive. From their conversation and the setting, it's hinted that they were staying at the first hotel Morland Reyes bought in the city, shortly after its acquisition, and that they were helping him somehow, although they didn't fully trust him. It can also be inferred that Tatiana got pregnant that same night.

Sex Scenes
Chasing Beth contains up to 9 sex scenes, although 2 of them are more like short glimpses of a scene, and another pair of them are extra scenes that get unlocked after completing the game and watching all of the T&T Help scenes. Those two extra scenes are only accessible from the game's gallery.

All of those scenes are replayable from the Sex Scenes gallery.

Characters
''This section tries to explain the characters' involvement in the game's plot. For a full profile on them, please check their page on Category:Elsaverse Characters.''

Chasing Beth features an ensemble cast, with several main characters and another group of side characters that play a big role in the game's plot.

Main Characters

 * Joel Dresden is the player's character (PC). He is a journalist who currently writes an advice column for the "Sangrive Times" posing as a happily married couple, Tanya & Tony. Readers think that Tanya and Tony actually exist and write that column, and the few people who know that Joel is the actual writer think that he has just created those fictional characters: Joel's girlfriend, Serena, can see traits of Joel's personality in both of them, and even Joel thinks at first that they are, indeed, two characters created by his mind after a traumatic incident from his past that has left him dealing with a PTSD. The truth, however, is that Joel has a power that lets him communicate with the dead, and Tanya and Tony are two actual people, named Tatiana and Anton, who came from the parallel universe and whose souls live in Joel's mind since their death, which took place around the time Joel was severely injured at the war. Before this plot twist is revealed in the game's final stretch, Joel always thought he just had a singular ability to find the most human side of stories, which is why he chose to be a journalist: Tatiana and Anton will explain to him that this skill is a consequence of all the inputs he has been getting from dead people around him even though he couldn't consciously register those messages from deceased human beings, as he does with theirs. Sensitive, empathic, and supportive, he wrote some touching reports from a war in which he was embedded with a Special Forces unit until they were ambushed. Badly hurt in the incident, the quick intervention of a female chopper pilot saved his life, but he never learned her real name, only her callsign, 'Tainted Arrow'. Some years later, when Joel hears that callsign again, he quickly understands that the new vigilante his editor wants him to write about might be that pilot, and tries to chase her to properly thank her for her brave actions back then. Meanwhile, he also has to face a difficult moment in his relationship with Serena: first, he needs to help her cope with the physical pain she's suffering after a car accident; then, he has to trust her with his own trauma, as he hasn't told her the whole story about the war and his PTSD; later on, he has to support her when Serena learns about Paul's wedding and starts to second-guessing herself. Step by step, through love, care, and his emotionally mature actions, Joel manages to strengthen his relationship with Serena, gets the professional help he needed to start solving his PTSD, and finally gets to know his savior, Beth Lagrange, saving her life and helping some other people around him in the process. And, of course, he also gets to know what was exactly going on in his mind.


 * Serena is Joel's girlfriend, and the only love interest (LI) in the game. She is the British lawyer and DJ that first appeared in Saving Chloe (2018) as Paul's best friend and secret admirer. Several months have passed since Paul got reunited with his teenage crush, Chloe Reyes, and Serena has moved on: she is now in a relationship with Joel Dresden and they even live together, but their love is being put to some serious testing when Chasing Beth starts. Despite Serena's efforts to be trustful and supportive, Joel is still hiding from her the story that caused his PTSD; the most challenging situation, however, is defined by the physical consequences that Serena is experiencing after suffering a car accident a month ago: she is in a lot of pain, especially in her hips area, which prevents her from sleeping well and is affecting both her mood and their sex life. As she feels she's kind of responsible for their situation, she tries so hard to please her man in the best way she can, given the circumstances, but it's not easy for any of them. In order to get well again, she desperately needs his boyfriend to be that awesome man she fell in love with, the one that made her forget at least a little bit about Paul, who simply vanished from her life after meeting Chloe again. But then, out of the blue, Paul phones her to announce he's going to marry Chloe, and Serena realizes she's losing her greatest friend, a friend she will later learn was also secretly in love with her. Serena knows that Paul will never leave Chloe; she is also sure about her feelings for Joel, but she still feels terrible for not having told her new boyfriend about that important part of her life and gives him permission to leave her. However, Joel's supportive reaction helps her to make the right call and try to fix her broken friendship with Paul while reassuring herself about her feelings for Joel. Later on, after meeting Beth and Emily, Serena confesses that she already knew about the powers' existence thanks to one of her past lovers, Amamda Reid, who will make the group trust Detective Won later on; Emily then heals Serena and she's finally able to give her boyfriend all of what they were missing in recent weeks.


 * Beth Lagrange is the woman the game is named after, and the person who has been acting as a vigilante in Sangrive for some weeks before the game starts, fighting against the Rats and the Snakes, the two main street gangs in the city. At first, her presence in the story is conveyed through the memorial video she is recording with her best friend and casual lover, Emily, in case something goes wrong. In her apartment, in front of a camera, Beth narrates different episodes in her life that have shaped her character: the death of her mother when Beth was only 4 years old, the special bond formed with her father, the martial arts lessons she took as a kid, her friendship with Emily, the many hours spent with the planes and helicopter simulators at her dad's work, her first sexual experiences, and her constant efforts to teach other women how to defend themselves. She also talks about the moment when both Emily and herself learned they have a special power: in Beth's case, she can overcharge her senses, entering a state of sensorial hyperawareness that lets her react quicker to stimuli as if everything and everyone around her was moving in slow motion. This, and her pilot license, allowed her to shine in the military training camp, and she was deployed in a country where the enemy forces had women as one of their main targets. Piloting a medivac chopper, she was taken down and spent several weeks alone on the ground, trying to survive, until she was rescued and sent back home in a very bad condition, as she had been abusing her power to keep herself safe and was extremely shaken by the experience. Thanks to her therapist, Abigale Sinclair, and her father's and Emily's support, Beth is now almost fully recovered and works as a pilot, mainly for tourist trips, while saving money to buy her own helicopter. However, she felt she wasn't helping people anymore, and after stopping a group of guys who were going to gang-rape a woman, she decided to start fighting crime as a masked vigilante, using the same name she used as callsign in the war: 'Tainted Arrow'. One evening, she's dealing with a large group of Rats gang-bangers when the leader shoots her; although she tries to dodge the bullet, she is not fast enough and falls to the ground, severely injured. Fortunately for her, a shocked Joel manages to knock out the gunman before he finishes the job; following Beth's orders, he phones Emily, who comes into the scene and heals Beth's wound with her power, absorbing her pain. As the police have finally found out Beth's actual identity, Joel takes both women home, where they eventually decide that Beth's days as 'Tainted Arrow' must come to an end.

Also Starring

 * Tanya is the woman Joel sees and hears in his mind since he was hurt at the war. Confident and assertive, she seems to have a special talent for quickly understanding complex situations, as well as people's emotions and intentions. Tanya is also a daring and loving wife, happily married to Tony. Although Joel thinks that Tanya is a product of his mind to help him cope with the PTSD he is suffering, the truth is that she is a real person named Tatiana Blackhawk who died around the time Joel was injured in the war. Alongside her husband and First Officer, whose real name is Anton Blackhawk, Captain Tatiana came to Sangrive from the parallel universe about thirty years ago and helped Morland Reyes in his rise to the top in this realm, where they decided to have their two children, Michael and Trisha; unfortunately for the couple, things ended up poorly due to some still unexplained reasons and they died while Joel was unconscious and fighting for his life. However, thanks to Anton's power, which amplifies other people's powers, their souls found Joel's mind: although he wasn't aware of this, Joel is a medium who has the power of communicating with the dead and can tune himself to deceased people from that other universe where his power is originated. Ever since their arrival, they have been trying to help their host with his mental health and heal him, but he wasn't ready to face the truth and they have been helping him in his daily interactions and giving him the advice he uses as material for his column. When Joel finds himself in an emergency situation, Tatiana finally tells him the truth to make him react, which eventually allows him to save Beth. During the game, she uses her power to get strategic insight into people's feelings and, among other things, she helps Joel to deal with the Paul situation and to identify the Snake's gang leader when he goes to talk to them. She also gives some hints to players in the help scenes that prompt after failing at checkpoints.


 * Tony is the man Joel sees and hears in his mind since he was hurt at the war. Happily married to Tania, Tony is a respectful, caring, and empathic man whose advice seems to be helping a lot of men in Sangrive to be better husbands and love partners. Although Joel thinks that Tony is a product of his mind to help him cope with the PTSD he is suffering, the truth is that he is a real person named Anton Blackhawk who died around the time Joel was injured in the war. Alongside his wife, a Captain whose real name is Tatiana Blackhawk, Anton came to Sangrive from the parallel universe about thirty years ago and helped Morland Reyes in his rise to the top in this realm, where they decided to have their two children, Michael and Trisha; unfortunately for the couple, things ended up poorly due to some still unexplained reasons and they died while Joel was unconscious and fighting for his life. However, thanks to Anton's power, which amplifies other people's powers, their souls found Joel's mind: although he wasn't aware of this, Joel is a medium who has the power of communicating with the dead and can tune himself to deceased people from that other universe where his power is originated. Ever since their arrival, they have been trying to help their host with his mental health and heal him, but he wasn't ready to face the truth and they have been helping him in his daily interactions and giving him the advice he uses as material for his column. During the game, Anton helps Joel to find the best approach for the Paul and Serena situation; also, Anton's emotional reactions when he sees Detective Won and learns about Chloe make Joel think that something is really off in his mind. It's Anton, or Tony in Joel's mind, who finally suggests that Joel should take Zach's advice and seek professional help. He also gives some hints to players in the help scenes that prompt after failing at checkpoints.


 * Emily is Beth's best friend and casual lover. She is the one recording Beth's memorial video, guiding her childhood friend through the most important episodes of her life. During their conversations, it quickly becomes apparent that Emily is a kind and sympathetic woman who really loves Beth and cares for her; then, when Beth reveals she has a power, Emily also confesses hers: she can immediately heal other people's physical injuries and wounds just by imposing her hands on them, absorbing and experiencing for some hours the pain her subject was suffering. She is now a doctor, and even though Beth originally wanted to leave Emily's power out of her memorial video, Emily just shrugs it off and states that she will always have her back. Initially, Emily was against Beth's idea of becoming a vigilante, but she quickly understood her friend wasn't going to change her mind and decided to fully support her, helping Beth to plan her actions and staying always alert in the background to heal her injuries with her power. Despite playing an important role in the story, Emily doesn't appear on-screen until the climax scene in which Beth gets shot: after healing her friend, she is in so much pain that Joel has to take them home. A few hours later, when the pain subsides, Emily talks to Serena and, after learning about Serena's accident, she also heals her hip injury. The next morning, Beth finally decides to put her vigilante career to an end, if only to prevent Emily to keep suffering for her faults.


 * Michelle Won is one of the detectives from the Sangrive Police Department that are working on the vigilante's case. She talks to Joel when he comes to the precinct looking for more info about the vigilante, and she seems impressed by his hunch of this vigilante being a woman, as that's also Won's conjecture. Then, she shows her interest in Tanya; when Joel confesses he's actually the writer of that advice column, Won quickly guesses he has a power too and asks him to stay in contact if, by chance, he finds the vigilante first and this woman has a similar story about a certain skill getting enormously developed during her college years: Won assures she only wants to protect her, not to bring her in. After giving Joel all the info they have about the vigilante's past actions, Won and her partner Nathanial Blake actually find out Beth's identity and search her apartment, finding the memorial video just while Beth is getting shot at her last dance as 'Tainted Arrow'. When Joel drives Beth and Emily to Beth's home, he sees Won through the window and drives away from there; then, the next morning, he phones Won to talk about Beth. Won, who also knows Serena from a past case, uses her connections with Serena's former lover, Amanda Reid, to make them trust her, and then suggests that Beth should delete the memorial video to avoid powers becoming public knowledge. When Beth agrees and states that she's going to stop acting as a vigilante, Won asks Joel to write a fake report on Tainted Arrow's death, which he does: this should protect Beth from Won's superiors, as Joel remarks that the vigilante was just an ordinary woman with no special skills. In the post-credits scene, Won is depicted trying to catch Charles Reyes, but failing; she bumps into Michael Blackhawk in the process, and it becomes clear that they had a close relationship in the past, which explains Anton and Tatiana Blackhawk's awkward behavior in Joel's mind when he met Won.

Other minor characters
These other characters, listed in alphabetical order, also feature in Chasing Beth:


 * Abigale Sinclair is Zach Sinclair's wife, and Joel's and Beth's therapist. As a folksinger, she flew multiple times to the war to entertain the troops; in one of those visits, after reading Joel's story about Zach's heroic actions, she asked to meet that brave soldier, and they eventually got married. Some years later, and back in Sangrive, Abigale is working as a therapist. She enjoys reading the Tanya&Tony advice column written by Joel, and she is learning to be as assertive in her relationship as Tanya. When Joel decides to follow Zach's advice and seek professional help to deal with his PTSD, Abigale makes an effort to fit him into her busy schedule as a way to thank him for how he has changed their lives for the best with his reports and columns.


 * Charles Reyes makes his appearance in the short story that serves as a post-credits scene, titled Stand Up. After using a Finder to track Michael Blackhawk's moves, Charles uses Maria's power as a Distractor to lure Michael into an apartment, where he demands him to join his side, as Charles is trying to follow in his father's footsteps after Morland Reyes' forced return to his homeworld. However, Michael refuses, and Charles has to run away hastily when detectives Blake and Won show up at the door to arrest him.


 * Chloe Reyes is Charles Reyes' sister and Paul's fiancee. She is the current director of El Rey Casino, where she meets Joel and Serena when Joel's girlfriend decides to clear things out with Paul. While Paul and Serena talk to each other, Chloe and Joel do the same, and Chloe explains how Paul has helped her to be in the best place of her life. Although she's not of the jealous type, she knows Paul loves Serena too and thinks that, if the two old friends want to explore their attraction physically, both she and Joel must be also present when it happens. Chloe quickly realizes that Joel is a good and sensitive man and feels happy for Serena.


 * Eve is the shy admin at the Sangrive Police Department Joel talks to when he comes looking for more info about the vigilante's actions. When she learns that he works at the "Sangrive Times", Eve quickly asks him if he knows Tanya and Tony, as she is an avid fan of their column. Eve confesses she wrote them once, as she's infatuated with one of his co-workers, presumably Detective Blake, who is always flirting with her; Tanya and Tony told her to ask him out, but she never followed that advice. Joel encourages her to write again to T&T, which she eventually does.


 * Hanne is the Chief Editor at the "Sangrive Times", and therefore Joel's boss. She calls him into her office to task him with covering the vigilante's case, hoping for Joel to focus on the vigilante's more personal side. Hanne is sitting on some important info she has got from an insider in the case, who has told her that the vigilante's callsign is 'Tainted Arrow': when she mentions that name to Joel, he immediately realizes the vigilante could be his savior's back in the war. From Elsaverse: Transitions it's known that Hanne's source in the Police Department is Detective Nathanial Blake, who is actually setting her up.


 * Isabella is the female gang banger from the Snakes gang who tells Joel about 'La Diabla', the name they use to refer to 'Tainted Arrow', confirming Joel's suspicions of the vigilante being a woman. She explains how this mysterious woman took out five male enforcers of Isabella's group in just a couple of minutes, while she was trying to open a closed store for them to rob it: fortunately for Isabella, Beth mistook her for the shop owner and she could run away unharmed.


 * Jennifer is the financial analyst at the "Sangrive Times". After Detective Won gives him all of the available data about the vigilante's attacks, Joel needs to find a pattern to know where is Beth going to strike next, and he comes to visit Jennifer at her office, as he has heard impressive things about her analytic skills. It's implied that Jennifer has indeed a power that allows her to read data and extract precise conclusions from them; in fact, she guesses in a matter of minutes not only where the gangs are expecting the vigilante to strike but also the actual location of Beth's next attack, as she thinks the gangs are wrong because they don't know Beth is actually a helicopter pilot. In exchange for her help, the shy and lonely Jennifer asks Joel to let her know whether the cultural columnist, Ming, would be interested in dating her.


 * Lisa is the waitress at the bar where Joel meets Zach. She asks Zach about his wife, Abigale, and seems disappointed when he says she's not coming that night.


 * Maria is an attractive young woman who features in the short story presented in the post-credits scene. Using her power as a Distractor, she lures Michael Blackhawk into an apartment where her boss, Charles Reyes, is waiting for them. When the police arrive and Charles orders her to distract them while he runs away, Michael eventually convinces Maria to turn off her power: from her attitude, she seems clearly scared by Charles Reyes.


 * Michael Blackhawk is Anton's and Tatiana Blackhawk's son, and Trisha's brother. He's actually the main protagonist of the short story that serves as a post-credits scene, titled Stand Up. Michael is coming back to Sangrive to help the city after several years away, but he falls for the trap set up by Charles Reyes, who wants him to join his own squad of people with powers. But Michael refuses and then is surprised when he bumps into her old friend Michelle Won: although the real nature and extent of their past relationship are not explained, it seems clear that they were really close and he still feels something for her. The scene ends with Michael confessing he has a power.


 * Ming is the cultural columnist at the "Sangrive Times". She's a young and energetic woman who has come to peace with the fact that she has a tiny audience. Joel talks to her on behalf of the financial analyst, Jennifer, who is infatuated with her, and Ming agrees to spend some time with their co-worker over the weekend.


 * Nathanial Blake is Detective Won's partner at the Sangrive Police Department. From the short story Elsaverse: Transitions it's known that he's feeding Hanne with info about the vigilante so that her newspaper takes the lead on this case, hoping they can prevent powers' existence from being public knowledge. However, in Chasing Beth Detective Blake only appears briefly in the background of a couple of scenes: when he and Won find out Beth's memorial video at her apartment, and when they are registering the basketball court where she got shot. He also appears in the post-credits scene, trying to stop Charles Reyes and then asking some questions to Maria while Won talks to Michael.


 * Paul is Chloe Reyes' fiancee and Serena's best friend for over a decade, until he managed to come back with Chloe some months ago. From that moment on, he totally ghosted Serena, who was secretly in love with him. Then, just after Joel trusts Serena the origin of his PTSD, Paul phones her and informs her that he's going to marry Chloe. Then he writes to the popular 'T&T' advice column at the "Sangrive Times" as he feels a bit confused about her feelings: although he's positive that marrying Chloe is the right choice, he feels bad because he also feels something for her friend Serena, which is the reason why he has tried to distance himself from her. As it happens, Serena's current boyfriend, Joel, is indeed the writer behind the advice column, and he tells Serena that her old friend is going through a similar emotional turmoil. Serena decides to call Paul and meet him to clear things out, which they do: after talking to each other, they agree on that they both love their current partners too much but they also need to fix their friendship, as they miss each other.


 * Unnamed Rats Leader is the man who shoots Beth after her fight against several Rats gang bangers. Earlier in the scene, he asks Joel if he wants to buy some drugs when he arrives at the location of Beth's next strike; then, when Beth shows up, he orders his men to charge while he retains Joel until she takes them all out. After shooting Beth, he starts to monologue before killing her, giving Joel enough time to snap out of his initial shock and stop him.


 * Unnamed Snakes Leader is the man who talks to Joel about 'Tainted Arrow' when the journalist comes to the SoBa district looking for info. After testing Joel's smartness, he says he also served in the army during the war, showing big respect for Joel when he learns that Joel was embedded with a Special Forces unit. He tells the journalist that the two gangs are working together to defend themselves from the mysterious vigilante and know where she is going to strike next, although he won't tell Joel. The financial analyst, Jennifer, will prove them wrong as they were probably looking at Beth's movements from ground level, while she was actually planning her actions from a helicopter.


 * Unnamed Victim is the woman Beth saved from being gang-raped by three Rats in the incident that made Beth decide to become a masked vigilante. She briefly appears later on reading Joel's fake article about Beth's death.


 * Zach Sinclair is a veteran of the war mentioned in the game. He was part of the Special Forces unit Joel was embedded with, and he saved Joel's life when they were ambushed and the journalist got shot, carrying him on his shoulders to the chopper that 'Tainted Arrow' was piloting. After recovering from his injuries, Joel wrote a praising article about Zach that piqued Abigale's interest in that brave soldier; they ended up marrying and moving back to Sangrive, where Zach currently runs a security company. When Joel contacts him again, they meet at a bar and Zach agrees to use his connections in the army to find the real name behind 'Tainted Arrow'; he also offers his wife's professional help as a therapist to help Joel deal with his PTSD.

Design and Gameplay
If the previous game in the Elsaverse, Saving Chloe, was designed as a branched narrative full of game-changing choices that lead to several, alternate paths, Chasing Beth is basically the opposite: there's only one successful path and the player's agency is quite limited since wrong choices are almost immediately penalized, making it impossible to diverge from that path. However, the way those failure scenes are implemented in the game is quite unique and contributes greatly to the storytelling.

Structure
Chasing Beth follows a totally linear structure, with neither effective branches nor non-canon paths. As usual, the player takes control of a male character, named Joel Dresden, guiding his steps to solve an external conflict -his search for Beth Lagrange- while sorting out his inner conflict -his struggling relationship with Serena and his own mental issues. However, in CB, the player's choices are expected to drive the narrative in a very specific way, and only in that way: as soon as the player fails to do what canon Joel is expected to do, Tanya and Tony step in with their pieces of advice to explain what should Joel do in that case and, instead of opening a new branch or even triggering an actual game over screen, the player is automatically sent back to the start of that scene to try it again, maybe this time putting into practice that T&T tip. This reinforces Tanya's and Tony's characterization as the real power behind Joel's advice column for the "Sangrive Times", kind of breaking the fourth wall as they effectively become the player's counselors just as they are Joel's counselors in the story; they also add some comic relief thanks to their attire in some of those scenes. Besides that unique mechanism, the narrative is divided into two main storylines that run in parallel until they merge in Beth's final fight against the Rats: every 'playable' scene featuring Joel is immediately followed by a cutscene sequence in which Beth Lagrange explains a part of her own story in the memorial video she is recording.

Gameplay
The gameplay elements in Chasing Beth consist of simple menu choices that are prompted in specific scenes. Usually, the player is presented with two mutually exclusive options to pick from; they can be either words to say or actions to do, with the game rewarding sensitive, caring, and supportive choices. Each playable scene contains a number of those menu choices in which one option is the right answer to be chosen; in most of those scenes, players can get away with making one or even two wrong choices, but other scenes require a perfect score in that section to succeed. Failures, however, only bring up a brief 'T&T' advice scene with some tips from Tanya and Tony to help players choose the right options for that section, and then the game returns to the start of said scene. This mechanism makes the game more dynamic since the lack of game overs lets players advance quicker in the storyline without needing to load a previous save, but it also detracts a little from the gaming experience, as bad choices don't seem to have any actual consequence and some players can even feel they are being too railroaded into the only intended narrative.

There are other menu choices scattered throughout the game in which players can pick their answer from three different options: one of them allows Joel to answer in Tanya's assertive way, another one uses Tony's kind and respectful manners, and the third option shows Joel's own tone. These choices are just for flavor text, to let players express themselves in the way they feel fit, and have no consequences.

Technical Aspects
Chasing Beth is the first game in the saga that was made with the Ren'Py game engine. This means it contains all of the engine's basic features, like unlimited saveslots, rollback, and auto-adjust screen resolution, as well as other accessibility options like different fonts or self-voicing. Pictures were originally made at 1920x1080 resolution and they cover the whole screen, with texts appearing in a narrative prose style over a purplish background at the bottom, next to a quick menu with buttons placed in the bottom right corner. When present, choices are displayed in the middle of the screen, using the Ren'Py default menu. For the first time ever in an Elsaverse game, there are no animated scenes: the use of blurred images, forced camera angles, and unfocused backgrounds help to convey the illusion of movement in those scenes that need it. The visual style of backgrounds, clothing, and facial expressions take up a notch from previous games, making Chasing Beth the most polished product from Tora Productions so far in that regard.

As usual, the game has no sounds.

Related Titles
As every title in the Elsavere, Chasing Beth contains all the info needed to enjoy the story as a standalone title. However, several characters and themes are introduced in some previous games and short stories, so it's advised to check them first to fully understand some nuances and hints. For more details about these stories, please check each title's wiki page.

Saving Chloe
Saving Chloe (2018) is the fourth game in the Elsaverse and represents the end of its first story arc. SC tells the story of how Paul got reunited with his teen crush, Chloe Reyes, after spending more than a decade pinning for her. Alongside some powerful friends, he managed to free Chloe from her evil and abusive father, Morland Reyes, who was the mastermind behind some nasty events that have recently taken place in the city. In some non-canon paths, players also get to know Paul's colleague and best friend, Serena, learning that she only dates women when she wants some physical relief, as she tries to keep herself 'emotionally faithful' to her secret love, Paul.

Darkness Falls
Darkness Falls (2018-2019) is the fifth game set in the Elsaverse. It was released in an episodic format; however, after its seventh episode, the game was canceled due to Tora Productions' writer's sudden and temporary retirement. In this peculiar game, more focused on the thriller aspects of the fictional universe than on its sexy bits, detectives Blake and Won start working together after she's transferred to the Sangrive Police Department, and they eventually learn about the powers' existence. From that moment on, they are tasked with the secret mission of chasing down people with powers to prevent those powers from becoming public knowledge.

Elsaverse: Transitions
Elsaverse: Transitions (2020-2021) is a visual short story that shows how Blake and Won are assigned to track the vigilante that has recently started to act in Sangrive, as it could be another potential case involving powers. Detective Blake in particular gets the mission of leaking info to the local media so that the authorities can mislead the public opinion in case the powers' existence ever comes to light; he uses his intimate relationship with the "Sangrive Times"' chief editor, Hanne, to start paving the ground for that official lie. Meanwhile, Charles Reyes has started to recruit different people with powers in an attempt to follow in his father's footsteps as a mob leader: one of his minions is Anton's and Tatiana Blackhawk's daughter, Trisha. Elsaverse: Transitions should be played right before starting Chasing Beth.

Other related titles

 * AAA (2018) is a novella that covers several eventful weeks in Sangrive and runs in parallel with Darkness Falls first season. In its sixth chapter, Serena starts a sex-based relationship with Amanda Reid, a talented writer with a secret power that lets her put stories in people's minds directly from hers. Amanda and her two friends, Alexis and Anastasia Bertradino, who have unnatural powers too, end up helping detectives Blake and Won in one of their cases, and both detectives decide to protect them from their mysterious superior's scrutiny by not mentioning those women in their official reports. That's how Amanda Reid could convince Serena in Chasing Beth that they should trust Detective Won.


 * Won: Darkness Within (2019) is a text short story that explains part of the reasons for Michelle Won's secretive character. In this story, it's also hinted that she served in the army before becoming a police detective. Finally, the Rats and the Snakes, the two rival gangs in Sangrive, are mentioned for the first time ever.

Miscellaneous

 * Tora Productions' writer, Tlaero, has mentioned several times that Mortze's ability to design beautiful female models has fueled her creativity in an attempt of giving those gorgeous creations the screentime she feels they deserve. For instance, Serena was initially meant to be just a side character that would only appear in Saving Chloe, but she ended up featuring in Darkness Falls and AAA and getting a protagonist role in Chasing Beth, with her storyline plotted to leave her in a happy place after Paul's canon departure to be with Chloe.


 * For similar reasons, Beth's model is a slight variation of the original model that Tora Productions' artist, Mortze, designed for a side character named Jess from the game Life Changes for Keeley (2020), set in another fictional universe. And Emily's model is a tweaked version of Keisha from that same game. In fact, that game's post-credits scene pictures Jess and Keisha as professional actors talking about getting a new role in some other Tora Productions' project.


 * Tanya/Tatiana Blackhawk's model was also present in Life Changes for Keeley as Tara, Tlaero's alter-ego in that fictional universe. As she is supposed to be Tlaero's virtual avatar, there are some internal rules within the dev team regarding her naked body exposure that also apply to her persona in the Elsaverse, which is the reason why her most private body parts are never explicitly shown.


 * The advice column Joel is working on when he is summoned to his editor's office talks about a woman whose husband was trying to convince her to go to a swinging club: as she was not really interested in experiencing that, she suggested having sex with her former boyfriend instead, hoping for her husband to back out of it. The whole situation is indeed an easter egg that, once again, points to Life Changes with Keeley, as Beth's character model, Jess, was facing this exact conflict in that game.


 * In the sequence that shows different people reacting to Joel's fake report about the vigilante's death, Zach Sinclair is pictured playing the game Date Ariane: Remastered (2022), from ArianeB, at the exact moment when Joel's text mentions that Beth was 'a friend'. ArianeB's original game, Date Ariane (2004), was an inspiration for Tlaero to try her luck in the erotic gaming scene, and both devs have been virtual friends for some years now.


 * Joel Dresden and Zach Sinclair meet at the same bar Marc Anderson met Jessica Springfield in the game Redemption for Jessika (2016).


 * Attentive fans can spot Charles Reyes' SUV parked in the street in the first pic of the post-credits scene. It's the same vehicle, with the same license plates, he ran away in after the final battle in Saving Chloe.


 * Beth's power is oddly similar to the skills Xara had in previous titles, although Xara claimed she had no powers at all and her ability to enter 'The Flow' was a product of intense training since the age of 3.


 * Ren'Py scripts are easily accessible in the game's folder and can be read using a text editor. This allows players to get a feeling of how Tora Productions work, with Tlaero's comments scattered through the text to suggest to Mortze what images she had in mind for that scene. Comparing those comments with the final result is a testimony to Mortze's skills.