YMMV / Oxenfree

• Angst? What Angst?: At least one reviewer has mentioned that the characters seem a bit too relaxed for the circumstances.
• Audience Participation: Alex has her mirror image talk back to her three times with green letters above the reflection. One of the last acts in the game is the player choosing what to say to their mirror image, as their own username is above them in green letters, followed by the credits mentioning whose advice the current player had received. A player can thus decide at the end of their play through what advice to give to someone else about events during the game (or to actively mess with them by giving them "wrong" advice).
• Awesome Music: The quirky synth soundtrack made by scntfc is a highlight of the game. Particularly striking tracks include Lost, Days Past and The Beach, 7 AM.
• Base-Breaking Character: With the revelation that Clarissa is more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, many fans have taken a liking to her, especially since she and Alex can reconcile. However, there are players that still find her abrasiveness and constant need of rescuing to be obnoxious.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Alex is popularly paired up with two characters.
  • Some pair Alex up with Jonas due to how they can potentially bond as step-siblings over the course of the game. Incest Subtext aside, it probably helps that they are Not Blood Siblings.
  • In the Les Yay side of things, Alex and Clarissa are popularly shipped together, due to both the characters' importance in the story and each other (both grieving a mutual loved one), and arguably their relationship development being just as or more important than Alex and Jonas in the scheme of things.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Life Is Strange, due to their coincidental similarities (choice-based Point-and-Click indie title with a quirky New Weird teenage story involving supernatural phenomena and a girl with blue hair), close release dates, and appeal towards the exact same audience.
• Heartwarming Moments: Alex can manage to get through to the ghosts during their final confrontation by speaking the name of one of the Kanaloa sailors who perished. They'll sorrowfully remark that they've forgotten their names and seemingly let everyone go if Alex persuades them to leave their resentment behind. However, given that the timeline still resets at the end, they may still have kept Alex with them. That, or an instance of Alex is perpetually trapped on the island.
• Jerkass Woobie: Clarissa. Her first interaction with the whole group makes her look like a major Ice Queen but then it's revealed that she was dating Michael at the time of his death, was trying to be nicer while dating him and is actually a good friend to Nona. It's just that she blames Alex for his death.
• Narm: There's a part of the game where you can give advice about the game's choices to other players, which will then be displayed (along with your username) to them at three separate points in the story in the form of an "alternate Alex". If your advice comes from someone with a username like "Dickbutt420", it might not have quite the intended effect.
• Nightmare Fuel: The game deliberately avoids overt horror elements, but still taps into the inherent spookiness of hearing unknown sounds, voices, and signals over radio. Depending on which frequency Alex tunes into, you can hear garbled menacing voices, old recordings, or strange music.
• Tear Jerker: The scenes where Alex is transported back to her memories with her brother. The music really sells the moment.
• The Woobie: Alex and Jonas. Alex is still dealing with her older brother's death that she accidentally caused, trying to adjust to her parents divorcing and getting a new stepbrother all within one year, and Jonas' mother died of cancer sometime before the story started, and it's implied that he came from a rough neighborhood.

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