History VideoGame / TheLastOfUsPartII

* DarkerAndEdgier: The game overall is arguably the most graphic and grittiest UsefulNotes/PlayStation exclusive ever made. While the first game was no walk in the park, ''Part II'' has somehow proven to be even darker and more nihilistic. Enemy [=NPCs=] can cry out the name of anyone you killed, and some of them might even shout that you just killed their husband or wife. Fights are more graphic than the original, there's less humor, and the game even features explicit sex scenes between key characters. That's not even going to the vicious cycle of hatred and revenge overtaking the original's emphasis of survival, loss, and personal connections as its main theme, and how it leads to dire consequences for the game's characters.

* UpdatedRerelease: A remastered version of the game for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 is scheduled to be released in January 2024 featuring improved graphics, unreleased levels, and developer commentary. It also introduces a new {{Roguelike}} mode with randomized levels and new player characters.

* VillainsOutShopping: Ellie at one point sneaks up on and interrogates a mook playing ''[[VideoGame/HotlineMiami Hotline Miami]]'' on a UsefulNotes/PlaystationVita, whom she casually kills after the woman pulls a knife on her.

->''If I ever were to lose you''
->''I'd surely lose myself''

A remastered version for the Platform/PlayStation5, titled ''The Last of Us Part II Remastered'', was released on January 19, 2024; owners of the original game may upgrade to the remaster at a cheaper price. Apart from improved visuals, this version includes developer commentary, several unfinished levels, and a new {{Roguelite}} mode called "No Return", where players can play through several levels as characters from the series in combat challenges.

* BittersweetEnding: More bitter than sweet; both Ellie and Abby go through complete and utter hell and are considerably worse off than where they started at the beginning of the game. Both of their futures are uncertain and left open, but they do get some measure of peace in the end:
** [[spoiler:Ellie has survived and ultimately decided to end the CycleOfRevenge. However, Joel is still dead, she murdered a lot of people, and she also lost two fingers and her switchblade in her final confrontation with Abby. Her loved ones are either dead, crippled, or have abandoned her. In the epilouge, Ellie returns to Wyoming, only to find that Dina has left and taken the baby with her (having previously pleaded with Ellie to let go of her desire for revenge and warning her that she might not still be there when she returns). Finding that she can't even play the guitar anymore (the last link she had left with Joel) due to her lost fingers, she abandons the guitar and leaves the farm. All that being said, Ellie has forgiven Joel's actions, and has forgiven herself for her survivor guilt and for pushing Joel away for years. In the final scene, she heads off to an unknown destination, though she still has Tommy, Maria and Jackson to return to]].
** [[spoiler:Abby has succeeded in avenging her father by killing Joel, but it brings her no catharsis. Her revenge quest has directly led to the deaths of all of her friends, including Owen whom she was still in love with. She is outcast from the WLF and forced to run away with Lev when both their groups go up in smoke in a huge battle. Several months later, Abby follows a tip about a possible reorganization of the Fireflies that leads to her and Lev's capture by slavers. In the end, she is spared by Ellie but both her and Lev are left injured, malnourished and with no one turn to. Despite this, she has survived the ordeal and regained her humanity. Abby gets closure for her father's murder and finds new purpose in caring for Lev. There is also Fireflies' new location tip they can follow, and upon completing the game, the main menu background shows their boat beside Catalina Casino, indicating that the both of them may get a new beginning]].

** Ellie: [[spoiler: At first it can come off as a DownerEnding, with her returning home to find Dina and JJ gone with nothing telling her where they went; losing her ability to play the guitar like Joel taught due to the loss of her fingers to Abby; and a good deal of her friends dead or gone. However, some players have pointed out several important factors such as Ellie wearing completely different clothes and looking a bit fuller compared to how skinny she was in Santa Barbara, the only items left in the farm specifically being things that remind Ellie of Joel, her lack of surprise regarding Dina and JJ not being there, and the fact that she's wearing Dina's bracelet, imply that she and Dina did reconnect after she gave up on trying to kill Abby and that they simply moved elsewhere, with the reason she's at the farm being so she could finally confront and get closure for Joel's death.[[note]]In the earlier section where they lived on the farm, Ellie can come across a letter from Jesse's mother who offers her family's help if the couple and JJ were ever to return to Jackson, suggesting at least one possible answer to where they are by the ending.[[/note]]]] However, there are opposition to this theory since nothing is outright confirmed. Therefore, how the game ends is ultimately up to the player's interpretation, which is ND's official stance about it.

''The Last of Us Part II'' is the sequel to ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', developed by Creator/NaughtyDog and published by Creator/SonyInteractiveEntertainment for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4.

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler:The player takes the roles of both Ellie and Abby, so both serve as protagonists of their half the of the story. The alternate character becomes the villain of each one's story, as they are both locked in a mortal struggle in which neither side is fully in the right]].

* RebuiltPedestal: Depsite [[spoiler: losing almost everything in her pursuit of revenge against Abby, Ellie is at least able to forgive herself for her guilt, and at very least understand Joel's perspective and the reason why he saved her from the Fireflies. It's with that, she's finally able to metaphorically put him to rest.]]

** During the final boss fight, [[spoiler:as you're playing as Abby]], you can purposefully let yourself be killed. While this isn't anything worth noting. In this case it ''is'' considering that the boss in question is [[spoiler:Ellie, and thus you're letting her fulfill her revenge]].

** Four: Despite the game’s message about how your enemies are people too and that every life is precious, almost every faction is borderline cartoonishly evil so you don’t feel bad about gunning them down their [[{{Mook}} mooks]] en masse and there are several characters, up to and including [[spoiler: some of Abby’s friends, the people the game condemns Ellie for hunting down,]] whose violent and painful deaths are meant to be cathartic.

The game was released on June 19, 2020 after being delayed amidst the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and a major ContentLeak. The story for a potential sequel has been outlined, but ND has no immediate plans to develop it. Due to the success of the first season of [[Series/TheLastOfUs2023 the HBO series adaptation]], a second season adapting this game was announced not too long after the premiere. According to Neil Druckmann and co-showrunner Creator/CraigMazin, they plan to adapt the game over multiple seasons (which is understandable considering the massive length of this game compared to the first one).

The game was released on June 19, 2020 after being delayed amidst the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and a major ContentLeak. The story for a potential sequel has been outlined, but ND has no immediate plans to develop it. Due to the success of the first season of [[Series/TheLastOfUs2023 the HBO series adaptation]], a second season adapting this game was announced not too long after the premiere. According to Neil Druckmann and co-showrunner Creator/CraigMazin, they plan to adapt the game over multiple seasons.

Its story opens a few years after the end of the [[VideoGame/TheLastOfUs first game]], and once again follows {{Action Survivor}}s Ellie and Joel in a [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates United States]] that has been destroyed by a [[FesteringFungus fungal]] based ZombieApocalypse. After a violent encounter with another survivor group, a now-19-year old Ellie embarks on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge across the shattered country.

Its story opens a few years after the end of the [[VideoGame/TheLastOfUs first game]], and once again follows {{Action Survivor}}s Ellie and Joel in a [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates United States]] that has been destroyed by a [[FesteringFungus fungal]] based ZombieApocalypse. After a violent encounter with another survivor group, a now 19-year old Ellie embarks on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge across the shattered country.

* AndThenWhat: Abby spent the last 4-5 years becoming big and strong and a ruthless killer, all to [[spoiler: find Joel and kill him for what he did to her father. She tracks down Joel, kills him brutally, and... she's still having nightmares. His death didn't bring her closure, her ex and closest friend Owen still loves her but is ''terrified'' of her, her other close friend Mel sees through her and knows she's a bad person that's done terrible things, and Isaac and the rest of the WLF still expect her to be the top Scar killer and torturer and don't actually challenge her morality. In the flashback of the immediate aftermath of Joel's death, her facial expressions alone show her realization that revenge hasn't actually made her feel any better. Through helping Lev and Yara, she works through her guilt, gets the closure she needed from her father's murder and starts making a redemptive turn.]]

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Apart from its size, the viability of the concept of turning a football field into a farm is pretty questionable in general. While smaller or amateur fields sometimes are simply soil and grass, the playing fields of large football stadiums are generally comprised of several feet of artificial grasses, rubber, shock absorbers, textiles, crushed stone and drainage pipes, with compacted soil only comprising the very deepest foundational layer. To be able to grow plants or pasture animals would be impossible without digging everything up and replacing it with soil and planting grass, and while the latter is not impossible, it would be hugely difficult and time-consuming even with unlimited access to modern construction equipment (assuming said equipment even still works after 20 years or so of inactivity).

** The section right after you get the bow and arrow is a flashback from 2 years ago with Ellie using a sniper rifle and making note of the bullet drop, which is helpful since the bow no longer shows the arc like it did in the first game.

* MirrorCharacter: Abby spent the last 4 years [[spoiler: hating Joel for killing her father, only to go through the same CharacterDevelopment Joel did in ''The Last of Us'': she becomes a less emotional person, drives away anyone close to her, and commits some serious sins, only to have her tough, hardened exterior melted away by a child companion.]]

** Abby, who [[spoiler: has been tracking Joel for the last 4 years, and training for the moment to kill him. It's implied that she and Owen ended things because he was turned off by her obsession of getting revenge, and after she kills Joel, it's clear he was only there to make sure Abby didn't do anything else rash.]]

* TimeSkip: ''Part II'' opens shortly after Joel and Ellie returned to Jackson, and then skips four years ahead to the game's present-day events. Then there's another skip [[spoiler:of roughly one year between the Seattle section and the final chapter]].

* WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler: Abby's flashback to 4 years ago reveals that she, Owen and Mel were in the Fireflies together, and were a close-knit group. Owen and Abby had a budding romance and Mel left a letter, grateful to Abby and her father for her medical training and wanting to get drunk later. After Salt Like City, and after Abby decides to focus on getting even with Joel, their relationship changes and deteriorates; Owen and Abby broke up sometime afterwards and Owen started a relationship with Mel. But Mel and Abby's relationship is completely rocky, made even worse after Abby kills Joel. Owen, for his part, still loves Abby but cannot deal with her thirst for revenge.]]

* JustifiedTutorial: The section right after you get the bow and arrow is a flashback from 2 years ago with Ellie using a sniper rifle and making note of the bullet drop, which is helpful since the bow no longer shows the arc like it did in the first game.
** Also, the first introduction to action sequences such as aiming, cover, and jumping over obstacles, is shown during a snowball fight that Ellie and Dina have with some children in Jackson's playground.

*** [[spoiler:Subsequently, Abby is the first to take a step back from the revenge feud and sets off to make a big change in her character by rejoining the Fireflies... only to be captured by the Rattlers and endure a hellish few months of starvation as a captive.]]

** Like the State of Play trailer, the story trailer also [[spoiler:removed Dina from multiple cutscene shots and gameplay footage she's actually in]]. As well, a brief shot in the same trailer is from [[spoiler: Ellie and Abby's final fight]], showing Ellie in her usual shirt and hairstyle and with her face covered in blood. In the actual scene, she has a different outfit and hair, while the amount of blood on her face is a dynamic element of that segment and varies.

* TheRemnant: Abby, Owen, Manny and a handful of others are former Firefliess who are now part of the Washington Liberation Front (WLF). While they have assimilated into the WLF and are aligned with their goals, they (and especially [[VillainProtagonist Abby]]) still want revenge over what happened at the end of [[VideoGame/TheLastOfUs the first game]]. Them executing their revenge is the catalyst for most of the second game's plot.

* RevengeIsNotJustice: [[spoiler: Abby wants revenge because Joel killed her father, the surgeon who going to sacrifice Ellie to make a cure for the outbreak. Once Abbey kills Joel, she gives Ellie a reason to want revenge and everyone in Abby's group believes she went too far in killing Joel. They understand her reasoning to kill Joel but decree that she went too far in beating him to death. Abbey even agrees in the end by saying it didn't bring any peace or bring her father back. Ellie also realizes that killing Abby won't undo the damage done to her or bring Joel back. She ultimately decides to spare Abby, so she doesn't lose anything else in her life.]]

* EnvironmentalSymbolism: The three main areas of gameplay have clear symbolism

** Santa Barbara is a sun drenched city. Here the protagonists sins are finally burned off in a final battle. While they leave injured they do so ready and willing to let go of all the pain that they had before.

* AnachronismStew: The opening has Joel play Music/PearlJam's ''Future Days'' for Ellie on the guitar. The song, never released as a single, was the closer off of their album ''Lightning Bolt''. Unfortunately, ''Lightning Bolt'' was released in October of 2013, a month after the pandemic wrecked society in the games. The song was debuted live in July of that year, however, making it slightly possible, albeit unlikely, that he heard the song through one of the band's official bootleg album releases.
** Druckmann later explained that Joel heard the song from a fancam Youtube video of that concert, linking to the exact time in a tweet.

* AndStarring: The opening credits sequence has "And Creator/LauraBailey", who plays Abby, [[spoiler:the main "[[AntiVillain antagonist]]"]].

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: on at least three separate occasions (the Outbreak Day robbers within the Downtown bank vault, the Hillcrest neighbours trapped inside a spore-infested garage [[spoiler:by Boris Legasov for planning to betray him to the WLF]], and the monstrous [[spoiler:Rat King]]), Infected humans are clearly shown to be capable of remaining active for years to ''decades'' without any sustenance whatsoever.

* ArtisticLicensePalaeontology: A very minor example. At one point, Ellie reads a dinosaur picture book and reads Deinonychus out loud, and mispronounces it as Die-no-nigh-kus. The correct pronunciation is Die-non-i-kus.

* AwesomeYetImpractical: Abby's semi-automatic rifle can be upgraded with a burst-fire mode. While certainly cool, it changes nothing about the rifle's ammo cap of 18 rounds, so using burst fire cuts down the number of potential dead enemies from 18 to 6. You're better off sticking with semi-auto fire and investing upgrade resources into something more practical.

* BlamedForBeingRailroaded:
** [[spoiler:Abby's grudge against Joel is the result of his killing her father, who was the lead surgeon on the operation on Ellie at the end of the first game. This is deliberately invoked, as any player who finished the original game would have ''had'' to kill him in order to proceed, making them complicit in the act.]]

** Ellie gets [[spoiler:trapped by a hanging leg snare]] much like Joel did in the first game when approaching Bill's place. The game, in general, recycles a lot of gameplay elements and [[VideoGameSetpiece setpieces]] from its predecessor, like [[spoiler:two separate {{Boss Battle}}s against Bloaters, a segment about getting through a hostile sniper's kill zone, a hospital level full of professional soldiers]], and more.
*** During the [[spoiler:leg snare sequence, Ellie also ends up swinging and puncturing her torso with a broken tree branch in basically the exact same place Joel was impaled in the previous game's final chapters, leaving her with an essentially identical wound for the final part of the game.]]

The game was released on June 19, 2020, after being delayed amidst the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and a major ContentLeak. The story for a potential sequel has been outlined, but ND has no immediate plans to develop it. Due to the success of the [[Series/TheLastOfUs2023 HBO series's first season]], a second season adapting this game was announced not too long after the premiere. Although according to Neil Druckmann and co-showrunner Creator/CraigMazin, they plan to adapt it over multiple seasons.

* SignificantSketchbook: Ellie's journal offers a grim look into her psyche throughout the game; some old entries are cute and innocent, such as wondering how the girls she's crushing on feel about her, but then after [[spoiler: Joel is killed]], it's filled with depressing poetry and angry ramblings. One thing to note is that she tries and fails to [[spoiler: sketch out drawings of Joel--her sketches are missing eyes or incomplete. It's only at the very end of the game that she draws Joel out fully, in a gentle pose playing the guitar, indicating that she's worked through the pain and confusion she felt when thinking about him.]]

The game was released on June 19, 2020, after being delayed amidst the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and a major ContentLeak. The story for a potential sequel has been outlined, but ND has no immediate plans to develop it.