The Last of Us

Seriously, I wonder if the game would have been better received if we spent the entire game as Abbey and then finally found Joel as the Final Boss.

It probably would have in all honesty.

I dont know, I feel people kinda wanted to see a sequel and would be cheat if not.

The problem with having to balance fan expectations. I would say having Abby be the sole playable character and the game leading up to Joel's death would have been a bad move.

I still think we should have played through Abby's perspective first.

I'd have reorganized the pacing of who you play as too, but I don't know if it all leading to a final fight with Joel would have worked.

Really, the only thing that'd be satisfying to a wider audience (you know besides the one that made his game win awards and nominations) would be if the game:

• established Abby as a legit protagonist and led up to a final meeting with Joel (but not a fatal one)
• if the entire game was a direct continuation of Part 1 (expand on the flashback sections with Ellie and Joel and make that Part 2)

In Situation A, if done right, we'd play the whole game and wonder who Abby is and exactly why we're following her and not Joel or Ellie. Problem is they went all in on "Grown up/lesbian/country singer/murder machine Ellie" from the start so if she's a Decoy Protagonist that's a bad look for Naughty Dog. Simultaneously, that would take serious stones to pull off, and ending on an ambiguous note of "what happens when Abby finally runs across Joel all these years later" would be a great Cliffhanger.

In Situation B, the nostalgia keeps us going as we finally get to see Joel and Ellie's lives after Part 1 - it's all good. Eschew the Abby storyline entirely. Everybody wanted Joel and Ellie Part 2. We got Death of Joel and The Avengers Age of Ellie.

Edited by FOFD on May 3rd 2021 at 10:38:03 AM

Fan expectation is and issue, everyone pretty much side with joel in part 1 and they want it grim aventure of him and ellie, not a new protagonist.

The thing is that fan expectation doesn't always mean a better game or even a well received game.

Ezio made AC 2 the best game of the franchise by going in a new direction.

What Abby as the protagonist provides is a story we don't know where it will go. Killing Joel as a surprise would be the kind of gut punch that would, I think get gamers talking in a good way if it was given suitable dramatic weight.

Sure, but it also require a good way to show it since expectation said they will weight in favor of joel.

and surprising that is exactly what happen, nearly everynone hates abby in general.

I believe fans would be okay with it if they did it.

Its that it was a cutscene at the beginning of the game that bothered people. That it was an afterthought than the focus of the game.

A recent article, among other things, gives us a better idea of what to expect from the PS5 remake of TLOU Part I.

Essentially, this won't be a simple tweaking as the PS4 version was. Instead, it will be made from scratch and take advantage of the PS5's distinct features. Maybe add some quality of life fixes?

And it seems to use II’s style of gameplay which is fine by me.

I wonder what distinctive features the PS 5 has that are going to justify remaking TLOU. Also they really need to define what this is. Last of Us isn't old enough to warrant a graphics overhaul.

Do they mean a FFVII-style remake, or are we just talking an upscaled "remaster."

Edited by FOFD on May 6th 2021 at 9:46:30 AM

Either way, as long as the Og can still be played on a PS 5, I'm not interested.

If it fails, I sure hope Sony gets the message that we need more lower budget titles from them and that not all their games have to be Blockbuster tier budgets. Returnal is a recent one thats not quite at that level, and its doing well for itself.

The Last of Us TV Show Finds a Way to Include Some Game Stars Anyway.

Can't decide who has the more beautiful cover - Troy Baker's "Future Days" or Ashley Johnson's "True Faith."

Thank goodness Ashley did a full cover of that song too. I heard the one they used in the commercial but didn't know where to find the full version.

Edited by FOFD on Jul 18th 2021 at 6:00:04 AM

HBO's The Last Of Us May Be More Expensive than Game of Thrones.

I honestly think Pedro Pascal would be a great choice for Joel. Because it wouldn’t be his first time playing a hardened badass protecting a small child.

Yeah he fits the role surprisingly well. Each time I feel irritated at how this adaption could be I remember the lead was the Mandalorian. Joel might as well be a slightly more cynical Mando. Both are working dads in a harsh setting forced to take care of a kid they didn't want but whom keeps them alive.

Edited by FOFD on Aug 10th 2021 at 1:16:10 PM

Every time I listen to Wayfaring Stranger I start to hate Last Of Us Part 2 a little more and love it a little more.

The emotion Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker put into these two characters is unreal.

Edited by FOFD on Aug 10th 2021 at 1:08:47 PM

I'm going to assume one of those "mores" is a typo.

Speaking of fan expectations, it seems as though that everything that was happening since the game's release is exactly reaction that the developers wanted from fans. Maybe I might be projecting but it seems as though that the themes of revenge, forgiveness, tribalism, etc. seems to extend beyond the game itself and into the fandom. It is very similar to Metal Gear Solid V in that regard, I could be wrong but it is something that I had noticed for years when a Reddit poster pointed it out to me.

Well if its the reaction they wanted, then they should have executed it better, because Neil Druckmann is no Kojima.

Oh don't even get me started the distaste I have for how Kojima wants to put messages into his games and jepoardizes their development to do so, and how much of a troll he is.

For all of Druckmann's problems at least he doesn't threaten to quit development and then plaster his name all over the game and then exceed his budget and then make a new game about squid babies that get used as Ghostbuster guns so he can criticize American culture through some incredibly convoluted post-apocalyptic narrative.

Hell, both have their dystopian leanings, but at least TLOU is an emotional story and not some massive political horoscope that uses ninjas and American presidents as boss fights while taking about genes and identity while a sexy bikini woman makes goo-goo eyes at the player.

Edited by FOFD on Aug 20th 2021 at 7:04:41 AM

...You do realize that just makes Kojima's games sound even more appealing, right?

Like, its an actual game?

One thing about recent Naughty Dog games is that, in their attempts to create as much detail and grounded details as possible in their games, the "game" part seems to have been left by the wayside.

Original TLOU was the last game they made that I feel actually manages to balance the detail and grounded cinematic style with balanced gameplay.