The Last of Us 2 story and why is it good.

• MY PERSONAL STATEMENT

Before you start reading, I went into The Last of Us 2 without being exposed to the spoilers before playing and I went with the mindset to try and understand the story as much as possible despite people telling me the story is bad and is not worth the money because of it which IMO is ridiculous. I didn't start the game with the mindset to believe the outraged fans (if I can even call them fans at this point) and get my mind twisted. Also what I wanna get off my chest, people who trash-talked the story online be it on Youtube or Twitter or wherever BEFORE playing the game, I'd personally stop valuing their opinion. I don't understand what's the point of trash-talking something before having a mindset of trying to understand it and twisting people's minds? Does this make sense? Playing the game and just reading the spoilers are two different things. When playing, most of the people IF not all the people, have a mindset to try and understand the story, with spoilers, you aren't exposed to characters feelings, you aren't exposed to the feeling of trying to understand the story. You aren't as involved in the story as you are when actually playing the game. Anyways...this contains heavy spoilers so If you never played and you plan to play the game later, it's on you if you want to read this.

• SHORT VERSION OF THE STORY

Here's Joel, he killed the father of some woman in the first part and now that woman is seeking revenge for her father's murder. That woman kills Joel and now Ellie is seeking revenge for Joel's murder. Ellie goes far and beyond to kill that woman but when she has the chance, she doesn't do it and Ellie let's her live. Sounds pretty bad right? Yeah if you read it just like that, it does, but when you actually invest your time playing, you'll question yourself if your stance is right.

• MY TAKE ON THE STORY AND WHY IS IT GOOD

I just want to say it straight off the bat, Joel's death came at the best possible time. It's good it happened so early in the game, if it didn't happen so early, the whole story IMO wouldn't make sense. Why would Ellie go to Seattle for anyone else's death but Joel's? Ellie going there only makes sense if the death was Joel's. Relationship Ellie had with Joel is unrivaled by any relationship, be it with Tommy, Dina or Jessie. Joel's death was coming ever since the part 2 was announced. People started speculating if Joel will die, and now when he does, people are outraged? Why though? It makes perfect sense. What are the chances that no one survived that night in hospital? What are the chances that no one wanted to kill Joel for what he did? In the end, what Joel did, it can't be forgiven. I love Joel and what he did was RIGHT from our POV, but what he did from Fireflies POV, it is outrageous. You as a fan know why Joel did it, but as a Firefly this is nothing but death worthy. He killed nearly whole hospital and destroyed any chance of finding the vaccine for the cure just to save a "little" girl? He valued the life of Ellie more than the life of all humanity. It makes total sense why Abby wanted to kill Joel and it makes total sense for it to be Abby. We knew nothing about her and she is a brand new character to us, that gives the game a chance to show us her POV and the game does it briliantly.

"There are two sides to every story" I can't stress enough how the game does a briliant job in showing us Ellie's and Abby's POV's when it comes to the whole murder thing. I know that Joel and Ellie are fan favorites and I know this won't change, but what Abby's father was to Abby, that was Joel to Ellie. This is what fans must realize before talking trash on Youtube or Twitter.

I love how the game was wanting us to hate Abby from the very start, the game wanted us to absolutely hate Abby and the way the game redeemed her was the best possible thing in the game. It really doesn't take much to understand the core part of the story. If the game didn't show us Abby's POV, we would have thought she's just a regular villain but she's more than that. She's a caring character who is having a similar life to Ellie.

So who is the villain of the story? Was it really Abby? I'd argue that Elllie in this part was a bigger villain than Abby was. What Ellie did at times was just brutal and we can talk about whole day about it. Ellie was ready to kill without hesitation, while on the other hand, the more you played with Abby, the more you started not hating her and you started understanding her.

The story shows us that revenge isn't the way. That revenge won't bring your love ones back. Joel wasn't aware that more violence brings more violence. The character development of Ellie was beautiful. She was a merciles killer fulled with rage but even she stopped. It takes mental strength to stop. In the end of the game, she didn't want to go after Abby but she did, she questioned herself if Abby being alive is fair to Joel. It went to the absolute very end of the story for Ellie to understand that killing won't bring Joel back.

I honestly knew that Ellie wouldn't kill Abby. As soon as we had Lev in the whole picture I knew Ellie wouldn't be able to mentally do it. Lev had nothing to do with this and despite Ellie saying Abby was the one draging him into the picture, deep down she knew she couldn't kill people who had nothing to do with this.

It also shows the players that Ellie should have stopped when she was at farm. If Ellie stopped sooner, Abby would have already been dead.

It's a sad ending in a way since Ellie's obsession with revenge costed her and made her forget all the wonderful things she did with Joel. What striked me the most is when Ellie tried to play the guitar in the end and she couldn't do it with just three fingers. Just thinking about it makes me tear up. She was forcing the revenge so much to the point where she lost something dear Joel taught her.

I found this in Youtube comments and I'll stand by it:

"Crazy thing is....I truly believe Ellie did have a happy ending, we just missed the clues... another YouTuber commented on the letter you find at the farm when you are with Dina and the baby. It's from the baby's father's mom saying they will always have a place in Jackson if they choose to come back home. Also if you notice.....when Ellie leaves to fight Abby at the end....she's not wearing the bracelet Dina gave her....but when she returns...the camera zooms in on her hand ...we were focused on the fingers missing but looked completey passed the fact that now she is wearing the bracelet, possibly meaning she has already been to Jackson...and is living with Dina......she just went back to the farm for the guitar....but decided to leave it. That represents her finally being able to accept Joel's death and end the cycle of revenge.

Here's some more things to back this claim:

1. When she comes back to the farm...she's not hurt or not wearing any of her weapons.

2. She doesn't seem surprised that everyone is gone when she enters the house. She doesn't call out Dina's name or anything." - Jon Dermaku


The most emotional moment for me was when Ellie asked Joel again what would he do if he had another chance and Joel just said:"If God gave me another chance, I would have done the same thing." and when Joel started crying after Ellie says she's finally ready to TRY and forgive him. I am not lying when I say I wasn't sleeping the day I finished the game. I just couldn't sleep, I was thinking so much about the ending.

• FINAL VERDICT

I understand that Joel's death could have been made more interesting and I understand people questioning some things like why Joel didn't hide his identity, why did he expose himself to a total stranger in a zombie apocalypse. What are the chances that Joel encounters Abby at random while he was the guy who killed Abby's father. I do understand why people are mad. The story isn't perfect, but it's no way in hell so bad to the point that you shouldn't buy the game. It's aboslute nonsense that the story is bad. It's bad to the people who are ignorant and aren't willing to understand the story. I have nothing against people who don't like the story, everyone is different and everyone has different opinions, but I do have a problem with people who aren't willing to understand the story and just trash the story for absolute no valid reason and twisting people's minds that the whole game is bad because of it. Joel died? WORST STORY EVER. This must be the biggest nonsense I've ever heard. I'd unsubscribe or block every person who was twisting people's minds into thinking this game is not worth it. The game is more than worth it. I am disappointed I didn't buy SPECIAL EDITION of the game now, I'm absolutely in love with the game.

Also what I want to say, the game could have closed the story with Ellie killing Abby and give us what all the fans expected, but what Naughty Dog did was show us an aboslute different way, they showed us that revenge isn't the ultimate way and that stopping is sometimes the best possible way of doing things. The game made me conflicted, the game was wanting me to hate Abby, but I was conflicted with hatred towards her. In the end I couldn't bring myself to hate her. I rate these games more when the developers are showing us the total opposite of what fans expected in the end. It made me conflicted and it made me question myself if I agree with this ending and that's why this game is one of my favorite games of all times. YOU MUST NOT SKIP THIS GAME.

Thanks for reading,
Joe

EDIT: P.S

I just found this video, shares a similar if not the same opinion as me, it's worth a watch - 1:38:00ish is the start of his thoughts.

 

Glad that you liked it.

Since I'm not invested in the game in any way and hence not a part of the fandom I can't really see things from an emotional point of view but I will be a pain in the ass by reiterating my sentiment from a writing point. There is absolutely nothing unique nor particularly refreshing about the core concepts this game revolves around. Revenge not being an answer has been done to death and in more interesting ways in franchises, I consider to be more suited for such a washed-out concept than a fresh spin on a tiresome genre that the first game was. Also, there is absolutely nothing particularly well done about Abby as a villain. The whole "every villain is a hero of their own story" is more of a basic writing 101 and should merely be a starting point rather than a place where you stop with the character's goals. Abby is not the first nor the last villain with a story like this and having watched through the gameplays she's not very well done either.

My take away is that the game is not trash nor the worst thing ever. It's masterfully produced and not lacking in any technical departments but it fell way too short in the writing department which was arguably what the fanbase seemed to have been the most hyped for. (I have never seen anyone praising anything about the first game more than its story.) On its own, it wouldn't have been a bad game but when you set up a sequel to a legend of the industry, you can't be surprised that people expect way more than they do from other franchises. Also, as someone following the industry more so than playing games themselves at the moment, I can be confident when someone is being exploitative with their audience and characters. What they did with this game wasn't just quirky creative decisions, it was downright distasteful shock-driven writing and downright deceptive promotion.

I do not have a positive opinion of Druckmann and while I don't condone review-bombing I do not blame the fandom for hating on this game. Modern masterpieces deserve sequels that top them and shouldn't settle for less.

 

But Abby isn't the villain. I don't think you understand this. Ellie is more of a villain than Abby is. In your POV yes Abby is the villain but that's why the game literally shows you what Joel did to her and her people and actually lets you play as her. How is Abby a villain but Joel isn't? Because it's Joel's story? This is absolute nonsense. Joel did more outrageus stuff than Abby but somehow Abby is the problem but Joel isn't. How do people don't understand what the game is trying to show them.

"There is absolutely nothing unique nor particularly refreshing about the core concepts this game revolves around." is this targeted to the gameplay or the story as well? Since part 1 definitely wasn't anything unique as well and if it's targeted to the gameplay, I don't think there's any game in the world which makes the gameplay as good as The Last of Us does. The feel of characters when playing and the way everything is working is something you'd expect from this type of game it's absolutely amazing. It's impossible to talk trash about TLOU gameplay, it's just that good and even better in TLOU2.

What Naughty Dog did, was they created a story which isn't following what fans actually expected and that is the biggest "problem" to most of people. It's mostly a problem who don't want to understand the story, it's that simple. I'm looking all over the internet and most things I read is, JOEL DIED, TRASH GAME. Like dudes...bloody hell.

I do agree that trailers showed a whole different story and was playing with us but I don't really watch trailers so I don't care about these things.

 

Yea, that's a tough sell. Whatever you wanna call her though, she is introduced as a villain and then you play with ther for 10 hours with the writers hoping to convince you that it's all relative.

Talking about the story.

Tbh I think most people expected Joel to die. He got done dirty by plot induced stupidity and killed off like a fodder. Maybe you're fine with it and that's cool but you shouldn't be surprised that people find it stupid. I mean, I'm not even a fan yet I can see how stupid it is to start a sequel off by killing the character everyone bought the game for (besides Ellie) and filling half the playtime with a new character that's nowhere near as interesting.

 

Plus it's kinda stupid to pull the whole "oh I'm not gonna get revenge" like that. Kinda like if John Wick killed everyone in the first movie and then spared the scumbag mafia boss' son when he held him at gunpoint. It's not some enlightening character development. It's just a frustratingly stupid decision. Surely even Naruto did this plot better and we all know that was a trainwreck.

 

Yes it is relative since Abby is very similar to Ellie with similar objectives. How's that hard to understand?

How you say this story is nothing unique when the part 1 was literally overused zombie apocalypse >_>

But how else are you supposed to advance the story if Joel doesn't die so early.

Look, I do agree that I played a bit too much as Abby compared to Ellie. I love Ellie and I wish I only played with her tbh, but I didn't. I am trying to understand the game as much as possible. What am I supposed to be doing? Whining 'cause I played with Abby?

This takes balls to do and I give them big props. As I said, the story isn't perfect and it's definitely not so bad to not play the game. That's my point.

 

It's not hard to understand at all. It's just not done in a very compelling way. We get it, her dad died and she can't forgive Joel who we all know is a very flawed character himself.

Well, what is unique tbh? And yes, it was an overused zombie apocalypse that's why I said it brought something fresh to a washed-out genre with that something being the extremely well done moral ambiguity (something this game doesn't do particularly well) and intriguing characters.

You're free to look at it like that but I feel like there is a difference between trying something new because you believe it is for the betterment of the franchise and because it fits and nicely reshapes it into something new yet still within the bounds of your target audience's preferences and doing it just to come across as controversial and edgy.

 

I'll just say that topping part 1 was a challenge for itself and I don't know how differently could they have had continued a story that isn't an exact copy or done similar to part 1.

Story isn't perfect and I never said it was.

 

Well, to be fair that's always a challenge for masterpieces. How often do we see a good sequel?

 

Part 1 was done amazingly and idk what else they could have done in part 2.

It was hard to begin with to come up with something so interesting to be on same level as part 1 story.

Maybe if we played with Abby first and then see her kill Joel maybe then it would have that shock factor. Hey this is a new character, understand her first and then kill Joel.

I do agree and I felt the same way, when Joel died and THEN I got to play as Abby I was kinda mad since I don't like the character to begin with so why am I even playing as her.

 

True, plus afaik one of the important writers left ND so that supposedly took a toll on the game's script.

 

Am starting my newgame+ now to get platinum trophy :D