The Last of Us Franchise - Because it's apparently a franchise now. This thread has been double-DMCA’d by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Here's a question, what would a good sequel to The Last of Us have looked like?

I always imagined the conflict for a continuation of the story would be Ellie learning that Joel lied to her, that she could potentially lead to a cure and choosing whether to sacrifice herself and what to do about Joel potentially trying to stop her.

Since the first game had you looking for the Fireflies, maybe the sequel could be Ellie setting out to find the homebase of the remnants of the actual US government, hoping maybe they would have the proper expertise and equipment to make a cure, with Joel following behind trying to stop her.

That would be a way to put Joel into a more antagonistic role that would stay true to the story and wouldn't just be shitting on the character just because.

The ultimate conflict would come down to Ellie having to choose whether to kill Joel and sacrifice herself for the good of mankind.

Instead from what I understand the story has nothing to do with Ellie's immunity, correct?

I gotta admit guys, I've been thinking back to the first game and the impact the story and characters had on me and it's completely breaking my heart that it's lead to... this, instead of something worthwhile.

This truly is one of the greatest blunders in gaming history.
 
For the love of God, can we PLEASE stop comparing this to normie fails like Mass Effect 3? Those all fucked up in their own rights, but this

  • kills the original protagonist, then makes you play as the killer for the majority of the game
  • flaunts the producer's (((heritage))) by inserting an out-of-place synagogue and talking about the 6 million, and actively prevents you from damaging sacred Jewish memorabilia
  • literally has a scene where the producter fucks their mary sue in the ass, in one of the most—if not the most—graphic sex scenes in any video game (or mass-market media in general, for that matter)
This is the worst piece of media in the last 50 years, if not more. Action 52 was a better game than this. Nintendo terminating their deal with Sony was less of a gaming fuck-up.

That's true. Mass Effect 3 managed to avoid having Kai Leng kill Shepard a couple of hours in and then forcing us to play as him. Mass Effect 3 was less of a slap in the face.
 
It makes the point that if you never...
Ugh, How dare you assert that 'evil baddies' have a point of view that makes sense to them and that their anger may actually be rooted in something understandable. My dumb grandma (that I disowned, bigotry has NO place in my life) used to say stuff like "you don't know what that man's going through, he may be facing problems that you don't understand" and like, if someone doesn't agree with me they're the bad guy. Full stop. And bad guys need to be erased.

In our enlightened world empathy is weakness, if you try to understand your enemy then you run the risk of sympathizing, or even worse, agreeing! Ideas are infectious, so we all have to do our part as good citizens of earth to eradicate the bad ones, no matter what.

{No lie, I've had someone say that exact argument to me before when I said maybe their targeted group has a valid opinion or two stemming from their "lived experience"}
 
I almost feel like this is her original character model and it got changed to the She-Hulk mid-development.
It almost certainly was. Having seen a few streams of this, Abby as-is never moves quite... right. She always seems off slightly. At first I chalked it up to merely her being deformed, but then I noticed something in the last fight.

All the movements are the same, but now they flow, they look correct.

This tells me something important, all animations were coded with the smaller form in mind, and were never redone.
 
It almost certainly was. Having seen a few streams of this, Abby as-is never moves quite... right. She always seems off slightly. At first I chalked it up to merely her being deformed, but then I noticed something in the last fight.

All the movements are the same, but now they flow, they look correct.

This tells me something important, all animations were coded with the smaller form in mind, and were never redone.
I bet an executive came in mid development, saw that Cuckmann killed the Main Character 10 minutes into the game to replace him with Abby..then demanded Abby become a Tranny so that Sony could use "People hate this game cause Abby is a tranny" as a shield against the shit show.

I don't usually condone censorship but you go, Japan

Neither do I, however..America sensors the shit out of Japenease games..so this feels like justice.
 
I bet an executive came in mid development, saw that Cuckmann killed the Main Character 10 minutes into the game to replace him with Abby..then demanded Abby become a Tranny so that Sony could use "People hate this game cause Abby is a tranny" as a shield against the shit show.
Nah, this was almost certainly Druckmann. Slight power level, I write semi-professionally, I EDIT professionally. This plot reeks to me of there being a big split about how it wanted to go, and one side won and proceeded to piss all over what the other side wanted. I don't know quite who the other side was, but Druckerman is the obvious winner.
 
That's true. Mass Effect 3 managed to avoid having Kai Leng kill Shepard a couple of hours in and then forcing us to play as him. Mass Effect 3 was less of a slap in the face.

Man if not for the ending Kai Leng would be the worst part of ME3.

I think the comparisons come in because ME3 was kind of similar situation where, allegedly, the newly minted lead writer and the producer locked themselves in a room and wrote the asspull of an ending without any input from any of the other writers. A lazy ending that was antithetical to everything that preceded it and punched plotholes into the story going all the way back to the first game (the weird anti-technology bent, making you wonder why the fuck Sovereign was keeping an eye on things if its boss existed in the Milky Way all along, the shitty motive given to the Reapers etc.)

But at least ME3 actually had some good shit in it. Kai Leng was a problem, the lack of focus on Reapers as the bad guys and the way over focus on Cerberus was a problem, Liara continuing her descent into Sueism was a problem, but if it actually had a good ending most of that would just be annoying but ignorable.
 
Nah, this was almost certainly Druckmann. Slight power level, I write semi-professionally, I EDIT professionally. This plot reeks to me of there being a big split about how it wanted to go, and one side won and proceeded to piss all over what the other side wanted. I don't know quite who the other side was, but Druckerman is the obvious winner.
Oh Druckmann killing Joel was totally Druckmann, but something obviously happened midway through production for them to not give Abby the Tranny two different animation styles.

Also do you know the most absurd part of the "Can't shoot jewish shit" Isn't this the game that built a false church for their announcement?
 
Here's a question, what would a good sequel to The Last of Us have looked like?

I always imagined the conflict for a continuation of the story would be Ellie learning that Joel lied to her, that she could potentially lead to a cure and choosing whether to sacrifice herself and what to do about Joel potentially trying to stop her.

Since the first game had you looking for the Fireflies, maybe the sequel could be Ellie setting out to find the homebase of the remnants of the actual US government, hoping maybe they would have the proper expertise and equipment to make a cure, with Joel following behind trying to stop her.

That would be a way to put Joel into a more antagonistic role that would stay true to the story and wouldn't just be shitting on the character just because.

The ultimate conflict would come down to Ellie having to choose whether to kill Joel and sacrifice herself for the good of mankind.

Instead from what I understand the story has nothing to do with Ellie's immunity, correct?

I gotta admit guys, I've been thinking back to the first game and the impact the story and characters had on me and it's completely breaking my heart that it's lead to... this, instead of something worthwhile.

This truly is one of the greatest blunders in gaming history.
Don't make it "part II"

Have you play as a completely new character from beginning. Something interesting, like perhaps a researcher investigating the Cordyceps fungi and how it's affecting the environment and evolving.

If you are going to bring back the old characters at least make them interesting rather than just making them gay now. Like imagine an adult Ellie showing up. She has bandage or an eyepatch covering one side of her face, eventually it's revealed it hides the cordyceps infection in her brain which is still active after all these years and has gotten to the point where she's losing part of her face. Something with actual consequence. If Joel is dead it better have happened peacefully or going out sacrificing himself for his family.
 
Here's a question, what would a good sequel to The Last of Us have looked like?

Here's what it looks like: ____________. It's actually a space for a different game, because they've finished their story. No matter what it's a cash grab, and the wholesome feelings would get trampled on once they start adding personal conflict. I don't wanna see Ellie torn from Joel and a bunch of drama, it's better knowing they had their mostly happy ending.

At most, add more stories in the universe. Show a hopeful, optimistic story in the ravaged world that allows players some actual autonomy. Ellie would be a letdown regardless, like every other sequel. Always greater stakes, more problems, more explosions, and a cheesy make-up at the end.

Then again, I know fuck-all about vidya. The last console game I played was destiny 2, and having to pay for online access, a fucking expansion on game 1, and a universe with engaging, interesting lore totally thrown out the window left me feeling like an absolute sucker. After that I didn't feel like anything was worth the money and time, I have other hobbies that go towards people's pockets who don't hate me.

i just keep up with this shit because it's interesting cultural devolution and nice smalltalk with the teeeeeeennnzzz.
 
Oh Druckmann killing Joel was totally Druckmann, but something obviously happened midway through production for them to not give Abby the Tranny two different animation styles.

Also do you know the most absurd part of the "Can't shoot jewish shit" Isn't this the game that built a false church for their announcement?
Here is what I expect happened: The game was going on normally towards some other end point. They had the assets made, they had the story down, and then The Rift formed. Druck decided to have Joel killed, he had the final say but some other force within the company was arguing for anything else. At this point, all the characters look normal, and the background level of SJW shit is the standard amount for the industry.

Then that person left, got fired, or was forced out. They were a persistent thorn in Druck's side, and he knew every point they argued for. So he proceeded to, piece by piece, meticulously marr any contribution that person made.

I don't know who that person is, but the fingerprints are all there. It explains the sheer spitefulness of so many sections, and why so many beats just come from fucking nowhere. They were added in or changed later to say to that person "Fuck you in Particular".
 
I want sales figures! I want them now!


But at least ME3 actually had some good shit in it. Kai Leng was a problem, the lack of focus on Reapers as the bad guys and the way over focus on Cerberus was a problem, Liara continuing her descent into Sueism was a problem, but if it actually had a good ending most of that would just be annoying but ignorable.
Obviously I cannot prove it but Liara becaming a Sue and the Shadowbroker was another shitty attempt at subversion imo. She was the "nice girl" you could pick from the first game so they wanted to make her not so nice and also more capable going forward to try and make you feel...something.
 
I bet an executive came in mid development, saw that Cuckmann killed the Main Character 10 minutes into the game to replace him with Abby..then demanded Abby become a Tranny so that Sony could use "People hate this game cause Abby is a tranny" as a shield against the shit show.



Neither do I, however..America sensors the shit out of Japenease games..so this feels like justice.

It wouldn't surprise me if things are that cynical by this point.

Shoe horning in minorities just to use the "people only hate it because they are bigots!" shield.

Here is what I expect happened: The game was going on normally towards some other end point. They had the assets made, they had the story down, and then The Rift formed. Druck decided to have Joel killed, he had the final say but some other force within the company was arguing for anything else. At this point, all the characters look normal, and the background level of SJW shit is the standard amount for the industry.

Then that person left, got fired, or was forced out. They were a persistent thorn in Druck's side, and he knew every point they argued for. So he proceeded to, piece by piece, meticulously marr any contribution that person made.

I don't know who that person is, but the fingerprints are all there. It explains the sheer spitefulness of so many sections, and why so many beats just come from fucking nowhere. They were added in or changed later to say to that person "Fuck you in Particular".

I hate to think there was a time in which this game could have been decent before it was utterly ruined fairly late in development.
 
Like imagine an adult Ellie showing up. She has bandage or an eyepatch covering one side of her face, eventually it's revealed it hides the cordyceps infection in her brain which is still active after all these years and has gotten to the point where she's losing part of her face.

Lol, even Punished "Venom" Ellie would be better than this shit.
 
Okay. According to most LPs I'm just about three quarters done with the game, and I don't feel like stopping anymore to liveblog, so let me just say...

People are overreacting.

Is TLOU2 bad? No. Is it amazing? FUCK no. It's aggressively overhyped. We, the community, expected an excellent sequel to an alright game, and we got a slightly more alright game instead. It feels bloated by unnecessary conflict and shenanigans involving Abby. Legitimately, it would have been better to just have the Lev plotline as a followup to Abby and Ellie's confrontation, but with Ellie discovering Lev instead of Abby. Hell, the only part of the game that Abby should have been playable in was the prologue, if only because even knowing the spoilers, the shock factor of what happened was actually well-strung.

Overall, unless the ending is somehow aggressively worse than I thought it would be, then I give this game a resounding 5/10, as opposed to the 7/10 I'd give the original. If I had to do it by percentages, Part 1 would be a 75 and Part 2 would be a 57.5. It is slightly above average, but that leans more on the gameplay and the presentation than the story, which is bloated and weighs down what would have otherwise been a banal, if overdone, plot about the cycle of revenge.
 
Obviously I cannot prove it but Liara becaming a Sue and the Shadowbroker was another shitty attempt at subversion imo. She was the "nice girl" you could pick from the first game so they wanted to make her not so nice and also more capable going forward to try and make you feel...something.
I think it could work, the problem is that the character development for Liara happens off screen. That actually plagues Mass Effect as a series the longer it went on. They started writing tie in novels for the games, and they introduced characters and plot elements which would affect the game, but most players would never experience themselves. So we're told that Liara has grown as a character between Mass Effect 1 and 2, but we were never there for that character development.
The books is also how Kai Leng is introduced, and there's also a comic for how Cerberus took control over the criminal space station introduced in Mass Effect 2.
 
Back