Learning to Love The Last of Us Part 2

December 3rd 2016 was the night of the PlayStation experience event where they'd showcase new and upcoming games this one in particular was worth remembering because of the fact that the show featured a legendary reveal the trailer got people excited as the world design clearly was the last of us but that was confirmed when the Firefly logo appeared on this sign but then thunderous Applause erupts as Ellie appears on the screen years older than she was when we last saw her but then the room goes nuclear when Joel Miller returns The Last of Us Part Two a game that was sure to be an event but 2016 was a long time ago today The Last of Us Part 2 released for the PlayStation 4 in 2020 is without a doubt the most controversial video game of all time there have been games that have divided fan bases before games that maybe critics liked that fans didn't as much or vice versa but I think the last of us too is a unique moment in gaming history in that it's one of the highest rated games of all time for its effort to push the envelope of narrative in single-player action games its thought-provoking story and satisfying game play but on the internet the game was and still is frequently blasted as one of the worst games of all time by many folks on an almost daily basis scorned for its finger wagging preachy messaging and supposed character assassination alongside a bleak and unpleasant tone I really don't think there's ever been a game with this much of a Chasm between different viewpoints and I honestly don't think there ever will be a game like this again one of the most anticipated games of its console generation that sold Millions upon millions of copies but has had this divided audience response but since this is my video it's more important to discuss how I stand in the debate The Last of Us is my favorite game of all time so I was definitely one of the many folks cheering at the reveal trailer back in 2016. I was highly intrigued by the Paris Games Week trailer in 2017 which revealed the new character Abby Anderson watched the E3 2018 demo with interest and was hyped over the 2019's date of Play trailer and then pre-ordered the game in 2020 waiting through the brief delay that happened when the covid-19 pandemic hit and then picked it up day one when it was released on June 19th of 2020. I wish I could tell you more about that pre-release but the thing is by the time the Last of Us 2 was announced I already learned my lesson for obsessively following games in their pre-release best to not have a lot of preconceptions about how a game is going to turn out since that will most likely lead to disappointment instead just go in largely blind which I did but as some viewers this video may know I was not especially fond of the last of us too when it released however I think that story is much better saved for later in the video for right now I'll just say that the game made me very sad and I found it difficult to play through and enjoy for a multitude of reasons from story decisions to game pacing but I never really looked back at the game after that this is my first time touching it in three years however I never really forgot the game you know I was still able to recall its storyline pretty well for years after because this is the kind of experience that leaves an impression on you which made me think perhaps there was something I missed and all that the first time around which is why this video exists really it's why this whole modern Naughty Dog retrospective exists to work us up to this point here learning to love The Last of Us Part Two and explaining why I think it's a misunderstood good Masterpiece overused YouTube title notwithstanding the last of us too begin shortly after the first game Joel and Ellie reached Tommy's settlement in Jackson as the game opens with Joel fixing up a guitar and explains to Tommy that he slaughtered the fireflies to save Ellie's life and then told a lie in the hopes that she could move on from the whole Crusade Tommy promised me to take this to the Grave if it comes to that with ncle for the first time as Joel is honoring his promise to teach her how to play guitar and singing The Pearl Jam song Future Days to her I actually never heard this before the game but I'm glad they got the permissions needed to use it because it's a great song it's not one of my favorites and is such a perfect encapsulation of Joel and Ellie's connection the song being the thesis of The Last of Us Part Two If I ever were lose he surely [Music] by myself trying sometimes you'll succeed to make this pain of me oh my stolen missing parts I have no need for anymore inside I believe in I believe cause I can't see our future Days days of you and me [Music] sorry I just had to play the whole thing because you know it gets me a bit teary-eyed every time the soundtrack album with all the game's covers and songs is a great listen Ellie's actually listening to the song through the valley in this scene before Joel Taps on her shoulder the song she was singing in the reveal trailer which is a nice nod to the audience but anyway four years later Ellie and Joel are established members of the Jackson Community and she's going on patrol with her friends Jesse and Dina evidently there was a scene in the previous night because of Ellie and Dina kissing at an event but you don't get any context on that as the game begins you also control the new character Abby Anderson as her entire crew have reached Jackson looking for someone this prologue chapter introduces you to a lot of the core mechanics of the game most game intros do that but when looking at how part two evolved from part one it's an interesting conversation the last of us too is more willing to take things slow and tutorialize mechanics while also building the narrative it's very similar to Uncharted 4 in that sense The Last of Us won taking you through a walking scene until you reach some combat encounters when the second one will teach you some of the basic stealth mechanics by having Ellie and Dina do a snowball fight with the kids in the community double purpose of the player understanding some of the basic moves in a completely safe environment and then also showing what the community of Jackson is like and you get to play in it which we never did in the first game but obviously I'm dancing around the big moment of the prologue Ellie and Dina explore their relationship and find out from Jesse that Joel and Tommy have gone missing on their patrol as the blizzard sweeps the area Abby gets rescued from a horde of infected by Joel and Tommy and she brings them to her Lodge where it turns out Joel was the mystery person they were after as Abby brutally beats him to death as Ellie arrives to beg for his life while pinned down Ellie wants to go after these people and kill them from what they did to Joel and Tommy takes off to find them in Seattle before Ellie can risk it but Ellie and Dina and later Jesse follow Tommy to Seattle to find Abby and her crew and get Justice for Joel's death thus setting up the journey but of course we gotta talk about Joel's death and there are many things to say about it I went into this game completely blind I had no idea what was going to happen so while Abby and Co have to be looking for a character we already know given the fact that they speak about him vaguely there'd be no reason to hide a character we don't know I still didn't see it coming when Joel rescued Abby and we see him in his four years later designed for the first time it was literally like the part in Infinity War where Captain America showed up I probably cheered and somehow still suspected nothing until the very moment Abby shot Joel with a shotgun this was genuinely stomach dropping I was horrified at the site this whole next segment of playing as La trying to get into this Lodge was a supremely tense two minutes of gameplay because I didn't want to believe what I was seeing there was no way Joel could die we got to get in there and save him even down to the last moment I still couldn't believe it was gonna happen when it did I genuinely cried my eyes out for several minutes and I should say I'm not really a Water Works kind of person it takes a hell of a lot for me to reach that place and this game did it in two hours time replaying the prologue now just has this stomach turning dramatic irony as you have to play all these narrative beats that inevitably lead to Joel's demise and it's really hard to watch like the moment Tommy introduces himself and Joel to Abby is the moment Joel's fate was sealed but I guess that warrants the discussion on the scene itself conceptually I've thought about this a lot and I realized that for this story Joel had to die here's why The Last of Us 2 is a story about how love can push us to do terrible things in the name of Vengeance Justice this much was something we could glean from the revealed trailer that Joel was in but the game's marketing was deliberately hiding crucial information here Joel here is in trailers and is four years later attire and for the purpose of hiding the fact that his death is the inciting incident of the story the way the marketing played out it seemed like Ellie had a relationship with Dina and then Dina would get killed somehow and Ellie would seek Vengeance for that fact Dina is riding on Ellie's horse in the first day of Seattle in the final game but isn't there in the marketing this CG trailer also shows Ellie with Dina's bracelet while she's fighting the enemies it seemed pretty clear that the story was going to be Ellie and Joel going after Dina's killers and having a lot of drama on the way but it's only in hindsight that I can see this really wouldn't have worked now I'm not going to say the story we got is the only last of us too that could have been good that much I don't believe I'm sure there are plenty of scripts for this game where Joel lives that contain many of the same ideas and could be a good game however none of them hit as hard as the one we got Joel dying is the only way for the players to truly feel Ellie's pain looking back at the first game the deaths of Sarah and Riley were both very sad we got to know the characters well enough for their deaths to hit the beats in the audience they're meant to and inform our understandings of Joel and Ellie Sarah's death in particular being so shocking because the game went there and killed Joel's daughter in the first 20 minutes but it's not personal for the audience and it couldn't be because it was a new IP but to tell a story about Ellie seeking bloody Vengeance in the name of someone she cares about making it Joel is a perfect way for the players to be in the same mindset as Ellie we saw his story we love his character and to lose him was devastating as I said I was stunned when he got shot and was in utter denial for the entire next segment of gameplay which is exactly the state La is in from the moment she hears Joel's missing to the moment Abby murders him if this happened to a new character like Dina I'm sure we'd all easily be able to understand the themes of the story but I don't think the audience would feel as personally connected to the mission because at least Ellie still has Joel which is a layer of comfort in the final game does not provide the first game contains numerous stomach dropping surprises and I think a sequel to that story has to have some balls probably even more so than the original in order to measure up which is what happened main character immunity just brings a sense of safety to the audience you know that Nathan Drake Will Survive every ludicrous set piece so you just enjoy the spectacle of it in video games especially main characters often don't die especially violent on-screen deaths like Joel got but it adds this layer of unpredictability and groundedness to the story because this is a killer be killed world and nobody is safe through all the pre-release Promises of a shocking game with devastating consequences on the characters that will divide audiences it was easy to be like yeah sure that'll be great when you felt like the comfort of the two main characters surviving it all was baked in but the game disarms that within the first two hours thus making this a journey where you have no idea what's going to happen and who's going to make it I'm glad they went out of their way to hide Joel's death because the safety I thought was there was ripped out from under me the moment Joel got shot while also dropping Clues too for example Joel was never seen in any gameplay demo and while the CG trailer put focus on Dina's bracelet being on Ellie she's fighting with Joel's gun so there was evidence there a lot of us just ignored it I think it's smart of trailers to do this like when Infinity War showed the Hulk in the trailer just give people what they're expecting to see so they don't even have the idea there's anything to worry about and then surprise them in the story trailers spoiling everything is a common issue these days so I commend the way this was done as for the scene we got in the game I suppose this is the more controversial element as I'd imagine most people would agree with the things that just laid out I think it was done in a solid way the only issue I can bring up is the fact that Joel and Tommy's backpacks disappear mysteriously in this scene but even if they had their weapons on them I don't think there was any avoiding this outcome but let's take it back a few minutes Joel rescues Abby and she uses the Storm and The Horde as a reason to Lord Joel and Tommy to the lodge to kill Joel they just had no reason to suspect an ambush you could say that the jewel of part 1 wouldn't have trusted Abby on principle and that's exactly right but this isn't that guy Ellie brought Joel back to a more civilized State he's been living in relative peace and security for four years it's established that Jackson regularly trades the people who pass pass through the area that mean no harm and Abby presented herself as someone who didn't there just would be no reason to assume these people have a vendetta against him that's the cruel irony of it Joel saves a complete stranger and his doing that is exactly why he dies his death was sealed the moment Abby learned he was Joel like I said once he was in this room there was no escaping this and what I love about it is how Joel takes it like a badass he realizes that this is it when he's pinned to that wall he's got nothing and knows he's beat but when Abby wants to play games he spits it right back in her face why don't you say whatever speech you got [Music] he doesn't get on hands and knees and starts begging for Abby to let him go he just accepts the reality of what's Happening one act of kindness and heroism is why he's going to be done in exactly why he'd never have done it before but in that moment he can't say he regrets any of it he got to spend four years living in Jackson and seeing Ellie grow up and that was worth it that brief period of Civility was worth it in the end you could say bill was right that Ellie was just going to get Joel killed but he got to live the best years of his post-pandemic life in Jackson and that was worth it you can see in Joel's house after he's buried the outside is littered with flowers laid by others in the community Joel is just a different man now he was a respected part of this community in his house you can see he had Hobbies like wood carving or playing guitar he was thriving instead of just surviving displaying the photo of himself and Sarah framed right alongside a photo of himself and Ellie at the stables in Jackson showing that he loved them both equally this whole house segment is just so depressing in a beautiful way as the house is full of mementos like this Dinosaur book that we later see was something Ellie got when they went to museum for her birthday or Ellie smelling Joel's jacket in the closet to get one last reminder of his scent now that he's gone it just feels true to life in regards to losing people but I get ahead of myself my point is that Joel's death was done in a brutal way that I think was true to the character as he stood four years after the first game he handled it like a pro and the scene is really tragic to watch even with the knowledge that it was coming and of what happens after and most of all it was necessary for the player to be in the same emotional state as Ellie and it worked it gives Ellie a nightmare scenario that is arguably worse than Riley's death feeling a pain she's never felt before one that she never thought she would like she said to Joel in the first game I can't imagine [Music] and with that said the players set up for Ellie's campaign in Seattle how the last was part two is as a game is usually the part that comes up the least but upon replaying it I realized this game is great The Last of Us one is a game I have played like six times now and this game only twice but now I play them both and realize that part one kind of feels like a template of part two I don't want to just compare them at every angle but from a gameplay perspective part two does everything the original does and then some during Ellie's Seattle day one the player is allowed to freely explore the abandoned quarantine zone so beginning with the exploration is fitting the first game incentivized searching areas thoroughly but still was a linear contained space I'm guessing they had increased confidence with open-ended segments at ND after the parts of Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy that were also open-ended but first props to the team since they actually went to Seattle to get reference materials for how the city's design and what the foliage looks like there so they could accurately design what the overgrown plants would look like making a post-apocalyptic Seattle that in terms of the map is true to life not that I would have known that without people from Seattle saying so but still the point of exploration in this game remains consistent with the first one you need to explore area is for hidden drawers and things like that which might house ammo or supplies you need for crafting but this opening segment just has much more going on okay you find this note from bank robberies that try to Heist on outbreak day which begins a side mission of exploring the bank to get into the Vault and collecting hidden goodies if you feel up to the task of fighting against a room full of Runners and clickers that is like the first game you can just stick to the main progression path and get through fine but by getting off the horse and exploring every room you can NAB great rewards like gear for weapon upgrades or crafting supplies or finding Vault combos that hide a lot of ammo behind them and these will increase your chances of survival long term but the game has changed some of the systems Ellie's upgrades are different from Joel's in that in part one you upgraded Joel's various stats at whatever Pace you wanted to with the pills I said in that video that I never really bothered upgrading Joel's listen mode distance when I thought the shiv's saving you from clickers or weapons sway are more important the last of us too works with a skill tree approach but these are divided into different categories you find various books that give you upgrade branches one of them is focused on Vitality like crafting more effective health kits are increasing your max Health when others will focus on attributes such as crafting speed or listen mode proficiency so you'll still want to explore for pills as much as possible but then you want to look around to make sure you get all the upgrade books to ensure La is as capable of surviving as possible weapon upgrades aren't locked behind tool kits anymore instead you can buy whatever upgrades you can afford for your weapons I guess this is a downgrade and exploration but they instead transferred the idea of items you find increasing your upgrade capacity to the physical ones over the weapon ones which is a fair trade in my opinion because the skill tree upgrade approach forced me to put a lot more Choice into my upgrades and get a lot of the ones that might have passed over in part one to get to the cooler ones quicker but in terms of crafting the game has expanded this too La can make different kinds of explosives like a smoke bomb that explodes on contact or a trip mine you can leave behind they'll be handy in killing enemies following you but also luring enemies away from wherever you're hiding if they walk into the ones you've already moved far away from Ellie can craft a silencer for her pistol that can be freely attached and reattached to your basic handgun and best of all you can craft arrows for the bow which were a gods in a moments where I was running low on ammo the game's combat and stealth mechanics are where it's seen the largest Boost from the original for starters there are so many more options in combat than what was available for Joel in the first game like you can press L1 to dodge out of the way of enemies while you punch enemies they can retaliate and you have to time your butt and press to dodge the attack sometimes you have to do it multiple times in a row to get another opening to strike yourself for several enemy classes this adds a lot to the gameplay take Runners for example in the first game punching them assuming no others were around meant you basically won by default since they were helpless against Joel's fists every infected class is more resistant to physical attacks but now every type of enemy can push Ellie or Abby off of them and go for a counter attack and try to bite the player which is an instant death with human enemies that same principle applies you can even take melee weapons out of enemy hands like the demo of the first game promised would never delivered on while sneaking around I thought this is one of the most satisfying stealth Action games I've played Metal Gear Solid 5 is my gold standard for sneaking mechanics but this game is no slouch giving its playable characters the ability to crouch around areas but also slowly crawl along alongside them and dive to the ground quickly to avoid enemy attacks I played on hard mode for this playthrough but on any difficulty relative to the player's skill this is going to be an intense game ND brought the grass stealth mechanics from Uncharted 4 into the last of us too and I'd say it's put to Greater use as hiding from enemies at a close range by sneaking through the grass is both satisfying to get away with but also can be tense if they're looking for you and you're outnumbered and don't have that much ammo the enemy AI has also been greatly improved with foes trying to flank you at different angles and being more intelligent than they were before like if you stealth kill any enemy with the bow and arrow and someone happens to see that they'll get the vague idea of where you are and act as such when I was hiding under this thing I got one guy but then the other while I was reloading dragged Ellie out from hiding and started shooting things like that we need to be alert for the last of us too featuring a wide variety of enemies and patterns the wlf soldiers you fight against are the basic human enemies but they have all the advancements I just went into and rely on dogs to sniff out your location and go after you leading you to the enemies the seraphites are a cult warring with the wlf that La also gets mixed up in as they communicate with each other mid-battle via whistling sounds so the player can't know what they're saying to each other increasing the tension in these encounters a new infected class called the shamblers is introduced that can create massive spreads of spores all around themselves that can only be killed with ranged weapons alongside having all the other infected classes returned from the previous game the finale of the game introducing more human enemies called the Rattlers who have more body armor than prior groups and face masks that make you have to shoot twice as they get a head shot it's not all advantageous for the enemies though players get to take advantage of massive combat maps with several tiers and places to hide that cause enemies to lose track of you and other ways to get around them like huge water pools you can use to escape it's a really Dynamic and exciting stealth Action game that I recommend to anyone who enjoys good shooting mechanics and sneaking mechanics the shooting is very cathartic as the sound designers made every gun and every impact sound feel really crunchy but the game also didn't pull any punches on showing the effects of these conflicts the game might have the most realistic NPC deaths in any game I've played and when you get someone with a shotgun it's intense because they cry out in agony as they die the other NPCs will call out their friends names when you kill them as well it's just really interesting to go there by designing mechanics that are really fun and engaging but also showing how devastating this kind of violence actually is unlike other games where blasting someone with a shotgun at close range or just make them Ragdoll comedic fashion and a minimal amount of Bloodshed it's no better or worse than games that don't take this approach I just think it's a really compelling design that they took the time to implement a system where every NPC is named and humanized more so than say the average Uncharted goon the game has an interesting Duality to it where you see and do horrible things through the campaign but like I said in part one the world of The Last of Us just has this sense of beauty to it as you explore dilapidated buildings and see nature take back the Earth the last of us too paying attention to details in ways most games don't like weapons you steal ammo from appearing deloaded after you grab it or how the snow in the water has impact effects when the horse steps on it the visuals in this game being some of the best on PlayStation 4 evolving the high standards Uncharted 4 had for expressive animations and details like visible veins the world being much bigger the campaign having a variety of set pieces and weather conditions the game broke new ground in terms of accessibility for deaf and blind players and become the standards for PlayStation games ever since allowing more people to get into games which is great technically the only issues I could ever bring up would be that I noticed some pop-in textures sometimes loaded in before my eyes and the load screens are a bit longer than I'm used to when playing games on PS5 but that's about it the last of us too did get a patch for PS5 but that only allowed the game to go up to 60 FPS it wasn't a PS5 Port that enhanced some of those issues that would still be there on PS4 but still the visual presentation of this game is immaculate all around the gameplay had to be this brutal to show outside of cut scenes what kind of Journey you're on Ellie seeks Abby and her whole crew and it's not a clean job a lot of violence in this game is self-defense but you still see Ellie go to really dark places in this that are upsetting you first see what the loss of Joel is done to Tommy as Ellie and Dina find two men tortured in the exact same vein as what Joel did David's crew in part one they used that trick a lot apparently which speaks to the away tragedy and loss can affect a person the fact that Tommy was so nice and fun-loving in Jackson that Dina can't even believe Tommy did this speaks volumes but he has that capacity in himself when it concerns getting those people back for killing his brother and that's the kind of thing Joel and Tommy had to do to survive post outbreak which is something that Ellie and the audience can accept because that's our side so we feel their survival is Justified in Ellie's Seattle day two she Corners Abby's friend Nora at the wof hospital for information on Abby's current location not knowing Abby's currently in the building Ellie gets Nora infected and when she's cornered and totally without options Ellie tortures her for that information especially once Nora sticks to the fact that Joel deserved what he got for a lot of people you wonder if Ellie's gone too far at this point given that she's beating on someone who's already going to die and cannot possibly defend themselves anymore but the point is already made that hate fueled by love blinds all I think the way the story is structured is really compelling I kind of took that for granted before playing it again since I know how it all goes down in the end but they paced it and placed flashbacks at just the right moments to where he'll be kept guessing about what actually happened here you don't know why Abby and her crew want Joel dead at the start you could make guesses but it's not confirmed and you also don't care as much because you and Ellie both just want that Vengeance but Dina brings this up during Seattle day one any of this jogging memories of stuff Joel said about his past nothing new what are the chances he did stuff that you don't know about he wasn't um wasn't very big on sharing this got me thinking about how the player actually doesn't know at this point if Ellie knows about what Joel did or not is Ellie going to find out during the hunt for Abby how will that knowledge change her perception of Joel if that happens Jesse mentioned in the prologue that Ellie got mad at Joel at the party the night before the game started but who knows why questions compounded by these well-placed flashbacks the first of which is Ellie's 16th birthday at a museum that ends with Joel and Ellie finding a firefly logo with the word Liars underneath it which affects Ellie because of that survivor's guilt I talked about last time a shout out to Joel being placed in front of the S so that the word between them is just liar so that brings it back into your mind that they're still an awkwardness between Joel and Ellie regarding what happened in Salt Lake City but then it's during the Nora interrogation that Ellie learns that Abby and her crew were formerly fireflies out to get Joel for what happened four years ago it's this gradual dissemination of information that gives the story a lot of intrigue and keeps you guessing about what's going to happen next while on the subject of Ellie's flashbacks now is a good time to go into them despite the frequent talking point that Joel was done dirty in this game I think he might be the best character in it because he absolutely steals every scene he's in Joel is a character who in this game alone has a lot of layers to consider despite appearing in like five segments of the entire game his ghost lingers over the entire story including both Ellie and Abby's campaigns whenever Ellie gets to play guitar her first instinct is to play Future Days [Music] and all these kills are in his name so you think about him quite a lot even if he's not on screen most of the time but when he is your eyes are glued to the screen after LA's Seattle day 1 which is about three hours of intense gameplay Ellie thinks back to a more peaceful moment her 16th birthday this is one of the few parts of the story where there's no action or shooting at all Joel has a surprise planned for her and he refuses to say what it is until they get there after everything the player has been through thus far this part just invokes the Nostalgia from the first game as it's just Joel and Ellie the childlike fun Ellie we remember not the more depressed 19 year old you control in the main story it's hard not to have a smile on your face while watching this because these two just have a really entertaining dynamic oops foreign [Laughter] what is wrong with you you should see your face right now I drowned I'm gonna drown gotta work on that confidence kiddo yeah keep laughing old man see what happens look s like how's that feel ah refreshing yeah it's not nice getting pushed in is it well actually we need to swim through this part anyway I got you back you're angry and upset I'm very angry and upset now come on but placing it after his death and the first day in Seattle just makes it sad as you know Ellie's just never going to get another day like this again but I can come back to this one in a moment I already mentioned how this day ended with Ellie accidentally stumbling upon that Firefly sign which brings that tension back into their relationship the next flashback you play is a year later in Ellie is 17 now being more distant towards Joel typical teenage angst for sure but also because she's off put by the fact that she knows Joel isn't telling the whole truth but it is also this scene where we see Ellie and Tommy had a nice uncle niece Dynamic important to build up how much La was just instantly accepted into the Miller family as it will be important for how the relationships play out later and once more showing that times used to be simpler for Ellie even in this apocalyptic world this flashback ends with Ellie and Joel stumbling upon two teens who left Jackson got infected and died and Ellie finally has the nerve to confront Joel on the lie but he stands his ground on it how do you know they were useless maybe if you you just would have given them more time they could have figured something out there's nothing [Music] anybody else I know you wish things were different I wish things were different but they ain't and in Ellie's final flashback she goes back to the Firefly hospital and learns the truth her being immune was a miracle the only doctor who could do the job is dead and The Smuggler is missing along with the girl and she demands Joel tell the whole truth this is the part I want to talk about because I've seen so many different reactions to it Joel lying about Salt Lake City might seem like a small percentage of what their relationship is like they've been through so much that you'd think it would be an easy thing to just Overlook for Ellie in fact I've seen some people say that the first game's ending showed that she was willing to buy into the LIE before so why are we going back on it now but I think the fact is that at age 14 Ellie was more willing to just go along with it since she doesn't have much of anything at this point besides Joel it's easier to just buy into it but the flashbacks gradually show that Ellie can't live with the mystery of what really happened because she assigns so much importance to saving the world with her immunity a lot can change between 14 and 17 so her getting more testy about it makes perfect sense because fundamentally good relationships are not built on lies Joel lies to LA because he believes it's in her best interest to not know what happened to avoid the thought that she would feel from not saving the world which perhaps is fair when she's 14 and they're still on the road but there's no reason Joel couldn't just relent and say the truth when she's 16 or 17 and has seen that life is worth living even with all that they've seen instead he digs his heels into the ground and gaslights Ellie over it she's not buying into his flimsy story anymore and he just treats her like she's being an outrageous child throwing a tantrum I really get these kids back to their families or something else you'd like to rehash [Music] when Joel shows up in Salt Lake City to find Ellie he says this you talk to me you don't just leave me a goddamn mouth that is very rich coming from him because she did and he continued lying to her face when they both know she doesn't believe it anymore and if he had a say in the matter he'd continue lying about it and gaslighting her over it until the day died of old age so in that moment he's being a complete hypocrite as I said when talking about part one I think Joel's choice to save Ellie was justified I just think he really went wrong here with the never-ending lies because even with all the good he does for her the lies eroded the relationship over time Joel doesn't give Ellie many details on what happened in the hospital and I also have seen it said that why doesn't he just explain that the fireflies never gave Joel the merchandise that he and Tess were promised why doesn't he say that they never gave her a choice so he was just looking out for her and how impossible it might have been to spread the vaccine worldwide and all sorts of other things but like I said in the part 1 video Joel's motivations had nothing to do with any of that Joel never even asked about the weapons he and Tess were promised because he didn't even care about them anymore Joel is just not the get on your hands and knees and beg type he's not gonna cry about how he couldn't lose another daughter he's a man of few words and the ones he chooses says all of that without saying any of that making a vaccine would have killed you killed you so I stopped them Ellie ellied a long speech about why he did it because she already knows she knows Joel loves her with everything he has and refuses to entertain a world where she's gone and thus did what he did however Ellie can't really appreciate or accept that right now because she at age 17 is depressed enough to believe she's not worth that kind of affection Ellie thought she deserved to die to make the deaths of Riley and Tess and Sam have some meaning to it in this moment Ellie feels all the weight of these deaths meaning nothing and the weight of the last two years of Lies unraveling before her in real time so she chooses to just end it with Joel this reframes the campaign because we Now understand that when Joel was killed he and Ellie hadn't really talked in like two years I fully believe Ellie was justified in cutting Joel out of her life at this moment as I said good relationships are not built on lies keeping something this major from La is a serious violation of trust and a valid reason to stop talking to someone even if I think Joel's Choice was a good one and the one I'd make if I were him another bit of cruel irony to the whole thing is how the perfect Middle Ground here is Ellie and Joel properly getting to unpack what has happened and why the lives were told but she goes no contact over it the ironic thing is that Joel is getting that punishment and it definitely is his fault well it's his fault because of the lying but I actually meant that Ellie's coping mechanism is just avoidance and bottling up anger and resentment she didn't used to be that way though she just is now because that's how her primary influence Joel acts whenever he has to deal with tough emotions hey look um about Tess I don't even know his other things gonna play out you don't bring up Tess ever Joel put the idea in Ellie's mind early in their Adventure that you don't talk about how you feel and you just stay silent and that's the end of it I believe that stupid robot on his grave what should I do with it I mean what I want to talk about it no why not how many times do we need to go over this things happen and we move on it's just that's enough right I'm sorry I think Joel would have a different attitude in regards to talking about Tess or Sam after that Farmhouse argument but the damage was done Ellie acting this way is learned behavior from him so Ellie cutting him off as a prison of his own making in several different ways these flashbacks show how Ellie gradually fell out with Joel leading to the moment of his demise but there are also present-day Ellie reflecting on these moments with a feeling of nostalgia and guilt these flashbacks show how in the moment lies eroded trust but also how in the past tense it's very easy to take people for granted when they're still around all the flashbacks show just how great of a dad Joel is if you look past the lying and gaslighting part Ellie is so invested in dinosaurs in space and all that kind of stuff and he found this Museum and planned this whole camping trip for her to see it when they enter this model spaceship he gives her a tape of the Apollo 11 launch to listen to in her Walkman and says it took a mighty effort to find that tape you don't do this for people you kind of like or kind of fill the void of the other daughter the hotel flashback has a fight with a bloater and the game does a fake out game over where you think you're about to die but then Joel just tears the monster to pieces with a machete definitely one of the coolest moments in the game because we all know how tough loaders are and Joel just goes Toe to Toe with one to save Ellie like what a badass those are the kind of Acts you forget about when you're mad at someone for what they've done that's bad I've seen people criticize Joel for the idea that he saves and takes care of LA because he wants to fill the void left behind by Sarah in a possessive way but I don't buy into that at all I'm not a psychiatrist so I'm not an expert on the psychology of people who lose their kids but from where I'm sitting I don't think Joel was trying to replace Sarah with Ellie I already said earlier that he displays Sarah's photo right next to Ellie's in his house he used to not be able to look at Sarah at all until Ellie gave him something new to live for Sarah and Ellie are just two very different kids Joel doesn't try to get Ellie to fit in a Sarah box because he engages with Ellie's interests that she doesn't share with Sarah Sarah liked playing soccer and boy bands and teen drama movies Joel took her to those movies even if he doesn't like them one bit because Sarah being happy made him happy but now he says to Ellie that he actually read The Savage Starlight Comics she likes even if they aren't his thing because he wants to have a window into Ellie's life and interests he found that Apollo 11 tape because it would mean so much to Ellie even though he's no expert on this material hey Joel guess what the first animal to go to space was I don't have to guess that was a monkey oh it's fruit flies yeah 1947. it was to see radiation exposure at high altitudes I lived through it thanks after he's dead you can see an idiot's guide to space in his nightstand because he wants to learn about this stuff because that is what Ellie cares about I just don't think he'd do any of that if his love for Ellie wasn't genuine or was just a projection from losing Sarah he has the respect for Ellie to just stop talking to her when that's what she wants because he knows he's screwed up and accepts it his house also has this Thanksgiving photo in it where he and LD are on opposite ends of the table not even looking at each other and that was the status quo for years because he wasn't going to beg for forgiveness he knew he didn't deserve and she was just festering in Anger through it all Ellie never hated Joel she just took all of herself hate and pointed it at him every issue she's ever had related to the immunity goes from a feeling of isolation and sadness to an anger at Joel in Ellie's Journal you can read all these various thoughts for example Ellie had a girlfriend named Kat between games and when they kissed the first time Ellie got freaked out because she was concerned that would make cat infected something that's a pretty valid concern but she had no Outlet to talk about it with because only Joel Tommy and Maria know her condition and you know how Joel is with talking about it resenting him for all that makes so much sense this is just a very human game with human issues like how Ellie writes to herself when she's younger about how she doesn't want to tell Joel about her relationships because she doesn't know if he'd accept it or not which leads to a funny cringe-worthy interaction like this one I hear the way Jesse talks about you no Jesse and I are just friends yeah I've got a pretty good not so Keen with this one characters in this game feel real to me they make decisions that maybe aren't rational or the best choices but one's real flawed people would make Ellie going two years no contact is just hard to watch because even though Joel has it coming she's not making herself any happier by doing it she's just making herself Miserable as her ego can't rationalize the fact that she still loves Joel with the knowledge that he did all these things that should make her hate him so it's just easier to avoid him these are two people who aren't good at expressing their emotions and that puts a wedge between them Ellie's Revenge Mission happens because of the fact that she took Joel for granted and just sort of expected him to always be there ready to let her back into his life whenever she wanted I mean if she really hated him why would she keep living in his backyard for two years after she cut him off she just didn't want to talk to him for the time being not expecting him to be taken away from her out of nowhere so the Quest for vengeance is as much about killing Joel's Killers as it is about Ellie trying to drown her own guilt through inflicting that pain on these people it's sad it's hard to watch for characters you want to see do well and be happy but it's real it feels real to me because the relationship Dynamics at play here are very familiar and I get on camera for this next bit because I thought it would be really important to do so this next bit is completely unscripted so it's going to be like kind of choppily edited up but I thought it was also important for it to not be scripted because I didn't want to be like well I need to read off of the script right now because I thought that would be uh for the best for this moment in the video the whole on camera thing from the Uncharted videos seems to be a thing people don't really think was working that well and I don't really enjoy doing it that much anyway I just figured I'd try something new so that's going to be a thing from the past but for one last time I thought it'd be important to be on camera to talk about this next segment I talk about how a human The Last of Us Part 2 is and the way Joel and Ellie have that falling out because of the fact that you know again it is sad to see that two characters we like will have this happen to them but it does just feel real or comes from a real place because you know everybody has you know their with like their parents I mean maybe not everybody but I mean everybody has like a oh why did you say this why did you do that you could have done this you could have done that with their parents I mean from everybody I've seen I guess but you know not a universal truth but I feel like this is a very relatable element of the story I want to talk about myself that much in my videos in fact I never really appeared on camera for the longest time for that very reason of I wanted to be more of a disembodied figure talking about video games I thought it was better that way uh there have been little breadcrumbs where I talk about my past um and videos not a lot um mostly just stick to the video game Nostalgia stuff because that's the more relevant thing in the videos anyway but uh you know my audience doesn't really know that much about me because of well I'm just kind of a private type and so that's been very much on purpose but I figured for The Last of Us Part Two a game that is so personal for me and The Last Quest part one is as well I thought it would be important to say things that are relevant to my experience with this game but not be like TMI because I don't want to over share and like air dirty laundry or anything like that if you don't care about me or any of this stuff you can skip to this time stamp in the video just get back to me talking about the game itself but uh it's fine by me I just wanted to include this because I thought it was worth it but to cut to the chase I love my parents but um my dad in particular to explain what's relevant to The Last of Us Part Two is my dad's a complicated person to deal with I mean my dad just has a complicated relationship with the truth and you know it's not like some really outrageous situation like abuse or whatever or a secret double life it's just like I said there have been issues with the truth in the past and like I feel like that's the most TMI element is it's just not necessary to say because it's not really anybody watching this is business it's not really my story to tell in that sense I suppose but my point is is that when Ellie says to Joel I'll go back we're done I felt that very viscerally because I know what that experience is like I know what it's like to have that kind of conversation and it's emotionally visceral is basically as good as I can say in summarizing it when I experienced this game for the first time I like Ellie when I was like 18 or 19 had periods of not talking to him but I mean so that's why emotionally I get where Ellie's coming from but I already understand that it's just doesn't make Ellie any happier um because of the fact that when I was like 18 and 19 that was like Peak misery for me like you know people wonder why I just talk so ill of older videos of mine and you know what it's probably not the videos themselves out of the problem but I just know because I'm the one who made them just how miserable the person making them was like my video on Batman Beyond season two and season three from 2020. um I can't possibly fathom enjoying those videos because they're so obviously made by a miserable person at least that's what it feels like to me I guess if you're the audience you wouldn't really get that version of it but that's how it feels watching it to me I just it's so cringe-worthy on such a deep level because of the fact there's so much anger and negativity and resentment poking through the cartoon analysis and it's just hard to watch for me but that's the thing about it is that relationships are complicated and that despite all the periods of no contact I have had I know that my dad is the only person who gets me on a level like other people don't is that a proper sentence I don't even know but like look another thing with me is that I've um don't really acknowledge much is my history with stress eating that was my main coping mechanism for dealing with unpleasant emotions so that was what my dad's coping mechanism was for anything in his life so he understands that more than most a lot of people talk about the way I appear now and a lot of people in the audience talk about the way I appear now and how I looked back in 2019 and 2020 on all those previous times I ever appeared on the camera and uh I never really acknowledge that I don't really like those or heart those comments because I just kind of like to avoid the subject because remembering my prior Incarnation is just difficult for me I just try to pretend it doesn't exist but um what happened you know was that I was at like kind of a lowest point with just the stress eating and like staying up all night and was sleeping all day that my dad who I barely talked to in the prior like eight months this is like the beginning of 2020. simply said to me Justin you don't deserve this sadness and and negativity that you carry around all the time and we're gonna we're gonna fix this up we're gonna we're gonna change the situation and we're going to you know get you in a position where your life is a lot better and thus I am who you see today and in a similar vein to that remember all kinds of little moments like learning how to ride a bike or other things where you just know there was always one person who was there and that would be him my point in all that being that what the game is trying to say is that you know Joel is someone who did do something wrong in that lying to Ellie for years on end about certain things but he is just this positive figure in her life nonetheless people in relationships are very complicated and I'm relating that to my experience because when this game first came out I did lash out at it I did think it was terrible and I did not enjoy it because of the fact that I felt very called out on a visceral level because of the fact that I saw myself in the way that Ellie had acted like that is why I didn't like the game and also because of the fact that when the game came out as Neil druckman has uh reflected on in recent time the game just kind of came out at a position where things weren't that happy I mean the game came out in June of 2020 and like three months prior the coveted 19 pandemic had like wreaked havoc across the globe and you know still has lingering effects to this day so it was just kind of a dark period for a lot of people's lives that alone that already was a lot counting against the game's story because it is just a very dark very emotionally impactful story and to see our favorite characters go through this journey is just sad and depressing which is just Why the game had the effect on me that it did I lashed out at part two for shining a light on who I was at that time and I just felt uncomfortable with it but I do get it now the point of the story is that you don't want to take people for granted while they're still around because you know um my relationship with my dad is good now it's the best it had been and it's it's the best it's been since I was like a pre-teen and that if at the end of the day you have parents who love and care about you but have made mistakes you can just learn to accept them by realizing that what's done is done and you can try and cope with the the impact of those things in healthy ways as opposed to unhealthy ways moral of the story is that my dad is one of the more important influences in my life whether or not my 18 or 19 year old self wanted to admit that or not so the game is more meaningful to me now than it ever was before so I just thank this game because once I finally got to understand what it was going for I was able to get my together and Patch these relationships up properly and I am much happier for it but like I said now I just understand it better and can rationalize what has gone on in this story more and I see with a lot of people in the gaming internet Community a lot of mistakes and lessons that I think people should learn and should move on from and I want to talk about that right now because the fact that I see a lot of the same patterns of behavior in the comments section or on various social media sites it's sad to see this happen to Joel and Ellie it really is but as I can Circle back to later there's a lesson to be learned in all of it for all the petty things that we often hold against people just let it go move on let go of your hate it's okay you're allowed to be happy it won't be easy but life gets better when you do this goes for genuine fans of the series that felt betrayed by part two I get you I really do I was right there with you back in 2020 but I urge people who felt sad about this one when it first came out to give it another chance not that the dust has settled because there's so much on the table here to enjoy and to think about that's why I did that whole on camera thing just now it wasn't fun or comfortable for me but I wanted to add that human element to show that I'm not perfect and never have been nobody is I just came around in this game because I'm in a different place now than I was in 2020 but this message also goes to people who don't care about what I'm saying at all the people who make it their life's work to hate this game or The Last Jedi or whatever other modern thing is out I've seen it so many times in the comments section and I can't help but feel like the people who leave essays about how much they hate these modern games and movies for years on end are just piteous people there was one guy who got enraged at me for saying Resident Evil 4 remake was a stellar game a few months back throwing all kinds of accusations in my face like how I didn't play it when it originally came out which of course is true but not relevant because I loved the original but then he called me like a modern chill and things like that upon being confronted this person went full on human Chernobyl and wrote a screed about how Capcom has gone woke and how a trans character is in Street Fighter folks like this may be really exhausted with gaming discords because it's such a spiral of negativity to these folks I'll say this I want you to picture a world 20 30 40 years from now think about what you're leaving behind on this planet and what Memories you'll have to share with future generations of your family or with your friends I don't believe people who write these kinds of comments have great social connections because if they did there wouldn't be time for this garbage valiantly fighting against modern Star Wars or Last of Us games call your parents call your friends go do things let go of the hate let go of the anger I can promise you it's not minority casting in movies and TV shows and games or God forbid my being half black that's making you miserable it's your life and it's only in your hands to fix it take a hard look at your life what you don't like about it and make some change that was the path I had to walk on a few years ago and it enhances your life to say the least because fighting about how much you hate the plot of The Last of Us too on social media isn't living it's wasting time and energy while editing this I figured I'd also comment on the whole talking about games for a living thing since it seems like a contradiction of this messaging but even here you can see differences in where I used to be versus where I'm at now when I was a teenager the angry videos I did were actually things that made me angry think mgs4 story analysis from 2019. I was actually angry at the video games for some reason like even when the mic was off I'm still mad but today whether it be Mega Man X7 or Secret Agent Clank I can talk about things I dislike and try to make it funny and entertaining and then when the mic is off I don't play the game again and don't really think about it anymore because I don't care that much people can make whatever videos they want to make and get their thoughts out there but I'm not really talking about that I'm talking about the state of gaming discourse in like comment sections and social media or just any medium really not just gaming it sees people passionately and angrily ranting online for paragraphs on end about things they hate slash haven't liked in years slash never would have liked to begin with and I find it exhausting the reason I'm bringing this up in a video about The Last of Us Part Two is because this game broke the internet as established way earlier in the video this game divided people some fans of the first game Who felt shocked and betrayed by it some people who just don't like modern media who Dove on that grenade like it's nobody's business and contrarians also getting in on that action as well it's so odd to see The Last of Us used to be a beloved game whether you thought it was worthy of a 10 or not with something to be discussed and people disagreed on it but the hate I see slung towards this IP has just been so intense these last three years when I decided to reread the comments on my original Last of Us review from 2020 before the sequel came out it was like I walked into a parallel universe all I remembered about this video was how it didn't get that many views but a trip to the comments section saw emotional discussions about how this game had fixed people's relationships with their parents like what I just said about part two or how this game did help them coming out through the Left Behind story but ever since part two it's impossible to see people talk about this series that an army of contrarians telling everyone that it was never good and is overrated not even a game which if you played it you'd know is or how it's not as good as my favorite game that doesn't get nearly as much recognition laughing at the mere idea of liking it more than other games the discourse surrounding this game has genuinely broke people's brains Craig Mason co-showrunner on the HBO adaptation said it was the greatest game story of all time and people were Furious because that means he hasn't played mgs2 or some other example and it's like the man is working on the adaptation of the last of us and said the last of us is amazing and the promo of his series would you prefer he said the source material of his show suck similar albeit contradictory outrage occurred when he said people don't care when pixels die and the reason was Wow way to disrespect the art of gaming when he was referring to NPC enemies and was 100 correct point being that in the time since part 2 it's just cool to hate this series often from people who haven't played it and that's been depressing to watch Neil druckman has become one of the biggest Boogeyman in the eyes of the anti-last of Us 2 Army I've seen it all Neil druckman has a vendetta against a classic Naughty Dog franchises and despises them and wants to ruin the studio from within which is why he displays complete inbox copies of Jack 3 and Jack X and the lost Frontier in his home office since he worked on all of those yes he forced Amy hedig out of Uncharted 4 so he could delay development on the Last of Us Part Two the game he was already working on so he could get his say over Uncharted 4 and end the series we can do more Last of Us games when Uncharted 4 was going to be the end of the series anyway confirmed by an interview where the interviewee never says any of that and people have decided to conclude things they already believe before listening to the interview you that says none of that evidently Neil is some ego Maniac who thinks he's the first person in history to make a good video game adaptation when others existed before meanwhile in reality he said this that we could kind of shift the thinking of how you do these things and um if you do it properly that the audience will show up and they'll love it and a new audience will show up as well and they'll love it and the way they'll talk about it and Revere it will help create more of these things and they'll be like um this kind of Snowball Effect um so I think that was already happening before even the last of us like all the stuff you mentioned like when I saw Sonic 1 I was like okay this is not the story of the game but they've captured somehow they've captured the essence of the game oh yeah when I'm watching like the Dr Robotnik fight at the end I'm like oh it feels like I'm watching one of those boss fights but it felt earned like in in a really cool way um and that's why I'm excited for Mario and um more things that are coming there's a lot of stuff coming from PlayStation production I'm really excited to see apparently Neil druckman says naughty dog doesn't believe in the word fun when making games but if you read the full quote he was saying that when they make Uncharted games the idea is just how to make the most fun action set pieces you can possibly think of but when doing Last of Us games it's more about immersion and totally gripping the player with the experience maybe not everything you see is comfortable but everything you see is going to make you on the edge of your seat you won't agree with every character's choice but you'll want to see what happens next in the story anyway not the way it's been Twisted about how we don't like fun games anymore all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories about this man exists and I just find it so exhausting because the evidence for all of them is flimsy at absolute best the game is Zionist propaganda because he has a war with two sides that do monstrous things to each other where both sides still have humans worth empathizing with on the ground level when the man Praises Elden ring for its non-linear storytelling he gets blasted because ha that's right Neil that's what happens when a game that actually deserves Awards and wins legitimately unlike yours when he was complimenting it I'm sorry none of it makes any goddamn sense it's a completely drummed up Witch Hunt where people assign this important to tearing down the evil Neil druckman for the purpose of making their internet Crusade seem like a good way to spend time in the process of covering Jack 3 Jack acts the Lost Frontier Uncharted 1 Uncharted 2 Uncharted 4 The Last of Us The Last of Us Part Two and watching all the HBO last of us behind the scenes I have seen quite a lot of Neil druckman and just none of it is true he's just a guy that wants to make games that gets people to feel things that's it not some shadowy interloper who has committed crimes on set and wants to tear down the medium of gaming by turning it into woke walking Sims it's just all all of it this game was reported to have sold 10 million copies in like a year but there are conspiracies that Sony faked the numbers this game was actually a financial flop and they don't want you to know the truth when if something didn't sell they probably would just not comment on it all the reviews were bought nobody really likes this game people accused me of being paid off for a positive review on part one last year I can tell you with confidence I was most certainly not paid for it like all conspiracies it breaks down the second you think about it for five seconds if Sony was so calculated that they could organize all of gaming media to give a game positive coverage with under the table payments why is nobody blowing the whistle on it in like three years is it just so unreasonable to assume critics liked the game because they aren't invested in social media Wars this crap never ends people have been carrying on about this game for years and years now an entire subreddit is devoted to spewing bad faith garbage and conspiracy theories about it on the daily that's the most frustrating thing when talking about these games the bad faith arguments bad faith arguments take five seconds to say and take five minutes to debunk here are a few I don't have a problem with Ellie being a lesbian I just don't like retcons when retcons that don't explicitly contradict things can add so much extra weight and meaning to an ongoing Story one of the most solidified pieces of Star Wars Canon for example is Luke and Leia being siblings which was a retcon one of the biggest in media history but that was 40 years ago it's been that way far longer than it ever wasn't it's just how the story is now oh yeah well Neil wants to pretend he's all Progressive but no one talks about how Dr Anderson was black in the original Last of Us but was made white in the sequel take that you shills I'm sorry if this is a black person too you clearly haven't seen many of them they didn't even change his voice they got the guy who did the NPC doctor dialogue in the PS3 game back for part two and then used the same line read in the remake check it out what are you doing in here I won't let you take her this is our future think of all them don't come any closer what are you doing I won't let you take her this is our future think of all the lives we'll save what are you doing in here I won't let you take her this is our future think of all the lives we'll save this is another one of those stories where it becomes an endless debate about dumb Cinema Sins nitpicks like how did they get back to Jackson when Tommy was crippled and Dina was pregnant and the horses were gone I don't know and I don't care or maybe analyzing how much protein it would actually take for Abby to build up all those muscles between games and I just don't know and I just don't care I mean why does Buzz Lightyear play dead when Andy's in the room when he doesn't believe he's a toy how did Batman with no resources get back to Gotham and why did he paint his logo on a bridge and gasoline when a bomb threatened to blow up the city I don't know and I don't care bad faith comparisons are regularly made about this game and how its story is solely about how revenge is bad while based stories like Jack 2 or John Wick are all about how great revenge is yeah John Wick got that Revenge how well did that turn out for him see the various sequels to find out and comparing it to Jack 2 really pissed me off because that's a favorite game of mine and to see it reduced to such a degree to Club this other game I really love annoyed me because Jack's whole Arc in that game is giving up the revenge and becoming a real hero again like have They even played these games but I hope you can see the futility here I've just laid out multiple examples of bizarre outrageous conspiracies and bad faith arguments they pop up like weeds and take time to debunk while 10 more pop up in its place when I just wish the discourse was in a healthier state to bring this conversation full circle I just wish these angry gamer types could calm down and just let it go it's sad to see others be so miserable and spread such misery like I said it's not black superheroes and trans Street Fighters that are doing this it's you I told pieces of my story to show that being angry and casting that out in the world is easy which I did but letting go of the hate is the hard work and when the real growth begins I could have picked any number of games or movies to talk about this with but I chose The Last of Us Part Two because of how important this game was for me and being a better and more empathetic person and to see it be the subject of such intense hate while it preaches empathy and not taking people on things for granted is such cruel irony and that doesn't mean you have to like everything I'm friends with a guy who hates what the Last Jedi did to lose can I get it even if I don't agree but he's a normal sane person with a life who goes about his business enjoying what he enjoys and focusing on his friends and family my cousin's husband played this game and he told me that he thought the game's commentary on violence was heavy-handed he's allowed to think that I get it he's just a normal person with a career and family to be concerned about over going online and spewing bile over video games things that should be fun to talk about I also have a friend who stopped playing this game halfway through because he wasn't interested in the story and characters and just gave up fine by me I have seen videos in this game not being good that I have enjoyed it's possible to talk about things we don't like without it turning into the nonsense I just went into there will be plenty of commenters on this video who don't like this game who can say why but if you're not acting like this that's fine but that's merely people who want to talk about the game itself there's a whole other category of people on the equation who bring it to real life I already knew that harassment was an issue with this game but recently my dad speaking of whom gave me this Rolling Stones issue he got from a waiting room because it had a video game article in it and what do I find but an article interviewing Ashley Johnson over the vitriolic reaction people had to this game where she talks about the disgusting and horrifyingly violent DMS sent her away in the wake of this game's release and how Neil received anti-semitic DMS and violent threats and how Laura Bailey the voice of Abby received the worst of that when she just portrayed a character who killed Joel the face model of Abby gets harassed on the regular by these freaks whenever you bring something like this up somebody always rushes in and says oh but this is nowhere near as prevalent as the valid critiques yeah maybe but no one's stopping you from saying whatever you don't like about this game given the Endless Sea of discussion about it I just talked about and even if that is true why are we having discourse about how many threatening DMS is enough to Warrant a public statement the lives of people matter more than video game opinions Point Blank period but on that note let's do some math let's say that 10 million people played this game now many of those DMS probably came from people who haven't played the game at all but we can't account for that let's say that of the 10 million people .01 of them sent harass the way of the people involved with the game that's 1 000 angry DMS that certainly sounds like a lot of angry folks all directed at innocent people who just made a video game how many is enough search your soul for the answer to that question as I said gaming discourse exhausts me because we all basically just accept this as normal because it happens so often and has happened so many times in the history of fandom and it's the people I'm talking about don't care what I think of them I don't believe my saying any of this is Gonna Save The Last of Us season 2 or part 3 from getting the same treatment but I wanted to give my two cents in the whole thing because I don't want to just ignore it I wanted to speak directly to people who haven't gone that far and done and said things that gross and awful and hopefully get through to some of them about how much empathy and letting go of trivial like video games you don't like can improve your life while also condemning the people who did cross that line and went after actual human beings over it I placed this massive discussion at the halfway point of the video because of the fact that Ellie's relationship with Joel going the direction it did and the lesson she learns from it are all the perfect focal point for this conversation but really the game's only just getting started at the end of Ellie's day three she corners and kills Abby's friend Owen and a pregnant woman named Mel not knowing what she's done until after but then in a great detail all the sound is muffled for Ellie and she hears Joel call her name only for it to be Tommy along with Jesse ready to pick up Dina and get out of here because she's pregnant too they got almost the entire crew of former fireflies besides Abby herself and figured that it's just not worth it anymore while Dean is pregnant which Ellie begrudgingly accepts until Abby shows up Out For Blood yet again she kills Jesse in a Flash which is another devastating loss because he's been such a supportive and humorous part of Ellie's campaign thus far Abby has Tommy pinned down and points the gun at Ellie but then we travel back in time three days and see the story play out from Abby's POV this is the craziest thing about the entire game the thing the whole story bet everything on can we show Abby do the most unforgivable thing in the eyes of the player and yet get you to sympathize with her anyway can you forgive the unforgivable ignoring everything else I've laid out thus far this was a breaking point for a lot of people Abby's campaign begins four years earlier showing that she was once a firefly at Salt Lake city as her father was Dr Jerry Anderson who's going to perform the operation on Ellie before Joel killed him and saved Ellie Dr Anderson didn't relish the idea of killing Ellie but he felt like saving the human race was something that would make the sacrifice of countless fireflies all mean something in the end Abby even telling him that if it were her she'd be okay with him doing it the next thing she knew the whole building was on high alert and her father has been murdered by some psycho named Joel Miller who ruined everything for no clear reason the fireflies as I said last time were on their last legs when Joel arrived with Ellie and him doing what he did destroyed what was left the group officially disbanded and everyone went their separate ways Abby and her friends joined a militia group called The Washington Liberation Front and fight Wars against the seraphite cult for control of the land but behind it all Abby had one true Mission find Joel and kill him for what he's done it's perfect that they didn't explain Abby's backstory at all up front and that she doesn't appear again until the end of Ellie's campaign Ellie witnessing Abby killed Joel In Cold Blood while begging for his life as the flame that ignites her and the player for the next several hours of gameplay but dropping Abby's backstory on us after all that is meant to show a couple things first that Abby was a normal kid like any other before Joel showed up even has similar interactions with her dad that Ellie has with Joel your swim is getting better remember now don't just flail about you got the water with the whole arm blah blah blah I had to know I'm getting through well I mean found you yeah but she did you do what you need to do to get it done actually listen you have your moments of wisdom she's been shaped by the trauma of her dad's death to be who she is today but furthermore it forces players to consider their perspective because Ellie and the player felt so passionately that Abby and Friends needed to be brought to Justice in the name of Joel but that's the twist if Ellie is right to hunt these people to the ends of the Earth for taking her dad away from her then by default Abby was right to do the same to Joel you have to confront the fact that what Joel did regardless of how much we love and agree with him has caused so much pain in its wake when talking about the first game I said that the game allowed you to intellectualize different perspectives but never internalize that fact David for example stating that his crew were just trying to survive doesn't really have that big of an impact in the audience like we might go huh maybe everyone is the hero of their own story but his being a clear and obvious monster makes his point easy to ignore as you press on this game forces you to Grapple with the issue this is why I said it had to be Joel I mentioned earlier that it being Dina or some other new character would once again allow audiences to Simply intellectualize the idea of Ellie being out for blood but getting the player emotionally invested in it as well by making it Joel and then thrusting you into Abby's side of the story while you wanted her gone a few minutes ago is where the story gets real and complex and makes you reflect all these quests revengeance make you wonder what even is Justice in the world of the last of us this is a killer be killed world where traditional governments and laws don't exist anymore at that point Justice is a matter of opinion did Joel deserve to die well if you're Ellie no if you're Abby yes who's right yes the case can be made for either one of them being right but then there needs to be a separate conversation to be had about whether or not seeking all this vengeance is in their best interests especially since it should be made very clear that Joel didn't die because he ruined the vaccine Joel died because he killed Dr Anderson Abby wants revenge for the death of her father not the death of the Firefly cause so you can't really assign moral High Ground to Abby because her Vendetta was just as personally motivated as Ellie it's challenging material because as I said it forces you to really think about how you feel and where you stand in regards to Vengeance and morality but there are some issues here mostly with the pacing the game builds up the tension throughout Ellie's campaign and reaches a high point when Abby Corners them at the theater but the pacing grinds to a halt when you go back in time four years and see Abby's backstory and then the game begins all over again with Abby day one the pros of doing it like this outweigh the cons the pros are that Abby's campaign and backstory are a surprise and thus everything you see in Abby's story comes with a dramatic irony of you knowing that it ends with Abby's crew dead in an altercation between Ellie and Abby we've yet to see it needs the player to feel Ellie's pain for the whole duration of her campaign before pulling the switch it's a crucial part of this game's story however the issue is that Abby day 1 resets the whole game as you're playing as a character with her own upgrades to get weapons to unlock inventory to expand and Status Quo to explore Abby's first day is easily the longest stretch of the entire game taking me a little over three hours to beat and while Ellie day 1 was a similar run time you're now halfway through the game and you have to start from scratch and get a lot of information that makes the whole part feel kind of like a drag especially by the end as you go from stealth Action scene to this infected encounter and then this flashback and another set piece and fight and all that it just starts feeling a little too long and perhaps it is The Last of Us without left behind and while exploring as much as possible is a little over 10 hours but The Last of Us Part Two is double that this game is almost two games in one you get the two hour prologue the entire La Seattle campaign then the entire Abbey Seattle campaign and finally a two-hour finale this game is packed with content but that came at a cost The Last of Us Part 2 is yet another AAA game you can add to the discussion about whether or not big budget games are getting too big this game having an issue where the corporate culture at naughty dog was put under a spotlight as people were pulling 12-hour days to reach deadlines despite the fact that the game was announced in 2016 and started development earlier than that and didn't release until 2020. people getting sick from being overworked I will admit I was kind of ignorant on this fact before this game released by that I mean I just kind of assumed that crunch culture was something that only existed for bad games you know games that released unfinished but in recent years it's come to light that a lot of studios for years on end have had cultures of crunch are overworking people for Naughty Dog I would say the trouble really begins with Uncharted 4. as I said when covering that game it restarted development when Amy Hennig was taken off the project and Neil druckman and Bruce Straley had to step in and start over Uncharted 4 losing so much time in its development forced a lot of the team to Crunch day in and day out to get the game out in a timely manner a lot of Legacy staff feeling so burned out by the experience that they left including Bruce Straley who wasn't 100 passionate about doing Uncharted 4 which only compounded the burnout with Uncharted 4 being delayed by a year releasing in 2016 Uncharted the Lost Legacy becoming a full game and releasing the following year The Last of Us Part 2 was now behind as well new and more inexperienced staff members combined with burnt out Legacy staff produced a work environment that wasn't healthy literally when the PS5 Last of Us Part 1 released in 2022 staff members at Naughty Dog claimed a much higher feeling of job satisfaction as the studio claimed its crunch culture days were behind it and found ways to balance delivering top quality products with healthier production pipelines all this is to say that the last of us too being an 18-hour game certainly didn't didn't help matters behind the scenes but three years later removed from all that discourse how did Abby's campaign actually turn out in the end well I think it's fun to play I mean it's still the same game as Ellie's story so therefore everything I said about the mechanic still holds up Abby's really fun to play as since she can do all the Nimble things Ellie could do like dodging and crawling but can also beat up enemies with her bare hands like Joel could stepping on Infected brains like his Resident Evil Abby gets her own unique craftables like bombs that get tossed and take a moment to explode and gets extensive upgrades like one where if she does a finishing blow on an enemy you get a small window of time where you can instantly do the same to a nearby enemy regardless of how much health they have I think Abby's weapon roster is also Superior to Ellie's best comparison being how Ellie gets a bow and arrow and has to carefully aim the shots to hit the enemies in an arc but Abby gets this crossbow that targets things more efficiently and has a higher rate of arrows still being intact and reusable upon contact with enemies Abby's incredibly fun to play as especially once her campaign really gets going the first day has a lot of fun segments just dragged down by a lot of setup but in day two and three it's almost non-stop with attention and excitement Abby Day 2 is notable for how she explores the bottom level of the hospital which was ground zero for the infection this is probably the closest the series ever gets to being scary as you face off against the Rat King so many infected people were tossed in a close space that they fused together and chase after you around this massive room throughout Ellie's story you hear that the wlf are planning some big operation on seraphite island but then in Abby's campaign you see her leader Isaac planning it out and then get to play it on Abby day three as you go from some of the best stealth Action in the game to multiple intense firefights and then an Uncharted Escape scenery have to face off against both the wlf and Sarah fights at the same time Abby's campaign is great it has its own roster of fun moments that would be worthy of being its own game but it's also a part of the same game as Ellie's story which is also great fun narratively speaking I think Abby's story is quite compelling I think it's an interesting idea on its face to force players to see the game from Abby's perspective but from then on I think they handled it really well the story doesn't try to make Abby look morally Superior to Ellie it just shows you that there are two sides to every story Ellie kills this dog because the dog was going to kill her that's just a fact but then in Abby's story you see that these wlf wolves are fun loving and cute when not on missions in the end you can reach whatever conclusion you want about what happens but the game is Just presenting a lot of things to consider the main point isn't that Abby is better than Ellie and Joel as a person she's really not it's just that Ellie and the player built up this big bad wolf persona for Abby as the ultimate villain the worst person alive who needs to be taken down but here we see that she's human she has fears and anxiety she's kind of on the Alps with Mel who she used to be close friends with she's deathly afraid of heights and is forced to confront and overcome her fears by the end of the campaign making her feel like a real person even on my first playthrough when I did the sky Bridge part as someone who hates looking at High Drops I was really rooting for Abby here which made me feel kind of guilty because I'm supposed to hate her right she's unforgivable right little did I know I was asking the questions the story meant for me to be asking Abby is not the big bad wolf she's just a person to Abby Joel was that same worst person alive who needs to be taken down she didn't know Joel as a father brother or beloved member of a community she knew him as a destroyer of everything by showing us Abby's story it's showing that Ellie is making the mistake that Abby did Abby had the same goal in the past that Ellie has now and it did not make Abby any happier so you don't want Ellie to follow the same path originally Abby was going to infiltrate Jackson to get to know Joel before finishing him off but I'm glad that was cut because her knowing his story and still doing what she did would have made her beyond the brink if you ask me but her just stumbling upon her mortal enemy and doing it makes it so she never has to face whether or not her perception of Joel was real and that leads to Abby's Redemption Arc from Ellie's POV Abby was a cruel monster who towered over a mortally wounded Jewel and finished him even with Ellie pleading for his life but then we see this scene again from Abby's perspective and how you can tell Ellie's pleading is giving Abby pause for thought but she goes through with it anyway because she thinks this is how she can free herself from the pain of her dad's death and that comes before whatever it is Ellie's crying about in the background but then after that moment Abby still has recurring nightmares about her dad's death Joel living or dying had no effect on her trauma what they did to Joe has started to fracture Abby's crew as some like Mel think Joel deserved what he got but also feels like it might have been a bit extreme to enact all that with his family watching Abby getting really defensive about it while also clearly feeling guilty about what she's done to Ellie not knowing Ellie's currently laying waste to her people halfway across the city in the Years between Joel's escape from Salt Lake City and his death we can see that Abby's obsession with him was already fracturing their group Abby was dating Owen for years but by Abby day one he's with Mel who's now pregnant Abby's refusal to move on from finding Joel and refusal to allow herself to be happy was driving a wedge between her and her friends Owen is looking for the remnants of the fireflies but Abby treats that as a fantasy and that killing Joel is all that matters I think this is interesting because it shows how to process grief and positive and negative ways Owen is doing what Dr Anderson would have wanted them all to start fresh and keep looking for the light but Abby's just obsessed with Joel and has abandoned the actual vision of the fireflies there's a lot of complex emotion going on here especially once Abby gets captured by some of the Sarah fights and is helped by two seraphite children on the Run Yara and Liv as they've broken some say law but she leaves them behind for the time being but then she dreams about them being found and killed and decides to take care of them to clear her guilty conscience Abby day two is all about her getting to know Lev as they Journey to the hospital to find medical supplies so they can save Yara and it's through taking care of these kids that Abby finds something new to live for the next time she dreams it's just her father how she remembered him before his death it's a story about how we can move on from intense grief by finding new things to fight for not by diving into the depths of hate like Abby was before the story makes it clear her killing Joel was a mistake one that she thought would make the pain go away but it didn't this right here Abby's gradually learning that Lev someone on the side she's supposed to be at war with is a human who needs someone to take care of him is now her new purpose she can abandon the war path and go with Owen to find the fireflies but this does present Conflict for Abby's relationships as they stand Mel not buying into Abby's change of heart one bit thinking she just wants to appeal to Owen he may fully relaxed with these kids but I don't there's nothing to fall for Isaac's top scar killer suddenly had a change of heart nothing to do with Owen right I haven't always done the right you're a piece of Abby you always have been truth is I think Owen never stopped loving Abby and used Mel as a rebound for when his relationship with Abby didn't work out and Mel knows that and hates Abby for it and it's not like she's wrong Abby day one ends with her hooking up with Owen because that's the only way they know how to drown out any reflection on their actions as Owen was about to use Abby's killing Joel against her in that scene but even in his final moments Owen was trying to ensure Ellie couldn't get to Abby more than he was trying to make sure the woman carrying his child was safe from Ellie which led to them both dying so he's not a totally virtuous person either nobody is in this game which is why there's so much to talk about the Sarah fights wanted to kill Lev for going against his socially assigned role of being married to a village Elder and wanting to be a soldier instead it's hard to watch as he still goes back to his mother that he still cares for even though she hates him Lev's whole story is a well-handled allegory for being transgender adapting the ideas into a higher than life setting so credit to the game for that Abby putting her life on the line to save him from the wlf is heartwarming especially after Yara sacrifices herself so Abby and Lev can escape she really has changed for the better in her story she's a lot like Joel and Lev is her Ellie somebody who brings her back to being happy it happens over the course of a couple days not a year like the first game but I buy into it because they show how much Abby's incentive to help at first is because she feels like a bad person for all she's done and wants to do something good for a change by the point of Abby day three you almost forget about Ellie's story completely because you're so into the drama of Abby's story but that all comes crashing down when Abby's friend Manny shows up and says they're under Fire from some crazy sniper and that's Tommy this gets in the way of Abby's mission to rescue Lev from the island which I was invested in I felt so conflicted here because I don't want Tommy to kill Abby I want Abby to keep doing what she was doing but I don't want Abby to be Tommy or Ellie either because I care about those characters and want the best for them too I want everyone to stop fighting and just talk it out but that's not going to happen as Abby and Lev return to the aquarium to find Owen and Mel slain by Ellie as Ellie dropped and forgot about her map in the scuffle and that's how Abby found them the exclamation mark upon this game being all about perspective is that for Abby she's gone through this journey of finding herself again and getting some hope for the future sure but then Ellie and Tommy showed up to ruin it by killing everyone she cared about so it's time to make them pay as you play the la boss fight in The Last of Us Part Two I mean that just takes some serious balls and commitment to the idea that you play Joel's killer long enough to be with her as she has to fight and defeat Ellie Abby is justifiably upset at what Ellie and Tommy have done but it's also interesting how Abby acts like she gave them a gift by letting them live which is completely outrageous we let you both live and you wasted it I mean they dropped in on their Community killed their family and they should be happy they got to live for crimes they didn't commit like is she listening to herself well the answer to that is no because she's just seeing red but then Ellie also has so little perspective on the situation that she's apologizing for the lack of a cure because she's the immune girl that Joel saved not knowing nor asking if that was even what motivated Abby in the first place which it really wasn't these people just cannot communicate and get into a really violent fight one that again I really wished wasn't happening because I want better for all these characters a controversial moment is when Dina tries to protect Ellie but is obviously no match for Abby when Ellie says she's pregnant Abby says this good the controversy here is that how can Abby be a redeemable person and say that I think the answer is that Abby thinks this is an eye for an eye you kill Abby's pregnant friend so then she gets to do the same not knowing that La didn't know what it is that she'd done until after she did it but Lev being Abby's moral compass at that point stops her in the whole fight leaving a beat in La crippled Tommy in an unconscious Christina as they all hope to never see each other again the game cuts to a farmhouse as Ellie and Dean are living away from Jackson with the baby who Jesse is the father of I don't think I mentioned that the baby's name is JJ short for Jesse Joel when you first play this you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a dream sequence because it's uncharacteristically wholesome every other happy moment in this series is built in with some kind of trauma or lie or whatever you can think of that dampens it but nope Ellie and Dina are taking care of their kid on a farm the view is gorgeous they have animals and grow their own food hunt for food it's for lack of a better phrase dreamlike but you find out it's real in this moment here [Music] oh this is a really compelling depiction of PTSD as the game once more gets you in Ellie's State of Mind as you almost forgot about what was going on before PTSD has a habit of dropping in on people when they least expect it Ellie might believe in the moment that she's doing okay taking it one day at a time with her new family but the most innocuous of sounds can bring her right back into that basement where she didn't save Joel and watched him die in the most brutal way imaginable it really is hard to move on from things like that even when it seems like everything should be good it's also hard the people around the victim because there's not much someone like Dina can do to cure Ellie of these violent mental attacks if you are Ellie it's hard to just live this perfect life knowing that maybe if I had gotten there sooner or entered quieter or had I been with Joel the whole day he might have still been alive maybe she wishes she could have said this thing or that thing or the other thing to him while he was still alive that kind of grief is personified in Tommy who is completely changed he used to be the symbol of positivity in these games his love for Ellie as an uncle was made clear in this game earlier but he's just broken after what happened following his encounter Abby and Lev he can't walk right and can only see out of one eye he's just not the man he used to be his relationship with Maria fell apart back in Jackson as well Joel is gone he probably thinks it's his fault because ah maybe if I had just done this move or that one I could have saved him or if we had just let Abby die or had I not given out our names he'd still be here but there's nothing he can do with that besides obsess over finding Abby but since he can't go after her himself he brings Abby's latest whereabouts to Ellie Santa Barbara California and tries to guilt-trip Ellie into going because she promised Abby would pay when they first got back from Seattle Tommy is a mirror of what Ellie will become if she continues to be obsessed with Abby miserable and alone I just felt sorry for Tommy here even if he's acting poorly because he's seen so much in his life from the death of Sarah to his leaving Joel to being a firefly and regaining his relationship with Joel but losing it all again for good and now he's got nothing and it's sad to see in the mix of all this we get another flashback of the party that took place the night before Joel's death they haven't talked in two years but when Ellie is hit with homophobic comment Joel rushes to her defense only for her to tell him off for getting involved in her business again what's great about all these flashbacks but this one in particular is that we're constantly left guessing about whether relationship stood by the time Joel dies and this one is just gut-wrenching because you actually think was this the last thing they ever said to each other and she was just carrying on with the resentment for no reason but because of all that grief Ellie decides that she's going to find Abby once again which is incredibly unfair to Dina and JJ because as Dina says she's upset about the stuff that's happened too but the family they're trying to build should be more important than this ghost of Abby they need to keep chasing down but Ellie can't let it go and she can't live in peace thus beginning the finale of the game where we first see Abby and Lev make contact with the fireflies like Owen said but they get captured by a group called The Rattlers that enslave people they come across the final mission is Ellie finding that Abby is here and is determined to finish it off for good as I stated earlier the human enemies are the toughest in this part with body armor and face Shields and they infected get a new mechanic as their chain down but if you free them you might get them to attack your enemies or they might just attack you player gets to decide if it's worth it or not the whole mission is just so draining in a good way the game never stops being fun to play but you just feel so exhausted on Ellie's behalf seeing her go through so much but she liberates the whole place and learns Abby's down at the pillars and most shocking of all is nothing like her former self her hair has been cut off she's sunburnt to the max is malnourished and is pretty much about to die I often hear that Abby got out of this story unscathed when Ellie loses basically everything by the end but I don't think that's true at all by this point in the story almost everything Abby cared about is gone her entire crew of former Firefly friends is among the deceased because she killed Joel and her mission to find him cost her those relationships all of it is her fault and she knows it but she keeps going on continues looking for the light anyway but now she's on death's door and has to ask Ellie Williams for help who she threatened the last time they saw each other Abby must know Ellie is here to kill her but asks for her help anyway because she's got nothing to lose after whoever long she's been a prisoner here Ellie does help her and Abby's first instinct is to save Lev over fighting Ellie then she tells Ellie how they can escape you can imagine how weird this must be for Ellie because again she thought she was looking for Abby Anderson the worst person to ever walk the earth with her threatening Aura but she finds this version of Abby who even with all that still only cares about Lev not anything related to the Vendetta between these two Ellie almost lets it go but remembers Joel again and then threatens Lev's life to force Abby to fight which is the final boss one that I again was so against having to do because I didn't want either one of them to die they've both suffered enough at this point this final fight was genuinely stomach turning to watch because Ellie's going for devastating blows against someone who is barely capable of standing Abby even seems afraid of Ellie for a change the biggest moment of the game is right here at the end when Ellie's about to do it but finally sees Joel's face and relents allowing Abby and Lev to leave obviously there's a lot to unpack there so let's just answer it why does Ellie spare Abby's life well it's true that in this moment Ellie realizes that Joel is dead in bed married he's never coming back and nothing can change that Abby's death will not give Ellie anything much like Joel's death gave Abby nothing the whole game whenever Ellie thought about Joel she imagined his brutal death and in her journal you can see she struggles to remember what his eyes looked like when drawing him this is her first time seeing him as he last was much like when Abby saw her dad so she relents but for Ellie to gain that much perspective after all that is odd right and I say it would be if not for the fact that Abby is this near Dead version of herself I think when Ellie has this sad and weak version of Abby dead to rights it's hard to actually do it Abby is fighting with the small amount of strength she has left to save Lev and that's it Ellie can see that and has from the moment Abby went straight for him over fighting Ellie this is clearly not Abby the monster it's Abby the person and Abby the monster never existed and Ellie has to contend with that plus it should be said that of all Ellie's kills in this game she never enjoyed it I don't tend to agree with the perspective of Ellie killed all these people and lets Abby go remember when she tortured Nora she was horrified in herself and when she realized what she did to Mel and Owen she was mortified Ellie has never enjoyed this Quest all the other kills in gameplay were self-defense so therefore it's different Ellie came to Santa Barbara because she was hoping to find some way to end the nightmares of Joel and I think seeing Abby like this was the thing that did it realizing that Abby's death means nothing more than Lev being without Abby and if he somehow lives does he go after Ellie and that inspires JJ to go after him and whoever Lev is associated with then goes after JJ all because Ellie killed Abby for killing Joel for killing Jerry Anderson like when does this end this self-righteous quest for so-called Justice Ellie lets Abby go for all those reasons ending the cycle here but the sad fact is the damage is done whether Ellie killed Abby or not she's left with the same thing her greatest fear realized what are you scared of being by myself [Music] Ellie deserves a lot of sympathy for what she's been through but has made decisions you can't easily walk back leaving Dina and JJ behind for this was a mistake and that's evident when Ellie returns to their home and finds it empty it was selfish to do that to her family and these are the consequences for that this is a game all about how our actions have consequences for everyone around us Ellie's guitar was the largest connection she had to Joel but after losing two fingers in her fight with Abby she can't play anymore but the true ending served as one sliver of optimism as it turns out the party fight was not the last time Ellie talked to Joel it was later that night where a lot of emotions are put on the table this is one of my favorite scenes in the game as Ellie learns from Joel that he's totally okay with her being romantically involved with Dina something she was concerned about when she was younger but then brings it back to the matter of the lie and just lays it out that she believed dying for the vaccine would have made her life worth something Joel just stands up straight and says one of my favorite lines in any game if so now the lord gave me a second chance at that moment I would do it all over again it's just such a powerful line as even after two years of being no contact with Ellie being given nothing but time to reflect on what he did he still stands by it a hundred percent he might regret the lies but this man will never regret saving Ellie's life and seeing her grow in a safe Community with friends and family with the hindsight that his actions will lead to them being estranged her being alive makes it all worth it and if that's not love in its purest form I don't know what is I think that for me changes Joel's actions in part one from being debatably selfish to selfless it's not about him getting to spend time with Ellie it's about her getting to live because he thinks she's worth more than a vaccine and that just gets me every time but his heart sinks when she says she doesn't know if she can ever forgive this or not but then I would like to try all right [Music] okay foreign [Music] this whole scene placed right at the end reframes the whole game yet again in the prologue Ellie says to Dina that it would be nice to grow old when she was saying she wished she was sacrificed four years ago the previous night she said she wanted to watch a movie with Joel that night Ellie was on the path of healing and moving forward as confirmed by Neil druckman and co-writer Hallie gross Ellie was ready to move on and enjoy the time she had left with Joel for however long it was gonna be but Abby stole that Redemption from them thus the game that we just played happened Ellie's Quest was one of finding the ability to forgive herself for not forgiving Joel Sooner through Abby and her unrelenting want to save Lev she understands why Joel did what he did and truly forgives him and herself he loved Ellie with everything he had and she felt the same about him now she can draw him quite clearly a man at peace with the world as she gets up leaves the guitar behind and goes on to the next thing whatever that may be ending The Last of Us Part two cards on the table I think is one of the greatest games I've ever played and like many other favorite games of mine is that truly because this is the Pinnacle of stealth Action or storytelling I don't know and I don't care The Last of Us Part Two is an experience I will never forget because it has caused me to think harder than any other game I have played and I mean that legitimately I don't plan on revisiting it often it's not going to be like Devil May Cry 5 or whatever where I can just keep playing for hours and hours because it's that fun it's just that I will never forget this game for as long as I live No Lie before this video I have not played this game once since 2020 and yet I was able to recall the entire game pretty well since it's just that kind of Unforgettable experience Joel's final speech to Ellie about how we do it all over again was one I could recall word for word years after playing it the first time because this is such an impactful and emotional game but what does it all mean did they take 20 hours to tell you why revenge is bad I don't think so boiled down to its purest element I think the last of us won asked the question what are we willing to do for the people we love the most in a killer be killed World which the game explored through every dynamic in this story building to the climax of the game The Last of Us Part 2 is about a lot of things it's about how our love of others can cause us to do monstrous things in their name it's about the dangerous consequences of tribalism how violence is an ongoing cycle it's about how we can conquer grief by finding new things to live for but Above All Else The Last of Us Part Two is about empathy it's about rejoicing the people around us while we still have the chance about letting go of resentment accepting the consequences of our actions and trying to be better it's the ultimate respect of the first game by making the entire thing revolve around the choice Joel made to save Ellie one that shows by the end that he was right to do it I really believe that's a major takeaway from this story but actions have consequences and he accepted them I have become a more empathetic person thanks to this game as I went into much earlier my life has been enhanced because of the stories of The Last of Us games and I find that Irreplaceable and I think just enough was left on the table for there to be a Last of Us Part three just like the first game you could end it here but I think Ellie letting Abby go shows that she still has some of her Humanity left it's not too late for her I think that choice makes her worthy of redemption giving her the chance to patch up the relationship she has left in one final game than maybe in series tradition one have a totally happy ending but a satisfying one to end Ellie's Journey on the title screen after you beat the game shows that Abby and Lev do find the fireflies which is definitely an open ending for them to take the next game but for Ellie she's seen wearing Dina's bracelet in the epilogue which she was not wearing in Santa Barbara possibly meaning that she's already on the path to recovering her relationship with Dina but maybe not who knows is she going back to Jackson or is she going to try and Forge A New Path nobody knows but what I do know is that when that comes I believe I'll be ready for it and look forward to that day because I've now gone back to The Last of Us Part Two and seen the light I've seen what I was missing and I'm better for it and I know I'm not the only one who enjoyed part two on a second run a lot more than the first so I hope more people are able to hear this and give it another chance themselves and if you still don't like it that's fair enough it can be discussed I wouldn't say I like the The Last of Us two more than the first one I think it's a better game in every sense of the word and tells a story that is infinitely more complicated than the story I already spent like 90 minutes analyzing but the last of us one is just a special kind of story where I can go back to it a million times and still love it just as much so I have a greater connection to that game than this one but I think both are master class but that's all for me today so with that said I hope I never make a video longer than an hour again but only time will tell so in the meantime I'll say what I always do thank you all for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: J's Reviews

Views: 86,113

Keywords: the last of us 2, the last of us part 2, last of us 2, the last of us, the last of us 2 review, the last of us 2 joel, the last of us 2 ending, the last of us part ii, last of us, the last of us 2 leak, the last of us 2 gameplay, last of us 2 review, neil druckmann, neil druckmann the last of us, neil druckmann last of us 2, neil druckmann interview, the last of us 2 abby, the last of us part 2 gameplay, the last of us 2 ps4

Id: NeRVeEFLpBY

Length: 94min 2sec (5642 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 16 2023