The Last of Us

[Ploid]

Yep, dat ending. Makes you think deep down in the feels and soul glow, good story.

[Yorke]

I have actually been actively avoiding playing this game because it's so good I don't want it to end.

[Ploid]

It's also emotionally draining. Best to play in small doses.

[Chamcham]

It is emotionally draining and is not easy on the nerves too.
But I'm weird and I like that, so I couldn't put it down. I marathoned it on Saturday and finished it after a 14 hour session.

[Dee Double Ewe]

I avoided this thread until I was done playing the game.

Dat ending yo.

Also, I found the soundtrack and overall ambient noise in the game was amazingly well done. I felt really immersed into the game world (well, except when one of the AIs would just run right through enemies while I was sneaking - man did they ever give me a heart attack from the noise they made)

[Chamcham]

Ved needs to finish the game so we can talk about dat ending.

[Yorke]

I'll have it finished today or tomorrow!

[Ploid]

No pressure.

Pressure!

[Yorke]

I beat it, and didn't even know I was about to!

I did like it though (the ending). I thought it was the only way it really could've ended after it got to that point since basically every other character was written out. Only other places I was thinking were A) Joel's own hometown B) With his brother.

For a minute I thought that Ellie was basically the start of the whole outbreak somehow when she started talking about her friend.

[ItsSeflol]

Wait VD did you not see the extra ending

[Yorke]

I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TRYIN TO DO AND I DON'T LIKE IT

[Ploid]

I beat it, and didn't even know I was about to!

I did like it though (the ending). I thought it was the only way it really could've ended after it got to that point since basically every other character was written out. Only other places I was thinking were A) Joel's own hometown B) With his brother.

For a minute I thought that Ellie was basically the start of the whole outbreak somehow when she started talking about her friend.

Ellie: 6 years before I was born, I got infected and my mom died from it at the age of 15. I was the start of the epidemic. When I was born the fireflies took me in, when I was 12 my friends and I got infected, we waited for each other to turn, I never turned ; ;.

[Chamcham]

Yeah, the game sure did end nicely. But that ending, though. I just can't sort my thoughts out properly on it, mainly if Ellie really bought Joel's bullshit. She's a smart kid, really sharp, something tells me she doesn't.

I think narratively, the game could go on a bit more. I refuse to believe they lived happily ever after in that little haven Tommy built.

[Ploid]

She caught him in the lie I thought. I forgot why I thought that, but... oh it's something to do with knowing that there weren't others like her. Joel didn't even know about a immune person, and he assumed she was ignorant about it, throwing around the story that there was many other immunes that failed to produce a cure. Before meeting Joel she may have seen some jacked up stuff as the fireflies tried to get her to a lab. Even with Joel, she saw many of them dead all for her. She was with that lady for years, she fought hard to be on that operating table during the time Joel was pretty much dead never giving up, she was sacrificing herself willingly. To her it meant everything but she kinda saw desperation in his eyes as he explained what happened, he wasn't going to let them kill her because he already lost a daughter, and it would have screwed him up so much more to lose another.

Seeing that he cared for her as if she was his own daughter, after being abandoned so much, she was willing to live with not having a chance at saving humanity because this is probably something she wanted more. He chose to be selfish, but it was the only decision his character would have made. He lost too much for her already, and got attached to her, she saved his life, she reminded him of his daughter. Him not saving her would have made 0 sense for his character. He's at the point where he don't even care about humanity. Everything is gone to crap in the world. He probably don't see any kind of hope for it. Mentally he's all messed up.

[Chamcham]

Did she really do it willingly? I was of the impression that she was completely unconscious starting from when she nearly drowned all the way till after Joel busted her our of that hospital. She probably doesn't know much about her immunity any further than that she's simply immune, not that she's hosting a mutated form of the cordyceps or whatever, or even that studying it would mean she dies.

Joel's growing attachment and the following projecting of his daughter onto Ellie is understandable, even though by the end it looks to be bordering on sociopathic. From the hints thrown at us throughout the game, Joel used to be a Hunter and did some pretty fucked up things to stay alive. It'd be weirder if he weren't mentally fucked. My problem was with Ellie and refusing to believe that she would take all that bullshit that Joel was spouting and do nothing about it. It is on this point that I feel they could expand a lot more on.

[Ploid]

I meant her fighting to get there, to a firefly lab. Near the end she went through a lot of stuff especially when Joel was sick, killing people, fighting tooth and nail. All of the horrible stuff she seen, and done would be for nothing. She's been waiting on her turn to die since her friend died when they both were bitten. Wanting to go out together losing their minds in a poetic way. Then Tess died, and Sam, she's been waiting on her turn she said. I think she was aware the testing would kill her.

When Joel told her about what happened in the car she was upset or maybe in disbelief. It's like a parent told a kid they couldn't go outside the way she turned to face the back of that seat. She couldn't go check for herself, he didn't give her a choice to see them. All of what she did was for nothing. She doubted it, she asked a second time a long while later. He said they weren't looking for a cure. She seemed disappointed again. Maybe she wants to see for herself. It don't seem like she believe him.

I suppose that "did she believe him" question is this game's Inception ending. Did the totem wobble at the end or not? We may find out for sure if there is dlc that involve them. Is Ellie holding her "You liar" in until she can sneak away and go back by herself, or what did she go through before meeting Joel. Did she know she could die.

Also I suppose Joel's choice to save her wasn't all too selfish. What would be gained giving her up. What would be gained saving what humanity has become. Everyone seem pretty evil in that cruel world. Cannibals, raiders, constant conflict, if there was a cure would it survive? Would it be monopolized by corrupt people? The infected isn't too much of a problem to Joel, or other people. The problem is humanity, the infected didn't kill his daughter, it was humanity. The biggest threat in the game. Giving up something good (Ellie) to save that?

[Chamcham]

Yeah, I get and I agree with all that, Ellie definitely had an inkling that the testing would end her life somehow based on how she was behaving before they met the remnants of the Fireflies, and from that bit about her and her friend after being bitten, she sounds like she was ready to die. She definitely didn't believe what Joel said.

I think the main reason why I can't put my thoughts on the game to rest is because to me the game didn't end on a proper, solid note. I liked how it ended, definitely, but it just didn't feel like it actually ended. Knowing Ellie's personality, the exchange at the end of the game just opened up a lot more possibilities instead or closing the story. It also doesn't really end the game in a way to set up for a sequel (if this game does actually get a sequel, I'd be pretty disappointed, honestly). Maybe there will be DLC that will continue what happens from there on, but I did not see anything about Naughty Dog talking about DLC.

[Ploid]

I hope there isn't a sequel too. The voice actor for Joel hoped there wouldn't be one as well. If there is something, it might be in the same universe, I think this game was a test though. ND might have been seeing what they can do with the stuff they learned from Uncharted, their last game on PS3. PS4 will be pretty crazy for ND, I can't wait to see what they do on that thing.

Oh and if there is DLC, I think it would be like Bioshock Infinite DLC could be. Stuff from the past, different characters (Sam and his brother? The sewer colony? etc.).

[Chamcham]

I think it would be interesting to see what happened in that 20 year skip after the outbreak happened.
There is a lot that can be tapped from that period of time (Breakdown of society after the outbreak, Joel's days as a Hunter, Meeting and working with Tess).

[Yorke]

DLC could also just be as simple as a "regular day" after they arrived back at the village.

I think even if Ellie WERE to find out that Joel was lying, she'd stay with him regardless.

Edit: He's her only friend now.