Accordingly, the pilot episode of the popular American survival horror drama TV series “The Walking Dead” had the title “Days Gone Bye” and given that “The Walking Dead” and “The Lat of Us” shared thematic similarities, it was highly possible that Naughty Dog was already working on the game’s sequel.
Also, sometime in September last year, “The Last of Us” creative director Neil Druckmann said that he was surprised when Nolan North confirmed the sequel. He added that there are still a lot of things to consider before they move forward with the project.
But Druckmann also hinted in the same interview that he and Bruce Straley already had a few ideas for “The Last of Us 2.” It is just that at that point in time, they want to focus their attention on “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.”
He explained further that when he and Bruce moved over to “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End,” they were brainstorming ideas for “The Last of Us 2” with new characters, ideas for the game with Joel and Ellie, ideas for a sci-fi game, ideas for a fantasy game, and building prototypes for each one those ideas.
Druckmann and Straley solidified their plans for “The Last of Us 2”, Naughty Dog also asked them to work on “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.”
I really do not see where this hate on Joel is coming from. Most people I talk to want to see him return. I think most of these blogs about not wanting Joel to return are a little bias. I think keeping Joel for at least the next game would be great for the game series future. If they plan on making this another 4 game story like Uncharted killing off one of the 2 main characters in the second game is not the best idea in my opinion. Plus I thought the father daughter relationship between that was built between Ellie and Joel was amazing and to ruin it with such an early death would be a shame.
Here is my idea for some of the next game. The fire flies track down Ellie and Joel shortly after their escape. Because of this Ellie finds out Joel lied to her about them. This will obviously cause some mistrust and that could be taken many directions story wise. Also don’t forget Joel’s past. Ellie still has much to learn about what Joel did those 20 years before they met. Maybe that could be a story key for Joel to regain trust of Ellie?
I think playing as Ellie a little more would be nice. But to axe Joel would be a mistake this early on in the series. When I played as Joel if I was caught when trying to be stealth I went into bad-ass mode and started smashing heads into walls and beating people to death with bricks. On the other hand while playing Ellie I worried much more about stealth because being a child she lacks the strength to handle much physical confrontation. Both are fun to play so to switch back and forth between the two like the last game would be great. Maybe play as Ellie a little more but defiantly keep both.
TLoU2 needs to have Joel and Ellie. These characters together, interacting and growing together, that’s what made this story so perfect. Removing either or both of them would seriously detract from the story and I’ve been dying to travel with these two again.