'The Last of Us' is Emotionally Manipulative

This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us.

The developers at Naughty Dog are master craftsmen when it comes to their art. The studio knows how to construct a game and pace it within the interactive environment to great effect like few other studios can.

[JohnCartenper]

While a very good game, I disagree about The Last of Us being some sort of storytelling masterpiece.
It borrowed heavily from tons of other sources (pretty much a cliché fest), plus very predictable at times.

[ShugaCane]

I disagree. I think ND managed to avoid many of the most obvious clichés, and didn't come up with any manichean analysis of survival after the apocalypse. And the very ending is far from predictable. It deals with both sides of human nature, and forces the audience to think, even long after the credits.

[Booyah]

I agree with you.

I did like how we saw Ellie grow up in the game.

[HammadTheBeast]

I thought the point was to connect emotionally to the characters....

[iamnsuperman]

I do not think it was predictable but it was realistic. I wasn't guessing what the twist would be (like I do in most films and videogames) I was just interested in the characters themselves and how the bond develops overtime. In a way the ending reflected that. You could see where it was going because you saw them bond but you didn't know how it would play out (if it was successful or not).

Note to every writer out there. Stories do not need a huge twist at the end. We do not need a Shyamalan style ending. It is all about how you connect with the characters and how the story makes you care for them.

[Galletto3]

The genre lends itself to that. Post-apocalyptic stories go a certain way because they are supposed to a reflection of our human nature when society breaks down so you will have bandits and madmen, and people struggling to survive. There is only so much you can surmise will happen to us when the world ends.

Then "man is the greatest enemy" trope which NEEDS to be touched on in a story like this, otherwise it misses the biggest conflict.

The reason that it tlou is so good is because it touches on them in relatively unique ways, but on the other hand actually develops characters.

Too often post -apoc stories rely on the danger to push forward the character development, and while tlou also did this, they let growth happen naturally, like true relationships.

Its not groundbreaking in many senses, but it definitely is breath of fresh air in the genre.

[iamnsuperman]

This

"Too often post -apoc stories rely on the danger to push forward the character development, and while tlou also did this, they let growth happen naturally, like true relationships."

I completely agree. It isn't just post-apocalyptic games that do this.

[itBourne]

Every medium borrows from other mediums, At this point so much has been made that its impossible to become completely original in a storytelling fashion.

[Miss_Vixen]

Maybe, but the point is, TLOU game tells the story in a way that is much more emotional and convincing manner that very few games and dare I say movies, tend to match, especially with this apocalyptic genre.

When they said masterpiece, they were basing it not on originality, but the way it's conveyed.

[TryMe]

Sort of true.

But it was incredibly well executed for a medium that's very thin (in terms of excellent execution in this specific genre of zombie/apocalypse survival)towards excellent execution.

I think at the end of the day, what made the narrative standout so much was first and foremost the characters of Joel and Ellie.

Instead of being portrayed as some "jack bauer" save the world type of persona, Joel was someone who just wanted to survive another day. The characters, and how they grow as people, and how they remain consistently grounded in a real "human" perspective is what makes this game narrative truly shine.

So, yeah, the overall arch might've been, "been there, done that", but I think the relationship of Joel and Ellie, and the growth they experience throughout there year long journey is something very few games have achieved over the decades.

[Blacklash93]

There's a difference between storytelling and the actual story. I consider TLoU do be a cliche-fest that's very well told.

It is very predictable much of the time and utilizes every trope in the book (perhaps except the ending), but the scenes still have a lot of punch and are very well acted and scripted. That's good storytelling, even if the story rarely tries anything original.

[itBourne]

Damn that was a long article, and I could not disagree more with pretty much the entire thing. For one your right this game is not the road, why because its a video game and not a movie. You ramble on for 19 paragraphs about the entire game just being a trick? You shook your head through the entire winter sequence? Why didnt you ENJOY THE GAME, rather then play it like a critique. Maybe that was a problem you had. If you sit in a movie and criticize every little thing, LIKE YOU CAN DO WITH ANYTHING IN ANY MEDIUM, then yah obviously you wont enjoy your experience. For heavens sake too, please stop with the freaking you killed 100s of people, I am sorry what else do you want to happen? Maybe you and Garnet Lee can get off those horses of yours long enough to have lunch and bitch together. Basically you criticized ND for doing things EVERY other video game on the planet does, for them doing things better, and for them not being like a movie. So them making things to drive the story is a bad thing? Your right maybe we should just take stories out of games completely.. The best parts about the game was that everything was there to push the story, reading the Ish story, Ellie telling us things as we walk around an empty house, reading us jokes, the disturbing notes in the dorm rooms, all amazing.

In the end, your right this wasnt a movie, and I thank ND for that, because this offered me an experience I have not ever got from a movie, nor from a game for that matter. It truly has for me, transcended into something that I have never experienced.

[Thepharaoh]

Yeah it did have alot of emotion to it.some people were really getting on my nerves however with how much they claimed to be touched by it especailly al lthe people walking around saying that they fell to the ground crying their eyes out because of how powerful it was. really kinda lame

[grassyknoll]

Almost all narratives are emotionally manipulative. That's the point!