The Last of Us Part 2 took the gaming community by storm when it scored a whopping four-million copies sales. Shortly after its release last June, TLOU2 set the record as the fastest-selling PlayStation exclusive of all time.
Indeed, TLOU2 was a massive video game to develop. It means that Naughty Dog had plenty of ideas during its five-year development. Unfortunately, some didn't fit the story's arc and were subsequently scrapped from the final product.
Here are the top five crazy facts behind The Last of Us Part 2 development progress.
Naughty Dog Designed the Last of Us Part 2 To Be an Open-World Game
Honestly, an open-world Last of Us Part 2 doesn't sound like a bad idea at all considering how massive details ND has put into Seattle.
The idea is to make the Jackson settlement as Ellie's base 'with several different hubs.' She would then travel to several spots in Seattle to complete her quest for revenge.
Unfortunately, Naughty Dog scrapped this idea. The reason?
"It didn't make sense for it to be open world, and those aspects felt like they were too much in conflict," vice president Neill Druckmann told IGN.
Joel Had a Girlfriend
The early script of the game points that Joel had a love interest named Esther. She's mentioned during The Last of Us: One Night Live event in 2014.
Esther is a survivor who lives 'in a town, two hours away' from the Jackson settlement. In the original idea, Tommy would set them up. Then, Joel and Esther would have a 'remote' kind of relationship.
Again, the writers decided to trash the idea because they wanted to emphasize on Ellie's arc.
"I think she lived out by the dams, by the electric dams, and they kind of had a commuter relationship," co-writer Hailey Gross told The Washington Post.
Laura Bailey, the Voice Actress of Abby, Had a Baby During TLOU2 Development
Abby is one tough character, and so is the voice actress behind her.
Laura Bailey and her sweetheart, Travis Willingham, welcomed a baby boy in 2018. The development process takes roughly five years. That means; Bailey had her baby amidst her busy schedule of portraying Abby!
It's such a shame that her dedication meant nothing for a small section of gamers. Upon its release, Bailey had to endure several online harassments from crazy fanboys. All because of her work as Abby.
Ellie Was Going To Kill Abby
The death of Abby during the showdown in the last chapter happened to cross the writers' mind. Unfortunately, they scrapped this alternative fate.
Speaking to Game Informer, Druckmann and Gross revealed that the narrative team once considered killing Abby and leaving Lev helpless.
As we know, they ultimately abandoned this ending.
A Deleted Scene On the Seraphite's Island
To humanize the Seraphites, Naughty Dog wrote a whole level of Ellie going to their island. The scene was meant to be a way to make players sympathize with the primitive cult.
"It was really cool. The designers had a lot of great elements to it, but we ended up scrapping it because it didn't move her story along narratively," Gross told The Post.
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