Development of The Last of Us Part II
The advancement of the game's artificial intelligence granted deeper connections with characters; some gameplay elements were similarly intended to create an emotional response from players.
[13]: 3:32 Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau were selected to be co-game directors for Part II,[1] a first for Naughty Dog as the position was previously held by one person.
[15] Co-lead game designers Emilia Schatz and Richard Cambier were also part of the creative leadership team, continuing their roles from the development of Uncharted 4.
[1] Druckmann identified that, while Naughty Dog was granted the freedom to create any type of game, they were energized when presented the option to make a sequel to The Last of Us due to the importance of the characters, despite knowing it would divide some fans.
[25] Druckmann felt that he failed to find the correct balance for employees on Part II, and said the studio would receive external assistance for future projects.
[29] He found that people often want to bring someone to justice after witnessing a horrible act, but are unable to do so due to laws and society; in the game's world, where these societal structures no longer exist, he saw an opportunity to explore this concept.
When researching for the game, he watched the documentary films Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and its sequels Revelations (2000) and Purgatory (2011), and found it particularly interesting when parents would make comments in interviews about wanting to hurt or kill the West Memphis Three over the murder allegations; he felt that these comments were the "perversion of love", wanting to commit a heinous act to bring justice for those they love.
He felt that humans often dehumanize those they oppose in order to justify their own actions in the chase for justice; he found this particularly relevant in modern politics and online discourse, and wanted to explore it within the game without being overly "preachy".
[38] Druckmann felt that the depiction of violent acts was necessary in a story that deals with the cycle of violence, but welcomed members of the team to work on other elements of the game if anything made them uncomfortable.
[43] The team decided to use Seattle as the game's primary location as its hilly nature and varied weather led to more interesting gameplay scenarios.
[41] Druckmann found that players acted differently when forced to play as Ellie in the first game, and wanted to replicate a similar change with Abby in Part II.
Early playtests of the final fight led to confusion regarding Ellie's decision to spare Abby; the editorial team suggested adding a flash of Joel playing guitar, which Druckmann felt was an effective balance between explicit and implicit motivation.
[3] Joel's death was a core part of the game's narrative structure from early in development;[43] Druckmann considered it one of the most difficult to write, rehearse, and shoot.
[59]: 33:39 An early iteration of the story had a young Abby witnessing an attack on her group by Joel and Tommy, who were hunters at the time (in the unseen 20 years of the first game), and vowing revenge.
As the story and its theme of violence developed, the writers found it more interesting for Abby's father to have been killed by the player in the first game and directly tie into Joel's actions.
[31]: 1:30:31 Druckmann wanted players to hate Abby early in the game, but later empathize with her; he avoided writing her as a "perfect" character, instead prompting empathy through her flaws and redemptive actions.
After witnessing Owen's battle for light, she finds her own purpose in protecting Yara and Lev, which Druckmann felt mirrored Joel's redemption arc from the first game.
[31]: 1:39:33 The developers pushed the technical capabilities of the PlayStation 4 when creating Part II, adding more enemies and larger environments than in previous games.
[22]: 43:33 Some scenes in the game, such as Owen and Mel's death from Ellie's perspective, were originally depicted as gameplay but later converted to non-interactive cutscenes to emphasize their impact.
Lead cinematic animator Eric Baldwin said that the minute details that had to be implemented in the graphics software Autodesk Maya included dynamic hair strands and cheek flushness.
[52] In Part II, Naughty Dog wanted to increase the accessibility options introduced in Uncharted 4 to ensure that all players could complete the story.
The team began planning the features during early production, which game designer Matthew Gallant felt was the reason they added so many; in particular, high-contrast mode, customizable controls, and text-to-speech required the most resources.
[71] A sound designer at Naughty Dog created a system that tracks the player character's level of exertion and plays matching respiratory audio effects.
The explosion sounds were created by squeezing grapefruit and expanding a life jacket; for additional texture, he filled a bellows with oatmeal and blew it.
The team wanted the subtitles to represent the nuance of the whistles without giving away their exact meaning, and consulted accessibility specialist Morgan Baker to create them.
The first trailer was released alongside the game's announcement, showcasing the return of Ellie and Joel, and featured a cover of Shawn James's "Through the Valley" by Johnson.
[22][31][53][59][44] The Official The Last of Us Podcast, hosted by Christian Spicer and published by Sony, began covering the game from its sixth episode in July 2020, featuring interviews with the cast and developers.
[119] In August 2022, Naughty Dog announced a partnership with Chivas Brothers to create a whisky based on The Last of Us Part II called Moth & Wolf (resembling Ellie's tattoo and Abby's faction, respectively).
A 2013 vintage—representative of the first game's release—the whisky, which sits at 40 percent alcohol by volume, carries notes of vanilla to represent the safety of Jackson, and smoke and malt to imitate the toughness of Seattle.
The latter was working on the second season of the television adaptation during Remastered's development, which he felt provided an opportunity to revisit the narrative's intricacies and analyze story decisions.
