re: The Last of Us 2 story leaked

Just a different emotional rant, no spoilers

I just want somewhere to go to rant and say I’ve been crying for like two hours now and hopefully have people understand, because no one in my irl life gets this.

My world was changed by The Last of Us. For anyone that knows me well, I was obsessed. This game was it for me. I adored everything. I still tear up at the opening cut scene, at Henry and Sam, at Bill finding Frank.

So when I saw the announcement trailer for Part II, I was ecstatic. I was on top of the moon. I fell in love with Ellie’s tattoo, and like many others, went out and got a full scale of it done myself. Painstakingly crafted into my arm for over 6 hours I want to say. It was worth every penny I spent on it.

The waiting was killing me. But last October, we got a release date. I screamed, punched the air with my fist, danced around, freaking that my favorite game in the world was about to be here!

Then a month later, the delay hit. Obvious disappointment, and even more so when I realized the developers were being crunched to make this game perfect.

Then the next delay. I heard the news the day after I could and finally said out loud “The Last of Us Part II is coming out next month.”

I understood why because of the coronavirus. But turns out it was a money grab by Sony.

Cue today, we finally got the final release date. But I’m afraid. I’m scared because I spent almost 4 years waiting. And I get even more nervous when I see a comment say “But I thought it came out this past weekend?” with hundreds of likes.

My first thought is all the panic attacks I used to have because I genuinely thought I might die before I get to play this game. Anxiety is a bitch, let me tell you.

So I said to myself that I would just read far enough to find something to believe in. To find something that made this game worth it.

So I read. And read. And kept reading. Watched a video here, watched one there. All the while with my finger on my lock button so control myself if I got to a point where I didn’t want to read. Before I knew it, I had read the entire storyline released. Watched all the videos. And I didn’t find one goddamn thing worth playing this game. Not one.

I’m aware of the world this story is set in. I didn’t believe Joel and Ellie would ride off into the sunset. But I expected more. I expected their story to have had justice, a good ending. A good ending doesn’t mean that nobody dies. But it sure as hell means you do right by the characters, no matter how they end.

I feel cheated. I feel like Naughty Dog became a money grabber and didn’t truly have a new story to tell but wanted to cash in on the success and buzz the first game made and always had, long after it was released.

For those who don’t want to watch or read the spoilers, I won’t say what happened. What I can tell you that it felt like, was the rough draft that the first game had. When they almost made Tess the enemy.

I also felt reminded of season 3 of 13 Reasons Why. When Ani was introduced, and narrated a shite ton of important story, and the story suddenly felt like a fan fiction written by someone force injecting themselves as an OC into a story they don’t belong in.

I’m beyond disappointed, and I can’t stop crying because I’m trying to figure out how to work through the heartbreak that half my arm is covered in a tattoo for a game I despise before it’s even released, and I don’t know how to change or cover up that tattoo.