What, the way he’s drawn he looks like he’s infected with something.
The Last Of Us is a game outside my wheelhouse. It’s dark, violent, and runs from primary colors like it’s Zach Snyder or Michael Bay. However, storytelling mistakes are storytelling mistakes whether your into it or not, and going over the mistakes in storytelling even in something you aren’t otherwise interested in has its benefits. And from what I hear The Last Of Us II is a good example of this. While there are those who praise the game others look at it as a terrible sequel. Of course you can’t follow most of the debates because they’re very emotionally charged. Whether you hate playing as the character killing the heroes of the first game or don’t really care about those characters are going to affect how you judge it. I however prefer a more investigative report.
Therefore A Closer Look if offering such an investigation. Henry, our host, goes over each of the mistakes made as a sequel and as a form of sequential storytelling. As I went over in a recent Art Of Storytelling there is a right and wrong way to do it, and if you follow his examination this was clearly the wrong way, especially as a sequel to a beloved video game. As its own story it may stand up but as a continuation of the previous game it misses many marks. This conflict in the gamer community is what sparked the series of gaming editions of Art Of Storytelling, but since this an hour and a half long, and Henry invokes what he believes to be a better story (to people who enjoy these type of stories at least–body horror is NOT my thing) it is something interesting to look into for those trying to hone their craft or just generally interested in storytelling and video game storytelling specifically. There is some swearing and a lot of people and monsters getting violently shot, so be aware that’s coming.
I’m curious what you folks think. Do you prefer Henry’s story? Do you have your own ideas of what would improve the game as a sequel, or do you think the game is just fine? I’d like to know here, but so would he and he doesn’t read this site, if he’s even aware it exists, so head on to his YouTube channel and post your thoughts in the video’s comments. And here because I don’t want to keep going back there to read those.
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