Ellie’s Loss is What Drives Her in The Last of Us Part II
After welcoming everyone to “church” and a hilarious and brutally awkward Kingsmen reference by Shawn Layden that made everyone in attendance squirm in their seats, Sony kicked off their E3 presser with a musical performance by Gustavo Santaolalla, who worked on the soundtrack for the first Last of Us, and lead into the latest trailer for its sequel.
The trailer starts off with a cinematic moment of levity in a church resembling the one that the audience was sitting inside of, where Ellie converses with a new character, before sharing a cute, romantic dance with her girlfriend. “They should be terrified of you,” she says in reference to the men staring at them around the room. As the camera swings behind her head, the scene transitions into Ellie twisting a knife in the throat of what can only be assumed to be a member of the Fireflies, as per her sworn vengeance upon them in the game’s announcement trailer. The scene seamlessly transitions into gameplay which sees Elli taking on an enormous squad of Fireflies with an array of brutal post-apocalyptic weaponry, including her fancy new bow, which now shoots explosive arrows. After decapitating a man with a machete, the camera swings back around her head and transitions back into the end of an intimate kiss with her girlfriend, who says “See? I told you…they should be terrified.”
The trailer really drives home Ellie’s loss of innocence, a central theme of the first game. By juxtaposing a moment of happiness with what’s surely a more common experience in the survival-driven world of The Last of Us, we really get a look into what’s fueling Ellie’s unrelenting rage.
Let us know what you think of the new trailer in the comments, and be sure to keep up with all of our E3 coverage including the reveal for Gears of War 5, and a new trailer for Beyond Good & Evil 2!
SOURCE: Sony E3 2018 Conference