UPDATE
How does this make you feel about the ending? Does it change your opinion on some things, or do you feel the original ending was better? Let us know below!
ORIGINAL STORY
With the release of The Last of Us Part II Remastered, gamers are again going through the emotions of playing this title and the incredibly dark story that Naughty Dog presented to them originally on the PS4. Now, with the PS5 version, fans aren’t just getting the most “aesthetically pleasing version” of the game but also getting insight into what made this game what it was. The documentary attached to the new game brought the voice actors into the mix and creative director Neil Druckmann to explain some of the game’s key moments. But the biggest moment that everyone wanted to hear about was the “final battle” between Abby and Ellie.
We’re going into HUGE spoilers here, so if you don’t know what happens in The Last of Us Part II Remastered, you really should stop reading here.
For those still with us, the crux of the entire game is that Abby kills Joel early on in the title. It’s revealed that the doctor he killed in the first game’s ending to save Ellie’s life was actually Abby’s father, and she swore revenge against him. Naturally, she got it in brutal fashion, and that sent Ellie on the warpath to “kill the monster” who took the other father she had ever known.
Ellie gets darker and more twisted with every attempt to get to Abby, including basically abandoning the family she made in Jackson. But in the end, after seeing the truth that Abby was just as broken and alone as she was, she couldn’t finish the job and let her live. However, as the documentary clip below highlights, Neil Druckmann admits that Ellie DID kill Abby in the initial version of the script:
It’s interesting to hear that this was the case originally and the reasoning behind why they didn’t want her to go through with it. Many fans, especially after the initial backlash to the PS4’s release, would have LOVED to see Abby die, as she was one of the “biggest downpoints” to the title in their eyes.
However, the team, and even Ellie’s voice actress, Ashley Johnson, admits that if she killed Abby, there would be nothing left of the young lady that Joel helped shape; we’d never see that “bright side” to Ellie once again. But here? With how it played out? There’s a chance she could return.
That will no doubt fuel questions about the next game in the series and whether it’ll be about Ellie’s redemption.
