The Last of Us director Bruce Straley doesn’t believe AAA games are just for men. Sure, the majority of the blockbusters we see on store shelves are violent, testosterone-fueled campaigns through war-torn countries, but Naughty Dog’s most recent PlayStation 3 project garnered an audience of 40 percent female players. That’s a pretty impressive number for one of the biggest and best games of last year, and even though it likely helped that there was a female lead like Ellie, Starley never attempted to make a bold statement by having a young girl share the spotlight with an older male protagonist.
"I think the reception's been great and we never set out to really make a statement so much as maybe play with tropes and make a super capable character," Straley told GameSpot in a new interview.
"We went out of our way to make her the most capable and independent and feisty person that she could be," he continued. "It's the contrast with Joel–he's resistant and reluctant to let somebody in and so you needed that contrast; you needed somebody banging on the door emotionally, physically, and capably–and also to win over not only Joel but the players. We wanted to make sure that players felt like 'Ellie is awesome.’"
The DLC, Left Behind, is all about the back story of Ellie, so anyone interested in the feisty survivor should give it a look.