The wait is almost over for many fans of who played the first game when it came out on June 14, 2013. But on February 21, 2020, we can delve back into the post-pandemic world we have all feared but missed so much.
With the new trailer released, I decided to look back at the other two trailers that have been released leading up to this trailer to see if I could piece together what the story may be about. Although this new trailer is a story trailer, if you haven’t seen the previous trailers, then you aren’t seeing the full picture. So let’s go through them together and break them down.
The first trailer was released by Sony two years ago at the E3 Convention. It is short and sweet, showing a bloodied Ellie playing a guitar and singing “Through the Valley” by Shawn James in a house. At the front door, Joel, the main character you play as in the first game, emerges from the light outside and comes strolling into the house to find it full of dead, non-zombie people, presumably killed by Ellie moments earlier. When he finds Ellie, he says “What are ya doing, kiddo? You really going to go through with this?”, to which Ellie simply replies “I’m gonna find and I’m gonna kill every last one of them.” It doesn’t give too much away, but it will clearly center around vengeance for a wrong made against Ellie. BUT WHAT?! We learn more in the second trailer, which is a 12-minute long gameplay reveal trailer. Amazing!
This trailer was released last year, again at E3. In this one, we meet some new characters – in particular, Dina. The trailer opens at a party where Ellie gets dragged onto the dance floor by Dina. As the two slow dance together, Dina kisses Ellie and we transition into another point in time where Ellie is kicking some serious keister against an unknown group of killers. In this trailer, the kiss doesn’t seem to mean too much, but the third and most recent trailer throws that kiss and Ellie’s relationship with Dina into a whole new perspective. Watch it below and you’ll see what I mean.
Let’s start off by saying, WOW did that kiss mean a whole lot more!! Dina, and what we can safely assume is her death at the hands of the unknown assailants in this trailer, turns out to be the center point of this whole game. It is the wrong made against Ellie. It is the reason for her rampage for revenge. This new band of killers don’t know what’s coming for them.
We can see, however, that the developers have again played on the theme that it isn’t necessarily the zombies that are the worst things out there (i.e., screw you, David). But they have been very clever in setting up this whole puzzle and letting the pieces fall into place leading up to the game’s release next year. It also goes without saying that as much as we all love Joel and his continued appearance in this new chapter, it is clear that this will not be another game where Joel is leading Ellie around to get her from A to B. These trailers, including other advertising media (such as the image above), are all about Ellie, and her on her own. This game will be Ellie’s story and will be whom the player will play as in Part II. That’s not to say that Joel won’t be tagging along for the ride though. I for one cannot wait to find out.
The Last of Us Part II releases on PlayStation 4 on February 21, 2020.
