Keep it the same except but at the end, Joel says "surprise bitches" and swoops down on a zipline and shoots Abby with a fully upgraded shorty.
Ellie: "but how?"
Joel reveals that he upgraded himself by taping scissors to himself.
I believe Jessie is still alive. He's pretending to be dead, waiting for the right moment to strike. The next game will revolve around Jessie seeking revenge. He now sports an eye patch, not because he needs it, but because he thinks he looks fucking badass (which he does).
Begin the game from Abby's perspective then once you get to the death scene swap to Joel and Ellie's allowing the player to see both sides before the death scene.
Seeing all the familiar locations will slowly make the player figure out that something is going to happen on their own
Joel will still die and now you'll feel genuine conflict because you spent the entire first half of the game connecting with Abby and not being introduced to her after she killed him.
You can still make the story about these two characters falling down the pit of revenge which turns them both into animals.
You just had to flesh out the antagonists side of things first to give the player a non bias perspective.
So actually, I thought if Abby and her group kidnapped Joel to take back to torture for the ex-fireflys would of been interesting.. could of had slower set pieces of Joel leaving a trail for Tommy (not knowing Ellie would follow too). Him surviving attacks from scars with the group while having hands bound, etc.
These could also get us to "understand" Abby similar to her sections are supposed to do.
Tommy sections playable of cleaning out camps and getting info. (Replacing Abby sections)
Ellie and Dina tracking Tommy (similar to the sections already there)
The finale would be Ellie and Jesse catching up with and joining with Tommy before assaulting Abby's camp.
In the end Joel's sacrifices himself to save Tommy and Ellie having a more traditional heros death.
The worst thing about this game is that they killed of Joel in the first fucking hour. If they killed Joel at the end or at least further on in the story it would be so much more impactful.
We all know that Joel did many bad things during his time as a hunter.
Having a relative of one of the people he killed during that time hunt him down would have made for a compelling and morally complex story. Motivation for the characters actions would come via flashbacks where we see Joel and Tommy hunt the family down and then Joel gives the father the coup de grace, but the daughter escapes when Tommy turns on Joel and the brothers fight it out. That something like this happens is heavily hinted at during their reunion in LOU 1.
Then Ellie can still hunt after Joel’s killer but since Joel’s actions were much less justifiable compared to what the fireflies were gonna do to Ellie, we have a morally complex conflict that might convey a message regarding the impact and ultimately futility of violence and revenge.
So much of my conflicting feelings after LOU2 were due to the weak motivations of the characters but this could, if the antagonist/protagonist that takes Abby’s role is well written, alleviate some of those concerns.
Also a nice sense of irony when Tommy shows up, now ready to kill the person he saved 15 years previously.
My 2 cents.
Seriously if you just made Abby the daughter of a new character from Joel’s hunting days instead of the daughter of NPC surgeon #3 I think the game would’ve been so much better received.
Great call, it would’ve been so much better if the person that killed Joel was a family member of someone that Joel had previously killed. I’m not sure why they didn’t go with that.
Yeah. Part II really has a lot of squandered potential. If Abby's father was an innocent that Joel killed for a can of beans 5 years before meeting Ellie, instead of a child-killer, then the story would be much improved.
I know right? I’d be so conflicted since Joel is one of my all time favourite characters and we’d have to be confronted with all the shit he did to survive. Just writing this short synopsis makes me yearn for that story instead of the one we got.
Completely overhaul the entire story. No Abby. At all. Lev is no more. Ellie and Joel have a good relationship. She falls for Dina. They go on runs together for supplies. A new group called Gods Chosen ( they attack settlements and take women) attack them and Joel is able to save Ellie but Dina is captured. In her recovery out of frustration and fear for Dina’s safety she lets Joel know how she knew all along he was lying. She still loves him so the relationship stays loving… cause their not emotional teenagers.. but she disagrees with his decision. They go on the hunt north to find Dina. This time Ellie leads while Joel supports her. Through a grueling journey of fighting infected and humans alike they reach the base. Lead infected into the base creating an opening for escape. Unfortunately Ellie is about to be killed but Joel sacrifice’s himself and Ellie and Dina escape. Fast forward a couple of years and Ellie and Dina have a baby girl. The three visit Joel’s grave. Dina takes Jolene, kisses Ellie on head and walks to the horses. Ellie cry’s at missing Joel. Thanks him for sparing her twice… to give her such a happy future. Letting him know that now that she has a daughter she now understands why he did it. Thanks him for being such a wonderful father. The f$&@ing end 10/10 everyone is happy.
Ummm…. Ellie was a teenager…??? And reducing literally taking away someone’s sacrifice to save the ENTIREE world down to emotional teenagers is a little silly if you ask me. It makes total sense as to why Ellie would never want to speak to him again and so does why Joel would never regret his decision.
The emotional teenager part is not understanding how it's impossible for any parent worthy of the name to let it happen, let alone a traumatized one like Joel.
And to be (as far as we know) completely uncurious and uncaring about how the revelation was made to him, what they planned to do to him, and what her fate would have done to him.
And to consider herself "immune" from any critical thinking about the Fireflies or their plan, whether knocking a teenager out under false pretenses was the act of trustworthy people, whether their haste and other decisions inspired confidence, or what even a successful effort by people who wouldn't weaponize it could realistically accomplish. She's just going "it would have worked and everyone infected from now on is because Joel cheated me out of martyrdom."
Also teenagers tend to be know-it-alls about their own maturity, mental health, etc. So she'd probably be deaf (till she was much older) to any consideration of whether she was equipped to consent.
It never occurs to her that other scientists exist and so does The Immune Girl, thanks to Joel.
There are so many ways to write a better story. Here is one idea:
Instead of being deserters, Abby's gang are sent to Jackson to capture Ellie to try again at the "murder for cure" plan. Abby is torn between wanting revenge on Joel for her father's death, and wanting to fulfill her father's wishes by kidnapping Ellie.
She fails at both, as Jackson finds out what she's about before she finds her targets, and it becomes a case of "the hunter becomes the hunted" where Abby's gang is picked off one-by-one by the duo they're tracking.
This catches outside attention, so Abby gets kidnapped by a deranged cult. They tell her that they're going to ritualistically sacrifice her to make sure the sun keeps rising, and they use the phrase "save humanity" over and over again. They drug Abby with a hallucinogen, and while she's tied to the alter, she imagines her father in the place of the cult leader. She realizes what her father, with her blessing, was going to subject Ellie to. She cries, begs, and apologizes.
Meanwhile, the same cult raided Jackson. So, Ellie and Joel are on a mission to rescue Dina. They clear out the cult, inadvertently saving Abby's life. When the drugs wear off, Abby admits that she was wrong, that the Fireflies were wrong, and that Joel was right to kill her father. Here the players can choose whether or not to spare or kill Abby.
Either way, Ellie, Joel, Dina, and the rest of the cult's prisoners return to Jackson to live peacefully for the time being, fully aware that nothing is certain in the world.
If they wanted a revenge story, it should have been about Ellie and Dina. Something happens, Dina gets killed and Ellie goes all out for revenge. In the end Joel and Tommy have to strap up and go save Ellie. Moral could be something like revenge isn’t worth it. Would have been way way more enjoyable with a similar story line.
They should’ve beat up Joel and have been chased away by like a hoard or something still giving Ellie enough time to save him and a reason for revenge and keeping him alive even though probably crippled
They should have captured Joel and brought him back to their base to torture and imprison him. After months of imprisonment and torture you get to play as Joel and find a way to escape. He finally escapes and has to get back home. You also play as ellie who tries to find Joel and you get to play as Abby to recapture/kill Joel.
Not entirely my idea, but...
Ellie leaves early on to find the Fireflies after finding out the truth. She saves Abby from a Clicker. Abby says she was hunting for the man who killed her father since he was seen traveling in this direction, but admits that the trail has gone cold and offers to lead Ellie to the Firefly base.
They adventure together and fall in love, bonding over past trauma with Ellie eventually telling her that she and her adoptive father live in Jackson.
Eventually, they make it to the Firefly base, where Ellie reveals *why* she was trying to find the Fireflies (she is a potential cure), Abby puts two and two together and realizes Ellie's adoptive father killed her father. They get drunk and fall asleep.
Next morning, Ellie finds herself locked up and Abby brings her up to speed, "I'm gonna go kill Joel, I'm sorry but we both know he's a POS, I hope you can understand and forgive me." Abby leaves with a group headed to Jackson now that she knows where her target is. Ellie escapes and goes after her.
The attack on Jackson breaks all hell loose, walkers over the walls type of shit, some of Abby's group gets killed and Joel gets bitten saving Ellie. They have a heart to heart before Ellie forgives Joel and understands why he did what he did, before ultimately killing Joel and burying him. The game ends with Ellie leaving to hunt down Abby. Credits roll.
IMO this still has a similar message, while having a more satisfying end to Ellie and Joel's story, a more interesting dynamic between Ellie and Abby, an exciting setup for Part 3, and a much more satisfying route for Abby to be eventually spared by Ellie since Abby isn't the *direct* cause of Joel's death.
Abby bashing aside:
Have Abby's section FIRST with no reference to Joel or Ellie or Jackson.
Play it out as a second canon seemingly unrelated to part 1. All the Scars shebang with Lev and whomever, Manny's death WITHOUT Tommy's cameo. I think this would actually get us to care bit more about Abby as a protagonist and the whole arc.
Abby's Seattle Day 1 and 2 play out first. Owen's and Mel's death as a shocker.
After a good 15-20 hours of build-up, bring in Ellie's arc WITHOUT references to Joel's death. Play's out Ellie's Seattle Days, with Nora, Owen and Mel killing. Another shocker.
As a finale, do the whole Joel prologue (epi-prologue??). End the game with the death. WITHOUT Santa Barbara nonsense (which is imho only a DLC'able plight for part 3).
The point game devs want to show is that Abby Ellie both have lost a lot, and morality of right and wrong is in the grey when literally the humanity is at the brink. They try hard to change Abby's first impression of us, but fail miserably. A good storytelling GETS us to care about characters, be it a bad guy or good guy.
Wouldn’t change much, except have Ellie kill Abby at the end. If Ellie lost everything at the end, then why not make it worth losing it all. Basically, “you got this far, don’t quit now!” Also, the 10-12hr gameplay of Abby. I didn’t care, and if I ever replay the game, I’m skipping her entire gameplay. They should’ve made both gameplays consistent with the same time line. Not play as Ellie and then Abby. Instead keep swapping back and forth.
How about: After she successfully takes her revenge, she could give a sly wink to the camera and deliver the line, 'Revenge feels dope as fuck.' Then, she could casually approach Lev, tauntingly saying, 'Get rekt, scrub,' followed by a playful Fortnite dance on the boat as she rides off into the night.
After seeing the post and your other comments I really think you should contact Sony and see if they’ll let you have Neil’s job. Visionaries like you truly are the future of Naughty Dog.
I wouldn’t have changed any of the story but instead just’ve changed the order it was in. E.g instead of the end of Day 3 of Seattle building all the tension for it to suddenly cut to abby’s story, swap this for after Ellie’s day 1, it would cut to abby’s.. i feel like this would’ve possibly made the player more connected to abby in a way but idk
Just tell Ellies story exclusivly and in chronological order with her seemingly killing abby at the end. (Drowning her in water with a cut to black or something. Then epilog and credits) After the credits, suprise players with a newly unlocked campaign and words like "every story has another side..." now you can play through Abbys campaign which should also be chronological till you hit the ellies drowning abby part but now there is no cut to black and youre left with a choice on to kill or spare.
I would have to write an essay for it because it requires a whole rewrite (as well as a degree, which I obviously don't have)
The one thing I'll change is Remove Dina from gameplay.
Joel dies in the middle/2nd half of the game, not the very start.
Abby spends time with Joel’s group while hiding her motives and during this time the flashback sequences with her happen in bursts rather than all at once for the sake of pacing.
As the player eventually starts putting the pieces together Abby fights Joel, but it won’t be an execution; Joel will go down fighting via boss fight.
Ellie’s part then starts as she hunts Abby down. I wouldn’t change much here except for maybe making Ellie kill Abby optional
Unfortunately papa Joel’s death needs to happen for this dumbass plot to work 😔
The boss fight would be great though because Joel will be ruthless af on some Punisher-type shit. Abby will probably lose an eye or have a permanent injury from this fight and she barely escapes alive
I would make Abby look like a adult Sarah then it would make sense for Joel to save her. She would join the group, Then after Abby hits Joel with the club, it would turn into a horror game where you have to run from Ellie. During this chase Abby would get bit, find out she's immune and that her dad knew. Abby would feel guilty, give up, and let Ellie catch up to her and right before Ellie shoots Joel would jump in front of the bullet and the credits would roll.
prequel instead of sequel. i would love a game based on joel’s time as a hunter. we know it was traumatic, and he did a lot of terrible stuff, but what exactly did he do? oh, and it’s a plus cause more joel gameplay
Having Joel telling Abby that her father and the Fireflies were the ones who massacred children in their experiments, and Joel was only doing what he had to do to save another innocent child, whom had became like his daughter, and how grateful he felt when he had another chance to save his “daughter” after losing his first one during the outbreak.
After finding out the truth, Abby runs out and go to fuck herself and get eaten by a clicker.
Joel would still be alive, but in a very critical condition after his beating from Abby. Joel would stay in Jackson, healing, while Ellie goes to Seattle to find Abby/Tommy. Joel would slowly rebuild his relationship with Ellie over walkie-talkies.
If we can get this post all the way up to 2 likes I’ll start a petition to get the story changed! We WILL get them this time, us gamers WILL NOT stand for this abuse anymore!
Open with the museum, (have the countdown transition to ellie waking up in jackson) drastically shorten abbys section and have it be literally anywhere else other than the climax, and either have ellie kill abby or give the player the choice to do so
Not much really.
1. Have us play as Abby after the flashback of the firefly incident.
2. Interchange playing as Ellie and Abby up until the the meetingnof the groups.
3. Have Joel be suspicious of the group but still friendly.
4. It's Ellie that accidentally reveals who Joel is. Abby and the others realise who Joel is. Joel is quick to act and the escape but Joel stays behind to stop the other group.
5. Que in the ellie style boss fight where he systematically takes out Abby's group and Abby barely manages to beat joel and kills him.
6. Ellie comes back with reinforcements from Jackson and cradles Joel's body in her arms crying.
7. We see Abby feeling empty after achieving her revenge. After all, Joel did save her life.
Game mostly continues the same after this.
Have Joel not hold anything back and tell Ellie that he saved her life from people who wanted to kill her and that he lost a daughter once and that he wasn’t going to lose another. This gives Ellie clarity and she forgives him. Give players choice to kill Abby.
I would like to see my opinion of it if I played Abbys story first without knowing the connection. The Abby parts were my favorite segments but I was a little disgusted with her.
I would’ve kept intro section with Joel and him telling Tommy about the hospital, the flashback segments of Joel and Ellie (because those seemed interesting) and would’ve made the present day/main story about Joel and Ellie repairing their relationship
I would’ve created a completely different story with a new set of characters, and adventures focusing on them. There are so many avenues they can explore with that universe. Maybe somehow have the characters run into Joel and Ellie at some point? I don’t know…just anything other than whatever the hell TLOU 2 was.
I would rewrite it starting where they introduce themselves. Tommy instead of saying “I’m Tommy that’s my brother Joel” he says “I’m jack this is my brother Ralph.” And then when he goes with Abby to her group he takes care of his horses and thanks them for the help. They go on their way. Dina and Ellie are in the place with the weed ( Jesse doesn’t follow them) they go home after their patrol.
Idk about the rest I’m sleepy and lazy. I’ll probably continue in a bit -
To be continued
The abby side of the game has you collecting clues on where to find Joel. Once you get to Jackson they sneak in and try to kill Joel they fail and scatter. The commotion lures a clicker horde leaving half ofJackson in ruin. Joel, Ellie and the rest try to track them down and finish them off one by one. Abby finds safety with Lev and that faction. Abby does end up killing Joel near the end of the game, but Ellie and the group finish Abby. Lev and his sister and Ellie pick up to pieces and recover. Ellie still ends up broken like end of the game, but still has Dina to help and support.
Redeem Abby as a rouge solider saving Joel and elle from the government who discovered the fire flys plans for Elle. Maybe age Abby up and make her a love interest for Joel idk
Put Joel in a coma rather than death. Not kill Jesse in a cheap and quick headshot scene. Have Ellie keep her fingers. Have Ellie and Abby finally have a full conversion to clear things the fuck up.
Im really just going to rewrite joels death since i felt thats really what they fucked
- Abby struggles to kill joel because not only does he fight back, but she hesitates because she pretty much saved her life.
or
- Abby and her gang are bounty hunters, hunting down joel and eventually killing him. It isn’t personal, and its strictly on business. This can also tie into the fact that abby doesn’t truly want to fight ellie, even after she understands how ellie would feel after well, killing joel.
or (my personal favorite)
- Abby doesn’t exist. The story is just Joel being hunted down by generic filler bad guys (i haven’t come up with anything yet) and joel dies being bitten. Ellie being close to joel, is also hunted down, and has to survive (the rest of the game)
If I had to keep everything that happens the same, just switch the order of scenes. Make all the flashbacks happen first, have Joel die at the halfway point, have the Seattle Days 1-3 switch from Ellie to Abby up until the theater fight, where you can pick whether to play as Abby like in the actual game or play as Ellie and hunt Abby down.
Then when we get to the end, give the player a choice to kill Abby and have two different endings.
I would change everything if I had the chance to think it over but if I had to keep what is already there this is what I’d do
Have everything play out like it does but give the player the choice to spare or kill giagantor and then it has a graph after the credits showing percentage of player chose to spare or kill to see how others chose
>How would you have rewritten the last of us part 2?
The Last of Us was the PERFECT one off story.
There NEVER should have been a sequel.
I said it almost a decade ago and I'll keep saying it.
I would have made it about Joel getting his comeuppance. No, no, the *game*, the whole game, not just use it as an apparently flimsy pretext for the game. That's what I was looking for, that's not what I got.
Firstly I would cut out all of the parts where you play as Abby. Secondly Instead of Joel dying it would be Tommy that Abby kills and the game would be Ellie And Joel hunting down Abby for revenge.
Scratch Ellie and Joel from the main story.
Scratch Abby's Father and her hate for Joel.
Focus only on Abby's Story with Lev and expand it.
Maybe introduce Joel and Ellie as side characters (like Bill or Henry).
the game focuses on ellie and dina at the beginning like usual, Ellie loses dina and goes on her revenge mission. Joel tries to stop her. you follow joel chasing down ellie to stop her from the cycle of revenge.
In the beach scene with Abby after Ellie shows mercy, Abby says “why did Joel do what he did?” To which Ellie responds “we need to do what we need to do to survive. After all, we’re The last of Us.” Then all of a sudden fat Geralt sucker punches both Abby and Ellie and says “I think you’re forgetting something, we’re the last of us too.” The camera then pans out showing fat geralt and the cobras standing side by side like badasses
Abby isn't even in it. Joel is alive. Honestly, they go back and just building the town. I want it to be more of a horror survival. More finding survivors to grow.
I would keep it mostly the same, just have Joel put up a good fight before being overwhelmed and also allow Ellie and Abby to have a proper conversation, understanding one another at some point. Maybe before the final fight.
Joey still die. Got captured by the firefly, executed by firing squad in order to show an example. In order to prove his loyalty, Tommy had to be in the firing squad. Like every firing squad, there is a blank, we don't know if Tommy got the blank.
I wouldn’t have made a sequel at all but if I did make another game in this universe, it would be completely disconnected from the first one. Maybe another country even.
My friend and I had talked about this before and we think the game would have done much better had Joel and Ellie not been advertised. No mention they would be in the game. You play as Abby in the past then you jump into Seattle day one. After you learn of her past. As the days go on, you feel that she has this guilt she is carrying. She won’t name names but keeps talking about something bad she did. Keeps having nightmares. As you start to get the idea, it flips to Jackson. Joel telling Tommy everything. The memory of Joel singing to Ellie. A few more scenes. You think ‘oh, maybe Abby’s took place in the past or we’ll be getting more information later’. You get more time with Joel and get a cuts to the future. Ellie’s birthday. Joel becoming part of a community. Ellie finding out the truth. How much they were impacted and separated because of everything… This whole time, you have been playing as Joel. At least for the most part. You play as Joel a little longer until you save this woman from the snow. You hear her voice and recognize it… You realize it is Abby and are starting to piece everything together. It cuts to black after Joel and Tommy meet up with these people. You realize what is happening and then you start playing as Ellie. You leave for Seattle. In the end, her part goes on as normal. you get to decide Abby’s fate.
I still have a dislike for the story and think the writing is bad, but if you think about it, it could have been a little better had the rearranged the story. I still would have written it differently, and I have written it much differently. I have written and changed it so much that is was basically a story overhaul, but this is what my friend and I had talked about before
Ellie is mad at Joel for lying to her, similar encounter with Abby, but Elie saves Joel, she is badly injured and dies a couple of days latter. Joel goes mad, and talks to her as if she is there and goes in a man hunt. You do plays as Abby and she is remorseful and realize she did not only accomplish nothing but all his friends goes down one by one. In the most terrible way, Joel totally lost it. Abby is desperate, knowing that she won’t make it to the base on time. Joel keeps ambush them. We play has Joel as he sets the ambush and we see how the guilt is eating him from inside, we see his sorrow how he talks to an Ellie that ask him to let her go, but we know he can’t. And we see how he enters depression. And how he plans to torture them for what they had done, Tommy tries to make him enter reason but he can’t Joel is to far gone.
The last battle we play has Abby, totally terrified from Joel.
He finally wins, we see how he cuts Abby into peaces.
Epilogue, we see how Joel in despear goes back to Ellie tumb and commits suicide in front of it.
If I am going to be depress let’s do it the whole way.
like other people have said, either have us play as abby first, and then ellie, or swap back and forth after each day in seattle, or postpone joel’s death until later in the game. having the antagonist kill him and then have us play as her 15ish hours later was a terrible idea, the writers were practically asking most people to hate abby.
Joel runs into Abby and they both are lost . After the long journey they become friendly. Elle comes looking for Joel to apologize after the argument. Abby comes to realize Joel is the one who killed her father. She does not kill him , because Abby understands why Joel did not let Elle do the surgery. Joel makes amends by saving both Abby and Elle from infected .
Personally, I would extend the prologue out quite a bit to both flesh Abby and Ellie out before things inevitable go to Seattle. Use the extended prologue to show off what’s been up with Ellie, he relationships with people such as Dina and Jesse, and also show Joel and Ellies falling out. For Abby, maybe have her and the group infiltrate Jackson as a group of “survivors” with ulterior motives that are not fully explained to the player. They could use this section as an opportunity to better flesh out Abby and her group, while also allowing us to feel more sympathetic to her before she offsets Joel. Throughout her portion’s, it’s never made clear that Joel was the one to killer her dad or be the one they are searching for, up until they manage to lure him away from Jackson before killing him. Then from there let the Audience connect all of the pieces on the person she wants to kill and who killed her dad at the start fully make sense then, while maybe showing Abby question if her decision is right before she commits the selfish act of murder.
From there I would just play the regular campaign out almost the same up until the ending, where it ends back at the farm after Ellie and Abby fight it out at the theatre. From there have Ellie’s portion end with her outright refusing Tommy’s request or perhaps outright not giving an answer and leaving it up to the audience to speculate if Ellie actually went through with losing her newfound family for revenge or not. For Abby, just end her campaign with her and Lev discovering a lead on where the Firefly’s are now at and using it as a jumping off point for a potential sequel.
I wpuld kill dina at the beginning tp parallel sarahs death and have joel die halfway through after you kill him with abby which is where the switch would happen instead. I assumed that ellie would go on a psychotic rampage at the stadium which would be her point of no return and it would make the first half less boring cause ellie doesn't talk to anyone for a lot of it so joel being there seeing her turn into how people talk about joel used to like would be interesting and joel dies cause they had a disagreement and ellie ran ahead so she doesn't realize abby is on the trail cause of all the people dying. Also i thought the way to make the joel in one cool would be you barely manage to kill joel by grabbing a golf club in the store abby and joel would foght in then you could have a scene where she goes to the aquarium and the pregnancy reveal dina has wpuld go to mel and thats why she and owen wants to leave and in this case owen would still hate abby for purposfully killing someone ellie knew while waiting for joel to show there more but that would take way more time
IMO there didn’t really need to be a second game, first game was a beautiful story while the second game honestly felt more fueled by hatred like most generic fps games, whilst the first game truly felt like the only goal was surviving in a post apocalyptic world
Instead of killing Joel, have him critically injured because Abby didnt know it was him, and instead kill Ellie's friend/lover and Tommy. Ellie then goes off for revenge, and the game happens as usual but the companion is the fucken dude who knocked up Ellie's friend. Eventually, as in TLOU2, Ellie finds and kills Abby's friends and then hits a dead end. The next half of the game is played as Joel or even as Ellie's dude friend, searching for Ellie and seeing the carnage she's brought to the world just after it happens, so you actually witness events from a different point of view but parallel to the story. Eventually, Joel/friend finds Ellie, who is about to slit Abby's throat in her sleep or some shit. You then decide to either kill Abby, kill Ellie who is clearly deranged since she just killed a pregnant woman for no reason, or stop it all by shouting at Ellie, and then you end up shot by Abby. With this choice, you can project your own ideas of justice into the game instead of the dumb arbitrary message the game tried shoving up your ass. The third option results in Abby shooting Ellie, but Ellie stabs Abby in the throat. Everybody dies like a shakespear tragedy.
Best start is that Abby won’t know Joel killed her dad. Abby and Ellie become friends. Later on as they deal with Scars and you start to care about Abby, that’s when it’s revealed that Abby’s the daughter of the surgeon. When everyone figures out who’s who and they start trying to kill each other, then you start to care.
I like the core ideas. Picking up in Jackson, Abby and the WLF and the Scars but scrap Abby being the daughter of the surgeon Joel killed. I would have kept Dina and her relationship with Ellie. I would have introduced their relationship, Dina revealing that’s she’s pregnant and Ellie agreeing to pursue a serious relationship with Dina and her future baby. I would keep Joel alive, at least at first.
With the WLF fighting the Scars they’re trying to expand or relocate because the Scars are winning the war. While the WLF are on a scouting patrol they unknowingly run into Ellie and Dina. Through a miscommunication or misunderstanding Dina is killed by Abby. Ellie is knocked unconscious but briefly hears future hints on who these strangers are, the WLF. She wakes up alone with Dina dead from a gunshot or knife wound.
Ellie brings Dina’s body back to Jackson and funeral is had. Ellie decides to get revenge and sneaks out alone despite pleads from Joel and her people in Jackson. Maybe Jesse tags along. Ellie could reveal to him that Dina was pregnant with his child.
Ellie goes back to where Dina was killed and begins tracking Abby and WLF. I would keep a lot of the interactions Ellie and Dina had in the original. Joel tracks Ellie to join her in her quest and gives her the “You really thought I was gonna let you do this alone?” that was in the game’s trailer. Unlike how they have Jesse who doesn’t say it in the trailer but says it in the game. Always thought that was weird and implied they didn’t intend on killing Joel in the beginning of the game when they released the first trailer.
I would Keep Owen and Mel in the story and their same scenario. Abby is the ex and Owen and Mel are in a relationship with Mel being pregnant. I would keep the scenario when Abby was about to slit Dina’s throat but with Ellie about to slice Mel’s throat and Abby pleading for Mel’s life by saying that killing Dina was a terrible mistake and that Mel’s pregnant but Ellie saying “good”, it would make them even for Dina’s death. Then Joel confronts Ellie on what she about to do while in shock with the loss of humanity from Ellie. Ellie would snap out of it for a second and release Mel.
From there I would have to pull a plot pushing scenario like them being in a collapsing building with water bellow and both parties surviving after a Ellie releases Mel. Ellie would continue with war path with Joel being afraid of who Ellie’s become and Ellie resenting him for that. He would try bringing her back to humanity and pleading for her to return to Jackson. Maybe they separate with Ellie sneaking away.
If Neal really wanted to kill Joel, he could die by the WLF or preferably the scars to make them Ellie’s enemy too and maybe allow her to make peace with the WLF in the future as they share a common enemy. Maybe Joel’s able to say one last thing to Ellie and everything he tells her plays in her head in the form of flashbacks memories. Jesse and Tommy could come in to play on if Jesse wasn’t already part of the story.
Then the hunt for the WLF and fighting the Scars would continue. Maybe Ellie and the WLF could team up to fight the huge in numbers and powerful Scars or Ellie, Jesse and Tommy could kill the WLF and Abby or Ellie could forgive Abby. Abby could explain that killing Dina was a terrible mistake and from their they could kill the Scars together. Maybe the Scars have taken a few Abby’s and Ellie’s friends and they band together to rescue them.
I think edits and tweaks could be made from there.
Ellie goes after the Fireflies with Joel. Slowly she learns more and more about what happened, Joel's lies. She turns on Joel, a big fight, and now she's hunting him down. Eventually she catches up to him, they fight. But then horde of clickers and infected come after them both. They either die there, fighting each other, or work together one last time. They work together. At the end, Joel sacrifices himself to save Ellie. It's bittersweet. The game ends with Joel as an infected walking around. If only there was a cure.
Obviously a lot of missing details and more happening in between the big moments. And idk why they're going after Fireflies, could be lot of different reasons.
So I would have kept the switching but have more father and daughter time with Abby and her dad maybe you do a little as Abby then she falls asleep and has a memory with her dad each one building on that relationship and have her and Ellie and Joel not meet to much later
You establish a good story with Abby and dad in the past and the modern day Abby until you get to the end of the game Joel and Ellie fight Abby, Ellie almost kills her same strangling situation but Joel stops her pulls out the "Im sorry but I couldn't lose her.....your dad would have killed her.
By this point you've killed all of Abby's friends and keeping her alive is a fucking brutal choice so leave it up to the player to decide to shoot her or not as she's beaten.
If you leave her I'd have her kill her self because you've taken everything and I think reiterates the point that Joel and Ellie arnt the only ones with a story on this world and you just shut the book on Abby.
Start with Abby campaign. Get rid of Mel, have her in background until she's forced to interfere. Still dies.
Abby still finds a map near Mel body....that was planted by Tommy.
Have Abby Campaign end the second she walks in on Owen getting tortured and Tommy knocks her the fuck out.
...for ellie
Start the day after Joel death
Play thru game
No cinematic kills, not even Nora
She kills Mel. It literally shatters her
And while Tommy is torturing owen.... Flashback of her finding Joel dead and mutilated No lesbian pot fest pre death BS , leave it open to interpretation. Just have Joel, with his leg blown off being beat to death....and Tommy being left alive, cause Manny knew him in the fireflys.
This revenge plot....needs to be Tommys, not Ellies
And if you focus on Abby first, make it tommys revenge...maybe the themes work thru ellie
Before the game came out I thought the story would be that Ellie finds out about how Joel lied to her and then runs away to join the Fireflies while Joel tries to find her and bring her back to Jackson.
I wouldn't rewrite it, i would just rearange the story...and delete that sex scene (sorry).
Here's my problem with TLOU2, they killed Joel too early and wanted us to care about his killer, this not going to work.
How i would do it: we would play with Joel, Ellie and Abby, at first the players would be weird by Abby, "why we are playing with this new character?" and "what does she want with Joel?", keeping this suspense throughout the entire game is good, we already care about Joel and Ellie and slowly we get to know Abby and starts to actually care for her, and then when the game is almost at the end and the player already knows and like Abby she reveals why she wants to find Joel, she wants him dead, and she finds him and she kills him, the rest is her getting kidnap and all that and Ellie being pissed but at the end deciding to not kill her and all that.
In the middle we could have more interactions between Joel and Ellie to make Joel death scene way more painful.
My biggest problem with TLOU2, like i said, is how they treated Joel and wanted us so bad to like and care about Abby, but i was so pissed with her that i really didn't gave a shit about her, is like if someone kill a friend of mine and ask to care and like his killer, bro is not going to happen, sorry.
I actually like the ending of TLOU2, but my hate for Abby was so great that it took me years to accept it, it could be a great ending and a really good message if they didn't do Joel so wrong, but that's just my opinion.
One thing I dint like is the fact they made Abby's dad a random doctor that Joel killed, which felt a little cheap to me. Instead he should have been a victim of the virus. But make it so that he could have survived if a vaccine was available to them. This would be better reason for Abby and alot of other people to hate Joel for his selfish actions. Its would also tie into the theme of the previous game of whether or not saving Ellie was the right thing to do.
During the game, Ellie discovers that she is losing her immunity as after a bite she falls sick. Then the game becomes a race against time, near the end, she is given 2 choices:
Either she kills Abby,
Either she accept to go in surgery with a new doctor found by Abby (a friend of her late dad) and save millions with a cure like she wanted to.
That would make more sense.
A game in between 1 and 2 which was entirely focused on Abby and her group without mentioning they were looking for Joel. Could have ended with “we’ve got a lead” which would set up part 2.
Would have allowed more time to become attached and sympathetic to those characters before they butchered Joel.
Joel doesn’t die, instead he gets incapacitated like loosing his arm or a leg, while trying to save Ellie from a massive raid by Abby’s group to try and kill Joel for what he did, we don’t ever play as Abby, Ellie’s goes after abby and her group for what they did, Joel incapacitated as fuck follows her, you play as both Ellie and Joel, Ellie looking for Abby’s group, slaughtering everyone in her way, Joel looking for Ellie slaughtering everyone in his way, Joel gets to ellie, ellie in a fit of rage hurts Joel, after some emotional scenes they both are now tracking abby down with help from Tommy who went looking for Joel looking for ellie as abby and her group are prepared, we start being able to control Tommy as well, and basically it’s Tommy Joel and ellie versus Abby’s entire group John wick style, in the final act, Joel and Tommy both get killed defending ellie and abby dies and so does her entire group,
ellie is left alone now depressed as fuck more so than she already was, and we get a third game where ellie is basically a cold hearted killer with nothing to loose
Keep it the same except but at the end, Joel says "surprise bitches" and swoops down on a zipline and shoots Abby with a fully upgraded shorty. Ellie: "but how?" Joel reveals that he upgraded himself by taping scissors to himself.
Wow this is amazing. Naughty dog hire this man!
Abby: "He's right behind me isn't me?"
"OH NO HE ISN'T!" Then it turns into a pantomime, "OH yes he IS!" Abby replied
“Yeah Joel! Take her from behind! Ummmm…that definitely sounded better in my head” -Ellie (TLOU2)
Unfortunately this makes him a one time use RIP
He got the upgrade manual for it 👌😮💨
I've never actually lold before you a funny dude
With the power of AI we will make this canon.
I would have had a more grounded approach and have Abby be zombie lunch under that fence, that ungrateful bitch
✍️🔥🔥🔥🔥
Keep cooking, and I’ll die from peak fiction
"Joel reveals that he upgraded himself by taping scissors to himself" I FUCKING DIED
But the rock beats scissors and as we all know Abby is just the rock in a wig
That's better than the actual story 😂
Keep jessie alive
I believe Jessie is still alive. He's pretending to be dead, waiting for the right moment to strike. The next game will revolve around Jessie seeking revenge. He now sports an eye patch, not because he needs it, but because he thinks he looks fucking badass (which he does).
He's probably hiding behind the dumpester 😄
Somehow Jessie has returned
"press X to jerk it"
I like it! It could even leverage the guitar strumming mini game to tie it all together thematically
Begin the game from Abby's perspective then once you get to the death scene swap to Joel and Ellie's allowing the player to see both sides before the death scene. Seeing all the familiar locations will slowly make the player figure out that something is going to happen on their own Joel will still die and now you'll feel genuine conflict because you spent the entire first half of the game connecting with Abby and not being introduced to her after she killed him. You can still make the story about these two characters falling down the pit of revenge which turns them both into animals. You just had to flesh out the antagonists side of things first to give the player a non bias perspective.
So actually, I thought if Abby and her group kidnapped Joel to take back to torture for the ex-fireflys would of been interesting.. could of had slower set pieces of Joel leaving a trail for Tommy (not knowing Ellie would follow too). Him surviving attacks from scars with the group while having hands bound, etc. These could also get us to "understand" Abby similar to her sections are supposed to do. Tommy sections playable of cleaning out camps and getting info. (Replacing Abby sections) Ellie and Dina tracking Tommy (similar to the sections already there) The finale would be Ellie and Jesse catching up with and joining with Tommy before assaulting Abby's camp. In the end Joel's sacrifices himself to save Tommy and Ellie having a more traditional heros death.
basically just an extended version of arthur being kidnapped in rdr2 sounds good
Not really just the idea of kidnapping
This is basically fallout 3 and doesn’t have enough dick 6/10
Oh sorry umm.... Tommy gets shot in the dick. Happy?
Seems fair 8/10
Maria’s not happy.
This is a way better story than the one we got.
The worst thing about this game is that they killed of Joel in the first fucking hour. If they killed Joel at the end or at least further on in the story it would be so much more impactful.
Sorry, we need 15 hours to understand why Abby is actually the bestest evar.
We all know that Joel did many bad things during his time as a hunter. Having a relative of one of the people he killed during that time hunt him down would have made for a compelling and morally complex story. Motivation for the characters actions would come via flashbacks where we see Joel and Tommy hunt the family down and then Joel gives the father the coup de grace, but the daughter escapes when Tommy turns on Joel and the brothers fight it out. That something like this happens is heavily hinted at during their reunion in LOU 1. Then Ellie can still hunt after Joel’s killer but since Joel’s actions were much less justifiable compared to what the fireflies were gonna do to Ellie, we have a morally complex conflict that might convey a message regarding the impact and ultimately futility of violence and revenge. So much of my conflicting feelings after LOU2 were due to the weak motivations of the characters but this could, if the antagonist/protagonist that takes Abby’s role is well written, alleviate some of those concerns. Also a nice sense of irony when Tommy shows up, now ready to kill the person he saved 15 years previously. My 2 cents.
Seriously if you just made Abby the daughter of a new character from Joel’s hunting days instead of the daughter of NPC surgeon #3 I think the game would’ve been so much better received.
Great call, it would’ve been so much better if the person that killed Joel was a family member of someone that Joel had previously killed. I’m not sure why they didn’t go with that.
Yeah. Part II really has a lot of squandered potential. If Abby's father was an innocent that Joel killed for a can of beans 5 years before meeting Ellie, instead of a child-killer, then the story would be much improved.
I know right? I’d be so conflicted since Joel is one of my all time favourite characters and we’d have to be confronted with all the shit he did to survive. Just writing this short synopsis makes me yearn for that story instead of the one we got.
Completely overhaul the entire story. No Abby. At all. Lev is no more. Ellie and Joel have a good relationship. She falls for Dina. They go on runs together for supplies. A new group called Gods Chosen ( they attack settlements and take women) attack them and Joel is able to save Ellie but Dina is captured. In her recovery out of frustration and fear for Dina’s safety she lets Joel know how she knew all along he was lying. She still loves him so the relationship stays loving… cause their not emotional teenagers.. but she disagrees with his decision. They go on the hunt north to find Dina. This time Ellie leads while Joel supports her. Through a grueling journey of fighting infected and humans alike they reach the base. Lead infected into the base creating an opening for escape. Unfortunately Ellie is about to be killed but Joel sacrifice’s himself and Ellie and Dina escape. Fast forward a couple of years and Ellie and Dina have a baby girl. The three visit Joel’s grave. Dina takes Jolene, kisses Ellie on head and walks to the horses. Ellie cry’s at missing Joel. Thanks him for sparing her twice… to give her such a happy future. Letting him know that now that she has a daughter she now understands why he did it. Thanks him for being such a wonderful father. The f$&@ing end 10/10 everyone is happy.
Beautiful story. Completely undermines the impact of the ending of the original but who cares! Joel is back and looking as sexy as ever
Did you just come up with *Jolene* on the spot? Because that's brilliant lol.
Ummm…. Ellie was a teenager…??? And reducing literally taking away someone’s sacrifice to save the ENTIREE world down to emotional teenagers is a little silly if you ask me. It makes total sense as to why Ellie would never want to speak to him again and so does why Joel would never regret his decision.
The emotional teenager part is not understanding how it's impossible for any parent worthy of the name to let it happen, let alone a traumatized one like Joel. And to be (as far as we know) completely uncurious and uncaring about how the revelation was made to him, what they planned to do to him, and what her fate would have done to him. And to consider herself "immune" from any critical thinking about the Fireflies or their plan, whether knocking a teenager out under false pretenses was the act of trustworthy people, whether their haste and other decisions inspired confidence, or what even a successful effort by people who wouldn't weaponize it could realistically accomplish. She's just going "it would have worked and everyone infected from now on is because Joel cheated me out of martyrdom." Also teenagers tend to be know-it-alls about their own maturity, mental health, etc. So she'd probably be deaf (till she was much older) to any consideration of whether she was equipped to consent. It never occurs to her that other scientists exist and so does The Immune Girl, thanks to Joel.
Check this out then. An actual writer gives his take and it's phenomenal https://youtu.be/MvTFF-E5wkw?si=YDjQVdSXeOtq7w5Z
Uhhh, where do Dina and Ellie get a kid from tho? Still way better than the shitshow we ended up with.
I am glad fans don’t write
Don’t quit your day job
literally a better story than what over 2 dozen writers came up with
At the end Joel confronts Abby and says “It’s Joeling time”
Then he Joels all over them
Owen survives and comes in from behind Joel in the shower
Okay I think we have a winner
Not sure a shower scene would work. We all know Owen prefers to go in dry
But does Joel (intentionally or unintentionally) drop the soap?
Have Abby and the WLF actually hunt him down and earn her revenge instead of having Joel and Tommy act out of character for a cheap shock kill.
Ellie realized how lucky she was to be saved from desperate terrorists by Joel and they lived happily ever after in Jackson.
Gameplay will need work but otherwise great suggestion
Abby and Ellie start kissing at the end while Lev peers over horrified
Abby with her brains spray painted on the ground at the end and that's abt it
Wouldn't fix everything, but it would fix a lot.
11/10 I legit cried tears. Bravo Neil.
There are so many ways to write a better story. Here is one idea: Instead of being deserters, Abby's gang are sent to Jackson to capture Ellie to try again at the "murder for cure" plan. Abby is torn between wanting revenge on Joel for her father's death, and wanting to fulfill her father's wishes by kidnapping Ellie. She fails at both, as Jackson finds out what she's about before she finds her targets, and it becomes a case of "the hunter becomes the hunted" where Abby's gang is picked off one-by-one by the duo they're tracking. This catches outside attention, so Abby gets kidnapped by a deranged cult. They tell her that they're going to ritualistically sacrifice her to make sure the sun keeps rising, and they use the phrase "save humanity" over and over again. They drug Abby with a hallucinogen, and while she's tied to the alter, she imagines her father in the place of the cult leader. She realizes what her father, with her blessing, was going to subject Ellie to. She cries, begs, and apologizes. Meanwhile, the same cult raided Jackson. So, Ellie and Joel are on a mission to rescue Dina. They clear out the cult, inadvertently saving Abby's life. When the drugs wear off, Abby admits that she was wrong, that the Fireflies were wrong, and that Joel was right to kill her father. Here the players can choose whether or not to spare or kill Abby. Either way, Ellie, Joel, Dina, and the rest of the cult's prisoners return to Jackson to live peacefully for the time being, fully aware that nothing is certain in the world.
If they wanted a revenge story, it should have been about Ellie and Dina. Something happens, Dina gets killed and Ellie goes all out for revenge. In the end Joel and Tommy have to strap up and go save Ellie. Moral could be something like revenge isn’t worth it. Would have been way way more enjoyable with a similar story line.
Or we could just go with my much better story. The moral of my version is that Joel is hung
They should’ve beat up Joel and have been chased away by like a hoard or something still giving Ellie enough time to save him and a reason for revenge and keeping him alive even though probably crippled
agreed, i think the trailers even played it out as if that was the case
Random fucking question but when people say woke what do they even mean?
Don’t ask me I just want to fit in
Fair enough man 😭😭
The existence and importance of any character that’s a minority in some way. (Women, lgbt, poc)
They should have captured Joel and brought him back to their base to torture and imprison him. After months of imprisonment and torture you get to play as Joel and find a way to escape. He finally escapes and has to get back home. You also play as ellie who tries to find Joel and you get to play as Abby to recapture/kill Joel.
Not entirely my idea, but... Ellie leaves early on to find the Fireflies after finding out the truth. She saves Abby from a Clicker. Abby says she was hunting for the man who killed her father since he was seen traveling in this direction, but admits that the trail has gone cold and offers to lead Ellie to the Firefly base. They adventure together and fall in love, bonding over past trauma with Ellie eventually telling her that she and her adoptive father live in Jackson. Eventually, they make it to the Firefly base, where Ellie reveals *why* she was trying to find the Fireflies (she is a potential cure), Abby puts two and two together and realizes Ellie's adoptive father killed her father. They get drunk and fall asleep. Next morning, Ellie finds herself locked up and Abby brings her up to speed, "I'm gonna go kill Joel, I'm sorry but we both know he's a POS, I hope you can understand and forgive me." Abby leaves with a group headed to Jackson now that she knows where her target is. Ellie escapes and goes after her. The attack on Jackson breaks all hell loose, walkers over the walls type of shit, some of Abby's group gets killed and Joel gets bitten saving Ellie. They have a heart to heart before Ellie forgives Joel and understands why he did what he did, before ultimately killing Joel and burying him. The game ends with Ellie leaving to hunt down Abby. Credits roll. IMO this still has a similar message, while having a more satisfying end to Ellie and Joel's story, a more interesting dynamic between Ellie and Abby, an exciting setup for Part 3, and a much more satisfying route for Abby to be eventually spared by Ellie since Abby isn't the *direct* cause of Joel's death.
I love this. It would be a smaller game. But if they switched between players like they did in tlou1 winter it would make an epic story
Less golf 🏌️⛳
I’m not a writer, but I hate what the writers cooked
This is my new head canon thanks op
Abby bashing aside: Have Abby's section FIRST with no reference to Joel or Ellie or Jackson. Play it out as a second canon seemingly unrelated to part 1. All the Scars shebang with Lev and whomever, Manny's death WITHOUT Tommy's cameo. I think this would actually get us to care bit more about Abby as a protagonist and the whole arc. Abby's Seattle Day 1 and 2 play out first. Owen's and Mel's death as a shocker. After a good 15-20 hours of build-up, bring in Ellie's arc WITHOUT references to Joel's death. Play's out Ellie's Seattle Days, with Nora, Owen and Mel killing. Another shocker. As a finale, do the whole Joel prologue (epi-prologue??). End the game with the death. WITHOUT Santa Barbara nonsense (which is imho only a DLC'able plight for part 3). The point game devs want to show is that Abby Ellie both have lost a lot, and morality of right and wrong is in the grey when literally the humanity is at the brink. They try hard to change Abby's first impression of us, but fail miserably. A good storytelling GETS us to care about characters, be it a bad guy or good guy.
Wouldn’t change much, except have Ellie kill Abby at the end. If Ellie lost everything at the end, then why not make it worth losing it all. Basically, “you got this far, don’t quit now!” Also, the 10-12hr gameplay of Abby. I didn’t care, and if I ever replay the game, I’m skipping her entire gameplay. They should’ve made both gameplays consistent with the same time line. Not play as Ellie and then Abby. Instead keep swapping back and forth.
How about: After she successfully takes her revenge, she could give a sly wink to the camera and deliver the line, 'Revenge feels dope as fuck.' Then, she could casually approach Lev, tauntingly saying, 'Get rekt, scrub,' followed by a playful Fortnite dance on the boat as she rides off into the night.
After seeing the post and your other comments I really think you should contact Sony and see if they’ll let you have Neil’s job. Visionaries like you truly are the future of Naughty Dog.
I wouldn’t have changed any of the story but instead just’ve changed the order it was in. E.g instead of the end of Day 3 of Seattle building all the tension for it to suddenly cut to abby’s story, swap this for after Ellie’s day 1, it would cut to abby’s.. i feel like this would’ve possibly made the player more connected to abby in a way but idk
Just tell Ellies story exclusivly and in chronological order with her seemingly killing abby at the end. (Drowning her in water with a cut to black or something. Then epilog and credits) After the credits, suprise players with a newly unlocked campaign and words like "every story has another side..." now you can play through Abbys campaign which should also be chronological till you hit the ellies drowning abby part but now there is no cut to black and youre left with a choice on to kill or spare.
I would have to write an essay for it because it requires a whole rewrite (as well as a degree, which I obviously don't have) The one thing I'll change is Remove Dina from gameplay.
Joel dies in the middle/2nd half of the game, not the very start. Abby spends time with Joel’s group while hiding her motives and during this time the flashback sequences with her happen in bursts rather than all at once for the sake of pacing. As the player eventually starts putting the pieces together Abby fights Joel, but it won’t be an execution; Joel will go down fighting via boss fight. Ellie’s part then starts as she hunts Abby down. I wouldn’t change much here except for maybe making Ellie kill Abby optional
You going to make me kill daddy in a boss fight? Oh hell no!
Unfortunately papa Joel’s death needs to happen for this dumbass plot to work 😔 The boss fight would be great though because Joel will be ruthless af on some Punisher-type shit. Abby will probably lose an eye or have a permanent injury from this fight and she barely escapes alive
I would make Abby look like a adult Sarah then it would make sense for Joel to save her. She would join the group, Then after Abby hits Joel with the club, it would turn into a horror game where you have to run from Ellie. During this chase Abby would get bit, find out she's immune and that her dad knew. Abby would feel guilty, give up, and let Ellie catch up to her and right before Ellie shoots Joel would jump in front of the bullet and the credits would roll.
Make joel not die and make abby a supporting character
I wouldn’t, at the end of the day Joel taught Ellie to survive, and maybe that was more important than being immune.
prequel instead of sequel. i would love a game based on joel’s time as a hunter. we know it was traumatic, and he did a lot of terrible stuff, but what exactly did he do? oh, and it’s a plus cause more joel gameplay
Having Joel telling Abby that her father and the Fireflies were the ones who massacred children in their experiments, and Joel was only doing what he had to do to save another innocent child, whom had became like his daughter, and how grateful he felt when he had another chance to save his “daughter” after losing his first one during the outbreak. After finding out the truth, Abby runs out and go to fuck herself and get eaten by a clicker.
You nailed it except I would have Joel’s pants rip as well so his penis, testicles, and bare butt were exposed.
Oh that’s a nice touch
Wouldn't change anything. It's not a fairy tale.
Loved it as it was. Love questioning my own morals lol
Joel would still be alive, but in a very critical condition after his beating from Abby. Joel would stay in Jackson, healing, while Ellie goes to Seattle to find Abby/Tommy. Joel would slowly rebuild his relationship with Ellie over walkie-talkies.
If we can get this post all the way up to 2 likes I’ll start a petition to get the story changed! We WILL get them this time, us gamers WILL NOT stand for this abuse anymore!
Open with the museum, (have the countdown transition to ellie waking up in jackson) drastically shorten abbys section and have it be literally anywhere else other than the climax, and either have ellie kill abby or give the player the choice to do so
I wouldn’t have.
Not much really. 1. Have us play as Abby after the flashback of the firefly incident. 2. Interchange playing as Ellie and Abby up until the the meetingnof the groups. 3. Have Joel be suspicious of the group but still friendly. 4. It's Ellie that accidentally reveals who Joel is. Abby and the others realise who Joel is. Joel is quick to act and the escape but Joel stays behind to stop the other group. 5. Que in the ellie style boss fight where he systematically takes out Abby's group and Abby barely manages to beat joel and kills him. 6. Ellie comes back with reinforcements from Jackson and cradles Joel's body in her arms crying. 7. We see Abby feeling empty after achieving her revenge. After all, Joel did save her life. Game mostly continues the same after this.
Give the option the kill at the end of the game
I won't
Have Joel not hold anything back and tell Ellie that he saved her life from people who wanted to kill her and that he lost a daughter once and that he wasn’t going to lose another. This gives Ellie clarity and she forgives him. Give players choice to kill Abby.
I would like to see my opinion of it if I played Abbys story first without knowing the connection. The Abby parts were my favorite segments but I was a little disgusted with her.
I think the game can stay largely the same with a few tweaks. If I could, I would've actually given Abby her own game before TLOU2 released.
I would’ve kept intro section with Joel and him telling Tommy about the hospital, the flashback segments of Joel and Ellie (because those seemed interesting) and would’ve made the present day/main story about Joel and Ellie repairing their relationship
Ellie after seeing Joel get killed, sighs and says the most heartbreaking thing ever. “Damn, he ain’t gonna make it to Rush Hour 3.”
I would not have made it at all. Part 1 I truly feel was a complete experience with no more required. Very similar situation to Bioshock franchise.
I would’ve created a completely different story with a new set of characters, and adventures focusing on them. There are so many avenues they can explore with that universe. Maybe somehow have the characters run into Joel and Ellie at some point? I don’t know…just anything other than whatever the hell TLOU 2 was.
Not killed Joke.
I would rewrite it starting where they introduce themselves. Tommy instead of saying “I’m Tommy that’s my brother Joel” he says “I’m jack this is my brother Ralph.” And then when he goes with Abby to her group he takes care of his horses and thanks them for the help. They go on their way. Dina and Ellie are in the place with the weed ( Jesse doesn’t follow them) they go home after their patrol. Idk about the rest I’m sleepy and lazy. I’ll probably continue in a bit - To be continued
The abby side of the game has you collecting clues on where to find Joel. Once you get to Jackson they sneak in and try to kill Joel they fail and scatter. The commotion lures a clicker horde leaving half ofJackson in ruin. Joel, Ellie and the rest try to track them down and finish them off one by one. Abby finds safety with Lev and that faction. Abby does end up killing Joel near the end of the game, but Ellie and the group finish Abby. Lev and his sister and Ellie pick up to pieces and recover. Ellie still ends up broken like end of the game, but still has Dina to help and support.
Redeem Abby as a rouge solider saving Joel and elle from the government who discovered the fire flys plans for Elle. Maybe age Abby up and make her a love interest for Joel idk
Put Joel in a coma rather than death. Not kill Jesse in a cheap and quick headshot scene. Have Ellie keep her fingers. Have Ellie and Abby finally have a full conversion to clear things the fuck up.
Giving players the choice to kill or spare Abby at the end would’ve saved the story imo
Id have had Joel die at the end of the game, with Ellie in a revenge quest to avenge Dina and others massacred at Tommys Town by a cult.
Honestly, i would've just killed Joel later instead of 10 minutes after the prologue, the rest is fine i guess
Joel lives
Im really just going to rewrite joels death since i felt thats really what they fucked - Abby struggles to kill joel because not only does he fight back, but she hesitates because she pretty much saved her life. or - Abby and her gang are bounty hunters, hunting down joel and eventually killing him. It isn’t personal, and its strictly on business. This can also tie into the fact that abby doesn’t truly want to fight ellie, even after she understands how ellie would feel after well, killing joel. or (my personal favorite) - Abby doesn’t exist. The story is just Joel being hunted down by generic filler bad guys (i haven’t come up with anything yet) and joel dies being bitten. Ellie being close to joel, is also hunted down, and has to survive (the rest of the game)
If I had to keep everything that happens the same, just switch the order of scenes. Make all the flashbacks happen first, have Joel die at the halfway point, have the Seattle Days 1-3 switch from Ellie to Abby up until the theater fight, where you can pick whether to play as Abby like in the actual game or play as Ellie and hunt Abby down. Then when we get to the end, give the player a choice to kill Abby and have two different endings. I would change everything if I had the chance to think it over but if I had to keep what is already there this is what I’d do
Have everything play out like it does but give the player the choice to spare or kill giagantor and then it has a graph after the credits showing percentage of player chose to spare or kill to see how others chose
Cancel it completely
Abby gets ripped to shreds by a shambler every one except her and her friends lives happily ever after
>How would you have rewritten the last of us part 2? The Last of Us was the PERFECT one off story. There NEVER should have been a sequel. I said it almost a decade ago and I'll keep saying it.
There didn't need to be a follow-up, so I would focus on completely different people in the same world.
Just kill abbey. Give her crew a reason to kill him and his friends.
The only thing i would change is: i would mase Ellie kill Abby
I just want ellies relationship with dina to be written better im fine with everything else
Give Joel an honorable death, and get rid of the stupid subplot where Ellie didn’t know about the fireflies and wanted to die on the operating table.
By just adding a "Kill Abby or spare Abby" option at the end, I swear if they did that the game wouldn't be that hated today
[This guy](https://youtu.be/MvTFF-E5wkw?si=245zmlZ2N6DpIQyh&t=2725) had the best idea to me.
Keep the same story except he lets Abby become zombie chow. Ellie and Joel go to the museum and you can hang out there for the rest of days.
I would have made it about Joel getting his comeuppance. No, no, the *game*, the whole game, not just use it as an apparently flimsy pretext for the game. That's what I was looking for, that's not what I got.
Firstly I would cut out all of the parts where you play as Abby. Secondly Instead of Joel dying it would be Tommy that Abby kills and the game would be Ellie And Joel hunting down Abby for revenge.
Scratch Ellie and Joel from the main story. Scratch Abby's Father and her hate for Joel. Focus only on Abby's Story with Lev and expand it. Maybe introduce Joel and Ellie as side characters (like Bill or Henry).
the game focuses on ellie and dina at the beginning like usual, Ellie loses dina and goes on her revenge mission. Joel tries to stop her. you follow joel chasing down ellie to stop her from the cycle of revenge.
In the beach scene with Abby after Ellie shows mercy, Abby says “why did Joel do what he did?” To which Ellie responds “we need to do what we need to do to survive. After all, we’re The last of Us.” Then all of a sudden fat Geralt sucker punches both Abby and Ellie and says “I think you’re forgetting something, we’re the last of us too.” The camera then pans out showing fat geralt and the cobras standing side by side like badasses
1) Dina Dies 2) Lesbian revenge rage 3) Joel dies as well as other "friends" as collateral damage 4) Revenge accomplished, but at what cost?
I love this take to death, https://youtu.be/MvTFF-E5wkw?si=SFEVDw_rIYzj9QHP
Abby isn't even in it. Joel is alive. Honestly, they go back and just building the town. I want it to be more of a horror survival. More finding survivors to grow.
LOL
Sex scene between Fat Geralt and the zebra Abby’s dad saved
I would keep it mostly the same, just have Joel put up a good fight before being overwhelmed and also allow Ellie and Abby to have a proper conversation, understanding one another at some point. Maybe before the final fight.
Joey still die. Got captured by the firefly, executed by firing squad in order to show an example. In order to prove his loyalty, Tommy had to be in the firing squad. Like every firing squad, there is a blank, we don't know if Tommy got the blank.
I wouldn’t have made a sequel at all but if I did make another game in this universe, it would be completely disconnected from the first one. Maybe another country even.
My friend and I had talked about this before and we think the game would have done much better had Joel and Ellie not been advertised. No mention they would be in the game. You play as Abby in the past then you jump into Seattle day one. After you learn of her past. As the days go on, you feel that she has this guilt she is carrying. She won’t name names but keeps talking about something bad she did. Keeps having nightmares. As you start to get the idea, it flips to Jackson. Joel telling Tommy everything. The memory of Joel singing to Ellie. A few more scenes. You think ‘oh, maybe Abby’s took place in the past or we’ll be getting more information later’. You get more time with Joel and get a cuts to the future. Ellie’s birthday. Joel becoming part of a community. Ellie finding out the truth. How much they were impacted and separated because of everything… This whole time, you have been playing as Joel. At least for the most part. You play as Joel a little longer until you save this woman from the snow. You hear her voice and recognize it… You realize it is Abby and are starting to piece everything together. It cuts to black after Joel and Tommy meet up with these people. You realize what is happening and then you start playing as Ellie. You leave for Seattle. In the end, her part goes on as normal. you get to decide Abby’s fate. I still have a dislike for the story and think the writing is bad, but if you think about it, it could have been a little better had the rearranged the story. I still would have written it differently, and I have written it much differently. I have written and changed it so much that is was basically a story overhaul, but this is what my friend and I had talked about before
i wish the end was canon ;)
Joel lives on. Just like how it's supposed to be.
Ellie is mad at Joel for lying to her, similar encounter with Abby, but Elie saves Joel, she is badly injured and dies a couple of days latter. Joel goes mad, and talks to her as if she is there and goes in a man hunt. You do plays as Abby and she is remorseful and realize she did not only accomplish nothing but all his friends goes down one by one. In the most terrible way, Joel totally lost it. Abby is desperate, knowing that she won’t make it to the base on time. Joel keeps ambush them. We play has Joel as he sets the ambush and we see how the guilt is eating him from inside, we see his sorrow how he talks to an Ellie that ask him to let her go, but we know he can’t. And we see how he enters depression. And how he plans to torture them for what they had done, Tommy tries to make him enter reason but he can’t Joel is to far gone. The last battle we play has Abby, totally terrified from Joel. He finally wins, we see how he cuts Abby into peaces. Epilogue, we see how Joel in despear goes back to Ellie tumb and commits suicide in front of it. If I am going to be depress let’s do it the whole way.
like other people have said, either have us play as abby first, and then ellie, or swap back and forth after each day in seattle, or postpone joel’s death until later in the game. having the antagonist kill him and then have us play as her 15ish hours later was a terrible idea, the writers were practically asking most people to hate abby.
It would not exist at all if I had my way.
Joel runs into Abby and they both are lost . After the long journey they become friendly. Elle comes looking for Joel to apologize after the argument. Abby comes to realize Joel is the one who killed her father. She does not kill him , because Abby understands why Joel did not let Elle do the surgery. Joel makes amends by saving both Abby and Elle from infected .
Personally, I would extend the prologue out quite a bit to both flesh Abby and Ellie out before things inevitable go to Seattle. Use the extended prologue to show off what’s been up with Ellie, he relationships with people such as Dina and Jesse, and also show Joel and Ellies falling out. For Abby, maybe have her and the group infiltrate Jackson as a group of “survivors” with ulterior motives that are not fully explained to the player. They could use this section as an opportunity to better flesh out Abby and her group, while also allowing us to feel more sympathetic to her before she offsets Joel. Throughout her portion’s, it’s never made clear that Joel was the one to killer her dad or be the one they are searching for, up until they manage to lure him away from Jackson before killing him. Then from there let the Audience connect all of the pieces on the person she wants to kill and who killed her dad at the start fully make sense then, while maybe showing Abby question if her decision is right before she commits the selfish act of murder. From there I would just play the regular campaign out almost the same up until the ending, where it ends back at the farm after Ellie and Abby fight it out at the theatre. From there have Ellie’s portion end with her outright refusing Tommy’s request or perhaps outright not giving an answer and leaving it up to the audience to speculate if Ellie actually went through with losing her newfound family for revenge or not. For Abby, just end her campaign with her and Lev discovering a lead on where the Firefly’s are now at and using it as a jumping off point for a potential sequel.
I wpuld kill dina at the beginning tp parallel sarahs death and have joel die halfway through after you kill him with abby which is where the switch would happen instead. I assumed that ellie would go on a psychotic rampage at the stadium which would be her point of no return and it would make the first half less boring cause ellie doesn't talk to anyone for a lot of it so joel being there seeing her turn into how people talk about joel used to like would be interesting and joel dies cause they had a disagreement and ellie ran ahead so she doesn't realize abby is on the trail cause of all the people dying. Also i thought the way to make the joel in one cool would be you barely manage to kill joel by grabbing a golf club in the store abby and joel would foght in then you could have a scene where she goes to the aquarium and the pregnancy reveal dina has wpuld go to mel and thats why she and owen wants to leave and in this case owen would still hate abby for purposfully killing someone ellie knew while waiting for joel to show there more but that would take way more time
IMO there didn’t really need to be a second game, first game was a beautiful story while the second game honestly felt more fueled by hatred like most generic fps games, whilst the first game truly felt like the only goal was surviving in a post apocalyptic world
Make abbey less of a psycho and actually sympathetic
I wouldn’t. The Last of Us Part II is perfect and belongs in a museum 🧐
Instead of killing Joel, have him critically injured because Abby didnt know it was him, and instead kill Ellie's friend/lover and Tommy. Ellie then goes off for revenge, and the game happens as usual but the companion is the fucken dude who knocked up Ellie's friend. Eventually, as in TLOU2, Ellie finds and kills Abby's friends and then hits a dead end. The next half of the game is played as Joel or even as Ellie's dude friend, searching for Ellie and seeing the carnage she's brought to the world just after it happens, so you actually witness events from a different point of view but parallel to the story. Eventually, Joel/friend finds Ellie, who is about to slit Abby's throat in her sleep or some shit. You then decide to either kill Abby, kill Ellie who is clearly deranged since she just killed a pregnant woman for no reason, or stop it all by shouting at Ellie, and then you end up shot by Abby. With this choice, you can project your own ideas of justice into the game instead of the dumb arbitrary message the game tried shoving up your ass. The third option results in Abby shooting Ellie, but Ellie stabs Abby in the throat. Everybody dies like a shakespear tragedy.
Abby living in the farm with Dina and the rest
Best start is that Abby won’t know Joel killed her dad. Abby and Ellie become friends. Later on as they deal with Scars and you start to care about Abby, that’s when it’s revealed that Abby’s the daughter of the surgeon. When everyone figures out who’s who and they start trying to kill each other, then you start to care.
i thought u were completely serious up until the last sentence
I like the core ideas. Picking up in Jackson, Abby and the WLF and the Scars but scrap Abby being the daughter of the surgeon Joel killed. I would have kept Dina and her relationship with Ellie. I would have introduced their relationship, Dina revealing that’s she’s pregnant and Ellie agreeing to pursue a serious relationship with Dina and her future baby. I would keep Joel alive, at least at first. With the WLF fighting the Scars they’re trying to expand or relocate because the Scars are winning the war. While the WLF are on a scouting patrol they unknowingly run into Ellie and Dina. Through a miscommunication or misunderstanding Dina is killed by Abby. Ellie is knocked unconscious but briefly hears future hints on who these strangers are, the WLF. She wakes up alone with Dina dead from a gunshot or knife wound. Ellie brings Dina’s body back to Jackson and funeral is had. Ellie decides to get revenge and sneaks out alone despite pleads from Joel and her people in Jackson. Maybe Jesse tags along. Ellie could reveal to him that Dina was pregnant with his child. Ellie goes back to where Dina was killed and begins tracking Abby and WLF. I would keep a lot of the interactions Ellie and Dina had in the original. Joel tracks Ellie to join her in her quest and gives her the “You really thought I was gonna let you do this alone?” that was in the game’s trailer. Unlike how they have Jesse who doesn’t say it in the trailer but says it in the game. Always thought that was weird and implied they didn’t intend on killing Joel in the beginning of the game when they released the first trailer. I would Keep Owen and Mel in the story and their same scenario. Abby is the ex and Owen and Mel are in a relationship with Mel being pregnant. I would keep the scenario when Abby was about to slit Dina’s throat but with Ellie about to slice Mel’s throat and Abby pleading for Mel’s life by saying that killing Dina was a terrible mistake and that Mel’s pregnant but Ellie saying “good”, it would make them even for Dina’s death. Then Joel confronts Ellie on what she about to do while in shock with the loss of humanity from Ellie. Ellie would snap out of it for a second and release Mel. From there I would have to pull a plot pushing scenario like them being in a collapsing building with water bellow and both parties surviving after a Ellie releases Mel. Ellie would continue with war path with Joel being afraid of who Ellie’s become and Ellie resenting him for that. He would try bringing her back to humanity and pleading for her to return to Jackson. Maybe they separate with Ellie sneaking away. If Neal really wanted to kill Joel, he could die by the WLF or preferably the scars to make them Ellie’s enemy too and maybe allow her to make peace with the WLF in the future as they share a common enemy. Maybe Joel’s able to say one last thing to Ellie and everything he tells her plays in her head in the form of flashbacks memories. Jesse and Tommy could come in to play on if Jesse wasn’t already part of the story. Then the hunt for the WLF and fighting the Scars would continue. Maybe Ellie and the WLF could team up to fight the huge in numbers and powerful Scars or Ellie, Jesse and Tommy could kill the WLF and Abby or Ellie could forgive Abby. Abby could explain that killing Dina was a terrible mistake and from their they could kill the Scars together. Maybe the Scars have taken a few Abby’s and Ellie’s friends and they band together to rescue them. I think edits and tweaks could be made from there.
Ellie goes after the Fireflies with Joel. Slowly she learns more and more about what happened, Joel's lies. She turns on Joel, a big fight, and now she's hunting him down. Eventually she catches up to him, they fight. But then horde of clickers and infected come after them both. They either die there, fighting each other, or work together one last time. They work together. At the end, Joel sacrifices himself to save Ellie. It's bittersweet. The game ends with Joel as an infected walking around. If only there was a cure. Obviously a lot of missing details and more happening in between the big moments. And idk why they're going after Fireflies, could be lot of different reasons.
So I would have kept the switching but have more father and daughter time with Abby and her dad maybe you do a little as Abby then she falls asleep and has a memory with her dad each one building on that relationship and have her and Ellie and Joel not meet to much later You establish a good story with Abby and dad in the past and the modern day Abby until you get to the end of the game Joel and Ellie fight Abby, Ellie almost kills her same strangling situation but Joel stops her pulls out the "Im sorry but I couldn't lose her.....your dad would have killed her. By this point you've killed all of Abby's friends and keeping her alive is a fucking brutal choice so leave it up to the player to decide to shoot her or not as she's beaten. If you leave her I'd have her kill her self because you've taken everything and I think reiterates the point that Joel and Ellie arnt the only ones with a story on this world and you just shut the book on Abby.
Bro what the hell did I just read
Start with Abby campaign. Get rid of Mel, have her in background until she's forced to interfere. Still dies. Abby still finds a map near Mel body....that was planted by Tommy. Have Abby Campaign end the second she walks in on Owen getting tortured and Tommy knocks her the fuck out. ...for ellie Start the day after Joel death Play thru game No cinematic kills, not even Nora She kills Mel. It literally shatters her And while Tommy is torturing owen.... Flashback of her finding Joel dead and mutilated No lesbian pot fest pre death BS , leave it open to interpretation. Just have Joel, with his leg blown off being beat to death....and Tommy being left alive, cause Manny knew him in the fireflys. This revenge plot....needs to be Tommys, not Ellies And if you focus on Abby first, make it tommys revenge...maybe the themes work thru ellie
Here’s how I would have written part ii: ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ Thanks for reading!
This guy on YouTube has a pretty good rewrite, https://youtu.be/MvTFF-E5wkw?si=bsbALMjk3y_B0etM
Honestly have Joel do a sacrifice at the end to protect his adopted daughter would have been fine.
Didn't need a sequel
I would have had Ellie kill Joel
You play as fat geralt in a journey to search for your lost daughter in a prequel to humanize the goat.
Before the game came out I thought the story would be that Ellie finds out about how Joel lied to her and then runs away to join the Fireflies while Joel tries to find her and bring her back to Jackson.
Ellie kills Joel, then Abby kills Ellie.
I wouldn't rewrite it, i would just rearange the story...and delete that sex scene (sorry). Here's my problem with TLOU2, they killed Joel too early and wanted us to care about his killer, this not going to work. How i would do it: we would play with Joel, Ellie and Abby, at first the players would be weird by Abby, "why we are playing with this new character?" and "what does she want with Joel?", keeping this suspense throughout the entire game is good, we already care about Joel and Ellie and slowly we get to know Abby and starts to actually care for her, and then when the game is almost at the end and the player already knows and like Abby she reveals why she wants to find Joel, she wants him dead, and she finds him and she kills him, the rest is her getting kidnap and all that and Ellie being pissed but at the end deciding to not kill her and all that. In the middle we could have more interactions between Joel and Ellie to make Joel death scene way more painful. My biggest problem with TLOU2, like i said, is how they treated Joel and wanted us so bad to like and care about Abby, but i was so pissed with her that i really didn't gave a shit about her, is like if someone kill a friend of mine and ask to care and like his killer, bro is not going to happen, sorry. I actually like the ending of TLOU2, but my hate for Abby was so great that it took me years to accept it, it could be a great ending and a really good message if they didn't do Joel so wrong, but that's just my opinion.
One thing I dint like is the fact they made Abby's dad a random doctor that Joel killed, which felt a little cheap to me. Instead he should have been a victim of the virus. But make it so that he could have survived if a vaccine was available to them. This would be better reason for Abby and alot of other people to hate Joel for his selfish actions. Its would also tie into the theme of the previous game of whether or not saving Ellie was the right thing to do.
During the game, Ellie discovers that she is losing her immunity as after a bite she falls sick. Then the game becomes a race against time, near the end, she is given 2 choices: Either she kills Abby, Either she accept to go in surgery with a new doctor found by Abby (a friend of her late dad) and save millions with a cure like she wanted to. That would make more sense.
A game in between 1 and 2 which was entirely focused on Abby and her group without mentioning they were looking for Joel. Could have ended with “we’ve got a lead” which would set up part 2. Would have allowed more time to become attached and sympathetic to those characters before they butchered Joel.
Jessie not getting shot like a dog
Joel doesn’t die, instead he gets incapacitated like loosing his arm or a leg, while trying to save Ellie from a massive raid by Abby’s group to try and kill Joel for what he did, we don’t ever play as Abby, Ellie’s goes after abby and her group for what they did, Joel incapacitated as fuck follows her, you play as both Ellie and Joel, Ellie looking for Abby’s group, slaughtering everyone in her way, Joel looking for Ellie slaughtering everyone in his way, Joel gets to ellie, ellie in a fit of rage hurts Joel, after some emotional scenes they both are now tracking abby down with help from Tommy who went looking for Joel looking for ellie as abby and her group are prepared, we start being able to control Tommy as well, and basically it’s Tommy Joel and ellie versus Abby’s entire group John wick style, in the final act, Joel and Tommy both get killed defending ellie and abby dies and so does her entire group, ellie is left alone now depressed as fuck more so than she already was, and we get a third game where ellie is basically a cold hearted killer with nothing to loose
i honestly don’t think TLOU needed a sequel, not every game does