Neil Druckmann, The Last of Us Part II‘s director and co-writer, claims that Naughty Dog’s game will offer fresher perspectives and a better story via increased diversity.

Yesterday, we mentioned about whether Druckmann knows about the game’s spoilers or not, but now, he talked about a different subject with Eurogamer. In The Last of Us‘ Left Behind DLC, Ellie’s sexuality was briefly brought up. Since then, five years have passed, and she is now 19 years old, showcasing in several trailers how she grew up, and she is a lesbian (kissing with Dina).

„As far as the kind of characters we put in our game, we try our best. We made a journey with Ellie, and Ellie is who she is. It’s been defined in the previous game. We’re going to continue going forward. She’s now 19. How do we explore all the facets of what it’s like to be 19? You think you’re invincible. You think you know what’s right and wrong in the world. You are sexually attracted to people you’re attracted to. Those are all things we want to explore for this character – that’s how we do honest storytelling.

So if you somehow have a problem with that, well, then that sucks, but the story’s gonna win for us. It’s ironic or maybe sad – I think that people will benefit the most from this kind of story are the ones that are yelling the loudest right now, but I hope there’s enough in the game to draw them in and just normalize normal stuff. It is part of our society and it is part of owning up to an interesting nuanced character. And yeah, a lot of the misconception is like, oh, we’re somehow sacrificing the story to win diversity points. And that’s not how we work. Everything is in service of the story. Getting better diversity gives us a better story, gives us fresher perspectives on conflict. And I hope once they play the game, they’ll realize it,” Druckmann says.

The Last of Us Part II will launch on June 19, exclusively on PlayStation 4. The review embargo will be lifted on June 12, at 12:01 AM PT.

Source: WCCFTech

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