After it was revealed that the original The Last of Us will be getting a full remake titled The Last of Us Part 1, fans are now divided about the new looks for main characters Joel and Ellie. It was officially confirmed that the 2013 classic would be coming to PS5 later this year as well as PC at a later date after leaks spoiled The Last of Us remake announcement just hours before its Summer Game Fest reveal.
For a long time after the original title’s remaster was released on PS4 back in 2014, there was very little in the way of The Last of Us content for many years. Even though a sequel was announced as early as 2016, fans saw no sign of it for a long while after that. Eventually, however, The Last of Us Part 2 finally launched in 2020 and though it found immense critical success, it was not as universally loved as its predecessor. Now there is a wide variety of The Last of Us content coming in the near future with an HBO show adaptation, a TLOU 2 standalone multiplayer game, and a remake of the game that started it all.
It appears that the divisive The Last of Us Part 2 sentiment is continuing with the announcement of The Last of Us Part 1 remake, specifically regarding the new designs of Joel and Ellie. When compared side-by-side to previous versions, some fans like Reddit user gutster_95 show support for the overhauls of the beloved characters, taking to the platform to say: “I don’t know what people are smoking, but this doesn’t look like a scaled up version of TLoU Remastered.” Others, like Twitter user AH_Peaches, take issue with the character design, and the reasoning can be summed up by TheZodiacGamer’s post when they write: “Joel’s face is more detailed undeniably, but now he looks like a tired, confused old man instead of the tough survivor who’s seen a lot of s–t, like the original.“
I dont know what people are smoking, but this doesnt look like a scaled up version of TLoU Remastered from playstation
It appears the consensus is that, graphically TLOU Part 1‘s new characters are impressive, however, for some fans these enhancements actually take away from how the characters are meant to feel. The Last of Us remake seems to have more in common visually with The Last of Us Part 2, which makes sense given their release date proximity. This also seems to have the unintended effect of making Joel and Ellie look like their sequel character models, making them appear older in a setting that is a few years before the events of Part 2.
Beyond the visual improvements, there are also set to be a number of mechanical enhancements to improve gameplay from the original The Last of Us. Hopefully, these will all mesh well together to produce the hard-to-achieve balance of old and new. It may still be too early to tell if these visual changes to Joel and Ellie will be enough to rip players out of the moment when playing the remake of The Last of Us, but hopefully once in action, it will not seem so jarring to fans unhappy with the changes.
The Last of Us for PlayStation 5 will launch on September 2, 2022.
