The Last of Us Part I doesn’t include female hunters to ‘stay true to the original’

It is a lack that has not been resolved The Last of Us Part I because, in the words of Matthew Gallant, its director, have wanted to keep this new work “faithful” to the one published nine years ago. During a round table with three USAmedia, asked about VandalI defended that “staying true to the original was what commanded that decision”.

That fidelity has prevailed over what is an absence recognized by the Californian studio itself. It is more pressing in the case of the faction known as “Hunters” because s there are military women or Fireflies, like Marlene herself, although there are no direct fights with them. For its part, the group that Joel and Ellie face in Pittsburgh comes to talk about a woman they have fought against whom they could have incorporated if she were not so dangerous. But among the dozens seen in the Pennsylvania city, there is not a single woman. It is worth mentioning that the female hunters were present in the multiplayer mode.

“We have kept that fidelity to performances voice originals and it was due in part to the fact that those lines of dialogue from those enemies are iconic. They really shape the feel of the game. It doesn’t seem like much, but something as simple as the way enemy hunters in Pittsburgh yell tourist when they see you. That way of saying it is iconic, it’s unbelievable,” added the Naughty Dog developer during the interview

In August 2013, two months after the original game was released, during a question and answer session on reddit, Neil Druckmann, co-creator of the sagaassert that development time and memory [de PlayStation 3]” they were “prevented” from including the huntresses. Previously, in July, on the official PlayStation forums, the study justified itself in the memory of the console and in the ability to include “its movement animations” in the levels in which that faction is the protagonist.

That they are not present in this installment has been something conscious, according to Gallant: “The objective of this project was honor original experience and push it further forward. This decision was in service of that, of making sure it’s a remake faithful but made with the best technology”

Already after launching left-behind back in 2014, Druckmann and Bruce Straley, director of the original game, returned to answer questions on reddit. One of them inquires about what they would have changed after the launch. Straley suggested the possibility of “add a character in Pittsburgh that was more representative of the hunters” and fix “some bugs” but said that the important thing was that it was already published. Druckmann, for his part, explained that if he had more time he would have “made the Fireflies run into the operating room and shoot you dead if you take too long to kill the doctor.”

Straley’s proposed variation would have profoundly affected the overall experience of the remake. Druckmann’s, which is not fulfilled in Part I either, would be a modification that would give more meaning and depth to the culminating moment of the work without disrupting what the game tells.

The remake arrives this week on PS5 and later on PC

Naughty Dog has walked with Part I on a very fine rope between what is worth changing or renewing and respecting what the original proposed. Part of his job has been to discern what to alter and what not to. Although improvements such as Ellie’s movements in The Last of Us Part II They don’t make as much sense controlling Joel, there are other changes that would have improved the experience and added value to this release.

The Last of Us Part I be available for PlayStation 5 from September 2, 2022. Soon it will also be released on PC, where it does not yet have a date. You can read the analysis of Vandal in this link.