rionaleonhart: final fantasy xiii: lightning pays intense attention to you. (speak carefully)
Riona ([personal profile] rionaleonhart) wrote2020-07-02 01:33 pm
Entry tags:

I Don't Want To Meet The Kid Who Draws Mouths Like That.

More of The Last of Us, Part II! I'm a bit past the 'shooting targets with a toy bow' challenge.



Specifically, I'm just setting out for the hospital in Abby's day two, but I didn't want to say outside the cut that I was going to the hospital because there are a number of earlier hospital visits in this game, and I didn't want to risk someone going 'oh, the hospital, I'm past that' and clicking!

I'm generally fairly dubious about the game going 'SURPRISE, KILLING PEOPLE IS WRONG, WEREN'T EXPECTING THAT, WERE YOU' - we know, I promise! - but seeing all those body bags was still a striking moment.

I am really, really hoping this game doesn't end up making me kill Ellie while playing as Abby. I don't think I could do it. Ellie is the villain of Abby's story; I get that. Just don't make me kill her.

I'm still sad about Jesse. He was my favourite of the new characters! And it was so sudden! This has hit me considerably harder than Joel's death did.

I still have no particular attachment to Abby, or indeed Owen, but I will grudgingly admit that this aquarium flashback-within-a-flashback is pretty cute. I like that they had no idea this sort of place ever existed. It's like one of those zoo things, but for fish!

wow, I guess that seal was really hot

I'll be honest: I'm a little pissed off that this game didn't include the beautiful Ellie/Dina trailer dance scene but did include the 'pointless hideous violence' Abby trailer scene.

There are some really tough encounters as Abby, so I've found I'll often try to find the way out of an area and escape without defeating all the enemies. As Ellie, meanwhile, I tended to clear out all the enemies, then look around for a way to progress. So, in a way, I've accidentally created a distinction between their characters through the different ways I play them. Abby kills as necessary. Ellie kills everyone, out of caution, to make an area safe.

It sort of makes sense that Abby would be more conservative with her murders; she killed Joel but spared Ellie and Tommy, after all. But my heart still very much lies with Ellie, no matter how murderous she might be.

I still can't believe the game brought Ellie's story to a terrible cliffhanger and then launched into HOURS AND HOURS OF FLASHBACK. When Abby confronted Ellie in the theatre and it first cut back to Abby with her father, I'd assumed there couldn't be more than three hours left in the game! SURPRISE.

I wonder if I'd be warming to Abby more if this perspective shift had come before she killed Jesse and held Ellie at gunpoint. As it is, I'm spending the entire time going 'yes, I realise you've been through a rough time and your actions make sense from your perspective, but I'm slightly distracted by the constant question of whether you're about to kill one of my favourite characters of all time.'

I imagine there'd still be an aspect of 'why am I not playing as my girl Ellie, boooooo', no matter when this sequence had come. The risk of trading screentime with one of my all-time favourite characters!

I've been going 'is there any possible way Ellie could get out of that cliffhanger alive?' and I've just remembered that Dina's still in the theatre, so maybe there's a chance? I don't know if there's much room for hope here, but maybe there's a chance. Please save me, Dina.

I'm not expecting a happy ending. I just need Ellie to survive.

(Of course, if you already know the resolution of that cliffhanger, please don't tell me!)



This game's longer than I expected! I'm enjoying it, don't get me wrong, but it's still driving me up the wall that I can't post this 'Ellie and Jesse try to maintain their friendship while they're both in a relationship with Dina' fic until I've finished.
runicmagitek: (Default)

[personal profile] runicmagitek 2020-07-02 02:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I literally spent five minutes trying to figure out how to be like "this is how far I am into the game, but also no spoilers in that description" so I'm glad it didn't spoil anything!

ALSO HOLY FUCK THAT DRAWING IS THE BIGGEST NIGHTMARE FUEL FODDER IN THE WHOLE GAME THANKS I HATE IT D: D: D:

I can definitely see that, especially when you're working on a fic - and I can tell you're super excited about it! At least with fanfics, we can choose to ignore canon as we please, but that doesn't ease the sting from the reality that is canon D:

I remember my first reaction when I opened the menu as Abby and finding out ALL THE PROGRESS I MADE AS ELLIE IS JUST GONE NOW was scream into a pillow. HOW RUDE!!! But it all worked out in the end :D

Really loving your posts as you play, so many thanks for sharing all your thoughts 🥰