Would you save Ellie?

[Areym]

GribbleGrunger said:

Areym said:

Because the TLoU is not your story, it's the story of Joel and ellie. You're moving the story along, you're not making the decision yourself. You're forced to do it cause it's what Joel would have done, probably 10 out 10 times. If ND is telling the story of Joel, it wouldn't make sense for you to inject yourself at the last few minutes and retconn the story by making a decision that would betray Joel's new found paternal love for ellie. I could understand if the game had giving you multiple decisions to be made throughout the game AND then force you into one at the end but that isn't the case. Honestly, there was no indication that this last decision would be based on our input.

I can guarantee that if Joel had stopped to give it some thought, weighed the pros and cons, and decided 'you know what, I think I'll let them kill her', people would have hated it.  'Bah, after all they've been through? There's no way Joel would have let her die. This is terrible writing.'

Yeah, i feel that way too. Honestly, its great that the decision didn't please everybody, it makes the choice have more weight and to see that people are generally split in the outcome. It's thought provoking.

FentonCrackshell said:

Areym said:

Because the TLoU is not your story, it's the story of Joel and ellie. You're moving the story along, you're not making the decision yourself. You're forced to do it cause it's what Joel would have done, probably 10 out 10 times. If ND is telling the story of Joel, it wouldn't make sense for you to inject yourself at the last few minutes and retconn the story by making a decision that would betray Joel's new found paternal love for ellie. I could understand if the game had giving you multiple decisions to be made throughout the game AND then force you into one at the end but that isn't the case. Honestly, there was no indication that this last decision would be based on our input.

I agree wholeheartedly! One thing I love and dislike about games is allowing me to create a lead character and making that character’s choices. I love it because I like to make the character look like me. I hate it because it usually leads to a sequel that’s not directly connected to the previous game often the story isn’t cohesive. If ND had allowed a choice then they’d have had to pick one themselves to follow for the sequel which would lead to the disappointment of many fans one way or another. Having Joel make the call himself leads to a stronger story and adds that aspect to the sequel. Like, does Ellie know that he lied to her? Or will she ever know for that matter? We’ll see...

Yeah, this was a gripe for me with a few games like inFamous 2 into second son. I'm glad ND didn't compromise the story to give us that illusion of choice, which generally speaking, is just that. The game is stronger for it and the discussion on this choice, when civilize, is pretty intriguing.