Well it kinda does.

The game is portraying a post-apocalytic world, so of course it's going to have a 'depressing' theme for flip sake. The first one felt similar. Just because they portray violence doesn't mean they are glorifying it, they are showing the reality of the situation. Are all Scientology documentaries glorifying Scientology? Or  True crime ? Seriously, the world is shit sometimes, and portraying that doesn't eqate to glorifying it.

It was a failure. Even games like Animal crossing, Fall guys and Among us had a better reception than the hyped game. Cyberpunk may face a similar situation.

SPOILER!!  Ellie was able to come to terms with joel's death. It's also very likely that ellie went back to dina, a few hints and story based level motifs/ elements of design suggest ellie would be going back to dina. Ellie  definitely looks set to move on with her past, looks healthier. Part of me believes she has already been back to jacksonville and came back to the house once more. The fact that we don't see ellie reflection on dina/jj, tells me she has been to see them already.

There is hope for ellie in the futute. Also remember that ellie was ready to forgive joel for a massive act, and dina likewise could do the same and be willing to take ellie back. Ellie also saves abby and lev, giving them both a chance of life and abby sets on a course to the fireflies with lev. Another element of a hopeful future.  What would have been depressing if abby and lev died, and the game ended with ellie at the farm unable to get the death of joel and abby out of her mind. The first game ended on a depressing note, and anticlimatic,  this game feels like the opposite.

ND wanted to try something new, bold and mentally and emotionally challenging. Many people weren't ready for that, and I'm not surprised. I myself wasn't at first, I was furious after the leaks but I decided to give the game a chance and in the end it totally blew me away. It turned me around in a way that seemed impossible at first. I don't recall any form of entertainment having done that to me before.
One of the hardest things in life is to try and see things from other people's perspective, especially when you consider them enemies. This actually speaks to the whole of society in the modern climate, where tribalism and total demonizing of people with differing opinions is the name of the game. Letting go of toxic things that have an emotional hold on you is another extremely difficult thing to do. Again, this applies to both the theme of the game and society at large.
Many people didn't want such themes, they were expecting just another adventure with Joel and Ellie, with nothing too upsetting or challenging. I guess there were also those who saw certain elements in the game as "woke agenda" and made that the sticking point for a whole crusade against the game, refusing even to give it a try. The initial outrage with the leaks certainly made it seem like a bigger issue than it really was, it was easy to get caught up in it especially when there's real "wokening" going on with many beloved franchises at the same time. I can say that "wokeness" was not the real agenda here, but something much deeper and complex and it's a shame if people totally pass on the game due to false assumptions.

I believe it won't sell as the first game and in the long run it won't be as praised.
But to be honest I still see the game being sold at retail almost at full price so there is a long way road for this game to sell. A remaster would also help with sales on PS5.
But overall, in my opinion, the reason why it wont sell as much:
- Director's decision on the story, he himself said the game would be divisive so this is expected, a lot of people that enjoyed the first one would not like the sequel.
- When you throw in politics into an already divisive game it just gets, well, more divisive.
- A story about hope and beauty in a fucked up world is much more compelling than a story about hate, depression and misery in the same world.
- A lot of people consider the story and the way it is told does not make sense and it is forced. I watched a youtube cut changing the ending and the sequence the story is told and I think it is much better.
- Deceptive marketing

In the end, the amount of people saying "duuuuuuude you got to play this game it is my favorite game ever" was probably much larger for the first game.
It will still sell a lot though and easily reach 10M units at least and make a good profit though.

A lot of people in this thread seem to think the criticism this game gets is some kind of hate filled personal vendetta against naughty dog... It's almost as dismissive as saying "anyone who supports this game is a blind fan to naughty dog".

I haven't played the game but reading into it the last couple of weeks, the criticism seems well deserved.

From your last phrase you would seem to fit in the first category of your own comment.

If you haven't played the game then you won't really know if the criticism is well deserved. And sincerely most of those criticism is similar to what happen in most reviews, it is people complaining that their particular expectations and wishes weren't fulfilled. Basically judging a product or game for what they wanted it to be not to what it is. And when you judge anything on that basically everything can be said to be bad and flawed. Since no matter what the game is, if you were really sincere there would be stuff on it that would prefer if different.

No dlc releasing, no mp, no new game announcement, thats why its not talked about that much

Dino? I mean I know Ellie's into dinosaurs and everything, but seriously? O is on the complete other side of the keyboard from A!

ANYWAY, while that's certainly a valid interpretation (I mean the game's creators themselves have a variety of takes on how the game's ending feels), mine has been that...

Anyway, I still think The Last of Us Part II is a masterpiece, full stop. Like it has impacted my way of viewing the world.