page_title: Development of The Last of Us Part II
section_title: Story and setting
hierarchical_section_title: Development of The Last of Us Part II / Story and setting
caption_attribution_description: English: Halley Gross at a press event for The Last of Us Part II during "Outbreak Day" 2019.
context_page_description: A team of approximately 350 people at Naughty Dog developed The Last of Us Part II over several years. Sony Interactive Entertainment published the action-adventure game in June 2020 for the PlayStation 4. A sequel to the 2013 game The Last of Us, core development on Part II began after the 2014 release of The Last of Us Remastered. Neil Druckmann returned as creative director and writer, alongside Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau as game directors. After its announcement in 2016, the game was fervently promoted with press showings, cinematic trailers, and special editions. Its release date was subject to several delays, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The development reportedly included a crunch schedule of 12-hour work days and was slowed by the enormous turnover of employees following the development of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
  Druckmann collaborated with Halley Gross on the game's story. He was inspired by his own experiences growing up in the West Bank, where violence was a frequent topic. Gross also took her own experience with post-traumatic stress disorder with the game's characters.
context_section_description: Druckmann, who was promoted to Vice President of Naughty Dog in 2018, had less time to write on Part II than on The Last of Us; he wrote the majority of the latter, but less than half of the former. Halley Gross was approached to collaborate as a writer on the game shortly after she had completed her work on Westworld in 2016. She was hired as a writer early in development to help Druckmann outline the story and decipher characters. She felt that she and Druckmann had very similar tastes and interests. When Gross joined the project, Druckmann had a structure for the entire story; Gross felt that her perspective on characters and trauma added to the narrative. When crafting the story further, Druckmann and Gross created an outline and presented it to the studio to "stress-test" it. They then worked in non-chronological order with animators, layout designers, and other departments to develop ideas. Each section of the game was mapped on a wall using notecards; if a section did not contribute to the overall narrative momentum, or was "just cool for the sake of being cool", it was scrapped. Druckmann found that the additional voice of Gross led to more believable characters, particularly regarding romance and comedy. When she assumed more responsibilities about two years into development, Gross was given the title of "narrative lead". Josh Scherr and Ryan James contributed to additional in-game dialogue; Scherr also wrote the descriptions of the collectible cards.
  Druckmann felt that his time working on Uncharted 4 for two years allowed the story of Part II to slowly develop. The team experimented with different plot structures and considered scrapping the game entirely until they settled on an idea that mirrored the first game; Druckmann identified that The Last of Us is about the extreme measures one would take for love, whereas Part II is more about how far one would go to bring justice for those they love. He initially stated that, while the first game focuses on love, Part II centers on hate; he later rephrased that both games are about love, analyzing the best and worst it can offer. He felt that the town of Jackson represented the best, as its population attempted to live morally in a world representing the real one, while the war between the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) and the Seraphites demonstrates the worst, despite some glimpses of hope within the lives of the former. Druckmann predicted that some players would dislike the game's story, but said that he would prefer passionate hate over apathy; he found that some players considered the characters in the first game to be "sacred" and wanted to ensure that was not the case with the sequel.
  The game's themes of revenge and retribution were inspired by Druckmann's own experiences growing up in the West Bank, where violence was a frequent topic. He specifically recalled watching footage of the 2000 Ramallah lynching, and how, after hearing the cheering crowds, his mind immediately turned to violent thoughts about bringing the perpetrators to justice. He wanted the player to feel a "thirst for revenge" before making them realize the reality of their actions. Once Druckmann had settled on a basic concept, the remainder of the narrative outline was complete within weeks. Druckmann noted that some members of the team felt reluctant about the game's cynicism, but ultimately he preferred a divisive story than a "mundane" one. He found that stories that showed the cost that revenge has on a person were more nuanced, and wanted to use the interactivity of the medium to push these feelings to players. He found that people often want to bring someone to justice after witnessing a horrible act, but are unable to do so due to laws and society; in the game world, where societal structures no longer exist, he saw an opportunity to explore this concept. When researching for the game, Druckmann watched the documentary films Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and its sequels Revelations (2000) and Purgatory (2011) and found it particularly interesting wh
caption: Halley Gross was approached to collaborate as a writer shortly after completing her work on Westworld.
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