The two female characters are designed to enhance each other

Dec 13, 2012 23:41 GMT  ·  By

Neil Druckmann, the creative director working on The Last of Us, believes that the strength of the story for the upcoming The Last of Us gives the development team at Naughty Dog many occasions for character development, all of them enhanced by motion capping.

The developer says, “I tried not to be mindful of too many outside influences, which is things like the industry, and how women are portrayed. I believe that should not affect a person’s writing. It’s about trying to find core truths in your story, and then letting that be the driving force.”

“I guess Ellie started first because the core of the story is the relationship of Ellie and Joel, and the journey they go through – both a difficult journey and a journey of their relationship. Off of that I tried to develop characters that reflect back off Joel and Ellie that let us see different aspects of them and their relationship,” he adds.

Druckmann acknowledges that the characters will be forced to do some terrible things during The Last of Us, all because of the exceptional situation they have to face.

The developer has also commented on the character of Tess, which was newly introduced via trailer, saying that as the story debuts, she is Joel’s partner, but she is involved heavily in contraband, ready to do anything she has to in order to survive and get supplies.

The Last of Us will see players explore a world where a fungus-based plague had scoured the world about 20 years prior to the events of the game.

Joel needs to take Ellie and guide her away from the infected humans, the dangerous scavengers and the United States military that’s interested in her for mysterious reasons.

The Last of Us will be launched exclusively on the PlayStation 3 home console from Sony on May 7, 2013.