Naughty Dog Explain Why Ellie Was Changed In “The Last Of Us”

Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann has explained to IGN why Ellie’s appearance has changed in the latest The Last Of Us trailer.

“When we came up with the character of Ellie we put a lot of thought into what we wanted her to look like, researching the facial proportions, coloring and bone structures of dozens of faces and bodies,” he said. “In addition to this, we held numerous casting sessions to ensure we had the right performance capture artist to represent Ellie, eventually selecting actress Ashley Johnson.”

“As we’re still in the midst of development with The Last of Us, the team has been continuing to put a lot of thought into the creation of Ellie. After delving further into the game’s narrative over the past few months, we decided to modify Ellie’s model to better reflect Ashley’s personality, and also resemble a slightly younger teen more fitting to the story.”

“We’re happy with the final result shown in the cinematic we have released today, and hope the fans like her too.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ShP5xn9Tz90

“From the beginning we were trying to do something different, a darker look at the world, but with the depth of character and performance that Naughty Dog has been known for,” added Bruce Straley. “Somehow we managed to take everyone by surprise by revealing that Naughty Dog has a new game in the works.”

” It’s a game about the human condition. 20 years after a plague has decimated our society, how does man survive? When all moral and ethical codes have been stripped, who do you trust? After watching your friends and loved ones pass, do you think you could still love?” he asked.

“What is life without hope? We’re trying to make you feel these dilemmas while you’re playing The Last of Us.”

On the trailer, Druckmann said that they “wanted to whet people’s appetite before E3. This trailer is a nice little teaser that shows a good look into the world of The Last of Us. It also hints at the layers in Joel and Ellie’s relationship and frames their different perspectives on this world.”

“Our team has been working hard to have something ready at E3 that will please our fans. We’d love to say more, but we don’t want to spoil anything.”

25 Comments

  1. They’ve definitely softened her look a little. I think it looks great. But I’d say that anything NG turned their hand to.

  2. looks no different to be honest.

    • Yeah, don’t see the difference either.

  3. “It’s a game about the human condition. 20 years after a plague has decimated our society, how does man survive? When all moral and ethical codes have been stripped, who do you trust? After watching your friends and loved ones pass, do you think you could still love?”

    So pretty much like every other post apocalyptic game/movie/book/TV series?

  4. Looks like this will be releasing in 2013 then.

  5. I didn’t even notice.

    • Just watched the original video and this, she looks exactly the same?

    • Nope – go to 0:47 in the video and freeze it.

      Then look at this:
      http://mazahaka1337.deviantart.com/art/The-Last-of-us-Ellie-292647943

      She is definitely younger looking. They’ve also softened her features somewhat (probably a natural result of the age change).

      Ellie #1 looks about 16.
      Ellie #2 looks about 12.

      • Maybe I’m just really shit at telling age, I still think the first one looks like 14 or something I don’t see much of a jump. The new video she does look younger but not a massive age gap. Too me any way. Obviously I’m wrong.

  6. Not seen the original so it doesn’t bother me anyway. Looks good, I’m interested, but the story doesn’t sound very original.

  7. Didn’t realise! but i dont care teaser looks awesome! anything ND gets into normally comes out good right?

    • Crash: one of the best game on playstation
      jack and daxter: the best plat former on ps2
      uncharted: the best game ever
      the last of us: could it bring back silent hill’s days?
      bottom line, naughty dog rocks

  8. Not too bothered about the change but i guess it’ll make more sense when we play the game.I like the way they’re talking about the game though – it’s sounding like it might be the game i wanted Dead Island to be!

    • Spot on, fella. Something with emotion like the trailer (for Dead Island). Total swing and a miss that turned out to be.

  9. Looks a bit like the psn game ubisoft released a while ago can’t remember the name. But played the demo and I can imagine it being very similar. Demo was great though so I’m hoping NG can do something similar just up the everything

    • I Am Alive?

    • That was it I Am Alive. Sounds almost exactly the same sort of thing, complete with little girl

  10. and not just to avoid any image rights issues then? o_O

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