Not just because they’re female, but because they feel like real people. Characters that I can relate to more than the usual gruff men whose shoes I’m asked to step into when I play video games. The Last of Us was already a masterclass in interactive storytelling, in my opinion, but this shows that Naughty Dog’s talents extend to different parts of the emotional spectrum than The Last of Us’ campaign, and that it can write all sorts of characters. It’s not just significant because it’s about the kind of relationship other games are terrified to explore, either - it’s significant because it does it so well. You see Ellie desperately trying to hide the fact that she needs her using those adolescent weapons of mockery, sarcasm and misplaced aggression. There’s the rejection, the sense of betrayal, the explosion of unrefined anger and cruel words that you immediately regret. When she eventually tells her, there’s a fight - a fight that reminded me so strongly of the ones I used to have with my best friend when we were teenagers. Their horsing around on the merry-go-round and in the photobooth is a retreat, a regression back to childhood to avoid facing the realities of growing up: separation, change, probably pain. You see Ellie straining to believe in the game, as they both try to avoid the truth that they have changed. That scene in the arcade is almost unbearable the second time around. Riley is planning to abscond with the Fireflies, and can’t figure out how to tell Ellie. What they get up to there is an echo of the childhood they presumably shared the silly games, the water-pistol fight, the puns, their mockery of the quarantine-zone’s stern pronouncements (“Inaction… costs lives!”). Riley goads Ellie into revisiting one of their old haunts, the abandoned mall. Riley’s been away for months, but as soon as she arrives back in Ellie’s dorm their friendship picks up where it left off immediately you can see their shared sense of humour and rebellious spirit. But they have started to go in different directions Ellie is training with the military, whilst Riley ran off to join the military resistance, the Fireflies. Their friendship has that intensity that comes from growing up together. Ellie and Riley have clearly known each other for a long time.
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