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''The Last of Us'', an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog, deals with the relationship between an older man, Joel, and a teenaged girl, Ellie. Joel is tasked with escorting Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a potential cure against an infection to which Ellie is immune. The relationship between the two characters became the basis of the game's development. Joel is the primary playable character of the game, though players assume control of Ellie for a short portion. Throughout their journey, Joel and Ellie meet various characters: Tommy, Joel's brother who built his own settlement; Marlene, leader of the militia group Fireflies; Tess, a survivor who is closely acquainted with Joel; Bill, a survivor who runs his own town; Henry and Sam, brothers from Pittsburgh; and David, the leader of a group of cannibals. In addition, Joel's daughter Sarah appears in the game's prologue, and Ellie's friend Riley Abel is heavily featured in the downloadable content pack ''The Last of Us: Left Behind''. A team at Naughty Dog designed the character appearances, and creative director Neil Druckmann was the main writer of their personalities and mannerisms. The actors were given considerable license to improvise the lines and influence character personality, simultaneously performing the motion capture work for their characters. Various characters were influenced by the story progression, ultimately becoming completely different from the initial vision. The relationship of the characters received praise from several gaming publications, and the acting has resulted in multiple awards, including two BAFTAs and a DICE Award. ==Creation and conception== The relationship between the characters of Joel and Ellie, portrayed by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, respectively, was the central focus of the game's development. Creative director Neil Druckmann wrote the game's script, particularly focusing on the characters. Though the development team quickly felt that Johnson fit the role of Ellie, they spent more time selecting the actor of Joel, as the chemistry between the two characters was imperative to the game. After Baker and Johnson played alongside each other, the team realized that the former perfectly fit the role of Joel, despite the actor's young age. Baker and Johnson contributed greatly to the development of the characters. For example, Baker convinced Druckmann that Joel would care for Tess due to his loneliness,〔 and Johnson convinced Druckmann to re-write the character of Ellie in a stronger and more defensive manner.〔 Some of the dialogue between the duo was improvised by the actors; Druckmann attributed this to the fact that the script included an unnecessary amount of lines during gameplay sections, and he allowed the actors to choose what they felt was necessary. From the beginning of development, the team intended for ''The Last of Us'' to feature dual protagonists with strong individual story arcs.〔 The character interactions were inspired by the relationship between Nathan Drake and Tenzin in ''Uncharted 2: Among Thieves'' (2009), in turn inspired by the video game ''Ico'' (2001). The game's protagonists represent the two eras that are shown in the game; Joel represents the world before the outbreak, having spent most of his life during this period, while Ellie represents the world after the outbreak, as she was born in the post-apocalyptic world. While the former is emotionally damaged due to the loss that he has experienced, the latter maintains an optimistic view of life, having become familiar to the damaged world; spending time with each other saw these qualities overlapping, with Joel become more lively, and Ellie learning more survival skills.〔 The character's performances were mostly recorded using motion capture technology; approximately 85% of the game's animations were recorded using motion capture, with remaining audio elements recorded later in a studio. The development team felt that the post-apocalyptic world and the survival horror genre gave them the opportunity to better develop the characters. Taking inspiration from their work on the ''Uncharted'' games, the team used their knowledge of paralleling characters with the conflict in both gameplay and stories when developing ''The Last of Us''. They also took inspiration from the books ''The Road'' (2006) and ''City of Thieves'' (2008), and the film ''No Country for Old Men'' (2007), noting that they all include memorable characters and using this as a point of inspiration. "()e can make you as a player feel more of what it's truly like to exist inside of a world where every bullet counts and each step you take is a conscious choice that's going to make or break your existence," said Straley.〔 The team also felt that the "pressures of the world" allowed them to better develop their characters. They felt that the pressure forced the characters to make interesting decisions, allowing better development.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of The Last of Us characters」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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