Details I Found: TLOU Remake Prologue
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Some of you may stumble on this article and have no idea what’s going on. That’s fine! This is a series I kept entirely on Reddit. Basically, I went through The Last of Us Part II and found every single detail I could. I shared my findings with r/thelastofus. You can view all of the posts I did for TLOU2 here.
I asked the subreddit if they were interested in seeing more posts like that for The Last of Us remake. By a score of 87–25, they voted yes. So, here we are. I’m going to put all the TLOU Remake posts into Medium articles for two reasons. One, I want to start being more active with this blog. Two, I write these posts on my phone. I don’t like formatting everything for a Reddit post. Since Medium reintroduced mobile editing once again, formatting everything is much easier here.
I apologize in advance for any spelling mistakes. I self edit for this blog, and I’m admittedly not great at catching every single mistake I make. Anyway, let’s get into this series. We’ll start with The Last of Us remake’s prologue.
- I could be reading this wrong, but I believe the time on the clock when Sarah looks is 11:50 pm. Which makes sense given her “but it’s still today" line.
- I started doing a similar series for the 2014 remastered version, so the prologue and summer entries in this remake version will have some comparisons to that. I mention this because there are some slight differences I notice in Sarah’s room. There are some new posters. One of them is a poster for a band called Adjacent Hazard, who had a show at The Music Hall on September 10, 2013.
- The Jet Sumpitullo card is still there, but is now accompanied by a card for an unnamed tennis player.
- I can’t find the poster for The Huge Shock Tour, which was present in the 2014 remaster.
- A very sad fact still remains. We know Joel’s birthday is September 26. According to Sarah’s calendar, her friend Kate was having her birthday party on September 27.
- Sarah has a book called Origami Animals 101 on her computer desk. There are also little origami animals on her desk and dresser. Not sure if this is present in the 2014 remaster.
- In The Last of Us Part II, there are multiple locations where you’ll find books on the shelf, and the book titles are usually one of like four or five possibilities. One of the reused book titles makes an appearance in Sarah’s room: Guests Of Fond Memories.
- Among other book titles found in Sarah’s room are Ignoring Time, The Ghost Pirates, and The Book of Dragons.
- Sarah also has a copy of Dracula in her room.
- There are glow in the dark stars on her ceiling, just like in the remaster. The ceiling fan is also spinning.
- The curtains right before the bathroom are swaying in the breeze. You can see one of the windows is open, allowing the breeze in.
- The newspaper Sarah picks up in the bathroom is from the Texas Herald. This is not a newspaper, but could have been inspired by the Austin Times Herald, a local newspaper in Austin.
- We’ve all seen the news story on the newspaper titled “Police: crazed woman kills husband and 3 others.” Now that we can read a bit of it, here’s some information. The incident occured in Westlake Hills, which is around five miles from Austin. The woman who killed her husband is Sandra Rivers. She took police by surprise, as they weren’t aware she was at the crime scene when they went to investigate.
- If you put the newspaper down and just stand there for a bit, the nightlight in the bathroom shuts off.
- The light in the bathroom is motion activated. If you pick the newspaper back up, or just move around the room at all, it turns back on.
- The news report on Joel’s TV has a lot of changes. First, there’s no news ticker at the bottom like there is in the 2014 remaster. That news ticker provided reports from St. Louis, Baton Rouge, and Atlanta.
- Second, the channel is still Channel 2. However, the KATX affiliation is gone.
- Next, the time is different. The time on the broadcast in the 2014 remaster was 3:05 am local. Now, it’s 1:55 am.
- Lastly, the reporter’s name has changed. In 2014, the reporter’s name was Lori Gilbert. In this remake, her name is Rose Graham.
- Fun fact, this reporter is voiced by Laura Bailey.
- When you’re shown the explosion out the window, you can see the shockwave it lets off.
- A lot of the assets in Joel’s room remain the same as in the 2014 remaster. It seems like he was trying to create some sort of start up.
- Downstairs and to the left of the front door, there’s two pictures. One of them is of three women, like a picture of friends. Maybe they’re old high school friends of Joel’s? Maybe family members? I tried to take a screenshot but I can’t get it to upload to my PS app. If I can figure that out later, I’ll add it here.
- Whoever left the plate of pizza crust on the coffee table ate the pizza with a fork.
- In the 2014 remaster, the time on Joel’s phone and the time on the TV broadcast upstairs were vastly different. Here, they’re much more aligned. The time on Joel’s phone was 1:59 am when I checked it. I do wonder if clock on his phone works in real time similar to how Ellie’s alarm clock in TLOU2’s prologue worked.
- As many have pointed out, there is a note from Tommy to Joel on Joel’s bulletin board in his office.
- Not sure if this is true for the 2014 remaster, but you can see some reflections in Tommy’s rearview mirror.
- When passing the burning farm, you can actually see parts of the building falling and crumbling in the blaze.
- It seems like a lot of the shops and such I pointed out in Jackson in TLOU2 were reused for this remake. The Pit BBQ and Twin Sisters Grocers being among the shops reused for the strip of shops after the car crash.
- My favorite detail of the prologue is definitely the explosion at the Texan gas station. You can see the shock wave created by the explosion, which is something you couldn’t see in the 2014 remaster.
- Joel’s watch is broken by the shot that kills Sarah. This was always a theory, but in the 2014 game, the shot never broke his watch.
And that’s it for the prologue. I don’t know how often I’ll update this, just because I do work and go to school as well. But I’ll try my best to update things semi regularly. Hope you enjoyed, and I’ll see you for the Summer chapter!
If you’d like to support the work I do, or just support me in general, consider leaving a donation through my ko-fi page. Thank you!
Photo Credit: Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment
