Several months have passed since its launch, but The Last of Us 2 continues to speak for the depth of its complex plot. Although, in this case, we have a curiosity confessed by Kurt Margenau, co-director of the game, about one of the most surprising enemies that we have to face throughout the adventure. Of course, spoilers will be delved into below, so if you have not completed the game it is better that you stop reading so as not to spoil the surprise.
As you may have imagined, we refer to one of the most unpleasant moments in the game, and one of the scenes that took the studio the longest to come true. We talked about the confrontation with the Rat King at ground zero of the hospital. An abomination is more typical of games like Resident Evil than The Last of Us, which has been characterized by offering humanoid-looking enemies.
Kirt Murgenau, co-director of the game, has chatted with the GamesRadar medium, where he has delved into this particular enemy. The creative affirms that they had several inspirations when designing their appearance. One of them has been Zygote, a 20-minute horror short film by Neil Blomkamp (Chappie, District 9), in which two survivors of a mining operation in the Arctic Circle fight against an alien creature. In addition, he also claims that they took the indie video game Inside as inspiration for what happens at the end of that adventure. “There is one person inside another, so the way the monster’s arms touch things is creepy work. We had to do some deep work to give it its own personality and make it feel real.”
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A Blompkamp movie and the indie game Inside were the inspiration for its design
But there’s inspiration from other major PS4 exclusive games too. On the one hand, in the God of War battle against Magni and Modi , but not because of their appearance, but because of the development of the battle when the smallest creature detaches itself from the main body of the Rat King. There, the combat changes drastically. “There is a similarity to the combat against Magni and Modi, since they are two complementary enemies; one with a fast weapon and another with a large and slow one.”
God of War and Bloodborne’s fighting style inspired Naughty Dog
Another game that has had some inspiration when it comes to recreating the already iconic battle against the Rat King is, how could it be otherwise, Bloodborne . Hidetaka Miyazaki’s work is known for its dark setting, but it is not in that aspect that Naughty Dog drew inspiration from for combat, as stated by Anthony Newman, designer of the game. It is in one of his most particular enemies: Eileen, the raven . “I loved that in a game where you face enemies 20 stories tall, the most challenging and brutal fight is against someone the same size as you. So we were interested in doing something like that, in making an infected if it wasn’t oversized it felt just as deadly, “says Newman.
