Why The Last of Us 2 is A Spiritually Enlightening Experience (No Spoilers)

[ardacigin]

No spoilers! Don't worry

I've recently played The last of us 2 on PS5 which is a Sony exclusive AAA game on vengeance, regret and empathy.

It was one of the most psychologically and spiritually profound gaming experiences of my life.

This will be a quick no-spoiler post on the themes of the game and why you should play if you are on the spiritual path. By the way, you should play Last of us 1 prior to this game. 

See, video games are an interactive medium that has the potential to provide a narrative above and beyond what movies or books can do. IF done right.

I think LoU 2 did just that. Created a unique experience that requires Stage Yellow paradigm (in spiral dynamics) to even appreciate it as a baseline. It requires doing deliberate psychoanalysis to understand each character and their motivations.

To empathize with each and concurrently piece together the puzzle parts into a coherent whole as the narrative is broken up into non-linear chapters and flashback.

This is not an easy experience to digest and understand. You also need good skills as a player to enjoy the combat.

 It is so easy to just slice up zombies and call it day. This is not a game you can enjoy with a casual gamer mindset. It is a realistic story that has grey characters with no perceptible villain. It requires some deep understanding of how trauma psychology works to get a sense of why characters do the things they do.

The themes of vengeance, regret and empathy is explored in such a way that since it is an interactive video game, it makes the package so profound and deep. Something that can't be experienced with a movie or a TV show.

This is all I can say without spoiling anything. Do yourself a favour and play this game with an open mind. You'll come to see all the hate and negativity that surrounds this game is absolutely unfounded which is a testament to its core audience which are high conscious individuals.

And this is rare thing in an industry where each high quality AAA takes about 100-200 million dollars to create. Taking such risks in a beloved franchise is very bold. And for that, I congratulate Naughty dog. And that is why I loved this game miles better than Last of Us 1. 

I personally took a deep look at my life and saw how the self-other duality was getting in the way of true compassion and empathy towards the 'other'.

That bias towards 'my life' is such an entrenched thing that it made me loosen up some of my self boundaries and approach my close friends and family with significantly more empathy and understanding regarding their suffering and problems. Especially towards people I don't subtly like or secretly judge.

It made me see certain traumatic underpinnings of my pscyhe and I'm looking into working through them as well. If experienced deeply, this game is a great trigger to do deep spiritual, psychological and philosophical investigation.

Definitely one of my most profound cinematic story experiences of my gaming career. It took me a good 7 days after finishing the game to digest and explore its themes deeply within myself and internalize some of its lessons.

Let me know your thoughts down below and how it impacted your spiritual evolution. Without spoiling anything.

Much love,

Arda

 

 

 

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by ardacigin

[Rinne]

16 hours ago, ardacigin said:

No spoilers! Don't worry

I've recently played The last of us 2 on PS5 which is a Sony exclusive AAA game on vengeance, regret and empathy.

It was one of the most psychologically and spiritually profound gaming experiences of my life.

This will be a quick no-spoiler post on the themes of the game and why you should play if you are on the spiritual path. By the way, you should play Last of us 1 prior to this game. 

See, video games are an interactive medium that has the potential to provide a narrative above and beyond what movies or books can do. IF done right.

I think LoU 2 did just that. Created a unique experience that requires Stage Yellow paradigm (in spiral dynamics) to even appreciate it as a baseline. It requires doing deliberate psychoanalysis to understand each character and their motivations.

To empathize with each and concurrently piece together the puzzle parts into a coherent whole as the narrative is broken up into non-linear chapters and flashback.

This is not an easy experience to digest and understand. You also need good skills as a player to enjoy the combat.

 It is so easy to just slice up zombies and call it day. This is not a game you can enjoy with a casual gamer mindset. It is a realistic story that has grey characters with no perceptible villain. It requires some deep understanding of how trauma psychology works to get a sense of why characters do the things they do.

The themes of vengeance, regret and empathy is explored in such a way that since it is an interactive video game, it makes the package so profound and deep. Something that can't be experienced with a movie or a TV show.

This is all I can say without spoiling anything. Do yourself a favour and play this game with an open mind. You'll come to see all the hate and negativity that surrounds this game is absolutely unfounded which is a testament to its core audience which are high conscious individuals.

And this is rare thing in an industry where each high quality AAA takes about 100-200 million dollars to create. Taking such risks in a beloved franchise is very bold. And for that, I congratulate Naughty dog. And that is why I loved this game miles better than Last of Us 1. 

I personally took a deep look at my life and saw how the self-other duality was getting in the way of true compassion and empathy towards the 'other'.

That bias towards 'my life' is such an entrenched thing that it made me loosen up some of my self boundaries and approach my close friends and family with significantly more empathy and understanding regarding their suffering and problems. Especially towards people I don't subtly like or secretly judge.

It made me see certain traumatic underpinnings of my pscyhe and I'm looking into working through them as well. If experienced deeply, this game is a great trigger to do deep spiritual, psychological and philosophical investigation.

Definitely one of my most profound cinematic story experiences of my gaming career. It took me a good 7 days after finishing the game to digest and explore its themes deeply within myself and internalize some of its lessons.

Let me know your thoughts down below and how it impacted your spiritual evolution. Without spoiling anything.

Much love,

Arda

 

 

 

 

I dont play vid games do u think watching someone else full walk through will do?

[Nos7algiK]

TLOU2 is a damn masterpiece and it was also a truly profound experience to me on an emotionally and spiritual level. My partner watch me play through the whole game and she felt the same as well. I honestly can't describe the core to why it's so damn good, it's like something that is unpointable to. I feel like it's some sort of evolved or transcended version of story telling that we have yet to see in the gaming industry, but hopefully more games going into the future can tap into TLOU2's magic.

I only have praise for Naughty Dog and Neil Druckmann for taking risks with this game knowing it would divide the fan base. Specially considering it was the last major release for the PS4 and one of the biggest releases of that generation.

This is strictly my opinion and I know a lot of people hate on the game. But, I believe the major difference between loving the game and hating it is how well one's emotional intelligence has matured and how empathetic they are. From my observation this seems to be the main factor, though of course there can be other reasons as well.

[ardacigin]

1 hour ago, Rinne said:

I dont play vid games do u think watching someone else full walk through will do?

Unfortunately no. This is an experience you need to have as a player. That interactivity is the point. You'll probably get bored just watching a lets play or no commentary walkthrough. It is a very different story-focused game than normal.

My recommendation would be as follows since you are a beginner to gaming:

1- Try to look for cheap PS4 consoles you can buy. Ask the seller if it is in good condition etc. You can also buy a PS5 but that can be more expensive and harder to find these days.

2- Buy Last of Us 1. Set the difficulty to easy and experience it without taking long breaks to save its immersion. It took me 18 hours to finish. So finish it in a week or two.

3- Take a break for a few months, play other awesome games on PS4 so that the experience doesn't get stale. Or jump right into Last of Us 2. Depends on you.

Again set the difficulty to easiest depending on how much challenge was frustrating in Last of us 1. 

4- Enjoy!!

Don't look at videos about this game. It is full of spoilers. Just follow these instructions whenever you have the cash and the time to experience this franchise.

 

 

[ardacigin]

1 hour ago, Nos7algiK said:

TLOU2 is a damn masterpiece and it was also a truly profound experience to me on an emotionally and spiritual level. My partner watch me play through the whole game and she felt the same as well. I honestly can't describe the core to why it's so damn good, it's like something that is unpointable to. I feel like it's some sort of evolved or transcended version of story telling that we have yet to see in the gaming industry, but hopefully more games going into the future can tap into TLOU2's magic.

I only have praise for Naughty Dog and Neil Druckmann for taking risks with this game knowing it would divide the fan base. Specially considering it was the last major release for the PS4 and one of the biggest releases of that generation.

This is strictly my opinion and I know a lot of people hate on the game. But, I believe the major difference between loving the game and hating it is how well one's emotional intelligence has matured and how empathetic they are. From my observation this seems to be the main factor, though of course there can be other reasons as well.

@Nos7algiKI haven't played a high budget game yet that explored regret, pain, suffering, trauma psychology, love, empathy, revenge as deeply as LoU 2.

I also love Detroit Become Human a lot but this is a very unique experience one gets with LoU 2.

The risk that Neil took was well worth it. I'm planning a 2nd playthrough few years down the line prior to LoU Part 3 comes out. The game is full of subtle details one can explore and glean insights from. 

There are only handful of games where this sort of post-analysis is necessary to extract its essence.

I also loved Ghost of Tsushima which I've completed just before LoU 2. Definitely one of my favourite open world games of all time. It was jaw droppingly amazing.

Sony is basically firing on all cylinders. Can't wait for this generation. I agree that very high levels of emotional intelligence is needed along with post analysis to understand what Neil Druckmann was trying to say. 

Streamers like Pewdiepie etc have given this game a bad rep. I understand the challenge of fully connecting with certain story beats, structural decisions and ambiguity of open ended interpretation. But those are what makes this game into a masterpiece in my eyes. 

 

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by ardacigin

[Zenroshi]

I just bought it, I didn't play it when it came out because all the controversy around it but, let see what's all the fuzz about.

[Danioover9000]

   From a technical game perspective, TLOU 2 was much better than the original, especially on the second half of the game, and the game mechanics are well balanced. Map design and detail is breathtaking, and difficulty settings are great, of course not in comparison to Dark Souls. All this praise is coming from some bias as I play lots of games in the past and occasionally do today.

   From a storytelling perspective, there's nothing new here, as the storyline is similar to Quinton Tarantino's pulp fiction, where there are moments you spend in the present, then some scenes you jump into the past with some of the playable characters, then back to the present. A good chunk of the second half is also played more through the perspective of the new character more than one of the original characters, which due to the medium of the game, provides a unique experience to handling different perspectives and an unusually nice pacing to the game. The last bit of the game an entirely new story arc takes place in the future almost doing a reverse pulp fiction to one of the original characters, which is both a jarring but nice plot twist. The creativity put into the story was quite refreshing. Also a bias of mine, as I study a lot of stories and making them.

   Spiritual/psychological perspective, it was a gold mind. So many pointers in the game, but mainly the many reactions of the division in the fan base was insightful, as I got some insights from their views on this game, especially after they played through it. It's not that surprising to me, this game feels like it's meant for a more mature, sophisticated ego rather than an immature one. Also the game has spiritual themes and symbolism in  it that is quite good. I almost went meta from just observing the fan base alone.

[ardacigin]

1 hour ago, Zenroshi said:

I just bought it, I didn't play it when it came out because all the controversy around it but, let see what's all the fuzz about.

Great to hear! Make sure to brush up on LoU 1 details. In fact, I recommend replaying it again prior to LoU 2. 

It will seriously enhance the experience.

[ardacigin]

58 minutes ago, Danioover9000 said:

 From a technical game perspective, TLOU 2 was much better than the original, especially on the second half of the game, and the game mechanics are well balanced. Map design and detail is breathtaking, and difficulty settings are great, of course not in comparison to Dark Souls. All this praise is coming from some bias as I play lots of games in the past and occasionally do today.

I definitely agree here. Combat was significantly improved with pistol silencer mechanic imo. I played it on hard. The ammo was scarce enough for me to focus on headshots but spare enough so that I could get into combat in each encounter. I loved grabbing someone, shooting the last person with a headshot and then executing him.

As to story telling, I always say that originality is never quite the issue. It is how the narrative is structured and characters are developed throughout the experience. I think LoU 2 aces that most important part.

Even the most cliche of stories can be turned into masterpieces with the right execution. But of course the best mix would be originality + execution

What sort of stories do you create?

 

 

[Endangered-EGO]

@ardacigin Hey, if you want to be confronted with how you perceive reality, then you might like "the good place". It's also really funny.

[Nos7algiK]

2 hours ago, ardacigin said:

Even the most cliche of stories can be turned into masterpieces with the right execution. But of course the best mix would be originality + execution

Agreed and I believe a large part of it's greatness comes from the fact it's a game and not a movie. Even though much of the game plays like a movie we are still in control of it's characters and because of this their actions then become our actions. Their struggles and now our struggles and so forth. There is a grander sense of loss, despair, and even hope when we feel like we are the ones  who are feeling these emotions. Many games try to play it safe and give the players what they believe they wanted. But, this game did give us what we wanted(though I'm sure it still would have been great) it gave us what we didn't know we needed.

[kamwalker]

The Last of Us Series series is absolutely amazing. I don’t play a lot of games, but those games completely sucked me in. The second one was even better. I couldn’t understand the negative feedback. 

[ardacigin]

On 9/18/2021 at 3:26 AM, Nos7algiK said:

Agreed and I believe a large part of it's greatness comes from the fact it's a game and not a movie. Even though much of the game plays like a movie we are still in control of it's characters and because of this their actions then become our actions. Their struggles and now our struggles and so forth. There is a grander sense of loss, despair, and even hope when we feel like we are the ones  who are feeling these emotions. Many games try to play it safe and give the players what they believe they wanted. But, this game did give us what we wanted(though I'm sure it still would have been great) it gave us what we didn't know we needed.

All these themes have inspired me to work on myself on a deeper level.

I've started an enquiry into no-self in each moment since this problem of selfishness and lack of empathy is a big problem to solve. I'm experiencing constant self-enquiry with this samatha technique I've started in daily life.

LoU 2 suggested to me that this was an issue I can't postpone any longer. Once I get deeper into it, I'll explain how to do the technique in another post.

All in all, I'm glad to have introspected and played this masterpiece :))

 

 

Edited September 19, 2021 by ardacigin

[Mafortu]

I dont own a playstation, but have you played Journey? Thats the most spiritual game I have ever played and I am always in the look out for games like that.

Also beware, this forum has a bias against videogames.

[MDMD]

This was a truly beautiful and emotionally compelling game, but I didn't really see much lessons in spirituality unless we're talking about the Buddhist notion of Duhka and how suffering arise out of Ellies attachment to vengeance and the ensuing karma from her actions, however there's something to be said about the of emerging stages of green and yellow in the structure of the narrative and characters.

You see a role reversal of genders by having strong female protagonists and straight up gay characters (stage Green). 

Then there's how the game developers flip the script part way through, which leans towards a more inclusive perspective by revealing the dynamics of community and humanity within Abby's group (stage Yellow). 

So in summary, we don't really see as many woman with powerful and resourceful roles in stages Orange and below and even more so don't see the humanizing of our presumed enemies less we call in to question our perspective upon reaching stage Yellow. 

These points are in my opinion the source of the outrage among gamers who are in GENERAL at stage orange. 

Lastly, LoU2 took me 3-4 days of hardcore gaming hours to finish amid an ego backlash brought up during lockdown so I'm hesitant to agree on whether it's worth spending that much time...unless game developing and storytelling is part of your life purpose.

[Nos7algiK]

45 minutes ago, Mafortu said:

I dont own a playstation, but have you played Journey? Thats the most spiritual game I have ever played and I am always in the look out for games like that.

Also beware, this forum has a bias against videogames.

I've played it a few times now, even once tripping. Truly a beautiful game in many ways. Some of it's moments are jaw dropping and gave me the chills how it felt so powerful. Which is a lot to say about a game that doesn't have any understandable language in it. Though understood or not, the messages are still able to be conveyed.

 

[ardacigin]

15 hours ago, Mafortu said:

I dont own a playstation, but have you played Journey? Thats the most spiritual game I have ever played and I am always in the look out for games like that.

Also beware, this forum has a bias against videogames.

I enjoyed Journey but I've played it many years ago in a time I couldn't perceive games as an art form. It was a forgettable experience at the time since I couldn't immerse myself in it. I'd feel very differently if I played it now though.

[lmfao]

Nah you're fucking joking mate, it was a god awful game. Terrible sequel for a story, bad plot and events. 

First game was high art, second game was tasteless trash with shit characters, rescinding everything good about the first game. Bad revenge story even if you ignore the first game 

Abby's a bitch, she should have listened to Owen before the game even started. She's hardly a sympathetic character if you go into specifics and spoilers. Even Ellie's character in this game is a bit weird as well... 

I couldn't get myself to play the game beyond some hours, just watched my bro play it instead to watch the story

Whatever themes or things you found it executed well, they didn't land on me at the time I watched 

Edited September 20, 2021 by lmfao

[ardacigin]

On 20.09.2021 at 5:39 PM, lmfao said:

Nah you're fucking joking mate, it was a god awful game. Terrible sequel for a story, bad plot and events. 

First game was high art, second game was tasteless trash with shit characters, rescinding everything good about the first game. Bad revenge story even if you ignore the first game 

Abby's a bitch, she should have listened to Owen before the game even started. She's hardly a sympathetic character if you go into specifics and spoilers. Even Ellie's character in this game is a bit weird as well... 

I couldn't get myself to play the game beyond some hours, just watched my bro play it instead to watch the story

Whatever themes or things you found it executed well, they didn't land on me at the time I watched 

The first game was fantastic as well. But it only explored one main theme throughout and its fruits arrived at the end of the journey. It was more linear but concentrated story which was effective for what it tried to convey.

But the second game has much bolder structure, character progression and explored multiples themes into revenge, trauma, hatred, empathy and regret. The game shocks you not only at the end but has its moments in the beginning, middle and end, unlike the first game. It also has more refined combat.

Both are fantastic in my opinion. I respect your opinion though

Edited September 21, 2021 by ardacigin