Love is a ravishing factor, particularly within the grim world of The Final of Us. So it’s heartwarming to see a loving tribute from the 2013 PlayStation unique make its technique to Craig Mazin’s HBO drama—particularly when it’s an Easter egg a developer admits is “foolish.”
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HBO’s The Final of Us, which wrapped up its first season finale episode over the weekend, takes a number of liberties with the sport’s narrative. As an alternative of retreading the identical story beat-by-beat, the TV sequence fleshes Joel’s character out, expands Invoice and Frank’s relationship, and does Tess fairly soiled. However whereas there are many variations between the sport and the present, so much has additionally stayed the identical, together with a specific Easter egg former Naughty Canine designer Peter Subject added to the unique The Final of Us. Spoilers for the sport are slightly below.
An lovable, ‘foolish’ tribute in The Final of Us
Subject, who now works at Media Molecule as a principal designer on the creator recreation Goals, tweeted “a foolish Easter egg” that was within the 2013 recreation that discovered its technique to the 2023 present. The Easter egg is the title of a baseball discipline Joel and Ellie stumble throughout. Subject (get it?) named it “Bethany Clare Subject” after his spouse, sneaking in slightly nod to his lover in a reasonably inconsequential area.
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It appears the folks behind the HBO sequence care so much about remaining correct to the unique recreation, as the sphere in query made its method into the present.
“I’m nonetheless reeling from this,” Subject tweeted on March 13. “A foolish Easter Egg I put within the authentic The Final of Us recreation has in some way survived the transition to live-action TV. It’s blurry, but it surely’s positively there! I can’t think about the HBO crew knew the title of the baseball discipline was a tribute to my spouse.”
The Final of Us discipline isn’t actual, however the love is
The baseball discipline Subject is speaking about is in Salt Lake Metropolis, the final location throughout Ellie and Joel’s journey in The Final of Us recreation. After chasing the Fireflies again to Utah, the duo discover themselves within the lush metropolitan metropolis that’s overrun with marsh, bushes, and vines. The 2 navigate by some rundown buildings earlier than coming as much as a ravishing clearing lined with a vibrant inexperienced discipline and a household of grazing giraffes. On the fitting facet is a scoreboard that, when zoomed in and enhanced, clearly reads “Bethany Clare Subject.”
Within the final episode of The Final of Us season 1, titled “Search for the Gentle,” Ellie and Joel journey by Salt Lake Metropolis in what’s, very similar to the sport, the tip of their journey. With out divulging an excessive amount of, the duo stroll to a equally attractive clearing of grass and grazing giraffes. As Subject factors out, the textual content is blurry, however in the event you zoom in and improve it, you possibly can see his spouse’s title on the scoreboard.
Subject advised Kotaku over Twitter DMs that as a result of the Naughty Canine crew didn’t should examine with authorized to place Easter eggs into the sport, builders “added a great deal of [them] again then.” On his half, he snuck in “album covers from photographs of family and friends and their cats” that appear to have been faraway from the PS4 remaster “as a result of texture budgets.” The one purpose he thought the baseball discipline’s title made it by was as a result of his and his spouse’s final title is Subject, so naming a baseball discipline as such “felt appropriately plausible and hidden,” letting them chuckle each time they caught a glimpse of it. Nonetheless, Subject didn’t really see the Easter egg himself. Although he’s seen the HBO present, it was another person on Twitter that pointed the “small element” out.
“Seeing the Easter egg within the TV present actually blows my thoughts,” Subject mentioned. “Of all of the tiny particulars to have been preserved throughout two ports of the sport, after which a TV present, Beth’s baseball discipline, the one which in all probability means probably the most to me however the least folks knew about, is the one which made it by. I used to be pointed to a Reddit thread by the VFX artist at WETA FX that labored on the shot. They talked about that that they had no thought it was a significant tribute. They only wished to make the area as genuine to the unique recreation as potential, in order that they copied that individual prop precisely. It appears to be like prefer it might really be the precise prop from TLOU Half I! After that, a couple of extra people who labored on the present reached out to say that they had no thought, too! I really like how this unlikely little element has managed to endure and survive throughout a number of mediums. So fucking cool!”
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That is such a touching tribute. The Final of Us is a devastating recreation, an illustration of the lengths people will generally go to guard these they love. In honoring his spouse with this Easter egg, I’d say Subject resides as much as that theme.
Replace 03/15/23, 10:00 a.m. ET: This story was up to date to incorporate some quotes from former Naughty Canine designer Peter Subject concerning the Easter egg.
