WARNING....POTENTIAL SPOILERS!
We are allowed to enjoy or not enjoy something. I'm pleased that you thought it was a masterpiece. The choices taken just do not appeal to me. My brother played it through (we share game tastes and both love the original), I was highly sceptical already and he warned me off it, he couldn't have disliked the game more. His thoughts, great visuals, very dated gameplay mechanics and an unpleasant, unsatisfying storyline. Each to their own. I'm not about to spend a good chunk of money on something that I am very likely going to dislike based on everything that I already know coupled with the opinion of game loving people that I respect. As I said, i may get to play it in the distant future when i can get it for buttons, but it's doubtful, I am already short on playing time and their are a lot of games vying for that time.
I don't think that its necessarily about "what fans want", I'm not into "fan pleasing" at all, you can't keep everyone happy. I just think it's a fairly reasonable expectation that a game that became so popular through the love of it's two main characters and their relationship development that a sequel would maintain that dynamic......to maintain its success. Surely that's just logic (and good business) rather than fan pleasing? If it was my business and my money making (losing) opportunity, I know which direction I would have taken.....the safe one. Common sense. We are making a sequel, your primary market are the people who bought the first game. So the first question you ask....what did those people love about the first game?
Instead, a decision was taken to "subvert expectations", end one of those characters prematurely and give the other one a melancholic ending. I can appreciate that some may enjoy that, seems to me that on the face of things, and on the reported disappointing sales, a lot of LOU players didn't.
As for Joel being a psychopath, that is certainly not my take on the character. An already damaged man who chose saving the life of his pseudo-surrogate child over the lives of those who were about to kill a child to save others seems like a perfectly human action to me, and though of course the child of someone who Joel had killed might see him that way, he had his own justifiable motivations that the player can see very differently. I have a daughter Ellie's age. I can understand his actions. Probably one of the reasons I loved that first game (I came to it late).
Anyway, when I play a sequel to a game that I loved 100% due to its lead characters dynamic, their relationship, I don't see it as subverting expectations to completely throw that dynamic away to replace it with something different, I just see it as a disappointment. I'm interested in Joel and Ellie. They took that away. That original game WAS that relationship.....it certainly wasn't its cutting edge gameplay mechanics. The farce of the deliberately misleading marketing subsequent to the leaks only demonstrates how nervous naughty dog became after realising just how unpopular some of those story decisions were.
I'm pleased that some are enjoying it, that's great, but I have no motivation to play it as my reason to do so was removed. If Naughty Dog wanted to make a sequel for the people who loved playing as Joel and Ellie, they would have done so, they chose to try something different. A gamble on their part, but it's their game and their money I guess, they must be happy for me NOT to purchase it.
As i said, each to their own, this is just my feelings on the subject, other opinions are (as always) available
Got carried away there.......apologies!
, as far as the actual game yes it has been doing horribly after release, over here most of the stores have sold out on Ghost of Tsushima (Amazing game btw, highly recommend it) while TLOU2 keeps getting the price knocked down, it's honestly depressing, I wasn't a fan of the story but I feel bad for all the people who worked hard on the actual game because it is groundbreaking graphics wise and the gameplay is very immersive and satisfying but the story... just wasn't a lot of peoples cup of tea.
