WARNING: This article contains MASSIVE spoilers about A Plague Tale: Requiem and The Last of Us. Proceed at your own risk.One of the most emotionally gripping games of 2022 was A Plague Tale: Requiem. Developed by Asobo Studio, the game serves as the sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence which stars the siblings Amicia and Hugo. With its heartbreaking moments and unbelievable plot twists, A Plague Tale: Requiem does a wonderful job of making players experience dramatic emotional highs and lows. Like The Last of Us series, it poses moral questions, though it sees the main characters behave in different ways.
In The Last of Us, Joel must give up what he loves most to save humanity. However, he is unable to do it, and he instead leaves the world to be damned. In contrast, Amicia has the strength to give up everything she loves and cares about for the greater good. Although there are plenty of debates to be had regarding who made the right choice, it is hard to not admire Amicia for her bravery in the face of what seems like an impossible dilemma.
How Joel’s Trauma and Loss Drive His Actions in The Last of Us
On the surface, Joel seems like a grizzled man who can endure the hardships of the dystopian world of The Last of Us. He is capable of great violence, and even when he is outnumbered, his survival skills allow him to overcome the odds. However, if one digs deeper into his life, it becomes apparent that Joel is a deeply traumatized individual who struggles to deal with the pain he carries. Most of his pain comes from the loss of his daughter, Sarah. Her death is sudden, and he is powerless to do anything to save her. Following her death, Joel becomes a much crueler man, his cynicism grows, and he closes himself off to the world. He also refuses to talk about his past or anything involving Sarah because it is just too painful for him.
Things change when Ellie enters his life. Through Ellie, Joel softens, and he grows to love the little girl as if she were his daughter. While this helps him heal, it also puts him in the position to be hurt again, and he does everything in his power to protect her as they travel across the country to find the Fireflies. When they finally do find the faction, Joel learns that to make a cure for The Last of Us' cordyceps pandemic, Ellie will have to die. Following the brutal loss that Joel has faced, he is unable to give Ellie up, even if it means saving the human race. Hence, he chooses to save Ellie and kill the only surgeon capable of creating a cure.
Though Joel’s choice in The Last of Us is understandable, it is also one that is easy to criticize. Joel’s decision is ultimately made for selfish reasons. Furthermore, given the dystopian nature of society, he is merely damning Ellie to a life of constantly fighting against the infected in a battle that seems impossible to win. In A Plague Tale: Requiem, Amicia finds herself in a position quite similar to Joel’s, though she has the chance to make a different decision.
How Amicia Deals with Trauma in A Plague Tale
In A Plague Tale: Innocence, players are introduced to Amicia de Rune and her younger brother Hugo. Initially, they aren’t very familiar with each other, though things change when a rat plague strikes their French village and the Inquisition begins its bloody hunt for Hugo. Consequently, Amicia and Hugo flee, with Amicia taking care of her younger brother along the way. In many ways, Amicia and Hugo’s relationship mirrors Joel and Ellie’s relationship, with Amicia serving as Hugo’s guardian.
Eventually, the pair discover that the terrible rat plague is being caused by the Prima Macula which is a curse that has infected Hugo’s blood. This gives Hugo the power to control the rat swarms, though this power has to be used sparingly because if Hugo lets the Prima Macula take over him, it will cause nothing but destruction. In A Plague Tale: Requiem, it appears as though Amicia and Hugo have found peace, but signs of the Prima Macula re-emerge. Following clues from Hugo’s dream, they go searching for a special bird in hopes that they will figure out how to cure the curse.
The journey has Amicia going through more traumatic battles, forcing her to do gruesome things and make terrible decisions to keep Hugo safe. When Hugo believes Amicia has been killed, he eventually gives into the Prima Macula, sparking the beginning of apocalyptic events. At this point, it is too late to save Hugo, and the only way to stop mass death is to kill Hugo at the end of A Plague Tale: Requiem. It is an extremely difficult choice for Amicia to make, though by doing so she saves many lives.
By having the capacity to make the hard choice to save her brother for the sake of the greater good, A Plague Tale: Requiem's Amicia sets herself apart from Joel. Unlike Joel, she realizes that even if she could save Hugo, she would only be bringing him into a world where he would be suffering and longing for his mother. Although the thing she wants most is for Hugo to be happy, she comes to grips with the fact that this is ultimately a selfish desire. For players who are simply unable to land a fatal blow on Hugo, Lucas does the dirty work.
A Plague Tale and The Last of Us are two franchises that are often compared to each other, and fans will get another chance to compare them, as A Plague Tale will be receiving a television adaptation. The Last of Us has raised the bar for television series based on video games, and A Plague Tale’s offering will have to be top-notch if it wishes to stand out. Fortunately, it has a gripping story to work with.
A Plague Tale: Requiem is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
