The Last of Us Part 1’s launch is nearly a week away now, as celebrated by its recent launch trailer. Much of the remake has been leaked ahead of Naughty Dog’s official footage, and fans now have a better understanding of what it has done to improve upon the original. There are obvious improvements made to The Last of Us, such as rebuilt graphics for current-gen fidelity, and there are also a lot of neat accessibility features that have been added to make it a definitive experience for fans.
That said, some of the more subtextual or implicit improvements may also have a profound impact on players’ experiences with the remake. One of the more peripheral changes being made is the distillation of its trophy list on PlayStation, according to a recent leak of its entirety. Through particular omissions that fans can note in this leaked trophy list, it seems that Naughty Dog wants fans to have an easier attempt at a platinum trophy in The Last of Us Part 1.
The Last of Us’ Original Trophy List is Unduly Challenging
The original The Last of Us’ remastered edition has many trophies that players need to achieve if they wish to receive its revered platinum trophy. These trophies included individual difficulty completions, including its daunting Survivor and Grounded difficulties, on top of collecting all artifacts, Firefly pendants, comic books, and training manuals. Players also had to fully upgrade all firearms, fully upgrade Joel with supplements, and complete other prerequisites that are nearly impossible to complete on a single playthrough. Further, The Last of Us’ most egregious trophy to attempt is widely regarded among fans to be “I want to talk about it.”
This is a silver trophy that requires fans to have engaged in all of The Last of Us’ optional conversations, identified by a triangle bubble prompt that would appear above a character or beside an interactive object that characters would converse about. However, this trophy has been notably glitched, with players’ completion being staggered or stalled completely by one or more conversations that arbitrarily failed to be included in the game’s statistics.
Indeed, players are able to track optional conversations triggered in the menu’s statistics tab, and many players would find that certain conversations did not trigger for one reason or another, even upon returning to it in the game’s chapter select feature. Moreover, despite the trophy’s description stating that all optional conversations be engaged in, there are others with the same prompt that do not contribute to the particular trophy requirement for whatever reason.
The Last of Us’ Firefly insignias found at the university, for example, have two separately interactable insignias, but the other cannot be interacted with if players interact with one of them, and only one contributes to the trophy’s completion. Choosing the wrong one, which is arbitrary and does not seem dependable, means that players need to reload to try their luck with the other one.
The only reliable way to earn this trophy is to begin a new game save file and individually track which conversations trigger and which ones do not. It is unfortunate to have to do this, unless players are happy to run an entire playthrough back for one or two missed optional conversations. Rather, while some of these single-player trophies can be infuriating to pursue, few come close to how grating it is to reach a platinum trophy in The Last of Us with its multiplayer trophies in mind.
The Last of Us Part 1 Makes its Platinum a Casual Experience
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With any luck, The Last of Us Part 1 will have ironed out the original game’s trophy for optional conversations, as well as any other trophies that fans found to be bugged. Thankfully, The Last of Us Part 1 will not have all the same grueling grinds or obstacles that the original had.
Of course, because The Last of Us Part 1 omits the Factions multiplayer mode, it will not include the myriad trophies associated with it. The Last of Us had Factions trophies baked into its platinum for single-player, base-game content, making it a massive grind to reach platinum outside the regular narrative experience.
This meant that players needed to not only receive every trophy for The Last of Us, but then also indulge in a ton of multiplayer content and be competent enough to earn trophies there as well. Players needed to fully complete Factions’ Firefly and Hunter journeys, which unforgivingly totaled the amount of matches fans needed to play at 168. Factions is certainly fun and rewarding for fans who want to take their cat-and-mouse skills online, but it probably should not have been enforced on players as a platinum trophy requirement, especially since many players may have no interest at all in the game’s multiplayer. The Last of Us Part 1 is able to rectify that, which should make reaching the platinum a much simpler experience for players.
The Last of Us Part 1 has also strangely decided to omit the original game’s trophy for fully upgrading Joel with supplements and fully upgrading all weapons. The remake only asks that players fully upgrade a single weapon this time around, and even adds new trophies that are all indicative of a simpler experience: riding the sewer contraption with Henry and Sam, petting Buckley the dog, and upgrading and breaking one of every melee weapon.
It now seems likely that players can actually achieve a platinum on a single playthrough, though the game itself still offers many reasons to play through it multiple times. There is a possibility, as discussed online, that a future patch may include a post-launch trophy for The Last of Us Part 1’s Grounded and Permadeath modes. But for now, players will be able to enjoy a fairly casual platinum journey with a lot of the original game’s more arduous challenges omitted from the remake.
The Last of Us Part 1 launches September 2 for PS5 with a PC version also in development.
