Idea for a Mod that would solve my biggest criticism

[MACKLE]

I have no Modding experience, just want to put this idea to words and see if anyone agrees.

My biggest issue with the game is how the story is out of order, i understand the intention but it doesn't work. You play as Ellie for the opening, then switch to Abby for a bit, then back to Ellie for 7 hours or so, by then you are invested and when the momentum is at its highest it forces you to play as Abby again. The Abby section is actually good, but feels like a slog to play after all that momentum is put to the side.

Both the characters play out the same few days but from different perspectives, my idea for the mod would be to re-cut the story entirely, each day in Seattle you play as ellie, then abby, then the next day you do the same.

I just finished the Ellie section in the hospital where you question Dina, the whole time i was thinking how more impact this would be if we could play the Abbey hospital section before the Ellie one.

The flashbacks and the interactions with joel that reveal Ellie and Joels complicated relationship can stay the same, but i disagree with everything in this story being out of order.
Don't know how hard it would be to make a mod like this but i'm all for it.

[Stoibs]

I've wanted something like this since launch day, similar to how Beyond: Two Souls had an optional 'Chronological order' mode.

Would be interesting to see if it's possible.

[mushroomyakuza]

I feel exactly the same. I tried some digging myself to see if anyone else had the same idea and turns out, this hasn't really caught on unfortunately.

If you download a mod here on Nexus: https://www.nexusmods.com/thelastofuspart2/mods/32?tab=posts

you will be able to turn on the developer mode. In the dev menu, there is a 'Chronological Mode' option. I was curious what it did. Well, turns out it does almost exactly what you and I want, but not quite.

Here's my full findings, copy and pasted from Nexus mods:

Apologies for this PSA, but I truly don't know where else to put it and I just want eyeballs on it at the moment:

I know this isn't the palce for this but I frankly don't know where else to put it - does anyone have any idea how to make a mod that would let us play the game in the order of Ellie Day 1, Abby Day 1, Ellie Day 2, Abby Day 2, Ellie Day 3, Abby Day 3? I think this would be th eperfect way to play it.

Someone mentioned activating Chrono mode in the dev menu and I gave it a try to see what happens.If you start a new game, turn on chrono mode, it goes: Prologue with Joel and Tommy, then Ellie's birthday present at the museum, then cuts to Abby with Owen at the ferris wheel for the first time, then Ellie and Tommy shooting runners fom the hill before going to the music store with Joel for guitar strings (wihch they never get to), then the dance scene, then the next morning. So, it seems this is mostly chronological order. Wjat's weird and missing is Abby's flashback with her dad at the park with the zebra, which technically should probably come first from Abby's flashbacks. It's also missing Jerry's death and her finding out about it. So. I think, technically it should be possible for someone to make a mode that permanently keeps chrono mode on. However, playing it in this order does not work very well narratively. If there was a way to have the game play as normal up until the end of Ellie's Day and switch to Abby's Day, followed by Ellie Day 2, Abby Day 2, with all the flashbacks playing at their intended points in conjunction with those Days, I think that would work very well. I really hope one day someone makes a mod for it.

So, the fact this technology is already kind of built into the game, albeit not in exactly the order tha would narratively make the most sense, to me suggests that it should at the very least be possible for someone to make this into a mod. I have no idea how. I'm not a modder. But in a way, you would need the dev console to turn on Chrono mode at certain points, and turn it off at others.

To me the most logical order would be:

Everything as normal until the end of Day 1, except for Ellie's birthday present, which is the first Ellie flashback. Instead of that, it should cut to The Park, where Abby is introduced with Jerry and the Zebra. Then, it should be Abby talking to Jerry about the vaccine, then her learning he's been killed by Joel. Then you start Abby Day 1. When that's done, you jump back to Ellie's flashback with Joel on her birthday before begining Ellie Day 2, then Abby Day 2, and so on. To me, that makes the most sense narratively.

I really hope and pray someone makes this one day, I think it would make the story MUCH better. As it stands now, we aren't there yet.