5 things you might have missed in The Last of Us Part 1

The Last of Us is a phenomenal game. The sheer amount of work put into the characters, story, and gameplay justifies the Game of the Year award it won.

With the new launch of The Last of Us Part 1, fans of the series are hyped again. It is a third-person action-adventure title developed by Naughty Dog in 2013.

Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic United States. The latter also plays a huge role and acts as a companion to Joel.

The title is filled with Easter eggs and hidden details, but readers might have missed some.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's views.

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Five possible unseen details from The Last of Us Part 1

1) Tess' Death

Tess' dead body (Image via Naughty Dog)

Tess is a supporting character and a long-term smuggling partner of Joel. While moving Ellie, she gets infected and decides to stay in the Capitol Building lobby to give Joel and Ellie time to escape from the authorities.

After Joel and Ellie leave the lobby, they hear gunshots and Tess screaming, indicating that she has died.

While most players would just leave without confirming if she died or not, some found a way above the lobby where they could see her lying in a pool of blood with two soldiers hovering over her.

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2) Cordyceps is a real fungus

The Codyceps fungus (Image via Imgur)

In The Last of Us, a type of mutated parasitic fungus called Cordyceps plays a huge role in turning humans into cannibalistic savages. It might sound made up, but there is an actual fungus like that in the real world.

The Cordyceps fungus only affects insects and anthropods, turning them into hosts to feed off of. In the game, the fungus infects the host's brain and takes control over it, turning the human into a zombie.

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3) Naughty Dog Easter egg

A Nathan Drake pinata (Image via Naughty Dog)

Shortly after meeting Henry and Sam in Pittsburgh, the group browses through different apartments in the area. In one bedroom, Joel finds a pinata doll on the bed that looks identical to a protagonist from another Naughty Dog game, Uncharted.

There is another reference on the table to an old Naughty Dog game, Jak and Daxter. In the same area, there is a toy store underneath the apartments that has a board game related to the Uncharted and Jak and Daxter series.

If users find these Easter eggs, they will be rewarded with a Jak shirt and Daxter backpack for Ellie to wear in their next playthrough.

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4) 'Giraffe'calypse

Giraffe drawings in the hospital (Image via Naughty Dog)

Although there are a variety of animals in The Last of Us, giraffes play a significant part in the game. They appear as toys and posters throughout the map, foreshadowing a later sequence in the game where Joel and Ellie encounter a herd of giraffes.

Giraffe plushie in Sarah's room (Image via Naughty Dog)

Giraffes seem to represent innocence in devastating times, so they are often associated with children like how Joel's daughter Sarah had a giraffe plushie in her bedroom and how toy stores have giraffe posters or cardboard cutouts.

The herd of giraffes represents "life goes on," reminding Ellie that even with the apocalypse there is good in the world and something to look forward to.

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5) The game is a mirror of itself

Ellie's face at the end of The Last of Us (Image via Naughty Dog)

The Last of Us is an artistic masterpiece; from the story to the characters, the whole game feels like a piece of art, and Naughty Dog ups its artistic cinematography by mirroring the opening and closing of the game.

The title starts with Sarah's face, then a chaotic scene follows where she gets carried by Joel and in the end, she gets shot. During the closing, Joel carries Ellie like he had carried Sarah, but he shoots and kills Marlene, bringing back how Sarah got shot.

In the end, the game closes on Ellie's face, making it a full circle by acknowledging Ellie as Joel's new daughter.