There are only a couple of weeks before Naughty Dog's "Uncharted: The Lost Legacy" finds its way to PlayStation 4, and ahead of its highly anticipated release, the studio has released a new behind the scenes video about how the standalone expansion was created.
According to Gamespot, the video explains just how the studio decided to feature Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross as the lead characters in the standalone game, instead of putting Nathan Drake in the center of it all. "The Lost Legacy" has already received early praises for portraying women as the lead character in the game, and creative director Shaun Escayg explained (via VideoGamer.com) the reason why they chose to feature two female leads over Drake in the upcoming standalone game.
Nathan Drake's story is over
According to creative director Shaun Escayg, Naughty Dog opted to go with Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross as the lead characters in "Uncharted: The Lost Legacy" because Nathan Drake's story had already "wrapped on 'Uncharted 4." Instead, the studio chose to "find a new cast of characters that could actually carry on the Uncharted legacy." They found these characters in both Frazer and Ross. In the upcoming standalone expansion, players will get to play as Frazer, with Ross acting as a supporting agent to the protagonist.
Naughty Dog wanted to 'explore' other characters
In another interview with Gamespot, game director Kurt Margenau explained that Naughty Dog saw "Uncharted: The Lost Legacy" as "blank slate" and an opportunity to "show off [other characters] that we didn't explore all that [much].
And to build them to be as fully featured and complex as Nathan Drake, but in a different way." He also explained how the upcoming standalone game was initially just a DLC but took on a life of its own and became bigger than expected.
Upcoming game earns early praise
"Uncharted: The Lost Legacy" has already earned early praise for portraying women as lead characters, and not just women, but women of color.
In fact, Mashable's Jess Joho wrote in July that "Naughty Dog may have just opened the door to more honest representations of female power fantasies."
Margenau told Mashable at the time that they were truly interested in what a "female version" of the game would look like, which led to them choosing Chloe Fraser and Nadine Ross as the main characters in the game.
But there wasn't any special treatment for these characters, as "we put them into the same situations as anyone else" because "We focus on the fact that they're just human beings who happen to be very capable and good at their jobs."
"Uncharted: The Lost Legacy" arrives to PlayStation 4 on August 22.
