Key Takeaways
- A subtle change in Joel’s phone wallpaper in The Last of Us Part 1 remake has fans debating story implications.
- Fans compare side-by-side images of Joel’s phone in the original game vs. the remake, noting time and wallpaper differences.
- The change in phone details does not impact story events, but it adds to the game’s immersion and realism.
Some fans are surprised to discover a subtle change made in The Last of Us Part 1, the remake of the first game, that changes the way Joel’s phone appears in the story’s prologue section. The change is just one of many visual alterations made to the original game with The Last of Us Part 1, but it was enough to spark some discussions surrounding certain events within the main plot.
As Naughty Dog and PlayStation’s premiere post-apocalyptic franchise, The Last of Us is one of Sony’s most popular and high-profile first-party offerings and is full of subtle details that are still picked apart by fans. Despite releasing over a decade ago in 2013, the original game is still the subject of discussion among fans, often in comparison to its 2022 remake The Last of Us Part 1.
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Specifically, one Reddit user by the name of HiroTwo2018 shared side-by-side images of Joel’s cell phone from the original game’s prologue and the same shot from the remake for the sake of comparing the two. In the first image from the original game, the phone has a snowy forest as its wallpaper and the time reads 2:15 a.m., whereas in the remake, the wallpaper is an image of Joel with his daughter, Sarah, and the time reads 1:48 a.m.
The Last of Us Remake Change Has Players Debating the Story’s Timeline
The revelation seems somewhat arbitrary at first glance, and appears to be just one of many updates made by Naughty Dog in The Last of Us Part 1, but some fans say that it may have some story implications. A few people pointed out that the time on the phone in the remake actually goes up to reflect how long players spend exploring the house during the prologue, which affects the time in which events play out in canon.
Of course, this change does not affect the actual events of the story, but it rather seems to be an attempt by Naughty Dog to make the game a little more lifelike and immersive compared to the original. Other fans also pointed out that the wallpaper on Joel’s phone in the original may actually be an in-game screenshot from a section in The Last of Us where players control Ellie during the winter, providing a sneaky bit of foreshadowing.
Others debated the real-life model of Joel’s phone in the game, which appears to be a 2010 model of an HTC Desire smartphone, coinciding with the game’s prologue being set in 2013. This is also not the only minor detail that has come to light in comparison to the original game, as Naughty Dog itself revealed a unique Easter egg on the menu for The Last of Us Part 1 that a lot of fans never seemed to know about.
The Last of Us Part 1
Experience the emotional storytelling and unforgettable characters in The Last of Us, winner of over 200 Game of the Year awards.
In a ravaged civilization, where infected and hardened survivors run rampant, Joel, a weary protagonist, is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a military quarantine zone. However, what starts as a small job soon transforms into a brutal cross-country journey.
Includes the complete The Last of Us single-player story and celebrated prequel chapter, Left Behind, which explores the events that changed the lives of Ellie and her best friend Riley forever.