KJCKorea
Journal Central

This paper summarizes the concept of ludonarrative dissonance that occurred in the realm of full-scale game criticism, and materializes it with the latest work <The Last of Us Part 2>. In the process, it is examined that this game actively utilizes the ludonarrative dissonance to deliver cognitive experiences to players that go beyond the definition of gameness. Along with the all-round development of AAA-class games, the ludonarrative dissonance is emerging as an important task that each game must overcome. On the contrary, however, it should be noted that <The Last of Us Part 2> has a different effect than expected by revealing rather than overcoming the ludonarrative dissonance. The ludonarrative dissonance conveyed by <The Last of Us 2> has the effects of ironic interpretative possibilities. This paper looks at dissonance in two dimensions, and the first is the dissonance between the play-narrative structure inside the game. <The Last of Us Part 2> induces the player to recognize the dissonance and actively reconstruct the meaning of the whole game by reminding the player of the dissonance that occurs between the two structures. Second, it stimulates the cognitive dissonance that exists inside the player playing the game beyond the internal structure of the game. That is, by expanding the concept of gameness, it evokes the possibility that games can function more than a tool for convenient self-efficacy. As such, the ludonnarrative dissonance can be a more fundamental redefinition of game nature and an expression of a problem consciousness about the possibility of change.

ludonarrative dissonance, The Last of Us, game, narrative, irony