For the past couple of months, voice actors Troy Baker and Nolan North have been documenting their playthrough of The Last of Us on the Retro Replay YouTube channel. It has to be said that the duo has been doing fairly well across 11 episodes so far, but for their latest video, they brought Ashley Johnson along for the ride. As the voice actor and motion capture artist of The Last of Us: Part II protagonist Ellie, she had some interesting stories to share about a new skill she picked up while shooting the sequel to Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3 classic.

As the three discuss the game amongst friendly banter, Ashley Johnson gets onto the topic of Archery as Troy Baker disposes of a couple of enemies using the bow and arrow. It's a skill Johnson says she has been working on recently, stating: "That came from wanting to get better at that skill for, I don't know if I can say this. I wanted to get better at it for the second game."

How much of an impact this will have on the final game remains to be seen, but it is definitely neat to see a motion capture artist to go as far as picking up a new skill so that the game they're working on is better for it. Could this mean that the player will have more options when it comes to using a bow and arrow in The Last of Us: Part II? Will Ellie have a better understanding of how to use the weapon in the sequel with more realistic reactions when the bow's tension is relieved? Maybe we'll be able to hold it in a variety of ways? These questions won't be answered until that May 2020 release date rolls around, but we think this is a cool little commitment made by Ashley Johnson all the same.

[source youtu.be]