SPOILERS AHEAD
So I just finished The Last of Us and I played Bioshock Infinite earlier this year. After completing TLOU it occurred to me that both games have an incredibly similar story. Both feature a middle aged protagonist played by Troy Baker whose daughter died at a young age (or didn't in the case of Bioshock but bare with me). Both games involve said protagonist being paid to smuggle out a young girl from an oppressive city and in turn find redemption for his past mistakes. Both characters start out attempting to be emotionally removed from the girl before becoming a father figure to her, eventually helping her out of compassion even when the promise of money vanishes. And both stories end on a thought provoking note that makes you wonder if this character really received the redemption we were promised or if they ended up back where they started.
The specific relationship between the protagonist and the girl is also very similar both from a gameplay and story standpoint. Both girls have suffered through tough lives but have little experience living in our current society. This leads them both to get excited about things the Troy Baker character finds uninteresting and this combination of naivete, strength, and compassion are what makes these characters so likeable. Both characters from a gameplay standpoint are not especially important but often provide help in combat scenarios and make traversal either easier or more difficult depending on the situation. Finally, both girls are said to offer salvation for society and end up playing the "chosen one" figure.
Looking at that it's surprising how different the games are tonally. The Last of Us is a dark, oppressive post-apocalypse where you do and see horrendous things. The game also focuses heavily on survival against overwhelming odds. The characters themselves are also tonally quite different than those of Bioshock. Joel is a tortured soul but he is a survivor and does truly terrible things in order to survive and get what he wants. Booker is equally tortured but he has largely given up on life at the beginning of the game. Elizabeth, meanwhile, is a sweet and innocent girl but she is powerful and her power means that surviving against all odds isn't as big of a focus. Ellie is neither sweet nor innocent. She has seen it all and her character more closely resembles something along the lines of Kick-Ass's Hit Girl.
So I thought it was just very interesting how similar these two games were especially considering Troy Baker's involvement in both and the high quality of both games. Strange coincidence but it resulted in two great games.
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