Back when it first came out, I really didn't see the appeal in The Last of Us and held the game off for a few years.
Even when I did eventually play it for myself in 2017, I saw it as nothing more than a generic zombie apocalypse shooter with some rather repetitive gameplay.
It wasn't until I revisited the game the year after, that I would fall head over heels for its impeccable character writing.
You can fully ignore the small interactions between the two protagonists during gameplay and miss half of what makes this game so great. The depth of Joel and Ellie's relationship can only be felt, if you take the proper time to explore the world together with them, which is executed perfectly through the game's linear open-district structure.
Choosing your own involvement through exploration is what makes their bond feel so genuine, natural and earned towards the climax.

I will admit that the game's pacing takes a nose dive after the prologue and remains unengaging until Bill's Town, but it's only uphill from that point onwards and probably my only critique next to the shitty enemy AI.

we didn't need a sequel for this

Cut the last 3 hours from this and you have a damn near perfect horror game. Not necessarily a scary one but a very intriguing and atmospheric experience nonetheless. This has grown into an absolute comfort game of mine and it feels like I discover something new every time I replay it.
It's just a shame that it trades everything that works so well in its first half, for mindless action and head-scratchingly bad level design later on. The way RE7 progresses ironically mirrors exactly what went wrong with the entire franchise after a certain point.