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The Last Guardian is a brainchild of Fumito Ueda, who also created Shadow of the Colossus. The game spent almost a decade in development before it was complete. The Last Guardian is defined by its spectacular mountain landscapes, eerie music, and a heartwarming mood.
The main protagonist is a nameless boy, who is kept as a prisoner in cyclopean castle ruins and has to escape. While in captivity, the boy’s first task is to befriends his cellmate, a fantasy creature named Trico, who is a gigantic half-bird, half-cat hybrid that slightly reminds a hippogriff. Trico is the second main character and the mascot of The Last Guardian; the creature’s animation is incredibly detailed, and its behavior is modeled after real animals. The two form an unlikely symbiosis. The boy needs the creature’s strength and ability to fly to overcome obstacles and fend off guards who try to bring the characters back to their cells. Trico, in turn, needs the boy’s wits and agility to sneak, solve puzzles, feed the creature and heal its wounds. The player only controls the boy, while Trico needs to be manipulated into performing certain actions. Over time, the characters develop a strong emotional bond that adds to the game’s impact on the player.
System requirements for PlayStation 4
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The Last Guardian reviews and comments
In terms of reviews, there were complaints about performance, camera and control issues, and finally Trico himself became the main target of humiliation. Well, by an amazing coincidence, at least 4 years after the release, the game runs in a solid frame rate, doesn’t have frustrating control problems (it was quite smoothly for me) and, most importantly, it turns out that Trico also has no problems in general. Moreover, the beast, together with me, went the ideal pace of the path from complete rejection (on his part, of course) to real strong friendship and mutual understanding. So I got exactly the initially intended gaming experience, and it was absolutely wonderful.
I can only comment exactly one problem in the game in the form of a voiceover. Unfortunately, no more elegant way of giving hints to the player was found, and obvious comments were added along the way, so that the voiceover was evenly distributed. In my opinion, it is better to sit and think than to be offended by a trivial phrase, inserted only so that there is no way to get lost. Considering that the boy's own remarks do not violate immersiveness, it was possible to put clues in them. But apparently some of the producers have a grossly underestimated opinion about the intelligence of players. This is clearly not a nitpicking, because in the Shadow of the Colossus remake that came out two years later, the hints (which were already more organically built into the game) could be turned off in the settings. Next, I want to breathe out, because the amount of lore information is just as small as necessary, and the voiceover is really mostly limited to trivial commenting on what is happening.
In addition, the game just feels consistently after Iсo and Shadow of the Colossus, incorporating aspects of both. This, of course, does not mean that Mr. Ueda's previous works do not need to be played. I felt frisson and cried playing each of the three.
There are moments when you forget that Trico is motivated by a sequence of algorithms, and seems to be controlled by its own desires and evolutionary responses. In these moments, you'd be forgiven for believing that Fumito Ueda and team have somehow and forever changed the landscape of gaming. The rest of the game is trying to kill that belief.