The Last Guardian. Just under 10 years after its announcement in 2007, it finally arrived. Made by GenDesign, comprised of many of the team behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, this game had unfathomable hype behind it for the December 6th, 2016 release date. But would it be crushed by it, or would the desire to exceed the hype lift the game up even further? Read on to see what I thought about this game.
You begin your journey as a little boy. You wake up with a bunch of symbols on your body, and a giant beast beside you. You find out the beast has been stabbed with several spears, so you pull them out, and that’s it. Your adventure has begun. Find your way out.
Frankly, I love when a game doesn’t hold your hand too much at the beginning of game.
The Last Guardian definitely achieves this, but a negative is that the tutorial/button prompts never go away. For as long as you’re playing this game, you’ll see “O to grab hold” if you’re near anything to grab hold of. So while you are thrust into the gameplay with no real clues, you also have basically a less annoying Navi, who is mute but similarly persistent.
The game is absolutely gorgeous. Stunning views, fantastic ruins, towering… well, towers. There are some serious framerate drops as you run around in this beautiful world, but this is reportedly not an issue on Playstation 4 Pro.
One aspect that doesn’t bother me but might annoy some is the fact that your animal buddy acts like exactly that; an animal. He definitely doesn’t listen to you every time. Call as you might, sometimes Trico will simply cock his head and stare at you. I own a cat, so I’m used to this. Pet-less players may find this to try their patience, however. To me, it simply serves as a way to flesh him out more; make Trico feel more like a living, breathing creature.
My other issues with the game are slight, but they do exist. The controls, which I understand are supposed to make you feel like a clumsy little boy, are unintuitive to the point of frustration. The ledges that you can use to catch yourself have no indication of such; they didn’t need to go full Tomb Raider or Uncharted with giant yellow paint on it; but some way to know would have been nice. I have jumped to my death several times because a ledge that looked like it could be grabbed, could not. There are some graphical hiccups here and there.
Pictured: being too obvious
But at the end of the day, who cares? This game is a sight to behold. Their previous games didn’t play perfectly either, but to me, Fumito Ueda and his team are more artists than programmers. They have created a beautiful narrative with a fun companion and stunning scenery. What more could want out of a puzzle game? It might not be as good as Shadow of the Colossus, but GenDesign proves they weren’t just resting on their laurels for 10 years.
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