After being announced way back in 2009 and going through an obscenely large development cycle, The Last Guardian was finally released for the PS4 and PS4 Pro on December 6th. The game suffered from numerous delays and was even shelved at one point. However, Fumito Ueda and his developer's studio genDESIGN managed to complete the game after going through development hell for the past ten years.

Unlike many people in the community, I was not aware of The Last Guardian until 2015, when a trailer was showcased at E3. So my anticipation and subsequent wait for the game were minimal. I kept my eye on it, but I wasn't following it with the same zealous that many of Ueda's fans possessed. Thus, when the game finally did release, I did not have that many expectations for the game. As a result, my opinions of the game differ slightly from the community at large.

The Last Guardian is, in short, a masterful work of animation, storytelling, and creature design. You play as a young boy who has awoken in a cavern filled with ruins. You have no idea where he is or how he got there. Not far from you is a giant beast who is chained and gravely injured. A man's voice begins to narrate and it quickly becomes clear that the voice belongs to a much older version of the main character who is recounting relevant details to the player as if he were telling a story. The narrator quickly informs the player that the creature is a type of man-eating beast known as a Trico. The very first task the player is charged with is trying to feed the Trico and befriend it so that you and the creature can escape the ruins together. Throughout the game, you have to learn to communicate with the beast. The two of you have to work together to solve a series of puzzles and platform your way to freedom. Many of the puzzles require some unique ingenuity to solve and a few even have some of the most clever solutions that I have ever come across in video games.

At its core, the Last Guardian is a heartfelt game with a lot of love and dedication put behind it. It is a beautifully rendered game with graphics that are, for the most part, expertly rendered. Some of the textures do fall a little flat, but it doesn't detract too much from the game. However, it is the animation of the game that really shines. The characters, Trico especially, move in such a realistic fashion. No expense was spared when it came to the animation. Each feather on Trico's body moves independently and his moods are conveyed brilliantly through body language. I have never seen a creature animated so well. It got the point where I had to remind myself that Trico wasn't real.

The sprawling landscapes and larger than life ruins are breathtaking to look at. So many little details went into the design of the world. The hard work that genDESIGN put into their game for the last ten years really paid off. The sound design is also spectacular. It has a pretty minimalistic feel at times and isn't afraid to have those quiet moments. But the tract can be booming and epic when it needs to be. Both the environmental sound effects and the musical score work well together to make the game feel exciting and alive.

Much of the focus for The Last Guardian is placed on storytelling and on the relationship you build with your new pet monster. Trico acts like a real animal and controlling him directly is never an option. Instead, the player must learn to decipher Trico's non-verbal cues while Trico, in turn, must learn to trust the player and figure out what the player wants him to do. By the end of the game, the bond between the player and Trico is extraordinarily strong. Trico will cry in distress if you go off without him and will even try to shove his colossal body into human-sized holes in an attempt to follow you. He seeks your comfort after particularly dangerous areas and will watch you with worry as you climb and jump through the puzzles. After a while, he will even respond with chirps and howls when you call for him.

Of course, the game isn't perfect. Not by a long shot. Frame rate drops occur on both the PS4 and the PS4 Pro. While they weren't a deal-breaker, they were distracting at times. Additionally, the button mapping is horrendous. It isn't intuitive at all. The tried and true wisdom of "press X to jump" (at least for the PS4) led to my untimely demise on more than one occasion when the character gleefully let go of the ledge and fell to his death. Plus, the little boy controls like an awkward child and getting him to do a simple task like, push a box in a straight line, is frustrating at best. The platforming in some areas can be difficult to navigate simply because jumping in the correct direction is not always easy to judge. The puzzles in the game can range from laughably easy to painfully frustrating, and it is hard to predict which one you will get at any given time. I found myself wondering on multiple occasions if the camera was trying to run away as it would pull out for no reason, refuse to track the character into tight areas, and even hide behind Trico at times.

Getting Trico to do what you want, especially in the beginning, was like trying to teach a cat new tricks. While it isn't an impossible task, it did require a lot of patience. Trico tended to do what he wanted to when he wanted to do it. I work with animals on a regular basis, so I approached Trico as I would any other animal. I rewarded him regularly when he did what I asked for and paid attention to what he was looking at or reacting too. Trico regularly would look often fixate on the solution to a puzzle or simply solve it on his own accord. So if you don't learn to read Trico, you are in for a rough time.

Overall, The Last Guardian was an excellent, if flawed, game. For me, the positives outweighed the negatives by a wide enough margin. I would recommend it to anyone with a Playstation 4 and a decent amount of patience.