Perhaps The Last Guardian’s greatest triumph is this connection. I notice attempts at communication-‘It’s OK to jump,’ his caw seems to say-and when enemies grab me, Trico recognizes I’m in danger. Despite being of two species and altogether different worlds, Trico and I grow closer. I learn things about the world and the characters as they do, and as I experiment to figure out what the boy can climb, or what heights Trico can reach on his hind legs, the connection runs deeper. As we explore, I too discover that there are few places I can go without Trico’s help-and there are few puzzles he can overcome without my guidance and intelligence. All three of us know little to nothing about where we are. But in the end, it’s OK that The Last Guardian frustrates, because it ultimately fulfills, delivering an epic adventure and a beautiful vision of relationship, where we can cross gulfs of communication to find comfort in each other and overcome tremendous odds.Īs the player, controlling the boy (and Trico, through commands and gestures) had me coming to the same understandings in parallel. It also controls poorly, occasionally falls victim to repetition, and downright suffers from bad technical performance. Reflecting on the journey, I believe The Last Guardian is unforgettable, near-essential, and profound. The answer, as it often does, falls somewhere in-between. While faithful believers hoped The Last Guardian could be a kind of generation-defining game, just as many expected nothing more than a mess-a relic of PS2 ideas and PS3 graphics with gameplay threads that never coalesce. The narrative spun out of control a long time ago. Between delays, amid deafening silence on the game’s progress, there has been time to dream, speculate, and scorn. Many among us believed the follow-up to Fumito Ueda’s Shadow of the Colossus would never emerge from a half-decade of apparent development hell.
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