PetriP-TNT
Member
Confirmed that 720p makes the game run much better, albeit a bit blurry. At least it doesn't give me sea sickness anymore. What a time to be alive.
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The Last Guardian |OT| In my memories, the monster always has kind eyes
- Thread starter Agram
- Start date
Well TLG came in at #5 on the overall GOTY vote for GAF and #2 for PS4 games though I think games like Overwatch were omited for some reason so its probably like down a few spots all things considered. Still its high up there and got a pretty sizable chunk of the votes. Pretty awesome for a game that came in December a week after FF XV
gingerbeardman
Member
Agreed
Or if it sold better. Not many have played it sadly. Still though it's pretty impressive.
Its #3 for passion and quality rankings.
If it had half of the playerbase of the other games...
Oh nice! I was expecting it to be way down the list, if even on there at all, considering all the criticism. I guess there's more love for it than I realised.
TLG is the type of game that the people it does connect with it connects on a very deep level and inspires more impassioned feelings than even the best AAA games have trouble coming close to. It also did this without a lot of the constant and almost required gameplay elements and gimmicks like open world, RPG mechanics, a multiplayer mode of some sort, or any of that stuff. There isn't a cliff hanger, there isn't necessarily a focus on re-playabliity though its certainly there for those who want to experience it again, and its not exactly a trophy hunters friend. Its got a vision that you don't see from a game of that caliber much outside of people like Kojima and in a lot of ways I think TLG nailed its vision in a way that was both touching and effective on an emotional level but did it in a way that focused on doing through so the gameplay and really makes best use of the interactive nature of the gaming medium. Its got issues but it aims incredibly high and nails it but for some technical hiccups. Its a tour de force.
Finished it.
The complexity of the game with so very few mechanics and buttons was astounding. You could walk into an empty room with one thing and have to figure out a puzzle with like 1 button.
Seriously well made game. And it wasnt afraid to lose casuals. Thats what really pushed it over the edge for me, you play uncharted and its a guided experience, but sometimes you wouldnt even see the ledge to climb up. It wasnt made obvious. Just part of the environment.
My wife desperately wants a sequel. I think she forgets how long this one took, lol
The complexity of the game with so very few mechanics and buttons was astounding. You could walk into an empty room with one thing and have to figure out a puzzle with like 1 button.
Seriously well made game. And it wasnt afraid to lose casuals. Thats what really pushed it over the edge for me, you play uncharted and its a guided experience, but sometimes you wouldnt even see the ledge to climb up. It wasnt made obvious. Just part of the environment.
My wife desperately wants a sequel. I think she forgets how long this one took, lol
There was a spell when I got a little stuck trying to move on when his neck did weird things for me, but I restarted the check point and it cleared.
Jawbreaker
Member
Wait, that actually works? Huh.
Acquiescence
Member
In my ballot, I put scores under each game (gave TLG a 10/10), but in doing so I inadvertently disqualified my list. If those 4 additional points were included, TLG probably would've nabbed the GAF top spot!
gingerbeardman
Member
Let that be a lesson to us all.
Nah, to enjoy Ueda's games you have to really dig his style, both in game design and audio/visual department.
I think that makes them relatively niche games.
Something like Uncharted 4 is easier to get into for just about anyone, since it's a pulpy shooter with great production values and a cinematic, straight forward story.
You need to buy the PS3 remaster, if you buy the disk version you get both Ico and SotC - it's a no-brainer.
Acquiescence
Member
Did anybody here know you can pet Trico to the point that he falls asleep? I didn't.
gingerbeardman
Member
PSN January Sales had the pair for £5
Started this today, it's wonderful but for the love of god, how many times does it need to remind me that the triangle button is to jump!?
The command prompts are out of control and it's really killing my buzz, can I turn them off? The worst is when 20% of the screen is taken up with the drop/throw prompts for barrels.
The command prompts are out of control and it's really killing my buzz, can I turn them off? The worst is when 20% of the screen is taken up with the drop/throw prompts for barrels.
Yeah I bought that. I was mostly only interested in Shadow of the Colossus but it made more sense to buy both at £5 than just SoTC at £15.
YankeeDonB
Member
Whew, think I'm at endgame
Trico is a real accomplishment as a character, but this game has not reached the highs of SotC for me, nor even Ico. Too much of the traversal and puzzling feels artificial, pro-forma, unmotivated.
The gameplay switchup of each collossus kept that game fresh, and perfectly punctuated the expansive and uneventful map navigation. Ico's frame tale, with the queen always hounding you and the entire castle designed as a sort of jail for Yorda gave coherence and flow to that game. In TLG I'm mostly crawling and climbing through generic caverns with the occasional foggy view of the outdoors until suddenly at the end
. Keep ending up back where I started (I think, hard to distinguish these rooms) and progression comes almost as a surprise when it happens. And I don't even know why. Sure, the boy wants to escape the nest (although this is not clear for a good half of the game), but what's Trico's motivation? Who/what is opposing me and why? Why is the camera so horrible?
Another thing that's bothered me is that Trico functions in the game like Argo, but you climb him like a collossus. It's really awkward and counterintuitive to get around on him. That worked well for the colossi, as they didn't t want you up there and that was the challenge. But Trico is your buddy and you need to be on and off him all the time, just like Argo. There hasn't been a moment close to the feel of calling Argo while running, jumping on mid stride, hopping up on his back, then leaping onto the dragging wing of a flying collossus. Argo felt great to ride and interact with. Lovable as he is, Trico is a chore.
I don't hate the game, but it just doesn't have the effective design and flow of Ico and SotC, and I wonder why.
inside white tower.
The gameplay switchup of each collossus kept that game fresh, and perfectly punctuated the expansive and uneventful map navigation. Ico's frame tale, with the queen always hounding you and the entire castle designed as a sort of jail for Yorda gave coherence and flow to that game. In TLG I'm mostly crawling and climbing through generic caverns with the occasional foggy view of the outdoors until suddenly at the end
the fog is gone and boy is this game pretty for a limited time
Another thing that's bothered me is that Trico functions in the game like Argo, but you climb him like a collossus. It's really awkward and counterintuitive to get around on him. That worked well for the colossi, as they didn't t want you up there and that was the challenge. But Trico is your buddy and you need to be on and off him all the time, just like Argo. There hasn't been a moment close to the feel of calling Argo while running, jumping on mid stride, hopping up on his back, then leaping onto the dragging wing of a flying collossus. Argo felt great to ride and interact with. Lovable as he is, Trico is a chore.
I don't hate the game, but it just doesn't have the effective design and flow of Ico and SotC, and I wonder why.
potatohead
Member
U4 broad story is straightforward but doesn't make the underlying message any less relevant which was "thanks for staying with us on the adventure share it with others as we enjoyed the ride together" meta message. And that ties into Drake being older and finally rejecting treasure hunting for family
Anyway I can't believe I have tlg gr2 and yakuza coming Tuesday fuck lol and re7 also... Jesus lol
Jawbreaker
Member
Yep. I've done this quite a few times when I wanted to just explore the environment without Trico taking up space, haha.
SolidChamp
Banned
So I'm at the part where
How far am I and how much is left?
Trico and the boy have their first run in with a hostile "Trico". Trico gets knocked down, and the boy gets stuck in the tree branch.
How far am I and how much is left?
Uhm, the relation between this and my post is eluding me.
I'd say you're past the halfway point. There is a lot for you to play yet.
I have them digitally and I also have the disk just for the awesome menu lol
FantasticMrFoxdie
Mumber
I call my dog trico sometimes now lol
It's just amazing how detailed the animations are. Doing the stretches and movement. My favorite is the way my dog does the hind leg stand onto a ledge. I instantly get a flashback of the game.
This. I agree that it`s refreshing to see a game speaking to the furry community so compassionately be received by the general public so well.
EDIT: Yes, this post was a joke
Man, I love Ueda's previous games, and I want to love this. But boy is it an exercise in frustration. Yesterday I nearly gave up after an hour of hinky barrel physics, followed by another half hour of shouting at Trico trying to get him to jump in the back of that dark cave.
Currently, I'm stuck trying to get Trico to go through an underwater gate - I've opened the gate, I've figured out how to get him to dive perhaps one time out of every twelve attempts, but he won't pass through with me riding him. He will pass through happily by himself. But the moment I'm on him he treads water at the gate then turns around and comes back up.
This is typical of my experience of the game - every time you have a beautiful set piece or platforming section out in the captivating open air castle sections, it's quickly followed by an hour of numbing grappling with Trico or the game's dreadful physics, or the game's dreadful camera, usually in dark small rooms.
The frustration is never figuring out the puzzle, always attempting to overcome the controls to execute on the solution - and as in my current situation, it's usually unclear if you're dealing with a glitch or doing something wrong.
Currently, I'm stuck trying to get Trico to go through an underwater gate - I've opened the gate, I've figured out how to get him to dive perhaps one time out of every twelve attempts, but he won't pass through with me riding him. He will pass through happily by himself. But the moment I'm on him he treads water at the gate then turns around and comes back up.
This is typical of my experience of the game - every time you have a beautiful set piece or platforming section out in the captivating open air castle sections, it's quickly followed by an hour of numbing grappling with Trico or the game's dreadful physics, or the game's dreadful camera, usually in dark small rooms.
The frustration is never figuring out the puzzle, always attempting to overcome the controls to execute on the solution - and as in my current situation, it's usually unclear if you're dealing with a glitch or doing something wrong.
WadiumArcadium
Member
I had a bit of trouble with the gates. The best solution I found was to
start swimming down when Trico's in the water and he'll carry you through.
PetriP-TNT
Member
I am now at the part where
and I think that was the first session where I had more fun than I was frustrated at. There were some really great scenes, but then again I got stuck into a loop that required me to restart from checkpoint twice: Trico would just go back to the previous puzzle and focus on the previous solution, loaded the checkpoint and Trico would immediately do the right action. Not sure if the AI is kinda broken at parts or the animation system. Sometimes Trico will do the correct (obvious actions) immediately and sometimes it requires tens of seconds to start performing the actual action (something something about the placement that is just millimetres off?).
Anyhoo, I had fun just now that gave me some energy to work towards the ending. Best parts are really good. (There was also this one part where the game nearly gave me epilepsy or something, it dropped to single digit FPS for a longtime while flashing white bloom in my face. Weird.)
Exactly.
Scar makes Mufasa fall down from the cliff and is now the king of the pride lands
Anyhoo, I had fun just now that gave me some energy to work towards the ending. Best parts are really good. (There was also this one part where the game nearly gave me epilepsy or something, it dropped to single digit FPS for a longtime while flashing white bloom in my face. Weird.)
Exactly.
YankeeDonB
Member
Indeed, game is its own worst enemy.
I found with the swimming part, and many other finicky navigation bits, that it was very helpful to get him lined up right (often have to climb off, position yourself, call him, then get back in). Then issue command (in this case r1+x), then WAIT. Often he take 15 seconds or so to start, and I think intervening commands can screw him up. E.g., the first time he dove for me I kept pressing dive and then he came back up.
In the end, and having just finished, it's quite an end, he's just not that fun to interact with most of the time, as enjoyable as he is to watch.
lukeskymac
Member
IIRC there were concerns, not complaints.
For whatever reason, in my game he just wouldn't pass through the underwater gates if I was on him when he initiated the dive. I had to dive without him to trigger his own dive, then grab him on his way down to progress.
It's a shame these finicky elements hold back the game so much. It's beautiful and heartfelt and intriguing and I want it to work better than it does.
This game feels like it would be so easy to fix.
Cutting the physics puzzles (mainly the ones involving throwing barrels that bounce unpredictably) would have done wonders.
And I'd make the case for a Trico that's more directly player controlled, rather than an unpredictable AI. I understand what the game is trying to achieve in having him be uncooperative, but it doesn't take that concept far enough to really deliver on it. I think you either simplify and make him respond directly to player inputs, or you have to go much more ambitious and make a game that's about training him and him adapting to how you treat him over time. Perhaps that was part of the original vision. As it is, this in-between space where he doesn't learn anything over time, but he's consistently frustrating to deal with, just isn't particularly rewarding. It feels like the worst of both worlds.
The game also feels a bit padded, at least relative to Shadow of the Colossus, which felt all killer no filler.
I still feel very endeared to the game, in spite of all of the above. I guess that's Ueda's magic.
YankeeDonB
Member
100% agreed with the bolded. This kind of adaptive learning is possible (Sniffy the Rat) but obviously super complicated in an actual game like this. But as it is Trico's puzzle behavior feels canned in an immersion breaking way.
Still, as you say, lots of great moments in between the drudgery....
You know what I haven't seen talked about that much?
That part where Trico jumps off the towers as one actually collapses under his weight.
I reminded me of this video with how everything falls apart as soon as Drake touches it. It got to the point VERY early on where I was numb to it except for a few occasions where even more shit fell apart than normal. In Uncharted 3 it was outright comedic how things fell apart the moment drake was around.
The Last Guardian has only one scripted sequence of things falling apart, and it's actually intense as a result.
I reminded me of this video with how everything falls apart as soon as Drake touches it. It got to the point VERY early on where I was numb to it except for a few occasions where even more shit fell apart than normal. In Uncharted 3 it was outright comedic how things fell apart the moment drake was around.
The Last Guardian has only one scripted sequence of things falling apart, and it's actually intense as a result.
Cave Johnson
Member
I believe that was the original plan during the development on the PS3. Thing is, the levels would have to be a sandbox to accommodate it so they made it more linear and triggered behaviors by storyline checkpoints.
I can't agree with that. It would rob the game of one of its strongest aspects.
It is strange that players have had such differing experiences with the game though, or specifically Trico's AI. Perhaps it's random glitches that not everyone has experienced, preventing something from working as it should. That's my best guess at least, and something the developers should work on fixing if that is the case.
MegaSackman
Member
It has to be, I mean I've replayed the game once and passed the most controversial parts as soon as I knew the solution, in the case of my second playthrough literally in seconds.
I really liked Ico but was worried when they first announced this game because I wanted something more similar to Shadow of the Colossus since I consider it a much better game than Ico, but now The Last Guardian is my favourite of the three so, there's that.
WadiumArcadium
Member
After finishing it last night I'd actually move it up from #2 to #1 in my 2016 GOTY. The ending was brilliantly done. I really can't recall many occurrences where Trico didn't do what I wanted him to. The water gate was one but other than that, I can't remember any. The camera was the most frustrating thing.
Pankratous
Member
Started this the other day. A couple hours in. The game is absolutely beautiful. I honestly can't believe how life-like Trico is... which is funny because it's not even a real animal. The way he moves, behaves, noises he makes. It's insane. He never once had a glitchy animation either. He moves perfectly for the space and environment he's in. It's nuts. Devs should be commended.
Graphics are stunning as well, love the style. Loving the game. Can't say I've had any trouble getting Trico to follow orders either - he always does what he's told... not sure if other people are just spamming the order button or something.
Boy is clunky as all hell to control, would be my only complaint so far.
Graphics are stunning as well, love the style. Loving the game. Can't say I've had any trouble getting Trico to follow orders either - he always does what he's told... not sure if other people are just spamming the order button or something.
Boy is clunky as all hell to control, would be my only complaint so far.
It kinda does have that, though. Ueda mentioned in an interview that Trico has a barometer for hunger and trust. It would certainly explain the wildly different experiences players have with Trico's behavior, even across multiple playthroughs.
He doesn't elaborate on how it works, and the game won't give you visible meters, but that's part of the idea. Learning how to cooperate with Trico is the game.
I never once felt like it was complete RNG. In fact, I actually had his pathfinding glitching out once, and it was absolutely obvious in a matter of seconds, a minute at most, that it was a glitch and not just "Trico being unreliable by design".
I had the same experience on both points. As soon as I figured out what to do, everything went smoothly, and I was also not expecting to like the game nearly as much as I did for being more of a SotC fan, but it's now my favorite.