Spoilers will not be marked in this thread as it is intended for people who have finished the game.
After acquiring this beauty of a book a few days ago, I've been replaying The Last Guardian for maybe the sixth time now to accompany my read-through. The book is structured as a companion piece of sorts that goes through the events of the game chronologically and sheds light on various details and design intentions from the developers' perspective throughout. There are a number of small revelations and fan-theory confirmations in the book, so if you were unaware of its existence until now I highly recommend it. Future Press really did an excellent job with it, and it's by far the best printed work for Team ICO fans that exists today.
Anyway, replaying the game again with this book aiding my appreciation of the game's many successes made me want to take the discussion to GAF. TLG is a flawed masterpiece in my view, and I'd wager that many of you would agree with that assessment. Much like with the original release of Shadow of the Colossus, TLG released with subpar technical performance at times on a base PS4 and sometimes wonky camera/climbing controls. The game's camera has since been drastically improved via a patch, but performance issues still crop up disappointingly during some of the game's most otherwise impressive and captivating setpieces.
But much like with SotC, TLG's special qualities and the overall experience that it provides elevates it high above its handful of technical struggles. Anyone who has finished the game can attest to how it succeeds in making the player care for an AI-governed NPC character (as has become the specialty of Ueda and his team), but I think TLG accomplished this feat even more thoroughly and intensely than in any of Team ICO's previous works. While his AI-driven behaviors (and the varying unpredictability that comes with that) frustrated some players, Trico stands as one of gaming's most unique and believable AI characters ever. Pick at random any YouTube stream of people experiencing the game's final moments, and you'll more likely than not witness the strong emotional impact that the game manages to have on people. The heart of that achievement is the realization of Trico, and at the core of that accomplishment is Ueda's persistence over those nine long years of development fighting to keep his original vision intact in the face of countless setbacks.
But honestly, while Trico rightfully steals the show in most discussions surrounding the game I think that the game's physics-governed puzzles and overall setpiece design and pacing deserve praise as well. The game's level design feels so natural and organic, and many of its puzzles respect the player's intelligence and exploratory tendencies to a degree not seen very often in AAA games anymore. Much as was the case with ICO and SotC, TLG also uses exquisitely framed and constructed cutscenes sparingly, much more often relaying setpiece moments and story events through actual gameplay that doesn't feel all that scripted. These are the kinds of accomplishments that I hope to see highlighted in this thread.
I'll start us off with my favorites:
After acquiring this beauty of a book a few days ago, I've been replaying The Last Guardian for maybe the sixth time now to accompany my read-through. The book is structured as a companion piece of sorts that goes through the events of the game chronologically and sheds light on various details and design intentions from the developers' perspective throughout. There are a number of small revelations and fan-theory confirmations in the book, so if you were unaware of its existence until now I highly recommend it. Future Press really did an excellent job with it, and it's by far the best printed work for Team ICO fans that exists today.
Anyway, replaying the game again with this book aiding my appreciation of the game's many successes made me want to take the discussion to GAF. TLG is a flawed masterpiece in my view, and I'd wager that many of you would agree with that assessment. Much like with the original release of Shadow of the Colossus, TLG released with subpar technical performance at times on a base PS4 and sometimes wonky camera/climbing controls. The game's camera has since been drastically improved via a patch, but performance issues still crop up disappointingly during some of the game's most otherwise impressive and captivating setpieces.
But much like with SotC, TLG's special qualities and the overall experience that it provides elevates it high above its handful of technical struggles. Anyone who has finished the game can attest to how it succeeds in making the player care for an AI-governed NPC character (as has become the specialty of Ueda and his team), but I think TLG accomplished this feat even more thoroughly and intensely than in any of Team ICO's previous works. While his AI-driven behaviors (and the varying unpredictability that comes with that) frustrated some players, Trico stands as one of gaming's most unique and believable AI characters ever. Pick at random any YouTube stream of people experiencing the game's final moments, and you'll more likely than not witness the strong emotional impact that the game manages to have on people. The heart of that achievement is the realization of Trico, and at the core of that accomplishment is Ueda's persistence over those nine long years of development fighting to keep his original vision intact in the face of countless setbacks.
But honestly, while Trico rightfully steals the show in most discussions surrounding the game I think that the game's physics-governed puzzles and overall setpiece design and pacing deserve praise as well. The game's level design feels so natural and organic, and many of its puzzles respect the player's intelligence and exploratory tendencies to a degree not seen very often in AAA games anymore. Much as was the case with ICO and SotC, TLG also uses exquisitely framed and constructed cutscenes sparingly, much more often relaying setpiece moments and story events through actual gameplay that doesn't feel all that scripted. These are the kinds of accomplishments that I hope to see highlighted in this thread.
I'll start us off with my favorites:
- Gameplay - I think my favorite section in the game is where the boy and Trico get separated after diving underwater, and then the boy finds himself stumbling upon the lair of the darker Trico. The whole escape sequence with the "evil" Trico hunting you was an awesome subversion of all the interactions we'd had with our Trico up to this point, and it was a genuinely tense and panic-inducing segment. Hopping on his head to clear those gaps on the way up to the area with the hanging cages was a really cool design choice, and I absolutely loved the cage puzzle that follows after you're reunited with Trico after some time has passed. The cage puzzle is a perfect example of how the game designers used procedural animation and physics to govern everything. I don't think it's possible for the physics to allow for the cage to accidentally fall in a way that breaks the sequence of the puzzle or results in death, but the environment itself is designed to invisibly ensure that the cage will proceed along the intended path due to the physics of the scene.
- Story - The minutes following the second time that Trico succumbs to the mind-control of the antenna rooms when Trico awakens to find the boy pale and motionless. Trico attempting desperately to revive the boy by bringing him to various spots in the nearby area is one of the game's most tenderly moving moments, and it's an important one from a story perspective. At this point it becomes clear how attached Trico had become to the boy who was once merely his ticket to a fresh, tasty barrel being dispensed by the tower's mechanism. Its an exemplary realization of the game's overall theme of companionship between human and animal forming and strengthening over time. It still gets me every time when Trico excitedly bound around once the boy finally awakes after being placed into the shallow puddle. It's also cool that they did this whole scene in gameplay, once again having everything governed by AI and physics rather than a keyframed cutscene. It was like you were watching your AI companion try to save you while you remained unable to move your player character. I don't think this scene would've had the same impact had it been a cutscene in the vain of the village one that preceded it.
