The Last Guardian

The Good
* Honest, emotional storytelling through gameplay

• Generally intriguing setting and lore

• Trico is the best friend you'll ever have in a game

• Wonderful environments and animations

• A unique experience
  
  The Bad
  * Technical issues including framerate and camera problems

• Stiff controls
  
  The Bottom Line
  It’s impossible for anyone to talk about The Last Guardian without bringing up its exceptionally lengthy development time. The game started development for the PlayStation 3 in 2007. It was considered vaporware for much of its development time since little was ever revealed about the game at industry trade shows. It’s elusiveness gave it a nearly mythical status in the gaming industry Some people even wondered if it was even a real game. Finally, at the very end of 2016, well into the PlayStation 4’s lifecycle, The Last Guardian revealed its existence on store shelves.

  The Last Guardian follows the story of a young boy who wakes up one day in the lair of a gigantic creature he calls Trico, with strange markings on his skin. Trico is a hybrid of many different animals, most notably a cat, a dog, and a gryphon. After befriending Trico, the boy and beast set out on a peril-filled journey to escape the strange valley in which they find themselves trapped.The entire game is narrated by the boy as a much older man relaying the story to an unseen person. The narration reacts to many of the events which happen in the game, and can sometimes provide vague hints on what needs to be done in order to progress.

  If you have played the developer’s first game, Ico, you’ll feel right at home with The Last Guardian. Most sections of the game will have you working with Trico on solving various puzzles in order to advance. These puzzles include finding and feeding him barrels, destroying stained-glass eyes which hypnotize Trico, and figuring out how to direct Trico to the next area. Other sections are more combat-oriented and will have you go up against stone knights which are intent on dragging the boy. You are incapable of fighting against these enemies, but Trico is able to take them out with just a few swipes of his paw. Nevertheless, if one catches you, you’ll have to rapidly press the shoulder buttons in order to escape from its grasp before it brings you to one of the various blue doors. These sections sometimes left me feeling exasperated, but in a very good way.

Learning to work with Trico forms the crux of the game. The game illustrates just how much of a slow process earning the mutual trust of a creature might be. You can direct the creature to accomplish various commands, but he won’t always listen or will do something you didn’t intend. Over the course of the game, however, you’ll find that Trico really does have your best interests at heart, and he will become more receptive to your commands as you figure out exactly how to guide him. He will also do increasingly risky things throughout the course of the game. Sometimes, Trico will have to help the boy, and other times, the boy will have to help Trico. That feeling of mutual trust is conveyed to the player through the gameplay.

The game deliberately keeps background events and lore hidden away, and focuses solely on the boy, Trico, and their growing bond. There’s a lot you can infer about this setting, but it’s not the main focus of the game. Still, the detailed world design and use of recurring elements does make you wonder about the true purpose of everything. You do get some answers near the end of the game, but these answers are likely to raise even more questions.

What really impresses is the sheer scale of some of these environments. Trico himself is at least the size of a house, but even compared to his size these environments are enormous in comparison. Hallways shake as Trico walks through them. Platforms of wood and steel barely support the weight of the hulking beast, and often crumble underneath his feet. There were some genuinely heart-stopping moments as I leaped across massive chasms only to be caught by Trico’s tail or mouth at the last second.

The Last Guardian’s biggest faults lie in its technical issues, rather than its design. For starters, the framerate dips during outdoor areas of the game. I played this game on the PS4 Pro, which supposedly runs this game best, and I was still surprised by how low the framerate could get. I can’t imagine what this game would be like on the standard PS4. The camera is also problematic. There is no way to really zoom the camera in or out, and it sometimes follows Trico too closely. The entire screen turns black whenever the camera is blocked, which can make the game feel jarring to watch. The biggest issue with the game is its controls. There’s constant input lag all throughout the game, and the boy doesn’t feel quite as responsive as he should be. It also feels like the camera and movement controls have huge deadzones.

The Last Guardian is a masterpiece, but it’s a flawed masterpiece. The controls can be clunky, the camera and framerate have issues, some of the puzzles are unintuitive, and Trico doesn’t always do precisely what you want. Yet despite all of these flaws, what remains is a highly unique experience. In a gaming landscape stocked with cookie-cutter military shooters, bland open worlds, and sports games, The Last Guardian isn’t afraid to offer a profoundly different experience. It’s an austere, minimalist game that focuses on emotional storytelling through gameplay. It’s an uncompromising vision that makes no apologies for its obtuse and sometimes frustrating nature, but it’s all the more rewarding because of that.