The Last Guardian
PlayStation 4
The Last Guardian is created by the same people who brought cult classics ICO and Shadow of the Colossus to home consoles in the early 2000s. Supposedly the production of this game was an ordeal and a half for its creators. The game spent about ten years in production hell before it was finally able to be released to the public back in 2016. There is a lot to this story and it is an interesting read. I suggest checking it out.
Despite both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus getting rave reviews, I have never been a huge fan of either game. I like the world of the games and the atmosphere they create. But I never found them to be very fun. They were interesting, sure. But fun? Ehhhh… The storylines, or lack thereof, were equally unimpressive to me.
So when I first heard about The Last Guardian, I had a very neutral reaction. Supposedly the game would be taking elements from both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus and combining them into one new experience. I thought the game looked nice and had potential. For sure at some point I would give it a try. But given my feeling for those two games, I was not exactly jumping out of my seat over it.
Towards the end of April 2018, the opportunity to play the game finally came to me. I was canceling my GameFly subscription due to extremely long wait times for shipping in between games. I only had about two weeks left and I didn’t want to play a longer game since I was going to be canceling, so I put a bunch of shorter games at the top of my queue. A few Lego games. Walking Dead season three. This game. As luck of the draw would have it, The Last Guardian ended up being the lucky winner.
Despite the fact that I didn’t really like the game’s predecessors that much, I was still very happy to give it a try. I had heard all about the game and the bond you create with your companion character, Trico. I had also read reviews that he (or she, but I will refer to Trico as he from now on just because it is easier) was very difficult to control. But if you could get through the game, supposedly it was a very rewarding experience. I like rewarding experiences. Why not give it a shot? So that is what I did.
The Last Guardian opens in a very mysterious manner. Playing as a small nameless boy, you wake up in a dark cave, strange tribal tattoo-like markings all over your body. Chained up near you is Trico, a giant beast that has the head of a dog, the body of a cat, and the wings and feathers of a bird. Trico at first is openly hostile to you (for obvious reasons, he is chained up and has broken and bloody spears sticking out of his body). Clearly he has been through some serious shit. You explore the cave and find that there is no way for you to escape. You have to figure out how to calm Trico down and set him loose so that he can help you out. After pulling the spears from his body, feeding him some kind of glowing blue barrels that give him energy, and unlocking the chain around his neck, Trico is freed. A bond is formed between your character and his. If you have ever seen Star Wars, I liken it to a Wookie life debt. Trico becomes your loyal companion 4 lyfe!!!11!
After freeing Trico, you explore the cave system and finally make your way out. You don’t know it yet, but you are in the heart of the beast’s homeland. You and Trico venture deep into this mysterious territory, where a threat is discovered that puts the life of Trico and all creatures like him in jeopardy. Working with Trico, you must destroy this threat and set all of the Trico-like beasts free from the power that binds them. Like with ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, the game’s storyline is a bit vague, but at least its basic concept seems clear.
The game’s controls are definitely the worst thing about it. Your character controls very sloppily. Running, climbing, and jumping often feel like a messy, inaccurate ordeal. You have to line jumps up exactly or risk falling to your death. The camera often gets in the way and makes this even more difficult to handle. You can tell that this game has been in production for a long time, because the controls and the camera functions make this game feel like something that came out in the mid-2000s. A big part of the game is climbing onto Trico and riding him around. Anyone who has played Shadow of the Colossus will instantly recognize how familiar this feels - it is like climbing up onto a Colossus all over again. I often got stuck on Trico though. I’d be climbing up his leg towards his back and even though I was holding the up button, I would stop and not be able to go up anymore. I’d have to wiggle around left and right to find the exact spot where I could begin to move up him more efficiently. This didn’t happen every time, but it happened often enough. Seeing as how climbing Trico is such a huge part of the game, it became a big nuisance after a while. I feel like I wasted a lot of time climbing (or attempting to climb) the beast when it should have been something that you could easily accomplish in five seconds or less. The camera often gets in the way of climbing too. Trico is a big beast and takes up a lot of space on the screen. If you are trying to climb him and there are obstacles around you, the camera often adjusts so that you are just looking at a big blob of pixels on the screen. Am I climbing him? Am I stuck? I can’t tell because I can’t see my character.
The biggest complaint I have is how difficult it is to get Trico to follow your commands. I am not alone in this assessment. As I mentioned before, that was one of the biggest complaints I had read about the game before I actually played it. I thought it wouldn’t be as bad as people had said. But it was. You climb up on Trico’s back. You see a ledge that you are clearly meant to jump to in order to access the next part of the stage. You point Trico in that direction. He just stands there. He scratches himself. He wanders off and starts sniffing around. No, Trico. THAT WAY! He still doesn’t listen. Rinse and repeat for several minutes. You start to question whether that actually is where you are supposed to go, because Trico sure ain’t going there. That happened a lot in this game. This would lead to me second guessing myself. I’d have to pull up an online guide because I couldn’t figure out where I was supposed to be heading. If not the obvious spot, where? But then it would turn out I was right the whole time. It would take a lot of coaxing and finagling, but eventually I’d get him to follow my command. A simple segment that should only take a minute or two would take fifteen instead. So frustrating. This happened to me where I got stuck about a half hour before the end of the game too. You’re supposed to care for this beast and have an emotional bond with it. I’m just sitting there screaming at it to freaking move! That definitely took me out of the game a little bit. When I got to the end and started watching the ending sequence, it didn’t have as big of an impact on me because I was so irritated with the beast. The ending is clearly meant to invoke all these “feels” from you, but when Trico is pissing you off so much it definitely detracts from that emotional bond you are supposed to feel.
The game’s graphics are a mixed bag. At first glance, things look really good. The landscapes are large and beautiful. The atmosphere of the game has this whole magical and mystical feel to it. You really feel as if there is a deep history to this world and you have barely scratched the surface of exploring it. The water and lighting effects are sensational. Trico himself is wonderfully animated and is fun to just sit there and look at. His feathers can be mesmerizing at times, especially when they are blowing in the wind.
It is when you start to look a little closer that you notice some of the game’s rough edges. There are many areas of this game that look kind of grimy and gritty, almost as if you are looking at things through a screen door. A lot of rocks, cliffs, and segments of old ruins are boring to look at. When the camera glitches out and gets in super close to the walls, they can look pretty rough. This doesn’t look like a next generation PS4 game. In fact, there are times where this game looks more like a PS3 game. Sometimes even a PS2 one. Of course, there are many atmospheric effects that likely couldn’t be done on one of those earlier systems. But this game does not look new or current at all.
The Last Guardian’s music and sound effects are very good. The musical score blends in well with the atmosphere and the environment of the game. It is subtle when it needs to be subtle. It amps up during those rare moments when it needs to be amped up. It feels like something you would see in a major motion picture; it is very well done. One song in particular made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It embodies the mystery and the discovery of the game, and your relationship with Trico. Do yourself a favor and Google Overture Lore. It is such an epic track! Sound effects are everything you would expect from a game like this. Your characters spoken language and Trico’s roar both fit the game’s world like a glove. Bonus points for the game’s language being spoken in Japanese and not some made up gibberish language.
The game itself isn’t very long. It isn’t short either, so don’t worry about tossing money away on a game that can be beat in a day. I beat it in about three or four days. I had to return it, so I didn’t get the chance to play it again. But there is definitely replay value here. Especially when you know what is going to happen in the end. I can imagine that going back and playing again would be interesting. Seeing that bond formed between boy and creature for a second time. Exploring the deliberately vague storyline of the game and making more sense of it another time around.
Despite the game’s flaws and frustrations, it did leave a lasting mark on me. I enjoyed exploring its big, mysterious world. Trico pissed me off to no end, but I still felt sad when the game was over and I wouldn’t be able to interact with him anymore. There was this big empty gap in my heart where Trico had been. Not only Trico, but the nameless boy too. It was like I lost one a couple of my closest friends. The game stuck with me for several days, and I couldn’t help but think back on it at random points throughout my day. That is the mark of a good game for me, when thoughts of it linger around in my mind like that.
I enjoyed this game much, much more than I ever did ICO or Shadow of the Colossus. It is not a perfect game by any means, but it is a very good one. I have to pick it up someday and play through it again. Until that day comes, I will treasure the memories I had with Trico. That fucking asshole piece of shit that made me scream at my TV all night long.
Overall:
B
If you liked this review, please check out my reviews of the following games:
Rime
Rime
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