The Last Guardian

The Last Guardian [人喰いの大鷲トリコ] is no doubt the weakest of the three entries in the loosely-connected world in which it takes place. I actually feel as though having played both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus on release and having some idea of what to expect helped me to enjoy aspects of and persevere with The Last Guardian more than I otherwise would have--some of the unique magic of its predecessors exists here in abundance in various forms, but it's ultimately an experience noticeably dampened by dated game design and a dog shit camera and controls.

2.5 stars / Mediocre

15 years after Fumito Ueda's landmark minimalist debut Ico, The Last Guardian's arrival is one met by things the former never saw: expectation, spectacle and an incredibly large production team. While it is remarkable how identifiable Ueda's presence is on the game, despite the many hands involved, it strays from what made Ico classic in the ways that matter most. Where Ico stripped a concept down to its base elements to fully explore every aspect of a simple but engrossing puzzle-platformer, Last Guardian is full of sloppily implemented elements encased in a convoluted, overly-ambitious shell. Most notably, it's the moments when you don't play where TLG shines most.

After Shadow of the Colossus, it was hard to even imagine where Ueda could go next. As it turns out, backwards is the answer. Well, sort of. When early footage showed a young boy guiding a large mystical bird-dog-cat creature around a desolate castle, the comparisons to Ico were unavoidable. In play, the connection remains but if anything TLG is the inverse of Ico despite similar atmosphere, setting, and mechanical elements. This primarily comes from the boy the player controls being frail and slow compared to the speed and power of his pet companion. Where Ico was a game about the player protecting an AI-controlled companion, TLG is a game about the player relying on an AI-controlled companion for protection and progress. While this ambitious shift in focus highlights how far technology has come since the PS2, it is also the source of TLG's many shortcomings and frustrations.

Instead of relying on linear scripting triggered by player input, TLG's AI companion is a complex beast that runs on a series of systems that highly favor player suggestions. This is easier understood in play so here's an example: In a more traditional game, the player would look at an area and press X which an AI will immediately run to like in Mass Effect. In The Last Guardian, the player looks at an area and press X which the AI will likely ignore until the systems align and it agrees. Sometimes it will go right away, sometimes it will take three attempts, and sometimes it will do something completely different making you wonder if you did something wrong. It's the last case that is the most common and problematic for a puzzle game. Where Ico gave the player simple inputs and elegant puzzles, TLG is a frustrating mess that requires patience as you wait for broken systems to work without any potential for player influence.

While it makes sense for the child to feel helpless and reliant on the creature, the immersion is so frequently broken when the creature acts nonsensical (unable to eat food in front of him, backing into walls, and unable to move forward). Add on horrible performance, controls and camera, there is no way to look at TLG other than a massive step back from Ico in the most basic ways. And the areas where TLG improves are the ways that are the least Ueda: cutscenes, cinematic God of War scenarios where the player takes part in a heavily scripted setpiece, and a bombastic orchestral soundtrack.

Where Ico would make for a completely flat movie, TLG feels like it'd be an incredible Disney-quality children's film without its cumbersome controls, repetitive platforming and simplistic puzzles. The ending is magnificent, reminding the player of how much heart and soul Ueda can infuse into his games when the player isn't being frustrated by basic functionality.

Ueda was an artist that moved to videogames because he saw potential in what they could be. The Last Guardian is a strong suggestion that Ueda made the most of the medium he could a decade ago, and now he should move on to the next thing before his creative spark is gone.