The Last Guardian will kick you right in the heart. In a good way.
I never caught on to the Last Guardian hype. Yes, I get that it was in development for almost 9 years and that the people behind Shadow of the Colossus worked on this game. Given the legendary status of Shadow of the Colossus, I get the precedence this game had over many titles that were being released over the years. It looked interesting in many ways, especially the environment design, but I still never caught onto the hype. I went into this game as a newcomer with no reservations or investments.
And I can say whole-heartedly that if you’re a person who has had some preconceived notions about this game or if you’re someone like me, The Last Guardian will leap over every expectation you had and go further than you can imagine.
You play the role of a boy, whom upon waking up finds himself stranded in a mysterious location. Right next to him lays this massive creature that the narrator refers to as Trico. From there the adventure begins as you set the creature free and, with its aid, you find your way back to your village.
The game really paces itself when it comes to exploration. There are moments where you actually have your cognitive functions running at full steam and then there are moments where you can pause and just be mesmerised by the environment. And oh my goodness, the environment design in this game really knows how to set the tone for each scenario of the game. As you guardedly step through derelict chambers you feel a constant air of fear and a sense that something is watching you or as you roam through brightly lit fields you feel a sense of surety and peace.
The ebb and flow of these sensations, that the environment elicits from us, is immensely vivid.
Yet, for a current-gen game, the graphics seem a bit dated. Given that it was meant to be a game that was for the previous generation of consoles, it is surprising that they haven’t really updated it. Trico seems to be the only one that is detailed and rendered to current-gen standards while everything else, more or less, feels like they are graphically stuck in the past.
Right from the get-go, the game’s mechanics are fairly simple. This simplicity carried forward to how to interact with Trico, such as guiding him somewhere or making him perform certain actions. But the complexity comes through when all these mechanics are brought to an intersection as you explore the world.
The game has this interactive way of letting you sometimes figure out some controls on your own. It doesn’t try to hold your hand throughout the experience and that goes a long way to creating this sense of urgency and loneliness. It soon dawns on you that you are merely a little boy who has to use your wit (and the aid of this big fluffy creature) to get back home. The interactions between the mechanics work best when they involve Trico and this doubles as a way to further the narrative relationship between the protagonist and Trico.
As the game progresses you see the game mechanics between Trico and the protagonist unfold because Trico becomes more and more trusting of the protagonist. Sometimes you don’t need convoluted narrative pieces to progress characters, sometimes all it takes is simple game design.
The game mechanics and character design are the most remarkable parts of this game. Trico behaves like any animal would, it can get aggressive when confronted by something that appears hostile or it can get easily distracted by something. These characterisations make Trico one of the most loveable creatures I’ve seen in a video game. Furthermore, all of Trico’s behavioural aspects do affect your gameplay and aren’t just there for the sake of it. Such as how you have you pet Trico until he calms down if he were to be aggravated, otherwise he will not follow you around or listen to your commands.
Platforming in the Last Guardian feels amazing, fluid and realistic. The protagonist traverses ledges and thin scaffoldings like a little boy would and not like Nathan Drake or Lara Croft. This simple design goes a long way in creating this constant sense of fear when you go about exploring the lands. However, there are moments where platforming can be troublesome because the controls for the protagonist feel a little too loose. Sometimes even basic movement can feel weirdly slippery, to the point that it turns from a hindrance to an annoyance.
Puzzle solving is also really fun and can be challenging at times but not to the point that it slows down the momentum of the journey. And all of this is so neatly packaged within an atmospheric soundtrack. From quiet moments of exploration to frantic frenzies of running from enemies, the music only elevates those moments further.
It took me a while to figure it out but the most important facet about the Last Guardian isn’t its story or mechanics but its characters. You will grow to love the interaction between Trico and the protagonist. And to see that grow as the game progresses is immensely beautiful. The characterisation of Trico is on point. Initially, I got annoyed at how Trico would not respond to commands all that well and I thought that was bad game design but then I clocked that Trico behaves like most animals.
The game doesn’t tell you to be patient with Trico, it wants you to find that out on your own. It lets you develop this relationship with this creature on your accord and your understanding.
The Last Guardian is not a game, it’s a story. I wouldn’t say come into this game with thoughts of amazing platforming, puzzle solving or with hopes of being blown away by gorgeous graphics. Enter this game with the hopes of a heart-warming story of unlikely companionship. Everything in this game comes secondary to the story. And that is the best thing the developers could have done for the narrative.
The Last Guardian is not exactly the ten-year game we wanted but what it gives us is something unexpectadly great.
