The Last Guardian is an emotional roller coaster that consistently grapples with murky controls and vague pacing. While the story and emotional aspects of The Last Guardian are outstanding, they’re regularly hampered by gameplay issues.
The Last Guardian
Developer: Team Ico
Price: $59.99
Platforms: PS4 (reviewed)
Though both games had notoriously long development cycles, I went into The Last Guardian in the exact opposite way I went into Final Fantasy XV. I had waited for Final Fantasy for a decade, while I only knew about The Last Guardian on a base level, having only played part of Ico and all of Shadow of the Colossus. So I went into The Last Guardian with a blank mindset, ready for whatever the game was ready to throw at me.
The concept of The Last Guardian is a simple one. You are a young boy, stricken with amnesia after waking up in an ancient temple beside a fierce but wounded beast, known as Trico. After feeding the beast some glowing barrels, you gain its trust, allowing you to pull the spears out of it, and ride it towards the beginning of your adventure.
Most of The Last Guardian‘s story is told towards the end in a select few cutscenes, with some world-building thrown throughout the environments you traverse. Without going into spoilers, Trico and the boy’s backstories are covered with just enough detail, adding a new dimension to the emotional connection you’ll no doubt build with Trico.
Your relationship with Trico is easily the highlight of the game, as Trico feels like a real animal companion. Anyone who’s ever had a dog will immediately recognize a number of the things that Trico does, from stretching, to lying down, and even relieving himself on rare occasion. The way Trico moves feels completely natural and realistic, cementing the feeling of him being your dog-bird friend. This realism makes you immediately care for Trico’s well-being; a feeling that lasts throughout the entire game.
Every time Trico gets hurt, or whines when you go through a door he can’t fit through, you feel a twinge of guilt. The few battles you partake in each pull at your heartstrings, as Trico’s growls, whinges, and yelps all hit you hard, and drive you to do everything possible to protect this hulking beast. I found myself rushing every fight, as I hated the idea of Trico being bombarded with spears. These protective emotions are rarely evoked in video games, which is a testament to just how well The Last Guardian portrays the feeling of caring for an animal.
While The Last Guardian‘s gameplay is, at its core, fun, it faces a number of issues in terms of its controls and puzzle design. At its core, The Last Guardian plays like Shadow of the Colossus. You run, jump, and climb up a number of environments, and Trico, in order to solve puzzles, scale walls, and defeat enchanted suits of armor. There’s a unique feeling of dependence that comes with this gameplay, as the boy is helpless in combat, and Trico is helpless without directions. This fosters even more caring for Trico, and makes the game more unique in its execution.
Unfortunately The Last Guardian also carries over some of the technical issues of its predecessor. Controlling both the boy and Trico can be problematic, for separate reasons. Climbing Trico as the boy is often a confusing experience, as Trico will fling you around, or change your position on him by shifting his limbs. This makes hopping onto him when he’s about to jump very frustrating. While you feel oddly happy once you’re sitting on Trico’s head, getting there can be an issue.
Trico can similarly be commanded by the boy to do a number of things, from moving in certain directions to jumping or attacking the things around him. There’s a problematic delay between when you issue a command, and when, or if, Trico will carry it out. This makes telling him to do things difficult, as you’re never sure if he’ll carry out your commands or not. While this is arguably in-line with a real pet, it makes the game needlessly frustrating, and could easily be fixed.
The puzzles throughout the game are also a bit too vague. The solutions to ascending the ruins or climbing out of rooms is often poorly hidden. While I don’t think the game should directly tell you how to solve its puzzles, there are little to no hints at all towards what you’re supposed to focus on. This means you’ll spend a lot of time in random rooms trying to figure out how to leave through a small crack, or by giving Trico commands until you find the right one.
Despite these issues, flying around on Trico is invigorating, and the mechanics are all solid. Climbing up towers or avoiding enemies can be a lot of fun, and even incredibly tense. Scaling walls or crossing bridges while above enormous drops is an amazing feeling, as it shows you just how small you are compared to the world around you. The addition of a button purely for petting Trico is absolutely adorable, and provides you with a heart-warming feeling whenever you need it. Similar feelings are also brought up when you run in-place to show Trico where to go, or when you wave and clap to get his attention.
The visuals of The Last Guardian are surprisingly stunning for a game that started its development on an entirely different system of another console generation. The boy and Trico are incredibly expressive thanks to their gestures and facial animations, but it’s the settings that really stand out. Everything is enormous, and makes you feel incredibly small and vulnerable to the dangerous world around you. Seeing places you’ve traversed from higher areas at the end of the game is incredibly satisfying, and gives you a real sense of how far you’ve come. The only visual issue is that the frame rate tends to drop once you enter busier areas with enemies or foliage, though these moments aren’t overly frequent, and are supposedly much better on the PS4 Pro.
The Last Guardian has some exquisite sound. The music, or lack of music, in certain areas perfectly compliments the atmosphere. Battles feel scarier, while peaceful rooms and sun-soaked cliffs feel completely safe and reassuring. The sounds that Trico makes are both adorable and saddening, depending on the situation, while the boy’s voice clips are just as moving. The soft way he speaks to Trico as he pets him to calm him down is as heart-warming as it gets, while his yells and commands are well-acted, especially for a kid.
The Final Word
The Last Guardian is full of ups and downs in its narrative and gameplay. Few games wield the emotional weight of The Last Guardian, thanks to the wonderful feeling of connection between the boy and Trico. The execution of its gameplay and the majority of its puzzles are problematic, which is an unfortunate contrast to the game’s moving story.
MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
