Personal review about The Last Guardian.
Intro
Unsure if this game really needs any explanation, this is quite frankly, one of the more hyped games of last year. For the people who have no clue, or aren’t really console gamers, here is some context (since I love you all).
The Last Guardian designed by Fumito Ueda, published by Sony themselves. Is obviously, a PS4 exclusive. It’s from the studio’s Sony Interactive Entertainment, Team Ico, GenDesign, SIE Japan Studio. Which are (excluding Sony), formerly known for games like Ico & Shadow of the Colossus, which were major titles for the PS2 era.
Personally, I remember when Shadow of the Colossus was announced, I was BLOWN out of the water, these graphics for this tiny console, this open world, huge bosses. Still something which isn’t explored that widely in our current-gen games, which we totally should. (I have yet to test the new Final Fantasy XV).
So, back to TLG, they announced and teased this game for years, after years of delays, the news came out. It would actually be published, like … for real this time. after avoiding as many of the trailers as I could - I always tend to give my own take at a game - I laid my eyes on the collector’s edition. And well, that’s something they just completely aced, the box, the figurine, it’s amazing. So I knew, I had to have it. I pre-ordered from day one (oh yes guys, I’m one of those asshats, but mostly, it’s about the collecting point of view, not the gaming one, sorry).
I was finishing up on Watchdogs 2 when it arrived, and the reviews started coming in, I tried to avoid them at all costs, but it was quite obvious. When I got a DM from a pretty well respected reviewer, it kind of made my heart drop. He stopped playing since he was so annoyed, and that’s exactly how I felt, annoyed. Battling with myself whether I would give it a whirl after all, or just skip it and start another game from my never-ending-backlog.
But, please do tell us.
Here it goes, so since I loved the little gifs I saw of Trico (which is one of the 2 main characters in the game), I just HAD to try it. So I popped it in, and there I went, right in the story. It starts off with a very confused boy waking up next to a battle scarred animal, the size of a bus. It has roughed up feathers, spears in the flesh and is chained up. From the start on, you have this very tight bond and deeply emotional connection with this unknown animal. This game is not for your average gamer playthrough though, they don’t believe in tutorials, they just kind of expect you to figure it out, but in its own slower pace, nothing is forced. Slowly pulling the spears from this animal to earn it’s trust, caressing it slowly. Figuring out what you can do in this game, if everything will be obiously spelled out for you, or do you need to touch every single thing to progress.
To be honest, you really emerge into the story, I have to give the game that, it makes you feel bad for Trico, you have to feed it, pet it, command it through the game and guide it. Literally convince it to learn how to trust you, this little boy, to mount him and battle your way forward together.
The game is really strong in letting you walk around, slowly adapting to the environment, looking for clues for puzzles you need to solve. Using environmental advantages combined with the lovely Trico. You literally have to LEARN how to use Trico, but he’s like a real dog, he might ignore you, or even simply deny you any guidance, which I’ll come back on later.
But they really nailed this new style of gaming, this isn’t the classic, move from point A to B progressing story, even though, underlying, it is. But they make you work for it, they really want you to think about how to get there. And you have to admire that, it kind of shows that it took so long to develop, there’s so many small details that might go unnoticed, sometimes too small for my opinion.
This is where the personal opinion comes in, for me the game was a bit too slow, sometimes a bit too “ugh, why like this”. I’m a gamer that wants to get involved, deeply emerge in the story, which they totally did, but I got “kicked out” of the story, slighty off-putting my feelings during playing, and here’s why.
The last annoyance
On this bit I’ll be a tad more negative, because basically, I finished this game “because I had too”. Because I have this personal rule, I don’t start a new game until I finished the one I was currently playing. But I also really kind of want to finish the story, so I know what was going to happen (don’t worry, no spoilers). It’s a double edged knife this game, that’s why I really wanted to write about this. But sometimes, I think the puzzles were too different from previous iterations of the same kind of puzzle, which sounds nice, but also made me doubt myself at times. Telling myself, “It won’t be like that, doesn’t really fit into this part”.
I was often excited about the story, because you get chased by these magic samourais, and without any real weapons, you really feel the urgency to get out there, find your friend Trico to slam them to bits. You felt the love in there, but I think they spent a tad too much thinking & developing on those bits, because honestly, the performance on my PS4 were utter trash. There were some scenes which - I think - dropped under 10 FPS. It was very infuriating, and breaks every fluence of the game or scene storywise.
This was one major nerd-killer for me, but then it started adding the very clunky controls for climbing on top of Trico. Often in stressy situations where you jump onto Trico and completely miss. Or when you try to climb on him, but he moves, so you’re stuck in this endless loop whilst being under his armpits. Weird situations where the camera angle is stuck and you get a 2/3 second freeze and the camera turns black while it tries to reset itself. Especially in cramped situations with this huge bus-like character. In other occurrences, pointing towards a specific point, where you’re quite sure Trico should react to, and it’s absolutely doing nothing, where I don’t think the “Trico is not trained enough”-point is valid. I had some other annoyances, like obvious “triggers” that weren’t responding correctly. I more then once found myself yelling “10 YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT PEOPLE”.
The verdict
Now this is an important part. The verdict. Would I advise you to play this game? Totally, but … It depends on your gaming style, are you into these kind of games, can you deal with such annoyances, because if you’re in for the story, strap on your helmet, you’re going for a ride. That’s spot on. But I would advise the developers, to calm down on the minor details, and focus on finishing it. Maybe my career as coder isn’t the best to form a decent opinion on such matters, but it has obvious flaws.
But should you play it? Yes, try it at least. You can find it really cheap already since all the backlash on the game. Let me know what you think. ¯_(ツ)_/¯