After all these years, The Last Guardian has finally released for the PS4. Originally announced at E3 2009, The Last Guardian was delayed from its anticipated release in 2011 further and further. Now that it’s finally out, how is it? Well… don’t get lost in the hype.
Some of The Last Guardian’s strengths are also its biggest weaknesses. For example, the story is mysterious, with what sounds like an adult version of the character you are playing thinking back on his adventures with the huge cat/bird/thing beast Trico. The game starts by throwing a mountain of questions at the player, so you definitely want to keep going to see the answers. The problem here is because so little of the story is being told, it is hard to get invested.
The game’s pacing also comes into play as a sense of progression. There are no levels, chapters, major cutscenes or anything else to let you know you’re on the right path and making progress. The first hour of gameplay looks identical to the tenth.
This is also hindered by the terrible in-game camera. The camera seems to somehow manage to jump to the worst possible spots, oftentimes not even having the characters on the screen, or so zoomed in you can’t see anything around you. Moving the camera around feels bad as well, like you’re trying to push something heavy that isn’t going in the direction you want it to.
Things are frustrating on the gameplay side as well. Platforming works fine, but it’s all just a bit dull. With the terrible camera, you don’t really want to stick around to look at the scenery, and advancing forward often feels like a chore. Trico is integral in moving through the ruins and cliffs, but can be very difficult to control. Not only that, the beast is designed to not follow every order you give it. While this adds to a more realistic wild animal feeling, it doesn’t really make for a great game. Simply going from one side of a room to another can take a few minutes, and getting Trico to do anything more precise can take dozens of tries.
The main character isn’t exactly a perfectly tuned machine when it comes to control either. Often I’ll have pressed the button to grab something or pick something up, and the character instead will jump or climb up on something. That’s not what I told you to do, why are you doing it?
All that being said, things are still intriguing enough to keep pressing forward. That and the ability to be able to pet Trico at any time. Trico is a fantastic creature to watch, and is full of surprises. While it can be annoying to order Trico around, you still feel good when it’s by your side. Despite being a young boy in The Last Guardian , you still feel like you’re the adult, leading a wide-eyed child along with you (with all the good and bad that comes with it).
The biggest question I keep coming back to in between moments of awe and terrible frustration is, ‘Is The Last Guardian any fun to play?’ Ultimately, I feel like it isn’t. The gameplay is too purposefully obstructed, too deliberately designed to be rough around the edges. With the terrible camera, playing feels even worse. There are some beautiful moments in The Last Guardian, along with some truly stunning animation work on Trico. It’s just a shame you have to fight so hard (and not in a good way) to get to experience these moments.
So what do you think? Are you still interested in trying out The Last Guardian for yourself? Will you stick to the infinitely superior Shadow of the Colossus? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
