What is it?
3rd Person, Open Level, Artistic, Platforming, Dark Fantasy, Action-Adventure
What’s good?
An absolute showstopper of a companion whom I dare you to not love like a true companion by the end of the story, an epic sense of size and scale, supremely effective cinematic presentation that instills at times dread claustrophobia vertigo and desolation, some deviously shocking twists and story beats.
What’s bad?
The game has some control issues that can be frustrating, it’s easy to justify them away by saying Trico is a wild animal and that’s why he’s not doing what you want but that’s just wishful thinking, it can be emotionally draining at times, it truly is a sad game that tugs at the heart strings.
| Released 2016 | Team Ico | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
|---|---|---|
| Completed: 2017-01-13 | Completion: 64% | Highest Trophy: Gold x4 |
Full Review
To be upfront this is my first Team Ico game. I never played Ico or Shadow of the Colossus but I do plan on getting the later when the PS4 re-master is released. So as my introduction to Team Ico I can say without a shadow of a doubt I am really excited to try anything they may develop next. I can only hope that one of those will be a sequel to this game. The Last Guardian stirs up so many emotions when I think about it. It certainly wasn’t the greatest game I’ve ever played and likely wouldn’t even crack my top ten list. My favorite game of all time hands down is The Last of Us and that game is an absolute roller coaster of grief and hate and love and sacrifice and redemption. Although it’s a tossup I think The Last Guardian may top it on a purely emotional level. Both games pain me to the point of almost being emotionally damaged. They are both such powerful and moving experiences.
In The Last Guardian you wake up in a dingy cave. There is no real introduction and no real tutorial on what to do. You play a small kid with very little skills to use. You can jump and climb and that seems to be about it. As you wake up you can see a giant hulking creature chained to the floor beside you. It looks like a dog but it has wings, bird talons and it’s covered in feathers. You have absolutely no idea what this creature is and every time you get near the beast it snarls and snaps at you. Meanwhile a narrator provides hints on what to do. Sometimes the hints are subtle, other times they are not. Eventually you notice the creature known as Trico is injured. Spears can be seen jutting out of his body and his feathers are smattered with blood. Hesitantly you grip onto his plumage and pull yourself up onto his hulking body. He whimpers and snarls at you as no doubt he is afraid and in pain and confused. As you move to the first spear which stands as tall as the boy, you begin to pull it out. Writhing in pain Trico bucks and kicks. His hind leg connects with your tiny little body and it sends you careening into the cavern wall.
You come to sometime later still on the cavern floor, an injured Trico still chained up and whimpering in pain. The narrator offers you some hints that lead you to discover the first of many barrels of food. In many game guides these are affectionately known as Trico Treats. It’s amazing the first few times you watch Trico react to the treats you throw his way. His movements are so realistic as if he were an actual animal. He sniffs at them paws at them and eventually he begins to eat them. Later in the game, once he trust’s you enough, you can throw the Trico Treats at him and he’ll sometimes snatch them right out of mid air. These barrels provide a sort of point system from which you earn his trust and loyalty. There are many, many more barrels scattered amongst this mythical world. Some like these first barrels are unmissable and needed to progress the story but dozens more are hidden in far away nooks and crannies. There are a lot of great guides available to help you collect them all and if that’s one of your goals you’ll probably need a guide as a few of the Trico Treats are ridiculously hard to find.
Eventually you free Trico from his chains but not before he hurts you again. After you climb back up to remove the second spear from his shoulder you are once again knocked unconscious by this terrified, giant and writhing animal. Unlike the first time, when you wake up, Trico is nudging you softly with his nose trying to wake you up. The sad look on his face and his puffy life like eyes tell the story. He didn’t mean to hurt you and he’s so very sorry. The sincerity and sheer emotionality of Trico is undeniable. As the young boy forgives his new ally you discover a new set of abilities. You can now call Trico to come to you, to go to a specific area and best of all you can now climb on top of him. Climbing on Trico is both phenomenally cool but at times annoying. Often the controls don’t seem to work properly and it seems like you’ll sometimes find yourself crawling the wrong way or seeming to hit an invisible obstacle that I can only assume is the geometry on Trico messing with the climbing logic. But in any case it’s more often cooler than it is annoying and you can use it to hitch a ride or to jump to otherwise unreachable platforms. Bear in mind you in no way control Trico. He is a completely autonomous AI companion. You can call him and point at things but that's about it. And he sure does have a mind of his own.
It’s not long before you discover a strange metal disc. It looks like a shield but when you hold it up a beam of light shoots out of in front of you. The beam of light doesn’t appear to do much other than cast a spotlight and it’s not until you use it near Trico that you discover its true power. Trico’s eyes light up in a blaze of colours and the whip crack of lightning fills the air as a stream of electricity flows from Trico’s tail striking the spotlight. With this new found ability you and Trico are able to destroy a barricade blocking the exit to this cavern.
Now that you are both free you wave goodbye to Trico and push on out into the fresh air. But Trico is having none of that. He begins to follow you, he whimpers, he hides and at times he even wants to play. Like it or not you’ve made a friend and over the dozen or so hours that follow that bond of friendship will grow and it will be tested countless times. Through trial and error, pain and forgiveness, kindness and sacrifice, when all is said and done Trico proves to be one of the most endearing characters in video game history. I love that fucking bird dog. Everything about him seems so real. He ignores you, he does what he wants, he wanders, he gets excited, he gets hungry and he plays. There’s sweetness and tenderness in Trico that sweeps you away.
It reminds me of when I recently got my new kittens and the brother took to pissing on my bed if he was left alone for too long. I understood he didn’t know what he was doing and he wasn’t being mean or vengeful. He was sad and lonely and scared. I would still get angry and yell out of frustration but every time I did I would feel so bad. The poor cat would run and hide and I could see him peek out from behind the couch or under the bed with such sad, sad eyes. I could tell I hurt his feelings and it broke my heart. So I would coax him out from where ever he was hiding and he would creep out so gingerly, so cautiously. Once I was able to pick him up and start petting him he would begin to relax and slowly melt into my arms purring and kneading away. Everything would be good and he’d turn back into that happy little kitten. Until he did it the next time and the cycle would continue. Eventually he stopped pissing in the bed and now he’s the most adorable and cuddly cat. Trico reminded me so much of my cat and this is the exact same course your relationship with him will take. It’s truly one of the most unique and wonderful gaming experiences.
This game is so beautiful too at times it looks like a painting. I would never consider it as a rival for games like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice or Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, it just doesn’t have those kinds of graphical chops but it is beautiful in a more artistic more abstract sort of way. I’m by no means an artist so it’s hard for me to explain but it reminds me of how Journey is one of the most beautiful games ever. In The Last Guardian the boy is cell shaded yet the world is nearly photo realistic. The independent feathers on Trico flutter in the wind and combined with the lighting bloom in the game it makes for some wonderfully artistic moving images. But maybe one of the most captivating elements of the game is the world the game inhabits, the sheer immensity of it all. It’s hard to fathom and you don’t see it coming. You are so used to regular games which are crafted in such a way the world is created in relation to your character. At first that’s exactly what this game seems to be. It isn’t until you get out into the open ruins and start to ride on Trico as he jumps and bounds across chasms and ledges that would take you hours to navigate that you understand the scope of it all. This game isn’t designed around you. It’s designed around Trico. When that realization sets in suddenly the scale of what Team Ico has created blows away any of your preconceptions and it becomes something far greater than you had imagined. And the music oh my the music is some of the best ever in a game, it just gels so well it's fantastic.
The world you find yourself immersed in is odd and mysterious. You never find out who built these old towering ruins and it never really matters. All that matters is that you reach the central tower. You don’t know why but you do know that’s your destination. Along the way you realize you are trapped in a massive labyrinth in the middle of a deep valley surrounded by mountains. There is no escape except maybe for Trico to fly out. Unfortunately his wings are badly damaged from the events leading to his captivity. Details of which are slowly given to you through a series of flashbacks. The slow drip of memories begins to paint a grim story of how you and your companion came to find yourselves trapped in that cavern.
Some of the story is horrifying and you can’t help but for a moment look at Trico as a true monster. But those moments fade as you realize it’s not his fault he hasn’t chosen to do what he has done or what he will do. It’s out of his control. Unknown forces are at work and it tortures Trico. You know from the gentle times you spend with him. From the innumerable time he places himself in peril to save you. From how he reacts to ghastly shadow armor creatures that threaten you and he pulverizes them to stop them from hurting you. Trico loves this strange little boy and he will sacrifice himself at every turn to protect you.
Trico is battered and bruised and bloody by the end of this story and he remains a faithful friend until the end. His sacrifice and the emotional weight it carries are incredible. Near the end there is a climactic battle and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a character I care about so much be so utterly brutalized. It’s haunting. He risks everything to protect you, everything. And it feels so good when you get to return the favour in one of the most bittersweet endings to any game I can remember.
The twists and turns and macabre elements at play in this story are exquisite. The shocking reveal about one of the games common and simple gameplay mechanics is almost too much. When you realize what you yourself have been doing all this time is a moment like no other I can recall. It’s disturbing like the final moments of the indy hit Inside. I so highly recommend this game. I know I only ranked it as a B+ but that is still a really good rating. Based purely on the emotional journey you take I would easily give it an A+ as it definitely gets under your skin and you will remember it long after it’s over, much longer than most games. The rating is really only hampered by the controls and the sometimes buggy commands to get Trico to do what you want. Please if you try this game and you get stumped don’t quit. Find an online game guide to get past the tricky parts. Theres probably only 3 or 4 places that Trico is notoriously difficult to coax into moving forward and all are pretty well documented in the guides. Just don’t read too far ahead because this game is all about the journey and the experience.
| How does it rate... | Other games in that category... | |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd person game | B+ | Horizon Zero Dawn, Tomb Raider 2013, Rime |
| Open level game | B+ | Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Metro 2033, Dishonored 2 |
| Artistic game | A+ | Inside, Journey, Flower, Abzu, Firewatch |
| Dark Fantasy game | A- | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, God of War 3, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice |
| Action/adventure game | B | Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Skyrim, Metal Gear Solid 5 |
If you are curious to see how I have ranked other PS4 games you can see the full list here: https://steemit.com/gaming/@johnquake/current-gen-game-rankings-ps4
Putting my money where my mouth is here is my personal The Last Guardian trophy list: https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/5657-the-last-guardian/Johnquake
* Note: These ratings are based on my personally rated games as of the time of this posting. Additions and Alterations made after this date will not be reflected in the written review. For anyone wondering why I include a link to my trophy profile the answer is simple enough, it's an easy way to verify how much of the game I have actually played whereas with most reviews it's unclear if the reviewer had only spent a handful of hours on a game they review.
The best The Last Guardian trophy hunters resource: https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/the-last-guardian/guide/