[PS3] The Last Guardian

[Handleit_44]

New info from Famitsu

• You initially can't communicate with Torico, so he'll quickly fall asleep.
• Torico can't eat everything. If he eats something he doesn't like, he'll spit it out.
• The game uses a collision system with similar capabilities to that of Shadow of the Colossus.
• Even if you're caught by the guards that fill the dungeons, the game doesn't immediately end.
• Torico may have a life gauge.
• They're currently looking into the possibility of showing gauges to support the player -- this is one area that Ueda is worrying over.
• In its impressions of the game, Famitsu commented that it exceeded expectations -- it's real that exceeds real.
• Torico actions are very detailed -- down to the level of his reacting differently depending on the sound in the area.
• The game uses a fake language
• Famitsu commented that the boy main character's movements are also incredible. Ueda responded that when the boy approaches a wall, he will naturally extend his arms out, and as he approaches Torico, he will touch the creature. To show the feeling of existence for the characters, you need to show such actions that make it look like the character himself knows that there's a wall there.
• Ueda also talked quite a bit about the game's expressive and physical computation power.
• Regarding Team Ico's PS3 remakes, Ueda said that Shadow of the Colossus is amazing when you see it in 3D. For ICO, he said that they're remaking the opening scene.

[BrntO4Life]

[*]In its impressions of the game, Famitsu commented that it exceeded expectations -- it's real that exceeds real.

Damn Japanese. What does that even mean?

[Buzzman]

This game just feels like it will be a giant escort system where I have to take care of this winged beast. We need to actually see some game play. I bet it doesn't even release this year.

[Boucher]

Can't wait

[Handleit_44]

Eurogamer Preview

And in this simple answer, The Last Guardian's secret is laid bare. It is, quite simply, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus rolled into one.

The boy tugs on Trico's ear to wake it up (Ueda is careful not to give the creature a gender) and their mini-adventure begins. Trico stretches, yawning and shaking off its slumber, clumsy and kitten-like, but with every movement accompanied by deafening thuds to bring home its tremendous weight and size.

Its animation is astonishingly lifelike. So is the flappy-limbed, unselfconscious energy of the boy, Ueda's youngest and most human protagonist to date. Sailing against the wind, Team Ico refuses to use any form of motion-capture, using hand-crafted step-by-step keyframe animation instead. The studio's gifted animators marry the tiny, exquisite observations you might see in a hand-drawn Miyazaki film to complex 3D models and sophisticated AI. It's a mind-blowing achievement.

Watching the huge creature twist and snuffle and root around in a large room as if trapped in a cage, I begin to understand why this game is taking so very long to make. Selling this being to the player as a living creature, giving its behaviour enough detail that you can read its moods and intentions, and programming its AI path-finding with a minimal reliance on scripting has been a monumental challenge, Ueda admits. "The most difficult thing is to get such a large AI character moving properly in such small, confined spaces."

The boy is not strong, but he's light and quick-footed, and can shimmy up chains, navigate ledges and run across crumbling beams in much the same manner as the stars of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. As in the latter, he has a stamina gauge limiting his ability to cling, leap, balance and climb, which appears in a hand-drawn and animated scroll above his head when he performs these actions. The controls and platforming style appear to be very similar to those in the team's two previous games.

The boy will encounter enemies, but being tiny, unarmed and dressed in a light toga, he's not strong enough to tackle them in direct combat. When he encounters a truly frightening guard grunting and clanking around in black plate armour, Ueda says that the best way to get past him is by stealth – crouching and creeping along walls.

There are other ways to lure, outwit and outrun the slow guards – who can't climb in their heavy armour – but if caught, you only have a short time to wriggle out of a guard's grasp or it's game over. Though the boy may learn some tricks, Ueda says, it's the powerful Trico who will be attacking enemies in The Last Guardian, and for the most part the player is not directly involved in combat at all.

If you're looking for the key to Team Ico's brilliance, maybe that's it; a guileless willingness to keep things simple and let them speak for themselves. The great mystery is that there's no mystery at all. The Last Guardian is a story about a small boy befriending a giant animal, and that's all it needs to be.