The Last Guardian was first announced way back in 2008 as a PS3 exclusive. After suffering delays due to technical problems, it was eventually shifted to the PS4 (like another infamous game...) and released eight years later in 2016. Developed by Team Ico of Studio Japan, it takes inspiration from their previous games, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. You control a boy, who finds a beast known as Trico. Throughout the game, a bond between the boy and the creature (as well as the player and the creature) form as they journey together to solve environmental puzzles. Trico brings what Yorda did in Ico, while the boy can also climb him which feels like a natural evolution from Shadow of the Colossus.
Like the previous two games, the controls are simple but the mapping is contrary to most other games, causing it to feel archaic at first. The triangle button is used to jump, while X is used to let go. The shoulder button is used to call Trico and circle is used to pick up and drop items. That's it, the whole game is played using what is available to you from the beginning and that is part of its charm.
Surprisingly, the story in The Last Guardian is more than just an excuse, it is a lot more involved. There is a heap of voice-over, although it's spoken in a made-up language. It begins with the boy waking up with a giant, cat-like winged creature chained near him. He has no memory of what happened before and why he was there. He notices Trico is injured and is hostile towards the boy. However, with the boy's help, they end up bonding and Trico follows him. The bond between them is sweet and feels realistic. Together, they try and find a way out where they end up discovering the secret of this place. Like previous Team Ico games, it tells just enough to spark your interest but doesn't give everything away. Then again, it is a bit more straightforward with what it decides to tell you though.
One thing that strikes you is the unique art direction. While it is not super complicated, it blends in simplicity and likes like a moving picture. It looks fantastic even if sometimes the textures are muddy. The feathers on Trico look distinct, moving and shimmering against the wind. Trico is easily the most impressive part of the game but he also brings about a fair share of frustration. A lot of the game's puzzles involve Trico and his programming is deliberately set to mimic a real creature. He doesn't immediately react to your calls (or even at all sometimes), he moves slowly, you can't control where he goes if you wanted to use his height to your advantage to jump to a ledge. It's not too bad for the story moments but waiting for him to shift to the right position for optional tasks can be a test of patience.
There are enemies in the game but the boy doesn't truly have a form of attack or defense. He relies heavily on Trico and while there are one or two ways to defeat enemies by himself, it's tedious and finicky. The game merges puzzle solving with simple platforming. Unfortunately, the camera is a huge hindrance at times. The problem is that it follows too closely to the boy in certain areas, and then in others, especially in small rooms or corridors, you can't move it to an angle that allows you to clearly see where you're jumping to. This will lead to a few accidental deaths and it is definitely something the developers should have fixed. It does not help that the game mostly takes place in cramped corridors and spaces, and when you have a giant animal like Trico, you'll have your view blocked a lot of the time.
The game blocks progress by having places that the boy cannot go but require Trico to be present in order to give him a boost in height. The problem with this method is that Trico does not immediately listen to you. You spend ages trying to get him to the direction you want him in, and then to lift himself up such that the boy is able to jump onto the platform. The positioning of the camera is important, as is the specific command you are giving Trico. Compounding this issue is the fact that the boy prefers to continue to grip onto Trico even when you try to jump. All this leads to some frustrating sections that tests your patience because you know where to go but the game literally refuses to listen to you.
Whoever coded the AI needs to go back to university because it is like experiencing hell. This becomes worse in the last section of the game where Trico keeps going back to the way you came, he just keeps sitting there even when you direct him to stand up and the one who designed the placement of the collectibles needs to learn how to make a FUN game. The fact that it doesn't even save when you collect one (so if you die before a checkpoint, yay, you have to go find it again) makes the game even more of a frustrating mess than it is. At least Yorda in Ico immediately came around when you beckoned her and she didn't spend literally minutes not listening to you.
What's also annoying is the fact that you don't know when you have hit a checkpoint. This is even worse when it only saves collectibles upon hitting a checkpoint. There are 48 barrels to collect which is superficial and filler content like any other game. The game can be speed run to finish in less than 5 hours since there is a Trophy for doing so. That isn't to say the game is short because it'll take you around 10 hours the first time around, more if you explore or get stuck in puzzles. The puzzles aren't that clever though and on the whole, quite bland and disappointing. The Trophies are also a huge pain to go for; whoever designed it did not think whether it complements the game because they don't. The final sections of the game drags out for too long, with huge scale battles (in which the boy can't even do much, waiting for Trico to dispatch the enemies is plain not fun, oh, just like the rest of the game then).
Playing a second playthrough and understanding the quirks of Trico makes it a lot more enjoyable. However, the other massive issue rears its head and it's the extremely demented controls for the boy. His movements are clumsy, awkward, slow and the hit detection is off. All too often he stumbles when you want him to jump, or he misses the ledge or he just slowly slowly slowly crawls. It's annoying, it's frustrating and it's infuriating and makes the game really horrible to play. The Last Guardian takes place on an island filled with mysterious ruins mixed with greenery. As you are basically the only ones on the island, it is serene and beautiful. The game runs okay on the base PS4 but will suffer framerate drops. On the PS4 Pro, it can achieve a consistent 30 FPS if you force it to render in 1080p, otherwise, framerate drops in its upscaled 4K resolution.
Overall, The Last Guardian is a deeply flawed game. Whatever bond it created is dashed away with the myriad of frustrations with trying to get Trico to do what you want. This ends up spoiling the supposedly emotional ending because you don't care anymore. The graphics are decent, the controls are archaic and cumbersome, and it really is a shame that the game is outweighed by its negatives since it had a promising start.
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