The Last Guardian - Game Journal #1
I woke up lost, confused, and covered in markings playing as what seems like a young boy. Startled by the man eating beast - Trico, who is chained down, and defenseless.
You're presented with button prompts teaching you how to play. First, using the analog sticks to look around and move, with the buttons being highlighted in yellow on screen. Next, you have to feed Trico by tossing him barrels nearby. Here you will have to move around, jump, crouch, pick up, set down and throw. The first barrel is easy to get to, as it's in sight on top of a ledge - forcing you to climb to get it. The other barrel is behind pillars, making you walk and crouch to get it. I respected this introduction to game, teaching you the controls through play.
The beginning of the game is slow, and keeps restarting after Trico repeatedly bats you away. Restarting after you wake up. Except this third, time he wakes you up, introducing the bond between the boy and his bird dog.
In this opening passage you find a shield, but not just any shield. With trico's presence, you can direct the shield at say, a giant wooden door blocking you from proceeding - and have it shoot lighting from trico's tail. Yeah..
The game filters between dark, run down chambers, with degrading stone architecture and lush, warmly lit semi-open spaces. While inside, light is used to help lead you on the right path. Whether it be torches, or overexposed windows. Sometimes you have to crawl through a small corridor to pull a lever, drop a barrel, etc. Freeing you from Trico for a small amount of time. And even though you can't see Trico in these moments, you can hear and feel him. You can imagine him clambering and breathing heavily.
At the end of these narrow passages away from Trico, you often break open into a warmly lit space with greenery. The orchestral score starts, and you feel the wind blow through your hair. It's moments like these that make you forget the finicky camera and cumbersome controls.
Just let me play... Hours into the game I was still prompted with on what controls I should press to perform an action. Every time. And what makes it worse is, often times I'm forgetting the controls because they aren't used frequently enough for me to remember them. Let me solve something on my own. Let me struggle. There isn’t a consistent gameplay loop. In fact, there’s not much consistency at all.
At first, I could only call Trico to have him follow me. And in specific locations, I needed to climb on him so he can jump to a higher level. But then, I was told to control Trico, while standing on him. Giving me an order of commands ranging from standing up to reach high platforms, or jumping over collapsed bridges. It's great, when it works. But I've found this to be the most frustrating part of the game. Trying to control a half brained AI who doesn't do what I need it to. I have spent upwards of an hour trying to prompt Trico to stand. He just wouldn't do it, no matter what I did. Sometimes, he would respond to the prompt, and then walk away or jump down. I’ve heard people say this behavior is realistically animal like, since animals won’t always listen to you. Okay, sure. But in this case, a video game where you need the AI to obey your commands to proceed. I don’t believe having to (try to) control Trico is a good design choice. I would much rather Trico be scripted to perform these actions on his own.
Shortly after having to painfully control Trico, which is the most frustrating part of the game, comes my favorite part of the game - so far. With collapsing wooden bridges barley put together, you have to push the eyes which Trico is terrified of, off. Often times this caused the bridges to collapse, resulting in fast paced dramatic moments. These endearing set pieces between the boy and his bird dog really stand out to me, and make the game for me.
The Last Guardian is a balance between puzzles, combat, and exploration. Though I believe all of which are spread way too far, and very shallow. The puzzles consist of having to pull down a level to let Trico through a gated door. That’s it.
Combat isn’t very important, as the boy is powerless. It’s Trico who does the fighting, and all you can do is run away and hide. Sometimes you have to “sneak” around guards to pull yet another lever to let Trico through. If the guards wake up, they will pick you up and take you away.
The Last Guardian becomes more beautiful over time. It seems as if the second half (which must be more recently developed) is far more striking. Really showing off Volumetric God Rays inside, and out. I want to explore this world, I really do. But the confines of the world restarted my exploration. As Trico and I would backtrack through the same run down passage, time and time again. I lost motivation, I did’t feel like I was being rewarded for having to do monotonous such exploration.
After almost a decade of development, The Last Guardian is done. It’s out, and I played it. I won’t forget the few special moment the game gave me. But it’s hard to look past the out dated controls and awkward camera. The Last Guardian felt like a PlayStation 2 game, with often re-used textures. It sure is a one of a kind game, and I am glad I played it.
