It’s been a good year for games we thought we’d never see. After ten years under wraps, Final Fantasy XV arrived to close out November and was genuinely worth playing. this week, Fumito Ueda’s capper on the Colossus trilogy, The Last Guardian, a game Sony has been talking about since 2007, hits shelves. It’s a bit stunning this game even exists. The problem, though, is that it’s facing ten years’ worth of hype, and that’s impossible to satisfy.
Artistic Achievement
Not surprisingly, the game looks good. You can see a lot of that decade of development in the carefully crumbling design of the game and the spare, smart sound design. As you work your way through an eerily quiet ruin and begin to piece the mystery of just what it is, and why you’re trapped here with Trico, a griffin-esque beast, the game creates a beautiful atmosphere.
Innovation
Basically the whole game is a sort of escort mission, where you’re playing the mission objective being escorted. You’ll have to work out how to use Trico to navigate the environments, although beyond that it’s a fairly standard modern platformer, with ledges to climb, switches to flip, riddles to puzzle out, and Trico treats to find. Which is both good and bad.
Execution
Let’s get this out of the way: There’s been a decade of hype and while The Last Guardian is a good, even at times excellent, game, and even worth discussing as a work of art, a lot of people are going to be let down. This is, for better or worse, Ueda’s game all the way, and it’s a weird mix of overpolished and undercooked in a lot of different areas, adding up to an at-times frustrating whole.
For example, your player character is gorgeously animated, but those animations are so elaborate and scripted, and so easy to touch off, it can get in the way of playing the game as your arms wheel or you start tiptoeing for no reason. The camera is a mess, wandering away in a manner that would seem to be meaningful and yet turns out not to be, or swinging wildly around as you try to figure out where the heck you are on your giant buddy, or getting stuck behind some scenery. The gorgeous levels are so heavily art-directed and carefully lit everything seems significant even when almost nothing actually is.
That said, when the game clicks, it really clicks. There’s some incredibly fun puzzle platforming to be had here,and working together with your giant buddy is usually a smooth, fun experience. The game is compelling enough, and the flaws rarely become enough of a problem, that you’ll look past them to keep playing.
And Trico may have the best performance in a video game this year: The giant, sometimes churlish big guy quickly becomes endearing. Any time you get annoyed, just pet Trico: You’ll feel better. Technologically, gameplay-wise, and artistically, Trico is the heart and soul of the game and you’ll quickly get attached.
Staying Power
Depending on your skill with puzzles and taste for hunting the game’s sparse collectibles, it’ll take you between eight and ten hours to clear the deck. It’s a fairly brisk game.
Bulllsh*t Factor
No DLC, no day-one bonus, basically you’d be forgiven for thinking Sony was just happy to get this game finished and done. Still, it’s nice to have it and finally play it.
Final Thoughts
The Last Guardian is by no means a bad game, and it’s going to be fascinating to see people who aren’t aware of its long history, or invested in years of promises, react to it. Short-term, a lot of arguments will be had over whether this game is art, whether it was worth the wait, and just where art in games should go. But one way or the other, the wait is over, and whether you find it frustrating or charming, or more likely both, it’s undeniably worth playing.