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When asked about the way in which intimate relationships have figured highly in his three PlayStation games, he shrugs and smiles. “It’s interesting,” he says. “From our side, we didn’t have a strong intent to portray relationships as a theme of our games. We actually tried not to do that. But as a lot of people played through Ico and Shadow of Colosuss, they said, ‘Oh, these games are about building a bond, they’re about trust.’ From my perspective, I just say, here, go ahead, play it – then at the end, the player can come to their own conclusion about what the game is trying to tell them. I don’t like to force feed themes.”

Indeed, it’s surprise about how players have interpreted his past work that led to the pairing at the centre of Last Guardian – the boy and the beast. “Once we were done with Shadow of Colossus there was a moment when I reflected on what we really wanted to communicate and portray in that game,” he says. “For me it was the main relationship between Wander and the girl, but after the release, I read a lot of feedback from players who were touched by the game, and they said that the relationship between Wander and the horse was the most important and appealing – we got the sense that this was what most people felt. I thought OK, if that’s the case, there are a lot of mechanics from that relationship that we could heighten and expand on. That’s where The Last Guardian came from.”

Ten years ago, in a rare biographical interview with the Japanese games magazine Continue, he claimed that while studying art at university he specifically chose to specialise in conceptual art for the main practical component so that he could get away with bashing together something abstract a day before the course deadline. Of course, no one could accuse him of bashing his games together, but he retains the self-deprecating air of the chancer who made good, who is almost mystified by the meaning that people ascribe to his work.

“The main character is controlled by the player, so the main character is you,” he says. “But because every single gamer is different, it’s very hard to give the player an exact definition of the protagonist: it’s up to you who the main character is going to be. As a developer, in order to form such a character you need assistance from that character’s surroundings – that’s where the role of the NPC, or opposite character in the case of our games, comes in. The secondary character helps shape the main character. That’s how we make our games.”

In short, Yorda, Trico and the horse aren’t there just as narrative allies, they’re there – in very much the Hollywood movie script tradition – to help the player interpret the protagonist.

One thing he won’t be doing is playing Last Guardian – at least not for a while. “With all my titles – when the game is released, I’m extremely nervous,” he says. “In the week after the release I don’t want to look at the game. All I’ll see are the flaws. I wouldn’t want to see it with that perspective because I don’t want to think about regrets. Even seeing tiny bugs I’ll think, why didn’t we squash that one?But sometime later, maybe after a year, I’ll be able to calm down and take a look.”

Interesting interview and insight into the man and how he designs his games

The whole thing is well worth reading

Edit: I added in some more quotes I found interesting

Lock and then dramatically unlock at a future E3 if old

 

[CrimsonSquall]

Like a chef who won't taste his food

EDIT: I've upset the culinary experts of Gaf, my apologied mates

 

[Hypron]

I don’t like to force feed themes.

The anti-Kojima.

 

[ThePeoplesBureau]

Well that bodes well for the rest of us then

 

[Obscuritas]

“It’s interesting,” he says. “From our side, we didn’t have a strong intent to portray relationships as a theme of our games. We actually tried not to do that. But as a lot of people played through Ico and Shadow of Colosuss, they said, ‘Oh, these games are about building a bond, they’re about trust.’ From my perspective, I just say, here, go ahead, play it – then at the end, the player can come to their own conclusion about what the game is trying to tell them. I don’t like to force feed themes.”

That's the very definition of art.

 

[- J - D -]

Idris Elba hasn't watched The Wire.

 

[MisterNugNug]

Like a chef who won't taste his food

Not quite. You don't ever send out food without tasting it first. But I understand what you're trying to say.

 

[Rozart]

Ueda-san. ;^; Don't be too hard on yourself.

I wonder if it's the same for most game creators. All they see are the flaws and the bugs and it's hard for them to not be self-critical.

Spoiler

Also, Wander/Horse otp.

 

[T-0800]

Hasn't been nervous for 10 years.

 

[Ratrat]

People feel sorry for the horse, for the Colossi. Not the girl. haha

 

[silva1991]

Even seeing tiny bugs I’ll think, why didn’t we squash that one?

I hope unresponsiveness isn't a tiny big to him lol

some impressions said that the boy was hard to control/unresponsive sometimes or something like that

hope they fix that.

 

[The Silver]

"Ten years ago, in a rare biographical interview with the Japanese games magazine Continue, he claimed that while studying art at university he specifically chose to specialise in conceptual art for the main practical component so that he could get away with bashing together something abstract a day before the course deadline"


true genius

 

[Azoor]

People feel sorry for the horse, for the Colossi. Not the girl. haha

Indeed. She was nothing but a driving force for the hero to go on his quest. The meat of the game is about the giant creatures.

 

[Always-honest]

Yeah sucks being a perfectionist.

 

[Slaythe]

I can relate.

I can't stand looking at my own work, I keep seeing things to improve :/ .

 

[mrklaw]

I'm a little surprised by the comments. Although I suppose as a designer he might not be able to see the bigger picture I guess. A little scary with his comments about

Spoiler

SotC

. If he didn't realise

Spoiler

that the real relationship during the game was with the horse, he could have killed it during the end game

and that would have been a nightmare.

 

[Spiral Insanity]

Thread title is kind of easy to (mistakenly) take out of context.

 

[Verelios]

People feel sorry for the horse, for the Colossi. Not the girl. haha

For all I know she was the oppressor. What did the Colossi ever do?

 

[oni-link]

Thread title is kind of easy to (mistakenly) take out of context.

I used the title the article used, I wasn't trying to mislead anyone

I don't think it's misleading anyway, a lot of artists, film makers, actors, directors etc don't like to watch or experience their own stuff

 

[Obscuritas]

Thread title is kind of easy to (mistakenly) take out of context.

Naaa. This is not his first game and he clearly stated that he felt the same way for ICO/SOTC, so it's not such a big deal right now.

 

[iratA]

I can relate.

I can't stand looking at my own work, I keep seeing things to improve :/ .

Yep this is nothing new, especially in creative arts.

 

[CloudWolf]

Isn't this a usual thing in the creative sector? I know of many actors, musicians and directors who have said that they don't like to watch their own films or listen to their own albums.

 

[Bit-Bit]

I'm a little surprised by the comments. Although I suppose as a designer he might not be able to see the bigger picture I guess. A little scary with his comments about

Spoiler

SotC

. If he didn't realise

Spoiler

that the real relationship during the game was with the horse, he could have killed it during the end game

and that would have been a nightmare.

😶

 

[spliced]

I think it's common that the more you examine and pick apart a game the less fun it becomes. Then add on top of that the game being your creation I can understand to a large degree.

 

[Japanmanx3]

Interesting views. Ueda seems so invested its palpable. It brings a human element that is missed in a lot of game development teams. We are all our own worst critics so I definitely understand where he's coming from.

OT but I wonder (hah) if his comments about the protagonist being the person behind the controller will incite people to ask for a female version...

 

[Thoraxes]

Normal creator attitude really.

You find this a lot in any creative-related field, especially with people who see themselves as perfectionists. I get where he's coming from.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

You work on something for so long you grow sick of it. Artists hate playing their most loved songs because they play them every fucking day, day in and day out. They become fed up with it.
A editor and director sits and edits a film together- they watch it hundreds and hundreds of times, until they both can't stomach it.
You work so hard on something it stopped being fun fifty million years ago. You're sick of it. You don't have the optics to judge your own thing anymore. Your so enamoured you cannot understand the perspective of someone who doesn't know the project which has been your entire life and existence for years.



Ueda's approach is what I'll call minimalistic storytelling. It's not that he is like "whatever, I dont care about my characters". It's that force feeding emotional porn is when you hammerfist the tried and trued hans zimmer score atop a likeable characters patriotic self sacrifice as the impossible beautiful love interest and protagonist sacrifice everything. It's how Hollywood conjures its potions to make the audiences feel.

Ueda is more about less is more- More like a book. you fill in the blanks.


And he is acting obtuse here or something is lost in the translation, because Shadow of the Colossus was disturbing. The world is completely barren, and suddenly you go into a cavern out in the middle of nowhere, and it leads to a underground passage that turns into a massive underground ruined city, and you spend almost an hour walking through the rubble. And it's completely jarring and impossible to not speculate as to why the creators made something so meaningless. It would be easy to miss, you'd have to go out of your way to find those spots, and there is no context. no explanations. no looted letters on a corpse, chest, narration, or anything to tell you what happened.

Your mind is more fantastical and better at imagining a story that resonates with you than any creator could conceive. That is the value in not explaining everything.


I'd say that everything from Metal Gear Solid, to Marvel origin stories, the matrix, the hobbit, star wars- Whatever, often becomes less the more those sagas try to explain everything.
When Uncle Ben babbles about fighting in the Clone Wars, what you imagined that to be could only be disappointing compared to what they could realistically make. It takes out your own interpretation, and in that, a part of the satisfaction.
It's always easier to just explain everything. But its not interesting to be explained everything, and that is what a lot of content creators don't understand. It's something they could learn from people like Fumito Ueda.



The wonderful auteur Takashi Miike (famous for Ichi the Killer and Audition) - has made a slew of film in a style that also lacks context, but which draws you to make your own conclusions. One of the best examples is the modern masterpiece 13 Assassins, in which there is only a small bit near the end of the film which has this open interpretation, but its incredible effective and thought provoking. It's been years since I saw that film and I still think about what that meant at the end of the film. It wasn't being coy or obtuse for the sake of being it. Most of the film is grounded in a violent carthasis of sadistic violence and dismemberment, but then there is this tiny bit which makes you question everything. So subtle. So good. Weird how a minor detail in the over arching ethos of a story can make you love something so much more!

 

[Baleoce]

"Ten years ago, in a rare biographical interview with the Japanese games magazine Continue, he claimed that while studying art at university he specifically chose to specialise in conceptual art for the main practical component so that he could get away with bashing together something abstract a day before the course deadline"


true genius

lmao

 

[Spring Drive]

He'd rather play Candy Crush

 

[andythinkpad]

Idris Elba hasn't watched The Wire.

What? Can't he watch the seasons he is not on. He lost respect from me for not watching the best tv show ever.

 

[Rozart]

"Ten years ago, in a rare biographical interview with the Japanese games magazine Continue, he claimed that while studying art at university he specifically chose to specialise in conceptual art for the main practical component so that he could get away with bashing together something abstract a day before the course deadline"


true genius

Hahaha. I love this.

 

[oni-link]

But despite his good-natured evasions, his talk of winging it and his apparent surprise at fans reading so much into his titles, he sometimes – almost despite himself – hints at a hidden perfectionism. When we ask about Trico, who the player needs to work with to solve certain puzzles, but who clearly has a will and intelligence of its own, he admits that the beasts’s obstinacy has been a tricky balancing act. “To be honest, we’re still fine-tuning Trico’s behaviours,” he says. “There are two extremes – if you can fully control a character, what’s the point? It becomes a pet. But at the opposite end if you can’t control it at all it becomes a nuisance, a barrier to progression. We’re still trying to find the balance.”

This part is both interesting and worrying

 

[Playsage]

"Ten years ago, in a rare biographical interview with the Japanese games magazine Continue, he claimed that while studying art at university he specifically chose to specialise in conceptual art for the main practical component so that he could get away with bashing together something abstract a day before the course deadline"


true genius

I'm in a library and this made me chuckle loudly

 

[Dragon1893]

Great read, thanks for the link.
It really brings across the mix of fascination and frustration that apparently comes from interviewing him.
He seems like a very peculiar individual.
His excuse for choosing abstract art is amazing.

 

[Atomski]

Like a chef who won't taste his food

No.. that would be a dumb chef. You never know how down the line someone may have messed up a dish. You are constantly taste testing everything to make sure it's up to your standards.

 

[Acquiescence]

Plenty of great actors out there who refuse to watch their own movies. It's not surprising. Dude is a perfectionist and can't bear to see all the little flaws and inconsistencies he'll inevitably nitpick at post-launch.

 

[_Ryo_]

I think his feelings towards his work make a lot of sense. Most time art is defined by the viewer and not the artist so it makes since that gamers will have a totally different outlook than what he himself set out to convey.

Not quite. You don't ever send out food without tasting it first. But I understand what you're trying to say.

I love to cook. But I literally can't taste. I am literally unable to. I used to be able to. So I usually have someone I respect taste for me. And I have intentionally made gross things just to see if they're being honest.

 

[inbarrenpraise]

Like a chef who won't taste his food

EDIT: I've upset the culinary experts of Gaf, my apologied mates

No, that's not the same thing at all. Chefs have to taste their food for seasoning, and Ueda no doubt is "playing" his game along with the team while it's being polished. He's just saying he's not going to play the full retail, beginning-to-end version of the game for a while. The more apt comparison is a musician who won't listen to the full album once it's done - which is a very common thing.

 

[serversurfer]

“Once we were done with Shadow of Colossus there was a moment when I reflected on what we really wanted to communicate and portray in that game,” he says. “For me it was the main relationship between Wander and the girl, but after the release, I read a lot of feedback from players who were touched by the game, and they said that the relationship between Wander and the horse was the most important and appealing – we got the sense that this was what most people felt. I thought OK, if that’s the case, there are a lot of mechanics from that relationship that we could heighten and expand on. That’s where The Last Guardian came from.”

The Last Guardian goes on to redefine gunplay for an entire generation…

 

[zoukka]

The chef comparison is moronic.

 

[newjeruse]

The chef comparison is moronic.

It was retracted by the poster so no need to be nasty.

 

[Thrashinuva]

"flaws"
"Shadow of the Colossus"

This guy really is on drugs.

 

[oni-link]

I'm a little surprised by the comments. Although I suppose as a designer he might not be able to see the bigger picture I guess. A little scary with his comments about

Spoiler

SotC

. If he didn't realise

Spoiler

that the real relationship during the game was with the horse, he could have killed it during the end game

and that would have been a nightmare.

I assume he designed it one way and then a lot of people ended up drawn to an element of the game he didn't consider

That said, it looks like his realisation of this is what triggered the idea for The Last Guardian

He seems to approach game design in a different way to most devs, which is part of what makes him and his games so appealing to enthusiasts

 

[starpiercer]

I expect a beautifully crafted story with some major hiccups in the tech department. It that does happen, I'll probably enjoy the game.

 

[TheKastorian]

Can't freaking wait for this game. And to all the people still commenting on technical performance just remember how Shadow of The Colossus ran on PS2. Didn't stop it from being one of the best games of all time.

 

[mrklaw]

I assume he designed it one way and then a lot of people ended up drawn to an element of the game he didn't consider

That said, it looks like his realisation of this is what triggered the idea for The Last Guardian

He seems to approach game design in a different way to most devs, which is part of what makes him and his games so appealing to enthusiasts

the sense of companionship and isolation is untouched in Ico and SotC. Love them both.

 

[Rozart]

Can't freaking wait for this game. And to all the people still commenting on technical performance just remember how Shadow of The Colossus ran on PS2. Didn't stop it from being one of the best games of all time.

Yes. I do hope that they manage to smooth out any technical difficulties that they're facing right now but honestly as a Team Ico fan, I know what I'm getting into.

I climbed on the backs of colossal giants and still felt like the king of the world when I struck that final blow, wonky controls and all.

 

[Crayolan]

He's so humble. Kind of crazy that he can make such thought provoking games without even realizing it to an extent.

 

[Nightengale]

All the different interviews with Ueda paints him as the opposite of the kind of person who'd make the games he does.

He comes across as being very practical and pragmatic, but at the same time, undeniably ambitious and a wholehearted perfectionist.

A very rare combination of talent.

 

[Omnistalgic]

Great read...thanks for the link OP