So, for the benefit of those gamers who might not be familiar with the game, can you give me a brief overview of what exactly The Last Guardian is?
Fumito Ueda: In short, its an action adventure title. Its a story about a young boy who has been kidnapped or captured under strange circumstances. Its about an encounter between that boy and the mysterious beast Trico amidst ancient ruins, and a story about their journey together in the hope of escaping their mysterious predicament.
In short, thats what the game is, but we dont want to tell you too much. We want players to experience it for themselves as the story unfolds.
Obviously its been a number of years since we last heard news of the game, and theres been so much speculation about the title among PlayStation gamers. How does it feel to finally re-introduce the game to your fans?
Fumito Ueda: Yes, its been a few years since our last announcement. From my point of view, it was very unpredictable how the audience would react. I wasnt sure if people would remember the title. Admittedly I was a bit nervous, but after the announce I saw the reaction, and the cheering and that proved to me that people had really been waiting and were excited to see us reveal The Last Guardian for PS4. Afterwards, I was more relaxed and happy!
Can you talk a little about why the game has taken longer than anticipated?
Fumito Ueda: Obviously there were a number of reasons for the delay. If I had to call out one of them, it was more of a technical hurdle that we had to overcome. But eventually we have overcome it, and we have finally proudly announced the game for PS4 during the E3 press conference.
Has the game changed at all since we last saw it?
Fumito Ueda: The game content itself the storyline etc that stuff has not changed. Obviously the migration to PS4 has enabled us to push the envelope on the technology side. The overall aesthetic that the team is going for isnt necessarily edgy but we have a very specific art style we are aiming for and the PS4 hardware has helped us achieve our goals.
One of the aspects of the footage you showed during the E3 press conference that I found most interesting was how the boy and Trico moved. The boys motions in particular are a little unusual, but extremely charming. How did you go about defining their characteristics?
Fumito Ueda: When I was formulating the concept of The Last Guardian, one of the things I looked at was the relationship between people and animals, and I thought this was something that I wanted to build a game around. Most people really relate to animals they find them cute and easy to bond with so that relationship was the primary focus. The reason I chose this core theme is that I wanted to appeal to as many people as possible, knowing that it would resonate with many players. As a result, I hope some elements of the boy and Tricos expressions may well come across as charming.
The footage mainly featured environmental challenges. Can we expect different kinds of threats elsewhere in the game?
Fumito Ueda: The demo that we showed this week is a vertical slice of the game and we intentionally selected this to show some of the dynamic game transitions. There are quieter encounters that the boy and Trico will experience at other times in the game. There are a variety of different level designs and challenges that players will encounter.
Given the fervor and anticipation around the game, are you feeling a burden of expectation to deliver something incredible?
Fumito Ueda: Obviously Im very relieved to finally have had the chance to stand up and say, Here we are again!. I saw the crowds reaction and the reception was great. That reception has fed our motivation to work even harder to complete production. From a creative and development point of view things havent changed weve been working very hard already but well certainly be fueled by all the attention and love weve got this week.
