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[Loudninja]

New gameplay coming today as well

Spoiler for that last tweet - it totally can. Later today we'll have some new footage of The Last Guardian and a short Ueda interview.

https://twitter.com/eurogamer/status/796624197896249344

The short answer, before I lead you on any further, is yes. Despite an impossible amount of hype heaped up over the course of a decade, of hopes sparked by those all-too-intermittent trailers and by the glorious yet dimming memory of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian can live up to expectations. It can even surpass them and surprise you with its brilliance, as it did when I sat down to play it for just over an hour last week.

There are, though, a few caveats.

That much, at least, is by design. Your relationship with Trico evolves over time, and the three sections opened up for the purposes of the demo offers three different snapshots of that relationship. In The Last Guardian's opening minutes, Trico's suspect of you and your actions - he'll only eat the barrels that give him energy when you're out of sight. Later, as you tackle the bridge in the set-piece first shown to announce The Last Guardian's arrival on PS4 at E3 in 2015, he's a tentative partner whose bond grows through your shared moments of peril. In the final section, being shown for the first time, the player and Trico work in harmony as they climb their way up a series of towers, Trico acting like a mobile platform as he flies from pillar to pillar.

Even then it's not without problems. Trico often won't move upon your first command, and sometimes it can take three, four or five attempts to get him where you want him. Again, it's partly by design but his stubborn nature can come as a surprise. At a time when so many games remove as many barriers as possible and sometimes even seem to play themselves, here's one that is actively resistant to its players. Few other games would be so daring.

That's why The Last Guardian took me by surprise, I think. That's how it managed to meet my expectations - admittedly lowered having read some of the muted reactions to the playable demo at this year's E3 - and then go on to surpass them. Before sitting down to play The Last Guardian I was worried it'd struggle with the heavy burden of anticipation, and whether it'd be able to pick up a legacy deserted so long ago.

There have been countless games inspired by Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, and in examples like ThatGameCompany's outstanding Journey some have taken that legacy to new and exciting places. I feared The Last Guardian might be outshone by its predecessors' imitators, but it turns out there's a magic to designer Fumito Ueda's vision that can't be replicated. The Last Guardian might feel like it belongs to the same era as its predecessors, but that's no bad thing when it becomes apparent that, despite the many pretenders, there's been nothing quite like it ever since.

Part of that is down to Ueda's famous penchant for 'subtracting design', boiling the gameplay down to its core elements until they're all that's left, but there's something else too. For all the ethereal majesty of these games - the wind whistling through crumbling stonework and an almost spiritual sense of isolation - they're bluntly simplistic. For all the mystery that surrounds them, there's hardly any pretence. There's a basic idea - in The Last Guardian's case, an amalgamation of Ico's emotive hand-holding and Shadow of The Colossus' awe-inspiring scale - and everything else exists in service to it. The partnership you have with Trico in The Last Guardian can be powerfully, uniquely emotional.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-11-10-can-the-last-guardian-live-up-to-expectations

 

[DKHF]

New footage is already up on Gamespot and Famitsu

Famitsu: https://youtu.be/cqbOG6CsAJQ

GS: https://youtu.be/oFN3Fjf5-jU

 

[Occam]

Good to hear. Sounds like the wait was woth it.

 

[Spaghetti]

Spoiler for that last tweet - it totally can. Later today we'll have some new footage of The Last Guardian and a short Ueda interview.

That's nice to know they didn't leave the question hanging, but I hate "CAN X LIVE UP TO EXPECTATIONS?" think-pieces so fucking much because the answer is almost always yes for some, no for others.

 

[Loudninja]

New footage is already up on Gamespot and Famitsu

Famitsu: https://youtu.be/cqbOG6CsAJQ

GS: https://youtu.be/oFN3Fjf5-jU

Nice!

 

[kurahador]

Barrage of tears ready.

 

[GarciaHotspur]

The question is : what are expectations for this game ?

 

[Dredd97]

simple answer? no..

the game has garnered almost mythical levels of hype and mystery since its original reveal all those years ago..

I'm sure the game will be good, but it'll never live up to the hype it's generated..

 

[Jawbreaker]

The question is : what are expectations for this game ?

A game up to par with Ueda's two previous titles. No pressure, hah.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

It's so close. It's almost time. I might weep when I actually play it.

 

[Ratrat]

simple answer? no..

the game has garnered almost mythical levels of hype and mystery since its original reveal all those years ago..

I'm sure the game will be good, but it'll never live up to the hype it's generated..

I guess you missed all the threads where people were whining about ps3 graphics, bad camera and framerate. People want/expect another Team Ico game(warts and all)...nothing more.

 

[Shaanyboi]

nope

This game seems grossly underwhelming for the decade it's been in development.

 

[orochi91]

nope

This game seems grossly underwhelming for the decade it's been in development.

I recall reading here an article here on GAF that the AI on Trico was the reason for the prolonged development.

It will be interesting to see whether the development on that front was worth it.

Other than that, game looks like a Team ICO product, which should bode well for the final product.

 

[kinoki]

It shouldn't be too hard to meet expectations since most of us wasn't even expecting it to be released. In terms of quality it just has to live up to one of the greatest games ever made. In that regard it will most likely fail. However, every failure is in itself very insightful so I'm really looking forward to playing it.

 

[GinoFelino]

nope

This game seems grossly underwhelming for the decade it's been in development.

Log off man. Just 'nope'? That's blatant and totally unnecessary shitposting.

On topic: only time will tell if it's really as good as Ico and SotC, but I'll be happy if it's just... something special.

 

[martino]

For its small audience ? probably anything with ueada on the box could do it
For mainstream ? is there expectation to begin with ?

 

[Wollan]

nope

This game seems grossly underwhelming for the decade it's been in development.

Really? I don't see any games on the market challenge it in terms of animation and having a believable fantasy creature. It's a new benchmark.

 

[Spaghetti]

simple answer? no..

the game has garnered almost mythical levels of hype and mystery since its original reveal all those years ago..

I'm sure the game will be good, but it'll never live up to the hype it's generated..

I don't get this response. Nobody who's deep enough into Team ICO that they've been following TLG since the first announcement can think all that development time = some magnificent, unbeatable, masterpiece. I don't think it'll be the game's fault if some people can't keep their expectations in check.

Fans of Team ICO games are the only audience TLG really needs to satisfy, and honestly? By virtue of it being a Team ICO game in the first place, they've got that on lock unless they've seriously dropped the ball somewhere.

 

[silva1991]

I guess you missed all the threads where people were whining about ps3 graphics, bad camera and framerate. People want/expect another Team Ico game(warts and all)...nothing more.

People are confusing the E3 gifs and memes and with hype. I see more people skeptical/wanting the game to fail than hype to be honest.

a game disappearing for years naturally leading people to ask where the hell it is =/= OMG GTAV level of hype.

 

[ponpo]

People actually running with the "but can it live up 2 the hype????" headlines?

 

[Servbot24]

Expectations are low, so yes, of course it can.

 

[Fahzgoolin]

Really? I don't see any games on the market challenge it in terms of animation and having a believable fantasy creature. It's a new benchmark.

agreed. textures and lighting might not be Battlefield 1, but as a nature obsessed person I find the animations for Trico very convincing.

 

[dc89]

Yes. Yes it can.

 

[Renekton]

Was there ever a development hell game that lived up to expectations?

 

[Auctopus]

It doesn't need to live up to any expectations. If you've been losing sleep and hyping yourself up for over a decade then you only have yourself to blame when it doesn't meet your lofty expectations.

A whole lot can change in development, a person and a company in 10 years so it's probably best to enter the game with a completely neutral mindset.

 

[Ludendorkk]

Was there ever a development hell game that lived up to expectations?

Half-Life 2
Resident Evil 4
Mother 3

(Haven't played it myself, but people are saying Owlboy is another)


Not the most common thing, but it does happen.

 

[Shaanyboi]

Log off man. Just 'nope'? That's blatant and totally unnecessary shitposting.

On topic: only time will tell if it's really as good as Ico and SotC, but I'll be happy if it's just... something special.

Shitposting would be a singular 'nope'. I didn't leave it at that.

Really? I don't see any games on the market challenge it in terms of animation and having a believable fantasy creature. It's a new benchmark.

It's a nicely animated cat thing. But there are tons of developers now working in the space Ico has worked in for years. Maybe not with the budget (and certainly very few with even a chunk of the budget this thing has had), but nothing to suggest that this is going to be any more than just "a good one of those" versus a game that needed to be hyped to death for 8 fucking years.

 

[AppleSeason]

I expect that it will be pretty mediocre and disappointing. After so many years waiting and the previous experience with games that have been in development hell forever, I don't have high hopes. Plus my hype died so long ago that I barely even care about the game or playing it.

 

[sublimit]

My "only" expectation is to feel like a Team Ico game.

 

[Clear]

It's a nicely animated cat thing. But there are tons of developers now working in the space Ico has worked in for years. Maybe not with the budget (and certainly very few with even a chunk of the budget this thing has had), but nothing to suggest that this is going to be any more than just "a good one of those" versus a game that needed to be hyped to death for 8 fucking years.

You don't have a clue about TLG's budget, all you are doing is making ignorant assumptions based on time-scale. Something that is fundamentally fallacious as dev-cost is (reductively speaking) timescale x headcount.

As to "hyped to death". Hyped by whom exactly? Its not like Sony have been pumping trailers out every month or two since development began; marketing has been sparse and relatively organic insofar as its mainly been in response to media/community requests for progress reports/updates.