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The Last Guardian New Information and Screenshots

jigglywiggly said:
ICO/SOTC spoilers:

I don't know why people think it's a done deal that it will be killed off. It's not like he's got a reputation of killing your companions. Agro and Yorda both survived, non?
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The Ico EU/PAL ending is different - true ending - compared to the Japanese/US one: I think. Anyway, people will find out if they get the HD re-release.
 
jigglywiggly said:
ICO/SOTC spoilers:

I don't know why people think it's a done deal that it will be killed off. It's not like he's got a reputation of killing your companions. Agro and Yorda both survived, non?
Click to expand...


Yes and no, companions-wise Agro survived (even that a horse with a broken legs is useless dead meat), Yorda didn't I think ,She turned to black shadow thingy ( last part with her and Ico and the watermelon was just a dream, not real) so she is dead/gone I guess
 
canova said:
The game sounds boring.

Srsly, he needs to stop to put so much detail on the rodent and focus more on the gameplay. If I want to see real pet behavior, I would get a real pet ffs, now put some combat into the game already
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you don't have to buy or like the game if you think it's boring
the majority of the games focuses on combat, so I guess there will be enough games to enjoy this year

gameplay or combat especially have never been the strength of Ueda's games
and I am happy that there is basically no combat at all in TLG
 
Otacon said:
you don't have to buy or like the game if you think it's boring
the majority of the games focuses on combat, so I guess there will be enough games to enjoy this year

gameplay or combat especially have never been the strength of Ueda's games
and I am happy that there is basically no combat at all in TLG
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really? not even gameplay? damn, I must've been expecting too much out of him. I admit, I never finished ICO or The Colossus
 
jigglywiggly said:
ICO/SOTC spoilers:

I don't know why people think it's a done deal that it will be killed off. It's not like he's got a reputation of killing your companions. Agro and Yorda both survived, non?
Click to expand...

One theory is that both Yorda and Ico died at the end of ICO and the beach was them living out the rest of their (after)lives together. I think Ueda even implied this happened in an interview. Not too sure about that though.

Nobody died in SOTC...unless you consider Wander returning to an infant state as dying. Then again, he couldve died there too. Its all speculation, really.


canova said:
really? not even gameplay? damn, I must've been expecting too much out of him. I admit, I never finished ICO or The Colossus
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Theyre "whole package" games. The gameplay mechanics are unbelievably simple but when they are put in a game with the atmosphere, feeling, emotion, and look of a Team Ico game, they just work.
 
canova said:
really? not even gameplay? damn, I must've been expecting too much out of him. I admit, I never finished ICO or The Colossus
Click to expand...

....well then stop caring about this one too, his games are not for you I guess.
 
canova said:
The game sounds boring.

Srsly, he needs to stop to put so much detail on the rodent and focus more on the gameplay. If I want to see real pet behavior, I would get a real pet ffs, now put some combat into the game already
Click to expand...

Because combat is the only way gameplay can be achieved.
 
In several interviews, Ueda has said that development on The Last Guardian has exceeded his expectations. When he was working on both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, he felt like there were a lot of sacrifices that had to be made.

Fun Fact: Ico and SotC are two of the best games ever made.

Game of Forever confirmed?
 
neorej said:
Because combat is the only way gameplay can be achieved.
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I would like to play through a Call of Duty game without combat... talking our way through the missions.. and bosses can only be defeated by moving your ears and looking at his movements...
 
canova said:
really? not even gameplay? damn, I must've been expecting too much out of him. I admit, I never finished ICO or The Colossus
Click to expand...
Again with the combat bullshit from you. The game isn't up you alley if all you care about is combat and even more so considering you couldn't be bothered to finish ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. Gameplay has been one of the Ueda's strenghts (Shadow of the Colossus' gameplay is monumental in my eyes), but atmosphere and emotion are truly what make the Team ICO games shine.
canova said:
The game sounds boring.

Srsly, he needs to stop to put so much detail on the rodent and focus more on the gameplay. If I want to see real pet behavior, I would get a real pet ffs, now put some combat into the game already
Click to expand...
It's the staggering attention to detail that brings the character in his world to live, and in turn ensure that you bond with them like in no other game. So no, he should not stop focussing on the details of the characters that will be on screen 99% of the time.
 
game sounds unbelievable. they seem to be focusing on exactly the kind of things i'd want them to. GJ team ico.

here's how im going to play it: after entering each new gameplay area i will just marvel at everything and observe Trico's behavior for several minutes. i dont care if its a 5 hour game, its going to take me at least 20 hours.
 
While the ending to Ico is left somewhat open to interpretation, Ueda himself essentially confirmed that
Yorda dies in the crumbling castle
. Look up his 1UP interview with James Mielke if you don't believe me.

And yeah, with regard to Agro,
he was most likely going to die in a few days/weeks after the ending of the game. His presence served to offer some sort of explanation to Mono, who otherwise would have had no clue what happened or who gave his life to bring her back
.

So however you want to interpret the endings of Ico and SotC, I don't think either have any bearing on how The Last Guardian will end. Ueda is smart and creative. He's not going to do exactly what everyone expects of him.
 
reposted from the other thread:

The guards will in general try to capture the boy. However, if Torico is in the way, they'll also attack him. They won't actually attack the boy, however -- they'll just attempt to capture him.
Click to expand...

Clearly, the boy is The Last Guardian. The guards only want to capture him but will not hurt him. Somehow, the boy's welfare is important to the guards, while the beast is not.
 
canova said:
The game sounds boring.

Srsly, he needs to stop to put so much detail on the rodent and focus more on the gameplay. If I want to see real pet behavior, I would get a real pet ffs, now put some combat into the game already
Click to expand...

Did you spend your first playthrough of Flower trying to work out how to fire missiles?
 
Afrikan said:
almost sounds like the Euphoria tech from Natural Motion. Can't wait to see how it looks like in real time.
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It actually sounds exactly like what they had in Ico, at least when it comes to wall touching. I noticed this when I played Ico immediately.

Solid_Rain said:
The Ico EU/PAL ending is different - true ending - compared to the Japanese/US one: I think. Anyway, people will find out if they get the HD re-release.
Click to expand...
They're nearly identical. Both have the after-credits scene, it's only slightly different in EU version, and only if you chose to make it so.

Famitsu seemed to be impressed by the demo session, describing it as "exceeding expectations," and "reality that exceeds real."
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I just really hope these guys will be able to make this game run in full 720p and not sub-hd like the last trailer suggested. I know this would go against their history, but still. Well, if not, I noticed that activating "Movie" mode on my TV does a great job of hiding the sub-hd-ness of the trailer, so I'll manage.
 
ScOULaris said:
While the ending to Ico is left somewhat open to interpretation, Ueda himself essentially confirmed that
Yorda dies in the crumbling castle
. Look up his 1UP interview with James Mielke if you don't believe me.
Click to expand...

Found these:

"Regarding the ending, Ueda said that "I want to have a happy ending, but it's not sure that [Yorda] is alive, or if she'll stay with Ico, or if she wasn't a dream. I wanted a happy ending that was still a little bit vague." And in keeping with that desire, he issued a firm "no comment" to questions about a possible sequel."
http://www.1up.com/features/method-developing-ico

AND

1UP: In regards to the Japanese version of Ico, there is a scene after you've completed the game the second time, where Ico and Yorda are found on the beach scene eating watermelon. What the heck is that all about? And in the case of the ending of Ico, some people have said that finding Yorda on the beach or waking up on the beach is in fact the afterlife. I say that it's not, but the final words uttered by Yorda make me unsure of what to think in terms of the meaning of the ending. Can you clarify?

FU: About the watermelon - it's in just for fun. If you say "ocean," we say "watermelon." In Japan, the association of seaside and watermelon is very strong. And the animator came and said, I've made these watermelon-eating animations, so we said let's put them in! And we did. And then, the real climax is the final beach scene, seeing the sillhouette of Yorda; Some people wonder if it isn't a bit too much; but we embrace that too with Ico.

KK: Yes, if there is a meaning, then - what is the meaning?

Ueda: If there is a meaning, then it's Ico's dream. It's over, and it's really over at that point, but in the ship Ico is dreaming. He wishes he could see Yorda one more time. I guess that's the real meaning.

1UP: So Ico "sees" Yorda because she wishes to see him. Not because she escaped from the castle and magically reappeared on the beach.

Ueda: Yes, that's one possible interpretation.

http://www.1up.com/features/shadow-talk
 
Gorgon said:
reposted from the other thread:



Clearly, the boy is The Last Guardian. The guards only want to capture him but will not hurt him. Somehow, the boy's welfare is important to the guards, while the beast is not.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. What if they're after the boy for a separate reason? Toriko could be The Last Guardian as he'd be the only thing that's protecting the boy from being captured.
 
Gorgon said:
reposted from the other thread:



Clearly, the boy is The Last Guardian. The guards only want to capture him but will not hurt him. Somehow, the boy's welfare is important to the guards, while the beast is not.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's what I thought as well.

I'd want the kid to grow up in-game so that he can eventually defend himself better. I'm not saying turn the game into a Devil May Cry clone or anything, but just that the kid should get old enough (teens) so that he can push and hit guards when trying to escape. Maybe even use rocks or other items as makeshift weapons. Using a guard's helmet to hit another guard and stun him to create an opening to escape or save Toriko's life.
 
There's also this comment:

Regarding ICO, the magazine said said that you won't believe you're looking at a game from 10 years back. Team ICO is redoing the opening based off the original.
Click to expand...
Very glad to hear this. The opening was one area in the game where playing it in high res on emulator makes it obvious that some of the trees etc. are actually just flat texture panels.
 
Afrikan said:
almost sounds like the Euphoria tech from Natural Motion. Can't wait to see how it looks like in real time.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sounds good! I expect them to make a different approach than with the cited middleware, though. In their previous game they wanted the flexibility to design the human motion from a combination of physics simulation, animator work by hand and inverse kinematics (IK), this last one to correct 'unnatural' posture errors. Masanobu Tanaka, member of SCE JAPAN Studio Product Development Department #1, called this system Add Motion (加算モーション) in this old article from the Game Watch section of Impress Watch website:

3Dゲームファンのための「ワンダと巨像」グラフィックス講座
http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20051207/3dwa.htm

As they made this system with the notion of its usability in current generation platforms, I think they will use a up-to-date version of it for The Last Guardian.
 
Japan Studio: The Last Guardian, ICO & Shadow of the Colossus HD (preview)

ICO HD video

SOTC HD video

TLG New screens

WQ2G5.jpg
 
The first moment that illuminated the subtle character development in Last Guardian occurred after the pair woke up. The boy began running across the room and tripped over Trico's paw. He stumbled a bit and then continued on his way, as Trico ignored the incident altogether. This all played out during gameplay, and showcased the wonderful animations that make these characters feel more like living things than digital concepts.

The same can be said for when the boy was running away from one of the dungeon sentries (a nameless, armored guard). When the boy was spotted, the music picked up and the sentry came running after him. If the boy stood in an "idle position," he comically ran in place to keep the blood flowing -- an action that would be familiar to those of us that watch Japanese anime.
Click to expand...

The Last Guardian, it seems, will be made up of many of these organic puzzles. By controlling the boy, players are also controlling Trico and exploring the game world. But the real joy of Last Guardian isn't pushing around pots, dodging guards, or climbing up ledges. It's watching the two characters interact. The fact that I saw the face of my pet in the virtual eyes of an AI-controlled beast should inform you that this will be an emotional tale. I fully expect players to love Trico in the same way we love the critters that join our families in real life.
Click to expand...

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/115/1152889p1.html
 
From Eurogamer's preview

But The Last Guardian doesn't have the opaque, almost monochrome visuals of its predecessors. It's given a much more vivid look by a scattering of brightly coloured butterflies amid swirling particle effects, and the extremely bright, high-contrast splashes of sunlight that streak across the creature's back in the gloom. The PS3's high resolution and ability to draw environments far into the distance sharpen things up, too.

The boy tugs on Trico's ear to wake it up (Ueda is careful not to give the creature a gender) and their mini-adventure begins. Trico stretches, yawning and shaking off its slumber, clumsy and kitten-like, but with every movement accompanied by deafening thuds to bring home its tremendous weight and size.

Its animation is astonishingly lifelike. So is the flappy-limbed, unselfconscious energy of the boy, Ueda's youngest and most human protagonist to date. Sailing against the wind, Team Ico refuses to use any form of motion-capture, using hand-crafted step-by-step keyframe animation instead. The studio's gifted animators marry the tiny, exquisite observations you might see in a hand-drawn Miyazaki film to complex 3D models and sophisticated AI. It's a mind-blowing achievement.

"Recently, mocap's becoming more and more popular, but the benefit of keyframe is that you can really control the movements you are displaying," says Ueda. "That's what I feel is the benefit. And especially in the case of this game, because we've got Trico which is a combination of various different animals, and it has the traits of a cat in some instances, and some traits of a dog – there's no animal that you could motion capture in this case!"
Click to expand...

The boy is not strong, but he's light and quick-footed, and can shimmy up chains, navigate ledges and run across crumbling beams in much the same manner as the stars of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. As in the latter, he has a stamina gauge limiting his ability to cling, leap, balance and climb, which appears in a hand-drawn and animated scroll above his head when he performs these actions. The controls and platforming style appear to be very similar to those in the team's two previous games.

The boy will encounter enemies, but being tiny, unarmed and dressed in a light toga, he's not strong enough to tackle them in direct combat. When he encounters a truly frightening guard grunting and clanking around in black plate armour, Ueda says that the best way to get past him is by stealth – crouching and creeping along walls.

There are other ways to lure, outwit and outrun the slow guards – who can't climb in their heavy armour – but if caught, you only have a short time to wriggle out of a guard's grasp or it's game over. Though the boy may learn some tricks, Ueda says, it's the powerful Trico who will be attacking enemies in The Last Guardian, and for the most part the player is not directly involved in combat at all.

At the end of the demo, the boy finds himself at the top of a tall shaft crossed by slender beams and bridges, with Trico visible far below. He calls to it with a wordless, echoing cry, but the creature doesn't hear, or doesn't want to. "Normally he jumps straight up. Seems like he's in a bad mood today," chuckles Ueda.

It's an awkward moment, but at least it proves Ueda's talk of a free-spirited, recalcitrant artificial intelligence powering the huge beast. This will be difficult to fine-tune correctly if Team Ico is to preserve Trico's unpredictability and electrifying presence – as bizarre as it looks, it's impossible not to regard Ueda's creation with awe – whilst making him biddable enough not to frustrate.

After half a minute of calling, Trico takes notice, and thunders up the shaft in a series of crashing bounds that shake the stone, finishing by towering above the small boy and lowering its huge eyes to his. "You'll notice the very drastic difference in dynamics of how the boy can manoeuvre versus Trico – the gameplay will be a combination of using both of those skills to your benefit to make progress," summarises Ueda, blandly.

If you're looking for the key to Team Ico's brilliance, maybe that's it; a guileless willingness to keep things simple and let them speak for themselves. The great mystery is that there's no mystery at all. The Last Guardian is a story about a small boy befriending a giant animal, and that's all it needs to be.
Click to expand...
 
love that they are creating new areas for the press to play with. means i can indulge my need to know more about the game without getting spoilers for the much of the experience of playing the full game. going to need to go on a tlg blackout at some point though.

also respect for glorious team ico hand animation and their emphasis on animation on general. adds so much to the verisimilitude.
 
Catalix said:
Honestly, details like this impress me much more than incremental improvements in graphical fidelity. Kinda wish more developers this gen made procedural animation a higher priority. It's become pretty distracting to see beautifully rendered in-game character models move around like stilted robots, not really interacting with the environment in convincing ways.
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Miyamoto was banging on about this years ago:

What role does realism play in videogames I ask myself. Is this image more interesting? Sometimes.. however, what if a "detailed" hand with 5 fingers is catching a bottle but the fingers pass right through it? Is this still realistic? Rather than to show each meticulous and tiny detail of a finger, it is more important to make the end action look more credible by working on the movement and functionality of the arms and the hand in relation to the object.
Click to expand...

I totally agree that image quality is pretty much as good as it needs to be, now we need to focus on bringing animation up to par.
 
canova said:
really? not even gameplay? damn, I must've been expecting too much out of him. I admit, I never finished ICO or The Colossus
Click to expand...

Yeah where the fuck are my bloody combos and QTE's?
WTF is this BS?

Game looks and sounds absolutely amazing, the part where Ueda talked about the realistic animations/reactions of the protagonist reminded me of how Jade reacted to the environment in the awesome supposed "concept" video of Beyond Good & Evil 2. :O

Most anticipated game this gen by far for me, both ICO & Colossus were masterpieces.
 
Really can't wait to play this .
I love that they are spending so much time on animation.
As game start looking better and better we need animation to catch up .
 
If a YouTube mirror pops up for either of the Ico HD or SotC HD videos, could someone please post a link? It's the only way I will be able to view them at work.
 
jett said:
According to vandal.net, the aggressive LOD of SotC remains in the HD port. Fail.
Click to expand...

Weak. Maybe the pop-in will be less noticeable when the game isn't running off a dying PS2 disc drive. That's the only way I've ever experienced it. :/
 
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