Besides maybe Half-Life 3, not many games has been shrouded in mystery and delayed as much as Team ICO’s The Last Guardian. Originally announced for the PS3 back in 2009, very little details have been given about the game since then. Today in an interview with Edge magazine (as reported by Gamesradar), The Last Guardian’s director Fumito Ueda gave some details on some of the game’s mechanics, and even mentioned a 2016 release date.
Edge magazine were able to play an exclusive demo of the game on PS4, and now we have a better idea of some of the game’s mechanics. In the game Trico, the giant dog-bird thing, has the ability to fire a deadly stream of red lightning from his tail. The boy you control has a special mirror that he uses to reflect and direct the light from Trico’s tail. In the demo this ability was used to solve puzzles rather than fight enemies.
According to Ueda, the reason for this mechanic was “to make the players understand the force and ferocity of Trico.” Ueda also commented on Trico’s appearance, saying “I believe things are more attractive when there’s a bit of oddness around them, rather than something being normal and appearing to be generally acceptable.” According to Destructoid, Ueda said that Trico “disregards your attempts to tame it” and that the players will not directly control the giant beast.
Trico will also interact with the environment around him, with Gamesradar reporting that Trico’s feathers will stand on edge when agitated and his eye’s will change color depending on his mood. When he’s angry, Trico’s eyes will turn pink. Perhaps one reason for the game’s delay was that this level of interaction and detail couldn’t be achieved on the PS3 hardware. It sounds like The Last Guardian will be more of a puzzle game like ICO rather than an action game like Shadow of the Colossus.
Ueda said in his interview “Since this is the year we will see the game’s release, I do have some worries, but I am also very excited.” This is basically confirmation that the game will be coming out before the end of 2016, but considering that the game was first announced seven years ago, I think it’s understandable to have some skepticism. At this point the studio can take all the time they want in order to make the best game possible, which they have already done if it does come out this year. Fingers crossed that we’ll see The Last Guardian come out on PS4 around fall 2016.