After 9 years in development, the highly anticipated The Last Guardian (TLG for brevity) was released on the PS4 in 2016. Developed by Japan Studio, TLG is a linear adventure game featuring a boy and a dog-like beast.
A boy wakes up in an unknown location next to a fearsome and wounded beast. Sensing it is in pain, you help and slowly befriend him to try and escape the confines of this strange place. As you climb and lever-pull your way through gated doors and puzzle-laden environments, you bond with the beast, slowly unravelling the mystery of the world and its role in it.
All the standard platforming and puzzle solving abilities are here, the boy can run, jump and throw objects but, differing from it's counterparts and where the real fun comes in, is the ability to climb and traverse the map with the help of your beast. You can climb on its back and command it to move, attack, jump, sit or even swim. The size and strength of the beast is conveyed brilliantly as it leaps across platforms while your character hangs on for dear life.
The story is equal parts unoriginal and evocative. A typical boy-tames-beast story where trials and tribulations forge a close bond, only for everyone's heart to break when something awful befalls our beast.
The main character's animation, similar to a previous title of Japan Studio's (Gravity Rush), looks like it's been pulled out of a Studio Ghibli movie. Every movement looks like a wind machine has been turned on next to the character, everything flows and moves perfectly, making moving around the map very satisfying.
The environment, while looking like every 3d platforming game ever made with its mysterious Aztec-like structures, looks great and adds to the mystery of the story. As the relationship between the boy and the beast develops, the atmosphere and environments also begin to change, going from dimly lit and decaying areas to open, bright areas. This change is further aided by the clarity of the fantastic visuals.
Being the hook on which the game is sold, the beast not only needed to be cute and menacing, but also realistic and potentially one of any number of animals. Thankfully, it achieves all of these and more. Its tail is part-marsupial, it has eagle-like feathers covering it from head to tail, it takes its facial design, cues and emotive sounds from a large dog and its body shape and movement from a large cat.
Countless details have been added to its behavioural pattern to make it believable. The flicking of a cat's ear, a dog scratching its ears with its back legs, or trying shake something placed on its head, it's all uncannily recreated and has you utterly convinced from the start. Even the way it towers over you, looking deep into your eyes only to lean down and nudge you with it's nose, it's just like a real dog would if you were lying on the floor. Only an emotionally devoid individual would not feel an immediate love for this beast.
While the accuracy of the animal's behaviour is important, it's perhaps the emotive reciprocity of the game that is the developer's greatest trick. The game sets out a structure to build your companionship through shared suffering and reciprocal empathetic behaviour, the player stroking the beast to calm it down and then removing the bloody spears from its body after it's attacked being just one example. The ability to show empathy through actions rather than through words is a masterstroke and one that makes this relationship really special.
One interesting aspect of the beast AI is that it can ignore your orders, a mechanic adding to the beast's personality, but unfortunately, due to issues with other parts of the game - the camera and controls - you can never be sure if this is intentional or if the game is not working as it should. Regardless of whether it's intentional or not, it slows down the already puzzle-heavy sections and it's easy to see how one potentially clever idea can have a large knock-on effect when the game has too little to work with.
Adding to the frustrations, the camera seems like it's been lifted out of a completely different game altogether, frequently resetting itself when in too confined a space, despite the game being filled with such instances.
Unfortunately, this is a trend that continues throughout, and it makes you lament the aforementioned negatives that interrupt the enjoyment of its strong points far too often.
As with his previous games the Director and Designer, Fumito Ueda, designed The Last Guardian with an 'addition by subtraction' approach. This is often used when creating an 'art' type game, a short movie-like experience focusing on atmospheric and emotive story-telling with strong visuals rather than through player interaction. Conversely, current 3D adventure games have moved in the opposite direction, 'addition by addition' you might say, moving away from linear Tomb Raider-style platforming adventures to vast, Open-World games that offer the player multiple ways to play and interact.
Ueda has seemingly gone for somewhere in the middle, offering limited player agency and interaction in a full-length outing while attempting to keep it as linear and 'art' like as possible.
For this to work, the condensed gameplay loop would need to be perfect, but in reality it's too thin in content and too stretched out. The gameplay loop in the first 2/3rds of the game is repetitive and frustrating with little reprieve for the player, making long playthroughs an unattractive proposition.
Thankfully, the game redeems itself somewhat with a wonderful final third. Its conclusion unveiling the story's secrets while pushing all the right buttons to make you an emotional wreck by the end. Holding onto its cards until the end is brave, especially considering the modern gamer's short attention span and lack of a tolerance for frustrating gameplay.
Not being able to roam around an Open-World and the lack of a photo mode are missed opportunities, but even simple additions such as interspersing the platforming monotony with an extra gameplay mechanic or two would have done wonders for a game too often at odds with itself.
Verdict - 7.5/10
- The camera, unintuitive controls and inconsistent commands - Lacking a variety of gameplay, the platforming and puzzle sections are forced into repetition to fit the game's length - A perfect concept with unlimited potential ultimately let down by the game's structure + The beast. Its stunning details are a triumph in game design
+ Beautiful visuals and detailed animation + The bond between the beast and gamer is captivating and memorable + The conclusion of the game, while predictable, is emotionally charged and brilliantly done While the developers should be applauded for creating a unique beast and a wonderful relationship, they are perhaps fortunate that the off-the-shelf boy and beast concept shines bright enough for it to mask the flaws threatening to ruin the experience.
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