
And while the hazy visuals instill a sense of mystery, they can also make everything look the same, so that it’s easy to miss important visual cues. The world is inconsistent, letting you interact with some objects and not others, which can lead to a lot of wasted time. The Last Guardian is a rigid, linear game, one that usually only offers one very specific path forward, but doesn’t provide you with the right information to find it. The world is crumbling all around you, and often it’s up to Trico to save you at the last minute (usually in slow motion).īut things often don’t work so well. And the platforming moments are always tense it feels like you’re constantly teetering on the perilous edge of a ruined staircase or rickety scaffolding hundreds of feet in the air.


#The last guardian gameplay length how to
Figuring out how to open a door or ascend a dilapidated tower without being told how is very satisfying. Instead, you need to carefully observe the world around you to figure out the path ahead, which more often than not means moving higher and higher. The game doesn’t explicitly tell you where to go or what to do. Sometimes you just need to climb up on its back and let it take you where you need to go. You can guide Trico around, asking it to follow you to a spot, or jump up somewhere, but often it will act on its own.

Trico, meanwhile, can leap to high areas and bat away anything that tries to attack the boy. The boy can slip through small cracks to reach new areas, and flip switches and pick up objects. It’s about traversing tricky environments, and each character has abilities the other doesn’t. The Last Guardian is essentially a combination of a puzzle game and a platformer, where you move from one area to the next, figuring out how to get both the boy and Trico through the world. Often it doesn’t work as it should, and you’ll need to push through some terribly frustrating moments to experience everything The Last Guardian has to offer.įumito Ueda Sony Interactive Entertainment “I think that when you try too hard to explain everything, it doesn’t work well.” - director Fumito Ueda on creating The Last Guardian It’s a creature with a mind of its own, one that I came to know and love over the course of the adventure.īut like the crumbling ruins you explore in The Last Guardian, the game itself often feels brittle and broken. Trico is the most convincing video game creature I’ve ever interacted with - at times funny and adorable like a puppy, other times ferocious and powerful like a wild beast. The entire experience hinges on this relationship it drives the story, the puzzles, and the world itself. The Last Guardian is a game about a young boy and a magical creature named Trico who are forced to work together to explore and escape dark, crumbling ruins. The frustrating ordeal is forgotten and we move on, together. I climb up its back and scratch it behind the left ear. I’m able to grab onto it as the animal dives down, and a few moments later we’re through the tunnel to another part of the ruin. Given that there’s only one way forward through this watery ruin, and that I can’t get where I need to on my own, I’m starting to get fed up with my companion.įinally, after a half hour of trying, the beast starts to dive in a slightly different way, sticking its tail straight back as it leaps into the water. I can get it in the water, leaping from a rocky outcropping into the pool, but it won’t do it with me holding on so I can reach a tunnel at the very bottom. For the last 30 minutes, I’ve been trying to get a giant German Shepherd with wings and glowing blue horns to dive into a pool.
