The Last Guardian

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TheMostFrench: Jul 12, 2009; Stop for me, it's the claw!

Finally it has been released! The team that brought us Ico and Shadow of the Colossus has been working towards this for around 10 years, and now we can journey around mystical ruins with our giant pigeon-cat baby. This OP will be updated as more info about the game mechanics becomes clear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXLZvsSmBIs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL2zzgW6YOo

Reviews:
IGN 7/10 - http://au.ign.com/articles/2016/12/05/the-last-guardian-review

Gamespot 9/10 - http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/the-last-guardian-review/1900-6416583/

Gameplay:
Like Ico and SOTC, you control a character who is able to perform some basic platforming such as jumping, climbing, pushing pulling, carrying or throwing objects, and interacting with switches and levers. Jumping and climbing feels a bit 'janky' because of how the character handles (they seem a bit heavy). The major feature of TLG is the interaction with Trico, the giant creature who helps you get around. This game requires a bit of patience since you need to direct Trico to perform specific actions at times, and they won't always immediately behave how you might expect. Some of the differences between this game and SOTC is that there is no stamina feature related to climbing, and you dont need to hold a button down when climbing, your character should automatically grab onto ledges and climbable surfaces when you press triangle.

Trico is a mobile platform, you can climb onto their head and swing from their tail. If you interact with Trico they will help you reach a platform or something by extending their neck or jumping up to a new height, allowing you to climb the tail. If you ever feel like you're lost or stuck then chances are you need to go higher using Trico.

It is not a bad idea to wait around in an area and see what kind of things Trico responds to or plays with, because they might be relevant to progression through the game (for example, Trico might bat at a chain or doorway as if it has some importance), or they just might be cute and fun. Trico looks at things in the distance sometimes which can be important.

There are items of food that you can feed to Trico, it is not immediately clear how this affects the relationship and ability to progress (sometimes you have no choice but to feed Trico), since I've found at least one barrel of food which was optional to collect.

From the start of the game there are pretty constant reminders of how to do basic things like jump and climb, but not much mention of how to develop a relationship with or control Trico e: [This kind of stuff gets explained a little bit later in the game, by the middle you can tell Trico how to do a whole bunch of things]

Holding L1 focuses the camera on Trico, which is useful to be able to watch how they are acting or responding to certain things.
R1 calls out to them. If you point the left control stick in a certain direction and then call out, your character will point in that direction. This has helped me a couple of times when trying to get Trico to do something specific. If you climb onto Trico and then do this you should be able to ride Trico and direct them around to some extent. This gets explained in proper detail later in the game.
You can hold circle while standing next to/on top of Trico to pet them! You have to do this sometimes to progress e.g after Trico has been in a fight you need to calm them down. Make sure you dont have the mirror equipped or you might command Trico to shoot lightning.
Holding L3 or R3 causes the character to sit down and 'contemplate' which as far as I can tell reveals some insight about the current situation from the character/narrator.
If you have taken a big fall you will limp around for a little while but there is no character health to be concerned about, from my experiences only a REALLY big fall is fatal, usually into a bottomless pit, and the game is pretty good regarding checkpoints.

Feel free to share videos, pictures, gifs, etc from your game. Trico does some pretty adorable stuff :3:

TheMostFrench fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Dec 7, 2016

# ¿ Dec 7, 2016 03:46

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 20:02

TheMostFrench: Jul 12, 2009; Stop for me, it's the claw!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmT4ir_DAwY

I love how Tricos eyes light up yellow when you have food.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8TP9zPOJ7E

And that they get surprised when you shove at them :3:

# ¿ Dec 7, 2016 06:15

TheMostFrench: Jul 12, 2009; Stop for me, it's the claw!

Further highlights include throwing food to Trico, who fails to catch it and gets a barrel in the face, and Trico picking me up by the mouth to throw me on their back, but accidentally throwing me off the side of a bottomless pit instead.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2016 13:01

TheMostFrench: Jul 12, 2009; Stop for me, it's the claw!

Bugblatter posted:

Finished it. The game goes a bit longer than I expected (when I said in my previous post that I thought I was about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the way through I was actually closer to 1/3), in a very good and satisfying way. The final stretch is fantastic. And really pretty.

The end poses so many questions.

It took such a strange turn. What was the master in the tower? Why was it controlling the Trico? Are they all free now? They seemed to drop out of the sky once it was destroyed. Who or what was in the coffin where you find the mirror at the beginning of the game?

Also

Did you wait until after the credits?

# ¿ Dec 7, 2016 20:15

TheMostFrench: Jul 12, 2009; Stop for me, it's the claw!

Turns out there was already a thread for this game. Please go here for more discussion.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3800772

# ¿ Dec 9, 2016 00:45

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The Last Guardian