The Last Guardian has been in development since 2007, so the term "much-anticipated" is somewhat of an underwhelming disservice unequal to the level of hype this game has amassed since its unveiling and the numerous bouts of delays it has gone through since.
The boy-and-beast tale is now just days away from being released, and Sony Interactive Entertainment has shared a new trailer depicting the young boy's adventure with a giant mythical creature named Trico in a ploy to evade guards who target them.
Nearly 10 Years In Development
After spending two years in development, The Last Guardian had its public announcement in 2009. The game was billed as the long-awaited spiritual follow-up to PlayStation 2 hits Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, made by game director Fumito Ueda.
The Last Guardian was supposed to finish development and come out in 2011 for the PlayStation 4, but the schedule had proven to be unstable ever since — greatly affected by a shift in the platform the game was planned to be released in, which is now the PS4.
Long story short, after numerous roadblocks that hampered development, the game will come out early December once and for all, suffice it to say that The Last Guardian's release has been long overdue.
Trico, The Boy, And A Growing Relationship
Trico, the titular stalwart slash beast in The Last Guardian, as Ueda envisioned for it to be, comes off as a stranger at first. As the story ploughs forward, several layers will be increasingly peeled off, allowing for an organic, sensitive and a very human-like progression of a relationship between Trico and the boy.
"[W]hen the main character meets Trico for the first time, you're strangers. You don't know anything," Ueda told The Verge. "[A]s the game progresses, and your relationship grows, towards the end you have a stronger bonding relationship between the main character and Trico."
For this deeper connection to materialize, Ueda and his team implemented a number of techniques, predominantly with the art and animation as a starting-off point, of course. Trico, despite its colossal size, never seems imposing. It's a beast by and large, but its presence, behavior and demeanor are all titled by some measure to give off a puppy dog vibe. But the world of The Last Guardian is also designed in a way to push the boy and Trico to work hand-in-hand for survival.
"I think those are key moments where you as the player get emotionally involved with Trico," Ueda said.
The Last Guardian, despite its protracted development period, still remains shrouded in enigma, which is quite a feat given the game industry's continuous failure to keep everything hush-hush. Now that the game nears its release date, Ueda has more leeway to enter joking spirits with regard to his next game. When queried about it, Ueda has this to say:
"I would really like to put out something in a shorter time frame."
The Last Guardian comes out Dec. 6 for PlayStation 4.
