When I would get overly impatient and order multiple commands, leading Trico to get distracted, kinda loved the game even more. Just watching Trico stare at some wildlife or sit down and yawn and look at me like I was stupid, it was so authentic in those moments. Elevated it all for me
I love that instant connection you feel with the people who "get" this game. It's like you're on the same page on a certain level. I so hotly anticipated this game and it did not disappoint. That final E3 trailer just had me floored with the visuals and the soundtrack. I've just been replaying it again so my partner can see it. I really hope his next game does come out, and hopefully not on the PS7!
Fun fact: when at the ending all of the dark Tricos or Evil tricos started teaming up on Our Trico,I saw how special people will always be bullied for protecting their loved ones(the boy) or just by being different. But at the end,Justice wins,as Trico flies away and survives. IMO one of the greatest games ever.
I played this game and my cat was with me on the couch all the time. I feel this game talks to you on a deeper level if you have a pet, Trico sometimes behaves like a dog, sometimes like a cat, sometimes even like a parrot ahah it's far from perfect in some points, but the concept is so original and good that it's a shame it didn't get more credit
This is such a great video on The Last Guardian.... I absolutely love this game to my core. It's probably my favorite game right now actually. It's the only game that can make me cry as hard as it does, and it's the only game that has made me feel THIS connected to a fictional character. On top of that, I've played it 6 times (will probably play for the 7th time in the next few days because I'm really brainrotting over it right now). The first two times I was playing just to play, but the next 4 I strived to platinum it. (with success!) It makes me so sad that people misunderstand this game so often, because I think it provides an experience everyone needs to feel. I completely understand why people get frustrated, and I even got pretty frustrated myself the first time I played! Especially as a semi-inexperienced gamer, the controls and commands could make for a really stressful experience. But honestly... I think having to get over those hurdles can not only make it more fun to play the game, but can teach you how to handle real-life situations like that better. Having the patience for trico can help with your relationships with other people or animals, because you need to learn how to properly connect with different types of people in order to manage friendships. And also, if you have the ability not to get mad over the times where the controls feel, well, OUT of control, then I think that would show that you're a really calm and mature person in day-to-day life. Alright, there's my spiel. Thanks for the great video! ^^
This game was the sole reason I got myself a PS4 because the game could exclusively be played on that. I have never made a better decision. I remember how I would always look back to check if Trico was okay and still following me. I can´t begin to describe how much this game means to me and what kind of emotional impact it had on me because there is simply no way to describe it with words. Years have passed since I first played it and it still rocks my world and soul.
I remember my first playthrough was rough and an over all mixed experience because of many factors. Watching speed runners made me want to try again and now I have spent countless hrs playing this incredible game and it is an important part of my life. Beautiful art is often misunderstood. Thank you so much for this.
Phenomenal game or maybe we should name it experience, one of a kind in a world full of clones! Beautiful story, awesome music, incredible bond with Trico are sooo freaking unique! All problems with camera and controls are not important comparing to it.
I love this game because Trico doesn’t break immersion. He’s stubborn at times, easily distracted, hates working when hungry, and overall a pain in the buttocks to work with. But that’s why I love him, he’s an animal, and people need to remember that wild animals aren’t easy to control. I love how TLG doesn’t hold back from the feeling of powerlessness, while at the exact same time taunting you with the power you could have in the form of the mirror.
I finished it last year and I still can’t stop thinking about it. I even get emotional looking at the fanarts online I can’t remember a game in the last 5 years that have impacted me this much. It rekindled my love for games again
Beautifully put, thank you for the video. I did not cry by the end of it, no I did NOT! I helped write a review of TLG with my back then boyfriend and we got absolutely roasted for trying to understand a virtual creature and not complaining about it not following our commands to a T. Now Trico's statue is watching over me and my pup every day and I hate to think of the day I'll to have to let him go (hopefully decades in the future), kind of like I had to let Trico go back then. No other animal ever came close to evoking this kind of raw love in me like my sweet Toni and Trico.
So I was super late to TLG. I played the heck out of SotC and a fair bit of Ico, but I had completely forgotten about TLG due to school and a love I found for other things. It wasn't till a few months ago I found TLG and picked it up for 15 bucks. Then got made fun of by some of my friends for wanting to play a "poorly received game that didn't do well." So I went in blind, and a little worried about if the 15 bucks I spent was wasted. But it didn't take long for me to fall in love and understand what the game wanted me learn about Trico. It's an animal, smart, and misunderstood by both the people in and out of the game. Trying to get it to do what you needed was the challenge. Understanding that Trico had to think, had to work out the environment and that we had to learn to be a team. SoTC will forever be my favorite game from this team, but TLG was undeniably an experience I'm glad I went through, even more so coming to it without the crowd, without many others influencing my perception. It was a game I went through alone to savor, marinate, and work though on my own. Like coming to a restaurant on a rainy weekday with no one else but the staff there. It is a shame that so many people didn't get the main point of the game, but it does feel nice feeling like one of the few who sat down and built a bond alone. Great video, glad to see someone else got it
I’m watching this in 2024. My long journey to finally be able to play this game, to complete my Team Ico trilogy, is justified by it being the first game I platinumed on my PS4. I’ll forever feel connected to feather butt Trico.
Thanks for the comment, I hope one day it finds its audience... But for now, I'm glad other fans of The Last Guardian get to share in the joy I had it's the game.
I've seen people give the advice on how to control Trico and the person playing would try it, maybe once then get super impatient then resort to spamming commands just to say, "See? It doesn't work". People like that tend to give off the wrong impression of how the game works and that actually hurts others perception of it. I still to this day see people say they will never play this masterpiece, because they only hear the game has "bad controls" It sucks. More people need to show this game more love but you can't change the general perception of it due to misinformation and misunderstandings.
I love Trico even more from the fact that you had an animal that was realistic in commands, and there are many ways to connect with Trico. I love that one bit of detail that brought me to the game in the first place was what made so many more join the fandom. The random actions Trico will do, whether if its not listening to commands, not eating barrels(laughed at Jackcepticeye failing to save him) or more, makes the bond later on so much stronger, and adds more value to the game instead of just puzzles and running away from the cursed armor. Not to mention Trico's personality. It runs around in flat areas, it sometimes nudges the boy to check on him, and it even rolls in water to clean its feathers from time to time. It's an actual animal. And like pets at home and wild animals at a distance, they have their own personalities and goals to survive and in the end, make friends and deal with grief. I love Trico, and I'd like to play the game one day and have the close connections that others had with their own Trico. It's the same story, but completely different experiences.
Trico not listening to me never was a problem for me even when it did happend, but oh god the controls are something else. There were so many times where I died because the boy wasn't doing what he should. Not having another creature listen to you all the time is understandable but the person you control should behave flawlessly. Getting the platinum throphy for the Shadow of colossus remake was one of the best gaming experiences I had, getting the one for the last guardian was unfortunately a chore.
I'm happy to see people still talk about this game. I bought a PS4 the day this game was released. I've been waiting for it for many years and was not disappointed. I felt Trico was real and the ending hit harder than I could have imagined. I'm looking forward to what genDesign will do next. All their games have a special place in my heart.
14:27 we actually don't know that, in fact it's more likely that they did end up meeting again because at the end when he's grown up he calls trico using the mirror and trico actually responds. maybe Trico and his new offspring flew back to the village after that to visit him
That's possible, but it was never explicitly stated in the game or any of the supplementary material, so I'm going to assume their story ends there, which adds weight to the themes overall, at least imo.
Video deserves more views. Not just because the title sums this phenomenal game up but the background into Ueda, one of the best artists of modern times, was educational and entertaining. I can't get the ending of TLG out of my head. So powerful
This is a great video. It's nice to see a game that got critically panned at release find a subsection of people that found what the piece was trying to say.
What really bums me out is that the reception to the game really wasn't that bad, it's at an 82 on Metacritic and 81 on OC, yet people think it reviewed horribly. The public perception was skewed by a lot of very loud voices that panned the title, unfairly so in my opinion.... And thank you!
I've never missed characters from a videogame after finishing the story. I absolutely adore this game. So much that it is my favourite ps4 game and one of my favourite games ever. And that ending! Beautiful. ❤
My fave of Team Ico's game. I think the review cycle and it's rushed pace to get content out led to the mixed reviews from publications. But I got a bias cause this game just really worked for me. It made me feel empathy for something that doesn't exist. And that made me wonder; is the empathy void if it's for a collection of 0's and 1's? Sure didn't feel void. And that's really powerful
Great video and best breakdown of TLG I've seen. This game took me months to complete on my first playthrough due to some of the same reasons other players experienced, but also becuase I felt soemthing awful was going to happen to Trico. So my inital playthrough wasn't fun and quite stressful, but that ending still broke my heart. I replayed almost immediately and by this point had understood how best to 'control' Trico. Such a complex and misunderstood game, it makes me sad that not enough people were on board with it.
Thanks for the comment! It became one of my favorite games very soon after I finished it. The themes of the story and the emotions I felt are just so hard to come by in such a masterful way. Loved it and still do.
Thank you for the comment!! Really appreciate it! I'm pretty much done making videos on this short lived channel, but you can always check out my other channel which is alive: The Gaming Resume.
it's funny how death stranding has the same kind of emotional ending and misunderstood / frustrating to some gameplay as the last guardian. i hope the next ueda game will show itself soon because it was ages ago when the first concpet image was shown from it.
Something that's often not talked about with Ueda's design is how the guy is a bit metatextual. There's a reason why creators like Guillermo Del Toro, Hideo Kojima, and hilariously even Radiohead (remember those guys?) are inspired by these games. A fair reason if you look at the links between these creators is because they work within their respective medium to get people to question when you're being told to do pretty awful things. This is seen all throughout Guillermo Del Toro's work, where characters or groups are presented with a status quo that is by default, pretty awful and how that situation involves itself in changing the perceptions of people and even getting them to be complacent with questionable actions. This is greatly seen in Del Toro's most recent work, Pinocchio. In Ico however, that idea of control is placed on the player over Ico, the character. A conceit the game makes towards the end is how Ico is presented with a boat to leave and a sword to save Yorda. You the player are ultimately the one who controls and forces Ico to pick up that sword and kill the queen. But hold up, it's just a video game, we have no say as to whether the game will let us leave or kill the queen. So what's up? Back in 2001, games were still for the most part perceived as this commercial product to let the kids spend some time on. In some ways, it's still sadly marketed and viewed that way. Ico's subtractive design is intentional to get the player to focus in on and question the choices made for this game that "plays" like one, but certainly didn't "feel" like one in comparison to most* of its contemporaries at the time. This was back in the day where games simply told you to do things, or figure them out by yourself, and whatever happens is simply seen as totally fine. Now, that's all well and good and you can rationalize that killing the queen was to save a really mistreated girl. But one peculiar way to read this game is that Yorda is just a girl made of light that you're trying to help her escape her prison. Notably, it is electricity that keeps her restrained to her "prison," just like any video game character. Ueda's "boy meets girl" scenario he was writing was potentially in reference to a (specifically marketed for) boy player meeting this video game girl. Even the song "You Were There" can be read from this perspective to a shocking degree when viewed entirely as metaphor. This metatextual layer of reading the game goes a touch further. People often say how peculiar it is that Ico's horns are broken in the ending, which is true, those were the horns specifically designed by the devs to make him stand out in comparison to Yorda because of her bloom effects during gameplay. So why even break them? On a replay with The Last Guardian and its use of signal imagery with Trico's horns being given directions by an entity literally called "The Master" (can't have a master without a slave), it ultimately makes things be read a bit differently for Ico. It's notable how Ueda makes mention how The Last Guardian takes more after Ico than it does Shadow of the Colossus, and I do think this theme of control and influence is seen in Ico, just far more subtly . It's always been weird to me how Ueda focused so much on getting the player to empathize and relate to Yorda. Making the ending ambiguous yet with Ueda's personal interpretation being that the beach sequence is a dream Ico is having is interesting because it means you technically aren't controlling him but rather his mind. This links back to the horns which are removed but you technically lose all control over Ico until he's dreaming. He's still got some stubs in his head after all, Yorda after she transforms even has the camera highlight these stubs. This is a parallel to The Last Guardian where an otherwordly entity is taking direct control over Trico. Contrast that with the boy not directly controlling Trico but empathizing and teaching Trico gently. This is great because on a gameplay level, so many people that played this game wanted Trico to act perfectly with each command. They were essentially trying to be another "Master of the Valley" by this respect. Game is quite bluntly teaching you over the course of the story that such control is pretty awful. This ends up making Ico seem like a game about player control and willful acceptance of violence. Now, I'm not gonna debate the role games as a medium may have in casually accepting violence or influencing values but Ueda as an artist isn't someone who was interested in just making a commercial product or just some shiny toy you press buttons to interact with. To add further to this, it's quite odd how a guy this artsy would even consider wanting to make a first person shooter when you compare his previous work. But given this read, maybe Ueda making a FPS would be a great opportunity to get people to realize how weird it is shooters are so gunked up in violence as an arbitrary default when you get down to it. ***Well I just did a simple search on the wiki. At a previous point, Ico's horns quite literally were shaped like handles on a controller, with them oriented where if you look at Ico's back, you're basically "in control" of his head. Probably for the best they changed the horn design, it was honestly too obvious lol.
Dang, thanks for the read lol great insight into the design of Ico and that connection with TLG. I'd love to hear Ueda describe all the connections his games have some day, though just figuring it out with the community is super fun. Thanks again for the in depth comment!
Did you notice that in the ending when Trico 'presents' the boy to the village, he's in his Trico's shadow. He only leaves Trico's shadow when he pushes him and 'gives' him back to the village. And then when Trico flys off for the last time, he casts a shodow over the boy. A very subtle nod to Shadow of the Colossus.
Finnaly i found this video again, ive seen it once, amazing video man, i love the game to this day and still stands by it, one of the most amazing adventures, simple and just great, on ps5 unpatched at 60 fps its a great time, thank you for this video, i love it as that game.
As someone who has played Ico and SotC before playing this, not being able to perfectly control trico didn’t bother me much (though there were moments it was annoying). I’m glad I got to experience this masterwork. The ending gutted me. Just listening to the narrator talk about that last command we give trico got me glassy eyed. Very few games have hit me emotionally like this one did. Can’t wait to see what fumito Ueda drops next
This was the only video game I've ever played (so far) that made me cry. So it does get credit for that. But it's my least favorite game out of the Fumito Ueda trilogy. "Shadow Of The Colossus" is 1st followed by "ICO" & lastly "The Last Guardian". You don't get a 2nd chance to experience a game for the first time, & my expectations were so high for this game at launch that there was probably no way they were ever going to be met. Trico is a one-of-a-kind A.I. companion no question about that. Nice review/discussion.
My first expiernce with the game was watching Jacksepticeye playing it, so I knew what to expect when I got to play it a few years later. And I cried harder after I played it than I did when I watched Jack's finished playthrough.
As a huge fan of this game (and a dog owner) I think your video is the best review of the last guardian so far. Full of emotions! One without emotions might misunderstand the game, one without patience will never experience the emotional impact of this masterpiece. ❤️🍀
I really enjoyed your video here. I got a PS4 just for this game, since SotC and Ico are my top two favorite games of all time. I really ended up not liking it, and felt so little emotional investment in it for a few reasons, but I appreciate hearing what you saw in it. Shame this game couldn't click with me, but I'm happy to know it's clicked with some people out there!
as an old man, I see a lot of parallels between this game and majora's mask. aside from the development time (which is COMPLETELY different), both games are successors to what are arguably considered the greatest games of all time, both do things that alienate fans of the previous game, and both were critically panned at the time of release ... only to gather an intense cult following years later.
Ueda mentioned in an interview once that the switch from ps3 to ps4 wasn't due to technical limitations, but a business move from sony, this was the reason it was delayed even further, as the game had been built from scratch for the ps3, and adapting it to the ps4 took a long time. It's a shame because the final game would very likely have played and looked the same on ps3 and come out a few years prior, during the ps3 generation, which would in turn result in much better reception. You can tell that the game belongs on the ps3 generation even from looking at it's basic design philosophy, with a much heavier focus on action setpieces that were typical of games around that time. It's a shame because if it came out earlier people would likely perceive it as being ahead of its time, just like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were. Imagine if Shadow of the Colossus was delayed and only released on the ps3, it would still be well received, but it wouldn't have been recognized as the visionary game that it is. I believe this is what happened to The Last Guardian. Regardless, I'm so glad it exists and I played it.
Thank you for this, TLG isn't a perfect game but it was a game that tells a deep and good story and it's packed with such emotional moments but this game is childhood for me.
He needs to make a part two it maby could be somthing like the creature in the circle that being comes back and basicly tries doing what he did before but for the intire world and maby your charecters son (because he might have one he does get older) and the hint of the young trico at the end work together to save the world
I'm really trying to like the game, so im searching out perspectives of those who love it. I just turned it off from frustration and really need a break. The commands are frustrating but the actual controls kill me. The clunkiness of the boy is just a weird choice, you can only sneak or run, why no walking? Navigating the world shouldn't be such a chore, especially when dealing with Trico can be a chore.
Just finished this game last week and it's one of the most conflicting games I've ever played. On the one hand, the scenery is majestic, the soundtrack is excellent and from a pure artistic standpoint, it is really a work of art. That being said, the controls are some of the worst I've ever experienced in a game and commanding Trico was horrible. I get that they intentionally designed him the way they did....but still. You can't sit there for minutes...with an s...sometimes, telling him to do something and him not do it
"It was designed that way, you aren't playing it right" works for things like resetting expectations from Dark Souls turtling to Bloodborne aggression because with Bloodborne it's fun. TLG wasn't. My two cents.
But that's the thing, the games biggest flaw is that it didn't explain the systems well enough, so I don't fault players that didn't play the game optimally for their experiences, and even if they had, fun is such a subjective thing that it's truly neither here nor there when discussing the systems and how they're meant to work. If the core mechanics of a game are explained and after that they're not fun to someone that is entirely on the person's unique tastes. Thanks for the comment, Sean!
@@onixtalks Agreed that a decent chunk of the population would have enjoyed it more if they were told how to play. Frustration definitely played a part.
I understand the creator wanting commanding Trico to be a little unreliable because that's a wild animal. That said, you don't do something like that in a game and then MAKE A TROPHY FOR BEATING THE GAME IN UNDER A QUICK AMOUNT OF TIME. Those two things fight against each other. I'd gladly put up with Trico's unresponsiveness if the developers didn't also push a goal on me that relies on Trico being extremely responsive. Not to mention, the bigger issue is how janky/bad the boy controls even. The problem with getting the deathless run is more likely to be something annoying that messes up more than it is losing.
I ve got to get a PS5 to play this the right way... i ve got the base ps4 and i am used to 30fps games... but this game i swear runs 8-10fps most of the time, my eyes hurt after 15 mins
Not sure if there has been any updates to it, but it ran at a solid 30 fps on the PS5 and you can get it at 60 fps with an unpatched install using the disc.
Everything that is perceptually bad/frustrating about the game is done allegedly on purpose and that makes the game good? That will always divide the room lets just say the game is both a blessing and a curse............
I don't think I ever argued that all of those things being done on purpose makes the game good. Good is subjective. What I believe is that understanding these elements, their reasoning for being how they are and creator intent may lead to having a better outlook on what is expected as a player. You're essentially meeting the game halfway instead of on your own terms. That's it.
So it's not a port, it's just the PS4 version of the game. Running it unpatched has an uncapped frame rate but the game crashes in certain spots, whereas the patch version capped the frame rate at 30 but fixed the crashes.
It's a masterpiece ... But it is let down by very janky controls/interface. It could do with a re-master that just focused on these issues. And I don't just mean Trico not doing exactly what you ask him 100% of the time.
Even during a speedrun, you have to see button prompts for literally any action you could take, through the entire... the ENTIRE game. It shows that the developers had no faith in their game. Played 70 hours button prompts. 5th playthru? Button prompts. It's a small thing that showcases the failures and absolute lack of polish from a game that is the 3rd in a series, a first party single platform game that got ALL the time it needed. ICO and SotC were masterpieces, polished and you felt lucky to play them. Trico had a worthless story, terrible set and level design, and was a nightmare to control. Just my opinion but I literally snapped my day 1 purchase disk in half after finishing the game.
@@Cellardoorkidd no, that snapping a game in half is a hell of a reaction to a game you didn't like. Most would just, you know, trade it in or something.
Nah just played this game, and the entire time, i was annoyed and wanting to kill that stupid mouse creature. Never does what you ask, always pops up around every corner scaring the shit out of you with its souless eyes. The puzzles in this game arent hard, its getting the creature to cooperate with you and the controls that are the biggest headache. 2/10
Sorry but agree to disagree. The controls are fine. Are they perfect? No, not at all. Camera movement is a bit too erratic for my taste but overall they're not broken otherwise the game wouldn't be beatable.
For my personal taste, it was very slow and very repetitive. The story is to generic. Sure a lot of people are very emotional and like this Kind of game to escape reality.
I absolutely love the Nier games, so I see myself making a video sometime in the future, I just have to really nail what my topic will be, as those two games have been discussed sooooo much on this platform... But I am heavily interested in talking about them. 😬
When I would get overly impatient and order multiple commands, leading Trico to get distracted, kinda loved the game even more. Just watching Trico stare at some wildlife or sit down and yawn and look at me like I was stupid, it was so authentic in those moments. Elevated it all for me
You're a rare breed.
I love that instant connection you feel with the people who "get" this game. It's like you're on the same page on a certain level. I so hotly anticipated this game and it did not disappoint. That final E3 trailer just had me floored with the visuals and the soundtrack. I've just been replaying it again so my partner can see it. I really hope his next game does come out, and hopefully not on the PS7!
Fun fact: when at the ending all of the dark Tricos or Evil tricos started teaming up on Our Trico,I saw how special people will always be bullied for protecting their loved ones(the boy) or just by being different. But at the end,Justice wins,as Trico flies away and survives. IMO one of the greatest games ever.
I played this game and my cat was with me on the couch all the time. I feel this game talks to you on a deeper level if you have a pet, Trico sometimes behaves like a dog, sometimes like a cat, sometimes even like a parrot ahah it's far from perfect in some points, but the concept is so original and good that it's a shame it didn't get more credit
My favourite game of all time
This is such a great video on The Last Guardian....
I absolutely love this game to my core. It's probably my favorite game right now actually. It's the only game that can make me cry as hard as it does, and it's the only game that has made me feel THIS connected to a fictional character. On top of that, I've played it 6 times (will probably play for the 7th time in the next few days because I'm really brainrotting over it right now). The first two times I was playing just to play, but the next 4 I strived to platinum it. (with success!)
It makes me so sad that people misunderstand this game so often, because I think it provides an experience everyone needs to feel. I completely understand why people get frustrated, and I even got pretty frustrated myself the first time I played! Especially as a semi-inexperienced gamer, the controls and commands could make for a really stressful experience. But honestly... I think having to get over those hurdles can not only make it more fun to play the game, but can teach you how to handle real-life situations like that better. Having the patience for trico can help with your relationships with other people or animals, because you need to learn how to properly connect with different types of people in order to manage friendships. And also, if you have the ability not to get mad over the times where the controls feel, well, OUT of control, then I think that would show that you're a really calm and mature person in day-to-day life.
Alright, there's my spiel. Thanks for the great video! ^^
Thanks for the comment, I'm glad it resonated! ❤️
@@onixtalks Of course! 💜
This game was the sole reason I got myself a PS4 because the game could exclusively be played on that. I have never made a better decision. I remember how I would always look back to check if Trico was okay and still following me. I can´t begin to describe how much this game means to me and what kind of emotional impact it had on me because there is simply no way to describe it with words. Years have passed since I first played it and it still rocks my world and soul.
I remember my first playthrough was rough and an over all mixed experience because of many factors. Watching speed runners made me want to try again and now I have spent countless hrs playing this incredible game and it is an important part of my life. Beautiful art is often misunderstood. Thank you so much for this.
Thank you for the comment, I love this game so much and just felt compelled to share the message!
Excellent video. Well done!
Phenomenal game or maybe we should name it experience, one of a kind in a world full of clones! Beautiful story, awesome music, incredible bond with Trico are sooo freaking unique! All problems with camera and controls are not important comparing to it.
I love this game because Trico doesn’t break immersion. He’s stubborn at times, easily distracted, hates working when hungry, and overall a pain in the buttocks to work with. But that’s why I love him, he’s an animal, and people need to remember that wild animals aren’t easy to control.
I love how TLG doesn’t hold back from the feeling of powerlessness, while at the exact same time taunting you with the power you could have in the form of the mirror.
When I learned Trico ate it i was STEAMED 😂
He feels so real and therefore it makes me wish he was.
It’s in my top5 games ever, truly a masterpiece, with a simple remastered with slightly better cameras a lot more people would realize
Fantastic video Onix! I have my opinions about the game, but the emotion behind the story and design choices are still there. 🙌
I finished it last year and I still can’t stop thinking about it. I even get emotional looking at the fanarts online
I can’t remember a game in the last 5 years that have impacted me this much. It rekindled my love for games again
Un viaje de pocas horas que dura toda una vida en el corazón. A short trip that lasts a lifetime in the heart
Gracias por El comentario!
Beautifully put, thank you for the video. I did not cry by the end of it, no I did NOT!
I helped write a review of TLG with my back then boyfriend and we got absolutely roasted for trying to understand a virtual creature and not complaining about it not following our commands to a T.
Now Trico's statue is watching over me and my pup every day and I hate to think of the day I'll to have to let him go (hopefully decades in the future), kind of like I had to let Trico go back then. No other animal ever came close to evoking this kind of raw love in me like my sweet Toni and Trico.
So I was super late to TLG. I played the heck out of SotC and a fair bit of Ico, but I had completely forgotten about TLG due to school and a love I found for other things. It wasn't till a few months ago I found TLG and picked it up for 15 bucks. Then got made fun of by some of my friends for wanting to play a "poorly received game that didn't do well." So I went in blind, and a little worried about if the 15 bucks I spent was wasted. But it didn't take long for me to fall in love and understand what the game wanted me learn about Trico. It's an animal, smart, and misunderstood by both the people in and out of the game. Trying to get it to do what you needed was the challenge. Understanding that Trico had to think, had to work out the environment and that we had to learn to be a team. SoTC will forever be my favorite game from this team, but TLG was undeniably an experience I'm glad I went through, even more so coming to it without the crowd, without many others influencing my perception. It was a game I went through alone to savor, marinate, and work though on my own. Like coming to a restaurant on a rainy weekday with no one else but the staff there. It is a shame that so many people didn't get the main point of the game, but it does feel nice feeling like one of the few who sat down and built a bond alone. Great video, glad to see someone else got it
Thanks for the comment and love to hear about that experience
I’m watching this in 2024. My long journey to finally be able to play this game, to complete my Team Ico trilogy, is justified by it being the first game I platinumed on my PS4. I’ll forever feel connected to feather butt Trico.
Wish you got more views on this as much as I wanted more people to experience The Last Guardian. Loved this video, it is also a work of art.
Thanks for the comment, I hope one day it finds its audience... But for now, I'm glad other fans of The Last Guardian get to share in the joy I had it's the game.
I've seen people give the advice on how to control Trico and the person playing would try it, maybe once then get super impatient then resort to spamming commands just to say, "See? It doesn't work". People like that tend to give off the wrong impression of how the game works and that actually hurts others perception of it. I still to this day see people say they will never play this masterpiece, because they only hear the game has "bad controls"
It sucks. More people need to show this game more love but you can't change the general perception of it due to misinformation and misunderstandings.
Exactly, that was, at least partly, why I made this video. The game is truly misunderstood. Thanks for the comment!
I love Trico even more from the fact that you had an animal that was realistic in commands, and there are many ways to connect with Trico. I love that one bit of detail that brought me to the game in the first place was what made so many more join the fandom. The random actions Trico will do, whether if its not listening to commands, not eating barrels(laughed at Jackcepticeye failing to save him) or more, makes the bond later on so much stronger, and adds more value to the game instead of just puzzles and running away from the cursed armor. Not to mention Trico's personality. It runs around in flat areas, it sometimes nudges the boy to check on him, and it even rolls in water to clean its feathers from time to time. It's an actual animal. And like pets at home and wild animals at a distance, they have their own personalities and goals to survive and in the end, make friends and deal with grief. I love Trico, and I'd like to play the game one day and have the close connections that others had with their own Trico. It's the same story, but completely different experiences.
Trico not listening to me never was a problem for me even when it did happend, but oh god the controls are something else. There were so many times where I died because the boy wasn't doing what he should. Not having another creature listen to you all the time is understandable but the person you control should behave flawlessly. Getting the platinum throphy for the Shadow of colossus remake was one of the best gaming experiences I had, getting the one for the last guardian was unfortunately a chore.
I'm happy to see people still talk about this game. I bought a PS4 the day this game was released. I've been waiting for it for many years and was not disappointed. I felt Trico was real and the ending hit harder than I could have imagined. I'm looking forward to what genDesign will do next. All their games have a special place in my heart.
I'm also very excited to see what genDesign does next!
14:27 we actually don't know that, in fact it's more likely that they did end up meeting again because at the end when he's grown up he calls trico using the mirror and trico actually responds. maybe Trico and his new offspring flew back to the village after that to visit him
That's possible, but it was never explicitly stated in the game or any of the supplementary material, so I'm going to assume their story ends there, which adds weight to the themes overall, at least imo.
@@onixtalks I guess
I JUST finished this game
Best desicion of my life
Video deserves more views. Not just because the title sums this phenomenal game up but the background into Ueda, one of the best artists of modern times, was educational and entertaining.
I can't get the ending of TLG out of my head. So powerful
Thank you, man
This is a great video. It's nice to see a game that got critically panned at release find a subsection of people that found what the piece was trying to say.
What really bums me out is that the reception to the game really wasn't that bad, it's at an 82 on Metacritic and 81 on OC, yet people think it reviewed horribly. The public perception was skewed by a lot of very loud voices that panned the title, unfairly so in my opinion.... And thank you!
I've never missed characters from a videogame after finishing the story. I absolutely adore this game. So much that it is my favourite ps4 game and one of my favourite games ever. And that ending! Beautiful. ❤
My fave of Team Ico's game. I think the review cycle and it's rushed pace to get content out led to the mixed reviews from publications. But I got a bias cause this game just really worked for me. It made me feel empathy for something that doesn't exist. And that made me wonder; is the empathy void if it's for a collection of 0's and 1's? Sure didn't feel void. And that's really powerful
Great video and best breakdown of TLG I've seen.
This game took me months to complete on my first playthrough due to some of the same reasons other players experienced, but also becuase I felt soemthing awful was going to happen to Trico. So my inital playthrough wasn't fun and quite stressful, but that ending still broke my heart. I replayed almost immediately and by this point had understood how best to 'control' Trico. Such a complex and misunderstood game, it makes me sad that not enough people were on board with it.
Thanks for the comment! It became one of my favorite games very soon after I finished it. The themes of the story and the emotions I felt are just so hard to come by in such a masterful way. Loved it and still do.
Played this game for the first time and my gosh, this is truly amazing.
What a thoughtful, wonderful video on a game that means so much to many of us. 💚 I'm very much looking forward to viewing your other works, as well.
Thank you for the comment!! Really appreciate it! I'm pretty much done making videos on this short lived channel, but you can always check out my other channel which is alive: The Gaming Resume.
非常棒的解读！这是一款需要人静下心来体验的游戏。当然，上田文人的游戏都是如此。
it's funny how death stranding has the same kind of emotional ending and misunderstood / frustrating to some gameplay as the last guardian.
i hope the next ueda game will show itself soon because it was ages ago when the first concpet image was shown from it.
I cannot wait. Ueda is too good at his craft.
Something that's often not talked about with Ueda's design is how the guy is a bit metatextual. There's a reason why creators like Guillermo Del Toro, Hideo Kojima, and hilariously even Radiohead (remember those guys?) are inspired by these games.
A fair reason if you look at the links between these creators is because they work within their respective medium to get people to question when you're being told to do pretty awful things. This is seen all throughout Guillermo Del Toro's work, where characters or groups are presented with a status quo that is by default, pretty awful and how that situation involves itself in changing the perceptions of people and even getting them to be complacent with questionable actions. This is greatly seen in Del Toro's most recent work, Pinocchio.
In Ico however, that idea of control is placed on the player over Ico, the character. A conceit the game makes towards the end is how Ico is presented with a boat to leave and a sword to save Yorda. You the player are ultimately the one who controls and forces Ico to pick up that sword and kill the queen. But hold up, it's just a video game, we have no say as to whether the game will let us leave or kill the queen. So what's up?
Back in 2001, games were still for the most part perceived as this commercial product to let the kids spend some time on. In some ways, it's still sadly marketed and viewed that way. Ico's subtractive design is intentional to get the player to focus in on and question the choices made for this game that "plays" like one, but certainly didn't "feel" like one in comparison to most* of its contemporaries at the time. This was back in the day where games simply told you to do things, or figure them out by yourself, and whatever happens is simply seen as totally fine.
Now, that's all well and good and you can rationalize that killing the queen was to save a really mistreated girl. But one peculiar way to read this game is that Yorda is just a girl made of light that you're trying to help her escape her prison. Notably, it is electricity that keeps her restrained to her "prison," just like any video game character.
Ueda's "boy meets girl" scenario he was writing was potentially in reference to a (specifically marketed for) boy player meeting this video game girl. Even the song "You Were There" can be read from this perspective to a shocking degree when viewed entirely as metaphor.
This metatextual layer of reading the game goes a touch further. People often say how peculiar it is that Ico's horns are broken in the ending, which is true, those were the horns specifically designed by the devs to make him stand out in comparison to Yorda because of her bloom effects during gameplay.
So why even break them? On a replay with The Last Guardian and its use of signal imagery with Trico's horns being given directions by an entity literally called "The Master" (can't have a master without a slave), it ultimately makes things be read a bit differently for Ico. It's notable how Ueda makes mention how The Last Guardian takes more after Ico than it does Shadow of the Colossus, and I do think this theme of control and influence is seen in Ico, just far more subtly .
It's always been weird to me how Ueda focused so much on getting the player to empathize and relate to Yorda. Making the ending ambiguous yet with Ueda's personal interpretation being that the beach sequence is a dream Ico is having is interesting because it means you technically aren't controlling him but rather his mind. This links back to the horns which are removed but you technically lose all control over Ico until he's dreaming. He's still got some stubs in his head after all, Yorda after she transforms even has the camera highlight these stubs.
This is a parallel to The Last Guardian where an otherwordly entity is taking direct control over Trico. Contrast that with the boy not directly controlling Trico but empathizing and teaching Trico gently. This is great because on a gameplay level, so many people that played this game wanted Trico to act perfectly with each command. They were essentially trying to be another "Master of the Valley" by this respect. Game is quite bluntly teaching you over the course of the story that such control is pretty awful.
This ends up making Ico seem like a game about player control and willful acceptance of violence. Now, I'm not gonna debate the role games as a medium may have in casually accepting violence or influencing values but Ueda as an artist isn't someone who was interested in just making a commercial product or just some shiny toy you press buttons to interact with. To add further to this, it's quite odd how a guy this artsy would even consider wanting to make a first person shooter when you compare his previous work. But given this read, maybe Ueda making a FPS would be a great opportunity to get people to realize how weird it is shooters are so gunked up in violence as an arbitrary default when you get down to it.
***Well I just did a simple search on the wiki. At a previous point, Ico's horns quite literally were shaped like handles on a controller, with them oriented where if you look at Ico's back, you're basically "in control" of his head. Probably for the best they changed the horn design, it was honestly too obvious lol.
Dang, thanks for the read lol great insight into the design of Ico and that connection with TLG. I'd love to hear Ueda describe all the connections his games have some day, though just figuring it out with the community is super fun. Thanks again for the in depth comment!
ive played so many games from playstion one till ps5... so many generes...but trico is still my fav. alltime game ever!
Did you notice that in the ending when Trico 'presents' the boy to the village, he's in his Trico's shadow. He only leaves Trico's shadow when he pushes him and 'gives' him back to the village. And then when Trico flys off for the last time, he casts a shodow over the boy. A very subtle nod to Shadow of the Colossus.
That's interesting. 🤔
This game is an art and very touching.
Finnaly i found this video again, ive seen it once, amazing video man, i love the game to this day and still stands by it, one of the most amazing adventures, simple and just great, on ps5 unpatched at 60 fps its a great time, thank you for this video, i love it as that game.
Thank you! I figured I'd move it to my new channel and re-edit it/add some flair to it, I'm glad it still hits the same!
Fantastic overview, time to play SoTC OST for the day.
Thank you, the music in these games are so good, specially SOTC. Genuine masterpiece of a composition.
As someone who has played Ico and SotC before playing this, not being able to perfectly control trico didn’t bother me much (though there were moments it was annoying). I’m glad I got to experience this masterwork. The ending gutted me. Just listening to the narrator talk about that last command we give trico got me glassy eyed. Very few games have hit me emotionally like this one did. Can’t wait to see what fumito Ueda drops next
Hands down, amazing video, im a great fan of these games
I absolutely love these games too and I had to talk about The Last Guardian, as it means a lot to me. Thanks for the comment!
This was the only video game I've ever played (so far) that made me cry. So it does get credit for that. But it's my least favorite game out of the Fumito Ueda trilogy. "Shadow Of The Colossus" is 1st followed by "ICO" & lastly "The Last Guardian". You don't get a 2nd chance to experience a game for the first time, & my expectations were so high for this game at launch that there was probably no way they were ever going to be met. Trico is a one-of-a-kind A.I. companion no question about that. Nice review/discussion.
My first expiernce with the game was watching Jacksepticeye playing it, so I knew what to expect when I got to play it a few years later. And I cried harder after I played it than I did when I watched Jack's finished playthrough.
As a huge fan of this game (and a dog owner) I think your video is the best review of the last guardian so far.
Full of emotions! One without emotions might misunderstand the game, one without patience will never experience the emotional impact of this masterpiece.
❤️🍀
Thank you! It's truly a one of a kind title.
Thank you friend. Albert. South Africa x
I really enjoyed your video here. I got a PS4 just for this game, since SotC and Ico are my top two favorite games of all time. I really ended up not liking it, and felt so little emotional investment in it for a few reasons, but I appreciate hearing what you saw in it. Shame this game couldn't click with me, but I'm happy to know it's clicked with some people out there!
There is no game like this. Team ICO/Gen-Design are the most underrated unknown devs of all time. 3 Masterpieces.
as an old man, I see a lot of parallels between this game and majora's mask. aside from the development time (which is COMPLETELY different), both games are successors to what are arguably considered the greatest games of all time, both do things that alienate fans of the previous game, and both were critically panned at the time of release ... only to gather an intense cult following years later.
That's a great observation.
Ueda mentioned in an interview once that the switch from ps3 to ps4 wasn't due to technical limitations, but a business move from sony, this was the reason it was delayed even further, as the game had been built from scratch for the ps3, and adapting it to the ps4 took a long time. It's a shame because the final game would very likely have played and looked the same on ps3 and come out a few years prior, during the ps3 generation, which would in turn result in much better reception. You can tell that the game belongs on the ps3 generation even from looking at it's basic design philosophy, with a much heavier focus on action setpieces that were typical of games around that time.
It's a shame because if it came out earlier people would likely perceive it as being ahead of its time, just like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were. Imagine if Shadow of the Colossus was delayed and only released on the ps3, it would still be well received, but it wouldn't have been recognized as the visionary game that it is. I believe this is what happened to The Last Guardian. Regardless, I'm so glad it exists and I played it.
Thank you for this, TLG isn't a perfect game but it was a game that tells a deep and good story and it's packed with such emotional moments but this game is childhood for me.
I'm just happy others love this game as much as I do.
Not on the same level as shadow of the colossus for me, but yeah still blew me away and it deserved way more praise.
Shadow of the Colossus is a genuine masterpiece.
Never had a problem beating this game, might have something to with being smart.
On my first playthrough whatever issues I may have had were minimal.
The wounded ost was such a wonderful moment for me in the game.
i wanna play this game so bad. i can't because i got no Playstation. i hope this game comes to steam on day.
Okay! Thanks for the warning, i'll be back soon!
Hope you enjoy the game!
He needs to make a part two it maby could be somthing like the creature in the circle that being comes back and basicly tries doing what he did before but for the intire world and maby your charecters son (because he might have one he does get older) and the hint of the young trico at the end work together to save the world
I'm really trying to like the game, so im searching out perspectives of those who love it. I just turned it off from frustration and really need a break. The commands are frustrating but the actual controls kill me. The clunkiness of the boy is just a weird choice, you can only sneak or run, why no walking? Navigating the world shouldn't be such a chore, especially when dealing with Trico can be a chore.
Look ma! I'm on the youtubes!
What an ending.
dont have to watch the video and i already agree
great video on one of fav games
Thank you 🙏
Just finished this game last week and it's one of the most conflicting games I've ever played. On the one hand, the scenery is majestic, the soundtrack is excellent and from a pure artistic standpoint, it is really a work of art.
That being said, the controls are some of the worst I've ever experienced in a game and commanding Trico was horrible. I get that they intentionally designed him the way they did....but still. You can't sit there for minutes...with an s...sometimes, telling him to do something and him not do it
A perfect summing up
Beautifully said👍
Thank you
"It was designed that way, you aren't playing it right" works for things like resetting expectations from Dark Souls turtling to Bloodborne aggression because with Bloodborne it's fun. TLG wasn't. My two cents.
But that's the thing, the games biggest flaw is that it didn't explain the systems well enough, so I don't fault players that didn't play the game optimally for their experiences, and even if they had, fun is such a subjective thing that it's truly neither here nor there when discussing the systems and how they're meant to work. If the core mechanics of a game are explained and after that they're not fun to someone that is entirely on the person's unique tastes. Thanks for the comment, Sean!
@@onixtalks Agreed that a decent chunk of the population would have enjoyed it more if they were told how to play. Frustration definitely played a part.
All you needed to do was to act like Trico is real.
The rescuers opening
I understand the creator wanting commanding Trico to be a little unreliable because that's a wild animal. That said, you don't do something like that in a game and then MAKE A TROPHY FOR BEATING THE GAME IN UNDER A QUICK AMOUNT OF TIME. Those two things fight against each other. I'd gladly put up with Trico's unresponsiveness if the developers didn't also push a goal on me that relies on Trico being extremely responsive.
Not to mention, the bigger issue is how janky/bad the boy controls even. The problem with getting the deathless run is more likely to be something annoying that messes up more than it is losing.
I ve got to get a PS5 to play this the right way... i ve got the base ps4 and i am used to 30fps games... but this game i swear runs 8-10fps most of the time, my eyes hurt after 15 mins
Not sure if there has been any updates to it, but it ran at a solid 30 fps on the PS5 and you can get it at 60 fps with an unpatched install using the disc.
Everything that is perceptually bad/frustrating about the game is done allegedly on purpose and that makes the game good? That will always divide the room lets just say the game is both a blessing and a curse............
I don't think I ever argued that all of those things being done on purpose makes the game good. Good is subjective. What I believe is that understanding these elements, their reasoning for being how they are and creator intent may lead to having a better outlook on what is expected as a player. You're essentially meeting the game halfway instead of on your own terms. That's it.
I loved this game ☺️
Same, it's truly one of a kind! Thanks for the comment!
i heard the port to ps5 of this game is incredibly weird. i heard the first disc version runs at 60 fps. but now it runs at 30?
So it's not a port, it's just the PS4 version of the game. Running it unpatched has an uncapped frame rate but the game crashes in certain spots, whereas the patch version capped the frame rate at 30 but fixed the crashes.
Just finished yesterday, really good game, the last part of the ending was the best, if you know what I mean 👀 👀 👀 hehehhe
It has such a beautiful ending. Thanks for the comment!
@@onixtalks indeed ^^
It's a masterpiece ... But it is let down by very janky controls/interface. It could do with a re-master that just focused on these issues. And I don't just mean Trico not doing exactly what you ask him 100% of the time.
I agree. Event i dont understand this game. Beautiful but too slow for that time.
Your voice is great so you don’t need those annoying sound effects in the background.
🐕🐈🐤❤️
❤️
GTAIV was also the anti-spamming game ADHD gamers needed to chill the fuk out
Even during a speedrun, you have to see button prompts for literally any action you could take, through the entire... the ENTIRE game. It shows that the developers had no faith in their game. Played 70 hours button prompts. 5th playthru? Button prompts. It's a small thing that showcases the failures and absolute lack of polish from a game that is the 3rd in a series, a first party single platform game that got ALL the time it needed. ICO and SotC were masterpieces, polished and you felt lucky to play them. Trico had a worthless story, terrible set and level design, and was a nightmare to control. Just my opinion but I literally snapped my day 1 purchase disk in half after finishing the game.
Uh. Snapped it in half? Ok.
@onixtalks yea games used to come on a disc
@@Cellardoorkidd I'm aware. Been gaming since games came on cartridges and floppy disks.
@onixtalks so your comment implies that it would be too difficult for someone to snap a cd in half?
@@Cellardoorkidd no, that snapping a game in half is a hell of a reaction to a game you didn't like. Most would just, you know, trade it in or something.
Nah just played this game, and the entire time, i was annoyed and wanting to kill that stupid mouse creature. Never does what you ask, always pops up around every corner scaring the shit out of you with its souless eyes. The puzzles in this game arent hard, its getting the creature to cooperate with you and the controls that are the biggest headache. 2/10
You played on the ps5 for what reason it does nothing to the game
If you play unpatched from a disc, it has an uncapped frame rate and running on a PS5 lets you play it at 60 fps.
If the controls actually worked properly i would beat this game in 30 minutes, a good story doesn't make it a masterpiece.
Sorry but agree to disagree. The controls are fine. Are they perfect? No, not at all. Camera movement is a bit too erratic for my taste but overall they're not broken otherwise the game wouldn't be beatable.
For my personal taste, it was very slow and very repetitive.
The story is to generic.
Sure a lot of people are very emotional and like this Kind of game to escape reality.
Annoying, frustrating, boring game
Annoying, frustrating, boring comment.
Free Palestine
Hey i was wondering i heard nier music in your video is there by any chance gonna be nier video in the future? Id love to hear your take on it @onix.f
I absolutely love the Nier games, so I see myself making a video sometime in the future, I just have to really nail what my topic will be, as those two games have been discussed sooooo much on this platform... But I am heavily interested in talking about them. 😬
@@onixtalks maybe talk about how the tackles humanity or the how game interacts with the player to make it one of a kind