A worthwhile journey that should be seen
Many different types of media have tried to create a compelling companion story to varying degrees of success. The Last Guardian is another attempt to craft a faithful companion that the player can really care for. It succeeds in doing that by slowly endearing you to the giant beast Trico. As the boy and his giant friend go through many different locations that test the player's puzzle skills they end up helping each other. By the end, I was genuinely worried whenever Trico gets hurt. So many little moments make up why I say that it is kinda hard to put it into words. Plus If I do say more it ruins the best part of this game. So instead I’ll go over the gameplay.
The entire game is played as the boy who never gets a name. In general, he can run around pick up random items and push boxes around. He is very capable but some things just aren’t possible without Trico’s help. Luckily he can command Trico to do certain actions even if he doesn’t always pay attention to what you want him to do. Very lifelike from that point of view but in gameplay terms, it can be annoying. Conveniently issuing a command from Trico’s head will always work. None of the puzzles in this game are very hard consisting of some light platforming or pushing an item around. Even if they weren’t complex it sometimes took a while for me to figure them out. Other than a bunch of puzzles to solve throughout the massive ruins enemies will stand in your way too.
The main enemy in the game is a magical stone automaton that seeks to drag the boy to a hidden room for some unknown purpose. With no real fighting ability, it is left up to Trico to take them out. Other than adding some new elements like shields that scare our big friend none of these battles change much throughout the entire game. After a while, it just felt like they were slowing down the progression to the next scene. Fighting may not be very interesting but at least it was fun to look at. Visually this game looks great. Our heroes may just be going through ruins but each zone that they go through is unique. From an underground mine to ruined tower the game manages to change up how each one looks even if it is just one big place. Trico himself is a cool looking beast with the saddest looking eyes. Most of this sounds great but the greatest hiccup this game has is the controls.
Going in I was expecting the controls to be like Shadow Of The Colossus I didn’t have too much trouble adapting to them. Yet I can see that they are a bit odd. Once the boy starts moving he will keep that momentum making some jumping puzzles feel bad if you're not expecting it. Hard to not note the somewhat uneven quality to some of the puzzles too. Some of them are unique but occasionally it just ends up being something extremely simple like move an object. So yeah this game has some flaws but the journey keeps it from being boring.
In the end, I think this game does what it set out to do. Create an adventure that bonds two characters together by the time the credits roll. This type of story could easily have been a movie too but the fact the player controls the boy adds a new perspective to a classic story. Maybe it’ll even make you cry if you decide to play through this game.Absolutely worth checking this game out unless you really hate puzzle/adventure games.
