The Last Guardian News: Fumito Ueda Comments: Still in Progress

     Over a decade after Ico and almost as long after Shadow of the Colossus, we fans are still wondering about any news of the much anticipated, yet nearly cancelled (rumored) title- The Last Guardian.  We want to be fully immersed in this beautiful and tragic world again.  So what's going on?

     On the good side, we know it's currently being worked on, in quite possibly the slowest development ever:

"It's under earnest development," Ueda said. "However, SCE Japan Studio, who's working on The Last Guardian, also has titles like Puppeteer and Knack, and those are only the ones currently announced. Those are taking priority right now."

     Which, considering what Team Ico at SCE's Japan Studio is capable of is a good sign, but on the down side no one wants this to turn out like Aliens: Colonial marines or Duke Nukem Forever which suffered greatly from production hell.  It's just super disheartening to know it's been so long that it may not be able to live up to it's own hype.
     And if I recall correctly, Scott Rohde (Sony Senior VP of Product Dev.) said that the game will ship "when it is absolutely ready" with no deadlines listed way back at 2012's E3.  So while it's continuing on the path to release, it has no end in sight.  Or at least a stated release date.

     The only things that would keep me going here is giving the graphics a massive overhaul, this has to look far better than the videos we saw years ago.  Put it on PS4, make this as beautiful and amazing as the new console will allow.  Push the envelope and make the game like 100 hours long.  It doesn't have to be fully open world, but at least vastly explorable.  Wonder, mystery, intrigue.  These are the experiences we want to feel in the game.

     In a Polygon article, Ueda mentions The Last of Us as a great way of working with companion characters like Ellie and:

"We don't want to lose out to them, and we're working on The Last Guardian so it works in similar ways." 

     So- we know it is still on the way, we know Ueda is still involved, we know Sony has control of it, and now we know that they are reworking the boy and beast's companion system.  The team needs to make this a grand slam, not just a home run.  Make this happen.  And maybe make it happen on the PS Vita while they're at it.

Source [ Polygon ]