The Last Guardian: Update from Ueda Interview in New Edge Magazine

     It's been a very, very long wait for all of Fumito Ueda's fans since the 2009 announcement of The Last Guardian until today's confirmation that yes, it will indeed hit Playstation 4 this year.  With only a month until E3, this has reinvigorated the hype for us.  Sadly, it isn't all great hype.
     In Edge Magazine's issue 294 issue, Ueda himself says, "Since this is the year we will see the game's release, I do have some worries, but I'm also very excited."

     What concerns me is this new mechanic that has been mentioned.  Their preview mentioned the human boy character using a mirrored shield while Trico (the bird-cat-beast) fires a beam of red lightning from its tail at what you aim the shield towards.  It's stated that it'll be used for puzzle solving mechanics, and presumably as an attack at some point.
     There's just something slightly off-putting about the tail beam.  I get the shield.  Previous games had magic swords, so having some kind of magically imbued shield would be plausible as well.  But the creatures shooting lightning from their tails is something that feels a bit too strange.  I won't judge it yet though, because with Ueda still on board, I'll wait to see how it's handled in game.

     What does keep me highly excited is Trico itself.  As Yorda from Ico was independant and would frustrate players as well as help, Trico has been modeled as its own being, with its own will and wants and desires.  Ueda goes on in the interview to say,

     This creature isn't like the cute pets that exist in other games, or an ally that's really useful. The role of the creature is ambiguous; that's something we wanted to express in the game, and it doesn't always do what you ask it to do. That's one of the themes of The Last Guardian. It's something that's difficult, and completely different. I want to create the next thing - an experience that people have never had before.

     I find it so amazing that we'll be getting a character that will be doing things for itself, and not just what we want it to do.  It'll follow its own nature and do what it wants, and that's a very refreshing take on companion characters.  That's also coming from someone that at times wanted to shove Yorda off a ledge for her stubborn refusal to follow where I needed her to go.  It was a chore just to even convince her to sit on a save couch so I could save the damn game.

     For my related posts [ The Last Guardian ] [ ICO ] [ Shadow of the Colossus ]

     Source [ EDGE Twitter ] & [ IB Times ] via [ Gematsu ]