![]() Then, finally, the duo are outside – the boy crawling through a gap, Trico smashing through a wall behind him. Furthermore, although monstrous in size, he’s also far from infallible – there’s a section where you jump from a cliff into a subterranean pool and the only way you can coax Trico down is to locate a few barrels of food and lob them into the water.Ī few minutes in, the boy gains access to a new chamber where he finds a highly reflective shield when he points it at Trico, he’s able to direct the monster’s lightning-like powers to destroy barriers. ![]() Trico is an ally of the boy’s but he’s clearly not a slave. Ueda has often said that he’s interested in artificial intelligence, and his games have all explored the relationships between player and non-player characters. You often need to feed him, or just wait until he’s in the mood to take part. At times, Trico helps the boy to reach higher levels, but he won’t obey orders, or heed the boy’s call automatically. Photograph: Sonyįrom here, you search the caves, clambering up on to ledges and through narrow walkways. This screenshot released during E3 shows two giant beasts hinting that Trico is not one of a kind. ![]() When you finally remove its collar, sending the chain crashing down, it snuggles up to the boy, the relationship seemingly confirmed and solidified. The boy explores, Trico watches, occasionally snuffling or grooming itself. Everything is so subtle and measured, the sounds discrete and thoughtfully pitched. ![]() As he does so, the huge chain attached to his collar makes a clunking sound that reverberates through the silent cave. A second attempt to reach the spear is successful, allowing you to pull it out, letting Trico use his forelegs to stand up. The narrator suggests Trico may be hungry, so you search and find a couple of barrels that you’re able to throw across the cavern – he greedily crushes them in his jaw and brightens up. When you regain consciousness, the puzzle is about how to gain the trust of your companion. Instead, it turns and bites at the boy, knocking him against a wall. We see that the beast has been stabbed with two spears, and while it’s possible to clamber on to its back to remove one of the protrusions (using the right bumper button to grip on to its feathery coat), Trico will not let you near the other. While you explore this location, an adult male voice begins to narrate, providing oblique hints to the scene and its background. The cavern environment is craggy and grey, with rays of light emanating from cracks in the rock, high above. In an unusual control configuration, typical for Ueda, jump is on the triangle button rather than cross, while clambering up cliff faces involves a somewhat awkward combination of jump and then grip, using the right shoulder button. Little else was known – and, after a long, troubled development cycle, little else still is.īut now we’re here, with the boy in the cave. Partly it was the heritage of Ueda and his team, previously responsible for the ethereal delights of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus but partly it was that first trailer, showing a little boy and the huge doe-eyed monster with whom he appeared to have built a symbiotic relationship. First previewed at E3 in 2009 and certainly in development for at least two years before that, the game has been a fixture on most wanted lists ever since. To be sat in a small demo room hidden away from the hurly burly of the E3 show floor, playing – actually playing – The Last Guardian, seems almost unreal. Then, after a credits sequence illustrated with 16th century etchings of mythological monsters, we see a scene familiar to anyone who has been watching the slow development of Fumito Ueda’s third game for Sony: a small boy, lying asleep next to a vast dog-like beast. While children are heard laughing and playing in the background, the camera approaches some sort of golden artefact half buried in the sand. I t begins with a flashback – or at least that’s what it seems.
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