The Last Guardian

[moggie]

Team ICO are working on their third game, The Last Guardian, a trailer for which (allegedly all rendered using the game engine) was shown at E3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4E0e-ZCn14

Not being a follower of game news, I was unaware of this until I saw it at Penny Arcade, and my jaw dropped. Ok, we all know how misleading trailers can be, but Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were two of the most beautiful and emotionally rich games ever, and it's clear from the trailer that the third game builds on the first two (I almost expected to see Yorda). If Fumito Ueda can deliver this project, it could be really compelling.

Nice use of the theme from Miller's Crossing, too.

[Occulus]

1. That was one of the more impressive demo videos I've ever seen

I have the feeling Last Guardian is going to end up being a tear-jerker. It's beautifully designed from what is shown in the video (that's a link to the gametrailers.com hi-def version), but.... unless they're looking at sequels already, well.... there are endings possible here that I prefer not to consider so early on. Let's hope this one doesn't end in tears.

And isn't that amazing? I'm finding myself actually caring about the characters we saw, and that was just a demo reel. Not many games are capable of that, even while playing them, but for some reason, those two characters tug at my heart already.

[moggie]

2. Consider this team's track record

For the benefit of those who haven't played their earlier games:

In Ico, you play a young mutant boy locked in an abandoned castle. You encounter a strange, ethereal girl who seems to be imprisoned too, and you must try to escape together, with the boy leading the largely helpless girl, hampered by the lack of a common language. All the game elements work together to make it real, and you quickly come to feel protective towards the girl. Without wanting to give away any spoilers, there comes a point in the game at which you have to make a split-second decision between your freedom and protecting the girl, and (playing for the first time) I chose the latter without hesitation. Not because of any conscious calculation about what was expected of my character in gameplay terms, but because of, at that instinctive moment, what felt like genuine compassion and self-sacrifice. The game gets under your skin that way.

In Shadow of the Colossus, your character and his trusty horse (some good AI here) must travel around a lonely landscape, and find and kill a number of huge creatures. Like Ico, it's a very atmospheric game, but what sets it apart is the moral ambiguity. Although the reason for your quest seems noble, you quickly realise that your prey are not dumb monsters, but noble and unique creatures, and the resulting feeling of unease which runs through the game is very affecting. Plenty of games get you to do terrible things, but with an artificiality which allows you do so with gusto and a cruel smile. Not this one.

Shadow of the Colossus wasn't perfect in implementation: I think they stretched the PS2's capabilities. With the much greater power available in the PS3, the lessons they've learned from the two earlier games, and a commitment to deliver a genuinely emotional experience, I think they could pull off something very special.