The Last Guardian

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2785 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,068 out of 2785
  2. Mixed: 302 out of 2785
  3. Negative: 415 out of 2785
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  1. bobbsyw
    Sep 10, 2017
    4
    At the end of the day, as much as I loved certain elements of this game (beautiful to look at, the character/mannerisms of Trico, and the way the relationship between the boy and the beast developed), overall it just frustrated me. The number of times that I was stuck, wondering if I needed to move somewhere/do something, or just try to coax Trico into jumping in the right direction. TheAt the end of the day, as much as I loved certain elements of this game (beautiful to look at, the character/mannerisms of Trico, and the way the relationship between the boy and the beast developed), overall it just frustrated me. The number of times that I was stuck, wondering if I needed to move somewhere/do something, or just try to coax Trico into jumping in the right direction. The camera is terrible, the controls poor and unintuitive, and actually there's very little challenge in the gameplay...overall, it left me feeling sorely disappointed.
    I remember playing through SOTC on the PS3, and thinking "I bet this was good on the PS2, but it's a bit dated now"...which probably sums my opinion about TLG too.    … Expand
  2. darkfury45
    Dec 9, 2016
    4
    This is a game that gives loads of promise through stunning visuals, a gorgeous soundtrack, a creative concept and loveable companion, but fails to deliver its promises due to inconsistent frame rate, a finicky camera, awful controls, unresponsive AI and a story that I didn't want to read but rather know how it ended. For a game that was in development hell for ten years, I have toThis is a game that gives loads of promise through stunning visuals, a gorgeous soundtrack, a creative concept and loveable companion, but fails to deliver its promises due to inconsistent frame rate, a finicky camera, awful controls, unresponsive AI and a story that I didn't want to read but rather know how it ended. For a game that was in development hell for ten years, I have to tragically say I'm disappointed in this game. It can deliver on such a cinematic level, but with so many flaws, I can only applaud its cinematic performance. If you want art, this game is for you. If you want fun, find something else to spend $60 on.… Expand
  3. Echoes
    Jul 31, 2017
    4
    Couldn't play it more than 2 hours, got motion sickness and the gameplay is stupid, the whole narrative and the world seems good, but I will not force myself to play it again just for the sake of completing it...
  4. madno
    Jun 7, 2017
    4
    El juego esta bien, pero esta lleno de fallos, errores y problemas de control, se salva por Tico que es encantador, pero es un juego de ps3, no de ps4, una tomadura de pelo clásica de Sony. Merece la pena alquilarlo un finde y pasarlo, comprarlo ya a decisión de cada uno.
  5. doug_quaid
    May 9, 2017
    4
    Shadow of the Colossus is easily in my top 10 games of all time, making this review a bit of a sad affair.

    The Good - It's an interesting concept, combing Ico with Shadow of the Colossus, tag-teaming with a giant creature to try and solve puzzles and navigate a crumbling ruin. - The graphics, while overall looking very PS3 instead of PS4, occasionally have their moments and can    Shadow of the Colossus is easily in my top 10 games of all time, making this review a bit of a sad affair.

    The Good
    - It's an interesting concept, combing Ico with Shadow of the Colossus, tag-teaming with a giant creature to try and solve puzzles and navigate a crumbling ruin.
    - The graphics, while overall looking very PS3 instead of PS4, occasionally have their moments and can occasionally be beautiful. The physics feels pretty cool, things bounce around and smash nicely.
    - The animation on the creature is spot-on. The animators did a really good job of bringing it to life and giving it personality.

    The Bad
    - It's clear this game languished in development hell for years. There's hints of a solid concept here, but it looks like the developers couldn't actually make things work to match with the creator's vision. The result is a glorified tech demo.
    - Many puzzles are so obtuse you will literally never figure them out without consulting a walkthrough. Puzzles are repeated a dozen times, i.e. 'oh another eye mirror, how do I smash this one?' Several puzzles just aren't that interesting to solve anyway, less 'aha!' and more 'are you kidding me, that's what you wanted me to do?'. As your frustration increases, halfway through the game you'll give up and just have the walkthrough open on your phone anyway. A few play-testing sessions watching actual players get permanently stuck would have cleaned all this up immeasurably.
    - The game is *extremely* linear. I get the impression after years of failed attempts to create an interactive, exploratory experience with the creature/code failing to fulfill it's end of the bargain the team was forced to cut back to something extremely short, linear, repetitive and largely based on cutscenes. Expect 20-25% of the game to be waiting patiently until you can play again. There is one way through and if you can't find it you will simply wander around in a room until you do. In some cases you're not supposed to be wandering anyway, the creature will simply hop to the next section for you, much to your frustration.
    - The boy's controls, presumably in the interest of showcasing his fluid animations, making the game feel tense and/or your character feel a bit helpless, are extremely sloppy. Halfway through the game you're still getting tutorial prompts because you still need them.
    - If you need a Japanese voiceover with subtitles to tell you what to do every other puzzle or so you've completely failed at prompting the player to solve things on his/her own. Go back to the drawing board and clean up the level design and cues/clues so that the player feels like they're figuring things out on their own.
    - Mashing buttons to make glowing shapes go away every time you die is such a poor design decision I can't believe it actually shipped in the final version of the game. This makes me wonder if nobody on the team is able to even give the creator feedback anymore, or if everything is subservient to his 'vision'.

    The Ugly
    - The creature's AI is a nightmare of indifference, ineptitude, confusion and irritation. The creature failed to catch me a half dozen times leading me to fall to my death, but suddenly caught me once, long after I'd assumed I was doing the wrong thing and explored every avenue for another route. I also sat in a tree for about 20 minutes mashing the 'help' button until it decided it was ready to save me. That's beyond ridiculous. That's not gameplay. It's more like if you took your dog to the supermarket and tried to painstakingly teach him to shop for groceries over days or weeks while it looked at you in confusion. After hours of begging, pleading and cajoling, and occasionally screaming at it, I actually grew to hate the stupid thing. I'm assuming this was not the studio's intention, lol.
    - The 'cinematic' camera is one of the most frustrating things I've experienced in a video game. The only explanation here is an underpaid, irate programmer who was hell-bent on creating something that would literally nauseate players.    … Expand
  6. dainotta
    Dec 6, 2016
    4
    Basic, nothing new for 10 years of performance, very ugly gameplay, graphics of ps3, this game should have come out for ps3 since in that machine could do less things, in ps4 that is so linear with such easy puzzles.
    ICO and Shadow of the Colossus were very good games and this one is not, you have to analyze it separately not with the fan rod!
  7. TiWi
    Mar 7, 2017
    4
    For me it is strange that most lower ratings are related to weak graphics, control and view port. Which is not really untrue, but is not the reason why I rated only a 4/10. Especially the graphics, even when it is "old fashioned" looks good, animation is very nice, and also the coloring. Conrol/Viewport .. sure that is very nasty from time to time ... but In my opinion the game play isFor me it is strange that most lower ratings are related to weak graphics, control and view port. Which is not really untrue, but is not the reason why I rated only a 4/10. Especially the graphics, even when it is "old fashioned" looks good, animation is very nice, and also the coloring. Conrol/Viewport .. sure that is very nasty from time to time ... but In my opinion the game play is really horrible. There is no clear game process, while playing it around 4-6 hours it seems some of the "trainigs" of the chimera works only a specific spots, and if you miss them, it does not work anymore to force/train him to do something ... without any information you walk silly around and trying "stupid" things. I can imagine that Tamagotchi Fan might like this "cute thing" and others like to watch it for hours (which explains the success of cat videos), but for me thats not enough to play it for hours, especially if the other problems which are mentioned in comments has to added… Expand
  8. lucaslt89
    Jan 24, 2018
    4
    This is a perfect example of how to ruin an incredible story. The game is great, it's pure art, but it should've been a movie. Playing this game and trying to control the player is completely annoying.

    1) Controls are not clear, it's a complete guess-the-controls game. Literally, there are parts of the game where you have to press all the buttons desperately, like when you play mortal    This is a perfect example of how to ruin an incredible story. The game is great, it's pure art, but it should've been a movie. Playing this game and trying to control the player is completely annoying.

    1) Controls are not clear, it's a complete guess-the-controls game. Literally, there are parts of the game where you have to press all the buttons desperately, like when you play mortal kombat against your non-gamer girlfriend.
    2) Camera control is annoying, it loses context all the time and it's impossible to focus on what you want. You can't even enjoy the environment because the camera moves around alone, making you lose focus of everything.
    3) You're supposed to have control over Trico (your companion), but it follows your instructions as much as a puppy, so you can imagine how annoying this is.
    4) It's the first game with puzzles where it's not enough to know the solution. You have to be completely sure about that, because you have to yield to your pet, run and scream loudly, and even pray, to get the damn pet to do what it needs to do.
    5) In terms of technical achievements, the game has nothing. Really bad graphics, bad performance (even in a PS4 Pro the frame rate drops to less than 15fps in small areas), but I think that's acceptable since the game was 10 years in development and the PS4 was not even in the radar when they started with this game.
    6) Funny thing, there's a trophy if you complete the game in less than 5 hours. It's a game to be completed in 2 hours if the god damn pet follow your instructions, but it's so slow and annoying that it ends up taking 12 hours...    … Expand
  9. 613th
    Nov 19, 2021
    4
    I cannot say that it was an incredible journey and a heartbreaking story. Sometimes it was cute and nice, sometimes it was thrilling, but in common I didn't find that deepness, which authors put in this game.

    For me the whole world of the game, it's atmosphere were empty and not very interesting. Music played a big role in this, or rather its absence. There is just silence in most parts    I cannot say that it was an incredible journey and a heartbreaking story. Sometimes it was cute and nice, sometimes it was thrilling, but in common I didn't find that deepness, which authors put in this game.

    For me the whole world of the game, it's atmosphere were empty and not very interesting. Music played a big role in this, or rather its absence. There is just silence in most parts of the game, but the good soundtrack could save the situation, in some cutscenes there are some strange sounds which are awful.
    The game is too Japanese maybe in all its forms, I think.

    Technically the game is also horrible, it looks disgusting, it plays bad. The controlling of the beast is impossible, to the end of the game I often became angry on Trico because of it's actions and moves.

    I won't play it again and don't recommend it to you.    … Expand
  10. trayman
    Sep 4, 2019
    4
    I was expecting so much more looking at the reviews. First of all i'm not a big fan of Japanese games, enjoyed most of them when it comes to story in general, but the physics, AI and mechanics were usually poor in general. Honestly it is no different in this case. Controls are an absolute disaster and you will be fuming doing the most simple jumps/grabs. AI of both opponents and Trico isI was expecting so much more looking at the reviews. First of all i'm not a big fan of Japanese games, enjoyed most of them when it comes to story in general, but the physics, AI and mechanics were usually poor in general. Honestly it is no different in this case. Controls are an absolute disaster and you will be fuming doing the most simple jumps/grabs. AI of both opponents and Trico is sometimes so frustrating that it will make you confused during the playthrough (for example while giving orders to Trico to jump somewhere, he will hesitate and walk in circles sometimes, so you might assume that there is no way through. Guess what? You are going to waste lots of time searching for another route when you will finally find out that he just needed 10 minutes to position himself before making that jump, and you had to give him at least 5 orders. I have been through ICO, Shadow of the Colossus and unfortunately this is what I will remember more than the story - TERRBILE and frustrating controls.

    Second and maybe even worse thing mentioned already many times: how can a simple game like this, with simple graphics, nearly no in-game characters on the screen be so badly optimized? This is beyond imagination, I mean this is a software DEDICATED to one platform. This is an absolute joke when it comes to framrate in this game.    … Expand
  11. danialv4
    Jan 26, 2021
    4
    Seriously, it is a pity that the camera, the controls, the game-play are too awful. The story and the ideas are beautiful, but playing this game feels too frustrating to enjoy it.
  12. Eyyyy
    Aug 13, 2023
    4
    I really tried to like this game but the way it controls is just infuriating. So slow and sluggish, half the time you’re just standing there waiting to see if Trico will do the thing you want it to. Couldn’t get through more than a couple of hours
  13. Marlim
    Oct 13, 2020
    3
    Terrible Gameplay and Mechanics. There is no way that game is fun. Frustating levels designs and puzzles
  14. robomartion
    May 19, 2020
    3
    Team ICO (or whoever is left of them) has taken the clunkiness of their games to the extreme with this title. While it is at times beautiful, the frustrating gameplay just cannot be excused. I'm sure a lot of love and man hours went into this game and it is beautiful, as is the beast, but at the end of the day, for what we have in our hands, for the consumer, for the person that actuallyTeam ICO (or whoever is left of them) has taken the clunkiness of their games to the extreme with this title. While it is at times beautiful, the frustrating gameplay just cannot be excused. I'm sure a lot of love and man hours went into this game and it is beautiful, as is the beast, but at the end of the day, for what we have in our hands, for the consumer, for the person that actually has to play the game I cannot really say any of it was worth it.… Expand
  15. Daniel_Keelh
    Dec 6, 2016
    3
    Le voy a dar un 3 porque Trico es mono... pero el juego es un desastre, mecanicas de 2001, uno framerate lamentable, una IA deficiente, la mitad del tiempo de juego es tiempo perdido esperandoq ue el estupido de TRICO entienda sobre que pixel exacto ponerse, y el final...madre mia, Penoso.
  16. Sheep_198
    Feb 17, 2017
    3
    This game is all about frustrations and patience. Never played any game with such bad camera angles and swings, makes me motion sick. Character control is very difficult. Command to Trico is testing your patience as he doesn't respond immediately, but in his time, so have command multiple times and wait a long time. Story didn't grab me, just can't wait to get out of the rubbles andThis game is all about frustrations and patience. Never played any game with such bad camera angles and swings, makes me motion sick. Character control is very difficult. Command to Trico is testing your patience as he doesn't respond immediately, but in his time, so have command multiple times and wait a long time. Story didn't grab me, just can't wait to get out of the rubbles and frustrating puzzles. Nothing about the game I enjoy.… Expand
  17. culesto14
    Dec 7, 2016
    3
    vaya truncho no valio la espera de años y años, y los estafados de ps3 que se compraron una ps3 por este juego, minimo hubieran hecho algo que valiera la pena para esta generación pero así son esta compañias .
  18. aradimis
    Apr 6, 2017
    3
    Mere annoyment of unfinished and unrefined gameplay. Autistic one way soultions with catastrophic graphics and control. The character animation technique is from the last century. Shockingly overrated.
  19. agent13
    Dec 27, 2019
    3
    This game is so boring and confusing after a long time i had the chance to play it but after a few hours playing I found it uninteresting the artistic design of the last guardian is very nice but without a good gameplay and with clunky controls it doesn't worth playing
    Trico is adorable but it's like a big dumb cat who doesn't listen to you
  20. BACON-A-TER
    Dec 15, 2016
    3
    The Last Guardian has been the biggest disappointment of the gaming year, for this SOTC lover and has taught me a valuable lesson I should have learned long ago: DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!
    Having played SOTC (Shadow of the Colossus being one of the most revered gaming titles in existence, and a personnel favourite of mine-easily taking 3rd prize in my most beloved games of all time) when I    The Last Guardian has been the biggest disappointment of the gaming year, for this SOTC lover and has taught me a valuable lesson I should have learned long ago: DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!
    Having played SOTC (Shadow of the Colossus being one of the most revered gaming titles in existence, and a personnel favourite of mine-easily taking 3rd prize in my most beloved games of all time) when I was younger on the PS2, I was very stoked for the release of Team Ico's next new IP when it was announced in 2008. But now, having laying my hands upon the final product, I feel nothing but regret for my purchase decision and a sense of remorse for the missed potential of this game.
    Firstly, let's list the glaring issues of The Last Guardian. The most unforgivable flaw of this game is the very thing that was that was the primary focus of the marketing campaigns: The relationship between the boy and the colossal bird-mammal hybrid, Trico. This boils down into several factors, the most predominant being Trico's AI; the majority excusing this for natural animal behaviour, which I would dispute, as the major initiative of any game development team is to prioritise gameplay that elicits a sense of enjoyment and engagement from the player (whilst realism is subjectively important, to certain games, it should always take a backseat to gameplay). To substantiate, Trico will not always obey your commands, which would be perfectly acceptable if it was done in moderation, but it instead becomes a severe contributor to the overall tedium of the game which is further compounded by the need to constantly feed the creature and also have to calm him down after every combat encounter (which whilst nuanced and endearing at first, loses its effect further into the game).
    Moving on, the level design and puzzles of the game feel highly derivative and uninspired for the most part. Whilst, admittedly, the art direction and visuals of the game are utterly breath taking when they want to be, most of the levels of The Last Guardian feel very generic and really blur together due to their similarity, in addition to seemingly being suspiciously reminiscent of the world design in Team Ico's first title Ico. In terms of puzzles, their solutions are often times incredibly simple, reducing The Last Guardian's gameplay to boring and repetitive hunts to find where Trico can jump up to or down from different points in the environment or to search and destroy stain glass eyes. A closing note concerning artistic choices of the game developers: the game is overly cinematic (not in the sense of cut-scenes) which I found to be quite jarring and disruptive of the pacing of the game, in addition to severely overdoing certain "emotionally" evocative tropes (i.e. I lost count of how many times Trico saved the protagonist's life, but it must have been more than ten!).
    Finally (props if you've made it this far) the meagre longevity of the game will be a major deterrent for most prospective buyers. Overall, I spent 6 hours slogging through The Last Guardian's unfulfilling and unengaging plotline and have not even looked at the game since. The Last Guardian's lack of any real replay value (an element which was not overlooked in SOTC with it's hard mode and time trials mode-for both normal and hard difficulties, totalling at a minimum of 4 playthroughs-which overall acted to enrich the experience) really cripples it in the long term.
    And as a final, final note: the controls and camera in The Last Guardian are borderline infuriatingly broken, ranging from inputs being either misinterpreted or multiplied by 10 (when you want to carefully walk around an edge, the game will sometimes propel you off said edge in a full throttle sprint) to the fact that there is no dedicated 'grab' button (a staple of the series) instead having to rely upon an 'auto-grab' feature which was very unreliable at the times in which I needed it the most-usually resulting in the boy plummeting to his death.
    In conclusion, as you are no doubt aware of my begrudging animosity towards this game, I would strongly recommend you steer clear of this game, at least for now (the £50 price-tag isn't worth the 5-10 hours of gameplay you can squeeze out of this PS4 exclusive). Overall I cannot assert my disappointment for this game I (and a whole host of many others) have waited for, for 8 years of which a tumultuous development cycle has clearly taken its toll on such a renown and respected development team-for which I would partly blame Sony for. I know this game has been met with mostly positive reviews, but it has not been the recipient of critical acclaim across the board. I sincerely hope the voices of those with an opinion akin to that of mine own are not drowned out and are listened to by the developers, because I know Team Ico are undeniably passionate about their products and their fan base, and I know they have in them the capacity to produce utter masterpieces and works of ART.    … Expand
  21. Ceej1979
    Dec 8, 2016
    3
    This game was averaging about 5/10 for a long time on Metacritic. It seems to me that Sony have unleashed their bots, to post fake reviews and boost the score a bit. There's a suspicious amount of consecutive 10/10s ..............if it's real reviews, why are none of the people who like it giving it in 8 or a 9? Always 10.

    Trust me, big publishers have bots that post fake reviews. As    This game was averaging about 5/10 for a long time on Metacritic. It seems to me that Sony have unleashed their bots, to post fake reviews and boost the score a bit. There's a suspicious amount of consecutive 10/10s ..............if it's real reviews, why are none of the people who like it giving it in 8 or a 9? Always 10.

    Trust me, big publishers have bots that post fake reviews.

    As for the game, if you want to waste $60 and be really dissapointed, buy this. It's really really boring, and annoying    … Expand
  22. Bayo
    Dec 11, 2016
    3
    A long time coming, but not entirely worth the wait. As a huge fan of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, this game was a bit of a let down for me. I didn't fall for the hype and kept my expectations fairly low. Sadly the game failed to meet the expectations I'd set for any other game.

    While the game has a nice concept and does minimalism well, it's the same minimalism that hurts it. The    A long time coming, but not entirely worth the wait. As a huge fan of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, this game was a bit of a let down for me. I didn't fall for the hype and kept my expectations fairly low. Sadly the game failed to meet the expectations I'd set for any other game.

    While the game has a nice concept and does minimalism well, it's the same minimalism that hurts it. The game suffers from a few big issues that negatively affect it as a whole product The controls, camera, AI and gameplay are all lacking. On the plus side, it has a relatively solid concept that is a little flawed and a great soundtrack and art design.

    The biggest issue the game has is a mixed feeling towards gameplay, AI and control. Control feels like it's taken a huge step back from SOTC and the autogrip mechanic is by far the worst thing I've seen in a game in the last 5 years.
    Gameplay is beyond non existant to incredibly repetitive. You make your way through rooms to reach the end goal fetching food for your companion, destroying obstacles or pulling levers. It has a few really low points involving physics based puzzles that really hurt the pace of the game. Speaking of pace, this is why I felt I had to give the game such a low score. Trico's AI is based around sometimes disobeying orders which is a neat gimmick, but is one that will lead to some frustration and a lot of wasted time. I had issues with the AI being so broken that I needed to restart the game to progress past some points. I can see this harming the replayability greatly for me as I didn't find the game challenging and it felt much more like a slow guided tour.

    It feels as though the concept has not been fully realised and that while it has a nice story, great art design and soundtrack it is entirely lacking simply because of the medium it is presented in. I've played lots of great bargain bin flops that I feel the same way about as The Last Guardian.

    While the game has it's good points, the negatives weigh it down so much that it can be really tough to make it through to the end. You'll see 10/10's around but it's hard to give a game a perfect score when it has imperfections. For a game that has taken so long from inception to release, certain aspects feel wholly unfinished and seem to clash entirely with the games concept.    … Expand
  23. Tigermuppetcut
    Dec 12, 2016
    3
    The worst controls in recent gaming memory. Frustrating A.I. on which you are forced to rely. Trial and error gameplay and puzzle design. Physics that can mess up preventing you going further in some cases or killing you. Poor level design in which numerous things look like ledges but aren't. Choppy framerate. Very poor camera.

    The graphics are so-so, the art direction is quite nice    The worst controls in recent gaming memory. Frustrating A.I. on which you are forced to rely. Trial and error gameplay and puzzle design. Physics that can mess up preventing you going further in some cases or killing you. Poor level design in which numerous things look like ledges but aren't. Choppy framerate. Very poor camera.

    The graphics are so-so, the art direction is quite nice though, sounds design seemed good. Overall avoid, it's terrible.    … Expand
  24. Ajglitch
    Dec 28, 2016
    3
    Terrible game for the cost. Nothing but walking around in ruins trying to get the dragon to help solve puzzles. Subtitled and unending glitches. Trade in early to get best dollar.
  25. gordoninc
    Jan 28, 2019
    3
    Very boring game.
    Both person and camera controls are clumsy and unpleasant.
    Story not really absorbing much.
  26. Dandan2212
    Apr 13, 2018
    3
    levou anos para ser lançado iria sair para ps3 e não saiu mas saiu para ps4 mas foi uma decepção gráficos fracos até para ps3! historia que da sono e jogabilidade cagada toda confusa!
  27. Greatace1
    May 6, 2021
    3
    Poor controls alone make this nearly unplayable. AI that takes 30 seconds and dozens of button clicks to work, frustrating parts that don't feel play tested at all.

    Definitely visually nice, but way too many issues to be enjoyable.
  28. B-Bog
    Jan 26, 2020
    3
    There are things that this director and his team clearly excel at: Crafting an intriguing narrative, world-building, creating atmospheric and beautiful scenery, etc. Unfortunately, programming sensible and functional game mechanics is not on this list. Once again, your patience is being tested by the clunkiest controls and climbing mechanics and the jankiest camera there is to encounter inThere are things that this director and his team clearly excel at: Crafting an intriguing narrative, world-building, creating atmospheric and beautiful scenery, etc. Unfortunately, programming sensible and functional game mechanics is not on this list. Once again, your patience is being tested by the clunkiest controls and climbing mechanics and the jankiest camera there is to encounter in a modern PS4 era videogame (aside from maybe the Shadow of the Colossus remake which is originally from the same guy/studio). Going up or down a ladder, picking things up, throwing things, jumping off a chain, etc.etc., EVERYTHING is so much harder than it has to be. Sometimes, the camera just straight up clips out and the screen goes black for a second. All of which is compounded severely by an AI companion that doesn't always seem very intent on following your commands. So, in essence, the challenge in this game comes from TRYING to get your character and his doggo to do what you want them to, not from actual gameplay. If this sounds like fun to you, get this game asap. For me, it's just a giant test of patience. In my estimation, the game would probably be half as long (which isn't very long to begin with, but seems like much more because it's so tedious, slow, and drawn-out) if you could actually get Trico to do what you want within one or two tries every time, that is to say, if the game ACTUALLY WORKED, instead of it being a constant struggle. As the cherry on top of the sh*t-cake, there's also an INCREDIBLE amount of lag in outside areas (on a PS4 Pro, mind you).

    And this was in development for HOW many years? Ooooof... Maybe this studio should switch to making animated movies or short films instead.    … Expand
  29. screenit
    Apr 4, 2021
    3
    Amazing game UTTERLY ruined by the most truly god-awful control scheme it has ever been my misfortune to encounter in a game. Utterly vile. This is definitely game as "art" at the expense of playability where the lead developer forgot to get over himself and make a game playable. Your character will stumble, trip, and fall over constantly throughout the game, whilst the game's defenderAmazing game UTTERLY ruined by the most truly god-awful control scheme it has ever been my misfortune to encounter in a game. Utterly vile. This is definitely game as "art" at the expense of playability where the lead developer forgot to get over himself and make a game playable. Your character will stumble, trip, and fall over constantly throughout the game, whilst the game's defender might say it's "realistic" it wears out it's welcome VERY quickly, the boy is so unable to remain vertical you'd think he had an inner ear infection. The other utter screaming frustration is your creature, who most of the time won't do what you need him to do... the defenders again will say "well it's SUPPOSED to be like that, it's got a mind of it own" to which i say "bullsh*t", it's utterly frustrating and a poor poor POOR design choice, when you're presented with puzzles you spend FAR longer than you should have to trying to figure out if the fact you can't solve the problem is due to the fact that you haven't found the correct solution, or because you stupid creature won't do what it needs to... bad game design. Even when you know 100% what the solution to a puzzle is, you have to spend agonizing minutes trying to get the stupid AI of the creature to realize what it's got to do, and 9 times out of 10 it won't do it, because the creature isn't in the EXACT position and the EXACT rotation if needs to be to perform the action, and there's no way you can direct it to be, it's just blind luck when it gets itself into the right place.
    When you're constantly being forced to fight against the controls in order to play the game you know it's a failure.
    Such a shame because the premise, and the bond between creature and boy is lovely, but then the game utterly ruins the entire experience with trash controls that are beyond frustrating.    … Expand
  30. zbucket
    Jun 29, 2019
    3
    I lasted about 15 minutes with this game. Clunky controls, gameplay that encourages you to puzzle solve but doesn't work consistently...and so slow.
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Awards & Rankings

51
#51 Best PS4 Game of 2016
8
#8 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2016
10
#10 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 110 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 82 out of 110
  2. Mixed: 27 out of 110
  3. Negative: 1 out of 110
  1. Vgames
    Mar 8, 2017
    84
    After 7 years in what seems to be development hell, Team Ico finally introduces us to the majestic Trico and its heartfelt relationship with a young protagonist. While the long development cycle does show its age in certain parts up to a point of some frustration. The experience as a whole is one of the most unique ever.
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  2. BaziCenter
    Feb 10, 2017
    100
    The Last guardian is indeed suffering from some technical and control input issues, but its warm, beautiful adventure filled with countless touching moments is something we’ll never forget for the rest of our lives. The Last Guardian is not just a game, it’s an absolute work of art.
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  3. Edge Magazine
    Feb 8, 2017
    90
    The Last Guardian doesn't just live up to its forebears' legacy, it goes further. Despite the callbacks to Fumito Ueda's previous works, it is a unique creation. Outside of indie experiments, we don't get to say that about modern videogames often enough.
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