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. TerrorClaws
    Jan 2, 2017
    7
    + monster design and behaviour
    + puzzle design
    + story
    - camera movement
    - character controls
    - minor framerate issues
    - a bit repetitive surroundings

    I played this one through and enjoyed in overall, but also got very frustrated at times. It's a good game, which had so much potential to be great.
  2. roundtablegamer
    Dec 13, 2016
    7
    The Last Guardian Review

    Alex the Kidd, Gamers of the Round Table From the makers of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus comes a new adventure from the team at JAPAN Studio. The Last Guardian, a title under development for the better part of a decade, arrives to the PS4 an entire console generation later than anticipated. The question is whether this title lives up to its long    The Last Guardian Review

    Alex the Kidd, Gamers of the Round Table

    From the makers of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus comes a new adventure from the team at JAPAN Studio. The Last Guardian, a title under development for the better part of a decade, arrives to the PS4 an entire console generation later than anticipated. The question is whether this title lives up to its long anticipated release.

    The Good

    The Last Guardian is a beautiful game. The details put into Trico, the large feathered beast, clearly show the dedication that went into this project. The environment is massive in scale to both characters, and players can feel completely immersed in the world of the game. Each set piece requires the characters to work together to overcome the obstacles placed before the player; taking direct control of the young boy, players will attempt to guide Trico to progress through the game.

    The bond between boy and beast develops through the player’s success, and communication improves between the two. The challenge in many parts of this game comes from communicating with Trico, and getting him to perform the tasks that need to be done. Players can feel a sense of accomplishment from achieving successful co-operation form the two characters.

    The Bad

    The challenge in this game stems more from the ability to guide Trico then the actual level maps; what was made to feel like a creature that had its own attitude and intelligence can come off as a broken game mechanic at times. This is especially true when you use all the methods to guide Trico, nothing happens, then you run around the area trying to figure something out, only to have Trico jump up onto the ledge you thought he couldn’t reach in the first place. The controls to guide Trico aren’t user friendly, and can be difficult to understand exactly what it is you’re trying to get Trico to do as the camera tends to pan to Trico as you give commands.

    There isn’t much to do here except move from set piece to set piece, and while they are beautiful to experience, the game can feel less engaging at the beginning. There is little plot or drive in the game beyond working with Trico, and discovering more about the area where he dwells.

    Rating

    7/10 – This game isn’t for everyone, but it’s not a bad game. The Last Guardian is a well put together experience, with a few setbacks regarding Trico’s response to command. While epic in size, this isn’t the next big adventure game; Players need to try this game to decide for themselves if it’s a game they will love or not. At the end of the day, Trico is a welcome member to the PlayStation family, and The Last Guardian an overall success.    … Expand
  3. LucianoGB
    Jan 8, 2017
    7
    Not a game for everyone but those who enjoyed ICO and SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS (references to these games will be necessary) would definitely like it. It´s a shame that it has a lot of issues regarding camera angles and controls. Those things have been a constant all over the entire playthrough. And that is exactly why it will not be remembered as a masterpiece (unlike ICO & SOTC).

    Trico    Not a game for everyone but those who enjoyed ICO and SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS (references to these games will be necessary) would definitely like it. It´s a shame that it has a lot of issues regarding camera angles and controls. Those things have been a constant all over the entire playthrough. And that is exactly why it will not be remembered as a masterpiece (unlike ICO & SOTC).

    Trico responses well but very slowly which it makes it sometimes a bit frustrating. However the boy´s control are just mediocre. You will also be struggling with the camera very often: bad camera angles, sudden blackouts and pointing nowhere.

    It is still enjoyable but thanks to its flaws, I never thought I was playing a 10-years-development game. Music and graphics are great. And the story fulfill its objective. Those who have played ICO & SOTC will understand tt despite being not so explanatory, the plot can be very beautiful.

    The bound between Trico and the Boy will not be as impressive or touching like Joel and Ellie (TLOU) but is very great indeed. We will see Trico as a companion and we will care about him.

    Conclusion: A nice game but it definitely has its flaws which makes it an above-the-average game. Not an instant classic and not recommended for everyone. I would recommend anyone to play SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, but this is not the case.    … Expand
  4. das_1990_paulie
    Dec 8, 2016
    7
    Good game
    controls are like a empty potato bag (or a plastic bag) on a rainy day. Boy movements are like amoeba toy (a very popular toy in my country).
    But I love the game. So unike though. The last guardian is a gem for Playstation 4 owners. English is my second language. Not 0-10 pontuation, games are a experience. Personal and subjective. My veredict: 2016 - Doom, Inside,    Good game
    controls are like a empty potato bag (or a plastic bag) on a rainy day. Boy movements are like amoeba toy (a very popular toy in my country).
    But I love the game. So unike though. The last guardian is a gem for Playstation 4 owners.
    English is my second language.
    Not 0-10 pontuation, games are a experience. Personal and subjective.
    My veredict:
    2016 - Doom, Inside, Uncharted 4 and The last guardian. I only play single player though.
    I love Team Ico work and this is a must play for me.
    My 7 means that it is a good game and one day you will play it.    … Expand
  5. Danieljreid1987
    Dec 17, 2016
    5
    I can see what the developers were trying to achieve but its years to late old clunky controls wonky camera and A.I constantly plays up not to mention poor graphics for this generation rather than connecting with the creature you'll end up frustrated and angry with him not listening to a word you say is everything worked properly I should get behind the story a lot more and would enjoy itI can see what the developers were trying to achieve but its years to late old clunky controls wonky camera and A.I constantly plays up not to mention poor graphics for this generation rather than connecting with the creature you'll end up frustrated and angry with him not listening to a word you say is everything worked properly I should get behind the story a lot more and would enjoy it but after one playthrough I would never want to do it again and if you are a trophy Hunter you'll have to do it many times… Expand
  6. JohnPetersonius
    Feb 10, 2017
    10
    The Last Guardian is a video game that makes me realize how fake most video games are. In most video games, health and ammunition are strewn everywhere for no believable reason (not to mention that the idea of consuming “health” is absurd). In most video games, my screen tells me how much stamina my character has, or shows me a digital map that has no reason for existing. In most videoThe Last Guardian is a video game that makes me realize how fake most video games are. In most video games, health and ammunition are strewn everywhere for no believable reason (not to mention that the idea of consuming “health” is absurd). In most video games, my screen tells me how much stamina my character has, or shows me a digital map that has no reason for existing. In most video games, puzzles make absolutely no sense, as though my enemy would hire a construction crew for a week to build a puzzle to slow my progress. In most video games, characters move through the world and react to me with a predictable set of animations. In most video games, characters and the world twist and bend to make my progression effortless, and as we all know this is not how life works.

    And you know what? It’s forgivable that video games do these things, because unlike movies or other storytelling media when you hand the controls to the audience you have some serious problems on your hands. How much realistic control do you give them? Too little and they’re running on rails, and too much and they’re falling to their deaths every minute. How do you create living characters that feel real, but aren’t boring because they get tired, don’t listen to you, or need to go to the bathroom like any living character actually would? How do you prevent the player from getting stuck without breaking the fourth wall and ruining the realism? The answers to these questions are very hard, perhaps 10-years-of-development hard, and The Last Guardian attempts to answer them and does so very well.

    The screen has no UI, save for rare reminders of what button you use to pick things up or pull on levers. The game’s narrator is an old version of the protagonist, allowing the game to guide the character in a realistic way (the narrator can tell you what to do in the past tense, because he’s already done it). It’s genius and flawless.

    And Trico. Trico is a triumph. I’m not sure how they did it but I never saw him repeat the same animation twice. He moves like a living being, reasons like a living being and reacts like a living being. Early in the game he doesn’t trust you and it’s hard to get him to follow your commands. It’s frustrating, but that frustration makes it so compelling when you finally earn his trust and notice in subtle ways that he has learned to like you. [It’s kinda like how Dark Souls pummels you into the ground, and that’s OK because if you could slay a demon from hell on your first try, that wouldn’t be realistic. And it feels that much better when you do.] It feels like a real relationship and it’s five million years ahead of any relationship I’ve ever experienced in a game. Mass Effect is cool because it kind-almost-slightly simulates relationships, if only for the fact that I’m picking from 4 pre-written answers and can see the dialogue tree in the background.

    Now here’s the catch. Do we want games to perfectly simulate life? No, that would be boring and frustrating. So it’s a question of balance and the talent of the developer. Can they make the elements of the world feel real but also fun? The Last Guardian toes the line between boredom and fun, realistic frustration and fake ease. Early in the game it steps more to the real/boring/frustrating side of the line, and I suspect it loses many players here. Which is a damn shame, because like any Souls fan will tell you, the early frustration that comes from a realistic world (LG) or enemy (Dark Souls) is a necessary element of the final payoff. The Last Guardian’s frustrations lessen significantly as time goes on, just as this journey would in real life. You just have to trust it, or you’re going to ruin it for yourself and lose the ability to appreciate what’s happening.

    I could go on forever (they should do game design classes on this game). But I’ll just leave by saying that The Last Guardian is the most real experience I’ve ever had in games, and I don’t see anything reaching those heights for another decade.    … Expand
  7. Victor_Felipe
    May 5, 2018
    10
    Incredible game. Just incredible. Amazing and unique experience, such as I never lived before playing video games. Extraordinary. Trico´s IA is outstandig. Congratulations for Ueda and crew.
  8. saysay
    Jun 18, 2018
    6
    Cons: Controls are garbage - unresponsive, finicky, inaccurate. Camera is garbage - doesn't follow well, often gets stuck. The timing and pacing of auto-events/cut scenes is confusing and frustrating. They either take way too long to trigger or have long pauses right in the middle, so it isn't clear if you need to do another thing or not. This happened a lot. The puzzles aren't superCons: Controls are garbage - unresponsive, finicky, inaccurate. Camera is garbage - doesn't follow well, often gets stuck. The timing and pacing of auto-events/cut scenes is confusing and frustrating. They either take way too long to trigger or have long pauses right in the middle, so it isn't clear if you need to do another thing or not. This happened a lot. The puzzles aren't super challenging, but manipulating the boy and beast to solve them is often infuriating.

    Pros: Trico is a cute character. Graphics are beautiful. Storyline is interesting and creative.

    Final Thoughts: With the controls being as unresponsive as they are, this would make a better movie than game. I can't recommend it unless you have patience for finicky controls. I found myself screaming at the game throughout even to the very end when there was yet another repetitive cut scene where I wasn't sure if I had to press a button to make it continue or if I just needed to watch Trico look right then left then right then left then right then left again and again until he started doing something else. It was the latter, but I still pressed buttons, saw the boy do stuff, and then saw it have no effect whatsoever on the scene making me still not sure if I had to do something else. The pacing reminded me of older style Japanese films that are edited to progress slowly. It can be nice in a movie, but it's extremely frustrating in a game where it's unclear when the player is in control of pacing and when they aren't.
    I'm so glad I got it on sale for $15. I would have been absolutely furious if I had paid $60 for this piece of beautiful garbage. Unfortunately, the stuff I liked didn't overcome the extremely frustrating experience of the game as a whole. I really want to like this game as much as I like Trico, but I just can't. The gameplay was too frustrating.    … Expand
  9. DogeWowIsBack
    Mar 15, 2019
    3
    Eight years in development and countless delays, only to match Duke Nukem Forever level of disappointment. This game was originally designed for Playstation 3, it looks like a one of early Playstation 3 game and yet it's framerate on a Playstation 4 and Playstation 4 Pro is horrible beyond believe. Not only that, it has typical for Team Ico awful controlls, really weak story and it'sEight years in development and countless delays, only to match Duke Nukem Forever level of disappointment. This game was originally designed for Playstation 3, it looks like a one of early Playstation 3 game and yet it's framerate on a Playstation 4 and Playstation 4 Pro is horrible beyond believe. Not only that, it has typical for Team Ico awful controlls, really weak story and it's pretty short.
    The whole game tries it's hardest to be emotional and make you care about that flying rat-dog thing, but Trico is just so dumb to the point where you won't feel anything but hatred with a burning passion towards him.    … Expand
  10. Clanet
    Mar 19, 2019
    2
    The AI was horrible, my animal friend got stuck in the wall all the time and wouldn't listen to me, making the game harder than it had to be.
  11. jmpaley
    Jan 2, 2017
    0
    Disappointing. It's basically a more annoying-to-play version of their first game ICO, with better graphics. The puzzles are nearly all solved by riding on Trico, unless you have to feed him or open a gate. You seemingly wander around in endless circles with no objective or sense of accomplishment. Trico is annoying to control, and will occasionally sit and do nothing while you're spammingDisappointing. It's basically a more annoying-to-play version of their first game ICO, with better graphics. The puzzles are nearly all solved by riding on Trico, unless you have to feed him or open a gate. You seemingly wander around in endless circles with no objective or sense of accomplishment. Trico is annoying to control, and will occasionally sit and do nothing while you're spamming commands repeatedly because he's turned ever so slightly the wrong way. The gameplay is slow and tedious and lacks anything to draw you into the game other than graphics. Most game developers today don't seem to have any idea what actually makes a game fun to play, they must think if graphics sell movies, they can sell games.… Expand
  12. Underpants158
    Jun 6, 2017
    5
    CONS:
    -God awful camera
    -Slippery movement
    -Poor framerate
    -Gameplay=look around environment for way to proceed then proceed.

    PROS:
    -Trico...he is quite cute
    -Art style
  13. GamerJosh0137
    Dec 14, 2016
    5
    The Last Guardian was a game I wasn't sure I would like going in. I just never was that big a fan of Ico or Shadow of the Colossus, that isn't to say I don't appreciate the impact those games had on the industry or their fan base. I would say though that if you like Ico and SotC you should probably try The Last Guardian. The Last Guardian to me was a great idea that didn't quite panThe Last Guardian was a game I wasn't sure I would like going in. I just never was that big a fan of Ico or Shadow of the Colossus, that isn't to say I don't appreciate the impact those games had on the industry or their fan base. I would say though that if you like Ico and SotC you should probably try The Last Guardian. The Last Guardian to me was a great idea that didn't quite pan out. To be honest it really feels like a ps2 game. It is definitely very beautiful in it's own way but I feel it suffers from a lot of problems ps2 games had back in the day that have by now been improved upon and almost perfected like the camera, or hit detection etc. The camera is the absolute WORST when in tight spaces. Granted, once the game opens up a bit it's not quite as bad, but when it is bad it is super frustrating. My other problem is Trico (the bird dog). Sometimes you will ask Trico to do something and 60% of the time he will either just stare at you like an idiot or do the exact opposite. I understand that Team Ico wanted to make the relationship a bit more complex by giving Trico a mind of his own, and setting a sort of "language barrier", but in my humble opinion that is NOT fun. I got to a environmental puzzle where I thought I had to get Trico to jump up to a small platform and I kept telling him to jump SEVERAL times and he just wouldn't do it. Then I started to think that maybe that was not where I was supposed to go so I spent a little over 30 minutes trying to find the way to go. When I couldn't find anywhere else to go besides up, so I go back to the same EXACT spot I tried before and tell Trico to jump one more time and he does it immediately! WTF!? That and the completely absurd camera made this game so frustrating to the point where I almost didn't even finish it, but my friends kept telling me the ending is worth the frustration. Well, I just finished it and I gotta say it's really good. The whole story is really good! It is just a shame that my frustrations with the game totally erase any motivation to ever play it again. Although I have the utmost respect for both Team Ico and their fans I just can't give The Last Guardian anything higher than a 5. Like I said the story is definitely worth a play through but with all of the ps2 era problems that have for the most part been fixed by now The Last Guardian should be bought at a very steep discount.… Expand
  14. ThinkSamich
    Dec 8, 2016
    6
    Somehow Team Ico has turned the gaming industry on its head and made people change their minds about escort quests. I suppose the change of heart is happening somewhere with the emotion this game captures, but for the most part I really can't understand the overwhelmingly positive reviews. Team Ico has always done a good job of making me feel lost in video games again, a feeling from mySomehow Team Ico has turned the gaming industry on its head and made people change their minds about escort quests. I suppose the change of heart is happening somewhere with the emotion this game captures, but for the most part I really can't understand the overwhelmingly positive reviews. Team Ico has always done a good job of making me feel lost in video games again, a feeling from my childhood. The Last Guardian is another world to find yourself lost in, but it doesn't come without its ugly bumps, bruises, and cuts.

    Team Ico games have always had significant flaws, Shadow of the Colossus had some of the worst controller input lag I have ever experienced in a game, once paired with your horse the issue gets even worse. Just like SoTC, The Last Guardian has a wonderful idea, an amazing landscape and environment, and wonderful puzzles. For The Last Guardian, the issue is the difficult to work with AI. Despite only needing a very few amount of inputs per puzzle room is among the most annoying issues. I suppose this comes with the territory, which honestly at this point I'm starting to question. The swimming controls in The Last Guardian are to the Horseback controls in SoTC, both very raw and unrefined setups.

    Similarly, both games SoTC and The Last Guardian also suffer from low framerates and framerate spikes. For SoTC this made the controller input lag much worse, The Last Guardian suffers some from it, but definitely not nearly as bad as SoTC. The PS4 pro will help you a little in this regard, but you're still going to suffer from these issues.

    There is more that could be said about the game, but at this point the effort seems fruitless. You will either love it or you will hate it, if you have followed the series it's going to have a nostalgic feel for you. If you are a newcomer I suppose its a toss up. I can't recommend this game, but I also cannot condemn it. I rated it a 6 because I feel like it has everything necessary to be considered a game. It does however, need a lot of quality time spent on refinement to be great. At this point I feel like Team Ico are master world-builders, and definitely know how to capture emotion and tell a story. But perhaps they should leave everything else up to another team that could set a standard for gameplay mechanics appropriate for this decade.    … Expand
  15. 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.
  16. 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
  17. PabloDark03
    Dec 21, 2016
    6
    Ultimamente este videojuego está siendo llamado como uno de los mejores de la historia . Sin duda , no es un mal juego , aunque no se le puede llamar juego. Es más bien una experiencia . No tiene jugabilidad,tiene errores y controles deficientes.
  18. sphirit
    Dec 27, 2016
    6
    Not fulfilled my expectations.I can't understand how it took 10 years to do it.The camera controls are very bad
    Shadow of the colosus It's much better game.On the other side, Ttrico is adorable
  19. ibs1984
    Oct 28, 2018
    7
    تقييمي للعبة يشمل التروفي ... اللعبة تستحق تقييم افضل قبل ما احاول اخذ البلاتينيوم
    اللعبة بشكل عام جيدة والقصة ممتازة وتدخل في جو العواطف والجيم بلاي جيد .. حتى جاء وقت حصاد البلاتينيوم .. كان في تروفي يطلب منك تنهي اللعبة في 4 ساعات .. وهنا بدأت احس بعيوب اللعبة
    بدأت احس بمعاناة مع "توريكو" المخلوق اللي توجهه ... التواصل معه متعب وتنفيذه للأوامر عشوائي في بعض الأحيان اجبرت اني اعيد    تقييمي للعبة يشمل التروفي ... اللعبة تستحق تقييم افضل قبل ما احاول اخذ البلاتينيوم
    اللعبة بشكل عام جيدة والقصة ممتازة وتدخل في جو العواطف والجيم بلاي جيد .. حتى جاء وقت حصاد البلاتينيوم .. كان في تروفي يطلب منك تنهي اللعبة في 4 ساعات .. وهنا بدأت احس بعيوب اللعبة
    بدأت احس بمعاناة مع "توريكو" المخلوق اللي توجهه ... التواصل معه متعب وتنفيذه للأوامر عشوائي في بعض الأحيان
    اجبرت اني اعيد اللعبة اكثر من ثلاث مرات بسبب الاستجابة السيئة لتوريكو ... في النهاية اللعبة جيدة وتستحق التجربة واتمنى استوديو يابان يبدع بأفكار جديدة مثل هذي اللعبة.    … Expand
  20. MeherBabafan
    Jun 13, 2017
    6
    In a video game I am looking for an immersive and enriching experience. I put less emphasis on game mechanics. I found the Last Guardian to be very satisfying in their visual presentation of the boy, Trico, and their relationship. The two go from one problem to another, working together as they try to escape their current confinement, and move to the next. One problem is that theirIn a video game I am looking for an immersive and enriching experience. I put less emphasis on game mechanics. I found the Last Guardian to be very satisfying in their visual presentation of the boy, Trico, and their relationship. The two go from one problem to another, working together as they try to escape their current confinement, and move to the next. One problem is that their dilemma is pretty inexplicable. They're trapped in this huge labyrinthine castle. Not only are there no clues as to why given, but there are no little respite areas to explore. The demands just go on incessantly. Because the boy and Trico are, naturally enough, unable to converse, the stark settings and endless problems make the game's tempo austere and relentless. A bit more reveal on the backstory to stir up curiosity could have been melded with some non-death-defying interludes of exploration to open up the experience and make it more fun. As it is, if you want to spend many hours escaping a sometimes gorgeous prison, with leaps and creeps, going from one puzzle to another, with the help of a beautifully rendered beast-helper, but with nary a sign of another human (evil robots don't count) this is a great game for you.… Expand
  21. Marlim
    Oct 13, 2020
    3
    Terrible Gameplay and Mechanics. There is no way that game is fun. Frustating levels designs and puzzles
  22. Sirmonkage
    Mar 18, 2017
    7
    The game does a good job in immersing you in it's beautiful world. Yea it's a little rough controlling the characters but that doesn't really bother me. My ambition to explore the world keeps me engaged. My main problem with the game are the boring sequences in which either the boy or trico are supposed to be in "distress". They always end anticlimactically and are never reallyThe game does a good job in immersing you in it's beautiful world. Yea it's a little rough controlling the characters but that doesn't really bother me. My ambition to explore the world keeps me engaged. My main problem with the game are the boring sequences in which either the boy or trico are supposed to be in "distress". They always end anticlimactically and are never really exciting to begin with. After traversing the beautiful landscapes and getting connected to trico for so long I'd expect a little payoff. But it's just not there... This game is great eye candy for sure and can also put a smile on your face for a while. But the climactic scenes just pull you away from that and don't really do a good job of creating the feeling that I assume the creators wanted you too.… Expand
  23. BubaMan
    Mar 17, 2017
    8
    Pros
    The story is fantastic - despite the lack of conversation, I found myself really invested in the welfare of the protagonists and feeling genuinely concerned whenever Trico got hurt.
    The puzzles vary from quite easy to devilishly difficult. The game looks very nice (usually in strong sunlight) but the graphics can be beaten. The sound and soundtrack set the scene very well. Cons    Pros
    The story is fantastic - despite the lack of conversation, I found myself really invested in the welfare of the protagonists and feeling genuinely concerned whenever Trico got hurt.
    The puzzles vary from quite easy to devilishly difficult.
    The game looks very nice (usually in strong sunlight) but the graphics can be beaten.
    The sound and soundtrack set the scene very well.

    Cons
    There were quite a few occasions where I couldn't get Trico to do what I wanted... to the point that I assumed I'd missed something and had to refer to a walkthrough, only to have it confirmed that what I wanted to do was correct.
    There were a few camera control issues (while trying to climb Trico in enclosed areas) but no worse than other games in its ilk.

    Overall, I thought it was a really lovely game, had an involving story, looked pretty and had a lovely soundtrack which was complemented by an infrequent Japanese narrative.
    Controlling Trico was sometimes very frustrating so I had to drop 2 marks for taking the polish off an otherwise great game.
    You can complete the game in a couple of sittings so I recommend that you buy a physical copy so that you can trade it in afterwards as there's not much to offer in terms of replay (unless you're a trophy hound).    … Expand
  24. IONOSGAMES
    May 14, 2017
    8
    Es un titulo que no tiene el genero bien definido, igual que Shadow of the Colossus, y aunque Ico sea uno de puzles, es muy peculiar y especial.Claramente no es un juego para todo el mundo, es un juego de puzles, con una jugabilidad bastante simple, dar ordenes a la bestia para resolver puzles. Muy buena historia y relacion entre personajes. El juego tiene graficos muy flojos para laEs un titulo que no tiene el genero bien definido, igual que Shadow of the Colossus, y aunque Ico sea uno de puzles, es muy peculiar y especial.Claramente no es un juego para todo el mundo, es un juego de puzles, con una jugabilidad bastante simple, dar ordenes a la bestia para resolver puzles. Muy buena historia y relacion entre personajes. El juego tiene graficos muy flojos para la epoca, pero con escenarios bonitos, y un framerate entre bien y regular. Si dais mucha importancia a la historia es un juego recomendable, pero si buscais graficos y diversion, entonces no os va.… Expand
  25. yoyo321
    Apr 11, 2017
    8
    La mejor forma de definir este juego, es diciendo que es un puzzle en sí mismo.

    Tienes que escapar de la prisión en la que te encuentras y zona a zona tienes que mirar, buscar y pensar de que manera avanzar. Lo más curioso del juego es la inteligencia artificial de Trico (el bicho gigante), es sumamente curioso la manera que tiene de comportarse y moverse. Lo malo que le veo es    La mejor forma de definir este juego, es diciendo que es un puzzle en sí mismo.

    Tienes que escapar de la prisión en la que te encuentras y zona a zona tienes que mirar, buscar y pensar de que manera avanzar.

    Lo más curioso del juego es la inteligencia artificial de Trico (el bicho gigante), es sumamente curioso la manera que tiene de comportarse y moverse.

    Lo malo que le veo es que hay veces que la cámara se sitúa en lugares incómodos o poco acertados y la jugabilidad es tosca, notas que hace falta pulirla y hay saltos imprecisos en los que caes al vacío cuando no deberías.

    El juego esta chulo y es muy entretenido.

    Le doy un 8.

    Saludos    … Expand
  26. mrseannathan
    Mar 21, 2017
    7
    Maybe this is because I haven't put much time into it (and I will definitely pick it back up and try it) but I'm very iffy when it comes to the movement controls. It's a huge turn off how off putting it is. Beside that, story seems great and the visuals are incredible.
  27. EEKtheratbat
    Mar 20, 2017
    6
    This game has a big pro and that's the flying dog. He looks just great but that doesn't make up for the simple boring puzzles, the terrible camera-angles and other frustrating gameplay. I never mind dying in a game because i made a mistake but i do mind dying when the game makes the mistakes.
  28. andykara2003
    Apr 4, 2017
    10
    I can appreciate the frustrations people were having with the controls & camera (not an issue for me), but on the other hand, by focusing so much on these issues I think that some people missed something truly spectacular here that will become a landmark in gaming history. This game is so much more than the sum of it's parts and having finished the game now, I can say that in my 35 yearsI can appreciate the frustrations people were having with the controls & camera (not an issue for me), but on the other hand, by focusing so much on these issues I think that some people missed something truly spectacular here that will become a landmark in gaming history. This game is so much more than the sum of it's parts and having finished the game now, I can say that in my 35 years of gaming, for me, very few games have reached these heights in being able to convey such depth of emotion, beauty and wonder. I think that for so many of us to be saying that this experience was so deep and will stay with us forever points to a possibility that some reviewers were so focused of the technical shortcomings that perhaps they ended up not being able to see the woods for the trees - and by overly engaging in such negative feelings as a result, unfortunately missed out on a profound gaming experience.… Expand
  29. Ericsora
    Dec 14, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. jogo horrível, controle zoados, IA burra, tudo mal feito, você comanda e não responde… Expand
  30. stasweb
    Jan 23, 2022
    1
    Totally unplayable on PS5 as there is huge input lag there. Sony is not even tried to fix it before giving this game via PS+ Collection.
  31. 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.
  32. Shimmtbang
    Dec 6, 2016
    0
    What the trico did I just finish playing? I have never been so disappointed by a game than this... Super high hopes for terrible framerate... Bad camera and slow boring gameplay.
  33. Berrlett
    Mar 8, 2017
    9
    An emotional roller coaster ride playing this. its unique, different and nostalgic to team ICO’s work, beautiful visuals I dropped one point due to Trico’s lack of response on couple of occasions but apart from that, brilliant game.
  34. ReyAlonzo91
    Aug 1, 2017
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I created an account just so I could leave this review.
    Gameplay mechanics: sad.
    Camera control/movement: sad.
    Tutorial on screen the entire game: sad.
    Inability to make your jump button not triangle: sad.
    AI intelligence and cooperation: sad.
    Number of times you'll get stuck or frustrated: 648.
    What happened to you, Team ICO? I'll pray for you.
    And I'm glad Trico dies.    … Expand
  35. 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
  36. panuchy123
    Dec 7, 2016
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. hace 9 años si que me llamo la atencion, pero ahora esta la nueva generacion, es un juego simple, aburrido,corto,malos graficos,bajadas de fps, no entiendo despues de 9 años como puede salir con peores graficos que en el primer video,y 60 euros es un robo por algo asi… Expand
  37. Monashva
    Dec 10, 2016
    1
    I played the whole game in about 8 hours and these are the reasons that i only gave this game 1 out of 10 :
    1-The Game biggest disadvantage for me is lacking of proper story. Seriously guys, i am talking to ones that say it has a good story, what was that fantastic story? a boy coming from i don't know where and at when is kidnapped by a giant beast and brought to i don't know where. we    I played the whole game in about 8 hours and these are the reasons that i only gave this game 1 out of 10 :
    1-The Game biggest disadvantage for me is lacking of proper story. Seriously guys, i am talking to ones that say it has a good story, what was that fantastic story? a boy coming from i don't know where and at when is kidnapped by a giant beast and brought to i don't know where. we don't know why he was brought there and what was the history behind the place and we never know. even in the design of game we don't have any clue by its marking and stuffs about this mysterious civilization. And at the end i still don't know why the kids and others were brought there, and why is it called the last guardian? who is the last guardian? guarding what exactly?
    2- The game controls was just awful that requires much mashing! and pointless mashing in fact,
    3- I get that the bird wasn't supposed to work with us but somehow the puzzles were ridicules especially where you have to feed the bird with barrels . You can throw the barrels but you cant put it on box? or on a cliff go up and then rise it from there? it was like it deliberately messing with you !
    4- Don't make me start with the camera and the frame drop!
    5- The Graphic was alright but not anything special for PS4!
    6- Only 8 hours for a 60$ game? but i kind of thank them for this being only for 8 hours and not any longer!    … Expand
  38. dypsomaniart
    Apr 6, 2017
    0
    I really wanted to enjoy this game, it looked like it was going to be great.
    I played only for around 4 hours and I had to give up. The camera was actually making me physically feel sick because of the constant movement, zooming and panning (I'm playing on a big screen). This has never ever happened in any game before, it is a truly atrocious camera setup, that you are constantly fighting    I really wanted to enjoy this game, it looked like it was going to be great.
    I played only for around 4 hours and I had to give up. The camera was actually making me physically feel sick because of the constant movement, zooming and panning (I'm playing on a big screen). This has never ever happened in any game before, it is a truly atrocious camera setup, that you are constantly fighting against in order to look where you want to look. Having the camera continually wander around in different directions and different distances like a drunk has control of it is just crazy. The controls for the kid are useless too, you can either creep at 0.2kmh or sprint everywhere, which combined with the camera constantly wandering all over the place made this game genuinely frustrating and uncomfortable and ruined any enjoyment for me. Unplayable.    … Expand
  39. nova7
    Dec 7, 2016
    0
    For a game so dependant on controls bad controls like this is unforgivable, people are giving it scores of 10 and saying "yeah, so the controlls are bad but it don't matter when story is good", well, it does matter, it matters a lot, because the game is just frustrating to try and play, no story in the world can save this overhyped fiasco
  40. Xpro
    Dec 9, 2016
    0
    Boring, short, ugly. The worst game for ps4, look like a game for ps2, lots of bugs, camera angle is patetic and team ICO lose the hand with the mistake
  41. Brandon_Harris
    Dec 7, 2016
    1
    I really wouldn't recommend this game. The number of cons far outweigh the pros.

    I liked Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, the other games in this franchise. They may not necessarily be considered direct sequels, they have a similar kind of style and clearly influenced one another, including the development of this title. The first and major issue is this game's framerate. I played    I really wouldn't recommend this game. The number of cons far outweigh the pros.

    I liked Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, the other games in this franchise. They may not necessarily be considered direct sequels, they have a similar kind of style and clearly influenced one another, including the development of this title.

    The first and major issue is this game's framerate. I played this game on the original PS4 that was released. I notice that as soon as I go outside any building, my framerate drops significantly, from 30 FPS to 10-20 FPS. This happens very frequently since the majority of the game takes place outside. This game has worse framerate problems than Drakengard 3.

    I have friends who are playing this game on the PS4 Pro, and they still experience significant framerate drops as well. This is unacceptable for a video game released in 2016. It's clear that this game was poorly optimized. I would've given it a pass if it was a poorly released port, but unfortunately this title is only available on one console. I'm not going to purchase an upgraded version of the console for a single game. There should've been standards for when this game was release and I will hold Sony personally accountable for allowing this game to be published on their console ts current state.

    Perhaps a patch will be created later to combat these framerate issues, but I'm afraid that I'm reviewing the game when it was released, December 6, and in its current state the game is almost unplayable. The framerate might not be a problem for other video game genres, but for a platformer which relies exclusively on careful and precise button inputs this is unacceptable.

    This game also forces you to mash buttons a lot, which is unexpected. When you are grabbed by an enemy, which is pretty much the only combat move that most enemies have, you need to mash many buttons to escape. There is no difficulty option to change this. For older folks or people who have had problems with their wrist in the past, this makes gameplay exceedingly difficult.

    My hands hurt after playing this title and it's really unfair that they're allowed to discriminate against a class of video game players like this. It's not even a simple button mash like God of War or Resident Evil 4 - you need to mash all of the face buttons maybe several dozen times within a few seconds, or else your character dies. Granted, the checkpoints are usually generous - but it's a shame that I have to force my character to die because of a very poorly implemented gameplay mechanic.

    The worst part is that after your character dies, you, once again, need to mash more buttons to reload your checkpoint. I wouldn't mind if it were a couple of buttons, but it's hundreds of button presses within a couple of seconds. I've played many fighting games and beat-em-up games that had nowhere near this game's level of button-mashing. It's a crying shame.

    In terms of gameplay, you and a beast roam different environments and solve puzzles. The problem is that it's extremely hard to control the beast. You're given many different kinds of button inputs you can use to try to make the beast take different actions, but sometimes it's so difficult to make it happen and makes the puzzle annoying, rather than challenging. Many times I'll know what to do and the beast will simply not do what I want.

    Some areas of the game are badly glitched as well. In one part of the game, you need the beast to pull a chain to raise a gate so that you can put two wheels underneath it to prop it up. The problem is that the beast would simply never raise the gate to a sufficient height for me, no matter which buttons I pressed. I had to reload my checkpoint fix times before suddenly and randomly the beast was able to raise the gate high enough.

    You know when someone talks about wanting to replay a game, but then they remember an atrocious escort scene in it and leave the game along? Well, this whole game is an atrocious escort scene. I love solving hard puzzles, and in the past I studied combinatorics and I was that student that put puzzles and riddles in your school's newspapers. Although I like the fact that the beast is required for the puzzles and adds extra elements to them, controlling the beast is far too frustrating.

    I feel depressed when I try to feed the beast food - most of the time it just hits the face of the beast instead of the beast catching it in its mouth. Search for "dog hit by frisebee" because that image pretty much describes my experiences with the beast.

    I paid $89.99 CAD plus tax on this game, and after many years of waiting for it, I am extremely disappointed. Usually I'm a cheap gamer and try to make use of any game as much as possible, scouring and replaying multiple times for unlockables and secrets, but for once I might not even finish this game. A guide tells me I'm 4/5's through the story so I'm going to try soon to finish it up.    … Expand
  42. rubiobc
    Dec 8, 2016
    1
    Jogo meia boca, câmera completamente problemática de difícil controle, performance pífia, constante queda de FPS que somada a câmera horrível estraga a experiência do game e até prejudica a visualização de algumas jogadas do Turico em ambientes estreitos.
    Não consigo entender como esses gráficos estão pesando tanto no desempenho dos FPS sendo que são bem medianos comparado com outros    Jogo meia boca, câmera completamente problemática de difícil controle, performance pífia, constante queda de FPS que somada a câmera horrível estraga a experiência do game e até prejudica a visualização de algumas jogadas do Turico em ambientes estreitos.
    Não consigo entender como esses gráficos estão pesando tanto no desempenho dos FPS sendo que são bem medianos comparado com outros jogos, fora que foi 10 anos, tempo não faltou para lançar pelo menos um jogo minimamente polido e jogável.
    Não recomendo neste estado, principalmente o preço cobrado aqui no Brasil que está por volta de R$200,00 na PSN, esse jogo vale no máximo R$50,00 como lançamento.    … Expand
  43. Kerber
    Jun 3, 2017
    1
    Way to many fake reviews here giving 10/10. Peace of advice to publisher- invest some additional money so fake reviewers could do more reviews and not only of this game as almost all fakers giving 10/10 reviewed only this game or couple of your games in addition.

    Regarding TLG, game was in development 10 years and is completely broken. I loved ICO, also SotC but this is the most    Way to many fake reviews here giving 10/10. Peace of advice to publisher- invest some additional money so fake reviewers could do more reviews and not only of this game as almost all fakers giving 10/10 reviewed only this game or couple of your games in addition.

    Regarding TLG, game was in development 10 years and is completely broken. I loved ICO, also SotC but this is the most frustrating sony exclusive I ever played. Camera is like from ps2 era, controls awful, you depend on trico's ai which is flawed and most of the times broken... Instead of reading fake reviews and experiences from folks earning their money for writing them, go and watch some videos of gameplay. This game is going shoulder to shoulder with Duke Nukem forever, just that Duke didn't have strong publisher able to "influence" reviewing process as whoever played this game for half an hour would be frustrated with this. At least used games price rocked bottom so I bought it for 10usd, but still not worth it. I hope Ueda will go and work on something new and good after this and deliver us something more like ICO, simple and beautiful game without too much technical mess but with more attention to atmosphere and simple controls.    … Expand
  44. Kiradiil
    Mar 28, 2017
    1
    Не понимаю откуда эти оценки и внесение этой игры в "список лучших игр 2016 года".
    Единственное за что можно поставить плюс, это само существо.
    Бестолковое, абсолютно не цепляющее начало, ужасное управление заставляющее ненавидеть персонажа, временами своенравная камера... Но все это меркнет в сравнении с просто кошмарной оптимизацией! 2016 год господа, нам подсовывают сырую "демо версию    Не понимаю откуда эти оценки и внесение этой игры в "список лучших игр 2016 года".
    Единственное за что можно поставить плюс, это само существо.
    Бестолковое, абсолютно не цепляющее начало, ужасное управление заставляющее ненавидеть персонажа, временами своенравная камера... Но все это меркнет в сравнении с просто кошмарной оптимизацией! 2016 год господа, нам подсовывают сырую "демо версию идеи" под видом великого долгостроя. В итоге, это игра уровня PS2 с натянутыми поверх всевозможными эффектами, которые даже не оптимизировали. Скучная, бестолковая, неинтересная. Ждать такое определенно не стоило. 1 балл за Трико....    … Expand
  45. negativeions
    Nov 14, 2018
    5
    Fumito Ueda's incompetence and obsession with animation is this game's fundamental flaw.

    Shigeru Miyamoto, one of the, if not the greatest game designer in the world once said that the most important aspect of game design is game play. Every serious game developer should have that tattooed into their damn brains. I find it surprising that Ueda tested the game before release and thought    Fumito Ueda's incompetence and obsession with animation is this game's fundamental flaw.

    Shigeru Miyamoto, one of the, if not the greatest game designer in the world once said that the most important aspect of game design is game play. Every serious game developer should have that tattooed into their damn brains. I find it surprising that Ueda tested the game before release and thought to himself, "this is good, let's go with this". To me, there are obvious problems with the game. First of all, the game play of the boy is just ridiculous. Sure, it's nice to have all these animation but there's no reason why he couldn't be programmed to take advantage of the full range of movement of the joystick. You're either moving at a snails pace or running. It's obviously ridiculous. And many games do this and it's just objectively wrong. A perfect example of better gameplay when it comes to movement is A Link Between Worlds. Every minute increase of the thumbjoy in a certain direction directly translates into a noticeable increase in Link's movement speed, giving the user the full range of motion and speed that is possible with the stick. THAT is how you do it. Secondly the camera is ridiculous. You test the game out and still think that camera is ok? I don't know what to say to that. Thirdly the graphics look like they're from a PS3. They should've been improved.. or, honestly, the game should've been released for PS3. Then just get some other developer to take care of the port to Ps4. In the meantime Ueda could've been half finished his next game. Come on, man. Fourthly, the game runs poorly. The low framerate hurts my eyes, I can't play longer than a couple of hours at a time. It seems like the game was not ported that well and it took way too long to do it. I wish Japanese developers in general would put more money into a project. Anyways, I really thought this could've been much better.    … Expand
  46. Quijote
    Dec 13, 2016
    5
    Para mi gusto fracasó en todos los aspectos: lo emotivo nunca lo logró, y lo jugable y lo gráfico fue lo peor, le doy 5 por eso: si funcionara bien le diera un 7, pero realmente la calidad del juego le baja mucho la nota.
  47. MTrueno
    Dec 28, 2016
    2
    Después de 10 años e innumerables retrasos durante el año de lanzamiento, el juego no es ni la sombra de lo que han sido ICO y Shadow of the Colossus.

    Pese a que era un juego previsto para salir en PS3, ha acabado saliendo en PS4 con numerosas caídas de frames. Imperdonable. La IA de Trico es insufrible y alarga de manera artificial el tiempo de juego que a pesar de ello sigue siendo    Después de 10 años e innumerables retrasos durante el año de lanzamiento, el juego no es ni la sombra de lo que han sido ICO y Shadow of the Colossus.

    Pese a que era un juego previsto para salir en PS3, ha acabado saliendo en PS4 con numerosas caídas de frames. Imperdonable.

    La IA de Trico es insufrible y alarga de manera artificial el tiempo de juego que a pesar de ello sigue siendo ínfimo. Resolver unos puzzles facilísimos con esta IA se convierte en muchos casos en un infierno, sabes cual es el camino pero no puedes llegar.

    La historia es insustancial, se puede confundir con que tratan de jugar con el misterio y la teoría como hicieron con las anteriores entregas, pero es que no hay por donde cogerla. En cuanto a la relación del chico con Trico, si el juego hubiera sido más largo y completo, el vínculo emocional y todo lo que han intentado enseñarnos habría calado con mas fuerza, pero no ha sido así.

    La espera no ha merecido la pena, combina lo peor de ICO y SotC. Le doy un 2 porque el apartado visual y sonoro no me disgusta, pero del resto no salvaría nada.    … Expand
  48. joaopontesvaz
    Apr 24, 2017
    8
    Graphics: 7.2 Sound: 8.5 Gameplay: 7.6 Fun/Story: 8.0

    Despite i didn´t like some parts (repetitive and slow) this game gets better after playing. Technically poor with some dated graphics/inconsistent frame rate (sometimes very bad) and some gameplay deficiencies. Nevertheless it presents a great level design. The narrative and sound are very good too. It deserved more variety of levels    Graphics: 7.2 Sound: 8.5 Gameplay: 7.6 Fun/Story: 8.0

    Despite i didn´t like some parts (repetitive and slow) this game gets better after playing. Technically poor with some dated graphics/inconsistent frame rate (sometimes very bad) and some gameplay deficiencies. Nevertheless it presents a great level design. The narrative and sound are very good too. It deserved more variety of levels (i felt i was playing in monochromatic tone long periods).    … Expand
  49. Deadheadbill
    Jul 27, 2017
    5
    Trico is awesome. This game is not. So many apologists for a game that has horrendous controls and atrocious camera work. The camera wanders around like a drunken wino and the controls respond correctly about 50 percent of the time. It's unfortunate because I feel there is a truly great game hidden in there.
  50. SthrnFrdGames
    Mar 9, 2017
    7
    Do not be deterred by the yellow box with a number 7 in it. I would honestly give this game more of a 7.5...

    The Last Guardian has been on many peoples minds over the past several years of development. As someone who has been interested in the project after completing both ICO and Shadow of there Colossus, I can safely say that my expectations were met. Was it worth the near decade-long    Do not be deterred by the yellow box with a number 7 in it. I would honestly give this game more of a 7.5...

    The Last Guardian has been on many peoples minds over the past several years of development. As someone who has been interested in the project after completing both ICO and Shadow of there Colossus, I can safely say that my expectations were met. Was it worth the near decade-long wait, maybe not so much, but nonetheless, a masterpiece in its own right.

    You assume the role of a boy awoken in the midst of some vat dungeon in a pit with the great beast Trico. Throughout your journey, the two of you grow closer to each other and learn how to utilize each others strengths and weaknesses to proceed through the giant constructs. The story is all but there, focusing more on the emotional connection between player, character, and beast.

    The background graphics and sceneries in this game are top-notch. Gazing into the distance nice you reach the outside world can behold some breathtaking views, even if its of the walls of the Fortress. The sprite animation leaves some to be desired, and the over animated movements can be cumbersome at times, but it does not take away from the overall playability.

    A fantastic game and well worth the 11 or 12 hours to takes to complete. By now, the price has dropped to around $40 so it may be worth it to pick it up now as opposed to when it was released. Cheers for TRICO.    … Expand
  51. gordoninc
    Jan 28, 2019
    3
    Very boring game.
    Both person and camera controls are clumsy and unpleasant.
    Story not really absorbing much.
  52. drmoth
    Aug 1, 2017
    5
    Lack of precision in game controls ruin an otherwise beautiful game. Some of the most frustrating and challenging puzzles in the game involve picking up barrels of food and throwing them from place to place. The problem is intellectually simple, and should be very easy, but because the direction the character is facing can only be changed in 60 degree increments it is nearly impossible toLack of precision in game controls ruin an otherwise beautiful game. Some of the most frustrating and challenging puzzles in the game involve picking up barrels of food and throwing them from place to place. The problem is intellectually simple, and should be very easy, but because the direction the character is facing can only be changed in 60 degree increments it is nearly impossible to aim. In addition, moving objects around on the screen becomes nearly impossible if there is more than one selectable object - the 'grab' function automatically targets what object you want to grab, but there seems to be no way to control which one you pick up. Very, very, annoying.… Expand
  53. allwititnowsuck
    Feb 13, 2019
    2
    This game was delayed countless of times, supposedly this game was in development for 10 years, which i find hard to believe considering game's poor performance, it can't maintain stable 30 fps, frame rate drops so often it gives me a feeling of trying to run recent games on a outdated computer, just remind all of you it was meant to be PS3 game, yet it doesn't run properly on a superiorThis game was delayed countless of times, supposedly this game was in development for 10 years, which i find hard to believe considering game's poor performance, it can't maintain stable 30 fps, frame rate drops so often it gives me a feeling of trying to run recent games on a outdated computer, just remind all of you it was meant to be PS3 game, yet it doesn't run properly on a superior hardware. This isn't acceptable.
    On top of that the game controls and camera are horrible, graphics are not very good either, it looks like game from 2006, if this game was truly in a development for 10 years then there's no hope for these developers, i have feeling like this game was meant to be scraped entirely, but Sony forced them to realese it.
    Besides i found this game's positive reviews to be very suspicious, i checked some profiles of "people" who posted positive reviews and most of them are empty profiles, just one review, no older reviews or rating or newer ones. I even checked this site on wayback machine and i saw instant jump from both negative and positive reviews matching each other to overwhelming amount of positive reviews.
    DON'T YOU GUYS LOVE BOTS?    … Expand
  54. Lunafreyanox
    Dec 6, 2016
    0
    I just can't get over the fact that the gameplay is slow and camera is flunky at best... Very sodas pointed and will not be returning to this world......
  55. mrvertigo89
    Jul 30, 2017
    2
    A huge disappointment after loving Shadow of the Colossus. This feels much more like a passion project for the developers than a game, the camera and controls make it nearly completely unplayable with odd button choices and no way to reassign functions. The puzzles are obtuse, although to be fair I did not play it all the way though as I think I'd have had an aneurysm. Such a shame thatA huge disappointment after loving Shadow of the Colossus. This feels much more like a passion project for the developers than a game, the camera and controls make it nearly completely unplayable with odd button choices and no way to reassign functions. The puzzles are obtuse, although to be fair I did not play it all the way though as I think I'd have had an aneurysm. Such a shame that for so much work to have gone into this they didn't make it fun to play. Don't pay more than $10 for it.… Expand
  56. Stark007
    Dec 9, 2016
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I waited 10 years for this? Graphically I did not see anything that the PS3 would not do. The impression I had was playing a remastered product. Even so, with all his technical problems, it's a good game. Just good and nothing more.… Expand
  57. webassaigame
    Jan 3, 2017
    0
    It's can be fantastic game with magic characters... But controls and camera... it's terrible ever i play, really..there 2017 and we have this? Anybody test this game with normal hands? MOST TERRIBLE CONTROL GAME EVER!(((
  58. Bonealive
    Jan 2, 2017
    2
    Excesivo hype para un juego de ps3 y con una duración ridicula. Fallos de cámara, control... las emociones que genera el juego no son suficientes para quitarte la sensación de que es un juego que pese a llevar 10 años de desarrollo, es de la generación anterior.
  59. CriticoDubioso
    Dec 10, 2016
    7
    I've heard some complaints about technical issues with the game, but the ones I experienced weren't too distracting. Shadow of the Colossus had massive slowdowns at times, and that game was great. Occasionally, I was given the wrong narration for the scenario, but that wasn't too bad. Not counting the wonky AI in this, though.

    The thing preventing the game from being a 10 or, as many    I've heard some complaints about technical issues with the game, but the ones I experienced weren't too distracting. Shadow of the Colossus had massive slowdowns at times, and that game was great. Occasionally, I was given the wrong narration for the scenario, but that wasn't too bad. Not counting the wonky AI in this, though.

    The thing preventing the game from being a 10 or, as many have mindbogglingly called it, "a masterpiece" is that it simply isn't very fun, at least not for the vast majority of the experience, mostly the last hour or two. If you think this game is a masterpiece, you don't understand what the word "masterpiece" means. The core gameplay is light platforming and what feels like barely a handful of puzzles, and the majority suffer from the same issue as Portal 2: all there is to do is look for the one thing that you can actually do. Seriously, most puzzles are just a matter of looking for a single interaction point. Or finding an easily-accessible object and carrying it to another point. The aforementioned fun 1-2 hours of the game are enjoyable because you actually have a mixed toolset and enough variation in the environment to require that you put the pieces together on your own. There also isn't much risk or challenge in finding the right way to climb up to a single switch, so it's fun when you're thrust into a scenario with enemies constantly trying to snatch you, distract your companion, and murder him all at the same time. It's a shame that style of gameplay was such a small part of the game. The rest kind of just felt like connecting the dots between in-engine cutscene setpieces.

    Even with all that I would maybe rate it higher, but it loses points because of the terrible, terrible water puzzle segments. In multiple puzzles, I tried commanding Trico to do something, he would fail, I would look up the solution online (the water puzzles are the only things I had to look up), saw that what I was doing was correct but the AI was being stupid, and then stay there for 20 minutes trying to get him to understand my command. It is very, very bad when a game is mechanically very simple, but also incredibly difficult to get results, even when you are seemingly giving the correct inputs. And in all of those cases, I finally got results randomly. There was no difference in the orders given, but he would just decide to do it that time rather than, for example, swim back up to the surface after diving halfway down or just treading water and growling.

    Great music and great visuals. Story would have been better if the gameplay didn't make me so horribly frustrated with Trico. I still think Shadow of the Colossus' story was much better because it didn't constantly tear me out of the experience and make me question if the AI was glitching out and thus making things impossible. There's a lot to be said for the game maintaining the experience well enough that you can mentally remain in the world and forget you're playing a videogame with human-programmed AI. I really wish the puzzles were more involved/hands-on and less reliant on trying to order Trico around. The best segments in the game, IMO, were the ones that required very little assistance on Trico's part (like most of the segments near the end and a fairly early segment where you temporarily leave him stuck on a pillar).

    I hope their next game doesn't experience the same development Hell.    … Expand
  60. Voodoo123
    Jun 17, 2017
    7
    +Fantastic animation / art / music / character / world design
    +Intriguing story
    -marred by some of the most frustrating controls / gameplay I've ever experienced
    Absolutely recommend playing this just be prepared for the clunky journey to the end!
  61. Spidor
    Dec 17, 2016
    6
    I wanted to love this game, I truly did. But it's not just repetitive and somewhat uneventful, the tale of a boy and his dragon cat falling through scenery. It's buggy as hell, and in a somewhat game breaking way. Boy interacts with world? Wonky. Beast interacts with world? Wonky. Boy interacts with beast? Broken fustercluck of epic proportions. This is divided into two categories - one,I wanted to love this game, I truly did. But it's not just repetitive and somewhat uneventful, the tale of a boy and his dragon cat falling through scenery. It's buggy as hell, and in a somewhat game breaking way. Boy interacts with world? Wonky. Beast interacts with world? Wonky. Boy interacts with beast? Broken fustercluck of epic proportions. This is divided into two categories - one, if the boy climbs the beast, the camera takes a hike and everything breaks. Second - the beast will NOT listen, become trapped in AI routines, get stuck against corners making it ignore your orders practically forever. You're supposed to like the beast and while I admittedly did, I liked the beast the story was selling me, not the game was providing me with. Trico is broken Camera is broken. AI is broken. Controls are delayed and floaty.
    I don't hate this game. But I really don't love it at all.    … Expand
  62. leche_paterna
    Sep 6, 2019
    0
    Apartado técnico totalmente desfasado, historia soporifica y jugabilidad anticuada
  63. mikepatyaev
    Dec 10, 2016
    7
    Amazing game! Interesting story, charming graphics, cool animations and tons of emotions... this is The Last Guardian! This unique game! If you like ICO and Shadow of the Collossus - buy The Last Guardian, you will love this game. (NO)
  64. jenesuispasbava
    Jul 8, 2017
    5
    Horrifyingly bad camera and character control, and massive frame rate drops even at 1080p on PS4 Pro; it's a crying shame that the amazing story and beautiful setting is paired with such disappointing gameplay and performance.
  65. 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
  66. Nitogl
    Sep 13, 2019
    0
    The worst game I ever played. Full of bugs, bad programation, Trico's IA doesn't respond at all time, making u wait until it's answer your command. The boy have some trouble in he's legs, in a simple jump, he falls in ground, lose Control of he's own moves... The enemy's are more faster than you, by the way, have only one kind of enemy. A game tottaly desnecessary, I want that Fumito neverThe worst game I ever played. Full of bugs, bad programation, Trico's IA doesn't respond at all time, making u wait until it's answer your command. The boy have some trouble in he's legs, in a simple jump, he falls in ground, lose Control of he's own moves... The enemy's are more faster than you, by the way, have only one kind of enemy. A game tottaly desnecessary, I want that Fumito never come a gain to make a game like this, or never be on a group to make another game.… Expand
  67. CRedfield98
    Jul 28, 2020
    0
    As a game, it's very bad. It's frustrating. Controls, camera, AI and gameplay in general is awful. It has performance issues, the FPS drop almost every single minute, because it's not well optimised. How can this game run so bad when it doesn`t even look that good and games like God of War, Uncharted 4 or The Last of Us Part II run perfectly on PS4?
    I love PS games but this is definitely    As a game, it's very bad. It's frustrating. Controls, camera, AI and gameplay in general is awful. It has performance issues, the FPS drop almost every single minute, because it's not well optimised. How can this game run so bad when it doesn`t even look that good and games like God of War, Uncharted 4 or The Last of Us Part II run perfectly on PS4?
    I love PS games but this is definitely the worst I've played.    … Expand
  68. 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
  69. 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.
  70. wikkytabby
    Dec 9, 2016
    0
    Maybe one of the buggiest slow paced games ive ever played, and i played no mans sky. Its hard to get the dog to do what you want and the ending feels very anti-climatic. Overall it fell pretty short of even a indy game in 2016.
  71. 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
  72. UncreativeName
    Dec 11, 2016
    2
    " That A.I. is so realistic.. it's like a real animal.." AKA this a pretty bad I.A., it just choose a random action to do, and we just say that because.. we don't want to say that TRICO A.I. is just bad..
    -Developers..
  73. PeterLangford
    Dec 17, 2016
    0
    Worst controls and camera I have ever experienced. I probably could have liked the game, but never felt immersed because I was continually distracted by the very poorly designed control system. I played about 4 hours of the game but eventually gave up because it was a constant struggle to move and look in the direction I wanted. If this was the first game I had ever played on my PS4 IWorst controls and camera I have ever experienced. I probably could have liked the game, but never felt immersed because I was continually distracted by the very poorly designed control system. I played about 4 hours of the game but eventually gave up because it was a constant struggle to move and look in the direction I wanted. If this was the first game I had ever played on my PS4 I would have seriously thought something was wrong with my controller. After each session I came away with a slight headache which I put down to mild motion sickness from the game doing what it wanted to do rather than what I wanted to do. For example, your character either tiptoes or sprints, no in-between. Tiptoeing was fine for the first scene, but never needed afterwards, and sprinting prevented me from being able to explore at a leisurely pace. And when you sprinted, sometimes the camera followed you, but other times it just let you sprint off into the distance with the camera remaining in place (I'm guessing that it was perhaps a visual guide that you weren't meant to go in that direction at that point in the game, but I would have much preferred it to track me consistently and let me learn the right way on my own). Another example, when moving the camera, I could never predict what it would do - most of the time it would start scanning slowly for about 1 second and then speed up (which I never got used to), sometimes it would just continue to scan very slowly, and on occasion it would actually drag you in the other direction when the programmers clearly wanted you to look in a particular direction (I initially thought this was being done to give clues, but sometimes it just had you looking at a tree or up in the air). Climbing Trico was also often painful - I frequently ended up in an armpit rather than on its back. And other times when I was trying to jump off Trico, the character would sometimes just refuse to let go. Accentuating the usability problem, often the entire top right quarter of the screen would be filled with excessively large instructions about what buttons you should be pressing, with no options for turning off these overly frequent reminders. Ultimately I gave up on the battle. The graphics and puzzles were OK, but only at "good indie" level, not worth the blockbuster pricing that I paid. I haven't played any of the earlier games in the series, so I didn't have any sense of nostalgia which may have helped me be a little more forgiving. This the first game in many years that I've bought where I really feel like I wasted my money. If you really want to try this game, wait until it is heavily discounted, and be prepared to be VERY patient with clumsy controls.… Expand
  74. geraldes
    Dec 7, 2016
    0
    Well I have to say that the game play is poor and the camera is annoying sometimes, the game have some problems of frame rate, I don't know how Sony gave "green light" to sell the game with this basic problems, this important things that make a video game a VIDEO GAME. Some people are giving 90-1
  75. 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 .
  76. 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
  77. Kamikazeshocki
    May 24, 2017
    7
    Well this is certainly not a very good game like shadow of the colossos or Ico. The clumsy controls and sometimes annoying misbehaviours of that "flying rat" made me angry sometimes. The graphics are also quite unspectactular. Nonetheless most puzzles and the unfolding of the story later on I found quite solid and I actually found myself caring for that relationship between the protagonistWell this is certainly not a very good game like shadow of the colossos or Ico. The clumsy controls and sometimes annoying misbehaviours of that "flying rat" made me angry sometimes. The graphics are also quite unspectactular. Nonetheless most puzzles and the unfolding of the story later on I found quite solid and I actually found myself caring for that relationship between the protagonist and the animal. It is a unique game with many good parts that get outbalanced by at least as many bad parts. You can buy and have a ok-good time for 10-15 hours and then you're done, but it's certainly no must have for any ps4 owner.… Expand
  78. wanderlei2
    Dec 9, 2016
    0
    Early ps3 graphics and sub 20 fps with constant drops of frame-rate into single digits. Controls are broken and unresponsive. Gameplay is boring and nonsensical, horrible pacing. Not that there is much gameplay it is like watching the most boring movie in the world. Sony took some old broken canceled ps3 game and release this junk as a cash grab. If this game was on any other system itEarly ps3 graphics and sub 20 fps with constant drops of frame-rate into single digits. Controls are broken and unresponsive. Gameplay is boring and nonsensical, horrible pacing. Not that there is much gameplay it is like watching the most boring movie in the world. Sony took some old broken canceled ps3 game and release this junk as a cash grab. If this game was on any other system it would be destroyed for its obvious flaws but Sony exclusives get a pass.… Expand
  79. macunix
    Dec 27, 2016
    2
    I played the game for some hours. I like the story. the Trico is interesting.
    BUT the camera is bad, you can hardly see useful things some times.
    The control is rubbish, you have to try over and over again for some simple move.
    Image quality is still in 2009 standard.
    Wake up! it is now 2016 4K gaming!
  80. mistereco22
    Dec 13, 2016
    0
    Another bad exclusive PS4 game. Game have bored game-play. Game have 30 fps only on PS4 Pro. Standard PS4 have around 20-25 fps. Graphics is low and simple. Don't buy this game, don't play.
  81. dimnikar22
    Dec 12, 2016
    2
    No amount of story, atmosphere or pedigree can excuse poor gameplay and subpar performance. People's judgement seems clouded having overblown expectations of this game due to it's predecessors.
  82. 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...
  83. gokury
    Mar 14, 2019
    0
    The Last Guardian was made to CashGrab people who loved I.C.O and Shadow of the Colossus. Disappointed.
  84. 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
  85. HAHDGSFH8TRGH
    Dec 13, 2016
    6
    No es para nada un mal juego pero me esperaba mas ya que espere 7 años para que sacaran este juego.
    Lo bueno para mi son los personajes y la historia y lo malo es que es un juego muy aburrido y que no engancha del todo a pesar de que tenga una buena historia. Es solo mi opinión sobre este juego
  86. van_persie
    Dec 13, 2016
    2
    Very weak. Outdated mechanics and graphics, weak history and in addition to everything else, realy bad performs in the standard ps4 and the ps4 pro. A waste of money
  87. DennisKJ
    Dec 16, 2016
    2
    Not really a good game completely over hyped.
    To expensive (4 hours of game-play and that 4 60 €)
    Runs like **** mostly 20 FPS
    Just good lighting but the graphics are bad (in close up sequences it look like a ps2 game)
    ps4 exclusive
    bad control of your companion
    very stretched
    bad camera in smal spaces
  88. Thetruegamer
    Feb 19, 2017
    1
    Poor graphics, terrible camera angles, non responsive controls, repetitive game play, this took 10 years to develop? What were they doing? Drinking coffee and taking home a paycheck for doing nothing, a joke of a game
  89. Larien
    May 23, 2018
    0
    the last guardian is not even close of the previous games of fumito ueda, i dont feel the same mysticism like shadow of the colossus, i think is a game for buying used, end the game and sell it again, for 10 years of develop i expected much more for this.
  90. VideoGamesLover
    Dec 16, 2016
    1
    The Last Guardian is a very bad game. Poor graphics, PS2-level. So much bugs, fps-drops (even on PS4 Pro), not interesting story and gameplay as well.
    8 years in development. What for?
    1/10
  91. oldboy
    Sep 7, 2019
    9
    It's breathtaking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  92. hammygas
    Dec 13, 2017
    7
    This is an amazingly difficult game to score. I was bored for significant chunks of this game, and I found myself passing the time thinking through a puzzle by petting or climbing on Trico. I kept coming back though. I kept wanting to see more, and the ending did not disappoint.

    Truly an excellent game overall, and I wonder if I would have enjoyed the story as much if I never got    This is an amazingly difficult game to score. I was bored for significant chunks of this game, and I found myself passing the time thinking through a puzzle by petting or climbing on Trico. I kept coming back though. I kept wanting to see more, and the ending did not disappoint.

    Truly an excellent game overall, and I wonder if I would have enjoyed the story as much if I never got bored. By being bored, I interacted with Trico more, and built a relationship with him. It made the story more impactful, and I Don't know of another way to accomplish that goal.

    I take off points because I don't really have an urge to play it again, but I am extremely happy that I played through and the experience I had.    … Expand
  93. mrnice
    Aug 16, 2018
    7
    A super fascinating game... if you ignore THE actual GAMEPLAY. Despite similarities to the decent puzzle-game ICO, this newer game has mostly dumbed down the gameplay that it was supposed to update and exceed. A lot of climbing sections and QTE-like "Epic Scripted Events" feel like they are trying to copy the action from Uncharted 2. There's really no minimum age for grasping the puzzlesA super fascinating game... if you ignore THE actual GAMEPLAY. Despite similarities to the decent puzzle-game ICO, this newer game has mostly dumbed down the gameplay that it was supposed to update and exceed. A lot of climbing sections and QTE-like "Epic Scripted Events" feel like they are trying to copy the action from Uncharted 2. There's really no minimum age for grasping the puzzles in this game, only for coping with the nightmarish enemies and the frustrating obtuse interactions with the AI companion. The "artistic" concept and fascinating experience do not make up for
    the basic formulaic gameplay sections, and forum-discussions reveal that few have even understood what the abstract story was about. Maybe the developer just doesn't care about being understood. PROTIP: Before instructing the game's AI, there must be 1 press of the same button, to call for AI attention. Then, when the AI companion responds visibly, it can receive 1 instruction. If the button is pressed additional times, or even gets spammed or smashed (as players throw controllers in utter frustration) then the AI gets "confused" and the player will not enjoy that moment.    … Expand
  94. tdebug
    Oct 18, 2021
    0
    Incredibly clumsy and annoying mechanics. Story might be good, but controls is so bad and unresponsive. It's just walking, jumping and controlling the dog are the constant source of annoyance.
  95. wesker2012
    Jan 2, 2019
    6
    I love the bond you feel with Trico in this game, but the controls and AI were incredibly infuriating. I'd say Trico is the most frustrating AI character I ever interacted with. He interacts like a really dumb dog. It totally ruined the enjoyment of the experience for me. The game just drags because the AI doesn't do what you want/need him to do. I got halfway through the game beforeI love the bond you feel with Trico in this game, but the controls and AI were incredibly infuriating. I'd say Trico is the most frustrating AI character I ever interacted with. He interacts like a really dumb dog. It totally ruined the enjoyment of the experience for me. The game just drags because the AI doesn't do what you want/need him to do. I got halfway through the game before I couldn't take it anymore. I'm glad I bought this game on a super cheap sale because this game was a disappointment for me.… Expand
  96. psylife
    Apr 24, 2020
    6
    TLG is a repetitive and slightly tedious platformer, intertwined with lackluster puzzle design. The camera is at times indeed problematic, the frame rate is bad, and the controls leave a lot to be desired.

    Yet, and perhaps more importantly, as an adventure, it is unique, memorable, and enchanting. The dreamworld visuals are truly awe inspiring, the animations are some of the greatest    TLG is a repetitive and slightly tedious platformer, intertwined with lackluster puzzle design. The camera is at times indeed problematic, the frame rate is bad, and the controls leave a lot to be desired.

    Yet, and perhaps more importantly, as an adventure, it is unique, memorable, and enchanting. The dreamworld visuals are truly awe inspiring, the animations are some of the greatest and most expressive I have yet to see, and the physics impress.

    The unscripted, procedural nature of your interaction with the guardian is remarkably successful, and as piece of gaming concept, it is the most refreshing, and intelligent leverage of the video-game medium I have had the pleasure to experience in a long long time - Indeed, your interaction with the guardian seamlessly serve both the story and game-play needs. At no point have I felt I was dealing with an AI, but rather a genuine living creature - This achievement alone must be celebrated.

    TLG is not a very good game then, but it offers something novel to experience. and will leave you with a cherished memory of your time with it. Play it.    … Expand
  97. 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
  98. Wardrobechaos
    Dec 20, 2020
    7
    Just finished the game on ps5. It’s not optimized for ps5 at all and runs terribly. I will start with the bad stuff:
    - i honestly lack the words to describe how awful the controls and camera are in this game. This almost killed an amazing game for me. Whoever was responsible for this should be ashamed!
    - the Button mashing during loading and the game - terrible The good: - trico - nice    Just finished the game on ps5. It’s not optimized for ps5 at all and runs terribly. I will start with the bad stuff:
    - i honestly lack the words to describe how awful the controls and camera are in this game. This almost killed an amazing game for me. Whoever was responsible for this should be ashamed!
    - the Button mashing during loading and the game - terrible The good:
    - trico - nice looks and Animations and you really bond with the guy
    - the fresh gameplay, really something else compared to other games
    - the simple but touching story

    Overall a 7/10 for me but this could and should have been one of the most memorable games on ps!!!    … Expand
  99. witcher6999
    Oct 29, 2017
    6
    Ужасное управление, кривая камера и тупой Трико растягивают эту игру, что совершенно не идет ей на пользу...
  100. AsaZimbabwe
    Dec 3, 2017
    6
    Unique premise, awe-inspiring art direction, and a touching story cannot quite overcome consistently frustrating controls, annoying camera & unclear objectives. As much as you may love certain special aspects, it is a chore to complete with essentially zero replay value.
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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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