The Last Guardian PS5 4K - Part 16 - Ending + Review
0I was 14 when the E3 trailer dropped back in 2009. I'm now 26. Few things before I get into this review.
I. Fumito Ueda should be extremely proud of this title, all things considered.
II. Thank you to Shuhei Yoshida and Sony for continuing to work with him to see this title through to completion.
Now onto the review.
A Frustrating Masterpiece
That's the best way I can describe this experience. I've never played a video game that was so vastly different from everything else that's currently out while simultaneously grabbing my attention and yet...frustrating me to no end. Let's get into what I liked and didn't like about it.
+ (Positives)
+ Trico (Most realistic animal I've ever seen in a video game)
+ Artwork is absolutely stunning
+ Soundtrack (incredible orchestrations by Takeshi Furukawa)
+ Animations of Trico (extremely detailed and felt like a real animal/companion)
+ Graphics (overall stunning environments)
+ Japanese voice acting (Hiroshi Shirokuma)
+ Wide-angled shots of new environments
- (Negatives)
- Controls. Right off the bat, they're nothing short of abysmal and absolutely detract from the gameplay. Just trying to get down from Trico is a chore, and that's not even including all the various jumps that you have to perform within the game. I've never played a game with such detail that had these types of controls. I really have to wonder what was going on behind the scenes with development considering that the controls can make/break a game. And in this instance, it failed on nearly every level. Outside of Trico not listening (which some people chalk up to realism, I'll give them that), The Boy literally will cause you to die on several occasions because he slipped. Happened throughout the entire game.
- Camera. If you thought the controls were bad, the camera system takes the top prize. I seriously think this is probably the worst in any game, even more so than Super Mario 64, which launched back in 1996. It's twenty years later. The camera system shouldn't ever get in the way of your game. There were too many times to count where Trico would duck underneath a ceiling while The Boy was on him and the camera would spiral out of control, or if Trico was in close encounters with enemies while The Boy was on him, it would have trouble focusing. This really hampered the experience on top of the controls. The only nice thing about it was the wide-angled shot of new areas you entered. Absolutely loved that little touch and it really made the areas feel expansive/immersive.
- Occasional glitches. Not extreme by any measure as the previous two, but there were a few times where I had the shield equipped and The Boy wouldn't use it for whatever reason. Because of it, I had to restart from the previous checkpoint, which sometimes meant doing an entire area over just because the shield wouldn't work.
- Repetitive Gameplay. After the first two hours or so, you've pretty much experienced all that the game has to offer as the remaining content is just a repeating of what you've already done. Find the barrels to feed to Trico, climb more ruins and have Trico take down the guards. That's really it. Though some people think that's a positive for its simplicity.
Overall, I'm honestly shocked I was able to play this game. Seriously, for those interested, check out the development on Wikipedia. Absolutely insane this game ever released. For context, this game was slated for release back in 2009 on the PS3 and ended up getting pushed to PS4, as Ueda felt the PS3 wouldn't be capable of achieving his vision for the game. This pushed the game back years and it wouldn't be until 2016 that it was finally released.
With that being said, this is one of the most memorable games I've ever played and reminded me so much of how I felt playing The Last of Us back when that came out in 2012. Very rare experience in gaming. Unfortunately, this one was hampered by terrible controls and camera.
The Last Guardian: 6.5/10
The Last Guardian on PS5: 9/10 (Apparently the game does 60FPS, but only on the unpatched disc version. I have Digital Edition PS5, so I was locked to 30FPS)
Final Thoughts
This game would've easily been my Game of the Decade if they fixed the camera and controls. However, as loveable as Trico is, I can't force myself to replay this game due to those issues. I can only hope Sony gives Ueda another shot with The Last Guardian II which fixes said issues, as the PS5 is supposedly much easier to develop on.
With all that said, Fumito Ueda did a great job, all things considered.
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