Is There Any Chance The Last Guardian Will Live Up To Expectations?
Lemme just reiterate the title/question one time – is there any chance The Last Guardian will live up to your expectations? Hold on a second, let me answer that for you:
The fans who fell in love with cult-classics Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are hoping, no – praying that The Last Guardian will live up to their expectations – but there’s one teeny-tiny little roadblock – the fucking impossible amount of hype that has built up over the past ten years while the game was pushed back time and time again. I’m sorry guys, but the experience you’ve built up in your imagination for The Last Guardians probably a lot different than what you think.
The good folks at Eurogamer did a little preview this week for TLG, and says that it “does not look or play how you’d expect a high profile PlayStation 4 exclusive console game to in 2016”. Well, shit. They go on to explain that there are some glaring issues that have stuck around since The Last Guardian’s original PS3 build – that come in the form of dipping frame-rates and occasionally murky textures. They also mention that the game is “cumbersome”, the camera blows, and that the only thing more disobedient than the game’s controls is your in-game NPC companion who you are supposed to command to help you.
Even throughout all of that, there’s something to be said for the emotions The Last Guardian seeks to evoke in its players. Nobody has ever said “Man, Shadow of the Colossus’ camera was fucking DOPE.” or “Yooooo I love the abundance of items in Ico!” because that isn’t the point of the game. They, all three of them are looking to yank emotions out of the human behind the controller, and I think that’s what Fumito Ueda is banking on. Hardcore fans of the rest of his works will likely find reasons to love The Last Guardian, but its stripped-down nature may not be enough to see it sell like other console exclusives are expected to.
The Last Guardian won’t move consoles, but it’ll probably still move lifelong fans of Ueda’s work to manly, manly tears.
What games are you waiting for this year? Let us know on Twitter at @WickedGoodGames.
