The Last Guardian is the third game to be directed by this clever chap. He's called
Fumito Ueda and he's the Japanese designer responsible for three pretty important games.
There's Ico, which is about forging a friendship with a girl. Next came Shadow of the Colossus,
which is about toppling giant mythological beasts. And now there's The Last Guardian,
which cleverly rounds off this triptych by being a game about forging a friendship with
a giant mythological beast. Called Trico.
Now, the reaction to this game has been, shall we say... mixed, with plenty of disagreement
about the clumsy controls, annoying input lag, clunky physics, patronising hints, omnipresent
button prompts, tedious puzzles, and so on.
But one thing most gamers can agree on is that this game does a pretty stellar job of
depicting a bond between the boy, and Trico.
And in this video, I want to show how Ueda, and his team at genDesign, achieved this relationship
not through lengthy cutscenes or dialogue - but, instead, through the unique language
of video games.
I'm going to start by looking at combat because while it's not a significant part of the game it
offers a convenient way of comparing The Last Guardian to other games that feature a companion character
Now, back in the day, a companion often meant a dreaded "escort mission", which is where
the player has to protect another character. Like how Monkey needs to keep Trip alive in
Enslaved, because...
TRIP: If I die, you die
MONKEY: Argh!
This means the player has to do everything. Monkey has to look after himself, and kill
all the robots, and look after Trip, who can't attack enemies and can be killed if you don't
look after her.
It makes for an interesting dynamic, but a lot of players found this style of gameplay
stressful and frustrating. Trip is, I should say, one of the better ones because she hides well
and can survive one robot attack.
But anyway, in an attempt to fix this frustration, a more recent trend has seen the rise of invincible
companions, like Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite who cannot be killed in combat, so you only
need to look out for yourself and the enemies.
It's a very simple fix, really. And it certainly avoids any frustration. But it does create
a nagging disconnect between what's happening in the story, and what's happening in the gameplay.
BOOKER: You think people like that are just gonna let you walk away? You are an investment,
and you will not be safe till you are far away from here.
I think she'll be fine, dude. I mean, going by the combat, Elizabeth is not only
invincible but is actually protecting Booker, as she finds him ammo, offers up her ability
to pull in machine guns from an alternate dimension, and even brings him back from the dead.
Of course, we can just write this all off as goofy video game logic but what Fumito
Ueda has always understood is that video games speak most loudly through their design. And
he uses this to explore themes and tell stories, almost entirely through gameplay.
The game Ico doesn't need to tell us that it's a game about a boy protecting a girl.
We get to experience it ourselves, as Yorda is frail and vulnerable during combat, and
the invincible Ico has to save her at every turn.
The Last Guardian is the mirror image of Ico, effectively putting you in the role of Yorda.
The boy can't defeat the magic soldiers, and will die if he's taken into a spooky door.
Trico, on the other hand, is invincible and massively effective in combat.
And so, we feel vulnerable when we're alone, and thankful for Trico's company when he saves
us from danger.
In all of Ueda's games, combat is not just something to do to pass time between the story
bits. The roles that the characters take in combat tell us so much of what we need to
know about their relationship to one another.
Outside of combat, The Last Guardian shows us that this is, actually, an interdependent
relationship, where Trico needs the boy, just as much as the boy needs Trico.
And I think a stronger bond is forged when both parties help each other. That's why Enslaved
narrowly escapes the escort mission trap, as Monkey ultimately relies heavily on Trip,
to create distractions and hack stuff.
There are lots of examples of this in The Last Guardian, such as the boy petting Trico's
back after a fight to calm it down, or him finding it barrels of food. But let's focus
on these stained glass eyes.
Whenever Trico spots one, the creature becomes paralysed with fear, and it won't move forward
until the boy has found a way to smash or remove the eye.
This gives the boy a chance to protect Trico. And it shows how the two characters
are strong in different ways. Trico is powerful in combat, while the boy excels in platforming
and puzzle solving.
But this also establishes some pretty clear-cut rules: the boy can't defeat enemies without
Trico, and Trico can't advance until the boy destroys these stained glass eyes.
Rules like this help you understand how the game works. So when you reach a room like
this, you know exactly what it all means. There's a stained glass eye, which the boy needs to
remove, but he's going to need to go through these enemies, without Trico, to approach it.
It's tense and nerve-wrecking, but it feels good when the glass has been smashed and Trico
can join the fight.
And then I got to this bit. Two soldiers are blocking this window by holding up shields,
made from stained glass. I knew what it meant, and I knew what to do. I needed leave Trico,
sneak around, shove the baddies off the ledge, and let the beast through.
Except, I rushed in, dropped down, and got ambushed by soldiers. I struggled free, and
ran up the slope, and shoved one soldier down before being grabbed again.
I knew, at that moment, that I was screwed. The boy can't fight these soldiers and Trico
can't help because of the shields. Rules are rules. It's over. And then this happened.
Oh. Yeah.
The game wanted to show me that the relationship had advanced to the point that the boy's safety
was more important to Trico, than its own fear of the stained glass eyes.
And to do that, it broke a clearly established, mechanical rule. Which are supposed to be
these unbreakable, static... well, rules.
And to me, this made it more impactful than, say, the bit in The Last of Us where, after
establishing that Ellie, another invincible companion, shouldn't use a gun
JOEL: Uh uh. ELLIE: What? I need a gun
JOEL: No you don't. ELLIE: Joel. I can handle myself.
JOEL: No
She then shoots a guy to save Joel.
That's a really good cutscene and strong storytelling.
ELLIE: I shot the hell out of that guy, huh?
But I think the moment in The Last Guardian is actually stronger.
Because, and this is gonna get a bit arty farty but stick with me. It's clear that each
artistic medium has its own unique language. Painting uses the language of shape and colour.
Music is an exploration of sound. Literature uses the language of, well, language. And
film is about moving images.
And video games can, of course, use all of this stuff. But what makes the medium unique
is interaction. Things like mechanics, rules, and systems you can poke at are the language of video games
- and so where Naughty Dog is largely borrowing from film to tell the story of Joel and Ellie,
by using mechanics and rules to tell their story,
The Last Guardian is an artistic work, in the medium of video games.
The Last of Us does gets some bonus points for making Ellie become a more formidable
character in the combat sequences, following that important cinematic.
ELLIE: You're welcome.
Anyway. This moment is all part of Ueda's plan to sell Trico as a real creature, rather
than a predictable and flawlessly programmed video game tool. We can see this in the incredibly
lifelike animations and in familiar moments where, say, Trico hesitates to jump into the water.
But this is also where the game's most controversial decision crops up, as Trico does not immediately
and reliably listen to the player's commands.
Ueda says "When the boy calls Trico, we could have made Trico come immediately, like clockwork.
But if we did that, Trico would not seem like an independent creature. It wouldn't seem
like it was alive and making its own decisions."
Instead, you have to be patient, and learn to understand Trico's sounds and body language.
Plus, according to players on Reddit, the way you interact with Trico can impact its
loyalty and responsiveness. All of those wonderful interactions with Trico, like removing
spears, tending to its wounds, finding food, and petting it can all make the creature a
better companion.
In a way, this all sounds like another great decision to use gameplay mechanics to show
the relationship between the boy and Trico. We see that this is an animal, and that the
boy can't rely on Trico like he could a human. And by building a system where certain interactions
change Trico's behaviour, we can explore, as players, what it's like to love or mistreat
an animal.
And that is cool. But isn't always fun.
And this is a unique challenge of being a games designer who is interested in making
a game that says something interesting. Similar to our discussion on Dark Souls, where Miyazaki
has to sacrifice certain players because those games wouldn't be as meaningful without their
intense level of difficulty.
In this instance, making systems and mechanics that are both enjoyable and charged with meaning
is a brutally difficult balancing act, and one that Fumito Ueda boldly attempts with
every game he makes.
Whether he succeeds or fails is ultimately, up to each individual player. Sorry, that's
a cop out. But for my money, I'm glad there are developers like Ueda out there,
at least willing to take these risks to do something a bit... different.
The Last Guardian is about a relationship - and not just in the cutscenes, or in tiny
scraps of dialogue between fights. Everything, from the roles in combat, to the way you solve
puzzles, to vignettes that are set up by the game's rules - it's all there to say something
interesting, and we get to explore that as players - because it's said through the unique
language of video games.
Hi everyone. Thanks for checking out this video. I'd love to hear your thoughts on The
Last Guardian in general in the comments below. This has been a very divisive game and I'm
curious to know how it's landed with all you guys out there. Game Maker's Toolkit is now
entirely powered by Patreon, which is fantastic. The people on screen are those who have pledged
five bucks or more.
While these names are scrolling past, I wanted to take a moment to talk about a few more
games that do an excellent job of speaking through their mechanics.
Indie games are especially brilliant at this. Undertale is a game that tells us a lot about the game's
wacky cast of characters through the way they fight. Papers, Please lets us poke and prod
at a system to reveal a message about bureaucracy and corruption. And Brothers tells an amazing
story of two siblings pretty much entirely through gameplay that I wish I could say more
about but all the good stuff is in spoiler territory so just go buy it.
Also, while you're here, check out my earlier video on Fumito Ueda's philosophy of Design
by Subtraction, where he removes everything that doesn't contribute to the game's core
idea. You can definitely apply that to The Last Guardian. so maybe give that a rewatch now
you've played his third game.