Team Ico's Next Project - The Last Guardian

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FAZER
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Team Ico's Next Project - The Last Guardian

Post by FAZER »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF3fED8EXl4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:ohsh:

Seiko Flossberg
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Post by Seiko Flossberg »

I was a bit disappointed when the rat showed up. I have faith, though.

SuperFeen
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Post by SuperFeen »

this is the game that will make me buy a ps3

Andvil
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Post by Andvil »

yeah the rat-parrot thing definitely wasn't what I was expecting, but it still looks incredible

jredd109
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Post by jredd109 »

looks ill, as expected.

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Random Sample
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Post by Random Sample »

A definite buy. No questions about that.

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Post by Tommy Bunz »

This looks incredible. Its not a rat-parrot, to me it looks pretty obvious that it is a baby griffon. Team Ico is pretty brilliant when it comes to developing a relationship between you and your companion (the girl in Ico, the horse in Shadow) and integrating it into the gameplay, I can't wait to see what they come up with here.

Whats the release date on this?
This and Beyond Good & Evil 2 are now my two most anticipated games.

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Post by Tommy Bunz »

Fantastic IGN article

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/100/1001089p1.html
From Ico to The Last Guardian
An in-depth look at the masterful game design of Fumito Ueda.
by Tim Henderson, IGN AU

Australia, July 3, 2009 - Something unexpected happened in 2001: thousands of pubescent male gamers found themselves caring deeply for a female character in a videogame. These adolescents ג€“ along with many mature adults ג€“ developed a deep sense of affection towards a ghostly girl who wore pale, raggy clothing, had some strange mystical powers, possessed little in the way of a bust-line and was never once played for titillation. Her name was Yorda, and the act of holding her hand for some 6-8 hours of adventuring through a lonely, sun-soaked castle was enough to make her one of the most affecting characters that gaming has ever known.

The host game was Ico. For many it was the first justification for the then over-hyped PlayStation 2, not just from the perspective of visual grunt, but also from that of delivering a wholly new experience for a console that was, at that point, little more than a glorified DVD player. It was, in short, a very reasonable justification for the PS2's existence ג€“ visually striking, consciously unique, and unachievable on older consoles.

Within the context of the above paragraph, it may seem ironic that Ico started its life as a PSone project ג€“ and one that was looking impressive by the standards of its hardware at that. But then, Ico was a game that thrived on subtlety and understatement, and for all the cold logic that one may be able to reduce its puzzles to, the overall experience simply wouldn't have been possible on earlier generation hardware.

The difference is a matter of expression: the flapping of cloth; the eerie convincingness of the shadow monsters. Compared to games such as Devil May Cry, Ico's combat feels loose and imprecise, but this is only befitting of a young boy whose only instinct is to wildly swing a piece of wood; a boy who, when knocked down, stays down until some pain subsides. Not only is this acceptable, within the context of the rest of the game's story and mechanics, it's often beneficial ג€“ resulting in some truly nail-biting moments.

This can all be attributed to Yorda. Ico's creator, Fumito Ueda, carries an Art School pedigree and it doesn't seem unreasonable to assume that this man has a strong fondness for themes of isolation and companionship. As a gameplay device, Yorda is both a tool and a walking obstacle. There are moments where young Ico needs her assistance, but there are many more when she will need his.

More significantly, however, she becomes a defenceless friend in a world of abandonment, and by turn an object that must be protected. Ueda intentionally set up a language barrier and introduced a mechanic for holding hands. The attempt to escape from the castle ג€“ the game's straightforward, ultimate goal ג€“ palpably brings Ico and Yorda closer together, a common human reaction to shared hardships. To leave her alone is to risk her capture by shadow creatures, and to allow this capture is so conceptually heartbreaking that every swing of that block of wood matters, each blow backed by a weight a thousand times more powerful than the petty demoralisation inspired by game over screens.

Fast-forward a few years and Shadow of the Colossus would go on to achieve the near impossible: it would break out of Ico's mould, become its own game, but still retain the spiritual quintessence of Ueda's debut work. To use a dirty word, Fumito Ueda provided sophomoric evidence of being a genuine auteur.

This time, the landscape would no longer be walled off by a beautiful but sorrowful castle; replaced, instead, by a beautiful but sorrowful collection of open grassland, forest and desert. There would be no female companion to accompany the hero on his adventure, either ג€“ instead his quest would be to restore her life-force, no matter the cost. More importantly, Ueda's fascination with companionship in the face of lonely circumstances would be upheld thanks to Agro, one remarkable steed.

There were numerous things that could be considered standout in Ico, and towards the very top of the list would be Yorda's artificial intelligence. Her pathfinding was impressive, and her cautious wandering believable. Agro would go on to improve on this, and remains the most believable horse in any game to date. In fact, he's probably the only believable one.
Such a feat would come with an obvious sacrifice of control, and Ueda has spoken of his concern in intentionally delaying input reactions in order to simulate the control of a man who is controlling a horse. For most gamers, such a fear proved unfounded ג€“ Agro felt more natural because of his instincts, and for his ability to veer towards the most comfortable path to his destination: his behaviour felt dynamic and alive. He was loyal, but not robotic, and the result was strong empathy. This relationship between man and beast continued to matter, and both seemed willing to put their lives on the line for a mysterious, lifeless girl.

Exploring these open lands, the pair tracks down a series of majestic giants with the intent of slaying each one, irrespective of the consequences. Walls would have made no difference: the hero here quickly proves to be an expert climber. The collective Colossi referred to in the title are amazing, and often innocent beasts, each one representing a fresh challenge and series of obstacle puzzles-of-sorts as the hero clambers all over their bodies in order to plunge cold steel into mystically marked, vulnerable areas. To this day it remains one of the few games to elicit genuine remorse from a mass user base ג€“ some gamers even went so far as to say that they were unable to complete the game due to being too guilt-stricken by their actions.

Although far more action-intense, Colossus' gameplay matched Ico's vision in many ways: each beast was essentially a platforming puzzle that needed to be figured out in order to progress, cooperation with a living companion would be required, and a remarkably rich narrative would reveal itself through actions rather than words. Ico thought small and intricate; Colossus thought grand and epic.

The Last Guardian appears to be taking tabs on both mentalities.

Speculation about Team Ico's newest project would have been running amuck for a few years now had there been anything to speculate about. Only just prior to E3 was an amazing piece of footage leaked, and it wasn't until Sony's press conference that the real trailer was shown, confirming the project and making the previous footage look archaic in the process.

Flying in the face of early review assumptions about his games being light on story, and perhaps even his own intentions, Ueda appears to be slowly creating one of the richest fantasy worlds ever conceived. Shadow of the Colossus appears related to Ico only in style until one devastating, striking moment pulls the narrative threads together fantastically, brilliantly, as the player sits shocked, dumbfounded by the full meaning of the revelation.

As such, the narrative of The Last Guardian is a fixture of much fascination, and a little willing guesswork. The trailer managed to be a mix of the expected and the anticipated in its apparent seamless merger of many of the traits from Team Ico's previous two games ג€“ the scale of Colossus is accounted for alongside Ico's more walled-in design. Other details abound, also, such as fully armoured solders that may look like those that Ueda contemplated including in Ico.

The visual design is the most familiar fare, but utterly breathtaking nonetheless. The rich artistry of Ueda's vision is often cited, but one has to wonder about the technology used to achieve this. Ico actually looked sunny, while Shadow of the Colossus convincingly simulated visual effects that the Playstation 2 simply wasn't capable of, had gameplay that required unprecedented collision detection, and played with draw distance to present a massive, open world uninterrupted by a single loading screen. For Guardian, the feathers on the creature now known as 'Toriko' are the most immediate standout, and you'd have to be in denial to try and point towards a more lifelike fantasy creature in any game on the market or in known development.

Little is yet known about the gameplay, although cooperation between the boy and Toriko can be taken for granted. In one of few forthcoming moments, Ueda has already let slip that players shouldn't expect this creature to be too bright, and that they may have to lure it to help with tasks and tempt it to behave.

Whatever the expectation, Ueda is a man with a perfectionist vision (one that has resulted in both hiring and morale problems in the past), and there is little doubt that the game is a potentially huge boon for the PlayStation 3. After all, Ico is frequently mislabelled as underrated, probably because of its sales, while Shadow of the Colossus not only met expectation, but managed more respectable sales to go alongside the critical praise. It even knocked Need for Speed: Most Wanted from the number 1 position on UK games charts (admittedly after it had been there for eleven weeks).

There's little doubt that The Last Guardian will be a production of the highest standard. For some it might even just be a long overdue justification for the entire existence of the PlayStation 3.
Last edited by Tommy Bunz on Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Seiko Flossberg
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Post by Seiko Flossberg »

^ Great read.

Tommy Bunz
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Post by Tommy Bunz »

Really bummed that no new information about this surfaced during E3. Hopefully its still on track for a 2011 release.

darkwingduck
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Post by darkwingduck »

i hope they release SOC or come out with a sequel for the ps3. one of the greatest games i ever played.

Tommy Bunz
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Post by Tommy Bunz »

Agree that Colossus was an amazing game but gun to my head, I think Ico is the better game.

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Re: Team Ico's Next Project?

Post by Tommy Bunz »

its baaaaaaack


BigCat8
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Re: Team Ico's Next Project?

Post by BigCat8 »

People who haven't played either of the first two Team Ico offerings seemed a little underwhelmed by the trailer, but it looked good to me. It definitely seems like they're going more puzzle-platformer (Ico) than puzzle-combat (SotC). I'd like a whole new SotC personally, but, I'll take what I can get.

Also, kinda funny to read back through this thread looking at the timestamps.

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Re: Team Ico's Next Project?

Post by Tommy Bunz »

Yeah its been a longass time. This has been a good E3 though, as 2 out 3 of my most wanted "sequels" to PS2 games were finally shown for PS4 (the other being Kingdom Hearts 3).
Only thing that sucks is the third one was also announced as dead (Beyond Good & Evil 2).

Fumito Ueda said yesterday the real reason the Last Guardian was delayed is because they realized in 2012 they couldn't do the game on PS3 and had to rework the engine for the next gen. I don't really see how it would've been pushing the PS3 hardware that much, but at least that makes some sense.

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Re: Team Ico's Next Project?

Post by None »

This was one hell of a way to open a Press Conference that included the announcement of a FFVII remake, and Shenmue 3.

Tommy Bunz
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Re: Team Ico's Next Project?

Post by Tommy Bunz »

Reviews for this are kindof all over the place. Still hard to believe that its really coming out after all these years. Anyone picking it up tomorrow?

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Sigma
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Re: Team Ico's Next Project - The Last Guardian

Post by Sigma »

I have it pre-loaded, but it doesn't unlock until Friday here in the UK.

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