[GO10s] #3: The Last Guardian

With most of the games on this list, I initially got into them either excited, or at least with no preconceptions. That would be very hard for The Last Guardian, a game surrounded by controversy, polarizing reviews and near-universal agreement that one of the major functions of the game, commanding your animal companion, is bad, and if anything, the game succeeds despite it, not thanks to. However, a friend’s praises towards it made me decide to check it out for myself, and with each passing minute it became more and more clear that I’m playing an absolute masterpiece.

So this will be a short entry because I already wrote about this game once and I definitely stand up by everything I’ve said back then.

One small addendum I can talk about is the companion VR Experience. I have to say that seeing Trico up close to scale and interacting with them was something really special and meaningful. I was definitely able to lose myself in the experience for a moment, before the cumbersomeness of UI and abrupt cuts between scenes reminded me that the technology isn’t quite there yet. But I’d lie if I said my heart didn’t skip a beat when our gazes met.

So just to reiterate what I’ve said three years ago - The Last Guardian is a stunning achievement in telling a story focused on a relationship between a person and their pet. Most of this is due to execution of Trico, its design, animation, sounds, scripted behaviour and interactions with the player character. But moreover, the duo's journey is incredibly well-paced, mostly thanks to fantastic level design and low reliance on non-interactive cutscenes. The game is stunningly beautiful and features one of the most stand-out soundtracks of my entire list. Climbing, exploration and puzzle solving may not be as fun and fluid as in the Uncharted series, but they perfectly play into the surreal, serene tone of the story. It’s one of the most touching titles I’ve played, one whose form and content fit together unprecedentedly well. I doubt anything comparable will come any time soon.

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