The Last Guardian Review: The long awaited game tells it’s tale

The Last Guardian is finally here! Whether the game meets the high expectations, find out in our review of the game.

The Last Guardian is an adventure game on PlayStation 4. The title tells the story of a child who wakes up in a cave without remembering how he came here. He is not alone, however, since a gigantic creature named Trico is at his side, wounded and chained. It is by taming the beast and using its abnormal abilities that the player must advance in ruins with the aim of going out alive, but also to understand the mysteries that surround the place. The relationship between Trico and the boy will evolve as you go through the game, turning into true friendship.

While other AAA titles are quickly forgotten, The Last Guardian will last a long time – even though the game is not perfect in terms of control. The Last Guardian makes up for it  through the innovative interaction with the authentic characters. Add to this a beautifully told story, which is exciting and sometimes sentimental. Finally, The Last Guardian closes with a beautiful and worthy end. So the long wait for The Last Guardian will not only have been worthwhile for fans of “ICO” and “Shadow of the Colossus”. Even newcomers will be enchanted.

The Gameplay

The gameplay is based on actions that you need to indicate to Trico in order to  advance in the ruins surrounding the player. Jumping, moving forward, sitting down, calming down, each of these possibilities may be important at one time or another, even if Trico acts regularly on his own initiative. The player must activate mechanisms to move forward like levers to open grids. Trico being frightened when he sees strange stained-glass windows, the player must find a way to break them. Finally, a shield-mirror allows you to activate an energy discharge coming from the tail of Trico, which makes it possible to unblock passages.

Throughout the game you find yourself taking creeping paths, squeezing through small holes in the wall, looking for hidden rooms, climbing up vines, hiking along chains, performing daring jumps.

After a while, you can even give more commands; when you jump around the spot, Trico imitates you and jumps with you on your back to high projections. When you walk on the spot and point in a certain direction, he goes in that way. However, Trico is sometimes self-willed, moody or simply does not understand. Often, you have to repeat the commands several times.

Unfortunately, the gameplay suffers from the constant input lag: the game always reacts with a short delay in both the control of the boy and the manual movement of the camera and the readjustment of the camera is essential.

The Story

You wake up as a little boy in a cave with Strange tattoos on your body. How did you get there? Not the slightest idea! Where are you? No clue! What does it all mean? Not sure! It becomes even more remarkable: right next to you lies Trico, chained and worse, spears are stuck in his body making the animal furious, hissing loudly as you approach. Still, you want to help Trico somehow. You browse the cave and find oddly luminous barrels, it is food for Trico. You drag the barrels to Trico and throw them in front of him. It begins to eat them and gradually calms down. At this point you realise that he still has spears deep in his body. So dare to climb on his back. At first, Trico bends, but you remain persistent and finally manage to pull the spears out of his body.  Now you need to break the chains to free Trico. However You are not free for a long time; a huge wooden gate blocks the exit, opening it with its own strength seems impossible. There must be another way! but how?