The Last Guardian Reviews
It can be argued that no game is worth waiting 10 years for, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Last Guardian. It's not perfect by any means, but it is an enjoyable, impactful story worthy of experiencing.
For some The Last Guardian's iffy controls, awkward camera, and glitches might be hard to overcome. Others won't care as they experience one of the most incredible relationships in video game history.
Yes, The Last Guardian's controls are incredibly archaic and at times can be entirely broken, but two days after finishing it, the story has stuck with me. Studio Japan has continued to show how it can do so much while saying so little. The environment, characters and everything about the narrative captivated me. In spite of the controls I still thoroughly enjoyed the game overall. The story is a simple one, but powerful nonetheless.
Despite its lingering flaws and often frustrating pacing, The Last Guardian rises above expectation to deliver an engrossing adventure. Team Ico have brought together everything they've learnt over their past two games to present a heartfelt tale wrapped in an often-bewildering platformer – even if it took nearly a decade to make it here.
Beautiful. In every way.
The Last Guardian demands patience, but even it seems tired of waiting
The world is stunning, the bond between the boy and Trico is a beautiful example of love and friendship, and the story is gripping, it's just a shame there are so many technical issues holding it back.
Eschewing the spare storytelling of previous Team Ico games, The Last Guardian's plot unfolds in a series of easily digestible cutscenes. It's a dark fairy tale that probably isn't quite what anyone expected, but ultimately serves to make the friendship at the core of the game even more remarkable. The Last Guardian is about two lost souls becoming one, and the strength and joy found in that conjunction.
Touching on themes such as companionship and trust, The Last Guardian's tale is minimally delivered and powerful. Without spoiling much, it will be a topic of debate for years to come.
Trico may not belong to any earthly species, but he moves and behaves – and, sometimes, is just as frustratingly unmanageable – as a real dog or cat
A moving adventure starring an extraordinary companion. Framerate issues intrude, but don't let them stop you from finishing this wonderful game.
The biggest question I keep coming back to in between moments of awe and terrible frustration is, 'Is The Last Guardian any fun to play?' Ultimately, I feel like it isn't. The gameplay is too purposefully obstructed, too deliberately designed to be rough around the edges.
'The Last Guardian' is rooted in the past, with design problems the game's beautiful aesthetic can't disguise.
I've been waiting for this day to come with the hopes of The Last Guardian's success and that it wouldn't disappoint me, and I'm glad that it didn't. It may not have the most compelling story and has some struggles to hit a stable 30FPS, but the bond of Trico and the Boy alongside its artistic game design and core gameplay mechanics makes The Last Guardian one of the most exciting cinematic experiences next to Uncharted 4. It's a breathtaking adventure and a beautiful work of art!
The Last Guardian is a must-play for fans, but it struggles under the weight of years worth of anticipation, due in large part to troublesome AI and a finicky camera.
I wish I could say I love the game, that its plagued by only minor setbacks, but I cannot honestly do that. I can't look back at how much time was spent not enjoying myself, at how much time was spent actively wrestling with the game to wring anything worthwhile from it, and say I played the masterpiece many are going to say it is.
Not quite up to the same standards of its predecessors, but this is still an emotionally draining and beautifully realised story of friendship against the odds.
Somewhere underneath the broken gameplay and terrible camera controls lies a lot of potential for a great game.
The Last Guardian is Team ICO's magnum opus.
Like Team Ico's past work, talking about The Last Guardian too much inherently drifts into spoiler territory, but we have years to unpack this. For now, I'm confident in saying that although it isn't their best work, there really aren't too many directors out there like Fumito Ueda, and I hope for our sake, he continues making games.