While fans did not expect to have to wait over a decade for a follow-up to Shadow of the Colossus, development delays, and other problems caused the originally-planned 2011 release to slip significantly. Thankfully, the finished product was worth the wait, and The Last Guardian was commended for its story and art direction.
Particular praise was given to the depiction of the game’s main character, an unnamed boy, and the creature — Trico — with whom he must develop a symbiotic relationship with in order to reach the end of their epic adventure. The relationship between the two characters drove The Last Guardian to become the emotionally resonating story that it's known for today.
The Inception of Trico, the Star of The Last Guardian
Following the success of Shadow Of The Colossus, which itself was a follow-up to Japan Studio’s original 2001 action-adventure puzzler Ico, Sony commissioned its first-party developer to start work on a third game and spiritual successor to the previous releases. Team Ico set about making The Last Guardian, which like Shadow Of The Colossus, retained much of the look and feel of its predecessor while telling a distinct story with new characters.
Like the previous two titles, it was directed by Fumito Ueda, who favors a “design through subtraction” approach. This meant that he was strongly focused on removing any elements that did not contribute to the game’s core theme, which was the connection of its main protagonist with the beastlike companion he encounters early in his quest.
Ueda had been surprised when many players of Shadow Of The Colossus claimed that they had felt an emotional connection between two of its main characters. But instead of between Wander, the protagonist, and Mono, the girl he is seeking to revive, many players found the bond between Wander and his horse Agro to be the more compelling one. It was this idea of a relationship between a human and an animal that Ueda sought to further explore in The Last Guardian.
How The Last Guardian Made Players Care About Trico
Ueda’s minimalist, “design through subtraction” approach means that his games contain as little dialogue as possible, and this approach is perfect for a relationship between a boy and a monster, who have no hope of understanding each other’s words or growls. Instead of sitting through large chunks of text or cutscenes, players experience the development of their character’s relationship with Trico by interacting with the bizarre creature, observing and learning from his often-unpredictable movements, and stunningly modeled behaviors.
Trico’s introduction is certainly memorable and sets the tone for the complex nature of the bond between the two characters. The boy finds himself transported to a mysterious cave, awakening lying next to the huge monster, which is cruelly manacled and pierced with spears. Trico is initially hostile, shrieking and kicking the player, but if the boy is able to offer food to the creature and extract the painful spears from his flesh, he will then become more friendly.
This exchange teaches the player an important lesson: Trico is not a mindless beast, and if he is treated with respect and compassion, he will respond by helping the player. The game quickly develops into a strange kind of inverted escort mission, with Trico rewarding the player’s kindness countless times, making the boy often seem like the one who is being escorted. Not only will Trico allow the boy to ride him to previously inaccessible areas, but he will also aggressively destroy the peculiar stone enemies that harass the child throughout his adventure.
This symbiotic relationship is critical to the development of an emotional bond between the player and the beast, upon whom they will come to rely just as much as Wander did on his trusty steed Agro. However, in another parallel with that memorable game, the most effective sequences come when the creature is put in danger. Wander’s horse famously fell from a crumbling precipice, leaving the player devastated by the loss, and Team Ico veterans might have feared a similar fate for Trico when he is beset by rockfalls and attacked by his evil, mind-controlled cousins.
Thankfully, just like Agro, Ueda spares Trico from a tragic death, although the rescued boy grows up never again meeting with his friend and benefactor, whose monstrous kind is not welcome in his home village. The ending is poignant and sad, but its impact is multiplied a hundredfold by the lengthy and harrowing adventure that the two characters have endured together.
Fans of the Team Ico games will be hoping for more beautifully realized, heart-wrenching storytelling when the rumored new genDESIGN game is finally released. However, the developer will need to be on top form if it hopes to recreate the emotional bond it so brilliantly crafted in The Last Guardian.
The Last Guardian is available now for the PS4.