Friendships form an integral part of most people’s lives. Hence, it is not surprising that friendship is a common theme in video games. For example, Final Fantasy 15 has a male-centric focus on a group of friends going on what feels like a campy road trip intertwined with an epic adventure, while the Life is Strange series sets its sights on the friendships between girls that plenty of gamers will find easy to relate to.
Of all the friendships shown in video games, perhaps the most beautiful and authentic example happens to be an interspecies one. Released in 2016, The Last Guardian is a game featuring a boy who befriends a large, curious creature named Trico. Although the game frustrated many players due to Trico’s occasionally troublesome ways, the relationship between the boy and Trico illustrates the most special parts of friendship.
Trico Has a Mind of Its Own
To understand exactly why The Last Guardian frustrated some players and had them throwing their controllers across the room, it is necessary to investigate Trico. The creature is incredibly realistic, sporting gray feathers and shiny eyes that seem to have a glint of life in them. The realism is not limited to the creature’s appearance, and its behaviors are also incredibly lifelike. When Trico is bored, it will sniff a corner of the room, groom itself, or yawn lazily. Other times, when Trico believes the player is not looking, it will even relieve itself.
The world of The Last Guardian is one that should be familiar to players familiar with prior games directed by Fumito Ueda. It is composed of strange, stone architecture that looks like the remains of an ancient civilization. On top of looking enigmatic, the architecture forms complex environmental puzzles that must be navigated. To do this, players have to seek help from Trico, but the creature does not act the way most animal NPCs do. A simple button press will not elicit an action from Trico. Rather, the creature has to be coaxed and slowly trained before it will begin to comply.
When The Last Guardian was released, Trico's stubbornness and reluctance to obey frustrated critics and gamers, leading to some dismissing the game or labeling it broken. However, Trico's behavior was an intentional choice from the developers. As Ueda explains, the game was crafted to “strike that good balance between Trico doing his own thing and also listening to the boy”. Hence, having Trico turn his back, forget an instruction, disagree, or even just be a brat is all part of hanging out with the creature.
The Last Guardian's Realistic Approach To Friendship
People seek out friendship for many reasons, most of them obvious. Friendship is an antidote to loneliness, and it provides a space to admit vulnerabilities, share laughs, and seek help when life gets to be too much. However, for all the benefits that friendships bring, they are also a lot of work, requiring time, emotional labor, and consistent effort. It is necessary to be tolerant of a friend’s less appreciable elements and to be willing to compromise. With just one of these elements missing, it is so easy for a fruitful friendship to fade as quickly as it formed.
Despite the challenges that come with it, people cultivate and nurture friendships because they produce something that is greater than the sum of its parts. The smile of a good friend can lift one's mood and erase all past arguments, and looking into the eyes of a friend possessing true love brings an ineffable kind of peace that makes one willing to do anything to keep the friendship alive.
Those beautiful feelings are what Team Ico tries to artfully depict and maybe even evoke within players. Living with Trico is certainly not an easy task, and the creature has several flaws. It is a glutton, it can be stubborn, and it has odd phobias that make simple tasks harder than they need to be. However, when players stumble from great heights, only to fall into Trico's cradling feathers, it somehow all feels worth it.
The Last Guardian is available now on PS4.