Sandwiched between the grand reveal of Final Fantasy VII Remake and the Kickstarter-funded Shenmue 3, the long-awaited re-reveal of The Last Guardian arguably stole the show at Sony’s E3 presser last year. And just as the gaming industry braces itself for the trade show to descend on Los Angeles once more, Team Ico’s ethereal adventure title has reared its furry head again.
Adorning the latest issue of EDGE magazine (via IB Times), Director Fumito Ueda offered up some insight into Trico, the monstrous griffin-like creature that will be joining you on a journey through the game’s ancient ruins. There’s also a sliver of gameplay of Trico in motion (part of IGN‘s First video series) embedded above, giving you an inkling of the interplay between the ginormous creature and your pint-sized protagonist.
According to Ueda, however, the key role that the creature plays in The Last Guardian is ambiguous – for now, at least.
“This creature isn’t like the cute pets that exist in other games, or an ally that’s really useful. The role of the creature is ambiguous; that’s something we wanted to express in the game, and it doesn’t always do what you ask it to do. That’s one of the themes of The Last Guardian. It’s something that’s difficult, and completely different. I want to create the next thing – an experience that people have never had before.
“The amount of code is very large compared to AI in conventional games. We’ve given this creature its own desires, so depending on what action it wants to take, that affects everything, including its animation. It’s not like a normal humanoid character.”
The Last Guardian is finally expected to take flight later this year, when Team Ico’s long-in-development adventure game touches down on PlayStation 4.
