The Last Guardian is the last PlayStation 2 game ever made. Perhaps to some this implies the technical aspects of PlayStation 2 games - and while to an extent this is sort of true - I’m referring to the heart of its design and the fact that games like The Last Guardian will never be considered AAA ever again.
It was the last drop to fall from the wrung cloth of PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 design philosophy [of first party Sony titles]. That era of game design lives on within indie games. Even the new Ratchet and Clank game on PS5 (a fantastic game) does not fully embrace its PS2 roots. It has traces of it, but it completely wraps itself with modern game design ideas.
The Last Guardian visually looks quite modern, and Trico is shockingly advanced on an animation level, but its narrative delivery and level design is completely married to its predecessors. One of which was intended to be a PlayStation 1 title.

Ico not only has a similar gameplay blueprint as The Last Guardian, it even shares a console generational bridge within its development. Ico started as a PS1 game and eventually stretched itself onto PS2 which helped it realize its full potential. It is now regarded as one of the most influential video games of all time (or has this reputation as “your favorite game developer’s favorite game” or “the best game you never played”. Play Ico, it’s really good!) The Last Guardian had similar obstacles. It was teased as a PlayStation 3 title and even had a trailer included in the ico/shadow of the colossus HD remaster for PS3. Of course most of the conversation around this game is about how this caused poor performance to manifest in the Playstation 4 version. The PS3 game that became a PS4 game tends to be its legacy for a lot of people who didn’t pay the game any mind. Some people I know even sold the game a couple days after buying it because it just felt like a PS2 game and they heard it was too short. If you’ve played any GenDesign (previously Team Ico) video game, it was most likely Shadow of the Colossus. Some people perhaps assumed that The Last Guardian would build upon Shadow of the Colossus’s open world nature. Instead it sort of reverts back to the level design of Ico and incorporates mechanics from both titles. There’s really not even any combat except as an observer.

The Last Guardian makes you play the inverse role of both previous GenDesign titles. Instead of protecting your companion [Ico], you completely rely on your companion to fight for you and help you cross obstacles. Instead of fighting gigantic creatures [Shadow of the Colossus], you befriend one and collaborate with it. Even game design ideas that are typically seen as the worst parts of any game are the defining aspects of this trilogy. Ico is a permanent escort mission. Shadow of the Colossus has a big empty world with ‘nothing to do’ in it. The Last Guardian forces you to rely on companion AI to complete most tasks. You don’t even get a stick to hit dudes with! These are all typically low parts or criticisms of a lot of games. Escort missions are rarely praised as a fun thing, open worlds with nothing to is considered lazy design, and complaining about companion AI is still a topic of conversation in modern games. Take Resident Evil 5 for example. A really fun co-op game, but when you play alone and rely on the AI of your companion it ruins the game for many. Some people say The Last Guardian is exactly that. A good game that is commonly interrupted by Trico’s faulty AI. However I truthfully believe that Trico is one of the best examples of AI being at its most effective.

Of course I’m not going to pretend that the AI is perfect. No AI is. The huge amount of variety in your actions that the AI needs to take into account for anyone who plays it is astronomical. There will for sure be times of error and things not working as intended. However, I firmly believe the tedium and contrast of Trico’s AI early on compared to later is completely intentional. Trico is in the literal sense - an NPC that serves as a game mechanic. But if you’re not boring and use your imagination, Trico is a real animal. Trico is believably a wild animal at first as well. Trico is the world’s most most advanced tamagotchi. Trico does not trust you at first because he doesn’t know you. Like most animals, you need to put in time and effort to develop your relationship. He fights for you and you tend to his wounds. You can pet Trico, get rid of obstacles that scare Trico so he can progress, you feed Trico. The game doesn’t diminish our imaginations so much as to include a “trust meter”. The trust is developed in real time and displayed through gameplay. You will notice that commanding Trico becomes vastly easier. It’s like training a dog. Sometimes you need to tell a dog to sit multiple times before it does, but eventually it takes no effort. Trico’s AI behaves in this way.

The Last Guardian forces us to experience tedium early on because when you develop a bond with Trico, moments of danger become incredibly visceral. I imagine a lesser game having a relationship bar that shows you the stats of what kind of bond you currently have with Trico. Allowing this to play out through visual gameplay alone makes it feel like a genuine relationship that we develop ourselves. The boy we control doesn’t fight and lacks a traditional way of taking damage in combat, but when Trico takes damage, it almost feels worse than getting hurt ourselves. Removing spears from Trico and cleaning blood from his feathers isn’t always required, but we feel drawn to do so because…well I can’t imagine what kind of freak wouldn’t have an ounce of empathy for this creature in those moments.

I specifically recall playing this game the week it released. I was still living with my parents and I thought I was home alone. Headphones on and blasting the volume far too loudly, I experienced a moment that made me yell [out of concern for Trico]. I reacted as if one of my actual pets was about to be hit by a car. Not knowing my dad just came home, he burst in and said he thought I had been hurt or that I was having a nightmare. It’s a hilarious memory for me and I still wonder how confusing it was for him to see me emotionally reacting to a video game like that. That’s the core of this game to me, genuine emotion. This trilogy of games goes beyond simple game design for me. Shadow of the Colossus will forever remain my favorite game of all time, and the Last Guardian was completely fulfilling to me as a follow up from these developers. The Last Guardian represents a delayed ending to my favorite era of video games. It feels like a miracle this even came out. What should’ve been a PS3 game became a PS4 game. It held on a little longer just like Ico. It struggled to fully take advantage of the new hardware, and its introduction to a more general audience was rather divisive as it isn’t the kind of game people associate with the PlayStation brand anymore. PlayStation still makes great games, but the ps1 and ps2 era was exploding with experimental ideas and creativity. The Last Guardian was the final breath of this era. To a lot of people it was simply a weird follow up to that Shadow of the Colossus game that they’ve seen some YouTube videos about - but to me it was a continuation of an era that influenced everything I love about video games.

I recall articles circulating about The Last Guardian being officially cancelled. I remember the disappointment I felt. I felt like it was inevitable but I didn’t want to believe it. Thankfully these reports were miscalculated and the game made a return at E3 one year. To see it open the show with roaring applause was wild. PlayStation is a completely different brand today, but in that moment it felt like they returned to themselves. I know not everyone can connect with this. Modern Sony games have a fantastic quality to them and people really love them. I love some as well! Video games aren’t about Sony or Microsoft though. It’s about the developers and people who make them. GenDesign is no longer supported by Sony, but I won’t be any less excited when they reveal their fourth game. The Last Guardian probably shouldn’t have come out at all, but the fact it was given a chance was really important. None of GenDesign’s games had consistent development. They either switched platforms or completely changed what kind of games they were early on. Fumito Ueda says that he doesn’t try to tell a specific story himself, but that he wants the development of the game to guide what kind of story it ends up telling. Making these games is probably messy, but there’s something so human and different about what they become.

The Last Guardian was the last PlayStation 2 game ever made. The future of games is still super cool though, but when GenDesign makes their return, part of me might hurt a little knowing that their art isn’t valued enough to receive the support of a company like Sony or that it won’t be considered AAA. Times have changed, but the stuff we love still lives on through amazing artists despite not being first party for some huge corporate product. The Last Guardian is probably one of the best games of all time that plenty will never play, but I encourage you to do so regardless!