In some ways I think this suffers from being Ueda’s most conventional game: the idea is borderline Pixar, there’s a terrible didactic voiceover, and even the score sounds distractingly like Thomas Newman. On the other hand, every bit of frustration and jank is brilliantly incorporated into the game’s design, which takes the most mocked of video game objectives (the escort quest) and takes it to gigantic, spectacular heights, with one of the most convincing companion AIs ever devised. Also found the part where Trico thinks you’re (spoiler) so emotionally affecting I had to stop playing for a while. Which never happens.