The Last Guardian

Everybody’s heard about the bird… and after a decade of waiting it’s ready to leave the nest

It’s not a new thing for a videogame to create a bond between player and animal. Whether it’s Epona in The Legend Of Zelda, Dogmeat in Fallout 4, or Pokémon Yellow’s ever-present Pikachu, forging a fleeting yet meaningful connection with a digitised animal can help elevate a game from simply being good, to becoming one you never forget. Like Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus before it, Sony’s latest exclusive can stand proudly as one that can make you feel so many strong emotions: fear, joy, elation, sadness. This is a moving game, but was it worth the eternal wait?

After being announced in 2007, it’s fair to say this is a game that has had it’s share of problems during development. Originally a PS3 game, Fumito Ueda's’s direction and Sony’s devotion to the project has finally brought the fantasy adventure to life on PS4 and made a game that has been kicking around for what seems like forever, actually feel fairly fresh, with a graphical sheen that, while it doesn’t compete with the very best the console has to offer, certainly looks better than it did when we first saw it nearly a decade ago.

In so many ways, The Last Guardian is something of a throwback. There’s no multiplayer, the menus are pretty sparse, and very few trophies pop up during play (most appear after the credits). no, this is purely a story driven single-player, third-person action adventure experience. and without the trappings of a modern videogame or the machinations of a publisher more concerned with pushing micro transactions or keeping players grinding away months after release, it feels all the more focused.

Bird watch