jawa2 wrote:deathofcows wrote:The Last Guardian - 10/10... I thought the game was brilliant and even better than I'd hoped...
Also, I was moved at points and I didn't think I would be...
Couldn't agree more, doc.
Back in December 2016, here in GRcade I wrote:Today I finished The Last Guardian on PS4 Pro.
+ Terrific environments
+ Enthralling gameplay and exciting set pieces
+ Incredible relationship between "you" and Trico
- The odd poor texture
- The controls occasionally frustrate
Overall... [10]. One of the greatest videogames that I have played.
That's a much more concise way of putting it!
OrangeXMS wrote: I loved game and it's one of the best of the last decade, but I Ico and SOTC edge it for me. The way they all compliment each other and are vaguely connected enhances them all though, I like how much TLG feels like a combination of Ico with its partnered escape from a single ruined location and SOTC with Trico being this large beast that you clamber across (or I guess the setting is closer to Ico but that mechanical element feels very SOTC).
For me (WARNING: Potentially Controversial Opinion Incoming) SotC looks and sounds exciting but doesn't
feel exciting because the Colossi are too slow to feel like a threat. So you can run around until you've worked out the puzzle, or wait happily on their back whilst your stamina replenishes like you're waiting for a bus. For me it feels a bit like fake drama, though beautiful and evocative fake drama. I just don't think the battles are as tense as the soundtrack and scale suggest they are - there's a mismatch.
And in truth the growing guilt and sense of melancholy that people felt as they cut through the Colossi was something that didn't land as much for me (maybe I should play it again now I'm older?!), though the general vibe and soundtrack is still one of my all-time faves.
Similarly I do like the bond with Yorda in Ico, it's touching and pleasingly understated. And having just checked out some footage, I do like the crispness and comparative precision of Ico's movement compared to the other two. And the shadow-kidnapping is probably more tense than anything in SotC.
But in TLG I didn't feel a mismatch, the exciting bits were exciting in the hands as well as on the screen (the button-pressing panic of being dragged away!), the variety of different scenes and mechanics - though they are never introduced as such - keep things surprising throughout (the bit with the water splash!), and the more tender bits were perfectly pitched. Two in particular had me right in the feels in a way I can't recall many other games hitting, and one was a brilliant subversion of game-logic that made me actually feel guilty
(when you pull on the chain because it's a chain and therefore needs pulling, and only realize too late that this has committed Trico to a guillotine-like trap and you've no choice but to let go).
Anyway it's a beautiful sort-of trilogy, and there's probably an argument to be made for any order depending on tastes. But as a game for me I think TLG comes out on top, and hits all the notes it aims for.