The Last Guardian

I am simply beside myself with joy at the prospect of playing the next game from Team ICO. The popularity of SOTC should ensure the developers new game gets a warm welcome.

The Last Guardian(TLG) was unveiled at this years E3 and seems to share many similarities with Team ICO’s previous games. The playable character has to care for a creature (or person) and the game is built on this relationship between an NPC (non-playable-character) and the avatar. I remember being devastated by the ‘death’ of Agro in SOTC or feeling afraid when the dark creatures were kidnapping Yorda in Ico.

During the video shown at E3, the boy(avatar) seems to be feeding the creature and in return the creature helps the boy in many different ways. This dynamic is at the core of Ico and SOTC and I’m sure will be an essential part of TLG. One can also speculate that the creature can communicate with the boy, perhaps not using a vocabulary but with gestures and calls. The creature itself appears to be based on both a cat and a bird and is reminiscent of a legendary creature called a Griffin.


The visuals in this game are sure to be breathtaking and I can only hope that they share the same dreamlike quality that their other games do. Team ICO’s work on the PS2 utilised the consoles architecture brilliantly making SOTC one of the best looking games on any console in recent times. The raw processing power of the PS3 cell engine is sure to make TLG look incredible.

There are hints that the landscape the game is situated is either the same as or inspired by SOTC. The architecture of the castle is also reminiscent of Ico and shares the same dark looming structure. Though they have never confirmed that either Ico and SOTC are related it is popularly believed that SOTC is the prequel to Ico. I am hoping that the saga continues with TLG being related either directly or indirectly to Team ICO’s previous games.

So here’s to baited breath while we await the coming of the third game from Team ICO and the knowledge that we can expect the same dynamics, the same clarity for a visual style and the re-assurance that TLG will be an incredible game.