Journey through Three games in a Single World from memorable Team Ico
At the early draft, we wanted to write another game insight similar to our earlier approaches, describing locations or in-game subjects without spoilers, and sharing insights on the main protagonists and how their relationships develop, grow or establish with their companions. But as we began to write, it all felt wrong. Telling a story about games that don’t have a traditional narrative is impossible in the ordinary way. If the game doesn’t have a clear way to convey what you saw or did, then by simply writing a description, you would come out with a dull and empty emphasis without capturing the true essence hidden in the heart of the world.
Each player will find their own storytelling understanding of these three games, and each of you will be right to understand them in your own way. We managed to do it by revisiting the old locations. We headed back to the roots of each story, exploring through photos, artworks, a large amount of text, interviews, and even replaying the games in our minds. This journey was not just about analysis but about reliving the emotions and experiences that made these games unforgettable.
That’s why we wanted to set an interesting challenge for ourselves: To find the most important aspects of what makes each game unique, why they feel so different despite being set in a single world, and why revisiting those places once again leaves you stunned, just as you were when you first played them.
May our exploration resonate with those who have undergone this journey and invite new seekers to experience something new and unveiled before.
Before we begin, the information was gathered once again from book The Works of Fumito Ueda A Different Perspective on Video Games written by Damien Mecheri
Ico - hold her Hand tight
Everything complicated is Simple. With this words we ventured into finding information on Ueda-san works, and as we ventured deeper we found a many confusing idioms, an intriguing things and of course a simple sensational understandings - nothing in this world is perfect and only we want to idealize it to become such. But this metaphors shall be discovered in different sides of the post. Right now as mentioned in quote everything complicated is simple the idea for game known to us as ICO camed to Fumito as a combination of simply compatible things.
After leaving WARP, an idea for adventure of a young boy and a girl bigger than him within a fantasy world came in Ueda-san's mind.
In high school, he had been drawn to an ad in which a woman was holding the hand of a child, walking with him in the forest. In manga Galaxy Express 999, the relationship between the two main characters, the young boy Tetsuro and the tall, skinny Maetel, became the basis for relationship between Ico and Yorda.
But at the very early stage of development, those were slightly different characters than those we know in final version of ICO.
Initial idea was of a young girl imprisoned in a castle who is freed by a slave and it was merely one of many details that underwent under changes over the game’s development.
In the concept video, Yorda had horns. And it is hard to say for sure what was the main goal for protagonists, but surely it seemed like girl was at certain point protecting boy more often than otherwise, but with new changes the main elements remained intact. In the game’s official making-of video Fumito explained: “I thought that this could work well on the visual level.” However, unlike in Galaxy Express 999, in which Maetel protects Tetsuro, Ueda planned to reverse the perspective by making the young boy the guardian. Keep the word guardian in mind it will have relevant approach further.
May the Heart of the game is a relationships between Ico and Yorda it holds a significant place for another character - the castle.
It's immense space holds a places for battles
climbing leaders, jumping platforms, pulling and moving objects
and of course beloved puzzle levels
those are many recognizable and elaborate aesthetics supporting a unique ambiance in which player-gamer will take time for explorations in which from the very beginning of the game till the very end the main goal will be settled
How to get out of castle ?
Ueda’s knowledge of art allowed him to evince castle's design by taking inspiration from Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Imaginary Prisons
Templo de la Tos 1748
Carcri Plate III: La torre redonda 1750
Vista de la Strada Consulare con la Puerta de Herculano en Pompeya 1772-78
Pieza de la colecciòn Diffèrentes vues de quelques restes de trois grands èdifices qui - subsistent encore dans le milieu de l'ancienne ville de Pesto 1778
and from the works of illustrator Gérard Trignac, where influenced architecture makes humans appear minuscule and insignificant.
Le sanctuaire du doute 1985
La citè aux milles tours 1999
Le sanctuaire 1997
La citē des marais 2004
Well, we are glad to cite the book, but let's share a personal insight on castle's inspiration.
Those who had played the game haven't felt instability of floor under you feet, as one more step would take you outside the ordinary dimension, eyes are trying to find a spot to hold concentration, you begin to rush
from side to side trying to understand is it Déjà vu or is it opposite side of castle's defensive wall.
If you had a familiar feelings than maybe You begun to remember a strange stairs leading from upside down environment towards dead ends or at the beginning of those corridor like paths from where character begin to walk.
Allow me to introduce the creator of the Escherian Stairwell - Dutch artist Maurits Cornelis Escher a draughtsman, book illustrator, tapestry designer and mural painter, but better known for his woodcut, lithograph, mezzotint and graphics artworks.
Drawing Hands 1948
In his works there is always a sense of beginning with no ending, as you always can follow a certain lead, but eventually return back to the center of composition.
Relativity 1953
Metamorphosis animation
Basically each work holds a center point of perspectives formed by mathematical calculations.
Waterfall 1961
Tower of Babel 1928
His works create a mazes of repeatable movements they work greatly with the characters,
Ascending and Descending 1960
Convex and Concave 1955
by combining them together it creates an illusion of fluently sensation
Day and Night 1938
Reptiles 1943
where even a watcher is only a small piece in a greater sized composition.
Hand with a Reflecting Sphere, 1935
The first achievable goal was to make the game as immersive as possible, as Fumito mentioned to PlayStation.Blog: “As a creator, I think that developing a truly immersive experience and creating a believable reality even within a fictional world is very important and unique to the interactive nature of gaming.”
The quest for realism and immersion also included setting aside certain video game-specific habits: “We hated these objects that were very unnaturally placed in levels just for the sake of level design, so we removed them as well. For example, in ICO we don’t have invisible walls that would normally prevent the player’s character from falling off. And when we really needed those walls, we made them look very convincing.”
The difficulty, then, was in finding the right compromise so as to not lose the player. This is why camera angles and lighting contribute information necessary for progression. Meaning have you noticed how often similar to other puzzle, platform games you notice in cutscene or in certain point of tries how game shows you a clue, it was inspired by Prince of Persia.
From the words of Ueda-san aiming for photorealism wasn't the form of revealing the story rather the true approach was taken in form of emotional realism.
The desire for players to believe in the story they are told and to believe in the world they will explore, discovering and exploring the castle is one of the forms of ico's emotional story telling, it creates an atmosphere where at certain points along the way, difficulties arise due to the understanding of what you need to do to find the
right path that will take our protagonists out of certain place to a more comfortable and peaceful one, where you can sit on a stone couch and just enjoy the flowing sound of water flowing near you, definitely, it creates a very individualized feeling.
That is the meaning of emotional approach Ueda-san used as a form of expression, a visual form of artistical speech is understandable without a need for scenario to have a readable or understandable text.
Another approach is created with relationships between Ico and Yorda, it was the soul of the project since the very beginnings of the concept. He wanted for the player to be able to physically feel interaction with the world inside the game.
To strengthen tactile relationship with the game, Ueda had the idea of assigning a button for Ico to take Yorda’s hand. He explained this idea to Edge Online: “I wanted to make a game where multiple characters on screen weren’t fighting each other, but rather you could touch them directly.”
And these feeling were created thanks to the animations that were completely made by hand, without the aid of motion capture. Ueda knew that, paradoxically, sometimes a real movement doesn’t seem real and at the time, motion capture in video games was less advanced than today, and the smallest hitch in the movements during modeling would be more obvious to the players.
There are many projects we could recall in which motion capture was used for characters faces or movements, but as most of them come in count to be Japanese games we shall leave it to your own discovery, but we will take an approach what became an inspiration for ICO to turn into platform puzzle with no player menu on the screen.
“What they all have in common is the intricacy of the animation. I’m always curious in finding ways that animation can help breathe new life into characters.”
The result is two major impacts that shook the industry a bit, the in game mechanics of Prince of Persia with its vacuum like designed universe and Another World.
About prince most of you would certainly hear of, many surely had played an original prince from 1989 and even saga from Ubisoft, but how many of you have heard or played Another World.
Let's take a descriptive look into it.
The main protagonist must somehow survive in a distant from his usual area, by escaping a race of primarily hostile humanoid aliens.
The story’s context and its general happenings aren't clearly explained except visually, leaving a place for interpretation up to players’. The aliens themselves communicate in an unknown language, and subtitles aren't provided. And the most interesting point all visual components used in games before are removed: no health bar, inventory, menu or map.
Ueda integrated this approaches: two characters cannot understand each other through speech, they communicate through their actions, there aren't a provided inventory or health bar;
a Map - here it is in Japanese guide book for ps2 version
and of course the platforms with their tricky spots where one wrong move can make you slip right back at the beginning of level, just like in Prince of Persia.
The last but not the least.
Original cover for game ICO, was inspired by paintings from Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico.
We mentioned in post dedicated to Ueda-san that this cover was painted by himself, but we haven't revealed much of information which painting exactly has similar composition that holds similarities with it.
Chirico painted his whole life, but the works he completed during the 1910s brought him fame. He was criticized for his tendency to repeat himself, and from the 40s, even reproducing and creating alternatives to his older paintings. Well nowadays he surely wouldn't be criticized, many digital artists not only recreate their older works but create the same drawings again and again only changing color palette or environment details (clothes in particular). Some saw repeatedly as a form of forgery, but beyond these controversies, Giorgio de Chirico left his mark on art history.
Here is Fumito's painting, in which we see the geometric perspectives combined with monumental architecture of the windmill and the arches, evoking feeling of inspiration from the works of Giorgio.
It holds similarities with two paintings in particular
Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (1914), in which the silhouette of a little girl playing with a hoop appears frozen in time, despite her body being in motion, with immense arched buildings looming overhead stretching to the horizon, and the same approach with shadows streaking over a yellow ground.
And The Nostalgia of the Infinite (1913), in which the tiny silhouettes of two people face a giant tower, encircled by columns–and again the hues (here, orange replaces yellow, but the sky is again blue-green) and shadows stretching across the scene.
When American website 1 Up asked Fumito about his decision to imitate the style of Giorgio de Chirico for the cover of ICO, he said: “I thought the surrealistic world of de Chirico matched the allegoric world of ICO.”
A theory clue: name ICO are the last three letters of Chirico. Theory holds meaning that the entire game, beyond just the cover, is a clear homage to Italian artist.
Well, we have revealed much of the story behind the scenes of creating ICO, but haven't said a word about our own feelings on it, that should be covered up as well.
In particular ICO is a very specifical game in which our team couldn't answer the question why people turn to tears sometimes when they complete this game, seriously if someone knows the answer we would like to read about it, but ok lets be serious.
As we mentioned in part of describing castle, ICO is hard to understand or explain without trying to redraw the steps you took when begun your explorations, climbed the ladders, run from upside down the stairs that spined as tower or over jumped an obstacle to run into next one's.
Yorda at the very beginning of the game feels like an obstacle as well, you are her protector, protecting her from nasty shadow beasts, from falling down, even from being harmed by objects in the room.
Yet, as the two of you travel father you learn to overcome those obstacles together.
Slowly but worthy, step by step, palm to palm
Yorda becomes more independent and soon she can trespass certain distances on her own without a need for hand to hold her.
And that is the beauty of this story it is a growing influence in which she was a caged bird at our first meeting but eventually the world and sounds of it enriched her, she begun to blossom with the light that she always were in the shadowy place she was trapped in by someone who loved her too much, and as it always appears to be, overprotection occupies a mind, depriving us from straight thinking.
Sooner or later children will grow up, the world beyond the walls is wide indeed, but it won't harm them, instead it will show them their own path in adult life.
And eventually they will find someone they will want to share their journey with. Such were our feelings after completing ICO
Shadow of the Colossus
Ride, Climb, Sacrifice
When Ueda-san was asked what shall be awaited from his next game he expressed: “I felt like I didn’t want to make another game with small, compact puzzles. In my next game, I wanted the action sequences and the gameplay itself to involve more chance and spontaneity.”
From here grows in weight, an idea of making the platform levels living and mobile. A role that will be carried by colossi, an imposing enemy that demands observation and agility from players-gamers.
When considering the approach - what element to use for new player attraction who weren't hooked on ICO, Ueda thought he would make it action-filled and spectacular game.
He imagined the concept of a game in which warriors, accompanied by their horses, would take on titans in immense worlds falling into ruins. This open world would do away with superfluous battles against small enemies, and only keep fights with bosses. Project at early stage of development was known as NICO (a contraction of next ICO) the game was imagined as multiplayer; the players would help each other to defeat the colossi.
Idea was abandoned when the team realized that they had no knowledge of online systems; NICO became a solitary adventure.
In this perspective, Ueda wanted to focus on the connection between the man and the horse, and what that implied in terms of animation and interaction.
Fair description on horses behavior and realistic control feeling will be after a small interlude.
In most of the games mount ride or specifically horse ride does not feel any way differently from control you take over your two legged protagonist, the difference comes from adjusting controls used only on horseback and faster movement because of four legs instead of two.
We have our own experiences from relatively different sorts and kinds of games that involved riding both on consoles and on pc as an example sacred, dragon age inquisition, darksiders, ghost of Tsushima, gun, call of Juarez, three rdr games and of course mobile and internet (web) platform games. But none of these horses could even come close to the feelings and satisfaction felt from riding Agro.
This mare in our viewpoint has established a position to be the best horse in whole game industry ever created. Now let's see why we have such thoughts on her.
In the game’s making-of video, producer Kenji Kaido remembered: “When the team experienced the horse riding firsthand, we sensed a great feeling of joy. It was a really worthwhile experience, and we tried to incorporate that feeling as best we could.”
Ueda wanted to continue the experiments of ICO with the idea of a tactile relationship with a virtual being. For him, artificial intelligence should be credible and independent enough to create the illusion and strengthen the immersion.
When preproduction started, several animators and programmers were sent to riding schools to study horses’ movements and behaviors.
One of the lessons learned from this experience was that horses don’t always obey. Ueda wanted to integrate this idea into the game. In his mind, the player wouldn’t be directly controlling the horse, but rather a man riding a horse.
Lets explain it from purpose of game's sight, when you play ordinary game you move horse same way you move your character, the biggest difference comes from the feeling of heavier handling, when you have to press harder or, on the contrary, you have to touch it more gently, often following the health or stamina status of the horse.
But Agro she won't respond gently and accurately as other horses.
When given full control over her, and trying to move stick to the right she instead tries to walk around or turn left side, it took a few minutes to understand her behavior, but eventually it became obvious and natural cooperation between rider and horse, creating enjoyable and rich memory moments spent on the road.
For the creator, this subtlety of the relationship between the hero and his mare Agro was an important distinction, later it was explained:“[She] was neither your pet nor your friend. She was more like your partner.”
In the early stages of development, Agro responded less easily to commands and orders than in the final version, the team soon realized that this triggered situations that were too frustrating for the player.
Then, purpose was to find a balance between realism and comfort.
First, the very fact that a means of transportation in a video game didn’t respond to all the player’s commands was already going beyond the expected, and would cause confusion when the game was released. On the other hand, Agro’s independence was also advantageous.
A part of development was therefore dedicated to quest for finding balance and perfection in the relationship linking Wander, the hero, and Agro.
During battles against colossi, the player wouldn’t have to worry about the horse’s behavior; she reacts on her own and also prevents the hero from falling into the void when he’s too close to the edge of a cliff.
The horse’s animation were reworked and improved numerous times. But this work represented only a small portion of the many technical and visual challenges the team faced.
In total, around thirty-five people worked on NICO, which was soon renamed Wanda to Kyozō (“Wander and the Colossus”), before becoming Shadow of the Colossus in the western world.
When idea for Wanderer's main purpose began to grow in Ueda’s mind, he imagined no fewer than forty-eight colossi. However, this number was divided in half from the beginning of development, as quantity does not necessarily mean quality, and Ueda preferred to focus on a more dense experience.
In the end, from the twenty-four colossi, only sixteen were kept for the final version, to ensure continuous originality in the battles.
Well, when we consider project NICO to be a multiplayer game, forty-eight colossi scattered around distant places and you with other brave souls would venture on horseback in finding and slaying down them, it captivates the mind for how stunning that could be.
Certain colossi design ideas were abandoned while some other were combined with the final versions collosi.
Among the concepts cast aside, was a spider colossus that had to be defeated with blows from a sword while riding Agro. Having to add this aspect of gameplay just for this boss was too big of a constraint, and it was rejected.
In official artbook are shown other colossi that never came to life, such as Phoenix
Roc (resembling a dragon)
Worm (a giant worm)
Devil (a little winged bird that looked like a pudgy demon)
and even Quetzalcoatl
Some ideas, like a colossus that threw objects and another from which the player had to hang with a rope, were removed early on.
Saru
Griffin
Yamori A
Inspirations for the colossi did not necessarily come from typical images of monsters.
Ueda described “the front of a car, the surface of a building”... The team studied machine mechanisms in detail, such as the hydraulic press and the movements of vehicles and various industrial equipment.
The code names of the colossi’s areas are also hints of real places that may have served as aesthetic inspiration, such as the Canossa castle in Italy for the sixth colossus, or the Parthenon, a Greek temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, for the fifteenth.
This means that for You mystery and easter egg seekers, if this is a new discovery, then you obtained a new challenge.
Finding a balance between a living creature and something inorganic was, yet another difficulty in development stages.
Ueda did not want the repetitive colossi massacre to be too disturbing for players: “I tried to make the game abstract, so you wouldn’t know whether the Colossi were structures or animals, in order to ensure it wasn’t cruel and unusual.”
In truth lies a deeper theme, beneath many layers of the game is cruelty. A reflection on traditional works in the industry: “Video games seem to require cruelty as a means of expression, and that being the case, I wanted to try and present my own take on cruelty.” The other major theme of the game is the fact that “you can’t escape from your own fate,” as creator explained to Eurogamer.
In a documentary interview, Walking with Giants, Fumito shared the story of the inspiration behind the creation of the colossi, he said that the idea of designating enemies only as bosses came from spending time playing video games.
After completing a long journey, reaching the last location, you will be greeted by a boss whose defeat is not always the easiest, even after getting used to the game controls.
At that moment, he had only one thought, how he wanted to climb on top of the boss, take his weapon in hands and deliver one fatal blow, putting an end to it's existence.
In the official guide, respond on question why to stick to battles against bosses, was different: “When I’m deciding whether or not to put something in the game, I’m always looking for meaning behind it, no matter what.
Like, does it make sense to put smaller enemies in the game just so you can get items and experience points ?
I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if I’d had a Colossus you wouldn’t be able to beat without some item you’d get defeating smaller enemies, meaning the player would have to go back out into the field again once they figured out they didn’t have the necessary elements to defeat it.”
The practical aspect and the artistic dimension are combined in a way that only Team ICO knows how to adapt them in the development of their games.
Where each element must be useful and consistent, to not break the immersion:
“For example, if you ask yourself why the pedestal the girl is sleeping on has pillars coming down from the top, the answer is that they’re there to prevent the player from standing on it.”
Gradually, the gameplay of Shadow of the Colossus took shape and inspired Ueda for the outlines of the world.
Through the creation of the open world, the team aimed to add a sense of freedom for the player. There are no barriers that don’t look natural; the player must be able to go where they want as long as it is accessible from a physical point of view.
The more the scenery was extended, the less it displayed polygons.
This made one of Ueda’s ideas integrating climate and temporal variations into the game-impossible.
To create this feeling of immensity, Team ICO concentrated on the draw distance, playing with perspective and manipulating graphic elements so that the console could generate it all.
This solution allowed for obtaining a visible, credible horizon without overloading the memory.
In the same way, the music would change based on situations, Ueda hoped to have more fluid transitions, but the PlayStation 2’s functionalities prevented them.
Wander will have two main weapons to use in his travels
one is a bow it's arrows will have a very effective strikes against certain colossi,
and a sword that reflects a ray of light to guide the player to the next colossus,
it responds to approach taking a steps away from classical form of tutorials: “I wanted a hint that was direct and could only be expressed visually.”
In addition, the choice to not guide the player with a location on a map is a way of allowing them to better understand and analyze their environment.
On this topic, he even pictured adding a teleportation system to move from one point on the map to another more quickly, but came to realization that this would take away the interest in having explorations in immense world, which according to developers was close to the size of Tokyo.
The player had to experience the vastness of the landscapes.
Well, one peculiar building less than one more in the wide area.
One thing is truly undeniable, the forbidden land with its scenic views, does not leave indifferent
its natural inhabitants,
habitats of colossi,
secrets from undiscovered history.
Everyone will find a reason for themselves in the exodus of this world.
“I believe that there should be game design first and a story that suits the design, not the other way around.”
The game design first and story that suits it - conclusion a several alternate endings that were envisioned, but were never realized or implemented even in the remaster versions.
In one of them, the young girl that Wander wants to revive, Mono, would wake up surrounded by a halo of light.
The men that wanted to prevent Wander from finishing his ritual would be scared to see the girl’s superhuman powers. They would flee, and again seal the cursed land in which the adventure was taking place, leaving Wander and Mono trapped.
Ueda considered the idea of adding a bonus ending for those who loaded a saved ICO game at the beginning of this new game, but he didn’t go through with it. He also thought of adding a flashback during the ending, when Mono touches the mare Agro. She would have a vision of what happened during the game and would understand Wander’s sacrifice. This was another element that never left the idea phase.
Last but not the least important fact - ICO and Shadow of the Colossus were not originally intended to be connected. It wasn’t until halfway through development that, Ueda-san linked the stories, through the hero Wander, the connection with the curse of horns that serves as a premise for the beginning of the story in ICO.
During the writing process for Shadow of the Colossus, several elements changed. At the very beginning, to show the corruption taking over Wander more and more with each colossi’s death, he was going to slowly transform into a beast.
The creative director saw this as a way to reinterpret the tale of Beauty and the Beast in his own way.
Let's admit, games were in development process around several years, idea with corruption was a part of the early scenario, but in 2004 a year before release of the colossi was released fable. And what happens with our Chicken Chaser if you decide to take a dark path, correctly the horns begun to grow on his forehead.
Certainly, We live in a Small world :)
This game certainly has left a rhymes in everyone's mind or even heart who played or tried game itself.
Someone cried after slaying colossi, others carelessly and freely strike one after other, thirds considered it wrongly but still brought them closer to extinction.
Certainly there was a certain colossi who were so peaceful that even weren't trying to harm Wander or strike him back,
there were even a wonderful pray for unique hunting challenge
or those that required a logical approach as their habitat was build like a puzzle level where training on both mental and physical approach come in handy
and of course none the less important those who raised inside you a wish to kill them without a mercy.
Was it all worth the effort ? In the end it seemed so, but the price paid for resurrecting someone from the death always means to give someone else's life instead.
Decision was made willingly by Wander, the price was obvious, but one question remained unanswered
which part feels lighter and which heavier
to take a responsibility on action by taking a life or being ready to give your own instead ?
The Last Guardian
a Love for a Creature that was too wild to Stay
Following the release of Shadow of the Colossus, a restless Fumito Ueda, focused his attention on reading feedback on the game. Since he hadn’t especially focused on the heart of the work, he was a bit surprised to note that many players were touched by the relationship with the horse Agro, both in terms of the video game interaction as well as emotionally.
He then thought there was a possibility of going much further with this dynamic, and this inspired him for his future project.
The Bird-Cat
As a child, Ueda took care of many animals at home: dogs, cats, ducks, rabbits, and even a monkey. Growing up, he remained attached to animals. At the time when he was reflecting on the concept for his new game, he actually had several cats at home. For him, friendship with animals symbolized a complex, deep relationship that he wanted to bring into this new game.
Images of a giant creature came to his mind-a combination of a raptor, dog and cat that also had some bat-like traits.
We would like to add weasel or ferret, as we could count some similarities in creature's appearance, sometimes when he stretches himself his body bends similar towards a weasel's or ferret's.
This result was intentionally unique. “It’s important that it be a strange creature,” he explained to Famitsu in 2009
“An animal strikes a presence in your life simply by looking at it.
Beyond even the visual aspect, it was the behavior above all that interested the creative director:
There is an air of mystery to them, since you can’t be sure what thoughts could be crossing their mind, and that’s another reason why animals are a main theme of the game,” he explained to Famitsu.
Due to his appearance, and in direct correlation with the name of the project, the creature was named Trico–or Toriko in Japanese–which is a combination of tori (bird) and neko (cat).
The Trico project also referred to the third (tri) ICO, in the same way that NICO, beyond “Next ICO,” could be interpreted as the “second ICO”.
The game was soon named The Last Guardian, a name used to be eye-catching for the western audience. In Japan, it was named Hitokui no Ōwashi Trico, or The Great Man-Eating Eagle Toriko.
An interlude: Back at the story about ICO we asked to keep in mind word guardian, a thought crossed our minds that despite the title using word guardian may be eye catching, after completing game the obvious roles interchanged a few times in story.
So, back to role of the guardian, at the beginning of the story this role is taken by Trico, he is a large beast that can sway down even the heavy stone warriors that run around the field with only one move of his paw.
Trico, let's refer to him as a gryphon because Japanese artists have a very unusual approach to imagining mythological creatures from the western world.
A small example would be Yoshitaka Amano who draw a Bahamut on of the monsters in final fantasy as a dragon because, he didn't know how the origin of beast and that it's description was hidden in holy book.
But eventually roles will swing, Trico won't be anymore the only gryphon in area and even stone warriors will have better equipment to harm Trico more effectively than before.
We, as a boy come in the rescue, by pulling out spears from him, destroying glass shields used to deter him and of course trying to help him in configurating out how we can use objects around us in certain rooms.
Concluding: Guardian isn't just a role it is acceptance of responsibility to Protect someone who is Dear for You,
if in ICO we were obviously protecting Yorda since the beginning to the end, than Trico protects us at the beginning
but we soon begun to see we are depending on each other
when he needs help we rush as quickly as possible.
Trico became the star of the game, and Ueda intended to push this relationship with the creature even further than in any other game:
“There are lots of games that have cute-looking characters, but that ‘cute’ is mostly a symbolic ‘cute,’ taking real life and deforming it. The traits of a real animal are much more complex, but I think video games, and in particular the power of the PS3, have the power to express them.”
Back then it was 2007 The Last Guardian entered its active development phase.
It had a New Development Plan “We learned from our experiences on ICO and Shadow of the Colossus that doing Research & Development at the same time as making the game slows down the process.”
This time, he hoped to complete The Last Guardian more quickly, Team ICO planned to start with the research and development step before jumping into full production as the development stages had taken close to four years for each of the recent two games to be completed.
Well it took more effort than intended and possibly was the first wrong step that determined the outcome for both The last Guardian and Fumito Ueda, but it shall be discussed later.
In original envision protagonist role featured a young girl as a heroine, but in the end favored for a young boy, thinking that a young girl would have more difficulty's climbing onto Trico’s back.
The heart of the adventure hold similarities with ICO in terms of mechanisms, with the platform and puzzle levels, but the partnership with Trico would be its true essence.
Following the example of Agro, Ueda wanted Trico to not obey the player perfectly, as he revealed to Famitsu: “He’s not all that smart, and he won’t necessarily do what the player wants all the time.”
In 2010, he even compared the creature to an adolescent: “Compared to Agro, who was a fully grown, tamed character, Trico is wilder, almost
adolescent, and this comes through in his expressive personality which adds humor to the game.”
so that his rejections didn’t frustrate the player too much, and for the player to understand that it was part of the animal’s credible and immersive actions.
Once again, one of the most difficult parts was finding a balance in behavior this time Trico’s,
The fact that Trico is an immense creature triggered another approach: “This time it’s kind of a really giant AI character rather than the small helpless character of the first game.”
On the contrary, Trico could show both strength to protect the young boy and weaknesses becoming dependent on the boy's help.
These thoughts, shared with Eurogamer in 2011, show that the relationship between the two characters were no longer going to be a one-way protection scenario.
Body Language
When it came to interaction between the two heroes, and the presence of enemies, Ueda drew inspiration from the basic rules of rock-paper-scissors:
“There will be times when Trico is paper,
the boy is rock
and the enemy is scissors.
It’s a triangular relationship where strength is relative to the situation.”
Trico’s lively and credible elements, and therefore the quality of his artificial intelligence, was nevertheless the area that occupied most of the development team’s attention.
Ueda explained his intentions to 1Up in 2011: “With The Last Guardian, we’re aiming for a form of visual expression that makes the player feel that sense of warmth.”
He hoped that with Trico’s advanced artificial intelligence, each player would have a different experience in their relationship with the creature.
Well we surely can share our experience with Trico, somewhere at a lovely sunshining grass field Trico laid down to get some rest, we climbed up and cuddled him, after a few yawns he fall asleep.
We decided to take a walk around the place and when we return back Trico waked up and just before we headed to the door way we caught him in close action for
The Call of the Nature
Yep, we were lucky to have a close relationship of trust with him :)
Trico’s reactions were primarily inspired by cats.
When rest periods allow for it, he continues his own life, looks for food and objects to play with,
his eyes begin to shine when he looks at something attractive or when enters dark rooms,
prepares for a jump
he shakes off the water after swim,
and loudly but helpfully will try to express his concerns on situations.
“The character needs to express via his actions that he knows there’s a wall there, because that makes him seem more real and palpable.”
Avoiding invisible collisions remained a priority. When making contact with a boulder, for example, the young boy has to put a hand on it, which gives it a tangible consistency.
When the bond with him will grow stronger, he would not only look around for you more attentionally, but even notice that you remained behind and he needs to return back for you to climb on and could trespass on his back a distances that can only be overjumped by him.
Or when he gives Trico a command, Trico will try to configure out where exactly he needs to look at and where he should jump.
“I think what I’m doing now like eliminating words and dialogues from a game or placing constraints in order to heighten expression is the only way for digital storytelling to proceed.” Ueda, who “does not consider himself a minimalist,” nevertheless aimed for a certain refinement and simplicity, which are seen down to his technique of creation by subtraction.
In 2016, he confirmed to PlayStation.Blog that his vision of the relationship between the hero and Trico, which he considered the central theme of The Last Guardian, had not changed: “They can only communicate via gestures, motion and reactions, so visual storytelling was the best approach to making the game and showcasing the tale.”
Ueda admits that he sometimes watches movies in foreign languages he doesn’t speak, and mentally builds a plot using the images and expressions. He really likes to use his imagination in this way, and he wants the player to experience it.
In the book Game no Ryuugi, he explained that a good change for video games would be for them to get rid of cutscenes-that is, all the scenes in which the player has no control of what happens.
While he realized that he couldn’t achieve this goal with The Last Guardian, he insisted that the majority of narrative scenes be at least partially interactive.
For the creature’s sound, the team created a number of different samples before selecting the final one. To do this, they combined many sounds and voices, with the aim of creating something that seemed both new and familiar, to maintain a believable result. Following Fumito Ueda’s advice, their mixing included sea animals and piston engines.
At the gameplay level, Trico’s tail remained one of the major points because the hero can hold on to it and climb onto the creature’s back.
“The contrast between the small movements that the boy makes by himself and the large dynamic movements that the boy makes with Trico is at the heart of the game, and that has not changed since the very beginning,”
“We realize that today’s players need a little more guidance than in the past, but we made sure to keep it to a bare minimum for those who prefer to discover things themselves.” Along the same lines, the presence of blue butterflies shows the player that a barrel containing Trico’s food is nearby.
Maneuverability was at the center of reflections and underwent various changes up until the last moment, as Ueda revealed to JeuxActu: “Originally, we wanted to give the player the possibility of choosing between several types of controls, but due to concerns with time and technical reasons, we had to make the decision and use just one type. And it was the gameplay from the 2016 Tokyo Game Show that was selected in the end. Why this one? Because these controls are much easier to understand and are best suited for a larger audience.”
Ueda did not want to repeat the outline of ICO, by wanting to avoid a construction that was too obvious, a repeating chain of typical phases of exploration, puzzles and battles, as he explained in the making of video created by IGN in 2016: “We wanted to make it so that it’s difficult for the player to forecast what comes next.”
Surprise is the keyword, as much as to maintain the player’s interest as to avoid a too-pronounced “video game” aspect in the progression.
Fumito Ueda explained to The Guardian in 2015 that heights are a universal fear: “It shows the psychological stress that the player has to overcome.”
In particular, the player experiences moments of being a tightrope walker in the high-up Nest, the place where the adventure unfolds.
Again within the idea of eliminating as many elements as possible that gave too much of a “video game” feel, he focused on an idea that he had since early on in development: stained-glass eyes placed like scarecrows to prevent Trico from advancing.
This idea came to him while observing similar objects in rice fields in Japan, used to keep crows away.
Even though it is a nice game that didn’t receive wide commercial success, there was a very high price for The Last Guardian after all the years spent in development. The fact remains that the game’s true success will be measured by the mark it leaves in the history of video games, and the people that will remember it and continue to discuss it for many years.
Now let's discuss all the years spent in development, we didn't want to take information from the book or make a reference from it, we decided to describe the situation with our own words. Truth be told the last guardian spent ten years in development. A very tough time that drastically changed everything. In development phase major
problems were caused by movement of feather's in the wind, their connection to Trico's body, his movements that should be attached on position of the player for gryphon to not loose the sight of boy, a wind itself that blew in the whole area and each detail like the leaves on the tree and boy's clothes needed to work properly in unison.
He broke down as a person and burned down as an artists, the final work was completed by genDESIGN, Japan studio and few inside Sony game development groups, Fumito at a certain point we can say that he left his own project and after some time left the game industry.
Other problems came with realization of the area Nest, with all puzzle levels, physics in them and interaction with objects inside rooms.
One small issue after another and soon a plan for two or three year development lasted for ten years. It became a heavyweight burden for Ueda-san, he lost hope in the game, he thought probably it won't see it's release date.
Before we wrote the last words for our fluffy fellow Trico we would like to make a reference.
The last guardian began it's development year in 2006 and saw a release date in 2016 the same way in this year from 2014 the release date for dragon age inquisition we have received a news from dragon age the veilguard to be released in 2024. Another paradox for ten year development, but if we know what to expect from Trico than well, some of us wait in satisfaction what to expect from the final dragon age game so was said by David Gaider while he worked on game, while others try to avoid even looks on those odd faces of new protagonist. Yet, we shall see what fate awaits the series and studio itself.
Despite the fact that both earlier Ueda-san games being a sufficiently sad and even complex within their dark, nasty moments still for us the most sad story came out to be the last guardian,
it would be easy to make a reference towards saying that love for animals makes you feel sorry for them more often than for humans, but it isn't the concern for this games, as we told about colossi even there the understanding of empathy can be formed against those who hardly can sympathize us.
The truth indeed hides beneath layers, the story for guardian is not only a story of trust between two different aspects of world view,
an animal and human,
a wildness and civilization,
but trust, by facing your fears, overcoming difficulties, challenging fate, despite it all you won't leave your friend nor turn your back on him, you will try to understand him and help him no matter what.
By this hardly formable steps you forge a strong bond between the two of you and when you risk with your life he will take a risk on his own as well.
To be honest, imagining interactivity in cutscenes in a game like last guardian as an achievable task is difficult, but Ueda-san was able to create them for certain moments in the game, and they only strengthen the bond between story and it's listener:
The journey over turns to be only rusher and mor crucible on both of you ad despite everything you watch with satisfaction what shall come next.
Turico...Uetiya..upandthat
Suggestion from player to gamer vice versa: If you have ps3, tv that reads and understands 3d atmosphere, 3d glasses, than you should have one more thing - this version of game The ICO & the Shadow of the Colossus Collection.
We have played two other hd collection titles Prince of Persia and Ratchet and Clank trilogy on ps3, in prince it was hard to get used to maneuver and concentration on the run and in jumping section's, but with ratchet who equipped his magnetic boots your head got spinning just in few seconds. Team ICO made the most accurate and balanced 3D atmosphere that we experience, we haven't got neither headaches, nor head spinning feeling only enjoinment from time spent in them.
Possibly the effect we describe about getting lost in ICO like in Escher's artworks came from glasses. In Shadow of the Colossus, our breath was taken away since the very first cinematic, the nature surrounding you, sound of horses hove's, mane that swings in the wind, Wander who grabs hold of colossus fur, arrow's flying in the distant it all felt so dynamic that we lost the count of time.
Sadly, that ps4 doesn't have this option and we could feel Trico only from dualsense's vibration in hands.
A tip - we use Brook Gaming adapter's to play with controller's from ps5 games on earlier sony generation console's.
We would like to thank each and every fan-artist for the wonderful and charming artworks we used to describe our feelings created from the team's ico games.
And the most important advice - Don't forget to always watch the credits until the last line, You may be pleasantly surprised with the unexpected ending of the story, till the next title from ps2 arriving in December :)
