Why it’s taken so long to The Last Guardian off the ground is a question that’s been circulating for over three years now. With the game shown at E3 and finally confirmed for a 2016 release, Sony front-man Shuhei Yoshida went on the record with Gamespot about some of the problems surrounding the game’s progress.
For starters, he dashed the idea that Creative Director Fumito Ueda was ever fired from Sony. Instead, he called it a “rearrangement of the relationship,” and went on to clarify just exactly who is working on TLG right now.
Now Ueda-san has established his reputation, he [wanted] more freedom on how he spends his time. He may want to work on other concepts, so he chose to become independent, but also still work on The Last Guardian. [It’s] the main project he’s working on. So, Ueda-san was not fired. That was totally bogus. He chose to become independent.
Regarding the new Gen Design studio that had people scratching their heads, Yoshida talked about that as well.
Gen Design’s president used to be the lead programmer on ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. Core members of the Shadow of the Colossus, under him, became independent, to do creative stuff. But the main development team is still in Japan Studio.
Finally, he talked about the process the game has gone through, and what a long ride it’s been for everyone involved.
The project went on so many technical changes. We decided to move the project to PS4 in 2012, but because the PS3 code was so optimised for SPUs on that console lots of code had to be thrown away and rebuilt. It was a tough decision to move from PS3 to PS4 because it was running on PS3. But not at the performance [level] we needed … We knew [we had to decide] whether to continue the game on PS3 with a compromised vision, or move to PS4.
We moved the project to PS4, and we could have said that the project was now on PS4, but I didn’t want to do it until the time when we were confident about our [release] window and we can show it running on PS4.
Yoshida was also asked about whether or not they considered cancelling the game, which is a question that has come up before. His answer was largely the same, as he noted that he believed in the concept, as did Ueda-san and the other members of the team.
Source: Gamespot
hornet1990
Smart move going to PS4 since both Ico and SotC suffered from poor framerates which I felt did dampen the experience slightly (more so with SotC).
However given that visually nothing seems to have changed from the PS3 footage they showed they need to be a rock solid 30 or 60fps or they’ll get crucified for it!
ron_mcphatty
It’s weird but you’re right, it really doesn’t look new-gen enough in the new trailer, so the current state of the game seems strange. Having said that, ICO and SoTC didn’t run entirely smoothly on the PS2, so maybe TLG was just grinding the PS3 to death and the extra power in the PS4 is just keeping it afloat. I think there’s an opportunity for this to look spectacular in some less obvious way, the new GTA V isn’t the best looking game on new consoles up close but some visual treats like the draw distance, landscape detail and skies are truly spectacular and you can appreciate where the power budget is spent. TLG might not compete with the likes of DriveClub and I think that will be fuel on the fire for many, but hopefully it achieves something else very special that we can only imagine right now. I’m still excited!
bunimomike
Technically speaking Ico was nothing to write home about. Hell, it started development on the PS1 which is why it looked a bit shoddy on the PS2 when it finally released.
Thankfully, it still managed to be a truly beautiful game (in the visuals department) in many other ways. SOTC too. Looks like The Last Guardian will join them in the “ooo, will you look at that” hall-of-fame.
That vertical slice we saw all of those years back was far, FAR too ambitious and it’s finally come to light that they’d bitten off more than they could chew. Thankfully, the PS4 has the grunt to run things properly once more. Now… let’s have a lovely game in there too. :-)
double-o-dave
I don’t quite get the cell-shaded effect on the young boy or can’t work out whether this seems to age the visuals a bit. Just doesn’t seem to look right to me against the rest of the environments or the CatBirdDoggie Beast.
Also, I’m wandering whether he was originally cell shaded to free up memory/space so they could use more detail for the beast.
bunimomike
Think it’s a style choice. If you look at Princess Yorda (Ico) she was bleached out to buggery and had very simple detail to her. Same with this little blighter, I guess. Agree, though… still looks a touch out of place even with the heritage of the game. Then again, with the overwhelming contrast compared to Toriko/Trico (in all his feathered glory), your chappie should stand out like a sore thumb which will be essential for puzzling/platform/etc. That might be the key, here.
ron_mcphatty
I think all human characters in the Ico games have had that look about them, even Ico himself, it’s the toga I’m not sure about. Also, Princess Yorda, Hotel Yorba, any connection? Whatever, I’ll be glad to see you later.
ico
Will happily chime in here: provided the frame rate is generally smooth if it plays anywhere near as well as Ico or SOTC then it’ll be one of the games of the generation. Both of those games were incredible gameplay, beautiful to look at and incredibly emotional. The amount of graffix a game has (deliberate mistakes to reference the 12 year old gimps on IGN n the like) doesn’t bother me a jot.
Clearly I’m not biased (red faced at my screen name) but it’s true, Ueda is a genius and I’ll be early in line for TLG. i bought Ico and SOTC twice for PS2 and PS3 so I’ll aim to continue that tradition for TLG on PS4 and the higher hi-def remaster limited edition game of the century version on PS5 (maybe) ;)