I'm shockingly excited for The Last Guardian's release, coming early next month... but not for the reasons you're probably thinking. I'm almost excited out of curiosity, or like a living experiment coming into play. The question hangs in the air, nagging my mind: Will people still love Team Ico's style? Personal feelings on the game itself are more... eh. It's a game I kinda want to try and hope to enjoy, but I just know this sort of game isn't my style. Then I think about it and wonder, is it anybody's style anymore? Obviously some will appreciate and love this game, but enough to be a success story like it was in the past?
Team Ico builds their games a little strange. They were almost a type of indie game, before the indie games of today. They worked within AAA constraints of the 2000's to make minimalistic, puzzling, enchanting, and carefully crafted games. These are the kind of game to appreciate for the patient ones, for the quiet types, and for those willing to put up with the down times and struggles for the good little moments within a grand adventure. It's the sort of person that will actually take the time to notice and appreciate the fact that all of Trico's feathers are carefully rendered, or who first wondered what that blackish blood gushing from the first colossus was about. That type of person was easier found and sold to back then for a profitable game, but now when we're all consciously aware of the tedious escort missions, we're holding radar guns to the framerate, we're constantly distracted with social media, and your best and worst sellers are online games laced with constant progression systems that spoon feed your constant achievements, and sale expectations are around 6-10 million at times, it's not hard to see how the landscape has changed. I don't think everyone is holding that sort of expectation to TLG, but I just know there's going to be some critic outlets that call it outdated, boring, or tedious. People eat this stuff up in indie circles for $15, but what about the bigger game that's asking $60? And that's all setting aside any doubts that it's dev hell status has some implications.
That being said, I'm not a doomsayer here. I think there's still going to be people out there to love this game, and a surprising amount of hope is in the air for it in the circles it's mentioned. As a matter of fact, fan's hope are probably what saved it. I can't speak too well for them since I'm not a big Shadows of the Colossus fan, but I feel like I get the general idea... and there's still quite a good number of people who insist it's their favorite game to have ever been made. That's no light acclaim, and in a world full of minimalist indie games compelling all sorts of people, SotC still stands out as something special, with occasional murmurings that Ico was also amazing. Yes, Ico, the other giant escort mission game that Team Ico made and named themselves after. So clearly there's more going on than just surface level stuff. You can't sit there and pitch someone the idea of Ico on "Well, there's this girl you have to pull around and traverse a castle with." Instead it's probably more suiting to give them an image like this, or this, and promise them it's an enchanted and yet haunting adventure that awaits them. Some will be more skeptical and questioning... probably like me, trying to find the mechanical interests. Others will just be guided towards that promise of adventure, and maybe they'll find something incredible.
Heck, just talking about all of this and looking up screenshots to put here, has kind of reminded me why I wish I was more suited towards loving this kind of game. I love the sense of detail and imagination crafted into these adventures, I just hate linear puzzle solving. I don't think gamers have necessarily moved beyond the type of games Ico puts out, but I just think they're hard to come by and we're not exactly bringing up a generation that's likely to get involved with it. I'm also speaking from the idea of critics, and their lashing out. I feel like some people aren't going to be addressing their expectations right. I'm very interested, curious, and somewhat excited to see what really happens. But of course, in the end, it barely matters in the general gaming landscape. What counts, no matter how small or niche, is the group of gamers that really are ready and have their expectations set right. The type of people who do stop to admire Trico's feathers, or the details in the environment, or the mysteries of the cryptic story telling, and all the care that went into the AI of the characters or the subtle animations at work. These are the sort of people ready for a gripping adventure, the kind that only Team Ico can make. I hope it delivers that well, and somewhere out there becomes a new "best game ever" to somebody.
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