‘The Last Guardian’ flaps its wings ahead of E3 2016

By Dan Isacsson Published June 14, 2016

The Last Guardian: 10 Years in the Making - IGN First

The spiritual sequel to ICO that was announced six years ago is still in development, and that’s becoming something we have to remind ourselves of every once in a while. The Last Guardian is designer and director Fumito Ueda’s first entry for the current generation of hardware, and while it’s arguable that the hype has died down since its initial announcement, dedicated fans are still anticipating its arrival. In a recent IGN interview leading up to E3 2016, Ueda delved into some of the details of the game’s turbulent development process.

As you may already know, the development of The Last Guardian has been something of a train wreck. Starting off as a PlayStation 3 exclusive, eventually it found its way onto PlayStation 4 as the development process got prolonged. Ueda says that the studio saw transitions between consoles, something he wasn’t too happy about, as well as internal changes to the studio itself.

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Since the studio’s release of the original ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, it has also developed and released HD remakes of the two classic games. It seems like the time spent working on two remakes gave the team a well-needed break, Ueda even goes so far as to say that the game might not even have made it home if they hadn’t gotten the energy boost from developing those remakes.

The game portrays a small boy who has been kidnapped by forces unknown. After some time he discovers something akin to a griffin. All we know is that the boy refers to this creature as “Trico” throughout the game, but it’s unclear if this name is given by the boy or if someone we don’t know yet provided the griffin-like creature with a name. Traversing different environments, the boy and Trico bond throughout their journey, but their goal remains unclear.

The Last Guardian is slated for a release on PS4 by the end of this year.

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Playstation character wall at E3 2018

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This is according to a report from IGN citing multiple sources, who claimed the companies won’t be a part of the show or make appearances on the floor at the Los Angeles Convention Center in any way. Their absence from this year’s E3, especially Nintendo’s, may come as a shock to the gaming community, but it's not such a surprise when looking at the past few iterations of E3. Even before the pandemic locked everyone down in 2020, Sony and Xbox had been hosting their own E3-style livestreams, so it was more likely they would do it again this year anyway. Nintendo, on the other hand, managed to show off its upcoming games via Nintendo Direct streams and at its booth, console kiosks and all.

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The official artwork confirming Summer Game Fest's return on June 8, 2023.

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