Sony blew the roof of the joint at their 2015 E3 press event when they announced the long anticipated title from JapanStudio: The Last Guardian.
They opened the show with a gameplay trailer featuring a young boy exploring strange ruins along with a strange griffon/canine creature while it collapsed around them. The animation was beautiful. The music was haunting. The moment was perfect. The result? Thunderous applause from the entire audience as men and women who had been waiting for more information about this game since it was originally announced back in 2007 finally got what they wanted.
What’s the big deal though right? What could make a video game so important that it would bring journalists (myself included) to tears?
Well… for me? I cry at everything. I openly wept when the Vision was on screen during Avengers 2. So, I’m not much of an example. But for everyone else? It likely comes down to history.
You see JapanStudio is the company responsible for ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. These two games are some of the more critically acclaimed games in history. Shadow of the Colossus is regarded by some as one of the best games of all time. Imagine if Tarrantino made Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction… and then waited a decade for his next film to come out. His fans would lose their MINDS! This is a very similar situation.
Colin Moriarty, one of the co-founders of KindaFunnyGames, made the observation once on one of his podcasts. He stated that, during the time that JapanStudio was working on The Last Guardian, Naughty Dog (another studio owned by Sony) has released a Jak and Daxter game, three (maybe even four) Uncharted games, and The Last of Us. That type of development cycle is unheard of. But, every time a news outlet would reach out to Sony they would state in no uncertain terms that the development had continued.
It looks like they were telling the truth all along, because it was shown and it looks great. The Last Guardian will be released for the PlayStation 4 sometime during 2016.
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