After almost a decade in development and long worries the game was cancelled, Sony has finally unveiled a new trailer for The Last Guardian, along with a release year of 2016.
The trailer is more amazing for existing than sharing that much new information. In a brief clip, we finally hear the boy and his gigantic pet, the Tricot, communicate with each other. The boy speaks in an unknown language, and the Tricot responds appropriately.
At two points in the trailer, the Tricot saves the boy from falling without the boy asking for help, or seemingly giving any signals. The trailer ends with the boy and Tricot on top of an unimaginably massive and ruined building.
The Last Guardian is the brainchild of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus lead developer Fumito Ueda, who was in person for the unveiling. It was made around the idea of a Tricot, as an AI pet that your character can have a range of sophisticated, naturalistic interactions with.
You cannot control Tricot directly. Instead, you have to guide Tricot by influencing its natural behaviors. You can get the Tricot to move, sit still, and even let you climb and ride it. However, it can also act erratically, so you will have to train it to act a certain way. Ueda’s point of pride was developing this sophisticated AI, but also using key frame animation, a technique more complicated than motion capture, to capture deep subtleties for Tricot and the boy.
The Last Guardian has been in the works since 2007, and was originally planned for the PlayStation 3. The game suffered from multiple delays in development, partly caused by internal friction that led to Ueda leaving Sony to become a consultant for the project. The long delay also led many to believe the game was already cancelled.PlayStation's Twitter account confirmed the release date with a tweet shortly after the reveal:
The Last Guardian is coming to PS4 in 2016
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) June 16, 2015
