Dengeki shares new Last Guardian details

Though Famitsu and Western publications ran The Last Guardian previews last week, a Dengeki preview published this week has revealed new bits of information on the upcoming Team Ico game. The bi-weekly publication sat down with director Fumito Ueda.

Game Over

The boy, who the players will control, isn’t immortal. He can die and the game can end.

One method of losing the game is getting captured by guards — although, the game doesn’t end immediately after his capture. The boy has a chance to escape the guards, though Ueda says there’s risk in doing so. If the boy’s taken to a certain area by the guards, the game will end.

Another method of losing is pretty old-fashioned. It’s called death. Some stages in the game will have massive drops. If the boy falls from such extreme heights, he’ll die.

All Grown Up

Throughout the course of the game, the boy will grow. Ueda doesn’t mention specifically whether that means he’ll physically grow older or if he’ll grow in a gameplay sense, but does mention that he’ll grow in such away that he’ll be able to defeat the guards.

All About Torico

To put it rather blunt, Torico (the creature) isn’t the boy’s slave. In the beginning, he’s generally not interested in the boy. At first, he’ll be more interested in things like barrels and jars, and move towards them rather than the boy. As you progress the game and improve your communication with the creature, he’ll develop a greater interest and focus on the boy.

The magazine is shown an example. The boy tries to awaken a sleeping Torico by pulling on his ears. Torico, uninterested in the boy, refuses to awaken. As the player strengthens their relationship with Torico, you’ll be able to use this technique, and it will work.

The beast can run if he’s in a wide and safe area. Ueda said this in response to a question about whether or not players can ride Torico. He didn’t answer directly, just saying that the creature can run.

Torico, as a model, is heavily detailed. Ueda says you’ll see different reactions from the creatue depending on which ear you touch. You can even make him sneeze by touching his nose.

Enemies

The guards aren’t only enemies of the boy, but enemies of Torico, as well. Even without giving him any orders, he’ll strike the guards.

At first, you won’t be able to give him any orders, as your relationship has just began developing. He’ll do everything on his own, at that point.

Stages

Dengeki was shown a stage that showed the game’s basic progression system. You’d start off in an enclosed area; in order to advance, you’d have to break through a door that blocks your path. Beyond the doors, there could be the outside world.

Ueda assures that the final version of the game will have a large variety of stages. Narrow stages, wide stages, the game has them all. The stage demoed to the press focuzed mainly on puzzles, but there are more action-oriented stages, as well.

The bigger stages have giant enemies, according to Ueda. We’re assuming they’re are meant for Torico to take on.

Depending on what Torico does to the stages in order to progress through the game, you may not be able to return to past locations. The game does not make use of a portal-like area where you choose your stages. It’s all one big progression.

Thanks, Andriasang.