History VideoGame / TheLastGuardian

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The companions manage to escape the ruins, albeit injured. Trico takes the boy back home, but the latter is forced to make him leave as the villagers fear him. Years later, the now-adult boy finds the magic mirror and as he aims it to the sky, Trico -living in its original cell- wakes up with eyes glowing, implying they'll reunite again. Also, Trico is implied to [[BabiesEverAfter have had a baby]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350:If you're [[DevelopmentHell going through hell]], [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell keep on going]].]]

* EscortMission: Notably inverted. It's Trico that is escorting the boy, essentially. Although there are parts where the boy has to open gates for Trico to proceed as well.

* AmbiguousSituation: One of the final cutscenes shows that [[spoiler:the barrels you kept feeding Trico are shot out from a sci-fi like construction the Tricos feed human children to. It's not made clear if the barrels are merely rewards for the Tricos, or if they contain ''remnants'' of the human children.]] Fumito Ueda would later confirm that the barrels do not contain children however.

** Trico and his fellow species [[spoiler:look way too heavy to be able to fly.]]
** Somehow Trico stepping at a cart the boy is standing on causes the latter to be flung several feet straight up in the air when really he should have just been flung backwards.
* AttackTheTail: [[spoiler:During the second BossBattle, the Boy has to drop a gate on top of the darker Trico's tail in order to make it let the main Trico go.]]
* {{Backtracking}}: At one point, the companions [[spoiler:encounter another Trico that swipes at the main Trico and causes him and the boy to fall back down into a place they'd previously been. Much later, the companions have a third encounter with the dark Trico, upon which the boy succeeds in breaking off its helmet (and with it, its control), after which the boy and Trico end up falling into a place they'd also previously been. When recovering, however, they're able to escape the place much quicker and more upwards than earlier.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The companions manage to escape the ruins, albeit injured. Trico takes the boy back home, but the latter is forced to make him leave as the villagers fear him. Years later, the now-adult boy finds the magic mirror and as he aims it to the sky, Trico -living in its original cell- wakes up with eyes glowing, implying they'll reunite again. Also, Trico is implied to [[BabiesEverAfter have had a baby.]] ]]

* BookEnds: Both the beginning and end of the game has a part where [[spoiler:the boy is lying unconscious while Trico gently nudges and sniffs him. If one counts TheStinger, the game also both begins and ends in the cave where the boy and Trico first wake up together: the implication being that several decades later, Trico is living in said cave with its offspring.]]

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Trico's race is being controlled by the Master of the Valley, a seemingly rogue ancient AI. It broadcasts its commands from the highest tower resonating with the creatures' horns. They are incredibly hostile and attack without regard for their own safety. Trico is spared being a puppet since his horns were damaged.]]

** When Trico [[spoiler:is affected by the antenna room that makes him turn on the boy, there is no way to escape or wake him up, you ''have'' to get eaten by him to progress. Avoid him for three minutes though and you get a trophy.]]
** At one point the boy [[spoiler:gets stuck in a cage and all he can do is helplessly move around inside of it without getting anywhere until Trico finds him.]]
** [[spoiler:Kicks in heavily at the end when the companions have made it to the top of the tower and a dozen Tricos appear and starts attacking the main Trico. For a good while of the fight the boy can only watch as Trico gets horribly beaten and other Tricos swipe at the boy if he tries to get close. Try to reach the shield and a dark Trico grabs the boy, violently shakes him and ''throws him off'' the tower, to which he grabs a flying Trico and can only hang on for dear life as it flies through the valley for nearly two minutes. Only when it lands on top of the tower again is the boy finally able to retrieve the shield and progress in his rescue.]]
* ContinuityNod: The chamber that the boy enters early on to find the shield looks eerily similar to the room from the castle in ''Videogame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' with the pool at the bottom that [[spoiler:Wander and Dormin got sucked into]]. Some fans have even speculated if the grave-like monument the boy takes the shield from is meant to be [[spoiler:Dormin's]] grave.

* DieOrFly: [[spoiler:Literally: at one point the boy and Trico are escaping down a construction that's crumbling beneath them, until it completely collapses and Trico falls off... when he suddenly spreads his wings that have significantly grown in size and allows for him and the boy to glide a short distance and grab onto a tower.]]

* DistantFinale: [[spoiler:The post-credit scene shows some village children finding the shield buried in the dirt, before a man with distinct markings on his skin shows up. The boy, now a man in what appears to be his 50s, tells the children of his adventure with Trico, before he raises the shield to the sky, and, unbeknownst to him, the beam from the shield [[TrackingShot travels all the way to the valley]] where it all happened. As it pans into the cave where he and Trico woke up together, a pair of familiar eyes light up in the dark, [[BabiesEverAfter followed by a pair of smaller eyes.]]]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: The first Team ICO game that can be considered to have an unambiguously hopeful ending. [[spoiler: Trico and the boy both manage to escape the castle and destroy the Master of the Valley, but the hostile people of the boy's village force the two to separate, but at least they're both still alive.]] In the DistantFinale, [[spoiler: the Boy, now a grown man, picks up the mirror, and shines it towards the valley, where Trico's eyes appear in the cave where the boy first found it, followed shortly thereafter by a [[BabiesEverAfter second pair of eyes.]]]]

* EyeMotifs: Littered throughout the Nest are various hexagonal glass panels depicting an open eye. When Trico runs into them, he becomes terrified and refuses to continue on, requiring the boy to find a way to destroy them. The eye symbols are apparently a type of ward put in place as a security measure against Trico [[spoiler: or others of his kind]] from escaping or rebelling.
* FacelessMooks: [[spoiler:The other members of Trico's species (and Trico himself originally) all wear metal masks that make them look very menacing]], the armored soldiers patrolling The Nest don't quite count because there's [[AnimatedArmor nothing under the masks.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The opening credits begins with showing drawings of bees and bee hives. [[spoiler:The ending reveals that Trico's species are used as mindless drones to kidnap people and feed them to the Master of the Valley, reminiscent of bees bringing honey to their queen.]]

* InvoluntaryGroupSplit: At one point, the boy loses Trico because [[spoiler:he couldn't hold his breath long enough for Trico to swim all the way through a tunnel, and luckily washed up on shore after he passed out, rather than simply sinking to the bottom and drowning.]] This results in a rather long SoloSequence before you can reunite with your companion.

* MadeOfIron: Both the boy and Trico. The boy can survive falling from the equivalent of a three-story building with no more ill effects than temporarily limping. Trico survives things such as being speared repeatedly, a whole tunnel collapsing on him [[spoiler:being struck by lightning, and savaged by a gang of other Tricos.]]
* MagicMirror: The Boy finds a strange mirror in the cavern where he and Trico are trapped. When the boy reflects light off the mirror to hit something, Trico's tail shoots forth a bolt of lightning to strike it.

* MindControlEyes: The creatures' eyes glow red, indicating that they're being controlled. [[spoiler: In the cutscene explaining how the boy ended up in the Trico's lair, his eyes turn red right before Trico swallows him, indicating that whatever controls the creatures is also able to hypnotize humans into placidity so they can be eaten.]]

* NeverTrustATitle: You find out pretty early on that [[spoiler: Trico isn't the last of his kind. In fact, given the dozens that show up during the final battle, it doesn't even seem that he's really that rare.]]

* NoGearLevel: At one point, relatively early on too, Trico [[spoiler: straight up EATS you and your only weapon, the mirror. Luckily for you, you get regurgitated a couple minutes later. Unfortunately for you, said mirror gets left behind,]] for about half the game, too.

* NostalgicNarrator: The story's narrated by the boy when he's an adult, [[spoiler:and TheStinger reveals that he was telling it to the village children.]]

** The Narrative voice also occasionally serves this purpose. If the player spends too long without progressing it'll mention what the protagonist is thinking of at the time to point the player in the right direction.
** Bright blue butterflies are drawn to the barrels of blue goo. A single butterfly fluttering around means that boy is in the general vicinity and a trio of them will hang around the actual barrel making them easier to find.

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Or well, "My fictional language is slipping". During the [[spoiler:flashback cutscene of Trico abducting the boy, one child sounds like he says "Ojisan" (Japanese for "Uncle") while, when Trico breaks free from the building, a man sounds like he shouts "Nigero" ("Run").]]
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: When you get right down to it, tricos essentially ''are'' dragons. Specifically, the Western kind: they're huge, winged, have four legs and horns (all common traits of European dragons, contrast the serpentine, wingless Asian dragons, although they do share the Asian dragons' feathers) and they have a similar (and not unjustified) reputation among the people of this world as man-eating monsters that show up out of nowhere to eat people.

* PleaseWakeUp: Whenever the Boy is unconscious, Trico nudges him with its claws or beak to wake him up.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Thanks to a HeroicRROD, [[spoiler:the semiconscious boy is unable to tell his fellow villagers that Trico, the beast who kidnapped him, also saved him. They try to kill Trico as a result in their attempt to "save" him. The boy can only feebly point to get Trico to leave. It's implied that as an adult the boy is able to tell the truth, though he waits a long time before trying the shield again.]].

* TheReveal: About midway through the game [[spoiler:we're treated to a flashback of the boy being kidnapped from his home by a Trico with armour and full wings, leaving it ambiguous whether it's the main Trico or a random one. It's not until the flashback shows the armoured creature being struck by lightning while he's flying, plummeting into the ruins and getting his armour damaged, that we realize he was the main Trico all along.]] The entire flashback is also this for what exactly happened for the boy and Trico to wake up in that cave.

* RogueDrone: [[spoiler:Trico was just another of the many mind-controlled beasts sent to collect humans [[HumanResources for the Master of the Valley]] , but after getting struck by lightning its horns are broken by the fall, thus it is freed from the master's control and befriends the boy. We also get a lesser example with the other beast, who, after the boy inadvertently breaks its horns to stop it from attacking Trico, immediately stops fighting and leaves.]] The opening sequence of the game even depicts a beehive.
* RuinsForRuinsSake: Like ''Shadow of the Colossus'' and ''ICO'' , it features massive amounts of them.
* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: The game was in development for '''9 years.'''
* SceneryPorn: Like its predecessors, much of the game takes place high above the ground, so there's ''lots'' of it. Special mention has to go the ending when [[spoiler:Trico and the boy have made their way to the top of the main tower, and later when Trico flies the boy to his village.]] Another brief, but memorable part is [[spoiler:the flashback cutscene of Trico flying high above the clouds while transporting the boy.]] The lighting and texture of those clouds is ''breathtaking.''

** Whenever you get a game over the screen goes black and the glyphs start coming out. You might think this is a loading screen, but it's actually not. Tap buttons until the glyphs fade away to resume the game.
* SoloSequence: There are several points in the game where you'll have to leave Trico momentarily, due to needing to get into an area that's too small for him to follow; the colossus generally doesn't like being left alone and will call after you and do everything he can to get to you. There's also a longer one following an InvoluntaryGroupSplit, which ''really'' makes you appreciate having a giant friend to protect you; running afoul of a guard is practically a death sentence when you're alone.
* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler: Of a sort. During Trico's abduction of the boy, results in several spears stuck in his side, courtesy of the boy's villagers trying to rescue him. While Trico is flying afterwards, said metal spears cause Trico to get struck by lightning, causing him to crash, freeing him from the AI's control, and eventually setting up the circumstances of the boy and Trico's friendship and the AI's defeat.]]

* StomachOfHolding: [[spoiler:The Trico are able to carry humans in their stomachs and transport them to the Nest, where they are seemingly offered to the Master of the Valley.]]
** [[spoiler:In the ending, the main Trico carries the Boy in its stomach in order to safely carry him back to his village.]]

* ToothyBird: Sort of an inversion, Trico [[spoiler:and the rest of their kind]] have (admittedly somewhat beak shaped) muzzles but whenever they open their mouth they clearly don't have any teeth.

* TheUnreveal: ''The Last Guardian'' notably offers more story than Team Ico's previous games did, [[spoiler:but still retains some of the ending ambiguity, such as there not being given any explanation as to what exactly the Master of the Valley is, how it came to exist or what purpose it serves.]] And once again, who ''built'' [[RuinsForRuinsSake those ruins?]]

** Pretty much the core of the game is the relationship you develop with Trico through the boy, the former having what is probably the most realistic animal AI ever put to a game. You can pet Trico, watch him play, remove spears from his hide, have him snuggle up to you, be saved by him from enemies, the list goes on. Many will compare the feeling Trico gives them to their own cat or dog, and it's said bond that leads most players to tears by the end [[spoiler:when Trico and the boy have to separate.]]
** According to Fumito Ueda, the whole idea for the game came when he saw the reactions people had to the horse Agro's [[spoiler:"death" and later return]] in ''Videogame/ShadowOfTheColossus''. He hadn't expected people to react so strongly to an animal companion that wasn't even a main character (other than being your transport), thus he got inspired into creating a game centering around the protagonist's relationship to an animal.

* YouWakeUpInARoom: The game begins with you having been mysteriously transported to an ancient ruin. [[spoiler:Turns out, you were just asleep while being flown there by the very same beast you woke up next to]].

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Trico's race is being controlled by the Master of the Valley, a seemingly rogue ancient AI. It broadcasts its commands from the highest tower resonating with the creatures horns. They are incredibly hostile and attack without regard for their own safety. Trico is spared being a puppet since his horns were damaged.]]

* RogueDrone: [[spoiler:Trico was just another of the many mind-controlled beasts sent to collect humans [[HumanResources for the Master of the Valley]] , but after getting struck by lightning its horns are broken by the fall, thus it is freed from the master's control and befriends the boy. We also get a lesser example with the other beast who after the boy inadvertently breaks is horns to stop it from attacking Trico, it immediately stops fighting and leaves.]] The opening sequence of the game even depicts a beehive.

* MindControlEyes: The griffins' eyes glow red, indicating that they're being controlled. [[spoiler: In the cutscene explaining how the boy ended up in the griffins' lair, his eyes turn red right before Trico swallows him, indicating that whatever controls the griffins is also able to hypnotize humans into placidity so they can be eaten.]]

* DevelopersForesight: A lot of Trico's behaviour involves some impressive details. For example, if the boy stands in front of Trico while it's walking, it will tread lightly so not to step on him. If Trico sneezes, the boy falls over from the force of the sneeze. Trico may also get randomly distracted by birds and start chasing them. Basically, pay attention to its IdleAnimation every now and then and you might discover more things.

* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: The idea of the Nest as a functioning building stretches the imagination. Many of the rooms in it have no clear purpose and much of the architecture seems to be specfically designed for people to fall to their deaths. Compare to ''ICO'''s Castle, which was purposely designed to feel like a real location.

* TutorialFailure: The game leaves you to figure out many things on your own which might lead to frustration for some players at parts where they don't know of the proper solution. For instance, there's a puzzle where you have to place some barrels on a box before throwing them through some bars: what you should do is stand next to the box and press square to place the barrels on top of it, but the game doesn't tell you this unless you're right in front of the box, which leads some players to think they have to throw the barrel to make it ''land'' on the box and spend about a dozen tries doing so. Neither does the game tell you that you can rub blood off Trico's feathers, help him fight the guards by pulling their heads off when Trico knocks them down or even cling to their backs to make them lose balance.

** According to Fumito Ueda, the whole idea for the game came when he saw the reactions people had to the horse Agro's [[spoiler:"death" and later return]] in ''Videogame/ShadowOfTheColossus''. He hadn't expected people to react so strongly to an animal companion that wasn't even a central character of the story, (other than being your transport), thus he got inspired into creating a game centering around the protagonist's relationship to an animal.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Trico and the boy both manage to escape the castle and destroy the Master of the Valley, but the hostile people of the boy's village force the two to separate, but at least they're both still alive.]] In the DistantFinale, [[spoiler: the Boy, now a grown man, picks up the mirror, and shines it towards the valley, where Trico's eyes appear in the cave where the boy first found it, followed shortly thereafter by a [[BabiesEverAfter second pair of eyes.]]]]

Team Ico began developing the game in 2007, and was announced at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo with a planned release in 2011 exclusively for the Usefulnotes/PlayStation3. Unfortunately, the game [[DevelopmentHell suffered many delays and a generation jump]]. The development was later hampered by Ueda's departure from Sony in December 2011, along with many staff of Team Ico. However, Ueda and other former Team Ico members created a new studio, genDESIGN. This studio decided to finish the game and opted to commit themselves to helping Sony complete it through contract and working alongside Sony's internal Japan Studio.

* BulletTime: Often used when the boy jumps from, or falls from a great height, usually to build momentary tension on whether or not Trico will manage to catch him.

** [[spoiler: It might actually refer to the Master of the Valley, the mysterious machine ruling over the Nest.]].

* ChildEater: Apparently, legends say that Trico's kind are man-eaters (or more specifically, child-eaters). The boy finds that this doesn't seem to be true, and that the beast instead eats the contents of mysterious glowing barrels. [[spoiler:It is true, though, in a way: Trico can harmlessly swallow humans and later regurgitate them. From the point of your village, it certainly ''looked'' like Trico took you as a snack.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The opening credits begins with showing drawings of bees and bee hives. [[spoiler:The ending reveals that Trico's species are used as mindless drones to kidnap children and feed them to the Master of the Valley, reminiscent of bees bringing honey to their queen.]]

* DistantFinale: [[spoiler:The post-credit scene shows some village children finding the shield buried in the dirt, before a man with distinct markings on his skin shows up. The boy, now a man in what appears to be his 50s, tells the children of his adventure with Trico, before he raises the shield to the sky, and, unbeknownst to him, the beam from the shield [[TrackingShot travels all the way to the valley]] where it all happened. As it pans into the cave where he and Trico woke up together, a pair of familiar eyes light up in the dark, followed by a pair of smaller eyes.]]

* BulletTime: Often used when the boy jumps from, or falls from a great height, usually to build tension on whether or not Trico will manage to catch him.

* {{Backtracking}}: At one point, the companions [[spoiler:encounter another Trico that swipes at the main Trico and causes him and the boy to fall back down into a place they'd previously been. Much later, the companions have a third encounter with the dark Trico, upon which the boy succeeds in breaking off its head armor (and with it, its control), after which the boy and Trico end up falling into a place they'd also previously been. When recovering, however, they're able to escape the place much quicker and more upwards than earlier.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: At one point, [[spoiler:the boy gets separated from Trico after the latter lost him in a water tunnel, and as you wake up inside a cave and go look for him, you suddenly see some feathers floating by and eventually run into a Trico tail. However, most players stopping to think would notice that it's not your Trico - the tail is darker than his, and the Trico is for some reason not making a sound...]]

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Trico and his fellow species [[spoiler:look way too heavy to be able to fly.]]

* {{Backtracking}}: At one point, the companions [[spoiler:encounter another Trico that swipes at the main Trico and causes him and the boy to fall back down into a place they'd previously been.]]

* DistantFinale: [[spoiler:The post-credit scene shows some village children finding the shield buried in the dirt, before a man with distinct markings on his skin shows up. The boy, now a man in what appears to be his 50s, tells the children of his adventure with Trico, before he raises the shield to the sky, and, unbeknownst to him, the beam from the shield [[TrackingShot travels all the way to the valley]] where it all happened. As it pans into the cave where he and Trico woke up together, a pair of eyes light up in the dark, followed by a pair of smaller eyes.]]

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: A lot of Trico's behaviour involves some impressive details. For example, if the boy stands in front of Trico while it's walking, it will tread lightly so not to step on him. If Trico sneezes, the boy falls over from the force of the sneeze. Trico may also get randomly distracted by birds and start chasing them. Basically, pay attention to its IdleAnimation every now and then and you might discover more things.

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: A lot of Trico's behaviour involves some impressive details. For example, if the boy stands in front of Trico while it's walking, it will tread lightly so not to step on him. If Trico sneezes, the boy falls backwards from the force of the sneeze. Trico may also get randomly distracted by birds and start chasing them. Basically, pay attention to its IdleAnimation every now and then and you might discover more things.

* EscortMission: Notably inverted. It's Trico that is escorting the boy, essentially.

* ForegoneConclusion: The story is narrated by the boy when he's older, giving away that he survives, which likely made many players even more worried for Trico's fate.

* GentleGiant: Trico...at least as long as he doesn't [[BerserkButton detect any hostiles nearby]].