I always put “leaked” in quotations because I believe it was an intentional leak to build hype. Not that it’s a bad thing, I just want to be clear.
Long time Ethos fans will likely remember my initial reactions to the old trailer.
I literally thought it was a joke trailer when the beast was first revealed because I thought a cat face had been photoshopped on.
Now I understand that designer/director, Fumito Ueda, has since stated that the beast is supposed to look funny. I’m also sure that will play into major themes in the game as well, so that means that I reacted the way I was supposed to, I guess. Doesn’t mean the trailer was any more appealing to me at the time.
Now those worries that I stated in that old article aren’t really present anymore. I talked about not wanting to rely on a partner in the same way I did in ICO. I don’t feel that will be the case. I don’t think the beast will be an annoying Yorda clone, but far more similar to Agro. I still have worries about watering the damn thing and it becoming a fancy Nintendog (as someone over at the IGN PS3 boards put it), but overall, I’m looking forward to interacting with the beast.
No, I was also worried about a small thing that I didn’t mention in that Lusipurr.com article. There is a point near the beginning in which the beast knocks a guard into a wall. It was a badass scene, I’ll admit, but my heart also sunk when I saw another person besides the beast and the boy. I praise Shadow of the Colossus over and over for its mood and ability to capture loneliness and hope, and I felt like the shadow people in ICO only existed to take me out of the experience. Same with the ending of SotC. Most people loved it, but I just got annoyed when other characters entered the world.
Anyway, if I was worried about just one guy, the E3 trailer had another thing coming to me!
As you can probably tell, I was pretty down on the game when I first saw this trailer. I have such high hopes for Team ICO games, that I’m not sure what wouldn’t have disappointed me.
Anyway, those aren’t exactly my sentiments anymore, but one thing at a time! Stay tuned for my Last Guardian journey on-going throughout the day.
I think that the leaked trailer was proof positive that not every leak is made on purpose. You shouldn’t expect this to have the same theme and mechanics as Shadow of the Collossus, since they were already done in Shadow of the Collossus. Also you should probably just think of the eponymus Guardian as a feathery level transition.
No, I don’t want a SotC clone. I just think this is a game design regression. I think it should be boy and beast versus the environment. Plus, this is the same universe, I think a few running themes are a plus. But I don’t want another 16 colossi, and I do appreciate new mechanics. I just don’t want a SotC/ICO combo. I want something that builds on both. But I’m more optimistic than last we talked, as you’ll see.
I expect this will turn out well enough, though don’t expect the game world to be as big as SotC.
I remember reading the interviews from E3 that were published in Famitsu, and the game designer specifically stated that this game’s concept came around because of the public reaction to Agro in SotC. They wanted to see how far they could take the sort of relationship Wander and Agro had, and in the end they came up with little (?) Trico-chan.
Yeah, I definitely warming up to the idea. It absolutely seems like an enhanced Agro rather than a magnified Yorda.