Friendships form an integral part of nigh people'south lives. Hence, it is not surprising that friendship is a mutual theme in video games. For instance, Terminal Fantasy 15 has a male-axial focus on a group of friends going on what feels similar a campy road trip intertwined with an epic risk, while the Life is Foreign series sets its sights on the friendships betwixt girls that enough of gamers will notice easy to relate to.

Of all the friendships shown in video games, perhaps the most cute and authentic example happens to be an interspecies one. Released in 2016, The Last Guardian is a game featuring a male child who befriends a large, curious beast named Trico. Although the game frustrated many players due to Trico'due south occasionally troublesome ways, the relationship between the boy and Trico illustrates the most special parts of friendship.

Trico Has a Mind of Its Own

The Last Guardian CROPPED

To empathize exactly why The Last Guardian frustrated some players and had them throwing their controllers across the room, information technology is necessary to investigate Trico. The creature is incredibly realistic, sporting gray feathers and shiny eyes that seem to have a glint of life in them. The realism is non limited to the creature'south advent, and its behaviors are also incredibly lifelike. When Trico is bored, it will sniff a corner of the room, groom itself, or yawn lazily. Other times, when Trico believes the actor is not looking, it volition even relieve itself.

The globe of The Last Guardian is one that should be familiar to players familiar with prior games directed by Fumito Ueda. It is composed of strange, stone architecture that looks like the remains of an aboriginal civilization. On peak of looking enigmatic, the architecture forms complex environmental puzzles that must be navigated. To practice this, players have to seek help from Trico, only the animal does not human activity the style well-nigh creature NPCs exercise. A simple push button press will non elicit an action from Trico. Rather, the beast has to be coaxed and slowly trained before it will brainstorm to comply.

When The Last Guardian was released, Trico'south stubbornness and reluctance to obey frustrated critics and gamers, leading to some dismissing the game or labeling it broken. However, Trico'due south beliefs was an intentional choice from the developers. As Ueda explains, the game was crafted to "strike that good residuum between Trico doing his own matter and also listening to the male child". Hence, having Trico plow his back, forget an didactics, disagree, or even just be a brat is all office of hanging out with the animate being.

The Terminal Guardian'south Realistic Approach To Friendship

The Development studio behind The Last Guardian is hiring

People seek out friendship for many reasons, well-nigh of them obvious. Friendship is an antidote to loneliness, and information technology provides a space to admit vulnerabilities, share laughs, and seek help when life gets to exist too much. However, for all the benefits that friendships bring, they are also a lot of work, requiring time, emotional labor, and consistent effort. It is necessary to be tolerant of a friend'due south less appreciable elements and to be willing to compromise. With just one of these elements missing, it is so easy for a fruitful friendship to fade as quickly equally it formed.

Despite the challenges that come with it, people cultivate and nurture friendships because they produce something that is greater than the sum of its parts. The smile of a practiced friend tin elevator one'due south mood and erase all by arguments, and looking into the eyes of a friend possessing true dearest brings an ineffable kind of peace that makes one willing to do anything to go along the friendship live.

Those beautiful feelings are what Team Ico tries to artfully depict and maybe even evoke inside players. Living with Trico is certainly non an easy task, and the animal has several flaws. Information technology is a glutton, it can exist stubborn, and it has odd phobias that brand simple tasks harder than they need to be. However, when players stumble from swell heights, just to autumn into Trico'southward cradling feathers, it somehow all feels worth it.

The Last Guardian is available at present on PS4.

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Smangaliso Simelane (196 Manufactures Published)

Smangaliso Simelane spends most of his time writing. When he isn't working on his imaginary worlds, he is writing about video games.

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