Why ‘The Last Guardian’ Is The Most Disappointing Game Of 2016

The Last Guardian has finally been released, and a lot of praise was thrown its way. The Last Guardian may now have finally redeemed itself after that excruciatingly long wait. A lot of gamers have already begun voicing out their displeasure about the game, and they may have a good point. A lot of their arguments can make The Last Guardian the most overrated game of 2016.

The Last Guardian was revealed way back in 2009 to much awe and amazement. It took almost seven long years to finally unveil the game to the fans. It started out as a PS3 game before the creators announced that it was going to be for the PS4 in 2012. After some more waiting, The Last Guardian finally became an urban legend in gaming circles who have become weary of waiting for the game to come out.

According to Kotaku, one of the main reasons for the long and stressful delay was that The Last Guardian miscalculated the power of the PS3. The developer said that it all came down to making a trailer that they cannot deliver within the current gaming architecture at that time.

“But in 2011 the progress became super slow. There were lots of technical issues. The game was not performing at speed. The video we showed, the trailer on PS3, was speed up. The game was running at a much lower frame rate.”

The promised graphics of The Last Guardian ultimately became the downfall of the original release of the game.

“Some features were still missing. So it was clear that the team had to make a compromise in terms of features and number of characters so while they were taking time, the engineering team ported the code on the SPU [processors of the PS3] to improve the performance, but it was taking lots of time. But, in the meantime PS4 arrived, the development environment was available. So in 2012 it became apparent we should move it to PS4 to achieve the visual [ideal.]”

This is where the initial problems with The Last Guardian lie. It seems like developers of the game focused on making The Last Guardian as beautiful regarding graphics as possible. It makes sense as fans have been salivating for seven years with that beautiful 2006 Last Guardian trailer. It would seem that the studio was just looking for a way to avoid another Watch Dogs-style controversy where the trailer was graphically superior to the actual product.

According to Heat Street, The Last Guardian suffers from bad controls, which take away the overall good experience from the game. The Last Guardian has controls which are what some would call atrocious, especially the parts where you have to swim and dive. The climbing mechanics of The Last Guardian can only be described as clunky. And the movement and controls of The Last Guardian can only be described as broken at times. The jumping of the main character in The Last Guardian is also undesirable.

There is a general feeling that The Last Guardian was rushed regarding gameplay controls just to meet the deadline. Understandably so, since another delay to the game would probably have The Last Guardian up in arms with the publisher. While The Last Guardian manages to be a graphical masterpiece as well as having a swell story, it’s clunky and weird controls make it one if not the most disappointing games of 2016. Seven long years should have been enough for the creators of The Last Guardian to give fans the best experience, and they failed.

The Last Guardian is currently trailing regarding sales and fans may have witnessed the last game of the franchise. Overall, The Last Guardian is a great game with beautiful graphics failed only by bad controls.

[Featured Image by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Sony Interactive Entertainment]