With The Last Guardian finally releasing this year, fans of the game could not for ask for any thing else. Now the game director, Fumito Ueda, has revealed his five secrets to great storytelling.
In a blog post Fumito Ueda revealed some of his techniques that he and his team used to bring The Last Guardian to life.
The Last Guardian Storytelling Secrets
According to him the first secret to the storytelling is “Power of visual storytelling”, as Ueda said that the boy and Trico communicate with one another without any words but using gestures, motion and their reactions.
The second secret is the “Voiceover”, as the story of The Last Guardian will be narrated by the boy who is now grown and remembering the events of his time Trico.
Fumito Ueda’s third secret is “to make the player and the character as one”, which the game director hopes to accomplish through puzzles, exploration, by giving the boy some additional backstory and creating an emotional link between the character and the player.
The fourth secret is to get players invested in the story of the boy trying to save Rico, by getting players to be interested in the story of the boy and Trico.
The big difference between this and the relationships in Ico and Shadow of the Colossus is that there’s a more dynamic range between the boy and Trico. From that first moment in the game, the boy is uncertain if Trico will be a friend or foe, and you immediately start trying to work out how to bridge that communication gap.
The fifth and the last secret to Ueda’s great storytelling is to use the enemies to explore the relationship between the boy and Trico. The team did not wanted enemies just to be obstacles for the players to go through.
With Ico we focused more on the puzzle elements to keep Princess Yorda safe, and in Shadow of the Colossus we focused on driving you to defeating colossi, at a cost. With The Last Guardian we examine the changing relationship between the boy and Trico, and the challenges that represents as you try to discover the game’s mysteries.
The Last Guardian is also getting a collectors edition which is available for $119.99, which consists of large wooden crate, premium steel book and more.
The Last Guardian releases exclusively for PlayStation 4 on October 25.
