Team ICO Gamers Blog

New site Update

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:37:00 +0000

The new site design is shaping up quite nicely. Take a sneak peek of what the site will look like by following this link.

Don't forget it's still a work in progress!

In the meantime if you need to see any of the old articles or interviews, all pages are live and archived. Look at the post below for links.

Team ICO Games Magazine News, Articles & Features Archive

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:24:00 +0000

I've uploaded all archived news, articles, interviews and minisites from Team ICO Games Magazine. Look down for the links:

News

Team ICO Games Magazine Archived News January 2008 - March 2009

Interviews / Articles

Report from Sweden - Fumito Ueda at the Nordic Game Conference '08
Swedish journalist, Jonny Knutsson, interviews Fumito Ueda about his games at the Nordic Game Conference.

They might be giants - Interview with Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine UK corners the developers behind Shadow of the Colossus for a chat about art, arty games and killing massive monsters.

The man behind the masterpiece - Interview with Fumito Ueda
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine UK meets the man behind the critically acclaimed masterpiece, ICO, to unlock the secrets behind the castle walls.

Shadows over Italy - Interview with Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido
Vincenzo Aversa asks the developers of Shadow of the Colossus about their game and their philosophy of games design.

A puzzling duo - Interview with Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido
Chronic'art Magazine talks with the duo behind the two most artistically inclined games of the last decade.

Artist's story - Fumito Ueda talks at Game For Future '07
Hirokazu Hamamura, head of video games magazine publisher Enterbrain, interviews Fumito Ueda at GFF '07.

The Da Vinci interview - Miyuki Miyabe talks with Fumito Ueda about Shadow of the Colossus
Miyuki Miyabe, author of “The Castle of Mist,” talks with Fumito Ueda about his latest title, Shadow of the Colossus.

ICO Q&A - Interview with Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido
SCEE sits down with the creators of ICO for a Q&A session explaining why their game must not be missed.

Words of incredible wisdom - Chatting about Team ICO with Derek Littlewood
Free Radical Design's Project Lead, Derek Littlewood, shares his opinion on two of his favourite games; ICO and Shadow of the Colossus.

Outside the shadows - Talking with the makers of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus
Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido sit down and talk about making their two games at DICE Summit '06.

Post-release quotes - Fumito Ueda talks about Shadow of the Colossus *With added quotes*
Fumito Ueda talks about the development of Shadow of the Colossus.

Putting the puzzle together - A virtual interview with Fumito Ueda about his new PlayStation 3 game
This interview was put together by sticking with each other all comments made by Fumito Ueda about his third game.

Producing poetry in games Part I - Game Yarouze interview with Kenji Kaido
What is the role of the Producer? What does he contribute to a game's design and creation? We ask these questions, and more to Kenji Kaido, the Producer behind high-profile titles ICO and Shadow of the Colossus.

I-c-o.net unravelled Part I - Special notes from the Japanese ICO website
Part I of a series of special notes by Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido found on Japanese ICO website I-c-o.net. In this part, Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido discuss the differences between the Japanese and Western releases of ICO, and how reception to their game was.

Trivia Article #1: Paving the road to a dream - The birth of "ICO"
This trivia article describes the birth of ICO and the first steps taken to turn a concept into a masterpiece.

Fumito Ueda at GDC 2009 - Report from this year's Game Developers Conference
Fumito Ueda talks about the philosophy of his team's games design, expressing reality in fiction, and handing out hints about their third project.

Features

Beauty of the beast - Insights on a masterpiece in the making *With added notes*

Synthesis translated - SCEI job postings for Team ICO's PlayStation 3 game, in English
Posted in January '08, the job postings for Team ICO's new PlayStation 3 game reveal interesting details of what we can expect from Fumito Ueda's new project and what applicants need to do to join the team's ranks.
EDGE Australia article describing the intricacies of the development process behind ICO 2, today known as Shadow of the Colossus.

Long live The Queen - What would a pre-TGS ICO 3 teaser page look like?
If rumours are to be believed, Team ICO's new game will be announced at this year's Tokyo Game Show. Can we expect a pre-announcement teaser page? And how would it look? This is a teaser page made for an art competition.

ICO glyphs and their meaning - Discover the meaning of each glyph used in ICO's fictional language
Do the glyphs used in ICO's fictional language carry a meaning? Learn what each of the glyphs in the game represents.

Interesting tidbits about The Last Guardian

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:24:00 +0000

Here are some info snippets about The Last Guardian taken from interviews with the Japanese press:

The music used for the trailers will not appear in the game.

Three different fonts are used in the Japanese logo of the game. This mixing of typefaces was done to mimic the mismatching look of Toriko and to reflect the many gameplay aspects of the game.

The team is not yet ready to disclose how much progress they've made on the game even though the game has been at a playable stage for quite some time.

The game world is filled with air, so animals like birds affect the objects around them. For example, if a bird flies to a tree the leaves will move about because the air around them is affected.

The choice to have a young child as the protagonist, instead of an older chap, was done because the pairing with the creature reflects one of the central themes of the game - companionship. The team considered choosing a female lead but the idea was dropped due to the particular requirements of level design.

The graphical fidelity of the game world's environments is quite realistic but effort was made to make scenery look surreal, as if in a fantasy world.

When talking about the creature's design, Ueda is most fond of Toriko's face.

Everything is being hand-animated, just like in Shadow of the Colossus. There is no motion capture. This is because there are numerous subtle movements that are not possible to capture using motion capture techniques. Animations are filtered out using a special program first used when working on Shadow of the Colossus. Every little unnatural looking animation is eliminated and replaced with a better looking one.

Ueda says the team tried to cater for the Western market along with Japanese tastes from the very first day. This is because ICO and Shadow of the Colossus were welcomed very warmly in Europe and America.

The change of title (The man devouring giant eagle Toriko to The Last Guardian) was made to cater for both markets. The Western title is more direct, can be translated freely in many different languages and describes the game fully. The Japanese title on the other hand is more ambiguous, and evokes a feeling of uneasiness - that there's something quite mysterious about this giant creature.

Ueda wants to release the game as soon as humanly possible but he wants the game to be complete, without having to discard elements that wouldn't make it in due to time constraints. That said he knows fans have waited for a very long time and he says it's not that far into the future as we may think.

New details on The Last Guardian

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:07:00 +0000

I've just read another interview with Fumito Ueda, this time by 4Gamer.net. It's similar to the Dengeki one, which you can find a couple posts below,but there are some new details.

Ueda says that the AI controlling Toriko can keep track of multiple factors, just like real creatures. If Toriko is following the child with its eyes, it will still hear the guards coming from another area, not visible on the screen, and its ears will turn towards their direction. Toriko can hear much further away and this will help the child avoid danger.

The journalist then asks him about the ending, whether it will be a sad one like many are expecting. Ueda says that he knows what people are thinking and that other journalists asked him the same thing during interviews. He assures us that he will surprise us with how the story will unfold.

Oh and Toriko might be a female..!

Eurogamer interview with Fumito Ueda

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:53:00 +0000

Eurogamer's Ellie Gibson has just posted an interesting and somewhat revealing interview with Fumito Ueda about The Last Guardian. Go and have a look!

Dengeki Interview with Fumito Ueda (English & Italian)

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:13:00 +0000

For the Italian translation go to Forumeye.

Dengeki: You're showing 人喰いの大鷲トリコ (The Last Guardian) for the first time here in Japan at the Tokyo Game Show. What can we expect?

Fumito Ueda: A considerable amount of information was presented in June's E3 trailer so naturally this time around there are fewer things to share. That said, we do show the game's primary concept, and I think you can also see we've successfully merged the organic collision deformation from Shadow of the Colossus with the artificial intelligence of ICO. I am sure this could not have been achieved with previous consoles so it was only because of the PlayStation 3 and the power it's capable of that this was accomplished. In the past we've faced incredible technical challenges and you could say working with The Last Guardian was not any different since we're trying to do something completely new. We've also found new ways to develop and tell the story in a game.

Dengeki: The logo for 人喰いの大鷲トリコ is quite unique, isn't it?

Ueda: We're using three different fonts for the logo. It's a bit like Toriko's design where we create an amalgamation of different elements to create something quite mismatched. We did that to show there are many elements that form the game. The logo is also a mixture of an adult-like and childish handwriting. I wanted all these things included in the typeface.

Dengeki: In the game, is the boy on good terms with Toriko and does the relationship change as the game progresses?

Ueda: Well, the reply to this question is tied to the story so I'd like to avoid answering because that would somewhat spoil the game. What I'll say is that while Toriko does listen to you it's essentially a wild creature so it won't always do what you'd like it to 100% of the time. We've created a fine balance between Toriko's wild nature and what the player desires.

Dengeki: What message are you trying to pass on to the fans with this new trailer?

Ueda: This trailer's all about the giant eagle Toriko, as you can see. I wanted to show how it moves naturally. I don't know whether you've noticed or not, but every body part is animated. Toriko's whiskers move and after a while its ears move independently. I wanted fans to notice those movements.

Dengeki: What's the most different thing in this game compared to your previous efforts?

Ueda: The natural expressions of an animal. With Shadow of the Colossus and its console, PlayStation 2, we were limited as to what we could achieve. We had to cut out an incredible volume of information. Now we don't have to do that anymore. Everything's expressed naturally, even the movement of the eyes. If the object of attention moves, so do the eyes of the characters following it. We're also able to express for the first time, thanks to the new hardware, the ferocious behaviour of wild animals. I hope we did a good job on that.

Dengeki: What were your inspirations for this particular game?

Ueda: I have many obviously. To name two, E.T. and My Neighbour Totoro. We've also looked at the charm and qualities of different animals, but not only that - we've focused on the wild behaviour of these animals as well.

Dengeki: I'm really intrigued by the sounds the creature does.

Ueda: It's strange isn't it? I like that too. It's always the same creature but it produces a variety of sounds.

Dengeki: Do you have a message for your fans?

Ueda: Like you can imagine, we're feeling pressure but we're doing our very best so not only we meet your expectations but surpass them. Please wait a little more and look forward to the game.

---
Japanese version: Dengeki
Versione italiana: Forumeye

The Last Guardian at TGS!

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:42:00 +0000

Lots of new media and updates for The Last Guardian this morning.

Sony has launched the game's official site. Head over there to watch the new TGS trailer, and 28 amazing screenshots:

http://www.jp.playstation.com/scej/title/trico/

The Official US blog has also posted a subbed version of the Q&A part with Fumito Ueda. Watch that here.

You can download the hi-resolution version of the new trailer by following this link.

And finally you'll find all 28 screenshots in one handy zip file over here.

This is quite a fantastic day for Team ICO fans. The game is looking absolutely fabulous. Just look at Toriko's animations!

Update: Posted some gameplay pictures here.

Shadow of the Colossus Awarded at CEDEC 2009

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:50:00 +0000

After last year's CEDEC (CESA Developers Conference), where ICO was awarded with the Special Award for Visual Arts, it's now time for Shadoe of the Colossus to have the spotlight.

Fumito Ueda and Hajime Sugiyama received, on behalf of all the staff at Team ICO, the much sought Programming Award. Both went on stage to receive the honours but it was Sugiyama that made the acceptance speech:

When we actually played the game, it happens we noticed there was a fault in the organic collision deformation pattern. The director, together with the game designer, worked hard and followed up this problem in the collision design.

This technique was only achieved through the support of all the people that worked on it and I think you can actually feel these people's efforts right through the screen. It was also a lot of fun doing it.

Today happens to be my birthday as well, so this was a wonderful present. Thank you very much.

Congratulations to Fumito Ueda, Hajime Sugiyama and all staff that worked hard on the game!

Read about last year's CEDEC awards.

Photos: GAME Watch

Twitter Update: Famitsu PSP+PS3 The Last Guardian Shots

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:27:00 +0000

Received the new Famitsu PSP+PS3. Two new shots from The Last Guardian. One is very spooky and the other shows how grand some of the scenes will be.

Ths spooky shot (http://bit.ly/cFBAw) shows Toriko coming out of the darkness and ready to attack one of the guards. The guard looks quite startled.

The other screen (http://bit.ly/EIpLH) shows the familiar pillar climbing scene but from a new angle, you see a lot more of the structure in the background... That building looks grander than the temple in Shadow of the Colossus...

NOTE: I know the quality of the scans is not so perfect but it's the best I could do since the original images were just a few centimetres big.

Follow us on Twitter @teamicogamers.

Twitter Update: The Mysterious Appeal of Ueda's Worlds

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:42:00 +0000

Over the weekend, Pat pointed me to a post by Gamasutra's Leigh Alexander called The Mysterious Appeal of Ueda's Worlds. It goes in-depth on Fumito Ueda's game worlds and their structure. Loved reading it and I'm giving you a heads-up so you do the same.

Link: http://bit.ly/15D82M

Dreams about Reality - Fumito Ueda's Legacy

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:08:00 +0000

Marcus translated for us this interview with Fumito Ueda by Swedish magazine LEVEL.

Written by: Thomas Wiborgh
Interview by: Fredrik Schaufelberger
Translated into English by: Marcus

Fumito Ueda creates the most beautiful of fantasy worlds, though what he struggles for is to create something that resembles our everyday reality.

He wants to leave something for future generations but doesn't want to see his games in a museum.

He prefers to stay working at his desk but gives LEVEL a chance to get to know one of the modern gaming-world's most original designers a little better.

Ueda looks a little lost.

He's once again the focus of attention without necessarily wanting to be so. The shy game designer seems to be caught between the will to explain when everybody misunderstands him and the will to just stay in his Tokyo office and let his games speak for themselves. His face is almost totaly free from signs that reveal his allnighters and the fact that he is soon to turn 40. His apperance is more like that of a young boy than a middleaged man.

Not since Shigeru Miyamoto gave interviews at ETCS 1998 at the age of 45, dressed in a colourful red t-shirt and a bright yellow plastic watch has somebody impersonated his own games so well.

Fumito Ueda always speaks in Japanese and with a calm thoughtful voice even though he clearly understands English as he from time to time stops his interpreter and corrects him when he is not satisfied with the translation.

When we meet him it's only days after the "Project TRICO" leak and while he doesn't comment on the game we soon understand what he means when he tells us that the new game lends inspiration from of his old school projects.

With a nostalgic smile on his lips he talks about how he filled an aquarium with sand and put an airpump at the bottom of it. A couple of meters away he put a big red button and encouraged people to get involved with his project. When the button was pressed the pump shot small bursts of sand in random directions and made the impression that something was living under the sand in the aquarium.

Ueda called this installation "The cat under the sand", and with this he wanted to make people curious and surprised. These are themes that have followed him from being a student to becoming an internationally acclaimed designer.

- My deepest hope is to entertain people. I know a lot of people point out how emotional my games are, but the way I see it I get to players' hearts by pulling their emotional strings, to make a person cry is never the goal but if I create an entertaining experience by using that tool I feel that I have succeded.

With the scenes from The Last Guardian fresh in our memory, it doesn't take much to see the connection to his earlier games, namely the relationship between someone weak and something strong. He seems more interested in the dynamics of two different creatures than any other game creator, from the way they have different basic conditions to the way they have to aid each other. It's also an interesting contrast to the rest of the gaming industry where games tend to circle around a physically or psychologically strong and powerful main character who is ready to carry the world's fate on their shoulders.

- One of the main reasons why I decide to design my games this way is because of the underlying game mechanics. Ico needed to be weak and the protagonst in Shadow of the Colossus too. Otherwise as a gamer you wouldn't identify yourself with them. It's also about credibility towards the puzzles and game world. A weak character makes easy looking puzzles work as they feel consistent. A powerful character could just beat the colossi with raw power, as you can imagine. There is of course something aesthetically appealing in a weak character in an adventure game, but it's also about me getting into the mechanics in a different way and therefore needing different tools.

It's an answer that would surprise most people who thought ICO and Shadow of the Colossus were aesthetic perfections. But it's also an answer that makes perfect sense when thinking of what he often talks about - namely realism.

The fact that his games look and feel the way they do perhaps comes from that he works so hard to hide the underlying mechanics of the games.

- I always want to use the full technical potential. Even before we start developing our games I try to predict how close to reality we can come, and then start working from that point. Reality is actually the key point. After we come to a conclusion regarding that we start deciding what type of game we are making and how it should look.

He laughs and seems to have found a new idea.

- I both hate and love the technical limitations. It's kind of a Catch-22 for me. If we don't have any limit to work from, it becomes hard to make anything good out of an idea. But if we on the other hand have a very distinct technical limit it's impossible to go beyond it. It will put the bar in a certain place without any way to raise it. It's thanks to that my games have a very special aesthetic profile. It's a way to make the player forget about technical limitations and focus on the gaming experience. If a player sees a beautiful landcape or pretty light effects that's probably what he will remember and not the bad texture next to it.

That the reason Ueda's games look so beautiful is because he is trying to make them look like our own (often grey) reality may seem strange. Maybe he is seeing something most people don't. His vision is good and so is his hearing.

Ueda talks about why he left ICO with almost no music at all, and instead focused on ambient soundscapes. It wasn't an active choice but rather something that came naturally. He asked Oshima, his composer, to try and make music that would fit every part of the game. It ended up being a heartbreaking soundtrack full of emotional strings and pianos. Ueda listened to the first track but felt that it somehow took away much of the illusion of strange reality he had been trying to create with the graphics. Ueda asked her to take away that track and instead replace it with naturally occuring sounds. History repeated itself and the first time Ueda played through the whole game he realised there was no music left. He became surprised because he had thought that at least half of the soundtrack was kept, but he trusted his gut feeling and kept his silent game as he felt that the game unconsciously told him it wanted to be that way.

- I could talk about realism here too, but instead I choose to call the sounds natural. For me they are just natural, nothing to notice, if you stood alone out in a giant forest you would hear the same sounds we put in ICO. Calm, wide, open landscapes like the ones in our games sound just like that. So why force something else into the soundtrack?

Ueda patiently explains that he doesn't talk about realism in the traditional sense, He is more than aware of the shadow creatures and supernatural events that occur in his games.

- If people don't believe what I'm trying to tell there is no need to tell it at all.

Freedom and Theft

Something that kind of goes in the opposite direction to the ambition of reality is the fact that Ueda has created his own languages in his games. And The Last Guardian doesn't sem to be any different.

- A made-up language gives us freedom. I think that people can more easily identify with something he or she is interpreting themselves, but most of all it's about freedom in our development of the game. A real language creates invisible barriers for developers as real life voice acting is hard to change and replace. Most developers stay in that situation but I want to have as much freedom as possible. If we feel that something should be changed in the last minute, we have the possibility to do that. In ICO we actually made changes to the gold master just before mass production.

Fumito Ueda's well-known perfectionism shows itself once more. He talks about his inspirations and that his will to strive for fulfillment often makes it hard to enjoy culture.

- Inspiration comes from music, books and movies, but more than anything it derives from games. I play a lot of games and always look at them with a critical point of view. In the middle of a death-scene I can stop and think "That was a good idea but I could change it like this, correct that and make it much better."

One example is a little bit surprising - Grand Theft Auto 4. He talks about the biggest problem with that game being the lack of original game elements. The graphics are impressive but not the basic foundation which is just like the earlier versions. After making it clear that one of the last year's most beloved games was boring he continues to the next one. When we ask him if he had played Super Mario Galaxy - since it has a level that is a clear tribute to Shadow of the Colossus - he shows us a shy smile.

- Of course I have played it, I couldn't resist after hearing that Miyamoto-san was inspired by me. But I have to say that I had expected a little more. That particular level (and the rest of the game) wasn't as entertaining as it could have been. I think the press and the fans made too much of a fuss about him (Miyamoto) borrowing from me. And the atmosphere on the internet became a little heavy. What I'm critical against isn't the fact that they borrowed something that actually isn't even originally from me, but the fact that they didn't make anything more interesting out of it.

Impossible Expectations

To say that the expectations of The Last Guardian are staggering is hardly an exaggeration. He expresses a frustration that the press and fans make such a big thing out of, and find such pretention in his simple fantasy worlds. They are hailed and made out to be something they aren't, and never was intended to be. The silent relationship between Ico and Yorda was interpreted as a symbol of the problems with communication in modern society.

- We built the game around the concept of "holding hands."

He smiles.

- That's all there is to it, thats why Ico and Yorda don't speak. If they had been speaking the whole game mechanic would have been unnecessary, instead they communicate using the only way they know of, physically. The special language in ICO didn't make it into the game until the very last moment. At first, the plan was to make Yorda totally mute.

ICO was subtitled in the PAL version and if you played it again after completing it once, the symbols that represented their language were replaced by English text. This gave the game depth and clarity, but also robbed the game of some of its mystery.

When Ueda hears that we have played the PAL version he asks us how we liked it. He starts talking about the Japanese tradition to write everything out on screen with subtitles, something that is common in Japanese game shows and video games, and he comes to the conclusion that it was a very Japanese thing even in ICO. Shadow of the Colossus was also developed with the Japanese market in mind.

ICO was made with the huge PlayStation player-base in mind but ended up being released on the PS2, and after rather poor sales, Shadow of the Colossus was decided to be developed differently. In ICO it was important for everybody to identify with the characters, but Shadow of the Colossus was made for the hardcore players since those where the only ones who actually bought and liked ICO.

- We made the game for people like me, who love to play games, and that made Shadow of the Colossus a little more advanced than ICO. Every aspect of the game was raised to a new level and that unfortunately made the game selective and hard to get a grip on.

Fumito Ueda tells us that he feels just like any other hardcore gamer out there, but it's hard to think of this superfamous game developer as a regular hardcore game fan. He goes on and talks about how he gets hyped over upcoming games and makes countdowns and surfs international webshops to import games. He even takes days off from developing just to play new games.

From Colossi to Kittens

Ueda keeps talking about Shadow of the Colossus, what he has described as a game full of compromisation. Because he can't talk about The Last Guardian directly everything he says becomes small clues and hints to what the game might actually be like.

- Riding Agro is something I have spent much time thinking about, I wanted to add enemies but felt it would become too much like other games and didn't want to do that. Today I think that the segments between the colossi feel like they are missing something, not enemies, but something else. Unlike what has been criticized though, I really like the long rides on Agro. They give the feeling of searching for something, if the search didn't take time and effort, finding the colossi wouldn't feel so rewarding.

Even though interviews with Ueda often end up in less than romantic rambling about game mechanics his games are always used in debates whether or not games can be seen as an art form.

- It's unbelievably honouring to hear my games being talked about as being art. I'v heard that you have a deeper game research in Europe. And nothing would make me happier than to hold a speech on the subject for those who concentrate on my games. I'm thinking of a university researcher who made a long document about Shadow of the Colossus. It was a 60 page long document about a game starring a boy riding around on his horse, fighting colossi to resurrect his loved one. Sixty pages about that seems a lot if you ask me, but I'm very honoured!

My intentions are never to make games that are art, It all comes from my background as an artist and my will to create things that I think are beautiful. The goal is to make games that are fun, entertaining and interesting to play. If people think that my natural style is art then I take that as a huge compliment but it isn't anything I'm aiming for.

It's easy to believe everything that Ueda says when you watch the trailer for The Last Guardian, everything looks so natural. the mythological creature (a cross between cat and bird as Ueda himself says) plays the role of the strong even though it seems young, maybe it's just a baby in need of constant care and guidance? It's a relationship somewhere between ICO and Shadow of the Colossus.

- To leave something to future generations would feel great. But I don't want my games to end up in a museum. I'd rather see that someone in a hundred years from now finds one of my games and play it. That way it's solid proof that I've made something timeless. and therefore lasting. That would be my legacy.

Famitsu Interview Report: Fumito Ueda talks about The Last Guardian

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:46:00 +0000

The tale of the giant man-devouring eagle Toriko
Fumito Ueda presents his newest game, The Last Guardian

After Shadow of the Colossus hit shelves back in 2005, a shroud of mystery was placed on the small team at JAPAN Studio responsible for two of the greatest masterpieces of the old generation. Fumito Ueda and his team have kept quiet on their workings for four years, until today.

A fantastic trailer of nearly five minutes shows us what the best team at JAPAN Studio has prepared to unleash on PlayStation 3. And while "unleash" might be a strange word to describe a game being revealed it could not be more appropriate than this case.

The Last Guardian, or "The giant man-devouring eagle Toriko," like it is known in Japan, tells of a very unusual story of friendship. A boy bearing strange marks all over his body makes the acquaintance of a giant creature unlike anything you've ever seen on your TV. The owner of feathers and bird-like limbs but a feline face, Toriko is a mixture of creatures.

"We knew we could create a natural looking and moving animal in a game. We did it with Agro in Shadow of the Colossus. But when you're familiar with a particular animal, say a cat, you'd notice any little abnormality it will display on screen. You can notice it because you can compare what you're seeing with what you have at home.

To avoid this problem, we decided to create an entirely new creature - a creature that is an amalgamation of many different animals. The team and I refer to it as Oowashi (Giant Eagle) but it has little like an eagle ignoring the feathers and tiny wings!"

This amalgamation, like Ueda calls it, looks too weird at first. We were very surprised by its look when we watched the trailer the first time. We are not alone as Ueda admits:

"Even I find it weird-looking, to tell you the truth. But creating something that cannot be recognised as an existent animal is what we were trying to do in the first place. We want to create something strange but having it move and behave naturally."

After the shock of seeing the creature, we set our eyes on its companion - a young boy wearing familiar-looking robes and adorned with marks all over his body. It's an unlikely duo, but fate brings them together.

"You could think that the relationship between the boy and Oowashi is very like the one between Wander and Agro in Shadow of the Colossus. You'd be right in a way, because the first thing we wanted to do with our new game was to make that kind of relationship the very heart of it."

As soon as Ueda compares Oowashi to Agro we can't help think there's something very, very different between the two.

"Even though the relationship aspect might start off familiar, as soon as you get that controller in your hands you realize it's a completely new type of relationship. Oowashi is not your loyal animal friend that your character spent countless days interacting with before the game even starts. Agro was already a very amicable partner at the beginning of Shadow of the Colossus. You'd whistle for him and he'd come in a few seconds, obeying your every command. Oowashi is not like that. The bond between you and him is not very developed as the duo have met for the first time very recently. You might have some difficulty even to grab its attention, perhaps needing to throw something at it to make it look at you. You'll need to learn the pattern of its behaviour, which unlike Agro's is very complex. Getting used to these patterns and then using them to your advantage will be the key to success."

Asked to give an example of such a case Ueda quickly gave us a simple description:

"Say you're in a situation where you need Oowashi to stay still in order to proceed. It might not be simple because he has the habit of moving around. This creature is not trained. It is smart but not accustomed to humans and their whims."

We tried to imagine ways how this relationship could develop to one similar to Agro and Wander's from Shadow of the Colossus. Ueda hinted at possible interactions between you and the creature:

"You can feed it, and take out those nasty spears your enemies used against it. You can touch it in different places, and each will present a different outcome. You're free to interact with Oowashi at any given time, but as it might become a chore for the player to take care of all these things all the time, we're trying to find just the right balance."

We then asked Ueda what other important themes can we find throughout the game.

"All animals are surrounded by a veil of mystery. You never really know what your cat is thinking. This is one of the reasons why we decided to make animals one of the central themes of our game. We opted for a theme full of character."

We had time for just one question so we decided to ask what will be so different in this game compared to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus:

"We have learned much about AI thanks to the our work on ICO, and we then explored how different things and characters can interact with each other in Shadow of the Colossus. With The Last Guardian, we're taking these two facets of gameplay, combining them together and bringing them to a whole new level, allowing us to create a truly living and breathing world, even surpassing our first two games."

Twitter Updates

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:27:00 +0000

For those who still don't follow Team ICO Gamers through Twitter (what are you waiting for?) here's an update on what's been posted these past few days:

#1: Is it a coincidence that Ico loses his right horn first during his battle with the Queen, and Oowashi's right horn looks broken in the Last Guardian trailer?

#2: Forum members are spotting similarities between The Last Guardian's character and story and the myths of Fenrir (Norse) and Karura (Japanese).

#3: Shuhei Yoshida all but confirms Last Guardian for 2010:

The Last Guardian is the brand new game from Team ICO, I used to call them “the Olympic team” as they took four years to make ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, but this time they are taking one more year to develop TORIKO. I’m painfully aware fans of the team’s work are waiting for the game globally, so it is a shame we have to make them wait for so long. I apologise, but please rest assured once the team feels the game is ready for release, it will make as much of an impact as the last two games did when they came out. Team ICO is developing a new way the digital characters can make an emotional connection to the players, taking full advantage of the PS3. Please watch out for more info later.

Link to interview

#4: I've also received the Famitsu issue with the Last Guardian feature. There are two shots from different angles - unlike what we've seen in the trailer; one is rather beautiful. It's a bird's eye view of the crumbling bridge scene from the trailer, the one where Oowashi is carrying the child on its tail.

The other is of the chain scene. You can see that there are some black feathers together with the grey ones. Wonder where they come from. (Lots of people are suggesting there might be another, less friendly creature roaming around, who knows if it's true..? Hmm...)

That's it for Twitter updates, if you want to read these as soon as they're posted why not start following our Twitter? More than a hundred people are already doing so.

How to sign up on Pixiv and enjoy their fantastic fanart

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:45:00 +0000

I've been asked to help with signing up to Pixiv so here's a simple guide for those who can't read Japanese. If you have any difficulties leave a comment or e-mail me on redmond@tigmagazine.com.

Pixiv hosts an incredible amount of high quality fanart by Japanese artists. And as you can see, their Last Guardian section is already pretty impressive.

1. Go to www.pixiv.net
2. Click on the orange button that says "Sign up for Pixiv."
3. Input your e-mail address in the box and click on the yellow button.
4. On the next screen click on the yellow button to the right.
5. Check your e-mail, you should receive a confirmation message. Check your junk or spam folder and see if the message is in there.
6. Click on the confirmation link in the e-mail you received.
7. In the 1st box choose a username between 3 and 32 lowercase alphanumerical characters. You can also use the hyphen "-" and underscore "_".
8. In the 2nd box enter a password. Passwords must be between 6 and 32 alphanumeric characters.
9. In the 3rd box re-type your password from step 8.
10. In the 4th box type in a nickname. Nicknames must be shorter than 15 characters.
11. Skip the 5th box. In the 6th box choose your gender. 男 (otoko) is male, 女 (onna) is female.
12. Skip the 7th box. The 8th box is asking for your location, you can leave it as it is.
13. The 9th box is the year you were born in.
14. The 10th box asks for the month and day you were born on.
15. The 11th box wants you to enter your job or occupation, you can leave it as it is.
16. The last box is for some information about yourself. You can input anything you want.
17. Ignore all boxes to the right and click on the grey box at the bottom and you're done!

To log in, simply go back to www.pixiv.net, and input your username and password in the boxes to the left. From now on you can check every picture in the Pixiv database. Enjoy!

The Last Guardian Remixed Trailer by Nolan "ScOULaris" Snoap

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:05:00 +0000

Our friend Nolan has put together a superb re-cut trailer of The Last Guardian. The mood is quite different but in my opinion fits the game extremely well.

Nolan's one of my favourite fan-video makers, check out his videos on his channel to see why.

Three new hi-res Last Guardian shots

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:05:00 +0000

Gpara.com have put up some screenshots of The Last Guardian, three of which were not yet available in high resolution.

Don't forget all hi-res shots published so far are available on our Flickr set.

The Last Guardian Game Page Now Up

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:44:00 +0000

We now have a pretty game page for The Last Guardian. It will be updated with screenshots, story and gameplay information and videos. Stay tuned.

You'll find it at www.the-last-guardian.com.

Shadow of the Colossus Ending Notes

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 09:35:00 +0000

Here are some notes about the ending of Shadow of the Colossus, the alternate ending idea that never made it through and other things explained in the interview featured on the Japanese guidebook. It contains major spoilers, of course.

Mono

As you know, after each colossus is felled, Mono's voice can be heard. She's asking Wander to stop the ritual. It's not clear whether she does so because she thinks the forbidden ritual shouldn't be completed or because she knows Wander will die after its completion.

The reason her voice grows stronger the more battles are won is because her soul is being restored to this world. The opposite is happening to Wander; the more the black claws invade his soul, the closer he becomes a shadow, a reflection of the dead.

Alternate ending

The concept was to have an entirely new ending should the player have a save file from ICO on the memory card.

Lord Emon and his soldiers arrive at the Shrine of Worship, see Wander and attack him. They punish him for completing a ritual that reconnects a soul of a dead person to her body.

Mono is revived, and her body starts to glow. One of the soldiers notices this is happening and he tries to stab her with his sword. The blow doesn't land for some magic is protecting her; it just doesn't connect to her body, goes through her and the sword gets stuck in the stone.

As they see this Lord Emon and his company flee in terror, sealing the land, leaving Wander and Mono in the Shrine.

Now, we already know Wander's body changes throughout the duration of his sixteen battles. So when Mono awakens and her eyes do not yet function well, she reaches for Wander. She can feel that Wander has indeed changed, much more after his last battle. We see this scene through the blind eyes and thoughts of Mono. We do not see how Wander changed, not yet.

Credits start rolling while the two mount Agro and ride off the Shrine.

The hawk, the same one from the beginning, flies over them as Agro carries Wander and Mono away. The camera closes on the horse, and we finally see Wander's appearance. Horns protrude from his head and he looks more a shadow than a human being.

This whole ending idea was scrapped because the majority of the team felt it would be unfair on those who never played ICO to never be able to see this different epilogue.

Colossi carcass scenes in the credits

When the credits roll, we can see the sixteen carcasses of the colossi Wander defeated. What we're seeing here is what Mono sees as soon as she is revived. She can see what happened to Wander, and what he did.

Agro falling off the bridge

The team considers Agro's survival after that terrible fall, a miracle. It's like something supernatural happened to save him from certain death.

The hawk

Like mentioned before, the hawk from the beginning of the game is the very same one we see in the end. This gives the idea that the game is like a fairytale being told and retold endless times.

Time stopped in the Forbidden Lands of Dormin

As soon as Wander steps through the gates of the Forbidden Lands, the seal put in place to contain Dormin loosens. Before this, time had come to a stop, preserving the lands unnaturally. When the ritual is completed, and Dormin released, the seal is broken and time starts flowing again reconnecting these ancient lands to the world outside. Thus we can conclude that while all of Wander's adventure takes place in daylight it spans the course of many days.

Dormin and the idols

Dormin is the keeper of a very ancient and powerful knowledge. It's because of this that Dormin was sealed in hundreds of years before. The lands Dormin inhabited were then declared forbidden to all.

The idols, which were in the past objects of worship were left behind, as were the old ways and traditions. Each of the sixteen parts of Dormin were sealed in the land - which the colossi are part of - and connected to the idols. The shadows we see after each battle are all parts of Dormin that make their way into Wander's soul.

When the ritual is completed, Dormin pervades Wander's soul but does not possess it completely. Wander still has a part of himself inside. He still recollects his past and his deeds.

The purification

The pool that sucks Wander and Dormin in banishes Dormin off Wander's body. The horns we see on the baby are a remnant of what happened and represent the little influence Dormin still has on the baby.

Shadow of the Colossus - A fairytale come to life

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:46:00 +0000

This excellent review of Shadow of the Colossus was penned by Dr.Haggard. It contains no spoilers so new players to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus need not fear.

If you were to ask me what I consider to be the most important single feature of a game that can mean the difference between a living, breathing game world and a lifeless collection of polygons, I would answer without hesitation:

Wind.

This isn't going to be an essay about flatulent video game characters or applications of digital scent technology, but something that is rarely talked about and which in my opinion can make or break the authenticity of a virtual world. You might think I'm exaggerating, and I am a bit, but it's easy to underestimate the value of a stiff breeze. An artificial one, that is.

More about that later.

Shadow of the Colossus is Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido's follow up to their seminal 2001 game Ico and it's immediately clear that this game is dripping with the developer's unique style and focused approach to design that made Ico so exceptional.

Design By Subtraction

Perhaps the best way to begin describing these games to someone who hasn't played them is by talking about things that they won't find in them, otherwise many of the staples of modern games might be assumed to be present when in actual fact it is their absence which most strongly defines Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. These games stubbornly resist classification, and not just in terms of gameplay - their unique look also defies description in familiar terms. They are truly distinctive works of unbridled imagination and single-minded design.

A fairy tale doesn't need a context or a convoluted plot to be engaging, a journey doesn't need to be interrupted by countless distractions to be meaningful, and the simplest goals can be the most rewarding. Ico proved this and rewarded the player with a profound experience that is still talked about in reverent tones. Shadow of the Colossus tests your commitment to this minimalist approach, and offers the player even greater rewards.

West Of Eden

It could be said of Ico that the space in which the story took place was the principal character, and the same is true of Shadow of the Colossus. In a typically understated and poignant intro sequence the melancholy mood of the game is established and we are introduced to the characters and landscape where the story takes place. If the hairs on the back of your neck aren't prickling at the crescendo of this beautiful sequence you must be dead inside.

This developer's seemingly effortless ability to move you and draw you into their world with the simplest of touches is remarkable - a character's posture, a camera angle, sunlight streaming through a forest canopy, raindrops bouncing off a leaf, not to mention Kow Otani's mesmerising orchestral score - and with just this short in-engine intro I m already putty in their hands. There is more emotion and promise in those three or so minutes than in most entire games, and yet again I m reminded how inadequate and misleading the term video game is these days.

As with Ico there's no where or when, no background beyond what we need to understand the story, and anyone who's played Ico will attest that this lack of context contributes to the game's dreamlike quality which has effectively become Team Ico's trademark. The absence of a wider perspective on the story has a magical effect on the experience, enhancing every minute detail and somehow stimulating a greater sense of immersion and empathy.

Etched Into Stone

For those of you who aren't familiar with the simple premise of Shadow of the Colossus I'll briefly set the scene and explain the gameplay. A young man has travelled on horseback to a forgotten peninsula, carrying with him the lifeless body of a girl. Nothing is revealed of their relationship to one another, where they come from or why she died. He reaches an ancient moss-covered stone edifice, the gateway to this forgotten place, through which a path leads him onto a long, narrow stone bridge spanning a vast desolate landscape. The bridge eventually leads him to a crumbling temple where he places the girl on an altar.

A cryptic narration (spoken in a fictional language accompanied by subtitles, like all the dialogue in the game) tells of a powerful magic that according to legend can bring back the souls of the dead, but that to trespass on this cursed land is strictly forbidden.

Several shadow-like figures appear and approach the boy, but they evaporate into thin air when he raises his sword. A disembodied voice speaks to the boy; it may be possible to revive the girl, but the price may be great. The sixteen idols lining the walls of this temple must be destroyed, and to do this he must defeat the sixteen colossi they represent.

Leaving the shrine on horseback and holding the sword aloft to reflect sunlight in the direction of your next task, you set out to track down the first colossus.

The Green Mountains Are Always Walking

The first time you see one of these things is an unforgettable moment. Every single one is imposing, yet strangely melancholy and perhaps even undeserving of their fate. The combination of superb design, art and animation bestows each one with a personality, and each of their haunts - whether it's a windswept plain, an impossibly deep black lake, an ancient ruin or any of the other diverse locations - has a palpable sense of eeriness and antiquity.

Stripped down to basics the gameplay primarily consists of three distinct stages: locate the colossus, identify how to defeat it and then do it. Fortunately it's neither as simple or as repetitive as it sounds. God is in the details.

Each colossus is effectively a puzzle, each requiring a very different solution. Some are straightforward and some more elaborate, often involving the surroundings to varying degrees, but all require that ultimately you locate their vital spot and pierce it to release its spirit until the colossus is slain. Usually there's more than one vital spot, and these need to be attacked in sequence. Holding up the sword - as long as there is sunlight to reflect - will always guide you to your next goal, though this isn't as easy as it sounds if you're struggling for a steady footing on the shoulder of a giant while it's trying to shake you off.

These encounters are never short of magnificent, and both the design of the colossi and the environments they inhabit are diverse and often breathtaking. Tackling them is a thrilling experience and one that's entirely unique to this game, but although this in itself may well constitute an original and genuinely remarkable game, it isn't the whole story.

Finding Nico

The landscape in Shadow of the Colossus is huge, and without any restrictions on exploration - no invisible barriers, no progress-related barriers and no additional loading once you're in the game - there's an unrivalled sense of immersion. There are vast areas of stunning and diverse landscape that a player who simply goes where he needs to won't ever see.

But what incentive is there to explore? Don't expect to find any hidden treasure chests. When a game world feels this authentic - and despite the limitations of the aging PS2 hardware, incredibly beautiful - exploration is it's own reward. The lure of a new view and the satisfaction of discovery is incentive enough. Fumio Ueda is clearly obsessed with authenticity, and he achieves this not by vainly pursuing photo-realism but by stubbornly refusing to cut corners where it matters. The result is a thoroughly believable virtual world whose simplicity is deceptive.

Lonely Rolling Star

Even more significant than the freedom or the vastness of the landscape is the overwhelming feeling of isolation that permeates every nook of this game and every moment spent in it. There's very little life in the cursed lands, and this serves to emphasise the presence of what little there is - it's hard not to stop and watch as a flock of gulls or a lone hawk passes by.

Sound is also used effectively, with the aforementioned wind being the prime example. Not many experiences in video games can come close to the simple, absorbing delight of sitting on a cliff top on horseback in Shadow of the Colossus, surveying the silent landscape and listening to the wind.

The wind's pitch and character change according to your surroundings, and hair and clothing flutters convincingly - another example of Ueda's attention to detail and obsession with creating a believable world. It s surprising how effectively this replaces incidental music as a more natural way of varying the mood and atmosphere as you explore the diverse environments.

Having said that music does play a huge part in the game, and it s hard to imagine any of the colossus encounters or cut scenes having half as much impact without Kow Otani's beautiful score.

Mono-logue

Talking about the story in any greater detail than I already have without giving anything away is difficult, and that's perhaps an indication of its simplicity. However as I've already said sometimes the simplest fairy tales can be the most engaging, and it#s no exaggeration to say that Shadow of the Colossus illustrates how this medium is capable of rivalling any other when it comes to producing touching narratives.

Its simplicity is its genius; Shadow of the Colossus draws players in, takes them on a journey and communicates to them with a flair and apparent effortlessness familiar to fans of Ico. None of this game's myriad accomplishments and innovations would be what they are without the thread of empathy that runs through the entire game - the player joins the boy on his journey, feels his despair, his isolation, his devotion and his determination, and when the story reaches its conclusion it is nothing short of breathtaking.

Be Not Afraid Of Greatness

Shadow of the Colossus is, to my mind, one of the finest video games ever created, and one that leaves a deep and lasting impression. Memories of places are so vivid that they feel like treasured memories of real places, and the sensations the game provoked are recalled with a sense of nostalgia, so that one of the few things almost as gratifying as playing Shadow of the Colossus is not playing Shadow of the Colossus.

The question of whether or not games can be considered an art form follows Fumito Ueda around like a bad smell, but with good reason. If Shadow of the Colossus isn't a work of art then surely no video game is or ever will be.

I can hear the sound of the wind on the cliff tops now. I can almost feel it. Sometimes video game just doesn't cut it.

Shadow of the Colossus DLC coming to LittleBigPlanet

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:30:00 +0000

MediaMolecule has released this video as a teaser to new downloadable content coming to LiitleBigPlanet on the 11th June.

Famitsu have Last Guardian page up

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:24:00 +0000

The Famitsu game page for The Last Guardian contains a brief description of the game, and some pretty fantastic screenshots, many of which are taken from different angles than those we've seen in the trailer. The particular shot up top is eniterly new, as the griffon was alseep during that scene in the video.

In a mystical land, time has stopped. A young boy wearing glowing clothes watches the giant creature above. Its name is Toriko.

This is the sequel to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, the newest game by Sony Computer Entertainment's Japan Studio is finally revealed.

A boy with strange runic marks on his body meets a giant eagle. It has bird-like limbs, and feathers but also has features like a dog and a cat. Its tail is impressively long and wings are growing from its back.

It is an overwhelming sight. Not just its size but also its strength and the things it is capable of. No words can truly describe it. The creature feels warm to the boy, even though he is a little afraid of it. The boy reassures the creature "I am here with you." Together they will traverse halls of rugged stone, lush forests, crystal-clear, glittery waters...

They'll be together for the greatest adventure of their life.

Famitsu game page link

Team ICO love from the Crispy Gamer guys

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:01:00 +0000

Our friends over Crispy Gamer have two very interesting articles related to Team ICO. The first presents ideas why Team ICO deserves to be declared a great studio, no matter what sales figures for future games will be; the second article is a visit down memory lane, playing Shadow of the Colossus like it was the very first time doing so! Take a look at what Scott had to say in his 5-part feature.

Thanks John for the heads-up, you guys are awesome.

The Last Guardian HD Trailer

redmond@tigmagazine.com (Redmond) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:48:00 +0000

The Last Guardian HD trailer is here! Ripped directly off the conference video by the awesome Schrade. Fantastic quality.

Torrent: http://www.btghost.com/link/55202955/

Seed it people!

PS: Here are some great captures from the trailer, courtesy of GAF's Solidsnakex.

Darren Waters: 'Last Guardian' Is The BBC Mystery Game

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Insane) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:33:00 +0000

Darren Waters has revealed to VG247 that The Last Guardian was indeed the 'BBC Mystery Game' hinted at in February 2008. In other news, our planet revolves around the Sun and is spherical, much like a beach ball.

Famitsu Interview: Fumito Ueda Discusses 'The Last Guardian'

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Insane) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:15:00 +0000

1UP and IGN have both translated an interview with Fumito Ueda from this week's issue of Famitsu. In it, he discusses the new project's gameplay, the physics engine, his influences in nature, and the design of the creature - officially named Toriko - itself. Also mentioned is a tentative 2010 release date, although no specific month is given.

According to both translations, the working Japanese title is 'Hito Kui no Oowashi Toriko', or 'Toriko, The Giant Man-Eating Eagle'.