Last Guardian coming holiday 2011

By Ellie Gibson Published 16 September, 2010

"It's time for us to go into crunch mode."

The Last Guardian, the new PS3 exclusive from the team behind ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, is slated to launch during "holiday 2011".

At least, "That's our target," said a Sony spokesperson during a demo presentation at the Tokyo Game Show.

So how come it's taken so long? Bossman Fumito Ueda explained that for ICO and SOTC, game design and research and development were worked on in parallel, which sometimes led to delays. This time around they decided to do research and development first, to lock the core elements and then progress with the rest of the game.

But now, Ueda said, the concept has been polished. "It's the end of the trial and error phase of production and it's time for to go into full production - crunch mode."

The "holiday 2011" date appeared at the end of a new trailer for The Last Guardian, which you can see below. To the sound of chirpy orchestral music, the video showed the human protagonist tiptoeing along Trico's (that's the cateagle thing) back, jumping on his head, petting his muzzle and climbing up his spine.

We then saw Trico poking his head through a hole, grinding his feet, picking up the boy by the scruff of the neck, hissing and being sick.

To finish up there was some footage of the boy balancing on beams, throwing food for Trico to catch, shattering a stained glass window and booting enemies in the chest. All this took place in the kind of environments we've seen before - shadowy, ancient-looking temples.

A new trailer, and hot off the press screens, are below.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (38) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • riceNpea #1 2 years ago

    holiday 2011? how will they know i'm on holiday? and if i'm on holiday i won't be able to buy it.


    i'm so looking forward to this game. it's going to be a breath of fresh air to the usual games available

  • JBlokeUK #2 2 years ago

    Hmmm end of 2011 would sound about right, when you factor that ICO and SOTC are getting the ''God of War Collection'' treatment for PS3.

    Personally I can wait another year or so while I give the HD ICO and SOTC games a try, considering I never got round to them on the PS2.

  • Charlie_Miso #3 2 years ago

    So in order to work faster they took a direction that took longer.

    Nice work!

  • RedPanda #4 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Kaminari #5 2 years ago

    Are we talking about Christmas 2011? This is insane. This game has been in the making for 5 years now (FIVE BLOODY YEARS), and they're asking for another year and a half? This can't be serious. I'm the biggest Ueda fan, yet this depressing news has made me lost the remaining patience I had. So disappointed, really.

    This Team Ico Collection better be the MASSIVE shiznat.

  • Erinan #6 2 years ago

    That's a whole year trying to dodge videos and spoilers. It'll be horrible.

  • woodnotes #7 2 years ago

    The Last Guardian Forever.

  • Octoroc #8 2 years ago

    I smell shonky project management.

  • Fletche #9 2 years ago

    The TGS could end now and I would be happy, don't care when it is coming out really, as long as it is. May have to cancel Christmas '11 though as I think my time will now be taken up.

  • Zebula77 #10 2 years ago

    I have the utmost faith that this will be another instant top ten game of all time (well, my personal list, that is). It looks absolutely beautiful and I love both ICO and SotC to death.

  • spekkeh #11 2 years ago

    Bit of disappointing trailer, nothing we haven't seen before. And going into crunch time now, for a holiday 2011 release? I feel sorry for the people working there... Then again your average sarariman never goes out of crunch time.

  • ryandsimmons #12 2 years ago

    This is eurogamer. Any chance of actually translating there terms for, you know, Europeans? What the fuck does "holiday" mean? Summer holidays? Christmas?
    Edited by ryandsimmons at 16/09/10 @ 09:11

  • X201 #13 2 years ago

    "Holiday 2011"


    Sony release press release without thinking about target audience

    or

    EG copy and paste press release without thinking about target audience






  • Toothball #14 2 years ago

    I was intending to get a PS3 to play this game, although with a bit longer to wait I might end up with it sooner. Looks wonderful, but I think I'll stop looking at the pictures and save some wonder for when the game arrives.

  • gjgjg #15 2 years ago

    The first holiday of 2011 is New years day, but unfortunately I know what they mean. At least Spring release will keep me sedated until then...

    :)

  • Golgo #16 2 years ago

    Obviously that cat-rooster thing is destined to die, and then I will cry.

    Edit: sorry for spoiler. Deleted.
    Edited by Golgo at 16/09/10 @ 13:10

  • axman303 #17 2 years ago

    Looks like this has by far and away the best character animation and lighting of this generation. The artistry of Team ICO is without peer in the video game industry.

  • Bigglesworth #18 2 years ago

    "nothing we haven't seen before"??

    Hugely more realised creature personality & sound effects, puzzle elements, interactions and locations. Hmm, yeah, you have a point...

    Oh wait, no, you don't.

  • kangarootoo #19 2 years ago

    On a tangent (its a dev thing).

    "and it's time for to go into full production - crunch mode"

    It makes me sad to see full production and "crunch mode" described as if they are one and the same.

    Full production is a typical stage of development, crunch is what you do when poor planning means you don't have enough time left to achieve everything you set out to achieve.

    One is normal, the other should not be.

  • Mr_Bogus #20 2 years ago

    Not too sure about the happy cartoon music in that video...

  • micky1984 #21 2 years ago

    my heart just melted :)

  • yonatan_z #22 2 years ago

    Nothing new here.

    The game is hyped beyond proportions. How many of those zealots have played Ico? Shadow of the Colossus? Both were great, but never received proper sales. Just saying, it feels as though some people here are jumping on the "art house" wagon and hyping themselves to death, without really knowing what to expect.

  • Retro_ #23 2 years ago

    That's fine, HD ICO and SOTC will keep me happy till xmas 2011.

    I've had TLG on preorder for over a year already, another 14months won't hurt.

  • el_pollo_diablo #24 2 years ago

    If you look in the video the cateagle thing is missing a horn, just like ico's helmet in the first game.

    / warm feeling

  • Zebula77 #25 2 years ago

    @Golgo: "Obviously that cat-rooster thing is destined to die, and then I will cry."

    My thoughts exactly. I was gonna mention that but for some reason didn't.

    I just know there's gonna be some sob-moment that'll reduce me to a blobbering mess. :p

    edit: deleted the spoilers. Sorry about that!
    Edited by Zebula77 at 16/09/10 @ 12:50

  • el_pollo_diablo #26 2 years ago

    You should spoiler tag comments like those. Please.

  • spekkeh #27 2 years ago

    Hugely more realised creature personality & sound effects, puzzle elements, interactions and locations. Hmm, yeah, you have a point...

    Erm, no it's almost exactly the same as the trailer they released TGS 09, even the collapsing bridge.

  • airjoca #28 2 years ago

    I'm glad they're going the Nintendo way with this, release it when it's ready.

  • Bigglesworth #29 2 years ago

    @spekkeh

    It's the same game and the same bridge, I'll grant you. But rather than pointlessly bat this back and forth, I'll instead ask what you wanted from a new video?

    I don't think we're going to get any in-depth reveals on this game - I think I recall correctly that Ico and SotC didn't have any either. Ueda isn't really known for drowning us in information =)

  • jimmyhill11 #30 2 years ago

    maybe the game will end happily, but right at the end Wander will appear and kill the cateagle (surely it looks more dog than cat?), and be saying "ah, sorry, I thought your pet was a colussus, Easy mistake to make, what with it being a fecking huge critter"

  • Doctor_What #31 2 years ago

    They're crunching for the next year? Woooo... I wouldn't want to work in that studio.

  • kentmonkey #32 2 years ago

    cheers for the spoilers Golgo.

  • Daeltaja #33 2 years ago

    Looks like it's combining the best bits from ICO and SoTC. This could be truley spectacular (as if that wasn't already apparent!)

  • danjfor #34 2 years ago

    I dunno what to think about this. On the one hand it looks pretty good, but on the other hand do we really need another ICO sequel, you know? The great thing about ICO was that it was a game that, for once, genuinely didn't seem to give a shit about the technology race that games usually yoke themselves to - it had blocky textures, scrappy animations with loads of clipping, but it showed games could look beautiful, timelessly so, by focusing on the actual art rather than just pumping up the polycount and bolting on all the latest effects. It's kind of disappointing to see the style that seemed so fresh, so symbolic of how great games could be, turned into just another franchise to be endlessly iterated. SOTC justified itself by being hugely different to ICO despite the similar art style, but the Last Guardian's looking like a fairly blatant rejigging of things that've come before.

  • cherryuk #35 2 years ago

    I'm crying!

  • Doctor_What #36 2 years ago

    @danjfor: I suspect you weren't joking. I hardly think they're milking it, and it's not like anyone else has managed to replicate the way the games convey a relationship between the player and the NPC. This means that there will be three lovely games rather than two. Do we really need more FPS games? They have been done many more times than Ico/SOTC style games.

  • SheffieldSteel #37 2 years ago

    "The Holiday Season" is the term Americans like to use to describe the period around Christmas, when they're feeling particularly schizophrenic about their country and constitution having been founded essentially by Protestants and/or Puritans (which is actually quite often).

  • Caimbeul #38 2 years ago

    Off topic i know but i am surprised that EG has no info on this game: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tgs-10...

    Looks sublime for all fans of Japanese games. Looks like a Miyazaki film

    /Apologises for posting off topic