New questions are being asked of long awaited Team Ico title The Last Guardian as previous developers and artists announce their own separate independent studio. Friend & Foe is a brand new creative force that contains several previous members from Team Ico that were working on The Last Guardian title.
In a mission statement the new Japan based team said, “We believe in extremely nimble game development, with self-funding and self-publishing our titles as far as possible. Our work experience as individuals span some notable AAA stuff, including The Last Guardian, Battlefield 3, Bionic Commando & Killzone to name a few. As many before us, however, we grew tired of working for big companies and chose instead to bet it all on pooling our talents and set out on the great indie adventure we always wanted. We’re now at a point where we’re ready to start showing our projects to the world.”
This brief could very easily be considered as a criticism on their work on The Last Guardian; a game that has been languishing in developer hell since 2007. The project, a spiritual sequel to excellent Playstation 2 titles Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, has suffered several snags in its development. Numerous release dates have come and gone and on occasion the game has even been reportedly shelved, only for that fact to be angrily refuted at a later stage.
The game has been a much discussed topic ever since its announcement and especially after a few tantalizing demos were released. These first looks showed a world not dissimilar to Ico where the player controls a young boy who has befriended a large playful creature, something like a huge griffin, called Trico. Director Ueda stated that the whole game was built around this relationship of boy and beast and that this would make up the core part of gameplay, with exploration and puzzle solving considered other important elements.
The director behind the title, Fumito Ueda, actually left Sony Entertainment in 2011 but was reported to be still involved under a contract basis. However since that time there has been remarkably little concrete news on developments. Ueda has confirmed several times that he is still involved with the project and during this years E3 Sony’s Scott Rhode confirmed that the project is still under development, although he refused to set down anything like a deadline.
Conversely new developers Friend & Foe are already set to launch two titles; the open world explorer Vane for PC and arcade-action game Dangerous Men for iOS devices. While this is exciting news that there will be another interesting and innovative developer creating games, for fans of Ueda titles this is another loose thread on a project that seems to be slowly unraveling.
Those that have played Ico and Shadow of Colossus know the massive potential that this game has. Arguably Ueda set the foundations for the type of emotive and minimalist games that are quickly becoming a staple in the modern gaming library. So while frustration may well be the main emotion that long awaiting fans are currently experiencing, if this project ever does see the light of day the game itself may just be the right therapy.
