There are few games that have been delayed as much as Team Ico's The Last Guardian. Originally announced in 2009 for the PlayStation 3 for a 2011 release, The Last Guardian has seen a series of delays, a hardware switch, and finally saw a firm release date earlier this year at E3 for October 25th.
That date, however, will not mark the launch of The Last Guardian as announced today by Shuhei Yoshida on the PlayStation Blog in a post titled, "An Update on The Last Guardian." In the post, he announces that the title has been delayed to December 6th in North America due to them finding more bugs in the final stages of development and need extra time to fix it up. In Europe, The Last Guardian will now release on December 7th in most regions, with the UK and Ireland receiving the title on December 9th.
The Last Guardian focuses on the story of Trico the ... cat-bird? creature and a young boy who befriends him that is under the control of the player character. Like other games led by Fumito Ueda, there is a focus here on visual storytelling and emotional attachment to another being—in this case to Trico. There are exploration and puzzle elements throughout the game, and much of the gameplay involves leading Trico to do things to progress.
It is the first Ueda game to feature voice-over to help convey narrative context, with an older version of the boy recounting his adventure with Trico. Generally, Ueda's games have relied heavily on non-verbal communication and that is apparently also going to be the case with The Last Guardian.
The Last Guardian releases December 6th in North America, December 7th in most of Europe, and December 9th in the UK and Ireland exclusively for the PlayStation 4.
Quick Take
Well, I guess they couldn't let Final Fantasy XV come out first and had to delay it! Still this is a short delay, barely over a month, and should hopefully make the game smoother when it comes out.
What do you think of this delay? Do you think there will be another delay of The Last Guardian? Share your thoughts in the comments below!