Gigantic fantasy creatures are my kryptonite

An incredibly unique one-of-a-kind game that, upon release, showed me just how impactful video games can be and gave me a completely new perspective on them.

Trico is nothing short of a wonderful programming achievement and I can’t even begin to imagine what a pain he was for the crew. He truly feels like a living breathing creature and is undoubtedly the heart and soul of the game. He is also no where near as difficult to control as people claim he is. Just don’t spam 20 different commands and then expect him to know what you want him to do.

The only thing stopping my from giving this 5 stars is, like with all of Ueda’s games; the camera and controls are fucking ass sometimes. There’s so much grandiose in this game to look at; huge, towering architecture and majestic beasts, but most of the time you can’t cause you’re busy having a fight with the wandering camera. I at least understand the camera complications since big portions of this game take place in narrow corridors with a big ass dog-bird obstructing 80% of your view, so I can see why they struggled with this. The controls though I feel definitely could have had some quick reworking before release that would have made the experience a little smoother.

Overall a brilliant game that overcame development hell, with a truly emotional centre elevated by it’s outstandingly grand soundtrack, and an ending that is as heart wrenching as it is memorable. All these years later, it stays with me and still makes me weep. People were too hard on this.