Successfully expands upon the themes of the previous Team ICO games while also subverting them; every ICO game functions as a lesson in empathy. ICO as the baseline, empathy for someone you must protect, someone you can't understand in terms of language but rather in terms of physical communication. ICO revolves around touch, holding someone's hand, intuiting how they feel and react to things, and besides brief (brilliant) subversive moments, is a game which has a fairly one-sided relationship in terms of your role in said relationship. It is a one-sided tale of heroism to a degree, you're in the role of a protector, which in of itself makes it very easy for the player to establish an empathetic connection with Yorda, that simplicity is not a fault of the game, as ICO remains my favorite of the three projects and my favorite game of all time. Shadow of the Colossus however feels intentionally contradictory to the lessons of ICO, it shows the ends of having no empathy for something you cannot understand. Your primary relationship through the game as that with the colossi, and it is destructive, like your relationship with Yorda it is built off the physical, but in SOTC it is built off violence rather than leading someone by the hand. Your role in SOTC see's you testing the bounds of game structure, in the supposed "heroism" of interaction, and indulging in the familiar by forsaking that (or those) which is not familiar.

Much like the previous two ICO games, TLG is also a lesson in empathy, but it is maybe the most difficult lesson of all, as demonstrated by even the fans of the previous game’s interaction with it. The last guardian is not about a one-sided protective, or violent role towards another but rather a mutually dependant role. It is a role, as the game requires, that forces the player to at times be entirely helpeless. To entirely rely on something (someone) outside of yourself. Someone you cannot speak to beyond basic commands (and at the beginning of the game not at all), and that you must not only trust but be patient with. Your relationship with Trico is one that requires a lot of patience, barking commands at him wildly will result in confusion, incorrect movement, and will further frustrate you. You cannot fight for yourself, but rather can only run, struggle, and rarely knock certain items out of enemy’s hands in order to bolster Trico’s ability to fight. Every design choice here is one that doesn’t limit the player's actual ability to experience the game, but rather to DIRECTLY control it. Gaming as a medium is not a medium dictated by placation, immediacy, or action, but rather INTER-action. By the degrees of separation between you and what you can achieve within a dictated environment. Trico, mechanically, forces the player to build a bond with not only an unreal character in a game (such as ICO), not only an animal (such as SOTC), but also forces you to rely on it consistently, rather than simply leading it through the game and acting for it. TLG teaches the player the most difficult lesson of all, seemingly for most gamers; the lesson of giving up control, not of giving into weakness but of accepting it while also accepting your strengths. It’s a game of picking your battles, a game revolving around empathy for something imperfect, for someone who won’t ever really understand you but WILL fight for you, but you must be patient, and you must try. In many ways TLG is team ICO’s real opus in terms of achieving empathy/relationships through game design, if I’m being honest with myself, I do think it’s the greatest game they’ve made in many ways. That being said, ICO will always probably truly have my heart, as both an emotional and aesthetic experience I will probably always consider it a step above the rest, however TLG will remain Ueda’s real success in terms of the actual meaningful goals and artistic lessons of the team ICO project, until such time as their next game comes along (hopefully sooner rather than later).

If you hated this game, I won’t be the one to change your mind. Honestly, I really don’t care to hear why. I understand you were probably frustrated (although how this frustrated you and the previous two team ICO games did not I can never understand), and at times I was as well; but why can’t games be frustrating. Why must they have to constantly reward and placate you in order to be good. Why can’t a game consistent of struggling against something larger than yourself, something inevitable and horrible and inarticulable. Why can’t a game be about relying on another, and why does your view of gaming as an art form so solely rely on immediate gratification and streamlined control. I don’t mean to insult you, but I sincerely do hope that you at least consider the level by which you actually respect video games as a legitimate art form, and I sincerely hope you give TLG a chance if you have not already, or another chance if you already have, because it is sincerely a perfect game.