![]() “It’s really about trying to find the most effective way to visually express what I would like to do: the outcome is what you see. “We need to create using technical specifications that put limitations on what we create,” he says. Where does that look come from? Ueda claims it’s all about working with the constraints of the hardware. Ico, Shadow and Last Guardian all share a similar aesthetic – they are vast, lonely worlds, bathed in almost blinding sunlight. Ueda seems less precise in his methodology when it comes to the look of his games. In short, Yorda, Trico and the horse aren’t there just as narrative allies, they’re there – in very much the Hollywood movie script tradition – to help the player interpret the protagonist. The secondary character helps shape the main character. As a developer, in order to form such a character you need assistance from that character’s surroundings – that’s where the role of the NPC, or opposite character in the case of our games, comes in. “But because every single gamer is different, it’s very hard to give the player an exact definition of the protagonist: it’s up to you who the main character is going to be. “The main character is controlled by the player, so the main character is you,” he says. The presence of a responsive non-player character can, in such abstract, lightly plotted game worlds, provide essential clues to the player about the nature of their protagonist. For him, there is a mechanical advantage too. What’s fascinating is that Ueda doesn’t necessarily see the central relationship between the boy and Trico, or Wander and the horse as a narrative construct, as something to tell an emotional story. With Shadow of the Colossus, Ueda-san was surprised at how invested players were in the relationship between Wander and his horse Photograph: Team Ico/Sony Computer Entertainment That’s where The Last Guardian came from.” I thought OK, if that’s the case, there are a lot of mechanics from that relationship that we could heighten and expand on. “For me it was the main relationship between Wander and the girl, but after the release, I read a lot of feedback from players who were touched by the game, and they said that the relationship between Wander and the horse was the most important and appealing – we got the sense that this was what most people felt. ![]() “Once we were done with Shadow of Colossus there was a moment when I reflected on what we really wanted to communicate and portray in that game,” he says. Indeed, it’s surprise about how players have interpreted his past work that led to the pairing at the centre of Last Guardian – the boy and the beast. But as a lot of people played through Ico and Shadow of Colosuss, they said, ‘Oh, these games are about building a bond, they’re about trust.’ From my perspective, I just say, here, go ahead, play it – then at the end, the player can come to their own conclusion about what the game is trying to tell them. “From our side, we didn’t have a strong intent to portray relationships as a theme of our games. When asked about the way in which intimate relationships have figured highly in his three PlayStation games, he shrugs and smiles. Of course, no one could accuse him of bashing his games together, but he retains the self-deprecating air of the chancer who made good, who is almost mystified by the meaning that people ascribe to his work. Ten years ago, in a rare biographical interview with the Japanese games magazine Continue, he claimed that while studying art at university he specifically chose to specialise in conceptual art for the main practical component so that he could get away with bashing together something abstract a day before the course deadline. He exudes this air – whether manufactured or not – of winging it. He certainly considers every question carefully, he is polite and focused, but time and time again he refuses to share his influences and refutes any attempt to interpret to his work. In person, he is a playful, mischievous but also likably frustrating presence. Photograph: SonyĪfter meeting Ueda at E3, it’s clear why there is so little backstory about him. Ueda-san’s first game for Sony, Ico, was famous for its hand-holding mechanic, linking the eponymous protagonist with the prisoner he rescues, Yorda.
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