The Last Guardian director Fumito Ueda reveals his five storytelling secrets

A new post on the PlayStation Blog has shed further light on The Last Guardian, which is finally releasing this year.

The Last Guardian director Fumito Ueda reveals his five storytelling secrets

In the blog post, Fumito Ueda talks about some of the story techniques Team Ico has used to deliver The Last Guardian's tale.

The first is 'the power of visual storytelling', as Ueda explains how the boy and Trico “can only communicate via gestures, motion, and reactions".

The second is a voiceover, which is a first for Team Ico; the story will be recounted by the boy several years down the track.

Ueda's third secret is to 'make the player and character as one', which he hopes to do both through the game's puzzles and exploration and by providing further backstory for the boy.

His fourth is to get players invested in saving Trico. Ueda writes: "the big difference between this and the relationships in Ico and Shadow of the Colossus is that there’s a more dynamic range between the boy and Trico. From that first moment in the game, the boy is uncertain if Trico will be a friend or foe, and you immediately start trying to work out how to bridge that communication gap."

The final secret Ueda shares is that he wants to use enemies to explore the relationship between the boy and Trico, rather than simply having them be obstacles. “With Ico we focused more on the puzzle elements to keep Princess Yorda safe, and in Shadow of the Colossus we focused on driving you to defeating colossi, at a cost", he says. "With The Last Guardian we examine the changing relationship between the boy and Trico, and the challenges that represents as you try to discover the game’s mysteries."

The Last Guardian releases on PlayStation 4 on October 25. There's also a beautiful collector's edition coming.