The Last Guardian’s Creator On Subtlety And His Bedtime Rituals

Shadow of the Colossus released 20 years ago today in North America, which is a great excuse to share an interview we performed with its creator, Fumito Ueda, right before the release of The Last Guardian.

This interview was originally published on December 5, 2016.

Fumito Ueda, the creator behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, has been working on The Last Guardian for more than seven years. It was announced in 2009 as a PlayStation 3 game, and in the following years disappeared so far into obscurity that many presumed it had been canceled. It made a triumphant return, however, at E3 2015 where it had hopped generations for release on PlayStation 4. After one final small two-month delay moving the game from its original October release to December, Sony’s president of worldwide studios Shuhei Yoshida announced that the game was finally, truly complete.

We haven’t been able to play the full adventure yet, but we did get a chance to speak with the game’s venerated creator about his upcoming post-Last Guardian life, some of his favorite recent games, and what time of the day he gets his creative work done.

I understand The Last Guardian has gone gold. The game is done. How do you feel about that? Nervous? Relieved? Excited?

Fumito Ueda: All the above, obviously. But to be honest, it hasn’t really sunk in yet for me. It’s not just The Last Guardian where I’m feeling this way once we know that the final master is gone and it’s already in production. Even with the two previous titles, it’s always taken a little while, maybe even a few months, for it to really sink in and for me to really feel that everything has been completed and it’s done and it’s out. So I’m still in that mode right now.

What are you going to do following The Last Guardian? Are you going to continue to make video games? Are you going to for a rest for a while?

Again, being completely honest here, a long break or recharge moment at least is necessary. Not just for myself but also for the staff who worked on this title. It’s been a very long time, so I don’t even want to think about the next game just yet in a way that it is very active in my mind yet. I think I owe it to myself that I need to take a little bit of a break and recharge my batteries.

But there are certainly some ideas floating around in there, I’m sure.

Yeah. So I certainly have some ideas. In fact, they’re not just brand-new fresh ideas from recent times. Even throughout development, as you know, there’s been some kind of hold periods that we’ve had or moments where my brain would maybe wander off to think about some new ideas. So they’ve all been sort of stashed away for a while so once I recharge my batteries, I think it would be nice to bring them back from the little box that had been stashed away and I’ll bring those out.

Video games, since their inception, have been about explosions and action, but all of your games have maintained a level of subtlety with a focus on emotional storytelling. How have you been able to achieve that?

If you were to ask me the question, not trying to paraphrase or rephrase it, but if you were to ask me the question, “Is this just a style of my choice?” Then I would have to say that it’s not. I don’t go in by being very picky about the style of game that I make. My approach is that there are so many games out there that are maybe similarly treated that as a result, I would have a tendency to go in a different direction. On top of that, I’m always thinking about how to make the best out of the limited resources that we have available, and in that condition or in that situation, how can this creation stand out amongst the others. So it’s very much sort of dependent on the environment and our surroundings.

To give you an example, if there is a world in the future where there is an abundance of games that have a very similar style to what I make – who knows? I may actually go the opposite direction and make games that are explosive and very much in your face. So, I wouldn’t say there isn’t a possibility of me turning a corner and making that kind of game, but that’s just kind of the natural result that has led me to go in this direction.

What are some of your favorite games, from this year or otherwise?

Inside is one. Also, Dragon Quest Builders. Obviously in Japan, it’s kind of become a very, very big successful title out here.

Can you briefly tell me why you like Inside so much?

It’s a little difficult to clearly or properly express this, but I think it’s the fluid controls. There almost like silky smooth controls and it just feels so good. That is not to say that other elements or aspects of the game, the visuals and the level design, they’re all great. I think they did a really fine job with it. But the thing that really stuck with me most is the silky smooth controls.

Why is having a partner through the course of a game is so important? You have Yorda in Ico, Agro in Shadow of the Colossus, and though I haven’t played it yet, it seems like Trico serves this role in The Last Guardian.

I’ve been making games for about 20 years now. It took me a while to actually get into games, compared to maybe some people who went straight out of college or university. I was around 25-years-old when I entered the industry. And before that, I was striving to become someone, or do work in the arts or film industry. So when I made that transition to games, inside of me I was like, “You know what? I’m changing over medium, going from arts and film to video games. There’s something that I must do to prove to myself that this is something only I can do in a video game, that I can only express in a video game, that I can’t do in other arts or film if I continue to go down that path.”

As a result with video games being a media where you can have an A.I. character, have an NPC character, but also have communication with the character and grow relationships or bond with – that’s something that cannot be done in film. Maybe as a result of that my energy and focus has gone down that path and that’s why you see partner characters in my games. That’s not to say that there won’t be other elements that I discover that cannot be done in film or other forms of art. If I discover something like that, it might be an element that I may start introducing into my game creations.

On the topic of film, at one time there were talks of a Shadow of the Colossus movie. Is that was something you would like to see happen, or does that story function better as a video game?

When there were initial talks about a film adaptation for Shadow of the Colossus, yes, there was a sense that I created something that can only be pulled or achieved in a video game. So I was a bit hesitant – I’m not necessarily opposed, but more like, “Hmm, that doesn’t sound quite right maybe.” But, fast forward to today and although that was a creation that was meant for a video game as the media or chosen platform, now it’s more like, “Well that was that. How would you then adapt that into a film? Or how would you create it into something that is consumable just by watching?” If there are continuations or if someone talks about it, I would look forward to how they would try to recreate, retell that story in a film form.

How did you stay enthusiastic about The Last Guardian through its protracted development? Were there specific ideas in the game that pulled you through and made you excited over the course of its whole development?

We would have to ask our staff as to how they kept their motivation going, but personally I feel that for me what’s important is that – to keep my own motivation in creating my own creations going and alive and breathing and motivating myself, I look to being inspired by other creations. Whether they are film, music, or art, anything that their creators are creating or they have created. To inhale what that is, is something that keeps me motivated for my own creations. It’s kind of like feeding into what I view, what I see, what I feel from other creator’s work feeds back into my motivation.

Do you feel like your design sensibility has changed over the course of development of The Last Guardian? Have your tastes evolved or changed at all?

No, I don’t think so. Nothing in particular in terms of this long development period. For me, my design approach or sensibilities have not changed in a direct way. If I were to touch upon being inspired by or influenced, along the lines of the comment I gave you earlier, it’s great to see wonderful, amazing work from other creators. They may be inspiring, but they don’t directly feed back into my ideas or creations. It really gives me a boost, a motivational boost, for me to continue on with what I’m doing. So that has helped me along the way.

Do you always see yourself working on big budget games with grand visions? Or do you want to explore smaller games or maybe virtual reality in the future?

At this moment, and I know you didn’t ask for any specifics, but I’m not thinking about what the size or the scale or whatnot is going to be for the next ideas or when they’re forming to become something. Developing a game is not an easy task. It’s very much a combination of hard work, dedication and commitment, and it’s a very challenging task to overcome but also fulfilling in the end. Whatever I work on next has got to have that in mind, meaning I know it’s going to be very challenging, but at the end of it all it’s going to be a very fulfilling experience. I also need to make sure that we can overcome that challenge ourselves.

What are your morning and bedtime rituals? Are you a skip and rush to work kind of guy? Or a wake up early and cook a full breakfast before work kind of guy?

With confidence I tell you that I’m a night owl. Not a morning person at all. In terms of, not just The Last Guardian but also with the two previous games, any part of storyboarding out ideas and things in my head, pretty much the majority of them have taken place after midnight hours. That’s when I get my best work done on my own.

So you’re not a, “Fall asleep when your head hits the pillow,” kind of guy?

No, not at all.

For more on The Last Guardian, head here for some of our hands-on impressions, and here to see us play through the game’s TGS 2016 demo. You can also watch us play Shadow of the Colossus in its entirety here. The Last Guardian releases on PlayStation 4, December 6.