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The Last Guardian has seen a decent delay as of recent, with Sony pushing back the game all the way into the holiday season. Who knows, the highly anticipated title from director Fumito Ueda might not even see a release this year – but before you get all feisty etc., look below the break to see why, as the developer’s unleashed a plethora of information to PlayStation: The Official Magazine about the game, talking of the Trico’s unique strength, working around the “limits of games” and much more details.

When asked by the mag whether The Last Guardian was meant to be a mix of Shadow of the Colossus and Ico, Ueda said:

“Yes, that was the original concept. Both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were on PlayStation 2, and now that we’re on PlayStation 3, rather than find a new game mechanic, I wanted to take the things we’d already made and create something amazing on this new hardware with higher specs.”

As to what parts of the two games were used, he said: “Well, the Trico can move around autonomously, just like Yorda and Ico. And you could climb onto the monsters in Colossus, just as here you can climb onto the Trico. We’ve mixed those things together.”

In Ico, if Yorda was left alone for too long she’d become vulnerable, however it’s the opposite in this game says Ueda, as “The Player’s character doesn’t have much strength, so it feels perilous to be alone.”

“You’ll feel safer with the Trico,” he added.

The Trico’s also very powerful, as noted by Ueda, adding it “mostly” won’t take damage. “The Trico is extremely strong within this world,” he said.

The director then talked of the progression from the first game to The Last Guardian, saying “I’ve always had an interest in the characters you’d be able to create on these wholly artificial devices, these consoles.”

“It’s not easy to explain, but it’s using the computer as a tool for story expression, and seeing how far we can go. I’m interested in using the computer’s power to create an engaging adventure story, or in artificial intelligence and so on.”

When asked if having a fantasy creature instead of human help accomplish his goal, Ueda goes back to his former point, talking even more about the “limits of games”.

“That also goes back to working around the limits of games – finding ways to feel more empathy for characters,” he said. “With Ico, you had a boy and a girl, but they weren’t able to speak with each other.

If they were able to talk, I think that would have limited the effect of the story we told. It helped us gloss over a lot of details that we would’ve had to spell out explicitly otherwise.

It’s a similar idea here. I think this game retains that aspect of storytelling as well, since you can’t speak with the animals.”

Ueda shed some light on The Last Guardian’s location, confirming the entire experience is set within the citadel, “But it won’t be all indoors,” he said. “There [just] won’t be wide-open expanses for you to traverse like in Colossus.”

All this information makes Ueda’s latest game look limited in scope and scale compared to the first two, however he doesn’t see it this way, pointing out, in fact, “it’s a lot deeper” than the former titles.

“The Last Guardian doesn’t have a large cast,” he admits, “and areas to access are also a bit limited compared to Shadow. However, just because the space is smaller doesn’t mean there are fewer things to do; if anything, there’s a much larger density of information. It’s a lot deeper.”

And finally, the director answered the question of whether he worried that his games were too emotionally challenging. For him, it’s trying to reach a broader audience with this genre of entertainment.

“Certainly, I make games so that I can create a moving experience for the player,” he said. “I’m not aiming to create just your typical videogame, but a form of entertainment that happens to be delivered via computer technology.

People rate games in terms of how much “fun” they are or how much it allows them to blow off steam or whatever – and I think such games are important, of course – but I want to try to go beyond that and attract a broader audience to this genre of entertainment.”