Though he’s no longer the director for the project, Fumito Ueda still feels sorry that fans have had to wait so long to get their hands on The Last Guardian when speaking to EDGE.
“Putting aside the short-term output, more than anything I feel terribly sorry that for various reasons I have kept my audience waiting for such a long time.”
Originally revealed in 2009, The Last Guardian was scheduled to release by 2011 for the PlayStation 3 but has since been delayed. Now, with the PS4 having released, there are rumours that it could shift over to the next-generation of consoles. Ueda has since left the project as director but continues on as a special consultant. “It was not easy,” on being asked about Sony’s reaction to his news, “but I can’t go into the details just yet. It will be good to be able to discuss it along with a post-mortem of The Last Guardian someday.”
Meanwhile, Ueda talked about how he remains motivated despite having worked on the same project for more than 6 years. “Maintaining motivation is all about producing something great. A hobby or alcohol might help to refresh you temporarily, but they won’t motivate creativity. Also, the original staff members on Ico and SOTC are just as fussy over details as I am. I always want to create quickly, and I always want to increase the rate of production.
“In the case of The Last Guardian, my creative work was mostly finished a long time ago, but the details of when, where and how it will be completed are beyond my control.”