The Last Guardian is a running, jumping and exploring adventure about a boy who befriends a giant half-bird, half-mammal creature, Trico. You work together to navigate the world, solve puzzles and reach new heights. Unusually, you have to build trust and friendship with a believable companion to cajole and nurture acceptance of your guidance.

You wake up in a ruined castle and discover an enormous, winged, cat-like creature. After removing the spears from its body and feeding it, you unchain the beast and a friendship begins. This builds on themes from previous games from the auteur-developer Fumito Ueda: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

From there, you explore a broken-down ancient world by climbing, running and solving environmental puzzles. You develop cooperation with your large, Trico. But you can't command the creature directly. Instead, you must develop a relationship with them so they accept your guidance.

The story is narrated from a retrospective perspective. As you progress you learn about your past and the importance of the creature. Caring for Trico is a big part of the experience. Petting, removing arrows and generally tending to your friend is engaging and affecting for players.

These parts add up to an unusual game in many ways. There is a floaty looseness to the mechanics that invite exploration and experimentation. This creates a unique world in which to journey with your living-breathing companion. Trico very much has their own will, which underlines the need for empathy, trust and dependency required to finish the game.

This is a story about therapeutic friendship. Trico has clearly survived mistreatment and abuse. Your presence is not only to cast off injury and physical chains but to walk with a creature learning to trust again. As Simon Parkin wrote in the Guardian, "This is a game, as much as anything, about rehabilitation through kindness and companionship. That story of therapeutic friendship and survival is told lightly in the dialogue. But it’s far more meaningfully told through the action, which shows an unspoken, healing bond forged in real-time by two underdogs together facing otherwise insurmountable odds."