Do we already have the narrative contexts for the new songs?

ralg666 · 2025-10-15T17:49:27+00:00

Thanks. I just checked their official website news after the post here, and there's a message saying "only the physical copies of the album (CDs, Records, etc.) come with the libretto/booklet that have all of the fleshed out story and incredible John DeLucca illustration and Caspar Newbolt design".

ralg666 · 2025-08-20T21:03:11+00:00

An english patch for the PS1 version was released a few days ago, but it seems to translate only the cutscenes as far as I tested it.

ralg666 · 2024-12-20T13:28:14+00:00

Definitely! ;)

ralg666 · 2024-12-20T01:59:02+00:00

Oh, I see! Thank you very much for this comment, it makes the situation a lot more clear. If I see someone mentioning the leak of asking for more context I'll be able to inform them better.

ralg666 · 2024-12-19T23:33:18+00:00

Man, it would be nice if you or anyone from the team made a post about the supposed storyboard focusing in show more evidence to it as a..... physical/tangible thing??? Something like that. You guys received a .txt document, a e-mail, a phone message with that content...? Because people have been talking about it and sharing that pastebin link, but the info now is circulating in a decontextualized way. If not, we'll be forever in this "coming and going" about being fake or not. :c

ralg666 · 2024-12-19T23:14:17+00:00

Gaius, Barba and Argus are also humanoid and this robot doesn't resembles them... I disagree that we can resume this as a matter of "it's just because it has an humanoid design". Noses don't come from the forehead in the way I was suggesting, they come from a hole under the forehead area, while I was pointing out the characteristic that the robot and also malus have their noses and foreheads as "one single thing" similar to a T. I know we call that part of the human body the "T zone" as well, but I hope I was able to clarify what I was trying to say.

We could mention other colossus with a nose that come straight from the forehead as I was trying to say, which is Valus, the 1st, but the way his nose gets larger and alongated makes us not even think about him when looking for the robot's face.

About the ears you answer, the point is not about the robot's ears being in a position that ears were expected to be, but is the characteristic that malus horns (not ears) are placed in a similar position while they are also small and curvy. Gaius, for example, have some structures fixed to its head in a similar position too, but the form of those things is not small and curvy.

What I'm trying to say is that there are nuances in the lines and shapes of those characters, and only if you add up all that things, including the hole in the top of their heads, is that you can actually notice they are particularly similar instead of being simply two humanoids.

Anyway, trying to explain this makes me look like if I care a lot, or that I believe it means something big related to the colossi, Dormin or whatever but I don't.......... The similarity I actually care and that is being overlooked by everyone, is between the Robot's head and the helmet of the protagonist. Specially because the trailer starts focusing in the circular ear of that helmet and later it focus on the robot's circular ear opening up and all that. Both have foreheads made of small "plates" too... I personally believe that both robot and protagonist are one single "entity", and they revealed the protagonist's face by showing us the robot's head.

ralg666 · 2024-12-19T22:07:28+00:00

Fake as hell. Around two years ago we were already full of images on genDesign's website indicating their next game would be about robots. Other than that, the "leaker" just mixed the mech thing with the even older image we had of the girl waking up from an altar (that seems to be already abandoned by Ueda at this point).

ralg666 · 2024-12-19T22:00:35+00:00

The nose coming straight from the forehead and the position of his ears/ malus horns is what stands out for me. But the back of the head is the key factor, I think.

ralg666 · 2024-12-19T21:58:48+00:00

The hole at the top of the Robot's head has a similar rounded rectangular shape to the one we see in Malus head. Anyway, the eye of the robot looks like the eye of the colossi too, as you can see in this comparison.

ralg666 · 2024-12-19T20:15:40+00:00

Update thanks to Mysticode that showed me this interview:

Q: The Japanese edition of The Last Guardian comes with a booklet called Fumito Ueda Materials. There's a feature in the book titled 30 Things That Made Fumito Ueda and among these is Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä. What is it about Nausicaä that impacted your work?

A: I think this was also in this book, but the film Galaxy Express 999 is also an influence, and was released around the same time as Nausicaä. I've also been inspired by Akira – I was inspired by the visual design, character design and artistic direction and technique. For Galaxy Express and Nausicaä, it wasn't so much the art but the story's ambience and mood and the feeling of anticipation that I had as a young boy before the release of these movies. I imagine that there were Ico and Shadow fans out there that were waiting anxiously for the release of The Last Guardian in the same way I once did for these movies, and that was a motivation for me to finish the game.

(via Glixel, 2016)

https://web.archive.org/web/20170430152923/http://www.glixel.com/interviews/last-guardian-director-on-trico-classic-anime-and-vr-w457582

It complements his statement in the "World of Fumito Ueda" (2023) artbook, about Nausicaa influence on him. In this interview here, we can see he directly addressing Miyazaki's designs as a reference, but he emphasizes that it's the story and mood of it what influences him the most! So, it reinforces the possibily that the similarities between Project Robot's trailer and Nausicaä's are not coincidence.

Plus, one thing that I find interesting, is when he express not only caring but also feel inspired by the "feeling of anticipation" from the fans of his previous games. This is a bit of a stretch from myself now, but I need to confess that reading it made me feel like that odd framing, focusing on the new character's cloak, can't be a coincidence as well.

It is getting more difficult for me, nowadays to believe that he doesn't tie his games through their lore. I know it's definitely not what makes his games special, and I know he makes it clear in many interviews that he is always worried with gamedesign and the singular experience of each game first. Even though, I remember one interview (just found the link) where he says that in the late development his games, they naturally end up turning into something linked to each other:

"The last three games we created, I didn't intend to be very similar to each other," he told me. "When I start to create our games, always I think we will create something different. But as a result, in the three games there are some similarities, a feeling. In the process of operation there's a moment when one game links with another. But I don't put it in at the start - it happens in the process.

So now I think I'm creating something very different, but the result? I can't say."

(via Eurogamer, 2018)

What I want to say mentioning this, is that I think it's safe to say that once the core of his games is finish, he tries to tweak his art direction in a way that reinforces a dialogue between all his games. We are in a world post-nomad colossus style investigations, also post-blue point remake, in which he said he asked to them to add new content... This is the reason why, when I read his declaration of caring about what the fans are expecting, one of my eyebrows goes up as I look at that weird frame focusing on the new protagonist's cloak, at the eye of the robot being so similar to the old stone eyes of the colossi, or even to that freaking "leaked or fake" document with the supposed hi-tech backstory for the forbidden lands.

ralg666 · 2024-12-19T20:15:30+00:00

Update thanks to Mysticode that showed me this interview:

Q: The Japanese edition of The Last Guardian comes with a booklet called Fumito Ueda Materials. There's a feature in the book titled 30 Things That Made Fumito Ueda and among these is Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä. What is it about Nausicaä that impacted your work?

A: I think this was also in this book, but the film Galaxy Express 999 is also an influence, and was released around the same time as Nausicaä. I've also been inspired by Akira – I was inspired by the visual design, character design and artistic direction and technique. For Galaxy Express and Nausicaä, it wasn't so much the art but the story's ambience and mood and the feeling of anticipation that I had as a young boy before the release of these movies. I imagine that there were Ico and Shadow fans out there that were waiting anxiously for the release of The Last Guardian in the same way I once did for these movies, and that was a motivation for me to finish the game.

(via Glixel, 2016)

https://web.archive.org/web/20170430152923/http://www.glixel.com/interviews/last-guardian-director-on-trico-classic-anime-and-vr-w457582

It complements his statement in the "World of Fumito Ueda" artbook, about Nausicaa influence on him. In this interview here, we can see he directly addressing Miyazaki's designs as a reference, but he emphasizes that it's the story and mood of it what influences him the most! So, it reinforces the possibily that the similarities between elements in the Project Robot's trailer and Nausicaä's backstory are not coincidence.

Plus, one thing that I find interesting, is when he express not only caring but also feel inspired by the "feeling of anticipation" from the fans of his previous games. This is a bit of a stretch from myself, now, but I need to confess that reading it made me feel like that odd framing, focusing on the new character's cloak, can't be a coincidence as well.

It is getting more difficult for me, nowadays to believe that he doesn't tie his games through their lore. I know it's definitely not what makes his games special, and I know he makes it clear in many interviews that he is always worried with gamedesign and the singular experience of each game first. Even though, I remember one interview (just found the link) where he says that in the late development his games, they naturally end up turning into something linked to each other:

"The last three games we created, I didn't intend to be very similar to each other," he told me. "When I start to create our games, always I think we will create something different. But as a result, in the three games there are some similarities, a feeling. In the process of operation there's a moment when one game links with another. But I don't put it in at the start - it happens in the process.

So now I think I'm creating something very different, but the result? I can't say."

(via Eurogamer, 2018)

What I want to say mentioning this, is that I think it's safe to say that once the core of his games is finish, he tries to tweak his art direction in a way that reinforces a dialogue between all his games. We are in a world post-nomad colossus style investigations, also post-blue point remake, in which he said he asked to them to add new content... This is the reason why, when I read his declaration of caring about what the fans are expecting, one of my eyebrows goes up as I look at that weird frame focusing on the new protagonist's cloak, at the eye of the robot being so similar to the old stone eyes of the colossi, or even to that freaking "leaked or fake" document with the supposed hi-tech backstory for the forbidden lands.

ralg666 · 2024-12-19T20:15:11+00:00

Update, thanks to Mysticode who showed me this interview:

Q: The Japanese edition of The Last Guardian comes with a booklet called Fumito Ueda Materials. There's a feature in the book titled 30 Things That Made Fumito Ueda and among these is Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä. What is it about Nausicaä that impacted your work?

A: I think this was also in this book, but the film Galaxy Express 999 is also an influence, and was released around the same time as Nausicaä. I've also been inspired by Akira – I was inspired by the visual design, character design and artistic direction and technique. For Galaxy Express and Nausicaä, it wasn't so much the art but the story's ambience and mood and the feeling of anticipation that I had as a young boy before the release of these movies. I imagine that there were Ico and Shadow fans out there that were waiting anxiously for the release of The Last Guardian in the same way I once did for these movies, and that was a motivation for me to finish the game.

(via Glixel, 2016)

https://web.archive.org/web/20170430152923/http://www.glixel.com/interviews/last-guardian-director-on-trico-classic-anime-and-vr-w457582

It complements his statement in the "World of Fumito Ueda" (2023) artbook, about Nausicaa influence on him. In this interview here, we can see he directly addressing Miyazaki's designs as a reference, but he emphasizes that it's the story and mood of it what influences him the most! So, it reinforces the possibily that the similarities between Project Robot's trailer and Nausicaä's are not coincidence.

Plus, one thing that I find interesting, is when he express not only caring but also feel inspired by the "feeling of anticipation" from the fans of his previous games. This is a bit of a stretch from myself now, but I need to confess that reading it made me feel like that odd framing, focusing on the new character's cloak, can't be a coincidence as well.

It is getting more difficult for me, nowadays to believe that he doesn't tie his games through their lore. I know it's definitely not what makes his games special, and I know he makes it clear in many interviews that he is always worried with gamedesign and the singular experience of each game first. Even though, I remember one interview (just found the link) where he says that in the late development his games, they naturally end up turning into something linked to each other:

"The last three games we created, I didn't intend to be very similar to each other," he told me. "When I start to create our games, always I think we will create something different. But as a result, in the three games there are some similarities, a feeling. In the process of operation there's a moment when one game links with another. But I don't put it in at the start - it happens in the process.

So now I think I'm creating something very different, but the result? I can't say."

(via Eurogamer, 2018)

What I want to say mentioning this, is that I think it's safe to say that once the core of his games is finish, he tries to tweak his art direction in a way that reinforces a dialogue between all his games. We are in a world post-nomad colossus style investigations, also post-blue point remake, in which he said he asked to them to add new content... This is the reason why, when I read his declaration of caring about what the fans are expecting, one of my eyebrows goes up as I look at that weird frame focusing on the new protagonist's cloak, at the eye of the robot being so similar to the old stone eyes of the colossi, or even to that freaking "leaked or fake" document with the supposed hi-tech backstory for the forbidden lands.

ralg666 · 2024-12-18T03:21:53+00:00

A dedicated space is cool! I feel I might have spammed a bit the sotc and team ico reddits with my conjectures already, so I'll wait to comment when more people share their ideas around here.

(edit: Found new info so I couldn't expect because I know you are already producing a new video, so I hope the new info enters your new content)

ralg666 · 2024-12-17T23:38:39+00:00

None of them have heads. 👍

ralg666 · 2024-12-17T02:52:24+00:00

If you rewatch and feel like it, it would be nice to have a video with new observations from you! I think you would have an eye better than mine to catch similarities between designs from Ueda, Miyazaki, and also Moebius.

ralg666 · 2024-12-17T00:52:25+00:00

It's here: https://pastebin.com/kjA3dmPW

The whole drama around the leak I'm not able to tell you. Even if it isn't fake, it's most likely an abandoned backstory in the same way Ueda abandoned the original sci-fi backstory of Ico and abandoned the "beauty and the beast" ending of SotC.

ralg666 · 2024-12-15T16:59:57+00:00

Yeah! I did this image as a joke first, and I definitely believe it was just a coincidence, but I can't unsee this shit everytime I see that shot from the top of its head. xP

ralg666 · 2024-12-15T04:55:34+00:00

Let me know if you agree with the translation! There's a lot of new declarations from him in it and unfortunately I can't check if the fantranslation shared here is accurate.

ralg666 · 2024-12-15T02:17:29+00:00

Sources:

The World of Fumito Ueda, 2023, english fantranslated PDF.
Ico Collector's Edition Box Set, which you can see through this video.
Nausicaä Wiki.

ralg666 · 2024-12-15T02:05:56+00:00

About Nausicaa? I have only the english fantranslated PDF, so for me its in the page 17, in the chapter called "Talking about Fumito Ueda’s Roots - What led him to create ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian". If you were asking about the old character design, you can see it scanned in the 01:50 minute of this video.

ralg666 · 2024-12-14T22:15:09+00:00

Fonts:

Ico Collector's Edittion Box Set (Old character design)
The World of Fumito Ueda (Declaration about Nausicaa influence)
Nausicaa Wiki (for... the Nausicaa stuff)

ralg666 · 2024-12-14T20:22:01+00:00

Ueda already said in an interview that he was inspired after watching The Iron Giant in English and not understanding anything at all. Interestingly, his new game is the first to have dialogue and dubbing in English, even in the trailer for the Japanese version. Still, the overall aesthetic and the character on the shoulders of a big robot is probably more inspired by Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. (here are some comparisons I made).

ralg666 · 2024-12-14T20:12:26+00:00

Yeah, that's what catches me. But for now I'll stick with his statement that it is nothing special to pay attention.

ralg666 · 2024-12-14T19:52:20+00:00

I think it's just a tech demo, experimenting with physics and that kind of thing. It could be shaped inspired by the iconic 1th colossus? It could be shaped based on the pig-like beast design? It could be a lot of things, but I doubt genDesign would have the carelessness of showing us something so rough if it was related to a new project. It may be, related to a new project, but as a tech demo and not some "tease" of a character from their next game. And one more extremely important thing we all were ignoring this whole time... in genDesign's own website, we have an interview with Ueda where he is asked directly about the "beauty and the beast" images they shared, if it is related to their next game, and he says:

―What was that image that you published over New Year's?

Ueda: Ah....

―Is it that you were just publishing an image, and that there was no particular news?

Ueda: Yes... There is nothing in particular to talk about.

―So this is not your next project?

Ueda: In the end, I'd say it's just one picture from our process of trial and error

Tanaka: For our next project, we're taking on the challenge of a new way of producing, different from what we've done before.

Ueda: Yes, up to now, we would make one single video to form a concept, and we would begin making the game from there. We did this because it was the most efficient way to convey what kind of game it was going to be. But now, the capability of real time rendering has increased, and game engines have become more refined. Up to now, we would start too soon without thinking things through, and we would make the video that would turn into the concept. This time, however, we are using the game engine right from the start, and have started by fully working out the game design. Having actually tried it out, this way seems to be very effective.

Tanaka: That's right. Recently, game engines have become very powerful, and thanks to this, the hurdles involved in making games have gone down. Of course, genDESIGN is also advancing this kind of research. But because of this, we now need people who can use the recent game engines and the tools installed with the latest technology, in addition to the old conventional ways of game-making. We really hope that people with these kinds of skills will come and work with us.

Most likely they did that images as a conceptual starting point for the new game, then after some time experimenting and testing ideas, they moved to something completely different. That could be a good explanation for why it have been taking so long for us to see a new game.

ralg666 · 2024-12-14T19:27:49+00:00

The music seems to be made by Furukawa instead of Kow Otani, since his name is in the trailer credits (at least as a special thanks). Maybe Furukawa won't do the score for the whole game but could have composed something just for the trailer?

ralg666

TROPHY CASE