After nine long years in development, Fumito Ueda’s The Last Guardian finally releases on PS4 later this week. For some, however, the wait is already over, after a number of retailers around the world have purportedly broken the game’s street date of December 6.

Some of those lucky enough to have picked up an early copy of the game have today taken to online forums and social media to share their initial impressions of SIE Japan Studio’s Shadow of the Colossus successor.

Firstly, The Last Guardian has a day-one patch of just over a GB in size. While the exact nature of its changes have yet to be revealed, many users are reporting an improved frame rate and general performance since installing the update.

لعبة The Last guardian متوفرة الان بالامارات pic.twitter.com/lgJc7W33Yt — Leaker Game in UAE (@LeakdGame) December 3, 2016

Meanwhile, users who have completed the game’s story are reporting that it took them between 12 and 15 hours to play through the title.

Finally, many players have been sharing some of their early impressions of The Last Guardian’s story and core gameplay. We’ve collated some of the highlights below: be warned that general spoilers may be ahead:

NeoGAF user bigmac996:

“Alright so I’m about 3 or 4 hours into the game so far. Still think I’m pretty much at the beginning because I’ve taken it pretty slow. First off, the game is beautiful, Toriko moves amazingly, the boy does as well. I don’t think I’ve ever seen ragdoll physics like this. I feel down a cliffside and the way the boy bounced around on the rocks was eerily realistic and a bit disturbing. Love the way Trico moves and acts like an animal. He is a bit stubborn, so you’ll need a bit of patience with this game. The puzzles are also spectacular even at this early stage. Everything feels organic, like the solutions aren’t spelled out to you and it feels less like a straight up puzzle-to-puzzle type game but something that flows way more naturally. So generally positive so far. Feels like an Ueda game and the atmosphere is incredible. I’m a bit put off by the camera control, especially in tight areas. They seem to solve some of it by just making the screen fade to back if the camera goes awry, but moments like this are few and far between (so far). You can change the camera control speed in the options to help a bit, but it still feels off. The controls, as many would expect, are a bit janky. I’ve only really had some frustration at times with climbing Trico. But yeah, from the first few hours, the game opens with a unique mechanic I haven’t seen in any previews yet, and a bit more in-your-face storytelling than what I’m typically used to in an Ueda game (still subtle though). I can’t wait to dive back in and keep going forward.”

GameFAQs user VenomTrane:

“- It took me around 15 hours to finish, did a lot of looking around and exploring, I’d say it should average around 12-13 hours for most.

– The pacing was masterful, lots of slow puzzle stuff and faster exploring/battle parts.

– Played with day 1 patch

– Trico is really a wonderful and magical driving force of this game, your bonding with the beast is very well presented over the course of it.

– As most would call it, the game utilizes “whacky ps2 controls”. Not much concern from my part, I got used to it in the first two hours.

– The camera on the other hand is really terrible sometimes, I often got stuck in small places.

– The setpieces are amazing. You always can keep track of your progress, lots of amazing vistas, caves, ruined buildings and there are a lot of unusual and surprising places.

– This might consider as a minor spoiler gameplay wise, but there were no collectibles or items.

– Music is scarce but phenomenal, it really hits when you hear any of it. I really love the other two Ueda game OSTs but this time they stepped it up.

– The game as a whole was perfectly satisfying, it lived up and beyond my expectations gameplay and storywise alike.

– As for the story: you haven’t seen anything. A lot of people complained about the trailers showing the second Trico but God bless Ueda and SIE for not blowing the real deal, it’s the trend nowadays.

– As for connections with Sotc and Ico, don’t ask me. I’d have loved to find something evident, but it must have slipped by or I haven’t noticed. I’ll definitely do a second run for those.”

NeoGAF user Bananastand: