The Last Guardian can be a frustrating experience. Complaints have been leveled at the controls and somewhat clunky AI, but those complaints ignore a key factor: it's somewhat intentional. In The Last Guardian, you play as a boy who wakes up in vast ruins alongside a gryphon creature he names Trico. As a small boy, you have the intelligence of a human to pull levers and squeeze through small spaces, but Trico's massive size lends you strength and the ability to make impossible leaps through the crumbling ruins.... when he does what you say. You see, it can take a few tries to get Trico to listen to you. Sometimes you give a command and he just stands there or he turns to where you want, but doesn't jump at first. It can take a few tries to get him to do so. That's because Trico isn't a robot. He's not designed to be an obedient servant, but a wild animal that's formed a bond with the young boy. Despite his intelligence to learn what you want, he is a separate creature, and an animal at that. These little frustrations in controls actually make that feel more real. It sounds like an excuse, but I say this with 100% belief in my statement. I sat down with this game at 3PM on a Saturday afternoon, thinking I'd play a couple of hours. I turned the game off at 4AM the following Sunday, having completed it. Over that 13 hours, I formed a bond with Trico that I've never felt playing a video game and when the final battle came, where Trico truly shows his bravery against overwhelming odds, it hurt. Seeing Trico hurt anywhere in the game was painful to watch, but the final battle truly pulls at the heart strings. Even moreso, once the story is all said and done, despite my expectations of a tragic ending, I found myself not only crying, but sobbing at the end of this game. I rarely get emotional during movies, not even choked up, let alone crying, but this game touched me in a way that is hard to describe. If you have a pet, or if you ever had a pet you truly loved, there's a good chance this game will having you crying because of how well it portrays that bond between man and animal.