Fumito Ueda's directed some of the best games of all time – Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian – but even he admits that memorable in-game moments can often sprout out from unintended or even "clunky" ideas.
All three of Ueda's classics are more or less about controlling a little guy in a huge world. Sometimes that scale comes across in the towering architecture of Ico, sometimes it manifests in the absolutely gigantic beasts you'll need to climb and stab in Shadow of the Colossus, and sometimes it's both, as is the case with The Last Guardian.
Getting around isn't always easy or intuitive, but it's part of what makes those experiences feel grounded in reality. Clinging onto a hairy colossi while it tries to shake you off like a bug shouldn't be frictionless, after all, and it's a topic of discussion that came up during a conversation between Ueda and famed game dev Goichi 'Suda51' Suda.
Speaking to Automaton, Suda mentions how one of the sections in Shadow of the Colossus gave him a bit of trouble. "It was the third or fourth enemy, the guy at the top of a slope you have to climb," he says. "There's a part on the way up where you have to make Wander jump sideways, and I was terrible at it. But as time passes, parts like that are exactly what stick with you as memories of an adventure."
Ueda reckons that initial clunkiness is partly what makes some games special. "So even things the creators didn't necessarily intend, including those 'difficult' parts, or elements that are a bit unforgiving or clunky, are what actually end up being memorable," he concludes.
Despite coming to that realization now, Ueda acknowledges that he might not be so forgiving if he was making his PS2 classic nowadays. "If I saw that today, I'd probably think I have to fix it. I'd look at the playtest results and immediately think, 'If players are struggling here, we need to patch it right now.'"
In collaboration with Epic Games, Ueda's next game Gen Atlas is another adventure that plays with size and scale. You play as a wanderer who pilots flying, giant mech heads that can detach from and attach onto different robot bodies. Here's hoping it keeps its predecessors' rough edges.
