the nature and role of auteurs like Ueda and Final Fantasys Tetsuya Nomura in game development. News writers were able to play The Last Guardian at E3 2016 and the 2016 Tokyo Game Show in the months before the game's release, and several expressed further concerns about the nature of the game's lengthy development period. Patrick Garrett, writing for VG247, found that the visuals felt flat and aged considering modern hardware capabilities, and expressed concern that while older gamers would readily purchase the game, The Last Guardian may not draw in enough newer gamers to be a commercial success. Philip Kollar for Polygon, though still impressed with the characters, graphics, and core gameplay, found controlling the character difficult and managing the game's camera tricky, elements that made the game feel like a PlayStation 2 game rather than something on modern hardware. Wireds Chris Kohler found much of the demo to require patient observation of Trico's movements and puzzle solving, which, he commented, some players would appreciate but were elements that have slowly been phased out of action games over the last console generation, and other players may not have the patience for these. Brian Ashcraft of Kotaku also noted that the demo's pace was often set by how fast Trico would respond or react, which may test the patience of players looking for a more action-based experience. Sales In the UK, The Last Guardian suffered lower than expected sales, debuting at number 7 in the weekly game sales charts. It debuted at number four in the Japanese video game sales charts, with 82,260 copies sold. The following week, it sold an additional 10,754 copies in Japan, bringing the total number of copies sold in the country to 93,014. Awards Notes References External links 2016 video games Action-adventure games Art games Fantasy video games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games PlayStation 4-only games Sony Interactive Entertainment games Video games about animals Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Takeshi Furukawa BAFTA winners (video games)