What Animal Is In The Last Guardian

"	Beside me lay a great, man-eating animate being: 'Trico'.	"

Trico (トリコ, Toriko) is the name of the griffin-like beast in The Last Guardian and the deuteragonist of the game. Information technology looks like a combination of a dog, bird, and a cat. The mysterious masked knights searching for the Boy are no match for its power and ferocity. The boy will need to take care of Trico, both by feeding it mysterious barrels and removing spears from its hibernate.

Appearance

Trico is a large, hybridized beast with the face of a dog, the ears, body and tail of a cat, and the nib, wings, talons and feathers of a bird. It likewise sports a pair of horns on its head. Its feathers are a grayish blue with darker feathers on its tail, wings, and nose, while having lighter feathers on its face. The animal's optics change colors depending on its mood.

Trico's advent also changes over time. At the beginning, its wings are in tatters, and the horns are broken. Past the cease of the game, the wings are fully healed and its horns are almost a human foot long and slightly curved forwards.

Gender

The gender of Trico has been a debated topic, with some people saying it is male person and others female. However, in that location is no confirmed answer and Fumito Ueda himself has touched on this subject in an interview institute on GenDesign'due south website:

Ueda: From a creator point of view, in that location isn't much benefit in limiting it to 1 or the other. As well, the biggest reason was that we didn't desire to restrict the freedom of ideas in gameplay past giving information technology a specific sexual practice. We didn't want to restrict the fashion players understood it. And there's also the fact that we wanted people to feel that the virtual grapheme was appealing and realistic as a living beast.

Masami Tanji: I run into, you lot didn't desire to limit the possibilities by deciding of the sex activity.

Ueda: In that way there's a large advantage because both sexes can exist included; yous can make players feel that information technology is strong like a father, gentle like a mother, cute similar a girl, and innocent like a boy.

History

Trico first appears in the cavern with the male child, unconscious and wounded. After the Boy cares for the creature, the two start to bond and Trico follows the Boy around.

As the ii make their mode through the Nest, Trico defends the boy from enemies large and small and helps him access areas and embrace ground very chop-chop. Trico's bond becomes and so potent that the beast would protect the Boy from seemingly anything.

It is discovered that Trico is 1 of many other beasts like itself and was once enslaved to an entity called the Chief of the Valley, who controls the beasts and uses them to kidnap human children to sustain its own immortality. However, the Master'south control over this fauna was cleaved when Trico was hitting by lightning after stealing the Boy. Fearing the power of the now contained fauna, the Knights chained Trico up in the cave, hoping information technology would dice from the wounds it sustained from the lightning and the long autumn. However, Trico regurgitated the male child, who helped the beast recover and escape.

The two proceeds entrance to the Primary'south citadel tower. While Trico holds off a large pack of Armored Tricos, the boy destroys the Master. Badly wounded, Trico decides nevertheless that it is now fourth dimension that the Boy returned to his village. Upon returning the Boy home, Trico leaves for its own condom, leaving the Boy to tell the story of their extraordinary chance.

In the final cutscene, it is revealed that Trico not only survived its agonizing wounds simply has gone on to sire a young Trico of its ain, raising it in the cave where the whole adventure began. Information technology still seems to call back the Boy fondly when it hears the call of the Boy's (now a man) mirror.

Personality

Trico behaves much like a typical domesticated dog. At first, Trico does not trust the Male child, even swiping him into a cave wall when the Boy tries to remove spears from its body. However, after receiving nutrient and care from the Male child, the animate being trusts him enough to follow him around. As fourth dimension goes on, Trico even seeks affection in the form of beingness fed or being petted, which calms it down after a battle. Trico will likewise bestow amore on the Male child, rubbing its head confronting him and nuzzling while making loving whines. In one case Trico becomes fully bonded, the animate being will protect the Boy without a thought to its own personal safety, even taking on a pack of Armored Tricos without hesitation.

Trico is a creature one would practise all-time not to brand an enemy of. When the Boy is endangered or it perceives a threat, Trico goes into a bloodthirsty rage, destroying said threat with vigor. Even if Trico is outmatched, the beast will however throw itself into the fray, fighting until either killed or knocked unconscious.

It is possible that Trico is a younger or less experienced animal, while quite effective confronting Knights, is hands overpowered by Armored Tricos, fifty-fifty in one-on-one encounters. It is as well shown to be rather clumsy as, when kidnapping the Male child in his sleep, the beast gets its head stuck in a window and knocks over a pot, alerting the village to its presence.

This also is supported by how the Boy pronounces the creature's name (in spite of the subtitles reading "Trico"): "Toriko". This name has the suffix "-ko", which can refer to a child or a babe.

Development

The first-e'er screenshot for the game (and the only screenshot of the game released for well over two years) depicted a giant length of chain running into a hole in the footing. In the game's offset trailer, the creature on the end of the chain was revealed to exist Trico.

Powers and abilities

Chimeran physiology: Trico can best be described as a chimera, a creature equanimous of several different animals. This gives the beast the abilities of all the species it embodies: the strength of a canis familiaris, the agility of a cat, and the flying of a bird.
Enhanced forcefulness: Because of its massive size, Trico is incredibly strong, capable of destroying stone structures and peachy groups of enemies with relative ease.
Enhanced agility: Trico tin climb and leap smashing distances that would exist impossible for any other fauna. This is embodied by its true cat-like traits. Its large, tridactyl feet are also quite broad, making it an effective swimmer.
Flying: Initially, Trico cannot wing because of the wounds that information technology has sustained, the wings having been desperately hurt by lightning and autumn damage. However, when its wings are fully healed, Trico can fly great distances and is able to achieve altitude to soar above the clouds. Even when the creature's wings are still healing, it can glide with them for a short period of time.
Enhanced durability and healing: Trico can take massive amounts of damage. Swords do not affect the animate being, spears only slow it down, and even serious wounds sustained by Armored Tricos, long falls, or existence struck past lightning can be shrugged off in a short amount of time. Trico also seems to heal very fast, as information technology does not bleed very much from spear wounds and tin chop-chop get up from fifty-fifty life-threatening wounds.
Prehensile tail: Trico'south tail acts as an actress limb. The creature mainly uses this power to assist the Boy while its four feet are in utilize. While unable to grab the Male child using its tail, the brute can quickly position it to act like a rope to climb upward/down.
Enhanced senses: Thank you to its dog-like attributes, Trico has incredible senses of odor and hearing. This helps it find items of interest in the environment, but also serves to distract it when finding pots of the precursor fabric used to make the food to feed those of its kind, as it creates a miasma that keeps information technology rapt and oblivious to all else.
Intelligence: Trico is rather intelligent, not merely able to navigate its way around the surround of the Valley but besides follow the Boy's simple directions. The Male child can direct Trico to where he wants to go, pointing out what he wants him to do, and fifty-fifty gesturing actions for Trico to perform similar pushing, pulling, or jumping. Presented with a somewhat-complex concept - like stamping down on 1 end of a wagon to launch the Boy into the air - it can figure out what the Male child wants and perform it quickly and easily.

An example of Trico's eyes altering colors.

Eyeshine: The color of Trico's eyes alter depending on its mood. The huge optics shine pink when ambitious or angry, glow white when excited or interested, are yellowish when information technology sees a butt, and when its eyes are dark light-green, Trico is calm and friendly. Its pupils will contract profoundly when the brute is satisfied when existence fed a barrel, closely resembling a more human eye.
Electricity generation: Early in the game, the boy finds a mysterious mirror. Upon seeing the symbol produced by the mirror, Trico can fire a continuous commodities of electricity from its tail at the mirror's target, useful for destroying obstacles and enemies. However, when the mirror is lost, so is this ability. When the ability is regained later in the game, Trico now fires a built-upward pulse of explosive lightning. Trico's tail can burn electricity even when severed from his trunk. This ability is non straight controlled by Trico.

Weaknesses

The Boy: Beginning and foremost, Trico will do whatever it takes to protect the Boy, even if that means recklessly throwing itself in harm'southward way or against an overpowering enemy. While the fauna has always survived, it nearly dies several times.
Talismans: These huge, hexagonal stained glass panes evoke a strange, insurmountable fear in Trico-beasts. When the talismans come up within Trico's eyesight, Trico's fauna instincts become apparent, and the creature is unable to exercise anything but fearfully back away unless the offending pane is destroyed. These objects come up in the class of pocket-sized shields carried by Knights that they volition aim against the animal, or as larger stationary ones, mounted on trolleys or suspended past chains. Most often they tin can be knocked over, cleaved past throwing a stone, or destroyed with Trico'south ranged tail attack (when available).
Armored Tricos: As powerful as Trico is, the brute stands piffling hazard against fifty-fifty one of its own kind. While it fights bravely, it is e'er overwhelmed.
Modest spaces: Trico's size is not e'er an advantage, and the well-meaning beast has problem squeezing into tight spots (although not from lack of trying). At one point, Trico valiantly attempts to squeeze into a mine tunnel, which causes the walls to plummet around it and the Boy.

Effects on gameplay

The gameplay of The Last Guardian stems around using Trico'south natural instinct to the actor's do good in order to traverse the environment and solve puzzles. Trico reacts based on its surroundings and mood and cannot be controlled directly.

Examples of using Trico's animal instinct includes:

When injured by spears, Trico's mobility is reduced or prevented, and the male child must pull them out in lodge for it to movement.
When encountered by the armor suits, Trico will become aggressive, destroying them, but, afterwards, the boy must pet it to at-home the beast down.
The boy tin feed barrels of nutrient to Trico in lodge to keep the animal happy and to lure it to places it does non want to immediately get, such as jumping into a pool of knee-deep (to Trico) water.
Standing on an upper ledge, getting Trico's attention, then jumping to demonstrate will motivate Trico to jump up to the ledge.
Afterward the boy gains Trico's trust, Trico volition follow the Boy around and even follow his commands.
Trico will occasionally defecate anywhere when left alone for a long period of fourth dimension.
Like a cat, Trico proves hesitant to jump into bodies of deep water.

Meaning of name

"Toriko" is the Japanese word for "prisoner", possibly given during the initial predicament. "Toriko" is besides a combination of the Japanese words "tori" (bird) and "neko" (true cat), and also has the suffix "-ko", which tin refer to a child or a baby. Finally, Projection Trico was the name for the game's working title, which is a combination of "Tri" and "Ico". This could be referring to the game itself, which is Team Ico's third release.

Gallery

	Walkthrough
Characters	The Boy · Trico · Armored Beasts · Knights (Yori) · Master of the Valley
Locations	The Nest · The White Tower
Items	The Mirror · Talismans · Barrels · Costumes
Gameplay	Easter Egg
Media	The Last Guardian (OST) · Official Art and Guide Book
Releases	PS3 evolution · PS4 terminal release · Credits