So something was announced last night (Project Robot Teaser)

[@Mystic_Ode]

0:45 That is very refreshing to hear. I don’t mind the interconnection theories, but I do mind the attitude some people have about them where… establishing a connection seems to be more important to them than the work itself? And it can be especially damaging for the community’s collective conscious to tie everything back into Shadow, and treat each game like it is an extension of a title that Ueda has moved on from.

[@Momon143]

I've definitely gotten that vibe from some of the discussion about Project Robot so far. It's the first thing people jump to, oh this looks like this so it must either be in the far past or far future from Shadow....After the trailer, Geoff mentioned the "Depth of emotion" you could feel from it. That's what's sticking out to me more. People only focusing on theories - specifically connection theories but at this point almost any theory barely has anything to go on - are missing the forest for the trees. There is so much more to appreciate in Ueda's games.

[@juromori]

Nice to see you here!

[@teone_rgt]

Hi! I hope I don't give you the impression that I'm spamming the comments on your video. I come from a place of genuine excitement about all the discussions surrounding these games and of respect to your analyses. Having anything I say questioned by you wouldn't be something that would upset me, quite the opposite! After the most recent video from Kouto trying to figure out the Project Robot's trailer, and the question he raises about whether or not it even matters that there is continuity between Ueda's games (and I'd like to make it clear here that I agree that this is far from the most important thing about them), I decided to gather as many statements as I could from the Man's own mouth, to share them, so the fans can have a slightly less crazy base to play with. As a starting point, among the interviews that I remember off the top of my head, we have these: The Wired: "You've said the baby we see at the end of Colossus is the first "baby born with horns" referred to in the backstory of Ico." Ueda: "Yes. I wanted to give some idea to the player, after you complete the game, that there was a connection to Ico. That's why I put in the baby with the horns. If somebody goes all the way through the game, I wanted them to be rewarded." (The Wired interview, 2006) Ueda: "If we put just a few extras in [the SotC & Ico HD Collection for the PS3], though, gamers would naturally expect more than what we could provide. Instead of just putting in a few half-baked things, I thought it'd be better to stick with the original concept of staying faithful to the base work. If I get another chance in the future to do a remake, I might wind up changing quite a lot more." (via 1up, 2014. The HD Collection released his two first games in a single package, and contained a brand new painting in its menu, made by himself, connecting the island from Ico to the Forbidden Lands by the ocean, with a little boat navigating from one place to the other.) Ueda: "I transmitted [to Bluepoint] my petition about the content and tuning but I don't know the implementation will be what I told." "It's he who wants to change something," his translator clarified, "but he doesn't know if it is possible to change all of the things he [wants] to change." (via Eurogamer, 2017, about the PS4 remake of SotC. This remake is notorious for having the "79 steps to the Enlightenment", which guided players to reveal a new room under the Shrine of the Worship, containing Dormin's throne. But more importantly, the remake also guided us to find a watermelon on the exact beach that was theorized by players along the years, as being the same beach from the ending of Ico, which contained watermelons and a whole cutscene of the characters eating it. It's important to recognize, though, that we can't know for sure the specific changes requested from Ueda. We have only the word of his translator about being he who wanted to add anything to the remake, and maybe we could compare it to the Demon Souls remake to check if Bluepoint have any history of deliberately adding content without the endorsement of the original creator. Unfortunately, I didn't play any remake from them other than SotC.) Ueda: "As for the horns appearing in later titles, namely Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian, I decided to include them to create some form of connection between the games and give the feeling of a shared universe" (The World of Fumito Ueda, 2023) Ueda: "The last three games we created, I didn't intend to be very similar to each other. When I start to create our games, always I think we will create something different. But as a result, in the three games there are some similarities, a feeling. In the process of operation there's a moment when one game links with another. But I don't put it in at the start - it happens in the process. So now I think I'm creating something very different, but the result? I can't say." (via Eurogamer, 2018.) I added this last statement because I think this is the key to understand that he has a process of "tweaking" his art direction and secondary elements, like the lore, only in the late part of his development. I have the impression that, since he admits he is aware of the expectations of his fans, Ueda repeats visual elements of strong meaning in one game into the others in a considerably vague way (such as the horns, the cloak's pattern, the ritual pool, the black energy surrounded by turquoise rim light, watermelons and other stuff), not "because it wouldn't be an Ueda's game without these touches", and also not because he would be interested in an intricate world building, but to create "Ma (間)", with the purpose of stimulate fans to fantasize about the backstory of his fictional world: Hayao Miyazaki, mentioned as a huge inspiration for Ueda: “Instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are. We have a word for that in Japanese. It’s called ma (間). Emptiness. It’s there intentionally. [claps his hands] The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness. But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.” In other words, using of Miyazaki's analogy here, I think that each time we see one of those visual elements being repeated, they are like the claping of Ueda's hands. An action full of the intention that we delight ourselves with everything that is possible to imagine from the empty space between. The reason I decided to share this here on your channel as well, is that your talk about being a bit exhausted with the mentality that everything is part of a shared universe sticked with me. Not in a sense that you could think that this mentality in itself is bad, of course, but rather because of this reading I've always had that this is a mentality caused by Ueda's own design. We praise this dude as a game designer because of that whole "design by subtraction" thing, by how "omg he taught the industry how to cut out of a game every element which doesn't strengthens the core themes and feelings of a world or its characters" etc, so it's difficult for me to feel comfortable looking to the odd frame with which he reveals the Project Robot's protagonist to the world, focusing on that cloak's pattern without even revealing his face, as a mere visual play (in the lack of better word to translate "brincadeira" to english... maybe I could've used rhyme instead?) It's a different situation from the accidental watermelon that showed up into the young Ueda's first game. Why would he allow himself to cause so much communication noise nowadays? I know how crazy, absurd, exhaustive, some theories and the behavior of many fans can be, and I know my own comment is filled with affection for the interpretations I have myself of a unique lore and all that. I just think that's part of the beauty of this work, something I would celebrate (except for the theory that Mono becomes the Queen of Ico, we can't celebrate that...... xP). Thanks again for your work and the responsibility with which you talk about these games!

[@WarrenValion]

Nightreign can be played solo/offline, the devs mentioned it in an interview

[@teone_rgt]

I'm starting to believe that the robot itself isn't the new "yorda/agro/trico". The trailer starts focusing in the protagonist's ear, hearing what is, for the first time, the use of English in one of Ueda's games. Language barrier was aways a central element of his narratives, and I find curious that genDesign, that always publish stuff in Japanese only, used an English dub even in the Japanese version of the trailer. I think the robot is actually disposable, only a tool for the protagonist or some sort of extension of his body, while our companion this time will be that VOICE speaking in English. I am imagining if it won't be about the protagonist not knowing English but needing to deal/interact with some sort of artificial inteligence assistent, like Siri/Samantha/Alexa/Whatever of a system shared between those robots. Specially after that declaration of Ueda, saying he was inspired by watching The Iron Giant in English without understanding anything they were saying... 🤔 edit: Just posted a big comparison between Nausicaa From The Valley of the Wind and Project Robot's protagonist on reddit. The world of this new game also reminds me of Nausicaa.

[@Momon143]

On thinking about the trailer I also got the idea that what it is trying to express to us is that the robot is disposable! Literally the exact word I was thinking of. It's so cool to see someone else who picked up that same vibe. I did not think about the voice, that would be really interesting to have a Team Ico game that focuses primarily on connection through dialogue, after the others have so little of it!

[@teone_rgt]

​@@Momon143 Yeah! I'm really happy seeing people excited with this new game and imagining stuff! Even if we consider the trailer alone, without any reference to previous games, I believe it tells us a lot more than most of people are assuming! For example, if those robots were mass produced (since we have at least two exact ones in the official key art), and our feeling that they are disposable is correct..... what if all that debris flying towards the protagonist was actually a bunch of technologic trash? Like, parts of other old abandoned robots and other stuff? It feels like a post-apocalyptic world, heavily inspired by Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (declared in 2023 by Ueda as one of his formative experiences that are mostly influencing his work today). And we see in Nausicaa this same situation, if I remember it right, of an old army of giant "robot-like" creatures destroyed after a war, scattered all around.

[@rustymiller9555]

I’m glad you are back talking about genDESIGN.

[@awkwardva4959]

WAHOO! As someone who was hoping for a video from you regarding Project Robot, seeing this pop up in my notifications made my day. A sci-fi-leaning game from Fumito Ueda is also super exciting to see- I'm curious to see how they play more into the technological side in comparison to (what I've seen of) the more 'unknowable mythological' side of Ico, SotC, and TLG. Slightly related, I apparently had stepped away during the announcement of the Okami game coming out, so thank you kindly for mentioning that in here!

[@timmadone8930]

It might not be connected to the other games, but at the very least the character is wearing what looks like part of Wanders cloak. The cloak had a slightly different design depending on whether or not you played the PS2/PS3 version of "Shadow Of The Colossus" or the PS4 remake. The design on this cloak appears to be closer in line with the cloak Wander wears in the PS4 remake. Beyond excited for this game. As for "Elden Ring: Night Reign", if it's a full-length game it might also have a single player mode.

[@timmadone8930]

@@istillrememberthosedays Well who knows how many cooks are in the kitchen when it comes to this game. Epic Games has given Fumito Ueda full control to make the game he wants. But so many new people have been hired to work on this new project. I have a feeling things might be a bit different this time & we'll need things (like the cloak) to remind us of his previous 3 games, but the game itself will be something way different than what's come before.

[@clintonmadkins3697]

I have watched all Fumito Ueda related videos you have done more than 3 times lol. I love the honest take and keeping the idea of the game from a Japanese perspective. However this trailer was in English. I don’t believe that’s ever happened! Love your videos!! Please keep them coming!

[@F-aber]

i am so exited for that game, might be my new most anticipated game, even though it probably wont come out for 3-4 more years

[@webfox100]

As a mecha fan, I'll keep my out on this.

[@Henry_Avery13]

Ive been feinding for this mans games for years

[@liamcurran5612]

It’s not gonna be released til something like 2030. The footage looks pretty rough and it seems like gen design is having a hard time hiring for their project? We shall see. I also don’t care for a shared universe aspect of any media really. I’d rather a piece of media be one solid focused thing. Here’s to hoping the new game will deliver regardless of whatever direction it goes in. I hope honestly that it is more action oriented like SotC

[@Nalhy]

@@liamcurran5612 They are still in hiring process and have been for quite a while actually. Seems like, after all, they're still a small studio.

[@phd_rex]

Lol i could see the game awards but i decided not to, and look what they announce!!!!!

[@akira4142]

Iam super excited

[@Nalhy]

Te quiero mucho Gen Design Share if u agree

[@Nalhy]

Feels weird to think how this futuristic game is the same as that Beauty and the Beast pic we saw some years ago

[@couchpotato3197]

​@@Nalhy Apparently that was the giant hand of a giant pig who stole the girl which are enemies of the robot.

[@Momon143]

@@couchpotato3197 That isn't confirmed at all. What we know about the beast pic is it is from an early prototype built during a stage of development when genDesign was building several mini prototypes. The prototype chosen to build a game off of could have been a complete different one from the "girl and ogre" picture. I'm aware there are sketches on genDesign's website that show both ogre/pig AND robot characters, but that does not confirm anything concrete.