Now that Team Ico's latest project -- the PS3 exclusive The Last Guardian -- has been revealed, it's now time to delve a little more into what the new game offers. Thankfully, Japanese gaming mag Famitsu scored an interview with Team Ico's Fumito Ueda, who gave out more details.

The game's official Japanese title is "Hito Kui no Oowashi Toriko", which translates to "The Giant Man-Eating Eagle Toriko". The "Oowashi" or "Giant Eagle" part is what Team Ico uses to refer to the giant bird-griffin-ferret thing that the boy befriends in the trailer.

When I first saw the official trailer, I was surprised by how out of place the eagle was compared to the other beings in its surroundings. According to Ueda, this was intentional. He himself thinks it looks odd, but that's the team's objective. It was important to make the boy's companion look unnatural.

As the boy, players will have to take care of their giant eagle friend. Their relationship is one of the central points in the game, so this involves way more than just throwing healing items at it. Players can feed it and remove spears and arrows that are stuck in its body. Players can also touch the eagle whenever they like, and it will react differently depending on where it's touched.

Images from Wii @ Everyday

The Last Guardian's gameplay will involve puzzles and platforming elements. While the boy can climb, grab things, and crawl, some areas will involve getting the eagle to things either by ordering it around or by having it cooperate with you. The eagle's intelligence, which according to Ueda isn't really all that high, also comes into play. It may not move according to what you want exactly.

For this project, Ueda and his team are harnessing more powerful versions of Ico's AI and Shadow of the Colossus' collision schemes. They're also using real physics in this game. Another interesting graphical tidbit is that each of the eagle's feathers are processed individually, so the staff is paying great attention to how the wind in the game's environment affects each feather.

There's more great stuff on The Last Guardian in the source link. For those who didn't catch the trailer during Sony's E3 press conference -- and for those who just want to see it again -- here it is:

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