In September 2001, Fumito Ueda’s Ico was released on PlayStation 2, and it made quite an impression on The Last of Us co-creator and director Neil Druckmann. Even 25 years after the game’s release, Druckmann still points to a scene late in Ico as his favorite moment in a video game. There are some spoilers ahead for this quarter-century-old game.
“My favorite moment in a game. the one that’s made my jaw drop when it when it happened, is in the game Ico,” Druckmann told BAFTA in a recent interview. “We talked about how there’s this mechanic where you’re holding Yorda’s hand and you’re leading her along … and she feels like this helpless character that you’re leading along.”
“Then there’s a moment towards the end of the game, where you’re on this bridge that is slowly like, splitting apart and Yorda is on one side of it and you’re on the other, and you don’t know what to do,” continued Druckmann. “All you can do is just sprint towards that gap and jump towards her, and it looks like you’re not going to make it and you’re going to fall to your death. In the last second she reaches out and she grabs you. It was such an emotional moment because you don’t expect it. She’s never done that at any other point in the game.”
Druckmann went on to say it was a truly inspirational moment and he felt that the handholding mechanic had made him care about Yorda like no other game character beforehand.
“I got this twist and this evolution of this character and this relationship that I don’t know how you don’t get emotional playing that part. I think I’ve been chasing that feeling with every game I’ve made ever since.”
Druckmann previously praised Ico during the title’s 20th anniversary, and he called it his favorite game of all time.
Until earlier this year, Druckmann was the co-showrunner of HBO’s The Last of Us. However, he stepped down from that role at the end of Season 2 to return his focus to game development. His next project is Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which will be a PlayStation console exclusive. Druckmann hasn’t ruled out making The Last of Us Part 3, but it’s unknown if or when it will ever go forward.
